I claim we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it is humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find out what caused it, go back and retake it.
General Joseph, Vinegar Joe, Stillwell
My congratulations to the Georgia GOP. It takes special talent to lose two Senate races simultaneously and cede control of the Senate to the Democrats. In Perdue and Loeffler they put up two uninspiring establishment Republican candidates, with minimal political skills, who planned to coast to victory, and conducted listless, theme less campaigns. The Governor and the Secretary of State spent their time between election day in November and the runoff fending off efforts by the Trump campaign to demonstrate the manifest fraud that led to Trump’s loss in November. As a result they dispirited the Trump voters with the result seen last night.
To all Republicans who thought that once Orange Man Bad was gone things would return to normal, you are delusional. The GOP can be a populist conservative party or it can go the way of all parties that refuse to represent the people, and the causes, they purport to represent.
Defeat tends, if nothing else, to be a clarifier, and the Republican party got a whole lot of clarification yesterday.
Take away: Republican Party has not been helpful to Trump and preserving Constitutional values. It is time for a new populist Christian one. If Trump (when?) loses he will announce it at Biden’s inauguration.
So here comes legislation to create a 15-Justice Supreme Court and likely statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, with four more guaranteed Dem Senators in perpetuity. I doubt the Stupid Party can stop either initiative. Way to go, GOP. You
just killed this Republic. And you call yourselves Republicans, too. What a sad joke.
Blessed Mary, pray for us.
So here comes legislation to create a 15-Justice Supreme Court and likely statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, with four more guaranteed Dem Senators in perpetuity.
Well, first they would have to get rid of the filibuster which I doubt they have the votes to do. Then to pass the legislation they would have to have every member of their caucus vote in lockstep which I doubt they could do on any of those initiatives.
Don, once again, I hope you’re right. But forgive me if I find optimism extremely difficult to adopt right now. Everything I once believed about nearly every social institution and rule of human rationality has been exploded in the past four and a half years, with the worst of it all within the past six months. And it just keeps getting worse. I see no reason to believe the Democrats will stop now, and why should they? At least half the nation believes everything they are told in the “mainstream media” without a shred of analytical thought. The media campaign to normalize a packed Supreme Court and statehood for DC and PR will commence within weeks. The only hope I have left is that a combination of Biden and Harris being stupider than the GOP plus Trump getting off Twitter and going back to building a new business—this time a political party—will slow the cancer long enough to save the patient.
Last night’s Democrat election victory for Georgia’s two Senate seats now relinquishes both Houses of Congress to utter, diabolical evil. With the coming installation of apostate Joe Biden and his pagan, adulterous Jezebel, Kamala Harris, into the White House by fraud, deceit and theft, it may seem like evil is winning. But last night’s Scripture selection in the Office of Readings – Psalm 37 – says otherwise.
1 Fret not yourself because of the wicked,
be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass,
and wither like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your vindication as the light,
and your right as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over him who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the wicked shall be cut off;
but those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land.
10 Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look well at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall possess the land,
and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
12 The wicked plots against the righteous,
and gnashes his teeth at him;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he sees that his day is coming.
14 The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows,
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those who walk uprightly;
15 their sword shall enter their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken.
16 Better is a little that the righteous has
than the abundance of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken;
but the Lord upholds the righteous.
18 The Lord knows the days of the blameless,
and their heritage will abide for ever;
19 they are not put to shame in evil times,
in the days of famine they have abundance.
20 But the wicked perish;
the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures,
they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.
21 The wicked borrows, and cannot pay back,
but the righteous is generous and gives;
22 for those blessed by the Lord shall possess the land,
but those cursed by him shall be cut off.
23 The steps of a man are from the Lord,
and he establishes him in whose way he delights;
24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord is the stay of his hand.
25 I have been young, and now am old;
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging bread.
26 He is ever giving liberally and lending,
and his children become a blessing.
27 Depart from evil, and do good;
so shall you abide for ever.
28 For the Lord loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints.
The righteous shall be preserved for ever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
29 The righteous shall possess the land,
and dwell upon it for ever.
30 The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks justice.
31 The law of his God is in his heart;
his steps do not slip.
32 The wicked watches the righteous,
and seeks to slay him.
33 The Lord will not abandon him to his power,
or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.
34 Wait for the Lord, and keep to his way,
and he will exalt you to possess the land;
you will look on the destruction of the wicked.
35 I have seen a wicked man overbearing,
and towering like a cedar of Lebanon.
36 Again I passed by, and lo, he was no more;
though I sought him, he could not be found.
37 Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright,
for there is posterity for the man of peace.
38 But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
the posterity of the wicked shall be cut off.
39 The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
he is their refuge in the time of trouble.
40 The Lord helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked, and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
Do not misunderstimate the economic and cultural damage China Joe and the socialist morons can inflict.
We can anticipate an additional amount of mourning and weeping in the vale of tears.
Praise the Lord!
We still trust that after this our exile, The Queen of heaven will show unto us the Blessed Fruit of her womb, Jesus.
IIRC, much of the alleged “collusion” or “interference” by the Russians, Chinese, etc. in past elections consisted of simply posting messages on social media designed to outrage or demoralize the intended audience. Is it possible that THEY are behind at least some of the recent “if Trump loses the Republic is doomed, conservatives will never win another election, we can’t vote our way out of this” chatter online? Because isn’t that exactly what the enemy forces, whomever they are, would want people like us to believe — that all is lost and there’s nothing left but to start shooting? I understand the outrage about the POTUS election being stolen, I believe it was, but it HAS happened before (see 1824, 1876) and the Republic managed to survive so why assume it can’t this time around?
“and likely statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, with four more guaranteed Dem Senators in perpetuity.”
There was a time when the South was solidly Democratic and many of the now-red Southern states elected Dem Senators “in perpetuity” from the end of Reconstruction all the way up to the 1960s and 70s. I don’t think one can ever assume that any political alignment will continue “forever”.
It’s a reasonable wager that the margin of victory is a consequence of the catastrophic decline of ballot security in Georgia. NB, the majority in the legislature, the Governor’s chair, and the Secretary of State’s office are all held by Republicans and yet a mortal injury was done to ballot security that wasn’t in great shape to begin with. One problem the Republican Party faces is that our elected officials seem to always be occupying the space between otiose, incompetent, and compromised.
That having been said, I’m of an age to recall when candidates like Warnock and Ossoff would not have been salable in Michigan, much less Georgia.
We did not, 25 years ago, live in a particularly healthy political culture. Still, electoral fraud wasn’t an issue at that time, the Democratic Party wasn’t hostile to law enforcement, you still had a faction of the Democratic Party interested in border security (e.g. Barbara Jordan), and dissenters like Michael Behe and Ward Connorly could still speak on campuses without incident. Expressed opinions on the media were getting more variegated.
One thing I notice among partisan Democrats is that they are completely untroubled by the structural features of what’s been happening. They pretend it isn’t happening or pretend it isn’t important, or pretend it’s merely their prerogative.
I’ve recently come across a controversy at a high-priced private school in Manhattan. You can read about it here:
https://thenakeddollar.blogspot.com/
What’s dismaying is that 2/3 of the faculty at this school (at which teaching positions are coveted and handsomely paid) have signed the petition in question. They have managed over the years to hire 90 teachers who aren’t particularly devoted to their subjects, or to the project of imparting subject knowledge to the young, or to giving honest services to their paying-through-the-nose clientele. You have 90 teachers who seem to think their job is promoting an entitlement mentality among black adolescents and organizing harassment of anyone who objects (and anyone with an actual vocation to teach would object). It is exceedingly doubtful that the dominant vector promoting this is emanating from the youths themselves or their parents. This is coming from the white bourgeois who work at the place. Something is dreadfully wrong with the culture of the bourgeoisie in this country. You can blame higher ed, but keep in mind that higher education hasn’t been political neutral or ambivalent at any time during the post-war period, but it didn’t start turning out fanatics until about a dozen years ago.
The leader who contributed most to retaking Burma was the British General William Slim. He wrote an excellent book “From Defeat to Victory” about turning around the Burma campaign.
During the early Burma campaign the primary source of attrition for the allies was disease related non-combat losses. Slims most effective action was forcing leaders to insure that troops were taking malaria prophylaxis pills.
Below is a summary of some of the principles applied by General Slim, I think some can be applied to our political situation.
https://taskandpurpose.com/community/10-leadership-lessons-one-britains-greatest-soldiers/
Maybe Stacie Abrams is the true governor of Georgia after all. She certainly wields more power there than Brian Kemp.
Slim was a great writer also and wrote short stories for magazines during the interwar period. He was often quite funny also. I have always liked this:
I can remember, once, getting out of a tank (because
a tank was my only means of communication) and standing outside were two subordinate
generals and a Chinese general. The situation was about as bad as it could be. It looked as
if we would all be finished in a day or so. I thought, ‘I’ve got to put a good face on this’ so I
stepped out of the tank and those fellows, a half dozen of them, just looked at me and I didn’t
know what the hell to say, so thought, ‘I must say something’, so I said, ‘Well, gentlemen, it
might be worse.’ There was one unspeakable fellow there who said ‘How?’ I could not think of what to say,
so I said ‘It might be raining!’ Believe me, in two hours it was raining – like
hell.
“My congratulations to the Georgia GOP. It takes special talent to lose two Senate races simultaneously and cede control of the Senate to the Democrats. In Perdue and Loeffler they put up two uninspiring establishment Republican candidates, with minimal political skills, who planned to coast to victory, and conducted listless, theme less campaigns. ”
Just what the h*ll did you expect was going to happen after the fraud in the Presidential election was allowed to stand?
“Well, first they would have to get rid of the filibuster which I doubt they have the votes to do. Then to pass the legislation they would have to have every member of their caucus vote in lockstep which I doubt they could do on any of those initiatives.”
Of course they’ll kill the filibuster. They’ll do it not think twice about it.
You think norms still matter. They don’t. This is about the raw exercise of power. And the Left means to rule.
Elaine: OK, I’ll grant that “perpetuity” was hyperbole. Substitute “the foreseeable future” and my comment stands. As for social media driving pessimism, I don’t use it any more (quit Facebook two years ago, Twitter more recently) except reading blogs like this one and a handful of other, mostly Catholic sites. I am not assuming the situation can’t be turned around, I am concluding that such a renewal is highly unlikely based on observation and recent experience. As I said to Don earlier, I hope he is right and I am wrong. But so far all the arguments I have seen for why the situation is not as bad as it looks are based on past events, which occurred under vastly different circumstances than we now face. Would you have believed twenty years ago that we would be where we are now in terms of law, morality, and the state of our institutions? That half the country, or more, would still believe the whole Russian fable (and they do)? That the FBI, CIA and DOJ would actively collude for four years to oust a sitting President they don’t like, with no legal basis whatsoever, citing fabricated “evidence” purchased by a defeated candidate’s campaign funds, and that half or more of the country would think the President was guilty of everything claimed? That rioters would burn down whole sections of major cities and local prosecutors, elected with funding from the Soros crime syndicate, would refuse to charge the perpetrators? That mayors of those same major cities would seriously advocate abolition of the police, with significant public support? That a Presidential election would be blatantly and obviously stolen and the courts would refuse to deal with it-on procedural grounds-while that same half of the populace (or nearly so) believes the result was legitimate? And these are only the highlights, skipping over the other ominous signs of the past ten months, in which an entire population has willingly given up its most fundamental rights for fear of a virus with a 99-plus percent survival rate? And mind you, we are already being told that even with an apparently effective vaccine the masking and lockdown madness must continue and be expanded.
Meanwhile, all but a very few of our bishops have rolled over for the government tyrants who arbitrarily have ordered churches closed while keeping casinos and abortion mills open in many of our largest states. Had I seen all of this in a book twenty years ago I would have classified it as fantasy fiction, and poorly done at that. It is now our reality. And we are supposed to trust the electoral system to turn the situation around? The same one that has been used apparently without consequence to steal the Presidency and two Senate seats within the past two months? And those are the ones we know about.
As we go forward, I will dutifully cast my votes and argue my arguments in favor of reforming this mess for as long as I am able, and I’ll be among the first to cheer if we do salvage this Republic, but I’m not expecting much in the way of results, at least in whatever time I have remaining by God’s grace in this vale of tears. We are in need of our Lord more than ever right now. God help the poor souls who are still being deprived of the Sacraments.
“Something is dreadfully wrong with the culture of the bourgeoisie in this country. You can blame higher ed, but keep in mind that higher education hasn’t been political neutral or ambivalent at any time during the post-war period, but it didn’t start turning out fanatics until about a dozen years ago.”
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and the rise of the “nones”?
Senator Manchin (WVa) has said he will vote against additional states, packing the court. I hope he keeps his promise.
The public in Puerto Rico is ambivalent about statehood and Maryland has a prior claim to DC.
Our problem, of course, is that Democrats have demolished every procedural principle to get what they want. You cannot have a functioning constitutional state if that’s the way business is done.
The GOP could be a populist party of the working and middle classes. But that would entail being at cross-purposes with the all-holy transnational corporations which they insist on sacrificing their constitutents’ futures to. Are they willing to tell the national Chamber to shove it? Stop regurgitating press releases written by BigTech puppets? Use anti-trust laws with vigor? Signs point to no.
Really, all they had to do was to sign off on bigger relief checks. Trafalgar said that was the day the race shifted from comfortable GOP leads to what we have today. But no, the GOP Senate had to start pretending they were fiscal conservatives now that a Democrat was going to be President. Genius move–now the bigger relief checks are going to go through anyway. The nastier variants of the virus are on the way from Britain and South Africa, ensuring a recession from Hell.
The GOP also has the potential to break the hold on non-whites that the Democrats have traditionally had–but you can’t do that while shrieking 24/7 about how corrupt minority urban areas are.
Also, don’t indulge Q/Powell/Wood nonsense. I know, the Democrats are fully on board with their own identitarian craziness, and having people with degrees support it. But that doesn’t justify going bonkers in response.
If the dems got away with stealing the presidential election, why wouldn’t they steal this one too? At this point even mentioning the possibility of fraud in the run-offs is a “conspiracy theory.”
That begin said, I didn’t have any faith in the republican senators to do a damn thing anyway.
The nastier variants of the virus are on the way from Britain and South Africa, ensuring a recession from Hell.
The British variant is more communicable but apparently less lethal case-by-case. What needs to happen is vaccine delivery. If we were doing as well as was done with the 2018-19 flu vaccines, we should have the medical-sector workers and the 70 million most vulnerable vaccinated by the end of March. That would suffice to cut the death toll by 85%. But state and local public health is lollygagging.
Dale, makes you think the GOP establishment is taking a dive and purposely losing to the Dems, doesn’t it? It’s either that or they are dumber than a bag of rocks.
“But state and local public health is lollygagging.”
Michigan is the seventh worst in vaccination rates right now. And that after our Governor loudly squawked about not being given enough doses.
A grimmer satire would be harder to write.
Manchin says a lot of stuff, Bob. But he always votes the way Chuck Schumer needs him to vote.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/01/new-yorks-mass-vaccination-plans-are-shelved-as-cuomo-takes-different-path.html
Andrew Cuomo’s latest contribution to public health in New York.
Ben Shapiro is doubling down on the “all Trump’s fault” meme in his show today.
https://youtu.be/xr0MtJb8S9k
I keep thinking about how Raz0rfist put it: if you don’t think my vote is worth fighting for [back in the prez election] then why would I show up to vote for you later.”
Why wouldn’t you expect the dems to cheat again for victory? What have they got to lose?
“Manchin says a lot of stuff, Bob. But he always votes the way Chuck Schumer needs him to vote.”
That’s a good way to bet it. It all depends on whether a man who will be 77 in 2024 wants to run for reelection. If so, he will have to watch his right flank–he is the last Democrat in major elective office in West Virginia, and didn’t get 50 percent of the vote in 2018.
If not, then yeah. Chuck will get what he needs, if not all he wants.
That’s a good way to bet it. It all depends on whether a man who will be 77 in 2024 wants to run for reelection. If so, he will have to watch his right flank–he is the last Democrat in major elective office in West Virginia, and didn’t get 50 percent of the vote in 2018.
Or he may be willing to tell the sorosphere donors to take a hike. (Of course, then they’ll have some Andrew Weissmann clone in the U.S. Attorney’s office working to bankrupt him).
Ben Shapiro is doubling down on the “all Trump’s fault” meme in his show today.
Our professional pundits have proven themselves the proverbial pitcher of warm spit. The perspicacious students of our public life tend to be people who aren’t making a living off of topical commentary. (Victor Davis Hanson, John Hinderaker, Wm. Jacobson, and Neo-neocon). An exception might be Thos. Sowell, but he always had other irons in the fire and has had retirement income for 20+ years.
These losses are 100% on Trump and his enablers. His poor-loser whinefest for the past month made the elections about him instead of all the crazy stuff Dems could do with complete control in Washington.
You are out of your ever loving mind.
You cannot seriously think they would have not frauded the heck out of stuff if only Trump had rolled over and accepted the steal.
There is absolutely no evidence of a stolen election! You have allowed your partisanship to overwhelm your reason. You sound like a Democrat.
Michael: Your technique of “if you don’t vote for us the democrats will do worse” has been the main strategy of the GOP for 25 years before Trump.
If the last three months are to be laid at the feet of Trump, it’s only fair that you and yours man up and admit to 25 years of failure.
Oh there is tons of evidence:
https://hereistheevidence.com/
So it begins….
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/532870-schumer-declares-he-will-be-senate-majority-leader?amp
I love how I’m supposed to take responsibility for all of the Republican failures of the last 25 years, when Trump and his fans never take any responsibility for anything. Trump lost because he is not a very good candidate. He won in 2016 because he went up against the weakest major-party candidate of the last 100 years in a good political environment for a Republican. He then lost in what was a decent environment against a weak, though not historically weak, candidate.
The Republican party can’t go back to what it was doing pre-Trump but it needs to move past Trump. The problem with Trumpism is not the policy, but Trump himself, and his followers mindless devotion to him.
Trump lost because he is not a very good candidate.
Who somehow got the most votes of any candidate in US history….except for Joe.
Pull the other one, it plays jingle bells.
“Who somehow got the most votes of any candidate in US history ”
And twice got a lower percentage of the vote than Mitt Romney. You do realize that the country is growing in population? Abraham Lincoln got fewer votes than Gary Johnson. Lincoln must have been a terrible candidate.
You do realize that the country is growing in population?
Yep it is. Now tell that to Obama who got fewer votes in 2012 than he received in 2008 and tell that to Clinton who got four million votes fewer in 2016 than Obama got in 2008. Population increase does not necessarily mean more votes.
MichaelD-
You have made it very clear that you had absolutely no idea he’d gotten more votes, nor are you aware that this was record setting voter turn-out.
Which suggests you have not even glanced at the evidence of vote fraud.
Which means you are bearing false witness.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/elections/voter-turnout/
Foxfier,
I knew perfectly well how many votes Trump got. Trump fans have been touting the information since the election. And I have investigated the vote fraud claims and found them wanting. And I’m not happy to be accused of violating the commandments by someone who sounds a lot like Pope Mark Shea but on the right.
Honestly curious what evidence you would even find convincing.
And I’m not happy to be accused of violating the commandments by someone who sounds a lot like Pope Mark Shea but on the right.
‘Fraid that’s a tell.
MichaelD-
You’re accused by your own statements. All I did was notice the contradictions.
Attempted manipulation would work better if it was deployed before you tripped yourself.