I had difficulty imagining Michigan electing someone like Abul El-Sayed to the United States Senate. It was even more difficult to imagine James Talarico getting elected to the Senate in Texas. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Both won, and they won easily. Democrats ran the table and took control of the House and the Senate. Good luck with that.

It is hard to imagine this congress working with Donald Trump constructively regarding any subject. For the next two years, imagine regular government shutdowns with Democrats attempting to defund ICE and passing Medicare for All, without regard to the consequences, and, for at least some of them, embracing the consequences. In addition, there will be endless hostile hearings that are unlikely to accomplish anything except waste valuable time.

The biggest loser was Donald Trump. Democrats ran on an anti-Trump campaign, and it resonated with voters. Sadly, this is easy to understand. Trump is the most narcissistic person to occupy the Oval Office and it isn’t even close. When he isn’t naming the Kennedy Center after himself, he goes on and on about his great accomplishments. Many of which are legitimate, but Trump’s unrelenting self-adoration and bloviating make him an easy target. I have concluded that he suffers from an inferiority complex which is why he demands the world worship at his feet. Truly confident people don’t do that; they let their accomplishments speak for themselves. Trump is incapable of being humble. He is even less capable of shutting up.

After conceding that Democrats had won, Trump said: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Wrong Donald. You were on the ballot, and this is why Democrats won.

While this is going to be bad, unbelievably bad, it is not the end of Democracy. Everything moves in cycles, and political elections are no exception. Now Democrats must try and do “something.” I am far from certain that is remotely possible. We can expect endless hearings and 24/7 efforts to prevent Trump and his administration from governing. They have promised to impeach him, and that is one promise they are likely to keep. They are almost certain to impeach Pete Hegseth. These are unlikely to succeed, but that doesn’t matter. All that matters is making it difficult for Trump to govern.

None of this will lower gas or food prices or reduce taxes. Instead, brace yourself for tax increases. They will be framed as targeting billionaires, but the DNC is funded by billionaires and delusional Hollywood celebrities. Despite claims of taxing the rich, middle-class Americans face the greatest risk.

The point being that Democrats swarmed to power based on promises they not only can’t keep, but they also don’t even have a plan of action to achieve any of this. In addition, some of these new Democrats are so extreme that they just may encounter serious opposition within the Democrat party. Up until recently Democrats have voted totally in lock step. But these new Democrats are unlikely to let Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer control the agenda. They have the bit in their mouth and are not enthusiastic about following the leadership of anyone.

A large part of the blame falls on RINO Republicans who blocked things like the Save Act. It is hard to imagine real election security returning to the United States and that should scare everyone.

It would be naïve to pretend this is a good result for Trump, for Republicans, for the country. It is instead, the worst possible results, apart from Florida, where Byron Donalds and Ashley Moody won by the narrowest of margins. Texas, on the other hand, went deep blue. People who moved to Texas, to get away from Blue State governments, are up late eyeing Tennessee and Florida. This morning there are fewer options available.

Eight members of the DSA were elected to congress, but 40 more Democrats elected to the House were endorsed by the DSA. Democrats won 228 seats already while Republicans have won 139. Obviously, Republicans will have little say regarding any legislation. But candidates endorsed by the DSA will be expected to toe the DSA line, which will not necessarily be received enthusiastically by the other Democrats in congress. They aren’t exactly perfect, but the DSA is perfectly awful.

So, I predict chaos. Trump will spend the last two years of his Presidency as the lamest of lame ducks. Even Republicans will be working overtime to distance themselves from him. Democrats will focus entirely on resisting him. That may be popular with the people who voted for them, but it is unlikely to accomplish much of anything, at least nothing positive.

The 2028 President election started this morning. There are several strong candidates for the Republican nomination. The Democratic leadership board is empty. Before the dust settles, we will be amid an incredibly divisive Presidential election. Just when you were sick and tired of political commercials. It has only just begun.

Few predicted this. Even fewer can predict results, with one exception. Chaos is inevitable. The least likely result is real progress. But sometimes it really is darkest just before dawn. Remember that God is still in control and He is a better planner than anyone of us. It is easy to have faith when everything is great, but the most important time to have faith is during times of trial. Like now. Keep the faith.

TDM

The election, finally, is next Tuesday. If nothing else, it will be great to stop all those awful political commercials. Numerous media outlets were predicting a blue wave. Why not, that is what almost always happens during a midterm election. In addition, that is what all the polls were showing. But what is playing well in New York City does not necessarily play well in Peoria, or anywhere else where real people live. It is never wise to predict results in any election, but some things are, well, obvious. If you believe the polls Talarico is ahead of Paxton in Texas. However, anyone remotely familiar with Texas realizes that Talarico is a lot of things, but straight from the heart of Texas is not on the list. Remember the only person he beat in an election was Jasmine Crockett. Yes, that Jasmine Crockett. In February, polls showed independents favored Talarico 76% to 24%. The primary election was in March. Talarico won 53% to 46%. After the election, the polling people claimed that the polls were an accurate summary of voter preference and primary results. Seriously?

Recent reports show that Democrats are twice as likely to respond to a poll as Republicans. In addition, Democrats are famous for fake polls designed to diminish Republican turnout. So, polls? Please!

Jasmine Crocket released her down-ballot endorsements but let out endorsing Talarico. Hmmm. I seldom bet on anything, but I sure wouldn’t bet on Talarico winning Texas.

Gary Peters is the current Senator from Michigan. Abdul  El-Sayed is the Democratic candidate. Mike Rogers is a former FBI Agent and chaired the House Intelligence Committee. The polls predict El-Sayed will win. For reasons pointed out above, one must question who exactly is taking these polls. There are certainly interviews with Michigan Democrats who are giving the big thumbs down to El-Sayed. Someone is lying: the people taking the polls, or the people giving interviews. Bet on the life-long Democrat who announced he or she couldn’t possibly vote for El-Sayed. If Rogers wins in Michigan, that is a flip.

Michele Tafoya is running against Peggy Flanagan, Democrat Lieutenant Governor to Tim Walz. Minnesota is deep blue and the Somali vote will all go for Flanagan. But there is an old saying: “You can’t beat somebody with nobody.” Michele Tafoya is somebody. Peggy who? If Tafoya wins, Democrats have zero chance of winning control of the Senate.

There are races, in toss-up states, that according to the polls are close. But early voting shows that Republican turnout is higher than expected. The question may not be how Democrats vote but rather how incentivized Republicans are to vote. Don’t underestimate Mr. Trump. He has changed the scope of this election from “it’s the economy stupid, to: “do you want the people who messed this up the first time regain control?” and “When you vote for a Democrat you vote for a Democrat Socialist. You vote to defund the police, open our borders, and close our prisons.” RINO Republican are afraid of offending; Trump is only concerned about winning. That is why RINO Republicans are bordering on extinction.

Time to remember Maslov’s Triangle. The lowest level is food and water. People may not like the cost of gas, but people aren’t going hungry. That matters. The next level is security of the body, employment, morality, the family, and property. Trump has changed the topic from “things are too expensive,” to  reminding people who created this mess and asking how secure they will feel with open borders, defunded police, and no prisons. Wealthy liberals in LA with private security view this very differently than the people living in areas where crime is becoming a genuine problem. Never underestimate Mr. Trump.

We will know the results soon by Tuesday evening. Except in California where results will be delayed until all the illegal alien votes can be tabulated. We may, or may not, get results in California before Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow land approaching at the speed of light. We will soon know.

TDM

Here in South Florida, it is impossible to watch the local news or any sporting event on TV without being inundated with annoying ads from high profile attorneys. But there is an exception that occurs during every election cycle. Now we are overwhelmed by political ads explaining why their opponent is the spawn of Satan while they are competing for Saint Hood. It is beyond annoying.

Obviously, people with serious money are funding these ads and they must believe this is helping their candidate win. That may or may not be true, but it is unmistakable evidence that someone is expecting to profit big time if their candidate wins. It is a reminder that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It would be extremely difficult for any politician to act solely in the best interest of his or her constituents while ignoring the special interests that fund their campaigns.

People elected to congress receive a nice salary and benefits. But while they are well paid, it does not come close to explaining how so many of them become filthy, and I do mean filthy, rich while in office. One obvious problem is insider training. People in congress are aware of legislation that can have a major impact on a particular industry or company. They can buy or sell stock at just the right time, because they have information not available to the public. There have recently been attempts to limit insider trading by politicians, but while that seems appropriate it is unlikely to solve the problem.

In the meantime, while suffering through endless attack ads, it seems like the only option is to vote for the lessor of two evils. Democracy is great, enduring endless political attack ads, not so much.

Although the problem is more apparent and harder to ignore today, it is nothing new. A look at the earliest U.S. presidential elections suggests that campaigns were, if anything, even worse. There was no television or radio, so newspapers, conducted the attacks. Candidates themselves are much more restrained at in-person events.

If you listen to the “experts” the key issue this year, as in most years, is the economy. Bill Clinton campaigned for President with a strategy that focused on “it’s the economy, stupid.” It worked. President George H.W. Bush, who was extremely popular after winning the first Iraq war, was defeated by those who believed that Clinton/Gore would fix the economy. The Clinton policies were an unmitigated disaster. But he caught a break, because Republicans took over the House and the Senate during the midterms. Then the economy did get better, not because of Clinton, but despite him. Clinton was smart enough to recognize the obvious and take undeserved credit for the results.

Despite the noise, elections do matter and this year they may matter even more. To me, the genuine issues are not which candidate will lower the cost of my groceries, my gas, or my electric bill. It is which candidate represents a clear and present danger to Democracy. The liberal left has taken over the Democrat Party, and they are running candidates who are truly frightening. Some of them have connections with terrorist organizations. Blue cities and blue states have allowed criminals to roam free with little consequences because of no-cash bail. They not only allow illegal aliens to avoid being deported, but they also encourage them with free health care and other benefits, often benefits unavailable to people here legally. The obvious reason is that they want power, and they believe these illegal aliens will vote for them. This is why Democrats are so opposed to voter ID and other election integrity issues.

The MSM gloats over Trump’s approval rating. They ignore the fact that the approval rating for congress is even lower. Trump has been traveling non-stop attending political rallies all over the country. His schedule is unbelievable. He is also campaigning with a hugely different message. He is warning America that voting for Democrats is voting for Democrat Socialists and that if we want to see what that looks like check, out the riots in France.

It is never wise to predict the outcome of elections, but one thing is already clear. People are turning out to vote, and Republicans are turning out earlier than in prior years. It has been increasingly obvious that political polls have little credibility. Some of them aren’t even real polls.

This reminds me of a Gomer Pyle show. Gomer and Sergeant Carter are trapped near a bomb getting ready to explode. Sergeant Carter asks Gomer which wire he would cut. Gomer says “red.” Sergeant Carter immediately cuts the “black” wire, disarming the bomb. Gomer said, “why did you ask me, only to ignore me?” Sergeant Carter responded: “because the only thing I could be sure about was that you would be wrong.”

Exactly. The only thing certain is that the polls are guaranteed to be wrong and so are a high percentage of talking heads predicting ridiculous results. Hold your breath, except while voting.

TDM

We have a hurricane in the Atlantic. Ok, not the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico. Ok, not the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. It is the first hurricane this season. The latest first hurricane since the King James Bible was written. Ok, not since the first King James Bible, because no one was counting hurricanes back then, but definitely the last date for the first hurricane anywhere near Florida in a long, long, long time.

Every night, we turned on our TV station to watch the local meteorologist say, “nothing.” Nothing going on, nothing in sight, nothing. Most people blame this on El Nino. Why not? Works for me. We don’t care. Fewer hurricanes, GREAT!

If you watch CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and any one other than Fox News you expect Democrats to coast to a winning a majority in the House and possibly overtaking the Senate. The reason is that they assume everyone hates Trump as much as they do.

Now granted, things are too expensive. That is obvious. And people vote based on their pocketbook. That is tradition. But this assumes people have forgotten about the Biden years. The economy was not exactly humming when that sleepy clown was pretending to be President. The MSM may not have noticed, but those people who have sobered up after four years of Biden know that while Trump isn’t exactly a saint, Biden was a joke.

People do hate Trump. But they also hate Democrats. They hate Republicans, with cause, but they hate Democrats even more. This is not because Republicans are great, they aren’t. This is because the MSM and the Democrat Socialists are literally insane.

So, one must check out the polls. Oops, the polls all show incredibly stupid Democrats in the lead in places like Michigan and Texas. Now Michigan does have a long history of electing really dumb people to the Senate, but Abdul El-Sayed sure seems like a bridge too far. I think Michigan goes Republican, flip one Democrat Senate seat. Oops.

People like Nate Silver think Talarico will beat Paxton. Unless the people in Texas are vastly different than I remember, this is insane. I don’t think Talarico is coming close.

Some states will elect stupid candidates because that happens during every mid-term election. The MSM will produce polls showing Democrats have insurmountable leads, in an obvious effort to decrease Republican turnout. This has worked far too often in the past to safely ignore.

But there are warning signs if one is paying attention. Democrats are outvoting Republicans in early voting, but by much lower margins than in prior years. If Republicans turn out on election day, almost every poll is wrong.

In addition, Republican registrations are increasing faster than Democrat registrations. That is happening everywhere. A lot of people moved from blue states to Florida. People in Florida feared they would bring blue state mentality to Florida. But that isn’t what happened. Instead, Florida went from purple to deep red. The United States dodged the Al Gore bullet by the smallest of margins. George W. Bush beat Al Gore in Florida by 537 votes. In 2018 Ron DeSantis beat Andrew Gillum by .4% or about 32,000 votes. That would be the same Andrew Gillum who was arrested last July with three grams of meth and drug paraphernalia in Alabama. But four years later, DeSantis beat Charlie Crist by 1.5 million votes, nearly 20%. Florida improved its education program and students are well red.

Donald Trump is being Donald Trump. But love him or hate him, it is impossible to ignore him. His message is simple. Democrats mucked things up to a fare thee well when in power, which is obviously true, and if we put Democratic Socialists in charge ,it will be even worse. If you want the entire country to be like California and New York, vote for Democrats.

That may not be slick marketing, but he is definitely on target. He also isn’t pulling the tradition stunt of Republicans caving under pressure and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

This ain’t normal year folks. Not politically, not in terms of weather and not in terms of predicting the mid-term elections. If the Democrats had run candidates who bid a better job of pretending to be normal, they might have swept the midterms. But, instead, they chose the worst possible candidates and then pretended they were normal. They aren’t and most people have stopped watching CNN because they are tired of watching stupid.

What they are watching instead is videos of mobs torching France because they want more handouts. Did anyone notice the pro-Palestine flags? This is what happens when Muslim immigrants overwhelm a country. They don’t even try to assimilate. They want to dominate. To overthrow. This is exactly what is in store for this country if we stupidly allow Democrat Socialists to gain power. If you are paying attention, this is exactly what they are proposing.

But other things are also happening. Paramount bought CNN and CBS and the people who run Paramount are hard-core right-wing Republican Trump supporters. How’s that going to work out for the current clown show at these networks?

I can’t predict anything, but it is easy to see the wind blowing, extremely hard, and in unexpected directions. The only thing certain is that the usual suspects, who have been wrong about everything, are likely to be wrong about this too. How, exactly, to you explain this? You don’t. You just watch, prepare to be amazed, and remember that God is in control. Arrogance and self-righteousness are not actually a substitute for logic and common sense.

I remember sitting on a plane, headed to South Vietnam for my third combat tour. Everyone on that plane knew they were headed to war. None of us looked happy. But we got on that plane. In the meantime, there were silly protestors against a war they didn’t understand throwing up in Washington, D.C. I thought at the time that the MSM was missing the real demonstration. That was put on by the people who demonstrated resolve by getting on that plane, prepared to fight for this country.

We will soon know. If honest hard-working Americans show up to vote this November, it will change everything. Not much else matters at this point.

TDM

While the MSM remains oblivious to the obvious, the rest of the world is taking note. They have been a lot of nations who invested heavily on air-defense systems, ballistic missiles and drone built with state-of-the-art Russian and Chinese technology. In theory, this would allow these countries to thumb their nose at the United States and its allies, knowing that they could overwhelm U.S. systems.

But that is not what happened. The U.S. superiority has been obvious for a long time, but two things changed everything. The first was the two Gulf Wars, particularly the war against Iraq. Iraq had state-of-the-art air defense systems. The U.S. took this completely out of the war within hours. The U.S. invaded Iraq and conquered the country with extraordinarily little effective military opposition from Iraq. Then the recent Iran war has put U.S. military technology on a whole new level. The United States took out Iran’s entire nuclear program in one night and didn’t lose a single aircraft in the operation. This pattern has been repeated numerous times, with none of the Iran air defense systems even slowing things down.

While the MSM had ignored this, the reality is that Iran had a massive state-of-the-art defense system. It had ballistic missiles designed by China to defeat the most sophisticated U.S. defense systems. Nearly every ballistic missile fired at U.S. bases, Israel, or anywhere else defended by the U.S. is shot down long before they hit their target. While occasionally one or two will get through and wreak havoc, most of them are just shot down.

While Iran claims to control the Strait of Hormuz, every day tankers are migrating through the corridor, and the vast majority are making it without a problem. This does not mean Iran can’t still hit an occasional ship, but it does mean they no longer control the Strait of Hormuz. In the meantime, the blockade against Iran shipping is totally effective.

The bottom line is that whenever Chinese or Russian military architecture is used against the U.S., the results are catastrophic for people stupidly thinking this would work. It doesn’t work, and wise men everywhere understand exactly what that this means. Whether you like the U.S., or not. Whether you hate Donald Trump, or not, the U.S. military is the only game in town. People who take us on, foolishly believing the sales promotions by Russia and China, are humiliated. This is not even close.

The people who should understand this the most appear to care the least. While members of the Canadian military are outstanding, Canada has simply not developed its own military capacity. They rely on the U.S. to defend them. This is particularly true regarding defense from intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. bases in Alaska and Greenland are part of the “Golden Dome.” Canada should be paying attention because they can’t possibly provide this type of defense themselves. This is being resisted by Democrats and some RINO Republicans for being too expensive. This reminds me of Reagans “Star Wars”  This was ridiculed by Democrats, but the Soviet Union understood and knew they could never compete with this. It led to the downfall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

The good news is that without regard to the critics, the U.S. is far ahead of both Russia and China regarding our military capacity. U.S. warships and planes are operating openly in Iran and is nothing those expensive air defense systems or ballistic missiles can do about it.

Keep in mind that Venezuela also had was it considered to be state of the art defense systems. It took about 30 minutes for the U.S. to destroy the ability of the Venezuelan air defense systems. Within about two hours, U.S. Helicopters landed in Maduro’s compound and he was captured, along with his wife. Shortly after that, Maduro and his wife was put on board a U.S. aircraft carrier on his way to New York. While some U.S. military individuals were injured there are no reports of U.S. fatalities.

How the US attack on Venezuela, abduction of Maduro unfolded | US-Venezuela Tensions News | Al Jazeera

This is the same U.S. military that was humiliated in Afghanistan, losing thirteen military personnel in the process and abandoning billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment.

It wasn’t the U.S. military capacity that failed, it was the leadership in Washington, D.C.

China knows this. Russia knows this. The entire world knows this. Contrary to reports in the MSM, the rest of the world respects Donald Trump. They may not like him, but they respect him.

This reminds me of the burglar who tried to break into a barn owned by a Quaker Farmer. Sudden they heard a loud voice saying: “Friend, I would do thee no harm for the world, but where thee standeth I am about to shoot.” The burglar left.

Kim Jong Un said that: “the entire United States is within range of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and that a “nuclear button is always on my desk.”  The MSM described this as a fact, not a threat. But Trump responded by writing: “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my button works!”

The China Syndrome. Worked in North Korea. Worked in Venezuela. Working in Iran. The real danger comes from the a Democrat Party that is willing to sacrifice national security if it will somehow conceivably damage Donald Trump. Think about that for a minute.

TDM

When we first moved to Marin County, in California, it seemed like every other car had a “World Peace” bumper sticker. This instantly reminded me of the anti-Vietnam War protests. They sang songs like: “All we are saying is, give peace a chance.” Since I served three tours in Vietnam, I knew this was ridiculous. Apparently, John Lennon thought the Vietnam War was a civil war between people who should have been able to hug and make up. The reality is that communists in North Vietnam, supported by China, were willing to accept one million casualties in their lust to invade and control South Vietnam. How, exactly, do you negotiate with someone who is ready, willing, and able to kill one million of its own citizens to kill you? Sounds great, less filling.

John Lennon was most famous for writing “Imagine“  People still sing it today, with tears in their eyes, imagining utopia.

Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us, only sky.

Imagine all the people, Living for today.

Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too.

Imagine all the people, Living life in peace.

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man, Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world, You may say I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one, I hope someday you’ll join us.

And the world will be as one.

Ironically, John Lennon was worth about $200 million in December 1980. He owned Tittenhurst Park in England, The Dakota in New York, a Palm Beach estate, and a Dorset seaside retreat.

So much for “Imagine no possessions.”

John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8, 1980, by Mark Chapman. Chapman was a Beatles fanatic, who was envious and outraged by John Lennon’s lifestyle. Hypocrisy is not a strong enough word to describe John Lennon.

There is a reason we have police departments. There is a reason we have prisons. There is a reason we have law and order. There are always people who are only focused on themselves without regard to the impact on anyone else. They don’t listen to reason. They don’t respond to hugs and kisses. They just rob you or even kill you.

All countries are not created equal. If you are a gay man, and you doubt that, here’s ticket to Iran. See how that goes. If you believe in freedom of expression, go to China and bad mouth the government. If you believe in freedom of religion, go to any Muslim country and try to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We don’t know who actually said the following: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” We do know some of this is attributed to Edmund Burk in 1770, but researchers have confirmed that he never actually wrote that. What we do know is that was accurate then and it is accurate now. The most important thing to understand is that if people threaten to kill you, believe them.

All those hippies smoking weed and pretending to love on each other only survived because people like me were fighting communists in Vietnam. That is why I had the “Whirled Peas” bumper sticker on my car. The only proper response to absolute nonsense, is to respond with absolute nonsense.

Sadly, many people still believe in the non-existent world that John Lennon created to become rich.

Today, President Trump is confronting Iran. The same Iran that is the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world. The same Iran that wanted desperately to get a nuclear weapon so they could annihilate Israel. “From the River to the Sea” does not include the Jewish state of Israel.

This election, voters have a choice between candidates who view the world as it is and are working to make it better, or delusional people who imagine a world that does not and will not ever exist. At the same time, these people are being overtaken by zealots who want to do for America what Fidel Castro did for CUBA. “How did that work out?”

“Whirled Peas.” Better than the alternative. You’ve been warned.

TDM

The question in this mid-term election is who will show up to vote. That may be quite different than what a lot of people are predicting. We hear about Donald Trump’s favorability rating all the time. All of them show him below 50 percent, with this ranging from 31% by the AP/NORC to 43% by Rasmussen. But more importantly congress has an approval rating ranging from 15% to 18%. One notes that 18% of voters approve of Democrats, while 35% approve of Republicans. 42% of Democrats approve of their party’s congressional performance, while 77% of Republicans hold a favorable view of their party. There are multiple polls and these numbers change with each poll and each day. But the patterns are consistent.

One thing that should be obvious, even to the mainstream media, is the enormous difference between surveys of Republicans and surveys of Democrats. It sure looks to me like polls under survey Republicans. That may be intentional or it may simply be a reflection on who responds to polls, but it is very real. This may explain why in recent elections polls have been so incredibly wrong. The only thing certain is that relying on political polls to predict election results would be unwise.

It is also important to consider who is more vocal about this and who is less demonstrative. If you see a large crowd of people protesting something, they are almost always liberal Democrats. In many cases, there are reports of people being paid to be at these events. That opinion is supported by the obvious presence of “pre-printed” signs. But it is important to realize that the size of the crowd is not necessarily indicative of how other people in the same area think about things.

In my case I find these protests mostly loud and annoying. Screaming outrage is very unlikely to impact my opinion about anything. The same is true for me regarding politicians, particularly when watching a congressional hearing. To be honest, I hate congressional hearings anyway, because they consist mostly of politicians posing for photo ops, on both sides of the aisle, and it is extremely rare that they accomplish anything.

There used to be hearings where the questioning was not done by members of congress, but rather by legal counsel. For example, when congress investigated Joseph McCarthy, the questioning was done by John G. Adams who served as counsel for the Army, and special counsel Joseph Welch. Those hearings ended the reign of Joseph McCarthy. Modern congressional hearings are never actually focused on results, just giving committee members opportunity for airtime. It is, in my opinion, a waste of time and a disgraceful abuse of power.

This leaves us in the unfortunate position of being unable to rely on accurate reporting by the mainstream media or the people running those political polls. But there are things to consider.

One. Never underestimate Donald Trump. It is easy to focus on the things that annoy, but he absolutely knows how to dominate every news cycle. Everyone reports on everything he says or does. Much of this is extremely negative. Some of it is overly positive. But it is always about him and that means his influence can never be ignored.

Two. There have been significant changes regarding election integrity. While it would be great if elections were limited to legally registered voters and that votes were counted swiftly and fairly, we are not there yet. But there have been significant changes since 2020 and even more changes since 2024. People have been prosecuted for election fraud. There are at least efforts to obtain voting records so they can be fairly audited, but these have been fought tooth and nail by Democrats.

Only a fool or a reporter for CNN, which may be the same person, believes that illegal aliens have not been voting in recent elections. These are also the people who pretend election procedures are fair and honest. Most honest people realize this has never been true, particularly in large metropolitan areas dominated by Democrats. Does anyone really think Republicans have a chance to win in a city like Chicago? Please!

But there have been changes and they should not be ignored. One is that at least some illegal aliens will be afraid to vote in November. They don’t want to self-identify because they are at risk of being deported. Another is that getting prosecuted for election fraud is not particularly appealing. In addition, there are people watching and the odds of being exposed as voting illegally are much higher than in previous years. My prediction is that illegal aliens will stay home, in droves and will even hesitate to vote by mail. If that happens, the results could be beyond catastrophic for Democrats.

Another problem is that while extremists show up in droves for Democratic primaries, they remain a minority of all voters, and they are likely to be seriously outnumbered in November.

Finally, Democrats have selected some remarkably poor candidates. I would be shocked if James Talarico wins in Texas or Abdul El-Sayed is elected in Michigan, yet polls predict both outcomes. Either my assessment is wrong, or those polls are unreliable. We will know the results soon in most states and before Thanksgiving in California.

This is a scary election with some absolutely awful candidates. It is hard to imagine a positive future if the citizens in this country vote for people who are against our basic values. This is made scarier by the traditional pattern of the President’s party getting trounced in mid-term elections. This election is particularly important for all these reasons. Now is not the time to panic, now is the time to be sure to vote. But my hunch is that Democrats will succeed brilliantly at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I have little faith in Republicans, but even less confidence in Democrat leadership. If they had chosen moderate appearing candidates, they would have run the table in November. But they didn’t do that at all. They are running a clown act. Sending in the clowns is typically what people do following a disaster. Just saying.

TDM

On August 6, 1974, Democrats and their allies in the Mainstream media (“MSM”) succeeded in getting rid of Richard Nixon. They couldn’t defeat him in an election; he won re-election by a landslide. Instead, they put all their time and effort into prosecuting him for something that really didn’t matter. Some of his staff decided it would be great fun to burglarize the DNC headquarters at the Watergate hotel. They didn’t need to do this. Nixon didn’t ask them to do this. He didn’t even know it was happening. But he stupidly tried to help them cover this up. Probably because he knew the MSM would turn this into the crime of the century. They didn’t turn that botched burglary into the crime of the century, but with the cooperation of RINO Republicans, they turned covering it up into the crime of the century. Nixon resigned in disgrace.

Unfortunately, the cost of removing Richard Nixon was losing the Vietnam war. A war he had won. He had secured a cease fire with the North Vietnamese and if the U.S. had helped South Vietnam stay strong, South Vietnam would look like South Korea today. Instead, the minute Gerald Ford replaced Nixon, Democrat cut off all funding for the war and refused to even provide South Vietnam with the means to defend itself. In doing so, they cast the sacrifices of everyone who fought in Vietnam, including me, on the scrap heap of history. Predictably North Vietnam seized the day and invaded the South by driving down paved roads, virtually unopposed. The results were beyond horrific. We will never know how many people were killed in South Vietnam. We do know that millions died in Cambodia. We also know that many of the Vietnamese people you see in the U.S. today had to escape Vietnam by desperate boat escapes. The stories of what these people endured are beyond horrific. One reason this impacts me so much is that because I speak Vietnamese, many of them told me their stories, because I was usually the only American, they knew who could understand them.

Now, Democrats, aided by their fawning friends in the MSM, are once again desperate to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and for the exact same reason. They hated Richard Nixon. In many ways this is remarkably similar to how they hate Donald Trump. The hatred of Richard Nixon cost us the Vietnam war. If Democrats win in November, they hope to do the exact same thing to Donald Trump. The inevitable result would be losing the war with Iran.

The United Staes has defeated Iran. It is now only a matter of time. The United States had defeated North Vietnam. I was listening to the North Vietnamese Army (“NVA”) on the radio and reading top secret reports. They knew they could not defeat the U.S. Then they noticed the anti-war protests in the U.S. They suddenly realized they didn’t need to win; they just needed to delay losing and continue to cause U.S. casualties. They believed American was weak and would eventually decide the war Democrats had started wasn’t worth it anymore and just quit. If Lyndon Johnson had been re-elected or Hubert Humphrey elected to take his place, that is EXACTLY what would have happened. But incredibly Richard Nixon won, and he quickly changed from the failed strategy of the Johnson Administration to focusing on winning the war and securing peace. He did exactly that. But Democrats and the MSM were more to focused on humiliating the Richard Nixon they hated to notice or even care. Vietnam was not a civil war, it was a communist invasion and defeating communism was vital to our national interests.

The results of losing the Vietnam war were beyond catastrophic. The results of losing the Iran war could threaten mankind. If Iran got a nuclear weapon, it would use it. That would almost certainly set off World War III. And the two choices would be surrendering the world to Muslim extremism, or nuclear war. If anyone thinks climate change or runaway AI threatens mankind, consider what would happen if there was a nuclear war. Millions of people would be killed, and considerable portions of the earth would become uninhabitable.

Everyone; Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and the Mainstream Media should understand this. Hatred for Donald Trump is not an excuse for ignoring the national security interests involved. If Democrats and the MSM united behind Trump, as they should do during a time of national crisis, the Iran war would be over in days. Instead, Iran, like North Vietnam, is gambling that if they can just delay long enough, Democrats in their lust to destroy Donald Trump, will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory without regard to the consequences. Consequences that are too horrible to even contemplate.

The good news it that it looks very unlikely that Democrats will take control of the Senate. This means even if they take control of the House, Trump will remain in office, Iran will be defeated, and the world will be a safer plan. The MSM is desperately trying to help Democrats win the midterms. Iran is trying desperately to help Democrats win the midterms. China is trying desperately to help Democrats win the midterms. Russia is trying desperately to help Democrats win the midterms. That should terrify anyone considering voting for a Democrat, but sadly far too many people are oblivious to what’s at stake.

Donald Trump is not perfect, and his self-glorification act is growing old. But he will be out of office in a little over two years and will become a lame duck President long before he leaves office. While he trolls Democrats and the MSM with suggestions he will run for a third term in 2028, there is zero chance of that happening. For one thing, he isn’t physically capable of doing that. If Democrats were smart, they would do the same thing to him that they did to George H.W. Bush. Bush defeated Iraq and was immensely popular. But Democrats defeated him in the 1992 election with Bill Clinton, a mediocre if not failed governor of Arkansas. They defeated him by convincing Americans that they needed to vote for change. Sadly, there is a long history of Americans voting for change, with disastrous results.

We may be spared. Not by Donald Trump. Not by the Republican Party. Certainly not by the MSM. We may be spared by the incredible stupidity of a Democratic Party that has let itself be taken over by left wing, and in some cases communists, who are out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. They don’t care because all they care about is power. Not the power to do good, not the power to protect the country, not the power to defend our democracy, not the power to defend our friend, just power.

Hold your breath. The threat from climate change is not real. The threat from AI is a hoax. The threat from the Democrat Party dominated by Democratic Socialists of America, should terrify everyone.

TDM

It is now official. There has not been a single Atlantic hurricane this season. Since the peak of the hurricane season was September 10^th, this is a really big deal. So far there have been five tropical storms with the highest sustained winds of 60 mph.

The Pacific ocean, on the other hand, has had a ton of hurricanes and more seem to be on the way. Apparently the Super El Nino is the problem, but I will leave the climate analysis to those who specialize in getting things wrong. The significant thing here is that this is not exactly a normal year. Expect the unexpected.

One has to note that the right side of the country has been spared from high wind damage, while the left side of the country is getting pounded.

This is also not a normal year politically. Typically, during an off-year election, the party in power gets trounced. Most experts were predicting the Democrats would win the House and possibly the Senate. If you watched the MSM, which I don’t recommend, you would see a lot of polls showing Democrats doing very well. One is reminded that these same polls got almost everything wrong last year. I personally think polls have become increasingly meaningless for several reasons. One is that there have been some recent admissions by people running polls that they were not based on actual polling but rather what the people running the polls wanted you to believe. The best example of that was in Wisconsin. According to the polls Francesca Hong was leading by 18 to 22 points. The actual winner, David Crowley, even dropped out assuming he had zero chance. But Francesca Hong kept making stupid statements, and on July 28, Crowley decided to “re-enter” the race. The election was held on August 11, 2026, and Crowley won by the slimmest possible margin.

The other problem is that we don’t know who is being polled. If someone from the MSM contacts me regarding participating in a poll, it will be a very short conversation primarily consisting of the word “NO”.

Part of the problem is that primary elections are typically designed to choose either the Democrat or Republican candidate. Turnout is often very low and this year the Democratic Socialists candidates had very strong support, while the people preferring the establishment candidates just yawned and stayed home.

Most importantly, the least credible information available to predict the outcome of the 2026 midterm election are the polls and the opinions of people in the MSM. So, I decided to look at some other things to see of there are any visible trends. Just like the Super El Nino, there are some major things going on that can’t be safely ignored.

1. FOLLOW THE MONEY. While some rich people are stupid, those are usually the ones who inherited their fortunes. People who came up with creative ideas to make money are typically not that stupid. This year Democrats are so broke the DNC had to borrow money. Republicans, on the other hand, has a mountain of cash and they are just now starting to spend it.
2. ANNIVERSARIES. This year was the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 25^th anniversary of 9-11. Despite the best efforts of the MSM to try and downplay the 250th anniversary of our independence, there were massive celebrations all over the country. The FIFA World Cup games were an incredible success and people from all over the world learned the truth about America. This is a great country, people here have a lot more fun and freedom than people in Europe, and that was on full display.

Even more significant may be the 25^th anniversary of 9-11. Even the MSM reported accurately on what happened and the impact of New York City and the rest of the country. It was a brutal reminder of the legitimate threat of terror from Muslim extremists. At least some people will consider how much worse 9-11 would have been if the terrorist had a nuclear weapon. People are not thrilled about the war in Iran and want to see this end, but they were just reminded of the potential consequences of doing nothing.

3. CANDIDATES MATTER. The most dangerous Democrat candidate is one who appears to be moderate and normal. That is why the current Governor of New Jersey pretended to be moderate when campaigning for office. But Democrats have chosen candidates all over the country who are absolutely not moderate and far from normal. This includes candidates like James Talarico in Texas and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. One notes that a lot of Democrats voted against these candidates during the primary, and it is far from certain they are going to vote for them in the general election. This is easy to understand since it is a principle rule of politics.

If you have a strong candidate, promote your candidate.

If the other party has a weak candidate, trash the opponent.

If your candidate sucks, and you don’t have a lot of ammunition to use against the opponent, just pound the table and scream.

In numerous states, Democrats, with the support of the MSM, are just pounding the table and screaming, hoping someone will be dumb enough to buy this nonsense. Don’t bet on that.

4. THE TRUMP CARD. Democrats and their fawning supporters in the MSM absolute hate Donald Trump. They cannot fairly evaluate anything he does. If Trump is for anything, they are against it, without regard to the consequences. They are measuring the support for Trump based on polls, they run, showing an extremely low approval rating for Trump. But the same opinion polls show an even lower approval rating for both Republicans and Democrats in congress. In addition many of us don’t really care what the MSM reports about anything because the level of prejudice is impossible to ignore. The same people who covered up for Joe Biden’s mental decline expect us to believe that Trump, who can speak for hours without notes, is suffering from dementia. Move on folks, no one, other than the few remaining supporters of the MSM, equally blinded by Trump Derangement Syndrome, are buying this.
5. VOTER ID. If Democrats thought they were convincing legally registered voters to support them, they would be leading the charge on voter ID and election integrity. Every poll shows a high percentage of Americans, in both political parties support fair and honest elections. “Me thinks these does protest too much” is a perfect description of Democrat positions on this issue.
6. BEYOND OBVIOUS. Most people understand that there are only two genders, male and female. They also understand that the partnership between a man and a woman is a good thing, benefiting everyone. If you doubt that, go to any place where there are a lot of people. You will seen a vast major of couples, of all ages, consist of men and women. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions. This is true all over the world. It has always been true. It will always be true. Ignoring the obvious and embracing the ridiculous may work for some Hollywood celebrities, but it doesn’t impress most people. Nike just learned the lesson of going woke, in the worst possible way.

I do not know what will happen in November. Nor does anyone else. But there is a lot of evidence that a gale warning must be issued. We can’t ignore the impact of money. We can’t ignore the impact of our 250^th birthday and the solemn reminder of 9-11. Democrats are running some really crummy candidates.  Trump is still Trump, and while some people love him and some people hate him, it is difficult to ignore him. Election fraud is being exposed. This time at least some people will be trying to protect against it. Even if they want to vote, people here illegally are more likely to stay home and keep their heads down. Finally, if 80% of people think your ideas are dumb, your ideas may actually be, well, dumb.

TDM

Contrary to the gaslighting by people in the MSM, election fraud is very real and if this is not fixed, we literally risk losing our democracy. The ultimate irony is that Democrats and their fawning supporters in the MSM have been screaming that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy and if we don’t remove him from office, he will destroy this country. Now granted Donald Trump is an extreme narcissist fixated on elevating himself to near deity levels. He never hesitates at the slightest opportunity for self-glorification. He probably considers himself to be the great president in the history of the United States and he would like to see his name everywhere. One example is him insisting on renaming the “KENNEDY MEMORIAL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING CARTS TO THE DONALD TRUMP AND KENNEDY MEMORIAL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS.”

But there is a major difference between self-absorption and being a threat to democracy. Trump has directed the Department of Homeland Security to enforce immigration laws and deport people who are in the country illegally, but that does not mean he is trying to deport anyone who dares to disagree with him; there is little, if any, evidence of that. Similarly, wanting voting restricted to citizens who are legally eligible to vote is not the same as requiring those voters to support him. Many legally registered voters support limiting voting to eligible citizens and ensuring that each person votes only once. That is not a threat to democracy; opposing those safeguards is.

The MSM constantly moans that the 2020 election was the safest and secure election in American history. That is utter nonsense and it is asking people to ignore our lying eyes. Anyone paying attention saw the 2020 election swing to Joe Biden with miraculous late night ballot drops, almost all for Joe Biden. Joe Biden accidentally explained this in the following video, taped after he met with Democrats on the voting rights bill.”

Bing Videos

Note: If you can’t get the link to cork, hit Control +Click

“The state legislative bodies continue to change the law not as to who can vote but who gets to count the vote… It’s not just whether or not people get to vote, who counts the vote, that’s what this about that’s what make this so different than anything else we’ve ever done.”

The MSM ignored this. Joe Biden accidently said the truth out loud. Instead the MSM, Democrats and traitors like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger want to convince you that January 6^th was an attempt by Trump to overthrow the government. Go watch the videos yourself, the ones they couldn’t hide. Then ask yourself what was on the videos they hid and destroyed. There are people posing for photo ops, very few people were armed, most of them look like peaceful protestors. Oh there are exceptions, but they are exceptions. This looks nothing like the armed insurrection CNN would like you to remember.  Any Republican being interviewed for an appointed position is asked if they believe Joe Biden was elected president. Then if the person doesn’t swear on a stack of bibles that the 2020 election was the safest ever, they are considered a Donald Trump clone and a threat to Democracy. Please! This is utter nonsense. The reality is that it was impossible to even audit the 2020 election. There wasn’t enough time, it was impossible to even obtain critical evidence, and any attempt at investigation was shouted down as anti-American.

Well that all changed.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/08/trump-orders-shock-voter-fraud-crackdown-nine-states/

 Trump just directed “Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative arm, to launch a coordinated criminal voter surge initiative to pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews and support timely prosecutorial review.”  

The response by the MSM and Democrats will be to call it an unprecedented threat against democracy. They will try to stop this before any investigation is possible. But if they are forced to report on this, against their better wishes, the results are likely to be catastrophic for Democrats, the DSA and the liberal left. We should all demand the truth and end the current practice of focusing so much on trashing Trump that one ignores a mountain of trash staring them in the face.

Sir Water Scott: Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field

https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/oh-what-a-tangled-web-we-weave/

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when we conspired to deceive.”  

One thing that typically exposes lies is that eventually people trying desperately to remember things that never happened make mistakes. Those who tell the truth are not handicapped by failing to remember what lie they told previously.

TDM