Always remember...

 Follow the money:

The money that individuals working abroad send to their families in Mexico fell for a third month this year.

And some fear further, possibly catastrophic declines in this vital source of income for the Mexican economy if the U.S. Senate approves the 3.5 percent tax on remittances the House green-lit in its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Bank of Mexico (Banxico) data released this week shows Mexican families received $4.76 billion in wire transfers, checks, money orders and cash from abroad in April. That’s more than a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar decline from the $5.14 billion received in March, Banxico reports.

It also represents a 12.1 percent year-over-year decline – the biggest dip since September 2012. Mexico last year received $64.7 billion in remittances representing 4 percent of its gross domestic product.

Yeah, you'd fight too if that kinda money was involved. What you really wonder is what the Donks are getting out of the deal. Everyone assumes it's votes and political power because of the way the Census counts people, but I wonder.

Recommendation

 Trump has so many "scandals" swirling about him that he really ought to combine a few to make things more efficient. My first recommendation - use the Qatari plane to fly in white refugees from South Africa.

47

 You don't have to like him, but it's impossible to deny that Donald Trump is an astonishing man. The guy has had rogue prosecutors and corrupt judges on his ass for years. He's been hassled and pestered in civil courts in New York with the aim of destroying his businesses. He almost got his head blown off in Pennsylvania in July. Just about every member of the MSM has attempted to stop him with a fire hose of invective. And he's now the President-Elect.

I don't know how he does it, but I do have a few thoughts:

• Trump has exquisite taste in enemies. He has millions of them and he's turned every one of his tormentors into a cartoon figure and he's prevailed over everyone. 
• The Democrats may be good at tactics, but they are not adept at strategy. One of his principal foes, Chares Schumer, is the best example of this. He's known and dealt with Trump for over 40 years and for whatever reason, Schumer never seemed to figure out what makes Trump tick. Trump is a transactional person and if Schumer had schmoozed him during his first term in office, he could have steered Trump into a position or two where Trump would have pissed off his base because he wants to make deals. For reasons that will be left to the history books, Schumer instead decided to treat Trump as a mortal enemy. Had Schumer tried a more conciliatory approach, Trump's penchant for dealmaking would have brought Trump deep distress in the election of 2020.
• Because Trump has been so abused, he won't be looking to make deals this time and he's also figured out that he'll need some loyal lieutenants in his second term. You won't see guys like John Kelly sandbagging him this time around.
• There are certainly a few Donks who aren't sad about the result. One can imagine that Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore and a few others are happy that Harris is out of the picture now, and she most assuredly is. The 2028 campaign has already begun.
•  We really need to do something about the mass psychosis of the Left. The distress I see on social media would be hilarious if it weren't so terrifying. Delusion is a growth industry in politics right now.

Biden Gets the Full Torricelli

 

Fallen and can't get up

No surprise that Joe Biden has ended his campaign. He's been a fugitive from Madame Tussauds for a long time now and even when he was at the height of his powers, he was at best a 10-watt bulb. He has been a horrible buffoon and genuine menace to the body politic for a half century and his departure from the field is long overdue. I have long thought Bill Clinton was the most despicable person to occupy the Oval Office, but Biden provides strong competition for the title.

Kamala Harris is, at this point, the frontrunner for the Donks, but it remains to be seen if the powers that be on the port side are willing to let her be the nominee. Not sure they are. My guess is they would rather have a fresh face without the associated baggage to take on the Bad Orange Man. Who would that be? I can think of a few possibilities, in order of plausibility:

Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania

Roy Cooper, Governor of North Carolina

Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky

Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan

Of that group, Whitmer likely has the highest profile, which is what makes her the least likely possibility. She's got a definite air of Nurse Ratched about her and the only demographic that would find her appealing is human resources managers. Given his overall greasiness and demonstrably dismal performance, I don't think Gavin Newsom is the one, nor do I see Pritzker of Illinois having a shot either. There are some delusional types (Betty McCollum, for example) who are touting Tim Jong Walz as a possible dark horse, but he's a sputtering moron who would have no chance unless the entire Washington press corps morphs into Esme Murphy. And you can forget Skeletor Evers next door as well, as he has the charisma of lint.

I don't doubt there will be any number of other adventures before we get to November; I would not be surprised if another assassination attempt is forthcoming, nor would I be surprised if the corrupt judge in the New York trial that saddled Trump with a bunch of "felonies" tries to put Trump in Rikers in the general population. Any other guesses? Place yer bets.

The Fog of War/Shit Got Real

 

Bloodied but unbowed

We'll know more soon enough. What we may know suggests some very bad things. It's been over 40 years since someone took a shot at a president, former or otherwise. I hope we never see something like this again, but that's not the way to bet.

When the lies become the truth

 Anyone who pays attention to politics and the antics of our betters on the Potomac has known the truth about the Leader of the Free World -- he is an officially undiagnosed dementia patient who happens to have access to the nuclear codes. Thursday's debate performance should not have astonished anyone, but apparently people in and around the Beltway are all Claude Rains right now - shocked, shocked at the condition of Joe Biden.

It's crap, of course - everyone knew the truth, but pretending not to know the truth has been the game for a very long time now. Even when he was in the greatest command of his faculties, Joe Biden was a blowhard dullard who would lie about anyone and anything. For years he claimed the truck driver who was involved in the accident that killed his first wife and his daughter was drunk when the crash occurred. This was a lie. He claimed academic credentials he did not possess. He claimed to be a coal miner, a political protestor who was arrested in Soweto, a truck driver, a denizen of black and Puerto Rican churches. He used the words and life story of the British politician Neil Kinnock in a stump speech. All of this is known and easily available in the public record. Yet his primary political campaign message in the last two cycles has been about his truth telling how he is a better and more honorable person than his opponent, Donald Trump. And Biden's supporters parrot every word and notion put forth.

It's incredible, really. And it can't go on.

Shit's getting old

 Inevitable:

The House impeached President Trump for the second time Wednesday, charging him for behavior they believe caused the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five dead, dozens injured, and the historic building defaced and damaged.

Ten House Republicans joined all House Democrats to pass a single impeachment article accusing Trump of inciting an insurrection.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, must now decide when to send the article to the Senate, which is not scheduled to be in session until Jan. 19 and is unlikely to consider it until after Trump leaves office.

Trump’s term ends on Jan. 20 at 12 p.m.

Ya know, maybe if the Dems hadn't done the impeachment thing before over the Ukraine bullshit (you know it was bullshit because Biden never campaigned on the issue; of course there was an obvious reason for that, but whatever) this latest spasm of self-congratulation might have meant something. This is more like a medieval king exhuming an enemy's corpse to hang it.

The Dems have fears, though, doncha know:

But Democrats made the case during the one-day proceeding that Trump is too dangerous to remain in office a moment longer, coming to the floor to suggest Trump may incite additional violence, move to pardon the protesters charged in the Capitol siege, or even start a nuclear war during his final days in office.

“He must go,” Pelosi said on the House floor. “He is a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”

There's not a chance in hell Trump will start a nuclear war. He might pardon some people, but the greater danger is that he will declassify a bunch of information the Democrats would prefer remain buried. And I hope he does.

If I'm Trump, my to-do list is as follows:

1. Pardon Julian Assange and Edward Snowden
2. Declassify everything
3. Pardon Hunter Biden, but only after issuing formal charges
4. Pardon Joe Biden
5. Pardon Hillary
6. Don't pardon Obama

The Democrats deserve to have their fears exposed, as well as their rampant malfeasance. I want to pardon some of them because it will make them look like the vindictive weasels they are and frankly I don't need to see any more witch hunts, even though Biden richly deserves the treatment Trump received, because he is a straight up corrupt politician. But it's over now. Biden will reveal who he is every time he opens his pie hole. He can't hide any longer -- this isn't FDR in 1944.

"Oh, I'm fine Mom, how's Washington?"

 Game on:

Best comment of the day, from a guy I know on FB:

It's a good thing when the ruling class has to have its head on a swivel.

If this sort of thing sends you to the fainting couch, I would suggest you'd better get the ol' fainting couch reinforced. For all his bluster and suboptimal bedside manner, it's important to understand that, for the last four years, Trump was asking nicely. 

This won't end well, part three

 Ann Althouse asks a great question:

They want a gracious concession — after the counting and litigation — but they never mention how ungracious the Democrats were when Trump won in 2016. Did they ever concede that Trump won and stand back and acknowledge that he legitimately held the power of the presidency? 

We all know the answer to that question. A few observations and a suggested to-do list:

• The Democrats are almost certainly going to get by with everything they've done for the last four years. Trump has never, not for even one day, had complete control of the executive branch. He still doesn't. John Durham is Godot, to name one example.
• Still, sunlight is the best disinfectant and at this point the best sunlight will leave a scorched earth. If I were Trump, I would continue to exhaust all my legal options until there are none left. 
• He needs to tell the world everything his team has found. It will be ignored or ridiculed, but it needs to be part of the public record. AOC has called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so let's begin the process now. Name names and expose the fraud for what it is.
• Following that, Trump should dump the entire investigative pile from Durham and everyone else on the country. Every move that Strzok and Page and Comey and the rest of the cabal made needs to be put out there. There will be no prosecutions now, so they might as well release all the evidence against everyone who was involved. I don't give a good god damn about "national security" or "sources and methods" -- that was always code for ass covering. The MSM will ignore it, of course, but people need to know precisely what happened. And the information needs to be part of the historical record. If Barr and Durham won't cooperate, Trump should can their well-padded asses. Trump owes them nothing. And more importantly, by doing so it will complicate Biden's efforts to get the band back together. I've read multiple reports that Sally Yates is in line to run DOJ. Blow her up. Same with the corrupt cabal of McGenerals -- everything they've done should be catalogued and exposed to the world.
• While he's at it, Trump needs to fire FBI director Christopher Wray and CIA chief Gina Haspel, who have been stonewalling him for the last four years. Trump can put Rick Grenell in charge of either agency for the last two months and he can make things happen. Biden will have to put new people in position anyway, but make Biden have to get his people past Cocaine Mitch first.
• Trump needs to pardon Michael Flynn post-haste. And then Flynn needs to tell his tale. Again, no one in the MSM will cover it, but the tale needs to be told.
• In addition, Trump should ensure that Hunter Biden is indicted for his crimes. He can make his father issue a pardon. And if Trump has anything on Biden himself, dump that. People need to know that Biden is more than a set of chattering teeth -- he's a set of chattering teeth with the stench of a half-century of corruption and self-dealing. 
• Bottom line -- Trump can count on Biden and the rest of the Dems to go after him with everything they have once he leaves office, so he might as well rub their noses in it for as long as he can. The Dems are not going to show Trump any quarter, so he might as well use the power he retains to make their sins known to the widest possible audience.

This won't end well, part two

 It's clear how all this is going to end. As always, William Butler Yeats has the right description of the next Leader of the Free World:

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick

It's always been a con, a bait and switch. Joe Biden will get his name in the history books and his elevation should ensure his son won't end up in prison. That's good. But the goal has always been to get rid of the Bad Orange Man By Any Means Necessary.

Mission accomplished, I guess.

It's not going to go down smoothly, though. Even if you think Donald Trump has only built a cult of personality (and with a lousy personality to boot), it's a fundamental misreading of the man and his movement. He had four years to fight the Swamp, but the Swamp won. His acolytes will find another champion. I don't know who it will be yet, but I have a few guesses. And they will be back.

Some people are wondering why the professional Republicans aren't standing up for Trump. It's no surprise -- once you get to Washington, you get rich. Everyone in town is in on the graft in one way or another. Trump's greatest sin was not his bluster or his behavior in office. His greatest sin was that he told the truth about Washington. And for that, and his limited efforts to bring about reform, he needed to be destroyed. 

Back to Yeats -- the poem I quoted is "Sailing to Byzantium." It opens with this famous line:

That is no country for old men. 

Soon enough, that will become evident.

il miglior fabbro

 Writing at, of all places, Newsweek, Thomas Krannawitter gets to the nut of this election:

Arguably, the most important reason to reelect Donald Trump in 2020 is to remind Americans how elections should be decided. Right now, there are two large groups who think they—not us—should decide elections in America: violent, rioting, vandalizing mobs of progressives, and millions of unelected bureaucrats who now form what early progressives called the "permanent government."

Both need to learn a lesson. For the violent mobs: Elections should be decided by ballots, not threatening fellow citizens with bullets. We will not stand for it and you only strengthen our resolve.

Threats of violence if Trump wins are sufficient reason to vote for him.

To boot, unelected progressive bureaucrats—public employees, servants of the people—had the audacity to use the power of our government in an attempt to overturn our election results in 2016 simply because one of their own did not win.

Enough.

More, much more actually at the link. Read the whole thing. 

Ruminating on Tuesday

 A few disjointed thoughts. I have more, but we'll start here.

I haven’t voted for a Democrat for president in my lifetime. I have voted for Libertarians a few times and in 2016 I cast a write-in vote for my wife. Most of the times I’ve voted for a Republican, it’s been with limited enthusiasm. 

Chin music

I was Never Trump in 2016 because I thought he was a charlatan. When Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, who I knew was a charlatan, I was mostly amused. Still, at the point the election was decided, it was time to give Trump a chance, so I put the Never Trump stance away. In the four years since last Election Day, I have observed Trump’s presidency and have been amazed. He may sound like a carnival barker, but he’s actually kept his promises. And despite every obstacle and attack he’s faced, I strongly believe he will be re-elected on Tuesday. And yes, I plan to vote for Donald Trump. Donald Trump has all manner of uncorrected personality traits, but he’s far superior to his opponent.

The modern Democratic party is a hot mess, a septic tank gumbo of careerism, cronyism, corruption, and collusion. Its luminaries are uniformly appalling. Its standard-bearer is clearly demented – put him in a bathrobe and he’d be a modern-day version of Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, except without the artifice. Joe Biden was a plagiarizing buffoon in 1988 and he’s been on the slide ever since then, but the party apparat felt he was a better candidate than any of the others who were running against him. It's a stunning indictment of the Democratic Party.

Prediction Time - UPDATED

 Last time I picked Clinton to win. In 2012 I picked Romney to win. So this is probably Trump's kiss of death, but here goes:

Sweep the north

A few particulars:

• If Biden had Minnesota in the bag, he wouldn't be coming here tomorrow. But he is. And so is Trump. Even though Biden's event is in St. Paul and Trump's is in Dodge Center Rochester, I'd bet Trump draws a significantly bigger crowd. 
• I dispensed with the fractional measurements (on Nebraska and Maine) mostly to keep it clean.
• Pennsylvania and North Carolina are currently set up for voter fraud, but based on what I'm reading Biden hasn't built up enough of a lead in the early voting in either state for fraud to work.  There's a plausibility limit to how many found ballots you can find. And Pennsylvania relies on fracking. I also don't think ongoing riots in West Philly are particularly propitious, either.
• Wisconsin is supposedly turning to Biden, but I don't see it. Biden has hinted at more lockdowns and while the 'Rona is on the rampage in my home state, most people there don't want to be locked down all winter. The 17-point Biden lead reported recently is clearly crap. If it were true, Trump wouldn't be visiting Wisconsin, but he will be in Green Bay tomorrow.
• Team Biden and their many enablers in the media have kept the Hunter Biden shenanigans out of the press, but word gets around.
• Biden is not healthy; yes, he's been able to get through two debates, but he's barely campaigned at all in the last week and it looks like he could stroke out on the hustings at any time. People have noticed that as well.
• Trump voters don't talk to pollsters. But they vote.

You can do your own map here. Give me your picks in the comments.

Another view, from our old pal Chuckwagon Boy:

Yet another view, this time from our man Picklesworth:

Circle (of) Jerk(s)

 Most readers of this feature have long suspected Jeffrey Toobin of being a bit of a wanker. Apparently he took it to heart, so to speak: 

Has a lot of pull

A top US legal analyst has been suspended by New Yorker magazine after he exposed himself on a Zoom call.

Jeffrey Toobin, 60, also a prominent CNN commentator, has been in demand as the US election campaign intensifies.

The incident, first reported by Vice News, happened during an election simulation involving the New Yorker and WNYC radio last week.

Mr Toobin, in a statement to Vice, said: "I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera."

Not just exposing himself, though:

The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin for masturbating on a Zoom video chat between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio last week. Toobin says he did not realize his video was on.

So what kinda Zoom call was this? Back to the second link:

Two people who were on the call told VICE separately that the call was an election simulation featuring many of the New Yorker's biggest stars: Jane Mayer was playing establishment Republicans; Evan Osnos was Joe Biden, Jelani Cobb was establishment Democrats, Masha Gessen played Donald Trump, Andrew Marantz was the far right, Sue Halpern was left wing democrats, Dexter Filkins was the military, and Jeffrey Toobin playing the courts. There were also a handful of other producers on the call from the New Yorker and WNYC. 

I will say this: having the notorious lefty Jane Mayer pretending to be "establishment Republicans" isn't nearly as a big a stretch as one might think.

Okay, let's think about this. You had a bunch of big-shot writers LARPing on a Zoom call. The players (so to speak) are indulging in a strange fantasy ritual. And in the midst of this Toobin changed his surname into an Urban Dictionary verb. Just a reminder: these are our betters.

Night of the Hunter

 It's a dog bites man story, but it still needs to be told:

Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company, according to emails obtained by The Post.

The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email reads.

An earlier email from May 2014 also shows Pozharskyi, reportedly Burisma’s No. 3 exec, asking Hunter for “advice on how you could use your influence” on the company’s behalf.

Someone tried to give the laptop with this data a bath:

The blockbuster correspondence — which flies in the face of Joe Biden’s claim that he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings” — is contained in a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop computer.

The computer was dropped off at a repair shop in Biden’s home state of Delaware in April 2019, according to the store’s owner.

Other material extracted from the computer includes a raunchy, 12-minute video that appears to show Hunter, who’s admitted struggling with addiction problems, smoking crack while engaged in a sex act with an unidentified woman, as well as numerous other sexually explicit images.

The customer who brought in the water-damaged MacBook Pro for repair never paid for the service or retrieved it or a hard drive on which its contents were stored, according to the shop owner, who said he tried repeatedly to contact the client.

The client didn't apparently want it. Wonder why?

The shop owner couldn’t positively identify the customer as Hunter Biden, but said the laptop bore a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, named after Hunter’s late brother and former Delaware attorney general.

That would seem to be of interest. But there's more:

Photos of a Delaware federal subpoena given to The Post show that both the computer and hard drive were seized by the FBI in December, after the shop’s owner says he alerted the feds to their existence.

Chris Wray and his gang may not have an interest, but others did:

But before turning over the gear, the shop owner says, he made a copy of the hard drive and later gave it to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello.

I'd wondered what Rudy had been up to. There' more:

Steve Bannon, former adviser to President Trump, told The Post about the existence of the hard drive in late September and Giuliani provided The Post with a copy of it on Sunday.

But why did it matter?

Less than eight months after Pozharskyi thanked Hunter Biden for the introduction to his dad, the then-vice president admittedly pressured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk into getting rid of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin by threatening to withhold a $1 billion US loan guarantee during a December 2015 trip to Kiev.

“I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,” Biden infamously bragged to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

“Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.”

He sure did. But if you'll recall, President Trump was the one who was impeached over dealings in Ukraine. We don't talk much about that impeachment much any more. Wonder why....

No epiphanies

 

As news came over that President Trump and the First Lady have the 'Rona, the reaction was typical -- most of the leftists on my social media feeds were almost gleeful. I could publish several examples, but frankly, what's the point? We all know how leftists are. While it's momentarily disheartening to see your otherwise sensible friends become raving loons when Orange Man Bad is the topic of conversation, it's no longer surprising.

I am hopeful the President recovers quickly. We need him.

The Sound and the Fury

 Yeah, the first debate was a straight-up shitshow. A few very brief thoughts:

• Biden didn't drool on himself, so that's positive. I kinda think Trump made his life easier, because if he'd just dropped the insults on Joe and let him respond, Biden might have said something he would later regret, but Trump can't help himself. Also, many people will object to the full frontal assault on Biden's son Hunter. But my guess is this: if Trump gets a sufficient amount of voters to do a little research on Hunter Biden's, ahem, career, it will work to Trump's benefit.
• Trump is a rat bastard, but he fights. And in a moment where the Left is bidding fair to destroy much of what I hold dear, a rat bastard is probably the right guy for the job of opposing the Left.
• Chris Wallace begged a lot of questions, none to Trump's benefit. And he lost control of things more than once. As annoying as Trump and Biden were, Wallace was a bigger disgrace than either of them. 
• Trump did make one important point concerning the peaceful transition of power; he never got one when he was elected and he's been at war with the Deep State from the jump. I think a lot of people understand that but haven't thought about it much. Maybe the message got lost in the brawling, but it's possible that may resonate with a few people.
• I'd like to say we deserve better candidates for president, but based on my social media feed I don't think that's right. We have the campaign and the candidates we have because we allow the worst government class ever to maintain their sinecures.

If you have thoughts, share 'em in the comments.

Something I don't get

 Why does any Republican sit down for an interview with Bob Woodward? Under any circumstances? I don't think Woodward's latest broadside against Trump is going to make much of a difference, but seriously, Woodward has been in the business of screwing Republicans for nearly 50 years, and yet Trump and the rest of the politicians take his calls and sit for interviews with the guy.

Don't understand it.

Revelations

 At this point we learn more about Trump’s detractors than we do about Trump. The story making the rounds now details how Trump’s older sister, a retired federal judge, apparently shared some uncharitable views of her brother. We know this because Trump’s niece, who is currently marketing a critical book about Trump, had made this known. Trump’s niece apparently recorded 15 hours of conversations with her aunt without disclosing to her aunt that she was recording the conversations. Does that behavior strike you as crappy? It strikes me that way. 

And some of the stories seem, well, off. One states that Trump cheated on the SAT to get into Penn. Since Trump entered Penn as a transfer student from Fordham, it’s preposterous — transfer students don’t retake the SAT to transfer; the college has a transcript to evaluate. That’s a tell.

Trump hate porn is a lucrative industry; my social media feed is replete with lefty college friends who buy all the latest dirt; they have shelves full of books. But these books never move public opinion, because everyone already knows who the Bad Orange Man is. And we should not hesitate to call the industry what it is — an unimaginative circle jerk. 

It would have been nice if. . .

. . . the Leader of the Free World had said at the outset of his remarks tonight that his likely useless European travel ban didn’t apply to U.S. citizens. We ended up spending a small fortune on a one-way ticket via London to get our daughter a flight home on the weekend, routing her through England to avoid restrictions that didn’t actually apply to her, so she wouldn’t be stuck in Europe. Sneaking a clarification out an hour after his presentation was, well, horseshit.

I can’t even pretend to defend this. Meanwhile, the trip to Spain I have been waiting to take for 36 freaking years is now likely a sunk cost.

Grrrr.