Tea and Vitriol

The liberal news media in the United States had a field day this weekend. Apparently, there was no other news that they chose to devote much copy to. The fringe element in US society chose to protest the Trump Administration. There were protests across America, planned in advance and not exactly spontaneous. The slogan the protesters used, among others, was "Hands off our rights." My hometown, the dying city of Rochester, New York, had its protests, too. The local news media reported that thousands of people had congregated in Cobbs Hill Park for the protest. Looking at the photos and videos of the event, that number was more likely in the hundreds. The upper hundreds, to be sure, but not as massive as they liked to claim. They also claimed that there were thousands of people protesting in the Town and Village of Livonia, a suburb of Rochester. The total population of that town and village is slightly over 7,000 souls. Hmmm... Was anyone staying at home in Livonia? And, of co...

For the last few days, US President Donald Trump has been hinting rather broadly that he might serve for a third term as president. When questioned about this and told that it would be impossible because the 22nd amendment limits the presidency to two terms only, President Trump replied that such things could be managed. He was not specific about HOW such things might be managed, because it would be unconstitutional, and therefore illegal for him to attempt a third presidential campaign. To overturn the 22nd amendment would require a two-thirds majority in BOTH the House and the Senate in support of such a measure. The Republicans simply do not have those numbers in Congress and doubtless will lose seats in both Houses during the mid-term elections next year. So that legal route to scrap presidential term limits is closed. It is particularly ironic since the 22nd amendment limiting presidential term limits was the product of the Republican Party itself, to prevent a repetition of Democ...

Watching the leaders of the European Union and their associates scamper to organize ways to protect themselves in the wake of US President Donald Trump's deserting them would almost be amusing if the consequences weren't so catastrophic. As stated in previous blogs, the success of the European Union has always been predicated upon one thing: The USA. It was American money, war materiel and men that allowed for the EU's prosperity and quick expansion into the Eastern European states that were once part of the Soviet bloc. Similarly, those states were quickly admitted into NATO, the military alliance originally created to protect its member state from Soviet aggression. It gave the EU a false sense of security and the belief that the US would always provide support for them almost unquestioned. Given this mindset, the EU never imagined that they would have to protect themselves, hence their lack of coordination among its individual states' military and a complete lack of ...

Conflicts are never solved of their own accord.  They are usually settled by the stronger powers and their settlements are imposed on the smaller or weaker powers. That is the norm in history, and it will be no different regarding settling the war between Ukraine and Russia. US President Donald Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to begin "negotiations" regarding a peace settlement for Russia's war against Ukraine. Neither the European Union nor Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were informed beforehand. Neither was the United Kingdom. So much for the much touted (by the UK, anyway) "Special Relationship" between the US and they. They were informed of the phone call after the fact and erupted with righteous indignation. They all expected to be part of the so-called "peace process" and have seats at the negotiating table. They were all bypassed and were not invited. The negotiations began this week in Saudi Arabia, which is...

  It looks like Canada's prime minister, pretty boy Justin Trudeau, is having a hissy fit.  The poster boy for woke progressive liberalism's failures, he was mocked by US President Trump, who suggested that he could become "governor" when Canada became the 51st state! Despite superficial outward appearances and similarities, Canada IS very different from the United States, politically, socially and economically. Those facts have been overlooked by President Trump, and despite his bombastic rhetoric on the subject, Canada would simply not fit in well with the United States as a constituent part. The political structure of Canada resembles the European parliamentary models, and it would be a complicated procedure to revamp them to fit the US's internal political structure. There are also the problems of French-speaking Quebec and the autonomous native Canadian territories to consider. President Trump's euphoria over his re-election perhaps caused him to ignore t...

  Woke progressive liberals the world over had a hissy fit when Donald Trump won a second, non-consecutive term as President of the United States.  It was not because he is a megalomaniacal, crude, rude and abrasive loudmouth. President Trump IS all of those things, but he is first and foremost an American, and proud of it. That's what bothers our erstwhile friends and foes alike. President Trump has campaigned on promoting a protectionist "America First" policy, which is a slap in the face of the globalists who were hoping for a continuation of the political, social and economic perversion of Bidenism under Sloppy Joe's brainless second banana, Kamelhead Harris. They were counting on the US piggy bank to be forever open for them upon demand, never mind the disastrous effects such "charity" was having on the American economy. Trump's "second coming" spelled an end to that, much to their displeasure and to that of well-meaning but sadly ignorant...

Every year on February 2 in America, Americans worship marmots. Marmots are called groundhogs or woodchucks here. They are supposedly imbued with the mystical ability to predict an early end to winter. If a groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, winter ends sooner. The news media makes much ado about this bit of folklore, posting film crews outside of various groundhog's lairs, trying to lure them out of hibernation to record whether or not they see their shadows. This act of animal abuse has made several American marmots famous, like Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania. Outside of providing Americans with a bit of fun during the winter, whether or not a groundhog sees its shadow has no effect on the weather whatsoever. Most thinking people don't take it seriously. Some Americans, however, DO believe in the efficacy of the groundhogs' predictions. It's nice to see that those Americans believe in something, especially after the woke prog...