I have occasionally played Blackjack at a casino in either Las Vegas or Reno. On several occasions I witnessed the following. There is a guy, who had been playing responsibly all evening, suddenly double down on his bet. Then when he lost, he would double down again. This continued until he finally lost his stash, got up with a disgusted look on his face and when home or wherever.

This is exactly what has happened to the Democratic Party. They went double down on beating Donald Trump. They were so obsessed with hating Trump that they overlooked the fact that Joe Biden was a shell of a human being pretending to be President. Then, when forced to deal with the reality of Joe Biden, they doubled down again on Kamala Harris. The same Kamala Harris who came in dead last in the Democratic Primaries. The results were predictable. The hated Donald Trump was re-elected President of the United States, Joe Biden was dumped on the trash heap of history and Kamala Harris is just starting to sober up, although few notice any significant difference.

One would think that Democrats would have figured out by now, that Trump Derangement Syndrome is a terminal disease. But that would be wrong. They still live in a delusional world of their own creation where if Trump is for it rational people must be against it. That is how they made the absurd decision to justify transgender men competing in woman’s sports. They can’t grasp the concept about how people feel when a man, who couldn’t finish in the top 50 in competition with other men, is suddenly a world champ because he suddenly realizes he “feels” female.

They can’t understand why letting nearly anyone waltz across our southern border, whether invited or not, in or in some cases flown in by the Biden administration, is not all that popular. They don’t understand why an  MS13 gang member, here illegally, ordered deported, who happened to have beaten up his wife, is not exactly a case study in due process. What, exactly, due process is due someone who is not even here legally. Do all of the people living here illegally get to have their day in court, to give them the due process. Meanwhile, people here legally are ignored if not insulted.

They are doubling down by stating it is ok to kill Trump because, well, he is Trump. They are doubling down by standing up for the right to support a terrorist group like Hamas while protesting and harassing fellow students if they happen to be Jewish.

They are doubling down on Bernie Sanders, who is spending $200,000 flying around on private jets to explain why rich people should never be in charge. They are doubling down by choosing AOC and Kamala Harris as the top two contenders for the Democratic ticket in four years.

Thinks are so bad that even CNN has noticed. No one bothers to watch Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel or any of the other wantabe comedians who could only get a laugh by trashing Trump to a crowd full of Kool Aid drinkers. Earth to the late-night clowns, they are running out of Kool Aid and people still willing to drink it.

Now there are credible reports that the corporate media buyers are running away from the MSM toward Fox News. They may be liberals, but they are not stupid. Running great ads on a channel no one watches isn’t that good for sales.

They are doubling down again, and again, and again. Each time the losses gets bigger and bigger. Yet they keep trying the same thing, because they are the very last people on this planet to recognize a losing hand. That is why they are very likely to keep doubling down until they are finally out.

TDM

Recently we have witnessed the sad reality of an extremely rich Senator, who own multiple homes and a former bartender whipping up crowds to fight the oligarchs. Bernie Sanders did not earn a single paycheck until he was 40 years old. The following article outlines his personal history. While I have not personally verified any of this, there is no evidence any of this has been disputed:

Bernie Sanders Didn’t Make a Paycheck Until He Turned 40 – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator | USA News and Politics

He was accompanied by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). Her proposals are for Medicare for All, tuition-free public colleges, a jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal,  and Abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She has introduced 0 bills that became law. She has become very good at gaining media attention.

In 2020, Democrats turned to Joe Biden only when it became obvious that Bernie Sanders would be the only alternative. Even left-wing liberal Democrats know that while Bernie is great a generating vocal support, most of his ideas are rejected by the average Democrat.

Bernie Sanders is not actually a Democrat; he is an independent who votes with the Democratic caucus. He is 83 years old. He is a Jewish Senator who is not particularly religious.  It is ironic that few ever mentioned that if elected he would have been the first Jewish President of the United States. Anyone ever wonder how those people protesting on behalf of Hamas at places like Columbia would respond to that?

In the meantime, Donald Trump has shut down the border, is deporting criminal illegal aliens, is drilling for oil, and is working to end the unfair trade practices inflicted on the U.S. for centuries. All of these things are actually popular with a lot of people. So while Bernie and AOC are doing great at getting people outraged, the reality is that Democrats are missing the point.

Now, when it is so obvious that not only the Democrat Party but also the MSM was flat out lying to everyone about Joe Biden, there is a serious truth divide in this country. We may not be sure who is telling the truth, but we sure know who has been lying to us.

Democrats have been accusing Trump of being a serial liar since day one. Every day we were told how he cannot speak about anything without lying. At the same time, they ignored the lies told by and about Joe Biden. Now Donald Trump can be liberal with the facts, particularly when in his frequent self-aggrandization mode. But the reality is that it seems like every politician does this to some extent. Trump is just better at it. He is also better at telling the truth. Many of his statements, dismissed as lies, have turned out to be extremely accurate.

We live in a world with some serious challenges, and we need to deal with these issues or we are at risk of losing everything. We desperately need to shut down our border and start deporting illegal aliens. If we do not stop the one-sided tariffs against American goods, we risk losing our industrial base permanently. If we do not stop aggression by Russia and China, we risk another worldwide conflict. And, if we allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon, they will threaten the entire world with the catastrophe of a nuclear war. If we do not reform our Department of Justice to return to the rule of law, we risk the dictatorship falsely attributed to Donald Trump by people with TDS.

Perhaps the most serious problem is that our MSM and leaders in the Democratic Party continue to insist on telling ridiculous lies accompanied by major distortion of facts and evidence. Even worse, no one in the MSM seems to be ready, willing and able to hold them accountable.  But there is good news. The liars are self-identifying. Senator Van Hollen went to El Salvador to rescue St. Garcia. Donald Trump followed up this photo op with one of his own, showing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s MS13 gang tattoos on his fingers. His wife was smart enough to cover this up when she posted the loving photo of him. The result is the poster child for abuse of power by Donald Trump by deporting a Maryland father is actually a MS13 gang member with a bad record. Nice! Compelling. Keep up the good work.

Democrats are better at self-destruction than Republicans are at waging media wars. When the enemy is destroying itself, shut up and enjoy the ride.

TDM

Donald Trump has always been a fan of tariffs. He is absolutely right when he says American have been subject to extremely unfair tariffs and other taxes world-wide. Most countries have already contacted the U.S. and are negotiating far more favorable deals. The major exception is China, which is now engaged in a who can tariff more battle.

When evaluating this, it is important to remember how the U.S. got involved in World War II, or more specifically why did Japan attack us. One of the major factors that resulted in Pearl Harbor was the decision by Roosevelt to ban iron, steel and oil exports to Japan, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia.

The 1 Reason Imperial Japan Attacked Pearl Harbor: Oil. – The National Interest

“Finally, after Japanese forces invaded French Indochina (modern Vietnam and Cambodia) in June 1941, President Roosevelt implemented a ban on iron, steel and oil exports to Japan jointly with Australia and the United Kingdom.”

The United States operated under the assumption that Japan would never dare attack us. They were wrong. Japan knew that the United States was far superior in every way. But they felt they had no other choice or face economic ruin. More importantly, if Japan backed down, it would lose face.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a very short-term success for Japan. However, eventually, it resulted in total defeat. It is hard to imagine how Roosevelt could have done anything to prevent this conflict. Japan had occupied China and French Indochina, a situation the United States could neither ignore nor accept.

Much like the oil embargo in 1941, if China is isolated and unable to sell its products anywhere, it may consider itself in a situation similar to Japan in 1941. Most people in Japan did not want to go to war with the U.S. or anyone else, but the government was extremely powerful and squashed any attempt at rebellion. This is very similar to how the communist regime controls China.

We better all hope and pray that the Trump administration finds a way to negotiate a reasonable compromise with China. While the attack on Pearl Harbor was truly horrible, it does not compare to the amount of damage China could do to the United States. The U.S. has the most powerful military in the world and China knows that. But Japan knew that in 1941 and they still attacked us.

While it is obviously true that China has exploited extremely unfair trade practices which allowed it to dominate world trade everywhere, including the U.S., it is also true that to some extent we encouraged them to do exactly that. This is also remarkably similar to what happened to Japan. The U.S. basically demanded it open its doors to the world. Regarding China, we strongly encouraged them to make products cheaply and sell them to the U.S. and the rest of the world. It is easy to understand why they may be absolutely furious and filled with an anger that is extremely dangerous, both to them and the U.S.

The good news is that Trump is offering a way out with China, which does not require them to lose face. He is publicly saying that he hopes for a fair and reasonable settlement with China. In the meantime, the Chinese government is overextended and extremely vulnerable. If it cannot sell its goods to the U.S. anymore it will be a crippling blow to an already overstretched economy. Some very smart people even predict that the entire economy could collapse. That is remarkably similar to the crisis Japan faced in 1941.

This is not 1941 and one hopes and prays that this will be resolved quickly without the need for military conflict. We are extremely fortunate that the President of the United States is Donald Trump and not the pool of idiots messing things up behind the scenes, hiding behind the illusion of Joe Biden. It is also good that, so far, regarding China, Trump has a lot of bi-partisan support. Hopefully, Trump will offer China a solution it can accept, without suffering economic decline and more importantly without losing face. He at least hints that this is his goal.

While this is a frightening situation, if not Trump, then who? If not now, then when? Making no decision on an unacceptable situation or just kicking the can down the road seldom works and, in this case, doing nothing might just be the most dangerous option.

TDM

There is a ton of misinformation out there about Social Security. One of the most common is that Republicans want to cut Social Security while Democrats want to preserve it. That is a lie. In reality, Social Security is the third rail of politics and no political party would even consider cutting benefits.

Social Security had a huge surplus that was developed during the 1990s. The reason was that the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964 paid far more in social security taxes than what was necessary to pay benefits due their parents. It was simple, there were a lot more babies than retirees for several years. Unfortunately, both Republican and Democratic Presidents spent that surplus. It started with George H. W. Bush and continued at an accelerated pace through both terms of Bill Clinton. The Social Security surplus was spent to pretend to balance the budget, with the result of George W. Bush entering office only to be confronted with a huge, unnecessary, Social Security deficit.

Sadly, this has been repeated on an annual basis. Democrats routinely claim, falsely, that Republicans want to cut Social Security. The only President who actually cut Social Security Benefits was Barack Obama, who blocked cola (Cost of Living) adjustments to social security. That resulted in a real decrease in the value of social security benefits received. Something no one in the MSM noticed or bothered to report.

We now have less people working and more people drawing social security. Because George H.W. Bush and later Bill Clinton ignored the reality of this and spent the social security surplus we all have to live with this reality. Fewer people working are supporting more people retired. This is compounded by Social Security benefits being paid to people who are dead, or who are not eligible because they are not in the country legally. It is made worse by scam artists highly skilled at stealing benefits from legitimate recipients.

Those who paid social security taxes during their entire working career have earned those benefits. Yet, the system will go insolvent unless something changes. The most urgent change is to stop paying benefits to dead people or anyone else who has not earned those benefits. Then and only then can we hope to set aside the funds necessary to reimburse whose who paid for those benefits.

But we must also be honest about something. The government is plum awful at setting aside the necessary funds to pay for benefits promised. If an insurance company did this, they would be prosecuted. Yet every attempt to privatize Social Security has been blocked by the same people who refuse to properly fund the program. People should be allowed to choose between allocating funds to a private company, responsible to protect assets, or the federal government which protects absolutely nothing. Private companies should be held to the highest possible standards, something the federal government would never even consider.

The important thing here is to allow for private companies to compete with the federal government and to resist allowing total control to the same people who have proven themselves totally incapable of acting responsibly. If baby boomers had been allowed to invest their social security taxes in a private insurance company, they would now have more retirement income and those private insurance company would have been more subject to more federal oversight, by far, than the federal government itself.

We all want and need social security. The real question is who is more likely to provide that security, and more importantly, who absolutely cannot be trusted to do that?

TDM

Democrats are making a huge mistake. They are so focused on Trump Derangement Syndrome that they are missing the obvious. Most important they have lost the ability to distinguish between friends and enemies.

The most recent example was when so many Democrats and RINOs hyperventilated because of confidential information shared on a signal application that accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg. Democrats believed that most people will be outraged by the carelessness of the people using this application. It was stupid and careless. But there is no evidence that this compromised any ongoing mission and not even a hint that someone was injured or killed as a result of this mistake. More importantly, the bad actor here is Jeffrey Goldberg who make it extremely clear why he should never be allowed access to any confidential information and certainly not classified information. If he had an ounce of integrity, he would have immediately signed off the call, notified the administrator that there was a problem, and deleted his file. Instead, he literally took screen shots and eventually published everything he said was too sacred and dangerous to share. That is definitely true. This type of information should never have been shared with him.

They are making an even bigger mistake regarding DOGE. Once again, the problem is that Democrats are terrible at enemy identification. They are favoring rights of criminals over rights of victims. They are demanding discrimination for the extreme minority against the overwhelming majority. Most important, they are failing to distinguish between parasites and partners.

Everyone I know personally has complained recently about some attempted scam. If you have a cell phone or an email account or a land line phone, someone has attempted to scam you. At first it was emails, pretending to be from someone like your bank or even social security. If you didn’t respond immediately, you risked losing your benefits. Recently emails showed up demanding immediate payment to prevent being fined for toll road violations.

There have also been scams, sent to people in the form of text messages. And there are phones calls from people pretending to be someone else. The one thing these all have in common is that they are trying to steal your information so they can steal your money.

During a recent interview by Brett Baier with key DOGE personalities it was stunning to learn that contrary to the myth that DOGE is run by Elon Musk and a bunch of high school students, the people who actually showed up were extremely accomplished business personal, some of whom are billionaires, donating their time and skill because they believe this is essential work.

it was explained that 40% of calls to Social Security requesting a change of address for payments are fraudulent. While Democrats are screaming that we need to protect Grandma living in the wilds of Idaho from having her social security cancelled because she can’t show up in person, the much bigger threat is the human scum ready, willing and able to impersonate Grandma and steal all her money.

It is this simple, if we take the time and effort to verify that the people receiving benefits are genuine, we protect the people receiving benefits who are genuine. If don’t do that the thieves will swarm in and steal the money without any regard to the impact on those legitimately entitled. The same is true regarding elections. If we limit elections to legitimate voters who can only vote once, that does not jeopardize election integrity, it confirms it.

Enemy identification. Democrats zero, Republicans 100%. Any questions?

TDM

If you listen to Democrats and the MSM the biggest lie told by Donald Trump is that the 2020 election was impacted by massive fraud. Their argument is that this was the most secure election ever and there was no potential for fraud. They are lying.

One of the arguments used by both of the above all the time is that requiring voter ID disenfranchises minority voters. That is not only wrong, but it is also absurd. Virtually everyone has a valid photo ID now, because it is hard to cash a check or even purchase alcohol or cigarettes without one. If you want to find people without a photo ID just watch any episode of a show like “COPS.” When police pull someone over for a traffic stop and they don’t happen to have ID, they are usually hiding something like a suspended drivers’ license, no drivers’ license or perhaps open arrest warrants.

The potential for voter fraud prior to the 2020 election was so obvious that Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Ron Wyden wrote a letter dated December 6, 2019, to Dominion software expressing serious concerns regarding voting machines switching votes. Here is a copy of that letter:

Democrats Warren, Klobuchar, Wyden Wrote Complaint Against Dominion In 2019 – National File

They stopped being concerned regarding voter fraud when Joe Biden was selected to be President of the United States, when about 10 million mysterious unidentified votes surfaced in late night ballot drops in places like Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Milwaukee and Atlanta all for Joe Biden. Those voters disappeared somewhere in space prior to the 2024 election.

Voter ID is actually supported by people in both parties. It is insulting to imply that minority voters are too stupid to know how to get a Photo ID. What is difficult is for someone living here illegally to provide proof of citizenship.

California used to issue drivers’ licenses to anyone without bothering to check things like a birth certificate or passport, proof of California residency and a social security number. As of December 31, 2024, 18.4 million Californians already have a Read ID, out of a total population of almost 40 million people. Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005. It was supposed to be implemented by 2008. The newest deadline is May 7, 2025. So, this only took about 20 years.

Here’s the deadline to get the Real ID and why you need one – Los Angeles Times

When California started issuing Real IDs, we were shocked to realize that prior to this California made zero attempt to recognize voting records with any national data base. When we first voted in California, they didn’t ask for any ID at all. Just asked where we lived. Later, during COVID, they didn’t even check that. We were sent a ballot in the mail and told to just mail it in. In California ballot harvesting is legal, where people go out and pick up ballots from other people and deliver them to a ballot box. When we wanted to vote in person, no one checked anything, they just pointed to a ballot box and said push it in the slot. Trump just signed an executive order directing Voter ID. Odds are he lacks authority to do that, but hopefully congress will pass legislation.

Perhaps some of you will remember when they had the first real elections in Iraq, after the war. When people voted, they were required to provide identification and then dip their thumb in purple dye so they couldn’t vote twice.

The purple finger remains a hopeful symbol in Iraq, as Iraqis go to the polls – The World from PRX

The people in Iraq did not complain, they rejoiced. Requiring photo ID to vote is not an infringement of your rights, it is a mean to prevent others from infringing on your rights.

ID Me. Good idea.

TDM

There is a company called “ID ME” which allows people to provide documentation to verify their status, such as veteran. They use secondary validation to confirm identity. I wanted to give them credit for the title.

A Tale of Two Cities

“ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us”

Dickens wrote this about London and Paris, before and during the French Revolution. But his words would be an accurate description of what we see now, here in the U.S. The country is divided into two zones, one the Red Zone (RED) controlled by Republicans and the second the Blue Bye You Zone (BLUE), dominated by Democrats. RED is much larger, geographically than BLUE, but BLUE is concentrated in areas with extremely dense population. During the last election, the RED candidate won all of the swing states and won the popular vote. In previous elections, the BLUE candidate almost always won the popular vote, but not necessarily the majority in the electoral college.

In RED, it is the best of times. Trump is running the table; he has both the House, the Senate united behind him, and he has assembled an outstanding cabinet populated by people chosen for their ability to get the job done.

In BLUE it is the worst of times. People are still mourning the results of the 2024 election. They can’t grasp the concept that Trump not only won every swing state, but he also won a majority of the electoral college and he even won the popular vote. Joe Biden has gone on permanent vacation and when he does surface, briefly, no one in the MSM bothers to show up. Kamala Harris’s appearances only reinforce the conclusion that by rejecting her, America dodged a really big bullet. In BLUE, things are very bad, getting worse, and there is no leader or potential leader in sight.

For people living in RED, it is the age of wisdom. Logic and common sense have triumphed over foolishness. None one really cares if someone decides, as an adult, that they prefer to live as the opposite gender. But this does not change biological facts that there are only two sexes, something that has been more than obvious for millennium.

For people living in BLUE logic and common sense has been replaced by rage and violence. Even though 70% of people agree that there are only two genders, the “loudest” voices in BLUE continue to pretend the opposite is true. Watching someone throwing a hissy fit is fun to watch, but not actually a substitute for developing a plan of action. People are fleeing Blue for Red. Those remaining in BLUE are either angry and demoralized or wondering if the current leaders in BLUE are really this stupid.

Please living in RED believe that better days are on the way. They openly embrace people of faith. They believe that God spared Donald Trump and He also spared the country.

Please living in BLUE cannot come to grips with the undeniable fact that the majority of Americans don’t believe them and they don’t want them. The louder they scream and throw things; the more people are turned off by the public display of childishness.

In RED it is the season of light. In BLUE it is the darkest hour. In RED it is the spring of hope. In BLUE it is the winter of despair.

Charles Dickens nailed this in 1859. The American revolution led to government of the people, for the people, by the people. The French revolution led to anger and extreme violence. This did not result in peace and love, it resulted in Napolean, who became a dictator.

Lesson learned. Bet on Red.

TDM

Donald Trump spent four years dealing with a daily assault against him by the Democrat Party, its’ delusional supporters in the MSM and the secret war against Trump within the government itself. Then, when Democrats managed to put Joe Biden in the Oval Office, the assault continued. They were terrified that Trump would find a way to come back. They had to stop him at any cost. They were oblivious to the reality of Joe Biden. What they did notice they quickly shoved aside and ignored. They would not stop, they would not rest, they wouldn’t even consider letting up as long as Trump was alive, and if he were dead, they would trounce on his grave.

Trump, on the other hand, spent four years figuring out how to beat them in the next election. He also spent four years developing his plan of action to permanently remove his delusional anti-American opposition from power.

If Trump understands one thing, it is the power of money. He knows how to make it. He knows how to spend it. And he knows how much other people depend on it. As soon as he was safely elected, he started dismantling the Democrat fundraising machine. People like Zuckerberg, Gates and Bezos, who are actually smart people, quickly switched from being anti-Trump 24/7 to requesting front row seats at his inauguration. Lesson learned. Then Trump unleashed Elon Musk to take a serious look for fraud and waste in the federal bureaucracy. It is always a bad idea to question the ability of someone who literally rewrote the book on launching satellites and did the impossible by starting a new car company from scratch and dominating the industry. Musk has a way of seeing things others do not, developing a plan of action and the putting that plan into action. While most of the attention has been on the people getting fired, Musk has been doing something else. He has exposed the entire Democrat funding machine and is in the process of shutting off the flow of cash. In the meantime, Trump’s victory destroyed the credibility of ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, the Washinton Post, the New York Times and a cast of thousands. He won, they lost, and everyone knows it. All of the above have lost viewership and readership and as a result they are losing sponsors. By losing sponsors, they are losing cash.

No smart person, and most rich people are actually smart, wants to throw more money after a lost cause. Major Democrat donors have shut off the flow of funds and some are even grudgingly showing at least some admiration for Trump. The secret flow of cash from government programs focused more on making Democrats in congress rich rather than actually fixing things is drying up even faster.

Trump is also cutting the cash flow of our enemies. Canada quickly realized that if they stop buying things made in America, few people will notice or care. But if the U.S. stops buying things from Canada, their economy will be quickly and permanently shattered. The leader of Ontario, who public announced his personal trade war with Trump just folded like a cheap umbrella. So did Mexico. Numerous major corporations are announcing plans to start building things here in the U.S. again. While the liberals on MSNBC thought Americans would be hit with skyrocketing costs, that hasn’t happened. In fact, none of the dire predictions by the desperate liberal left have come true. Their credibility has been shredded close to the point of no return, possibly lower than the climate change alarmists famous for being wrong on every single prediction.

But more importantly, Trump has dismantled their entire supply chain. The liberal left had a massive supply of laundered cash at their disposal. Today, they are struggling to just pay their bills. Even George Soros is feeling the pinch, with India investigating his companies.

Perhaps the most brilliant decision by Trump was to get Elon Musk to join forces. Musk, like Trump, doesn’t need other people’s money. Imagine that. A political movement not dependent on other people’s money. What a novel concept. Whether this is the result of Trump’s brilliance or Democrat incompetence, the result is the same. Democrats have lost their cash crop, and it was the only crop available. Some people have stopped supporting Democrats solely because they lost. Some have stopped because they realized Democrats don’t really have a plan of action to fix things. What really matters is that they have stopped, leaving Democrats will almost nothing else. When cash is your only crop, and that crop fails, you fail. Regardless of how or why, Democrats are rapidly running out of cash, and that drastically reduces their ability to muck things up.

In the meantime, the smart money is betting on Trump, partially because he has earned it and partially because Democrats have proven themselves unworthy of consideration. He has turned the MAGA movement into the ultimate cash cow and failure to understand that is a recipe for disaster. The kind of disaster we are seeing played out in Democratic strong holds across the country. Cash, as always, is king, and Trump has simultaneously destroyed the Democrat cash cow machine and replaced it with one based on logic and common sense. In every sense of the word, it is the ultimate cash crop.

TDM

In 2008, Democrats thought they ruled the world. They had just elected Barack Obama, the first black President. Happy days were not only here again, but they were also destined for eternity. Then, in 2016, the unthinkable happened. Americans turned away from Hillary Clinton, destined to be the first female President, and elected, gasp, Donald J. Trump.

This happened despite a daily assault against Trump by Democrats and the MSM. It happened despite the Russia collusion hoax. It happened despite the last-minute dump of the “Access Hollywood” tape. Whether people voted for Trump, or against Hillary Clinton, the result was the same. Trump won, Hillary lost, and Democrats spent the next four years engaged in election denial. He was impeached twice. Once for pointing out the obvious problem with Joe Biden promising to withhold about $1 billion in aid to Ukraine if they didn’t fire the prosecutor, who happened to be investigating his son. No one in the MSM or in the Democrat Party found a problem with Joe, but they were outraged that Trump would dare ask Zelensky to consider investigating this. Why that would be “election interference”, something Democrats would never consider, unless they thought it would work.

Then, thanks to COVID and all mail-in voting, Joe Biden won with miraculous last- minute ballot drops. About 10 million mysterious unidentifiable people showed up in the mist to vote for Joe Biden. People in the MSM were horrified, horrified I tell you, that someone would question election integrity in places like Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Milwaukee or Detroit. Seriously, has there ever been the slightest hint of election fraud in any of these places? Trump should be banned for life because he dared question the results of that election. Democrats spent the next four years slamming Republicans as election deniers while the DOJ, the FBI and local prosecutors conspired to convict Trump of something, somewhere, so no one would dare vote for him. In the meantime, the MSM went into “Anti- Trump- Establishment-Terrorism” on a mission to stop the orange man once and for all. It didn’t work.

They were so focused on hating Trump that they failed to notice that Joe Biden was constantly on vacation and had trouble formulating sentences on his own. When he did speak, he told ridiculous lies about non-existent personal accomplishments. But it didn’t matter, because every time Trump spoke, he lied. Just ask the fact checkers on CNN.

Then Joe fell apart during his debate with Trump, so Democrats chose Kamala Harris to be the first black female president. They outspent Trump by $millions if not $billions. The MSM went into overtime mode trashing Trump. It still didn’t work. Trump ran the table. He not only won every swing state, he won the popular vote. This was so bad that even the most hardcore left-wing Democrat was unable to question the results.

Suddenly Democrats found themselves led by Joe Biden, who can’t be found, and Kamala Harris, who they would prefer never be found. They have no leader. They have no program. They have no solutions. So, they have resorted to screaming in outrage, hoping no one realizes they have nothing to say.  They have united the country on one thing. No one wants to see Democrats in charge ever again. Unless something changes, the Democrat Party went from the top of the hill to the scrap heap of history.

Everything moves in cycles and that means at some point, some Democrat we don’t know yet, will find a way to convince people to vote for the ridiculous again. But that may take years if not decades. In the meantime, Trump is moving at the speed of light and dismantling the federal bureaucracy in the process. Judges, appointed by Biden or Obama are trying to stop him by ignoring the law and pretending they have more authority than the President. Good luck with that. This is so ridiculous that some, but not all, of the anchors on CNN have noticed.

Democrats have been reduced to a pathetic version of “All I Have To Do Is Dream.”

“Scream, scream, scream, scream, scream, scream, scream, scream. When I want you to,  ignore your lying eyes, When I want you to, Donald Trump despise, Whatever I want to, all I can do is scream, scream, scream, scream.”

They forgot the last verse. “Only trouble is, gee whiz, I’m screaming my life away.”

TDM

I was the Risk Manager for a major corporation. As a result, there were many situations where I got to know other Risk Managers for large firms. During the late 1990’s it seemed like every Risk Manager I knew that worked for a company with large manufacturing operations was telling me about his or her company’s plans to move manufacturing overseas. It was very simple, the cost of labor was much lower and they could build things overseas, ship them back to the U.S. and save money.

I was both shocked and horrified by this development. While I understood why it was happening, it just seemed like we were shipping our future overseas. Sadly, that was one prediction that turned out to be extremely accurate. A few years ago, our daughter’s family had a Chinese exchange student live with them for a couple of weeks. He was desperate to find something “Made in America” that he could bring back to China. He had great difficulty finding anything that was not made in China.

The good news is that Donald Trump understands the problem and he is taking necessary action to fix things. One of the reasons the U.S. was so successful during World War II is that we were self-sufficient. That allowed us to become the “Arsenal of Democracy.” My parents lived through the Depression. It is hard for those who did not live through this experience to even comprehend how bad things were. My dad was the only one in his family who had a job, and as a result our family fed several other families.

One day my dad told me that the only reason the Depression ended was the start of World War II. He didn’t mean the fighting. What he meant was that for the first time in decades the United States started making things. At first, they were gearing up to help other countries and then to build up our own troops. The result was that when the war was over, the U.S. had this incredible manufacturing base. When it stopped making the instruments of war, it was ready, willing and able to produce desperately needed consumer goods.

Sadly, much of our manufacturing base was transferred overseas. This reminds me of a friend who manufactured chairs for nail salons. He had a great business model and was very successful. Then one day he learned that nail salons were purchasing chairs from China for less than it cost my friend to produce them here in the U.S. He simply could not compete. He ended up shutting down his factory and laying off all the employees.

It seems likely that similar stories were happening all over the country. We tend to think of manufacturing firms as large conglomerates such as GM and Ford. But in reality, there were smaller firms who thrived, including those who provided critical products to companies such as GM and Ford. When major companies started producing things overseas, it affected a lot of much smaller companies.

This it dawned on me that this was a risk management problem. In this case, “risk avoidance“. Companies were shifting production overseas because they could not risk being undercut by competitors. The different in cost was so massive that the cost of transporting goods from overseas back to the U.S. was no longer a factor. Trump changed all that by using tariffs. Suddenly, companies can either pay extra money for labor and production, or they can pay more money for transport and taxes. It is really that simple. Suddenly producing things in the United States makes more sense financially. Incredibly, something this simple has the potential to change the world.

Trump also made another risk management decision. During his first four years an entrenched bureaucracy was engaged full time in resisting him. They had the full cooperation of the Democrat Party and the MSM. Then when, thanks to all mail-in voting, Joe Biden was selected, in theory, to be President of the United States. Trump was given four years off to reflect on this. The solution, this time, was “loss control.” He is solving the problem of being slowed down by the entrenched bureaucracy by adopting loss-control measures.

Democrats thought they were permanently in power, but there was a problem. When Democrats are in power, they self-destruct. Despite their best efforts, they did it again. Now Trump is back, Joe is beyond irrelevant, and Trump, having learned his lesson, is purging the bureaucracy of the unelected mob who felt entitled to run everything. It is working faster and more efficiently than anyone thought possible. It is working because Trump now understands the problem. It is also working because, as Margaret Thatcher once said, “the problem with socialism is that eventually they run out of other people’s money.” It is also working because people, ready, willing and able to work for a living are sick and tired of seeing lazy arrogant people, considered immune from criticism, thrive by lusting after public handouts.

Risk management in action. Fun to watch.

TDM