By now, you’ve heard about the horrific, public murder of Charlie Kirk.

You’ve also seen the avalanche of media coverage, the speeches by prominent political and media folks, and even the heartbreaking broadcast given by his widow this weekend.

You’ve probably seen the almost hourly updates on the investigation and arrest of the alleged perpetrator. The “He’s one of you!” and “No, he’s one of you!” argument started before the barrel of the rifle cooled, and it’s likely to continue for quite some time.

I’ll leave all of those subjects for those more informed and elequent than me.

What I want to discuss here is the wave of folks who, in the aftermath of Mr. Kirk’s assassination, stampeded to media, be it social or traditional or both, to expound on their joy at his death, how he ‘earned’ his fate, and how they would appreciate a second helping of political murder to go with it.

To their surprise, folks who agreed with Mr. Kirk or at least have a soul, started figuring out who these folks are, contacted their employers, and let the consequences fall where they may. Starting about 24 hours after the assassination, we started seeing “I GOT FIRED!!!” videos pop up. First they came one or two at a time, but very soon a tidal wave of disbelief and hystrionics crashed upon the shores of social media.

Apparently, when the rules used during COVID times and after the January 6 debacle are applied to those who danced in the blood of a godly man, it’s rather upsetting to some.

Whether or not this is a good thing can be discussed at length elsewhere, again by those who can do it better than me.

What I want to do is caution the folks on my side – Learn from their downfall.

Someday, someone prominent and controversial on the left side of the aisle is going to die. I truly hope that they die peacefully in their sleep, not in the manner in which Charlie Kirk died. When that happens, we need to keep control of that devil on our left shoulder and refrain from trumpeting whatever evil thoughts run through our minds.

Besides the fact that celebrating the death of another human being, with very few exceptions, is a horrible thing to do, we also need to make sure that there is no “You came after us for what we said about Charlie Kirk, now we’re going to come after you!” excuse for the left.

When that day comes, and it will come, show some humanity and intelligence. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Instapundit links to this series of posts over on Twitter/X:

We told you to leave us alone.

We didn’t want to get too political.

We didn’t want to get too involved.

But you made us.

You went after our kids, our jobs, our money, and our lives.

You made us care.

Remember?

Well this *waves hand* is our response.

Enjoy the bed you made.

Most Americans just want to be left alone. They want to do their jobs, raise their kids, and enjoy their lives. They have vague, at best, political thoughts, and those only bubble to the surface every few years.

They pay attention to local issues, especially those that touch either them or someone they care about. If it happens outside their circle, they might take a few moments out of their day to drop a coin in the donation box at the checkout or make a meal to go to a family in crisis.

But then they want to go back to the daily grind of employment, church, school, and family.

In short – They do not want to be disturbed. They do not want to be inconvenienced. Most of all, they do not want to care. They pay other people to care. They trust other people to care.

Where politicians have messed up in the past decade or so is that they insisted that people care about national and worldwide issues.

Don’t care that some folks can’t get health insurance that is as good as the government thinks they should? Well, now you’re forced to care because the government is telling your insurance company who it has to cover and what it has to cover. Enjoy the decreased coverage and higher premiums.

Don’t care about a war on the other side of the world? Well, the government is going to make you care because money that could have been spent on something closer to home, if at all, is going to be going that way, along with quite likely that nice young man down the road who joined the military a couple years ago. Enjoy the sound of Taps playing out across your local graveyard.

Don’t care how other people are raising their kids because you have your hands full trying to raise your own kids right? Well, the government is going to make you care because it’s going to glorify the most depraved thing you can think of when it comes to children, and then it’s going to teach your kids that depravity is OK. Oh, and don’t tell your parents, little ones, because they’re big meanies. Enjoy the underage drag shows and sterilization of gay teenagers.

So, slowly at first, then all at once, we started to care. The problem for our elected servants is that when we start to care, we go from “Huh?” to “How dare you?” to “I can’t tell you what we’re going to do, but we’re going to need a shovel, some plastic sheeting, and a roll of duct tape.” right quick.

For those playing at home, this is the same mistake the Japanese and Germans made in 1941. We seriously could not have cared less about the wars in Europe and Asia, until somebody bombed us and then one of their friends decided to join in on the fun. After we stopped the bleeding, we proceeded to rip out the problem on both sides of the world, root and branch. In the end, we emasculated two cultures that had thousands of years of martial spirit by pulling that spirit out through their belly buttons.

Now, after taking insults and threats, liberally sprinkled with actual harm done to us, since 2009, the American middle has awoken, rubbed the sleep from its eyes, and has decided to bring hell to breakfast over the whole mess.

Enjoy the next few years. I would suggest praying that this burns out before we finish cleansing the country with fire.

In 2016, any Democrat except Hillary Clinton could have beaten Donald Trump.

In 2020, any Republican except Donald Trump could have beaten Joe Biden.

In 2024, the Republicans could have run a tattered dishrag soaked in the leavings of hog trough and beaten Kamala Harris.

The 2024 election cycle is over.

The 2026 election cycle started last Thursday.

The 2028 election cycle starts on January 22.

First, I’d like to thank the deity of my choice that the election, except for the shouting, is over.

The shouting, on the other hand, is in full swing and full throat. Supporters of Kamala Harris, (D – Tiananmen Square), have proceeded to caterwaul in a manner quite impressive. Some of them, of the distaff side of the equation, have taken to shaving their heads and are swearing off men. I applaud their efforts and pledge to reciprocate. Of course, I’ve been balding for a couple of decades and never had the inclination to engage with men, but support is support.

Indeed, let the crazy flow through you. Put your real selves out there so that the voting population, or at least fifty one percent of them, can feel even better about their choices.

Stay strong and celibate, sisters!

Panning out to a wider view of the map, world leaders, some of whom smiled broadly after the 2020 election, either because they wanted Trump out of the picture or because they knew they’d get a better deal from Biden, are now having to hold what must be some rather awkward phone calls with the once and future president.

Most awkward, I imagine, are conversations between Ukrainian president Zelensky and Mr. Trump. Hey, you come to the United States at the end of a hotly contested election and campaign for one side, you’d better be prepared to eat some crow with Louisiana hot sauce when the other side wins. Look for whatever deal Trump ties to get to end the Russia-Ukraine War to not include a lot of nice-to-haves for the Ukrainians.

Switching to the Middle East, Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be quite pleased with the election results. Reports are that the calls between him and the president-elect have been cordial. I look for whatever fetters the Biden administration has placed upon Israel’s reaction to the October 7 massacres to fall away after the inauguration.

As for Iran. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tehran pours the coal to their efforts to develop atomic weapons. Trump is almost certain to reinstate every bit of sanctions he can once he’s back in power, so getting the bomb before he gets back into office is likely somewhere near the top of their agenda.

Perhaps those last two will intercept somewhere between “Iran does something ignorant” and “Israel makes sure Iran does not have the capability to do something ignorant.” Iran may be able to cobble together a bomb, but it won’t do them much good if their oil export infrastructure is a smoking ruin that they have neither the expertise nor the money to reconstruct.

I really can’t comment on the China-Taiwan situation. It was never my area to learn about, so I’ll refrain from making any pronouncements. I just hope that Beijing doesn’t cash in on their investment before Biden leaves office.

Speaking of Biden leaving office, an odd thought occurred to me. I fully expect the Democrats to do everything they can to throw sand into the gears for the next couple of months in order to make Trump’s life as hard as they can. In addition to the usual new regulations and executive orders they can fight with him from beyond the electoral grave when he tries to rescind them, I expect they’ll get creative. I could see blanket pardons for administration flunkies in our near future, assuming they want to admit that they might be necessary to protect their future phony baloney jobs. Perhaps the Federal Reserve, which dropped interest rates just in time for the election, will reverse their decision and bring them back up high enough to drag the economy into recession just as Trump takes office.

Biden, or whoever has their hand working his mouth these days, could also commit the United States to one or more conflicts. I could see a large contingent of Americans entering Ukraine for ‘support’ purposes, or perhaps naval and air assets being rushed to the Persian Gulf. Biden could even orchestrate a crisis in Korea or the Philippines just to give Trump one thorny issue or another to deal with in his first 100 days.

What better way to punish the rubes and garbage that threw you out of power than to ruin their economy and send their sons and daughters halfway around the world to fight someone else’s war?

Finally, and this jumps right over that ‘conspiracy theory’ line, I could see the Democrats removing Biden from office at the last minute. That would put Kamala Harris into the Oval Office and into the history books as the first female president. Empty, meaningless gestures are the bread and butter of the Democrat party, so this would just be an extreme example of what they’ve been doing for the last decade or so.

Anyway, buckle up. Inauguration Day may kick off the quadrennial protest season, but the next few months are going to be just as ‘fun’ to watch.

Like a lot of people, even some of those in his own party, I was never happy about Joe Biden being President.

I was just a tad too young to vote in 1988, but I vividly remember how big an ass he was during his failed bid for the nomination that year. Hey, if you can’t lie and steal ideas in such a way that it takes at least a little effort to catch you, you should have the grace to commit political seppeku to expatiate your guilt.

Obviously, the Senator from Delaware didn’t have that sort of fortitude, because we’re still dealing with him.

I watched as Biden showed just how big an ass he could be a few years later during the Senate hearings confirming Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. The good Senator’s snide insinuations, insults, and denigration of the nominee’s character should have meant that no proud American of African descent would ever vote for him, much less any American with an ounce of decency.

And yet, here we are.

While I’m just cynical enough to admit that there are vanishingly few politicians as clean as the driven snow, Joe Biden has the reek of decades worth of dishonesty, vice, and graft wafting from his personage. The fact that he has been as corrupt as he is, for as long as he has been, leads one to realize that no amount of debauchery and debasement will ever suffice to get a sitting member of the Senate ejected. That is, of course, if the Senator in question makes sure to voice the right platitudes, vote the right way, and have the right dirt on the right people.

To be honest, when Biden announced that he would not be seeking the presidency in 2016, I thought we would hear the last of him after the inauguration the following year. He’d become a footnote in some history book somewhere while the stain his career brought to our society would be papered over with the stains of the next generation of slime mold accomplishments of those who came after him.

But, in their infinite wisdom, for the 2020 election the Democrats decided to pull Biden out of cold storage, fill him to the gills with what was likely a historic level of pharmaceuticals, and pull out all the stops to install him in the White House.

Since then, we’ve been treated to a view of an old man’s decline from being a washed-up excuse for a Washington swamp dweller to a used-up shell of a human being. Part of me actually pities him as he is pushed out into the spotlight by his harridan of a wife and the usual gang of idiots to mouth some rehearsed lines, answer some pre-ordained questions, and try to get off the stage without tumbling in front of the cameras.

Yes, folks slow down as they get older. Maybe he can be productive for a few hours every day, but the presidency isn’t that kind of job. Biden has to be able to be a decisive leader at any time, day or night. He has to be able to provide direction, sometimes in a chaotic situation, without any preparation.

And he has to be able to do it today, tomorrow, and every single day from now until noon on January 20, 2025. As bad as his condition is now, he has to be able to perform for another seven months. If he should win reelection, he has to be able to do it for almost another five years.

Joe Biden, now more than ever, is not that kind of President.

Go watch a Biden interview or press conference from 2019, then watch last week’s debate. You’ll see the impact the last five years have had on the man. Regardless of what you think of Joe Biden or his politics, do you think he’s going to crawl out of that hole and be good enough to do the job until 2029?

I see several possibilities for the next few months –

1. Biden stays in office and continues his candidacy.

It would cost them, but the Democrats may go with this just to keep from admitting that they’ve been exploiting a senior citizen for half a decade. They may even see something honorable about dancing with the one they dragged to the party.

I don’t see any way that Biden could pull off a win as Trump’s polling numbers start to consistently show a lead that exceeds the margin of cheat. Assuming that Trump still draws breath on Election Day, he is likely to beat Joe Biden.

2. Biden withdraws voluntarily

If you’re waiting for Joe Biden to do the honorable thing and bow out, don’t hold your breath. He would likely have to resign from the Oval Office for ‘health reasons’ as well. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but I would be more surprised to read about this in the news than I would if the headlines proclaimed that the Pope had registered as a Republican.

3. Biden is removed from office and the candidacy

This one is tricky. Maybe the President passes away peacefully in his sleep, as people with his years and condition are known to do. I don’t wish death on President Biden, but it is well within the realm of possibility that Kamala Harris becomes President, and the Democrats have a clear lane to putting a new name on the ballot.

More likely, I think, would be for Mrs. Harris and the Cabinet to remove Mr. Biden from office through the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. I’m sure some way to word their declaration could be found that deflects charges that they’ve covered up for the President’s decline for years, and Joe Biden is put out to pasture. Maybe they’ll even give Mrs. Biden some of what they’ve been dosing the President with so that she’ll go quietly too.

As the clock ticks down to the convention and the election, I see Mr. Biden being removed from office as more and more likely.

But if Biden isn’t on the ballot, what happens with the election?

First, I think, the Democrats would sigh in relief and nominate someone else. Perhaps it would be an orderly, carefully orchestrated process, done in a spirit of collegiality and willingness to forego personal ambition for the good of the nation. However, I don’t think the disparate wings of the party will go for that.

In normal times, Kamala Harris would be the presumptive substitute for her boss. If Biden dies or is removed from office, she becomes President and can use what little success the Biden administration has had as reasons for her own election. She’d certainly get at least some portion of the African American vote, as well as support from those who would reflexively vote for any female just so they could say they did. Perhaps she could get a few piercings, color her hair, and declare herself an ambisexual, left-handed, countercultural foxself to appeal to younger voters who would otherwise listen to ugly rumors of her incompetence.

California governor Gavin Newsom is also a possibility as a replacement. He has executive experience, looks relatively good on camera when ordering dinner at a fancy restaurant, and can safely declare that he accelerated the decline of California into the failed state that he wants to transform the entire country into. He could hold the Golden State up as a shining example of the future under a Newsom dynasty.

There are other non-player candidates that could be put on stage to wave for the cameras and parrot whatever pablum the poobahs of the proletariat want them to. Governor Whitmer of Michigan comes to mind for this role. Hillary Clinton could be reanimated, but she was past her prime in 2016. The intervening eight years have not been good to her. Outside of their core supporters, however, I don’t see much enthusiasm for them or anyone like them. It’s just too late in the election season to (re)introduce someone and get momentum moving.

I don’t think any of these folks could beat Trump.

To me, the wild card is Michelle Obama. Now, she’s never done a day of public service that I know of, she’s never been elected to anything, and she has no history of leadership in the private sector. She’s known for being the wife of a former president, and not much else.

But she has that Obama name, and she has her husband to campaign for her. Love him or hate him, Barack Obama gives an excellent stump speech. The moment she announces a candidacy, you will hear his voice on every news station and political YouTube channel. The DNC and the progressive side of the Democrat party would line up behind her, and the full might of the information and entertainment industries would sing her praises to the masses.

Mrs. Obama would probably have both the black and woman vote, reversing the inroads that Trump has made with those groups. She could point to her husband’s legacy and promise a return to that, gaining her the nostalgia-for-mediocrity vote. Without even the scant political resume her husband had when he ran in 2008, she would be the perfect blank slate upon which voters could project whatever they wanted. Whether or not she would be the perfect marionette for the people who have been pulling Biden’s strings would remain to be seen.

In the face of that, could Trump win? That, I can’t predict. It would be at least as hard a fight as 2016, and I believe even he was surprised he won then.

No matter what, we are moving through uncharted political territory. These are the sort of days that get written about in history books, and I’ve read enough history to know that most folks who live through such times don’t enjoy them.

Buckle up, brothers and sisters. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

The term “Full faith and credit” is part of a clause to the United States Constitution that obligates all states to recognize and support the decisions and licenses of all other states.

In a way, it’s also the only thing holding up the willingness of the American people to recognize and support the actions of those we choose to lead our nation.

Any time someone from the government says that something must be done, they must be prepared to show their work in a way that everyone can understand. “Trust me” is never good enough when we are asked to, voluntarily or not, give up rights and change our lives.

Government officials must also be prepared for transparency when questioned about motives, reasoning, and benefits. “Cui bono?” must always be answered fully and truthfully.

Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, government disrupted the way the people of our nation lived:

• Closing of schools and businesses
  • How many years will it take for our children to recover from the loss of two years worth of meaningful eduction? Emailed worksheets and virtual learning are no substitute for time spent with a teacher.
  • How many small businesses shut down in early 2020 and never returned.? How many families lost investments, income, and their dreams when the government forced them to close their doors?
• Imposition of isolation, both in public and in homes
  • Children, denied the interaction with their peers crucial to their development, were kept at home with only caregivers, siblings, and screens for company. Even the joy of a day at the park, the zoo, the beach, or even short walks through their neighborhoods were denied on pain of arrest for their parents.
  • People in the last moments of their life, whether they suffered from Covid-19 or from the myriad other things that bring us to the end of our mortal coil, died in isolation. These unfortunate souls were denied even the last touch of their family or anointing of their body by clergy.

At the core of all this was the direction provided by the public health apparatus of the state, principally the ex-cathedra dictates of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. With little to no explanation as to why such measures were necessary in so broad a stroke, government officials turned our nation and our way of life on its head and demanded obedience.

Now, due to testimony to Congress, we learn that even the so-called experts had no evidence to support such things such as mandatory masking, social distancing, and other measures taken during the epidemic. You were directed to mask your children and isolate them so that they would not spread the disease to elderly teachers and grandchildren. You were forced to mask yourself and keep six feet away because of some idea that a cough or sneeze could force virus upon those around you.

Common sense measures such as “If you don’t feel well, stay home.” or “The elderly or those with other health problems should take extra measures to protect themselves, but everyone else should continue with their lives.” were replaced with “14 days to flatten the curve. I mean, make that 3 months. Well, maybe until Christmas, but don’t you have anyone over for Thanksgiving. And stay out off the beach, because fresh air and sunshine might kill your children!”

Our nation and the world in general were turned upside down by a group of people who didn’t want to admit that they were making it all up as they went along.

The most frustrating part of this, to me, is that there is no way to right the ship. We cannot turn back the clock. We cannot give two years of education back to our children. The millions of people who had their livelihoods stolen from them can never be made whole. Most of all, there is no way this side of the grave for us to comfort the souls of our loved ones who perished, alone and unattended.

Government only works when the governed trust the government. Every time that trust is abused, it diminishes on a scale equal to or greater than the impact of the abuse. Once lost, that trust will not easily be restored, and only at a great cost of time and treasure.

The actions of elements of both the Trump and Biden administrations over the Covid-19 pandemic eroded public trust to a huge extent. We will be dealing with the ramifications of those actions for decades, but the most impactful will be the loss of trust between our people and our servants in the government.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen and children of all political parties!

This year, we have a rematch of epic proportions!

In this corner, hailing from the dandy state of Delaware, with a record of 47 years in elected office and 81 million ‘votes’, in the blue flannel pajamas, we have the Ayotollah of Tapioca, Smokin’ Jooooooe Biiiiiiiden!

And in this corner, hailing from whatever over-the-top, yuge mansion he chooses to live in this week, wearing the gold briefs, the best briefs you’ve ever seen, I mean you’ll be tired of looking at gold briefs with this guy, with an even record for 1 and 1 for electoral campaigns, we have the Buddha of Bronzer, Destructor Doooonaaaaald Truuuuummmmp.

OK, enough of that. As an independent voter, I have to ask – Is this the best we can do?

On the Democrat side we have the worst case of elder abuse I’ve ever seen. We’ve got a career politician who has never done a darned useful thing in his life and is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.

On the Republican side, we have a billionaire who is famous for being famous, was relatively successful as a president as long as everything was going swimmingly, and whose ire for his enemies is only surpassed as his ire for folks on his side who disagree with him.

Seriously? I’m supposed to choose from one of these two?

And don’t get me started about independent and third-party candidates. I’ve seen better pickings at a bring-your-village-idiot-to-work ping pong tournament.

I just keep whispering “Only 8 more months to the election, only 8 more months to the election.” Then, I get depressed, look longingly at a playlist of Reagan’s greatest speeches, and consider whether a write-in of Thomas Massie is worth the ink.

Good luck, America. You’ll need it.

Today is the First of May, which is celebrated by Communists world-wide as a day to celebrate workers and all that Communism brings them. Parades in Moscow’s Red Square, where all of the rhetoric of a peaceful people’s revolution is on display, still happen even 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Please forgive me if I don’t partake. In fact, just pass me by with the opportunity to celebrate that particular cause.

My stance on Communism, Socialism, or whatever you want to call ‘What’s yours is mine, and how dare you object to that?” comes from multiple sources.

It comes from a woman I knew growing up who escaped East Berlin a day or two before the wall went up, but her husband didn’t.

It comes from holding a friend while she cried her eyes out after her cousins were murdered in Tiananmin Square.

It comes from a Ukrainian woman who taught me Russian, whose earliest memory is of hunger and death during the Holodomor.

It comes from my Russian instructor from Moscow who remembers his father being dragged out of their apartment one cold night, and never coming back.

It comes from seeing the monuments to the people killed by Stalin’s purges sprinkled liberally across Russia.

It comes from seeing multipile countries on multiple continents where the exported terror of Communist or Socialist causes brought death, and in some cases, worse than death, to millions of people through war, famine, and a brutality that cannot be imagined unless you’ve seen its aftermath.

It comes from camps, and trains, and basement prisons, and statues to genocidal dictators, and tee shirts emblazoned with the ugly mug of a homophobic mass murderer, and to lonely graves in cold, dark forests filled with the ashes and bodies of enemies of the people.

So, spare me your platitudes about a better, kinder future through common effort and common reward. Go wave your red banner somewhere else. I’ll be here remembering the dark past of your bright future.