It is now official. The United States does not have a capable Commander in Chief. When our founding fathers wrote the constitution, they most definitely did not want another King. But they also realized that someone has to be in a position to make the tough decisions necessary to defend this country. Today, we have a very noticeable vacancy in that position.

It is now widely reported that China has sent a “spy” balloon over much of our country. In order to understand the seriousness of this situation, ask yourself what China would do if we sent a similar balloon to survey China. The answer is beyond obvious. They would do everything possible to shoot it down. We would be lucky if it stopped there. They could conceivably use this as justification to attack somewhere. It wouldn’t necessarily be some place as obvious as Taiwan, but they would consider that to be an insult so severe that failure to respond would result in loss of face.

The problem for the Biden Administration, and for the Democratic party, is that virtually everyone not employed by CNN realizes this. Even those people who usually drink the liberal KoolAid understand this. Even those who pretend our open southern border is not a problem understand this. Even those who think it is a brilliant idea to defund the police understand this. Everyone, that is besides the only person who matters, Joe Biden, understands this.

What makes this even more important is that the solution is so obvious. You just shoot it down. Then make a big production of showing the world what China was “trying” to do. Then you punish China, in the most open and obvious way possible and demand an apology.

Even if Biden was too terrified to actually shoot this puppy down, the United States could have found a million ways to “take the air out of the balloon.” An unexplained “catastrophic failure” of the balloon would have also solved the problem. But instead, Biden acknowledged it was there, acknowledged it was a threat, and just ignored it anyway.

Sadly, Biden is not doing that or anything else that matters. Stopping Antony Blinken from going on his previously scheduled trip to China was probably met with snickers and applause. Blinken is one of the few people on this planet who made Hillary Clinton look good as Secretary of State. Blinken is even fluent in French, so he already knows the language of surrender. Blinken cancelling this trip removed the last chance for the U.S. to have a Frank and Ernest conversation with China explaining the consequences of getting into a real confrontation with the U.S. But the problem is the “Frank and Ernest” cartoon characters have credibility than Joe Biden or anyone associated with his administration.

Frank and Ernest by Thaves for January 29, 2023 – GoComics

If one looked recently, there has been bi-partisan cooperation with Keven McCarthy on some important issues. For example, a resolution denouncing socialism won by a 328 -86-14 vote. 109 Democrats voted for the resolution, 86 voted no and 14 voted present. The vote to create the “Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party” passed 365 to 65.

If they took a vote to express their opinion about the Chinese balloon blatantly violating our airspace, the vote might be close to unanimous. This begs the question, why is Biden so unwilling to do the obvious. Even Republicans would praise him for shooting down that balloon. The country would probably rally around him. If the balloon coming down caused damage, that would be blamed on the Chinese, not the U.S. So that begs the question; why? I often say that never assume malice when mere incompetence is a satisfactory explanation. But this is so obvious and so wrong that at least some people might ask if something else is going on. Does the Chinese Communist party have some kind of leverage on Joe Biden? That would be unthinkable, but unfortunately, not beyond the realm of possibility.

In any case, if Biden doesn’t let the air out of that Chinese balloon, he may be letting the air out of the remain shreds of his administration and a significant portion of the current Democratic Party may go along for the ride. Unfortunately, in the meantime, the entire country is at obvious risk because of the vacancy in the office of President of the United States.

TDM

Most of us are familiar with the Hans Christian Andersen story about the emperor who was tricked into walking down the street naked, arrogantly assuming he was wearing clothes invisible to those who are stupid and incompetent.

The Emperor’s New Clothes – Wikipedia

Most of us realize that the emperor was “exposed” as being the one truly stupid. But one notes that even after this becomes obvious to everyone, he continued down the street walking more proudly then ever. But it is important to realize that many more people were involved. His officials and even the emperor actually visited the looms, where the imaginary clothes were being made, and ignored the obvious fact that they were totally empty. In addition, the town people went along with the charade, until a young girl pointed out the obvious. Then everyone, but the emperor started laughing.

Han Christian Andersen did not invent this story, it was apparently based on a 1335 story from a Spanish medieval collection. It may even date back to Aesop and even Persian folktales. The point being that the arrogance and stupidity of people in power is not exactly new. Part of the problem is that few people in direct contact with really powerful people often lack the courage to tell them an uncomfortable truth.

One could write another folk tale about Joe Biden, and it would be remarkably similar. There are a lot of people, close to Biden, who see the truth about the man, but they are unwilling to confront him and are more than willing to try and deceive everyone else. The result is a man who is increasingly willing to believes he is uniquely brilliant and qualified to be President of the United States without regard to any evidence to the contrary. This would explain why he keeps telling the same stupid lies about supposed personal accomplishments that are easily discredited. He has convinced himself that they are true, and no one tell him the lies are beyond obvious. It explains why he was stupid enough to slam Donald Trump for having classified documents, apparently oblivious to the fact that he also had similar documents in unsecure locations. Then he stupidly tried to say that since these were in the same location where he stored his prized Corvette, he was shocked to learn that this was not actually a good thing.

Now at the point where this has been disclosed. Today the FBI is searching his Delaware Beach House. This isn’t happening on a Friday, to avoid the news cycle, it is happening Wednesday morning, a time guaranteed to receive widespread media attention. This search cannot end well. If they don’t find any documents, everyone will question why it took them six months to do the search. If they do find classified documents, it will be impossible to explain away. All’s well that ends, well. The illusion of the Biden competency is now on full display, increasingly obvious to everyone, in both parties. He may continue walking, proudly, naked, down the street, but instead of applause he is hearing nothing but increasingly loud laughter. He is in the process of being laughed off the stage.

Normally, everyone would unite behind his replacement, the Vice President. But the Vice President is Kamala Harris, and not one thinks she is remotely capable of handling the job. This has brought us full circle to the fiasco of the 2020 election. In the desperate all-out effort to defeat Donald Trump, little consideration was given to the consequences of putting someone as stupid and incompetent as Joe Biden in the White House. Even less consideration was given to the lack of options available to change this, in the event things went south. Well, welcome to south, with still no viable options available to fix this.

When Woodrow Wilson became incapacitated because of a stroke, his doctor lied about it , his wife took over, and congress went along with the charade. As early as 1792, congress anticipated the need for a line of succession. The constitution says the vice president becomes president if the elected one dies or becomes debilitated.  In 1886 another succession act was passed that, after the Vice President, replaced the leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives with the Presidential Cabinet, starting with the Secretary of State. It changed again on July 18, 1947, when President Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act. That changes the order of succession from the vice president to the Speaker of the House and then the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. After the Kennedy assassination, the 25^th Amendment was signed in 1967. This puts the Vice President immediately in power if the President is incapacitated, even temporarily. It was invoked during Ronald Reagans surgery for colon cancer and for George W. Bush’s colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007.

But none of these involved a Vice President so obviously incapable of being President. This times everyone knows the emperor has no clothes, the problem is that no viable solution to the problem is even on the horizon.

TDM

The winds of change are blowing strong and picking up steam. People in both political parties are hungry for change. Republicans are tired of RINO Republicans who squander opportunity after opportunity. Most Democrats are not actually proud of the woke movement and they feel the pain of economic ineptitude along with everyone else. Everyone is united in one goal, somebody else please, anybody, please. The most popular option, if available, today would be “none of the above.”

We are already seeing that in the Democratic Party. The good bye Joe movement is all too real and unless he wakes up and decides to exit gracefully, will become far more aggressive. They are trying to send him a strong message and are praying he understands. But one of the problems with Joe Biden is that he really believes the lies he tells, and he really believes he is doing a great job as President.

But the winds of change are also blowing for the GOP. Donald Trump is desperately trying to resurrect his political career by running for President in 2024. Ironically, he is adopting the strategy of Hillary Clinton, who won the nomination by destroying any potential candidate. He will be successful, for candidates like Nicky Haley and John Bolton. But he is likely to destroy himself in the process. A lot of people thought he did a good job as President. A lot of people agree that the 2020 election was highly flawed resulted in the worst political mistake in American history installing someone as inept and unethical as Joe Biden in the White House. But his act is getting old and his support may have dwindled to the point where he can still be highly destructive, but he cannot possibly win election to be President of the United States in 2024. That may be unfair, but it is reality. The really smart candidate will be one who avoids engaging in debate with Donald Trump and instead waits for the moment when his candidacy becomes untenable.

We may also face the most serious constitutional crisis in our country, ever. The problem is that if some of the allegations against Hunter Biden are true, they may represent a very serious national security risk. It is bad enough that Hunter Biden and the entire Biden family clearly sold Joe Biden’s influence to the highest bidder. It is frightening to think that this included people from our worst enemies, including Russia and China. But that pales in comparison to the potential that Hunter Biden was granted access to highly classified information and that he may have leaked some of this information to foreign governments. This is so serious that even a hard-core Democrat like Mark Warner sat up and started paying attention. This means that in addition to the Democrats who want to see Joe go, for purely political reasons, there are at least some Democrats who legitimately fear he is a risk to national security.

Now combine this with the fact that Joe’s annual physical is overdue, and the White House is stonewalling that. The numerous people warning that we are heading toward a recession. Incredibly, just yesterday, Biden posted a picture of himself in a GMC Hummer EV, supposedly promoting the electric vehicle tax credit. This car cost between $87,000 to $110,000, which exceeds the maximum cost for which the $7,500 credit is available. This is as tone deaf as it gets.

Here in Florida, we are already seeing some of that change. DeSantis won election four years ago, running against a man who was recently indicted on wire fraud charges, by the narrowest of margins. Four years later, he defeated former Governor Charlie Crist by over 20 percentage points. Even Democrats now refer to Florida as a very red state. Everyone, and I do mean everyone is checking out what happened in Florida to effect such a profound change. That answer is DeSantis, who did what he said he would do and will not back down even in the face of the strongest possible opposition. It turns out that a lot of people like someone who says what he means and means what he says. We are very likely to see other politicians learning from this and acting accordingly. Winners are always studied and copied.

One hopes that the cycle is running strongly against those who have been so destructive. That does seem like the most likely outcome. But no cycle last forever and those who fail to exploit the opportunities arising out of this cycle, need to keep that in mind. Everyone needs to be alert for change, some positive, some negative. However, keep in mind that the least reliable source of information at the moment is the MSM, including Fox. They are far better at reporting on what has happened than in predicting what will happen. The winds of change are blowing hard, and eventually everyone will notice. The only thing we know for certain is who has mucked things up to a fare-thee well. Change, significant change, is coming. This is a high wind warning.

TDM

Sometimes reality is weirder than any imagined plot. Joe Biden is President of the United States for one and only one reason, he is not Donald Trump. Democrats were so desperate to get rid of Donald Trump that they chose Joe Biden to being their nominee solely because they decided he was the ONLY Democrat running who had ANY chance of beating Donald Trump. Even then he won by the narrowest of margins with the help of miraculous late night vote totals in the usual suspect locations famous for voter fraud in the bluest of blue Democratic cities.

No one in the MSM noticed the stench from the 2020 election. Actually, they did notice and chose to lie about it. The situation was not helped when Trump got some really horrible legal advice, pursuing wild conspiracies while ignoring issues that could have changed the outcome. For example, it is indisputable that in Pennsylvania, votes were counted differently in some very blue counties than they were in other parts of the state. That is exactly the issue that caused the Supreme Court to intervene during the 2000 presidential election. A decision, by the way, that was 7-2 meaning some of the liberal judges agreed.  The 5-3 decision was the one to stop counting.

The unfortunate result was President Joe Biden, and he has turned out to be worse than anyone expected. Many have speculated that Joe was not really in charge. That there was a double secret probation committee making all the decisions. But the real problem is that Joe, despite his obvious mental decline, thinks he is in charge. He is the one that has made the most disastrous decisions. Then, incredibly, this frail shadow of a human being decided he would run for re-election. Boom! Democrats were faced with the impossible scheme. Donald Trump, gasp, could even beat Biden, which to them would be the worst-case scenario for the establishment in both parties. Or, at best, Joe could eek out another “miraculous” victory and Democrats would have to spend four more years watching him muck things up to a fare-thee well. And I do mean fare-thee-well, because if Joe spends four more years as President by 2028 the revolution would be complete, and Democrats would be swept totally out to see.

No one, in either party, wants Joe anymore. We can be absolutely certain that neither party will even consider doing the right thing, for the right reason. What’s a mother to do? Well, just maybe, now we know. The perfect solution. Miraculously discover documents, ignored for years, that have “Top Secret” markings found in brilliant locations like the garage where Joe stores his Corvette and where Hunter had held some really spectacular parties. Game on!  Former Obama officials are trashing him. Even CNN joined the blame game. Predictably some Democrats smell blood and are turning on Joe. If you get rid of Joe for improperly storing classified documents, that makes it impossible for Trump to become President again. Right? Win-win.

Then, just when you thought this couldn’t get worse, it got worse. Friday, the FBI discovered even more documents at Biden’s Delaware home, after an alleged 13-hour strip search. Nice! This is now rapidly becoming a constitutional crisis. Goodbye Joe is coming, whether we want it or not. The real question is who or what will replace him. Kamala is standing on the side of the stage, giggling, saying “look at me.” Those who do are throwing up.

Congratulations to those who thought the election of Donald Trump would be the end of the age. If Trump had won re-election, he would already be the lamest of lame duck Presidents. The Trump era would be officially over next year. Instead, this script reminds me of the song, “Goodbye Joe.”

Good Bye Joe

lyrics to good bye joe – Search (bing.com)

Time is full of changes, Joe, and now you’ve got to go
Don’t forget that we loved on the highland
Goodbye, Joe (goodbye, Joe)

Goodbye, Joe (goodbye, Joe)
Goodbye, Joe (goodbye, Joe)
Goodbye, Joe (goodbye, Joe)
Goodbye, Joe (goodbye, Joe)

TDM

It is increasingly obvious that the DNC establishment is so done with Joe Biden. There are probably two main factors. One is that the DNC is now convinced that Donald Trump will not be a major factor in 2024. They may be wrong about that, but they believe that. The removes the “only” justification for choosing Joe Biden as the 2020 candidate for President. They were desperate for someone, anyone, who could beat Donald Trump. The other DNC candidates all self-eliminated, leaving the choice between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Even the DNC establishment realized that Bernie Sanders would be a total disaster.

Republicans will investigate Joe Biden, but they are so not in a rush. They have him right where they want him, stinking up the White House. Increasingly it will be Democrats, not Republicans, desperate to move on. While a significant number of Democratic politicians in Washington, D. C. are certifiably insane, they are not all drinking the liberal left KoolAid.

CNN just admitted that Hunter Biden was conducting business deals, that stink to high heaven, while trading on his father’s name. Of course, they have known this all along, but their hatred of Donald Trump and lust for power blinded them to the disaster unfolding before their eyes. Well eyes wide open now.

This does not mean the MSM is going to start reporting objectively. They will remain highly partisan in favor of Democrats. But it does mean that someone has given permission to start reporting the truth about Joe Biden, and that is a really big deal.

The MSM has been telling huge lies, in a failed attempt to cover-up for everything Biden. That included lying about the serious and obvious problems with the 2020 election. A lot of people are going to be shocked at the extent to which the MSM has mislead them. This has already started with the “Biden classified document scandal”, but it won’t end there. It has already morphed into asking serious questions about Hunter Biden. But once people realize they have been lied to, over and over again, they are increasingly reluctant to trust those people who perpetuated this lie again. “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” Combine that with the abject failure of Democratic policies, the destruction of our economy, the increasing fear of criminal violence, and the run-a-way Woke movement, and this may become a perfect storm. One very obvious question is: “If you were lying about this, what else were you lying about?” Good Question.

Most people are glad to see 2021 and 2022 in the rear-view mirror. But 2022 wasn’t much of an improvement over 2021, and 2023 just may be an extremely challenging year. At times like this, don’t be surprised if the House of Card built by the liberal left wing of the Democratic Party and their supporters in the MSM suffers a catastrophic collapse. There are at least some members of the DNC establishment very concerned and they are more than willing to cast Joe Biden overboard in a failed effort to save a sinking ship. But don’t bet on a House of Cards withstanding a perfect storm.

TDM

We never really know what goes on behind closed doors in Washington, D.C. We can get hints of this from sources like the MSM and social media, but we can be sure that some of the most important conversations are very private and that seldom changes. In addition, when private conversations are leaked, it is always important to look at who is leaking the information and why. We can also apply the speed test, since the time of things sometimes tells us a lot.

I was once scheduled to speak at a conference, following Admiral Buzz Zumwalt. As a result, we spent about an hour in the green room with no one else around. He was appointed Chief of Naval Operations by Richard Nixon in May of 1970. He later ran for the U.S. Senate, as a Democrat, from Virginia, where he was defeated by Harry F. Byrd, Jr.

He told me several personal stories, about politicians in both parties, and the Vietnam War that I found beyond fascinating. In some cases, it became obvious that some things that seemed obvious to me were very different than what actually happened, at least according to his version of events..

Another incident, somewhat embarrassing for me, happened in Hamilton, Bermuda. The insurance company I managed had its headquarters in Bermuda, so I was invited to a private social event at the home of the president of one of the largest banks in Bermuda. He had invited another guest, an English gentleman, who had obviously been drinking, a lot. This man proceeded to tell me he had been the head of British Intelligence during World War II. He talked about inventing explosive coal that his operatives would drop into railroad tender cars, from bridges. When that “lump of coal” reached the engine, it would explode. He even talked about personally catching Joe Kennedy, JFK’s dad, sending British military secrets to Germany in the U.S. diplomatic pouch. Joe Kennedy had been Ambassador to the Court of St James at the time. This guy claimed he had flown personally to Washington, D.C., and confronted FDR with the evidence. FDR then recalled Joe Kennedy from his post in Great Britain. I mentioned what this guy said, to another guest and asked if this was possibly true. He said: “Bill sometimes talks too much when he has been drinking.” I stupidly assumed this meant he was making things up. Actually, he was talking too much, but he was also telling the truth.

I didn’t realize my error until on a business trip to New York City in February of 1989. I picked up a New York Times. There was an article in there about the death of Sir William Stephenson, former head of the British Intelligence along with a picture of the man I had met in Bermuda.

William Stephenson, British Spy Known as Intrepid, Is Dead at 93 – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

They even made a movie about him called “A Man Called Intrepid”.

I was absolutely shocked to learn that everything he told me was true. I was just too stupid, at the time, to even consider the possibility that he was the genuine article. I still consider this as a missed opportunity.

While we seldom get a chance to learn about truly private conversations, we can often observe the results of those events. One important clue is how quickly things can change. It is well documented that  FDR recalled Joe Kennedy as Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Most people just didn’t know why, and FDR certainly wasn’t willing to explain this to anyone. At the time Joe Kennedy was planning on running for President. After his “meeting” with FDR, he announced that FDR was probably the best President in U.S. history.

There have now been two special counsels appointed by Merrick Garland, one investigating Trump and one investigating Biden. This has never happened before. The special counsel investigating Trump could be expected to release his report either during the primary elections or shortly after Trump won the nomination. It wouldn’t be released sooner than that, because the “ongoing” investigation rule is great at preventing anyone else from getting any information.

But the timing of the special counsel report on Biden is more interesting. The events resulting in this appointment have been known for months, but Garland only acted after learning that McCarthy would be the Speaker of the House and after intense pressure from the Freedom Caucus, agreed to investigate improper politicization of the DOJ and other government agencies.  That is unlikely to be a coincidence. It may also be a sign that the Democratic establishment is so done with Joe Biden. It seems very unlikely that, after this, he will be able to win the nomination for re-election and I wouldn’t be surprised if he “decides” it is time to hang up his robes and run out the clock on this his one, and only, term. If he conveniently decides to leave gracefully, the special counsel report will probably be released in November or December 2024, after it no longer matters. But, if he foolishly tries to fight the current and run for re-election, this may move much faster.

The point being that the speed at which either of these investigations moves will provide a strong hint regarding what is going on behind closed doors. At a minimum, this will be interesting to watch.

TDM

What goes around comes around. Ever since Trump was elected, the MSM and Democrats have attacked him relentlessly. They even tried to impeach him twice. None of the serious charges against him have been proven true. Many have been totally debunked.

All of this was possible because Paul Ryan was and is a “never-Trumper” and Republicans did zero investigations of Democrats while he was Speaker of the House. Nancy Pelosi was even worse, with her unrelenting attacks on Trump and any Republican remotely connected with January 6th. But there is an old saying, “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” Republicans only took full control of the House on Monday, and a lot of Democrats are already showing signs of pure panic.

There may also be something else going on. It appears as though some members of the Democratic establishment have had enough of Joe Biden. They were probably hoping he would just announce plans to ride off into the sunset, but instead he is threatening to run for re-election. Perhaps that explains some of the recent leaks, all bad for Biden, some of them involving things that had previously been ignored.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. One suspects he noticed that Republicans are going to investigate the politicization of the DOJ and other government agencies. It is increasingly clear that Republicans are ready, willing, and able to investigate a lot of things ignored by the MSM and the DNC.

There was even a report that the FBI had Seth Rich’s laptop, and that they knew he had leaked the Hillary Clinton emails to WikiLeaks. Apparently, these documents are about to be released because of a freedom of information request. If this is true, it means the FBI knew the Russia Collusion charge against Trump had zero merit, yet James Comey appointed a Special Counsel anyway.

Credibility, once lost, is often impossible to restore. Most people are reluctant to believe that the MSM, the DOJ, and the FBI would deliberately lie to the American people. To anyone doing some research and paying any attention, these lies were always obvious. But they were ignored by the MSM which dismissed these as discredited conspiracy theories. One reason for that opinion is that they all realize this would be unthinkable. Well start thinking the unthinkable. There are several cases when the lies are no longer possible to ignore.

For the past two years, the January 6^th committee has successfully managed the narrative. They painted a picture of an armed insurrection, fueled by Donald Trump, which threatened our democracy. Incredibly, Hakeem Jeffries, who every Democrat voted to be Speaker of the House, repeated this nonsense.

But there is another side to this story, and it is coming to a screen near you. Republicans reportedly have 14,000 hours of video, suppressed by the January 6^th committee that show a lot of photo ops, but not much resembling an insurrection. They will also show who approved increased security, Donald Trump, and who blocked it, Nancy Pelosi. The former Chief of the Capitol Police wrote a scathing book, and he didn’t pull any punches. He is not a friend of Donald Trump, by any means, but he absolutely despises Nancy Pelosi.

So far, Kevin McCarthy is playing hard ball and he is proving to be very skilled at making his points. He has even convinced Democrats to support a select committee on China and got significant Democratic support for blocking Biden from giving more oil from our strategic oil reserve to China.

What goes around sometimes does come around. The winds of change are blowing strongly and some people who thought their power was eternal are about to experience a major wind fall.  Enjoy. This could be fun to watch.

TDM

Most people paying attention realize that the Biden Administration is an unprecedented disaster. It is a miracle that he hasn’t blundered his way into a war, yet. It is a miracle that the economy, although under extreme duress, continues to do much better than almost anywhere else in the world. And yes, it is a miracle, that despite their worst intentions, the United States remains the freest nation on earth.

But now the Biden Administration is apparently considering banning gas stoves. Here is a link to an NBC News report about this.

Ban new gas stoves, a federal safety commissioner proposes; CPSC says no such official plan yet (nbcnews.com)

CNN, predictably, responded by trying to explain why this is actually a good idea.

A US federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves | CNN Business

Naturally, some of the usual suspects consider gas stoves to be racist.

“Short-term exposure to NO2 is linked to worsening asthma in children, and long-term exposure has been determined to likely cause the development of asthma,” a group of lawmakers said in a letter to chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric, adding it can also exacerbate cardiovascular illnesses.

The letter – Sen. Corey Booker and Sen. Elizabeth Warren among its signers – argued that Black, Latino and low-income households are more likely to be affected by these adverse reactions, because they are either more likely to live near a waste incinerator or coal ash site or are in a home with poor ventilation.”.

Miraculously, I survived a childhood where all of the cooking was done on a gas stove. This was probably because my parents couldn’t afford the luxury of an electric stove. We have had gas stove and electric stoves, and for me a gas stove is much easier to use.

Some places, like Sacramento, already ban building new homes with gas stoves. They do this for the same reason they ban gas furnaces. They want the entire world to run on electricity, ignoring the fact that electricity is generated, by gas among other things. The other things, that actually work, does not include solar energy in much of the world and wind energy unless located in areas with over population of Democratic politicians.

But the real problem here is that this is not only is this insanely stupid, but a high percentage of people also instantly realize it is insanely stupid. Predictably, certain people, like AOC, instantly double down on stupid, by shrieking about the dangers of gas stoves, forgetting there are pictures of them using their gas stove.

There are lot of people who are experiencing daily power outages in California, because of the extremely rare storms that are remarkably similar to what happened in 1997 and several other years. Some of these major storms even happened after the invention of color TV, so it is difficult to argue that these never happened before global warming.

So now, in a state where it is cold, windy, wet, and wild, it is difficult to take much comfort in your electric car, you can’t charge, living in a home without heat, without cable TV to provide some distraction, and if this piece of insanity becomes law, without hot food.

If there were gas refrigerators, I would say this was a fridge too far, but that would be unfair. I just think this is going to change more than people imagine for one simple reason. You can actually sell stupid, for quite a while, but you can’t sell banning gas stoves to the 35% of people who already own them and probably another equal  number of people who used to have them and miss them.

I would say power to the people, but with out gas, that seems unfair. So, I will just say the latest attempt to gas light people about another insane idea is guaranteed to flicker out for the most obvious of reasons. People can be confused about a lot of things, but gas stoves is way, way, way down the list.

TDM.

Kevin McCarthy is officially the Speaker of the House. At times this week that seemed increasingly unlikely. But McCarthy never backed down an inch. It had to be humiliating to go through all those votes, only to keep coming up short. It is hard to imagine having 20 members of your caucus determined to find someone else, anyone else. It must have been particularly frustrating when it got down to 6 people who just refused to let him win, even when the outcome was obviously inevitable.

Some of this was definitely driven by personality issues. There are clearly some people who either hate Kevin McCarthy or simply believe he cannot be trusted. It is interesting to note that Kevin McCarthy was poised to become Speaker after John Boehner resigned. But he could not get enough votes, so Paul Ryan stepped in as to become a “unity” candidate. At first, I was optimistic about Paul Ryan, but he turned out to be just another part of the establishment terrified of a good fight. He also let himself get too distracted by his personal hatred of Donald Trump to pay attention to what he actually proposed.

Well now McCarthy has clinched the deal and the question is whether or not he will fight just as hard for conservative principles as he did to win his election. I suspect people may be surprised at how effective Kevin McCarthy can be at providing leadership. If you listen to the MSM you probably think that McCarthy is letting the extremists run the table. But in reality, he primarily gave them a seat at the table, something which would never have happened without this fight.

Perhaps the best explanation of what happened is written in this article by MSN.com

How Kevin McCarthy got the votes for speaker — and why it could haunt him (msn.com)

“The deal is poised to enhance the power of far-right Republicans at the expense of moderates who want to advance legislation that can win the approval of a Democratic-controlled Senate and President Joe Biden. It could make McCarthy’s task of passing must-do bills like funding the government and lifting the debt ceiling much harder under a slim majority if a group of five Republicans can effectively force him out at any time.”

Exactly: it made it more difficult for moderates to advance legislation that can win the approval of a Democratic controlled Senate and President Joe Biden. That is precisely what has been the problem with the Republican establishment for decades. Democrats seldom bother to compromise with Republicans. They know that the Republican establishment will accommodate them. Passing legislation so that it can be approved by a Chuck Schumer led Senate and signed by Joe Biden is the perfect recipe for disaster. Even if this change means Republicans can’t pass anything themselves, it would still be a major accomplishment.

Perhaps, just perhaps, McCarthy watched how DeSantis transformed Florida from deep purple to solid red. He wasn’t intimidated by Democrats or their fawning supporters in the MSM. He stood strong, fought back and to some people it was a shock that so many people recognized and rewarded strong leadership.

Democrats voted for Hakeem Jeffries, in lockstep, on every vote. There were no discussions regarding any policy issues at all. No consideration of making any changes, just voting the same way, every time, for the same person, without regard to any other factors. That is not leadership, it is dictatorship. It is the polar opposite of fair and honest debate.

If one really paid attention to the fight for Kevin McCarthy to become leader of the Republican Party, one can easily visualize Victory at See. Those who are willing to stand up for what they believe, even if it means challenging fellow Republicans, are those most likely to stand up for the rest of us. You don’t win by compromising with the enemy, you win by joining forces to defeat the enemy. But first, you need to make sure you can even identify the enemy. Compromising with evil, is no virtue.

TDM

My first reaction to the failed vote to confirm Kevin McCarthy was that the “Freedom Caucus” was snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Obviously, Kevin McCarthy has the support of the vast majority of the Republican caucus, the freedom caucus is being voted down 20 to 1. It seems like a handful of extremely conservatives representatives want to hold the entire caucus hostage.

But then I read the following statement from Lauren Boebert, and it added some important perspective. Here is the statement, read it for yourself:

So I’ve said from the beginning that my hard line was the motion to vacate, single member motion to vacate. You cannot demand more responsibility and less accountability. And Kevin McCarthy was taking the path of Nancy Pelosi and following her precedents with the motion to vacate. We were just told when we left this door, we will give you single member motion to vacate.

Just today. That was the starting point for negotiations. That was the starting point to everything that we are wanting to transform the way Washington, D.C. operates. If you go to the American people and ask them if Congress is doing a good job, if they like the way things are run in Washington, D.C., you’re probably going to get a big hell no. We want to change the way things are done here. We didn’t offer up a personal wish list. We were told to provide lists of what members need to be seated on what committees. And we did exactly that.

And then there were amazing items that were listed as well for our border security, for term limits. Just bring the bill to the floor so we can have a vote on term limits. That’s what the majority of Americans want to see in Congress. We said that any amendment that reduces the national debt needs to be made in order. This is not a personal wish list. This is not something that is unreasonable. This is just for the American people. This is fair for the American people.

And so now here we are being sworn at instead of being sworn in. And we could have had this solved months ago.

While I do not necessarily agree with some of this, it does shed some serious light on the problem. I am reminded how when Republicans soured on John Boerner, in hindsight with a lot of justification, Paul Ryan was chosen as the consensus leader. The middle of the road approach leads to nowhere. It is like someone more focused on settling the boat rather than steering it in the right direction. It was a disastrous choice and explains why the Republicans repeatedly failed to make much progress on the things it claimed were important.

Democrats, on the other hand, are totally united on their extremist agenda. They vote in lock step, every time, on every issue. Hakeem Jeffries won every Democratic vote on every ballot.

This reminded me of something Barry Goldwater said years ago, words that mattered then, words that matter now, words that will always matter.

Extremism in the Defense of Liberty Is No Virtue – PETER WEHNER, Commentary Magazine

“Let me remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me also remind you that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

What we are watching in the House is embarrassing. However, it may also be beyond necessary. Republicans under the leadership of people including Kevin McCarthy have failed to stand up to the tyranny of the Democratic Party and the establishment in both parties. Perhaps one reason so few people voted for Republicans during this election is that few people actually expected significantly different results. After all, Republicans had the Presidency, the House and the Senate under both Bush and Trump and accomplishing next to nothing.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the most extreme voices are the ones saying things that really matter. They are the ones, who actually do have the potential to rock our world in a better direction. We need to pay attention to people like Ron DeSantis who taught Republicans how to stand up for they believe is right and fight back regardless of the opposition. He has transformed Florida and it is people like him who are necessary to transform this country.

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing. Evil never stops on its own, it must be stopped, by those who recognize it for what it is and are willing to do the necessary to stop it.

That is why police, jails, judges, prisons and yes churches are necessary. It is why Republicans need to choose a real leader, someone willing to fight, to be the real Speaker of the House. If Kevin McCarthy wants the job, he needs to demonstrate that he had the leadership ability necessary to get it done.

“Compromise with evil, is no virtue and moderation in doing what is right is no virtue.” My hunch is this is going to turn out different than anyone expected and sometimes that is the best possible outcome.

TDM