Trump Does The Right Thing

And that happens to also be the smart thing. He's calling on the American people to resist the corrupt know-nothing tyranny of woke pseudo-science. He's also calling on Americans to stand up for their children, the country's future:

In doing so he's putting the GOP brand in play and staking his claim--on a matter of principle--to stand for the party. He's setting the MAGA GOP apart from and in opposition to the GOPe of Mitch McConnell, Mike Lee, and their ilk, who are for coercing Americans into line to participate in a dangerous experiment. It's a red line. The eyes of conservatives will be focused on which side of the line candidates stand.

A Counterpoint To Ray's Latest List

You can find Ray-SoCal's latest list here. As Ray explains:

I listed what the GOP should fight on.

My expectations are at best 2-3 will actually getting Gop support. Too many of the GOP leadership are happy with business as usual.

The joker in the deck is Trump.

Trump being ostracized by the elite has forced him to focus.

Overton Windows I expect Trump to move / shatter are:

- election fraud

- capital insurrection narrative - his question of who shot Ashli Babbitt is brilliant. 

- our system of justice is politicized

Trump is actually fighting back, which is rare in the gop.

At a state level there is lots of good pushback against the left’s efforts. Florida is leading this.

Don Surber offers his own view: No More Mr. Nice Trump. He begins with what amounts to a rebuke to the likes of Codevilla:

The Money Behind The Great Reset And The Deep State

Yesterday sundance did a terrific post, which I assume many have already read. If you haven't you need to:

BlackRock in The White House

I'm going to quote fairly freely from the post, but I'll just point out one thing up front. Well, two things.

1. I'm surprised that sundance didn't use his trademark line: There are trillions at stake. It's no exaggeration.

2. I'm also surprised that sundance didn't point out--something I'm sure he's aware of--the way in which all this money and stakeholding intersects with the US National Security establishment, i.e., the Deep State. Simply put, anyone rising up through the national security establishment--whether civilian or uniformed military (think Lloyd Austin as one currently prominent example out of many)--who wishes to become majorly wealthy needs to be approved by Blackrock (one of two such outfits, the other being Vanguard) for membership on corporate boards. Or for legal business. Etc. You get the idea. You'll see why I think this is worth mentioning.

So, with that in mind, sundance:

UPDATED: Briefly Noted: Joe Manchin's Role In The Senate

I counted at least three articles about Joe Manchin at Red State yesterday. However, the prize for hands down best would have to go to shipwreckedcrew's 

Democrat Self-Interest in Re-Election Overtakes Desire to Pass the Socialist-Progressive Legislative Agenda

SWC offers a lucid explanation for why the Left simply has zero leverage over Manchin--their childish attacks on him do Manchin nothing but good in West Virginia. If he hopes to live out his days as senator from West Virginia that's all that matters. Indeed, as SWC suggests, Manchin might be tempted to 

send a bus to pick up AOC, Rashida Talib [sic], and Cori Bush and bring them to Charleston and Wheeling to campaign against him.

However, SWC's main point, as we have also emphasized, is that Manchin's role is actually to be the front man for non-radical Left Dems. In other words, he fronts for several other senators (not just Kyrsten Sinema) with similar views. They're not all completely on the same page, but they're close enough that they'll hang together. Now that Diane Feinstein (a surprise) has come out, I count five--including, unsurprisingly, both AZ senators. Remember, there's an election audit going on in AZ, so any expectation of those two going out on a far Left wing is ridiculous. Neither are the ideologues that some other senators are, and there is the possibility of their elections being ruled invalid.

SWC goes on to point out why Schumer--just like McConnell--is highly unlikely to draw any hard and fast lines that exclude wayward Dems. With a 50-50 Senate he has to be concerned for maintaining even that precarious grasp on his position--not, as SWC says, paying "fealty to the nutjobs in the House."

Good News Today In Democrat Polling

I'm about to hit the road but I had to add this first: Do yourself a favor and read Monica Showalter today. Especially if you need a dose of optimism:

Democrats panic after internal poll shows Republicans sticking to Trump

The news is actually worse for Dems than the heading indicates. Showalter is largely quoting from a Washington Examiner article, so I'll add that quote. Dems had hoped that GOP infighting spurred by NeverTrumps would translate into voter apathy or lower turnout--but that's not happening:

Republican voters are united behind former President Donald Trump and enthusiastic about putting a check on President Joe Biden in 2022 as GOP infighting in Washington fails to translate outside the Beltway.

That is the conclusion of a fresh survey from veteran Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, who measured Republican voters’ fidelity to Trump and their intensity as it relates to participation in next year’s midterm elections. Greenberg discovered that three-quarters of the Republican electorate takes its cues from Trump and GOP voters overall are, by 11 percentage points, more interested in 2022 than Democrats.

The data defy initial assumptions that Trump’s dominance over party affairs post-presidency, and headline-grabbing disagreements about this among prominent Republicans in Washington, would be a drag on GOP prospects in the next round of federal elections. Greenberg says the dynamic could sink Democrats running in key contests for the House, Senate, and governorship — in several states.

In a memorandum outlining the poll’s findings, Greenberg wrote that his team was “surprised by how much Donald Trump’s loyalist party is totally consolidated at this early point in its 2022 voting and how engaged it is.”

"Initial assumptions"? By whom? By the same people who assumed Trump couldn't win in 2016? What's really driving this is that Americans know that Zhou didn't win, and Dems know Americans know that. That's behind how engaged voters are. Dems had counted on deflating what they thought had to be a Trump bubble. Turns out it wasn't a bubble--it was built on some basic conservative convictions that are antithetical to a Left agenda. These are "movement conservative" convictions. They're the convictions about what constitutes a good life for human thriving that Trump appealed to with so much success.

These polling conclusions, as we've been arguing, are what's behind the panicked moves by Dems. But panicked moves won't change the dynamics that are driving the voters. The voters are reacting to woke Leftism and authoritarianism, to the palpable hostility to and desire to stamp out normality in America.

ADDENDUM: In light of Greenfield's finding, how do you think the continued persecution of Trump is going to play out? Dems just can't help themselves.

SWC Dismisses The 'Criminal' Investigation Of Trump In NY

Yes of course it's political. Shipwreckedcrew sets this up nicely:

...

Former President Donald Trump is probably the most investigated individual of the last 100 years.  Yet he’s never been charged with any criminal offense.

He has employed attorneys and accountants for four decades in connection with dozens and dozens of business ventures and investments.  As is likely true of any closely held and family-run organization like Trump Inc., the organization’s state and federal tax returns have been the subject of scrutiny for decades.

No investigation has ever led to evidence deemed strong enough to indict him for a crime.

...

The kinds of allegations that have been floating around that might suggest some kind of financial irregularities in the business and accounting practices of Trump Inc. involve allegations of fluctuating values assigned to various properties depending on the use for which the valuation was needed.  ...

If claims like those are truly the centerpiece of the investigation now underway, I say “full steam ahead.”  Waste all the time and New York taxpayer money you can get away with. Trump Inc. will line up a dozen accountants and attorneys to explain exactly why the appraisals were perfectly appropriate and legal as to each purpose for which they were obtained.

...  At some point, the realization is going to set in and they will realize that the reason he has never been charged or prosecuted is that he always obtained legal and accounting advice, and he followed it.

Wake me when it’s over.

At some point, too, a critical mass of the American public will catch on to the Left. We know from Trump's numbers in the last election how many there already are. More will join.

Conrad Black's Tour de Force

Today Conrad Black has an outstanding take-down of the WSJ's foolish anti-Trump editorial (on Friday). The WSJ editorial is titled "The GOP's Trump Problem"--see, Trump is the problem. Black responds with some heavy artillery of his own:

The GOP’s Trump Solution

At some point, the former Republican establishment will have to familiarize itself with the consequences of being defeated by Donald Trump within its own party.

Black covers a lot of ground. I'll try to summarize the main points, while urging readers to follow the link--you won't regret it. Black talks turkey, explains the facts of political life in lucid terms.

Black's basic thesis is that the WSJ has things exactly backwards. Trump is not the problem for the GOP. Rather, the Never Trumps are the problem. Trump had a remarkably successful term, especially in light of the constant betrayals and the concerted Dem and Deep State assault on our constitutional order. The reality, contrary to the WSJ's view, is that Republicans want more of the Trump agenda--whether led by Trump himself or by a Trump approved proxy. In fact, the disastrous start and likely deepening national crisis we are experiencing under the Zhou Baiden regime (whoever or what cabal actually is pulling the strings) favor this solution for the GOP, in Black's view:

Two Recommended Reads: Election Aftermath And Insurrection--NOT!

Two good articles I wanted to point out. Nothing you won't have thought of yourself, but well expressed and worth a look.

First, Conrad Black--there's a lot of good stuff in this article, but here's a sample paragraph:

The Trump-Hate Coalition Is Crumbling

The wheels are coming off the rickety anti-Trump coalition in all four directions.

...

The FBI and senior echelons of the intelligence services were politically compromised, a massively illegal and fraudulent investigation of the elected president was conducted, two utterly spurious impeachment attempts were thrown at him and the coronavirus pandemic was invoked to produce the most seriously tainted presidential election result in the country’s history. The Supreme Court may have made the correct political decision when it declined to adjudicate the case, given how tempestuous the response would have been if it had overturned the result of the election, but it was still an abdication. They presumably acted as they did to assure that there would be no move to pack the court with Democrats, and they may now be in a position to reassert the Constitution as the controversies generated by the new administration percolate up to it.

It's optimistic, and maybe we need some of that.

Never Mind Waldo. Where's ...?

You have to admire Trump for saying this. Bluto Barr and Durham deserve it. What they did--or didn't do--is a disgrace and a slap in the face to all who love what America is supposed to stand for. The nation deserved better, and now deserves an apology and a full explanation. I don't care whether their apology comes before or after a collective apology from the SCOTUS. It seems there's no decency left:

Does This Remind You Of America?

Any time some major public project is completed anywhere in the world it's pretty standard to some sort of opening, or inauguration, or completion ceremony. So, you can imagine that when the worlds longest tunnel--57 kilometers long under the Swiss Alps, at a cost of 12.3 billion dollars--was officially opened back in the pre-Trump days of June, 2016, there was a major multinational ceremony, attended by multiple heads of state. In other words, the cream of our globalist elite showed up.

The obvious question arises: How would you celebrate the opening of the world's longest tunnel under a major mountain range? In the good old days of not so long ago, religious leaders would have been present to bless the project and offer thanks to God.

So it was only natural that these Globalist leaders would also celebrate the event with a religious ritual according to their own woke beliefs:

UPDATED: Must Read: Afghanistan Money Pit

That's a post by Don Surber. Do yourself a favor and read it: Afghanistan Money Pit. For four years Donald Trump tried to get us out of there--the resistance was ferocious. He did finally come up with a plan. But the resistance continues. As always, follow the money.

UPDATE: Totally unrelated, except that it's a Must Read:

Amazon Changes Its Brand New Logo, The Reason Why Reveals How Crazy Social Media Has Gotten

Here's the comment I REALLY liked:

When all you have is a hammer ... everything is literally Hitler.

The Global Threat

Yesterday we took a look at the way in which the Zhou Baiden regime is marshalling all the resources at its disposal to wage war against domestic enemies (We Will Crush You). Those resources include government resources--Congressional inquiries, prosecution through DoJ that will focus on conservative dissidents, and a purge of the military to ensure that our armed forces will be a loyal arm of the regime. The resources also include non-governmental entities that are being charged with the all important task of controlling the flow of information and of public discussion. After the fact government measures by means of law enforcement and prosecution working through the courts are too little and too late in the information war--non-governmental social media and tech companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Amazon can act more efficiently and flexibly without the delay involved with working through the courts. In that regard we quote Caitlin Johnstone regarding the Corporatist model of the regime:

In A Corporatist System Of Government, Corporate Censorship Is State Censorship

In all this we saw the consistent twin focus of the regime and its proxies, a focus that tells us that their immediate concerns are 

1) to safeguard instruments of social control represented by the Covid regime and its vaxxing campaign, and 

2) to safeguard the legitimacy of the regime by suppressing all questioning regarding Election 2020.

 

It's worthwhile to turn to anti-war activist Johnstone's prescient 2018 article for a reminder of how this works and, especially, for the role of the Deep State:

UPDATED: Michael van der Veen Speaks--And How!

Perhaps many readers have already seen this CBS interview with Trump attorney Michael van der Veen. He doesn't give an inch to the liberal reporter, and when she attempts to diminish the significance of the House Dems falsifying evidence in a Senate trial, he totally unloads on her. I like the touch at the end when he identifies himself as "citizen"--watch for that. 

You may, like me, find his talk of "Left and Right" finding a "middle" to be hopelessly naive, but for the rest his righteous outrage was refreshing:

Trump defense attorney Michael van der Veen speaks with @LanaZak after the Senate's acquittal vote: "What happened at the Capitol on January 6 is absolutely horrific. But what happened at the Capitol during this trial was not too far away from that."

Watch the full interview: pic.twitter.com/ndjBZzJgNZ

— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 13, 2021

UPDATE: I'm not sure, but when van der Veen says that there were other examples of House Dem misconduct he may have been referring to the Raskin statements about Beutler's claims re the McCarthy phone call with POTUS. Jonathan Turley points out that Raskin claimed the Beutler statements were breaking news from "last night" that couldn't have been presented at the trial during the past few days. In fact, of course, Beutler's statement had been known for weeks:

The statement quoted Beutler as saying that she had previously discussed the call in public. Keep in mind Raskin just claimed that this was new evidence from “last night” and  the Senate needed to call witnesses on this “additional critical piece of corroborating evidence."

 

News Flash: All Publicity Is Good Publicity

As expected, the Senate's attempt at a show trial has turned into a low kind of political farce, but even at that it's a failure. There's no drama and no humor, so what's the point? There's not even any real interest for armchair legal analysts. The only question that offers something remotely like suspense is whether Schumer will be able to hold the Dems together in a block. Lindsey Graham says the whole thing is an insult and that any movement is in favor of Trump. 

Improbable as this may seem, it really does appear that the Dems, in their Ahab like obsession to cancel "Moby" Trump thought keeping Trump before the public eye by making fools of themselves was somehow a good idea. Mark Levin captures the spectacle exactly:

“First of all, we are watching one of the stupidest events by some of the stupidest people in American history, ...”

That seems pretty inarguable. And Levin sums up by explaining why this non-event is so lacking in interest:

UPDATED: Now That Faux Impeachment Is Over ...

Well it is over, right? It was over once Rand Paul forced a vote, and today's vote confirms the one thing necessary: There's no way that the 44 senators who (correctly and righteously) voted that this proceeding is an unconstitutional farce will then somehow vote to convict. Not gonna happen, never was gonna happen. Meanwhile, Trump remains as popular as ever.

Which brings us to the really interesting question: What's next?

CTH has a very good post on this topic. Sundance starts out by hitting on the fact that the Left--in this case, Politico--is slowly coming to the realization that Trump really is teflon coated. The faux impeachment will only harden the resolve of Trump's 75 million supporters. Can the Dems say that about Zhou Baiden or anyone else they care to bring forward? The spectacle of a political show trial in a capital city under military occupation to protect the coupsters will ultimately not be lost on Americans.

So, again: What's next?

Sundance focuses on the possibility of a third party, noting that "Trump’s MAGA army is the ultimate political splitter party." How so? Here's how:

A Fascinating Historical Analogy For This Faux Impeachment

Big H/T to Don Surber, who came up with the article that sketches out a fascinating and instructive historical analogy for the continuing constitutional hoax being perpetrated in the Imperial City on the Potomac, under the occupation of the New Army of the Potomac. We'll get to that shortly, but first I intend to quote a few passages from two other articles that address this hoax briefly but succinctly.

First of all, Jordan Davidson at The Federalist sketches out the most important element of the reply brief that Trump's attorneys have filed today--Trump Legal Team Decries Democrats’ ‘Outlandish’ Impeachment As Unconstitutional ‘Political Theater’. As we'll see, the lack of a legal or even a constitutional basis for this proceeding in the Senate plays into the historical analogy. Here is a passage toward the end of the article that sketches this out:

UPDATED: The State Of The Classes

Rather than go over the sad state of the political order again, I though today would be a suitable time to reprise the sad state of the middle class. Yesterday Charles Hugh Smith had an informative blog republished at Zerohedge, and the title tells the whole story. It's not what you'd call news, but the reminder is sometimes necessary:

The Top 10% Is Doing Just Fine, The Middle Class Is Dying On The Vine

Before presenting Smith's data, which is contained in six graphs, here's another reminder. As Smith is well aware, the hollowing out of our industrial base in favor of a financialization of the economy--with the concommitant progressive engorgement of the left/progressive rentier class at the expense of the middle class--has been ongoing since the Reagan years. However, the transformation of the rentier class into what is increasingly a class of speculators is another aspect of this process that has exacerbated all the worst tendencies Smith will document. This part of the transformation has been brought about by repeated bailouts of Big Finance--definitely not your local banks. Beginning in the Clinton years there have been three bailouts, with the most recent having become an ongoing underwriting of Wall St. by the political class--the Uniparty--which relies on Big Finance for campaign funding. Trump, of course, with his fund raising base comprised of the "little people", was a threat to this order that had to be squelched. And was.

So, with that in mind, consider Smith's presentation of the demise of the middle class, crushed by the "elite" rentier class. Smith characterizes this process as the decapitalization of the middle class--the increasing inability of the middle class to accumulate capital. Smith explains this process at some length, so be sure to follow the link for a full explanation. This will help to understand what's behind the GameStop dustup and the rentier class's reaction to it. It will also outline the challenges lying ahead for the Zhou Baiden regime as it caters to the interests of the rentier class as, protected by the New Army of the Potomac, they seek to complete the process of strip mining the middle class. The Big Question, of course, is: When will push come to shove?

In the meantime, as we await events in the real time of history, here are the results of the process Smith describes, in six graphs.

BRIEFLY NOTED: Matt Braynard Is Still On The Case

I hadn't thought of Matt Braynard and his work on the Big Steal for a while. But last night he appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room, which was picked up by TGP (I watched it there). You can watch EP 669 here (Blogger doesn't allow me to embed it, as far as I can figure out--Rumble, not Youtube). Braynard doesn't come on until about the 43 minute mark.

As I said, it turns out that Braynard is still on the Big Steal case and claims to have made enough progress at this point to come to some definite conclusions. You may recall that Braynard has been investigating election fraud in Election 2020, but strictly from a very traditional perspective. In other words, he's been coming through for-pay databases and public records to winkle out data on things like double voting, out of state voting, dead people voting, non-voters voting--the whole panoply of Dem election fraud practices. He doesn't go into the details with Bannon but he does state his conclusions (so far): There is excellent, strong evidence that Trump carried AZ, GA, and WI and, therefore, won the presidential election. In Braynard's own words:

What I’m finding and continuing to find, because we’re actually still doing research, and we’re looking forward to presenting it more aggressively without the constraints of the lawsuits we were entangled with initially, is that among those three states, the number of illegal ballots surpassed the margin of victory. Georgia, Wisconsin, and Arizona, without those three, Joe Biden isn’t president – and I think we can prove that fairly conclusively.

I was going to write a bit more on this topic, but Andrea Widburg at AmThinker has picked up on pretty much the same angle as I did (A data maven says fraud affected the election outcome). Here's why Braynard's work may turn out to be far more important going forward than many cynics might imagine.

The Internal GOP Struggle Intensifies

With the forces of Big Tech and Media behind them--as well as those of the Army of the Potomac still present in the Imperial City--the Zhou Baiden regime is seeking to persuade We The People of its legitimacy. It remains hampered in that regard by the fact that it dare not put its figurehead--Zhou Baiden himself--forward in public to do the job of persuasion. That would, in the American tradition, entail responding to random questioning in a free wheeling press conference environment--a non-starter for Zhou.

The GOPe has stepped forward, however. Mitch McConnell may have suffered a significant setback in the Senate vote regarding impeachment, triggered by Rand Paul, but he hasn't given up the NeverTrump cause. Within the Senate itself, while McConnell has had to deal with public warnings from established senators who are not normally aligned with Rand Paul--Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson, for example--he has other tools for control. It appears that Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz--certainly among the most politically ambitious as well as (objectively speaking) intellectually accomplished Republican senators--have been sidelined, at least for a time, by an ethics complaint based on their objections to some of the electors (really). I don't claim to understand Senate rules but, until persuaded otherwise, my working assumption will be that the ethics complaint has McConnell's blessing, even if it was brought by Democrat senators.

In the meantime, McConnell is also providing aid and comfort to the Zhou Baiden both in his Senate role as well as by interfering in internal House matters. To all appearances, McConnell is attempting to establish himself--if not as actual head of the Republican party, then--as at least the senior or elder statesman for all Republicans. Again, I have a working assumption, and that is that McConnell is attempting to leverage his Big Money campaign finance contacts to muscle recalcitrant Republicans. No doubt he is acting at the behest of major donors and the Bushie wing of the Establishment. The outcome is no foregone conclusion--Trump has changed much in the political landscape.

In what follows, I've selected a list of headlines--several of them drawn from Liz Shield's Morning Greatness for today, with added comments. The overall thrust is the attempt to understand who the players in this high stakes contest are and where the battle lines are drawn.

First, let's start with a broad brush type of article, and I'll select just a few passages to place the political warfare in DC within its proper Globalist context:

Good Read On the Mitch - Trump Feud

I'm always cautious with Michael Snyder, but this is an interesting read on an important topic. My working assumption is that, whatever personal animus and political convictions Mitch may have brought to his feud with Trump, there were moneyed interests behind him pushing him. See what you think. One thing is for sure, by now Trump knows who his enemies are. This is a small part of a considerably longer article, so check it out:

Why Mitch McConnell Backed Away From Trying To Convict Trump

Mitch McConnell really wanted to convict Donald Trump and ban him from ever running for office again, but he was forced to back off.  In fact, he just voted for a motion that declared that convicting Trump at this point would be unconstitutional.  That represents a stunning reversal by McConnell, because earlier this month he was telling other Republicans that he wanted Trump gone.  Putting the pieces together, it appears that McConnell really did try to get to 67 votes so that Trump would be convicted, but political reality forced him to back down in a major way.  Now a weakened McConnell will try to move forward as the minority leader in the Senate, and the future of his political career is very much in doubt.