21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Special Ops C-130 Tests Pallet-Dropped Cruise Missiles In The Arctic.
Archive for 2022
November 10, 2022
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AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Republican Party Staves Off Red Wave.
“This was a close call,” said one Republican leader in Washington. “We were worried that we would achieve massive victories tonight, but we thankfully snatched defeat from the jaws of victory to achieve a much more proper and sensible red trickle, like the proper gentlemen we are.”
Some Republicans achieved major victories, which were largely ignored by party leadership due to the fact that those Republicans were loud and icky “MEGA-MAGA” culture warriors. “Ron DeSantis won by double digits, and frankly, we find that quite uncouth,” said a D.C. consultant while holding up a glass of red trickle victory champagne. “Everyone knows the key to being a good Republican is to muddle your message and make it really squishy so no one knows what you stand for and everyone will like you. Duh!”
Everyone in the room then golf-clapped politely.
I had no idea that the Babylon Bee had moles in the Bulwark’s offices.
FIGHT THE POWER: Cato Institute sues to stop Biden $400 billion student loan bailout.
IT’S COME TO THIS: ‘SNL’ staff writers boycott over Dave Chappelle’s hosting gig.
There’s unrest at 30 Rock, Page Six hears, over the decision to sign up Dave Chappelle to host “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.
We’re told that some staff writers are so furious that the comedy superstar — who has made transphobic and homophobic jokes — has been chosen to helm the iconic show that they’re sitting out the episode.
“They’re not going to do the show,” an insider told Page Six. “But none of the actors are boycotting.”
Wait until the current writers discover what the show’s original writers crafted — and ‘80s cast member Eddie Murphy’s stand-up routines poked fun at.
GOODER AND HARDER, MINNESOTA: ‘More of the same, please.’ “Crime and public safety issues were reportedly of high concern to Minnesota voters this election cycle. The crime problem that had exploded in our state in recent years was supposed to be a solidly persuasive issue that tipped the scales against the likes of Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, Hennepin County Attorney candidate Mary Moriarty, and others. Inexplicably, voters who have all felt the negative and corrosive effects of crime in some way, went to the polls yesterday and said, ‘I’ll take more of the same, please.’ If creating an unwelcoming atmosphere for criminal behavior, and holding offenders accountable is important to you, there is reason for concern.”
OF COURSE IT IS: Yale University requiring bivalent booster shot for spring semester. “Faculty and staff are automatically exempt from the mandates.”
DO NOT MISS DON SURBER ON TRUMP: Glenn linked it earlier this morning, but I want to second Don’s point about Trump’s transformation from much-needed provocateur of 2016 to toxic narcissism in 2022.
The last straw in this corner is Trump threatening to “tell you things about [Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis] that won’t be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife …”
I second also Glenn’s assessment that Trump is owed much, but time has moved on. The tragedy is that Trump cannot see himself as others, including many who have supported him with passion, now see him, and make the necessary adjustments.
YALE MANDATES COVID BOOSTER FOR STUDENTS, NOT STAFF: If you plan to attend the Spring semester in New Haven as a student, you must get the latest Covid booster. But not to worry, according to Campus Reform’s William Biagini, if you are a faculty member or staff employee because the mandate applies only to students.
DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE AND THE LIVES OF OTHERS: Students Mistook an East German Uniform For a Nazi Costume, so the Principal Was Fired for Explaining the Truth.
What this incident is really all about is power. And Ms. Tang and her fellow “empowered” students are stomping all over the school administration.
She said many students were happy to see Powers suspended and hope he will be replaced with a principal “who is actually willing to listen to students and take the right step toward change.”
Gabriel Willis, 18, said he was “really disappointed” the school’s administration failed to immediately address the costume last week and looked for ways to explain and contextualize the outfit rather than listen to concerns.
“He shouldn’t have been able to walk the stage,” Willis said of the student who wore the soldier costume.
Incredible. The infants don’t care about what was actually happening, nor did they want anyone to explain any context to them. They wanted to order the principal to do what they were telling him to do.
Seig heil, baby.
“Are we the baddies?” Why, yes. Yes you are.
THOSE POOR BASTARDS: Democrats Are Stuck with Biden Now.
None of this changes the fact that Biden will be 81 years old on Election Day in 2024 or that 56% of those who voted Tuesday don’t have a favorable opinion of him or that 74% of those same voters are “dissatisfied” or “angry” about “the way things are going in the United States.”
Now, former-President Donald Trump is more unpopular than Biden, with 58% of voters saying they have an unfavorable view of him. So Biden still has a decent chance of beating Trump.
But what if Trump doesn’t win the Republican nomination? What if a much younger governor of Florida who won the state by 20 points, while Trump could only manage a pitiful 3-point victory, became the Republican nominee?
Is Biden ready to compare his record to that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis? Are Democrats ready to compare the state they completely control, California, with the state where Republicans now occupy every statewide office, Florida?
Republicans look like they are on the verge of a nasty primary that Democrats might find highly entertaining. But at the end of it, Democratic voters may be jealous that their Republican counterparts were given the opportunity to choose a new candidate.
Yes.
UPDATE: And I just saw this ad on Facebook:
DON SURBER: Life after Trump. “We can talk about cheating and the fix being in and mail-in votes. We can go on and on about the deep state and the media. We can spend months in denial but the fact is, Americans do not want Donald John Trump to be their president. He did not save the Republican Party. He spent it. . . . I really wanted Trump to come back but I just don’t see it. He’s damaged goods, done in by Barack Obama and the FBI and the Washington media. Chuck Schumer warned Trump on TV two weeks before his inauguration, ‘You take on the intelligence community? They have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.’ That is evil. That is unfair. That is the world we live in, for like Sarah Palin, our enemies turned Trump into an albatross. He came so close to bringing Washington down that they now will destroy him, ruin his children and salt his fields because he threatened them.”
And all too often he’s cooperated.
Related thoughts:
But now, sniping from the sidelines at Ron DeSantis instead of providing leadership, he’s made clear that his era has passed. I’d still support him if he were the nominee, but I don’t think he can be the nominee with the kind of campaign he’s likely to run, all he can do is divide the party and elect a Democrat.
Plus, a reminder that it’s never really about a single hero:
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Trump. Without him, Hillary would be in the middle of her second term and things would be worse even than they are now under Biden. And if this were Trump’s second term, things would be a lot better than they are now. But ultimately, it’s about what he can do for the country now. I’m hearing from several of my friends who were tremendously pro-Trump that they think it’s time for him to step back, and I think they’re right.
ONCE A WOMAN, ALWAYS A WOMAN: And for the same reasons, once a man, always a man. But our culture is pushing an opposite understanding. What would you say?
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HE HAS THE FACE OF A 3-TIME LOSER: Born to Fail: Beto O’Rourke Achieves Rare Trifecta of Political Defeat: Has lost campaigns for governor, president, and U.S. Senate.
But it shouldn’t even have been as close as it was.
JEFF DUNETZ: The 2022 Harold Stassen Awards For Special Political Losers.
For those who don’t remember or have never watched The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, because Minnesota’s Harold Stassen lost so many times, he was a regular target of Carson’s jokes. Therefore this award will go to politicians whose careers of losses were very special, just like Harold Stassen. In fact, these losers are so bad it’s embarrassing.
In a unanimous vote between me and my computer, the 2022 Midterm Stassen award winners were Beto O’Rourke, Stacey Abrams, and Charlie Crist.
Charlie Crist didn’t even get an Annie Leibowitz cover or Star Trek cameo along the way.
BRANDON MORSE: Don’t Blame Gen Z for Voting Democrat, Blame the People Who Told Them To. “Once we accept that Gen Z voting Democrat by and large is the symptom then we can start focusing on the disease.”
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TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: Now the Real Work — the Hard Work — Begins for the GOP House.
Yes, investigate Hunter Biden throughout the next two years, and let the public learn how all the corruption, from Ukraine Burisma money to China money, leads directly to Joe, but leave Joe in the White House. He not only is the Democrats’ symbol of Political Correctness but also will become the Republicans’ standard-bearer, too, the symbol of Political Corruptness.
The one to impeach — and then to convict — is Alejandro Mayorkas, the brazen liar who, at best, has failed miserably in protecting our southern border in his role as secretary of Homeland Security — and, at worst, has not “failed” but in truth deliberately and calculatedly has engineered and acquiesced to the chaos and anarchy there in order to import millions of illegal immigrants so as to change the demographics of the electorate, as has happened in California and, a bit less so, in Nevada and Arizona.
It now will be a time not for basking on laurels but for tasking very hardy work. Republicans must begin sending one bill after another to Joe Biden’s desk. Yes, he will veto them, and Republicans will not have the votes to override. Or Republicans in the Senate may get shot down by Senate Democrats wielding filibuster rules that they come to celebrate. That all is fine. That is perfect. Put Joe Manchin and his cohort on record. It will demonstrate daily to Americans in the clearest of terms where the parties stand and how they differ on the issues of the day:
Read the whole thing.
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Rick Moran: Russia Orders Retreat From Kherson, the Only Regional Capital in Ukraine It Held. “The Ukrainian military had a series of successes as it advanced on Kherson, capturing town after town from the retreating Russians.”
Matt Margolis: Where the Polls Went Wrong or Right. “Oh my, Pennsylvania. … I had such high hopes.”
Yours Truly: So Long, and Thanks for All the Judges. “There’s enough blame to go around, this isn’t all on The Donald. All the Washington leadership failed us. A few state legislatures probably moved too far, too quickly after the Dobbs decision, scaring largely pro-choice GenZ young adults to vote in defiance of the polls. But as the de facto party head, Trump can’t escape his share of the blame. So it’s my unpleasant duty to examine the rot at the top.”
CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS: Joel Kotkin: A tale of two Americas: Red states are growing, while blue states are mired in lawlessness and decline.
Yesterday’s Midterms were not a victory for conservative or progressive ideology, but an assertion of the growing power of geography in American politics. It was less a national election than a clash of civilisations.
Virtually nowhere in blue areas did Republicans make gains. Both the north-east and California – the central players in Democratic Party politics – stayed solidly blue. Even the most well-regarded GOP candidates, such as Lanhee Chen who ran for California state controller, struggled to make inroads in Democratic territory.
Meanwhile, the senators and governors of the leading red states – Texas’s Greg Abbott, Georgia’s Brian Kemp, Florida’s Ron DeSantis, Ohio’s Mike DeWine – all won handily. Almost all blue-state governors remained the same as well, although the Democratic incumbents often won by smaller margins.
So, what is happening in this increasingly inexplicable country? Essentially, there are now two prevailing realities in the US. One is primarily urban, single and, despite some GOP gains in this demographic, still largely non-white. It functions on the backs of finance, tech and the service industries. The other is largely suburban or exurban, family centric and more likely involved in basic industries like manufacturing, logistics, agriculture and energy.
Usually, the media assume these two Americas represent equally viable political economies. But this is increasingly not the case. In population terms at least, red America is now growing far more rapidly than blue America. And this makes it more important politically. Since 1990, Texas has gained eight congressional seats, Florida five and Arizona three. In contrast, New York has lost five, Pennsylvania four and Illinois three. California, which now suffers higher net outbound-migration rates than most Rustbelt states, lost a congressional seat in 2020 for the first time in its history.
So, what is happening in this increasingly inexplicable country? Essentially, there are now two prevailing realities in the US. One is primarily urban, single and, despite some GOP gains in this demographic, still largely non-white. It functions on the backs of finance, tech and the service industries. The other is largely suburban or exurban, family centric and more likely involved in basic industries like manufacturing, logistics, agriculture and energy.
Usually, the media assume these two Americas represent equally viable political economies. But this is increasingly not the case. In population terms at least, red America is now growing far more rapidly than blue America. And this makes it more important politically. Since 1990, Texas has gained eight congressional seats, Florida five and Arizona three. In contrast, New York has lost five, Pennsylvania four and Illinois three. California, which now suffers higher net outbound-migration rates than most Rustbelt states, lost a congressional seat in 2020 for the first time in its history.
But it’s not inflicting enough pain to force change.
November 9, 2022
STEVEN MALANGA: Trumped at the Polls. Despite Joe Biden’s deep unpopularity, GOP gubernatorial candidates backed by the former president struggled in yesterday’s election because voters disliked Trump even more than Biden.
THE 2024 BETTING MARKET: DeSantis Dethrones Trump. For the past year, betting markets made Donald Trump the favorite to win the presidency in 2024. But since the election results came in, the new favorite is Ron DeSantis, with Trump falling to second place and Biden remaining in third.