Poppy Coburn
PRESIDENT TRUMP! FORGET CANADA! WE BRITISH WANT TO BE YOUR 51ST STATE!
“The Briton... should cheerfully acquiesce in the decree of Destiny, and stand in betimes with the conquering American.” So said William Thomas Stead (1849-1912), the prominent Victorian newspaperman and strident reformer.
Stead looked at Britain’s colonial apotheosis with apprehension, understanding that the growth of new great powers meant “we can never again be the first.” This feared future has since come to be. Governing the world is, for us, yesterday’s dream.
The divergence between our two nations will only become more obvious as Britain flounders under Starmerism while America faces a rebirth under Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda. In short, we’d be lucky to be granted a deal like Trump’s (semi-) humorous offer to absorb Canada into the American Union as the 51st state.
CAN CHINA EVER WEED OUT CORRUPTION IN ITS MILITARY?
Try as he might, it is clear that Xi Jinping cannot rid his military of the insidious corruption that defines its workings much more than the count of warships and nuclear warheads ever can.
Another spate of Chinese military corruption cases serves as a reminder that a decades-long practice and culture of corruption continues to flourish within and among the ranks and relationships of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Recent headlines of two more Chinese generals who are being investigated by Chinese Communist Party disciplinary authorities only repeat reports regularly found over the years in Chinese media about malfeasance in the military.
Promotions come with a price tag. Even basic enlistment requires bribes. Luxury properties both in China as well as internationally are owned by the relatives of the highest-ranking PLA officers. Procurement – always risky but fertile ground for illicit dealing – is rife with backhanders, inflated contract bidding, and other forms of bribery.
THE NEXT AMERICAN CENTURY IS NOW
Remember when Japan was predicted to overtake America? Back in the 1980s, Japan was the coming country. One “expert”, Herman Kahn predicted that Japan would surpass America as the world’s largest economy by 2000.
Today? Japan’s economy is a quarter the size of America’s. Today, of course, we’re told that the great ascending power is not Japan, but China.
By 2021, China’s GDP was almost 80 percent that of the US and the experts were telling us China would overtake America within a couple of decades. But look at what has happened since. China’s economy has peaked as a percentage of US output.
As recently as 2008, Europe’s economy was about the same size as the United States’. Today, America’s economy is twice the size of Europe’s. Home Depot, a single US company, eclipses all the new businesses created in the European Union since 1974.
So why are Japan, China and Europe all in their different ways underperforming America? Because each are, in their different ways, reverting back to a type of political economic tradition far less successful than America’s.
And with that tradition being revitalized by the new Trump Presidency, we should be on the cusp of an extraordinary period of progress and innovation in America.
JIMMY CARTER WAS NOT A GOOD MAN
MAGA CNN commentator Scott Jennings rails against President Carter, saying he had "a huge ego" and was a poor ex-president, despite him doing so much for the less fortunate, and he hated pomp and circumstance.
This is why nobody takes CNN seriously.pic.twitter.com/UHQdSGqCdM— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) December 31, 2024
Upon the announcement Sunday (12/29) of Jimmy Carter’s death at age 100, a reporter asked outgoing president Joe Biden what incoming president Donald Trump could learn from Carter’s legacy. Biden had the indecency to say “Decency.”
Biden once set his sights high by trying to compare himself to FDR and JFK, now has to settle for being the second Carter.
On his way out the door, the media continues to insist that Biden is a good man. And that Carter, despite presiding over one of the worst administrations in history, was a good man.
Biden and Carter had many things in common, record unpopularity, crooked brothers, empowering Islamic terrorists, but decency was never one of them.
Joe Biden was not a good man. Neither was Jimmy Carter. Here are just a few of the reasons why.
WORLD’S MOST SECRETIVE SOCIETY APPOINTS NEW LEADER AS TRUMP SPARKS SEISMIC SHIFT IN GLOBAL ORDER
The Bilderberg Group - a secret organization of the global elite - is undergoing a leadership transformation as Donald Trump prepares to retake the White House.
The society, which consists of leaders in politics, industry, academia and the military, has selected former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to chair its 'steering committee.'
Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg group has long drawn fascination for its clandestine meetings at exclusive hotels and alpine resorts where attendees hold discussions on international relations, economics and security.
Heads of the CIA and MI6 have been among its members, while Henry Kissinger was a regular alongside the likes of Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and then-Prince Charles.
Now a major power shift is afoot as Stoltenberg, who attended his first Bilderberg summit in 2002, has been tapped for his expertise in transatlantic strategy.
Key among his Bilderberg colleagues is Trump insider Peter Thiel, boss of AI giant Palantir, whose technology has been used by Ukraine in the fight against Putin. A staunch supporter of Donald Trump, Thiel's influence has steadily grown within Bilderberg.
TEN IDEAS TO MAKE AMERICA’S ECONOMY GREAT AGAIN IN 2025
Here's my wish list for the incoming Trump administration to make America healthy and prosperous and great again in 2025.
- Slash Job-Killing Regulations
- Make the Trump Tax Cuts Permanent
Why? Because they worked almost exactly as we anticipated they would.
- Replace Welfare With Work
PUTTING JOE BIDEN’S LEGACY IN THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY
‘Twas the night before Christmas and…you know the drill. Since it is Christmas tomorrow and we are only three weeks away from booting Joe Biden and the Democrats out of power.
It’s time to get the professional cleaners to come out and remove the stench of what they’ve done over the last four years. The budget and the country need a deep, deep cleaning to remove what it is they’ve done, then we need to resolve to never allow it to happen again.
Joe Biden’s legacy is disgraceful. May his last memory be one of realizing the American people rejected him and what he’d done, overwhelmingly favoring his opponent from 2020 over his protégé.
It's time to get serious. How many billions of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” have yet to be spent? Or is it trillions? Stop anything left. In fact, repeal the whole furshlugginer thing. There are literally trillions in “green” subsidies that monstrosity obligates the federal government to spend over the coming year, according to the Cato Institute. Kill it, kill it now.
TRUMP BLOWS UP “RIDICULOUS” FEDERAL SPENDING DEAL AS SHUTDOWN LOOMS
Yesterday (12/17), House Republican leaders were struggling to cobble together support within their party for a bipartisan stopgap federal spending bill on when, last night at 9:28pm, President-elect Donald Trump weighed in hard against it and imploded the deal.
In a joint statement on X (full text below) with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, Mr. Trump trashed the 1,500-plus-page legislation that would fund the government until March 14.
The two men called on Republican leaders to reject it and renegotiate a “clean” measure with Democrats that would eliminate a trove of spending and policy extras.
Congress, now back to the drawing board, faces a Friday deadline to pass a stopgap bill to keep the federal government from shuttering.
“Republicans must get smart and tough. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, THEN CALL THEIR BLUFF,” Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance posted, with several words capitalized for Trumpian emphasis.
A TSUNAMI OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS THAT’S THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
How’s that for a mixed metaphor? You do know that when a gigantic fracture of a massive glacier calves off creating an iceberg, the wave it creates splashing into the ocean is so huge it can seem like a tsunami overwhelming any small craft nearby, right? Okay, here we go.
An important feature of Trump’s second term will be his actions on the first day. Trump will sign a flurry of executive orders (EOs) on the day he is sworn in (January 20, 2025) and the following day. The exact number is not known but it will easily be 50 orders or more.
Trump’s executive orders have already been drafted for the most part. Some are still undergoing legal review, some are being tweaked from a policy perspective, and some are being debated internally as to whether they should even go forward. Some EOs may be pulled from the pile if counsel decides that legislation is required to achieve the intended purpose.
Each EO is presented to the president in a separate blue leather binder with the Seal of the President of the United States stamped in gold on the cover.
Each EO is signed with a different pen and then the pens are handed out to supporters of the President as gifts. Now you can visualize Trump sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office signing away on EOs to reinstate Trump policies, establish new policies and abolish as many of Biden’s policies as possible.
The best quick guide to Trump’s first 100 days is to consider the EOs he will sign on Day One of his second term. Here’s a summary broken out by policy area:
THE PHENOMENON OF TRUMP REBORN
President-elect Donald Trump’s most striking characteristics today are clarity, confidence, and calm. This is extraordinary in a man renowned for chaos, confusion, and the thin-skinned hurling of demeaning insults.
But it is a truth that needs to be acknowledged and accounted for to understand what we are witnessing as Trump prepares to resume the presidency.
Van Jones, one of the Left’s level-headed analysts, captured the truth lucidly in an interview with CNN’s Chris Cillizza. When Cillizza asked Jones how such a supposedly unlikely guy as Trump “became the one that cracked the code,” Jones rejected the premise of the question.
“Can we cut it out? … Donald Trump is smarter than me, you, and all critics. You know how we know?
Because he has the White House, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, the popular vote, he has a massive media ecosystem bigger than the mainstream built around him and for him, and a religious fervor in a political movement around him, and his best buddy is the richest person in the history of the world, and the most relevant Kennedy is with him.
This dude is a phenomenon. He is the most powerful human on Earth in our lifetime. And we’re still saying, ‘How is this guy doing it?’ We look like idiots.”
ELON MUSK BELIEVES BRITAIN IS IN VERY DEEP TROUBLE
Nigel (R) with Musk and Reform Treasurer Nick Candy at Mar-A-Lago (12/16)
[Nigel Farage is the founder-leader of Britain’s Reform UK Party, which he represents as an MP (Member of Parliament) in the House of Commons. Britain will soon no longer be a two-party Uniparty between Conservative and Labor. The former did such an awful job under a succession of ridiculous Prime Ministers after jettisoning Boris Johnson, the Brits promptly jumped from the Tory frying pan into the catastrophically Woke Marxist fire of Labor. Not long ago it would be laughably delusional among Brits that Reform would supplant the Tories and Farage be Prime Minister. No laughing anymore.
This is a front page essay by Farage in today’s (12/18) London Telegraph, paired with a front-page news report: “Musk Ready To Bankroll Farage With ‘Biggest Donation In British Political History’.” Read them both and you’ll see why Farage may well transform the UK as Trump is doing to the US, both enabled by Elon.]
A Monday afternoon (12/16) visit to Mar-a-Lago, and boy was it busy. Throughout the day, the world’s biggest tech giants were queuing up to meet Donald Trump, from Kris Marszalek, the head of Crypto.com, to Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of TikTok.
This transition period was nothing like what I saw in 2016: there is a sense of order, determined calm and above all optimism. Trump’s personal ratings continue to rise in a way that’s not been seen before in an incoming president. And is it any wonder?
This is just one example of the atmosphere in Mar-a-Lago and the increasing aura around President Trump himself. It is no exaggeration to say that there is real excitement in the air and no one doubts that, by the date of the inauguration on Jan 20, the Trump administration is going to hit the ground running.
All of this is in such marked contrast to the doom, gloom and misery that is all-pervading in the United Kingdom at the moment.
IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO DISMANTLE THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
No normal parent wants a school with teachers like this for their children.
President Trump proposes to dismantle the federal Department of Education and return education policy to the states. That will certainly be a good move, as the federal DOE has been a key promoter of the woke component of the education establishment, but this action will not of itself restore vitality to the institution of public education in our nation.
Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, writes: “Dismantling the Department of Education won’t make any measurable difference in educational outcomes... If you want real transformation, fight the elected school boards, defang the unions, and create alternatives to the ed schools.”
We must understand that, operating at the state level, there are other promoters of wokeness in education. Every state has several such woke promoters, including (1) its own state DOE, (2) its own state teachers’ union, (3) its own colleges and universities with their own Departments and professors of Education, and (4) its own woke culture shared by its teachers and administrators.
Each of these four agencies of influence operates in its own ways and means to bring its influence to bear in its own theatre of operation.
KEEPING UKRAINE OUT OF NATO WILL NOT ADVANCE PEACE WITH RUSSIA
Moscow believes that NATO will not accept Ukraine as a member as long as Russia wages war against it and wants the West to exclude Ukraine from NATO in exchange for “peace” with Russia.
Some NATO states are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside NATO’s framework. Such suggestions have proven stillborn, there being no substitute for NATO collective guarantees of Ukraine’s government-controlled territory,
Thus, awaiting a “peace settlement” with Russia before accepting Ukraine into NATO would encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. The alliance would need, however, to nail down security guarantees for and with Ukraine in advance of any negotiations with Russia.
CAITLIN CLARK EXPLAINS THAT WHITE PRIVILEGE FEELS WEIRDLY LIKE GETTING BEAT UP BY GIANT BLACK LESBIANS
U.S. — WNBA player Caitlin Clark has been declared 2024 Athlete of the Year by TIME Magazine. She told TIME that she has been the beneficiary of white privilege, which strangely feels a lot like getting the crap kicked out of her by giant black lesbians.
Though she admitted that "white privilege" was a bit of a nebulous term, Clark explained that she seemed to most often experience it as getting punched in the face or elbowed in the stomach.
"The fact is, I clearly have experienced white privilege. No one else gets beat up routinely on national television by enormous black lesbians," explained Clark. "That's obviously a privilege that I have, being white. I recognize that this league was built by these gargantuan lesbians, and we must honor all the work they do punching me because of my skin color."
Though sociologists stated that white privilege could manifest in many forms, they agreed that sometimes it does feel like getting shoved to the floor on a basketball court. "It feels different to different people," explain sociology professor Dr. Ray Adams. "For some, it may be that you do not have to worry about security at a store eyeing you suspiciously. For some, it's being wrestled to the ground and having your eyes poked by a 200-pound black lesbian. It's highly variable."
At publishing time, the WNBA had reported excellent progress in its ten-step plan to becoming irrelevant again.
- Babylon Bee reporting
THE EVAPORATION OF THE OBAMA MYSTIQUE
Barack Obama had long been rumored as the catalyst for the 2020 Biden nomination—and thereafter played the whispering puppeteer behind the subsequent lost Biden administration years.
The Obamas ignored or withheld from the public their own firsthand knowledge that Biden was suffering from signs of dementia. Instead, they found Biden’s cognitive decline and his former concocted reputation as workingman’s Joe useful as a veneer for a veritable Obama third-term, “phone it in” administration.
Or as wistful Obama once conditioned his dream of a third term—”If I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front man or front woman, and they had an earpiece in.”
The Obamaites then got their wish for four years of enacted hard-left directives that they could only have dreamed of while in actual power. The result: Obama’s ruling radicalism beneath the Biden facade eventually cost the Democrats nearly everything—the presidency, the House, and the Senate. All gone, and now, so has he.
THE TRANS CULT IS CRUMBLING IN EUROPE — NOW IT’S AMERICA’S TURN WITH TRUMP
Whoever would have thought that chopping off the healthy breast tissue of 14-year-old girls could mean you end up in court?
Well, anyone, actually, who has been paying any attention to the gender madness of the last decade. In the US, where the practice of medicine is particularly connected to the practice of law, I predict a deluge of court cases over what has been done to children in the name of “gender affirming care”.
Last week, 20-year-old Clementine Breen filed a medical negligence claim against a Los Angeles-based doctor, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, claiming she was rushed into irreversible treatment when she was 12. Olson-Kennedy is the medical director of the Centre for Transyouth Health and Development at the Children’s Hospital in LA.
This is, after all, the script, isn’t it? That without mutilating the bodies of teenagers, these kids will all kill themselves. That there is no evidence for this doesn’t appear to matter. Until it gets to court and then it does.
This is where Britain and many other European countries are far ahead of America. When evidence of the harmful effects of puberty blockers began to come in via longitudinal studies, the NHS stopped routinely prescribing them to under 18s. Finland, Sweden, Norway and Holland have also stopped prescribing blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors. Trump’s America has to catch up and fast.
TRUMPISM IS GOING GLOBAL
Buckle your seatbelts because President-elect Donald Trump has ignited a worldwide revolt against the arrogance of global elites.
We are entering a brand-new era of rebellion -- man against the self-serving, out-of-touch political machines that ignore the will of the governed.
Everywhere. Look around. The world is a mess. Entrenched political leaders and parties are being tumultuously evicted in Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia. Syria is this week’s massively disastrous mess.
Britain, France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada – all and more are in political chaos. By contrast, way ahead of the pack is Argentina, where the "shock capitalist" President Javier Milei won election a year ago and is an overnight international hero for his chainsaw approach to shrinking big government.
Now is the hour of the entire world's discontent. Why are the dominoes of government tumbling so suddenly?
One word: Trump.
BLACK LIVES MATTER LOSES ITS MOJO
Result of BLM’s Hawk Newsome calling for “Black Vigilantes” against Daniel Penny
On Monday (12/09), Daniel Penny was found Not Guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the choking death of Jordan Neely.
In May of 2023, Neely boarded a New York City subway train and began to threaten other passengers. Penny and a few others subdued Neely until police arrived. Neely ultimately died, and Penny was charged with second-degree manslaughter in addition to criminally negligent homicide. For most Americans, Penny was seen as a hero, a good Samaritan jumping in to help his fellow citizens in a dangerous situation.
Of course, like clockwork, Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists, a.k.a. agitators, showed up outside the courthouse, declaring the incident a racial one and demanding "justice." BLM leader Walter “Hawk” Newsome called for “black vigilantes” to enact revenge.
But something is different now. The BLM activists jumped up and down and yelled and screamed about being oppressed and had the prerequisite number of people standing behind them nodding their heads, but you could still hear their voices. Hundreds of other protesters had not drowned them out. Has BLM lost their 2020 black magic?
PUTIN’S REGIME MAY BE CLOSER TO A SOVIET COLLAPSE THAN WE THINK
Vladimir Putin’s loss of a key regional ally in Bashar al-Assad has weakened Moscow at a crucial moment.
For while the war in Ukraine reges on the battlefield, Russia is losing the economic conflict. The Kremlin’s oil export revenues are too low to sustain a high-intensity war and nobody will lend Vladimir Putin a kopeck.
Putin’s strategic victory in Ukraine was far from inevitable a fortnight ago and it is less inevitable now after the Assad regime collapsed like a house of cards, shattering Putin’s credibility in the Middle East and the Sahel. He could do nothing to save his sole state ally in the Arab world.
“The limits of Russian military power have been revealed,” said Tim Ash, a regional expert at Bluebay Asset Management. “Putin now goes into Ukraine peace talks with Trump from a position of weakness,” said Mr. Ash.
And as bad as that military weakness is, Putin’s economic weakness is far worse. Following are examples of just how weak that is.
WHAT IS THE DRIVING FORCE OF A GREAT RELATIONSHIP?
An acquaintance the other day asked me what I do, and I told her that I’m a Marriage and Family Counselor, as well as a Life Coach. Then she asked an interesting question: “Is compromise the key to a happy marriage?”
At first I was tempted to say yes. Compromise is certainly one part of two different people sharing a life together. We can’t do everything we want whenever we want it; we have to find ways of adapting to each other’s needs and inclinations.
But thinking about it a little more closely, I instead said an emphatic, “No.” Compromise is not really the key.
Compromise is kind of like when one person wants a room painted yellow, the other wants it painted blue, and we compromise and get green – but neither of us may even like green. Compromise is sometimes win/win, sometimes not. There are certainly times when we compromise, but it isn’t the driving force of a great relationship.
So what is?
HUNTER ASKS IF HE CAN GET HIS BAGGIE OF COCAINE BACK FROM THE WHITE HOUSE NOW
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After news broke that he had received a full presidential pardon from his father for any crimes committed in the last decade, Hunter Biden immediately asked officials from the U.S. Secret Service if he could get his baggie of cocaine back from the White House.
The cocaine, which was discovered over a year ago in a cubby outside the entrance to the West Wing, had gone unclaimed with authorities closing their investigation without learning the identity of its owner. With his pardon now in effect, Biden quickly claimed it and requested its return.
"Yeah, it's totally mine, thanks," Biden was reportedly heard saying in a phone call with the Secret Service. "I had to stash it one day when a tour group was coming through while I was about to do some lines. Such a buzzkill. Anyway, now that I don't have to answer for anything illegal I've done, I'd appreciate it if you gave me back my blow. I plan on hitting some celebration pretty hard tonight if you know what I mean. I mean I'm going to get absolutely wasted and I need my coke."
A spokesman for the Secret Service confirmed Biden made the request. "We figured it was his, but now we know for sure," said Agent Sean Kellar. "Unfortunately, the pardon Mr. Biden received from his father now precludes us from taking any action against him for possessing the illegal substance. It's probably better that the cocaine goes back to its rightful owner rather than going to waste in some evidence locker anyway."
At publishing time, Hunter Biden had reportedly also asked for a hard copy of his presidential pardon that he could roll up into a tube to snort the returned cocaine.
- Babylon Bee
THE ANTI-WHITE, ANTI-HETEROSEXUAL, ANTI-WEST IDEOLOGY POISONING YOUNG MINDS IS ABOUT TO END
Indeed, for decades, ordinary Americans have sat back and watched a small radical fringe take over their public education system and academia. They did nothing as “woke” professors promoted a self-flagellating ideology that sees everything in terms of race, gender and oppression.
What started as “political correctness” 30 years ago has morphed into an explicitly anti-Western, anti-white, anti-heterosexual belief system. Middle America has had enough of it.
Team Trump is targeting the Department of Education not primarily to reduce government waste, but to end government “woke”. That means important implications for what happens to the federal government more broadly.
BASIC MAKE-READY FOR URBAN UNREST (PART ONE)
I abide in my conviction that the Left was caught off guard by the victory of Donald Trump. I believe that is the reason why we have not seen mass violence yet, for violence has always been a centerpiece in their playbook, whether on the streets of Europe a hundred years ago, or more recently around the world.
As The Donald’s cabinet picks come up, it appears that, if the people he chooses do, indeed, get confirmed and perform as they are capable of doing, then the array of Jacobins that have been screwing up the US for generations will be running like rats off a burning ship. But they are unlikely to go quietly.
Let me repeat that—these our enemies will not go without a fight, and I mean that quite literally. Before it is over, you and those around you could be facing violence, whether it is sporadic acting-out from leftist manchildren melting down in your businesses or other public places, or the more anarchic organized variety.
You need to start preparing now if you are not already. I offer the following points for your consideration. We start by learning how to evaluate everything.
IF PUTIN LOSES HIS TARTUS BASE IN SYRIA HE MAY LOSE IN UKRAINE
On November 27, a powerful force led by Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched an offensive in northern Syria. Taking advantage of the dysfunctional Assad regime forces – the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) – and Russia’s preoccupation with its grinding war in Ukraine, HTS and its Turkish-supported allies advanced to the south – and swiftly took the city of Aleppo from Syrian strongman Bashar Al-Assad, his SAA and his Russian backers.
The Russians know Tartus is in trouble. On December 3, commercial satellite imagery revealed that every major Russian warship known to operate from Tartus – three missile frigates, a diesel-electric attack submarine and two lightly-armed support ships – had unmoored from the port’s three large piers and sailed into the Med.
Losing Tartus would be catastrophic for Russian power projection in Southern Europe and North Africa. Realistically, the only way for the Kremlin to replace the vital shore infrastructure in Tartus is to regain access to the Med via the Bosporus.
But there’s almost no prospect of that happening while the war in Ukraine still rages. Russian president Vladimir Putin may soon face an unhappy choice: keep fighting in Ukraine but lose influence in the Mediterranean region; or sue for peace in Ukraine and open up access from the Black Sea to the Med.
THE POCKET PARDON STRATEGY AND THE FINAL CORRUPTION OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
The most shocking aspect of President Biden pardoning his own son, Hunter, may be that it was not in the least shocking, given the history of the Biden family.
This abuse of the pardon power was widely anticipated even by his allies as the president repeatedly denied that he would ever do such a thing as he ran for reelection. Indeed, it may be the single most premeditated unethical act in political history. However, it may not achieve what President Biden most hopes for: a clean slate for his son and himself in this massive corruption scandal.
Biden has recreated a sweeping immunity grant through his own powers by pardoning his son not only for the crimes of which he was convicted, but of any crimes committed between Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024. Think on that. It would cover anything from perjury to murder.
But it is not the absolute “get-out-of-jail-free” card that President Biden would like, for the pardon has that sell-by date. Any crime he commits after then, such as being made to testify under oath to Congress and caught lying, is jailable.
HOW PUTIN’S LONG WAR IS DESTROYING THE FABRIC OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY
“The greatest pleasure of the Russian people is drunkenness, in other words, oblivion. Poor folk! they must dream to be happy.”
Astolphe de Custine, Letters From Russia - 1839
Russia has a long history with alcoholism. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, drinking was in decline. Now, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, official figures show alcohol addiction is surging again for the first time in a decade.Vodka sales this year surged to a record high and policymakers are scrambling to halt a rise in alcohol-related deaths. What has changed is the war. It is becoming increasingly clear that the fabric of Russian society is falling apart.
As in the 1980s, Russian soldiers are returning from the frontline wounded and traumatized. Thousands more are dying, leaving grieving families at home.
But what is happening today is on a completely different scale. Around 15,000 Soviet soldiers died in Afghanistan. The Russian death toll in Ukraine is at least ten or more times that already.
Between Feb 24 2022 and Nov 19 this year, there have been at least 120,000 Russian military deaths in the war in Ukraine, according to analysis of probate records by Mediazona, a site that works in collaboration with BBC’s Russian service.
As many as 728,000 more have been injured, according to analysis by The Economist, based on leaked documents from America’s defense department. Vast numbers of them have turned to vodka to drown their pain and trauma.
BANKRUPTCY, DEPRESSION, AND RANDOM DEATH: XI’S CHINA IS TEARING ITSELF APART
Mourners place flowers for the mass killing in Zhuhai, China on November 11
On November 30, Chinese social media posts showed what appeared to be half a dozen bodies left strewn across a busy road in Neijiang City in China’s Sichuan province, after another apparent attack using a car.
We will perhaps never know the truth of what happened, but since February, China has suffered one mass killing after another. In an especially horrific incident on the 11th of last month, a man drove his SUV on the exercise track of Zhuhai Stadium, killing 35 people and injuring 45 others. For decades, disaffected Chinese have resorted to violence as a first choice instead of the last one.
But the Communist Party’s reaction has been to censor news of incidents and prevent expressions of grief and mourning. These actions, by further bottling up emotions, are making a bad situation even worse.
CCP authorities are especially worried at the moment because the economy is suffering a prolonged downturn, the first since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.
Further, the gloom in Chinese society is forcing collapse of birth rates. “In this country, to love your child is to never let him be born in the first place,” has become a popular sentiment.
KAMALA OFFICIALLY UNBURDENED BY SOBRIETY
Vice President Kamala Harris released a video to let followers know that with the Presidential race over, she is now completely unburdened by sobriety.
Kamala called for supporters to imagine what could be, such as getting totally blitzed on a random Tuesday -- unburdened by what has been, such as not drinking two bottles of merlot and washing it down with a Dixie cup full of trash can punch.
"You guys... you guys. You're so powerful, and pretty, and UGH! Don't, don't--burp--don't, don't ever let anyone take your power from you. Don't you leave your power lying around, like an old sock. You promise me," said Kamala, a tear rolling down her cheek. "You guys. Why didn't Beyoncé sing? Just like, not even one single song, lady?"
Secret Service agents explained it felt like old times again, before the campaign. "It's nice to get back to the familiar," explained Agent Sam Reynolds as he tried to get Harris to have some sips of water. "Trying to keep her sober for 107 straight days was a nightmare, and frankly, filled with failure. It really is a burden lifted."
At publishing time, local police officers had received several reports of a woman erratically driving a yellow school bus down Pennsylvania Avenue.
- Babylon Bee reporting
GARBAGE CASE GOES OUT WITH THE GARBAGE
I'd say 'no.'
They were politicized justice of the worst sort, the Latin Americanization of U.S. politics, where the outgoing president always has to flee the country.
Now that Trump has won the election against all odds, by the wildest of coincidences, two of these dumpster fire cases, brought on from the flimsiest of charges, have been scrapped. Everyone knows they don't hold water.
According to Monday's (11/25) New York Post:
PUTIN’S ESCALATING THREATS IN UKRAINE
Russia’s strategy in executing its aggressive war against Ukraine, passing the 1,000-day mark last week (11/19(, puts the country’s economy, society, and armed forces under enormous pressure that Moscow’s militaristic propaganda cannot quite cover.
Relentless attacks, necessary for proving Russia’s control of the strategic initiative, produce Russian casualties so heavy that recruitment based on outlandish payments cannot compensate for the number of losses ( Mediazona, November 22). Public support for the war cannot be measured with any accuracy, but opinion polls show a steady increase in preferences for immediate peace talks (Levada.ru, November 6; The Moscow Times, November 22).
For Putin, escalation is the only way to alter the pattern of fast-progressing attrition.
THE IMMORALITY OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Weekly we read of thousands of illegal immigrants arriving from areas controlled by violent Mexican cartel gangs or failed, strife-torn South American countries that have emptied their jails to send their felons northwards. Hundreds of thousands of them have been committing violent crimes while demanding still more free housing and support from strapped American taxpayers.
Big-city left-wing mayors and city councils boast that they will do all their best to nullify federal immigration laws, even as their cities face near insolvency housing, feeding, and monitoring the influx. Virtue-signaling Democrat governors have so far not dared to utter a word of criticism about what has been the Biden administration’s truly historic “massive importation” of illegal aliens into the U.S. over the last four years.
Why? Because they could. Very soon they won’t be able to any longer. Their war on legality and morality is about to end...
THIS TRUMP PICK CAN SILENTLY STRANGLE THE DEEP STATE
The Office of Management and Budget is a less well-known entity within the executive branch, but few are as critical for ensuring the implementation of the president’s agenda. President-elect Donald Trump has once again placed that awesome responsibility in Russ Vought’s hands.
OMB is not just the president’s budget division. While OMB oversees the structure and execution of the budget, it also has oversight powers over federal agencies and federal regulations to ensure the commands of the president, bestowed executive powers by the American people, are being followed.
In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Vought explained how OMB can use those powers to kill the deep state—a death by a thousand cuts.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CHALLENGES ARE MORE INTERESTING THAN YOU THINK
[Note by JW – this is Dr. Joel at the top of his game. Read, absorb, and consider sending it to anyone you know whom you think could benefit from it.]
When we approach any problem, how we approach it begins with an idea, a belief, a story about what that problem is, and what needs to be done about it.
How we approach our psychological challenges also begins with an idea, a premise, a story.
Currently, the widely accepted premise is that psychological problems – depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addictions et al – are abnormal phenomena.
They don’t belong here. They were brought to us by some unfortunate circumstances – an unhappy childhood, a personal weakness, a society that’s sick. They’re polluting the system, like a harmful bacteria or virus, and we want all trace of them eliminated immediately.
But what if that premise is wrong?
I’ve been working with people as a teacher, a marriage and family therapist, and a life coach for well over 40 years now. I started with that premise of problems as aberrations – the “disease model” of psychology. I don’t buy it anymore.
Let’s explore a different premise and see where it takes us. The exploration starts with asking certain questions:
RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA FUELS NUCLEAR BLACKMAIL RHETORIC
Vladimir Strangelove Putin
Vladimir Strangelove Putin
Over the past months, the increasing threat to resort to nuclear weapons has been observed not only in Russian propaganda but also in fairly reputable analytical platforms close to the Kremlin. Kremlin “experts” do not conceal that such threats are only intended to break the West psychologically, as they themselves are not prepared for full-scale nuclear war.
Russian nuclear blackmail is seemingly affecting Western politicians. Independent media reports that in President-elect Donald Trump’s entourage, it is considered essential to freeze the front line as it stands and postpone Ukraine’s accession to NATO in exchange for the continuation of arms supplies to the country (Istories.media, November 7).
Western concessions to Russia, however, are unlikely to reduce the risk of nuclear escalation. Russian radicals lobbying for the use of nuclear weapons live in a distorted reality and are simply incapable of understanding these concessions.
For example, experts on the website “Military Review,” which is closely associated with the Russian Defense Ministry, publish conspiracy theories about how a mysterious “World Government” controls the United States, of which Trump is just one of its adherents (Topwar.ru, November 5).
HOW TRUMP WILL KEEP THE DEMS ON DEFENSE IN TRANSITION AND BEYOND
“Once they’re on the run, keep ’em running” is an old cavalry motto — and a strategy Donald Trump seems to have taken to heart.
Democrats are scared and fighting among themselves.
The publishers of newspapers like The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times that used to be hard-left propaganda outlets are now talking about the importance of hearing from both sides.
MSNBC and CNN viewership is in freefall; one or the other may wind up being purchased for small change by Elon Musk.
Universities are adopting political neutrality.
This is nice, but will it last?
The answer is: Only so long as the pressure is on. So how do Republicans keep the Dems and the Left on the run? Here’s how.
THE COMING ERA OF MAGA DOMINANCE
Only Donald Trump could have pulled off the kind of victory we witnessed just over one week ago. The victory achieved by, and for, the man himself is already the greatest political comeback in American history.
But it is entirely possible that his win now could set up an equally unprecedented comeback, but not for any one particular individual. If the Republican Party plays its cards right this time, it could build off of the massive coalition that President Trump has built for himself and ride this wave of momentum to a new era of dominance in American politics.
The Old Map and the New Map
Just as importantly as 2016, the 2024 election perfectly displays the best path forward for the new Republican Party when it comes to establishing and maintaining an electoral majority every four years.
Here’s a detailed analysis of how that works.
PETE HEGSETH WILL DE-WOKE THE PENTAGON AND RESTORE THE MILITARY’S MISSION
Powerful forces are out to derail Pete Hegseth’s bid to become secretary of defense and carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to reform the Pentagon.
The Army veteran and former Fox News host has been hammered by a stream of inflammatory accusations in recent days, from past allegations of sexual assault to absurd and baseless claims that his faith-based tattoos reveal him as a white supremacist.
Hegseth, of course, has never faced criminal charges, has never been connected to any white supremacy groups or activities and has never deviated from his loyalty to country — so these preposterous attacks merely reveal the desperation of those seeking to subvert his confirmation.
Why? Because, after a groundless 10-year war in Iraq and a 20-year stalemate in Afghanistan, the US military is embroiled in a culture war — another war it seems to be losing. It’s a good thing they’ll lose it to Pete Hegseth.
LET’S MAKE CO2 GREAT AGAIN
As the love affair with so-called green energy cools and “net zero” commitments to eliminate “carbon emissions” wane, we see glimmers of acknowledgment for the benefits of carbon dioxide.
That’s right: More people are beginning to understand that the gas—widely demonized as a pollutant endangering Earth with excessive heat—is a life-giving substance needed in greater amounts.
U.S. voters know that President-elect Donald Trump has declared the Green New Deal a “scam” and promises to return common sense to environmental regulations and energy development. His return to office rests partly on that pledge.
Educating the public on the benefits of carbon dioxide is the mission of the CO2 Coalition, which I lead. We sponsor speakers and publish scientifically based materials for adults and children.
“Fossil Fuels Are the Greenest Energy Sources” by Dr. Indur Goklany is an example of our work. Did you know that up to 50% of the globe has experienced an increase in vegetation and that 70% of the greening is attributed to plant fertilization by carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels?
POSITIVE SUBTRACTION
I met my wife Sue 32 years ago at a Thanksgiving party with some friends of ours. Normally I would have been with my extended family - Thanksgiving was always a favorite of my parents - but this year they hosted our family dinner on Friday instead of Thursday, so other family members could be with their respective in-laws.
Had my parents not changed the routine that year, Sue and I might never have met; we never would have been married, we would never have had our kids, and the life we know would be different in so many ways it’s hard to fathom.
It's pretty remarkable if you think about it, that two people ever meet. But people do, and we did. If you're married, it might be worth considering there’s a chance the two of you might never have met.
Doing this deliberately can also make you happier. Here’s how and why. Oh, I’ve also added a short essay of Jack’s at the end. Even though he wrote it on TTP over 19 years ago, he describes another method of “positive subtraction.”
THE BIGGEST BLUNDER IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN POLITICS
The biggest blunder in the history of American politics was the premeditated, unabashed, and overt theft of the 2020 presidential election by the Democrat Party, the legacy media, and their fellow left-wing elitists in the Ruling Class. This blunder set the stage for the 2024 Trump landslide and hastened the demise of the Democrat Party and the legacy media.
This cabal further compounded the original blunder of overtly stealing the 2020 election by adopting unprecedented lawfare against Donald Trump, insisting that an obviously addled Joe Biden be the Democrat nominee, ousting Biden four months before the election, and choreographing the nomination of the unlikeable and vacuous Kamala Harris.
This myopic and oblivious faction of the Ruling Class grossly underestimated and misunderstood the depth and breadth of support for Trump in 2020. Despite their legal and illegal efforts to manipulate the voting process, they would fall monumentally short of the anticipated landslide defeat of the incumbent.