Saturday, May 23, 2026
The DNC "Autopsy" of the 2024 Election
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) recently released something everyone is calling an "autopsy" of the losing 2024 presidential campaign. The Washington Examiner's Byron York itemizes the reports technical shortcomings.
[This] note printed in red appears at the top of the first and every one of the report's 192 pages. "Disclaimer: This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying, sourcing, interviews or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented."
Under the section heading CONCLUSION is the note, "This section not provided by the author." Under the heading NOTES FOR THE READER is the note, "This section was not completed." And under the heading SOURCES is the note, "Sources, interview materials, and other evidence not provided."
If an upper division or graduate student had submitted a paper with these shortcomings, I would have assigned it a failing grade of F. York asks whether the DNC wanted the answers the paper was supposed to provide, or preferred something they could easily disavow?
The USA is a center-right nation. Let's presume the DNC believe in the far-left things they advocate. The 2024 election clearly demonstrated a majority of Americans don't share their beliefs. And let's further presume Democrats wish to win elections and exercise power, a safe bet.
The DNC face an unattractive dilemma. Change their platform to conform more closely to public preferences, advocate policies with which they disagree, and win elections. Or be true to their beliefs and lose elections.
Trump has positioned the MAGA GOP squarely on the 80 side of most 80-20 issues. The cognitive dissonance this creates for Dems is massive, the result we call Trump Derangement Syndrome, or TDS for short.
Ad Astra, Per Ardua
If you like space exploration and maybe hard science fiction too, I have a column you'll want to read. It's by Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, and appears on his Substack.
It is basically an explanation of Reynolds' understanding of Elon Musk's thinking and planning to go to space. The synergies among his various enterprises are described with appreciation (Tesla, Boring, Starlink, SpaceX, etc.).
Reynolds begins with the wish that science fiction author Jerry Pournelle had lived long enough to see SpaceX's successes. Pournelle is one of the many excellent authors whose sci fi I devoured as a young man.
I am certainly encouraged by the current rate of Musk's progress. It has required an exceptionally talented gazillionaire who answers almost to no one but himself, to make it happen.
Friday, May 22, 2026
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Good Genes
Genetic studies have shown that a majority (55%) of how long you and I will live is determined at birth, by genetics, by how long our ancestors lived. How we choose to live, the care or lack of it we take of ourselves, diet, exercise, substances we abuse, mental composure, etc. only account of 45% of lifespan variation.
If your family live to be old, chances are you will also. If not, the chances of attaining old age are substantially less good.
This doesn’t mean you can’t improve your chances by refraining from substance abuse and living in a healthy fashion, you can. However, the improvement you achieve will probably be measured in years, not decades.
A surprising number of the elderly did (and in some cases still do) unhealthy behaviors, but they have genes that can handle the abuse and carry on.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Heads Rolling, Metaphorically
In yesterday's primaries Donald Trump knocked off Thomas Massie (R-TN) who has been a thorn in the side of MAGA priorities. He also caused the sitting Republican Attorney General in Georgia to lose his party's endorsement for reelection.
A week or two ago he encouraged Louisiana GOP to dump Sen. Bill Cassidy another anti-Trump guy. Not bad for a lame duck president.
Big Don is on a roll purging the party of non-MAGA Republicans. He has endorsed Paxton to topple Cornyn in Texas. Rand Paul's term is up in two years, he could be next, as another non-team player.
It is hard to argue there's room for a non-MAGA segment in the GOP. It's Trump's party now.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Nothing and Nothing
Polls allege that Kamala Harris is once again the most favored candidate for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. As Talleyrand wrote of the Bourbons, the Democrats have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.
Runner-up Gavin Newsom has his own serious problems, but at least they are different shortcomings than Harris has. She is a proven loser, not once but twice - in 2016 and 2024. The less said about her role in 2020, the better.
Harris has no track record whatsoever, perhaps in her case an advantage. Nepo baby Newsom has a terrible track record as San Francisco mayor and California governor. And he says he is dyslexic, a problem for a president who has to read voluminous daily intelligence briefing papers.
No wonder Rahm Emanuel - a once prominent Democrat - is hinting at jumping into the race.
Monday, May 18, 2026
Poll: Liberals Cheering Murder
Power Line's first-among-equals - John Hinderaker - considers the (mostly) women rooting for the exoneration of executive-slayer Luigi Mangione. The statistics Hinderaker cites are abhorrent.
In polling done shortly after he murdered Brian Thompson, 68% of liberals said they had at least some sympathy for Mangione, and 31% of liberals said they had a lot of sympathy.
Moreover, 35% of liberals said they not only sympathized with Mangione, but specifically supported his decision to murder Thompson. Fourteen percent of liberals described themselves as “very supportive” of the murder.
Which leads Hinderaker to conclude:
I think it is increasingly questionable whether we conservatives can continue to share a country with liberals. It saddens me to say it, but there seems to be little basis for any common citizenship.
My reaction to this conclusion: You could very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment in a public forum. (classical allusion)
After Trump in China
My foreign policy guy, George Friedman, continues to be optimistic about the Xi/Trump summit. He quotes a substantial bloc of Xi's speech and argues that Xi therein repudiated Communist doctrine.
Xi’s speech, then, in tone and substance was a refutation of the principles on which Maoist China was founded. Who it was said to is even more important. In this, I do not mean Trump; I mean the Chinese nation, which heard or read it in full.
Ideology was absent. In its place was geopolitical necessity. The Chinese public heard this necessity loud and clear: China needs access to the U.S. economy, indicating Xi thinks the U.S. needs that as well.
Friedman believes Xi argues for large areas of agreement between our two countries, and claims it is doable without major policy upsets in either. If Friedman is correct, and if Xi means what he said, good things are possible. It is premature to call them "probable."
Sunday, May 17, 2026
Election Fraud Investigations
Jim Hoff, writing at Gateway Pundit, quotes acting Attorney General Todd Blanche being interviewed by Fox News' Maria Bartiromo earlier today. Their topic - accusations of the 2020 presidential election being rigged.
We have multiple investigations going on in Arizona, in Georgia, in Fulton County, Georgia.
We’re very focused on finding out whether the right people voted, whether people who were supposed to vote actually voted, and whether there was one vote cast per voter.
Let's hope Blanche isn't exaggerating too much. I'd love to see indictments and convictions.
The key question is whether there will ever be proof that enough states' votes were rigged to show the wrong guy was inaugurated? That truly would be the all-time bombshell Hoff excitedly claims is coming.
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I focus on the fact that many more people voted in 2020 than in either 2016 or 2024. Who were those mystery voters, did they even exist, and why was that the only time they bothered to vote - questions no one has answered to my satisfaction. I suspect truckloads of bogus ballots never seen by a voter and 'bent' voting machines tallying 'ghost voters.'
Sincere Flattery
Instapundit links to a College Fix article touting the claim by a U. of Miami law professor that cultural appropriation should be made illegal. Really?
I disagree. Whatever happened to the truism that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? As long as we remember from whence the idea was borrowed, imitation is fine. The small NV town in which I winter has Mexican, Italian, Thai, and Japanese restaurants, that’s cultural appropriation aplenty.
One could wonder whether the professor - J. Janewa Osei-Tutu - isn't miffed because her culture-of-origin is insufficiently imitated, hence little flattered?
The Nostalgia of a Roadtrip Pro
As spring gets ready to segue into summer, how appropriate that RealClearPolitics brings us not one, but two articles celebrating the great American roadtrip. Each is in its own way rewarding, see them here and here.
Reading these reminds me I haven’t shared with COTTonLINE readers the DrsC’s love of the open road. Both teachers with summers off, we bought our first RV in 1972, a little van-based Class B motorhome. Our trip that summer took us on a loop from central CA up through southern OR to Crater Lake NP and back.
The next three summers we toured most of the US. In 1973 we went across the south, from our home base in northern CA, we saw the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, Dallas TX, NOLA, MS, AL, FL clear down to Key West, and back west to CA, gone nearly 3 months.
In 1974 we did the middle route CA across UT (Zion and Bryce NPs) AZ (Chaco and Canyon de Chelly NPs), OK, MO, AR, TN, to the Carolinas, north to DC, and home on I-80 via Yellowstone and the Tetons NPs. Another almost 3 months.
In 1975 our trip went north to the east coast, up the coast via Boston, Bar Harbor NP and LL Bean to Cape Breton Island NP in Nova Scotia, and home via eastern Canada till we dropped down to I-90 to run west with another visit to Yellowstone and Grand Teton NPs. Again over 2 months.
At this point we’d seen most of the US, so in 1976 we took leave from our teaching jobs and moved to DC-adjacent MD for 2 years while the other DrC did her PhD work and I was a temporary bureaucrat. While there vacations were somewhat limited but we did a Christmas drive down the Natchez Trace NP and a summer trip back to Maine. We moved back to CA in 1978, stopping by northwestern Wyoming one more time.
Bottom line, we owned a series of 6 RVs for 51 years, drove them all over the US and Canada, including to Alaska. We’ve also RVed in New Zealand twice, and recommend it. We are roadtrip veterans, and we loved all of it.
We sold our last RV 3 years ago when RVing became too hard for old bodies to handle, and we still miss it. We watch RVs go past on the highway and feel a twinge of envy mixed with nostalgia. We have memories you can’t imagine unless you’ve done it.
Barone Opines
Year in and out, Michael Barone is one of our most savvy political observers. It’s not too soon to be thinking about the outcome of November’s midterm election. For the Washington Examiner, Barone does just that.
He considers the redistricting now going on, the state of the economy, the history of midterm outcomes, and the latest trends. Spoiler alert, he calls it a toss-up, while cautioning that much can happen in the next 5+ months. It is an excellent summary of the current state of play.
Saturday, May 16, 2026
Thinking About Taiwan
About the US position on Taiwan's relationship to China, I have formulated my own opinion of how we should proceed. China maintains Taiwan is and always has been part of China.
The people of Taiwan are Chinese, they speak and write Chinese, but are independent of the PRC in everything but name. China claims they are a rebellious province and that is certainly the post-World War II history.
If the people of Taiwan voluntarily chose to rejoin China, we would not object. If the PRC tried to force them to rejoin, we view that as wrong.
I think of Taiwan as a member of the Chinese 'family' who has cut most ties with the rest of the clan. An analogy would be an adult child who for his/her own lifestyle or ideological reasons has stopped being close with the parents and sibs.
In that situation Americans oppose any moves by the family to force the child to be close. We urge the parties to learn to live with their differences, or live with the separation.
There are cultures in which a family coercing or even killing a rebellious offspring is permitted or even expected - so-called 'honor killings,' for example. Our culture punishes such coercive behavior on the part of individuals, families, or even nations.
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