Modern politics – Page 4 – Libertate Virtute (Virtue + Liberty)

December 5, 2023

It’s Basic Economics. The EV Is Junk.

Watch This Severe Electric Car Fire And Explosion At A Charging Station — May 8, 2020, at a charging station in Dongguan, China, where an electric car caught fire when being plugged into a charger.

While perusing my news feed, I found a recent Fortune magazine article on the problems that electric vehicle owners are having with their cars, 80% more difficulties on average than conventional combustion vehicles (see below). The writer tried to deflect the problems into the category of “growing pains” for the new industry.

Yes, I agree with him, but he seems unaware of the much more fundamental issue. Problems or no, the EV is a politically driven product and, like any such good or service, has politically driven trade-offs. Growing pains? Growing pains or no, the whole EV industry probably would be immensely smaller but for politics. Politicians constructing their road to utopia understand that people must be bribed, and coerced, to mass adopt something that makes their lives worse off. The things still don’t make much economic sense compared to those efficient muscle engines.

Internal combustion engine — Gasoline direct injection engine.

Electric-car battery costs: Tesla $190 per kwh for pack, GM $145 for cells — An EV battery pack weighs on average 1,000 pounds. Your typical combustion engine and its transmission can vary from 300 (4-cylinder) to 1,000 pounds (V-8 powerhouse).

Lest we forget, politicians are camp followers, always with their fingers in the wind discerning the next fashionable thought or issue. Those leaning to the Left already have a laundry list of ready-made issues, just add water – i.e., donors’ money.

But there’s one huge complication: Politics is a poor driver of an economy. Utility (use and practicality) occupies first place in a normally functioning economy. Sellers invent and continue to produce the stuff that buyers find useful and enhances their lives. If it’s not as good as the alternatives, it’s essentially junk. It’s the economic definition of junk. When politics enters the fray, utility disappears from the equation. Practicality and usefulness take a back seat to powerful groups’ ideological demands. When the movement rises in prominence due to their momentary occupation of the commanding heights of the culture, they quickly gain the reins of political power to impose their preferences, and the artificially driven esteem for junk rises.

Trade-offs and opportunity costs are tossed to the wind. If pressed, the true believer can always interject their own wholly invented, unprovable costs into the equation. Prominent among the hypothetical eco-costs is the existential end of the planet. That’s always the gambit for the zealot: scare people into adopting the zealot’s choices. The Left’s ownership of the cultural commanding heights has made it easy for already Left-leaning politicos to engage in the hyperbole. Consequently, political power is married to an ideology’s agenda. In the end, your family sedan is forced into oblivion.

So, as politically inspired junk is imposed on the population, what is lost, or the opportunity cost? On the EV front, the auto producers’ resources are plowed into the less-useful and away from the more-useful. That’s a trade-off, and it’s unavoidable. The loss of the opportunity for producing the more useful things (opportunity costs) increases, and that’s equally unavoidable.

What to do if your electric car runs out of charge | Toyota of Orlando — An EV depleted of charge

Vandals cut cables at EV charging station on Vancouver Island - Drive Tesla — Vandals cut and removed charging handles from this charging station on Vancouver Island, B.C.

What does all this mean for you? Your life changes, and for the worse. It always pencils-out that way when you are forced to choose the worst alternative. How bad is that alternative? The whole eco-agenda cascades onto you with its abundant unintended consequences. It goes beyond the problems with charging and the batteries (some of them catch fire) in the article. The additional resources to make the thing work as the numerous glitches of the impractical (“growing pains”) raise the costs of producing the impractical which will always translate into an increase in the cost of living. Higher standards of living do not ride the back of higher costs of production and living. The more that you try and do that, the worse it gets.

Save the planet by being worse off? But you aren’t saving the planet. Do you think for a moment that India and China and the rest of Donald Trump’s “shitholes” are going to give up cheap energy? Come on, get a grip. China is building new coal-fired plants at the same clip as they are warships. India, soon to be the planet’s most populous country, wants relief from the oppressive heat. Sorry, solar panels and windmills won’t cut it. Economies of scale in energy production, meaning a grid and power plants, is the only thing that’ll elevate people out of the sweat and filth. Everyone, if they were honest, knows it, except AOC, John Kerry, and our culture’s eco-barkers.

Wait a minute. That’s quite a crowd who’ve bought into the nonsense. And nonsense it is. The leap of faith from a period of warming temperatures to the apocalypse more resembles a religious doctrine than science. “Follow the science” is no such thing. It’s follow the eco-Pope.

That Genius of Lansing, Mi., Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, has decided to go California and follow the eco-Pope. She’s hellbent on bringing blackouts and skyrocketing utility bills to the wolverine state. She signed two bills establishing energy central planning (see below). The state must be 100% “clean energy” by 2040, 60% by 2035. That means a massive increase in solar and wind, 1.5 million acres more (Mackinac Center report, see below). The costs will be humungous, and it will be taken out of the hide of Michiganders. And out of the sovereign powers of localities. Their power to regulate these gargantuan scars on the land in their neighborhood will be proscribed. Expect each family in the state to shell out an additional $2,746 per year for energy (Mackinac Center report).

Declaring war on gas and petroleum and monopolizing all energy needs onto an electrical grid suffering from “intermittency” (solar and wind) is absolute folly. Do you want to live worse off? Do you want your children to be worse off? Don’t think for a moment that at least you’ve saved the planet, as they’ve made most people’s lives more challenging. By the way, it won’t be true for Jeff Bezos, nor Mark Zuckerberg, nor John Kerry, who married into the Heinz fortune.

Al Gore Celebrates Earth Day By Buying Another 12,000 Square Foot Mansion | The End Times ... — Albert Gore and his mansions

The planet will be the same as before, and you’ll be less well off. All this brought to you by people who don’t know what they’re doing.

On second thought, they do. And it’s hooey.

RogerG

Read more here:

* “Electric vehicle owners report 80% more problems than with conventional cars and trucks amid ‘growing pains’ for the industry, Consumer Reports says”, Tom Krisher of the AP, Fortune, 11/23/23, at https://fortune.com/2023/11/29/electric-vehicle-reliability-more-problems-gas-powered/

* “Michigan Gov Whitmer signs sweeping green energy bill forcing transition from fossil fuels”, Thomas Catenacci, Fox News, 11/30/23, at https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/michigan-gov-whitmer-signs-sweeping-green-energy-bill-forcing-transition-from-fossil-fuels/ar-AA1kJF4I

* “New Energy Bills Would Increase Costs and Blackouts”, Holly Wetzel, Mackinac Center, 10/27/2023, at https://www.mackinac.org/pressroom/2023/new-energy-bills-would-increase-costs-and-blackouts

December 1, 2023December 2, 2023

MAGA v. Reagan: Oren Cass v. David Bahnsen, November 15, 2023

Michael Reagan explains why his father wouldn't have voted for Trump - CNNPolitics

Last night (11/30/23), Gov. Ron DeSantis (R, Fla.) squared off against Gov. Gavin Newsom (D, Ca.) in a debate. It was interesting to note that Newsom tried to use Trump against DeSantis. It’s true that Trump prefers to tear down his opponents early and often with any tool at hand, usually with a huge dollop of balderdash, so there’s much on the record for Newsom to use. Ironically, Newsom’s exploitation of Trump’s hostile words about DeSantis underscores a deepening divide within the GOP that can be summarized as MAGA v. Reagan. You may or may not be aware of it but it is happening before your eyes.

Let’s face it, and here’s the point, Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan in thought and comportment. Trump has come to symbolize a rising isolationist element in the GOP. Reagan was a patriot but no isolationist. The dividing lines within the GOP are becoming starker by the month as one part of the party coalescing around Trump pays rhetorical homage to Reagan while they are busy tearing down his legacy.

It’s a battle between big-government isolationism (MAGA) and a philosophy of governance built on smaller government combined with international engagement (Reagan). A couple of weeks prior to the Newsom/DeSantis face-off, David Bahnsen (of the Reagan philosophy) engaged Oren Cass (of the emerging MAGA philosophy) in a debate about this growing rift. This chasm has a greater impact on the future of the GOP than the spat between Newsom and DeSantis.

They debated over this proposition: There should be a greater role for public policy (government) in markets. Oren Cass in the affirmative (MAGA), David Bahnsen in the negative (Reagan).

If you are a Trump supporter, you must ask yourself one simple question: Where would he lead us if elected again? Yes, his first term was Reaganite because he drew from the GOP’s ample stable of Reaganite thinkers, but he burned bridges with them long ago. A second term would draw from the coterie of big-government isolationists such as Oren Cass. You would be voting for this.

Here’s a few takeaways from the Bahnsen/Cass challenge:

#1 – To set up the big-government approach, you have to tar the alternative. The alternative is a more restrained government in order to let markets breathe, what is called free markets. A market is merely a spontaneous arrangement that brings together buyers and sellers, voluntarily and thus free. So, a host of problems are assigned to markets by people like Cass to gouge out a bigger role for government to manipulate and direct them. Though, can stagnating wages, a languishing standard of living, and outsourcing of some American manufacturing justifiably be laid at the feet of markets? That leads me to #2.

#2 – Cass and his cohort in and out of government won’t say it but they’re into central planning. Central planning is government actors – bureaucrats, public employees, and politicians – directing the buyers and sellers. What does this smell like? It smells like politics being injected into people’s private decisions on what they produce, how they produce it, and what they buy. If it was a medical treatment, it’s a poor one. Politician-witchdoctors overriding our individual judgments turns us into serfs and causes more of what they are blaming markets for. That leads me to #3.

#3 – The knowledge problem. Cass and the politicians on the other side of the fence like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren believe that government is filled with wise demi-gods. Do you, or anyone for that matter, actually believe that politicians and public employees possess the knowledge and wisdom to substitute their decision-making for that of millions of people in millions of individual circumstances? It’s been tried before. It’s the culprit behind the implosion of the Soviet Union. North Korea’s misery is caused by it. FDR’s New Deal turned a depression into a Great Depression. For the old timers like me, the 1970’s stagflation was caused by it. Those kvetching about today’s stagnated prosperity don’t realize that it is rooted in it. It’s amazing that the MAGA coterie want more government to cure the ailments caused by government. How’s that supposed to work? That leads me to #4.

#4 – The subsequent lawmaking and enforcement are infected with fatal pathogens, the fingerprints of government, i.e. politics, at work. Let’s take a look at the heralded CHIPS Act. The intent to replant chip manufacturing in the U.S. was larded with ESG, DEI, eco-nuttery, child care mandates, etc. Billions of taxpayer dollars are to be showered on billion-dollar corporate biggies while hitting them with the kind of thing that drove them from American shores to begin with. Go figure. The Cass/MAGA approach has been around for years. Speaking of Gavin Newsom, California is a microcosm of the consequences of this state of mind. Currently, it is causing Californios to flea the state (800,000 between 2020 and 2022) in like manner as American companies found the grass to be greener in China and the Philippines. You don’t need to shower taxpayer largesse on a handpicked industry and its towering players to entice them back. Try not punishing them. Try acting like you actually like them. Dah!

This is the debate that we ought to be having in the GOP. We need more face-offs between the MAGA and the Reagan philosophies so Republican voters know what they’re getting into. I’m afraid that it’s not happening often enough. We’ll end up with a lose-lose. If we win, we’ll get the misery from big-government foolishness under a Republican label. If we lose, we’ll get it from the Democrats. Are we even aware of it?

Please watch the Bahnsen/Cass debate below.

RogerG

November 25, 2023December 2, 2023

Matt Rosendale (R, Mont.), Sicarius?

May be an image of 1 person and the Oval Office — Matt Rosendale (R, Mont.)

The Sicarii (Latin for “dagger wielders” or “dagger men”) were a violent splinter group of Jewish Zealots who were militant enthusiasts of the First Jewish Revolt (or first Jewish-Roman War). As Jerusalem was falling to Roman legions in 70 A.D., a portion of the Sicarii escaped to occupy the mountaintop fortress of Masada. There, they committed mass suicide just before the Romans overran their defenses in 74 A.D. according to the ancient historian Josephus.

The Sicarii — The First Assassins in History | History of Yesterday — Sicarii assassins

The last Jewish zealot at the Siege of Masada Ancient Persia, Ancient Rome, Ancient History ... — The last Sicarii zealot committing suicide before the enter the Masada fortress.

Masada: Fortress of the Zealots | Live Science — The ruins of Masada today

Blind fury, combined with the self-conceit of the purity of one’s motives and beliefs, can take a person to some horrible places. Is Matt Rosendale willing to help lead the GOP to its own Masada?

I am a Montanan and flabbergasted that a person like Rosendale calls himself a Republican and occupies Montana’s second congressional seat. He’s an embarrassment.

To be sure, Sicarii-like mental states can be found Left and Right. Anywhere from much of the Democrats’ base to Antifa/BLM can be found the burn-it-all-down state of mind. Now, in the Age of Trump, Republicans have developed their own Sicarii.

Back in October, in an interview in The Messenger (see below), Rosendale said that he prayed for the defeat of some Republican candidates in 2022 midterms, just enough to ensure a narrow Republican majority in the House. Here’s Rosendale:

“Look, we have shown, OK, with a very small handful of people, six at times, five at times, that we can have tremendous impact in that body and when a lot of people, unfortunately, were voting to have a 270, 280 Republican House, I was praying each evening for a small majority,”

The Sicarii didn’t only direct their anger at Romans. They targeted “collaborators”, fellow Jews. Rosendale, like all fire-breathing zealots going back millennia, heaped scorn on fellow Republicans. Fanatics have their own rhetoric to identify the “enemy” amongst their normal and natural allies. “Establishment” and “RINO” serve the same function for Rosendale and company as “collaborator”.

He says that he wants to push the party further to the right, right into a Republican Masada. Rosendale can’t grasp the fact that there exist many, many people who don’t agree with him, that he doesn’t reflect the Party or the country. His little faction is a splinter of a splinter. Is this guy a loon or what? Does he know the difference between governing and campaigning?

Governing requires working with others who disagree, and there will always be many of those. An adult would understand half-a-loaf and compromise. Not the Republican Sicarii. They have turned the House Republican caucus into a clown car.

I’m in District 1 and represented by Ryan Zinke (R), thank God. Are the constituents of District 2 happy with a politically suicidal Sicarius pulling them into a political rut?

What started out as Joan of Arc ends up as George Armstrong Custer.

May be a graphic of fireworks and text

RogerG

Read more here:

* “Montana GOP Rep. Prayed for Smaller Republican Majority After 2022 Midterms (Exclusive)”, Dan Merico and Matt Holt, The Messenger, 10/2/23, at https://themessenger.com/politics/montana-republican-house-prayed-smaller-majority

** Also in my Substack feed, The Golden Mean, at https://rogerlgraf.substack.com/

November 21, 2023December 2, 2023

Polls, Polls, Polls, and a Party Gone Bananas

Political Cartoons - Campaigns and Elections - The Shining 2024 - Washington Times

Well, both parties have gone bananas. The Democrats have gone over to denigrating the entire corpus of western civilization. They are essentially Marxists in belief with their race/gender hucksterism and eco-central planning. Republicans are in a state of madness, consumed in a cult of Trump. If you are an actual conservative, and not a cult member, expect to be reviled and abused. It happened to Mitt Romney.

At times, I have been no fan of Romney. His decision to march with Black Lives Matter in 2020 was a low point in my esteem for Mitt. In February 2020, he was the lone Republican senator to vote in support of one of the two articles of impeachment. I found both charges to be rank partisan prosecutions, something out of Stalin’s playbook. But at least he had the wherewithal to express loathing for repulsive Trump behavior. Rumors have been rife among Republican congressional members and staff of their disgust for Trump but were paralyzed by fear for their personal and family’s safety if they came out of the closet. They have good reason to fear the cult.

One incident stands out. On January 5, 2021, one day before the January 6th riot, Mitt Romney boarded a plane in Salt Lake City for a flight to Washington, D.C. So, to were others who were flying to D.C. for the Trump rally that devolved into the infamous riot. He was met with boos and chants of “Traitor” and “lowlife” on the plane (see below). Is finding merit in one of the two impeachment charges, or expressing disapproval of Trump’s conduct, “treason”? Is disagreement with Trump a measure of “lowlife”?

Apparently, Romney is more attuned to popular sentiment than the Trumpers on the plane. Polls consistently show Trump’s disapprovals to hover around the mid-fifties. It’s just that at this juncture, Biden has attained a level of repulsiveness equal to or slightly exceeding Trump’s. So, in a contest limited to Biden v. Trump, Trump edges out Biden – and the celebrity pundits on Fox News are in a party mood.

They miss the point. In a contest against a clearly, mentally and physically wobbly opponent, Trump can only eke out a narrow lead within the margin of error. Don’t mistake these results for a suddenly growing and popular embrace of Trump. That would be a big error in judgment.

The most recent NBC News poll (see below), like all the others going back a year or so, show a consistent distaste for Trump and an overriding dislike of Biden to match. In this binary matchup, Trump is ahead by 2 points for the first time in this poll. But lying in the poll’s weeds are some other interesting findings. Any generic Republican facing Biden is 11 points ahead, and any generic Democrat forges 8 points ahead of Trump. A no-name Republican does 9 points better than Trump against Biden; a no-name Democrat enjoys a landslide vis-à-vis Trump.

For the Democrats, the task is simple: remove Biden from the ticket. They may do it. Democrats are nimbler on their feet. Republicans seem to be hellbent on running their Trump Titanic into the iceberg. On the other hand, he could win if Biden is on the ballot, but don’t expect any coattails if the Trump personality is evident down ballot. Trumpism is a personality cult, and a not very endearing one.

RogerG

Read more here:

* “Kornacki: First Time In 16 NBC News Polls Over Four Years Where Donald Trump Leads Joe Biden”, Tim Haines, Real Clear Politics, November 20, 2023, at https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/11/20/kornacki_first_time_in_16_nbc_news_polls_over_four_years_where_donald_trump_leads_joe_biden.html

* Steve Kornacke on X about the NBC News poll at https://twitter.com/RyanGirdusky/status/1726247457414414630

** Also in my Substack feed, The Golden Mean, at https://rogerlgraf.substack.com/

November 17, 2023December 2, 2023

Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” and the Coming Contest of the Abominable

While listening to a podcast of the musical career of Simon and Garfunkel, up popped a segment of their song “Mrs. Robinson”. The verse struck me as oddly reminiscent of today. Think of the looming contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The verse:

“Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon
Going to the candidates’ debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you’ve got to choose
Every way you look at it, you lose”

I don’t expect much practical wisdom from rock stars, but this verse hits a chord. A verse from 1968 comes full circle to meet 2024.

A week ago, I happened to be watching an episode of Fox News’s “The Five”. A new Fox News poll had just been released showing Donald Trump ahead of Joe Biden. Four of the five hosts were almost dancing a jig on the table about the results, as if votes had already been counted and Trump was preparing his coronation speech. Is Trump becoming popular, or, more likely, is this a choice between the most abhorrent candidates of all time?

Look at the candidates’ negatives. They are far and away more detested than loved. A smattering of polls from the Nov. 8-14 shows these guys to be stinkers (see below). Biden’s detestability hovers between 53% and 59%. Trump’s swings from 54% to 56%. Biden has achieved a level of loathsomeness slightly greater than Trump’s. And the hosts of The Five are dancing a jig over this?

The contest is a consequence of the parties foisting on the general voting public execrable nominees. The Democrats can’t come around to jettisoning their enfeebled sellout to the party’s neo-Marxist Left. The Republicans can’t shake their enchantment with a narcissistic lunatic. Now, the public has experienced both behind the Resolute desk and the bully pulpit. If the contest is reduced to this binary, then the choice is about the least reviled.

So, why does Trump appear to be allegedly riding high? Biden is in the seat of power, more immediate, before cameras, at the head of the nightly newscast, the subject of much conversation, and people get a daily dose of the failures of the party’s neo-Marxism: an overrun border, inflation, climate-change central planning, the unraveling of civilization, the group-guilt shaming, the international scene coming unglued, etc. The present soon overwhelms the past. Trump slides into background noise amid court appearances. As a consequence, if the election were held today, the possibility of a president taking the oath while wearing an ankle bracelet looms large.

What’s there to like?

May be an image of 1 person and text

May be an illustration of 2 people and text

It is said by many that people prefer Trump’s policies but personally dislike Trump. There’s a lot to that, but those cherished policies are a reflection of longstanding GOP platforms. Prior to 2015 and Trump’s grandstanding on Obama’s birth certificate, Trump had few if any policy ideas other than the border and trade protectionism. His ignorance was profound. In a 2016 debate, he couldn’t name the legs of the strategic triad. He was befuddled by the term “triad”. When he amazingly got elected as a Republican, he not surprisingly turned to Republicans to fill out his administration. From a guy who was a policy empty suit, many of his “wins” were crafted by the input of others who would later be insulted into oblivion. Bill Barr, John Bolton, Mike Pence, Kelly, McMaster, et al, and the congressional leadership who were the fount of these ideas such as Paul Ryan, won’t be around for a Trump second bite at the apple.

In a Trump term #2, who will he turn to, the clown caucus of Matt Gaetz and company? A person still possessing their wits would be a fool to get too close to Trump. Expect any future Trump presidency to be filled with “fighters”, fighters who are a bit too punch drunk: the clown car caucus moves from Congress to the executive branch; the extended universe of isolationists and sycophants; and the rule of the Democrats’ craziness would be replaced by those who romanticize 1932’s Smoot-Hawley Tariff and the American Firsters of 1940. Mmmm. What would that world look like?

I have to amend my prediction that Trump is a loser. Er, he is; you just might have to look down ballot for the misery. The guy has no coattails because he’s kryptonite at the state and local level. As long as Trump is far from you, he might be tolerable, even if you’ll only see him on parole or probation. Yet don’t count out that Democrat vote-harvesting machine so quickly, or the possibility that they’ll do a switcheroo replacing the enfeebled with a fresh-faced, milquetoast neo-Marxist from the party’s ranks.

RogerG

Read more here:

* For the latest polls turn to https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/

** Also in my Substack feed, The Golden Mean, at https://rogerlgraf.substack.com/publish/home

November 14, 2023December 2, 2023

Today’s Fringe: The Left’s Squad and the Clown-Car Right

May be an image of the Western Wall and text

May be an image of text

I’ll soon be flying Israeli and Ukrainian flags on my house. The two causes are similar and linked. Both are facing extermination in a replay of the 1942 Wansee Conference (the Nazi Final Solution) and Stalin’s Holodomor (Stalin’s Final Solution on Ukraine in the 1930s). Realistically, like it or not, America is the last remaining superpower on the side of the angels and, as such, we must look outward as well as inward. Both fringes want a self-flagellating retreat. It’s despicable.

The neo-Marxist Left, as symbolized by The Squad, see America and western civilization as the fount of oppression. For them, we need to go away, or get boiled in revolution.

May be an image of 4 people and text — The Squad

The clown-car Right wants us to go away, mostly from the international stage, their nuanced blabberings notwithstanding. The simpletons think that we can’t chew gum and walk at the same time because our ability to produce gum has weakened. They say “No” to Ukraine because of some strange affection for Putin’s propaganda and the existence of problems at home, which was always and will be forever true. Speaking of an impossible standard.

May be an image of 4 people, the Oval Office and text — The Clown Caucus, clockwise: Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn, Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene

And “No” to Israel according to a charter member of the clown caucus, Marjorie Taylor Greene, unless we make cuts from somewhere else in the budget. She’s got a laundry list which unsurprisingly doesn’t include cuts in ag subsidies for her rural northwest Georgia district or the entitlements.

She practices a cheap shot at foreign aid. It’s the go-to for dimwits. It’s less than 1% of the federal budget. Look it up. And from that fraction of 1% we are supposed to address the atrophying of our defense supply chain and balance the budget? So, in a flight of fancy, she’s mum on the almost $3 trillion of Social Security and Medicare but gun-ho about $39 billion (foreign aid), or .13% of the entitlement behemoths which are half of the total federal budget. Do you see why the clown caucus qualifies for dimwit status?

The lunatics on the fringe seem to have outsized influence in both parties. Of course, we’ve got the neo-isolationist Right of the clown caucus with a founding membership of Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, MJT, Matt Rosendale, and a few hangers-on, with Senators Josh Hawley and JD Vance occasionally dipping their toes in the fever swamp. And on the other wing, we have the always crazy neo-Marxist Left that has intoxicated the Democratic Party.

I close with Michael Ramirez’s most recent cartoon that faced censure at the Washington Post for its accurate depiction of Hamas leader Hamadi hiding behind children and other innocent civilians. It apparently hurt the feelings of some of the paper’s left-wing readership. Are we that far gone that we can’t be safe in condemning the murder, rape, and beheading of real innocents?

May be an image of text that says 'HOW DARE ISRAEL ATTACK CIVILIANS... HAMAS'

RogerG

November 2, 2023November 2, 2023

The Trump Personality in Politics

Ilhan Omar calls on House leadership to take action against Lauren ... — Part of the House Republican clown caucus (l-r): Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Majorie Taylor Greene

As a public-school teacher for 30 years, I know the critical rule of classroom management. If one kid’s bad behavior is left unattended, it won’t take long for the classroom to become a zoo. A parallel is Trump’s entry into the Republican presidential sweepstakes in 2015. More than Trump entered the race, also came his personality. It has left an impression on certain adolescent-minded clusters of grownups in the Republican Party – both registered voters and some in elected office. Think of the clown caucus who engineered the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.

“Trumpian” boils down to braggadocio, bombast, simplistic and blunt issues in a blunt style with a lot of bullying of friends and foes alike. It’s the over-the-top behavior of a person who craves the tabloid limelight. The Obama birth certificate dustup is a classic example of a simplistic and blunt issue to be exploited for personal gain, which would be Trump’s signature approach to modern politics. The only thing is, the bombast that drew so much attention ended in Trump scaping egg off his face when Obama produced the document.

Few, however, would predict that a windbag’s curtly rudeness would have an appeal among the rank and file. And the whole style seemed to be electorally validated when Trump won in a 2016 black swan event. Success can bring out the worst in people, and “Trumpian” came to be as fashionable as the John Wayne swagger in the 1950s.

While the personality type is appealing to certain party voters, it’s a big turnoff to getable swaths of the general electorate. After 2016, Trump’s appeal down ballot was a disaster. Let’s not forget 2022, at a time when the Democrats have made a shambles of the country, the Republicans could only squeak out a bare majority in the House leaving the clown caucus in a position to put their Trumpian hijinks on public display. The Republicans are proving that neo-Marxism is survivable if Trump, his political personality, and the clown caucus are the face of party.

In Orwell’s “1984”, Big Brother had a face. In today’s rendition of the Republican Party, its face is that of Donald Trump with the likes of Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Majorie Taylor Greene, Matt Rosendale, and Nancy Mace in a chorus line behind. Big Brother wouldn’t be laughed at; the picture of Trump and the Trumpkins elicits guffaws at first, followed by beads of sweat from the realization that they have actual power. To be sure, these are not the kind of people that I would trust with my kids.

IBM software patch upgrades power grid to version 2.0 - ExtremeTech — Big brother from 1984

95,000 words, many of them ominous, from Trump's tongue ...

The despicability of the Democratic Party and a sizeable faction in the Republican Party is registered in polls, something that you’ll recognize if you rely on more than Laura Ingraham for your news. She doesn’t hesitate to bellow a poll with Trump ahead of Biden. Yet, the reality in the most recent Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll presents a more complicated picture (see below). Yes, among Republican primary voters, Trump is far and away the favorite with 58%. Metrics of enthusiasm for Trump are high among these voters. But – here’s the key number – among the general electorate, Biden squeaks out a tiny lead, essentially a tie.

Trump is favored on a host of issues – the border, economy, foreign affairs – but when offered a choice between Biden and Trump, it’s essentially a dead heat. What’s holding Trump and the Republicans back from a sweeping lead? Look at Trump’s negatives. He’s even more reviled than Biden in a recent NBC News poll (see below). Biden’s negative rating stands at 49%; Trump registers a 54% downside. Megaphones like Laura Ingraham of Fox News would mention a Trump lead in a poll’s head-to-head matchup, but nary a word about Trump’s unlikability. Does “putting lipstick on a pig” remind you of anything?

The Trump personality is only appealing to a sizeable portion of the Republican Party base. It’s reviled nearly everywhere else. Trumpian bluster might carry a candidate through the primary, but in places other than a crimson district, it’s the kiss of death. If you want to stop the Democrats’ neo-Marxism, first win elections. What’s a turn-on for primary voters can be poison in the general election.

Democrats know this. That’s why they’re interfering in Republican primaries to elect Trumpians. In my home state of Montana, mysterious ads are appearing that throw mud on Tim Sheehy, who’s challenged in the primary by the Trumpian Matt Rosendale. Not a word in these hit pieces about Rosendale.

The group – Last Best Place PAC – is an undercover Democrat operation (see below) to help get Rosendale the nomination and, thus, an easier challenger for incumbent Democrat John Tester. It’s the same Democrat tried-and-true tactic from 2022. It’s not out of distaste for Sheehy that drives Schumer and company to stick it to Sheehy. He knows, like everyone else who are not fans of the Trump schtick, that a Trumpian is a weaker candidate. What worked in Arizona, Pennsylvania, et al, in 2022 has a good chance of succeeding in 2024. Watch Republicans rush headlong into the trap.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Further, watch an example of a boisterous Trumpian on full display, Lauren Boebert from September of this year. After this, is she like Trump – “I could stand in the middle of 5th Ave. and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters” – and therefore immune from the voters’ wrath? Are some Republican voters that morally stunted? Is the Trumpian personality that hypnotizing?

The Trumpian personality came through the door in 2016 and has entrenched itself. At this point, the party will have to face a disaster before the malignancy can be removed. Like a classroom under the control of hellions, we have a party that has allowed this element to run roughshod. And we will pay the piper.

RogerG

Read more here:

* For deep dive into the Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll, see the full text of the poll at https://www.suffolk.edu/-/media/suffolk/documents/academics/research-at-suffolk/suprc/polls/national/2023/10_24_2023_marginals_embargoed_2.pdf?la=en&hash=ABF93DCEAAFCA91DBE9BD17A2A10E4E4A2C6189E

* The NBC News poll can be read at https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/first-read/poll-overwhelming-majorities-express-concerns-biden-trump-ahead-2024-r-rcna111347

* “Nine months before the Montana GOP primary, a mysterious super PAC is on the airwaves attacking Tim Sheehy”, Ally Mutnick, Politico, September 12, 2023, at https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2023/09/12/congress/montana-senate-sheehy-pac-ads-00115276

* More on the Democrat-affiliated PAC: “Dems Look To Meddle in Montana’s GOP Senate Primary”, Meghan Blonder, The Washington Free Beacon, September 13, 2023, at https://freebeacon.com/elections/dems-look-to-meddle-in-montanas-gop-senate-primary/

November 2, 2023

The Doom Loop

Ten million Californians may go dark in the biggest blackout yet | The ... — Los Angeles blackout, 2020

You might be tired of my constant criticism of California, but there’s a reason for it. The state is in the vanguard of trends that are weakening the nation. Many of the ideas that prove to be harmful emanate from the state, while the state is without doubt in a doom loop. There’s no need to sugarcoat the reality.

Let’s start with population projections for the state. For at least a decade, people have been fleeing the state at a pace that might conceivably accelerate. The census that determines apportionment (the number of representatives in the House of Representatives for each state) has not been kind to California and is likely to get worse. After the 2020 numbers came in, California lost one seat (53 became 52). Now, as reported by Decision Desk HQ, California’s representation could very well shrink by an additional 5 by the time of the next census count in 2030 (see below).

Why the decline? Point of fact, the state is so poorly governed. Lefty ideation, which dominates the one-party state, is poison to the health of any community. Annually, bills are passed and signed that are making the state a living hell. Parents are losing control of their kids as soon as the kid steps onto the school grounds. State taxpayers will be on the hook for treatments and surgeries for any teen and tween from anywhere demanding to alter their birth sex. Call it an underground railroad for America’s version of teenage genital mutilation. Government workers in their unions control the state and many local governments driving them into insolvency. Filth, squalor, crime, drug abuse mar public and private spaces. And, let’s not forget, lefty environmental utopianism is destroying an entire way of life. With all that, why not get out?

One barometer of a community’s overall health is prices. High taxes on nearly everything jack up the cost of living, but it’s more than that. The state is a regulatory nightmare, mostly due to a labyrinth of laws and rules in pursuit of a “carbon-free future”. The state is busy administering a lethal injection to the fossil fuel industry and the plentiful natural gas fields in the state. The result? You guessed it; the people get hosed in exploding utility rates. And what should really be driving you bats is the fact that CO2 will still accumulate in the atmosphere since few people on the planet are as looney as the people elected to run the Golden State.

Watch the video below of a deep dive into one aspect of your California utility bill: your assessment for natural gas usage. It’s scheduled to jump. The sacred cows of windmills, solar panels, and EVs are a joke and making life a poor imitation of that lived generations before. Now, watch as your gas bill more than doubles . . . while prices fall nationally. It’s what happens when utopians taking on the role of central planner monkey around with the basic stuff of life.

My 8.23 cents/kilowatt-hour keeps looking better and better each time I read about the lunacy in my state of birth.

RogerG

Read more here:

* “California on Track to Lose Five House Seats in 2030 as Residents Leave”, Ben Wilson, The Washington Free Beacon, September 20, 2023, at https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/california-on-track-to-lose-five-house-seats-in-2030-as-residents-leave/

* See X, “California is now predicted to lose 5 congressional districts in the 2030 reapportionment cycle. What happened to its historically fast growing population?”, September 19, 2023, at https://twitter.com/DecisionDeskHQ/status/1704155907150733503

August 25, 2023August 26, 2023

Have We Lost Our Mind, Or What?

Ex-NHS psychologists warn children are being over-diagnosed, over-medicated for gender dysphoria ...

Some people believe in things that are completely nuts. Look at “gender-affirming care” and the adults in positions of authority who have bought into it. Think about it: the self-diagnosis of a toddler or tween is sufficient to invoke a permanent life-altering trajectory as the result of a medical intervention that screams malpractice. Despite the indoctrination that is mislabeled as counseling, the kid will never be the same, either emotionally or physically, and can’t return to their former self.

After the victims’ exposure to the counseling/indoctrination, Lupron (AbbVie’s chemical castration drug and puberty blocker), cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, we’re starting to see regret in the form of the word “detransitioner”. Later comes the realization, after all of the changes to the body and mind, that the tween’s rash self-diagnosis for sex-transition can’t be fully undone. Cutting to the chase, this whole thing is c-r-a-z-y!

Of course, the response of the adult enthusiasts in the transition Borg when confronted with any reluctance to the treatment is a resort to the rhetorical equivalent of Defcon 1 (nuclear war is imminent or has already begun) – “Do you want a dead daughter or an alive son?” Heck, the affected are still committing suicide . . . after the transition.

I give you three cases of regret: one ends in suicide; the other is ending in a lawsuit; and still another concerns a whistleblower at a gender clinic.

The situation involving David Reimer (the full account below) will turn out to be a refutation of the behaviorist’s chief insight, that social conditions overwhelmingly define a person’s development. It was believed by some that the influences of biology can be replaced by the social engineering of “expert” interventions. Reimer was thrust into the trap of a psychologist’s effort – John Money, a Johns Hopkins University psychologist – to reengineer David from a boy to girl. It didn’t work. David committed suicide at age 38.

May be an image of 5 people, bangs, child and people smiling — David Reimer as Brenda (l) and the Reimer family

May be a black-and-white image of 1 person — John Money, Johns Hopkins University psychologist

The story begins 8 months after David’s birth in 1965 when his penis was accidentally removed during a surgical procedure. After consultation with John Money, his parents agreed to interventions to turn David into Brenda. 14 months later, David’s remaining male genitals were removed, artificial and rudimentary female genitals installed, and he started a regular regimen of estrogen injections. His upbringing as Brenda ensued.

An uneasiness would plague him for the rest of his life. And then he learned what happened to him. He would “detransition” back to David and replace his artificial female genitalia with artificial male genitalia. He got married, adopted 3 children, but continued to be consumed by depression up to the moment of his fateful decision to take his life.

He was misdiagnosed as an adult with “gender dysphoria” because he wasn’t “in the wrong body” so to speak – or maybe he was, put there by an “expert” whose ideological inclinations would prevent him from realizing the obvious truth that XY chromosomes signal the release of male hormones to the body and brain. The potential for harm is as great for the modern version of the John Money approach, “gender-affirming care”.

That brings me to the case filing of Chloe Cole v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc, in early 2023. At age 13, Chloe fell into the arms of Kaiser’s gender team. According to her filing (see below), “a team of doctors (i.e., the Defendants) . . . decided to perform a mutilating, mimicry sex change experiment on Chloe.” Even more damning is the treating practitioners single-minded commitment to one approach – gender-affirming care – without adequately divulging the controversial nature of the treatment, risks, and the shortcomings of much of the research into it. How could anyone, let alone a 13-year-old, exercise informed consent under the pressure of doctrinaire activists in white smocks? Chloe’s formal complaint reads,

“Defendants [i.e., Kaiser] obscured and concealed important information such as the following: the conflicting studies in this area; the high quality evidence demonstrating poor mental health outcomes; the existence of only low to very low-quality studies purportedly supporting this treatment; the significant likelihood that desired outcomes would not be attained; the significant possibility of desistence, detransition and regret; and the lack of accurate models for predicting desistence and detransition.”

May be an image of 1 person and newsroom — Chloe Cole

Chloe detransitioned at age 17 and is now seeking legal redress for what can only be described as mental and physical mutilation by a branch of the medical industry that is more beholden to an ideology than real medical science. It’s nearly as horrific as anything that came out of the German SS Race and Settlement Main Office or the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics of the 1930’s with its fixation on other forms of malevolent flights of fancy under cover of “science”.

Now, other clinics and hospitals have earned suspicion and scrutiny for engaging in practices that can only be described as licensed mutilation. Jamie Reed, a former pediatric gender clinician at Washington University Transgender Center, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, blew the whistle on the hasty and obsessive herding of minors into gender-affirming care.

May be an image of 1 person — Jamie Reed

Former employee of St. Louis transgender clinic reaffirms allegations of misconduct • Missouri ...

Even the New York Times, frequently dismissive of such charges, has confirmed much of Reed’s story. They validated many instances of the facility’s staff jumping to transition counseling and testosterone before any underlying emotional issues were addressed. It became commonplace at the clinic, facing a social contagion of gender dysphoria among adolescents, particularly young girls, to reach for short cuts in processing the horde with a reliance on highly dubious outside examiners and the snap push into cross-sex hormones and the indoctrination of the patient into accepting that they’re the opposite of their chromosomes.

Manias based on dubious “truths” aren’t unusual in history. Astrology, phrenology (skull shape is determinative of a person’s nature), and bleeding (opening a vein, leeches) were integral elements of medical training and practice. Pre-Civil War, some races were said to be best suited for subjugation (slavery for instance, John C. Calhoun). It carried over into Jim Crow. An incomplete and rudimentary understanding of heredity led to the horrors of eugenics which fed into the Supreme Court’s Oliver Wendell Holmes’ stupefying opinion in Buck v. Bell (1927) – “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” – and Auschwitz, et al. Karl Marx was intent on uncovering a “science” of history which, when put into practice in the 20th century, led to over 110 million deaths. Far from enlightening, some “scientific truths” have been the harbinger of much misery.

Who knows, climate change in its current ideological form may join history’s many delusional offramps from real science.

Meanwhile, the self-diagnosis of tweens as a proper basis for life-altering treatment is farcical. Euphemisms like “gender-affirming care” can’t hide the ugly reality. Which leads to another profound question: Why does it seem that the vulnerable – the mentally limited, those powerless in slavery, the subjugated by military conquest, the people stripped of their power of self-defense, children – are chosen to be the guinea pigs? Harvard grads don’t usually show up in the casualty lists.

RogerG

Read more here:

* The story of the David Reimer and Dr. John Money can be read at “John Money Gender Experiment: Reimer Twins”, Julia Simkus, Research Assistant at Princeton University, review by Saul McCleod, PhD, in Simply Psychology, June 23, 2023, https://www.simplypsychology.org/david-reimer.html#:~:text=The%20John%20Money%20Experiment%20involved%20David%20Reimer%2C%20a,identity%20and%20transitioned%20back%20to%20male%20in%20adolescence.

* An excellent introduction to the Cole v. Kaiser can can be accessed here: “Cole claims that Kaiser Hospital physicians encouraged her to undergo irreversible, gender-affirming procedures without exploring alternate options, such as psychotherapy”, Ryan J. Farrick, Legal Reader, Feb. 23. 2023, at https://www.legalreader.com/detransitioner-chloe-cole-lawsuit-kaiser-hospitals/. Also here: “Chloe Cole v. Kaiser Permanente”, Dhillon Law Group (representing Chloe), at https://www.dhillonlaw.com/lawsuits/chloe-cole-v-kaiser-permanente/.

* The story of Jamie Reed’s allegations can be read at “How a Small Gender Clinic Landed in a Political Storm”, NYT, August 23, 2023, at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/health/transgender-youth-st-louis-jamie-reed.html

* More on Jamie Reed’s allegations can be read at “I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I’m Blowing the Whistle”, Jamie Reed, The Free Press, Feb. 9, 2023, at https://www.thefp.com/p/i-thought-i-was-saving-trans-kids

* Excellent reportage on the troubles with gender-affirming care can be read at National Review Online. For example, “New York Times Confirms St. Louis Gender Clinic Whistleblower’s Claim That Adolescents Were Rushed into ‘Affirming’ Care”, Ari Blaff, NR, Aug. 23, 2023, at https://www.nationalreview.com/news/new-york-times-confirms-st-louis-gender-clinic-whistleblowers-claim-that-adolescents-were-rushed-into-affirming-care/. Also in “Chloe Cole v. Kaiser Permanente”, Madeleine Kearns, NR, March 14, 2023, at https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/chloe-cole-v-kaiser-permanente/.

August 18, 2023August 25, 2023

Our Revolting Politics Is Making a Lot of Things Revolting

May be an image of 3 people and text that says 'JOY 877 Celebrate Pride month take pride O' — Inside Pride Month 2023 at Target

May be an image of 1 person, beer and text — Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light

Two things are on today’s docket: Vivek Ramaswamy’s star is rising and Bud Light and Target are still crashing. Regarding the former, Ramaswamy is pandering to the Trumpkins in the GOP. He’s trying to be a 38-year-old Trump but without the ugliness. He’s risen to second place in some state polls. Astonishingly, Bud Light and Target have jumped onto the gender-confusion/teenage-genital-mutilation bandwagon, as if their customers want to hear from them on the culture war. In both cases, what foolishness. Who in their right mind would think that any of this would pass the smell test?

Trump’s powerful presence in the GOP is making the party a reflection of his unlikeable persona for a functioning majority of the national electorate. By that, I mean disliked by those not siloed behind the increasingly constricted walls of MAGA world. As many Trumpers cling ever so tightly to him with each indictment, other and far more numerous GOP-leaning demographics fly the coop, no matter the imbecilities of the Biden clan on the other side of the political ledger. Democrats win by making the other guy more detested than them.

Vivek wants the nomination and will say anything to get it. For him, as an investment guru, everything, including politics, is transactional – i.e., you get something (the nomination) by paying something (pandering to the Trump crowd). What comes out is pure, unadulterated poppycock.

Have you heard Hugh Hewitt’s interview of Vivek from August 14, 2023 (transcript and audio below)? Vivek announced to the world a green light for Red Cina to invade Taiwan after 2028. You heard me right. Imitating his mentor (DJT) in the use of blunt and stark terms, no matter how asinine, he declared,

“I’m being very clear: Xi Jinping should not mess with Taiwan until we have achieved semiconductor independence, until the end of my first term when I will lead us there. And after that, our commitments to Taiwan, our commitments to be willing to go to military conflict, will change after that, because that’s rationally in our self-interest.”

Vivek Ramaswamy talk's Hugh about his new book "Capitalist Punishment." - The Hugh Hewitt Show

There you have it in Ramaswamy’s words: Don’t mess with us until after my term ends and we have transplanted Taiwan Semiconductor and/or a good portion of the world’s semiconductor industry to our shores within reach of our IRS, EPA, and our ascendant neo-Marxists. After that, Taiwan, my friend, you’re on your own. Done.

MAGA is thrilled because no more “forever wars”. A President Ramaswamy looks tough in announcing a four-year delayed abandonment in “Trumpian” words. Well, for Taiwan, starting in 2029, enjoy the Taipei May Day parades of the People’s Liberation Army.

When pressed by Hewitt about the astounding repercussions, Vivek began repeated non-clarifications with “Let me make myself perfectly clear.” Making oneself “perfectly clear” is a poker-tell that you’re not going to be clear. He continued to insist on sending a huge naval force to the area but backed away from the will to use it. What’s the point? Thugs need to face real threats, not an armada that would blithely move out of the way for the PLA’s amphibious and aerial assault. The will to use it must be conveyed along with the deployment of the Pacific Fleet. Without the will, it’s an empty bluff.

Vivek, try to be something more than talking like Trump while acting like Jimmy Carter, Obama, or Joe Biden. It isn’t a good look for you, nor is it good for the country.

I would say, “Thank God, this guy isn’t president”, but then I have to glance over at the current occupant. Whew, what a mess, what a choice. Sadly, for this investment exec, transactional thinking doesn’t necessarily incorporate strategic calculus, such as the loss of Taiwan producing a gaping hole in the first island chain for the burgeoning PLA Navy to flood the Pacific. Vivek will do nothing but reinforce among our allies our habit of abandonment when things get messy. Remember Vietnam, Bill Clinton’s 1990s dithering with Al-Qaeda, Obama’s Iraq pullout and red line in Syria, and Biden’s Afghanistan bugout? And now Taiwan?

Naval news and analysis: China caught between a green and a blue water navy

Our potential and current friends and allies will certainly remember. A lack of steadfastness and reliability won’t bode well for alliance-making. Who’d want to be our friend?

At that point, it will be America alone as the export part of our economy dries up in the face of a cordon of CCP satraps. If you think that Biden and company is making a hash of our way of life, wait for a President Ramaswamy and his 20-30% hit (value of our exports) to US GDP after his forced retreat to fortress America. We would be in Great Depression territory. Speaking of transactional thinking, Vivek’s pandering to the no-more-forever-wars constituency will have real world costs. We’ll quickly learn the value of alliances as we get crushed under a depression-ignited, debt-fueled, and bulging safety net.

Vivek’s foolishness can be chalked up to youthful rashness. What’s the excuse for the seasoned big wheels at Anheuser-Busch and Target? Or, are they “seasoned”, by whom, where? Who thought that a man (Dylan Mulvaney) trying to compete and look like a bulk of their customers’ wives and girlfriends would be a nice way to expand the Bud Light brand? Who thought that the family-friendly Target, with many a mother with children in tow, would be an excellent venue to advocate gender confusion and same-sex amory? It’s unfathomable.

At this time, Bud Light’s sales continue to plummet. They can’t give away the stuff. Whereas, at the beginning of the year, it ranked #1.

May be an image of 1 person and text — Alissa Heinerscheid, the Bud Light advertising exec behind the Dylan Mulvaney endorsement

The person most responsible for the debacle was Bug Light’s 39-year-old advertising exec Alissa Heinerscheid. Her classroom pedigree is impressive: Groton, Harvard, Wharton. But is such a distinguished pedigree a marker for success for the company and its products? We’re at a stage in our history when people need to question the idea that business acumen is a product of overhyped degrees from institutions who have been diminishing in excellence for years.

It probably never occurred to Alissa that expanding the brand in one direction could lead to lead to a dramatic contraction in another. This is a person who was marinated in a cocoon far removed from the lives of the people who buy the goods. She may know of the average Americans’ way of life, but it’s a kind of knowing absent the intimacy of actually having lived it. For her, “beer” meant European or craft. In her rarified social atmosphere, sex rebels are a cute social appurtenance; they’re kind of cool.

However, for the bulk of Bug Light’s consumers, it’s a movement to revolutionize their lives and expose their kids to emotional harm in their crucial developmental years. They want a beer to drink at the bar-be-cue not one that is curated to advance a disturbing cause. Who would have thought that in a week someone like Heinerscheid could turn a popular product into an icon of a left-wing cultural revolution? Bud Light’s sales have dropped for 17 straight weeks. “Expanding the brand” turned into subtracting the core, and out goes Alissa, and down goes Bud Light.

Target Stock Down After 1 Million Promise to Boycott - Family Policy Alliance

It’s a similar pattern with Target. Pride Month 2023 in June heralded a drop in sales which continues into the third quarter after the geniuses in the c-suite thought that it was a good idea to plaster the kids’ department in pride flags, introduce a line of “tuck friendly” girls’ swimsuits, and carry children’s products from Abprallen, famous for their Satanist line. What accounts for what can only be described as bizarre decisions? Like Bud Light and its determination to link with a TikTok “influencer” for transgenderism, these decisions arise out of people who were acculturated in a peculiar environment at odds to the life lived by most people who’ll never experience the Groton-to-Wharton social pipeline. The c-suite is simply out of touch, and grossly so. It’s as if they came from a different planet, and don’t realize it.

LGBTQ activists call for new strategies to promote equality after Target backlash — A Pride Month display at a Target store in Dickson City, Pa. (photo: Ted Shaffrey/AP)

May be an image of 3 people — Idealized Target board meeting from its website. They’ve certainly got the look of the ignorant and naive.

Both cases are abject lessons in how to clog the bankruptcy courts by making yourself detested. The quality and affordability of the good or service is made irrelevant. Simply seen walking from the parking lot into the store, or being seen with the blue can in your fridge, now could brand you as an endorser of extremist causes.

It’s more complicated than “go woke, go broke”. The turn-off won’t come from the Groton-to-Wharton crowd. Anyway, their Maserati won’t be seen in the parking lot or with a 12-pack in the passenger seat. More accurately, it’s “go woke and half the country will be suspicious of what you’re selling”.

Meanwhile, from the right comes the youngish business savant, anxious to be president, who is completely out of his league regarding foreign relations and national security, adding greater urgency to the possible uses of the phrase “idiot savant”. Along with much of the c-suite, their self-confidence is so grand that they will court disaster for all of us.

May be a doodle of text that says 'RANIPS Forget Cancel Culture, I think it' a sham I do not like it, Uncle Sam-I-am. Ignoring achievements in the name of the Woke, and cause more division with the fires they stoke. Take history out of context is now the new game. Not looking for justice, just someone to blame. Today, it's a book, so watch what you do. One day in the future, they may cancel you. @Ramireztoons michaelpramirez.com' — Michael Ramirez is great for a comical portrayal of our current condition. Could fear of being “cancelled” drive the corporate brain trust to endorse left-wing cultural causes?

RogerG

Read more here:

* Transcript and audio of High Hewitt’s complete 8/14/23 interview of Vivek Ramaswamy: “Vivek Ramaswamy On All Things National Security” at https://hughhewitt.com/vivek-ramaswamy-on-all-things-national-security?highlight=vivek%20ramaswamy

* “Who Will Heed the Lessons of Target and Bud Light?”, Jim Geraghty, National Review Online, 8/17/23, at https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/who-will-heed-the-lessons-of-target-and-bud-light/