"Please Come To Boston" (opens in separate window)

the logic in all the madness

friday, july 19th, 2024

Most Americans believe it is unhinged to deliberately destroy the border and allow 10 million illegal aliens to enter the country without background audits, means of support, any claims to legal residency, and definable skills. And worse still, why would federal authorities be ordered to release repeat violent felons who have gone on to commit horrendous crimes against American citizens?

Equally perplexing to most Americans is borrowing $1 trillion every 90 days and paying 5-5.5% interest on the near $36 trillion in ballooning national debt. Serving that debt at current interest exceeds the size of the annual defense budget and may soon top $1 trillion in interest costs, or more than 13% of the budget.

Why would the United States suspend military aid to Israel as it tries to destroy the Hamas architects of the October 7 massacres? Why would it lift sanctions on a terrorist Iran? Why would it suppress Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack on the Jewish homeland? Why would it prevent Israel from stockpiling key munitions as it prepares to deal with the existential threats posed by Hezbollah?

Why would the Biden administration cancel key pipeline projects and put vast swaths of federal lands rich in oil and gas off limits to production, even as it further drains the strategic petroleum reserve? Why not pump rather than drain our own oil from strategic stockpiles?

Why would the Biden White House’s counsel’s office meet with Nathan Wade, the former paramour chief prosecutor in the Fani Willis Fulton County prosecution of Donald Trump? Why would the third-ranking prosecutor in the Biden Justice Department step down to lead Alvin Bragg’s Manhattan prosecution of Donald Trump? Why would the Biden Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland select Jack Smith as a special prosecutor of Donald Trump—given his past failures as a special counsel and known political biases?

Nihilism only explains so much. A better explanation is that the Biden administration and its handlers knew that there was a good chance that most of their policies would prove unpopular and might even jeopardize Biden’s reelection.

But they also were confident the changes were of such magnitude that the United States would either become—in the infamous phrase of Barack Obama—“fundamentally transformed” or force the next Republican administration to adopt such tough medicine that it would prove untenable politically and the malady would still prove mostly impossible to undo.

After all, how would a Trump administration deal with 10 million illegal aliens who entered the US without audit or legality? Where are they? How would they be found and deported? How many court suits in blue-jurisdictions before blue judges would have to be overcome?

The country has become accultured to a nonexistent border. And so, the left assumes, it would be expensive and difficult to finish the wall, to stop catch and release, to insist refugee status must be obtained before entry, and to deport what is likely now 20-30 million illegal aliens in toto. In other words, the Biden administration may sigh, “Our work is done. Whatever you think about our illegal methods, we forever changed the idea of immigration and the demographics of the country.”

All presidents—Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden—have run deficits and vastly increased the debt since the Bill Clinton-Newt Gingrich compromises that resulted in a temporary period of balanced budgets. But in the case of Biden, there was no need to keep up the multitrillion-dollar deficits, especially as interest rates on the national debt tripled and the service costs now approach $1 trillion per year.

Biden, after all, inherited a recovering economy, flush with post-COVID-19 lockdown stimulatory dollars, pent-up consumer demand, and ossified supply chains. And then he stupidly poured gasoline on the explosive mix by dousing the country with even more federal spending. Now we have the worst of both worlds: high interest rates and nearly $36 trillion to service.

But in the leftist mind, it was worth it, given that left-wing constituencies received vast expansions of entitlements that will be hard to prune back. And unprecedentedly vast debt at levels like our current burden of 123% of annual GDP prove unsustainable. And the historic correctives are brutal: 1) major cuts in entitlements and redistributive spending programs; 2) tax hikes at a time when state, local, federal, and gas, sales, and property taxes -- and other “fees” -- already take over half the income of most middle-class Americans; 3) hyper-inflation to pay back what is owed with cheap funny money, with the added leftist fillip that those who have dollars lose wealth and those who don’t gain greater access to them; 4) renunciation of debt. We already saw in the Obama era that liberal bureaucrats and courts often reversed the orders of creditors in bankruptcy hearings. When debt becomes unsustainable, historically arise cries of “Why should the poor suffer more when the rich already have enough money and don’t really need to be paid back?”; and 5) efforts to “confiscate” private wealth by giving, in exchange, government “credits.” For example, there have already been floated ideas that 401Ks could be absorbed into the insolvent Social Security system for credit in government benefits.

Most Americans poll strong support for Israel. They oppose the Biden effort to triangulate by revisiting the old Obama nihilist agendas of emboldening the Iranian/Hezbollah/Hamas/Houthis axis to play off against our traditional allies of Israel and the more moderate Arab regimes.

By failing to prosecute nine months of domestic violence committed by pro-Hamas lawbreakers, by allowing leftist campuses to normalize anti-Semitism and pro-terrorist advocacy, and by destroying the once close alliance of Israel and the United States, the left feels it will be almost impossible to go back to the pre-Obama/Biden years. Their legacy, they hope, is a mendicant Israel utterly dependent on U.S. largess—a condition itself predicated on essentially destroying the idea of a secure Jewish state within its present borders.

The Biden administration sought to curb oil and gas production—save for brief periods before the midterm and reelection campaigns, when it drained the strategic petroleum reserve. The point was to acculturate the public to high gasoline prices, to make inefficient solar/wind/EVs projects competitive against artificially costly fossil fuels, and to institutionalize policies that will make it difficult to reopen closed fields, to reboot federal oilfield leasing, and to dismantle costly subsidies for inefficient green fuels.

That Americans paid hundreds of billions of dollars more for their fuels under Biden, that the auto industry is stuck with vast inventories of money-losing electric vehicles that the public does not want, and that the entire economy has been shackled by counterproductive green mandates were considered worth the cost of alienating the public.

The left knows that neither Alvin Bragg, E. Jean Carroll, Letitia James, Jack Smith, nor Fani Willis would have gone to court against Donald Trump if he was either a leftist or had bowed out of the 2024 presidential race. They know no one has been tried on such pseudo-charges, and no one will again be so charged after Trump. And they accept that no republic can long survive if the opposition party seeks to remove the names of its political opponents from the ballot.

But they also know that the left has now established a valuable precedent: oppose woke progressivism, and one will either become bankrupted by indictments or land before a blue-city jury eager to nullify evidence to ensure the accused is jailed and broke.

So the left believes that its new lawfare was well worth the destruction of the entire tradition of equality under the law: 1) Donald Trump has lost a half-billion dollars in fines and legal fees; 2) a court-bound Donald Trump was robbed of weeks of valuable campaign time; 3) Donald Trump can be forever now libeled as a “convicted felon”; and 4) the left has played chicken with the American Constitution and believes it has won, given conservatives would never enter into a destructive cycle of tit-for-tat.

The Biden years did the country great damage and rendered Biden himself one of the most unpopular incumbent presidents in American history. But his agendas may have fundamentally changed the country for decades, if not longer -- and will require tough remedies that may be almost as unpopular as the wreckage they wrought.

A Day In The Life.

Up at 8a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee and a light breakfast, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, had a couple smokes in the semi-cool garage and checked the leftover errands list.

It was a cloudy, rainy, a little cooler, 72° -- no more "Heat Index" crap -- morning; almost nice! The flora and fauna are pleased. Showers and t-storms were forecast for today, with more rain. No complaints. I made coffee, had a smoke in the open garage with fresh air, and scanned the news and weather sites. And the morning's first mug of Hawaiian Kona Coffee was great. After tuning into the "CS Show LIVE". I took a 250mg Bayer Aspirin for the R/S lower back/hip/buttock/leg pain of Sciatica, which had been mercifully absent for the past few days. My morning Bill O' Fare: "Chris Stigall Show LIVE" (CS Show) from 6-9a, then the "Chris Plante Show LIVE" (CP Show) 9-12noon.

Stick your hand in a bucket of water. Pull it out -- did it leave a hole in the water? Then you're not making an impact.

The news was full of Lunch Bucket Joey Bidet&Co'sgaffe-riddled NATO 'big boy press conference' disaster. Just awful. I'd fallen asleep from 4p-9p, and missed it live, but watched NEWSMAX's and FNC's recaps of it, with videos. The Europeans weren't impressed. Did I mention awful? This morning's critiques were even more acerbic and in-depth. Bidet's constant, massive use of "anyway" is quite telling for Parkinsons and dementia. Heh.

After some later-morning condo chores, I had lunch and hit the LR couch for a snooze. A neighbor called, and I walked 2 doors down to have a few drinks at my friend's place, until Sherry called and stopped by after filling-in for Daughter, Hollie. We had a nice visit, planned a day, during her next busy week, and she left as we were both tired from the day. I skipped dinner, watched some TV and unplugged at 10:45p.

Up at 7:30a on Saturday, to a cloudy, humid, 73° morning, forecast to hit 92°. Crap. I made coffee, had a couple smokes in the garage, scanned the computer news and weather websites and it's going to be another nasty week ahead. Hey, welcome to Summer. The sky cleared and the day will be a hot/humid one, again. After breakfast, I left at 11a for nearby Rite Aid, to get 2 waiting Rxs of Combivent Respimat Emergency Inhaler ($596.08ea), at NO CHARGE! Wowzer; that was a surprise. 96° in the shade, on my back patio. HOT and no breeze. I had a short nap on the LR couch, and started to watch the 6p FNC News.

At 6:13p, I saw the *BREAKING NEWS* of an unspecified "Trump Rally Incident" (6:11p) at the rally lecturn, get hit in the right ear, and go down. This Leftist-Antifa shooter fat boy POS needs killing. Oh wait; the SS killed him? One rally spectator is dead -- RIP -- and 2 are critically wounded from the shooter. Here's the vapor trail of the bullet which hit DJT in the right ear. And here's the dead shooter after a SS head shot. I'm glad Trump's OK, but after seeing that "after the shot" recording 288.7 times, I'd had enough and switched to the History Channel. My cellphone suddenly wasn't working, and was displaying "SERVICE NOT AVAILABLE" from mid-evening, on. By 11p, I was fading and bagged it fore the night.

Up at 7a on Sunday, to a warm, humid, 78°, breezeless morning, forecast to hit 97°, again. I made coffee, had breakfast and a couple smokes. As expected, the TV shows were still full of last evening's Trump's Assassination Attempt, and I wayched for a while, for any updates in details. New camera (iPhone from spectators, probably) and a lot of new details about the leftist, punk shooter. Not real sorry to see him dead, but all the conspiracy folks are PO'd. Meh. I grabbed a shave and shower, and got ready for the day.

★★★ EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH! ★★★

• WHAT: HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO NOON EDT MONDAY. EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH TUESDAY EVENING, WITH TEMPERATURES REACHING 104° AND OPPRESSIVE HUMIDITY.
• WHEN: From noon today to 8 PM EDT Tuesday evening.
• WHERE: A portion of south central Pennsylvania including the Lower Susquehanna Valley: .Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, and York Counties.
• IMPACTS: Hot and humid conditions may cause heat-related illnesses.
• ADDITIONAL DETAILS: Drink plenty of fluids, stay out of the sun, and stay in an air-conditioned room..

OK, so it's still Summer around the area. There was an IMSA-GT Race on from Canada, an IndyCar Race on from Iowa, and a TRASHCAR Race on from Pocono (PA). I watched the first two races, to conclusion, and a bit of the third one. Meh. After some dinner, the news was all Trump Assassination, and I watched as much of the 'mega rehash wo/ new facts' as I could, and bagged it for the night, at 11p. Busy day in the heat and humidity, tomorrow.

Up at 8a on Monday, it was already 78°, humid, sunny, getting hot and forecast to get to 101°. Damn, we need rain here. I made coffee, had a couple of smokes in the open garage, fed the squirrels and bluejays, tuned into the ""CP Show LIVE" until noon. Every news outlet is still regurgitating the assassination attempt story, with no new facts available, yet. I had a wonderful Apple Fritter for breakfast, and got ready for the ugly (very hot) week ahead. I left at 12:15p for points south, and 3 errands. SLOWLY. 97° and rising.

Traffic was light, probably due to the oppressive heat, and I was back home by 1:45. The ***EXCESIVE HEAT WARNING*** is still in place for today and tomorrow. After unloading and some lunch, I hit the LR couch for almost 3hrs, and back-up in ample time to get a few chores done. The RNC Convention was on, but I only changed to it a few times. Just no interest, except for when Trump was on the dias, to see how he was doing, after last Saturday's attempted assassination.

I watched Motor Trend's "Iron Resurrection" until 12midnight, and bagged it for the day.

Up at 7a on Tuesday, to another sunny, humid, 79°, no breeze morning, forecast to hit 102°, with heavy afternoon t-storms. We des[perately need rain, but downpours just won't make a difference, except to the reservoirs. Everything else is suffering. I made Kona coffee, tuned into the "CS Show LIVE" until 9, and switched to the "CP Show LIVE". The lawn care teams showed-up and mowed the brown grass. Heh. Before leaving at 12:15p for a quick errand to Rite Aid, to get some waiting Rxs, I started another load of laundry. Home by 1, I closed down the condo'ss electronic shades, finished the laundry and devoured 6 ripe, medium-sized peaches.

I hit the LR couch for a 3hr snooze at 4p, and woke just before 7, to a massive t-storm front moving thrui the area, driving, sheets of rain and 60-70mph winds. It was a doozy, and was over in 30mins. Streets and gutter flooded quickly, and low lawn areas pooled-up quickly, being dry and hard, from the ongoing drought, The radar maps showed a much heavier front coming from the northwest, with a gap to allow the first batch to soak in. It wqould hit us after 9p, or so. The real heavy stuff was just to our south. I haven't seen rain from a storm like that in years; heck, I haven't seen rain all year. Lots of sirens afterward.

★★★ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING! ★★★

• WHAT: Severe Thunderstorm Warning for: Lancaster County in south central Pennsylvania, Central York County in south central Pennsylvania.
• WHEN: Until 7:45 PM EDT this evening.
• WHERE: A portion of south central Pennsylvania including the Lower Susquehanna Valley: .Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, and York Counties. Locations impacted include Lancaster, York, Ephrata, Weigelstown, Columbia, Lititz, Millersville, Willow Street, Mount Joy, Red Lion, New Holland, and Spry. This includes the following Interstates... The Pennsylvania Turnpike from mile markers 273 to 295. Interstate 83 from mile markers 10 to 28.
• HAZARD: 60 mph wind gusts. Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Radar indicated.
• ADDITIONAL DETAILS: Stay inside a well built structure and keep away from windows. Very heavy rainfall is occurring with these severe thunderstorms, and may lead to flooding in urban and poor drainage areas. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways..

The t-storms ended around 8:30, I watched a few minutes of the RNC, switched to History's "Mystery at Skinwalker Ranch" until 1a, and unplugged.

Up at 7:30a on Wednesday, it was already 79° and climbing quickly, clear sky, bright sun and very humid from last evening's t-storm monsoon rainfall. I made coffee, fired-up the HP desktop, had a couple smokes in the open garage for fresh air, fed the squirrels, and tuned into the "CS Show LIVE". Nothing remarkable in the news headlines. Except for the SS fiasco with the attempted Trump assassination last Saturday afternoon, with some good security failure questions, here (note the comments, also). York set a record 104° temp yesterday. Damn, I knew it was awful yesterday, but not that bad.

By 9, I had the "CP Show LIVE" on, had an Apple Fritter for breakfast, made a 2nd carafe of coffee, and noted that it was already 90°, headed for a 'balmy' 92° (as compared to yesterday). A ***SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH*** was posted for the day, as the 92° heat/humidity was quickly building. Sherry arrived around 2:30p, amd we had a copouple good hours together, before she left and some massive t-storms smasahed into the York area. It did at 6:15 and dumped a LOT of most welcomed rain on us. The flora and fauna are most thankful. I skipoped dinner, watched the evening news, the RNC for a little while, and switched to Discovery's "Expedition Unknown" until 11:30, and quit for the night. The rain continued all evening.

Up at 7:30a on Thursday, after a mostly restless/sleepless night, I made coffee, scanned the news and weather, had breakfast, and dialed-up the "CP Show LIVE", and almost got ready for a trip down south to the Markets at Shrewsbury w2/ Sis, but started not feeling well, and 'crashing' around 11:30, and had to reschedule it with her, to next week. I felt like ~~crap~~, maybe not as good as crap. Heh. I hit the LR couch around 1p. Almost 3½hrs later, I was back up, had a light dinner, did some computer work and a few small condo chores.

After the evening news, it was all "RNC" Convention Wrap-Up and Trump's much-anticipated speech. I switched between History, Discovery and the convention, Trump gave a great 2hr+ diatribe, and I shut things down around 1a.

Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal", and with only a Therapeutic Massage, it's a clear week.

Why We’ll Never Know What Really Happened in Butler, PA.

Just days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, theories are flying from all directions. Many who ridiculed the “conspiracy theories” of conservatives are now suggesting the whole event was a set-up to boost Trump in the polls ahead of the election. Others suggest it was the “deep state” or even foreign actors who organized it.

Former US Navy Seal and founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, claims that “The fact that [the Secret Service] allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150 yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence.” He went on to observe that, “unaccountable bloated bureaucracies continue to fail us as Americans,” adding that “unserious and unworthy people in positions of authority got us to this near disaster. Merit and execution must be the only deciding factors in hiring and leadership, not the social engineering priority of the day.”

Video has emerged showing that for at least two minutes law enforcement knew someone with a gun was on a roof aiming at the former President and no one communicated the need to pull Trump from the stage. You can clearly hear the crowd warning law enforcement that someone was on the roof. Yet he was unhindered until the first shots rang out.

Considering this fact, Erik Prince has a point.

If this is like any previous governmental foul-ups, we can expect hearings, investigations, and commissions that will actually serve to hide the official errors or even malicious intent by some in the government. That’s what government does no matter who is in office: protect itself from actual scrutiny and resist being exposed as incompetent or worse.

But what if there was a genuine investigation that actually revealed the truth about what happened at the Trump rally over the weekend? Could we rely on the mainstream media to even report it? This is the same media that, after Trump was clearly shot on live television, reported “Trump escorted away after loud noises at PA rally.” (Washington Post). And “Secret Service rushes Trump offstage after he falls at rally.” (CNN).

This is the same mainstream media that has been comparing Donald Trump to Hitler for years, and now pretends to be shocked that their vile rhetoric ended up in violence. There is a good reason why the mainstream media is regarded by the American public with record levels of contempt.

The current Director of the Secret Service has been interviewed expressing her dedication to “diversity” in hiring agents. What if her dedication to DEI goals led to an agency that is more “diverse” but fails at its core mission? Can we rely on the media to inform us of this? Or will they, as usual, just blame it all on the Second Amendment?

What if the problem with the Secret Service is that it was moved into the bloated, incompetent, and menacing Department of Homeland Security, the creation of which I strongly opposed when I was in Congress?

We shouldn’t count on hearing the truth about the attempted assassination from the mainstream media. No wonder the elites remain determined to censor social media sites like Twitter/X and TikTok. We live in an empire of lies, propped up by the mainstream media. And seeking the truth in this empire of lies is the greatest challenge for us in the moral bankruptcy in which we live.

"Please Come To Boston" (opens in separate window)

the logic in all the madness

friday, july 19th, 2024

A Day In The Life.

Why We’ll Never Know What Really Happened in Butler, PA.

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