In the aftermath of Impeachment 2.0 winding up the way Impeachment 1.0 went, Leftists are praising Republican Senators who voted to convict former President Donald Trump for allegedly inciting the January 6th protest/riot. And they’re using a phrase they’ve used before to blast Republicans: country before party.
Confused yet? Just wait until you think about how Leftists went from cop-haters to cop-lovers within a couple of weeks. But that’s a blog post for another time.
Until then, hopefully we can digest what the Left is saying now before they change their minds.
country before party
What the Left thinks it means – putting the good of the country ahead of any political good
What it really means – putting the actual good of the country ahead of the good for Leftists
The phrase “country before party” sounds like it came out of the PR department of the DNC or a clever turn of a phrase from the media. Wait, they’re one in the same. Nevermind.
Seriously, though, I can’t understate how rhetorically brilliant country before party is. Not only does it play to our emotions and patriotism, but it automatically creates a dichotomy that makes people pick a side based almost solely on our psychological need to belong. Nobody wants to put a political party ahead of the United States of America, right?
Not so much.
One of the issues I have with the phrase is how manipulative it is. Anyone who uses it forces you to make a Faustian deal: either agree with the side who claims to be for the country or be shunned as someone who sides with a political party. It’s akin to saying if you love dogs you must hate cats. That may go over well on the absurdly-specific Why Dogs Are Morally Superior to Cats web forum, but in practice it’s a false choice. You can love your country and support whatever political party you want because the two aren’t mutually exclusive. That’s the beauty of America: you don’t have to agree on everything to love the country that gave us muscle cars, 24/7 access to porn, and Taylor Swift. And to be fair, I’m willing to negotiate on that last one.
The other issue I have with the phrase is the Left doesn’t really mean it when they use it. When they praise someone like Utah Senator Mitt Romney for voting to convict Donald Trump, I always have to go back to 2012 when these same Leftists were shitting on Romney at every opportunity. Did Romney change? Nope. He’s still the same fair-weather Republican he was in 2008 and 2012. And I can safely say the Left hasn’t changed. What changed was the end goal. In 2012, Romney was painted as the second coming of Satan because he was running against President Barack Obama. In 2021, Romney is being painted as a patriot because of his Senate vote.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s not an accident.
The Left did the same thing to George W. Bush. After literally comparing him to Hitler, most of them started “respecting” him after he came out against Trump. Ditto John McCain and the members of The Lincoln Project. Although after recent events, the Left may want to distance themselves from The Lincoln Project. Then again, they keep Bill Clinton on speed-dial when they need a little cash coming into the DNC’s coffers.
In any case, the Left will always put party/ideology before the country every time and they don’t even try to hide it anymore. Remember the long-promised COVID-19 financial relief package that we were supposed to get last year? Although we got $600 (which would buy us a limited amount of groceries, a few tanks of gas, or three trips to Starbucks), President Trump wanted $2000 more, which would have given much more, albeit temporary, relief. After Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in 2019, the Left had control of the federal purse strings. When COVID-19 hit and we needed financial help, the Left used this power of the purse to…prevent us from getting any more relief. The reason?
Orange Man Bad.
The Left hated Trump so much, they were (and still are) willing to make working people suffer for political victory. The sad thing is it worked. Now under President Joe Biden, we’re not getting the $2000 Trump was insisting upon. Instead, we’re getting $1400 because we got the $600 mentioned earlier, thus equaling $2000. And if you say anything like “Didn’t you promise us $2000 on day one if the Senate flipped to Democrat control” you get mocked, gaslighted, and talked down to as though you don’t know basic math.
Yeah, I want these assholes preaching to me about country before party.
The fact Leftists think they’re the standard bearers for country before party should be taken with a grain of salt…the size of Mount Everest. But you know who is the standard bearer?
We are.
I don’t care if you voted for Trump, Biden, Vermin Supreme, Godzilla, or the SMOD, as long as you want to make the country better. We will disagree on how to get there, but the final destination should be the same and we should be willing to figure out how everyone can get there. And the Left can’t have that because it doesn’t create chaos and discontent that can be exploited for their political gains. So, the next time you see a Leftist mention putting the country before a party, you can ask them what they’re doing to make that a reality in their own lives. When they can’t answer without bringing up an ideological stance, invite them to kindly shove their opinions straight up their asses.
Oh, and ask them when we’re getting the $2000 Biden promised because last time I checked $1400 isn’t $2000.
Tag: president donald trump
Why Trump’s Second Impeachment Is Already a Failure
Now that Democrats control both the House and the Senate, you didn’t need to be Nostradamus to see a second impeachment against President Donald Trump would be a foregone conclusion. Leftists and Democrats are overjoyed at the possibility of sticking it to Trump one more time as he leaves the White House because…unity? Anyway, right now the only matter on the table will be how severe the punishment against Trump will be.
No matter what the Left decides is sufficient punishment, the impeachment is already a failure. Oh, sure, they’ll get the votes to convict and to punish, but in their rush to impeach, the Left has overlooked one important detail that renders their efforts as irrelevant as the footnotes in a Vox article.
Donald Trump has zero fucks to give.
Remember, impeachment is a political action, not a legal one. That means the extent of the impact of any impeachment is limited to the political realm. Even if the punishment includes Trump never holding public office again, he’s already served in public office once. Can’t draw a federal pension? Trump might have the money to do without it. No Secret Service protection for the rest of his life? I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say he already has hired security on the payroll. No matter what else the Left wants to tack onto the impeachment in the way of punishment, Trump has it or can have it covered. He may still have issues on the legal side of the equation, but there are no political consequences that will hurt Trump now or ever.
This may open a can of worms, but it begs the question of why the Left is so hot to impeach Trump again even though the punishment won’t affect him. There are a number of possible reasons, but the one I keep coming back to is revenge for winning the Presidency in the first place. I would hope the Left wouldn’t hold a grudge, but considering they still crap on Ronald Reagan, I’m guessing they haven’t gotten past the first stage of grief yet.
What they have done, however, is open a door that can and will swing back to hit them on the backside. As of this writing, Donald Trump is no longer President, which means the Senate element of the impeachment process will be against someone who is now a private citizen. A loud and somewhat boorish private citizen, but a private citizen nonetheless. It’s almost like convicting someone posthumously, except the convict is able to speak and hasn’t voted 43 times in Chicago yet.
Now, let’s play this out a bit. Let’s say Republicans or Trump-allied Republicans win back the House and Senate in 2022. Under the current Leftist strategy, that means Barack Obama can be impeached and punished for any number of crimes, actual or political, as can Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and any number of previous Presidents. Under the current Congressional leadership, impeachments against George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, and even Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford could be on the table. We could see Impeach-A-Palooza for the next few years, which will significantly impact the ability of Congress to do its actual job.
Wait. Did I just make an argument in favor of politically posthumous impeachments?
While I try to figure that out, let me leave you with the bottom line here. Leftists and Democrats are so hell-bent on impeaching Donald Trump a second time (even though the first impeachment was legally flimsier than any case argued by Lionel Hutz) while ignoring the boomerang effect that will happen under different political circumstances because that’s what politics is anymore: using any advantage to the party’s benefit. And with some of the dirty players in DC, the taste of short term victory is sweet, but turns sour when someone else plays the long game.
So, I would invest heavily in popcorn shares. I get the feeling there is going to be a big demand for it when the fit hits the shan.
The State of the Onion Address, 2020 Edition
As the glow from the flaming dumpster fire that was 2020 appears in our rearview mirror, we can finally take a look back with hope, namely the hope that 2020 doesn’t come back for an encore. Unfortunately for us, the media’s malpractice will be coming back like the food and drink after a really intense bender.
The state of journalism last year was the gasoline thrown on top of the aforementioned dumpster fire. Big stories, like a little bug known as COVID-19, got covered intensely by people whose only experience with medicine is drinking a Dr. Pepper, while other stories, like Jeffrey Epstein’s “suicide” or Hunter Biden’s business details, were treated with a dismissive hand wave in spite of there being more red flags than a Chinese military parade. That is, of course, when they weren’t busy being the sycophantic propaganda arm of the Left.
But don’t you dare call the media out for acting like the lapdogs they were! They are real reporters working on real news, like…oh, I don’t know…continuing to follow the Russiagate narrative after being embarrassed by the lack of actual facts involved in it. That was certainly more important than reporting the actual news or following up on stories that might make the Left look bad. You know, like dragging a kid through the mud for shooting Leftist thugs who were attacking him first. The interwebs often did the work the “real news” people were reluctant to do, but the “real news” folks could be counted on to provide only half the story to advance their ideological ends.
Speaking of which, how’d that work out for you media types with Nick Sandmann?
The only other constant in modern media outside of the fact they’re all terrible is that they don’t learn from their mistakes. Oddly enough, that perpetuates the terribleness, which makes it all the more humorous to me. A lot of that comes down to ego. High profile journalists (which should never be a thing, in my opinion) are often notorious for having skin thinner than the plot of a Michael Bay movie. When they get caught screwing up, being general asshats, or looking down their noses at the rest of us, there’s a tiny bit of satisfaction that comes from watching them fail time and time again. It’s schadenfreudelicious!
Over the past year, the media decided to be fact checkers for anything and everything President Donald Trump said. And they failed. A lot. As of this writing, they still haven’t admitted the President was right when he said there would be a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2020. In fact, the media and their handpicked experts said it would be impossible. It makes you wonder why anyone pays attention to these self-professed defenders of truth when they can’t even find it.
This also applies to the self-professed fact checkers the media love to use to “debunk” the President and his supporters. In a move that can only be called peak 2020, the media did a handful of fact checks on…the Babylon Bee, a satirical website. And this is after popular fact checking website Snopes fact checked the Bee just the year before and were deservedly mocked for it.
Remember what I said earlier about the media not learning from their mistakes?
The funny thing (at least to me) in all of this is the people who profess to check and know the facts so we don’t have to are the ones who struggle the most with the facts and correcting the record when they get their facts wrong. This is why I take the media’s portrayal of themselves with a great lake of salt. At this point, you’re better getting your news from your local Super Shopper that has been left in a festering pile of garbage.
And speaking of festering piles of garbage, let’s talk about Twitter. Granted Twitter is to news what Jerry Springer is to quality TV programming, but more and more people (including journalists) are using it to report on events as they happen in as close to real time as we can get. The only problems with this type of on-the-spot reporting are 1) the information may not always be accurate, 2) information can be mixed with opinion easily, and 3) it’s fucking Twitter. And if you think journalists are slow to admit they were wrong, Twitter users rarely, if ever, correct their mistakes. They just prefer to ignore them or double down while insulting anyone who disagrees with them. Which, as we know, is the only way to win debates.
In closing, it will be fun to watch the media who spent so much time fact checking fall asleep on the job as Joe Biden starts his administration. If 2020 is any indication, 2021 in the media is going to be lit.
Just like a dumpster fire!
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
There are a lot of things I could say about the recent storming of the Capitol Building, but not a lot of them are flattering. Even so, my criticisms would be a mixture of legitimate concern and more than a little mockery as Donald Trump supporters tried LARPing as Antifa for a few hours. But, I’m not sure I would go as far as the Left has in how they’ve presented the protest-turned-plundering and selfie expedition. Instead, the Left has made the entire affair into a breach of our country’s laws.
Yep, our Leftists friends found a new word in their 365 Reasons To Complain Calendar: insurrection. As you might expect, there are differing opinions on whether what happened at the Capitol rises to that level, but the Left has pretty much decided it did. And if you disagree with them, you’re obviously supporting insurrection against the country and, thus, are just as guilty. If the Left is correct on this, prison overcrowding is going to get a lot worse.
Are they right? Let’s find out!
insurrection
What the Left thinks it means – trying to overthrow a government through violent and destructive means, mainly by Trump supporters
What it really means – anything that the Left sees as threatening to their power base
I did a little digging online to make sure I had a workable definition of the word, and merriam-webster.com came through for me. Their definition of insurrection is as follows:
an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government
Keep this in mind for later because it’s going to be relevant. Unlike the rest of my writing.
Insurrection is a violation of federal law, so it’s a pretty serious charge and shouldn’t be thrown around lightly unless you have reason to do it. And, no, merely being a Trump supporter isn’t a good enough reason. Still, this might be considered a semantic argument rather than anything based on the law. It won’t satisfy the Left, but here is the legal definition as found on legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com:
A rising or rebellion of citizens against their government, usually manifested by acts of violence
Oooh. Might be in a little trouble there, folks.
Well, to paraphrase a former President, it all depends on what your definition of rebellion is. At the heart of both of the definitions posted above is the concept of rebelling against the government. And it’s in how the Left views the government where things get stickier than an explosion at a cotton candy convention.
The Left believes government is the be-all and end-all of everything, from paying for pet projects involving the mating habits of the rare Argentinian albino fourteen-toed tree sloth to promoting values that advance the Left’s agenda. If you disagree with that notion, even if it’s because there is no such thing as an Argentinian albino fourteen-toed tree sloth, the Left sees that as a threat to the government as a whole and, by extension, themselves.
Except, of course, unless it’s people on their side of the political spectrum, like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. When they take over a federal building, cause destruction, and advocate overthrowing the entire government, it’s cheeky and fun, not evil and seditious like when the MAGA crowd does it! It’s totes cool! And, unfortunately for them, it’s also the very definition of insurrection, albeit taken to a much larger extreme.
Where Trump supporters might have some wiggle room is the actual purpose of the protests at the Capitol Building. To them, Donald Trump is the government (among other things). Everyone else is either an ally or part of the “Deep State.” In order for the legal definition of insurrection to be met, it would have to be against the government, and since the protests were in support of Donald Trump, they could argue (please check local listings for likelihood this will work) they were protesting the Deep State and their actions are consistent with that. Granted, this is a bit of a stretch, but it can’t be dismissed out of hand.
Along the same lines (and with equal stretching) is the argument the protestors weren’t trying to overthrow the government, but rather a specific function of the government. In this case, it’s the certification of the Electoral College vote. Although there is likely to be at least one pocket of protestors who might be stupid enough to admit they were trying to overthrow the government, most of the people there weren’t.
Wait a minute…I’ve heard that same argument before…something about Antifa/BLM…but I’m sure the people who advanced that argument with them are right there defen…nevermind.
The Left and the Right are guilty of guilt by association here, so their current positions are as valid as a homemade PowerBall ticket. From where I sit, there are very few Trump supporters who can and should be charged with insurrection, but there are also very few BLM and Antifa members who can and should also be charged along with the Trump supporters. The issue is ideological blinders prevent both the Left and the Right from being honest about who should get charged. As you might have guessed by now, I have no problem charging the guilty, even if/when I agree with them. That’s because the law isn’t supposed to be ideologically tinted. Lady Justice has a blindfold on because that’s how justice is meted, or at least should be. If we hold our allies to one standard and our opponents to another, that’s not justice; that’s favoritism.
I’m not going to hold my breath for the Left to catch up on this, but I will continue to hold the only standard that needs to be held in this case: if you do the crime, you do the time.
Oh, and keep your eye on the sparrow.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
To start off this week’s edition of the Lexicon, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is we may finally get to see another round of COVID-19 relief in the near future. The bad news? It looks like it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 per person, or in other words, the cost of a large popcorn and drink at your local movie theater, give or take a few thousand dollars.
Granted, if President Donald Trump gets his way, that amount may get boosted to up to $2000, so you might be able to afford to get some nachos with that popcorn. Still, there are questions, primarily from the Left, about whether the proposed stimulus package will be enough to help people. It’s a valid point, but it’s just one of the questions we need to explore before we cash the stimulus checks.
stimulus
What the Left thinks it means – monetary support necessary due to the economic hardships brought on by COVID-19
What it really means – the government returning a portion of the money it takes from us and expecting us to be grateful for it
If you really think about it (and I have because I don’t have anything better to do during quarantine), we’ve been played for suckers this past year because of the political weaponization of COVID-19. This isn’t to say COVID-19 is a hoax or a political scheme, mind you. What I’m saying is people more powerful than us have taken a medical issue and turned it into a way to manipulate the public into acting and acting in a certain way as a means to condition our responses under the guise of “believing the science” and “we’re all in this together.”
The endgame is pretty simple, really. If those who have the most to benefit from turning COVID-19 into a political football can get us to react predictably, they can use that to push a wider agenda using the same thinking that got us to this point. To do that, the powerful (namely Leftists) need a carrot to dangle in front of our faces to keep us Torgo-walking towards being happy little drones for the State.
Enter the stimulus package.
For all of their faults, the Left have an impressive understanding of the human psyche and an even better understanding of how to use us against us. Most people today have the economic understanding of a tuna fish sandwich, so it’s easy for the Left to play to that and our innate sense of greed and jealousy to make us chase the quick buck instead of taking a moment to ponder why there are so many good intentions paving this road to Hell. As we’ve seen since declaring war against poverty, it works.
Of course, that quick buck moves at the glacial progression (this is the government we’re dealing with here, after all), so we never quite reach the finish line. Every time we get close, there always seems to be a reason we have to keep going. Thus, we become George Jetson on that mechanized treadmill used to walk Astro. No matter how much we progress, there will always be a way to not only downplay what we’ve done, but also to set another goal even further away than where we’ve come. And as long as we keep following, the Left will keep that carrot in front of our faces.
There’s another side of this, however, that isn’t talked about much (due to either the Left trying to keep it hidden or, you know, the tuna fish sandwich thing), but is just as important to understand. The bulk of Leftist economic theory comes from John Maynard Keynes, who postulated the way to stimulate the economy is to have government pump money and resources into it and to lower taxes. Seems the Left forgets that last part and only focuses on the government spending side of the equation, but that’s neither here nor there in relation to this blog post. What’s important to keep in mind is who the Left thinks can solve economic problems. Spoiler Alert: it ain’t us, kids. In a crossover event no one but the Left asked for, social and economic policies are joined together in a Man With Two Heads monstrosity that has the potential to turn us all into unwitting wards of the State.
However, a government that has the power to give you the world has the power to take it away from you. And if we follow this line of thinking, we eventually come to the question of where our government is coming up with the money to give to people. It’s not coming from the Left nor the rich who are “paying their fair share.” It’s coming from us. Whether it’s $600, $2000, or one meeeelion dollars, we’re funding it with money the government says we have based on…well, I’m still trying to figure that part out given our national debt is higher than Charlie Sheen partying with Keith Richards in Amsterdam. And I’m not willing to take the government at its word that it has the cash. Call me a cynic, but any government who spends $600 for a hammer without getting a second opinion from Ace Hardware isn’t on my short list for entities to contact for financial advice.
The question then becomes what happens if the money we’re getting from ourselves with the government acting as a middle man isn’t enough. The short term answer from the Left is “people need more money.” And if that money gets allocated, we will be continue to spend money the government doesn’t have, which means we go further into debt, which means the government will tax more to make up that shortfall, which means things will get more expensive, which means the economy doesn’t get any better, which means people will need more help, which means the Left will say “people need more money,” and the cycle begins again.
I got winded just writing that last sentence! I’m gonna need a minute.
Hopefully in that minute you see the insanity of the Left’s stimulus process. As much as I would like to say the people can figure out the correct next steps to get our economy back on track, I really can’t. Economic literacy isn’t something that can be taught with emojis or hashtags or even TikTok videos. However, it is essential to understanding the next steps. One thing I can say is don’t depend on the government to provide for you and yours. To paraphrase the Margaret Thatcher, the problem with a Leftist stimulus package is eventually you run out of your own money. Only you know what you need for yourself and your loved ones. Expecting a politician to know that on your behalf is like trusting your retirement to an embezzler.
Come to think of it, is there a difference between the two?
In either case, all I can ask for you to be smart with the stimulus money. It is your money, after all.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
Yep, this is another Election 2020-related blog post.
The latest news out of the Election That Won’t Die revolves around 126 Republican Congresscritters who supported a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump’s election team against four states due to election irregularities (you know, like…throwing away military votes for the President). This has the Left up in arms. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said these Republicans have “brought dishonor to the House.”
But that’s not good enough for Leftists. Leftist Twitter (but I repeat myself) exploded with claims these House Republicans are guilty of sedition. Probably not the best week to invoke this, given Rep. Eric Swalwell sleeping with a Chinese spy while he was running for the House, but let’s go with it. Do they have a point this time? Let’s delve deeper into sedition, hopefully without contributing to it.
sedition
What the Left thinks it means – advocating for revolting against and toppling the established order
What it really means – another example of how the Left doesn’t understand irony
For the past 4 years, Democrats and Leftists have been calling President Trump illegitimate and demanding he be removed from office because he didn’t win the popular vote and/or various crimes he and his family are alleged to have committed. They “know” Trump had help from Russia to steal the 2016 elections. In fact, they went so far as to hold protests across the country delegitimizing the Trump Presidency, up to and including violent overthrow of the government or blowing up the White House.
Yeah. These are the folks I trust when it comes to sedition.
On the plus side, Leftists are concerned with people who want to overthrow our government. On the down side, they’re going after the wrong folks. I’ll be the first one to tell you I thought the lawsuit was dumber than letting Jeffrey Epstein babysit, but does it rise to the level the Left wants you think it does? The short answer is no. The longer answer is still no, but has a lot more words connected to it.
The President’s lawsuit, although ill-advised, isn’t an attempt to overthrow the government or its rightful leadership. Neither is the support from House Republicans because…and this is the part the Left keeps forgetting…Trump is still President until January 20, 2021. This little detail makes the sedition charges harder to stick. After all, why would the support for the President’s lawsuit be seditious when the person bringing the lawsuit itself is the President? No violence called for. No threats against the President’s life or the lives of government leaders. Just support for a lawsuit.
Can you say “overkill”? I knew you could.
Even if you expand the focus to the lawsuit and its supporters hurting the government, it falls flat because of the forum used to address the President’s concerns: the courts. You know, the courts…that are established in the Constitution? If President Trump is trying to get people to rebel against the government, he’s doing a crappy job of it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the Left is reaching more than Reed Richards.
The funny thing (at least to me) is how quickly the Left is adopting conservative ideas. Since it’s their ideology that stands to gain or lose the most over the outcome of the lawsuit, they want to preserve the status quo of a Biden victory over Trump. If the courts agree with the Trump campaign (which, to date, they haven’t, making them the second most losing team in history behind the Cleveland Browns, but work with me here), that overturns everything the Left wants to accomplish. No Green New Deal, no tax hikes on the wealthy, no free health care and tuition, just four more years of Trump’s Tweets and Leftist meltdowns. Don’t worry, though. Leftists will still have their meltdowns because that’s what they do in lieu of gainful employment.
Once you get past the hyperbole, the Left’s concept of sedition in this case is frightfully strong in words, but frightfully weak in application. In a few short years, they’ve gone from “Dissent is patriotic” to “Dissent is treason.” Yet, the First Amendment gives people the right to not only criticize the government, but to redress grievances with the government. Under Republican Presidents, the Left uses, if not abuses, both concepts demanding they be heard. Under Democrat Presidents, however, they seem to “forget” these parts of the First Amendment exist. Funny how that works out, isn’t it?
This is by design, of course. Leftists believe anyone who doesn’t stay in line like a Rockette is intellectually and morally inferior, which justifies their actions (at least in their minds). To extend this thinking a bit further, anything a non-Leftist does is anti-American and dangerous to the country. And when that non-Leftist is connected to Trump in any way, it becomes an imperative to discredit them, if not outright punish them for not thinking the right way.
George Orwell called. He wanted to let you Leftists know “1984” wasn’t an instruction manual.
Regardless of my feelings on the Trump campaign’s lawsuit regarding the 2020 election, there is no way it rises to the level of sedition, even if you water the definition down like a drink at a strip club. It’s more of the Left conflating objections to their ideology with objections to the country. After seeing some of the Left over the past four years, it’s safe to say the two are mutually exclusive.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
After the Associated Press called the 2020 election for Joe Biden, the Left wet themselves with joy (and I hope it was just tears). As soon as the fireworks were set off, the spreader events…I mean street parties, and other celebrations wound down, the Left then started demanding President Donald Trump concede the election and start a smooth transition period. You know, like the Left did when President Trump was elected.
Okay, bad example.
While we’re trying to sort through questions like whether Twitter will consider “Not My President” hate speech, few people are considering what a transition looks and feels like. And, as you might expect, the Left has a completely different mindset when it comes to transitions.
transition of power
What the Left thinks it means – a tradition where an outgoing President paves the way for an incoming President to hit the ground running
What it really means – holding Republican Presidential staffs to standards Democrat Presidential staffs can’t meet
Politics is an ugly game, especially in these hyper-partisan times. I’ve seen family Monopoly games end more amicably than recent elections and with fewer lawsuits. And after 4+ years of the Left demonizing the President, his family, his staff, his supporters, and anyone even tangentially related to the Trump family or campaign, any transition of power is going to be more like a hostage negotiation than a handing off of a baton.
In recent history, one party has been responsible and without malice when handing over the keys to the White House to its new inhabitants. And the other party is the Democrats. Whether it was taking White House furniture, removing the W keys off keyboards or spying on the incoming President, the Left has been petty when it comes to transitions, so when they demand a smooth transition for Joe Biden, it rings hollow for me.
The reasons for the Left’s call for civility after their lack of said civility over the past few years come down to holding President Trump to their standard, using it as a pseudo-concession, and scoring a political win without spending political capital to obtain it. Let’s break these down one at a time.
One of the Left’s favorite strategy guides is Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. One of the tenets is “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” In this case, the Left has set the demand Trump follow the precedent of previous Republican Presidents and submit. And the President has done what any Republican President in his place has done: ignore them. (Okay, only some of them would have told the Left to take a hike, but we can dream.) The more President Trump defies the Left’s demands, the more vocal the demands become. It’s like having a Judas Priest concert in the Grand Canyon.
Because President Trump has yet to concede, the Left are trying to manipulate him into a half-measure they can spin into a concession. If Trump starts the transition phase right now, the Left can then say he conceded, even though he hasn’t really. That will go a long way toward getting popular opinion on their side because many people think Biden is or should be acting President right now, but that’s to be expected by a culture that made Cardi B popular.
And the best part of this for the Left is they don’t lose any political capital making these demands. As of this writing, the House is barely in Democrat control and Senate control hasn’t been completely decided yet. After wasting money and political capital to unseat Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and fail, the Left needs to keep their eyes on what they can and cannot afford to use to fulfill their objectives. Right now, all the Left has to do is keep telling President Trump to concede or at least start the transfer of power to Joe Biden and it doesn’t cost them anything but time and energy.
In spite of all this, the Left hasn’t gotten Trump to budge because he’s not like past Republicans. He has his own set of rules and norms, which has infuriated people on the Left and the Right because they don’t agree with his approach. It also means he isn’t bound to their expectations. When they say “jump” Trump tells them to jump in a lake, although probably not in those words nor as nicely as I put it. Although this approach has made him less popular than Gretchen Witmer at a Michigan NRA meeting, it has shown an independent streak the Left doesn’t know how to handle. They love diversity, except when it comes to diversity of thought. Free will is a Leftist’s worst nightmare, so they will try to coerce compliance whenever possible.
Needless to say that hasn’t worked with President Trump.
Regardless of who takes up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come January 20th, the transition tradition is going to look and feel different going forward. Republican Presidents may be more emboldened (hey, I can dream, can’t I) to treat the Left like the Left has treated Republicans during previous transitions of power, but something tells me they’ll be adults about it. Meanwhile, Leftists are going to continue to use the process to say one thing and do another for political ends.
In other words, acting like they do on any day ending in a Y.
Election Fraud
The evidence of fraud taking place in the 2020 Presidential Election is overwhelming. Reported across multiple media sources and social media as well before it gets taken down by the current tech giants. It is plain as day.
From the media reporting different results from the official election results being reported by the various Secretaries of State on their websites to the videos and photos being released by poll watchers across the nation.
We see the tampering of ballots. We see manual voter registrations being entered to the the voter rolls on election day of people born in 1900 or even 1824.
We find that our overseas military absentee ballots have been dumped into the trash. And mail-in ballots being accepted without postmarks.
We see voters given Sharpies to mark ballots with instead of regular ink pens. Since voting machines can’t read Sharpies these votes aren’t counted but the ballot is accepted and marked as read. We see voting machines not properly filled with ink in a strong Republican district.
Poll watchers were removed from some polling places after they noted irregularities. and illegal activity being conducted. Some were removed when they took the evidence on camera that we are seeing being presented as evidence.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg of the fraud that is being carried out in the 2020 election. This a coup by election fraud. If Biden wins it will be because he cheated and the Democratic Party is corrupt at its very core. And the whole world will know it.
But thankfully there is a fix in the works. Vortex Blockchain Technologies will prevent voter fraud like this from ever happening again. But until that day comes we may have to endure 4 years of a Harris Administration and loss of Liberty.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
The election is days away as of this blog post (check local listings for further details), so it’s getting to be crunch time for both the Trump/Pence and Biden/Harris campaigns. As you may expect, voter turnout is going to be more important than knowing when the cut off Joe Biden during a live speech. That’s why both Democrats and Republicans have Get Out the Vote, or GOTV, efforts. On their faces, it makes sense.
And if you’re expecting a “But” here, you are correct. The efforts may be rooted in good strategy, but in practice…well, let’s just say there is a history of abuse from people of a certain ideology who think the ends justify the means. But let’s give it a fair hearing.
And by fair, I mean let’s rip on the Left for a while.
GOTV
What the Left thinks it means – efforts to ensure as many people as possible vote
What it really means – efforts to ensure as many people as possible vote for Leftists
Yes, I know Democrats and Republicans have GOTV campaigns. Where the two parties diverge is how far they’re willing to go to get votes. In recent years, we have seen Democrats use the following tactics
– voter intimidation
– bribery in the form of a sweepstakes
– paying people to vote for Democrats
– giving people free meals
– having campaign helpers go into nursing homes to fill out ballots for them
– attempting to register people for absentee ballots who didn’t even live in the area
Not to be outdone, here is the lowdown, dirty things Republicans did with their GOTV efforts:
– told voters to vote
Those monsters!
If you noticed, there seems to be a lot more dishonesty on the part of the Left when it comes to GOTV, which says a lot about their character, none of it good. Why would they have to resort to underhanded tactics if they have the votes to win? After all, don’t they say “When we vote, we win”?
They’re hedging their bets.
The Left lost its collectivist mind when Donald Trump won in 2016 because he was able to overcome the tactics referenced above, as well as a behind-the-scenes effort by our friend Uncle George Soros to put Leftists into state-level positions responsible for counting the votes cast. Now, with the push for voting by mail being amplified by Facebook, ads from jeans companies, and other entities, it creates an environment where GOTV efforts can sway the election in favor of the Left.
Then, the Democrats nominated Joe Biden, who has been gafferrific leading up to Election Day. That decision alone isn’t enough to hand the Left another well-deserved defeat, but it puts extra importance on the GOTV efforts. If they can get enough people to vote, they may be able to overwhelm the number of Trump voters to pull off a victory, and with the other safeguards they have in place, it is a real possibility.
But therein lies the flaw in their strategy. One of the traits I’ve found in Trump voters is their loyalty. All Trump needs to do is tell people to vote (which he has) and they will turn out in droves. His rallies are as well-attended as an all you can eat buffet on the way to a Weight Watchers meeting, and they are unapologetic in their support for the President. Add to that the number of people outside of the GOP willing to vote for Trump, and you have the Achilles heel of the Left’s GOTV strategy. You can’t win an election if you don’t have the votes.
And as we’ve seen in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and other places across the country, the Left have no problem suppressing some votes and manufacturing others. But that’s a whole different blog post altogether.
The point is GOTV efforts are great at energizing the base to vote, but they can be weaponized by those willing to break a few election laws to get a Leftist into office. But I’m totally not saying Leftists would do that. To accuse Leftists of cheating, lying, and manipulating potential voters like utter scumbags is the last thing on my mind. In fact, let me go on the record as saying I will not even consider the idea the Left would stoop to dishonest tactics to try to save face after Donald Trump whupped their collectivist asses in 2016.
I won’t consider it because it’s pretty much true.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
Out of the three Presidential shitshows…I mean debates, the last one was the best, partially because of the quality of the questions asked, and mostly because of the answers the candidates gave in response to said questions. One of the most intriguing questions surrounded energy policy, specifically oil. Joe Biden’s flip flops on whether he wanted to get rid of the oil industry as a whole made for must-miss television.
For the past few decades, the Left has had its sights on the oil industry and attempted to make it seem like Hitler, but less cuddly. Whether it’s blaming them for global warming/cooling/climate change/whatever it’s called this week or painting them as soulless money grubbers more cartoonish than a Captain Planet villain, the Left is all-in for getting rid of oil if at all possible. And, to be fair, oil companies haven’t always been worthy of protection from bad PR, but are they as bad as they seem? Let’s find out!
the oil industry
What the Left believes it means – an industry that pollutes and destroys the environment for profit, needs to be eliminated as a source of energy
What it really means – an industry that has become more indispensable than we realize
What do you think of when someone mentions oil? I’m guessing it’s either fuel or oil in general. Well, surprise surprise, that’s what the Left thinks of, too! Although it’s not wrong, it’s not the whole picture. Those evil petroleum barons make everything from plastics to Plexiglass. You know, just like the barriers used at the last Presidential debate?
But it goes beyond that. There are industries that are currently oil-dependent for their survival. Farming, transport, construction, these and many more require an oil industry presence for them to do anything. And last time I checked, we kinda need food to survive.
“Well, then we’ll use alternate fuel sources,” Leftists say. In fact, that’s their solution for everything. Replace fossil fuels, like oil, with wind or solar or other alternative energy sources. I’d like to see them put a windmill on a tractor for the sheer comedy value, but it belies the issue with the Left’s position on oil: they don’t understand enough about it to make an informed decision.
Shocking, I know.
In their rush to do a cut and paste energy policy, the Left overlooks the fact machinery requires lubrication and fuel. Right now, the bulk of the machinery uses oil-based products to make them move. It would like millions of dollars to retool existing or new equipment to meet the Left’s standards, but without some form of lubrication, the equipment makes nice paperweights, albeit expensive ones. You could try to use plant-based oils, but you will wind up smelling like you bathe in fry medium. Granted, this might make Leftists more appealing to fast food connoisseurs, but only because they think you might be able to score them some free food.
On the fuel front, the fossil fuel and even the biofuel versions have an advantage over solar and wind in that they can work in any type of weather. Let’s say you have a semi-truck that works on a rechargeable solar battery. It works great when there’s sunlight, right? What happens overnight? With current solar battery life, there are going to be more than a few stranded drivers waiting until the dawn, thus slowing down deliveries of everything from food to supplies. Prices will skyrocket, there will be shortages that can’t be addressed in a timely manner, and it might turn Main Street into one big CHAD/CHOP compound.
But…lower carbon footprint?
Let’s be honest here. Oil isn’t going away anytime soon, and no amount of Leftist wishful thinking will make it happen any sooner without massive infrastructure and technological changes we haven’t tried to make yet and the Left hasn’t figured out we need. The “Party of Science” everybody! Put simply, we need the oil industry to function until we can find a replacement, so the Left is putting the cart before the horse, literally.
Aside from that, the oil industry is a Leftist target because it’s playing the same game the Left has been playing by putting out research to support its position on global warming/cooling/climate disaster/whatever they’re calling it this paragraph. Granted, this is as fucked up as letting Jeffrey Dahmer give you food prep tips, but considering the oil industry’s science is as unbiased as the Left’s, it’s pretty much a wash.
However, it’s not the science that offends the Left in this case; it’s the fact the oil industry isn’t backing down from Leftist pressure. They are combating science with science, as junky as the science may be, and not apologizing for what they do. The Left have to be bullies to get their way, so when someone tells them to go piss up a rope, they don’t take it well. In fact, they work towards destroying anyone and anything that defies them.
You know, like what they’ve been doing for the past few decades?
As badly as the oil industry has screwed up (the Exxon Valdez and BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico come immediately to mind), they are a hell of a lot more useful than the Left is. That doesn’t mean we can’t hold them to task for screw-ups, nor does it mean we shouldn’t be looking for ways to improve our energy policy or find new ways to use the resources we currently use. What it does mean is the Left hasn’t done enough homework to justify completely weaning the country from oil right now.
Maybe that’s why Joe Biden’s position on the oil industry is so disjointed. Naaaaaaaaaah!