Feinstein And McConnell.

To begin, I want to salute Feinstein and McConnell for their incredible dedication to public service. Both of them have been distinguished senators but not above partisanship, but that goes with the territory. Each of them has really made a difference, and their country is far better off than it otherwise would have been without their service.

I'm not among those who advocate for term limits for public office holders -- elected representatives should come and go only at the whim of the electorate -- as opposed to judges who should be term-limited.

Feinstein has already indicated that she won't be running again, and that's both a medically and personally sound decision. McConnell seemingly wants to stick it out, and that's a mistake. There comes a point where a combination of work stress and wear and tear goes from sending warning signs to something much worse. Clearly, McConnell's symptoms are secondary to his recent fall and a likely concussion, which provokes these seizures. So, Mitch should hang it up in 2024, if not for his own sake, then at least for Elaine's. There should be no double standard here. Use your head, Mitch, like Dianne did, and just go for your own well-being.  

The Cowardly MAGA Bullshit: From Trump To Palin All The Way To Floyd.

I'm not going to shit on Trump supporters, either collectively or individually. They live in a still free country and can support whomever they like, Trump included.

But jeez Louise, there are repeated patterns there: it started with using his supporters as dupes to try and disrupt the election certification. In other words, Trump wanted MAGA supporters to do physical dirty work that he himself would never do. Start of a pattern. Next case: Palin. Well, by golly, Palin says a civil war is coming if prosecution of Trump is not stopped. Clue in Sarah, not you, not anyone can impede the rule of law and the judiciary playing their proper role. Grand juries aren't idiots. So, it has to fully play out, whether you and your supporters happen to like it or not. All your bullshit about this leading to a second civil war are the words of cowards who will run and hide as soon as any kind of skirmish breaks out. Cowards galore, and No, this won't get YOU the VEEP nomination if Trump is renominated. Too bad, that, for YOU.

The American people aren't bloodthirsty fiends who will start a second civil war because they can't get their way. Nope, not happening. The average American is too intelligent and patriotic for that. Their loyalty, is not to Trump, or to Biden, or to anyone else. Their loyalty is to the United States of America, so fucking clue in. Like I said, your ridiculous arguments are bullshit and par for the course where you're concerned. End of story. Run and hide from your collective stupidity. You've embarrassed yourself enough already.

Now, let's go down the Floyd road, you know, the guy still rotting in the Georgia jail. Too funny, LOL. Notice how he can't make bail. Notice how the MAGA SuperPac and none of the others are rushing in to bail their soldier out. Interesting. Notice how Trump isn't lifting a finger to get him out, either. Hum. Interesting. 

Here's a news flash for you, Sarah: Trump doesn't spend one red cent on his own legal bills, not to mention on those of anyone else who did his bidding. Nah, he lets the SuperPacs and MAGA supporters themselves foot the bill for the unfortunate billionaire. Classy as hell, but what can I say.

So Sarah, keep fronting for Trump by all means, but again, you won't be getting the VEEP spot if Trump is renominated. Not a chance in hell that you'll get it. Remember that Trump showed us all how talk is cheap. When it comes to taking action, guess who is always and predictably MIA? Oh right, some guy called Trump.

Pence: The Trump Antipode Will Be The Republican Nominee.

Take Mike Pence. First off, he showed his honourable and decent character by serving as a loyal vice-president to someone who was the exact opposite of him. There were no Pence intrigues during the Trump Administration. (By the by, Mike, I would drop references made by you to a Trump-Pence Administration. It can only hinder and tarnish you in the general. Pro-tip.)

Mr. Five Indictments with 91 felony charges stands for pretty much everything that Pence is not. That's to Pence's credit. Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and that's how it should be. However, most Trump supporters and a lot of other Republicans are missing the shifting sands that are slowly moving against Trump in a big way: in their heart of hearts, almost all the party draws the line at a potential Trump conviction. If that happens, Trump is finished, period. 

The other elephant in the room is election viability: they can dream as much as they want, but Trump can't and won't beat Biden (and maybe not even Harris) in a general. He just won't.

Pence has two (forgive me, but I can't resist) TRUMP cards: first off, he followed his oath to the constitution and almost all of his rivals give him credit for that. These are the same people running against him for the nomination, and that speaks volumes and quietly shifts minds and later support in his direction.

You see, what a plurality of Americans are slowly figuring out is that Pence represents them: faith-based, honourable, decent, hard-working and compassionate. That's who the American people are, and have always been. In short, Pence is the next Reagan, short of the charisma. 

The next shoe to drop will be developments in the trial processes, if not the setting of actual trial dates, long before the nomination race is over. That will finish Trump off with independents, and everyone whose even remotely sentient knows that no Republican nominee can take the presidency without at least a plurality of the independent vote.  That's just how it is.

So...Mike Pence could run on a platform of "Hang Mike Pence!" and WIN. Pence showed himself to be nothing more than a genuine and true American on January 6th and that is sinking into the minds of Republicans and Republican voters. Pence is quite literally Mr. Osmosis, and it shows. As the Trump train wreck continues to grow by leaps and bounds, the party will necessarily at first at least distance itself from Trump and ultimately break those bonds, to win with someone else. And when that Aha! Moment inevitably comes, most Republicans will figure out that the Trump Antipode is the candidate for them. 

That's Pence, quite conceivably, the next President of the United States. He's certainly not God's chosen candidate, but he is the finest representative of good works and dedication to duty running in this race. And that should, and will mean, something highly significant down the road. The man who, quite literally, never, ever, shirks in his responsibility to speak truth to power, not to mention fellow Republicans. That's guts for you.

[For the record, I'm Democrat-leaning since Obama.]

 

Willem Middelkoop: BRICS Expansion Is A Step Closer To WWIII.

Absolutely, no doubt about it. This is a crystal-clear trend going forward. There will be a Good block and an Evil block. Some countries need to step back now, or they will ultimately pay the consequences when Good ONCE AGAIN defeats Evil in the next World War. It's coming pretty fast.

(1802) BRICS expansion is a step closer to WW3: We’re moving into very dangerous phase – Willem Middelkoop - YouTube

Vivek Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy is a twerp and a sad joke. End of story.

Milwaukee: Republican Debate.

I just watched the Republican debate. Frankly, I thought they all did well. Most of them were as good on offense as defense. Ramaswamy looked out of his league: some of his positions were ridiculous, amateurist and seemingly improvised. He showed, quite obviously, how he knows nothing about foreign policy, hence his nutty position on Ukraine. 

But one guy fared worse than Ramaswamy and his name is Trump. It was a big mistake not to show up. He got blasted but good by Christie and others. 

You could tell by the booing of Pence, Christie and others that the Trump lustre is rapidly fading, even among some Republicans. It wasn't the whole room that booed for Trump. Far from it. That means Trump is already in trouble and you can bet your last dollar that what happened tonight will make damned sure that Trump shows up at the second debate. It's the beginning of panic time for the Trump campaign. Good going, genius...it's starting to slowly slip all away. [Smiling.]

Bye, Bye, Prigozhin.

Is this a surprise? Nope, not at all. I was expecting it from Day One, but now the fun will be trying to find fingerprints. Maybe the plane was shot down by Russian air defences and maybe not.  Could it be an accident? That's theoretically possible, but that's not likely to be what most people will think or assume. 

And if Putin is involved, does Prigozhin's untimely demise strengthen Putin's hand or weaken it? Well, the big positive is one less traitor that Putin has to deal with. Follows the death of several Russian generals recently. Sure, it sends a message, but that message is old hat. It's been sent so many times already that it has no practical effect in reality. That's why these deaths keep happening.

Does Prigozhin's death leave an impression of Putin being in control or losing control? Sure, in the short run, it consolidates his power by getting rid of a major adversary, but over time it diminishes Putin's hold on the leadership. Not a plan I would have advocated or pushed for. 

Putin has potentially gone out of his way to make 50,000+ Wagner Group enemies. Can all these people be corralled, much less controlled? I doubt it. So...some people will likely be gunning for Putin and looking for a way to get even. That's at least 50,000 fighters. If Putin is involved, this was a big strategic mistake. Why go out of your way to create a legion of determined enemies? To Putin, I would say, not good. His future could get interesting, fast.

Jean-Talon: Sondage Léger et le PQ.

Il semble que le gouvernement Legault n'est pas sur une piste d'accélération pour annoncer la date de l'élection complémentaire partielle, dans la circonscription de Jean-Talon. Quelle surprise. Un sondage Léger démontre que c'est potentiellement une lutte serrée entre la CAQ et le PQ, avec ce dernier en avance avec 32% des intentions de vote et la CAQ devancer par deux points. QS est au troisième rang avec 17% et le PLQ est à 16%. Le PCQ finit loin derrière à 5%.

À mon avis, il faut voir qu'il y a deux histoires parallèles dans ces chiffres: premièrement, la montée de l'effet cendrillon du PQ et ensuite un reflet du déclin naturel du PLQ, par rapport au vote francophone. Oui, c'est uniquement un sondage, mais la trace des événements est déjà longue depuis un certain temps. Pour le chef du PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, c'est au moins une victoire morale. Pour le PLQ, c'est une autre indication que les libéraux ne sont désormais plus l'alternative naturelle au gouvernement sortant. Le PLQ est en voie de devenir une tierce-partie avec un château-fort seulement sur l'ile de Montréal. Pour le PQ, la couronne nord et sud de la Métropole devient un terrain possiblement fertile aux prochaines élections.

Pour le premier ministre François Legault et la CAQ, les sondages récents ne sont pas glorieux. Les jours où la CAQ avait une avance de quarante points sont loin d'arrière pour eux. La CAQ mène encore dans les sondages récents, mais avec une avance typiquement entre dix et quinze points. Théoriquement, c'est encore assez fort pour former un nouveau gouvernement majoritaire aux prochaines élections, mais, mais, mais, si la remontée du PQ continue? En d'autres termes, les feux jaunes sont déjà allumés dans l'esprit de beaucoup de Québécois. C'est un signe qui devrait provoquer un sens de prudence et de réflexion dans l'esprit du premier ministre. Peut-on parler d'une renaissance du PQ? Pas encore, mais

le moins qu'on peut dire est que le PQ est sur une piste montante. Cela est déjà très clair.

Are The Latest Iowa Polls The Beginning Of The End For Trump's Candidacy?

To me, things are starting to look like a Republican iceberg, with most of what's next to come seemingly below the water line. You could also potentially call it the first break in the Trump dam. If you really want to know where it's at when it comes to caucuses and primaries, the thing to do is track local polls closely to see if the centre holds or if the sand is shifting.

The Iowa polls have been all over the place -- with Trump leading others with percentages as high as 67% (against Pence) and as low as 42% (three times, against DeSantis) -- but the latest poll from The Trafalgar Group has Trump leading DeSantis 42-16%, that's a twenty-six point lead. But the real story is the remaining 42%. They aren't yet moving as a block toward anyone else, but they don't want Trump either. Looks and smells like an iceberg to me.

Mind you, the national numbers aren't reflecting the change: Trump is ahead of his rivals by forty-six points in the latest CBS News/YouGov poll, which puts him at 62%.

As for the politicians, Christie is attacking Trump at every opportunity, telling reporters that Trump is a coward and scared of him. That's apparently why Trump will skip the debate stage next Wednesday. Meanwhile, Cassidy, who voted to impeach Trump in the second Impeachment trial, is calling on Trump to leave the race. Cassidy says Trump can't beat Biden, according to polling. He also doubts that if Trump was convicted, that the latter could then go on and win a presidential race. 

And if all of this isn't enough, the icing on the cake is the supposed automatic disqualification from running for president as per the 14th Amendment. Only a fool wouldn't believe that January 6th wasn't an insurrection intent on keeping Trump in office, but there's potentially some wiggle room for Trump, whether he was an actual participant. Did he really engage in the insurrection? Well, he did call for people to go down to The Capitol and told them to fight like hell for their country. He never explicitly called for violence but was planning to go there himself until The Secret Service decided otherwise. So, in my mind, it isn't a lead pipe cinch linking Trump to the engagement process, but it isn't a totally unreasonable conclusion to draw either. Time and process will tell.

It's for sure that with a lot of legal balls in the air that that, in and of itself, doesn’t exactly strengthen Trump's grip on the nomination, so his re-nomination is not a certainty. Is it still probable? Sure it is, at least for now, but polls will ultimately tell the tale. Trump has to fear a massive coalescing around another candidate and IF that happens, then Trump likely will be done as dinner, much to the surprise of his most rabid and loyal supporters.

Keep your eye on the prize and watch for unexpected developments as the race unfolds. Sometimes, a debate performance actually changes the dynamics in a race while other times, a candidate has a good to great debate but then still loses. In short, anything, quite literally, is possible down the road. It remains to be seen if Trump is somehow once again destined to be the Republican standard-bearer against Biden. Don't take anything for granted. That's what the Iowa polling is telling us, at the very least. 

   

 

 

Trump: This Made My Day.

The Constitution bars Trump from holding public office ever again (msn.com)

DeSantis' Only Milestone.

Making Trump look good! What a riot. I pegged this guy early on as a Class1Asshole, and it looks like I wasn't off the mark. DeSantis has all the charisma of a shrivelled up leaf. I mean, can you think of any other Republican politician who can make Trump actually look good in comparison? Like it almost says in the bible: the self-exalted will be humbled, and DeSantis is getting plenty of that. Serves him right for sending immigrants to sanctuary cities without dishing out a cent to help them on the way, or when they get there. In short, a loser.

So...for once and only once, I'm siding with Trump. What belly laughs he must be having. And the plane thing in Iowa was perfect. Too precious. Once in a while, Trump can actually come up with something that doesn't suggest he's a blithering idiot. Once in a while.

I'll make it easy for DeSantis: stop wasting everyone's time by continuing your joke of a candidacy. For God's sake, suspend your campaign before you come off even more stupid than you already look. Is that even possible?  LOL.

DeSantis, the gift that keeps on giving to Trump, not to mention the Biden campaign. 

Twitter Postings: Trudeau-Grégoire.

Good God. I don't even want to read this stuff, it's that bad. Endless speculation about who allegedly slept with whom, and stories galore about both of them. I mean, everything you can think of, conjure up, has literally been thrown into the mix. It's already a fucking tsunami...

I've never been known as a Trudeau fan, per se. Basically, I tolerated him as leader during my Liberal Party membership days. In short, what I wrote was for the team, so that we could increase our chances of winning, period.

But Jesus, this is too much. In the words of Joseph Welch:

Telford: Tilting At Windmills.

You know Telford, there's quite literally nothing that she wouldn't do to save the sorry ass of the most incompetent and phoney prime minister this country has ever had. She has less than nothing to work with, but that doesn't stop her: making up things about CPC policies and what her so-called crystal ball sees if Pierre forms the next government.

Just call her Tilting At Windmills Telford. Sums it up pretty nicely. Whatever cred she had, in the beginning, is long gone. Everyone knows that. But that won't stop Telford. She is already way beyond desperate to save this imbecile, not to mention her own job. There's no litmus test for her, and it shows. Whatever HimselfTM does automatically is always perfectly dandy for her. After all, you know, the only thing that authentically concentrates the mind is the job in DC. Madam must lick her lips and her mouth must water at the prospect. So...in the end, the ever-dutiful servant will do whatever it takes to get there. Remember how the old man Trudeau got his last patronage licks in just before the hapless Turner took the wheel? And we all know how that story turned out. 

Sanity, fiscal responsibility and good ethical government are on the way. No wonder Telford is desperate to propagate her foolish stories and outright fictional scenarios. Let's just say that she and her boss are made for each other, politically speaking. It's way, way, beyond a perfect match. Too bad for them that most Canadians see past their bullshit. But hey, by all means, keep trying.

 

The Big Tough Guy Is Scared Shitless In Private.

Too funny. I'm surprised that Trump hasn't already repeatedly shit his pants. Yeah right, "I'm" going to be coming after you. Right. Not this coward. All this idiot does is serially manipulate his followers and disciples, hoping like hell that a minority of them will do dirt work for him. 

Every candidate has deranged and psychotic supporters, but anyone with a brain does their utmost to keep these loons and crazies under control. Not Donald J. Trump. Not him. Egging them on is definitely not the way to go. 

He loves the conspiracy theories, the bullshit that Biden is not president, all of it. And he cares not, to use a Kennedyism, what serious consequences might flow from his behaviour. 

These crazy fuckers are great at intimidation, making death threats, and mailing strange things to politicians, strategists and other party operatives. One day, some nut bar will go too far and Trump will have to live with the consequences. 

The Big Man is well on his way to locking up the Republican nomination. But only the most delusional TrumpANon actually believes that an election win realistically is in the cards. So, by all means, let Trump get it and then watch that fucker more than likely go down in flames in the general, as he so richly deserves. 

Marriage: Don't Let It Be Dangerous.

A lot of people have poor judgment. They either don't see the serial red flags, or they prefer l'aveuglement volontaire. What can I say?

Anger, when not controlled can be dangerous for oneself and those around them. 

That's why it has no place in a marriage. Canadians know that would be dangerous.

An unsound marriage is not who Canadians are. Canadians put love and respect above all else, so not to ever go there. Good on them. That's always instinctively the right thing to do.