Ruth Bader Ginsburg has not been seen in public since December 6, 2018. She underwent surgery on her left lung on December 21, 2018. She was scheduled to attend a function called: “An Evening with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg” in Los Angeles last Tuesday. That was cancelled. She also cancelled a second engagement scheduled for February 6, 2019.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/ruth_bader_ginsburg_watch_nears_the_end_of_its_second_month.html

There is a lot of speculation about this, from both sides of the aisle. The MSM has been running reports saying this is no big deal. There are some right-wing sites that range from having her terminally ill to even being dead already. Odds are none of the people speculating have any real inside information.

There is one alleged whistle-blower, unidentified, who says Ginsburg is in a medically induced coma and on life support.

https://cloverchronicle.com/2019/01/27/whistleblower-ruth-bader-ginsburg-is-deathly-ill-and-in-a-medically-induced-coma-fears-massive-unrest-once-public-finds-out-the-truth/

This person claims the plan is to keep Ginsburg on life support until after January 2020, to prevent Trump from nominating her replacement. This seems too irresponsible to believe, until one reflects on the Kavanaugh hearings. After that charade, it is clear that Democrats on the Judiciary Committee would do ANYTHING to stop Trump from nominating another Supreme Court Justice. This type of plan may not work, but there certainly would be no ethical restraints even considered by Senate Democrats.

This is all about to go public, one way or the other. The State of the Union is scheduled for next Tuesday and if Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not there, all the networks will notice that. In addition, if she continues to miss oral arguments and miss scheduled appearances a lot of people will start demanding answers.

She is 85 years old and this is hardly her first medical concern. We all know people who suffered serious serious injuries or major surgery at this age who never really recover. That is sad, but far from uncommon. There clearly is something going on here and the longer this goes the less likely she will ever return. If someone is off work for six months there is less than a 50% chance of them ever returning to work. That is true even for much younger people.

There is another, even bigger problem for liberal Democrats. There are currently nine justices with a typical 5 – 4 split between conservative and liberal justices. When Scalia died, that left a 4 – 4 split, which means a lot of controversial issues ended in a tie. But Ginsburg is probably the most liberal justice, so if she is not available, the result is likely to be a lot of 5 – 3 decisions. So even if Democrats find a way to run out the clock, at best they are likely to end up with a huge adverse split over the rest of the year and then, regardless of who is chosen, at best a continued 5 – 4 split. That is guaranteed to keep them up at night. If Trump gets to appoint a replacement it is likely to result in a 6 – 3 split. The point being, that at best, liberal Democrats will be sucking air, it is just a matter of how much air.

TMZ published a video supposed showing Ginsburg being loaded into a car outside her apartment at 9:00 a.m. on January 9, 2019. A link to the video is attached:

https://www.tmz.com/2019/01/09/ruth-bader-ginsburg-video-lung-cancer-frail-supreme-court-rbg/

It is impossible to tell if this is Ginsburg. Even if it is her, which is far from clear, this shows a very frail person and it would hardly be proof of her making a full recovery.  It had previously been reported that she was released from the hospital on December 25, 2018. If this was her, she looks to be seriously ill and possibly on the way to a medical facility.

Either way, even if Ginsburg makes a miraculous recovery, liberal Democrats are clearly courting disaster.

TDM

That is the question. Donald Trump announced that he was doing to declassify the documents used to obtain the FISA warrants regarding Carter Page and testimony before congress by key FBI officials. He backed off that, apparently at the request of the FBI and the DOJ. Why did Trump change his mind?

We can be certain those documents are damaging for Democrats. We know this because Republicans are the ones who wanted them declassified. We also know that Democrats are desperate to keep them out of public view. Select members of congress have seen the unredacted versions of those documents. Adam Schiff recently announced that he was sending the unredacted version of those documents to Robert Mueller. We can be absolutely sure that if these documents had any information potentially damaging to Donald Trump, Schiff would have been the first to leak them. This sure looks like an obvious attempt to keep them away from public view.

Again, one must ask: “Why did Donald Trump change his mind.” Did the FBI and/or the DOJ convince him that they were legitimately part of a criminal investigation and Trump had no problems with this investigation.  If so, some people like Hillary Clinton should be very concerned. Perhaps key FBI/DOJ officials, like Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein threatened to resign if Trump declassified those documents without their consent. That would create an instant constitutional crisis, because Democrats in congress would immediately respond by accusing Trump of obstructing justice. Remember, facts are irrelevant here.

Or perhaps this just another in a long list of cases where the FBI absolutely refuses to give up information. Following the Boston Marathon Bombing, the FBI rather quickly identified photos of two suspects. But they withheld that information until they got a call from Fox News saying they had the photos and they were going public with the story in just a few minutes. Then and only then did the Senior FBI Agent in Charge agree to go release these photos and ask the public for help finding the suspects. Within a very short period of time the FBI was getting a ton of tips that ultimately lead to the death of one alleged bomber and the arrest of the other.

Then I wondered if there was more. It is highly likely that Mueller already had unredacted copies of those documents. He used at least some of them in the Roger Stone indictment. He certainly has them now, because Adam Schiff delivered them to him. So, Trump certainly wasn’t trying to keep them from Mueller.

If Trump releases them now, over the objections of the FBI, he will be accused of obstructing Mueller. But what if Trump waits until Mueller releases his report? This reminds me of the old Quaker farmer who caught a chicken thief in his barn. He said: “friend, I would do thee no harm for the world, but where thee standeth I am about to shoot.” By holding back those documents, Trump could be sending a very similar message to Mueller.

TDM

Those of us lucky or smart enough to live in California have a hard time imagining the mind numbing cold that is affecting much of the country. So I thought I would report on some personal experiences from when my wife and I lived in Stevens Point Wisconsin.

We would go through long periods of time when the temperature never got above zero. Some nights it would be -20 or even worse. When it is that cold, even the ground creaks. We lived in a trailer park, so we obviously did not have a heated garage. When it gets that cold, don’t expect to walk outside and start your car. It turns out that in addition to the car getting stiff and cold, your battery doesn’t work well either. So, I had to resort to purchasing an electric heater. The first one I purchased, the cheap option, was literally a heated dip stick. In theory, this would heat the oil, which would heat the engine. It worked, sorta, until it got really cold. Then I went out to start my car and when I turned the key the only thing that happened was my dome light went out. Unfortunately this happened on a day when were had to drive to Milwaukee to catch a flight back to Buffalo New York to attend a family funeral. It was -30 with a twenty mph wind. The wind chill about probably about -47.

I called a tow truck. They showed up and connected these massive jumper cables to my car. That got my dome light back, but didn’t come close to getting the engine to turn over. Then the tow truck tried to tow me, but his equipment was also frozen. Fortunately we had a good friend who owned a trucking company. He brought over a fully loaded semi and towed my car to his garage which was about two miles away. The transmission on the car was also frozen, so my car was dragged with all four wheels literally skidding on the ice. After about an hour with one of those jet engine type space heaters pointed at my car, it finally warmed up to the point where it would actually start. We then got in the car and drove to Milwaukee.

My next purchase was an electric water heater. No one in California has ever seen one of these. You cut your radiator hose and this insert this pump. It looks a lot like an empty soup can with an electric cord attached. That actually worked pretty well. I had it on a timer and it would go off about an hour before I had to leave for work. The heater would heat up the antifreeze and then pump it through the engine block. Once I got that, it didn’t matter how cold it got, my car would start.

This is why if you go to places like Stevens Point you will see an electrical outlet on the parking meters. We see them a lot now, because of electric cars, but back in the 70’s they were so people could plug in their water heaters.

This explains why, the first time it rains after New Year’s Day, I go out to my drive way with my one remaining snow shovel and shovel rain. Then I laugh and remind myself why we moved to the West Coast. Granted, we have some of the dumbest politicians on this planet, but even though they try to change the weather, the reality is that even with all the hot air, they have little impact.

TDM

On January 22, 2019, I wrote about the coming Polar Vortex. I also explained how the usual suspects will try to blame this on global warming. That is, of course, absurd but 75% of Democrats will still believe. Well the Polar Vortex has arrived and it is even worse than expected:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/polar-vortex-to-drive-record-smashing-cold-across-much-of-nation/ar-BBSQqeC?ocid=spartandhp

I notice with great interest that this is shattering records that are 50 years old. Hmmm. Records that are 50 years old.  That would be records dating back to 1969. Hey kids. Guess what? These temperatures are very similar to conditions your DAD described occurring while he was growing up in Upper Michigan. You know, all the jokes about walking to school, uphill both ways, in temperatures that were 40 degrees below zero. Remember laughing when I said we got “walk warnings” cautioning us about breathing in that cold air.  Remember me talking about walking backwards to work, a block away, because otherwise it was too cold to breathe? You laughed and assumed I was exaggerating. It couldn’t possibly be “THAT” cold, right. It was must my imagination gone wild. Except, I wasn’t exaggerating at all. It is just that these severe type of weather situations run in cycles. This has been going on for as long as we have records.

Remember the Donner Party. They named Donner Pass and Donner Lake after them. They got stuck in the snow and some of them allegedly resorted to cannibalism to survive. To those of us who live here and who drive across Donner Pass all year long, this seems unbelievable. I mean, yes we get storms up there and it can be impossible to travel over the pass for several says in a row, but nothing like what the Donner Party experienced. Yet, if you check the historical accounts it is obvious that it did happen, long before global warming, and IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. Maybe not this year, or next year or even while any of us are still alive, but it has happened before and it will happen again.

By the way, we got these kinds of winters several years in a row. Don’t assume that this is a one off event for places like Chicago. This is just a good reminder that our weather moves in cycles, and sometimes these cycles last a long time. That can lull people into thinking it never changes. That is what is happening in California, where a lot of people think we are in a permanent drought. We already have more snow that normal in the Sierra Nevada, so that theory is showing signs of strain.

When Folsom Dam was built in 1956, “experts”: thought it would give 200 year flood protection. That is because they used weather modeling from the previous 30 years, which history records as the “dust bowl.” It was very hot and dry and the experts thought that was the new normal. Note: This was before global warming, so stupid and absurd predictions are hardly new. They expected it would take at least a year for Folsom lake to fill completely. It actually took about a week. Then, 30 years later, in 1986, we got another wet winter and the water in Folsom Lake allegedly rose to within about six inches from overflowing the Dam. Now do the math. 1956 plus 30 = 1986. 1986 plus 30 = 2016. The federal and federal government spent over a billion dollars to build an emergency bypass at Folsom Dam that can release about 300 cubic feet of water per second. It was completed in, you guessed it, 2016. Does that look like they were expecting a permanent drought?

Whether or not you believe in global warming, the real question is whether or not you believe in weather.

TDM

I don’t know Roger Stone. Frankly, he seems a little weird. He has a website called www.stonezone.com.  He is clearly a legend in his own mind. He is a political commentator for InfoWars. He shared a duplex in Manhattan with Kristin Davis aka The Manhattan Madam.  She went to prison for running a prostitution ring and also selling drugs. Stone, to the say the least, has colorful friends.

He is close friends with Alex Jones who is well known for conspiracy theories some of which are absurd. For example, Alex Jones said the entire Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax:

“The general public doesn’t know the school was actually closed the year before. They don’t know they’ve sealed it all, demolished the building. They don’t know that they had the kids going in circles in and out of the building as a photo-op. Blue screen, green screens, they got caught using.”

The result is that no one should be shocked to learn that Roger Stone might have got his facts wrong. This means one can understand an indictment for lying. It does not justify a military style assault on his home at 6:00 a.m.  Stone says there were 29 FBI agents and 17 vehicles.  That, like a lot of things Stone says, is probably an exaggeration.  Other sources say there were about a dozen FBI agents. There certainly were a ton of people wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles. Maybe they were terrified at the prospect of being confronted by two Yorkshire terriers and three cats. Be still my soul!

The whole thing is on video because by pure coincidence CNN was parked across the street with a camera crew. I don’t know how many people where there, but this looked surreal. It also looked ridiculous. Stone is a very public figure, clearly represented by legal counsel who has been in touch with the Special Counsel. They could have just asked him to turn himself in and he almost certainly would have done that. The judge quickly released him with a signature bond for $250,000. Clearly the judge did not consider Stone to be a flight risk or any other kind of risk.

Perhaps one can justify a surprise raid, to preserve evidence. But this is the FBI and they have known where Stone lived for a long time. Does anyone really believe this house was not under surveillance? If they didn’t know exactly who was in that house, before the raid, they are hopelessly incompetent.  If they did know, they should have known there was little or no threat.

In addition, they either knew CNN was there with a camera crew and allowed them to video this, or they didn’t know CNN was there which would make them even more incompetent. No matter how you look at this, it looks bad. This has all the earmarks of a staged event designed to make Roger Stone look like a dangerous felon. Yet the FBI didn’t exactly knock down his door and make a forced entry. They banged on the door and yelled at him with a bullhorn.  Then he opened the door, standing there in his tee shirt, so they could handcuff him. The only people in the house were Roger Stone and his wife, who happens to be deaf.

So why do this? There are some reports that Rod Rosenstein would have had to personally approve this. Seriously? Rosenstein signed off on this fiasco? Where is Christopher Wray on this? Has anyone asked him if he knew about it and approved of this? What about the Acting Attorney General? What he aware of this? Did he approve of this? Who was the idiot who thought this was a good idea? There are a lot more questions than answers.

It was made even worse by the public appearance of Roger Stone following the arrest. He literally came out holding his arms in the air with his fingers in a “v” for victory pose. Granted, he looked ridiculous, but he hardly looked like a threat. Like I said, mostly weird.

I read the indictment and frankly, it looks pretty silly. At worst, we have one kind of weird guy from Florida who appears to routinely exaggerate his own importance. Who cares? There is no mention of him colluding with Russia. He is just accused of saying things that aren’t true and then trying to get other people to cover for him. Big deal. This is worthy of FBI storm troopers invading his home at 6:00 a.m. to give CNN a photo op.

Trump gave the perfect response. If this is the crime of the century, why haven’t other people, like Hillary Clinton, James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper, who all were caught lying to congress, been indicted? When is the FBI going to show up at their homes at 6:00 a.m.? Good question.

TDM

One thing is clear; Trump doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules. He has figured a way to win by losing. He just announced that there is a deal to re-open the government. By the way, he is also planning on giving the State of the Union Address, as scheduled, next Tuesday. Well, predictably, Pelosi just punted again and said: “When the government is open, we will discuss a mutually agreeable date.” What’s her excuse? She didn’t have time because she dismissed the House for a three day weekend during the shutdown. The optics on this are extremely bad and about to get worse. This makes Pelosi look, accurately, like a total ass. Her only real excuse for delay is disrespect for Donald Trump. That plays well on CNN, it does not play well in Peoria.

King Solomon taught us how to determine who is truly evil. Two women both claimed to be the mother of a child. Solomon suggested solving the problem by proposing the use of a sword to cut the baby in two, with each woman to get half. The “fake” mother entirely approved of this solution. The real mother begged to spare the child and let her rival have custody. Solomon quickly realized who truly cared for the child, and more importantly, who did not. He gave the child to the real mother. Donald Trump just surrendered, to spare the country more pain. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer proved that they couldn’t care less. Odds are they will be too busy celebrating to realize they are in big trouble.

Both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are now standing there with egg on their face. Trump got the blame for the shutdown. But, thanks to their stupidity, he now gets sole credit for restarting the government. They did NOTHING! Nancy didn’t even bother to stay in town over the weekend.

Their sole excuse for their role in the government shutdown was to blame everything on a Trump temper tantrum. Hating Trump mattered more to them than doing the right thing for the country.

Only a fool or a reporter for CNN, often the same person, would argue that there is no crisis at our border. Reasonable people understand that this should not even be a partisan issue. The proposal of Democrats to secure our border only with technology because walls never work is idiotic. Their only real objection is that it was Trump’s idea. They would rather see the country fail then to see Trump succeed. Well, Trump surrendered and by losing this battle he may just have won the war.

Trump is going to give his State of the Union address, in the House, to a record audience. The longer this is delayed the more harm to Nancy Pelosi. If Democrats sit on their hands while he discusses the need for a more secure border, they will be making a serious mistake. At least some of them realize that. We can expect Trump to make a strong case for border security. He has the advantage of only needing to tell the truth. Among other things, expect some “angel moms” to show up weeping over their child murdered by an illegal alien.

A lot of us underestimated Donald Trump. Whether he got here intentionally or by accident doesn’t really matter. Pelosi and Schumer blew this big time. They could have got Trump to give them almost anything, including amnesty for DACA. They could have taken all the credit for re-opening the government, while Trump would be left with all the blame for the shutdown. Instead they sulked in the corner too filled with hatred for Trump to realize they were falling into a trap. He just played the Trump card and things will never be the same.

TDM

Donald Trump called Nancy Pelosi’s bluff and she chose the worst possible response. Trump told her he accepted the previous invitation to speak before a joint session of congress. He explained that her concerns about security had been refuted by both public and private statements by the Director of Homeland Security and the Secret Service.

This left Pelosi with only two options. She could let Trump speak and suffer the embarrassment of having to introduce him as President of the United States. Or she could refuse to let him speak, showing herself to be hopelessly partisan and tone-deaf. She chose to disinvite Trump. That, of course, will not stop Trump from delivering a State of the Union address; it will only guarantee him a world record audience.

When you think about it, the State of the Union address was guaranteed to be a political joke. There would be all those camera shots of Democrats sitting on their hands. Nancy’s carefully chosen 24 guests would be showcased by network TVs to embarrass Trump as much as possible. The camera would frequently focus on her looking bored and disgusted sitting behind the President. There would be numerous cameos of prominent Democrats looking disgusted. For Trump, giving a State of the Union Speech in the House Chambers can only be described as enemy turf. Now Trump gets to choose his own venue and he will be the one with home field advantage.

He will give the speech in front of a massive crowd that wants to hear what he has to say. Nancy will get a hand delivered copy of the speech about 2 seconds before Trump goes live.

CNN and the other networks will try and cover for her, but they have no choice but to broadcast the State of the Union address without interruption. Since most people will turn off their televisions when Trump is done speaking, little they say or do will matter.

Trump does not need to give a State of the Union address to congress. This country went through a period of over 100 years when there was no State of the Union address. The speech was first given to congress by George Washington. Thomas Jefferson stopped the practice because he considered it to be too “monarchical.” Woodrow Wilson reestablished the tradition in 1913. The last president to deliver the State of the Union by letter was Jimmy Carter, after he had been crushed by Ronald Reagan during the 1980 election.

Attendance is limited to members of congress and 24 guests of the President and 24 guests of the Speaker of the House. It is the high honor and privilege of congress to request to be briefed in person by the President of the United States. He doesn’t have to accept the invitation; he is only required to send them a letter. Nancy Pelosi just threw that all away and it may be very long time before congress gets this back.

This reminds me of a friend who had just gone through a bitter divorce. He told his daughter that he would not attend any family event if his former wife would be there. So, he said: “I found myself eating Thanksgiving Dinner all by myself at McDonalds saying: Boy I showed her.”

To put this in perspective, Trump ordered Sarah Huckabee Sanders to stop giving daily press briefings. He pointed out, correctly, that the news media routinely distorted what she said and they were rude and disrespectful. So he told her not to bother any more.

The main stream media needed those press briefings. Trump did not. Now Jim Acosta has his coveted White House Press badge, but it gains him nothing more than entrance to poorly equipped empty room filled with other so-called journalists who also have absolutely nothing to report.

Nancy Pelosi needed Trump to deliver the State of the Union Address in the House Chambers. He was willing to do that, but he was not required to do that. He will deliver a State of the Union Address anyway, just not on her turf. Odds are he will wonder why speaking in front of a Joint Session of congress was worth the effort. If she graciously invites him again, after the shutdown is over, don’t be surprised if he says: “wait until next year.” Then, don’t bet on next year either.

TDM

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has warned us that we are all going to die within the next twelve years because of global warming. This should be a great comfort to anyone really concerned about this, because she is wrong about nearly everything. This is so stupid that the number of Democrats willing to consider voting for her as President of the United States has plunged to a new low of 74%.

We are now dealing with the paradox of liberal politicians blaming everything on “climate change” when they really mean “global warming.” They can’t actually use the word “global warming” anymore because there, ah, has been not been any significant increase in worldwide temperature since Clinton was President. This is why the global warming alarmists at the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) no longer use the term “global warming.” They prefer “climate change” because that is too ambiguous to challenge.

If this seems confusing, it’s because it is confusing. It is confusing because nothing being predicted by the global warming (climate change) alarmist group has ever come true and it extremely unlike that any of their future predictions will be true either. One of the problems is that increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere do not actually increase temperature. To be specific, in order to have CO2 levels cause a 1 degree change in global temperature, the current levels would have to double. No one is predicting anything close to that.

So, where are these predictions coming from one might ask? The answer is that they are focusing on the amount of water vapor in the air, assuming that increased CO2 will result in increased water vapor. The theory is increased water vapor has created a hot spot which assumed to be about 30,000 to 36,000 feet above the tropics. The problem with the theory is that no one has actually “found” such a hot spot. This is not from lack of trying. They have been launching weather balloons for about 40 years to measure the temperature in this area. It’s just that, so far, those darn thermometers are failing to record any increase in temperature at all.

The IPCC knows this, they just ignore it. Instead they run computer models based assumptions they know are false. These are the models that are scaring everyone.  They also fail to point out something that should be more than obvious. We get violent weather when there is a conflict between a cold front and a warm front. If you want to know how this works, watch “The Perfect Storm” again. Warning, the character played by George Clooney still dies. The point is that the more severe the difference in temperature between the two fronts when this happens, the more violent the storm. In other words, if the Polar Regions actually did become warmer, the result would be less violent storms, not more violent storms.

Scientist know this, they just ignore it because every scientist knows that if you want to get paid, you need to write a report that predicts horrible things because of global warming. The truth is just too boring to qualify for high compensation.

Following is a brilliant article in the New York Times that admits all of the above and then draws an incredibly stupid assumption:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/climate/polar-vortex-2019.html

They blame the global warming, that is not happening, for a delay in the arrival of the polar vortex, which definitely is coming. They then claim the polar vortex will be more violent because of the delay. This is how they explain this:

“We’re going into what looks like a pretty unusually cold period, even for late January, punctuated by winter storms. While climate change is warming the earth, not all parts of the earth are warming at the same rate.” Then in a rare moment of honesty they admit that: “There have always been major storms, of course. In this case, the polar vortex, the El Nino pattern and the jet stream flowing from the Pacific all play a role.” In other words this has been going on for a long time with or without the alleged global warming.”

Then my favor part is where they try to explain why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast of a milder than normal winter is still accurate. Here is how that works. If you average the temperature in Fairbanks Alaska over a six month period starting in January and ending in July, the result will be warmer than if you only rely on January temperatures. What a joke. If NOAA issued a report in October that blew the forecast for January by a huge margin, why on earth would anyone believe their predictions for 100 years from now?

If you think it is cold now in New York, just wait for the polar vortex to arrive. While you are sitting in your electric car as a sacrifice to the weather Gods to reduce CO2 emissions and save the planet from extinction, don’t forget your coat.

TDM

Once again, the MSM is missing a good game. Ever since Trump was elected President of the United States, his enemies have refused to treat him with the respect worthy of the office. Last year 90% of the media reports about Trump were negative. Hitler got better press. There could be a drought in Tibet and the MSM would find a way to blame Donald Trump. Democrats in both the House and the Senate are totally focused resisting him and obstructing his ability to govern. RINO Republicans gladly joined the chorus.  There is no better way to describe this than a concerned effort by a bunch of bullies to hammer Trump into submission. They wanted to pummel him out of office.

Early this week, in the ultimate insult, Nancy Pelosi asked Trump to delay the State of the Union address until after the shutdown. She, on the other hand, was planning a big trip to Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan. At best this was a publicity stunt, at worst another public attempt to undermine Trump. Either way it is proof positive that Pelosi intends to do nothing to end the shutdown, other than to wait for Trump to fold.

Then, yesterday, something remarkable happened. Donald Trump punched back at the bullies. Previously he had insulted them back and embarrassed them, but his primary weapon was limited to his twitter feed. This time he used the power of the Presidency to fight back against the resistance. It was a beautiful thing. Nancy Pelosi had her loyal lieutenants on a military bus, ready to get on a military plane for this world-wide photo op.  One hour before takeoff, Nancy was delivered a letter, by a representative of the press, saying the plane was no longer available.  There was this hysterical scene of all these supposedly powerful people sitting on a bus to nowhere, making phone calls that did not matter, because the only one with the solution to their problem was the person they slammed on a daily basis.

What made this worse is that if Pelosi was justified in call off the State of the Union, Trump was more than justified in postponing their trip. When you combine this with the weekend jaunt to Puerto Rico by other top Democrats, even some members of the MSM are noticing that the optics are really bad for Democrats. Trump, on the other hand, is holed up in the White House waiting for Democrats to do the necessary to end this.

The MSM is calling Trump’s decision childish and mean spirited. They are right. But no more so than Nancy Pelosi’s stunt to delay the State of the Union. What they missed is the fact that a lot of people, including me, literally laughed out loud at the video of the clown bus circling the capital building.

In the end, all those arrogant snobs (self-righteous bullies) exited the bus powerless and humiliated, with their heads  down hoping no one noticed. We all noticed. Regardless of what you hear on the MSM or what you read in the polls, everyone noticed.

It may not be obvious to the MSM, but the rest of us know who has been acting like a bully. Well the bully just got punched in the nose. Everyone who has ever encountered a bully in real life realized the importance of this and they are applauding loudly.

This may go one quite a bit more, but the momentum has swung to the White House. Trump had learned how to punch back. He also learned that it feels really good and the people who matter are cheering him on. If Democrats continue to play games, Trump is going to find other ways to punch back even harder.

We are now looking at the Punch and Nancy show and only someone blind or hopelessly naïve would bet on Nancy.

TDM

The attached article is a bit out there. But, it just could be true. If so, Democrats may pay an enormous price for underestimating Donald Trump:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/trumps_shutdown_trap.html

One of the major problems with the establishment in both parties is that they are totally focused on the status quo. They really believe that the way things are is the way things have always been and the way things always must be. Donald Trump does not think that way at all. It is one reason members of the establishment in both parties hate him. He just doesn’t listen. His enemies always assume this is because he is too uneducated, too arrogant or too stupid to realize they are right. But what if they are the ones who got this wrong?

The conventional wisdom is that government shutdowns are bad and the party held responsible pays a heavy price. But pundits are famous for predicting terrible results that never actually happen. For example, ask any pundit and they will tell you that Republicans paid a high price for impeaching Bill Clinton. But did they really? Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial began on January 7, 1999. It lasted five weeks. The vote to acquit him of perjury was 55 to 45, even though it was patently obvious that he did commit perjury. The vote on obstruction of justice was 50/50. Clinton apologized to the American people and he was later disbarred.

So if Republicans were punished, this should have been apparent in the 2000 election. Republicans did lose some seats in the House, but they still maintained the majority. By the way, they lost exactly two seats, while the Democrats won one and there was one independent. Democrats gained 4 seats in the Senate, but since the result was a 50/50 split, Republicans retained control. George W. Bush won the Presidency. So, while this was not a great result for Republicans, it is hard to make the case that they were punished all that much. When the dust cleared there was a Republican President, a Republican House and a Republican Senate.

I previous wrote about how Republicans arguably gained by shutting down the government to repeal Obamacare. But what if this shutdown wasn’t actually about the border wall/barrier at all? What if President Trump wanted the shutdown because if it lasted long enough, he would have the authority to lay some federal workers off – permanently! While the main stream media was hyperventilated on the impact of the partial shutdown, Trump may have been counting the hours until he passed the point of no return.

If Chuck and Nancy don’t fold, within just a few hours, Trump will have the power to take the necessary action to permanently reduce the bureaucracy. In case you think this is a stretch, he already refused to give federal employees a pay raise. If there one thing Trump is good at it is firing people. The stupidity of Schumer and Pelosi, shutting down the government to prevent funding something they actually think is a good idea may have just given Trump the opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the federal bureaucracy. Even if this was not the plan, it may be exactly what Trump wanted and needed.

This is one case where the RIF’s rules actually favor Trump. He can lay off the younger, less tenured workers first, which means a high percentage of people who came on board during the Obama administration are at risk. The majority of people who came on board during the Clinton administration are already gone. It could be a beautiful thing. The wonder of it all.

TDM