Student Loan Hail Mary

So Biden decided to forgive $10,000 in student loans for most people, and up to $20,000 for some others. This forgiveness cuts off at income levels of $125,000. All told, it will cover about 45 million people to one degree or another. The media is trying to sell it as something amazing, but it's not. In fact, it really shows the combination of cowardice and stupidity which afflicts Team Biden. Here are my thoughts.

1. First, let's be clear, this is an attempt to bribe young people to vote. That is all this is. It is not an attempt to improve the "system" in any way.

2. Let's also be clear, it won't work. Why?

(a) This does not apply to college students. You need to be paying it back already, so it entirely misses the "young people" they are trying to attract. Stupid.

(b) Check out this quote from the Miami Herald, a Democratic operative, meant to tell you how the "Biden-Harris" (Harris??) forgiveness will bring Heaven on earth:

"With billions of dollars of student debt cleared from the books, millions woke up today to a different financial world. One where they have a higher net worth, more purchasing power and better access to financial products, like mortgages."

That's the sales pitch. The thing is, that's utter crap. Most people have far more loans than $10,000. The average for people with loans is $57,000 and when you owe $60k, having $10k forgiven doesn't mean squat. It doesn't change your financial position in the least. You still owe years of payments. Your payment may go down, but we're talking $20 a month or so. Big whoop. In fact, forgiving $10k feels more like an insult to these people after being told there would be some genuine forgiveness. As for having better access to mortgages and more purchasing power, student loans never really stopped you from getting a mortgage before, so that's nonsense. And the rise in mortgage rates easily offset whatever benefit this gives. So, nice try. As for net worth, net worth is an illusory concept no one thinks about except near-retirees. Don't believe me? What are you worth? And purchasing power, as we said, is like a $20 a month raise. Short answer: this is a big yawn. Just like all the other bills they passed which the Democrats couldn't understand why they didn't win people over either. Way too little... way too late.

3. Now let's talk the politics.

(a) If Biden really thinks this will help, why announce it in the summer when no one is paying attention? Announce it before the election when people care.

(b) By ending the moratorium in January, he's ruining Christmas.

(c) The left is irate because this is regressive: it's working men and women paying off the debt of lawyers and doctors and elitists. That is kind of sh*tty if you think about it... but then, all socialism is.

(d) I think it probably isn't inflationary like some are saying because it won't actually work to give people more money to spend.

(e) People who paid off their loans are pissed because they aren't getting this.

(f) People who didn't go to college are pissed because they get to pay for it.

(g) How is it that once again, big rich institutions seem to get off scot-free? Big Banks, Dodd Franks. Big Health, Obamacare. Big Pharma. Big Auto. Big Tech. Big Billionaire. Now Big College, they all seem to do extraordinarily well when the Democrats claim they are helping the people. In this case, we're talking about colleges who have grown huge and fat and rich on pushing these loans on students with no choice, and yet they don't even get a slap on the wrist out of this? Why didn't Biden pay for this with a tax on college endowments? They have trillions. They could pay for it. They caused it. That makes sense. It makes no sense a McDonald's worker should pay for this so Harvard doesn't have to. Terrible policy, terrible optics.

This is one of those moments that shows that Biden's a fool. If he was going to do this, he needed to go big: forgive it all, not just a piece of it. Failing that, makes this meaningless. And if he was going to do this, he needed to take the money from the people who wrongly took it in the first place: colleges. Fix the system. Doing that would have been popular even with people who never had loans or paid them off. Instead, he put the cost on the least deserving people. He has no balls and no brains, so he tried to split the difference between bold action and doing nothing and he got virtually nothing but a lot of anger for his trouble, and he protected his Big friends once again.

This is utter crap. Oh, I will take his money, but this only makes me like him even less.

As an aside, Biden's approval is "up" to 44%. Keep four things in mind when you see the next flood of articles claiming momentum. First, if you were told a President's approval was 44%, would you see anything good in that number? It only appears "good" because it's been down to 42%. Secondly, 44% and 42% are in each other's statistical margin of error, which means it hasn't actually moved. Third, it's summer. As I told you last time, things drift up in the summer because people lose their intensity while they are sitting at the beach. The real number that matters is when people come back -- just like the stock market, which always rallies in low volume trading over the summer and then tells you reality in September. Fourth, if Biden's "string of victories" (as the media is calling it) or "momentum" can only produce a 2% increase well below the natural level of support for a candidate of either party then his victories are Pyrrhic at best. A real victory usually comes with some benefit.

Student loan forgiveness won't help this.

Thoughts?

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What About Liberal Hate?

I don't condone Trump, but let me point something out: the left is far more guilty of the things they claim he's doing now.

Consider this quote from Politico:

"But perhaps the raid’s most sobering result is the increased yet unavoidable risk it ultimately poses of widespread civil breakdown. Watching agents search Mar-a-Lago could turn a large enough portion of Trump’s far-right base decisively against federal authority that its defiance could shift from episodic to systemic, eventually leading to regular armed resistance to federal law enforcement on the order of Ruby Ridge and potentially even Waco."

This is such hypocritical crap.

For months, the left condoned and endorsed whatever violence black people wanted to commit all in the name of racial justice. In fact, they continue to go out of their way to tell those same black people that they are oppressed, they are victims of white hatred and oppression, and any actions they choose to take are entirely justified.

What is more likely to cause violence? Trump being a douchebag calling out to a handful of drunken white trash to be angry at the FBI or thousands and thousands of politicians and black "leaders" nationwide telling black people their lives are hopeless and they should lash out. Yet, not a single liberal condemned the violence that ensued. There were no articles at Yahoo or Politico telling blacks to stop burning down cities, warning each other they were encouraging violence, or worrying about civil breakdown. They wanted it.  In fact, they attacked the police for trying to stop it.

Or how about Portland and Seattle and other cities where Antifa went about turning city blocks into war zones, burning down Federal buildings and police stations, and killing people who happened into their wave of unrest. Again, not a single worry about civil unrest was mentioned. To the contrary, when liberals offered a criticism, it was aimed at "right wing agitators" who came to protest the violence.

So don't give me any crocodile tears now about civil unrest.

And let me add this: as much as leftists like to pretend the "paranoia" on the right is somehow unfathomable, it's pretty damn obvious where it comes from: you. Trump takes some documents with him and liberals scream that this is the end of the world. They send in the FBI. They write articles saying 'who cares what documents they were, we've got him!' At the same time, Hunter Biden genuinely endangers national security with documents he never should have had and could only have gotten from his dad and the same left dismisses it and covers it up. They ignore Hillary's illegal emails or her campaign hacking into the White House computers. Trump "endangers" democracy by questioning the election... yet Gore doing far worse against Bush was just him pointing out something suspicious. Do you remember when Trump got elected, how the left create a "resistance" to Trump and encouraged people (including state governments and federal workers) to sabotage him?  That was totally cool.  Yet, questioning the election was a crime?  Oh hey, Trump tried to convince electors to vote for him no matter how their state did.  Terrible... only, the left did this under Bush Jr. and Trump already.  That was totally cool.

And then there's the obsession. Show me a review of a movie or book by a known conservative that isn't a smear. Liberals write childish, terrible crap and these same reviewers praise it like it was sent from Heaven. Leftist first ladies are fashion icons, conservative first ladies are dragon ladies or dirty immigrants. They loved Trump's daughter until Trump ran. Then they tried to destroy her company with bad reviews and cancelled deals. Restaurants where political conservatives eat get death threats and so many false reservations they are completely disrupted, even if the conservative has no connection to the restaurant except choosing to eat there. Yet, somehow, this shouldn't be seen as hateful and biased... dare I say, Naziesque?

Make no mistake, America is polarized, but the blame lies with the leftist collective that seeks to destroy those with whom it disagrees, that seeks to control through fear an intimidation lies and cancel culture, which defines its own conduct no matter how heinous as justified and finds pretend threats in any action by its opponents.

Now Biden's going to host a summit on hate? Well, Joe, you've been pushing hate since you ran for election and your allies are all about hate. Are you going to start with that or are you going to pretend your hate is cool and anyone who opposed you is the "real" hater? 

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A Couple Quick News Items

Good evening, America. This... is the evening news. I am not Walter Cronkite. But I will comment quickly on a couple things.

• First, as I kind of suspected, Trump is pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. As DOJ struggled to explain why it acted against him other than pure liberal lap-dog-ism, and liberals exposed themselves by writing articles that basically said "Who cares if what Trump did is wrong or not, we have him on a technicality! Let's burn him at the stake," Trump just couldn't shut his idiot mouth and he started spewing idiocy and contradiction and shifting his defenses. That makes him sound like a liar. He also couldn't help but dabble in insurrection speech, which makes him dangerous. Idiot.

• Liz Cheney is up for re-election today. I am hoping she loses. As much as I despise Trump and think he's a terrible creature, nothing he did justified voting to impeach him. That was a partisan smear and she fell for it.  Cheney's decision to support the Democrats in that gave them aid and comfort in their obsessive anti-democratic hate and is unforgivable. I hope she gets blown out.

• Henry Kissinger thinks we're on the verge of war with Russia and China. He's completely wrong. I'll write about China in a couple days, but the truth is Russia and China now realize neither is a match for us. Neither wants to risk a war with us, which was not the case a year ago. Interesting story there... Either way, this exposed Kissinger's one-dimensional thinking which cost us the Vietnam War.  Genius, my *ss.

• The teacher's union in Minnesota has reached an agreement whereby white teachers will be fired first and rehired last despite their seniority. I should be outraged, but seeing as how teachers are the last big block of leftist behavior, I like that they will now be forced to pay for their views. It's like when a vicious dog owner gets mauled by his own creation: well deserved. So might I suggest reverse slavery or "involuntary" transsexual conversion for Minnesota teachers? And while we're at it, how many half-black, half-Asian handicapped left-handed Jews are employed by the Minnesota school systems? Not enough, my friends, not enough. It's time we had the courage to admit this.

• The Democrats' "environmental" bill included a $7,500 tax credit for buying an electric car, with the idea being to make it cheaper to buy one of those. Right after it passed, GM raised the price of its electric cars by $7,500. Surprise. Not only does this utterly wipe out the purpose of the bill, it shows what for a corrupt joke GM and the environmental lobby are. With friends like these, the environmental movement really doesn't need enemies.

• Amnesty International is in trouble. They've issued a report accusing the Ukrainians of war crimes for defending themselves, and thereby endangering the lives of their civilians. Almost every leftist peace group calls this utter crap, and yet Amnesty International is getting pissy defending itself. Credibility meet toilet.

• Biden will extend the student loan freeze until after November this month. The left is making a big deal of it, but he wants to use this as election fodder, so he will extend it beyond November as a form of "vote for me or you will need to start paying your loans!" Then he'll forgive $10,000 sometime around the next election. The problem is (1) he's pissing people off by leaving them hanging, so he won't get the grateful response he expects, (2) he's pissing people off and prolonging the piss-off-period for those who already paid off their loans, and (3) $10,000 is worthless. Think about it. If I promised to forgive 10% of your mortgage, would you really truly care or would it not affect your life at all? Biden's a fool to think this will help. This is like handing a burger to those guys on the street corner with the "will work for food" signs... just try it and see if they're grateful.

Thoughts on China coming soon and some stuff on how liberalism is failing pretty seriously.

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More Thoughts On The Raid

Now that we know a good deal more, much by inference, I have more thoughts on the FBI raid.

(1) This warrant is crap. It does not identify what justified the search. It is far too generic. I would not have granted it. It's possible the required affidavit says more, but why release a pointless warrant without it? That suggests DOJ wanted to fool the public, not enlighten the public.

(2) The fact they led with the copy of Roger Stone's clemency suggests a political motive. As I noted in my comment, you don't lead off with irrelevancies in a warrant, you lead off with the punch. This suggests they were angry or politically motivated. In fact, the utter lack of description of content regarding the secret documents suggest they don't even know what's in them... which is not a basis to go barrelling in.

(3) If the documents were a national security threat, why didn't they come get them already? That's terrible negligence by the government to leave genuinely dangerous documents out there. On the other hand, if they aren't genuinely dangerous, why get them this way, especially when the issue was being negotiated already and the documents have been stored the way the government requested? This reeks of thugism.

(4) Someone leaked the idea that these documents involved nuclear information. The Washington Post ran with it. That now seems utterly false, and the Post NEEDS to expose who told them that. It is unacceptable that someone in government would make that claim falsely. (And if it is true, I ask again why they waited to seize them?). This leak had the potential to destabilize a lot of countries and alliances and possibly lead to war, yet someone in the Biden administration happily made this apparently false leak just to get Trump. That's unacceptable. And the Post will be part of the cover-up if they don't dig into this and expose it.

(5) Trump's defense that he declassified these documents in BS, but it won't matter. Whether or not he gets charged, this will catapult him back to the top of the opposition. Getting elected is another matter, but if the intent was to kill him off, this tossed him an amazing lifeline. In fact, this will prove to a lot of people that the Government monolith is in conspiracy against him for being an outsider. I can't say that's wrong either.

(6) The next Republican President needs to go after Hunter and Joe Biden after this. Hunter had top secret documents he wasn't authorized to have (and could only have gotten from Joe) on a laptop overseas. That's far, far, far worse than anything Trump did. Father and son need to be in jail.

(7) I get the feeling there is a particularly dirty trick in all of this. We have been told some of the documents Trump took involved information about the President of France. The suggestion is this was information generated by espionage agencies and needed to be kept secret. Yet, the warrant does not identify this information as classified, suggesting it is something personal like a gift or letter or something that should go to the archives, but isn't sensitive. Once again, whoever leaked this information potentially wounded our relationship with France all to get Trump. That is unacceptable and needs to be answered.

(8) When I listen to DOJ's pronouncements, they are very much splitting legal hairs to such a degree that I can only conclude their conduct is designed to deceive. Unacceptable.

(9) There is no way Biden wasn't told. If his Attorney General knew, then Biden knew.

(10) This reeks of bubble thinking to me. You get a bunch of smug Washington insiders in a room and they start to spew their hate at Trump and their love of their turf and they work themselves in a lather over the idea that Trump broke some insider rule they see as sacrilege.  The problem is, the public sees those rules as petty. I doubt very much at this point there will be anything in these documents the public will accept as sufficiently sensitive to justify this.

(11) There is no benefit of the doubt here. At this point, DOJ will need to provide detailed proof before I will believe anything in these documents is truly is sensitive. General descriptions are unacceptable.

(12) This was a huge mistake. A huge number of people no longer trust the government and doing this intensifies that and adds to those ranks. If DOJ wanted to be seen as credible this was the last thing they should have done. This is the sort of thing which undermines faith in government to such a degree that government starts to break down.

Thoughts?

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Historical Ignorance

Biden apparently met with two "expert" historians who warned him that the US was "facing a crisis similar to the tensions before the Civil War and the fascist movement." Let me share my thoughts on that steaming pile of bullship.

First, let's assume it is true. How do you respond if you are told the country is tearing itself apart and civil war is likely?

(a) You try to calm things down with a pleasant speech telling people we are finding a new center ground.

(b) You call in the opposition to find common ground and you pledge to work together to unite. You might even work on some bills that help both sides calm their people.

(c) You falsely and recklessly accuse whites of murdering Muslims, you appoint a black Supreme Court justice because she's black and radical, you swear to fight for the chemical castration of kids as young as possible to make sure gays have allies, you force through a series of laws with zero bipartisan support, you use rhetoric to destabilize the independent Supreme Court that keeps you in check, and you send the FBI to harass the leader of the opposition.

If you're Biden, you seem to think (c) is your best bet to calm things down. Said differently, Biden has chosen to stoke hatred at the very time he's being told we are in a dangerous period where hate is so out of control it may lead to the country fracturing. That's a Hitlerian choice. And if we had a competent news establishment, they would ask him why he's acting that way... but alas.

Secondly, as someone versed in both logic and history, I can tell you that the comparisons are unmistakable wrong. The Civil War happened at a time when two things came together: (1) a moral outrage (slavery) that divided the country by region and (2) a demographic power switch which meant the divide was no longer an unwinnable battle of two equals; the South had peaked and would soon become powerless vis-a-vis the North if it didn't act. That meant it needed to strike or lose on demographics. Add in that the moral outrage was enough to incite violence on both sides AND that it left like-minded people all gathered in separate parts of the country, making it easy to split off, and you had a war of desperation between two firmly established empires. There is no such moral issue today and no divide. Maybe masks, but that issue has defused with pro-mask people losing, and even then, it was never a regional thing with people grouped in a way to lead to war. It also wasn't enough to bring normal people to violence... just the nuts. The analogy stinks. Not even Trump's army of morons can make this analogy work. They are tiny in number. January 6 tells us they number under a thousand... and they turn to total p*ssies when facing a judge.  Hardly the stuff of Civil Warriors.

As for fascism, let's not forget that we are talking about Germany, not the US -- our fascists turned fast once the war began. Germany had just had its government destroyed, it's might neutered and was working under crushing foreign debt and humiliating occupation. Nothing like that exists today. The economy was in super-hyperinflation, unlike today. The fascists and communists (funny how leftist historians forget them) were running battles in the street with the Army and a nationalized police force supporting the fascists. They won 43.9% of the vote on their way to taking power and they did so under a very different system than ours -- they would have been shut out here. Again, where is the analogy? Oh, it sounds great to liberal ears to think that the modern right is the same as Southern slave owners and Nazis, but the reality is those are the intellectual ancestors of the left, not the right, and nothing in either scenario is analogous to today. If anything, cancel culture is as analogous as we get to the Nazis in this culture and cancel culture is a "progressive" thing.

So the analogies are crap.

That said, there is an analogy to the past today: the 1960s. The 1960s were a time when leftist agitators became terrorist cells and started blowing things up to promote their causes. They staged protests against America's institutions, aided and abetted by the ACLU, and they invaded and ultimately destroyed the Democratic Party. The Trumpees are the modern version of that, but too stupid to be as effective as the Weather Underground or Red Brigades, who actually were not at all effective either. But then... so is Antifa, on the left. Moreover, modern Progressives are re-enacting the Great Leap Forward in China, where you denounced those you didn't like for lack of purity and their lives were destroyed without trial. This is cancel culture and SWATing and the censorship being imposed by leftist corporations, especially tech corporations. If you want an analogy, that's it. But Biden can't admit that because liberals don't like to be blamed for their rotten behavior.  Only the other guy's evil matters.

So Biden's experts are wrong.

The thing is, I'm not surprised a liberal "expert" would be ignorant of their field... or intentionally dishonest. Think of the number of reports from liberal environmental scientists which turned out to be utterly false or used flat out made up data, or the way liberals need to silence debate to make their point. How about those who ridiculously accept the idea that 8.5% inflation equals 0%  or that we aren't in recession or can't imagine what's wrong with a man in a dress in a girl's locker room. There was a college professor the other day who said he studied inflation and found it was all tied to the war in Ukraine, not progressive labor demands of $15 an hour or Biden's policies. The thing is, inflation began the day Biden took over (right when a lot of those $15 an hour rules kicked in) and took off during his reign. The Ukraine war didn't start until February 24 of 2022. By that point, inflation had already risen from 1% under Trump to 7% by the end of 2021. So THE MOST the Ukrainian invasion could have added was the extra 1.5%. Yet, this "expert" somehow missed that... because he's a propagandist, not an expert. Just like those claiming the rise in crime in progressive cities isn't really a rise in crime if you squint right at the data.  In fact, that seems to be the problem with modern liberalism, it's propaganda based, not fact based.

Thoughts

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Trump v. FBI

Here are my current thoughts on the FBI thing.

(1) Obviously, Trump is a piece of sh*t.

(2) Obviously, the left is OBSESSED with Trump to a shocking degree, even for them.

(3) Politically, this raid by the FBI is a cluster of epic proportions. Why? This makes the FBI look terrible. This reeks of a politicized hit. It is the sort of thing the FBI needs to be above to have any credibility. Add the fact that (1) it was exposed that their last investigation of Trump (Russian election interference) was conducted by two lovers who were anti-Trump and wanted to bring him down and the FBI did little to stop them. (2) The former FBI director harassed Trump and then went on an anti-Trump talk show and book writing bender after being removed from office. (3) It's funny how they never seem to be able to find any crimes committed by Democrats even when it is beyond clear those Democrats committed crimes. Hillary's emails are just one example. So was Hillary's campaign hacking into White House computers -- far far worse than this. Yet, the FBI turned a blind eye. And look at Hunter Biden. It is clear/certain that he was taking bribes from foreign powers for favors done by his father who was getting part of the bribes. It is clear he was doing drugs with hookers as he carried around a laptop with top secret documents he could only have gotten from his father... and then lost the laptop. Yet, again, the FBI does nothing. In fact, it tried to cover it up. It is clear the FBI will pursue those who are politically out of favor but will protect those who are not. They have no credibility anymore.

(4) The left is falling all over themselves to explain how this wasn't biased, but they are lying. Look at the following quotes from an article rushed out by "legal experts" and my comments below that. My comments come from reality as an attorney who has dealt with these things:

"Former FBI agents, including one who’s already investigated Trump, and ex-federal prosecutors told Yahoo News that obtaining a search warrant is a lengthy, difficult process, designed to be immune to political pressures."

Not true. You can get one in minutes and it takes almost nothing. I've seen them gotten over the phone with the agent talking about vague conclusions based on years of experience.

"The bureaucratic, box-ticking process by which the FBI obtains a warrant under ordinary circumstances is complicated enough, they maintain, without factoring in the enormity of sniffing around an ex-president’s digs."

Ha.

"'To obtain a search warrant, you need two things,' according to Barbara L. McQuade, the former U.S attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. 'You have to have conducted a sufficient investigation beforehand to demonstrate probable cause that a specific crime has been committed, and you need to show convincingly that evidence of that crime will be found at the location. These are not blind fishing expeditions.'"

True, but false. Probable cause is all an officer needs to get one and it can be manufactured with any statement by a witness including the agents themselves swearing that in their experience this search will likely yield results. Once the National Archives said Trump turned over documents but not all of them, that gave the FBI enough to find probable cause anywhere they want to search. All the words this woman uses are meant to distract. A specific crime means you can point to the code book to name the crime, e.g. Speeding. "Convincingly" is double speak, it just means your probable cause makes sense to the judge. A "sufficient investigation beforehand" means nothing at all, just that you looked and saw or heard something to give you probable cause. "I saw him unload boxes on television" is "sufficient investigation." Probable cause here is no different than what it takes a cop to pull you over and search your car. He crossed the white line. He was driving erratically. I smelled a substance I believed was drugs. He was driving in the part of town where drugs are sold (I've seen that one work). Probable cause simply means rational reason to believe there is evidence of a crime here. Only the dumbest of cops can't find probable cause, especially when you can judge shop to find a friendly one like the FBI does.

"Political affiliation, as a matter of Department of Justice policy, cannot have any influence on that process."

And yet, it does routinely. This is also contradicted by the very next statement in the article:

"Given the sensitivity of this case, McQuade said, Wray will have almost certainly been briefed in detail and had to have approved the move to obtain a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago. Even then, there was never any guarantee it would be granted."

So, you can't worry about political affiliation, but this would need to go through the head of the FBI's office because it involves someone important, i.e. political sensitivity. So, uh, it does matter?

"The warrant was issued by a federal magistrate judge in Florida. 'Even if you don’t believe politics isn’t involved in criminal investigations,' McQuade said, 'magistrate judges tend to be especially neutral and detached, because they’re selected by U.S. district court judges – entire benches – and so you end up with people who are really quite moderate.'"

Good grief. I have yet to deal with a magistrate who isn't political or biased in some direction. That idea that these people are moderate is laughable. Has this woman never been to court? Or is she lying?

I have been involved in the process from the law enforcement side. I have friends on each side. I've dealt with dozens of judges and magistrates. I've worked with FBI people. None of the claims of difficulty and lack of bias above are true. This is pretending that the existence of procedure prevents substantive bias. It does not. And the left will tell you this when it involves black guys going to jail or wiretaps against Muslims. Yet somehow, now that we are talking Trump, these same failed procedures are sacrosanct?

(5) The real disaster here is that this will save Trump. Trump was done. Outside of CPAC, not a lot of conservatives or Republicans wanted him back. This makes him a victim of the system and people will rally around him... at least until the election.

(6) Talk of this sparking a civil war is nonsense. That's theater for commentators and people trying to garner ratings.

Ug.

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Told You So...

One of the things I've run into in life, which I find most annoying, is how over the top people get when they are wrong. That's what the media is doing with Biden right now.

To set this up by example, I used to visit a number of sports blogs until I realized they were just awash in toxic people. I was there to talk about sports, others were there because they had a lot of anger and intense inferiority complexes. These people, not coincidentally, tended to be morons. What's relevant to my point today is something that would happen whenever I made some comment that required a bit of insight. For example, reading the tea leaves, it would become clear that the team intended to trade a particular player, but they hadn't said that yet. Instead, they said the opposite. I would mention the trade was coming and these morons would descend and scream what for a moron I was. "The cooch sed he got big plans for him, they ain't traden him you dumbsh*t!" Presumably, that made them feel good. //shrugs

Now to be clear, this isn't personal, in case you're wondering. My skin is much too think to care what people like that say and I wasn't the only one attacked by these morons. In fact, it has to be to be a lawyer, because bad lawyers do the same thing -- you should see them gloat as they fall right into your trap. They will positively gloat as they put the figurative gun to their head and pull the trigger over and over with a huge smile on their face thinking they've got you, and your job is to let them think they're right... until it's time to spring the trap.

Back to my point, once these morons thought they were right about something and I was wrong, they were relentless for the next couple months gloating about how smart they was and how dumb I be. And you couldn't prove you were right because what you predicted hadn't happened yet, so you couldn't stop them. In fact, even as it became more and more clear I was right, they still didn't stop. If anything, they got nastier. And the more the rumors started to hit that a trade really was coming, the bigger the gloating got... right up to the point the trade happened. Then they switched gears and complained that the coach was an idiot and lied and blah blah blah. Whatever.

The same is happening now.

Biden is finished. He's the worst president ever. People view him as a joke. The left wants him gone before he destroys them. People see the economy as the worst in their lives. And nothing the Democrats just did changes any of it. Their bills are far too little, far too late, and aimed at the wrong people. Not a thing they've done will resonate positively with anyone outside of a few big companies and some leftist technocrats. Good for Big Pharma, bad for big Public. Good for GM, irrelevant for drivers.

Yet, the media is in gloat mode. Every morning, I am greeted now with increasingly euphoric articles and headlines. It began with cautious talk of momentum. It moved on to them being on a roll. It shifted to "have they turned the tide" and "why wouldn't they win in November with these 'accomplishments'?!" Today some gloater claimed "Biden is on a streak any president would envy." Really? Dual disaster pandemics, worst economy ever, possible war with China, a Supreme Court unraveling 60 years of his policies, hyperinflation, rumored housing collapse, an out of control crime problem, out of control homelessness, a surge of illegal migrants, race hate as high as the 1960s, a stripped down budget that eliminated all the key things Democrats wanted from healthcare to drug costs to taxes, an environmental bill the enviro-left derisively calls a "love affair with the car" (and which no electric car marker actually qualifies for) or a gun bill the left whines "doesn't ban a single gun" and which really only pays to add cops to schools. That's an enviable streak? God good, what are your standards? Yet, the articles get more and more euphoric. The cheerleader left has even turned Biden in a comic book superhero.

These are the annoying moments. The cause has occurred but the effect has not yet arrived. In the meantime, those who don't understand cause and effect celebrate the cause and rub it in everyone's face. They will sing a different tune (most likely betrayal and conspiracy) once effect arrives, but for now they are obnoxious f*cks and there's not a thing you can say to make them see the effect coming down the tracks. Hang in there folks. Reality always arrives.

Thoughts?

As an aside, I once named five wide receivers I figured would be available for trade if Tampa wanted them. My comment was mocked by the moron-atti because "everyone knows" those guys were too good for their teams to trade them. Wat ar you stupid?! All five were traded within two months of my comment. Surprise. I didn't even bother saying "I told you so"... what would have been the point?

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No-mentum

The media is engaged in wishful liberal thinking again. They are writing articles about the Democrats having "momentum" and Biden recovering and maybe even pulling things out. Good luck. We got these articles too as Biden was cratering. Yay, the Democrats turned the corner... they "reset" things... Smoosh. Wishful thinking. Same thing now.

The first thing the media is trumpeting is the "passage" of various Democratic bills. Wrong.   First, none have actually passed yet, so let's wait and see if they actually do. Secondly, why would any of this help the Democrats when nothing else they passed did? Remember the infrastructure bill? No one else does. People don't even know it passed and don't give any credit for it doing so. Remember gun control? Did nothing, and Biden kept falling even after that. Black chick on the Supreme Court? Yawn. What was her name again? Nothing they have done has resonated because none of it helps people or alleviates their concerns. It's games for elites. So now they pass some change to the tax code which will affect only a few thousand companies (assuming they don't plan around it) and we're supposed to care? Fat chance.

The show votes don't help either. In fact, when the Dems tried and failed to protect abortion, they didn't get cheers, they got jeers = "why didn't you do this before?" Uh.

Secondly, the economy. Biden's claim we're not in recession was endlessly mocked and undercut all those who tried to back it. Now they are trumpeting a job growth number as miraculous. July produced 528,000 jobs! OMG! See! No recession! People will drop to their knees and worship Biden now. Only, (1) summer job numbers are always high because of a vast number of seasonal jobs, so those aren't real jobs... they vanish before the election, (2) they are missing the fact a huge number of people are getting second jobs to cover Bidenflation, (3) February saw 700,000 new jobs and yet Biden was getting blasted for a bad economy; why would now be different? Bidenflation is worse. And (4) for as much as Biden claims this is some sort of economic miracle, we aren't even back to pre-Pandemic numbers. NPR proudly claimed that with July we have recovered exactly the amount of jobs we lost during the recession. Huh. First, doesn't that contradict the idea that we are in a strong growth period if all we've achieved is getting back to normal... net zero from 2019? Secondly, don't forget there are three million more people here now, so even getting to zero is not really getting to zero. We're still around 1.5 million short for that. Third, NPR is lying. At the end of 2019, there were 158 million jobs in the US. After Biden's July miracle, there are 151 million. That's 7 million below zero. People know this too. They see their job situation and they don't feel like the future is boundless.

Third, inflation is getting worse. We just saw another spurt this month. Eggs are $1.27 a dozen right? Nope. They were $2.70 in June and were $4.27 a dozen this week. Lots of other things are jumping too. I get these dark chocolate bars for health reasons (they taste terrible). They are $1.50 a piece on sale.... or, were. This week they went on sale for $3.00. On sale. Thanks Joe. Coke, McDonalds, Unilever and others all announced price hikes at the end of July. Basically, everything you buy just took a jump up. People feel that pain and, as long as they do, no claim about more jobs being around will matter.

But gas is down, right? Sure to about an 80% increase from where it was before Joe got his policies started. So "down" is still nearly double of normal. And the only reason it's down is (1) we are in a recession and demand is down, (2) tax chicanery and release of the strategic reserve oil, and (3) nothing moves in straight lines. This last is the most important. Things go up or down for a while and then turn around and do a 20% retreat before taking off again. It's the human cycle. The stock market calls it a false recovery or a "dead cat bounce." It's a retrenchment before the next surge is all. 20% is about 80 cents, so look for it to start up again after hitting around $3.20... right before the election.

Fourth, Biden killed an Arab. Yay. Except, that would be an Arab no one could name, few remembered, who had been declared dead before, and who was killed in Kabul (assuming it's him) where he wasn't supposed to be according to Biden. So Biden's Kabul disaster is worse than believed. And how does this help people who can't afford eggs anyways? Oh, and right after Biden did this, Pelosi went to Taiwan and set off a Chinese Tantrum that is dominating foreign policy news and made everyone forget whatshisname.

Biden will get a small bump in the polls because it's summer and people care less and won't be as vocal and because he hit bottom already and he is due his dead cat bounce. But none of it's real. None.

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Abortion Vote

For those who somehow missed it, Kansas voted to keep abortion legal last night by a 59%-41% margin, or 2-1. Drudge is calling this a "Red State Shocker" as are others, but it shouldn't shock anyone. Some thoughts.

First, this is not a shock. If you want to believe the public is split on abortion, you can look at polls comparing the pro-life and pro-choice label. Then you will find it's basically 50/50. A nation torn apart, right? Only... when you look beneath the label, you'll find that most pro-lifers want abortion to be legal and most pro-choicers want it to be regulated and everybody is sick of talking about it. The end result is somewhere around 80% of the public, regardless of label, want legal, safe and rare... and off the news cycle.

Kansas voters are probably the most fringe-right in the nation and Kansas has a long history of anti-abortion efforts (including violence). If any state was going to represent the best-case-scenario for pro-lifers, it was Kansas. Yet, they lost 2-1. This will probably prove to be the high water mark too for the public's support to ban abortion. In places like Colorado, I would expect around 31%. In California, lower than that. Soooo that raises some questions:

1. What does this mean? It means, as I predicted, abortion will become the law of the land in state after state. It will probably happen quicker than I expected because of the overwhelming percentages. That kind of margin can stiffen a lot of backbones. It will also be more convincing because it will come from voters in most states before the Feds finish it off to get states that won't let their voters decide.

2. This will not end the political pro-life movement. That won't stop. But it will end public tolerance for the debate. What is their next strategy? Probably court-imposed policy: like the left did with abortion, get the courts to impose a ban.

3. Will it change the minds of GOP legislators? That's the most interesting question. It has to give them pause. The problem is the primaries are still largely dominated by the Religious Right. But the public will be increasingly hostile to people who raise this issue. So how do you placate both groups? Or do you even try? Will there instead be a shift away to a neutral position? On the gay issue, most GOP candidates simply stopped talking about it or even embraced it once they knew that 60% of their own voters favored it. Will the same thing happen with abortion? I suspect the answer is most will try to never to talk about it. But we'll see. The guy to watch here is Desantis. He's savvy and he's on the front line on this. He needs to solve this issue before he can become the GOP front runner. Trip up, and his voters run back to Trump. I would bet he shifts to talking about needing to change the hearts and minds of voters but also shifting this to voters to decide.

4. The Democrats think this will give them momentum in the midterms. I don't see that. It will only give momentum where there is a referendum, and that can't really be done before November (four states will have such referendums - California, Montana, Kentucky, and Vermont). So abortion remains a nonissue this cycle. After that, all bets are off. That said, I think the referendum in Montana may hurt the GOP. I doubt Kentucky will hurt because I suspect the GOP there will switch sides. There is no GOP in California. And the one in Vermont is pro-choice.

Ultimately, I'm not sure what the Supremes thought was going to happen when they issued this decision, but I doubt this was it. This is called an unintended consequence. What worries me is not abortion itself, what worries me are the other unintended consequences of their decision. When you mess with 50 years of settled law, you upend a lot of things. And when the politicians start taking advantage of that, you get some really ugly results. I worry very much if the court thinks that we have no right to privacy. I worry because there are masses of tech companies and insurance companies and law enforcement groups all waiting to break down those barriers in ways that will shock and surprise. I worry that laws like the one created in Texas's zeal to stop abortion will now be used to reach out of states like California and impose their insanity on the rest of us. I worry that the world is full of book burners and Karens and Nazis and others looking to control everyone else, and this decision opens doors and windows in our society to them... I worry that no one really knows what the limits are on government anymore. The Supremes could have done this very differently without unsettling so much, but they weren't bright enough... or clear-headed enough to find a better way. Now we need to worry. And this vote in Kansas shows it was all for naught anyways.

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Media Bias

The media never fails to amaze me how blatantly biased they are. They will bend over backward to the point of blatant propaganda lies to support the Democrats. There's a shocking example out right now: the Biden recession. This is almost surreal. It's truly Orwellian.

We are in a recession. By definition. This cannot be denied. The universally accepted definition of recession is two quarters of negative growth. No one has ever disputed this before... until now. To avoid adding the word "recession" to Biden's pathetic record of "worst president ever", Biden has tried to pretend that the forever-accepted definition of recession isn't actually the definition of recession.

It's ridiculous, but I get it. He's hardly an honorable or intelligent man... child sniffing, credit-card-company-tool, dead wife/son exploiting, piece of ship. So for him to lie, and lie poorly, is in his DNA. And so many liberals will believe what they are told no matter how obviously wrong that it make sense he would lie to them. But for the media to follow him down into this sewer? That's what's really troubling here.

Rather than shake their heads and admit that this is the definition of recession, the media has scowered the landscape of liars and nutjobs to find "experts" who are willing to split hairs to agree with Biden. Yahoo and MSNBC are pimping articles with headlines like, "Can it really be a recession with strong job growth?" It's insane. It's so dishonest that even these propagandists should be ashamed... if they were capable of such a feeling.

It gets worse. Team Biden's ass lickers raced to Wikipedia and changed the definition of recession there. Wikipedia then promptly froze it so no one could fix it. So now, when the drones go double check something they've always known to be true, the will find comforting proof that Biden was "right" and yet another fact they knew to be true five minutes ago will no longer be true to them... until it becomes time for it to be true again. We have always been at war with Eurasia.

Worse yet, Facebook censored and blocked posts by actual economists who said this was all false and that we are in recession. Then they let those posts be posted but only with a warning that they contained falsehoods. I am not making this up. Contradicting Biden's blatant lie got labelled as a falsehood. This reeks of Soviet newspapers like Pravda who told the biggest fantasies to support the lie that was the Soviet machine. Welcome to the machine, Facebook. Maybe it's time to shut them down after all? Indeed, if you are going to openly promote lies and slander those telling the truth in the name of supporting a lying President, then you are basically an enemy of truth. Maybe it's time you answered for all the things that have come out about Facebook profiting from misinfornation, targeting children, addicting people, causing suicides. Maybe it's time to look into your monopoly on advertising, your predatory practices? That might be doubleplus good.

I suppose I'm numb to it by now, but seriously, how can you people live with yourselves when you think that you need to lie to support your own ideas? Isn't there a point where you realize that your ideas are just sh*t? I guess not. Must be a terrible way to live though.

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Delusional Democrats... Or Liars

There's something I've noticed about corporations and actors. When they get exposed as something bad, their PR people claim the opposite. Get exposed as a low grade moron? Have people do interviews claiming you're the smartest person they know. Leave sh*tty tips? Spread the word how charitable you are. Going to ignore the book you're turning into a film? Send the choir to talk about how all you talk about is being faithful to the book. Wore S&M gear in your last five films? Tell the world you only take "strong women" roles. Does your corporation spew garbage into rivers? Talk about how you cherish the environment. Defrauded millions? Integrity. It's all that matters to you. And so on. Seriously, when someone claims they are something, you can be pretty sure that is the one thing they are not. Enter the Democrats.

The Democrats and their fellow travelers have really elevated this to an art. At times, I actually wonder if they believe the things they say. But then, what they say is such obvious crap they must know it's not true. Here are some recent examples:

Quoth the AP: "For most of his presidency, Joe Biden has ignored or minimized talk about his immediate predecessor, or, as he once called him, 'the former guy.'"

Funny, because I don't think a press conference or interview goes by where Biden or his people don't blame Trump a dozen times, by name. "It's Trump's fault" is a macro that lives on the lips of Democrats, including Biden, and comes out like a tourettes outburst.

How about this? The Democrats aren't getting credit for the infrastructure bill. Why? Quoth Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA): "We were so focused on passing the next thing, we forgot to tell people about it. And that’s a huge mistake."

Funny, because I recall the Dems and the media screaming how transformative this would be for months. For decades now, the Democrats have been about selling their few achievements like they are one step short of reaching the moon. As for passing things? Since when? When Obama could pass anything he wanted, they passed three bills which did nothing good. They use impotent Republican opposition as a shield, teasing their supporters. They don't even know what they would pass if they could. Even now, they are solely focused on theater votes to try to embarrass the Republicans rather than actually passing anything. The most awkward question of late was: "why didn't you codify Roe v. Wade when you had the chance?" Uh...

Or how about this? Did you know the Democrats are too intellectual? Check out this doozy from Florida Democrat Fentrice Driskell on why they can't beat DeSantis. Apparently, Democrats won't "lay the problems of the state at his feet." Quoth: "You don’t have to go into a dissertation. Democrats like to try to explain things. If people ask you why it costs too much on rent, blame it on DeSantis. … We can play that game too."

D.E.L.U.S.I.O.N.A.L. All I ever hear from Democrats is how Republicans are racist or sexist and have caused every evil known to man and opposed every solution. Voters can't have diarrhea without some Democrat blaming it on racist Republicans in some way. And let me tell you, I have NEVER heard a Democrat explain a damn thing. In fact, they can't because their arguments make no sense. They are the party of demonization. Yet, you'll find quotes like this everywhere: "Oh poor us, we always try so hard to be fair, to explain things, to be nice, we need to learn to fight." Good. F*ing. Grief. I would say it is so ludicrous to say that that it seems impossible anyone could believe this... and yet, many of them really seem to believe they're the party of good faith civic discussion and wonky policy. Crazy.

There are other flat out BS thoughts too. I love the idea that the GOP is nuts when it comes to vaccines, but Democrats aren't. The media and Democratic leadership have run with this. Biden even ran for President on it -- stupid Republicans who won't get vaxxed! And now that it's clear the Democrats need to change positions, the media bends the lie: "attitudes on COVID are changing beyond party lines." (real quote). Only, that was never true. There was never a party line. Half the anti-vaxers are on the left, always have been. Most of the ones I know are radical leftists. Did you know, for example, that anti-vaccine behavior was strongest in the black community? And the hippy anti-corporate community? That's as left as you can get. Yet, they don't exist in the Democratic narrative. Ditto on black gun owners... unicorns.

This dovetails with the lie that the GOP is antiscience. Let's see, the idea of stopping a procedure which may or may not take a human life (we really don't know) is anti-science. Opposing the mutilation of kids and the changing of their gender appearance under extreme adult pressure with uncertain effect is anti-science. Opposing draconian fake solutions to a "global" problem that only exists when you lie about the data is anti-science. Yet somehow it's cool to ban research that might show that blacks are different than whites or that women can't do everything men can do (or the reverse) because it might offend. It's fine to oppose safe nuclear energy because it sounds scary or most industry advances because they could be misused. It's fine to ban pesticides which feed people because they sound unnatural. It's fine to refuse solutions like natural gas which solve half a problem because it sounds better to wait for a total solution that doesn't exist or to impose destructive solutions which are more politically popular even though they solve nothing. Allow genetic research? Sure, but not for purposes we don't like. Abortion in all cases, unless you want to choose the sex or orientation of the child. Accept that scientists sometimes need to lie and fake data to support a cause. Sure. All good liberal beliefs, and yet they are the pro-science group?

There are others too. They scream about Trump undermining the election by "not accepting the results" and wail about the GOP hiring teams of lawyers to thwart the will of the people... which is what Al Gore did and every Democrat who lost after him. Remember the "Resistance" to Trump? Not my President. Anyone remember them trying to encourage electors to break their oaths and not vote for Trump in the electoral college? How was that any different than what they are calling treason now? Before they claimed the GOP was nasty to Obama, they were heinous to Bush and Bush and Reagan. All that talk about the Supreme Court ignoring precedent? That's what liberal courts were all about. In fact, the left used to speak of the Constitution as "a living document" that was supposed to bend to the whims of the times just so they could ignore precedent. Suddenly they scream in outrage that the current Supreme Court is overturning their pulled-from-the-asses-of-five-justices precedents?

This dovetails perfectly with the fact the Democrats never accept responsibility for their actions. I used to argue with socialists who claimed "socialism has never been tried." Except it has, over and over, always to the same ending: bankrupt nations and mass murders. The Democrats are the same. Their love-the-criminal-hate-the-cop policies went into effect in the 1960s and crime soared. They tried to blame everything but their policies. Now they do it again and crime does exactly what you expect. Yet, they and the media claim (1) no fair sensationalizing it... it's just some looting and murders, (2) some crimes are down like purse snatching (because women are hiding inside) so we can't really say that "crime" is up, (3) it's the criminals skewing the statistics, (4) it's just Covid (which only happened in woke cities apparently), (5) it's the poor economy (which they also tell us is booming), and (6) it's a nationwide problem so you can't say it's the result of their policies... must just be the times. Except it's only nationwide in the sense of being every woke city nationwide, and only woke cities. When a hundred people lick their own asses and get sick and a thousand others don't and don't get sick, only a fool would claim there's no way to know what went wrong... or a liberal.

That's how the CDC traces the causes of disease. Trace our social problems and you find liberalism is the common denominator. Liberals deny that truth.

Democratic economic policies cause inflation and recession, time and time again. Yet, the left loves to claim that's not true by pointing to some meaningless statistic like income inequality. Conservative policies bring growth and liberals split hairs to deny it's real. All I heard under Reagan was, "yeah, but they're just service jobs," which they weren't. Now Biden isn't even getting those... his "miracle" has been pizza delivery jobs.

Sometimes, you see the truth squirt out. This came from the AP: "President Biden and the Democratic Party have presided over an era of record crime that has been partly responsible large migrations out of progressive-dominated states such as California and New York into redder, Sunbelt states such as Florida and Texas." But the left ignores those moments. Do you know why California shrank? It's not all the assh*les flooding other states, oh no, it's <i>racism</i>. Yup. Trump's census people ignored blacks (I'll talk about that soon).

Liberals lie, or they're delusional. It's the only way they can live with themselves. Their rhetoric says they are the intellectual party that cares about people, supports the working poor, believes in science and freedom and opposes tyranny. Gee that sounds great. But the reality is they are the party of petty tyranny who destroy nonbelievers like a cult attacking heretics, deny science for dogma, bury the poor in inflation, recession and crime, spread hate, and smear their enemies as a matter of course because they long ago ran out of ideas to debate. It's no wonder they flee from their own nests.

Thoughts?

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Had To Post This... The January 6 Hearing Ratings

So the January 6th hearing returned to prime time yesterday. You may recall this was the darkest moment in American history according to the Democrats. How did they do? If you believe leftist articles, they "surged" in popularity. If you look at the numbers, they collapsed.

The first prime time hearing brought in a shocking, amazing, orgasmic 21 million viewers. Woo hoo, squealed the leftist hacks. This shows Amerika cares! Take that you evil Republicans.

Only, that's about 5% of the population. That's right, one in twenty. That's pathetic. Twice as many people tune in to weekly NFL games. Keep in mind, there are 125,000,000 registered Democrats alone. So this "darkest moment of our lives" managed to bring in only 16.8% of Democrats. And that's with all the networks complicit in trying to sell this thing as significant and a Hollywood producer producing the hearing -- which fact alone is a disgrace. So their all out sales pitch resulted in 5% ratings. Total fail.

Then the hearings went to day time and filled with phony controversy. Did Trump actually somehow push his husky frame through a limo to grab a steering wheel which actually has no real legal meaning whatsoever? YES! NO! Did Pence secretly want Trump gone? And what about poor Adam Schiff's romance with himself? Liars and fakers and frauds oh my! Reality TV at its finest. 11 million.

Yup, a 50% fall in ratings to less than 3% of the public. This was a total indictment of the hearings. The American public had spoken. They do not care.

And yet, the leftist media is putting out articles assuring their drones that the hearings are indeed "working." Uh, "working"? Wasn't the purpose to get at the truth or was the purpose to get Trump? Because saying it's "working" seems like an admission of bias, doesn't it? What's more the hilarious articles I've seen about it "working" note that no one's opinions are actually changing, except more Republicans "seem" open to someone other than Trump -- which was actually the case the moment he lost. But then, one oddly noted that the only real shift in opinion is that Republicans were now more likely to call January 6 "legitimate protest" than they were before the hearings. So really, the hearings are "anti-working," aren't they?

Anyways, last night, the hearings struck again in Prime Time. Today, there are dozens of articles about the hearing "dominating" Prime Time, how they have "momentum", even how "more people tuned in as the hearings kept going." Wishful thinking.

The rating are in and they scored around 10 million people, or down 9% from the day time hearings and off 54% from the Prime Time opening. Claims of increased viewership are the result of hair-splitting so fine as to be flat out delusional or lies. "Uh, more people tuned in last night than at the lowest point in the daytime hearings!"

All progressive self-stroking aside, this is a disastrous performance. 10 million people is 2.6% of the public. 155,000,000 people voted in the last election. This is 6.4% of those voters. That. is. laughable.

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Screw You Californians

I'm looking to leave Colorado. There are many reasons, but the main one is Californians. I will write about this soon. As a bit of prep to understand what I'm talking about, however, let me mention an issue that is being debated right now so you start to see the mindset of these people: water.

The west is going through a drought. It happens. What's making this one so bad is that between this one and the last one, tens of millions of people have moved out here. Lake Mead in Nevada is literally almost empty because so many people in Vegas suck it dry. Rivers are running dry. In my home town, there's an aquifer that is tens of millions of years old which people here used for a hundred years and it barely fell an inch. After putting in homes for 500,000 Californians, the thing is falling at such a rate (I understand its around 11 inches a year now) that people are having to re-drill wells every couple years. It will be gone in my lifetime. Every state is running dry, including especially California.

Now, if you don't know any Californians, let me say you are blessed. They are narcissistic, wasteful, aggressive assholes. You can always spot them. They tend to drive either Teslas and dress like Tim Cook of Apple, or huge pickup trucks which scream "TINY DICK!" and dress like Raiders fans. The best description I've seen was a meme which said, "Your shirt says UFC but your body says KFC." They are very fat, covered in death-related tattoos, put Punisher skulls on their trucks and have Mexican gang facial hair. Just to complete the picture, they blow through stop signs even with pedestrians in them, they tailgate through stop signs if the guy in front stops, I've actually seen many instances where these losers try to intimidate children in school crosswalks to make them walk quicker, they run lights, stop and backup if they miss their turn, go the wrong way down one way streets if they think they can get to where they are going before on-coming traffic hits them. All deeply self-centered behavior with a sick core. It gets worse. They play games. They intentionally try to cut other people off on the road or block them for for fun (seriously, in a big empty three lane road they will literally get in your blindspot to mess with you. They yell at waitresses, their kids are the ones fighting in schools, and everything they do is obnoxious and self-centered. Ever see the "baby on board" sign that says "Baby up in this bitch"? Not only does that scream white trash, but it usually comes with a California plate. Ever see someone knock something off a shelf in a store and not pick it up? Californian. The guy at Costco who took all 20 pork roasts the other day? Californian. Leave shopping carts lurking around the lot? Californian. Karens? Californians. My daughter and her coworkers play spot the California -- their arrogance and ill manners give them away every single time.

Even worse, they are wasteful to the point its sickening. These locusts move into an area, destroy its beauty and ambiance, and strip it of resources. They seek out "cool" places and then ruin them. See, e.g. Nashville, Austin, anything in the mountains here, etc. I can tell you stories of people in Utah and Colorado and Washington who found themselves basically pushed out of their own towns when the swarm descended in numbers and then treated like outsides by the swarm. If they start coming to your home town, shoot the first ones that try. I'm not kidding.

So anyways, they've squandered all the water out here and now things are starting to go wrong. Things will need to change. No more lush lawns in the desert, no more water parks losing billions of gallons to evaporation, no more fountains in Vegas, no more washing the old Ford Compensator every day. Right? Ha! Not these people. They have no thought to changing or inconveniencing themselves. Instead, they need to find a way to make this someone else's problem. But how? Hmm.

And then it came to them: take the water from the Mississippi.

I kid you not. They want to pipe trillions of gallons of water from the Mississippi to California so they don't have to change. No thought whatsoever has been given to the effect on the people living on that river. The only thought they have is: "You have something I want, gimme." (As an aside, when Californians arrive, they arrive like old school colonizers. They build new developments for themselves that look just like what they left with all the waste and obnoxiousness -- usually in your most scenic spot. They don't adjust to the culture or learn local customs. Those can bend to their will. They treat the locals as inferiors, after all, you hicks aren't from California... say it with awe. Basically, they build little California colonies in town until it grows enough to take over and they impose their culture on you. Portugal and Greece have found this out when the Californians started moving there a few years ago -- they don't even learn the languages, believe it not. Now those countries are complaining about a massive influx of "Californians." Note: not "Americans" but "Californians." Do you know how hard it is for people oversees to separate Americans by state? The fact they have singled these people out as "Californians" is damning. They are so obnoxious, articles in California papers worn people not to move to places like Nashville and Austin because "they've become like the Bay area." How bad are they if they themselves are complaining how they've ruined places???)

Naturally, the people who depend upon the Mississippi for little things like their own water, agriculture and commerce have said, "Uh, no."

So the response from California has been angry letters to editors saying "If they aren't going to 'share' then (1) we should take it anyways, or (2) 'Don't ask us for help with your problem then.'"

There is the California attitude in a nutshell. "I should be able to do whatever I want, no matter how stupid, and if you don't give me whatever I need to be able to do that, then I'm going to throw a tantrum." Talk about entitlement!

I recall an article about a specialty realty group that is moving conservative Californians to Texas and how shocked those people were to find the Texans didn't want them. Said one woman, "Don't they realize we're conservative, we're the cavalry. We're here to save you from the rest of the Californians who are already here!" Except, what she doesn't understand is that it's not just about politics (though that is another huge problem), the problem with Californians moving in is that they are just sh*tty human beings who act like entitled locusts wherever they go. And this water thing shows it. Rather than cutting back on their wastefulness, they want to rob other people without thought to the consequences and they throw a tantrum when they aren't given what they want.

I am not kidding, if you meet a Californian looking to move into your town, be the biggest asshole you can to them so they won't want to come. Save yourself.

As an aside, the Tim Cook clones are just as obnoxious, just differently. They drive Teslas or Audis with personal plates that say obnoxious things like "Striving" and "Leadership", the crap you see on motivational posters. They go everywhere with their Apple ear phones in wearing their designer fake-casual clothes (fashion guide for douchebags) or cover themselves head to toe in Nike, and have loud important sounding conversation into their phones. They desperately need you to be impressed with them, but want you to think they don't care that you are there. But if you listen, they aren't actually talking to anyone buy a spouse. Pathetic.

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Newsflash: Biden Has Covid... and Maybe Cancer

In this darkest day in our nation's history, even worse than January 6, we must tragically announce that President Biden has Covid. He got it from Trump... er, Putin... old data. Regardless, do not panic. This is transitory and it only affects his richer cells.

A large gathering of 40 million leftists is praying for Mr. Biden, that he die and they can run someone else. Stay tuned for more.

Oh, and Biden was lying about having cancer from sniffing oil. His lie was meant for dramatic effect only and should not be taken internally. Nothing to worry about there. The President never had, does not have and never will have Cancer. //wink wink He doesn't have Monkey Pox either. Hunter does, but he doesn't.

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Can Biden Really Be This Bad? Apparently

Howdy folks! I am working again on some good articles. They will be out soon. For the moment, let me say how shocked I am at Biden's incompetence. I always knew the guy was a fool, but this is so far worse than could be expected.

Biden is an idiot. We knew that. I mean, think back to the Bidenisms and realize that they haven't come close to stopping. This week he praised the "selfishness" of US troops, asked us to never forget the "honor" of the Holocaust, and then fist-bumped a guy the left (and large parts of the political world) see as a murderous tyrant. I seriously wonder who is writing his speeches and advising this guy? His team is talking about gas falling "below $3 a gallon" when it's still above $5 in most places ($8 in California). Here it's $4.79. Moreover, he's taking credit for something he's been telling us is not something a president can control. How does that work? Not to mention it's still double where it was when he started his Reign of Error. He fell off his bike. He lied about being offered a spot at the Naval Academy. The man is a fool.

What fascinates me though is how utterly terrible he's been. He's makes Carter look like a genius! From his disastrous abandonment of Afghanistan to causing inflation to soar to record heights to everything in between. He's made Elon Musk a Republican with Union-requested retaliation against Tesla. He's presided over a criminal wave worse than the 1960s without a single idea to fix it. The stock market has crashed, killing people's retirements. He's let people be priced out of housing. There are genuine floods of illegals pouring through the border. He's lost all his friends, who have turned on him. Heck, he can't even handle the student loan issue without pissing EVERYONE off on each side! That takes talent. He knew the Roe v. Wade ruling was coming, but had no response to it for two weeks. This has been a master class in incompetence. The media wants to love him. They will happily lie for him. And yet, he's given them so little they can't even find good lies to tell!

Biden's approval rating is at an all-time low of 36%. 69% disapprove of his handling of the economy. 89% think the country is on the wrong track. 57% disapprove of his handling of the visit to Saudi Arabia. Over 70% of Democrats don't want him to run again. He's lost half of his own voters. Half. Think about that. Lyndon Johnson did better than that when he decided not to try for a second term after botching the Vietnam War. He lost a war and was still better respected than Biden. Jimmy lost Afghanistan, gave us gas lines and recession, and had a hostage crisis that crushed him. And yet, he was more popular.

I swear, it's so bad it almost has to be intentional... performance art. How can he get every single issue wrong and then even mishandle the softballs the media throws him? Getting snippy with a reporter asking about inflation or Saudi and responding with "ask something important" is an answer beleaguered CEOs given when they've been caught diddling their secretaries and are planning to flee to the Caymans, not presidents talking about policy.

I'm honestly floored that this administration can be so terrible. I remember enough about Carter to tell you that while nothing ultimately worked for him, he wasn't a total dipsh*t. His administration didn't do everything wrong from every single policy to every appointment to every meeting with the press. At times, Carter seemed like a normal guy if a bit snake bitten. Biden seems like a guy who needs someone in a rabbit costume to chase him away from the levers of power.

This is kind of mind-boggling.

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The January 6 Disaster Coming

I think the January 6 hearings will be a disaster for the Democrats. Here's why:

First, no one cares. A couple hundred douchebags riot at the Capital building. Big whoop. Call the cops, end the party.

Moreover, you just can't convince people that this bunch of doorknob humpers represented any sort of threat to the US Government. You can pretend to be horrified all you like, but no one's buying it. You whine like a bunch of Karens.

And let's not forget, this is a smear. It's blatant politicization. You were cool when BLM/antifa burned down Minnesota, Portland, Seattle, Denver and parts of other cities. But now you choose to worry? This is pure politics, and everyone knows it... and nobody likes a hypocrite.

What's more, you've been caught having this hearing produced. You're literally trying to find a way to advertise it to the public. That tells us two things: first that no has cared so far and you know it so you're trying to find some way to make people care, and secondly, nothing you say can be trusted. You are the used car salesmen of worry. Who's going to believe what you say? The public didn't care when Democratic staffers cried about their PTSD or when you tried to link Capitol Hill police suicides to this event... why would they care now?

And frankly, if you had anything interesting, you would already have waved it at every camera you could find. Your silence speaks volumes.

You have terrible timing too. For one thing, your hearing will be in the summer and the public doesn't care about politics in the summer.

What's worse, you've picked a time when people are genuinely worried. Democratic cities are overrun with crime to the point they are voting against Democratic ideals to stop the murders and looting. Inflation is breaking us all badly. Russia keeps hinting at ending it all with nukes. Biden just opened the door to Central America to come visit this summer. We're told there is a food shortage coming. How does it look when all these issues are literally freaking the public out and you want to put on a hearing about some drunken fools who once scared you in the hopes of smearing a guy nobody likes anyways and who is no longer in office? What's next? Re-opened hearings on Watergate?

You also don't seem to realize that government hearings only interest people when they feel there is an injustice at work. Smearing Marine Colonel Oliver North, Anita Hill v. Clarence Thomas, those got people's attentions the way the Johnny Depp trial did or the OJ Trial. Beyond that, it's all just procedure and people don't care... and you don't have anything that grips the imagination.

There's no end game either. Clarence Thomas would make it on the court or not. Reagan would get impeached or not. What happens this time? You get to wring your dirty little hands and call Trump a meanie? Yawn. Get therapy without involving the rest of us.

The Democrats are living in a bubble. They are so obsessed with Trump that they think the public still cares. In fact, many of them still think they can run against him. But they can't. There was a poll the other day which showed only 17% of the public blaming Trump on this. That shows the lack of intensity of interest in him at this point. He's yesterday and the public has moved on, just as they moved on from Covid. They care about other things now. You are fools if you think they can be made to care about something they didn't fear at the time and which seems ludicrous in hindsight and which you are bringing up as a smear of a has-been at a time when I can't afford gas or food or electricity.

The best case scenario for Democrats is that they get through this and no one notices. If the public notices, they're going to start asking questions about why you're doing this. Iran Contra backfired because the public wasn't outraged by what North did. Clarence Thomas won when the public decided it was a racist smear. Clinton's impeachment backfired on the Republicans because it was a hypocritical partisan witch hunt. That's where this thing is trending. Good luck with that.

Thoughts?

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Don't Distract Us From Gun Control!!!

"When are we going to ban guns!" //RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION

Stop trying to distract us from doing what we must! Yes, don't distract us...

• Don't distract us with the fact that video games desensitize kids... video game industry studies say that's not true.

• Don't distract us with the fact that Hollywood promotes gun violence as cool or that Hollywood movies en mass teach us gun violence is how heroes solve their problems... that's just escapism... a fantasy of what you wish you could do, no one would act on that.

• Don't distract us with the fact that progressives actively encourage a belief in "triggers" and justify irrational and often times violent behaviors when they feel "triggered"... that only applies to bad triggers.

• Don't distract us with the fact the liberal media makes these impotent fucks famous... giving them their one shining moment in life.

• Don't distract us with the fact that social media companies do nothing to stop people using their platforms to spew the darkest parts of their souls at each other... encouraging suicide, murder, hate, bullying others, spreading lies.

• Don't distract us with the fact Hollywood and the media and "influencers" create fake impossible standards of comparison which average people can't meet, causing depression and self-loathing or that Hollywood and the media push nihilistic narcissism as normal... the very formula for dehumanizing others. We're all antiheroes now.

• Don't distract us with the fact that modern liberalism has undermined all the institutions that used to support broken people... fathers, priest, scouts... all gone. The state doesn't judge, love the state.

• Don't distract us with the fact that liberals divide the world into good and evil, divinity and heresy, those to be loved regardless of their crimes and those to be hated regardless of their virtues, and then it threatens all sorts of nasty cancelling, re-education and forced submission upon those it does not like... that's just rhetoric, nothing to feed paranoia there.

• Don't distract us with the fact the liberal media pushes the idea that loners are evil, violent and dangerous, that couldn't possibly isolate people, and making someone an outcast can't have any connection to people turning to violence.

• Don't distract us with the fact that schools combating bullying has becomes a means of bullying those who aren't popular.

• Don't distract us with the fact leftists divide the world into hateful camps of victims all whining about the world oppressing everyone and everything and being the root cause of their own personal failures and flaws... it's the fault of nebulous forces that control our lives.

• Don't distract us with the fact that liberal mental health advocates have prevented us from treating people who need it.

• Don't distract us with the fact the calls for gun control are just for show. It's the safest bit of outrage a Democratic politician can engage in because it will never actually happen. It's a freebie, a chance to signal your virtue and work people up when they feel impotent and make a complex debate stupid. Funny how Obama, who's attacking the gun lobby today, never cared to act when he had the power, isn't it?

• Don't distract us with the fact you're trying to distract from all of this by blaming an inanimate object. There are 250 million guns in the US and only a handful get used in crimes. The gun is not the problem. The trigger-ed man is the problem, the nihilistic narcissist who's been taught that killing is a cool solution to what bothers him and whose soft brain has been rotted by having killed millions of digital people for a decade, who's never seen a priest or been a scout or had a real dad, who can't be touched by the police until he acts, who got ostracized at a school which did not care so long as he didn't draw a picture of a gun, and who's kept on edge with calls to hate and division.

Your outrage is bullshit, hypocrites. As leftist NBA coach Steve Kerr bleated so proudly, while beautifully hitting the table as part of his act: when are we going to do something?! I don't know, Steve, when will we? I'm willing to fix everything above. Why aren't you?

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22 Versus 1

There's a point I keep wanting to make which just happens to have come up again last night. It's the idea that if a number of women accuse a man of harassment, then it must be true because they can't all be lying. It's rotten logic, but the feminist left pushes it.

The specific issue this time comes up in the context of NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson. He's been accused of sexual harassment by 22 women who were hired over a several year span to give him professional massages. They tried to have him charged criminally and several prosecutors in Texas refused to pursue the cases. With that failing, all 22 have sued him civilly. Last night, Watson's attorney was asked on HBO why we should believe "one man over 22 women." Of course, leftist feminists were hallelujahing all day about this, but the truth is, this is a crap argument.

Why?

Here's the thing: if you believe that 22 people won't lie about the same thing, then this argument makes perfect sense. But anyone who thinks that is a fool.

Let's start with this:  would 22 people lie about a thing? The left likes to think that massive numbers of cops will lie about a suspect's guilt, so yes.  So why are cops different than 22 masseuses? The left believes millions of Americans lie about being racist. They believe all men lie about being rapists. They believe corporations lie about everything. Why would 22 masseuses be different? Mainly because the left <i>wants</i> to believe this.  That's it.  They want to believe criminals too and I can tell you, having done criminal work, <i>every</i> criminal lies. Every one.  It's part of who they are.

But would a woman lie something like <i>THIS</i>? Sexual harassment?  Of course.  First, I'm not sexist enough to think that women are incapable of lying and I'm not Victorian enough to think they are unwilling.  Women lie, just like men.  Feminists dogma doesn't accept that, but it's true.  But would they actually lie about sexual violence?  Yup.  What proof do I have?  How's this:  depending on who you believe, <u>up to 25% or rape claims are false</u>. There were 127,000 reported rape claims last year, that means 32,000 women lied about being raped last year. Even feminist literature admits that 2% of rape claims are false, meaning 2,500 women lied about being raped last year. Is it really hard to believe that 22 women lied about something less than "rape-rape" (as Whoopie famously said)?

"By why would they lie? What could be their motive?!" squeal the leftist journalists. Money. These women sued for money. I have worked on several large cases in my life (like Fen-Phen defense). And while many people were very badly hurt (or even died) there were also millions of claims by people who simply never took the drugs or felt no effect but claimed all kinds of fake injuries. They lied.  Where money is on the table, all bets are off.  My neighbor uses a wheelchair when he sees disability or his doctor, but never uses it around the neighborhood.  He's lying.

But what are the chances they are "all" liars? High actually. It's called adverse selection. Adverse selection means that people who can exploit an opportunity will seek out those opportunities. See, the idea promoted by the phrasing ("how can they <i>all</i> lie") is that it would be an impossible coincidence that every woman involved is lying.  But that's misleading. Watson had over 90 masseuses. These 22 are the ones who sued. Around 70 did not. They denied seeing anything like these women claimed. So a more accurate question is not "how can they <i>all</i> be lying" but "how can 22 out of 90 women be lying?"  In that regard, note the interesting coincidence that 22/90 works out to 24%... the same number who lie about rape.

Moreover, most of these women did not claim what you might think. While the case is being sold by the media as Watson forcing himself on these women, what most are actually alleging is that he propositioned them. That's not a crime except in feminist circles. That's why the prosecutors refused to prosecute, because asking someone for sex is not a crime.  Nor does it support claims of improper touching. What they've done is tried to support the one or two genuine claims of improper touching with 20 or so bullship claims of "he asked me out."  Suddenly, the "how can 22 women be lying" argument seems a little dishonest, doesn't it?  Not to mention, we're down to "why would a couple women out of 90 lie?"  See why this argument is crap?

It gets worse.

There's a ringleader. These women were found by an attorney who tried to shake down Watson and has waged this campaign in the newspapers rather than the courts. In fact, when Watson's attorney was asked why we shouldn't "believe 22 women", her answer was that the attorney had orchestrated it. This is the reason the rules of ethics actually forbid attorneys to solicit lawsuits, because unscrupulous attorneys will talk people into joining suits for a quick shakedown.

And for those who think attorneys can't coordinate witnesses, one the biggest problems preventing the legal system from disciplining cops for decades used to be that they would all get the same attorney who would keep them from breaking ranks. This is part of the "blue wall of silence" which courts finally ruled was obstructive of justice. Yet, here, leftist feminists think nothing of a single attorney coordinating these women -- women whose interests are actually adverse when it comes to (1) weeding out lying hangers-on and (2) dividing Watson's resources if they win, meaning it's actually unethical for the attorney to represent them all together.

Do you see the problem?

This is the same crap the left has been using for all sorts of identity politics arguments. Whenever you hear someone argue "how could so many people be lying," the reality is they probably are, especially when these same people refuse to allow the accused to make the same argument... or defend themselves (see Duke rape case). Think about all the hundreds of totally false sexual harassment claims made against every Republican nominee. Think about the pathetic evidence the left accepts in those cases: "she told her best friend who would never ever ever lie for her about it two weeks ago"). So if a liar repeats the lie, that's proof it's true? And if many people repeat it, that's proof of truth? A lie is a lie no matter how many millions of people believe it.  Or think about "so many scientists say global cooling warming change is real"!  So?  Believe does not create truth.  Etc. Etc.

Don't fall for this.

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What Overturning Roe Means

I've gotten several emails (three actually) asking me to talk about what overturning Roe will mean. So here goes.

Let's start with the legal part first because that's causing the most confusion.

Whatever your views on abortion, Roe was a terrible legal decision. It was premised on nothing more than the desire of the court to find a new right. They relied on social science data and politics in the decision, rather than legal precedent, and they invented the right not from anything written in the constitution itself (like "Congress shall not...") but from the "penumbra" of the constitution -- the glow of the whole thing. It's true. Not making that up. Total bullship, legally speaking.

So what happens if they strike Roe down? Does abortion become legal or illegal? Yes, but not like you think.

What Roe does now is create a legal right to abortion requiring that it remain legal to some extent. That means the states and/or Congress cannot flat out ban it. To what extent it can be blocked or regulated is what all the cases since Roe have been about. You can do this, but not that, etc. etc. If you remove Roe, that right disappears and abortion becomes a question for the legislature. Until the legislature speaks, however, it actually becomes legal because things are not presumptively outlawed in our system until they are made illegal.

But then it can be made illegal, right? Sure.

Buuuut, if you want to know how this plays out, it's not going to be made illegal. First, there are only a couple southern states which will actually ban abortion. I count Mississippi and Alabama. Georgia and Texas (maybe a couple more) will probably add some regulations, but that's about it. Places like California and Maryland, on the other hand, will allow abortion on demand until birth. Most every other state will most likely pass laws keeping things as they are right now. So expect illegal in two states, legal in 48 with a couple SUPER legal. As for the people in the illegal states, they will be able to travel to any number of other states to get the procedure done. Stopping them will violation equal protection laws. So realistically, no one will be stopped.

Then it gets ugly. The next time the Democrats hold the Congress and the White House (like now), they will be able to pass an abortion law that prevents the states from passing their own laws -- undoing every state's laws. When Congress speaks, the states cannot. What will they pass? Well, odds are good they would pass the California version of unrestricted abortion on demand and impose it on every state. Is there a valid 10th Amendment argument against allowing that? No.

Could Republicans ban it if they got the White House and Congress? Possibly but I doubt it. The government cannot just ban things, and there are several rights in the constitution which I doubt they can overcome. They can try though.

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Ug

So I'm looking at the upcoming election and I'm thinking, things are going surprisingly well. Biden's administration has destroyed the economy, as their policies inevitably would, and people are pissed. The left's pro-criminal policies have been exposed so badly that even the liberals are thinking of voting to the right to keep from getting robbed or raped. In fact, we're looking at a rightward sweep probably larger than anything we've seen since Reagan changed the country.

Hispanics are drifting right both for economic reasons and because they don't like the Democratic embrace of communism and they don't like having a neutered language pushed on them by liberal race-baiting whites. This could potentially allow the GOP to attain permanent majority status. Blacks are even turning on the Democrats, and that's like your mom saying she doesn't love you anymore.

The wokes are going broke. GOP governors are doing well. Democratic governors are getting buried in the consequences of their actions. The GOP smartly has been working to get their whackadoddle problem under control and the Trumpatics, the vaxxers, and the Russian agents are all being shoved out. At the same time, the left is embracing crazier and crazier ideas which are turning off anyone not part of the problem.

Wow. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh yeah. The Supreme Court. There is a leaked draft decision under which the conservative justices of the court apparently intend to overturn Roe v. Wade. Shoot me now. This is an invitation to a whole different set of crazies to compete to make the GOP as unelectable as possible. Congratulations, Mr. Biden, your opponents are about to morph into a f**** cult. This is what destroyed the GOP in Colorado... and Virginia. It gave the suburbs to the left. It's what made the national brand toxic in the 2000s. And. we're. about. to. do. it. again. Paging Rick Santorum.

Good times.

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