Most people know about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. There was a nationwide revolution against the Hungarian People’s Republic, which was a puppet of the Soviet Union. It did not end well.

If you look this up in Wikipedia it says the following:

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 – Wikipedia

Initially appearing open to negotiating a withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Politburo changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution. On 4 November, a large Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country. The Hungarian resistance continued until 10 November. Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed in the conflict, and 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees. In Austria, large refugee camps were constructed from which emigration to other countries was arranged for the many refugees who escaped across the border prior to the military closure.^[7] Mass arrests and denunciations continued for months thereafter. By January 1957, the new Soviet-installed government had suppressed all public opposition. These Soviet actions, while strengthening control over the Eastern Bloc, alienated many Western Marxists, leading to splits and/or considerable losses of membership for communist parties in capitalist states.

These facts are true, but they are not the entire story. President Eisenhower was caught in a dilemma. If he intervened to save Hungary, some felt there was risk of a nuclear war. That was something Eisenhower would not risk. But the Soviet Union was terrified at the prospect of intervention by the U.S. After all, Eisenhower was the General who had ordered the D Day invasion. This was a man who could make a serious decision. The Soviet Union feared and respected him. There is a report, unconfirmed, that there was a Soviet Spy buried deep in the Eisenhower administration. We do not know that for sure, but we do know that Eisenhower decided not to intervene in Hungary. Once word about that decision reached Moscow, they attacked within hours. The rest is history, very brutal and disgusting history.

More recently, Russia again flexed its muscles during the George W. Bush administration. The following article in Slate explains what happened regarding Georgia during 2008.

The Bush administration’s feckless response to the Russian invasion of Georgia. (slate.com)

“ It’s heartbreaking, but even more infuriating, to read so many Georgians quoted in the New York Times—officials, soldiers, and citizens—wondering when the United States is coming to their rescue. It’s infuriating because it’s clear that Bush did everything to encourage them to believe that he would. When Bush (properly) pushed for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, Putin warned that he would do the same for pro-Russian secessionists elsewhere, by which he could only have meant Georgia’s separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Putin had taken drastic steps in earlier disputes over those regions—for instance, embargoing all trade with Georgia—with an implicit threat that he could inflict far greater punishment. Yet Bush continued to entice Saakashvili with weapons, training, and talk of entry into NATO. Of course, the Georgians believed that if they got into a firefight with Russia, the Americans would bail them out. “

A cease fire was signed on August 5, 2008. Russia “partially” withdrew troops from Georgia. Russia recognized the “independent” states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Today, Georgia still considers these “republics” to be under military occupation by Russia.

In February of 2014, thousands of extra soldiers were quietly sent into bases located in Crimea. Civilian “volunteers” also arrived. Before the Obama administration knew what was happening, the Russian invasion was successful, and Russia annexed Crimea.

Russia officially annexes Crimea away from Ukraine with signature from Vladimir Putin – CBS News

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill Friday completing his country’s annexation of Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula which voted overwhelmingly less than a week earlier to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.

Russia did not even attempt to annex territory while Trump was President. In addition, Salon, which hated Trump, recommended the exact action taken by Trump to control Russia.

“In the long term, the best way to take Russia down a notch (along with Iran, Venezuela, and other hostile powers overflowing with oil money) is to pursue policies and fund technologies that slash the demand for oil. The Georgia crisis should make clear, if it isn’t already, that this is a matter of hard-headed national security.”

Salon was wrong about one thing. The world needs oil and trying to change this with renewable energy is a fool’s errand. Trump realized that and pursued policies that made the U.S. energy independent. In 2019, the U.S. was Energy Independent for the first time since 1957:

The United States Was Energy Independent in 2019 for the First Time Since 1957 – IER (instituteforenergyresearch.org)

Sadly, Biden changed things immediately. He cancelled the Keystone Pipeline and made it clear he intends to stop fracking. That sound you heard in the background was the cheering by those surrounding Vladimir Putin. Putin is also certain to be terrified by a transgender U.S. military. Now that the greatest threat to Russia has been thrown away, Russia is flexing its military muscle again. Russian troops are already gathering at the border with Ukraine.  One thing is clear, Russia is not impressed by Joe Biden. We do not know what will or will not happen in Ukraine, but we do know that Joe Biden is absolutely worthless in addressing this crisis.

We should have learned our lesson from Hungary, but those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Sadly, while the liberal left accused Trump, falsely, of being a Russian puppet, Joe Biden is the one dancing to their favorite tunes. This is unlikely to end well.

TDM

Have you ever noticed something? Every time the government tries to raise taxes, it is always to pay for the same things. If they want to raise property taxes it is always to fund sports or music programs. If they want to raise gas taxes, it is always to rebuild our roads and infrastructure. This never really happens, because even if government does use these funds for these purposes, they will spend previously allocated money elsewhere.

This bait and switch goes on all the time. The reason is obvious. We would be disgusted at some of the things for which our tax dollars are spent. We would be furious if the increase in property taxes went primarily to fund the teachers union. In fact, we would be furious at a lot of thing purchased at our expense.

Now Joe Biden is proposing spending trillions to build infrastructure. How many times have we heard about taxes being spent to increase funding on infrastructure? But it never seems to get done, because sure enough, we need more infrastructure spending again.

Now Democrats are looking for new and exciting ways to tax you. They will start by increasing corporate income taxes from 21% to 28%. They will ignore the inconvenient fact that when Trump decreased those taxes, the economy took off. This may look like a small increase, but that is not true. Increasing corporate taxes from 21% to 28% is a 33% increase. Businesses will move from states with high business tax to lower tax states. Some of them will move overseas. Some of them will find other ways to cut expense. All of this will result in fewer jobs, lower wages, and higher prices. None of this has anything to do with building infrastructure.

We already pay gas tax. This is designed to have us pay tax according to how much we drive. But with all the electric cars and hybrids, people are using less gas. So now, led by Pete Buttigieg, the government wants to be more direct and tax us for every mile we travel. He backed off this proposal after even Biden realized this was stupid.

According to the reports the $2 trillion infrastructure plan doesn’t spend much money on infrastructure. This is so obvious that even the AP noticed. This is further evidence that the Biden honeymoon is officially over. In addition, people are starting to notice things, like the fact that 73% of people over age 65 have now been vaccinated. That means the people getting Covid are not getting very sick. This will soon become obvious to everyone. My prediction is that the government will end up with millions of doses of vaccine that no one wants. Odds are we will ship them, at our expense, overseas.

This is just in time for Biden to propose requiring a vaccine passport. In the meantime, neither Biden or Harris are going to visit the U.S. border and every time Kamala Harris opens her mouth, she reminds people of why she finished dead last in the Democratic Primary.

Oh, by the way, Joe Biden’s German Shepherd is still biting people and one of his dogs apparently dropped a load in the White House. This is fitting because the Biden administration has already been stinking up the joint.

In the meantime, Russia is massing troops at the border with Ukraine. Funny thing, this sort of thing never happened when Trump was in the White House. It did happen with George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Putin is obviously not impressed with Joe Biden.

There is so much stuff going on that things are going to happen. Many of the pet projects promoted by Democrats are wildly unpopular, even with Democrats. Now that Trump is out of the way and is no longer distracting the MSM, the attention is on Joe and his radical agenda. That is bad news for the Biden administration, but good news for us.

Change is on the way, sooner than anyone can imagine. There are more people cueing up for the 2022 primary elections than ships waiting to transit the Suez Canal. The problems with Biden are so obvious that even the Washington Post gave him four pinochles, for the numerous blatant lies he told about the Georgia election reform.  Everyone, and I do mean everyone who takes one honest look at Joe says: “when’s the next election?” No one is showing an ounce of excitement at the prospect of President Harris. They are already taxing our patience and, if allowed, will tax everything else.

TDM

Sometimes it is best to remember that the best of times frequently follow the worst of times. This week is a reminder of that. Friday, April 2, 2021, is Good Friday. It is when we recognize the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. Any reading of the New Testament shows that the disciples were totally demoralized by this. Peter even denied knowing Christ on three separate occasions and then went out and wept. It is hard to overstate the despair they must have felt.

Yet, three days later, Christ rose from the dead. At first, even his own disciples refused to believe this. That is where we come up with the name “Doubting Thomas.” Eventually, the entire world recognized the significance of the resurrection. In many ways, the doubting disciples ultimately provide the best reason to understand why the resurrection is real. They did not want to believe this, but the reality of the situation gave them no alternative. Nearly every one of the Apostles were martyred, yet none of them stopped believing in the resurrection. It was certainly very real to them.

We are truly living in dark times. It is hard to overstate the severity of the challenges we face. We have a President of the United States, selected by a process which is impossible to trust, who is clearly incompetent. The COVID 19 vaccines, pushed through by Donald Trump, are helping us turn the corner on COVID. Yet, the administration and Democratic Governors seemed determined to micromanage our lives to the last full measure. Now there is even talk of a COVID vaccine card which will be required to travel or attend large gatherings. That is truly frightening because if the Government can require this document, who knows what papers will be required next. Once a government seizes this level of control, they are extremely reluctant to release their grip on power.

That ship stuck in the Suez Canal reminds us that shutting down two rather short water ways could have a huge impact on the world economy. We can guarantee some of our terrorist group enemies are watching this even with great interest.  The Viacom CBS stock offering failed miserably. One of the big hedge funds, Archegos capital, sold its position in Viacom CBS. This was so bad that Viacom CBS and Discovery are doing damage control. Discover issued the following statement:

 “trading activity is not the result of insider transactions or transactions by Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership or its affiliates,” which are investors in the company. The company also reiterated financial guidance and that it’s “pleased with the execution of its strategy, both with respect to its traditional business and the direct to consumer roll out.”

There are always predictions of boom and bust in the stock market. I am just reminded that it always takes a much longer to reach the mountain top then it does to slide down to the bottom.

It is hard to imagine the U.S. economy responding well to the continued micro-management of COVID, the soaring U.S. debt and the exuberant spending by the liberal left on things that cannot possibly grow the economy. Add in increases in taxes and regulations and it is hard to be optimistic. Wise people hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

Yet, I am reminded that the more obvious that things are bad the greater the incentive to move in a different direction. The worse things are, the more powerful the movement in the other direction. This is a principle of physics and it is reality in all aspects of our lives. Everything on this planet moves in cycles and no one or no thing can really change that.

I believe that if we have not already bottomed out, we are very close. Once that happens, a reverse is course is not only possible, but also inevitable. In this case the liberal left is gloating over what they perceive as total victory, but they are only securing their own defeat.

As we celebrate Good Friday this week, remember that Sunday is coming.

TDM

As expected, the real reporting on the Biden press conference is just developing. Now there has been time for people to review what he said and compare it to reality. The lies and distortions were so obvious that even factcheck.org could not ignore them:

FactChecking Biden’s First Press Conference (msn.com)

• Biden claimed that former President Donald Trump “eliminated” over $700 million in aid that Biden helped get for Central American countries. That didn’t happen, but the Trump administration did reallocate some money and temporarily suspended other funding.
• The president used the wrong statistics when saying that “nothing has changed” regarding “children” trying to enter the U.S. at the southern border. There was a significant 63% uptick in unaccompanied children being apprehended from January to February.
• Biden said, “We’re sending back the vast majority of the families that are coming.” But in February, 41% of those in a family unit apprehended at the southern border were expelled.
• The president said “over 50%” of Republican voters supported the American Rescue Plan Act. Some polls show that but others show a majority opposed the COVID-19 relief legislation.
• He repeated two familiar talking points on taxes, including the misleading claim that “83%” of the benefits in the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are “going to the top 1%.” That only becomes the case in 2027 when most of the individual income tax cuts are set to expire but corporate tax cuts remain.
• Biden got it wrong when he said there were five times as many cloture motions “last year alone” than there were “between 1917 and 1971.” There were twice as many motions filed last year than there were from 1917 through 1970.

This is a devastating rebuke of Joe Biden. We should not ignore the significance of this. During the Vietnam War Walter Cronkite gave a report upon his return from covering the Tet offensive. Almost everything he said was factually incorrect:

Final Words: Cronkite’s Vietnam Commentary : NPR

But when he said: “To say we are mired in a stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion”, LBJ knew he was in serious trouble. When LBJ heard this, he said: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”

Later LBJ said, correctly, that the Tet Offensive had been a huge military failure for the Vietnamese communists. But it was too late. The damage was done. LBJ never recovered.

Yesterday, Joe Biden lost MSN and he lost fastcheck.org. The difference is that this time it is the truth, not a lie, that is causing the damage. A truth so obvious and so awful that it simply cannot be ignored.

One would think that the Democratic establishment would just be loudly promoting Kamala Harris. But there’s a problem. She is even worse, and they know it. It is time to start looking for rats on the move.

There are many stores about rats fleeing disaster. This probably started with rats deserting a house just before it collapsed. It was later extended to rats deserting a sinking ship. Now it often refers to people abandoning a failing enterprise.

The rats are already starting to desert the Biden-Harris ship. We will see more of them soon. While rats are truly disgusting creatures, sometimes watching them is a really good idea.

TDM

Joe Biden just finished his first Press Conference. He probably looked better than some expected, but there were serious problems. One is that he clearly was prepped for specific questions and he read his answers from note cards. That was very noticeable regarding foreign affairs.

He also said several things that appear to be either deliberate lies or distortions, particularly when talking about the Trump administration. I suspect the real impact of this press conference will not be complete until people have time to “fact check” a lot of things said.

One thing I quickly noticed is that again, Joe has hugely dilated. They looked mostly black. Yet, if you look at other pictures of Biden, he has very blue eyes. Here are two pictures of Biden.  One taken previously, one taken today. Notice the significant difference in his eyes. They are hugely dilated in a room where there is clearly a lot of lighting, because of the television cameras. This, again, raises the question as to whether he is on some medication, like Adderall.  I am obviously not a medical professional, but here is an article from Drugs.com. Someone should at least ask the question.

Does Adderall usage cause extreme pupil dilation? (drugs.com)

Here are two pictures of Biden, showing his eyes previously and during the Press Conference. The difference is beyond obvious.

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 25, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The bottom line is that Biden was not good, but he was not horrible. He did not face plant, but he also did not inspire. He basically survived.

But this man is the President of the United States. Surviving is not enough. He has the most important leadership position in the world. The MSM in this case totally failed in their job. They did not ask him questions that required him to give direct answers. Biden looked like a football team with a terrible offence. Good at kicking the ball away, but incapable of actually getting something done. When you combine this with the obvious lies and distortions, it is absurd.

When Donald Trump was President the MSM accused him of lying every time he opened his mouth. In many cases it was the MSM that deliberately distorted things. Now we have the exact opposite. We have  President who tells obvious lies about material matters and the MSM just ignores them. We also have an MSM that allows a President of the United States to read from note cards in response to a pre-positioned question. They allow him to completely avoid answering direct questions. No other President would have done that, and they would have been crucified by the Press if they even tried.

This Press Conference probably did buy Joe Biden a little time, but at what cost?

TDM

Democrats are holding hearings on integrity, starring….Eric Holder. Eric Holder is an excellent choice because he symbolizes a lack of ethics. He was the first sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of congress.  The vote in the house was 255 – 67.  More than 100 Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, stormed out of the Capitol, and refused to vote. After all, Democrats only vote against Republicans. That is their highest moral value. But 17 Democrats bravely stayed behind and gave the thumbs up to the contempt vote.

Eric Holder contempt vote: Holder held in contempt of Congress – POLITICOBack ButtonSearch IconFilter Icon

Here is how Holder responded:

“Today’s vote is the regrettable culmination of what became a misguided – and politically motivated – investigation during an election year,” Holder said in his statement. “By advancing it over the past year and a half, Congressman Issa and others have focused on politics over public safety. Instead of trying to correct the problems that led to a series of flawed law enforcement operations, and instead of helping us find ways to better protect the brave law enforcement officers, like Agent Brian Terry, who keep us safe – they have led us to this unnecessary and unwarranted outcome.”

He left out the part about when he deliberately lied during his testimony before congress to cover up the failures of the Obama administration. Sound familiar?

This, of course, is the same congress now asking people to testify on why it is so cool to let biological males compete in girl’s and women’s sports. This is based on the real science, where it is not the parts you were born with or even the parts you had surgically added or removed, it is only how you feel about yourself.

These are the same people who push identity politics every day, and then wonder why more people are being assaulted because of their identity. Duh! When the Democratic Party preaches every day that we should judge people primarily because of things like race and gender, why would they be surprised when others judge people primarily because of things like race and gender. Who could predict something like that?

In the meantime, without a hint of irony, Nancy Pelosi is seriously considering overruling the certified vote for a congressional representative from Iowa because she doesn’t like the outcome. And, oh by the way, she really needs that vote.

These are all dumb things. They are things destined for the scrap heap of history. So why is this even being done? Some would assume that mere incompetence is a satisfactory explanation. But, at least to me, these appear to be acts of desperation. They want to change the subject from anything other than Joe Biden and his brilliant job performance.

This reminds me of the guy who admitted to an extramarital affair, because he desperately needed an alibi for a murder. Sometimes, people put themselves into situations where there are only really bad options.

TDM

When I was station in Vietnam, short developed a whole new meaning. It was what people said when they were close to the end of their deployment. I even had a short calendar, which allowed me to check off each day. At the time, I thought that day would never come, but time stops for no one, including people on deployment in garden spots like Vietnam.

Today we have a new meaning of the word short. It is the length of time before something is done about Joe Biden. If you look closely, even the MSM is starting to fidget noticeably. The entire world knows that Joe is not up to the job and they are literally laughing at us. They aren’t fooling anyone anymore. Something must be done, sooner rather than later.

In case you are wondering how bad this really is, read the following article from the Daily Mail, UK:

President Joe Biden, 78, falls up the stairs of Air Force One | Daily Mail Online

Read the following quotes:

• Biden has long faced questions over his health; he regularly mixes up names and titles 
• On Thursday, he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘President Harris’ 
• The fall is the latest in a string of incidents which raise concerns over the President’s health and ability to lead
• It also comes at a moment of heightened tensions between the US, Russia and NA  
• Until recently, the President was walking in a boot after breaking his foot while playing with his dog Major 
• Biden, 78, is the oldest President in history; Ronald Reagan was 77 when he left office and he was 69 when he was elected 
• Trump was 70 when elected and was 74 when he left office earlier this year  

The fall does nothing to reduce concern for and speculation over Biden’s cognitive health which has grown in recent months thanks to a series of mix-ups on his behalf. 

A White House pool report was issued by the reporters traveling with Biden within seconds of the fall but it was not covered extensively by major news networks for around 30 minutes after it happened and it is missing from the websites of many major outlets.  

But there is a problem. Thanks to a rigged election, the only alternative to Joe Biden is Kamala Harris. If there was a credible VP, Joe would probably be gone already. But she is not credible. She literally cackled when someone asked her if she was going to visit the border. She apparently thought this was funny, so said: “not today.” She may be that rare person more capable of daily gaffs than Joe Biden. He did beat her during the primary election. It is impossible to take this woman seriously. I suspect that a lot of people in the DNC establishment are ready to move on from Joe but are terrified at the prospect of President Kamala Harris.

If the establishment admits that Joe is not up to the job, a lot of people are going to ask why this was covered up. There are no good answers. I think the plan was to call this the Biden-Harris administration, reduce Joe to a token appearance schedule and let the establishment run things. This would go on for about six months, then Joe would get some unexpected illness or injury that would require him, reluctantly, to resign from the Presidency. There would be a huge celebration pretending he actually was President. Then Kamala Harris would become the new figurehead and the double secret probation committee would remain in charge.

But they are running out of time. The problem with Joe is just increasingly impossible to ignore. The longer this continues, the more damage.  The crisis Joe created for himself on our Southern Border is not going away anytime soon. Even the MSM is admitting this is beyond bad. Combine that with both Russia and China thumbing their noses at us and this is way beyond embarrassing, this is dangerous.

I do not know what will happen, but I think it will be sooner rather than later. It is naïve to predict that the people who rigged a national election to elect someone this incompetent will even consider doing the right thing for the right reason. They will instead choose the option that is least painful, for them.

We are short, very short. This cannot continue. Time stops for no one, including the Democratic establishment and Joe Biden. The only thing certain is change, major change.

TDM

Sometimes the best commentary on what is happening today was written years ago. The following skit by Abbott and Costello is a perfect description of the Biden-Harris Administration. We are literally a country without a leader. Joe Biden is obviously not in charge. Yet no one is discussing the 25^th Amendment because Kamala Harris would be even worse.

The following perfectly describes the COVID 19 relief bill:

Costello: Look, when you pay off the first baseman every month, who do you pay the money to?
Abbott: Every dollar of it.
Costello: Yeah. Look, you gotta pay the money to somebody on first base, don’t you?
Abbott: Yeah.
Costello: Does he give you a receipt?
Abbott: Sure.
Costello: How does he sign the receipt?
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The guy that you give the money to.
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The guy you give the money to.
Abbott: That’s how he signs it.
Costello: That’s how who signs it?
Abbott: Yes.
Costello: Well go ahead and tell me!? Abbott: That’s it.
Costello: That’s who?
Abbott: Yeah.
Costello: When you give the guy the money, doesn’t he have to sign the receipt?
Abbott: He does!
Costello: Well, how does he sign his name?
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The guy you give the money to.
Abbott: That’s how he signs it!
Costello: You! You! You just don’t give money to someone without having them sign the receipt!

Sadly, although this administration is a joke, there is nothing funny about it. For four years the MSM desperately tried to portray Donald Trump as an inept and irresponsible leader. But the rest of the world knew that he was actually a very serious man and they respected him. They also respected and feared the United States. Now the opposite is true. The MSM is still pretending that Joe Biden is secretly a great President. The rest of the world knows better. They view Biden as a sick joke. His face plant going up the steps to Air Force One just confirmed the obvious. Unfortunately, when you disrespect the President of the United States, you disrespect the United States.

What makes this worse is that there is no plan B. Kamala Harris has zero support from anyone, including the Democratic establishment. If (when) she becomes President, she will never be accepted as the President of the United States.

Costello: I said, I don’t give a darn!

Abbott: Oh, that’s our shortstop!

Instead, she will be just a token, ignored by almost everyone. The United States Government will be run by an unelected and often invisible secret committee. Actually, by several double secret committees frequently working at cross purposes with each other. It is a recipe for total chaos.

The only good news here is that this is becoming obvious to everyone. While things are truly bad and getting worse, ironically, they are also getting better. When a team performs this poorly, everyone gets fired. The General Manager, the Coach, the Players and sometimes even the owner. The only thing certain is that people will be demanding and voting for change. As John Kennedy once said: “defeat is an orphan!”

I also believe that Donald Trump is in for a rough ride. Not because he is criticized by someone like George W. Bush, who has become an embarrassment to the Republican Party. His problem is quite simply that, as he admitted, he lost to the worst candidate in American History. Even if the election was stolen, which it was, it still reflects poorly on Trump. Everyone knew what the Democrats were going to do, yet no one did anything about it. Losing to a poor team is still losing, and people are going to be looking for a winner. The movement Trump started will continue, but people are already looking for new leaders.

We live in interesting times. The only safe prediction is uncertainty and change. Change that comes faster than anyone can even imagine.

This reminds me of when I played a round of golf at Oakland Hills Country, just before the U.S. open. The greens were like glass. I stupidly hit my shot about 60 feet above the hole. I asked the caddy what to do. He said just touch the ball and grab your ankles. Once that ball starts moving down hill it is not going to stop anywhere on this green. I touched the ball the ball, and then walked back to my bag. I was literally walking faster than the ball was moving. I put my putter in the bag and pulled out a wedge. I turned around was watched the ball accidently go into the cup.

Sometimes the best option is to just watch and grab your ankles.

TDM

One of the most important things I learned while becoming a Vietnamese linguist was that one doesn’t really speak a language until one is able to think in that language. Most of us speak English, which is also considered a Romantic language. If you compare romantic languages to Latin, the grammar is remarkably similar:

But an oriental language has very different grammar. When speaking, they think different than those who speak English. When I was in Vietnam, many of my fellow Americans said racist things about the Vietnamese. They considered them to be ignorant and inferior. I knew better. I knew that they were very smart, honest, and hardworking. It has been no surprise to me that so many Vietnamese who were able to get to the U.S. have been so successful.

I also knew why so few Americans figured out to speak Vietnamese. It is far harder for an American to learn Vietnamese than for a Vietnamese person to learn English. I often listened to Americans try, and fail, to speak Vietnamese. Sometimes this was hysterical. A large part of the problem is that Americans literally cannot hear Vietnamese. That is because they use sounds that are never used in English and Americans don’t even hear them. Vietnamese is also a monosyllabic and tonal language. But another problem was the difference in grammar which is also reflective of how they think.

This is impossible for me to explain. But one of the things I learned was the importance of face. It is very easy for us, as Americans, to be very insulting to someone who is Asian, without even realizing it. That is because we put people in positions where if they do what we want, they lose face. Even today, as an insurance agent, I see this all the time. There have been several times when I have talked to someone from an Asian country or even someplace like India with very different results than when they talked to someone else from the agency. Sometimes my associate will say, “I don’t understand, you said the same thing I said, and they accepted it, but they didn’t accept it from me.” I cannot really explain this very well, but part of it is that I am very sensitive to not causing someone to lose face.

We just saw this play out on our televisions this morning and it is stunningly bad for the U.S. First, the U.S. tried to scold China for human rights abuses. If China had tolerated that, they would have lost face. As a result, China responded by insulting us. They threw the Democratic claims that we are a racist nation with systemic abuse of minorities right back in our face. Democrats clearly fail to recognize the enormous harm done when they trash their own country. Then China simply said that the U.S. was not serious enough to matter. This was a public slap in the face of the Biden administration. Failure to deal with this will create huge problems. The only thing worse than causing someone else to lose face is to lose face yourself. The Biden administration did both, during one brief session televised around the world.

Previous Presidents understood this. But Democrats, including Biden, have morphed into self-righteous, hypocritical, arrogant, patronizing jerks. Professing themselves to be wise, they are instead proving themselves to be fools. They often lecture other people harshly criticizing things they do themselves. This may or may not impress the impressionable here in the U.S. It absolutely does not play overseas.

Biden did the same thing with Putin, when he directly insulted him. The result is an immediate deterioration in U.S. Russian relationships.  More importantly, Russia responded by commenting on Biden’s obvious mental deterioration. To make things worse, Biden literally fell while foolishly trying to run up the stairs to Air Force One. Remember how Biden criticized Trump for walking down carefully. That was because Trump knew that falling on your face on national TV is not all that inspiring.

Ironically, the man who lectures us about restoring U.S. prestige around the world is instead becoming an international embarrassment. This is obvious to everyone not working for the DNC or the subservient MSM.

We will all pay a price for this, but the people who will pay the highest price are those who foolishly rigged an election to put someone so obviously incompetent into the White House.

TDM

I used this headline over 10 years ago, to discuss the myth of Barack Obama’s stellar performance at Harvard. The phrase originally came from a bumper sticker I had on my car, years ago. It said: “Imagine whirled peas.” It was aimed at the anti-war protestors who thought they were fighting for world peace when they were enabling war and terrorism. Those who opposed the Vietnam war had zero understanding of what was involved. A little research would have explained this. The communists in North Vietnam were willing to sacrifice at least one million people to obtain total political power. They managed to do exactly that.  According to some sources, there were 1,353,000 civilian deaths, 444,000 PAVN and VC deaths and 282,000 U.S. and allied military deaths. The military deaths by the PAVN and VC were much higher, and the U.S. military deaths were much lower. Unfortunately, the civilian casualties were all too real. The official report by Hanoi published in 1995 reported 1.1 million communist fighters had died during the war. There is no official number of U.S. military killed in Vietnam, but it is estimated to be over 58,000.

To put this in perspective, 58,000 Americans died tried to stop 1.1 million communists from taking control. They actually won, and then Democrats in congress gave it away. If it weren’t for Democrats in congress during 1972, South Vietnam would probably look a lot like South Korea.

Now the Biden administration, creeping closer to the Harris administration is repeating the same mistakes that cost so many lives in Vietnam. The disaster on our Southern border is bad enough, but it pales in comparison to the real danger. Biden just insulted Putin by claiming he told Putin face to face that he had no soul. Since Biden is famous to exaggerating everything, this was probably a lie. But Putin was not amused. He immediately recalled the Russian Ambassador to the United States. Biden imposed sanctions on Russia because of alleged interference in the U.S. election. What a joke. Does anyone really believe Russia did much regarding this election? But Russia is not amused. They pledged retaliation on the principle of reciprocity though not necessarily symmetrical. This means Russia does not fear Biden and they are going to take us on. The good news is that Russia is unlikely to go to war with us, the bad news is that they will find other ways to cause serious problems for us all over the world. Putin respected Trump, he does not respect Biden.

China, on the other hand, is a far more serious threat. Never underestimate the willingness of a communist regime to sacrifice millions of their own people in their lust for power. The only reason China may delay becoming extremely aggressive is that they are getting everything they want anyway. Numerous experts say that China is determined to become the world Superpower and Biden is ignoring the risk.

In many ways this is remarkably similar to the way the establishment in Great Britain viewed Germany prior to World War II. One of the few people who recognized the risk was Winston Churchill and that was because he saw a repeat of what was happened during the late 1600s and early 1700s. Fortunately, his ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough, defeated Louis XIV of France.

Churchill saw how the world had ignored the danger from France and recognized the same thing happening in Germany. Everyone one else in the British establishment though Churchill was nuts. They felt he lacked the sophistication to deal with diplomacy. The entire world paid a terrible price for that miscalculation.

Iran is also likely to create mischief, but they are a far less serious threat than China.

Incredibly, the good news is that Biden-Harris is mucking up domestic policy even faster than world diplomacy. They are already on a path to certain defeat in 2022 and in 2024. Their dream of fixing every future election is disappearing even faster. The same courts who did not want to get involved in 2020, don’t want a repeat in 2022. The fiasco on the border is too obvious to ignore, gas prices are already soaring, and Biden is talking about increasing taxes. Even liberals hate paying high gas prices and seeing their paychecks confiscated by the greedy federal government. In addition, some of their pet projects, like transgender males competing against biological females in sports is certifiably insane.

The damage being done is undeniable. But in some ways, that is the best possible outcome under the circumstances, because the more obvious the damage the faster they, like other socialist experiments, will be thrown out of power.

TDM