Day At The Beach
25/02/24 07:11
Let's get this party started, boys and girls. We've got a new week on our hands, so let's make the best of the next 7 days to get as much as we can down on paper. Today is President's Day so there's not much going on in the financial markets. I think Nividia reports on Wednesday, and that could swing things one way or another, but that's still a couple of days away. We also have perhaps another week of the Fanni Willis bullshit down there in Georgia. I don't know what to think about the prospects for that case. There is no jury so we'll have to see how the judge comes down at the end of the day. He's a white guy who's up for reelection in a mostly black district, so I'm not holding my breath. He also seems very decent so there's that. Will the Supreme Court decide both Colorado and the presidential immunity cases in Trump's favor? Let's hope so.
I read something yesterday about Putin threatening to nuke a few major cities in Europe and the United States if the powers that be attempt to claw back Ukrainian territories gained by Russia. I think Washington D.C. was mentioned specifically as were major cities like London, etc. Can you imagine? It sounds an awful lot like mutually assured destruction to me. There are no winners in these kinds of things. As much as I like to think it would reduce the number of scumbag politicians we have in Washington D.C., the collateral damage caused by the detonation would be unthinkable. Beyond unthinkable, actually. The same can be said for the sheer devastation caused by the missiles launched from sea to shining sea in Europe. The fervor and obsessive hatred of Putin and all things Russia day in and day out in the Halls of Congress must be tempered for the sake of our future and the futures of our children. Where there's a will, there's a way.
I was reading something yesterday about the fact that large portions of Ukraine have been ceded to multinational corporations over the last few years. So, Ukrainian boys and girls are giving their lives on the battlefield fighting to protect land that no longer belongs to Ukraine? It's one thing to ask your fellow countrymen to fight for your country and quite another to send them into the charnel house that is on the front lines with Russia in order to protect the interests of multinational corporations. That may explain why Zelensky would like nothing more than to have Americans fighting Russians in Ukraine. It may also help explain why he thinks he's entitled to an unlimited supply of financial and military support from the United States and other countries. It might be interesting to know as well just how much of Ukraine's territory now in Russia's sphere belonged to somebody other than Ukraine. Good luck getting any of that land back from Russia. It might also be interesting to find out which of the multinational corporations that now own vast tracts of land in Ukraine have donated to the Democrat Party. Let's not forget the Big Guy's cut (ten percent.)
I watched Trump's rally in Michigan this past weekend. I was thinking to myself, what the hell is he doing in Michigan when South Carolina's primary is this coming weekend (Feb 24th)? In looking at the primary calendar this morning I see that Michigan's primary is on the 27th of this month. Damn, I've heard little to nothing of the Michigan primary. I'm guessing that has a lot to do with the fact that Birdbrain Haley hails from South Carolina and that's where the media has been focusing their efforts. If I hear Birdbrain say one more time that we are going to have a female president and it will either be her or Kamala Harris, I think I'm going to lose it. She's so far gone that she was quoted on one of the Sunday talk shows yesterday saying that she either can't or won't endorse Trump if he's the Party's candidate in the Fall. That's one way to make sure that you'll never have another shot at the White House now that you've pissed off or otherwise alienated every last one of Trump's eighty-some-odd million supporters. The polls have Trump beating her by roughly thirty points in South Carolina so let's see if we can't put the final nail in her coffin there before she goes on to make an even bigger fool of herself in States like Michigan.
I don't spend a lot of time writing about Israel because it's a complicated subject and not something I know much about. I understand what Israel is trying to accomplish in routing out Hamas wherever they are and it makes sense to me. Do I think it's overkill in some areas? Yes, I do. That doesn't mean I think Israel shouldn't keep going until they achieve their objectives. Israel announced recently that they were going to send troops into Rafah, which is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. That likely means more Palestinian civilian deaths and untold carnage the likes of what we've seen in Gaza overall. Here's the deal, as Bumbles Biden tells us: In order to satisfy the progressive moonbats whose support he'll need in the November elections in their eternal quest to stop Israel from killing Palestinians, even if it means that Israel will not achieve their objectives, Bumbles wants a vote in the UN to stop Israel from going into Rafah. Are you telling me that Biden is an empty suit whose policies depend on which way the wind is blowing at any given moment? That's exactly what I'm telling you. He just stabbed Israel in the back, but you wouldn't know that from reading fish wrappers like the New York Times. It's a sad sad state of affairs.
Well, there you have it. No sooner did I comment on Birdbrain Haley than she announced that she'll be making an announcement today at noon on the "state of the race." We're four days away from the South Carolina primary, and she is down, even by conservative estimates, some 25 points against Trump. This is one of those types of deals where you get the hell out of the race so you can live to fight another day. Nobody wants to get shellacked in their home state, I mean nobody. She's actually been stepping up her attacks on Trump as of late so stepping down now seems a little weird. Then again, what's the point of making this speech so close to the primary? Maybe she has a revelation of sorts to proclaim. Will this be yet another "grab them by the pussy" moment for Trump and his campaign? Who the hell knows? I wouldn't put anything past Birdbrain knowing how desperate she is to be elected president. She's never lost an election, don't you know. She'll be the first to tell you that. I'll be tuning in to hear what she has to say to be sure. If this is nothing more than a ploy to appeal to a wider audience, I'll be moving on to something else and quickly.
Now we have Prince William saying that too many Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war and that the fighting should end "as soon as possible." He needs to mind his own fucking business. Are we Americans telling him and his Royal family to stop doing this or that when it comes to international affairs? Then again, maybe Bumbles Biden asked that the Royals weigh in and echo Bumble's constant crowing that Israel stop killing Palestinians. They know that Biden is senile. Right? Why would you go along with the wishes of a demented old fuck who, at any given time, doesn't know what day of the week it is? Maybe Willy is just tipping his hand on how he and his fellow Brits are planning to vote should it end up for a vote at the UN. I'm not a big monarchy guy so don't sound so surprised to see me taking shots at the Crown from time to time. I'm of the opinion that Buckingham Palace, and any number of other Crown-owned palatial estates dotting the English countryside, would be better put to use were they to be freed up to house the homeless. I'm not talking about housing illegal aliens from Rwanda. Don't get me going on illegal aliens.
Maybe it's me. I listen to Trump speaking these days, and I hear the same old tired stories. I love the guy and think he'll do a great job in his third term come January next year. But, I think his repeating the same old stories time and time again is a function of age and foreshadows a potential loss of linguistic flexibility that one typically associates with the onset of dementia or worse. That said, he's head and shoulders ahead of Biden by any stretch of the imagination as I sit here today. We've also seen how rapidly this sort of thing can advance in just a few years by comparing Biden now to when he was inaugurated three-plus years ago. How soon after Trump's inauguration will we see him taking extended vacations and calling lids halfway through the workday? We all loved his sparring sessions with the "fake news media" types, and those, too, could go the way of the albatross if I'm right about any of this. Then again, if what we're seeing is nothing more than Trump slowing down in old age then I think that's something that we can work with. As my guy, Gary Kaltbaum, loves to say, I think we need to see a few more cards come out of the deck before we get a better sense as to where we're going with any of this.
I don't mean to sound insensitive but why does the West need to praise this guy Navalny as some kind of martyr? Unless you bow to the leftist media and sing the praises of the guy while simultaneously blaming Putin for allegedly killing him then you are a Putin apologist, or worse. Of course, I condemn anyone who poisons or jails his political opponents, so if it's true what they say about Putin doing all those things to Navalny, then that's not good. You can despise Putin for what he does when it comes to silencing (or worse) his political opponents without demanding that one join a chorus of clapping seals who never miss a chance to pillory one of America's favorite straw dogs, Vladamir Putin. The mainstream media excoriated Trump for not having anything to say about Navalny's untimely demise in the immediate aftermath of his death and then gave him a few more editorial elbows when he said what he said when he said it, which was not soon enough for the leftist media. I just think that this is really about the Military Industrial Complex and their leftist enablers in Biden's White House finding one more reason to demonize Putin as if Putin's shock troops killing tens of thousands of Ukrainians since the beginning of the war isn't enough. Criticizing Trump is just icing on the cake.
The missus will sing my praises this morning when she finds out that I whipped together a mushroom, broccoli, and cheese quiche before the sun came up. It's been a while since I made a quiche so I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things now that I've made one. What getting back into the swing of things means exactly, I can't say. I do wish we had a nice grapefruit to go with the quiche. A smattering of home fries would be nice too. Does anyone care for a rash of bacon? Maybe we'll have to settle for a nice piece of buttered raisin toast. A half slice a piece would do the trick, I imagine. I have some orange juice in the fridge which we may or may not have with our breakfast. Why did I buy that in the first place? It's so sugary and sweet and not something that we typically keep on hand. How about some V8 with a squeeze of lemon? Now we're talking. I took a picture of the quiche right out of the oven because it is not nearly as pretty once it starts to cool and deflate. I could crawl back into bed and show the missus my photo before she has a chance to lay eyes on the now-deflated quiche. I could, but I won't.
I'm beginning to wonder if the Supreme Court is waiting until Friday of this week to issue their decisions on both the Colorado and Trump's presidential immunity cases. I'm not sure if that portends good or bad news for Trump. One of the left-wing media outlets had a chyron up the better part of the day yesterday announcing that the Court's decision was imminent. Other outlets said nothing because there was nothing to say. There was no announcement, which means that we could get the ruling today (Thursday) or possibly tomorrow. In New York City, the District Attorney, Letitia James, announced that if Trump doesn't put up the bond for the $350 million judgment in the civil fraud case, she will go to the courts and ask the courts to approve the seizure of his properties. I take a certain amount of pleasure in learning about the various and sundry real estate and financial institutions that are making plans to leave the Big Apple now that the Marxists have taken control of the Courts as evidenced by the Trump civil fraud case. Burn it the fuck down, is what I say. Is there any question in anyone's mind that once Trump Tower is confiscated that each and every tenant will be given 30 days to vacate the premises whereupon the units will be filled once again with illegal aliens from shithole countries around the world?
It seems crazy to me that getting these nonsensical judgments overturned, such as we see in Trump's civil fraud case, take as long as they do to get squared away, if at all. I would say the same thing about any convictions that may come down on one or more of Trump's criminal cases. Just so you know, Jack Smith has had many of his cases overturned by the Supreme Court, but the damage had already been done so there was little to no recourse for the plaintiff. What I'm saying is that Smith may get a conviction in court, and that conviction may get overturned, but not before Trump loses an election because he's been branded by a jury of his peers as a "felon." Such is Smith's mandate from Biden's DOJ, truth be told. I heard someone say that it will be two years before Trump's civil fraud case gets in front of an Appeals court. Maybe they were referring to the Supreme Court, which only hears cases after they've wound their way through the appeals court process. Once on the docket in the Supreme Court, it can take months before we get a decision. There is a chance that the New York Appeals Court will do the right thing and either throw out the case or substantially reduce the amount of the judgment. They cannot take the risk of seeing businesses fleeing the state en masse.
The stock market has been on a bit of a tear going back to the October bottom in 2023. Nvidia, the chipmaker, really juiced the Market yesterday. From the various and sundry tweets I read in the days leading up to the release of Nvidia's earnings after the close yesterday, you had two choices. If you thought the earnings were going to be gangbusters, you put all your chips in the middle of the table. If you thought they were going to fall short, you were shorting the bejesus out of the stock. It went without saying that as Nvidia goes, so goes the Market. You might even think of Nvidia as the new Apple (AAPL) since this is the kind of anticipation and Market reaction that we once saw when Apple reported its quarterly earnings. Let's just say that Nvidia didn't disappoint. It provided fuel for the entire Market, driving the NASDAQ (+2.9%) and S&P (2.11%) to an all-time high for the two indices. Is 2024 following the 1999 pattern in the stock market, where it went vertical for the better part of the year? Or, are things getting a bit frothy here where it makes sense to bank a few profits? One would hate to get out only to see the market continue its meteoric ascent. Then again, pullbacks, while typically healthy, can also be quite painful. Maybe there's something to be said for the cliche, "The trend is your friend."
Biden is hinting at putting together an executive action that will result in fewer people crossing into our country illegally. Wait a minute. Didn't the Democrats just try to get a bipartisan immigration bill across the finish line that did the same thing? That bill died a miserable death in the Senate and never made it to the House for a vote. Republicans have been saying since day one that Biden had all the power he needed to close the border and no additional legislation was required. I don't know who Biden and the people surrounding him think they're fooling with his latest offer of an executive action. Maybe they think that there are just enough voters who are gullible enough to believe that Biden wants to do something to solve the illegal alien problem that it can't hurt to put it out there as a trial balloon. Biden has allowed some ten million illegal aliens into our country since his inauguration, and he'll be keeping the gates open for another 10 million or so between now and Election Day executive action or no executive action. He and his Democrat Party are determined to turn red states blue to achieve their ultimate wet dream of a one-party rule country. And, don't think for a moment that if Biden wins a second term he and his party won't be packing the Supreme Court. If lying through your teeth is what it takes, Biden won't disappoint.
I finally bit the bullet and bought a soundbar for our new television. I had no idea that soundbars were a thing. When did this all start? I know television speakers can sound a bit tinny, but they're not so bad that you find yourself needing to "fix" the problem by adding a secondary sound source. Or, are they? Is that by design? Are the television manufacturers in cahoots with the soundbar manufacturers? Some of the soundbars I looked at online are more expensive than the televisions. Well, at least the television that we purchased recently. Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of a home theater as much as the next guy. I worry that we'll get to the point where televisions won't come with internal speakers anymore. The darn things, and I'm talking about the televisions, are wafer-thin to begin with these days. And, that's with speakers. I had to look around the back and the bottom of my set just to assure myself that I didn't buy a television set without speakers. Even then, I couldn't be sure that the vents I was looking at weren't for ventilation instead of sound. Just to be safe, I purchased a soundbar with a brand name that matches the brand name of our television. See how that works?
I'm starting to worry a little bit about the cash advantage that the Democrats have going into the final stretch between now and Election Day. You've got all of these well-heeled Hollywood high-flyers, high-tech billionaires, and music icons making contributions to the Democrat Party thinking, and probably rightly so, that cash is the mother's milk of politics. The Marxists can flood the airwaves with their propaganda while Republicans are still passing the hat for small-donor contributions at the local Home Depot. It's not helping that the Democrats and their Marxist counterparts in the legal system are levying outrageous and onerous fines on the leading candidate in our Party to further cripple our ability to level the playing field. I'm talking about the $400 million dollar fine levied aginst Trump. They knew full well that it was Trump's working capital that they were tapping and they gleefully took every last penny. If you can't put your political opponent in jail, robbing him of his ability to compete in a presidential race by taking his cash is the next best thing. These mother fuckers are playing for keeps. We need to do the same. What that means and what that looks like, I'm not sure. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Today (Saturday) is the South Carolina primary. What I didn't know about this primary is that anyone from either party (Democrat or Republican) who didn't vote in the Democrat primary earlier in the month can now vote in today's Republican primary. Where did I hear that Birdbrain Haley was urging both Republicans, and Democrats who missed the opportunity earlier this month, to show up and vote in today's primary? What that means is that she's asking Democrats to help carry her across the finish line since there aren't enough Republicans to get the job done. The polls have had Trump with a 25-30 point lead for a while now. What I don't know is whether or not those polls included Democrats. If they didn't include Democrats, and Birdbrain's folly works to her benefit, we could see a very different outcome tonight after the polls close. Birdbrain will be running around proclaiming to be the 2024 version of the Comeback Kid, and Trump will have to find a way to explain why he didn't win with a larger margin. I think the last thing we want to do at this point is to give any oxygen at all to the embers that heretofore had fueled Birdbrain's come-from-behind wet dream. We also cannot tolerate any more shenanigans than usual from the Leftist Democrats, Republican Never-Trumpers, and Republican presidential wannabes, who would give their firstborn in order to ensure that Biden scores a resounding victory in November.
In case you haven't noticed, there is a coordinated effort on behalf of the Biden White House, and leaders of countries around the world to bring pressure to bear on Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans in the House of Representatives to approve a $60 billion Ukraine funding bill that has been languishing in the House for the last two weeks. Johnson has long made the point that we have no business sending money around the world to protect anyone's borders when our own borders are wide open. Let the mother fucking Europeans foot the bill if they are so determined to see that Putin doesn't win. That's me speaking. The question I have is, who the fuck does Biden think he is by going around the world on bended knee asking world leaders to roll out their propaganda machines to bring pressure to bear on our House of Representatives? We'll never know which leaders pushed back and which leaders rolled over, but that's not the point. I suppose it's also true that every penny we send to Ukraine is one more penny that they don't have to send to Ukraine. If it isn't the world leaders weighing in with their claptrap, Ukraine has their propaganda machines running full tilt with stories replete with photos and video from the front lines about ammunition running low, Russians advancing at an even greater clip, and soldiers who have lost one or more limbs and who want nothing more than to get back to their units where they can continue the fight for their country. Goebbels would be so proud.
And where is that fat fuck of a Secretary of Defense of ours? The last anyone knew, he was dealing with some kind of medical emergency and didn't have the common decency to tell anyone that he was out like a fucking light with a proctologist probing his arse with one or more tools of the so-called trade. So much for the chain of command. While he was gone, we've increased our military footprint across the globe and expanded wars on fronts that most Americans couldn't find on a map. With a befuddled president sitting in a war room watching reruns of Bugs Bunny, our Military Industrial Complex has been busy doing what they do best. It makes you wonder who the hell runs this country of ours. I even saw one post on social media yesterday from Taiwan where they had assembled a group of some kind. This was their message: If Ukraine doesn't win this war with Russia, there is little hope for us here in Taiwan that anyone will come to our aid when China brings a war to our shores. Just shut the fuck up. Besides, who in their right mind thinks that China can't get in and out of Taiwan before the rest of the world wakes up to what's happening on the island of Taiwan? Can you say, Hong Kong? I rest my case.
The South Carolina primary is now in the history books. Trump ended up with 60% of the vote compared to 39% for Birdbrain Haley. Keep in mind that the primary in South Carolina is an open primary which means that both Republicans and Democrats can vote in the Republican primary. You know damn well that Democrats voted en masse to try and pull Birdbrain's rotting carcass out of the ash heap that is her campaign. That is the only way she gets 39% in the primary. Upcoming states in the nominating process are mostly closed so Trump should kick her sorry ass to the curb all the way to the nomination. Trump could have the delegates/votes he needs for the nomination, 1200 or so, by the end of the day on Super Tuesday. Birdbrain will more than likely stay in the race even after Super Tuesday hoping against hope that Trump is put behind bars by the time the convention rolls around in August. Trump's delegates will never vote for Birdbrain so she's wasting her time. Who's going to tell her?
I tuned into the CPAC event over the weekend. The only speech I was really interested in was Trump's speech. He didn't disappoint. The CPAC straw poll, which polled participants at the event, had Trump at something like 94% to Haley's 6%. Needless to say, we all know that only the super party faithful show up at CPAC, so it's no surprise Trump did as well as he did. They also polled on Trump's VP pick and Vivek and Kristi Noem tied for the top spot. That's not a big surprise. I can't recall the exact results of the VP poll, but I have to believe that Tim Scott wasn't far behind. Someone said last night that no candidate has ever won all the nominating contests starting with Iowa in Jan and ending with South Carolina last night. Well, Trump did. One other interesting statistic is that only one candidate who won in South Carolina has ever gone on to lose the nomination. For all of those nitwits who have been clutching their pearls about not being satisfied or wanting a repeat of the 2020 race between Trump and Biden, here's my advice: Buckle up. Is there a chance that Birdbrain can join the no-party ticket and run as a third party when she loses her ass bigly between now and Super Tuesday? Maybe that's the game she's playing.
I read something yesterday about Putin threatening to nuke a few major cities in Europe and the United States if the powers that be attempt to claw back Ukrainian territories gained by Russia. I think Washington D.C. was mentioned specifically as were major cities like London, etc. Can you imagine? It sounds an awful lot like mutually assured destruction to me. There are no winners in these kinds of things. As much as I like to think it would reduce the number of scumbag politicians we have in Washington D.C., the collateral damage caused by the detonation would be unthinkable. Beyond unthinkable, actually. The same can be said for the sheer devastation caused by the missiles launched from sea to shining sea in Europe. The fervor and obsessive hatred of Putin and all things Russia day in and day out in the Halls of Congress must be tempered for the sake of our future and the futures of our children. Where there's a will, there's a way.
I was reading something yesterday about the fact that large portions of Ukraine have been ceded to multinational corporations over the last few years. So, Ukrainian boys and girls are giving their lives on the battlefield fighting to protect land that no longer belongs to Ukraine? It's one thing to ask your fellow countrymen to fight for your country and quite another to send them into the charnel house that is on the front lines with Russia in order to protect the interests of multinational corporations. That may explain why Zelensky would like nothing more than to have Americans fighting Russians in Ukraine. It may also help explain why he thinks he's entitled to an unlimited supply of financial and military support from the United States and other countries. It might be interesting to know as well just how much of Ukraine's territory now in Russia's sphere belonged to somebody other than Ukraine. Good luck getting any of that land back from Russia. It might also be interesting to find out which of the multinational corporations that now own vast tracts of land in Ukraine have donated to the Democrat Party. Let's not forget the Big Guy's cut (ten percent.)
I watched Trump's rally in Michigan this past weekend. I was thinking to myself, what the hell is he doing in Michigan when South Carolina's primary is this coming weekend (Feb 24th)? In looking at the primary calendar this morning I see that Michigan's primary is on the 27th of this month. Damn, I've heard little to nothing of the Michigan primary. I'm guessing that has a lot to do with the fact that Birdbrain Haley hails from South Carolina and that's where the media has been focusing their efforts. If I hear Birdbrain say one more time that we are going to have a female president and it will either be her or Kamala Harris, I think I'm going to lose it. She's so far gone that she was quoted on one of the Sunday talk shows yesterday saying that she either can't or won't endorse Trump if he's the Party's candidate in the Fall. That's one way to make sure that you'll never have another shot at the White House now that you've pissed off or otherwise alienated every last one of Trump's eighty-some-odd million supporters. The polls have Trump beating her by roughly thirty points in South Carolina so let's see if we can't put the final nail in her coffin there before she goes on to make an even bigger fool of herself in States like Michigan.
I don't spend a lot of time writing about Israel because it's a complicated subject and not something I know much about. I understand what Israel is trying to accomplish in routing out Hamas wherever they are and it makes sense to me. Do I think it's overkill in some areas? Yes, I do. That doesn't mean I think Israel shouldn't keep going until they achieve their objectives. Israel announced recently that they were going to send troops into Rafah, which is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. That likely means more Palestinian civilian deaths and untold carnage the likes of what we've seen in Gaza overall. Here's the deal, as Bumbles Biden tells us: In order to satisfy the progressive moonbats whose support he'll need in the November elections in their eternal quest to stop Israel from killing Palestinians, even if it means that Israel will not achieve their objectives, Bumbles wants a vote in the UN to stop Israel from going into Rafah. Are you telling me that Biden is an empty suit whose policies depend on which way the wind is blowing at any given moment? That's exactly what I'm telling you. He just stabbed Israel in the back, but you wouldn't know that from reading fish wrappers like the New York Times. It's a sad sad state of affairs.
Well, there you have it. No sooner did I comment on Birdbrain Haley than she announced that she'll be making an announcement today at noon on the "state of the race." We're four days away from the South Carolina primary, and she is down, even by conservative estimates, some 25 points against Trump. This is one of those types of deals where you get the hell out of the race so you can live to fight another day. Nobody wants to get shellacked in their home state, I mean nobody. She's actually been stepping up her attacks on Trump as of late so stepping down now seems a little weird. Then again, what's the point of making this speech so close to the primary? Maybe she has a revelation of sorts to proclaim. Will this be yet another "grab them by the pussy" moment for Trump and his campaign? Who the hell knows? I wouldn't put anything past Birdbrain knowing how desperate she is to be elected president. She's never lost an election, don't you know. She'll be the first to tell you that. I'll be tuning in to hear what she has to say to be sure. If this is nothing more than a ploy to appeal to a wider audience, I'll be moving on to something else and quickly.
Now we have Prince William saying that too many Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war and that the fighting should end "as soon as possible." He needs to mind his own fucking business. Are we Americans telling him and his Royal family to stop doing this or that when it comes to international affairs? Then again, maybe Bumbles Biden asked that the Royals weigh in and echo Bumble's constant crowing that Israel stop killing Palestinians. They know that Biden is senile. Right? Why would you go along with the wishes of a demented old fuck who, at any given time, doesn't know what day of the week it is? Maybe Willy is just tipping his hand on how he and his fellow Brits are planning to vote should it end up for a vote at the UN. I'm not a big monarchy guy so don't sound so surprised to see me taking shots at the Crown from time to time. I'm of the opinion that Buckingham Palace, and any number of other Crown-owned palatial estates dotting the English countryside, would be better put to use were they to be freed up to house the homeless. I'm not talking about housing illegal aliens from Rwanda. Don't get me going on illegal aliens.
Maybe it's me. I listen to Trump speaking these days, and I hear the same old tired stories. I love the guy and think he'll do a great job in his third term come January next year. But, I think his repeating the same old stories time and time again is a function of age and foreshadows a potential loss of linguistic flexibility that one typically associates with the onset of dementia or worse. That said, he's head and shoulders ahead of Biden by any stretch of the imagination as I sit here today. We've also seen how rapidly this sort of thing can advance in just a few years by comparing Biden now to when he was inaugurated three-plus years ago. How soon after Trump's inauguration will we see him taking extended vacations and calling lids halfway through the workday? We all loved his sparring sessions with the "fake news media" types, and those, too, could go the way of the albatross if I'm right about any of this. Then again, if what we're seeing is nothing more than Trump slowing down in old age then I think that's something that we can work with. As my guy, Gary Kaltbaum, loves to say, I think we need to see a few more cards come out of the deck before we get a better sense as to where we're going with any of this.
I don't mean to sound insensitive but why does the West need to praise this guy Navalny as some kind of martyr? Unless you bow to the leftist media and sing the praises of the guy while simultaneously blaming Putin for allegedly killing him then you are a Putin apologist, or worse. Of course, I condemn anyone who poisons or jails his political opponents, so if it's true what they say about Putin doing all those things to Navalny, then that's not good. You can despise Putin for what he does when it comes to silencing (or worse) his political opponents without demanding that one join a chorus of clapping seals who never miss a chance to pillory one of America's favorite straw dogs, Vladamir Putin. The mainstream media excoriated Trump for not having anything to say about Navalny's untimely demise in the immediate aftermath of his death and then gave him a few more editorial elbows when he said what he said when he said it, which was not soon enough for the leftist media. I just think that this is really about the Military Industrial Complex and their leftist enablers in Biden's White House finding one more reason to demonize Putin as if Putin's shock troops killing tens of thousands of Ukrainians since the beginning of the war isn't enough. Criticizing Trump is just icing on the cake.
The missus will sing my praises this morning when she finds out that I whipped together a mushroom, broccoli, and cheese quiche before the sun came up. It's been a while since I made a quiche so I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things now that I've made one. What getting back into the swing of things means exactly, I can't say. I do wish we had a nice grapefruit to go with the quiche. A smattering of home fries would be nice too. Does anyone care for a rash of bacon? Maybe we'll have to settle for a nice piece of buttered raisin toast. A half slice a piece would do the trick, I imagine. I have some orange juice in the fridge which we may or may not have with our breakfast. Why did I buy that in the first place? It's so sugary and sweet and not something that we typically keep on hand. How about some V8 with a squeeze of lemon? Now we're talking. I took a picture of the quiche right out of the oven because it is not nearly as pretty once it starts to cool and deflate. I could crawl back into bed and show the missus my photo before she has a chance to lay eyes on the now-deflated quiche. I could, but I won't.
I'm beginning to wonder if the Supreme Court is waiting until Friday of this week to issue their decisions on both the Colorado and Trump's presidential immunity cases. I'm not sure if that portends good or bad news for Trump. One of the left-wing media outlets had a chyron up the better part of the day yesterday announcing that the Court's decision was imminent. Other outlets said nothing because there was nothing to say. There was no announcement, which means that we could get the ruling today (Thursday) or possibly tomorrow. In New York City, the District Attorney, Letitia James, announced that if Trump doesn't put up the bond for the $350 million judgment in the civil fraud case, she will go to the courts and ask the courts to approve the seizure of his properties. I take a certain amount of pleasure in learning about the various and sundry real estate and financial institutions that are making plans to leave the Big Apple now that the Marxists have taken control of the Courts as evidenced by the Trump civil fraud case. Burn it the fuck down, is what I say. Is there any question in anyone's mind that once Trump Tower is confiscated that each and every tenant will be given 30 days to vacate the premises whereupon the units will be filled once again with illegal aliens from shithole countries around the world?
It seems crazy to me that getting these nonsensical judgments overturned, such as we see in Trump's civil fraud case, take as long as they do to get squared away, if at all. I would say the same thing about any convictions that may come down on one or more of Trump's criminal cases. Just so you know, Jack Smith has had many of his cases overturned by the Supreme Court, but the damage had already been done so there was little to no recourse for the plaintiff. What I'm saying is that Smith may get a conviction in court, and that conviction may get overturned, but not before Trump loses an election because he's been branded by a jury of his peers as a "felon." Such is Smith's mandate from Biden's DOJ, truth be told. I heard someone say that it will be two years before Trump's civil fraud case gets in front of an Appeals court. Maybe they were referring to the Supreme Court, which only hears cases after they've wound their way through the appeals court process. Once on the docket in the Supreme Court, it can take months before we get a decision. There is a chance that the New York Appeals Court will do the right thing and either throw out the case or substantially reduce the amount of the judgment. They cannot take the risk of seeing businesses fleeing the state en masse.
The stock market has been on a bit of a tear going back to the October bottom in 2023. Nvidia, the chipmaker, really juiced the Market yesterday. From the various and sundry tweets I read in the days leading up to the release of Nvidia's earnings after the close yesterday, you had two choices. If you thought the earnings were going to be gangbusters, you put all your chips in the middle of the table. If you thought they were going to fall short, you were shorting the bejesus out of the stock. It went without saying that as Nvidia goes, so goes the Market. You might even think of Nvidia as the new Apple (AAPL) since this is the kind of anticipation and Market reaction that we once saw when Apple reported its quarterly earnings. Let's just say that Nvidia didn't disappoint. It provided fuel for the entire Market, driving the NASDAQ (+2.9%) and S&P (2.11%) to an all-time high for the two indices. Is 2024 following the 1999 pattern in the stock market, where it went vertical for the better part of the year? Or, are things getting a bit frothy here where it makes sense to bank a few profits? One would hate to get out only to see the market continue its meteoric ascent. Then again, pullbacks, while typically healthy, can also be quite painful. Maybe there's something to be said for the cliche, "The trend is your friend."
Biden is hinting at putting together an executive action that will result in fewer people crossing into our country illegally. Wait a minute. Didn't the Democrats just try to get a bipartisan immigration bill across the finish line that did the same thing? That bill died a miserable death in the Senate and never made it to the House for a vote. Republicans have been saying since day one that Biden had all the power he needed to close the border and no additional legislation was required. I don't know who Biden and the people surrounding him think they're fooling with his latest offer of an executive action. Maybe they think that there are just enough voters who are gullible enough to believe that Biden wants to do something to solve the illegal alien problem that it can't hurt to put it out there as a trial balloon. Biden has allowed some ten million illegal aliens into our country since his inauguration, and he'll be keeping the gates open for another 10 million or so between now and Election Day executive action or no executive action. He and his Democrat Party are determined to turn red states blue to achieve their ultimate wet dream of a one-party rule country. And, don't think for a moment that if Biden wins a second term he and his party won't be packing the Supreme Court. If lying through your teeth is what it takes, Biden won't disappoint.
I finally bit the bullet and bought a soundbar for our new television. I had no idea that soundbars were a thing. When did this all start? I know television speakers can sound a bit tinny, but they're not so bad that you find yourself needing to "fix" the problem by adding a secondary sound source. Or, are they? Is that by design? Are the television manufacturers in cahoots with the soundbar manufacturers? Some of the soundbars I looked at online are more expensive than the televisions. Well, at least the television that we purchased recently. Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of a home theater as much as the next guy. I worry that we'll get to the point where televisions won't come with internal speakers anymore. The darn things, and I'm talking about the televisions, are wafer-thin to begin with these days. And, that's with speakers. I had to look around the back and the bottom of my set just to assure myself that I didn't buy a television set without speakers. Even then, I couldn't be sure that the vents I was looking at weren't for ventilation instead of sound. Just to be safe, I purchased a soundbar with a brand name that matches the brand name of our television. See how that works?
I'm starting to worry a little bit about the cash advantage that the Democrats have going into the final stretch between now and Election Day. You've got all of these well-heeled Hollywood high-flyers, high-tech billionaires, and music icons making contributions to the Democrat Party thinking, and probably rightly so, that cash is the mother's milk of politics. The Marxists can flood the airwaves with their propaganda while Republicans are still passing the hat for small-donor contributions at the local Home Depot. It's not helping that the Democrats and their Marxist counterparts in the legal system are levying outrageous and onerous fines on the leading candidate in our Party to further cripple our ability to level the playing field. I'm talking about the $400 million dollar fine levied aginst Trump. They knew full well that it was Trump's working capital that they were tapping and they gleefully took every last penny. If you can't put your political opponent in jail, robbing him of his ability to compete in a presidential race by taking his cash is the next best thing. These mother fuckers are playing for keeps. We need to do the same. What that means and what that looks like, I'm not sure. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Today (Saturday) is the South Carolina primary. What I didn't know about this primary is that anyone from either party (Democrat or Republican) who didn't vote in the Democrat primary earlier in the month can now vote in today's Republican primary. Where did I hear that Birdbrain Haley was urging both Republicans, and Democrats who missed the opportunity earlier this month, to show up and vote in today's primary? What that means is that she's asking Democrats to help carry her across the finish line since there aren't enough Republicans to get the job done. The polls have had Trump with a 25-30 point lead for a while now. What I don't know is whether or not those polls included Democrats. If they didn't include Democrats, and Birdbrain's folly works to her benefit, we could see a very different outcome tonight after the polls close. Birdbrain will be running around proclaiming to be the 2024 version of the Comeback Kid, and Trump will have to find a way to explain why he didn't win with a larger margin. I think the last thing we want to do at this point is to give any oxygen at all to the embers that heretofore had fueled Birdbrain's come-from-behind wet dream. We also cannot tolerate any more shenanigans than usual from the Leftist Democrats, Republican Never-Trumpers, and Republican presidential wannabes, who would give their firstborn in order to ensure that Biden scores a resounding victory in November.
In case you haven't noticed, there is a coordinated effort on behalf of the Biden White House, and leaders of countries around the world to bring pressure to bear on Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans in the House of Representatives to approve a $60 billion Ukraine funding bill that has been languishing in the House for the last two weeks. Johnson has long made the point that we have no business sending money around the world to protect anyone's borders when our own borders are wide open. Let the mother fucking Europeans foot the bill if they are so determined to see that Putin doesn't win. That's me speaking. The question I have is, who the fuck does Biden think he is by going around the world on bended knee asking world leaders to roll out their propaganda machines to bring pressure to bear on our House of Representatives? We'll never know which leaders pushed back and which leaders rolled over, but that's not the point. I suppose it's also true that every penny we send to Ukraine is one more penny that they don't have to send to Ukraine. If it isn't the world leaders weighing in with their claptrap, Ukraine has their propaganda machines running full tilt with stories replete with photos and video from the front lines about ammunition running low, Russians advancing at an even greater clip, and soldiers who have lost one or more limbs and who want nothing more than to get back to their units where they can continue the fight for their country. Goebbels would be so proud.
And where is that fat fuck of a Secretary of Defense of ours? The last anyone knew, he was dealing with some kind of medical emergency and didn't have the common decency to tell anyone that he was out like a fucking light with a proctologist probing his arse with one or more tools of the so-called trade. So much for the chain of command. While he was gone, we've increased our military footprint across the globe and expanded wars on fronts that most Americans couldn't find on a map. With a befuddled president sitting in a war room watching reruns of Bugs Bunny, our Military Industrial Complex has been busy doing what they do best. It makes you wonder who the hell runs this country of ours. I even saw one post on social media yesterday from Taiwan where they had assembled a group of some kind. This was their message: If Ukraine doesn't win this war with Russia, there is little hope for us here in Taiwan that anyone will come to our aid when China brings a war to our shores. Just shut the fuck up. Besides, who in their right mind thinks that China can't get in and out of Taiwan before the rest of the world wakes up to what's happening on the island of Taiwan? Can you say, Hong Kong? I rest my case.
The South Carolina primary is now in the history books. Trump ended up with 60% of the vote compared to 39% for Birdbrain Haley. Keep in mind that the primary in South Carolina is an open primary which means that both Republicans and Democrats can vote in the Republican primary. You know damn well that Democrats voted en masse to try and pull Birdbrain's rotting carcass out of the ash heap that is her campaign. That is the only way she gets 39% in the primary. Upcoming states in the nominating process are mostly closed so Trump should kick her sorry ass to the curb all the way to the nomination. Trump could have the delegates/votes he needs for the nomination, 1200 or so, by the end of the day on Super Tuesday. Birdbrain will more than likely stay in the race even after Super Tuesday hoping against hope that Trump is put behind bars by the time the convention rolls around in August. Trump's delegates will never vote for Birdbrain so she's wasting her time. Who's going to tell her?
I tuned into the CPAC event over the weekend. The only speech I was really interested in was Trump's speech. He didn't disappoint. The CPAC straw poll, which polled participants at the event, had Trump at something like 94% to Haley's 6%. Needless to say, we all know that only the super party faithful show up at CPAC, so it's no surprise Trump did as well as he did. They also polled on Trump's VP pick and Vivek and Kristi Noem tied for the top spot. That's not a big surprise. I can't recall the exact results of the VP poll, but I have to believe that Tim Scott wasn't far behind. Someone said last night that no candidate has ever won all the nominating contests starting with Iowa in Jan and ending with South Carolina last night. Well, Trump did. One other interesting statistic is that only one candidate who won in South Carolina has ever gone on to lose the nomination. For all of those nitwits who have been clutching their pearls about not being satisfied or wanting a repeat of the 2020 race between Trump and Biden, here's my advice: Buckle up. Is there a chance that Birdbrain can join the no-party ticket and run as a third party when she loses her ass bigly between now and Super Tuesday? Maybe that's the game she's playing.