One of the reasons we live in peace and freedom is that our founding fathers avoided the disaster that was the French revolution. There was equal yearning for freedom in both France and America. But the path moving forward was very different. France became dominated by violent mobs. Ultimately, when mob rule failed, they ended up with dictatorship. The people leading angry mobs are the worst possible choice to lead the way forward.

Our founding fathers chose to develop a form of government that was not the result of  mob rule. That is why we have a House and a Senate. Why we have an Executive and a Supreme Court. Congress, the President and the Supreme Court are co-equal branches of government. There are a set of checks and balances that prevent any one part of government gaining total control. In the same way the House, which is elected every two years, is constrained by the Senate, which has six year terms. In addition, while the House is determined by population, the Senate gets two Senators per state, regardless of size. This was an extremely important compromise. It prevented tyranny. It also prevented mob rule.

Once again, we see angry mobs trying to take over. If we allow that to continue, the inevitable result will be widespread lawlessness and more violence. When we allow the mob to rule, we throw away checks and balances. We also throw away justice. When I see an angry mob screaming no justice, no peace, I realize that justice is the farthest things from their mind. Instead, the leaders of the mob want to seize the day to seize power. Justice has nothing to do with it. Today, far too many Democratic leaders are either embracing the mob or failing to recognize the danger. This is made worse when much of the outrage is based on a false narrative. Far too many people have been convinced, because of irresponsible reporting, that there is a surge in racist white cops shooting innocent black men for no reason. Police shootings of an unarmed person are fortunately rare. Many of the unarmed suspects are not exactly innocent. For example, the man shot by Brooklyn, Mn police posted a picture of himself holding a gun. According to reports, a female officer shot him accidentally, when she thought she was pointing her taser. It should be noted that he was resisting arrest and trying to flee the scene.

The only real solution is to demand an end to mob violence. Mobs should be controlled, and people told the simple truth. When you are screaming at me, threatening violence, you make it impossible for me to hear you.

In Fresno, CA, a white teenager was shot in the back while running away from police. The police officers were not charged. There were no major protests. Should his life matter less because he was white?

A young white woman was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer during the protests on January 6, 2021. She was unarmed and was not a threat. Yet, we don’t even know the name of the police officer who shot her. If her life less valuable because she was white?

Minneapolis is about to burn again. The situation is being inflamed by a Governor who criticized the police but did not criticize the rioters. Instead, he said: “We must protect peaceful protest,” while ignoring the reality that these protests are far from peaceful. More importantly, if we accept the demands by the protestors, it will only make things worse. Police are already increasingly afraid to confront violent criminals. The inevitable result of that will be more violence. It is easy to understand. Wise police will wait until after a violent crime has been committed, before acting. Other police will decide it is time to move on to another occupation. Police academies are already sitting empty because no one wants the job. Who can blame them? You are tasked with confronting some of the most violent criminals and if something goes wrong the criminal will be portrayed as a candidate for sainthood accompanied by loud demands that the police be convicted and sentenced to prison. This happens every time, with little or regard for the facts and with even less regard for the consequences.

I do not know if Chauvin will be convicted or not. I do know that violent protests will happen regardless of the results. I also know that much of what has been reported about this situation is extremely misleading and prejudicial to the police. Sadly this reminds me of a time, when Democrats were in control in the South, when a black man was assumed to be guilty because he was black. It will take incredible courage for that jury to make the right decision for the right reasons based solely on the facts and evidence. That is the ultimate tragedy.

When I hear someone screaming “no justice no peace” the only thing certain is that they are not really interested in either justice or peace. But I fear the real danger is that this will increase the racism these protests are allegedly trying to prevent. It serves to only reinforce stereotypes rather than treating everyone as an individual. This unites no one and instead pits brother against brother. The best we can hope for is that our great Democratic experiment will work and remove the people from power who are letting this happen on their watch. The only alternative is seeing a return to the French way, which results in brutal irrational violence followed by dictatorship.

TDM

As a combat crew member flying missions in Vietnam, I was sent to Jungle Survival school in the Philippines. It was an amazing experience. They dropped us off in the middle of nowhere five miles from the border with beyond. I always thought of the jungle as flat with lots of monkeys and people like Tarzan swinging from vines. At least this part of the jungle was extremely hilly. The only animals we saw were birds, rats, and snakes. But we also encountered something else, the Negrito. This is a Spanish diminutive of negro, used to mean “little black people.” They are now thought to be one of the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines. They are indeed black, and they are small. They seldom grow more than 4’8” tall. The USAF, in its wisdom, decided to drop us off in their backyard. Then they bribed them, with rice, to hunt us down. If they captured one of us, they got a reward. But they were nice and friendly people. I still have a Bolo knife that I bought from a friendly Negrito. He had made it by grinding down a spring from an abandoned army vehicle. They were also very smart and deadly.

So, I set off, in this very dangerous and unrecognizable world, to find a hiding spot safe from the most skilled hunters on this planet. For example, the Negitos used to sneak into Japanese barracks and cut the throat of every other man. The USAF hired them to guard B52s. Then some genius General decided these planes should only be guarded by USAF personnel, so they fired the Negritos. For the next week, every morning, the guards woke up to find the word BOMB written on the B52s landing gear tires. They rehired the Negritos and the world returned to normal.

So, I opted for comfort instead. I picked the first open place I found. Strung up my jungle hammock between two trees and settled down for the night. The next morning, to my surprise, I had not been captured. I suspect that the spot I chose was so obvious that all the Negritos assumed someone else had already got me. If captured, we were to give up a chit, so the Negrito could get their reward. Everyone else in my group was captured. I was the only one who still had my chit. Some of them were captured after a long night of misery. One guy decided to camp out under a large bush, which turned out to be a rat’s nest.  Nice! Another one camped on top of a very steep ridge. He was terrified of falling off the edge, so he tied himself to a tree with a rope. But, in the middle of the night, he felt the urge, so got up, untied the rope, and promptly fell off a cliff. The rest of us heard the search and rescue helicopters trying to find him in the dark. He did live but was seriously injured. Another “friend” found a snake that looked interesting. He killed the snake and put it in a paper bag to bring back to base camp. He ran into some Negritos so decided to show them the snake. When he dropped the snake out of the bag, he found out it was still alive. The Negritos took one look at the snake and ran away. That should have been a clue. But nope, this genius “killed” the snake again, put it back in the paper sack and carried it back to base camp. When he arrived, two days later, he wanted to show his instructor the snake, so he dropped it out of the paper sack. The snack came to life once more. This time the instructor immediate shot it, ending all nine of the snakes lives. It turned out to be a Bamboo Pit Viper. They are not very big, but very venomous.

The point being that having a lot of people hunting for you is not all that fun, although it can result in some amusing stories. No one is being more hunted today than Hunter Biden. His problem is that rather than staying out of the limelight and hoping no one notices, he is writing books and agreeing to interviews. The results have been catastrophic, and this has the serious potential of making Joe Biden look even worse, if that is remotely possible. While the MSM in the U.S. continues to shy away from this, the Daily Mail, UK shows no such restraint. The following article shows just how bad this is and how everyone else in the world is laughing at us:

What Hunter Biden left OUT of his ‘tell-all’ memoir revealed | Daily Mail Online

I know everyone is beyond disgusted at the enormous damage already done by the Biden Administration. The good news is that this is so bad and so obvious that even the MSM is starting, slowly, to notice. If you were worried about Biden and his liberal left wacko supporters taking complete control and changing American forever, stop worrying. They simply lack the competence to pull this off. They are mucking things up so far that the disastrous results are increasingly impossible to ignore. Some of those people who support liberal left-wing ideas are not actually stupid, they just don’t realize they are digging their own grave. They don’t want the government to micromanage their lives either. Gee, you mean I have to wear a mask too?  Particularly when that government is as incompetent as the Biden Administration.

Some may wonder how to fight back. Fortunately, that also became obvious this week. Stop drinking Coke. Do not book a flight on Delta. Ignore the MLB. Boycott all those businesses that are already boycotting anyone who disagrees with them. They will soon learn something important. They need us, we don’t need them. If enough people stop buying, they will change, just like the NFL backed away from kneeling during the national anthem after they lost half their fans. This will be a challenge because I one for really like Coke. To me it is an American icon. But an American Icon out to destroy this country based on a blatantly false narrative is a bitter pill to swallow. As for me, things go better without Coke. My hunt is now for other products I can choose to not buy.

TDM

The Master’s tournament has always been a favorite of mine. I have had the privilege of playing Augusta National 6 times. There is something very special about that place. The members stay on the course in these little cottages. One is called the Eisenhower Cottage, because it was built for President Eisenhower. Another is the Bobby Jones cottage, which is next to the 10^th tee.  Then there is the Butler Cabin, where they do the press conference awarding a green jacket to the new winner.

On the second floor of the club house there is a locker room, reserved for winners of the Masters. They each have their own locker, and the green jacket they were awarded is kept in that locker. This is one place where everyone plays by the rules. The first time I played there I was totally intimidated when we went to the driving range where I met my caddy, wearing the traditional white jump suit and a green hat. I felt very unworthy.

One of the traditions of the Masters is that it is against the rules to tip anyone, including the caddy. They warn every player about this, before every round. We were sternly told that the caddies are very well compensated and that if you tip one, and they accept it, they will be fired. There are no cell phones allowed on the course.

But my favorite was always someone telling the story about the Eisenhower tree. This tree was located about 210 yards from the tee on the left side of the 17^th fairway. I never hit it but have certainly see professional golfers mess up a round hitting that tree. President Eisenhower hated that tree and was not impressed. He brought this up at an annual membership meeting. He asked why they couldn’t remove it. The Chairman of Augusta National at the time, Cliff Roberts, just said: “there being no further business, the meeting is closed.” That is why it was called the Eisenhower tree until it finally died of old age in 2014. Every time I played at Augusta someone told that story.

Today the current Chairman of Augusta National addressed the controversy regarding the Georgia voting law. His answer was perfect.

https://www.aol.com/vote-fundamental-augusta-national-chairman-171656057.html

“I believe, as does everyone in our organization, that the right to vote is fundamental in our democratic society,” No one should be disadvantaged in exercising that right [to vote], and it is critical that all citizens have confidence in the electoral process.”

This did not surprise me. The first time I met Fred Ridley was when we played a round of golf together at the Fred McGriff invitational. After Fred has made 14 consecutive pars on a championship caliber golf course, I asked him if he ever played competitive golf. He admitted that he had won the U.S. Amateur beating Lanny Watkins. Fred was the senior partner is a law firm that did a lot of work for me in the Tampa Bay area.

A couple of years later Fred called me and asked how far I lived from the Olympic Club. I said it was about 25 miles. He said, “I don’t know if you know this, but I am the Chairman of the USGA rules Committee.  I wondered if you would like PGA credentials for the U.S. Open.” I took a week off work and my wife and I attended all the practice rounds and the U.S. Open. A couple of years later he called and asked how far it was to Pebble Beach.  At that time, he was the President of the USGA. So, we also spent a week in Monterey attending another U.S. Open.

Fred is a nice guy and while very competent he is also very real and friendly. I haven’t talked to him since I retired from ABM, but he called me to wish me good luck. I knew he was Chairman of the Masters Tournament committee but was pleased and shocked to learn he was the new Chairman.

NO, I would never call Fred and try to get anyone on Augusta National. It doesn’t work that way; you must be invited. But I do enjoy seeing someone I know and consider a friend do a marvelous job in a very challenging position.

My person memory of Augusta National was when I stupidly hit my tee shot over the 16^th green. I was in a sand trap, taller than my head. I asked the caddy where to hit the ball. He pointed to a spot about 4 inches square, off the green, between two bunkers. He said this is the only place you can hit it and keep the ball on the green. I closed my eyes and swung and miraculous hit that exact spot. The ball rolled down to the green, then across the green ending up 65 feet below the hole. I, predictably, three putted from there for a smooth double bogie 5.

The next year I was at the Masters Practice round when one of the pros was practicing from the exact same shot. He hit the ball 10 straight times. Nine of them either landed in the other sand trap or rolled off the green. One and only one of them hit that 4 inch square and stayed on the green. This made me feel much better about myself. But, he didn’t three put. What many people don’t know is that Augusta National closes for the summer shortly after the Masters. That is one reason the course is always in such perfect condition.

Enjoy the Masters. They are not about to leave Georgia. But no one asked the question on my mind. Are they still going to serve Coke?

TDM

The whole world knows that Devin Chauvin, the evil police officer in Minneapolis, put his knee on George Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, killing him. Except, yesterday, we learned that this is not what happened at all. This should have been obvious to everyone, but it wasn’t. Almost everyone jumped to conclusions based on one video that may have presented a very inaccurate view of the event. There was other evidence, but it was ignored even after the defense attorney is his opening statement said that Devin Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s shoulder, not his neck.

All the reporting was based on one video, shot by a teenager, from one angle. The video from the body camera, worn by another officer, is much closer and from a very different angle. It tells a completely different story. This sure seems to show that Officer Chauvin did not have his knee on George Floyd’s neck at all, it was on his shoulder. The Police Chief, who ripped Chauvin a new one saying that putting his knee on George Floyd’s neck was a violation of procedure, had to admit, after watching the new video, that his knee was on the shoulder, not the neck. How is that possible. Didn’t anyone in the police department look at that body cam footage?

I do a lot of work as an expert witness in state and federal court. It is extremely important to learn the facts and to use them to form your opinion. There are two sides to every issue, but usually one set of facts. In this case, the facts are obvious, and they have been available since day one. It is likely that the first thing anyone looked at was that body cam video. That is, after all, the whole point. Yet, incredibly, no one appears to have even pretended to do an objective evaluation. The MSM came out shrieking that the “murder” of George Floyd was impossible to defend. Even Donald Trump said this was unacceptable. They were all wrong. They all rushed to judgement, based on a video that we now know was at best, misleading. People burned down parts of Minneapolis because of the reporting on this. There have been protests all over the country because of this. There are threats by BLM to burn down the country if officer Chauvin is not convicted. They are already working up a lather.

This reminds me of the time I played in a Golf tournament with Joey Kocur. At the time he was the enforcer for the Detroit Redwings. He and Bob Probert were known as the “Bruise Brothers.” They even made a video about him and other enforcers, called Ice Guardians. Off the ice, Joey Kocur was a very friendly guy. He was fun to be around. He was very muscular, about 6ft and 220 pounds of raw muscle. He could hit the golf ball a mile, but not necessarily in any expected direction.  On one of the holes, he accidentally hit his drive straight down our own fairway, over the heads of the foursome in front of us. I am sure this was unintentional. Suddenly, I looked up and saw a guy heading toward us in a golf cart, beet red, looking to pick a fight. In the meantime, Joey Kocur was standing next to me, hyperventilating to get his pulse up. I quickly realized the friendly Joey was turning into a Bruise Brother. I jumped in my cart and headed off this guy.  I got out of my cart, put both my hands in the air, apologized profusely and said I am very sorry, but you need to know that the person who hit that ball is Joey Kocur and you really don’t want to mess with him. The other guy knew about Joey Kocur, and when that sunk in, he went from beet red to lily white, turned his golf cart around, and went back to playing golf. Joey quickly promised to avoid hitting into them again.

The irresponsible reporting by the MSM has made the George Floyd death more than explosive. People are genuinely angry because they believed this reporting. The entire Ohio State Basketball team knelt during the National Anthem in memory of George Floyd. Now, we are in an impossible situation. If Devin Chauvin is convicted, it very well could be a miscarriage of justice. Even if he is convicted, a higher court is likely to overturn that verdict.  But in the meantime, this will have a devastatingly negative impact on police all over the country. The people who will pay the highest price for that will be the people victimized by black-on-black crime. There will also be the enormous damage caused and to be caused by BLM inspired riots. All of this could have been avoided. All that was necessary was responsible reporting that waited until all the evidence was in before rushing to judgment. Incredibly, Minneapolis has already given the George Floyd family $26 million in settlement of his claim.

It is long past time to start holding people accountable for their actions. It is not a minor problem when the MSM not only fails to tell the truth, but they also frequently deliberately misrepresent known facts. The hit piece by CBS 60 minutes on Governor DeSantis is a classic example of that. This was so bad that even the Democratic Mayor of Miami quickly rose to DeSantis defense.

I do think there are cases where police over-react resulting in unnecessary injury and even death. For example, sending a swat team to arrest Roger Stone was a case study in abuse of power. But the solution to this must start with the facts. One of those facts is sometimes if police don’t act with overwhelming force very bad things happen. In this case, just imagine if George Floyd had drove away in his car. That very likely would have resulted in a tragic automobile accident, potentially injuring innocent people. Would you want to deal with someone like George Floyd?

There is no easy solution to this, and no solution at all unless everyone starts dealing with facts and evidence. We also need to bend a knee and be much more careful before jumping to conclusions.

TDM

The FBI and the DOJ have been desperate to convict someone for insurrection regarding the Capitol protests. There is no doubt that some people broke the law and crossed the line. Those people should be charged. If they assaulted a police officer they should be charged. If they trespassed into the Capitol, they should be charged. But the theory that this was a plot to overthrow the government of the United States as part of a planned insurrection is absurd. It was absurd from day one. It was clear that very little damage was done to the Capitol, there is no evidence of anyone physically threatening any politician, there were no firearms involved or even confiscated. There were no bombs. The most lethal weapon used by protestors appears to have been bear spray.

Yet the FBI apparently dropped everything else and went on a nationwide man(woman) hunt for insurrectionists. People were arrested with flourish, in some cases including swat teams. Yet so far, they don’t have a shred of evidence supporting an insurrection, by anyone. There is, however, evidence of both the FBI and the DOJ blatantly ignoring facts. It is worse than that, they are lying about the evidence and deliberately withholding exculpatory evidence to the defense.

A lead defendant appears to be Proud Boy Ethan Nordean. A lot of people in the MSM would have you believe that Proud Boys is a well-organized white supremacist terrorist group that is a clear and present danger. There is little if any evidence of that. As far as I can tell, Proud Boys is deliberately not white supremacists, the leader is a person of color. They appear to view themselves as vigilante protectors of people threatened by  groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. They poke the bear and get into confrontations. But I don’t know of any incident where the Proud Boys attacked anyone other than when confronting people, they consider to be violent protestors.

I am not a fan of Proud Boys; I am certainly not a member and don’t know anyone from the organization. I believe that they insert themselves, unnecessarily, into situations where this increases the potential for violence.  But that does not make them white supremacists and it does not make them terrorists. But there are a lot of people desperate to make you believe that. Joe Biden mentioned Proud Boys as a white supremacist group, and the MSM gleefully repeated this ridiculous assertion.

Now the DOJ, with the help of the FBI is desperate to put Proud Boy Ethan Nordean in prison for life. They tried, and failed, to get him remanded with no bail. He was arrested on February 3, and the DOJ has tried to get him detailed until trial, which probably won’t happen until 2022. He is currently on house arrest.  The evidence is so thin that the Chief Magistrate Judge of the Western District of Washington refused to do that. So did Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell.

Here is What the Media Isn’t Reporting About the Government’s Flimsy Case Against Proud Boy Ethan Nordean (thegatewaypundit.com)

According to this article the judge said there was not even an allegation that the defendant caused injury to any person or that he personally caused damage to any particular property. The reported allegations by the FBI are absurd. He was accused of using encrypted chats on January 6^th, to direct people to invade the Capitol. It turns out he didn’t even have his cell phone with him, because the battery was dead. The FBI knew this, because they had his phone, but they refused to disclose this information to the defendant or the court. When pushed by the court, the government admitted they had evidence that Nordean’s phone was not used during the Capitol riots, but they ignored this. They accused him of having a fake passport, but it turned out to be a passport for his girlfriend’s former boyfriend, that she kept in her jewelry box.  They also ignored the fact that Norden had asked Michael Graves to perform for their group at their Airbnb around 3:30 to 4:00 p.m. on January 6^th. Was this supposed to be a concert to celebrate overthrow of the government? Please!

They have no evidence of Nordean damaging any property, instead they say that damage was done by other people. They even accused him of using a Baofeng radio. But he didn’t even get the Baofeng radio until January 7^th, so he couldn’t possibly have used it. The Baofeng radio is a cheap Chinese radio that is very popular because of the price and because it can operate as a ham radio, an FRS radio, or a GMRS radio. A lot of people, such as ham radio operators, hate this radio and apparently it does not have full FCC approval.  The problem is that the Baofeng can operate on restricted frequency. But a lot of people have these radios. I even have one, it was a gift, although I have never used it.

The point being if Nordean is guilty of anything, other than loud protest, neither the FBI nor the DOJ seems to have any evidence supporting this assumption. That, of course, does not stop the MSM which “needs” the Capitol protests to be a conspiracy by Proud Boys or Oath Takers. Part of the reason for that is the need to distract from the all too real conspiracies by BLM and Antifa. The MSM is bad enough, but now it is increasingly difficult to have any credibility in either the DOJ or the FBI.

Ironically, the same people who ignore real and dangerous conspiracies that support their liberal left positions, are totally convinced of non-existent right-wing conspiracies. This reminds me of Hillary Clinton griping about the vast right-wing conspiracy against Bill and her. A conspiracy that did not and does not exist, other than in the delusional minds of those posing as reporters on CNN. And, by the way, apparently the leaders of the FBI and the DOJ.

The Capitol riots were not the result of an attempt to over-throw the government. It was a protest demanding that Congress do “something” about an election that was so clearly corrupt. But congress still pretends there was zero evidence of fraud at all, and this is just an unfounded conspiracy. The only real solution is to stop the nonsense, do a real investigation, and let the facts speak for themselves.

There was an incident with a car at the Capitol recently. Sadly, a Capitol Police officer was killed. The suspect was shot and killed after he got out of his car with a knife. It took a long time for the MSM to identify the suspect. Then they ignored the fact that he is a Muslim and a strong supporter of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. The stories about this event and the suspect are quickly fading into obscurity. If only he had been a right-wing, white supremacist, anti-Asian white guy carrying his Proud Boys membership card. This, this would have really mattered. In this case Proud goeth before a fall, because it is increasingly obvious that Proud Boys, were not involved in this situation at all, and at worst, are not remotely capable of pulling off some kind of weird insurrection.

TDM

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

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

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 – Wikipedia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TDM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TDM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TDM

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

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

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

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

Final Words: Cronkite’s Vietnam Commentary : NPR

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

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

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

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

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

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

TDM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TDM