Tag Archives: Trump

How Trump Beat the Margin of Theft

By J Robert Smith

  • Nov. 7, 2024
  • 2-min read

How many of us expected the trouncing that President-elect Donald Trump administered to Kamala Harris? Okay, so the trends were good leading up to Trump’s win, but not many people foresaw the excrement-kicking Trump dealt Kamala. Trump is only the second president in history who’ll serve nonconsecutive terms – Grover Cleveland is the other. For presidential history buffs, that’s remarkable. But Trump is more than Cleveland could ever imagine on multiple levels. He’s had to run a gauntlet of biblical dimensions. He’s withstood malicious prosecutions, two assassination attempts, a corporate media and Democrats who never missed an opportunity to slander him as Hitler or a would-be dictator. If you don’t think there’s a God, think again.

Long before Tuesday’s elections, the consensus among conservatives and Trump backers was that for Trump to win, he’d have to “beat the cheat” – or perform better than the “margin of theft.” If you look at the totals and Trump’s margins of victory in the battleground states, his margins were tight, except for Arizona, where, at this writing, he enjoys about a five percent margin between Harris and himself. If Trump failed to perform better than the margin of theft but still won a resounding victory, how did he accomplish that?

Here are four reasons to consider:

1. In the aftermath of the highly suspect Biden victory in 2020, conservative alternative media and citizen journalists made the rigged 2020 election an unrelenting focus. The information, data, and analyses generated by these cadres spread to audiences throughout the country.
2. Such effective jobs were done in reaching audiences that a third or better of the public were convinced that cheating impacted the outcome of the Biden-Trump contest.
3. In many, though not all, battleground states, efforts were made by governors and state legislatures to reform election laws aimed at tightening ballot security. Lawsuits were filed as required. Georgia suffered the loss of the 2021 MLB All-Star game because of election reforms passed by the Georgia legislature.
4. The 2024 Trump campaign, and then the Republican National Committee (RNC), under the leadership of Lara Trump and Michael Whatley, dedicated resources to deploy an army of election watchers and lawyers to aggressively challenge any irregularities encountered. Grassroots groups weighed in, too. Thousands of eyes watching elections in swing states made it clear that election officials and workers would be held civilly and criminally liable for wrongdoing.

What Happened to Biden’s 2020 Voters?

Take a look at this bar-graph from zerohedge comparing presidential vote totals from 2012 through 2024. The outlier, as anyone can see, is Biden’s 2020 total. This certainly doesn’t prove cheating but it does raise the question: “Where did Biden’s voters go?”

Where did Biden’s voters vanish to this election? Or did they really ever exist?

J. Robert Smith is a regular contributor to American Thinker.

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How to Stop Iran’s Assassination Attempts on Trump

By J Robert Smith

  • Sept. 25, 2024
  • 3-min read

Tuesday night on X, former President Trump issued a statement that the Iranians have made failed attempts on his life. He said they’re expected to keep at it. “Not a good situation,” wrote Trump. Not only do the Iranians fear Trump’s election, but they want to disrupt the autumn elections. True election interference is in the works. Here’s Trump’s statement in its entirety.

NBC News reported on Tuesday night:

“President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference.”

Of course, we wonder if the Biden administration has the backbone to sic the dogs on the Iranians. The only way to deal with a nation that sponsors terrorist outfits across the globe is harshly, unforgivingly. The Iranians should be told in no uncertain terms to call back their assassins or assassination teams. If not, we’ll deploy our own teams or set in motion other means of decapitating Iran’s leadership.

Mossad (Israel’s intelligence service) is widely suspected to have killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was attending the swearing in of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in Teheran. Per CNN, Haniyeh was killed “using an explosive device that had been covertly hidden in the guest house where he was staying [.]”

If the Israelis can reach into Iran to kill a high-ranking Hamas leader, they could kill members of Iran’s leadership. U.S. leaders should make the Iranians aware that they’ll work with the Israelis (and others) to kill their leaders if assassination efforts aimed at Trump – or any other American politician – don’t cease immediately. Violence – or the threat of it – is the only language the mullahs understand.

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Now is the Time to Go All-in on Trump

By Rob Meyne

  • July 17, 2024
  • 4-min read

Many people admire Donald Trump, while many hate him. How can so many presumably intelligent people view something so differently? The answer starts with these questions: what do you value; how much do you care about what happens in the country; how willing are you to express your opinion and listen to that of others; and how much effort do you make to be informed and rely on news sources that are reputable, reliable, and objective?

Do you just listen to MSNBC and read the NYT? Do you have the courage and energy to share your views, listen to others who share theirs, and be willing to learn and persuade in equal measure?

Most people don’t do those things. Many people go through their adult lives without giving ANY serious, objective thought to their values and political beliefs. It is certainly FAR easier to just tune out the information and the noise and quit thinking about it.

EXCEPT that it is the wrong thing for you and your family. And for mine, BTW. Pardon the bluntness, but if YOUR refusal to get engaged, and to get fair and accurate information, leads you to cast a vote that leads to a person getting elected who does things that put us in danger, well… YOUR actions, then, have hurt all of us. THAT is why I have limited patience for people who don’t think about, or learn about, politics.

What happens in this year’s presidential race affects all of us. When you make decisions that are based on inaccurate information, or popular narratives you have heard so often you assume they are true, it can lead to the election of, for example, someone who is pushing for war instead of someone who is an advocate for peace. You and your children could die in such a war. It is startling and shocking that millions of people vote based more on someone’s gender or skin color than on which candidate is more likely to lead us to a nuclear holocaust.

Decisions about politics are unlike most that you make. If you choose to bank at a particular place, vacation at a given place, or attend a specific church, it impacts you and you alone. But, what you do in regard to politics affects us all.

The underlying question is always one of what do you value? Do you place the highest value on freedom, safety, security, diversity, improving education, economic equality, or….what?

For me, freedom is the number one priority. I vote for the person and party that increases freedom, reduces the power of government, and celebrates individuals rather than groups. You may make other choices.

Which leads us to Trump. He did not have to run for president the first time. Or the second. Or now. He is a gazillionaire, married to literally a super model, in good health, and could have played golf and relaxed and helped his kids run their company. Instead, he has gone through hell.

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The Democrats are Proving
They Are a Threat to Democracy

By Anthony Trevlac

  • July 11, 2024
  • 4-min read

I certainly wish we had better choices, in the campaign and among political parties. I suspect most people would agree with that.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the same thing as saying both sides are the same. With respect, anyone who believes Democrat leaders are in a struggle to “save democracy” is asleep at the switch.

They are currently in a cluster f**k panic about how to remove Biden from the ticket, EVEN THOUGH MILLIONS OF PRIMARY VOTERS CHOSE HIM. So much for elections. Certainly, I get it — Biden is a disaster, and our nation is at risk, we are in danger — but a political party that is working hard to replace a candidate chosen by the voters cannot credibly claim they are saving democracy.

They are terrified the election might be left up to an actual vote of the people. There are two major party nominees. The Dems want to ignore the democratic process and put in their own preference.

As we write this, Senate Democrats are meeting privately with White House staff to figure out a way forward. House Dems met earlier this week. They are desperate to save their own political fortunes.

None of that would be needed, of course, if the Administration and mainstream media hadn’t worked diligently to keep you from knowing about Biden’s ineptness and senility. They covered it up. As recently as a month ago, they claimed videos of Biden showing him to be lost and confused were fraudulent. Suddenly, Dem leaders must admit it because Biden’s horrible mental and physical health was on full display in the debate. They can no longer deny it.

For years we have been governed by an unelected cabal that runs the country because the person who was elected president is non compos mentis. He is not mentally capable of functioning at the level needed to run the nation.

It is astonishing that not one prominent Democratic leader has made the point that Biden’s senility is a threat to the nation. Not one. ALL the discussion from the Democratic elite has been about how this crisis affects their chances of beating Trump and of winning House and Senate seats.

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Biden’s Incompetence
Puts Us All at Risk

By Rob Meyne

  • June 28, 2024
  • 3-min read

Joe Biden’s performance last night is all you need to know about his senescence. The man is not capable of being president. Sorry, but if you don’t recognize that at this point, you are deluded or bigoted, frankly, and there is no hope for you. Go have a nice day, while you still have a country to enjoy. The rest of us will keep working to save America. You’re welcome.

Perhaps the most shocking realization is that none of the people who make decisions for Biden, enable him, prop him up, and make excuses for him, seem concerned about the nation. Biden is a threat to the safety of you and your family. He is a threat to global peace and to our security.

Biden is directed by people who don’t care about the nation. (They are in this to gain power and money, and it is working spectacularly for them so far. Under Biden we have grown less free while the elite have grown richer.)

The f***ing White House told us last week that the videos of him being lost, confused, and inept were fakes. They are lying, steaming piles of dung. And that is the best thing that can be said about them. If you believe anything from Biden’s puppet masters, please just do the world a favor, and don’t vote. Leave it to the people who care enough to be informed.

And, BTW, all those who still claim Trump is the bigger threat can send me a bottle of whatever you are drinking and go pass out on your porch.

The most extreme criticisms of Trump have grown tired and ineffective. Most of the key tropes are simply not true, but they cling to them. Trump had four years to try to be a dictator and did not. He did not tell us to drink bleach. He didn’t praise white nationalists as very fine people. He didn’t try to jail his political opponents (but Biden has).

Of course, Trump was also correct that the intelligence community interfered in the 2020 election. That is one aspect that made 2020 unfair, unethical, possibly illegal and, yes, “rigged.”

Even if you aren’t clear on those points, or still reject the truth, get over it. We have a bigger problem. We have a senile and hapless incompetent as president. The threat to America about which we should be concerned is Biden’s incompetence and the nascent fascism advocated by him and the people, mostly Obama and his lackeys, who make decisions for him.

We are living through Obama’s third term. Meanwhile, America’s enemies, I guarantee you, are obsessing over the footage of Biden’s debate performance, and calling in the best intel they have from their human intelligence sources, considering what to do in the next few months.

The Bidens are bought and paid for by our enemies. That is no longer in dispute. Biden is incompetent and can’t stand up to our enemies because they have bribed him. Feel better? Neither do we.

What is wrong with us? How far have we fallen that almost all the discussion is about what it has done to the Democrat party or to Trump or to Cackling Kamala? WHERE are the people who are finally admitting having this cipher’s finger on the nuclear button is bad for America and the world? This isn’t about any person, party, or political movement. This is about saving the country. Get on board.

Are you an anti-Trumper who voted for Biden and still abhors Trump? You should apologize publicly and vote for Trump this year. But we’ll do you a favor: forget the apology, and just do the right thing this fall.

The footage of Jill Biden leading Joe off stage last night is a perfect symbol of his presidency at this point. He cannot, literally, get off the stage on his own. No wonder he can’t handle the toughest job in the world. There are a lot of people who enable Biden because they get their power and wealth from their association with him. Their support of this incompetent president is disgraceful and treasonous.

The main reason they wanted to debate early is probably that they wanted to road test him. They wanted to see if he could rise to the occasion. He did not, so now they have a few weeks to figure out how to replace him on the ticket.

In hindsight, the debate was a chance for Biden to prove to his sycophants that we could handle the campaign and the presidency. Manifestly, he cannot.

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The Rubicon Has Been Crossed

It was a bad day for America. Never has a former American president been convicted of a crime.

You can say it is because no one has ever been as despicable as Trump; or you can say no administration has been as unethical as Biden’s; or you can assume some combination of both. In no case is it a good thing for the country.

The Rubicon has been crossed. Once a precedent has been established, it can never go away. In the future, sadly, it may be commonplace for American presidents to use the courts to go after their opponents. Biden is the first to do so but will probably not be the last.

No one has ever been charged with a felony under these circumstances. To review, the FEC looked at Trump’s non-disclosure agreement with Daniels and decided not to get involved. In New York, business record violations of the kind they alleged are misdemeanors and the statute of limitations had run its course. The state had taken a pass as well. The DOJ looked at it and took a pass. Even Bragg himself had previously declined to prosecute.

Then, after running on a promise to prosecute Trump, and with resources and encouragement from Biden, Bragg reversed course and decided he would prosecute Trump for a felony. But he had to invent a category of crime to do so. He was able to charge Trump with felonies by claiming he misreported a non-disclosure agreement as a legal expense, and that it was used to cover up another crime. But… no other crime was proven or even alleged.

With us so far? Then, the judge said the jury does not have to be unanimous. WTF? He said they can agree he committed a felony, and convict him, without agreeing on the details.

That is akin to a judge saying you could be convicted of theft even if the jurors don’t agree on what was stolen. If this sounds like an unethical way to run a court, and probably an unconstitutional one, it is.

For comparison, Hillary, aka “The Hildebeast,” was fined for misreporting campaign expenses. She funded development of bogus opposition research. A foreign national, Christopher Steele, was paid to put together a memo describing alleged ties and activities involving Trump and Russia. It was made up, and completely unverified. Not one bit of it was proven to be true.

Yet, it was used as the basis for beginning a federal investigation into Trump’s supposed Russian links, to justify the FBI spying on the Trump campaign, and to launch the Robert Mueller investigation, at a cost of about 40 million of your dollars, which resulted in zero Russia-related charges.
The Clinton campaign reported the project as legal expenses. The money was funneled through their law firm and then paid to Steele. For this, Clinton paid a fine.
The non-disclosure agreement between Trump and Stormy Daniels, of course, did not involve campaign funds or expenses. Non-disclosure agreements are a normal part of life, common in business, perfectly legal, and not unique to a person running for office.

It requires willful ignorance not to recognize the double standard and intent to weaponize our judicial system. But the goal of the leftist fascists now pulling Biden’s strings was to find a way to call Trump a felon. So, they alleged a bogus crime, forbade testimony from subject matter experts on election law, allowed witnesses hostile to Trump to talk about things unrelated to the issue at hand, and gave the jury instructions that they need not be unanimous in their opinions.
Every word of Stormy Daniel’s testimony was irrelevant. Whether they had sex, under what circumstances, if she was paid or just offered it for free, and every other sordid detail had nothing to do with the reporting of business expenses. But it made Trump look bad, so they allowed it. They threw the concepts of justice and constitutional rights out the window.

The case will likely be reversed on appeal, possibly by the Supreme Court, but the damage has been done.

ALL you need to know to affirm Biden’s corruption is this: the Biden DOJ’s third-highest ranking official was sent to prosecute it. He left one of the three highest-profile legal job in America to handle a state prosecution. Why would you do that, other than to ingratiate yourself to the partisan president you serve? Right. You wouldn’t. There is no other reason.

Team Biden thinks we are so uninformed, and so gullible, that we either don’t know that or don’t care. In fact, the left’s hope for winning in 2024 depends on a huge swath of Americans not being informed, not caring, or simply hating Trump so much they don’t care about Biden’s corruption.

Recall that the FBI said Hillary could have been prosecuted for espionage, mishandling sensitive information. But given the chance, Trump chose not to. He thought it would be wrong to go after a political opponent, even though they were probably guilty of a crime.
Trump cared more about the nation than about revenge. Biden does not.

The Dems want you to be afraid of Trump because he is a threat to expose their own corruption. Yet it is only Trump who has demonstrated restraint in using the courts for political purposes. Biden is more than happy to do so. Biden’s conduct is more appropriate for Tony Soprano than for a president.

Recently, when asked about getting revenge, just after his conviction, Trump said he would not use the justice system to put his opponents away, saying, “No, it has to stop.”

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Third Trimester Abortions are Common & the Democrats Love Them

By Rob Meyne

  • March 23, 2024
  • 5-min read

It has been said you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. Which brings us to probably America’s most contentious issue.

The facts on abortion have been challenged recently in these pages. That is understandable because the prevailing Democratic position on abortion is horrifying and indefensible.

Remember, I don’t ask people to just believe me; I want people to learn the facts. Most of us don’t go to the trouble. But we are a better, stronger nation when people know the truth. Plus, as I have often said, conservatives usually win when the people know the truth. The left usually wins when they don’t.

So, the following is the truth. I have even included a few references. If anyone wants to challenge me, please, buckle up. Let’s go. Do your best. But, please, those who keep just saying things like “no one supports third trimester abortions,” in spite of the reality that they do, just don’t talk about it anymore if you’re going to ignore reality.

  • The Democrats are today the extreme party on abortion. While members of both parties often have more varied opinions than their leaders, key Dem leadership supports abortion through nine months.
  • In his debate with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, California Gov. Gavin Newsom — a party star and disastrous governor — said it is just up to the woman and doctor, no matter how late in the pregnancy.

In a March campaign stop in Las Vegas, Biden said he had a message for Donald Trump: “Don’t mess with the women of America unless you want to get the benefit!” Whatever that means, in the same speech he said he supported abortion through three trimesters, but later argued that was not abortion on demand. Perhaps Biden thinks there is a fourth trimester. MSNBC reported on this as did many other outlets. In May, 2022, The Washington Post ran a piece showing that Democrat Tim Ryan and Bernie Sanders both support abortion through all nine months, and that, at the time, Biden’s press secretary wouldn’t provide a direct answer to the question.

  • When SCOTUS reversed Roe in 2022, Biden was asked directly if he thought there should be “any” restrictions on abortion. He said “no.” Such clarity is hard to ignore.
  • Most Republicans, including Trump, do not support a national ban. Trump has even criticized Ron DeSantis for Florida’s six-week limit being too severe. Trump said this past week, as reported by NBC News, that he favors a 15-week limit.
  • Most importantly, IF you opposed abortion through nine months, and were directly asked about it, you would say so. Biden and Harris refuse to, because they support it.
  • More telling, the entire Democratic U. S. Senate caucus (minus Joe Manchin) in 2022 voted for a bill that would have removed all gestational restrictions on abortion. Just one Democrat opposed it. (There are a ton of articles on this, including on Apnews.com. Axios news has also reported on this.) Planned Parenthood spent millions to support it.
  • The abortion opinions of most GOP leaders are closer to the American mainstream than the opinions of their Dem counterparts.
  • Abortions are routinely performed in dozens of states in the third trimester. Seven states have NO time limits on abortion. Another 12 allow it through the whole pregnancy if it is claimed the mental, emotional, or physical health of the woman (despite what the Biden Administration says, men still can’t have babies) is at risk. If a woman says she doesn’t think she can mentally or emotionally handle motherhood, her doctor can abort. (There are many sources, but this is from the World Population Review. Go ahead, check for yourself, but save time by using a search engine that is more objective than Google, like DuckDuckGo.)
  • The difference between an abortion in the 8th or 9th month is essentially just what you do with the healthy, viable child. For an abortion, if the mother doesn’t want it, it is killed. In Nevada, where you can abort through six months, an abortion is performed by the doctor inserting shears into the mother and cutting off the child’s arms, legs, and head. The pieces are then assembled on a tray to make sure they didn’t miss anything. If this makes you sick, it should. You must be a normal human.
  • A good question is where do Americans stand? This is from a May 2022 Gallup survey. “When asked about the legality of abortion at different stages of pregnancy, about two-thirds of Americans say it should be legal in the first trimester (69%), while support drops to 37% for the second trimester and 22% for the third. Majorities oppose abortion being legal in the second (55%) and third (70%) trimesters.” Dozens of surveys over the years reflect similar data.

Leftist propagandists and abortion fans want you to believe that every woman loves abortion and it is a genuine women’s rights issue. Nonsense. Some women promote abortion, some don’t, as is also true of men.

Perhaps the least defensible bromide repeatedly offered is that only the opinion of women should matter on the issue. Not to be too gentle, but that is bigoted, sexist crap. It takes a man and a woman to make a baby. They both should take responsibility for it, love it, care for it, and determine every important decision about it, including whether to kill it. There is no logical, reasonable, or ethical argument to be made for the suggestion that men should have no vote on whether a baby lives. This may be news to some, but millions of fathers, like me, love their children and wanted them very much. Men and women should be equal partners in this journey. It is indefensible to say that your opinion on whether your own child should live ONLY matters if you happen to have a vagina.

Like it or not, by the way, the issue with abortions is not, in any way, what a woman does with HER body. Support abortion or oppose it, the issue is completely about what happens to the separate body and life that is a developing human being. That person/fetus/baby/whatever term you prefer is a totally different living thing than the mother, with separate DNA. The “my body” line sounds good but doesn’t survive even cursory examination. With apologies for speaking so clearly, it is another life, not yours.

So, the real question is this: Which party more closely represents your views? Which is more extreme? Which is better for America, policies that represent a middle ground on the issue, or those that promote unrestricted abortion through nine months?

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Biden Makes It Clear:
He Doesn’t Like Us

By Rob Meyne

  • March 15, 2024
  • 5-min read

For those keeping score at home… The “success” in Biden’s SOTU speech was that… wait for it… he didn’t fall down, soil himself (maybe he only does that when he is with the Pope), or stand for a half hour frozen without speaking. Those were the highlights.

It was not a presidential speech so much as a campaign event that revealed more than they probably intended. There may never have been a more hate-filled speech given in the well of the House. The loathing of huge swaths of Americans was palpable and hard to miss given that he yelled most of it.

If you want to give the most important and powerful job in the world to the crazy old man who lives down the street and keeps yelling at you to keep your dog off his lawn, you will have your chance this November.

Let’s add this caveat: if certain terms like “hate” offend you, or seem excessive, think of your own term. Whatever is the right word – and hate doesn’t seem too strong to me – it is clear Biden no longer even bothers to pretend he likes many of us. If he doesn’t use the word “hate,” find your own. What do you prefer? Loathes, despises, vilifies? Get out you thesaurus and have at it.

He brags about it. If you are Republican, Independent, Conservative Democrat, corporate leader, or advocate for peace or financial responsibility – just a partial list – he despises you and considers you the enemy.

The field is stripped. It could not be clearer.

It is odd to me, as a lifelong political hack and campaign communications trainer, to see the Dems rejecting a clear component of any effective speech: you want to be likable. This isn’t as sacrosanct, I suppose, as it was at one time. Most people don’t find Trump warm and cuddly. Maybe we are beyond all that. But at least Trump is clearly fond of average, run of the mill Americans. Biden makes it clear he is not.

The Republican nominee is an unlikely hero for those who love freedom. Like the Kennedys or the Roosevelts, he is a wealthy man who somehow still has a link to the common person. Sometimes a lifeline is thrown to us from an unexpected source. President Trump is spectacularly right: they are coming for you and me. They aren’t even subtle about it. Please, please be cognizant enough to realize it before it is too late.

Unless you’re a Democratic Socialist (which is like being a free slave; it isn’t possible) or just a brainless sycophant, you can’t name a major human cohort he didn’t attack. He slammed businesses and their owners, the Supreme Court, and anyone who doesn’t buy into open borders and his brand of bigotry.
Basically, if you like free speech, a secure America, or a society where we know what a woman is, Biden hates you. If you are not willing to support the racist policies they promote in the name of DEI, he hates you. If you aren’t in love with the idea of another long war, he hates you.

He did nothing to build bridges. A man who has claimed he wants to be president of all the people gave most of us a middle finger. Typically, even the most partisan presidents spend quite a bit of their speech claiming they want unity. Several years ago, it was even a key part of Biden’s address. But no more.

Today, he doesn’t even bother to make a pitch for unity. He did claim the border bill, which is dying a well-deserved death, is bipartisan, except that…. Well, it really isn’t. Mitch McConnell, who is thankfully stepping down as leader this year, and his hand-picked stooge agreed to the latest draft. It wasn’t bipartisan in any significant way, and even if it were, so what? It is a bad bill. The border bill doesn’t restrict illegal immigration, it enshrines it into law. The legislation would allow nearly two million illegals to enter the nation each year, without triggering any enforcement at all. If that is your idea of sealing the border, you belong in the open borders party. Maybe you can be the first person in America to put up a Biden sign.

This just in: having one or two GOP senators support a bill does not make it bipartisan in any meaningful sense. Bipartisanship is not a useful adjective unless it represents a sample from both parties that is sufficient to affect the process.

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Pick A Lane:
America is At Risk, and We Can’t Afford the Luxury of Protest Votes

By Rob Meyne

  • Feb. 22, 2024
  • 5-min read

If you’re like us, you’ve probably heard a lot of folks expressing the usual quadrennial complaint that “both candidates suck.” That may be a tad inelegant, but you get the point.

Many surveys show a huge majority of voters wish we had better choices.
You can count me among them. I’d love to be able to pick between Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln. Let me know when we can work that out.

There is, however, this thing called “reality,” and it says that, barring a miracle, one of the two major party candidates will be elected president. The only relevant decision a person needs to make is this: under which of these two candidates can we reasonably expect the nation to be better off?

There is a lot of talk about the “lesser of two evils.” If one wants to look at politics in that way, be our guest. The question we would offer to inform the discussion a bit is this: in what part of life are we not faced with alternatives that are the “lesser of two evils?” Put another way, what part of your life is perfect? (My wife is perfect, and please tell her I said so.)

Most of human existence involves choosing from among two or more options, and they are never perfect. That is the nature of life, and certainly of human beings. As long as politics involves people, our choices among candidates will be imperfect. Get used to it, get over it, and next time support better candidates.

For today, let’s get back to reality.

For those who want to sit this one out – to note vote, or to vote for a third-party candidate with no chance of winning – you need to ask yourself whether the future of the country is more important than casting some kind of protest by way of a wasted vote?

If you don’t vote, no one sits and cries. No one will beg you to reconsider. No one will write it down and say, “Mr. Jones in Topeka didn’t like the candidates, so we need to do better next time.”

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All Trump. All the Time?

Is Hunter’s Middle Name “Diogenes?”

By Rob Meyne

  • Jan. 3, 2024
  • 4-min read

If you turn on Netflix or even broadcast TV, you would likely see something that would have been startling twenty years ago. Nudity, profanity, and main characters that identify as transexuals or ficus trees are common.

A similar situation has evolved in American presidential politics. Every week, something happens that would have been a headline-generating event in our parent’s generation. The unusual has become usual. The uncommon has become common.

The search for a decent journalist makes Diogenes’s challenge seem like a piece of cake. (It is not at all certain Diogenes ever said he was looking for an “…honest man.” If he were, he could steer clear of Washington and not reduce his chances of finding one.)

Digoense, by the way, was a founder of stoicism, and would be considered weird even if he was hanging out with the bizarre crowd at a waterfront sunset in Key West. Diogenes was known for doing all manner of things in public that one normally does in private – defecating, fornicating – all in a crowd. He sounded like someone you’d want to party with. If he lived today, he would livestream himself in flagrante delicto. Basically, he’d be Hunter Biden without the influence peddling gig.

Biden and Trump are the two likely nominees, but people are lining up in droves to say they wish they had another choice – anyone – hog, dog, or frog. Both candidates have high negatives and their average age is “deceased.” Trump at least still exhibits signs of life and mental acuity. Biden would likely lose a political debate if he had the gonads to accept one, unless he debated a kumquat or three-toed sloth, in which case it would probably be a push.

Never has a major political candidate been indicted for a crime while he was running for office. Certainly, never has a sitting president indicted his opponent. Never have the political machinations of state, local, and federal governments been coordinated deliberately to try to put a candidate, for whom they have expressed great disdain, behind bars. Never have the courts been used to try to throw a candidate off the ballot by claiming they were part of an insurrection.

If memory serves, the only significant political figure to run for president from prison was four-time candidate Eugene V. Debs, with home I share a hometown, who ran as a socialist. His highest vote total – something shy of a million – was when he was in prison. Somehow the phrase “Vote for Inmate 3994739 never quite caught on as well as the ”Hey, look me over” song used by Birch Bayh (also from Terre Haute) in his first run for the Senate.

On the Democrat side, the evidence that Joe Biden is a crook increases faster than Hunter’s bar bill at the Chateau Marmont.

The problem, of course, is not just that Hunter is a piece of human dung, although that is irrefutable. The PROBLEM is that this particular piece of dung routinely paid his father directly, as did other family members, paid him exorbitant rent, and even paid many of his bills for him. That Joe benefited financially from Hunter’s influence peddling is undeniable. Plus, courts have held that a person can be enriched in a way that qualified as criminal even if the actual financial largesse accumulated only for his close family. If a wife or son is “paid off,” does anyone really believe the husband or father does not benefit?

So we have a massive case of influence peddling, money laundering, and plain old-fashioned bribery that is being ignored or slow walked by a very corrupt Attorney General. On the other side, we have a former president who has been indicted in two jurisdictions with spectacularly weak cases that will require juries to accept legal arguments that are literally unprecedented. Another case is civil because the paucity of evidence against Trump would not sustain an actual criminal indictment.

So you have two possible or even likely crooks competing for the votes of people who loathe them. You have a complacent, lapdog media where true journalists are as rare as an honest Biden, and you have the entire political structure of one of our two major political parties doing their best imitation of a banana republic. Oh, and you have a credible third-party candidate taking votes from both of the major candidates.

You’ve got an economy on the brink and war breaking out on TWO international fronts with our allies involved and a non-zero chance we’ll have American boots on the ground. A cyberattack, EMP, or global nuclear holocaust is also a non-zero possibility.

And those are just the GOOD things happening.

If one tries to take the positive approach, that can help, but coming up with a rational reason to think everything is going to work out fine is more difficult by the day.

For now, I have to go buy a kumquat and see if I can talk a three-toed sloth into running as an independent. I’ll get back with you.

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