Meanwhile in the Netherlands

Common sense has gotten maybe not a foothold but a least a toehold in the the Netherlands.  There are a lot of details here, including quite a few concessions  But the Netherlands have moved so far left that this represents the beginning steps in the right direction.

Why does this matter?  Any movement in Europe towards common sense is a sign that Western societies are moving in the right direction.  The Netherlands might be a microcosm of the net presidential election in the United States, just as the Brexit vote in 2016 was a precursor of the then coming Trump surprise win.

Vivek is on SiriusXM?

In my opinion there's no better spokesperson for president Trump right now than Vivek Ramaswamy (other than Trump himself). He seems to be off the VP list now, and there are no doubt Trumpian considerations that are behind that. I think he needs to be in a Trump administration in a vital role.  Given the state of the nation, Trump needs a dream team of high performing, skilled people in key roles.

But Vivek almost seemed to be out of the inner circle, with his show on SiriusXM. Maybe not; it seems he's still close to Trump in a visible way:

Deep State? Okay it exists, but they're good guys, honestly.

The lies change to suit the occasion. Now the occasion is, well, they're honest patriots. Probably many are, but not the ones at the top.

There is no climate emergency

Just a reminder, it's 97% hype:

The entire trail is a sham

Witness tampering in the Trump trial in New York? Judge for yourself:

EXCLUSIVE:

🚨Democrat NY Congressman who helped prepare Michael Cohen for his anti -Trump testimony is a client of Judge Merchan’s daughter’s Democrat political consulting company @Authentic_HQ! 🚨

Today, New York Democrat Congressman Dan Goldman @RepDanGoldman went on @MSNBC… pic.twitter.com/LOP2c7Kexj

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 14, 2024

Interest rates likely stuck for a while

The economics term Let's Go Brandon no longer uses, continues to linger like a foul stench over the American economy:

A key gauge of inflation surged by much more than expected in April, confirming that the pace of inflation has accelerated.

The producer price index for final demand, which measures the prices paid to U.S. businesses for their goods and services, rose by 2.2 percent in April, the Department of Labor said Thursday. Compared with a year ago, the index is up 2.2 percent, the largest increase in a year.

Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent gain in April compared with March and a 2.2 percent gain year-over-year.

The impact of the higher-than-expected figures for April was somewhat softened because the prior month’s estimate was revised down from a 0.2 percent gain to a decrease of 0.1 percent.

The so-called core producer price index—a measure that excludes prices of food and energy—jumped 0.5 percent in April after calling 0.1 percent in March. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent gain. Over the year, core producer prices are up 2.4 percent.

That means that interest rates are likely stuck where they are at least for 2024: 

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said she doesn’t expect it will be appropriate for the Fed to cut interest rates in 2024, pointing to persistent inflation in the first several months of the year.

Bowman made the comments in a Bloomberg News interview following a speech to bankers in Texas, where she urged the central bank to proceed “carefully and deliberately” as policymakers move toward the Fed’s 2% inflation goal.

This is due to two things:

1. The government printing insane amounts of money, causing the numbers of dollars chasing each product or service in the economy to increase, thereby driving up prices.
2. Massive government deficit spending, doing exactly the same thing.

Both monetary policy and fiscal policy has been run by imbeciles for decades but it has gotten far worse in the last several years. The economy is nearing the point where it could end up stuck on broken for a long time.

If you combine the state of interest rates, with the resurgent decline in real wages, the real, unreported unemployment rate and the real inflation rate and the ludicrous government debt now being serviced with massive interest rates, the economy is nearing a tipping point. The government's massive debt cannot be paid off at current interest rates, it will bankrupt the country eventually. 

A smart commander in chief  would be doing two things right now; (i) push for lower interest rates in order to ease the financial burden on ordinary Americans, (ii) dramatically reducing government spending on a permanent basis to help reduce America's debt burden and (iii) pushing for lower taxation and fiscal policy in a way that helps drive innovation and dramatically increase productivity in order to help the economy grow out of debt.  

The latter item might have inflationary implications and should be rolled out in a slower way than the first two items, but these things need to be done. They need to be done soon. But we are not witnessing a smart commander in chief, we are witnessing an incompetent, corrupt, clueless boob, so it isn't going to happen on this watch.   The only hope is that come January, someone with some business sense is in charge again. That will not immediately generate results, but it will ultimately do so in a very positive way. We had some positive household income progress in the previous administration that has been disappearing pretty dramatically since then.

Voters, you know what to do.

Bill Maher proves Stormy Daniels' is lying

I'm still not a fan of Bill Maher either, but at least he's also getting closer to the truth now:

At least RFK Jr. is right about Anthony Fauci

I am not an RFK Jr. fan.  He's a leftist masquerading as a centrist populist and he's out to torpedo president Trump's re-election chances, even if he's not succeeding.  All that said, here he's right concerning Anthony Fauci.

Sunday verse

 

There is hope

There is hope for this world not continuing to exist on the edge of Armageddon. Here is Javier Milei not just talking truth in Argentina, delivering results as proof:

Senate projection - still tight

The Republicans have a fantastic shot at re-taking the senate, but so far, only by the slimmest of margins. Much, much more needs to be done based on this particular latest projection. Not because Republicans haven't made inroads or because the Democrats haven't alienated enough voters yet, but because a slim majority is not going to be enough to govern effectively for the next four years. We need enough votes to counteract the sitting RINOs ability to derail a Trump second term with mere stagnation.

Canada is a mess, Elon Musk is correct

I'm Canadian.  Elon Musk is exactly right on this. Justin Trudeau is a power-mad fascist. We need Pierre Poilievre as our prime minister ASAP. Let me be clear, "speech crimes" laws are a gateway to thought crimes laws. Welcome to Canada, exactly what George Orwell wrote about in 1984. 

You can't argue against logic, DEI supporters

This:

Trump's 2024 chances keep improving

Donald Trump has a new realistic electoral college floor and it's awfully close to 270:

Why?  Here's part of the story:

He's not wrong

Donald Trump on Let's Go Brandon's betrayal of Israel (and other stuff, but I'm focused on the Israel part of the statement for now).

I understand those who have a distaste for sending funds abroad in the current world climate and with all the problems in America that require urgent attention. It's hard to not recognize the reality of all the domestic problems in need of urgent attention. But Israel is clearly an American ally and there have been pre-arranged agreements put in place that cannot be ignored. Setting aside discussions about additional support for Israel, withholding support already promised is indeed disgraceful and should not stand.

Let's Go Brandon is only encouraging the funded pro-Palestinian, anti-American protests by his trying to play  both sides in the conflict in order to get votes from both sides in the upcoming election. That's extra disgraceful.  He's not standing on any principle other than his need to get re-elected and keep the corrupt system going.

Stormy Daniels helped Donald Trump (but also the establishment?)

The case against Donald Trump had three legs to begin with: leftist judge, leftist prosecutor and leftist jury. Those legs inevitably would be removed after the almost certain, needed appeal.   But Stormy Daniels has reduced the chances that there would be a decision against Trump to begin with:

This after one of the other cases against Trump was indefinitely postponed for prosecutorial malfeasance or misconduct.

But how does this all help the establishment? If Trump walks away from all of these cases unscathed, it could be seen as a victory for justice, blinding people to all of the injustice that preceded these positive outcomes.  We don't need to destroy the swamp, justice prevailed.  

They are probably hoping for that positional outcome among voters (or at least enough voters to ensure the establishment remains the establishment). They can maintain their grip on the levers of power and the beaurocracy if Trump wins. In fact that may now be the real goal behind this lawfare against Trump, given that they were swaying public opinion in the opposite direction to their original goals.

If that's the case, it become incumbent upon Trump when he wins the election, to not cave to the establishment and go easy on these governing institutional beaurocracies.  Instead, he will need to double down and pull a Javier Milei and gut the bloated, self-serving government departments, and change, in law, the rules around voting mechanisms to ensure there is no mass-scale cheating in elections. This will be his one chance to stop it and he is going to need a lot of support in the senate and congress to do so.

There is a true urgency to this, as Americans it is also incumbent upon the people to not let what has been happening slide just because Trump wins these cases and eventually because he wins the election.  This next presidential term will be the time to force real, effective change in government.

Who are the real racists?

This is how the Democrats think.  This is not how they present themselves, but it is a lie.

Woke Hollywood is dying

Nerdrotic nails this analysis, although I would add one additional point: inflation is killing consumers across the board and that hurts all industries, including Hollywood.

Kudos to Jerry Seinfeld for being one of those calling it out. I just watched his Netflix movie Unfrosted. It was not a must see movie, but it was entertaining and fun; exactly the sort of of thing Hollywood should be aiming to do.

Let's Go Brandon's economic advisor doesn't understand money supply

This is absolutely terrifying. If you can't explain money supply, you don't understand money supply.  If you don't understand money supply you don't understand monetary policy. If you don't understand money supply, you shouldn't be anywhere near the council of economic advisors, let alone be the chair.  But this is par for the course with this inept, directionless administration. 

The sad thing is, this is how they view things

Babylon Bee has moved from satire to sad truth with this video. I don't believe this is mocking Jesus, but rather the woke left's self-serving views of the world.

Dumbest idea ever

If the below post on X is true, Jack Smith is either looking to help the rest of the GOP in addition to Donald Trump in the 2024 elections, or destroy his own case. It's the dumbest idea ever.

BREAKING: looks like Special Counsel Jack smith is planning to indict in July over 200 GOP members of congress who assisted Trump in conspiring “to overturn the presidential election and overthrow the government.” pic.twitter.com/OEro5dZ7DZ

— PoliticsVideoChannel (@politvidchannel) May 5, 2024

Indicting nearly an entire political party's representation in Congress is political suicide for Democrats and career suicide for Jack Smith. The absurdity of it is beyond comprehension . The optics are ridiculous heading into an election. Going after Trump on trumped up charges (pardon the pun) was bad enough, but trying to sideline an entire political party during an election year is a glaring example of someone drunk on power. It's not just Jack Smith who will catch flak for this, the Democrats as a whole, will be blamed for allowing this to continue.

Will it fire up the Democrats base?  Maybe the most fringe and radical elements yes, but it will more and more make the Democrat party look ridiculous partisan hacks.  Undecided voters are likely to decide against further enabling this madness.  This will ultimately do more harm than good for Democrats. Keep in mind that Let's Go Brandon's attorney general, Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith.  This goes straight back to Let's Go Brandon ultimately and it will be obvious. It's also obvious that the White House is in a panic now. This is a desperate Hail Mary sort of move.

Then again, the dumbest idea ever coming from this administration is not a stretch.  They hold a good portion of the Top 10 dumbest ideas ever in American politics.

There are a couple of other possibilities here.

(1) This is not true. It's very possible this is either a made up story, something the left loves to do and then push as fact is not beyond the realm of possibility. Some fever dream from a liberal media pundit somehow became a fangirl fiction story. Or alternatively it's some sort of trial balloon to see if there is an appetite for proceeding on the left.

(2) Jack Smith is in it for Jack Smith. He can argue after a big Democrat loss in 2024 that he was the only one willing to take it to the Republicans during the election.  He was trying to do the right thing and the Democratic party did not give him enough support to succeed.  It might make a good campaign for Governor or the Senate or some similar role (personally, I think a governor role is most likely what he's after). It's possible, and I'm sure Jack Smith has political aspirations, but to me that's not what's motivating this, for him I'm sure he sees it a positive side benefit.

(3) Donald Trump is playing 4D chess. Jack Smith knows this will fail horribly but is proceeding anyway because he is a double agent, who is trying to help Trump win by showing how dreadfully horribly awful Democrats are and how far they are willing to go to win at any cost. That would be remarkable but not likely.  Trump is a shrewd politician and good for America, but he's not that evil-genius super villain level 4D chess player. 

Regardless, unless this is not a real story, this does not end well for Democrats. It's so patently banana republic level politics that it craters their support for a long time to come. I almost wish in that sense, that it turns out to be true.  But it's one of those be careful what you wish for situations because politics is never perfectly predictable. 

Sunday verse

 

Pelosi meltdown is the left eating itself

The left will eat itself. It's started.  Pelosi turning on MSNBC is just the latest example of it:

Trudeau's new Canadian Army logo is a turd

I mean look at it, it looks like a pixelated turd. Michelle Rempel Garner, a conservative member of Canadian parliament shares her thoughts:

They are deliberately tearing down institutions, just like Let's Go Brandon. It's deliberate.  Forget the wasted money, it's deliberate destruction of Canadian culture. 

Giorgia Meloni's based approached to Italian governance

It's awesome to see governments and people in Europe move right. In the case of Italy, their current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is doing a fantastic job leading the country back towards common sense governance.

RFK Jr. still trying to steal Trump voters

In light of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court, isn't RFK's pronouncement during this interview, a moot point?  The ruling has basically returned the issue to a state level matter, which is why Trump's new position is exactly right - it's a state matter now.

Beyond that, I still contend he's trying to siphon votes away from Donald Trump, and not be a serious contender.  This position certain walks into pro-Trump territory and away from left leaning voters, and reinforces my belief of the RFK Jr. ultimate goal.

I'm not saying it will work well, but it only needs to work enough, in the right states to make a difference, and that should worry us.

Bill Maher agrees with me on Gaza?

I'm not proud of it, but Bill Maher seems to be on the side of common sense here, matching what I was previously pointing out about pro-Palestinian Gaza protests university campuses:

Astroturf on university campuses

This is either grasping at straws to manufacture an issue to help Democrats, a Soros-funded effort to further destabilize America or in the best case scenario for the protesters, a loud minority coupled with a bunch of protesters who are there and don't understand what they are protesting. 

The students aren't the ones primarily instigating these protests.  Yes, in some cases they likely are. But it's not as a prevalent a situation as the mainstream media is portraying. There wasn't this level of protests in favor of abolishing student debt (partly because it was being proposed by their side thanks to Let's Go Brandon).  I believe that self interest will dominate actions more than something half a world away. So the intensity of these protests is simply Astroturf level, not a real grassroots movement.

If this is indeed a ploy to energize the left, it's not working, and it won't work.  It's just like the abortion issue; those the left has lost on issues are gone, those who remain, were going to remain anyway. The impact will be marginal at best, but more likely non-existent.