Chaos All Around
Trump Derangement Syndrome Off the Rails
The Colorado Supreme Court barred the State from including Trump’s name on the Republican primary ballot, and instructed the Secretary of State not to count any write-in votes for him, based on the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on Confederate soldiers and any others in insurrection serving in the Federal Government. The only problem is that Trump has never been charged with nor convicted of insurrection, rebellion, sedition nor anything close to or rhyming with them. There are similar proposals in nearly twenty other states. This sets a dangerous precedent: If you can’t defeat your opponent in an open election, close the election to the opponent. Supporters of these moves note that if Trump is elected, democracy will be dead in America. It strikes me as strange that denying voters the option of voting for their choice in an election is protecting democracy.
Maine has done the same, without the benefit of judicial review. The Secretary of State of Maine, a Democrat, ruled on her own that Trump had engaged in insurrection and thus was ineligible to appear on the ballot. One of the claims made by many who approve is that if Trump is elected Democracy will be dead. Saving Democracy by denying voters the right to vote for the candidate of their choice is a perfect demonstration of intersectionality: the intersection of tribalism, stupidity, and ignorance.
This is but the latest in a series of judicial actions taken against Trump. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA, charged Trump with 31 felonies which would have been misdemeanors (and outside the statute of limitations) except that he claimed they were connected to another felony. All the actions charged occurred in 2017 after Trump was inaugurated as President. The other felony was interference in the 2016 election, which Trump had already won. I’m not sure how one interferes with an election after it is over. Both Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James ran for office as Democrats on a promise to “get Trump.”
James has taken her own bite of the apple. She charged him with fraud in connection with a business loan, claiming he had over-valued his property in New York and Florida to obtain a bank loan. Commercial real estate is notoriously difficult to value unless it is cookie-cutter storage or standard no-frills motels. For Florida, James used the tax assessment as the standard. That is risible, since most taxing authorities use a percentage of value as the assessment, and each authority is different. The type of real estate Trump owned in NYC is unique large hotel, apartment and office buildings. There is no indication of who was the victim of the alleged fraud. UBS Bank made the loan, which was repaid in full, with interest, and UBS pronounced itself satisfied with the outcome. James is seeking to revoke Trump’s business license in New York. This is senseless except as a means of harassing Trump and limiting the time available for him to campaign.
The local DA in Fulton County, Georgia, has charged Trump with nearly 100 felonies for attempting to interfere with the vote there. It is the most reliably Democrat County in the nation, having voted Democrat in all but two (1928, 1972) presidential elections since 1878. This is the county where Mark Zuckerburg set up privately donated and unmonitored ballot collection boxes for later harvesting.
The Biden Justice Department has sicced Jack Smith on Trump in the Mar-a-Lago raid case, and the January 6 case. He is known for aggressive prosecution of high-profile cases, with mixed results. It appears that both Trump and Biden had classified material in their private residences. Biden also had Top Secret/CODEWORD documents stored in his garage unprotected except by his car and at the Penn/Biden Center, an institution funded by the People’s Republic of China. The Trump documents were protected by the Secret Service 24/7 since his departure from office. Biden was able to schedule examinations of his alleged storage sites; a nighttime raid was conducted at Trump’s residence. Biden was allowed to define what areas could be searched; Trump’s home was searched while he was away and his lawyers were not allowed to be present.
Two Wars
We are involved in two wars simultaneously, both proxy wars. The first, in Ukraine, is with Russia, which has about half of all nuclear warheads on earth. The war began after our President mentioned that a “small incursion” might be all right. The second, in Gaza and Yemen, is with Iran. We had an embargo on Iranian oil under President Trump; President Biden, whose entire agenda has been set by proving “I am not Trump,” lifted the embargo, allowing Iran to sell 80M barrels of oil, as well as to receive $6B in unfrozen funds originating in South Korea. These funds have been used to provide arms and other supplies to proxy terror groups, which have attacked Israel, U.S. interests in Iraq and Syria, and threatened shipping in the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, Houthi rebels, backed by Iran and occupying the Western half of Yemen, have been attempting to sink commercial ships in the Red Sea. The US has a Carrier Group in the Red Sea and a second in the Mediterranean off the coast of Lebanon. The Carrier Group in the Red Sea is shooting down anti-ship drones, but evidently taking no actions against the Houthi sites targeting U.S. sites in Iraq and Syria. There have been more than 100 attacks on U.S. sites, with more than sixty casualties. Our response has been limited to blowing up a couple of empty supply shacks. A third Iranian proxy force, Hezbollah, controls much of Lebanon and has been launching missiles against Israeli and U.S. Forces and sites.
Both carriers have on-board F/A-18 aircraft capable of flattening much of western Yemen, and every site that has attacked US interests from there. I must say that I do not know why we sent two carrier groups to the area. Deterrence requires the will to use the deterring assets. President Biden appears unwilling to do so. I recall President Theodore Roosevelt recommending “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” President Biden’s advice seems to be “Mumble softly and stumble often.”
Antisemitism Abounds
Following Hamas’s slaughter of about 1,200 Israelis and other Jews on October 7, there has been a nationwide surge in antisemitic hate. The claim is that the Jews have colonized Palestine and thus are oppressing the Palestinian people. The irony is that the Palestinian people are being oppressed by Iranian proxies, and their best hope is liberation by the Israeli Defense Force. Led by the students at our premier educational institutions, such as Harvard, Penn and MIT, there have been massive street demonstrations in Northern cities screaming Intifada! and From the River to the Sea. Both are calls for global genocide of Jews. Over the past several decades the Democratic Party has been steadily shedding parts of the FDR Coalition and parts of the Bill Clinton Coalition. It appears that Biden cannot retain both The Squad and Jews. He has proven partial to the Far Left in his party, but they’re not feeling the love. Members of the Squad as well as Muslim activists have threatened to withhold their votes from the President in retaliation for his support of Israel.
An Undeterred Invasion
In President Obama’s second term, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson stated that 1,000 encounters with illegal aliens a day at the Southwest border would constitute a disaster. We reached that in 2012. During Trump’s first year that was reduced to 850 per day. By his last year in office, it was just over 1,100. Ever since Joe Biden has been President, 10,000 per day is the norm. They come from every country on the globe. Last year it was 2.2 million during the year; this year will be even more. Since Biden took office, we have added more than 8 million unvetted illegal immigrants.
To ensure the operation of Project Overpopulation control of the border has been ceded to Mexican drug cartels, which are becoming incredibly wealthy as a result. Both adults and children are subjected to sexual trafficking, and drugs, primarily fentanyl, coming over the border are killing more than 70,000 US citizens per year. Property owners in every border state are under siege.
The Mayors of Chicago and New York have run out of funds to support their current loads of immigrants. Both are asking Biden for more money. A change in policy would, in my opinion, be better than throwing more money at the problem. The President of the NAACP in Illinois has described the incoming hordes as murderers and rapists taking funds from programs designed to help African Americans. She is pointing out the truth of the first corollary to Lincoln’s adage about fooling some of the people versus all the people. When you have coalitions, you will inevitably have to make tough choices. I not only believe Joe Biden can’t make tough choices, I believe he doesn’t understand the need for them.
Biden is dead, but still walking. Seems he wants us all to follow in his footsteps. I will gladly dance on his grave, he is helping cause much death in the world.
This is a sharp accurate analysis of our grim current situation.
Bill, wishing you and your family a New Year filled with every good thing and renewed strength and vigor.