Posse Incitatus

Confirmed: James Comey is a lying, sanctimonious prick

Thursday’s release of the IG report on James Comey’s misbehavior was both significant but also oversold.

Comey likely violated criminal statutes but did so in ways that can be credibly defended in court.  It makes sense that he wasn’t charged at this time.

Of far greater long-term significance was the information revealed throughout the document, specifically how Comey deliberately set a trap for President Trump and that it was Andrew McCabe of all people who reported him to the Inspector General.

This proves two crucial things.

1. There was a conspiracy.  It can no longer be denied that Trump was being set up and Comey was documenting the process for his masters in the Deep State.  

2. There is no love lost between the conspirators.  They will not hesitate to turn on each other to save themselves and already have.

I know a number of people are upset that charges haven’t been filed and see this as a sign that nothing will change and no punishment will be meted out.

That may well be the case, but nothing that has happened supports that view.  All of the offenses to this point have been minor ones and the decision not to prosecute now – while the investigation is still ongoing – says nothing about a decision to prosecute later, when the scope of the criminal enterprise is known.

And no, I don’t buy into the “Huber will come” mentality, rather I look at the facts as I see them and extrapolate based on normal procedures.

As Scott Adams likes to say, two movies are playing right now.

On Screen One, we have the “black pill” version where the Swamp gets away scot free because the FBI and DoJ is completely corrupt.

On Screen Two, which is the one I’m watching, the movie is about the meticulous and painstaking gathering of irrefutable evidence so that when the moment comes, the guilty will have no option other than trying to plea bargain.

The thing is, the two movies look a lot like each other, and only real difference is that the second movie has a long (and satisfying) second act.

So far, nothing has happened to rule it out, which is why I remain unconvinced that it isn’t going to happen.

The Broken Promises of Technology

A coworker recently posited an interesting observation: Nuclear power and information technology have something in common: Both have failed to deliver on the promises they made to simplify things and reduce costs.

Let's start with IT, then get into nuclear power... Some of the promises of computers, printers, networks and the Internet have been fulfilled. We no longer have to employ secretaries to prepare correspondence on typewriters using carbon paper and correction ribbons; manila folders and file cabinets have been reduced in number; Google has put an end to laying bulky reference books on Xerox machines in an attempt to copy a few pages for a term paper... All well and good.

But look at the morass that computer networks, servers, routers, modems and PCs have become -- worsened by email viruses, hacking and all manner of malware. A whole industry of IT professionals, security software developers, code writers and patches has sprung up. The legal field has become a major player, due to privacy issues, laws pertaining to e-commerce, records archiving, computer forensics, and other areas. As IT has become more complex, it has added to our burdens, not reduced them. But we're highly reliant upon it now; it's intertwined with the way we do business and conduct our affairs. There's no going back to simpler times.

Turning to nuclear power, which showed so much promise 40 years ago, this form of energy has been bogged down in bureaucracy, legal wrangling, politics and stifling regulations. It may never live up to its promise of delivering unlimited, cheap electricity. Anti-nuclear activists have managed to throw up ample roadblocks and scare the public with exaggerations about nuclear fission being dangerous, and about huge amounts of radioactive nuclear waste lying around for 10,000 years.

The public is highly ignorant (shocking!) about nuclear power's advantages. It produces no greenhouse gases, and uses up far less land than wind turbines and solar panels. It also doesn't kill thousands of birds. Horrible memories of Chernobyl (including an entertaining, albeit historically inaccurate mini-series recently debuting on HBO) scare the willies out of the uninformed. The type of reactor used at Chernobyl has never been used in the United States, and the safeguards we have in place would never permit such an accident to occur.

The redundancies and precautions built into our nuclear power plants are lightyears ahead of what the Soviets had, and it is sheer ignorance to think a nuclear reactor could blow up like a nuclear bomb. The latter requires precise engineering of physical and chemical properties -- a configuration, if you will. Expecting a nuclear reactor to blow up like a bomb would be like tossing strawberries, flour, sugar and vegetable oil into a pot and expecting to make chili. Ain't gonna happen.

Forty years ago, all the rage was talk of nuclear fusion, a different process for power production that is still largely theoretical. But we still are probably many years away from this becoming a reality. For the time being, it's nuclear fission we'll have to deal with.

Interestingly, some climate change activists are actually giving nuclear power a second look. It used to be that liberals and progressives were solidly united against nuclear power. But their irrational obsession with fossil fuels and global warming (and possibly nagging doubts that wind and solar power are a panacea), have them thinking that maybe nukes ain't so bad, after all.

Production techniques and technology have improved immensely in the past 30-40 years. If only a more uniform approach to design, construction, operation and regulations could take root, and the swamp of litigation and regulatory hell would cease to exist.  But given the radioactive politics (sorry, couldn't resist) of the day, and government's propensity to grow and become more bureaucratic and inefficient, I don't hold out hope for such an approach.

Ah, the best-laid plans of mice & men...

The CNN Clown Show Continues

It would take all night to provide an extensive list of worthless, corrupt and compromised hacks CNN has trotted out as "Reliable Sources" -- individuals who are supposedly insightful and add something meaningful to the dialogue. In recent weeks I've mentioned sleazy slip-n-fall lawyer Michael Avenatti (now up to his eyeballs in legal trouble) and his client, former porn star Stormy Daniels (ordered to pay President Trump $293,000 for attorney fees). Several months ago, these two were on CNN for hours each day. Why, some idiots were even suggesting Avenatti might be a viable presidential candidate! Mind blowing stupidity!

Then a few days ago, CNN took up with former White House Communication Director (for 11 days) Anthony Scaramucci, frequently having him on as a former Trump administration who has turned on his old boss. Odd bedfellows, indeed.

And now the latest: CNN has hired the disgraced Andrew McCabe, who was fired as deputy director of the FBI for lying to FBI and Department of Justice officials over information he leaked to the press. He may well be indicted. But in the meantime, he's drawing a paycheck from this garbage network.

A couple days ago, one of the most abysmal dullards on TV, CNN's Brian Stelter (Mark Levin calls him "Helter-Stelter") went on a clownish rant about how President Trump is mentally ill and unstable, it's getting worse, and we really need to do something about it. Stelter had on as a guest Allen Frances, a former Duke University psychiatrist who said, "Trump is as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin and Mao were in the last century. He may be responsible for many more million deaths than they were." The useless hack Stelter didn't bat an eyelash. He let Frances ramble on without ever challenging him. Unreal.

Well, maybe it's not so unbelievable when you consider that Frances wrote a book a couple years ago -- "Twilight of American Sanity" -- that asserts those who voted for Trump are crazy to put someone like that in office. Yep: 63 million people are crazy. That explains it. Case closed.

Dr. Frances' unhinged thinking is just what CNN wants to push out to the few dupes who are actually watching this pathetic drivel.

As CNN's ratings continue to tank, its schtick becomes more and more outlandish. If this keeps up, there won't be any need whatsoever for Saturday Night Live parodies. People will be laughing out loud at CNN, if they aren't already. It's not Trump or its voters who need professional help. It's CNN's staff and management.

The Art of Trade Wars

It's not easy being patient and focusing on the long-term --  I mean LONG-term, as in decades or centuries. But that's what China has been doing for centuries, and what it keeps doing despite our current era of 24/7 news updates, social media hyperactivity and viral videos making the rounds. There seems to be an insatiable "I WANT IT NOW" mentality among millions of people in America and across the globe.

President Trump has been using tariffs as a blunt cudgel to crack down on China for its long-time trade abuses, including currency manipulation, heavy-handed tariffs against our products, and intellectual property theft. But in the United States, short-term pain inflicted for uncertain long-term results causes the media and the president's critics to go ballistic with angst, panic and harsh criticism.

The nonstop opinion polls, and the media's tendency to blow them out of proportion, have painted the president's re-election prospects as growing worse by the day. We know the Trumpster himself is famously impatient, so let's hope he sticks to his guns with China.

The Chinese economy is hurting, as many companies have been fleeing for Vietnam and other countries to escape U.S. tariffs. The country's Producer Price Index turned negative for the first time in three years, and its rate of economic growth is the slowest since the early 1990s. At the same time, dozens of American companies are pulling their production out of China.

Make no mistake, China is hurting, and its people are growing restive. While President Xi Jinping may wish to play the long game as his nation has traditionally done, he also recognizes his future may be in doubt. Think about this: Trump could lose the 2020 election if Americans get fed up with the higher prices and pain inflicted on farmers (among other producers) and vote to oust him. But Xi could literally lose his life.

Xi may be calculating that the tariffs will so harm Trump's prospects, a Democrat will be elected in November 2020, and once that person is in power, all of the tariffs against China will be undone (soon enough for Xi to be taken off the hot-seat). But again, Xi and his family could face personal catastrophe if conditions continue to deteriorate and Trump ends up being re-elected.

At this point, it's way too late for Trump to back out. To do so would shatter his credibility, and erase any prospects for achieving a fair and productive trade agreement with China. I believe Orange Julius WILL stick to his guns, and some kind of win-win trade agreement will be signed in the next few months. This will cause the stock market to roar, and vastly improve Trump's re-election prospects.

Something tells me (just a hunch) that Trump will once again make the mainstream media parrots look foolish and force them to eat many of their gloom-n-doom predictions for the U.S. economy.

At the risk of straying into cliché-land, a few chapters of The Art of War seem to apply to the next several months:

• Tactical Dispositions
• Variation of Tactics
• Classification of Terrain, and
• Use of Spies.

May you live in interesting times, indeed.

Molotov-Ribbentrop at 80: The concentrated essence of unprincipled leftism

Today marks the 80^th anniversary of the infamous Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, which sealed the fate of Poland and set the stage for World War II.

The alliance was purely tactical for both parties.  Joseph Stalin wanted to push his frontier further west and gain hegemony over western Poland, parts of Finland and the Baltic States.  Adolf Hitler wanted to avoid a second front during his ongoing showdown with the western Allies.

After years of heated vitriol, both totalitarian states turned on a dime, going from hating one another to proclaiming the wisdom of rapprochement so they could fight the true common enemy, western liberal democracy and capitalism.

The alliance was the basis for George Orwell’s famous formulation that “We’ve always been at war with Eastasia,” reflecting the ease with which the propagandists did a complete reversal on the Nazi-Soviet relationship and then reversed themselves again when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941.

The crucial lesson of this anniversary is that the left is utterly without principle.  It has but one goal: total, unbridled power.

This is how people who claim to worry about carbon emissions fly around on private jets and live lavish lifestyles while hectoring poor people to give up hamburgers.

It is how we must “believe all women” - unless they are accusing Bill Clinton.

Barack Obama and Eric Holder are free to call for more gun control even though it was their policy not to prosecute gun law violations.

The means are irrelevant to these people and even their goals are negotiable because all that matters is power for its own sake.  Arguably, they don’t have a clear vision of what they will do with it, other than enjoy its free and easy exercise.

Oh, and crush their enemies utterly.  That part at least is known.

This is why the best analogy to the contemporary US is not its previous civil war, but rather then one in Spain from 1936 to 1939.  Then as now, a major part of the divide was between the right – who respected institutions and culture – and the left, which respecting nothing but its quest for power.

The Spanish “Republic” was nothing of the sort, and it leaders were quite willing to rule by decree and use political assassinations and militias to achieve their goals.

Far from being a true Popular Front, the government was bitterly divided between Socialists, Communists and Anarchists, with only the common enemy of traditional Spanish culture and the Catholic Church holding them together.

What made the war inevitable, with the Popular Front’s abuse of power and its seeming pleasure in flaunting it.  Here we see a clear parallel with the left’s treatment of Antifa.  Just as in Spain, law enforcement has zero interest in breaking up the terrorist organization and instead blames their atrocities on their victims.

All of this has the effect of radicalizing the middle class, which is the crucial precondition for civil war.

The left seems convinced that this won’t happen, or that if it does, they will win easily.  The Popular Front felt the same way and it didn’t work out well for them.

Spain was the first time fascists and communists clashed militarily, with the Soviet Union backing the Republic while Germany and Italy sided with the insurgent Nationalists.

It was billed by both sides as an existential struggle and yet no sooner had the Spanish war drawn to a close than Hitler and Stalin were able to forge their infamous pact.

Because the pursuit of power demanded it and both Stalin and Hitler were leftists in every sense.

Today should be a reminder that the left is implacable, knowing no decent limits and eager to make a deal with anyone and everything to achieve power.

Full Frontal Nudity

I'm going to use a crude analogy to describe today's mainstream media (led by the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN/MSNBC): Full-frontal nudity. As in, we've gone WAY beyond the 1950s when bikinis were considered risqué, and the 1960s and 1970s when simply topless models or actresses were cutting edge. Nope, we long ago launched into "lettin' it all hang out" mode. Take it all off; showcase the goods. Frequently, close up, and from every possible angle.

When it comes to reporting, writing, and editing, there can be no "fairness" or objectivity with regard to the devil incarnate, Donald Trump. Destroy him! Never stop demonizing him, until your last breath!

Let's start with the New York Times, whose inglorious history includes denying the Holocaust was happening.... while it was happening; a paper that employs Jew-hating journalists such as editorial writer Sarah Jeong and Senior Staff Editor Tom Wright-Piersanti, both of whom have sent out many anti-Semitic tweets.

Recently, NY Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet told his employees that the paper had "built our newsroom to cover one story, and we did it truly well." He was referring to the Russian collusion hoax. But now, Baquet, said, it was time to take up the mantle for a new narrative: RACISM! The meeting was secretly recorded and leaked to the press.

Baquet boasted how well the Old Gray Lady covered the Russian collusion story: "We won two Pulitzer Prizes covering that story. And I think we covered that story better than anybody else." A reasonable person would ask, "Is that really something to brag about? That you spent a ton of money and devoted thousands of journalism hours to covering a hoax? And you are proud that your cronies in the corrupt field of journalism gave you awards?" Incredible.

"I think that we've got to change," Baquet said. The Times must "write more deeply about the country, race, and other divisions." Okay; exchange one form of advocacy for another. I see. The paper recently announced that it's embarking on something it calls the "1619 Project," which posits that, since that year marked the beginning of the importation of Caribbean and African slaves into North America, that's really the year the United States was founded.

Never mind the early influence of the Spanish, the French and Indian Wars, Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War. And disregard that not everyone supported slavery. Let's just make something up that suits our agenda. That's the way to go!

The Times also demonstrated shortly after the El Paso and Dayton shootings that it can easily be bullied by left wingers. A headline in the print edition reporting on a speech President Trump gave the Monday after the shootings initially read, "Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism." The left-wing mobs on Twitter, Facebook and CNN/MSNBC went ballistic, putting so much heat on the Times editors, the paper quickly changed the web headline to "Assailing Hate But Not Guns." 

So leftists lead the NY Times around by the nose? No surprise there. But let's give credit where credit is due: The Times did write some critical stories about Hillary's emails, home brew server, and the Clinton Foundation slush fund. Oh, but that was so 2016. It seems the paper has gone full-frontal nudity with its activism.

Folks at the Washington Post, a 24/7 Trump bashing machine kept afloat by Jeff Bezos' deep pockets, are probably saying, "Welcome to the party. What took you so long?"

Ditto for abysmal CNN and kooky MSNBC, both of which have been left-wing cheerleaders for so long, there's almost an entire generation that doesn't have a clue CNN used to be considered a respected news organization.

The mindset among leftist "journalists" is that theirs is a higher cause, a moral crusade. That Donald Trump is evil incarnate, and they ought to stop at nothing to smear him day and night. Kind of like the porno nymphomaniacs. The two have something else in common: They're mentally ill, and will never find satisfaction and never get relief from an obsessive desire that consumes them.

Just let it all hang out; that's what the people expect. And sadly, there are plenty of wealthy leftists that will subsidize this crap indefinitely. These biased so-called news organizations could not survive without the progressive teat from which they suck day after day, week after week, year after year.

Two things will never run out: The multi-millions of dollars leftist benefactors have to burn as they seek total power and domination; and the hatred and disdain these vicious people have for conservatives.

There's Something Happening Here...

There's something happening here; what it is ain't exactly clear...

Those are words from a legendary Vietnam era protest song ("For What It's Worth") by Buffalo Springfield, a 1960s group featuring Neil Young and Stephen Stills before they were together in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

I sense that sentiment applies to the American political landscape today, more than a half-century after Stills penned those lyrics.

What is happening on the political landscape? Well, several things. Developments that seem to bode well for President Trump winning a resounding re-election victory in November 2020.

I believe one key development is that skepticism toward and contempt for the corrupt news media is absolutely off the charts. One telltale sign was when the kooky conspiracy theory hucksters of CNN and MSNBC suddenly saw their ratings plummet after their savior, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, let them down by not charging Trump with Russian collusion.

Even the liberals, the ones who eagerly ate up the 24/7 Trump bashing and Russian collusion bunk for two years (Traitor! Treason! Putin's puppet! Lock him up!) have largely lost faith in the prime time clown shows and their rabid chorus of left-wing parrots.

Is it any wonder, when CNN continues to embarrass itself by trotting out half-baked crackpots, lowlifes and knaves? A few months ago, it was porn star Stormy Daniels and her sleazy LOYA Michael Avenatti. Just a few days ago, CNN latched onto one of the biggest jokes of all time: Failed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted all of 11 days on the job. (Maybe he, not CNN reporter Chris Cuomo, ought to be known as "Fredo.")

I had to laugh when I came across an item about Scaramucci, who's had a major falling out with his former boss, strategizing with the pathetic Bill Kristol about ways to keep Trump off the 2020 ticket. Sad! But also kind of funny in a sardonic way. This is about like a former Wall Street high roller living in a tent at the KOA campground and celebrating that he just won $20 from an instant lottery ticket by picking up a 30-pack of Natural Light. "Hey! BIlly K's stoppin' by, and we's gonna play some cards. Wanna join us?"

A few other developments are scattered around and not always front-and-center, but clearly show that cracks are developing in the progressive porcelain:

• A recent Twitter video went viral showing a black woman denouncing a city council in California for its sanctuary city policies. She complained about working Americans busting their asses to make a living while local and state government roll out the red carpet for illegal aliens. She also noted the double standard with how law enforcement treats suspected criminals: The authorities throw the book at many black suspects (especially those who already have a criminal record), but coddle illegal immigrant criminals and avoid reporting them to federal authorities.
• USA Today, normally a reliably liberal rag, published a scathing opinion piece about the Southern Poverty Law Center. The headline referred to this fraud group as "a hate-based scam." Amen! Sometimes liberal fallacies become so egregious, even the left-wing press must cover them.
• City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, ran a recent story titled, "The Rainbow Coalition Evaporates," which contains interviews with black residents of South Central Los Angeles who are furious that local officials and the Congressional Black Caucus have greased the skids for illegal immigrants who are bringing gangs and crime to their neighborhoods and displacing blacks whose families have lived in South Central neighborhoods for generations. Not to mention taking jobs and probably driving down wages.
• It comes as no surprise, then, that recent polls of blacks and Hispanics about Donald Trump show his support growing among both groups: 28% of African Americans and 49% of Hispanics at least somewhat approve of the president, according to a recent Zogby poll. This has to do as much with the abysmal slate of Democrat presidential candidates as with Trump's policies and actions.
• Recent news accounts on the Left Coast have reported that Trump supporters are coming out of the closet in deep blue cities such as Seattle, and are not afraid to let it be known publicly that they're donating toward the re-election of Orange Julius. One of them is high profile billionaire real estate developer Martin Selig. The Seattle Times reports that, in Washington state, Trump has racked up more in donations than the top six Democrats combined. Do tell.

And finally, even this interesting development:

Perpetually smug and sneering liberal talk show host Bill Maher took a potshot at Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida tlaib for their support of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against Israel. Check out this blistering critique by Mr. Maher:

“BDS is a bullshit purity test by people who want to appear woke but actually slept through history class. It’s predicated on this notion—I think it’s very shallow thinking—that the Jews in Israel are mostly white and the Palestinians are browner, so they must be innocent and correct, and the Jews must be wrong.

“As if the occupation came right out of the blue, that this completely peaceful people found themselves occupied,” he continued. “Forget about the intifadas and the suicide bombings and the rockets and how many wars.”

YEAH! Kudos to Bill Maher. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day! 

There's something happening here. What it is may not be entirely clear, but it's becoming more apparent as the Squad and extremist Democrat presidential candidates continue to dig their grave deeper and deeper with virulent anti-semitism, advocacy of free healthcare for illegal immigrants, open borders, Nazi-like gun control proposals, and break-the-bank giveaway schemes ranging from free college tuition to forgiveness of all student loan debt.

Oh, and did I mention that Democrats and their media stooges are openly hoping for a recession and trying to bring it about by blowing out of proportion absurd things like the inverted yield curve as sure telltale signs that bad economic times will soon be upon us?

I've long said that many of the factions making up the Democrat coalition will turn on each other. They have already begun doing so. And it becomes more obvious by the day that this toxic and cancerous political party is rooting against America. It only promises to get worse.

 

Woodstock + 50

A few weeks ago, I commented on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Another significant event that occurred that fateful Summer of 1969 was the Woodstock music festival in upstate New York.

I thought the recent PBS documentary was somewhat interesting and entertaining, but missed the mark on a few things and failed to address some ironies that pour cold water on the hackneyed cliches such as that Woodstock "defined a generation."

A few comments:

• The media for many years has tried to portray the throngs of young people as solidly leftist, counterculture, anti-Vietnam War radicals. But the truth is, many of them were there just for the party -- the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. Truth be told, they weren't all that interested in the issues of the day, other than perhaps wearing peace sign necklaces or driving VW buses decked out in flowers and peace signs. Understandable for kids in their late teens to mid-20s.
• The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age to 18. The leftist presidential candidate George McGovern and his team thought surely that would be a big shot in the arm for his campaign, but they were dead wrong. Nixon and McGovern roughly split the 18-21 vote, and Nixon went on to win by the largest popular margin in presidential history.
• Women's liberation was taking off in the 1960s, and women became more militant about supporting each other and pushing back against "male chauvinist pigs." Activists such as Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan were gaining traction. But they didn't have much clout with Woodstock, which featured mostly male performers and was organized and run by virtually all males.
• Respect for women's rights and dignity surely took a back seat during the three-day slop-fest and orgy. Although sexual assault didn't get as much attention in those days, there's no question a lot of young women must have been violated during the wild event. However, even if the victims had reported what happened, it would have been near impossible to bring charges against alleged perpetrators due to the sheer size and chaos of the concert and the fact potential witnesses were mostly under the influence of drugs and / or alcohol.  
• For all of the talk about Mother Earth and the importance of the environment (the first Earth Day took place in April 1970, less than a year after Woodstock), the concertgoers really trashed the environment with plenty of outdoor No. 1 & No. 2 due to the shortage of bathrooms, and an ungodly amount of trash left behind after the hordes finally left Max Yasgur's farm. In fairness, the organizers never dreamed the turnout would be nearly as large as it was. But in an era that preceded social media by 35 years, word spread like wildfire. Imagine today's shit-show should someone try to organize such a mega-event, with the inevitable social media explosion overwhelming organizers in short order.
• For lovers of classic rock, there certainly were some iconic moments, such as Joe Cocker's famous rendition of The Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends" and Jimi Hendrix' guitar solo of the Star Spangled Banner, during which he manipulated the fretboard and milked the feedback to mimic the "bombs bursting in air," and plenty of other popular performers, including Janis Joplin, Santana, The Who, the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
• The reality is that such a mammoth show could never take place today. (An effort to organize a 50th year anniversary show recently fizzled out.) For starters, the price of paying big name performers would dwarf expected ticket and TV revenue; a boatload of permits and legal wranglings would precede assembling such an enormous crowd spread over a huge tract of land; construction costs would be considerable for restrooms, concession stands, and other infrastructure; security and other overhead costs would be exorbitant; and the liability costs plus opposition from environmental groups would probably pose major roadblocks. On top of all of that, you can bet local and state governing bodies would throw up roadblocks and be looking for their piece of the pie. There's also the possibility of court injunctions. Things just are a  hell of a lot more complicated these days.

Woodstock was definitely a one-off. It's an interesting footnote in history for those who enjoy monitoring the culture or dabbling in nostalgia. But the reality is, despite being significant as far as its entertainment value, it really was not a game changer in terms of its influence on our culture.

Hong Kong Dilemma

For all of the hyperventilating about Russia the past few years, it is China that poses a much greater threat to the United States -- militarily, economically and technologically. (The dunderheads of the mainstream media aren't bright enough to realize this, but maybe they'll get a clue in the next few years. We can always hope.)

In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of young Hong Kong residents have been demonstrating and packing the city's airport because of real and perceived threats to their freedom. Several months ago, Hong Kong's government announced support for an extradition policy that would allow local authorities to detain and extradite people who are wanted in territories that Hong Kong does not have extradition agreements with, including mainland China and Taiwan. 

The other day, during one of those impromptu interviews President Trump likes to engage in between the White House and his Marine One helicopter, Orange Julius proclaimed it's up to China and Hong Kong to resolve their issues. He's definitely backed away from supporting the Hong Kong protesters' demands for permanent independence from the People's Republic of China. 

The Trumpster does not want to see another Tiananmen Square-style crackdown, but he also fears angering and alienating Chinese President Xi JinPing, due to the delicacy of negotiations over a trade agreement and the pain tariffs are inflicting on American farmers and other industries.

This is a fine line the president walks. My only wish is that he would refrain from heaping praise on President Xi -- the type of flattery he has given repeatedly to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Xi, like Kim, is a ruthless autocrat, and while it's okay to be respectful and businesslike, the Trumpster must guard against feeding his rabid critics with more fodder by dishing out unwarranted extolment. It is, as the vernacular goes, a bad look.

Why Context Matters

For years, I have shaken my head or rolled my eyes whenever I'd see shallow and callow news reporters regurgitating unvetted talking points or the findings of some vaunted study, with no analysis and no effort to engage in critical thinking

Context means everything, and while it is common for politicians or others who regret having said something imprudent to a reporter to complain, "I was quoted out of context," often that's a bastardization of the word, and a cheap excuse to boot.

I've thought about context in many realms, from sports to science to economics to presidential campaigning. It's important everywhere.

Nearly 20 years ago, the University of Indiana Hoosiers football team had a dynamo, do-everything quarterback named Antwaan Randle El whom I and many others thought was the most gifted and dynamic college football player in the land. There's only one problem: He played for a lousy team. So when it came time for the Heisman Trophy voting (some call it the "HYPE-man" trophy), he finished no higher than sixth place in his senior season.

It seems that the glamor teams, the ones that have winning reputations, almost always produce Heisman winners. But think about this: Context plays a double role here: 1) Randle El played for an off-the-beaten path program in the Midwest, for a school that is known for basketball but not football, and still managed to garner lots of praise and attention; and 2) Because his surrounding cast -- offensive linemen, receivers, running backs, were not as talented as the teammates of the other Heisman contenders, this makes his achievements all the more remarkable.

We've seen this dynamic play out in sports all of the time. A football coach or baseball manager seems like a world beater because he keeps going to the playoffs and Super Bowl or World Series. But then he signs a multi-million dollar contract with a mediocre or bad team full of average or lousy players, and his stellar win-loss record dive bombs into the toilet.

Now an abrupt switch to economics... News organizations often like to run line graphs or bar graphs juxtaposing annual budget deficits to which political party was in the White House (especially if they can make the Democrat presidents look good and the Republicans look bad). Now, this is preposterously simple-minded. Anyone with basic knowledge of government knows that spending bills originate in the U.S. House, and which party controls Congress has a huge bearing on how large deficits are or how well the economy is faring. Just today, I saw a headline on Marketwatch.com about historical stock market performance measured against which party occupies the White House. Superficial analysis once again.

The last example of context malfeasance is regarding many of the statements and tweets of President Donald Trump. But without question, Trump's distorted positions on the issues or race relations have much more to do with deliberate butchering of context by left-wing reporters with an agenda, than with laziness or carelessness.

Our horrendous and compromised media is often on as low a level as the cretin politicians it covers. In recent days, a couple of Democrat presidential candidates went around spouting off that this is the five-year anniversary of a white cop (Darren Wilson) "murdering" an unarmed black man (Michael Brown) in Ferguson, Mo. The "hands-up / don't shoot" narrative was used in Ferguson, and it was also a blatant lie. If the media had a shred of self-respect, it would call out Elizabeth Warren, Kamela Harris and others who perpetuate the lie that Brown's death was simply a case of a white racist killing  black man in cold blood.

Good God, even the Eric Holder Department of Justice investigated the case and found that Officer Wilson was within his rights to shoot Brown, who was resisting arrest and attempting to steal Wilson's gun. A grand jury had earlier refused to indict Wilson. But don't let the facts get in the way of some good demagoguery!

Joe Biden, Robert Francis O'Rourke (I refuse to use the phony Hispanic nickname) and others continue to quote a small portion of what Trump said following the Charlottesville, Va., clash between Antifa thugs and neo-Nazi / Klan thugs in a constant effort to portray him as a racist. Trump was defending the rights of honorable Americans who are not racists but object to tearing down historical monuments and banishing confederate flags as nothing more than virtue signaling and a foolish effort to scrub ugly history from the record.

"There were fine people on both sides," Trump said, and that is certainly true. There are many white conservatives who hold no ill will toward black people, and reject the left's heavy-handed effort to tear down monuments and statues (while virtually ignoring the real plagues to black Americans -- drugs, gangs, failed schools dominated by self-serving teachers' unions, wretched housing projects and fatherless homes). Many of these law abiding white people showed up in Charlottesville to defend the historical monuments, unaware that they'd be caught up in an ugly, violent scene.

There are also liberals and progressives that may not be my cup of tea, but I highly doubt they want to participate in violence. Often, they do right by their families and communities. It would be idiotic and hypocritical of me to paint them all with a broad brush and accuse them of supporting violence. But that's the kind of crude reductionist B.S. that passes for commentary and analysis in 2019.

The election is rapidly developing into a shit-show, just as many of us predicted. And we're still nearly 15 months out. The Republican spinmeisters, who have been so utterly inept in the past, frequently leaving low hanging fruit unpicked, had better get off their dead butts and earn their keep. It's disgraceful that they cannot counter the utter bull crap the Democrats are throwing against the wall. A third grader could do better!