Nine to nothing; that was a bit surprising in that I thought at least 1 or 2 of the liberals would stick by their party on the ruling. But, honestly, it would have been a tough pill for even the most ardent liberal Justice to swallow: the 14th, if it even applies, is a federal matter subject only to federal law. To disqualify anyone from the ballot would take a federal conviction…and even that wouldn’t necessarily stop a State from placing the convict’s name on the ballot. The Constitution gives the States great control over the manner of choosing Electors. It would be a very bizarre thing if we ever had a situation where someone who had been convicted under the 14th secured 270 electoral votes for President. But the issue only comes up after a conviction in federal court.
Think about that.
A DC jury would convict Trump on command of any charge filed. Zero doubt. You could charge him with being a vampire and DC jury would find him guilty. And yet not only has Trump not been charged with insurrection or any similar sort of act, but neither has anyone else involved in J6. What does that tell you? That the Powers That Be understand that such a charge would be tossed on appeal…perhaps even on the liberal-dominated DC Circuit. The Democrats know they can’t even take the first step on using the 14th against him, even in theory.
So, why all the fuss? Honestly, it was just to fill the empty heads of #Resistance liberals. To make it seem like something is being done. Remember, those types of people believe that Trump really is a Russian agent and that Putin flipped votes in 2016 to get him elected. Not kidding: they believe the whole thing from start to finish. Doesn’t matter that every fact shows the accusations are false: it is what they were told and to this day the MSM has never admitted that they participated in a lie. These people sit around wondering all day long “when will they get Trump?”. This was one in a series of efforts to “get Trump”. It failed; but they’ve already got other arrows in the quiver. These are all falling apart one by one, but it looks like there’s enough to keep it going until after Election Day.
All polls must be taken with a grain of salt, but as I’ve always said, they can be useful in spotting trends. Right now, an outlier or two aside, all polls are indicating a Trump win – with 47 to 49 percent of the vote, with 49 percent working out to an electoral college triumph; maybe as high as 327 Electoral Votes. Get above 50 percent and Trump will head towards 350. That is, of course, now; 8 months out. Lots can change. The trouble for Team Pudding Brain is that things can’t change for the better. Inflation is likely to rise again at least near term. Job losses (especially full time) are mounting. The border remains open. Crime continues to rise. Nothing Team Pudding Brain can do will reverse this because they are ideologically committed to the policies that are causing all the trouble. The only new wrinkle is the increasing hostility to Israel…a gambit to keep Muslim voters on side with a huge downside risk of losing the Jewish vote, which is nearly as large and could easily tip a State or two to Trump. Maybe a miracle happens…but even if things start to get better in spite of Biden, the fact remains that Biden is increasingly mentally and physically feeble. Six months from now he’ll just be worse; all of us who have dealt with aging relatives know how this works…once they start downhill, it just accelerates. Biden is clearly heading downhill.
Will they replace him? Only if he’s dead. His people now have sufficient control over the levers of Democrat power that it is almost impossible to displace them. A full court press by Teams Obama and Clinton might do it, but even that would only make it 50/50. Of course, he might very well die; what sort of chaos ensues if that happens after early voting has commenced is anyone’s guess. But probably there isn’t urgency among Democrats to replace him. To them, its a simple calculation: in the unexpected event that Biden wins, then all is good…if he loses, they figure Trump will have a bad 2026 midterm and with an open seat in 2028 the Democrats would think they’re favored to win it. Democrats are actually confident that they can keep Trump boxed in for 4 years just as they did before.
This doesn’t mean they won’t cheat. Of course they’ll cheat. Massively. They always do. But there is a limit to what cheating can do, and in Georgia and Wisconsin cheating is now a heck of a lot harder than it used to be. Nevada, too, as we have a GOP governor. And cheating only works if you have total control in the exact areas you need it. Trump gets to 49% and they’d just have too large a task on their hands.
I rate the odds as 55/45 in Trump’s favor right now. Subject to modification as conditions change over the next 8 months.
Blogs For Victory 
I think the Steve Baker prosecution is going to be the ultimate be-careful-what-you-wish-for scenario for federal prosecutors.
Key elements from your link:
Before the appearance with the magistrate, because the FBI had “arrested” Steve, the U.S. Marshal’s Office and courthouse security added a belly chain, box cuffs, and leg shackles. That involves a chain around the waist, with handcuffs in the front attached to the chain so the defendant can’t move his arms up and down or side to side. Another chain goes from the belly chain down to a chain attaching two ankle cuffs to each other. Shackled that way means all a defendant can do is shuffle his feet with security officers usually on both sides.
Ten minutes after the hearing ended, Steve walked out of the courthouse through the front doors like anyone else. He could have — and should have — walked into the courthouse the same way. Nothing justifies what Department of Justice put Steve Baker through on March 1. All for a journalist who spent 37 minutes inside the Capitol recording the events of January 6 as they unfolded.
The criminal complaint is dated February 21, 2024. It took 1,141 days for the Department of Justice to decide that a journalist covering an international news event was a legitimate target of a federal criminal prosecution.
……………………………..
there were dozens of journalists — some working for media companies and others who were freelancers like Steve was at the time — who both were present on “restricted grounds” and went inside the Capitol in the same manner that has resulted in hundreds of protesters being prosecuted — through broken windows and doors. One in particular, a freelancer, had his lengthy story published in the New Yorker only nine days after and was later promoted for a Pulitzer Prize.
He’s never been charged.
This has all the earmarks of “selective prosecution.” The government — foolishly in my view — noted in the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint that Steve made comments after January 6 that endorsed or supported the actions of protesters on that day.
That is political speech and has always been political speech, and the inclusion of that information gives away the game regarding the government’s motives in singling out Steve among the dozens of journalists who could be charged but have not been.
We now have proof that the Biden administration is serious about reducing the number of people crossing the southern border illegally. It is going to their native countries and flying them here, skipping all that border stuff.
Elon Musk Exposes Biden’s Little Known Program That Has Flown 320,000 Illegal Aliens Into the Country
They’re also refusing to say what airports are involved because of potential security “vulnerabilities,” and those might reveal the “information about the relative number of individuals arriving.”
From Stilton’s Place: … how do the illegals even know about the program and how to use it to receive free criminal airfare? Simple. They use a CBP app on their smartphones that lets them schedule a trip on Air Biden as easily as calling for a ride on Uber.
I’d love to make some kind of pointed joke about all of this, but how can I? This is madness or, likely, something considerably more evil.
It is insanity – clearly the trafficking cartels are juiced in with Biden people…and aside from Leftists who just hate America, there are also plenty of people in the Administration who are likely just bribed.
If we can get a GOP government that will really look into this, the level of corruption will be astonishing.
Democrats are actually confident that they can keep Trump boxed in for 4 years just as they did before.
I agree, but I don’t think they are taking into account the increased awareness of the concept of an opposing force trying to assume the powers of the government. They opened that can of worms with their whole “insurrection” effort, and now the word is out there and can be applied to anyone trying to interfere with the exercise of official power.
I think this effort could be stymied with the right VP in place. Like the rest of us, I’ve thought a lot about the best VP choice. A friend who is a former Naval officer told me not to worry about a problem of DeSantis being an alpha male under Trump, as in the Navy DeSantis always had to obey orders from superior officers and understands how that works. I had come around to liking the idea of DeSantis as VP because I think if Trump were to have the right VP he could just delegate one or two big areas of concern and then go on about being president. I figured DeSantis could take over the issues of reforming the whole DOJ and probably the law enforcement agencies as well.
I just haven’t liked the idea of a so-so VP being set up to run as an incumbent in 2028 against DeSantis.
But then I started to think a little differently, and realized that Ted Cruz is the ideal VP for Trump. He is a brilliant lawyer, deeply invested in Constitutional law, and has years of legislative experience. He is tough and quite capable of taking on the entrenched Leftists in those agencies. He has the ability as well as the temperament to blast the dead wood out of the DOJ and the law enforcement agencies, and he has the experience and contacts in Congress to help get Executive Orders from the president made into law.
And going back to your comment about the Left boxing in Trump again, with a hard-nosed attorney VP like Cruz backing him up Trump would be in a much stronger position to bulldoze through attempted interference.
So I have revised my fantasy Dream Team: Trump/Cruz in 2024, Cruz/DeSantis in 2028/2032 and then DeSantis. He is young enough to wait twelve years, and this team could and would clean house faster and better than any other I can think of. Let DeSantis finish his term as governor in Florida, then make him AG in a Trump/Cruz administration, and watch things get done.
As far as the conventional wisdom of having candidates from different parts of the country, that ship may have sailed. The only part of the country that is working well is the South, so if we have to go south to get leaders so be it.
So I have revised my fantasy Dream Team: Trump/Cruz in 2024, Cruz/DeSantis in 2028/2032 and then DeSantis. He is young enough to wait twelve years, and this team could and would clean house faster and better than any other I can think of. Let DeSantis finish his term as governor in Florida, then make him AG in a Trump/Cruz administration, and watch things get done.
I like it. And it’s going to take three scrupulous conservative administrations to undo the damage of the Biden crime family.
The more I think of the effectiveness of this potential lineup the more I think it is exactly what we need. While Trump is a very effective bulldozer and press magnet, he needs someone to take over the nuts and bolts of analyzing the defects of our law enforcement agencies and surgically excising the rot so the agencies can be functional. That’s a very specific skill set, and I think it demands legal experience as well as a history of fighting the Left and winning. Both Cruz and DeSantis have the legal background and legislative experience in Congress, though Cruz is more experienced in Congressional matters than DeSantis and has a wider network of Congressional connections.
We don’t just need to tear down the Leftist structures so carefully built up over decades, we need to replace them with stronger, Constitutional, properly legislated constructs that will prove themselves to the public in ways that will generate support for them, and be on solid legal and legislated foundations that will be difficult if not impossible to tear down. It will take time and focus and a strong team to accomplish this.
And, of course, we need an effective communications medium to explain to the public what is being done and why, and why it is essential to return the nation to the form of government that made it so strong in the first place.
Too bad the acronym MAAA doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as MAGA, because Make America America Again is really the slogan we need.
Yeah; I don’t think VPs are chosen any longer to shore up a campaign. The last time that really happened was 1980 when Reagan picked Bush as a sop to the Establishment. These days, the most important thing is what the pick says about the candidate. Harris was obviously picked for the same reason Obama picked Biden – someone nobody would oust the top guy to get.
Trump has a wide variety of people he can pick – but I’d honestly rather see DeSantis and Cruz in the cabinet with executive power rather than idling away as VP for four years.
The thing is, Trump with his business executive background might be savvy enough to make his VP a real, functioning, authority over important areas of concern. If he entrusted executives in his companies to run their own divisions he might think that way, and while the VP doesn’t directly have executive powers he can certainly influence outcomes and decisions. I can easily see either Cruz or DeSantis taking over the assignment of cleaning out the DOJ and the law enforcement agencies, with their backgrounds in applied (as opposed to academic theoretical) law. Just turn either one loose and Katy bar the door. These are sensitive areas that need to be handled by someone with a deep and practical knowledge of the law and the Constitution, and I can’t think of many who could do the job as well as either of these men.
Of course, DeSantis is probably not even a contender, but either he or Cruz would make Trump’s last four years amazingly productive.
Buckle up folks. Gold and Bitcoin both hit all-time highs yesterday.
Kari Lake’s senate campaign just got a huge boost. Pinko Barbie read the tea leaves and decided not to seek re-election.
I came here to ask Cluster what he thinks of the race now that she is out. Which direction will her support, such as it was, go?
Even though I politically disagree with her, I have always respected Kirsten. She has put Arizona first in most of her work, including the open border, which she has spoken out against, and of course that put her at odds with the Democrats, who began to treat her like sh*t. She does have principles and she does stand by them, unlike most of them but she knows she has no chance, especially after leaving the Democrats. I think the Dem candidate will be Raul Grijalva who is a far left nut job in the House so his record should be easy to run against. Unless they cheat again, Kari Lake should win this easily.
And think about that – 90% of her policy desires are kook Left…but that she’s 10% in favor of rationality was enough to doom her as a Democrat. They really are fanatics!
And we all discussed this as early as 2005…in the Democrats desperate desire to win in 2004, they invited the far left to the DNC table. Can’t do that: once you let Bolsheviks in, they rule the roost. Obama managed to soften them on the national stage, but with Biden they are running wild.
I don’t even care what Sinema’s policy desires are—or Gabbard’s, for that matter—-if she/they agree that these policies have to be addressed within the boundaries of the 10th Amendment. I am less concerned about differences in what people want than I am about how to achieve them—through the federal government or the states. A hard-core Tenther would be valuable in the House or the Senate, as long as the Liberal wish lists are agreed to be outside federal authority and up to the states.
I once enraged a former B4B poster when I said that as far as I am concerned a woman can be a high priestess of Wicca, run an abortion clinic and want to marry her girlfriend, but if she believes in limiting the size, scope and power of the federal government and governing according to the 10th Amendment, with most authority left to the states or to the people she is a conservative. “Oh nonononoNOOOOOOO! What about muh VALUES? Don’t want to be in no party with a bunch of lesbos!”
The old Big Tent party was based on POLITICAL philosophy, not so much on ISSUES and that is where it got its power.
I’m really enjoying the Trump lead in Colorado, now approximately 62-35 over Haley (rounding up) with her taking only three counties so far. She’ll pick up Denver and Boulder–so far she’s in resort areas—but it’s vindicating to see so many red counties. It’s like a big “sit on it, Griswold’ to Jena, who is undoubtedly fuming and drinking heavily right now.
Latest is that Trump is up slightly in Vermont – the projection is still a narrow Nikki win but I’m thinking that Trump pulls it off.
Rumor is that Nikki is cancelling all further events.
TownHall shows Trump up in Vermont by 2.9%. Not that it will make any difference, other than finally convincing Nikki to just go away.
With 99% of Vermont in, Trump leads by 50 to 46.1% over Haley. To me, losing Vermont is the nail in the coffin—not the number of delegates but the symbolism of being beaten in a state where the Republicans are probably less Republican than anywhere else in the country. She’s picked up a couple of counties in Colorado, one (along the Utah border) that surprises me, but the percentages have not changed, and are sending Griswold and the Polis Posse the message that Colorado Republicans don’t like being told who they can and can’t vote for.
With 99% of Vermont in, Trump leads by 50 to 46.1% over Haley.
Haley must have won 300% of that last 1% because it’s being widely reported this morning that she won Vermont. It doesn’t matter — she’s officially dropping out this morning.
Yep; it was a pathetic attempt to run on 2004 issues. She never had a chance. DeSantis saw that the only way to win was to appeal to Trump voters. That is, to be in the post-2016 GOP. He couldn’t quite manage it and I think a huge reason for that was the Mar a Lago raid…it just drew the Trumpsters close to their guy. But he’s likely our guy for 2028.
DeSantis did what he had to do. Once he saw the Trump Train and looked at the passion of his core support, he knew he couldn’t run against Trump but he also couldn’t just sit down here in Florida as a good governor and let the national discourse pass him by. So he made a calculated move, got in front of the nation, developed some good cred in the debates, cleaned Newsom’s clock, and then stepped back to let Trump roll on without alienating that fan club.
I’m sure that the next four years will see him gradually moving farther into the national eye. He has two more years as governor and then he can shift gears. He may very well be in a national office But he’s a smart guy who has surrounded himself with smart people and so far he has read the tea leaves well
Do we need to make some major changes in our military? From an article in PJ Media: Emphasis mine:
I wonder if Sgt. Bronson is still in the Army. (Or still Cindy, for that matter, or started off as a Cindy and not a Carl or Chuck)
They’re clearly building a military and police force which is overtly hostile to the American people. Or, at least, they are trying to: both police and military are finding they can’t obtain and retain nearly enough people. I think it was reported that the Army is going to reduce by 24,000 troops because there is simply no way to fill the positions. That is more than 1 US active division. We only keep ten active divisions these days. Turns out the mostly white, rural, working/middle class people who have been our military backbone since 1776 don’t want to play any more.’
And this is why I’ve long argued that the Red States should reestablish the militia. That we could fill up easy. In six months the Red States could have a militia force of at least a million. No, not nearly as well equipped as the military, but likely better trained…and being local familiar with the area and largely supported by the local population. Left pushes us into Civil War and we would have the immediate advantage.
The Uni Party and their abettors in the Media have long abandoned the idea of serving the American people. They now exclusively serve their communist agenda … case in point, the other day I heard Jessica Tarlov say that “young people” will vote Democrat because of their concerns of climate change, saving democracy, and white supremacy. In other words, issues that Big Education, Big Media, and Big Government have been ramming down their throats for the last two decades, but fortunately “young people” are not all on board. Turns out they like to buy homes, start businesses and raise families, all of which are at odds with what Democrats expect of them. And this is the disconnect we see play out in 2024. Democrats will not abandon their agenda and will become increasingly frustrated when the American people conitnue to turn away from their very anti American platform.
Earlier today, some chick with the CDC said that “she expects” all Americans to go get their flu shots and Covid booster this year, to which I say … FUCK OFF.
So Nikki Haley is finally out and now she is appealing to Trump to earn her supporters vote, which would be a mistake. Nikki’s “support” largely came from college educated white women and other Democrats, and MAGA just has zero in common with them and we should never compromise with them. It’s time to put an end to manufactured issues like climate change, trans rights, saving democracy, etc., and simply focus on energy independence, affordable housing, secure border and by doing that, we will earn the support of the more preferred Democrat voter, aka, union workers, blue collar families, Hispanics. The days of the media and college elites dictating the agenda of this country is over and Batya speaks to that better than most …
Batya Ungar-Sargon: No, that’s complete nonsense. The Democrats are the party of the college credentialed elites and the dependent poor. So all of their policies are either about flattering the vanity of the rich or sustaining the poor. That won’t work. And meanwhile, everybody in the middle, the hardworking people who listen to your show, who you know about and who you respect, they were not represented by either party until Trump came along. And Trump showed up and said, wait a minute. Why is no one standing up for the hardworking American? And what I did for this book is I traveled around the country and interviewed working class Americans. And let me tell you something, Steve, and you know this. Working class Americans, whether they vote for Democrat or Republican, whether they’re liberal or conservative, they all have the same views. Like, neither party is really speaking to them. They all agree by and large about the most important issues. Polarization is a totally elite phenomenon…
What he said.
Yes, yes, yes, we have all heard this and talked about it and talked about it some more and talked about it again. Cows chewing cud got nothing on conservatives discussing Liberals.
But I’ll take their votes. If they want to support Trump I’ll welcome them into the tent. I might count the silverware and never believe a word they say, but they are welcome to drop in, as long as they pay with their votes. I don’t care WHY they vote for Trump, only IF they vote for Trump. If they are the ones compromising, I’m good with that. If they hate Trump with every fiber of their collective being but want to share the benefits of a Trump presidency, that’s enough for me. If they sneer at me and look down on me because I am a Flyover Country hick with a pickup and a concealed carry permit, I can live with that and never give it a thought, as long as I am doing it under a Republican administration
Any guesses as to how long this is sustainable?
I think it’s already passed that point, or at least is close enough to be terrifying.
A few years ago Peru was teetering, and a Peruvian citizen of Japanese ancestry, Fujimori, was running for the presidency. He was blunt and honest. He said that things would have to get worse before they could get better but the people had to be ready to do what was necessary to stop the death spiral. Amazingly, people understood this and responded, and his presidency pulled the nation back from the brink and turned it around, From a tight fiscal policy to hard-core treatment of terrorists, he did what had to be done.
(After he got caught taking money from the government and run out of the country, and it went back to Leftist rule and hit the skids again, I commented to a Peruvian friend that the country would have been better off just giving him a couple of million dollars a year and keeping him in office, and the friend agreed.)
Sadly, too much of America is not ready to hear the truths that convinced millions of South America peasants to make the hard decisions necessary to turn around an out-of-control government based on debt and lawlessness. Maybe the recent success of another unapologetic right-winger, Javier Milei, in Argentina will convince a few.
We could slow down this juggernaut of debt, but it would call for Draconian measures. Mass deportation of illegals, slashing of welfare programs to eliminate drug users and those able to work, cutting off funding to the UN, cutting off funding to entities like PBS and Planned Parenthood and other drains on our treasury, reducing the sizes of our federal agencies, slashing all foreign aid and eliminating aid to nations not friendly to us—a few billion here, a few billion there, and most important of all a balanced budget, and we might at least make a dent in it. Make states fund their own schools—-that would lead to getting rid of admin dead weight for one thing. Stop all of the sham efforts to control “the climate’ and end all programs funneling money into related areas. Stop sending money to failed or failing states and cities, especially those whose leaders flout federal laws with impunity while sucking at the federal teat.
Anyone having a SOTU party tonight? Yeah, me neither.
I can’t even look at the MF’er without becoming homicidal, so that’s a hard no for me too lol
Watching Biden is a combination of making fun of the kids on the short bus and despair that he is the *president of this country. It’s a very uncomfortable experience and best not indulged in any more than necessary.
I’ve had mixed feelings about Jared Kushner, so I didn’t know what to expect from an article about his recent speech to the ADL. I was pleasantly surprised and didn’t find anything I didn’t respect, admire and agree with.
I think Jared is one smart SOB. In fact, he was the reason the Abraham Accords got done.
America is just way too divided to ever hope for a broad coalition again such as we saw in the Reagan Revolution of 1984. Big Education and Big Media have brainwashed a generation, or two, on the communist agenda of climate change while revising history and blaming white supremacy on everything, so those people are impossible to reach. On top of that, we have a huge Deep State problem to the point which they own many of our elected representatives. Whenever I see someone like Christopher Wray testify on any subject, it’s obvious he is simply deflecting and delaying because he knows his job is safe and he will still be there while many of the politicians won’t be after election season. They play the long game and they win every time. That’s a problem. MAGA just needs to reach the right coalition, ie; hard working Americans who want a strong country and a better future for their children and I believe that is a coalition that numbers close to 200 million people, so forget about reaching Nikki’s supporters of college educated idiots, Defense contractors, and tech titans … they are the minority, not us.
But Wray serves at the pleasure of the president. His job is only safe as long as a Dem is in the Oval Office.
I’m sure someone can and probably has researched the rules and regs imposed by the Deep State to see how many, if any, have been backed up by legislation. Any that haven’t depend on Executive Orders, which means they can be rescinded. The economic boom of the Trump years owed a lot to his rescinding of several economy-inhibiting regulations imposed by the Deep State. The Deep State can own all the legislators it wants, but that won’t matter until something gets to the point of being considered by Congress. Till then, it’s all up to the president and his ability to overturn anything that has been decreed but not voted in. He doesn’t need a “coalition” to do that. He doesn’t need permission to do that. He needs focus, rigid organization in his ranks and impeccable information. He needs the ability to march into that office, pull out a stack of folders and go through them one by one, each one addressing a different agency or rule or regulation, and each one backed up by facts and figures.
He needs skillful aides who can do the hard work of going through every single federal agency to record every single overreach, every single assumption of undelegated power, and assemble a list of those actions that can be eliminated with the stroke of a presidential pen. He needs skillful aides who can keep their freaking mouths shut and not blab the plans till after they are implemented, who can do the research to know the best location for every one of these agencies so by the end of Day Five of the new administration those civil service leeches will know they are going to be sent to the sticks if they want to keep their jobs—and which of the remaining bureaucrats are worth promoting. If the Civil Service Act prevents firing of some of these people then let them quit, and don’t replace them.
(You might not remember one of Trump’s early goals of gutting the Civil Service laws so people could be fired. It was the first thing he said that impressed me and made me think he might be a decent president after all.)
The President is also the Commander in Chief, which means he is the ultimate military authority. He might not have unilateral control over the entire DOD, or the ability to cancel military contracts already in place, but he can do a lot to affect the influence of defense contractors. After all, as president he chooses the Secretary of Defense, and as Commander in Chief can fire any flag officer and appoint others and direct investigations into fraud, incompetence and misdeeds in all the procuring departments.
The DOJ will have within its powers the ability to go after at least one of those “tech titans” for interfering in an election, and Trump seems pretty friendly with the biggest one. Strip churches of tax protections if they allow them to be used for campaigning or promoting any candidate or party.
I’m not worried about “coalitions”. People will eventually act in their best interests, at least if not unduly influenced by propaganda. And propaganda is not owned by the Left. It seems to be, because they use it almost exclusively, but anyone can work out ways to create and advance a narrative, and there are ways around efforts to block right-wing messaging. That’s why I say if Trump were to sweep in with massive reforms in his first week, there would be three and a half years of actually experiencing the outcome of those changes before the next election cycle really gets ramped up. Three and a half years to remind the people of the differences between Right and Left governance.
Of course, this means the Right would have to pull its head out and come up with a coherent game plan, but it COULD be done. Three and a half years of billboards for example, of three columns——headings of Under Republicans, Under Democrats, Under Republicans and then in each column post prices for each administration. When winter comes, in the Northeast change that category to heating oil prices. In the summer, gas prices. The list of categories that could easily be listed under those headings is long: Not just prices and costs, but taxes, school test results, local economies, crime stats, etc. Not just on billboards but on print ads, in social media posts, on mass mailings of big glossy postcards. Hire someone who would be doing this kind of thing for a major ad agency and give him or her a salary and a budget and instructions to hire a couple of people skilled at social media and get out of their way.
Find out the organizing brains behind the original TEA Party and bring those people in to do the same thing. No more identity-based disorganized rabble, but organized orderly demonstrations when and where needed, with focused messaging.
Somewhere in the country are some Film Arts majors with talent, who are not raging Lefties, who would love the chance to exercise their skills. Hire a couple and send them to Dallas, where Glenn Beck probably still has that movie studio he bought years ago and start cranking out slick promotional ads with good production values. Not boring talking-down-to-people lectures but funny, catchy little vignettes. (I’d love to see a series reminiscent of the best SNL skits, such as an ongoing spoof of Joy Reid citing one of her insane comments and the quizzical response of “That doesn’t even make sense”. Have different actors do Scarborough, Mika, Nicole, etc. Just 30-second clips making fun of them and run them repeatedly.) Have the RNC (or a replacement organization) have a separate propaganda arm, though a different name would be a good idea, and ask for conservatives to donate to that, so they could see some bang for their buck. I think we’d see enthusiastic funding for it.
There would be millions of Americans pissed off at all this, so fine. We don’t need all of them. Let them simmer and stew and feed each other’s rage. Over time, people would peel off from it as reality starts to set in, but in the meantime don’t worry about them. 20% of the existing Left voting pool would change the country with a convincing mandate, less than that to just win. Do the math. Say there are, right now, 100,000,000 voters on the Left and 90,000,000 voters on the Right. If we pull 10% of the Left’s and add them to the Right, those figures reverse themselves. That is, 90,000,000 for the Left and 100,000,000 for the Right. OK, say 10% of those on the Left don’t move to the Right but just stay home—-that still levels the playing field. Supposedly 15% of those polled after the 2020 election said they would not have voted for Biden if they had known the facts just about the laptop. Nothing else, not the bribery, not any of the other stuff that has come out since then. Just the laptop. Even if that 15% would not have voted for Trump but just not voted, it would have made a difference.
Coalitions will evolve as disparate groups discover that they share important ideas of governance and culture. But they have to be built from the ground up, of lots of smaller pieces that eventually fit together.
Kurt Schlichter addresses the role of the president in fixing the military in an excellent article: The Good News About Our Failing Military – Trump Can Fix It
It’s a disaster, but it can be fixed. We just need a president committed to doing it. See, the military is a hierarchical organization. It takes on the tenor of its commander. We have a chance to get President Trump back in 2025. He’s been burned bad by our current crop of generals and admirals before, so this is personal. If he devotes the time, the effort, and the political capital to do it, he can change the current pseudo-military back into a real military very quickly. He can fire the failed generals and admirals, ban the wokeness, reject the transsexual insanity, and reconfigure the United States military into the deadly killing machine that it should be. But right now, our military leadership is more likely to get its own soldiers killed than to kill our enemies. And that’s a disgrace.
The coalition I spoke of is a really simple one …. hard working Americans, period. People who don’t work from home. People who raise children. People who own homes. People who run small businesses. People who give back to their community. People who obey the laws. People who take showers at the end of the day. People who are not political activists and swayed by the narrative du jour, but simply focus on improving their lives, their children’s lives, and improving their community. Those values resonate with the majority of Americans and that is a sustainable coalition.
To me the word “coalition” implies some degree of organization and formal agreement to some agenda. You seem to just be talking about…..people. People who generally prefer one thing over another, but not people who are necessarily analytical about it, much less joining others in some kind of group or movement.
So we’re really just talking semantics here. I suppose that in one sense a population can be united by a common conviction that there is only one approach to solving its problems, or achieving its goals, and if you want to call that a “coalition” I supposed that’s as good a word as any.
IMO that’s the coalition that needs to be rebuilt aka, the Reagan coalition. America has been awash in political activism for over 30 years now and that has to stop. The manufactured political agendas of climate change, racism, gay/trans rights, abortion, etc., are only dividing and destroying our country. Time to get back to basics; family Faith, freedom
I’ll be more likely to agree with your use of the word if the Right manages to actually DO something to indicate some degree of organization
Well the Mrs. wanted to watch so with much apprehension, I did too. That was the most divisive, angry, political SOTU speech I’ve ever heard, not to mention just completely detached from reality. Crime is way down?? Really? Manufacturing jobs are back? GTFOH. And why do Democrats hate the Justices? Biden criticized them in front of the world … WTF is that? I’ve also never heard a SOTU speech so maniacally focused on the “predecessor”. Democrats are scum … plain and simple.
I’m glad I didn’t waste the time.
The first 15 minutes he yelled about J6 and Ukraine … it was very inspiring //sarc
I didn’t even consider trying to watch. Going out of my way to watch an amped-up degenerate demented tyrant spewing toxic political garbage had zero appeal for me.
Kind of curious, though, about how the Dem side of Congress reacted. Did they plaster on smiles and stand up to cheer? Because most of them know better.
They clapped like seals at the most tired and overused cliches and platitudes every Democrat politician has campaigned on over the last 40 years. Which are all untethered from reality.
That doesn’t surprise me. Actually, I like hearing it, as clips of those applause responses might make good campaign fodder for their opponents.
It would be fun to see a video clip of Biden repeatedly referring to “Lincoln” instead of “Laken” and then the targeted Senator or Representative jumping to his or her feet and clapping enthusiastically. I’m sure the speech is full of opportunities like that.
It actually sounds like the whole speech was a Trump campaign ad
I watched my Knights get bitch slapped by the Canucks.
That was still more enjoyable.
Another big corporate entity is jumping on the suicide train. Now “The North Face, a renowned outdoor outfitter, is providing a 20% discount to customers who successfully finish a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) course.”
The executive quoted, who may have just been recruited from Bud Lite, explains how awful it is that few people of color engage in outdoor activities, which has to be due to racism. They seem to think that pandering to paranoia and racism in the darker-skinned demographics will make these people suddenly realize that they really like wearing clunky boots and walking uphill?
I’d rather see hundreds of ghetto folk put on buses and taken to the wilderness, to see how they feel about “the outdoors”.
The level of utter cluelessness in our “educated elites” is beyond description.
I forgot to mention that Biden launched into his speech the minute he took the podium. Completely ignoring the tradition of being introduced by the Speaker. The look on Johnson’s face was priceless.
Stephen Green of VodkaPundit made his prediction, which looks pretty accurate:
While several Democrats have anonymously admitted to the press that they’re worried that Biden might “glitch” during the speech, I’d bet on him making it through without any major malfunctions. Dr. Feelgood will have him extra-juiced tonight so that the press can fawn over his “energetic” performance. And the speech won’t last much more than an hour, getting Biden safely tucked away before that crazy-quilt array of drugs completely wears off
Stephen Kruiser of PJ Media followed up on this prediction after watching the debacle:
Stephen nailed it — the speech was an hour and seven minutes — and, wow, did they have the old boy juiced.
I was looking at random clips from the speech shortly after it ended, and it was immediately apparent that Biden’s handlers decided that a simple two-word script was all he could handle, so they went with “BE LOUD.” Then they got him, as VodkaPundit predicted, “extra-juiced” before they let him off-leash.
He goes on to explain: I would remind everyone that I am an entertainer from the 1980s, so I have more than a passing familiarity with what people on high-end stimulants look and act like. POTUS was straight-up wired last night. Pretty funny
I have more than a passing familiarity with what people on high-end stimulants look and act like
LMAO
He was clearly drugged up.
But outside that, there was a vileness at the heart of what his handlers wrote for him…a litany of hate filled lies directed at everyone who dissents.
<b>the Biden administration is now planning on sending U.S. troops directly into Gaza, an active warzone, in order to build and run a pier which would then, in theory, be able to act as a new entry and exit point through which aid and, potentially, refugees could flow.”</b>
This costs money. Has Congress debated and approved this? What is the authority for doing this?
From PJ Media: ”You can move in a lot more food by sea than you can by air. A whole lot more. A starving soldier is a soldier who cannot fight. Biden is going to make damned sure that Hamas has all the calories it needs to kill as many Israelis as possible in a war that will go on needlessly long.”
Here’s what Jeff Childers had to say about the SOTU:
Naturally, the MSM is lauding it as the most glorious speech ever by our handsome and charismatic Leader and Teacher.
Anyone who still watches the MSM is a mere fool.
I met some friends for lunch today, and was listening to Dan Bongino on the car radio on the way to the restaurant. Dan played a montage of all the lines in Biden’s speech that were plagiarized — from last year’s speech and the one before that. YCMTSU!!
Perhaps the most colossal addition to the YCMTSU file EVER.
My grandson-in-law told me the other day that he and my granddaughter are having trouble saving money in spite of the fact that they make around $140,000 a year between them. I told him this is the reason.
Robert Malone brightens my Fridays.
When a brother stayed with me one summer he got me hooked on the sick Canadian TV Series Trailer Park Boys. It seemed crude and vulgar (and was) but there was a lot of sly humor in there as well.