Tea and Vitriol

Ahh, Christmas is upon us. The season of peace and good will towards men. Which, of course, is a lovely fairy tale with no basis in reality. Particularly in Ukraine, where the war keeps dragging on, despite US President Donald Trump's campaign promise that he could end the war in one day. The Donald, once inaugurated for his second term as president, didn't. And couldn't. When push comes to shove, the Donald is basically an elitist who likes to play with the "Big Boys" among political and business leaders. It is only with lesser and weaker people does he feel confident to throw his considerable weight around. It's only with countries like Venezuela that he can afford to threaten to make war. Such is the typical behavior of bullies, which is why Hsi and Putin laugh at The Donald's bluster and are not particularly frightened of him. In fact, it is The Donald's peculiar bromance with Putin, to wean him away from Hsi, that has become a source of hilarity a...

Well, there goes the neighborhood! President Trump received the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman at the White House. It was a public relations attempt to rebuild the Crown Prince's sordid reputation and tarnished image. By seeking the approval of the most powerful man in the world, our own president, it was thought that the Crown Prince would gain respectability in the eyes of the world. Because the Crown Prince was not only notorious as a wife beater but as a murderer as well, having ordered the execution of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Khashoggi had fled Saudi Arabia in fear of his life and was then living in Istanbul, Turkey. That was a rather odd choice, since the Turkish President Erdogan is no fan of dissident journalist criticizing HIS regime and usually jails them. The Saudi Crown Prince thereupon ordered a fifteen-man Saudi hit squad to execute Khashoggi by luring him to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, then dismembering his body, pa...

And lo, there shall be an ending...to the US Government shutdown! At least this time. As of tonight, the longest shutdown in US history, 43 days, came to a close in the House of Representatives. The vote was purely along party lines, with the Democrats voting against reopening the government. As the Republicans have a slight majority in the House, its passage was a foregone conclusion. It was the Senate that had been the problem for the last forty-three days. While the Republicans hold a majority there, it was not enough to pass the bill to reopen the government and then to send it onto the House. The Democrats shot down the bill 14 times. As a result, federal aid to SNAP and WIC were curtailed and federal employees were either furloughed or working without pay. Airline Controllers were working extra shifts to keep air traffic flowing, but many of them stopped showing up for work, which has resulted in a total disruption of flight schedules across the country, with delays or downright ...

"Witch?" Clearly, I misspelt the word I intended to use. Today, Nancy Pelosi, Democratic "Hag Supreme" of the United States House of Representatives announced that she would not run for re-election in 2026! Older than Methusaleh, Pelosi was the first woman Speaker of the House and was in Congress for decades. Forty years, although it seems like hundreds! She and her husband were able to leverage her position in government and connections into acquiring a personal fortune worth several hundred million dollars, which is not bad considering her relatively modest annual salary as a Congresswoman. In that, Pelosi and her husband are no different from other shady politicians, notably the Clinton, Schumer and Biden Crime Families, all of whom owe their wealth to insider trading and influence peddling with both US allies and enemies alike. No politician I ever knew left office poorer than they were when they went in. In fact, while the government shutdown continues and fede...

Yawn.  Another election is over and the results have been completely underwhelming. When the smoke cleared. the battle lines remained pretty much the same as before.  Democrats and Republicans kept pretty much what they already had and made no real inroads into the other's territory. America is just as divided and polarized as it has been for years and that is really not going to change any time soon. While this was an off-year election, featuring local, parochial issues, President Donald Trump endorsed several Republican candidates, especially in the Democrat-dominated states of Virginia and New Jersey. They both lost, illustrating The Donald's impotence and lack of influence in purely local elections. This was especially evident in the race for New York City mayor. The Donald bluntly despised the candidacy of far-left leaning Democrat Zohran Mamdani, labeling him a Communist and an illegal alien, threatening to halt all federal aid to New York City if he were elected. The th...

 Yawn. The far left woke progressives are at it again. They're revolting. They certainly are. And they are protesting across America. Again. This can be quite amusing if it weren't for the huge amounts of litter they leave in their wake, which they regard as collateral damage for bringing their "message" to the people. And maybe getting interviewed by the local liberal news media. And their "message?" Why, that legally elected President Donald Trump is acting like a king. Or a dictator. Or a tyrant. Because they don't agree with his policies or actions. What they have failed to realize is that the majority of American DO agree with The Donald's actions, or at least some of them, and the protesters are only attracting others of their far left woke progressive ilk. True, several million protesters all across America are expected to participate in what I can only describe as romantic self-indulgence, perpetrated only to impress themselves with the numbe...

 Kamelhead Harris has written a book? Supposedly. She is claiming authorship of "107 Days," recalling her extremely brief campaign for the presidency of the United States AFTER senile horse's ass Sloppy Joe Biden was pressured into abandoning his re-election campaign. That occurred only because of his incredibly piss poor showing during his internationally televised debate with The Donald . If any thinking individuals had any doubts about Sloppy Joe's competence before, that one debate effectively ended them. So, without a primary, a need to save face and to prove that they had faith in their DEI hire for the 2020 presidential race, the Democratic National Committee shoved Kamelhead into the presidential candidate slot. Kamelhead's campaign until the election lasted 107 days, hence the title of "her" book. Which most people doubt that she had written herself. She is now touring America to promote "her" book and making the liberal talk-show cir...

One definition of stupidity is "To repeat the same failed actions numerous times but expecting a different and successful result this time." The European Commission's head honcho and tough titty Ursula von der Leyen announced yesterday that she was imposing a 19th package of sanctions against Putin's Russia. This is supposed to somehow help to end Russia's war of aggression in the Ukraine. And the previous 18 package of sanctions against Putin's Russia? What did they accomplish? Why, absolutely nothing. Putin is winning the war in Ukraine. He has been unimpressed by the babbling of western European "democracies" since he forcibly annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and despite all 18 ensuing packages of sanctions, the European Union STILL does business with Russia, either directly or in a roundabout way. For that matter, so does the United States. So, what will the 19th package of sanctions do to hurt Russia? Why, absolutely nothing. And that is the...

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is effectively dead. Conceived to prevent further Soviet expansion in Europe and bankrolled largely by the United States, it was merely a paper tiger and rarely effective anywhere. It took NATO a good long time to counter Serbia's genocide against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo at the turn of the 21st century, while it ignored Serbia's similar attempts at genocide against Muslims in Bosnia Herzegovina (ethnic cleansing) just a few years earlier. Go figure. One can argue that neither case involved states or territories that were part of NATO, yet NATO ignored the one case but involved itself in the second. Which, quite frankly, could provide NATO with an excuse to intervene in Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. If they had the balls to. Which they don't. Then, after 9-11 in the US, then President George W. Bush called upon NATO to make war against the terrorists based in Afghanistan who perpetrated that outrage. The result wa...

First of all, The Donald never solved any wars that he has taken credit for, which doesn't stop him from repeating that lie. Perhaps he hopes that if he repeats it enough it will become fact. We know that he is a narcissistic megalomaniac and a blowhard, ready to speak his mind in season and out, refusing to be influenced by the facts. Which means that he is delusional as well. Secondly, while he can bully weaker countries (most larger states do, whether or not you care to admit that), he has run into brick walls with China , India , Brazil and now Venezuela , who are not cowed by The Donald's tariff antics and saber-rattling. India, in particular, has faced The Donald's wrath for NOT bowing down to his demand that they cease purchasing Russian oil . They have been offended by The Donald's statement that India is responsible for the war in Ukraine by buying Russian oil and therefore keeping Russia's economy able to continue its military campaign. Never mind the fa...

It is the stuff of which high farce is made. One week ago, The Donald met with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. The purpose was to discuss Putin's war against Ukraine. Apart from Putin reiterating his demands for ending the war for the umpteenth time in public, on American soil, it accomplished nothing more than providing a photo op. So, death and destruction in Ukraine will continue. While The Donald hailed this meeting as "successful," "10 out of 10," all it did was show the world who the more powerful leader was. It wasn't The Donald. Then, heady with failure, The Donald got on the phone with Ukraine's Zelenskyy and summoned him to Washington DC in two days, informing him to wear a suit this time. The Donald and his cronies made much of the fact that Zelenskyy didn't wear a suit at the February ambush and sent Zelenskyy packing for not being suitably grateful or humble enough for previous US aid. Zelenskyy was also able to bring s...

The much-anticipated meeting between The Donald of the United States and Russia's president Vladimir Putin finally occurred yesterday. In Alaska , of all places. Alaska originally belonged to the Russian Empire , which sold it to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million. Two years ago, after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine , Putin demanded that the United States return Alaska to Russia, which even then-President, Sloppy Joe Biden, wasn't senile enough to consider. While the incredibly stupid Sarah Palin really COULDN'T see Russia from her house, Russia is only 52 miles across the Bering Strait from Alaska. That was the reason Alaska was chosen to be the site of this historic meeting between two of the three most powerful men in the world. Only China's Xi  wasn't there to make up a threesome and a circle jerk, which is just as well, because the whole thing turned out to be a lot of nothing. Bupkis. The other reason that Alaska was chosen to be the...

Controversial Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley announced her resignation earlier this week. It will take effect on August 31, so she has another three weeks to milk to office for all that it's worth. Monroe County NY includes the dying City of Rochester. In a rather mawkishly sentimental statement, she announced that, at 62, it was time for her to ride off into the sunset. Many people would argue that she should have left a long time ago. But, at 62, with 33 years in the DA's Office, and 13 of them as its head honcho, she will be able to collect a healthy pension in full. Monroe County's first female District Attorney is most famous for offering "The Deal," by which violent criminals and white-collar felons are allowed to plead down to lesser charges for reduced sentences. This allowed her to clear her books and state that "Justice has been done." Only it hasn't been. One example consists of a young man who intentionally murdered and se...

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is a liar. A big one. Even among politicians, that is quite a remarkable feat. Most people living in so-called "democracies," especially the western ones, have grown accustomed to usual political lying, especially during election years when grandiose promises are made to sway voters and keep themselves in office. Sadly, both the voters and the politicians know that the vast majority, if not all, of the promises the political candidates make will not be kept. Once elected, these politicians feel that they have a right to steal, that they can make any statement no matter how untrue, dare anyone to question them and ultimately threaten anyone who calls them out on their lies. One need only to look at the actions of Russia's Putin and Turkey's Erdogan enforcing their displeasure against any and all who oppose them or dispute their narratives On local, more parochial levels, one doesn't have to look further than their own...

The European Union, at first glance, appears to be a powerful geo-political entity. Composed of most of the "democracies" of the Western European continent, including the economic powerhouse of Germany, it has tried to pose as one of the world's superpowers. Only it isn't. Comprised of frequently quarreling member states, possessed of a complicated and cumbersome constitutional framework that reveals its impotence daily in the European Parliament, its much-touted successes have always been dependent on the military might of the United States to protect it from itself and the threats to it posed by Russia and her allies. NATO was supposed to act as a deterrent to Russian aggression, at which it has failed repeatedly. Despite all of its economic and industrial potential, the European Union really only ranks as a second-rate power, although it has postured as something far greater. Until yesterday. European Union President Ursula von der Leyen surrendered unconditionally...