Trump Should Bring a Constitutional Gun to the Senate / Swamp Knife Fight

From the moment of Joe Biden’s coup d'état “victory,” in 2020, Democrats, who had spent years telling everyone our elections were vulnerable to manipulation, suddenly began telling us it was the most secure election in American history. 

Not long after the inauguration, adding insult to injury, Molly Ball wrote a long piece in TIME describing all of the maneuvers and manipulations Democrats had used to steal the election, and their preparations for “protests” – read violence – if their coup didn’t succeed.  But it did, and they were, gloating about it. 

Since that time, we’ve all come to see exactly what happened, much of it described in Mollie Hemingway’s bible on the coup:  Rigged.  We’ve read the Twitter files, we listened to Zuckerberg on Rogan, and watched Mike Benz on Tucker, not to mention the yeoman’s work done by Jeff Fulgman on investigating the blatant fraud in Georgia, one of the swing states that was awarded to Biden.

Mad doesn’t begin to express the rage inspired by watching them shred the Constitution and the Republic for four years, trying to kill the golden goose that has produced more prosperity and more freedom for more people around the world than any nation in human history.

But now, after Donald Trump won a second term, perhaps a different perspective is necessary. One of gratitude…

Why gratitude? Clarity. Because of the Democrat’s unprecedented malevolence Trump has an opportunity like no other president, ever.  He knows more than any politician in our history exactly what his enemies are willing to do to stop him. We’ve watched it play out over 8 years and now he’s in a position to do something about it. Almost…

Despite Democrat fraud that stole GOP Senate seats in AZ, MI, NV and WI, Trump still finds himself with a GOP Senate. That body, ostensibly controlled by Republicans, is as much of a swamp as anything you’ll find anywhere in the Democrat party. The majority recently elected RINO John Thune as their leader.  What’s more, the outgoing leader, the anti-Trump Mitch McConnell has just announced he’ll be chairing the powerful Rules Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.  At the same time, on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the single most powerful chairmanship in the Senate will be occupied by the virulently anti-Trump RINO Susan Collins of Maine. None of that bodes well for the MAGA agenda.

Trump, however, doesn’t have to acquiesce to RINOs derailing of his agenda. Why? Because he has a not-so-secret weapon: JD Vance. Trump should tell Vance that his sole job for the next four years is to exercise his constitutional role as President of the Senate and preside over the body, something vice presidents regularly did until the 1950’s.  Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the Constitution says:  The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

While casting the deciding vote when the Senate is tied is something he’s likely to be called upon for, there’s much more that he could do. The Constitution itself says practically nothing about how the Senate should be run.  It talks about voting and quorums, passing of laws and more, but virtually nothing about what goes on in the Senate procedurally.  As such, most of what they do is done because… that’s how they’ve always done it, or at least for a while. Some of the procedures were voted on by members while others were put in place by leaders. As an example, the leader of the majority is the most powerful person in the Senate because he has the first right of recognition by the chair: “This perception is based on his ability to make motions to proceed to legislation and nominations…” That “right” didn’t exist for the first 150 years of the Republic until it was created by Vice President Cactus Jack Garner while presiding over the Senate in 1937.

And this is where President Trump needs to utilize Vance. According to the Senate’s website:  “The Senate is governed by the Constitution, a set of standing rules, precedents established in the course of the legislative process, and special rules of procedure adopted by statute for particular types of legislation.” Rules are created and voted upon by the Senators themselves, and unlike in the House, the rules apply from one Congress to the next.  As such, those would be difficult to change without a rock solid majority, something the President sadly doesn’t have.

But precedents are something altogether different.  Here’s the thing, as we saw with Plessy and Roe being overturned at the Supreme Court, precedents are precedents… until they’re not. And there are a lot of them: 1,600 pages worth! 

At a minimum, Vance should eliminate Garner’s rule about the right of first recognition. From that point forward, he is free to guide the proceedings by calling upon whoever he chooses. Beyond that, Vance should scrutinize the Senate’s 1,600 pages of precedents and figure out which ones can be used to help support the president’s agenda, potentially as they may impact committee assignments, and adjust them accordingly. 

But “Wait!” you say, “That’s not the way that’s supposed to work!” Well, it is true that the Senate was specifically crafted to balance the passions of the masses as represented in the House and to a lesser degree the White House. That however was when States were considered equal partners in our federal system of government and appointed Senators.  But of course, the leftists eviscerated the original intent of that body with the 17^th Amendment and as a result the Senate has become simply a more entrenched version of the House.  If therefore, a cabal of geriatric swamp loving RINOs wants to try and shanghai the president’s mandate because the closeness of the balance in the chamber gives them the opportunity to do so, Trump should, paraphrasing Sean Connery in The Untouchables, bring a Constitutional gun to their knife fight and keep them from doing so.

To those who cry that if we do it, they’ll do it later, I say, so be it. The reality is, Democrats don’t need this in order to try and destroy the Republic.  They nuked the filibuster, which went back to our Founding Fathers, they were prepared to add Puerto Rico and DC as states to permanently alter the balance in the Senate, to pack the Supreme Court to turn it into a progressive rubber stamp and they imported 30 million illegals in order to control the House. The Democrats don’t need precedent to do anything. They do what they want, period. 

The fact is the swamp is an existential threat to freedom, prosperity and the Republic. Donald Trump must take advantage of this moment and the powers the Constitution provides to eviscerate it, now. If he doesn’t do it now, when the winds of change are so strong and America’s desires so clear, it will never happen.  He should not let a handful of geriatric RINOs stand in the way of exorcising the bureaucratic cancer of the swamp that menaces American citizens and ravages America’s prosperity. If he allows them to prevail it will be a betrayal of the nation and he will go down as the greatest disappointment in American history. 

A Senate of Benedict Arnolds...

Benedict Arnold was a well-respected and courageous officer in the American Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He fought in half a dozen battles and was central to winning the critical Battle of Saratoga in 1777, where he suffered a leg injury that sidelined him for the next two years.

They say that idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and that appears to apply to legs as well. Over the next two years, Arnold’s inherent victim complex blossomed. Others were, he suggested, getting credit for his actions or getting promoted when he deserved such.

In 1779, Arnold would take a step that would change his life: He married Peggy Shippen, a member of a powerful loyalist family in Philadelphia. Eventually, his jealousy would get the best of him, and he contracted to betray the Americans. By at least as early as July of that year, he was giving the British information on American troop strengths, movements, and munition locations.

George Washington knew none of this and trusted Arnold and put him in charge of West Point in August 1780. One of the most important posts in the country, it was the spot from which the Americans commanded the Hudson River. Less than two weeks after receiving his command, Arnold agreed to a plan, in exchange for $20,000 ($3,500,000 today), to surrender the post to the British in September.

The surrender never occurred, however, because Arnold’s British contact, Major John André, was captured along with the plans for the betrayal. André was hanged, and Arnold escaped to join the British. The British immediately commissioned him as a brigadier general in their army, but most soldiers considered him dishonorable, and many refused to follow him.

Following the war, Arnold would spend most of the rest of his life in London, where the king liked him, but many British citizens and military men despised him. In America, his name has become synonymous with treachery.

Although Arnold’s ultimate plan never came to fruition, had it done so, it could have changed the outcome of the war. Washington said of the plan that “Such an event must have given the American cause a dangerous, if not a fatal wound.”

And that is the crux of why betrayal is so dangerous. It’s one thing to understand that your enemy seeks your destruction. It’s another thing altogether when one of your own, one upon whom you’re counting on to man the ramparts, turns and lets the enemy in. It might not be fatal to your endeavor, but it could be and most certainly will endanger the mission.

Sylvester Stallone recently called Donald Trump the new George Washington. That’s not quite true, but like Washington, Trump is trying to carve out of an enemy-infested wilderness a great nation seeking freedom and prosperity. Also, like Washington, Trump is faced with numerous people who are theoretically on his side while, in reality, aligning with the enemy.

And who is this enemy? The Swamp. The Borg. Basically, the government that controls virtually every element of American life, from baby formula to school curriculum to college funding to healthcare to retirement, not to mention banking and justice and speech…if you object.

Ostensibly, Trump should have a mandate given that he won the popular vote and the Electoral College, gave the GOP a Senate majority, and kept the majority in the House. The first test of that mandate came recently and it didn’t go particularly well.

In the Senate, with Mitch McConnell leaving his leadership role, there were three competitors to replace him: Rick Scott of Florida, John Thune of South Dakota, and John Cornyn of Texas. Hardcore MAGA firebrand Mike Lee or bomb-thrower Rand Paul weren’t even considered. Of the three considered, two are virtual Democrats, with the Conservative Review giving Cornyn a Liberty Score of 54% and Thune an abysmal 51%, while Scott scored a respectable 86%.

Both Cornyn and Thune are, at their core anti-Trump, while Scott has been a staunch supporter of the president. Thune, who said after January 6, “What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable,” is seen as K Street’s favorite and endorsed Tim Scott in the GOP primary. In 2016, the immigration dove and gun control fan Cornyn ridiculed Trump’s border wall, was booed at the Texas GOP convention in 2022, and, in 2023 said Trump couldn’t win as his time had passed.

In a shameful last act, McConnell set a secret vote, and Thune came out on top. The fact that the Senate GOP dispatched an aggressively MAGA leader and instead elected someone who’s basically a Democrat tells you that Senate GOPers don’t care about what the American people are looking for.

What’s more, at the same time, in a closely split Senate, Trump’s pick for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz withdrew after it became clear there would not be 50 Republicans to confirmed. 

The Swamp, of course, is not just the Senate. With Trump’s picks of Pete Hegseth for Defense, RFK Jr. for HHS, Tuli Gabbard for DNI, and Tom Homan as Border Czar, larger Washington is reacting with horror and fear. Employees at HHS are threatening to quit, Justice Department lawyers are lawyering up and “freaking out“ while DoD employees are “alarmed“ and governors are promising not to assist in deportations.

But those fears, which are exactly what are necessary to begin trimming the bloat from government, only exist because of Trump’s picks, and those picks (and Trump) will only succeed if the Senate approves his nominees. And that’s a problem.

During his first term, Trump’s picks were approved at a rate far slower than Obama’s or Bush’s. With a McConnell clone running the Senate, there’s concern of a repeat. While the Senate is by design supposed to be a check on the tyranny of the masses, it’s rare that a president must battle his own party to do his job.

Obama had a similar mandate in 2008, and Democrats gave him everything he wanted and more. But Democrats are a core part of the Swamp while Trump is seeking to battle it.

And there’s the rub…

Democrats are the Swamp, and so too is the bureaucracy. But sadly, much of the GOP is, as well.

Trump has his work cut out for him in this uphill battle he’s taken on. But if there’s anything to be gleaned from his picks so far, it’s that, unlike in 2016, this time he knows what he’s up against and is planning to take the fight to the Swamp with bare fists and brass knuckles if necessary, and it will be.

If Trump continues to assemble a team more interested in solving America’s problems than in being feted by the elites, he just might triumph over the Benedict Arnolds who populate the establishment GOP, those whose primary goal in life seems to be to go along to get along, accumulating ever more power and money along the way.

 

Prosperity is the Best Revenge...

Now that that’s settled… From an historical perspective there’s some virtue in killing all of your enemies.  Julius Caesar didn’t and was killed almost immediately after having himself declared dictator for life. 

In 49 BC dictator meant something different than it does today.  Dictator was an honorable, temporary position that was only implemented when the Republic faced some dire or existential threat that required a firm hand to fix. Although vested with almost absolute power, a dictator would often be appointed for a finite period of time, perhaps 6 months, to deal with the problem and then would go back to being whatever he was before, a senator, a general, a citizen, whatever.  Caesar’s problem was he had kept extending his dictatorship until he had himself declared dictator for life. A month later he was killed by senators, some of whom were his friends, including, famously, Brutus.

His reign stands in stark contrast to that of his adopted son, Caesar Augustus. Augustus reigned for 41 years (the longest of any emperor), ruled over a relatively peaceful period of consolidation and prosperity and set the stage for the Romans to remake the western world, saying: “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” While speaking literally about the city, he was also metaphorically speaking about the Empire, having prepared the way for its long life.

The difference between Caesar and Augustus?  Augustus killed all of his enemies when consolidating power. By the time he took absolute control over the Republic and transformed it into the Empire, he had no enemies left, or at least none who were willing to stick their necks out to challenge him. Unlike most Emperors, Augustus died of old age…

As appealing as killing all of his enemies might sound in an historical perspective, I would advise Donald Trump to avoid doing so today. Some reasons are obvious, like the fact that Augustus didn’t have to deal with a hostile media and the army of lemmings who follow it. A more substantial reason is that again, unlike Rome, might does not make right, we have laws and traditions and morals that prohibit doing so.  But more persuasively is the simple fact that it’s unnecessary.

Augustus isn’t known as Rome’s greatest emperor because he killed all his enemies… no, he’s known as Rome’s greatest emperor because he laid the foundations for a relative peace and prosperity throughout the Roman world for two centuries.  Donald Trump can do the same in America without killing his enemies.

Last week I gave a list of 10 somewhat high level things Trump should do immediately upon taking office.  These included sealing the border, deporting illegal aliens and cleaning house in the justice / military departments.  Here I’ll suggest two specific things Trump can do that will set America up to prosper, and do so without rivers of blood.

First Trump must target those people in government who have weaponized the state in an effort to delegitimize him and keep him from office.  That doesn’t mean people who disagree with him, even if they do so vociferously.  No, the people he needs to investigate are those people who used the police power of the state to persecute him and illegally jail his advisors and J6 defendants.

Of all of the things that distinguish a tyranny from a free nation, freedom of speech is paramount.  A close second is a police power that is exercised based on actual laws, not on the whims and lies of politicians.  If citizens cannot feel confident that they will be unmolested if they do not break laws, what is their motivation to obey any laws? 

I’m not suggesting people like Clinton, Pelosi, Schiff, Chaney etc. be jailed unconstitutionally.  On the contrary, I’m suggesting they be investigated, legally and transparently, and, if appropriate, charged.  And it’s not only the household names that must be investigated, so too should the leadership of every agency that played a role in putting the country through the last 8 years of unconstitutional hell and bringing her to the brink of becoming 3rd world tyranny.

Second, Trump should immediately rescind JFK’s most infamous legacy, from 1962:  “That year, JFK signed executive order 10988 allowing the unionization of the federal work force. This changed everything in the American political system. Kennedy's order swung open the door for the inexorable rise of a unionized public work force in many states and cities.

This in turn led to the fantastic growth in membership of the public employee unions—The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the teachers' National Education Association.

They broke the public's bank. More than that, they entrenched a system of taking money from members' dues and spending it on political campaigns. Over time, this transformed the Democratic Party into a public-sector dependency.”

That Executive Order, more than perhaps any in the 20th century, changed American history for the worse. From that point forward, federal employees – and later state and local employees – could and did unionize against the American people.  Rather than carrying out the directives of the Executive Branch, their goal was to extract as much money and benefits as possible from the American people, and do so while accomplishing the least amount of actual work possible. 

Skeptical?  In 2021 the average American private sector employee earned a compensation (salary + benefits) of $88,152 while the average federal employee earned $143,643, fully 62% more. And federal employees quit at a rate that is 75% lower than private sector employees. Today there are 2.95 million federal employees, or one federal employee for every 118 Americans, whereas in 1962 it was one for every 226. This is the enforcement arm of the regulatory state that has a chokehold on America. 

And this is where Trump has the opportunity to change the trajectory of America’s future. The Heritage Foundation states that federal regulation costs America somewhere between $300 & $700 billion a year. If Trump can rein in the federal leviathan, that money would stay in American pockets, potentially adding 1% to our GDP annually. To put that in perspective, GDP has grown by 2.1% over the past 20 years.  A 1% addition result in a doubling GDP in 24 years vs. 36 years at that rate. (Rule of 72) If he were to cut the federal workforce back to 1962 levels, Trump would eliminate another $200 billion from federal spending which would add to productivity. 

There is no single bigger opportunity today than freeing up Americans and American industry to compete and create. Create better widgets, write smarter AI, make more efficient cars or develop the next Pet Rock or Christmas antlers. As Johan Norberg chronicles in The Capitalist Manifesto, it’s not capitalism per se. that creates prosperity, its free markets and choice.  History shows that there is no one better at finding and filling opportunities than American businesses, no one better at creating products and services consumers desire than American entrepreneurs.  If Donald Trump can unleash American creativity and productivity even back to the 1980s levels (3.1% GDP growth) nevermind 1950’s levels (4.2%) he will vanquish his enemies to the dustbin of history far more effectively than he would by turning them into martyrs…

10 Things Donald Trump Can Do To Make America Great Again

As I wrote last week, I think Donald Trump is going to win. I think he’ll take office in January, but the two months between will be chock full of Democrat tricks trying to delegitimize his victory, coordinated riots seeking to push America into chaos before he’s inaugurated, and the swamp seeking to do everything it can to insulate itself from the potential consequences of a Trump presidency. 

January 20, 2025 will not be a checkered flag moment. On the contrary, it will be the starting line for a four year race to save the nation.  As such, we need to look at what exactly needs to be done going forward and below is a list of 10 things President Trump needs to do. There’s much more, but I’d suggest this is a place to start.

#1 – Seal the border and deport all 30 million illegal immigrants. Just like last time, Democrats, RINOs and activist judges are going to try and stop him.  He cannot let them succeed.  Begin by declaring the nation is under assault and deploying the Army to the border until the wall is complete. The first step in deporting the millions of illegals is stopping all of their benefits. Next, given that they will need food and shelter when the benefits are curtailed, establish exit processing centers where they can come and find shelter and food and be processed out of the country.  Next, stop all federal funds from going to “sanctuary” states and cities who do not cooperate.  Finally, enforce federal legislation against hiring illegals, and send employers to jail.  Of course none of this will be enough, but it’s a beginning.

#2 – Resurrect the 10^th Amendment.  For those who don’t remember, the Amendment reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Most of the things the federal government does are simply unconstitutional. Assign a crack team of constitutional scholars / lawyers to go over the federal government with a fine tooth comb. Starting with the federal government’s list of its own agencies, examine every single department and agency and highlight those for which there is clear Constitutional authority. For every other one, craft a plan for their dissolution. For easy things like NPR, PBS, NEA etc. which are inconsequential, make the dissolution immediate. For others, like HHR and other wealth redistribution programs, where sometimes generations of families have been raised to suckle at the government teat, create a three year plan that reduces their budget by 33% a year for three years, ending with the complete dissolution at the beginning of year four.  For those agencies / departments that remain, implement zero based budgeting so that they are forced every single year to make the case for the money they are seeking from the federal government. 

#3 – Restructure the Justice Department, the FBI the CIA and the Pentagon.  Fire the leadership of all four – up to and including the top 100 senior managers / officers of each with severance packages. Investigate every one of them and for those suspected of treason / incompetence over the last eight years and charge them. For the rest, give them the opportunity to demonstrate they deserve to be part of the organization if they’d like their jobs back. Their success on that score should be based on two things, competency and a demonstrated allegiance to the Constitution. 

#4 – Ban every DEI program and race or sex based program in the United States government.  Make it crystal clear to Americans that every single job, scholarship or contract associated with the federal government is based on one single thing, merit.  At the same time make it known that corporations making policy based on DEI and the climate change cult are violating their fiduciary responsibility and that officers and directors collectively and individually are liable for those violations. 

#5 – Abolish the IRS and the income tax and implement a flat tax or better yet, the FairTax.  This will, perhaps more than anything but the 10^th Amendment action above, drive a stake through the heart of the swamp beast.  There is a reason that the seven richest counties in America (out of a total of 3,143) are suburbs of Washington, DC: government and lobbying.  And few things drive more lobbying than tax breaks. 

#6 – Negotiate a peace between Russia and Ukraine.  Neither wanted this war and a month after Russia invaded there was a peace deal on the table both supported, until it was torpedoed by Joe Biden.  This useless and wasteful war is accomplishing nothing while costing hundreds of thousands of lives and causing trillions of dollars of damage to the participants and the rest of the world. 

#7 – Remove the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. This globalist, anti-capitalist fiction is nothing more than an attempt to give elites control over the lives of citizens around the world and drives the destruction of prosperity everywhere its tentacles reach.  At the same time, eliminate every “climate change” or “green energy” driven policy in the federal government and make a plan for unleashing America’s true energy potential from fracking and nuclear power.

#8 – Use Congressional power vested in it by Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the Constitution (the Elections Clause) to guarantee federal election integrity by requiring Voter ID and paper ballots in every state and outlaw mail in ballots for anyone other than the military. 

#9 – Craft a plan that sunsets every law and regulation in the federal register within a decade.  Put a framework in place for Congress to reevaluate every law on the books over the following ten years and each one should face a renewal vote. Those that pass with 60% of both houses can remain on the books indefinitely while all others sunset after a decade unless passed again. 

#10 – Pass a law that explicitly states that it is illegal for government agencies to coerce or motivate private enterprises to accomplish desired tasks that are illegal for the government to do on its own.  This applies to bank coercion of disapproved industries, data gathering on US citizens or censorship of free speech among others. 

Of course, as Trump learned in his first term, the swamp is a tenacious beast that will not go gently into that good night.  There will be gnashing of liberal teeth, there will be activist judges with God complexes trying to throw judicial roadblocks everywhere and there will be RINO calls to work across the isle.  He should ignore all of that and march swiftly towards returning the government to its originally intended, natural, limited state.  Doing so will unleash an economic and entrepreneurial juggernaut never before seen and will be sufficient to create a giant budget surplus.  That surplus will be sufficient to eliminate the national debt in less than a generation and with it will go most of the problems America faces today. 

There’s of course much more, but if he does half the things on this list Trump will easily have earned himself a place on Mt. Rushmore.

Prediction: Trump By A Nose!

My prediction is that Donald Trump will win the election in two weeks.  I think he may actually win the popular vote as well. I’m referring to the actual votes of actual Americans, not the manipulated votes produced by computer tampering, illegals and mail in fraud.

That doesn’t mean that on the morning of the 6th we’ll have a conclusive answer as to who the next president will be. No, sadly, given the Democrat propensity to cheat and the Swamp’s desire to defeat Trump, we’re likely looking at an adjudication clusterfark that could take weeks or even months. 

So, despite polls currently telling us that the race is close or basically tied (Today the NYT has Harris up by 1, 538 has Harris up by 1.4% and RCP has Trump up by .4%) why do I believe Trump is going to clean the floor with Harris when it comes to real, actual votes?  A plethora of reasons.

Yard signs.  This is the most ambiguous measure, but it’s the one that resonates most viscerally because it reflects enthusiasm.  I just spent three weeks in New York on business. I landed at JFK, drove 400 miles to Buffalo, and a week later drove back.  Over that entire trip I didn’t see any random Harris signs on barns or sides of buildings or flags seemingly bigger than the houses they were flying in front of, all things I saw for Trump.  The ratio of Trump to Harris signs throughout was probably at least 10 to 1.  And this is New York! I did however encounter three towns where Harris signs dominated: East Aurora and Williamsville near Buffalo and Hastings on Hudson, just north of New York City.  All three are quaint, bucolic towns with coffee bars, art galleries and lots of college educated liberals.  At the end of the day, in a hardcore blue state like New York, where Harris is projected to win by double digits, the dearth of enthusiastic support suggests that her support is tepid and the margin of victory may not be what’s predicted. 

Right track, wrong track.  Forty four years ago Ronald Reagan looked into the camera at the last debate with Jimmy Carter and asked, “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the store than it was four years ago?” Today, almost every single American understands that the answer to that question in 2024 is a resounding “No”, and regardless of what they think about Trump, they know that it was Biden, Harris and the Democrats who created this disaster.  Two weeks out from the election, fully 2/3 of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. People know they’re paying more for gasoline, housing, food, insurance and practically everything else in the economy.  However that 2/3 might define that wrong track, those are real, tangible pain points of daily life and most citizens recognize Democrats as the source.  Americans, including some Democrats, are not crazy, and when given a choice between more of the same – or worse – when things are going badly, will choose to make a change towards a better direction – or at least the promise of one.  In our basically two party system, that means that they will turn towards Trump and the GOP.

Facetime:  Not the iPhone kind of facetime, but the time candidate’s faces are showing up on various media.  Trump, of course, is all over the media, from his Pennsylvania rallies, to his interviews to, most recently, his McDonalds campaign stop / fry shift / photo op.  Harris, not so much, and when she is on, even when sitting for outlets that support her, like CBS, the story ends up being a controversy about her answers rather than the typical hagiography. At the same time Trump was generating enormous amounts of engaging press coverage serving fries out  McDonalds drive through window and posing for selflies, Harris was making news for taking only  pre-approved questions and telling Christians they’re at the wrong rally. 

Personal connection:  When Trump talks, he talks a lot.  Harris, not so much.  According to the New York Times, at three rallies Trump averaged speaking 98 minutes while Harris averaged a mere 24 minutes.  And while Trump talks about pretty much anything and everything, Harris seems to have a very limited catalog of ideas from which she can draw.  Indeed, the GOP made a full four minute video of her repeating “Unburdened by what has been.” Americans see that Donald Trump is a guy you could have a beer with, talk at length to and feel like you would walk away having made a friend or at least met someone who understands your problems. Kamala Harris on the other hand is a manikin or a robot that’s been programmed with minimal RAM where if you ask “What’s up?” rather than “How are you doing today?” the system will overload and smoke will start coming out of her ears. She’s not funny or smart or insightful and has no convictions beyond basic Communism.  Most Americans see that. 

Betting: Polls are notorious for being more propaganda than reflections of reality. That’s because they’re run by elite organizations with biases seeking to bolster support of one candidate or another. Betting markets on the other hand, AKA prediction markets, represent anything but that.  The leading platform, Polymarket, today sees a 64% chance Trump wins vs Harris’36%.  The over $2 billion this international crypto market has  bet on the American presidential election is largely made up of small bets, not elites seeking to influence the outcome. The proof of the market’s potential as a prediction tool can be seen in the fact that the Wall Street Journal ran a piece seeking to delegitimize it.    

Quality of life: Vermont is America’s socialist Nirvana. Today however, the state's largest city Burlington has become a dystopian nightmare.  By day, the city is the quintessential small town New England. At night however it transforms into a scene from the Walking Dead with drug addicts, homeless and violent criminals taking over.  And of course it’s not just Burlington. It’s New York, San Francisco, Seattle and of course Denver, where violent Venezuelan gangs have taken over whole apartment complexes while extorting and terrorizing residents and owners. From schools that don’t educate to influxes of illegals to increasing crime, leftists across the country are coming face to face with the reality of the failure of Democrat policies.  While all complain, some are objective enough to understand the source and vote accordingly.

All of this to say, while the majority of blacks and gays and Jews and crazy cat ladies, and antidepressant addled college educated white women and their beta male boyfriends or husbands will vote for Harris without ever giving a consideration for or knowledge of her policies, a certain percentage of them will be making decisions based on the reality of life that’s staring them in the face. Those people will be voting for Trump. Together with the rabid MAGA following Trump has inspired, he should win the actual vote handily.  But as we all know, Stalin’s aphorism applies: “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”

Follow me on Twitter at ImperfectUSA

Donald Trump and Elon Musk: The New American Patriots

Donald Trump and Elon Musk, two men who have the world at their feet are risking everything for America.  They don't have to, but they do.  Not so different than some others about 250 years ago.

Rush Limbaugh used to talk about a story his father told about the signers of the Declaration of Independence:  “Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.”

The story had something of a resurrection in the early 2000s and was often shared in various iterations on social media. Not surprisingly, a minor industry emerged seeking to “fact check” them.  An example of such is this from Snopes, which first began fact checking them back in 2005: 

“Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

It is true that five signers of the Declaration of Independence were captured by the British during the course of the Revolutionary War. However, none of them died while a prisoner, and four of them were taken into custody not because they were considered "traitors" due to their status as signatories to that document, but because they were captured as prisoners of war while actively engaged in military operations against the British.”

Snopes concludes that the piece they reviewed (not the Limbaugh piece) was “Mixed” in its accuracy. They’re right. Accuracy matters. Particularly in matters of importance. They then add something that backhandedly drives home the basic premise: “So great is our need for simplified, dramatic events and heroes that even the real-life biographies of the fifty-six men who risked their lives to publicly declare American independence are no longer compelling enough.” This is the theme that most of the gotcha fact checkers miss and indeed, largely ignored by those who seek to debunk the audacity of what those 56 did… They were committing treason.  They knew they were committing treason.  They knew the penalty for committing treason was hanging.  And, yet, they did so, risking everything they had. 

What’s more, they weren’t committing treason against just some random monarch with a few colonies to protect.  No, they were committing treason against the most powerful nation on the planet whose navy dominated the seas and whose reach stretched across continents and oceans. 

Whether they ended up dying of old age as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams did – on the same day, exactly 50 years from the date of the Declaration of Independence, July 4^th, 1826 – or died during the war itself, as nine of the signatories did, all 56 of them knew they were risking their fortunes, families and their lives if they signed that document. And they did it nonetheless.

Today there are millions of Americans ready to sign a new Declaration of Independence from the tyranny America has become. Tyranny you say? 

The American government in 2024 is far more tyrannical than the British government under King George III ever was.  And it’s not even close. With over 88,000 laws and rules passed by the federal government just between 1995 & 2016, today it’s almost impossible for the average American to get through a single day, nevermind a single year or life without breaking a law.  In his book Three Felonies A Day civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate suggests that American commit three federal felonies every day without even knowing it.  And that doesn’t include the countless state and local laws or authoritarian fictions tyrants create. 

From a different perspective, consider this:  In 1880 there were 30,000 prisoners jailed in the United States, out of a population of 50 million, for an incarceration rate of .06%. Today there are 1.6 million prisoners of a population of 350 million, for an incarceration rate of .45%, and if one counts the additional 3.4 million others in the system – i.e. probation and parole, which were essentially nonexistent in 1880, you get a justice system control rate of 1.45%.  Are Americans somehow 25 times more criminalized today than they were 140 years ago or are there simply more crimes for which they can be convicted? 

As any conscious person knows, it’s the latter.

Which makes what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing, simply extraordinary.  While there are millions of Americans who would be willing to sign a new Declaration of Independence if it came to it, those two are trying to avoid having that be a necessity.  And they are risking everything in order to make it so.

Trump, unlike most politicians (presidents and members of congress alike) has actually lost money since becoming president, to the tune of $1.6 billion!  From the moment he announced he was running for president and continuing until this very day, the swamp has used propaganda, lies and lawfare to hamper him winning the White House, stonewall him while he was serving in it and today trying to keep him from winning again. Beyond that treachery, he was shot in a bungled assassination attempt and had at least one more thwarted. 

Musk, while still the world’s richest man, has seen governments around the world target his businesses and threaten to put him in jail for his purchase of Twitter and his defense of free speech. Indeed, just last week California blocked one of his companies, SpaceX, from more launches from the state specifically because of his tweets. 

And why is that happening?  Because like the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, Trump and Musk recognize that the American government has become a tyranny.  They recognize the government has become bloated, inefficient and stultifying to American freedom and prosperity while at the same time its fellow travelers in the media, finance, pharma, academia, etc. – have become wealthy and above the law.

The duo not only recognize that tyranny, they’re telling American citizens they’re going to destroy it. Trump promises to eliminate the Department of Education while Musk wants to help slash government by 80%!  For the cabal of government apparatchiks and the sundry hyenas who feed alongside them on the body politic of America, this is a declaration of war.  It threatens their very existence. And it must be stopped, whatever it takes.

Which is exactly what makes what Trump and Musk are doing so brave. Neither man needs to become embroiled in politics to live a life of luxury or provide one to their progeny. Indeed, both have knowingly and willingly put their fortunes and their lives in the crosshairs of the most powerful tyranny in all of human history.  That is the kind of courage that animated the creation of the greatest republic in human history.  That’s the kind of courage that inspired men from 13 separate colonies to put their differences aside and to fight for freedom. Ideally the courage of these two modern day patriots will inspire citizens across America’s 50 states to utilize the ballot box to save the nation those 56 founders bequeathed to us. One Declaration of Independence should be enough.  Hopefully we won’t need another.