Jonah Goldberg - Election Double Standards

I think this trend has existed longer than this year, but Jonah Goldberg made a good point about double standards in close elections.

The final lesson: There is a massive double standard in the national conversation when it comes to election results and irregularities.

When Republicans suggest Democrats are up to no good, it is universally decried as a paranoid, craven or “openly authoritarian” attempt to delegitimize an election. When Democrats suggest an election was stolen, it’s a grave warning of a crisis that should require “international election monitors,” in the words of Dan Rather.

When Republicans graciously concede, as Rep. Martha McSally did in Arizona, it’s an example of decency and civility. “I give McSally credit for a graceful concession. But let’s be clear: It only stands out because of the moral sludge of Trumpism in which any show of grace or honorable conduct is shocking,” tweeted Josh Marshall, the editor of the Talking Points Memo. “When you lose, you don’t lie about it or attack the voting process. You concede & move on.”

But when Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a three-term Democrat, refused to concede and move on, insisting that Scott was trying to steal victory, liberals didn’t call him a sore loser. And when Abrams refused to concede in Georgia and (still) refuses to say that Kemp is a legitimate governor, it’s hailed as heroic speaking truth to power.

Such double standards are poisonous and contagious. Which is why you can be sure you’ll hear even more of this in 2020 — and not just from Donald Trump.

Make Up Your Mind, Senator Schumer

There's been a big flap over Donald Trump calling out the 9th Circuit and Chief Justice Roberts defending an independent judiciary. Maybe the Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D, NY) should have taken the opportunity to not tweet. This is how you make Trump look good. Or at least a normal politician.

In less than 280 characters, Chuck Schumer:

• Criticizes partisan SCOTUS decisions

• Criticizes Donald Trump for suggesting there are partisan SCOTUS decisions https://t.co/N6LqmUr7UI

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) November 23, 2018

Texas Is About to Create OPEC's Worst Nightmare

The United States is quickly becoming a lot less reliant on oil from the Persian Gulf. A piece published at Bloomberg points out how total US petroleum production is rising at the fastest rate in 98 years.

"By the end of 2019, total U.S. oil production -- including so-called natural gas liquids used in the petrochemical industry -- is expected to rise to 17.4 million barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. At that level, American net imports of petroleum will fall in December 2019 to 320,000 barrels a day, the lowest since 1949, when Harry Truman was in the White House. In the oil-trading community, the expectation is that, perhaps for just a single week, the U.S. will become a net oil exporter, something that hasn’t happened for nearly 75 years."

Clips From The Border - The Caravan Arrives In Tijuana

I figured I'd collect some clips of reports from Tijuana and parts of the US/Mexico border to see how the situation is being reported. I wasn't able to embed the video from Fox News and CNN didn't have any videos from the weekend.

NBC News, November 17, 2018




Al Jazeera, November 18, 2018


Euronews, November 18, 2018



The Guardian, November 18, 2018

A Brexit Recap - May's Deal

I realize that Americans may find this hard to believe, but Jim Acosta having his press pass revoked, then restored is not the biggest news story in the world. Over in the UK, they are going through a little thing called Brexit, and the government of Theresa May looked ready to collapse on Friday. National Review had a little write-up on the cause of the crisis:

After what seem like years of a phony war, British and European Union negotiators finally agreed on the terms of Britain’s departure from the EU earlier this week, and Theresa May announced it in the House of Commons. The deal covers more than 500 pages of legal and bureaucratic prose, and few but the negotiators have read it in full. But those who have say that it confirms the earlier leaks: After leaving, Britain will continue to be subject to EU rules and regulations more or less indefinitely but, as a non-EU-member state after March, the country will have no say or vote in designing them.

It doesn’t sound like a very attractive package, but May argues that this deal fully achieves the Brexit that the voters chose two years ago. It’s hard to square this claim with the “red lines” she vowed a year ago to never cross:

Red Line: Britain will leave the single market and its regulations.

Deal: Britain will sign on to a “common rulebook” of regulations that will in fact be the EU single-market rulebook.

Red Line: Britain will leave the Customs Union in order to sign free-trade deals with non-EU countries such as the U.S.

Deal: Britain will stay indefinitely in a customs union with the EU, which will make it impossible to negotiate free-trade deals with others, and Britain will only be able to leave it by agreement with the EU and with the consent of an international arbitration body.

Red Line: Britain will be out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

Deal: Britain will be subject to ECJ jurisdiction on regulation and trade matters, and U.K. courts will take account of its rulings.

At this point, I'd say the UK is facing no good options, so they need to just keep running forward and hope they don't fall.

Vote Fraud In Florida's Mid-Terms

Due to the shenanigans of the Democratic Party in the 2018 mid-term elections, the phrase "beyond the margin of fraud" may make a comeback, just in time for the 2020 presidential election. The Naples Daily News, part of the USA Today network, reported Democrats planned to use altered forms to fix mail ballots across Florida after deadline:

A day after Florida's election left top state races too close to call, a Democratic party leader directed staffers and volunteers to share altered election forms with voters to fix signature problems on absentee ballots after the state's deadline.

The altered forms surfaced in Broward, Santa Rosa, Citrus and Okaloosa counties and were reported to federal prosecutors to review for possible election fraud as Florida counties completed a required recount in three top races.

But an email obtained by the USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida shows that Florida Democrats were organizing a broader statewide effort beyond those counties to give voters the altered forms to fix improper absentee ballots after the Nov. 5 deadline. Democratic party leaders provided staffers with copies of a form, known as a "cure affidavit," that had been modified to include an inaccurate Nov. 8 deadline.

Apparently, the Florida Democratic Party is looking for a fall guy, as the Naples Daily News reported "Democrats hire investigator to identify who altered Florida form used to fix ballots". And some Democratic officials are trying to distance themselves from the scandal.

"This is a very serious issue. FDP is right to investigate this matter immediately and should share results with the appropriate government agencies, interested press and party officials," said state Rep. Evan Jenne, who represents Broward County, where one of these altered forms was found.

Rep. Shevrin Jones, another Broward Democrat, said he also is trying to find out exactly what happened.

Jones said he talked Friday to Terrie Rizzo, the party's leader, who assured him that the official state document was not altered by “party leadership” but rather an individual. Jones said Rizzo explained that the investigator was hired to find out who altered the form distributed to party staffers and volunteers.

Jones said Rizzo’s explanation helped put him more at ease, and he said the election process should be protected at all cost.

“Beyond looking at who did it, we can’t afford to have people lose faith in this process that we call democracy and we have to protect that,” Jones said.

The 2020 elections are going to be lit.

Quotes - November 16, 2018

Sometimes I hear quotes and I want to preserve them. Since I'm using this blog to save links to interesting articles, I might as well do the same with quotes. Here's the first one...

"No figure in American history has simultaneously attracted more frauds and/or exposed them, than Donald Trump has."

-- Steve Deace, Steve Deace podcast, 11/16/2018

Mattis On The Border Security Mission

The UK government is falling apart with 6 cabinet resignations as I type this, but since it's a fast developing story, I'll just note it for now. I did want to record a link I ran across about the situation along the U.S.-Mexican border, since that's one of the purposes of this blog. Buzzfeed News, of all outlets, actually did a good article recording Defense Secretary James Mattis' remarks to the new troops deployed along the border in response to the immigrant caravans snaking their way through Mexico from Central America. There was even a live stream of the event, which I've been looking for.

Having laid down my fair share of razor wire, I could appreciate this question.

“Sir, I have a question. The wire obstacles that we've implanted along the border... Are we going to be taking those out when we leave?" one of them asked, drawing a few smirks from those around him. The most visible role US troops have served since they began arriving on Oct. 29 has been stringing up concertina wire, a razor wire that is notoriously hard to remove.

"We'll see what the secretary says, okay?" he answered, pointing to Nielsen standing next to him. “Right now, the mission is put them in. ... We’ll let you know.”

And yeah, this is a fair question.

US Northern Command says that troops have deployed with 22 miles of the wire so far, with 150 more available. The US–Mexico border is 1,950 miles long. Most members of the migrant caravan are heading toward Tijuana, which lies some 1,300 northwest of the border camp in Texas.

“What are the short and the long-term plans of this operation, sir?” asked another young soldier.

"Short term right now, you get the obstacles in so the border patrolmen can do what they gotta do,” Mattis responded.

“Longer term, it's somewhat to be determined,” he said, adding that “if we were in war right now, you'd be asking the same question” and that the mission was a “dynamic, unpredictable kind of thing.”

Introduction

Well, I'm doing it. I created another blog. I have a gaming blog that's been running for 9 1/2 years at this point, but any other blog I've started has died. This one is different, because I need a place to vent in the Age of Trump. Instead of letting some perfectly good links get lost in history, I thought I'd put them here.

Also, with everyone flip-flopping their positions based on the personality of President Donald J. Trump, I thought I'd record mine here and try to work out what I believe. Sometimes our president does things I like, and sometimes I want to put my head through my desk. I want to record the important stuff I need to think through instead of the fluff designed to outrage the audience.

Let me bring up the example that led me to create this new blog today. A very smart lady posted an article from CNN in a Discord server I hang out in. The subject was corruption in the Trump administration.

A day after CNN reported that the Justice Department is investigating whether Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has broken the law by using his office to personally enrich himself, national security adviser John Bolton told the Alexander Hamilton Society in Washington that ethics rules make it hard for people outside of the government to serve.

Bolton said "things have gotten more bureaucratic, harder to get things done" since he served under President George H.W. Bush in the 1990s and blamed the difficulty, in part, on the "excessive nature of the so-called ethics checks."

"If you were designing a system to discourage people from coming into government, you would do it this way," Bolton said.

"That risks building up a priestly class" of government employees, he added.

"It's really depressing to see," Bolton said of the bureaucratic red tape.

I decided to fact check the article, because I don't fully trust CNN. The "most trusted name in news" oftentimes slants their reporting to fit a narrative. So I went to Google News and did a search on Bolton Alexander Hamilton Society. The coverage of Bolton's appearance was a lot different than CNN's take on the event.

Bloomberg: Bolton Calls National Debt ‘Economic Threat’ to U.S.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton called the national debt a “threat to the society” that requires significant cuts to the government’s discretionary spending.

Bolton, speaking Wednesday at an event hosted by the Alexander Hamilton Society in Washington, said he expects U.S. defense spending “to flatten out” in the near term. He said he didn’t anticipate major cuts to entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security.

“It is a fact that when your national debt gets to the level ours is, that it constitutes an economic threat to the society,” Bolton said. “And that kind of threat ultimately has a national security consequence for it.”

Washington Post: Bolton says U.S. is conducting ‘offensive cyber’ action to thwart would-be election distrupters

The United States is “right now undertaking offensive cyber operations” to safeguard next week’s midterm elections, though it was “too soon to tell” whether they are having an effect, White House national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday.

Though Bolton did not specify the operation’s nature, U.S. Cyber Command has begun signaling to Russian operatives that their identities are known — an implicit warning not to attempt to disrupt American politics. The Washington Post and other media reported on those developments last week.

The offensive cyber actions were aimed at “defending the integrity of our electoral process . . . and our adversaries [had] better know that and better understand that,” said Bolton, speaking in Washington at an event sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Society.

The Economic Times: China engaging in behaviour that is troubling Japan, India and others: Bolton 

"China's current policies, like in the South China Sea, are nearly belligerent in many respects. It is also engaging in a behaviour that is troubling to Japan, Taiwan, India and the Central Asian Republics," Bolton said in response to a question at the Alexander Hamilton Society on Wednesday.

Bolton said that the arguments for China joining the World Trade Organisation was that it would become a more market-oriented rules-based society.

Instead, for 20 years, China has continued to steal American technology, discriminated against foreign trade investment, and against internal economic systems.

Bolton said that China can no longer get away with this. 

Lots of real news out there about substantive policy issues we may see play out in Trump's final two years. And what does CNN do? Focus on their ongoing narrative.

Perhaps I'm being unfair to CNN and either Google News just isn't showing a second article on Bolton's speech or I didn't go far enough down the list. But ranting about this helps get it out of my system.