The lawyers for Donald Trump just ended their defense. They took about two hours to destroy the presentation by the House Managers. It was high theatre, stunningly effective. The House Managers should be doing a gut check because they just got eviscerated on national television. This was one of the worst mismatches in history. Not only were the House Managers outclassed, the lack of evidence, deliberate distortion and blatant hypocrisy turned this into a rout.

While some people, like Chris Wallace, will pretend there is still room for debate, the opposite is true. If Democrats even attempt extend this fiasco of a trial, they will be adding insult to injury. We can be sure the Trump lawyers could have put on hours and hours of rebuttal. They didn’t because they knew it was unnecessary. They brilliantly used the Democratic presentation against them. They proved that the Democrats had no case. They also proved that Democrats lied repeatedly to distort data and events. Then they put Democratic hypocrisy on full display.

This reminds me of what happened to Lord Chamberlain during a House of Commons debate. He was trying, and failing, to explain his strategy for defending Britain against Adolph Hitler. British Conservative MP, Leo Amery flung these words at Chamberlain, loosely quoting Oliver Cromwell’s words to dissolve congress on April 20, 1653:

“You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say, and let us be done with you. In the name of God, go!”

I lot of people feel exactly the same way about the House Impeachment managers. Within days Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill. Notice any Neville Chamberlain statutes recently?

Democratic House Managers were not only lying, but they also stupidly put this on full display. Trump’s attorneys made that abundantly clear. My past experience has been this. Once people are confronted with the reality that those, they trusted were lying to them, it changes everything. Even if one desperately wanted to believe the House Managers, this is beyond embarrassing. Kind of like the quarterback throwing three pick sixes in the fourth quarter. First you boo the other team, then you boo the referees, then you boo the coach and then you boo the quarterback. The loudest boos are already saved for the quarterback.

No matter how anyone tries to spin this Democrats blew it big time. It was an unmitigated disaster. During a presentation littered with stunning rebukes perhaps the most significant moment was when Trump’s attorney displayed a tweet absolutely ignored by Democrats and the MSM that changed EVERYTHING.

Democrats have been screaming that Trump ignored the violence for hours. The opposite is true and clearly documented. At 12:30 p.m. he sent the following tweet:

 “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

One half hour later another tweet:

“I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence!”

If this was reported in the MSM I never saw it. It certainly wasn’t mentioned by the House Managers. Instead, they focused on his statement at 2:30 p.m., where he also told people to go home.  Even then they focused only on the part of his statement where he said he understood why people were upset, implying that he encouraged the riot. This was a lie and that they knew it was a lie.

I do not know how this will impact the way Senators will vote. It should result in an immediate unanimous vote to acquit. But odds are Democrats will not even consider doing that. Doing the right thing solely because it is the right thing to do will never be seriously considered.  Sadly, every Democrat is likely to still vote to convict. But I doubt seriously that any more Republicans will vote to convict and some of the people who voted to hold the trial may now vote to acquit. Republicans who vote to convict Donald Trump after this performance will be committing political suicide.

The real jury is the American people. Anyone who watched this with an ounce of objectivity cannot help but realize Democrats only embarrassed themselves. It may take a few days for the MSM to realize the full scope of this disaster, but the whirlwind is already on the way and the day of reckoning is coming.

This was unbelievable. As a litigation manager I have seen many trials and seen how juries respond to evidence. I cannot predict how those in the Senate with little wisdom and zero character will respond, but the real jury, the American people will easily understand what happened. Let me put it this way. If I were one of Trump’s attorneys, I would be ordering the champagne to be chilled and it would be expensive champagne. If I were one of the House Managers or those depending on them for representation I would be throwing up.

TDM

If you watched the coin toss at the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs won the toss. They chose to defer receiving the kickoff until the start of the second half. That is because it is usually better to be last, than first.

There is a reason the prosecution must present its’ case first; it is to give an advantage to the defense. For that reason, good prosecutors wait until they have all the evidence, and can confirm every item of evidence before they present their case. For example, if there is any evidence that could be interpreted as exculpatory the prosecution is likely to present it first. The biggest mistake in any court is to present something as evidence only to have it rebutted effectively by the defense. The second biggest mistake is to ignore exculpatory evidence. Both are big mistakes.

The presentation by the House Managers is impressive only to people who are easily impressed. Serious people instantly see the potential for a devastating rebuttal. One of the smartest people on Fox News is Shannon Bream. Behind that pretty face and engaging smile is a deadly legal mind. Shannon is the Chief Legal Analyst for Fox News for a reason. She instantly recognized that video is going to be the name of the game. Today I had Fox News on the radio as I drove to work. Fortunately, I heard Shannon Bream before turning the radio off as soon as Chris Wallace made an entrance. She warned that this video may come back to haunt Democrats. Wallace, of course, was too in love with the Democrats to notice.

It is really this simple. Democrats rushed this through, without the aid of skilled legal professionals. The House Presenters are a class of incompetent clowns. Good at generating lots of emotion, some of which could even be genuine, but incapable of putting on a solid presentation immune from rebuttal. They are making so many mistakes that the biggest challenge for the Trump attorneys is deciding what to attack first.

If I were to make a recommendation to the Trump team it would be this. Start by presenting the parts of the video Democrats left out. Some will assume that means the part where Trump said to walk peacefully and patriotically. But that is not what I mean at all. What I mean is the numerous specific examples that Trump gave regarding evidence of systemic fraud.  I will quote him directly:

“In every single swing state, local officials, state officials, almost all Democrats made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by state legislatures, that these changes paved the way for fraud on a scale never seen before….So just in a nutshell, you can’t make a change on voting for a federal election unless the state legislature approves it. No judge can do it. Nobody can do it, only a legislature.

This was not written by Donald Trump. It was written by a skilled constitutional attorney and every word was chosen carefully. Democrats never even attempted to refute any of this.

“In Pennsylvania, the Democrat secretary of state and the Democrat state Supreme Court justices illegal abolished the signature verification requirements just 11 days prior to the election…There were over 205,000 more ballots counted in Pennsylvania. Now think of this. You had 205,000 more ballots than voters…Over 8,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 and prior to the election. Over 14,000 ballots were case by out of state voters…More than 10,000 votes in Pennsylvania were illegally counted, even though they were received after election day…The day before the election, the state of Pennsylvania reported the number of absentee ballots that had been sent out. Yet this number was suddenly and drastically increased by 400,000 people…Just that one element. 400,000 ballots appeared from nowhere right after the election.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. These statements were ignored by the House Impeachment Managers. All the defense needs to do is replay this part of Trump’s speech and point out that House managers did not refute ANY OF THIS.

Trump does not need to prove election fraud; it is more than enough that he made very specific credible allegations that Democrats did not even attempt to refute.

We can be certain that Trump’s attorneys will shred the video presentations made by the House Managers. This is actually very easy to do.  The selection editing is off the wall. But there is more. For example, some of the video was shot by John Sullivan, who is connected with Antifa. The House managers either didn’t realize that or didn’t care. Eric Swalwell made graphic use of a tweet without realizing it had been photoshopped and was an obvious fake. Cicilline quoted Mike Lee, only to have Mike Lee angrily deny the conversation and demand it be stricken from the trial record. Even Schumer folded quickly on that, because he can’t afford to have Mike Lee testify as a witness. They jumbled up events, got them out of sequence and ignored the timeframe they considered so relevant. They also missed a lot of what was on those videos. For every video of so-called violent acts, there were hundreds if not thousands of people in the same location who clearly were not violent. Remember the CNN reporter standing in front of a police station on fire and explaining that the protests were mostly peaceful. Kind of like that.

I believe the Trump legal rebuttal will be focused and beyond brutal. Frankly, I think this will result in a major embarrassment for Democrats. Even people who desperately wanted to see Trump impeached and humiliated will be furious. Furious that this critical task was turned over to people so obviously incompetent.

Matthew 20:16. KJV “So the last shall be first and the first last.” The English revised version says: “So the last shall be first, and the first last.” This obviously was not written about the Trump impeachment trial, but it is still probably the best explanation for the predictable outcome.

TDM

As a litigation manager for a large corporation, I had the opportunity to see many great trial attorneys in action. Sometimes they were working for me, sometimes against me, but always fun to watch. I had a very serious case in San Antonio, Texas. The plaintiff’s attorney was known as one of the “Inner Circle of Advocates,” an invitation only group that considers themselves to be the best plaintiff lawyers in the United States. You only get into this group if you have won really big jury verdicts. This guy used to send me letters, almost daily, addressed to “Mr. Checkwriter.” He even hired a Hollywood Studio to recreate the incident. It was a truly horrific incident, but not necessarily the result of our negligent acts or omissions. If you go to the website for the “Inner Circle of Advocates,” they still consider themselves to be 100 of the best plaintiff attorneys in the U.S.

I didn’t exactly use a recent law graduate to represent my interests. I used the senior law partner in a major firm who was also a highly skilled trial attorney. I still remember the numerous settlement conferences with this plaintiff attorney. He always came armed for bear and ready to put on a show. At our final settlement conference, he had demanded I show up with adjusters from my reinsurers. I showed up alone. He asked me why I ignored his request. I said I have full authority on this claim, I don’t need to call anyone or get approval from anyone. All the money that will ever be offered to settle this claim will be approved by me. He then said: “But I have a five-hour presentation ready for them.” I said: “Go ahead. I opened my briefcase and showed him that I had brought lunch.” He said: “I would obviously be wasting my time showing this to you, you already know all about this case.” I just smiled, and he sat down and began to negotiate. We were able to settle that case.

Really special trial attorneys are a different breed. The only way to accurately evaluate them is to see them in action. Even then, most people don’t know what they are seeing. That is because these attorneys put on a show and they are extremely good at making their case.

Many people have highly criticized Bruce Castor for his opening statement during the Trump impeachment trial. But the people criticizing him are often people rooting against him or frankly self-promoting. I was watching what I consider to be a brilliant trial attorney doing exactly what he intended to do. He was not there to convince Democratic Senators of anything. They weren’t listening. He was talking to the American people, and a lot of them got the message. That message was that the reason Democrats are trying this case is not because of the evidence, but because they are terrified of Donald Trump. Here is exactly what he said:

Defense attorney: Trump ‘removed by the voters’ (yahoo.com)

“I was struck. I thought that the House managers who spoke earlier were brilliant speakers, and I made some notes. And they’ll hear about what I think about some of the things they said later when I’m closing the case. But I thought they were brilliant speakers, and I loved listening to them. And they are smart fellows.

But why are the House managers afraid? And why is the majority of the House of Representatives afraid of the American people? I mean, let’s understand why we are really here. We are really here because the majority in the House of Representatives does not want to face Donald Trump as a political rival in the future. That’s the real reason we’re here.

The reason that I am having trouble with the argument is the American people just spoke, and they just changed administrations. So, in the light most favorable to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle here, their system works. The people are smart enough in the light most favorable to them. They’re smart enough to pick a new administration if they don’t like the old one. And they just did, and he’s down there at Pennsylvania Avenue now probably wondering how come none of my stuff is happening up at the Capitol.”

Some have concluded that he is admitting that Trump lost the election. The AP headline shouted: “Defense attorney: Trump removed by the voters.” But he didn’t say that. He said that the people trying Trump have concluded that Trump lost the election. He seemed to be appealing to their better nature, but he knows they have no better nature. Bruce Castor is a lot of things, but he is not stupid. I believe every word was intentional and it was effective. By praising the House managers for being brilliant speakers he actually put extreme pressure on them to make their case. They couldn’t deflect from the evidence by claiming that the Trump attorneys were arrogant and rude and unwilling to accept reality.

This reminded me of the trial performance by one of my top trial attorneys. The allegation was that the plaintiff, also an attorney, had suffered serious brain damage that among other things affected her short-term memory. When my attorney was trying to cross examine her, he messed everything up. He spoke in bumbling terms, repeated questions, and literally looked like a hot mess. He was an Irish guy with a great sense of humor and was in his seventies at the time, So, he came across as this nice, older guy, who was having a tough day. He even laughed at himself. At one point he accidentally knocked his coffee cup over when trying to find his notes. The plaintiff was becoming very angry and annoyed. At one point she said: “You are deliberately misquoting me. That is not what I said. Then she quoted word for word from her deposition transcript.” At that point, my seventy-year-old stammering attorney turned instantly into the dangerous trial attorney representing me in that trial. He stood up straight, snapped to attention, and said: “Pretty remarkable short-term memory.” The jury literally laughed out loud.

They were out for less than an hour and gave her zero damages. I have to admit his performance was so good that even I was a little concerned that he was losing it. I should have known better.

I think a lot of people have greatly underestimated Mr. Castor. He did pour oil on the waters, but never underestimate a skilled trial attorney. They are a rare breed, unlike anyone else. They didn’t get there by accident and it has been my experience that even other attorneys often underestimate them. Mr. Castor is a highly experienced trial attorney. I think he threw those House Managers a large curve ball and they may just swing and miss before they even realize what happened.

TDM

Democrats started their second impeachment trial of Donald Trump today. They started by lying, showing a video by Donald Trump that deliberately edited out the part where he specifically told people to be peaceful and patriotic. It was highly emotional but lacking in substance. They showed numerous tweets by Donald Trump that they interpreted to be inciting an insurrection. All of this was more than a reach.  It was long on emotion and short on substance. Their basic premise is that they hate Trump and so must find a way to punish him.

Trump’s attorneys presented a concise legal argument. It was, of course, ignored by all the Democratic Senators and six Republicans. Like most legal arguments, it was a bit boring. The entire day was a waste of time. The same result could have been achieved without bothering to hear any arguments at all. Both arguments were directed at the public audience, not the audience in front of them. Democrats are aiming at the Democratic base and their fawning supporters in the MSM. Republicans are aiming at the 74 million people who voted for Donald Trump. They are also crafting arguments for a hearing by the Supreme Court. In the unlikely event that Trump is convicted, the Trump attorneys would immediately appeal to the Supreme Court. I suspect the Supreme Court would quickly vacate the decision.

I was a litigation manager for many years, handling thousands of lawsuits. One of the important qualifications for that job is evaluating how a case will really play in front of a jury. Not what you want to believe, but what is reality. On several occasions I had attorneys tell me I should try a case. For the attorneys, the risk was low, because they got paid either way. I had one case where my attorneys strongly recommended proceeding to trial. So, I made them an offer: “If we take it to trial, and you win, I will pay your legal fees. But if you try this and lose, you will not be paid.” They were furious and quickly said no, how could you even ask us to do that. I responded by saying that this was exactly what they were asking me to do. I settled the case. Quite honestly, it wasn’t even a close call.

So, I watched these proceedings with the view of determining how the real jury, public opinion, will respond. How will the Democratic base and the MSM respond? How will the millions of Trump supporters respond? And how will the large number of independents respond?

It is easy to predict how Democrats and the MSM will respond, they have already decided that Trump is guilty. The Republican base is also easy to predict. They will be outraged that the trial is even happening and even more outraged at the obvious lack of due process. With regard to independents, I believe most of them are already asking the most important question: “What, exactly, is the point?”

There is another significant factor, ignored by Democrats and the MSM to their great peril. We know that 74 million people definitely voted for Donald Trump. They would have us believe that 80 million people voted for Joe Biden, but I doubt that anyone really believes that. They may not believe the election was stolen, but it is absolutely certain that the entire deck was shuffled against Donald Trump. The Time Magazine article documented that for anyone in doubt.  Even if 80 million people voted against Donald Trump, but they did not vote for Joe Biden. If Democrats are wrong about the number of people who actually voted for Donald Trump, they are making an irrevocable error.

In any trial, there are winners and losers. Six Republicans stupidly voted to let this trial continue. They are Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. This was at best, stupid. If they had voted no, the result would have been a 50/50 tie and Kamala Harris would have been forced to cast the deciding vote. That would have put her between a rock and a hard place. So, for purely political reasons, this was a huge unforced error. I suspect all of them will pay a high price for this mistake.

One thing is certain, the political pundits commenting on this are usually those least capable of rendering judgement. Donald Trump is letting his attorneys speak for him. That is a huge change for him, and it puts tremendous pressure on Democrats. It also reduces the viewing audience by a huge margin. Few Trump supporters will be interested in watching this fiasco.

I believe people are going to be surprised at the huge increase in support for Donald Trump. This is human nature. Democrats are kicking him while he is down, and if he continues to handle this with grace and dignity, they will only embarrass themselves.

This will definitely be a trial of tears. The question is who will be crying when it is done. My guess is that the list will not include Donald Trump.

TDM

“It is better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.”  I don’t know who said that, but it sounds right. It reminds me of when I was teaching a Sunday School class. The topic of AIDS came up, and one guy started spouting off his theories about AIDS, most of which was nonsense. Fortunately, I was able to change the subject and move on. After the class, I took him aside because I thought there was something he needed to know. In the same classroom was the Dr. who literally discovered that AIDs could be transmitted through the blood. He had been the head of research at one of the top Biochemical firms in the world and was Director of an AIDs foundation. He was considered one of the most knowledgeable experts on AIDs in the world. Also in the classroom was a Dr. who was board certified in four specialties. He was also a biochemist who had discovered and patented the international test to determine if someone had AIDs.

I explained to this guy that these men had remained silent because they didn’t want to embarrass him. I knew both men very well and as a result I also knew that everything this guy said was wrong. But, of course, that did not slow him down on his mission to inform humanity. He at least had the good sense to be embarrassed. I told him I would speak to my friends about this and that they would understand. They both were very gracious when I talked to them. I thanked them for their graciousness. Then they both said something similar to me. Sometimes the most difficult challenge is to separate facts from fiction when talking about something like AIDs. We have made it our life’s ambition to determine the truth because the truth saves lives.

I felt the same way after reading the Time’s story. I have to admit, I did not spend a lot of time (pun intended) reading this. Time Magazine has shredded its’ credibility long ago. But what soon became obvious is that TIME felt that the people who conspired to influence the outcome of the 2020 election really believed they were saving the world for Democracy. It is remarkable that people would believe they were saving democracy by preventing it. They were interested only in preserving their own power and failed to understand that what they were doing was in direct opposition to Democracy. They felt the American people were best served by a conspiracy to deceive.

They felt Donald Trump deserved to be removed because he opposed them. In doing so, they made the best possible case for his Presidency. Donald Trump admittedly came with a lot of baggage, but as he himself once said, you needed someone who understands the swamp to know how to drain it. I believe historians will use the Time Story, not to trash Trump but rather to elevate him.

Sometimes being wrong is mostly humorous. But other times, it is tragic. This is never truer than when talking about contagious diseases. There is always someone, usually in a position of high authority, who makes decision action based on false assumptions.  We recently watched the Victoria series on Masterpiece Theatre. There was a serious cholera outbreak in London. The Doctors in the establishment felt this was caused by miasma. They didn’t know exactly what that was, but they were sure they were right. So, they did all the wrong things. One Doctor, not well-known, figured out the real cause, which was contaminated water. At that time London had a horrible sewer system. This Doctor figured out that everyone who got cholera had been getting water from the same pump. Once they disconnected the pump, the epidemic went away. Today we know that cholera is spread by a specific bacterium that is usually spread through contaminated water.  Thanks to our modern sewage and water treatment the United States has not had a cholera case since 1911. It is, however, still present in underdeveloped countries.

The Time magazine article is actually quite valuable. It accidentally exposed the real source of many problems. A lot of people who believe themselves to be uniquely qualified to make decisions for everyone else are instead absorbed by delusions they created themselves. What they consider to be disinformation is often a collection of inconvenient facts. Now, after admitting that they colluded to defeat Trump, they are pretending that there is no evidence this election was fraudulent.

The Apostle Paul warned about this in Romans 1:18-28.  (International Version):

For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’sp invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made, so that peopleq are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things,r and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22Though claiming to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

24For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lustss of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged God’s truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26For this reason, God delivered them to degrading passions as their females exchanged their natural sexual function for one that is unnatural. 27In the same way, their males also abandoned their natural sexual function toward females and burned with lust toward one another. Males committed indecent acts with males, and received within themselves the appropriate penalty for their perversion.t

28Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, haughty, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. 32Although they know God’s just requirement—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do these things but even applaud others who practice them.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Never truer than now. Time magazine in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable merely managed to document it. This is not exactly politically correct, but sometimes being actually correct is more important.

Some will assume that by quoting the Bible I am being homophobic. That would be wrong. I once had a man working for me who was dying of AIDS. He came into my office and asked me if I was a Christian? I was immediately suspicious. He then said: “Does God hate me so much because I am a homosexual that he had to kill me?” I was shocked to my core and desperately searched for a response. So I said this: “You obviously know what the Bible says about this, and I can hardly pretend to be capable of re-writing scripture. But I can say this, if homosexuality is a sin, I also know that the least of my sins is no more acceptable in the eyes of almighty God than the worst of yours. I like you; I respect you, I value you and I certainly am not about to judge you. I just pray for your recovery.” He did make a miraculous recovery. I doubt that it had much to do with me but remain grateful all the same.”

All of us need to seek the truth, in all things, but also avoid the self-righteousness and arrogance we can often see in others much easier than we can see it in ourselves.

TDM

When I was VP & Director of Insurance for ABM Industries, I had several opportunities to meet Bill Walsh, because he was on the Board of Directors for ABM. I always avoiding talking football with him, because it would be like asking God why he wrote certain scripture passages. I was pretty sure that I would be far more likely to say something stupid than to drop some pearl of wisdom. But, at the 2000 Annual Meeting I made an exception. I had just watched Tom Brady lead Michigan to a comeback victory in the Orange Bowl over Alabama. Brady threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns. Michigan was behind 28-14 in the second half, but Brady just kept on coming. Michigan eventually won in overtime, 35-34 when Alabama missed an extra point.

So, when I saw Bill Walsh at the annual meeting in March, I just had to ask him what he thought about Tom Brady. I talked about the Orange Bowl and wondered if the 49ers were considering drafting Tom Brady. Walsh told me that the 49ers had looked at Tom Brady, but they felt that Giovanni “Vinnie” Carmazzi was a franchise quality quarterback. The 49ers picked Carmazzi with the 65^th pick. Brady was signed at 199 by the Patriots.

I also asked Bill who he thought was the best quarterback playing at the time. He instantly said Kurt Warner. Kurt Warner had just won the Superbowl for the Rams in 2000.

At the ABM Annual Meeting in March of 2002, I saw Bill Walsh again. Brady had replaced Drew Bledsoe and led the New England Patriots to their first Superbowl ever. He beat, Kurt Warner. Carmazzi was a total bust. He never played in a regular season NFL game. I had zero intention of mentioning any of this when I talked with Bill Walsh. I am not that stupid. So, I just walked toward him with my hand extended for a handshake, he smiled and me and said: “shut up!” I laughed out loud.

Obviously, Walsh remembered our conversation.  Coach Walsh had a good sense of humor and he went on to explain that Vinnie Carmazzi had looked like a good idea at the time. I just said I obviously knew little about football, I had just sensed that Brady was someone special. I saw Bill Walsh several times after that, but these were the only times we ever discussed football.

I do not know who will win today. I just know that Tom Brady has been doing the impossible for a long time and I sure wouldn’t bet against him this time either.

I had surgery on my spine Friday afternoon, so that is why I didn’t post anything. I am doing fine, but still very sore. I am doing a little better today and looking forward to the game.

TDM

I still remember the first time I got a whopper at Burger King. Prior to that time the only hamburgers I had eaten were from a family barbeque. So, my concept of a hamburger was pretty tame. At best we would add a slice of cheese and ketchup. But I finally got a chance to go to a Burger King and get a Whopper. I was amazed. I had no idea they made something like this. Now, of course, there are many places that make a similar hamburger. In addition, they no longer appeal to me, primarily because of the extremely high calories.

Now, we are dealing with a different kind of Whopper. This is the one where people in important positions tell us lies than can only be described as “Whoppers.” Sometimes this borders on amusing, particularly when someone is caught telling a whopper. The latest is AOC. We have all heard her weeping and wailing about her near-death experience during the “Capital riots.” She even accused Ted Cruz of trying to have her killed. Her story has fallen completely apart. She talked about hiding in a safe place, because she was afraid to go to a secure location where there might be, gasp, Republicans. It turns out her hiding place was in her office bathroom. Then, when the Capital police showed up, to provide her safe escort to an even more secure location, she realized she had made a poor choice, she should have been hiding in her closet.

This was bad enough, but it turns out her office is not even in the Capital, it is in a completely separate building connected by an underground tunnel passageway. The rioters never got anywhere near her. Her office is in the House Office Building, which is located quite a distance from the Capital, across Independence Ave. The MSM should have picked up on this earlier because Rep. Katie Porter, who happens to be a Democrat, talked about it during the following New York Post article:

Katie Porter recounts AOC’s terrifying Capitol riot experience (nypost.com)

She said AOC just walked into her office, didn’t even stop to speak to her and just started opening cabinet doors. Porter asked her what she was doing AOC said she was looking for a place to hide. It is obvious that AOC was truly terrified, and it is equally obvious that this was absurd. This reminded me of early in her career where she was filmed in Tornillo, Texas, standing next to a fence where immigrant children were being caged by the Trump administration. She just missed a couple of minor details, like the fact that it was Obama, not Trump, who built those cages. She also wasn’t exactly seeing children caged up, she was weeping at a chain link fence bordering a parking lot. The “journalists” filming this avoided showing that part, but other people filmed the entire scene, and it was a complete joke. It is increasingly difficult to understand why anyone takes this person seriously.

The biggest and most dangerous whopper is that Donald Trump incited an insurrection. For one thing, there was no insurrection. There was a peaceful protest where outside agitators showed up and turned it into a riot. Even a lot of these people seemed more interested in Instagram poses rather than overthrowing the government. Some of these people really were Trump supporters and some were not. The incident at the Capital was a hot mess, but it was hardly an insurrection. As far as I can tell, no one has even been charged with that. Most of the arrests are for criminal trespass. This shouldn’t have happened, for a lot of reasons, but an insurrection? Please! I do believe that a lot of members of congress were genuinely terrified.

The real danger for Democrats here is that they have been telling a huge whopper and that is likely to become very obvious during this trial. What makes this whopper so dangerous is that a lot of democrats really believe this nonsense. That is why there are thousands of National Guard Troops stationed in Washington D.C. to protect congress from a threat for which there is no actual evidence.

Democrats, who actually have a long history of associating with real white supremacists, frequently accuse all Republicans of being white supremacists. The problem here is that if you keep telling people they are racist; at some point they will start believing you.

Major decisions are being made based on things that are clearly not true. This kind of whopper can be extremely dangerous. However, the flip side is that this is so bad that a lot of people are being confronted with the cost of electing Democrats to high office. Ultimately, the biggest damage done by these whoppers will be to the people who are telling them. In the meantime, the rest of us are dealing with a lot of indigestion.

TDM

I used to travel all the time. I soon learned important rules for traveling safely and comfortably on an airplane. One was to avoid getting involved in a conversation with someone you don’t know. For that reason, I often totally ignored the person sitting next to me. On one trip I was flying from New York to Los Angeles, in Business Class. I paid zero attention to the person sitting next to me. Then, when I got off the plane, I quickly noticed a huge gathering of news crews, complete with microphones and cameras, waiting for someone. It turned out to be the person that was sitting next to me. When I finally turned around and looked at him, I instantly recognized Mario Cuomo, who at that time was the Governor of New York. I often wondered what would have happened if I had realized who he was during the flight. I suspect he was just as anxious to ignore me as I was to ignore him.

In retrospect I wish I had realized who he was, because even though I disagreed with him politically, he was obviously an entertaining person. I remember another time when I was at a Tony Bennet concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There was a seat open next to me. This man sat down quietly. When I looked at him, he held his finger up to his lips indicating: “shish.” He was Art Linkletter and he clearly wanted to be inconspicuous. I just smiled and honored his request. A few minutes later, he leaned over, said: “thank you” and left.

There have been other times when I met very famous people who behaved very differently. I was at a dinner associated with the Fred McGriff Invitational Golf Tournament. I had played in the tournament earlier during the day. I was standing at the bar, by myself, when this man came up to me with a huge smile and said: “Hi, I’m Lou Holtz, what’s your name?” We had a very pleasant conversation. Mr. Holtz was clearly more interested in learning more about me than answering questions about himself. This reminded me that there are two kinds of people in this world. Those that say: “Here I am,” and those who say: “There you are.” It was easy to understand why Lou Holtz was such an effective football coach.  He had an incredible talent for communicating with people.

Donald Trump clearly can connect with people. Sometimes that results in people hating him. Other times, people really like him. But he is a difficult person to ignore. Joe Biden has zero ability to connect with anyone. That was painfully obvious during the campaign but ignored because of COVID 19 restrictions and because the MSM willingly attacked Donald Trump daily. But now Joe Biden is President of the United States, and it is his job to connect with people. So far, there has been zero evidence he is remotely capable of doing that.

It is one thing to ignore someone sitting next to you on an airplane. It is something else to ignore a President of the United States. All we have seen so far is him sitting in the Oval Office with a large stack of Executive Orders, prepared by someone else, that he signs, usually without comment. When he does comment he frequently mumbles something incoherently. When he does give a speech it is very short, he reads it off a TelePrompter, sometimes poorly and then quickly shuffles away without taking any questions.

The MSM has already noticed. They seldom say: “President Joe Biden.” Instead, they refer to the Biden administration. They may praise the Biden administration, but they aren’t exactly praising Joe Biden. The only spokesperson for the administration is Jen Psaki and she is famous for dodging questions and “circling back.” The Vice President, Kamala Harris, is incompetent. She gave a couple of interviews on location TV Stations in Arizona and West Virginia, trying to promote the Biden administrations “American Rescue Plan” and she botched it big time. Joe Manchin, for one, is not amused. That would be the same Joe Manchin who is likely to be one of the key swing votes in the Senate. If Kamala Harris can’t handle this kind of interview, she is clearly incapable of communicating to a world stage.

This would be amusing, but unfortunately the world does not sit still and watch. They see this and they question who is in really in charge? The only thing certain, is that is not Joe Biden.

We should all be praying that the only damage done to this country by this tragic mistake is the damage Biden is doing to the economy. This is still a very dangerous world and having someone like Joe Biden acting as a place holder for the President of the United States does not exactly inspire confidence. We all need to pray for safe passage.

TDM

The left hates Mike Lindell. One has to admit that his “My Pillow” commercials can be annoying, primarily because they are on all the time. In addition, he only has a few commercials, so we see the same thing over and over again. But that is not why they hate him. They hate him because he is a strong vocal Trump supporter. They tried to do run this fake hit piece about him having an affair with Jan Krakowski. The problem was that Mike Lindell has never even met her and she not only denied the affair, but she also denied even knowing him. This was, at best, extremely incompetent reporting.

Retailers like Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond have already dropped selling “My Pillow” products. However, Costco did not. Perhaps Costco realized that some people are buying “My Pillow” products. Apparently, a lot of people are buying “My Pillow” products. The result is that “My Pillow” has a serious problem. Sales have skyrocketed to the point that the factory can’t keep up. If you order a “My Pillow” today, you get a response saying there is a two-week lag in shipping because of the increase in demand.

Liberals always make the same mistake. They think everyone thinks like them when the opposite is true. Remember when they attacked “Chick-Fil-A” people all over the country went out of their way to buy something from “Chick-Fil-A.“

Liberals never learn. They are incapable of understanding or even seeing how most people think about important issues. The result is that they keep making the same mistakes, over and over again, and they keep expecting different results. Some would argue that this is the definition of insanity, but in this case is it merely stupidity.

The hatred of Donald of Donald Trump is very real, but the number of people who are impacted by it is actually a relatively small number. Only people hopelessly naïve believe that Joe Biden won the election in a landslide. In fact, I haven’t heard anyone even claim that recently, they just say that Trump has no evidence of election fraud. The election of Joe Biden itself is evidence of election fraud. The point being that underestimating Trump’s support can be a very expensive mistake if you are connected with a firm that sells ANYTHING.

Facebook got a quick demonstration of that when they literally lost billions by blocking Donald Trump. So did Twitter. I still have a Facebook account, but I no longer post anything on it, and I will at some point delete this account entirely. I know many other people who have already done that. I also know people who are blocking Facebook from tracking you and also blocking Facebook from gathering information from other apps. People have also learned how to stop Apple phones from tracking your activities. All of these things are a major source of income for Facebook, Twitter, and Apple. We are talking about billions of dollars in lost revenue. A lot of people who hate Donald Trump still love the income he provides them.

I believe some things will happen sooner rather than later. Those who have trashed Trump will quickly try to mend fences. Others will seize the day and look for ways to connect with Donald Trump. The bottom line is that at least 74 million people did vote for Trump and no one can afford to ignore 74 million potential customers. At least for me, I have zero interest in hearing anything about Joe Biden. Almost everything he does is stupid, and he is frankly boring. We have basically stopped watching national news. I suspect a lot of people feel exactly the same. This means the MSM must find something else to cover that will get people’s attention. Watch out Andrew Cuomo. If you have been paying attention there has been massive turnover at the very top levels of management in the MSM.

This reminds me of a friend of mine who went through a difficult divorce. He made a firm decision that he would not attend any family event that included his ex-wife. Then he found himself eating Thanksgiving dinner at McDonalds, all by himself, saying: “I showed them!” He eventually figured out that he was only punishing himself.

This year there is going to be a lot of pillow talk. I personally have never been interested in purchasing a “My Pillow” before now.  I always thought it was silly and over-priced. But, recently, my wife and I have seriously considering buying one. After all, it is really important to hold people like Mike Lindell accountable.

TDM

Since the news has become so annoying and we are pretty much confined to being at home or at work, my wife and I have resorted to binge TV watching. Lately we have been watching “Victoria,” a mini-series about the early years of Queen Victoria. While much of this has been greatly modified for entertainment purposes, there is a lot of real history there.

Previously this mini-series told the story of “Robert Peel,” who was Prime Minister of England. He pushed to repeal the Corn laws, against wide-spread opposition from his own party. He did this because it was the right thing to do, even though he knew it would end his political career. That is the true definition of character and courage.

At the start of series three there is a new character, “Lord Palmerston.” I did some research, and he appears to be just as outrageous in real-life as in the TV series. He loved gambling, racing and women, not necessarily in that order. He was also vocally supportive of the revolutions occurring throughout Europe where kings and emperors were being violently removed from power.

Lord Palmerton arrives on the scene, shortly after the former King of France has been deposed and is now a guest of the British Royal Family. If one listened to Palmerton’s public support for revolution, one would have thought he was a threat to the Royal Family. But the opposite was true. He not only supported the Royal Family, he was determined to protect them. There is one scene where he bluntly tells Prince Albert exactly how he feels about things. The Prince is not amused, he is insulted. But it turns out that Palmerston was perhaps their most valuable advisor because he told them what they needed to know, not what they wanted to hear.

This is a reminder that there are no perfect people on this planet and some of the most necessary people are those who come with a lot of baggage. Lord Palmerston, by all accounts, was exactly that. No one would choose to have him as a friend or relative and he would be a guaranteed disruption to any social event. In many ways he was a role model for irresponsible behavior. But ultimately, he did love his country, he loved the British system of government and Britain was fortunate he was there.

There are obvious comparisons with Donald Trump. Trump loves this country and his decisions as President of the United States have been appropriate and responsible. However, it is also easy to see why so many people find it impossible to trust him.
After this election it was obvious to a lot of people that this election was stolen. Yet no one in a position to do anything was willing to admit that. No one in the DOJ, no court, no member of congress. Some of them would agree that an investigation was warranted, but they lacked the courage to challenge the results. What makes this worse is that this was done out of a false sense of responsibility. The most unethical decision possible would be to put an obviously unqualified person in the Oval Office as the result of fraudulent election.

Today, as we watch the tragedy of the Biden Administration, it is time to ask important questions. Who is responsible for this, the Democrats who did this in their lust for power, or the Republicans who lacked the courage and determination to stop this? Ted Cruz came close, because he did object to the electoral college vote, but there is no evidence he was willing to do more than make a political show he knew was destined to fail. We can and should blame Democrats, but at least they were honest about what they had in mind. But Republicans, who knew what was happening and lacked the courage to do whatever it took to stop it deserve most of the blame. I believe as some point the enormity of the fraud will be impossible to ignore. Unfortunately, that will be only after it is too late to change the outcome.

Donald Trump has more than a little baggage. But he warned everyone about this. Many did not want to hear this, particularly from him. But, as he often stated, is there was no one else willing to stand up for the President of the United States under these circumstances? No one? Certainly no one in a position of power was willing to do that.

Donald Trump is preparing to make his case before the entire Senate, during the impeachment trial. It may be too late for Democrats or Republicans to stop him from doing this. I doubt that the Senate will be listening, but millions of people across this country will be paying very close attention. No one should underestimate this.

History teaches us that there are no perfect people, but there are people who are perfectly necessary. It is easy to point out all the baggage that comes along with someone like Donald Trump. It is far more difficult to find anyone remotely capable of replacing him.

TDM