Friends, if you haven't seen it, you should definitely watch Kamala Harris's interview with Bret Baier of Fox News. It ain't pretty, but it's enlightening. Kamala bobs and weaves a ton, which isn't all that surprising, as a politician will seldom give a straight answer, but what did shock me was her tone, which was defensive, peevish, and at times just plain angry. Possibly she's never been asked a non-obsequious question before, but she sure didn't seem to like it. She also laid on the anti-Trump rhetoric fairly thick, which is an interesting choice, and perhaps inevitable if her campaign is faltering as much as many of the so-called experts (like me) claim it is. If Trump hatred hasn't sealed the deal for Democrats yet, though, I kinda doubt that it will now. At any rate, I got the impression from the big debate that Kamala was a cool customer, but it seems to me that she lost her cool Wednesday night. And joy? Nope. Didn't notice any joy at all.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6363352689112
In other news, in an interesting twist, the U.K.'s leftist Labour Party is sending activists to this country to help the Harris campaign. The media, apparently, is unmoved by this "foreign election interference", as it tends to move the dial in the establishment direction, which of course the vast majority of "foreign election interference" does! Trump does not have many fans in the halls of power overseas.
As Harris's chances of victory diminish, at least based on public polls and betting markets, an increasing number of progressives are clutching their pearls and decrying the electoral college, which might very well hand Trump a victory that he fails to win in the popular vote. And that raises the question of whether Harris and the Democrats would accept a Trump electoral college victory if it happens, or whether they would argue that, based on the popular vote and on the fact that Trump is, ipso facto, disqualified by being an insurrectionist, this means that Congress has no obligation to certify him as the winner and allow him to be president. At the very least, this is a question that someone ought to be asking Harris: if Trump wins the electoral college, will you concede defeat?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/18/us-election-electoral-college
https://thespectator.com/newsletter/kamala-commit-certifying-trump-win-bad-press-10-15-2024/
Finally, some sources are claiming that North Korea is sending troops to Russia to join the war against Ukraine. Well, maybe. North Koreans are training in Russia, but no one can be sure of their ultimate destination. In any case, the bigger story here is not the cozy relationship between Russia and North Korea, but the role of China as North Korea's main sponsor. If North Koreans start charging Ukrainian positions in Donbass, it will be because the Chinese want them to, signaling a greater level of Chinese support for Russia and a willingness to risk a more definitive break with the West.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteI have a conservative friend of who lives in Portland, Oregon, which as you know is a huge Lefty city, and has been for some time now. My friend said you really have to watch your mouth out there. Anyway, once and a while, the mailman in her neighborhood puts a neighbor's mail in her box by mistake.
Recently, a lot of his mail was from the Trump campaign, indicating that he had donated and so on. So, the point is, that even in Lefty fortresses such as Portland, there may be more than a few people in those areas who are beyond fed up with Leftism.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Ukraine, I just saw a news clip indicating that Trump is not very happy with Zelensky (spelling?), unless of course what I saw was fake news. If not, then I suspect that Trump may broker some sort of negotiations with Z. and Putin, which is purely a guess on my part.
Hi Ray. We can only hope that the excesses of leftism are beginning to turn off a majority of Americans...but I'm not sure that I believe it. Seems to me that Americans would happily put up with all the crazy wokeness if inflation was at 2% and they could pay the rent without selling a kidney. I'm increasingly optimistic about the election, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that we've won the culture wars. On the contrary, we have a long way to go...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't think Trump is a big Zelensky fan, or vice versa. My guess is that any peace that Trump brokers will ultimately mean the end of Zelensky as Ukraine's leader. Can't come too soon!
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteI suspect that more than a few Leftists realize Harris is not competent enough to run the country, and will either not vote at all, or will vote for Trump, with great reluctance of course.
If Trump does win, I'll be keeping an eye on Vance, in hopes that he does not fade into the background, and that Trump gives him a lot of responsible/important things to do, with lots of visibility. Four years goes fast, and I'm counting on Vance to take the torch and run with it.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I'm surprised Dear Leader allows his troops to serve outside of the N. Korean workers' paradise. They might get the wrong ideas, even in such a setting so very different from their idyllic fiefdom.
ReplyDeleteThe Russians must be hard pressed to have sought help brokered by China. But perhaps they have reached the limit of their conventional capabilities and don't want to go nuclear. What is China's motive in affording Russia such support? I've thought they might go to the aid of Iran because Iran is a key factor in their continental economic and strategic policy ( eg. a new Silk Road as it were). Iran supplies 15% of China's oil but then Russia is an important source of China's oil supplies too. But to my knowledge Ukraine does not threaten Russia's oil fields. If China seeks a more definitive break with the West it may import a conclusion on China's part (actually perhaps a reprised mistrust dating from 19th oppression ) that the West must be dealt with in the main only by strength and a willingness to use it.
Imagine being a Korean soldier fighting in Ukraine. It would probably seem like another world.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think Zelensky is a potentially tragic figure. Maybe any Ukrainian leader, thinking he had a chance to free Ukraine from the threat of detested Great Russian domination would seriously consider taking the risk. He was given to understand by Nato that Ukraine would be welcomed into a Nato which had made an astonishing advance to Russia's very borders. He may well have wishfully thought the Rus might back down; one can certainly sympathize with his desire to assure Ukraine such blessed security from an historically proven monstrous oppressor.
ReplyDeleteBut he lost his bet; Russia drew the line at acquiescence with such a humiliation: "Nato in Ukraine!? NYET!!!" and took the action that some Russia observers had predicted.
Now: Western military support for Ukraine has put America and its allies at a terrible and unsupportable risk. Russia's intransigence in this, no matter our outrage at Russian brutality, is a grim reality which we cannot avoid.
I am confident that a President Trump can and would broker an agreement which would satisfy Russia's historically , geographically and strategically ( and to Russia, existential)determination never to tolerate Ukrainian membership in Nato. "If we give in on this" the Rus reason, "what s - - tful concession would we be asked for next?!!" Pres. Trump could tell Russia that his administration would never vote for Ukraine in Nato - that and only that - no apology to the still cruel and brutal Russians. He could do no more than that because his term is limited to four years but it may be enough for Russia. It would at least give them some welcome breathing space which could motivate them to make peace terms somewhat favorable to the ethnically Ukrainian part of Ukraine at least.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think that a DJT who has shown himself willing and able to negotiate with persons he does not or did not like (eg. his brilliant partnership with JD Vance) would not allow any personal antipathy to prevent him from engaging in fruitful discourse with Zelensky. I would guess he actually admires Zelensky's guts but just wants the US out of this ill considered relationship. Our national security was not at stake in this but it is now and a Pres. Trump would have better fish to fry.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Mr. Douglas, the author of the article you cited, coveniently ignores much:
ReplyDeleteThe Electoral College was Constitutional "afterthought". Perhaps it was in the progress of the Constitutional convention and ratification of the Constitution but the author himself acknowledges that it is not so in our history.
The Founders intended by this measure that populous areas with cultures much different from those of sparse populations not completely dominate the latter.
A present example of such injustice is NY state. Common sense upstate NY is dominated by a legislature and Governorship captured by teeming NY City, a cultural island with views inimical to ours. And we have NO recourse, excepting, sometimes, the courts. And when the courts support us NYC types makes haste to establish laws which contradict judicial intent and which take years to fight legally.
Without the Electoral College the great American interior(both politically and geographically) would be RULED by the airy, dreamy, elitist coasts and their hellish cities. And I would say its better for swing states ,whose support is subject to contest ,to determine elections rather than having elephantine megalopoli like CA and NY dictate to us
So there have been 700 proposed Constutional amendments seeking to reform or abolish the Electoral College? But they have all failed , yes? Maybe that says it all about them, yes!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Oh my! Brit Labor is attempting to influence our election? In one sense I don't blame them; didn't our President presume to advise the British electorate in their recent election/
ReplyDeleteBut then , the present Brit government is of a left wing, perhaps far left wing, cast and as such imagines international constituency (classes, you see, rather than borders). But, what the frig I say: they cannot have much comprehension of our incomprehensibly prolix and grotesquely extended electoral spectacles and can only have but little influence should they attempt to interfere. Rule Brittania but only Brittania.
Ray, I'm pretty sure that zero leftists will vote for Trump, unless you count Kennedy's coterie as leftists, which perhaps you could. If a few leftists stay home or vote for Stein, that would be quite sufficient!
ReplyDeleteJack, the only thing that surprises me is that it took China and NK so long to ante up this level of support for Russia. It's clearly in their interests to make the West look weak, and it's equally clear that the West will never punish them meaningfully for assisting Russia.
I'm not sure how much headway president elect Trump, or President Trump, would make with the Ukrainians and Russians, but a pretty good start would be a ceasefire. How 'bout it?
As for the electoral college, there are plenty of arguments pro and con, but the simple fact is that no one cares about reforming it UNTIL they lose an election -- and, once they lose an election, they quickly move on.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: My experience tells me that it is almost inevitable that in any principled dialogue with by definition emotionally captured far leftists, they are able to contain their intense outrage for but a brief time. They cover it with smirks and gratuitous ersatz acceptance ("I certainly laud your right to your opinion. . . . ") But ere long they are unable to contain themselves and they start getting peevish, as you noted about Harris's interview. In most private situations this is but the prelude to passionate dismissal of any position which disturbs them, featuring accusations using perceived automatically condemning terms from their multitudinous lexicon of "isms" which convict upon very accusation. Spluttering shrieking antipathy is their denouement At no point do they deign calm objective consideration of the positions held by their opponent.That to them would be an unendurable concession to their long since comprehensively discredited opposites.
ReplyDeleteJack, "Shut up!" is the best argument they have... You can't blame them for going back to that well.
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