Imitating Immaturity

We are now in the midst of an pandemic. No, not the coronavirus, but Trump imitators.

Admittedly, President Trump has a sandpaper personality ... although less so recently ... and with offsetting policy pluses. This unattractive part of his temperament has spawned lots of obnoxious copy cats ... over-paid jocks, Nancy Pelosi, CNN commentators, many state governors, Chuck Schumer, Blue State mayors, snow-flake protestors, some foreign heads of state, Hollywood twits ... and many ... too many others ... without the good policy offsets ... a very disappointng gaggle of juvenile adults.

In 2016 Marco Rubio learned the hard way that trying to trade insults with the Orangeman was a huge mistake ... but this lesson was apparently not learned by the above sophomoric simps.

The real conundrum is why Trump elicits such a tide of imitators ... particularly since such aping does not compliment the apers ... it makes them appear petty and truculent. If they hate Trump so much, why try to emulate him? This is counterintuitive and I certainly can’t explain it.

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Headlines

Top fugitive in Rwanda’s genocide arrested outside of Paris

Trump may restore some WHO funding after widespread criticism, but no final decision made yet

CDC: 100,000 dead by June ...

Clapper: I don’t recall what prompted unmasking request

Trump praises rapid coronavirus test despite FDA warning

Coronavirus live updates: Grocery shopping is evolving, NY race tracks reopening

Navajo Nation residents to be under strictest lockdown yet ...

Report: Amb. Marie Yovanovich had more extensive contact with Burisma than she admitted to impeachment inquiry

Trump names team to develop coronavirus vaccine at ‘Warp Speed’

House Democrats pass $3 trillion coronavirus relief package

Fed: Financial system under severe strain ...

Hollywood sees mass carnage as unemployment hits entertainment industry

Screenwriter

Adam Schiff moved from Framingham, MA to Hollywood, CA to become a movie screenwriter. He displayed his talent for same when he composed and read the phony transcript of the July 25th phone call between Trump and the Ukraine’s new President Zelensky.

It is now obvious why he chose instead to go into politics ...

Dissonance

President Trump’s stock-in-trade is dissonance. He seems to relish in keeping things all mixed up and then, in a feat of legerdemain, stepping back to display a masterpiece ... a hotel skyscraper, a shangrala resort, an international treaty, a booming economy, whatever. The majority of his critics seem to base their discomfort with this process by opposing him in the most bizarre ways imaginable. They create their own confusion with loopy statements. They call him a liar for his vagueness. They attack his family. They themselves tell the most outrageous half-truths and even bold-face whoppers. They work against his wishes by stealthy insubordination (and get sacked.) They leak anything even remotely damaging to a sympathetic media. They try to make him go away with an actual coup ... and, when that doesn’t work, with impeachment.

But this man is unfazed. He knows he can pull things off eventually ... and is gradually winning converts ... even among the swamp creatures. (He long ago convinced middle America that he knew what he was doing.)

Will this orange man survive the elite crazies who are still trying to destroy him so that their worlds will return to “normal” ... meaning the cushy life they had gotten used to? By all rights they should prevail. After all, how can one man stand up to all these powerful forces ... suburban women, Hollywood, academia, much of the media, the Deep State, the Davos crowd, many blowhard politicians, Omarosa and some international leaders? Matter of fact it is hard to find his consistently loyal friends. He doesn’t even have a dog.

I have a suspicion that, if he survives this balls-out impeachment attack by the Left, he may well carry the day in most other matters. If he doesn’t, yes the dissonance will go away, but America will be damaged almost beyond repair.

Brutal Killings

The brutal killings of 9 Mormon women and children in northern Mexico by this country’s drug and human-trafficking cartel has caused President Trump to offer US military aid to the president of Mexico to defeat this super menace. However, another menace exists over our border in America. Hollywood swells and sports “heroes” blithely stuff cocaine up their noses ... oblivious to the cost that this is wrecking on tens of thousands of Mexicans ... and now some more Americans.

Mexico cannot defeat this scourge by themselves. They are part of the problem. I am not accusing the current Mexican government of corruption, but I can’t believe that they can long resist. A previous Mexican president was bribed with $100 million to look the other way. So, if the current administration is determined to root out corruption, they are bound soon to be corrupted.

But the villains also are our American plutocrat addicts who spend their fat salaries on their drug indulgences ... oblivious of the cost in lives ... Mexican and now American ... that their selfish indulgences are causing. They are also the ones who should be brought to justice in this evolving war. They are worse than scum. They are glitterati vermin.

Virtue Signaling

Our Constitution was a dike against tyranny

See: USA Today Article.

Is it only a matter of time before vegans force Walmart and other woke companies from selling meat? Or fundamental Christians forcing Amazon and other book sellers from offering the Koran? Or Hollywood liberals to blacklist Trump voters?

Where is our Hans Brinker?

Headlines

Sanders launches second bid for presidency

‘Panic buying’ likely to drive stock market higher in the near term

‘Empire’ strikes back, cutting Jussie Smollett’s scenes ...

EU boss Junker opens door to Brexit delay

New Hampshire gives Harris a hard time for rarely showing up

California and 15 other states sue over Trump’s national emergency

Warren unveils [free] child care funded by wealth tax ...

EXCLUSIVE: Leaked photos show El Paso border facilities overwhelmed

Nancy Pelosi to Europe: Trump is not the boss

Andrew McCabe: I told Congressional leaders that the FBI was investigating Trump — and they didn’t object

Barry Diller: Hollywood now irrelevant ...

Poll: 85% of Republicans approve of Trump’s national emergency to build wall

Headlines

GOP in the dark as president makes the case for emergency declaration

Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'I'm very optimistic about US-China trade talks'

LEFT TURN: NYC guarantees free healthcare for all ...

Poll: Plurality agrees with Donald Trump's 'border crisis' description

Supreme Court turns down mysterious Mueller subpoena fight

BP just discovered a billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico

Trump campaign chairman gave polling data to Russian ...

Former Facebook employees compare company to 'cult'

Trump gets reprieve from economic freak out. But will it last?

Chinese middle class is buying up American residential real estate

Another black man dies in home of West Hollywood Dem donor

Obama-appointed Border Patrol chief: Trump right about the wall

Picture for Today

From Powerline Blog

See no evil, hear no evil, not sure about speak no evil ...

Revelation

Harvey Weinstein

It seems there is an awful lot of wood in Hollywood ...

Woody Allen

A Political Chimera

Headline: Democrats say they agreed to make a DACA deal with Trump -- without the border wall ... see: CNBC Story. I fill up my pipe and dream the following:

- Establishment Republicans want a DACA deal and no border wall

- Democrats want a DACA deal and no border wall

- Populist Americans want a border wall before any DACA deal

- Trump gets a bipartisan DACA deal through Congress but no border wall

- Populist Americans abandon Trump in droves ... meaning no likely re-election in 2020

- Democrats have no real message or candidate for 2020

- Trump switches to the Democrat party and runs in 2020 with the backing of Democrats and establishment Republicans. Crooked Hillary is his running mate.

- Steve Bannon opposes him as the candidate from the newly-formed Populist party. Jeff Session is his running mate.

- Steve Bannon wins the presidency in a landslide and gets a majority in both houses of Congress with primaried Republicans and some Democrats who have switched to the Populist party.

- Construction begins on the border wall

- Fully half of Hollywood moves to Canada

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico.

Jimmy Carter collapses at Habitat build ...

Senate Republicans one vote away from Obamacare repeal failure

Shortage of foreign labor forces Maine businesses to hire local workers

He's in: Kid Rock running for Senate

Stock market up 17% since Trump election ...

Trump: I may slap quotas and tariffs on steel

Pelosi: Funding sex change preserves national security

Shock: Criminal aliens drawn to sanctuary cities

Hollywood relying on China to halt box office slide ...

Trump: Democrats overplayed their hand on 'the Russia thing'

Liberal media bias got Trump elected, says former federal prosecutor

Study: 73% of Democrats would give up alcohol for Trump impeachment

Culture Wars

The Republicans now control Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court and 2/3rds of the states' legislatures ... obviously a huge win in the political wars. This is a bit surprising since the Democrats keep winning the cultural wars ... as exemplified by Bill O'Reily recent ouster from Fox News. The Democrats, by diluting the Fox message, now have even a bigger strangle hold on the media. And since they also control Hollywood, higher education,Wall Street, most of the music business, foundations, the Internet social media and, increasingly, sports broadcasting, they are bound to make a political comeback if they can just find a few likable candidates.

Unless, of course, conservatives can somehow begin to make equivalent inroads in the cultural wars. But how? Well, the longest journey starts with a few steps.  I can think of two modest initial targets ... journalism schools and foundations. This won't be easy as these two institution are loaded with progressives. Let us look at each one separately:

- For the journalism schools, may I suggest that some wealthy conservatives endow some inspirational and conservative professors to teach courses like Journalistic Ethics or The Rule of Law or Facts vs. Opinion. Perhaps a few students might be disuaded from being proxy politicians.

- For the foundations, I would suggest that a few lawsuits might be initiated to insure that now-liberal foundations be forced to comply with their original charters ... many of which are far afield from that which they now practice. I suspect that many of those who set up foundations for noble ends are spinning in their graves over what has happened to their beloved intentions.

Just accomplishing these two started goals would be a good win in the other, equally-important battle ... the  conservatives' battle to win back the culture wars. But in any case it should be a long slogue.

Ah Ha Moment

John Hinderaker has done it again in his Powerline blog post on Pepsi's latest contraversial commercial. He has explained why I can no longer sit through the pap movies coming out of Hollywood ... see: Why Movies No Longer Move Me. Here is Hinderaker's observation that had escaped me:

Let’s start with Hollywood: why are most of its films so mind-numbingly stupid? Why do most have no dialogue above a grade-school level? Why are they mainly about explosions, superheroes, car chases and so on? And why are American movies no longer patriotic? A big part of the answer is that the Hollywood studios don’t care much about Americans anymore. Their biggest market is China, and foreign sales overall dwarf U.S. sales. American movies are made mostly for Chinese and Indian film-goers. If you think about it, that explains a lot.

If you want to see the context of this ah ha moment, see: Powerline Blog.

The Oscars

The Oscars were once a celebration of artistry and acting achievement. No more. This gala has morphed into an exposition of egomania. When the host, in this case the unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, can call our president (ironically, one of them) old and fat, this celebration has abandoned all semblance of representing American values. Almost without their realizing it, the symbiotic relationship that Hollywood once had enjoyed with movie goers has become parasitic. We, the unwashed, the unhip, the unwise, have elected as our president someone whom these glitterati just can't accept. They are bigger and better than us ... just look at their mansions, their clothes, their awards, their private jets, their adoring fans.

All these accoutrements must mean that they are right and we, who voted for Trump, are wrong. They want our previous president back ... because he was with them and they were with him. They can't dare to think that his policies were bad for America. After all the echo chamber that is most of our media fell all over themselves saying this in many clever and concocted ways. The fact that these outlets are losing readership and viewership is disturbing only in that it presages our country drifting into a undemocratic dictatorship ... full of irredeemable deplorable people. (Of course, forgetting that these are the paying audience for their increasingly political and derivative pap.)

Of course these zombies have not lost their acting abilities ... and so they can fake sincerity with the best of the politicians ... or perhaps the other way round? They prance and pose on the red carpet (an appropriate color). They regurgitate the latest memorized mainstream media memes, not really understanding the implications. They now hate Russia but love communism. They hate borders but love their high compound fences. They hate guns but have body guards. They eschew violence but use it extensively in their movies. They hate Israel but embrace Islam while violating most of its tenets ... tenets which would call for their death or maiming. I think the term for these character discrepancies is hypocrisy.

And so these celebrated low-lives assemble at the Oscars to reinforce their delusions that they are righteous and caring. They embrace all and every "good" thing while looking down their noses at those of us who may have concerns about their Utopian visions. They will whisk up their golden statues and six figure swag bags, retire to posh pandering parties with other cocaine-sniffing celebrities ... comforted that they are righteous and we, their uninformed audiences, are stupid and wrong.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. 

Guess which ones came from Politico?

Hollywood melts down over Trump

Trump will skip White House Correspondences' Dinner ...

Woodward tells media: Stop whining ...

Top Democrat has 'grave concerns' about Trump-Russia investigation

Sources: U.S. considers quitting UN Human Rights Council

Electric car makers on battery alert ... as hedge funds stockpile cobalt ...

NASA tests supersonic jet ... 1,354 MPH ...

Van Jones at University of Chicago: Safe spaces are a 'terrible idea'

GWB daughter, Barbara to keynote Planned Parenthood fundraiser

Trump wages war on Chicago

German police shoot fleeing driver who mowed down three

Exclusive: Leaked GOP Obamacare replacement shrinks subsidies, Medicaid expansion

Swag Bags

The plutocratic glitterati attending the Oscar ceremonies this weekend are given gratis a bunch of goodies, a swag bag, mostly for promotional reasons. Can we call this "gilding the lily?" The monetary value of these gifts can exceed six figures ... certainly to most of us not so blessed with big screen abilities ... a green-eyed monster temptation, The details of what is in these swag bags comes from: A CNBC Story. And here is a sampling of the contents:

An Oomi "intelligent home" starter kit - $599

A CPR Anytime kit - $38.50

Three nights at the Lost Coast Ranch in California – price on application

A customized set of Crayola crayons - $24.99

A limited edition Elvie pelvic floor exercise tracker - $199

A wooden Positive Cube box, filled with cards of positive quotes - $40

A jar of pecans from the National Pecan Shellers Association – prices vary

A solid gold and diamond-encrusted OM bracelet from Yoga Jewelz - $375

A pack of 10 sweat-absorbing Dandi Patches - $7.99

A week at the Golden Door spa - around $8,850

Five nights at the Kōloa Landing in Hawaii  - around $5,750

Three nights at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria in Sorrento - $2,100

Three nights at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo on Lago Como - around $4,200

If I had to do it over when I was starting out, I think I would have tried out as the fourth Stooge.

"Them that has, gets!"

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Study rates Los Angeles world's most clogged city ...

Radioactive particles detected across Europe ...

Trump's immigration orders could drive crime up, say experts

ICE raids shrivel the supply of day laborers at Home Depots

British territory [Gibraltar] seizes Russian billionaire's yacht

Democrats invoke 25th Amendment, question Trump's mental health

Rex Tillerson is already cleaning out State Department

Milo Yiannapolous disinvited from CPAC slot over tape controversy

Simon & Schuster cancels Milo Yiannapolous' book

[Milo disappears from Brietbart news site headlines]

Hollywood studios in turmoil after spate of executive firings

Police say newly freed gang member kills California officer

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Suspect in Quebec mosque attack quickly identified as Moroccan. He is a white nationalist

DeBlasio calls Trump's exec order affront to religious liberty, but called for Ciick-Fil-A boycott

Flashback: Democrats tried to block thousands of Vietnam war refugees, including orphans

MAG: Hollywood as we know it is already over ...

Hollywood SAG show turns into a Trump-bashing fest ...

Andrew Sullivan: America is still the future ...

Nearly 300 shootings so far this year [in Chicagoland] ...

Podesta Group loses Google parent company as client

Emboldened by Trump, police unions look to overhaul Obama reforms

Another media fail: 57% uphold temporary ban on refugees from terror exporting countries

Flashback: Obama stranded legal Cuban travelers in airports in his last week in office

James Cameron criticizes Trump administration: 'These people are insane'

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Chinese New Year's fireworks sparks return to hazardous Beijing pollution

Trump sets 5-year and lifetime lobbying ban for officials ...

California could cut off funds to Feds ... non-compliance with tax code

Trump throws wrench in China Hollywood takeover ...

Zuckerberg halts Hawaii land suit

Elizabeth Warren fails to disclose $1.3 million line of credit

[Trump] ... hopes to reduce EPA staff, carbon footprint by 50%

Report: Malia Obama attends Dakota Access Pipeline protest at Sundance

France and Germany unite to oppose Trump's refugee plan

Trudeau: Canada welcomes migrants

British PM: Trump confirms he is 100% behind NATO

ACLU accuses D.C. police of violating rights of inauguration protesters