Homeland ... a Worthy Concept

Writing for Newsweek (yes, it still exists online), David P. Goldman aka ‘Spengler,’ defends Hungary’s Viktor Orban and plugs something he calls “Zionism for the nations of Europe.” It is a term he borrows from the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders. 

European “Zionism” holds that it is beyond okay to defend an ethnic homeland, where one’s culture is the dominant force. Doing so means controlling emigration to preserve that dominance. Globalists of the Soros/Kerry/Merkel variety totally disagree. 

Here at COTTonLINE we defend the predominant culture in the U.S. of A. No, it is not “white nationalism.” The U.S. is an idea, not an ethnicity, and is embedded in our Constitution. It is very much worth defending but not all of the world's belief systems are compatible with it.

Millions of Lapses

Several times last night Kamala Harris claimed to Bret Baier that she would, as President, “enforce the federal law.” The federal law makes unlawful entry into the U.S. a federal crime. 

As border czar she did not enforce the law which enjoined the arrest and prosecution of its violators. Millions were turned loose as though what they’d done was a parking infraction.

If she did not enforce a law for which she’d been given primary responsibility, why should her claim to follow the law be believed? She very clearly did no such thing, not once but millions of times.

You could fairly claim she is one of history’s greatest scofflaws.

The Baier Interview

I forced myself to watch the Bret Baier Fox News interview with Kamala Harris. It was no picnic, two people talking over each other each trying to make themself heard. 

Harris maintained that Biden/Harris were unable to do anything for 3.5 years because Donald Trump - out of office and out of power - simply existed. While I recognize Trump has many followers, they and he together did not keep Biden et al. from doing their job, the blame rests with the White House and its current occupants.

Harris maintains a reelected Trump will do all manner of awful, unlawful things. She and Biden have been such failures they'd deserve it if Trump did unload on them, but he won't. 

Fortunately tonight's news included that the latest poll shows Trump pulling into the lead by a couple of points. Maybe he will just win and they'll go away and sulk.

Harris didn't totally blow the interview, but she also didn't convince anyone not already committed to her that she's up to being president. I wasn't impressed.

A Birth Dearth

Power Line's Steve Hayward posts a chart from Statista which portrays the birth rate in each of the world's countries. Given the scale, some are sort of difficult to suss out. 

The birth rate necessary to keep national population constant is 2.1 per woman. Much of the world - shown in pink or red - is below that level.

The four areas with the lowest birth rates (shown in red) appear to be South Korea, Hong Kong, Palau and Puerto Rico, but I am guessing on all but South Korea. 

Walz and Harris ... Rumors of Misbehavior

Andrea Widburg who writes regularly for American Thinker notes there are rumors about Tim Walz and underage boys. Do you suppose what happens in China stays in China?

Is there anything to these allegations? I have no idea. Widburg claims no personal knowledge either.  Walz does give off weird vibes, but a lot of Dims do the same.

Perhaps if some young men come forward and go public we'll know more.

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Kamala Harris, when running for Attorney General in California in 2009, worked with a ghost writer to publish a book entitled Smart on Crime.  In it she plagiarized an entire Wikipedia article without giving citation credit or using quotation ("") marks. The book contains several other lapses of giving credit where due. 

Unlike the sexual issues involving Walz noted above, where only the participants know for sure, this misdeed can be checked out.

How ironic that Harris could be guilty of the same infraction which took Joe Biden out of the presidential nomination race in 1988. Maybe most people don't much care about plagiarism, those of us who write do care. We consider it theft of intellectual property. Watch the legacy media ignore this story.

Hat tip to Lucianne.com for all of the links in this post.

Word Play

A wordplay quote attributed to Dilbert creator Scott Adams. Say it aloud and listen to yourself.

The more diverse government is, diverse it gets.

And it was bad enough already.

Family History

The other DrC has a neat story at her blog, about my mother as a little girl growing up in pre-World War I small town Oklahoma. She chronicles a trip to Dallas my mom took with granddad. It's a story she never told me, but did tell my wife. I think you'll enjoy it.

That same determined lady, as a young adult in the late 1920s, bought a Ford coupe, in which she and a girlfriend drove roundtrip from OK to VA and back to visit the other gal's relatives. It was summertime, school wasn't in session, and they camped on schoolyards so they could use the temporarily idled outhouses. 

I believe both were clericals for a federal agency and were on vacation. I guess many roads were unpaved. It was a gutsy thing for two unaccompanied young women to do.

Saturday Snark, a Day Late

 

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

A Tentative Prediction

When Kamala Harris ran for the Dim nomination in 2020 she was such a flop that she dropped out before the first primary vote was cast. Still Joe Biden picked her to be VP, because he’d promised to name a BIPOC woman, which she is.

Before Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance the conventional wisdom was that Kamala Harris was a failed Vice President. She was seen as a DEI hire who performed even more poorly than such hires normally do. 

It turns out the conventional wisdom about her was correct. Even with the party behind her and abetted by their lapdog media, four years later she has done a poor job of being the nominee. It begins to look like she won’t win.

Friday Snark, 2 Days Late

Images courtesy of Politico's Nation's Cartoonists on

the Week in Politics.

Religion … Bigger Than BBQ in TX

RealClearPolitics provides a link to a New York Times Magazine article about how Christian fundamentalism dominates politics in Texas. It’s behind the NYT paywall but you can see a disapproving summary of the article here.

Our personal experience with TX occurred early in retirement when we ‘moved’ there for a year, for fun. We were offered teaching contracts for a year in the area northeast of Dallas at an A&M branch campus. 

We were both amazed at the robust role of religion in the lives of many of our students. Texans are friendly people, not standoffish, but we concluded we’d make few close friends of the sort you’d hang out with after work because their friendship networks were largely based in their churches. 

At the time Texans took a very relaxed view of “the separation of church and state.” Separation was largely ignored in our experience. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were still largely true.

At an on-campus welcoming dinner party for new A&M faculty we saw our host, the university president, offer a long, detailed and specific Christian blessing before we ate. Since we’d all introduced ourselves I knew there were several likely Jews among the new hires. I wondered if they were feeling like strangers in a strange land? The other DrC saw morning prayers offered at rural public elementary schools she visited as part of her job.

What we’d just experienced we would have never seen in CA. It was an eye-opener. Relatively serious Protestant Christianity is as widespread and influential in TX as you’d imagine Catholicism is in the Irish Republic. I’d bet few win TX elections without making their faith a part of their campaign pitch.

One requirement for an MBA course I taught was to create a career plan for the next several years. Nearly half of the responses included how they also planned to become more involved in their churches. They considered this an integral part of their career, obviously we were using different definitions of the term.

Update

Postings here will be somewhat scarce for the next 2-3 days. We will be driving for substantial portions of both Thursday and Friday, and tired when not on the road. Right this moment I'm taking a brief break from loading our truck with stuff headed for our winter quarters. 

We take our electronics, of course, and our meds, plus some clothes and our 3 office tubs. Living in two places for months at a time, we need our files with us. That's in addition to what we'd normally pack for a trip - toiletries, change of clothes, etc. 

Making the semiannual moves is a lot of work for two seniors, we'll keep doing it as long as we are able. We've been doing it for roughly 30 years, so we don't have to reinvent much. We have wheels under much more of what we take than was formerly the case.

One thing we added to our summer place this summer is a handicapped ramp. It's around back where it doesn't spoil appearance, but is no end of handy for wheeling stuff down to the truck instead of schlepping it down several stairs.

Kamala's Doug, a "Me, Too" Abuser

Writing for PJ Media, Victoria Taft itemizes the "Me, Too" complaints against Kamala Harris' husband Doug Emhoff. She has citations for each allegation. The record isn't pretty and the mainstream press is ignoring it (of course).

Fifteen years ago he impregnated his child's nanny, causing his first marriage to end. Twelve years ago at the Cannes film festival he slapped his then-girlfriend, and she hit him back (good for her).

And now, Emhoff is accused of being a creepy, lecherous, misogynist while at the Los Angeles law firm he managed. The Daily Mail reported Monday that from 2006 to 2017 Emhoff was brusque and mean to women at work and used women colleagues as arm candy at events.

Sounds like another Harvey Weinstein wannabe, doesn't he? Hollywood is a evil place most days, and Emhoff was a Hollywood lawyer. Kamala is his latest "arm candy."

Doth the Worm Turn?

There is a rumor going around politics mavens that Biden wants Harris to lose. The following is from a Steve Hayward Power Line column, he attributes it to an unnamed former colleague and longtime friend.

There’s only one thing worse than seeing your enemy win, and that’s to see the people your thought were your friends and political comrades-in-arms win after they betrayed you and stabbed you in the back.

Remember what Joe was caught saying into a hot mike with regard to Hunter’s legal issues? “Nobody f*c*s with a Biden.” I have no doubt he meant every word of it.

It certainly explains his recent surprise appearance at a KJP press briefing where he bragged about how closely Harris was involved in his policies. He really undercuts her promises to "turn the page" on the present Biden-led situation nobody much loves.

A Conspiracy Against Your Interests

In a small town in Pennsylvania named Charleroi, we see in miniature the forces enabling illegal immigration. Chris Rufo and Christina Buttons write for City Journal how the town's local packing plant likes cheap labor, as NGOs provide the leg work and volunteers to direct Haitians there and get them settled and employed. 

Meanwhile the Biden/Harris government facilitates the whole thing and to some degree funds the NGOs. It is importing a replacement population more to its liking. 

The old GOP supported this sort of undercutting of American wages, since the party was then run by a country club set which neither included nor represented factory workers. They liked their cheap pool boys, maids, gardeners and caddies. 

Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are the most visible remnants of that old GOP. There are days when Mitch McConnell sympathizes too. 

The Trump-era GOP, demonized as MAGA by the Dims, agrees with most American citizens that the influx happening in Charleroi, and many other places is evil, needs to stop now, and be reversed to the extent possible. I agree and I hope you do and will vote accordingly.

This CJ article is very interesting and well-written; I recommend reading it and sharing it with friends. Hat tip to Power Line for the link.

Our Rejectionist Elites

Writing at Substack, Chris Bray says something that can't be repeated often enough. Plus, if you follow the link to his prior writing, he takes a richly deserved poke at Jackson Hole.* Bray writes:

Just a few days ago, I argued that whole layers of high-status American political and cultural figures are “no longer culturally American.” They don’t see the country, they don’t like the country, and they don’t have the most basic American instincts.

He's thinking of John Kerry and his Davos-loving buddies. It really applies to a much wider swath of upscale urban America and chi-chi ski resorts like Aspen, Vail, Sun Valley, and Jackson Hole. Doug and Kamala are certainly included. 

Tim Walz is a wannabe, but career enlisteds really aren't "our sort." Goofy Walz represents what the high-status folk think us proles to be, when they think of us at all. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

*For example, the Jackson paper reprints with approval New York Times opinion pieces, unbelievable cheek in otherwise bright red Wyoming. Jackson would prefer to be part of California ... minus its high taxes, of course. 

My Answer

The prosecutor looking at then-President Trump's activities on and around Jan. 6 - Jack Smith - has filed additional materials in the prosecution he is heading. Meanwhile on the campaign trail Republicans keep getting asked if Biden won the election four years ago, mostly they hedge their answers. I've been thinking about how I'd answer that question.

I believe I'd answer that Joe Biden ended up with more ballots cast for him than were cast for Donald Trump. Biden was elected, inaugurated and is president. 

My concern about the 2020 election is that it appears likely that many of those Biden ballots were cast and/or counted under conditions that violated the laws of the state, should have been ruled invalid and thus not counted. Instead they were counted.

The excuse given was the Covid pandemic, then ongoing. Private funding by wealthy individuals also influenced the collection and counting of ballots, which should be unlawful.

The schedule and structure of our system means there is no feasible way to challenge irregularities after an election. Our system presume a disinterested non-partisan aloofness in those operating the process and, in 2020, altering it at the last minute. 

It is an aloofness that manifestly did not exist, and probably never exists. Governors and others took advantage of the pandemic to act unilaterally, using emergency powers in biased, self-interested ways. 

You may argue Covid was a "black swan" event, unlikely to recur. However, now the precedent is set, expect similar "emergency" claims in future, for example Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Where Coal Is King

Power Line's "Mr. Charts" posts two tables that show the world is using more coal than ever and plans to use more. Whatever minor reductions the rest of the world makes cannot compensate for the enormous increases in China and India. 

Why don't the Greens go pester them, and not waste time with us?

Update

The leaves on the aspen trees have turned a pale, clear gold, the mountain maple hasn't done much of its deep red yet, and the deer which had tan coats all summer are getting their grayish brown coats of winter. 

We are well into autumn in the high country, but haven't had a hard freeze so far, and no snow either. We'll be leaving later this week and heading south to our winter quarters on the NV side of the NV/AZ border. If we've timed it right, our place down there will have seen its last 100 degree day before we arrive.

We are busily getting our place here ready for its winter hibernation. We sometimes think of our home as Brigadoon. It wakes up each spring, flourishes during the too brief summer, basks in autumn, and sleeps for the other half year. 

This year we will have been "in residence" for 5.5 months, most years it is closer to 5. This is a particularly beautiful time of year here, it is normally scenic but autumn, while short, is quite special.

We aren't young, and when we are no longer able to return here each spring it will be a sad time indeed.

Oikophobia Today

The terror attacks in Israel happened a year ago today. Are the perpetrators any better off today than they were then? By any reasonable calculation they are not. Many thousands are dead, their cities are rubble, and most of their leaders targeted and killed.

Are the Israelis better off today than a year ago? By some measures the answer is “yes.” They were mired in political squabble a year ago and today they have been unified, as only an active external enemy can do. 

Today we are likely to see demonstrations across Europe and North America in support of the Palestinians and in support of the ugliest forms of terrorism. These should be dealt with severely, but likely won’t be.

We are led by wusses and weaklings, abetted by Islamic immigrants who should never have been granted entry. The issue is oikophobia, and it can turn out to be our downfall. Weak people project their weakness onto the society and hate it for the very shortcomings they see in themselves but cannot face.