Mr Trump's Path

For John, BLUF:  Is Mr Donald Trump's presence in the 2024 Presidential race going to distort the outcome?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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If Donald Trump Were An Ethical, Responsible Public Servant And Wanted To Do What Was In The Best Interests Of His Nation…

From Ethics Alarms, by John Marshall, 28 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

…he would announce that he was withdrawing from the Presidential race immediately, because the prosecutions he faces, just or unjust, will be a destructive distraction from the election as well as an impediment to him serving as President if he were nominated and elected.

And if I were an aardvark, I could save money on groceries by eating ants and termites.

Trump won’t do this, of course (that is, drop out, not eat ants and termites), but it is the only ethical alternative. A lawyer facing a single serious indictment would step away from his or her law firm. An ethical judge would resign. A doctor facing indictments would take a leave of absence. A general facing such legal jeopardy would retire. The United States cannot have a Presidential candidate laboring under the shadow of multiple criminal prosecutions any more than it can afford to have a mentally declining President who serves as a puppet for aspiring totalitarians. Trump continuing his candidacy increases the likelihood of both.

Mr Marshall makes a good point.  But, Mr Trump is unlikely to step away.

As Mr Marshall points out:  "His entire career has been built on a foundation of stubbornness, resilience and a refusal to admit defeat:  quitting his quest for redemption goes against his core."  This persistence is who Mr Donald J Trump is.

All of that said, I do not believe Mr Trump is acting, in his own mind, in an unpatriotic manner.  His line, "They aren't after me.  They are after you, and I am just in the way."  He sees himself doing his duty, and is being opposed by the Deep State.

Regards  —  Cliff

Golf as an Analysis of President Donald Trump

For John, BLUF:  The Authoor tells us, in excrusiating detail, how Donald J Trump cheats at golf, and at life.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Commander in Cheat
Author:  Rick Reilly
Kindle Version:  257 Pages
Publisher:  Hachette Books
Language:  English
ASIN:  B07H4Z26T7
Publication Date:  2 April 2019

The Author, Mr Rick Reilly, gives us a solidly packed look at the life of Donald J Trump through the lens of the game of golf.  Mr Reilly sees golf as a game where players are congeniel and open and honest.  The occasional cheater is the odd man out.  Mr Reilly, who writes about golf for a living, has a reverence for the game and sees those who do not follow the norms, as he understands them, as fallen away.  In the eyes of Mr Reilly, Mr Trump is the worse offender regarding the norms of golf, and is thus unfit to be President of the United States.

To Author Reilly Mr Trump is unfit for the high office not just because he violates the norms of golf, but because he carries his attitude toward golf over into his conduct as President.  Rules are for others and win at all cost.  And, if you aren't winning, say you are anyway.  And corrupt the caddy who goes with you, involving him or her in your shenanigans..

The Author does a great job of documenting time after time how Mr Trump has cheated on the links and in developing golf clubs.  He paints Mr Trump as an unsavory character.  At the same time he documents how people enjoy playing with Mr Trump, who makes it a fun time, albeit, a fast round.

The question, of course, is if Mr Trump's egocentric need to always be the winner, the top performer, hinders or helps his performance as President.  The odds are looking good that he will again be the Republican nominee in 2024.  I very much doubt Mr Reilly will be voting for Candidate Trump, even if his opponent is Joseph R Biden, Jr.

I see the author's point and having come across people for whom looking good is more important than an honest appraisal of how good they are I see the problems.  On the other hand, I am not sure about the Author's understanding of the world.  The thing that popped out at me was his denigration of Mr Trump for naming his golf couse in Rancho Palos Verdes.

I have only played a round of golf twice in my life. so I don't have a good basis for judging the book, but one part does make me wonder.  The Author is dismissive of Mr Trump, Golf Course Developer, for naming golf courses not for where they are. but for a near big city.  For example, Trump National Golf Club Washington, D.C. is in Sterling, Virginia.  His second example is Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, which is in Rancho Palos Verdes.  Mr Reilly says "Trump Los Angeles is in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, 75 minutes south of L.A."  I checked my computer map and used the LA Civic Center and Wayfarers Chapel, a well known landmark.  My map app has it at 42 minutes (31 miles), going straight South, to San Pedro, which is part of Los Angeles, and then due West.  I used to live in LA County and have driven out by Rancho Palos Verdes and think of it as part of Greater Los Angeles.  I think he wiffed.

But, I accept that Donald J Trump is so competitive that he is willing to cheat to be number one.  It is not a good trait.  On the other hand. in 2016 his opponent was Ms Hillary Clinton.  There were several books out there telling me that the Clintons were dishonest.  The FBI investigation of her use of a private email server for official public communications put me off.  I was very unhappy with her leading the Europeans support for Libya rebels.  I thought it was a gift to North Korea's Kim Jong Il and his desire to keep his nuclear weapons.  And the whole Benghazi imbroglio was bad.  I had a choice and I picked Candidate Trump.

In 2020 I again had a choice.  There was President Trump and there was former Vice President Neil KinnockJoe Biden.  I liked what President Trump had done with the economy, including overseeing the Black Labor Participation Rate increasing.  I thought he acted quickly with regard to COVID-19.  I was happy that he reached out to North Korea's Kim Jung il, even stepping into Kim's country.  In contrast. I didn't have faith in Mr Biden's promise to bring us all together.  I saw him as more of a weather-vane.  I voted for Mr Trump.

Regards  —  Cliff

Saving Us From Free Speech

For John, BLUF:  While we hear Democrats decry Trump Republicans (aren't we all, really, in their eyes) as being anti-democratic, we see the Administration and the Zfederal Bureaucracy team up to restrict free speech in the name of protecting us.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Gov’t Can Continue Colluding With Big Tech, 5th Circuit Grants “Administrative Stay” of Injunction

Here is the sub-headline:

It’s not a decision on the merits, it puts a temporary hold until the court can determine the merits of the District Court injunction that prohibited government collusion with big tech and big social media to silence and censor political opponents.

From Legal Insurrection, by Lawyer William A. Jacobson, 14 July 2023, 03:48pm.

Here is the lede plus five:

After a groundbreaking and momentus District Court injunction against the government colluding with big tech and big social media to silence and censor political opponents, the government sought a stay pending appeal, including an emergency administratrive stay pending briefing, Government Seeks Stay Of Injunction Against Censorship Collusion With Big Tech.

The Fifth Circuit just granted an administrative stay:

IT IS ORDERED that this appeal is EXPEDITED to the next available Oral Argument Calendar.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a temporary administrative stay is GRANTED until further orders of the court.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Appellants’ opposed motion for stay pending appeal is deferred to the oral argument merits panel which receives this case.

An administrative stay is not on the merits, it’s a way of the court putting a temporary hold on an issue of great importance until a panel of the court can consider the motion for a stay on the merits. It’s a way to freeze the situation when one party claims time is of the essence and the matter cannot even wait days or weeks.

I thought it ironic that this was issued on the anniversary of the Alies and Sedition Acts becoming law, back on 14 July 1798. .

We are in a continuous fight for free speech.

Wihout free speech there can be no informed choice.  Without informed choice there can be no democracy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Seeing the Problem

For John, BLUF:  zthe cost of a college education has gone up dramatically since 2970.  Are there alternatives?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Curtailing University Graft Can Prevent Student Debt Debacle

From The Lid Blog, by Writer Ari Kaufman, 13 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

Conservatives and common-sense Americans cheered last month when the Supreme Court correctly ruled that Joe Biden’s abominable attempt to “forgive” $430 billion in college debt for over 25 million borrowers was unlawful.

The White House plan was purely unconstitutional and insulting to Americans.  Legislation that Congress designed for a small number of military members in the wake of 9/11 should not be applied to a large portion of the population two decades later.

It was also regressive, robbing blue-collar workers who saved their money and giving to wealthier doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Biden engaged in left-wing class warfare on behalf of the affluent.  Or, as Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said, a way for Biden to “pad the pockets of his high-earning base and make suckers out of working families.”

I have wondered about the debt issue, comparing it to college education costs in California in the 1960s and 1970s.  In those days my Father would complain about the several hundred dollars it would cost for tuition, fees and books each semester.

The writer gets to this point in the article:

What have colleges done with this influx of cash? Start with Harvard and Yale.

In the last 35 years, Harvard’s tuition has seen a 90% increase in adjusted dollars.  Has the school grown its faculty and course offerings to match that increase? No.  It dramatically expanded its population of administrators.  Harvard now employs over 7,000 full-time administrators.  That’s more people than the school’s entire undergraduate population and three times the number of faculty members.

Most administrators take large salaries and benefits while contributing little, especially in the odious DEI realm.

Over at Yale in the last two decades, they went from five vice presidents to an astounding 31, while many administrative units during that same time saw a 150% increase in size, with surging salaries.

If Secretary of the Department of Education, the Honorable Miguel Angel Cardona, wants to reduce the cost of higher education he should move to reduce the Administrative Overhang in colleges.  It requires us to decide if at 18 years of age students are grown up, ready to drive and vote and live away from home, or if they are still fragile children, who need coddling.  And what do we think of those who graduate from High School, but don't go on to college.  Do they need a special collection of social workers to protect them from life?  I hope not.

Here is a chart of Heritage's sense of the situation:

Let us find other work for these added Administrators.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Why Bobby Runs

For John, BLUF:  While it appears Mr Kennedy is wasting his time, in fact he is picking up side benifits, from paid speaking engagements to a cabinet position.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Real Motive

Here is the sub-headline:

He’s not actually trying to become president.

From Politico, by Writer Jack Shafer, 10 July 2023, 02:23 PM EDT.

Here is the lede plus two:

If Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s three-month-old presidential campaign were a newly opened restaurant, it would have already succumbed to its negative reviews and closed its doors. Members of his own family have declined to back him. “Due to a wide range of Bobby’s positions, I’m supporting President Biden,” said his sister, Rory Kennedy. “I support President Biden,” said cousin Patrick Kennedy, a former member of Congress. And, most damning, the bookies say he has next to no chance of winning.

Kennedy — and this comes as a surprise to nobody — is about as likely to win the Democratic Party’s nomination as, say, Donald Trump. A sharp CNN piece last month by the network’s analyst Harry Enten attached an anchor to Kennedy’s chances and sunk it into the depths of the Mariana Trench. According to Enten, the party faithful overwhelmingly approve of Joe Biden’s presidency, while a poll of “strong Democrats” registers as 50 percent unfavorable to Kennedy. Seeing as it is Democrats and not the press or tech billionaires who select the party’s nominee, and the fact that Kennedy shows no sign of exceeding the sub-20 percent level of support among Democratic voters, his candidacy is stillborn.

This inevitable defeat is self-evident to everybody, including Kennedy, one suspects. But RFK Jr. doesn’t care about losing because there’s little evidence he was very interested in becoming president in the first place. Those with genuine presidential ambitions tend to establish foundational political careers, putting in at minimum a term or two in elective office. If they run and get beaten, they get back up and run again and again, as Biden did.

The author would have us believe he is running for the fun of it.  For the side benefits.

That may well be so, but such cynicism is based on the idea that as an incumbent, President Joseph Biden is secure in his position.  I don't think so.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trump Undermined

For John, BLUF:  It isn't a Democracy if the outgoing Administration is undermining the incoming Administration.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden and Other Obama Officials Sought to ‘Torpedo’ Incoming Trump Admin, Docs Show

From PJ Media, by Opinionator Matt Margolis, 10 July 2023, 1:36 PM.

Here is the lede plus one:

According to heavily redacted documents from the National Security Agency obtained by The Daily Signal, there was a coordinated effort by the outgoing Obama administration to “torpedo the incoming presidency of Donald Trump.”

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, The Daily Signal acquired 217 pages of documents.

“The documents reveal that Obama administration officials, from Vice President Joe Biden down to several ambassadors and many officials in the Treasury and Energy departments, gained access to secret information about Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President-elect Trump’s choice for national security adviser,” the report says.  “The documents obtained by The Daily Signal include raw information of requests and other messages from these officials to the National Security Agency in late November 2016 through early January 2017, as well as emails among NSA officials explaining why the information was shared.”

I had known about actions within the FBI to fight a Trump Presidency.  That was obvious, with FBI Director Saint James Comey and the likes of Agent Peter Strozk and Lawyer Lisa Page.  This corruption, however, I believe was greater than those three.  More widespread.  To higher reaches.

We need to get back to the President being OUR President.  Regardless of his or her party.  It is what makes the system work.  If you didn't like the November outcome, work harder in the next election.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

First Amendment Protected

For John, BLUF:  On the 4th of July a Federal Jusge told the Biden Administrstion to stip colluding with social media companies to suppress free speech.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Poetic Justice for the Biden ‘Ministry of Truth’

From American Greatness, by Opinionator Roger Kimball, 9 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus fourteen:

At some point in this column, I have probably had occasion to quote these famous lines from Walter Scott’s poem “Marmion”:

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave

When first we practice to deceive.”

In another, better world, I like to think, the Bidens and their protectors and puppet masters would ruefully be contemplating Scott’s admonitory observation.

In this world, however, I suspect that—until quite recently, anyway—they had smugly sided with J.R. Pope’s sly amendment to Scott’s moralizing couplet:

“But when we’ve practiced for a while

How vastly we improve our style.”

I note that Pope’s amusing title for his observation is “A Word of Encouragement.”

Many of us feel a great contradiction at the heart of the Biden phenomenon.

On the one hand, he—“Big Guy” Joe—and his entire Snopes-like family—coke-head Hunter, “Dr.” Jill, the litter of grasping, on-the-make siblings—all seem like ciphers, the veritable incarnation of Gertrude Stein’s description of Oakland, CA: “there’s no there there.”

Indeed, from this point of view, Joe’s painful mental and, increasingly, physical vacancy seems to be the objective correlative for the entire Biden enterprise. It’s as if the nasty brother of the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz suddenly came to life and occupied the White House. “If I only had a brain,” he snarls softly to himself, frightening everyone around him.

And that “as if” brings me to the extraordinary “other hand.” Joe Biden is President of the United States, still, if just barely, the most important political office in the world. Amazing. How could that be? Talk about going from zero to one!

Of course, history is littered with the spectacle of destructive lunatics and incompetents in high office, as such names as Caligula, Nero, Commodus, and Elagabalus remind us. (As an aside, I hereby note that Elagabalus is poised for a rerun, so perfectly does that epicene, “gender fluid” freak epitomize some of the central pathologies of our time).

The Bidens have yet to achieve the notoriety of such grimly illustrious predecessors. Nevertheless, these past months have not been kind to the Biden conglomerate.

And here is a seven page summary of the Court Order:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA
MONROE DIVISION

STATE OF MISSOURI, ET AL.		CASE NO. 3:22-CV-01213
VERSUS		JUDGE TERRY A. DOUGHTY
JOSEPH R BIDEN JR., ET AL.		MAG. JUDGE KAYLA D. MCCLUSKY

This is important work.  Important in terms of our right to free speech and important in terms of having a fair and open debate on things that matter to us as Citizens.  Think of the suppressing of the Great Barrington Declaration,  Wikipedia notwithstanding, the Great Barrington Declaration, shunned by the Bureaucracy, turned out to have important points.

If we can't handle free and open debate then we can't claim to have a democracy.  We will have lost our Republic.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

You Have to be Present to Win

For John, BLUF:  Why have so many made some gesture to enter the Republican Presidential Primary?  Because they believe lightening can strike and they want to be there if it does.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why all the DeSantis panic?

From Hot Air, by Blogger Ed Morrissey, 10 July 2023, 6:01 PM.

Here is the lede plus five:

Has the Republican presidential nomination contest finished before it started?  That narrative has gripped the traditional media of late, with constant references to stagnant national polling.  Does that mean that DeSantis has utterly failed in his attempt at the nomination and that his campaign is near collapse as a result?

Even conservative media outlets have concluded that DeSantis has flopped so far and that the issue has already become existential.  Daniel Flynn warns at the American Spectator that DeSantis will need a John McCain-esque comeback now:

Does Ron DeSantis want to be the nominee?  From the disastrous online launch met with technical difficulties to the ill-advised ad attacking Donald Trump for basically expressing a live-and-let-live attitude toward homosexuals, Florida’s governor does not so much run as he stumbles for president.

The good news?  Bill Clinton, John McCain, Joe Biden, and others struggled early before winning the presidential nomination of their parties.

Flynn based this off of DeSantis’ response to Maria Bartiromo yesterday in a very good, tough, and interesting interview.  Bartiromo asked DeSantis, “what’s going on with your campaign?” DeSantis laughed out loud at the idea of collapse (via Gary Gross, around the seven-minute mark):

GOV. DESANTIS:  Maria, these are narratives.  The media does not want me to be the nominee.  I think that’s very clear.  Why?  Because they know I’ll beat Biden but even more importantly, they know that I will actually deliver on all these things.  We will stop the invasion at the border.  We will take on the drug cartels.  We will curtail the administrative state.  We will get spending under control.  We will do all the things that they don’t want to see done and so they are going to continue doing the type of narrative.  I can tell you we understand that this is a state-by-state process.

In the end, I expect the Republican Party nominee to be former President Donald J Trump.  I expect the Democratic Party nominee to be Governor Gavin Newsom.  That said, a lot could happen between now and 5 November 2024.

As to the others in the Republican race, as Mr John McDonough likes to say, they are wasting their Summer.  Or are they.  If President Trump is the nominee it is unlikely former Vice President Mike Pence will be invited back onto the ticket.  Some of those people running are looking at the second slot.  Some may be auditioning for a Cabinet slot.  And all want to be there in case President Trump somehow implodes, be it from natural causes, Federal Indictments or a shift in the views of the Voters.  As the saying goes, you have to be present to win.  Or, in the words of Author Napoleon Hill, “A quitter never wins-and-a winner never quits.”

Yes, most will be disappointed, but some will grab personal victory and one just might grab the Golden Ring, if they hang in there.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

“Titles of Nobility”

For John, BLUF:  Which average voter would expect to get the leniency shown to Mr Robert Hunter Biden?  Enough said.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Hunter Biden probe shows corruptness in America’s two-tier justice system

From The New York Post, by Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds, 7 July 2023, 9:12pm.

Here is the lede plus five:

America’s two-tier justice system keeps rolling along.

And Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who snubbed the House’s request for documents pertaining to his probe of Hunter Biden, is the latest to show how far the Department of Justice will go to keep it rolling.

Hunter, President Joseph Robinette Biden’s black-sheep son, is facing tax and weapons charges that would represent deep hot water for most Americans.

But Hunter isn’t most Americans.

He’s the president’s son, and, allegedly, bagman as well.

And our Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is out to spare him the consequences of his actions.

This is a Law Professor talking.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trust the People

For John, BLUF:  "If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic and earlier disasters, we ought to be doing precisely the opposite by enacting new limits on government power during emergencies. Americans need what Swedes have enjoyed:  legal protection against autocrats posing as saviors."  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lockdowns:  the Self-Inflicted Disaster

Here is the sub-headline:

Governments’ use of the pandemic to claim sweeping new emergency powers has had destructive effects.

From City Journal, by Author John Tierney, 6 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

Long before Covid struck, economists detected a deadly pattern in the impact of natural disasters: if the executive branch of government used the emergency to claim sweeping new powers over the citizenry, more people died than would have if government powers had remained constrained. It’s now clear that the Covid pandemic is the deadliest confirmation yet of that pattern.

Governments around the world seized unprecedented powers during the pandemic. The result was an unprecedented disaster, as recently demonstrated by two exhaustive analyses of the lockdowns’ impact in the United States and Europe. Both reports conclude that the lockdowns made little or no difference in the Covid death toll. But the lockdowns did lead to deaths from other causes during the pandemic, particularly among young and middle-aged people, and those fatalities will continue to mount in the future.

“Most likely lockdowns represent the biggest policy mistake in modern times,” says Lars Jonung of Lund University in Sweden, a coauthor of one of the new reports. He and two fellow economists, Steve Hanke from Johns Hopkins University and Jonas Herby of the Center for Political Studies in Copenhagen, sifted through nearly 20,000 studies for their book, Did Lockdowns Work?, published in June by the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) in London. After combining results from the most rigorous studies analyzing fatality rates and the stringency of lockdowns in various states and nations, they estimate that the average lockdown in the United States and Europe during the spring of 2020 reduced Covid mortality by just 3.2 percent. That translates to some 4,000 avoided deaths in the United States—a negligible result compared with the toll from the ordinary flu, which annually kills nearly 40,000 Americans.

Our response to COVID-19 was based on the twin pillars of "trust the experts" and don't trust The People.  And throw in a pinch of don't trust President Trump.♠  This seems just the opposite of the basis for our Republic, which is based, in large part, on trusting the People.

In honor of all those people who died unnecessarily in nursing homes in New York, or Veterans Homes in Massachusetts, we should dedicate ourselves to not letting timid Elected Officials and officious bureaucrats take away our freedoms and from feeding us false information,♥ and along with media, censoring debate.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  As exemplified by Speaker Nancy Pelosi decrying President Trump saying COVID-19 (Wuhan Flu) came from China and we should stop flights from there.
♥  As exemplified by the Government statements that we didn't need masks, followed by a mask mandate.

Hearing the Voters

For John, BLUF:  Across the Fruited Plain School Boards (Committees) are being disrespectful toward Parents and other Rate Payers.  The good news is I do not see this arrogance on the part of the Lowell School Committee.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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'Majority Doesn’t Always Dictate':  Fairfax County School Board Ignores 84% Rejection of Gender Ideology

From PJ Media, by Reporter Catherine Salgado, 6 July 2023, 11:33 PM.

Here is the lede plus two:

Democrats pose as the champions of democracy—except when democracy doesn’t go their way.  After 84% of parents in a Virginia county rejected co-ed sex education and gender ideology in schools, the taxpayer-funded school board dismissively announced that “the majority doesn’t always dictate.”

Fairfax County has been a hotspot of crazy LGBTQ ideology and persecution of concerned parents for quite a while now.  Woke or authoritarian nonsense from Fairfax schools includes pushing pornographic books on kids and suspending maskless students despite Virginia’s governor having lifted COVID-19 restrictions.

Despite being paid by taxpayer funds and thus being employees of the district’s parents, the school board has rejected poll results showing that parents in the county overwhelmingly reject gender ideology in schools and combining sex education for boys and girls from fourth grade onwards.

The only poll that counts is during an election.  In this case the Voters of Fairfax County, Virginia (a Washington suburb), have to stand up for themselves and vote the bums out.  Decisively.

As Voters we need to make sure our voices are heard.  Voters voting send a signal to elected officials.  More voters means a stronger signal.  Thus, it is important to encourage your neighbors to vote.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Whither the VEEP

For John, BLUF:  Life is not fair, especially in politics.  Otherwise. I would be a State Rep here in Massachusetts.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Kamala… They Are Coming for You

Here is the sub-headline:

The Cackling Vice President, Kamala Harris, is the domino that will fall first.

From American Spectator, by Political Strategist Arnold Steinberg, 2 July 2023, 11:08 PM.

Here is the lede plus six:

oe Biden is Inspector Jacques Clouseau.

We don’t know whether to laugh (Clouseau) or cry (Biden).  In fantasy, Clouseau bumbled his way to success.  In reality, Biden is a failure; worse, a danger to himself and to others.  He is America’s nightmare, more hazardous to the world than climate change.

The dark comedy of Biden’s mental decay/physical decline is evidenced daily when his caretakers let him out, after dosing his secret, volatile medication.  Sleep apnea, previously undisclosed, is the latest alibi for his dysfunction. His medical records are no more transparent than Hunter Biden’s tax returns, and the president’s doctor won’t come clean.

Biden was elected because complicit media enabled his cynical handlers in 2020 to keep him under wraps.  But the luster of the perpetual coverup has faded.  Just as the media can no longer ignore inflation — because people feel it, the media now highlight Biden’s cognitive debilitation, because it’s in plain view.  And two more reasons:  (a) the discredited and biased legacy media are desperate for recovering credibility and (b) the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, et al. see Biden as a loser and want him out.

The once servile White House press corps has ramped up the age issue, thus intentionally priming voters to look for Biden’s senior moments.  Party bosses talk up Biden, but privately fret about his decay.  The recent coverage of the DOJ/FBI/IRS whistleblowers insures a slow water torture, the drip-drip revelations of what the president’s detractors call “the Biden crime family.”

Not exactly waterboarding, but Joe Biden is in no shape to withstand “water dripping on the forehead for a very long time… the stress to drive its victim insane.” How much can Biden take?  Biden — like Putin — already is delusional and confused.  While Putin believes he’s CEO not of an emasculated Russia but of the formidable USSR, Biden believes that he is in charge, not his ideologue-puppeteers.

In Biden worship, the media parroted the Democratic party line, just as Pravda in the former Soviet Union spoke for the Communist party.  Power brokers in the Democratic Party and dominant media remain synergistic — thus, the “new journalism” is a precursor for where the Democrats go next: inevitably, Joe Biden is on the way out, and how plausible for him to claim health as the reason for not running, but how implausible for Kamala Harris to be president!

The way I see it.

And before the Primaries begin.

But, it seems a bit unfair.  There is something going on here.  Vice President Harris didn't get to her current poosition by being stupid.  She is a law school graduate and passed the California Bar (Second try, but former California Governors Jerry Brown and Pete Wilson both failed the first time, as did Senstor Hillary Clinton in DC).  She was elected as California Attorney Generl and US Senator.  There is something of substance there.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Prosecutorial Misconduct

For John, BLUF:  The Department of Justice is working hard to convict Presidential Candidate Donsald J Trump of somesthing.  Maybe too hard.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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If Alleged DOJ Misconduct Is True, A Judge Could Dismiss The Whole Case Against Trump

Here is the sub-headline:

The conduct claimed is perhaps unprecedented and certainly flagrant.  If proven true, the judge would be well within her rights to consider dismissal.

From The Federalist, by Former Federal Prosecutor Will Scharf, 5 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

Lost in the breathless headlines over the indictment of President Trump for alleged violations of the Espionage Act is a story that deserves much more attention than it has received thus far: the allegation that a senior official at the Department of Justice attempted to shake down Trump’s co-defendant’s lawyer.  It is a scandal in the making that could result in the investigation of senior DOJ officials, which should lead to public congressional hearings, and that might even result in the entire case against Trump being dismissed.

Trump’s co-defendant is Waltine “Walt” Nauta, a Navy valet who served in Trump’s White House and who remained a personal aide to Trump after he left office.  Several weeks ago, Nauta’s lawyer, a distinguished, highly-regarded Washington attorney named Stanley Woodward, leveled accusations against senior members of the Department of Justice, including DOJ Counterintelligence Chief Jay Bratt, who is now a part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team of prosecutors.  According to news reports, Woodward claimed in a sealed letter to D.C. District Chief Judge James Boasberg that, in a meeting to discuss Nauta’s case, Bratt indicated that Woodward’s application to be a D.C. Superior Court judge could be impacted if he could not get Nauta to testify against Trump.

If true, and I see no reason why Woodward would make such a threat up — and especially no reason why Woodward would risk his career by making such a representation to a federal judge — Bratt’s alleged misconduct could result in heavy sanctions, and is a potential ground for dismissal of the entire case against Nauta and Trump.  Depending on what exactly was said, Bratt could even face criminal prosecution himself.

Presidential Candidate Donald J Trump has a lot of flaws.  I am reading about some of them in Commander in Cheat, a 2020 book mailed to me by my buddy, Juan.  However, it is up to the Voters to decide if Mr Trump's flaws are greater than those of his opponent.  In 2016 they said no.  In 2020 they said yes.

Comparing candidates is the job of the Voters  It is not the job of the US Department of Justice.  We went through that with Saint James Comey, who took it upon himself to save the nation and the world.  We, the Voters, do not need that kind of help.  If Mr Trump broke some law, fine, go after him.  However, let us have no DOJ intervention to "save" the nation (or President Joe Biden).

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Road Not Taken

For John, BLUF:  War is an activity in which chance plays a large role.  In this case chance gave us the Battle of Gettysburg, but might have given us the Battle of Pittsburg.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The forts of Pittsburgh

From The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, by Reporter Salena Zito, 2 July 2023, 5:30 AM.

Here is the lede plus three:

On the afternoon of June 18, 1863, the city of Pittsburgh was thrown into a state of panic when rumors flew through the streets that Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s army had occupied the Shenandoah Valley in force — and was preparing an incursion into Western Pennsylvania. In short order, Union General William T.H. Brooks, whose command of the Department of the Monongahela was located in East Liberty, rode into the city and confirmed to a swelling and “excited” crowd that he was had received an “urgent dispatch” from General Henry Halleck, the General-in-Chief of all Union forces at the War Department.  “It is thought that an attack on Pittsburgh and Wheeling was imminent and it was recommended that both cities be put in a state of immediate defense,” Brooks told the crowd.

Within hours, the civic leaders of this city met at the Monongahela House — then the preeminent hotel in the city — where they decided it was “an imperative necessity” that thousands of men were needed to build fortifications all around the city.

Michael Kraus, an American Civil War historian and curator at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, says they resolved to close down all businesses in the city to gather the needed manpower:  “That included the railroads and manufacturing,” he said, adding with a smile that “they also made sure that all liquor sales were halted during the shutdown.  You can’t drink and work was their thinking.”

Every available man was put to work, with many of the companies around Pittsburgh contributing their labor forces for the work.  “It was reported to be 111 degrees in the sun and 88 in the shade, so this is tough work that they’re doing,” said Mr. Kraus.  That three-week endeavor resulted in the construction of 37 earthen redoubts — battery sites, powder magazines and small forts — spread over 12 miles across the city, as well as in Allegheny City and Millvale, he said.

What if General Lee had turned his Confederate Army West?  Would he have made Pittsburg?  Would he have won?  What would have been the economic impact on the war effort?  Would it have changed the course of the war?.

War planning means looking at the Branches and Sequels, that examine the various futures.  This is the futurable, that vast spread of possible outcomes, some favorable and some not.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Happy Fourth

For John, BLUF:  John Quincy Adams, before he became President, on the Declaration of Independence.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ON FREEDOM, INDEPENDENCE AND PEACE

Here is the sub-headline:

On July 4, 1821, then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams gave the following Independence Day speech.

From War on the Rocks, by WOTR Staff. 4 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus three:

And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?

Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government.  America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.

She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.

She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.

And it goes on.

I think we, as a nation, would do well to follow what then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams told us.

Regards  —  Cliff

Sports Equality

For John, BLUF:  Men transitioning to women have3 an unfair advantage when competing in women's sports.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Boise State professor drops hard data on the trans sports controversy

Here is the sub-headline:

In a June 22 tweet, Boise State professor Scott Yenor compared the women's track and field world records to the championship times of D3 men and high school boys in 2015.

'There are many, many men who are interested in and better at sports than the best women,' Yenor said in a statement.

From Campus Reform, by Associate Editor John Rigolizzo, 27 June 2023, 4:38 pm ET.

Here is the lede plus one:

Boise State political science professor Scott Yenor recently added some hard facts to the debate over biological men competing in women’s sports.

In a June 22 tweet, Yenor compared the women's track and field world records in several events to the championship times of Division III college athletes and state high school championships for men and boys in Louisiana and California. The data showed that college and even some high school athletes are superior to women in track and field.

“How do men and women compare in apples to apples sports comparisons?” Yenor wrote. “Compare women's world record holders to the winners of NCAA Div 3 or high school boys champs in a random year. Answer: men competing in women's sports will crowd out the girls.”

Yenor’s tweet included a table from his book The Recovery of Family Life, comparing the women’s world records in track and field with the NCAA men’s Division III and Louisiana and California boys high school state championships in 2015.

In the 100-meter sprint, the women’s world record was 10.49 seconds; the NCAA men’s Division III championship time was just 10.24 seconds, and the California high school championship time was 10.34 seconds. The Louisiana state championship time was a step behind at 10.91.

I accept thaat there are thoze who wish to change how they present to the world. gender wise.  I have accepted it since Ms Christine Jorgensen travelled to Europe to change from a man to a woman.  On the other hand, I am not impressed by those who go part way in their surgery and hormone treatment.

I believe this should be a non-issue in high school, since I believe that transitioning is a decision for a lifetiem and should not be entered into before one has sufficiently matured.  I put it in the same category as voting, drinking and purchasing a firearm.  Transitioning is a non-reversable decision.  It should not be entered into before one is ready to make a mature decision.

That said, if people transition they should be allowed to compete among themselves in various sports events.  However. they should not disrupt the fair competition among females. an issue that has been an issue for decades, including with Title IX provisions of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Free and Frolicking Press

For John, BLUF:  The Press has played an active role in our politics since before the Revolution.&This article suggests that freedom could be certailed.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Keeping Speech Robust and Free

Here is the sub-headline:

The case of New York Times v. Sullivan set a vital standard in libel law. Could the clash between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems dismantle it—and at what cost?

From The New York Review of Books, by Jeffrey Toobin, 20 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

The libel lawsuit filed in March 2021 by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News, over the network’s coverage of claims that the company had rigged the 2020 election, was settled this spring, but the case may soon become an artifact of a vanished era. In pretrial skirmishing, the two sides agreed on this much: the law of libel is governed by the Supreme Court’s 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan. In the last legal arguments before the jury was to be seated, Rodney A. Smolla, one of the lawyers for Dominion, called Sullivan “the landmark decision that is the genesis for all of our modern First Amendment principles involving defamation law.” Erin E. Murphy, a lawyer for Fox, likewise said that the principle governing the case “starts in Sullivan.” But the emboldened conservative majority on the Supreme Court, having dispatched Roe v. Wade to the dustbin of overruled precedents, may now target Sullivan for the same treatment. Such a change would have fundamental consequences for both those who speak and those who are spoken about.

It’s a fitting time, then, to take a fresh look at Sullivan—how it came about and what it means today. In Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan, Samantha Barbas, a professor at the University of Buffalo School of Law, tells the improbable story of the advertisement that gave rise to the case and the decision that Justice William J. Brennan ultimately wrote. It’s a tale that has been told before—notably in books by Anthony Lewis and Aimee Edmondson—but Barbas has a distinctive and relevant argument.

Like the earlier authors, Barbas makes the reasonable claim that Sullivan represented a straightforward battle between good and evil. It was, she writes, “one of a string of libel lawsuits brought by Southern segregationist officials against Northern media outlets…to prevent them from reporting on the civil rights movement.” By ruling for the Times, the Supreme Court “freed the press to cover the civil rights movement” and, not incidentally, likely saved the newspaper from being bankrupted by the damages it would have been ordered to pay in this and similar libel cases. But Barbas’s endorsement of the Sullivan decision is more nuanced than those of Lewis and Edmondson, and more reflective of the current moment. She appreciates the need for libel lawsuits at a time when “damaging falsehoods can spread online with a click, and reputations [can be] destroyed instantly.” But she recognizes that the protections of Sullivan are needed as much, or more, by individuals as by media companies. The story of Sullivan, and of the precedent’s possible demise, reveals as much about our own times as it does the 1960s.

This article was good for bringing me up to speed on Sullivan, which I learned was about an advertisement in The New York Times, and about the fight to end Jim Crow in the South.

I see the Author's point that the US Supreme Court could reconsider Sullivan  The Court could divide over the issue, and perhaps along the lines described, with Justices Thomas and Gorsuch voting to overturn and make libel suits against media outlets easier.  The author thought they might be joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts.

However, I think a reversal of Sullivan would be a disaster.  I worry that it could result in us knowing less about our politics and our world.  The Author is totally dismissive of the allegations against Dominion over election fraud.  I, on the other hand, thought that was an issue worthy of some investigation, along with the exclusion of poll watchers in Philadelphia and Atlanta (as seen on TV).

I hope we don't see a reversal of Sullivan.

Regards  —  Cliff

Howie Nails It

For John, BLUF:  Commenting on the Administration's response (and the responses from Democrats in Congress) to a number of Supreme Court rulings this last week.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"The Democrats haven't been this mad since the Republicans took away their slaves in the 1860s"

From The Howie Carr Show, by Host Howie Carr, 30 June 2023.

A good summation of the situation in That City.

Regards  —  Cliff