No Time to Be Helpful

Why are people trying to shoot Donald Trump? I blame Democrats and Bush-era Republicans comparing Trump to Hitler and claiming he will be a dictator. He was nothing of the sort for his first four years in office.

On the other hand, why is he exposing himself in places (golf courses) where he is hard to protect? Especially when the Secret Service has demonstrated its protection is very uneven.

Once he’s elected he can force the Secret Service to take his protection more seriously. For now I hope he tries to avoid bucolic ‘shooting galleries’ with sand traps and water hazards.

Update

The DrsC will be traveling for the next couple of weeks. Posting to the blog will continue but the weekly round of meme postings will not happen. It turns out what is easy on my desktop is not so easy on the iPad, so I'll just post text.

On the other hand, I will be "travel blogging" which will be a nice change from the usual diet of politics and foreign affairs.

Weird Respiratory Science

UPI. which reports interesting research findings, has a new one for us.  A pediatric researcher in Britain found that salt water drops in the child's nose could shorten cold symptoms by two days, from 8 to 6 days. Their families were also less likely to catch the cold. The article adds:

Salt is made up of sodium and chloride. Chloride is used by the cells lining the nose and windpipes to produce hypochlorous acid within cells, which they use to defend against virus infection.

Because these findings are from a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

I figure I've got nothing to lose by trying this, next time I get a cold. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

Hypocrisy

Some yahoo in Florida tries to shoot former President Trump, is spotted while getting ready, takes incoming fire from the Secret Service, flees, and is apprehended. His web sites reflect a very Democrat leaning.

Vice President Harris issued the following comment:

I have been briefed on reports of gunshots fired near former President Trump and his property in Florida, and I am glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.

Reacting to her pro-forma statement, Trump advisor Stephen Miller X'ed as follows:

They are relieved that the biggest threat to America since the civil war is safe.

Biden, Harris and Walz have said things like Trump is "the biggest threat to America since the civil war" and now they're glad he's safe? Hypocrisy much? 

Quoting La Rochefoucault: "Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue." It's saying what is expected when one feels the opposite.

About Tucker

On his show on X, Tucker Carlson recently interviewed, defended, and indeed praised a 'historian' who claims Winston Churchill was a villain and Adolph Hitler was "misunderstood." This is poppycock, and the supposed historian - Darryl Cooper - seems a nutcase pandering to conspiracy obsessives. 

COTTonLINE believes Winston Churchill may have been the greatest world figure of the 1900s. If not, he is certainly a finalist for that honor.

Somewhere along the line Carlson jumped the shark and deserves the ridicule doing so normally triggers in reaction. In retrospect, I believe Rupert Murdoch sensed Carlson was losing it and was wise to fire him before he embarrassed Fox News any further.

A Second Assassination Attempt

There has been a second assassination attempt against former President Trump on a FL golf course. He was not hit and a suspect has been arrested. 

The shooter had an AK-47 style rifle with scope. It is a Soviet assault rifle design that's very popular with third world revolutionaries. Early info suggests the suspect is a strong supporter of the Ukraine fight to eject Russian invaders and a contributor to Democrat candidates.

The Secret Service did a better job this time. They apparently spotted the rifle poking out of some brush an estimated 400-500 yards distant from where the former president was. Some reports suggest they shot at whoever was holding it but missed. The suspect appears to have fled, leaving his sniper paraphernalia behind, and was picked up later unharmed.

An Own Goal

It would not surprise me if Taylor Swift learns the hard way that nearly half her fans don't like her choice of presidential candidate. And of course, nobody insisted she reveal her politics.

Whatever the merits of her music, which obviously speaks to many, the smart thing to do was to encourage people to study the issues and vote for the person and party with which one shares values. Exhortations to "Go Vote" are entirely laudable and offend no one. 

Pick a side and you've offended many of your former fans, who now know something about you both you and they would rather they didn't know. Something that makes you less likable, less relatable. Something that "others" you.

It's too late now, that cat is out of the bag and running like a Haitian was chasing it with cleaver. A year from now it will be interesting to see how endorsing Harris played out for both women.

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Cat Eaters and Cat Ladies

Childless cat ladies are said to be a major Democratic voting bloc. Democrats Biden and Harris have brought thousands of illegal immigrants here from Haiti. 

Haitian immigrants eat cats. Is the party's tent big enough for both cat-eaters and cat lovers? Probably not.

Ladies, protect your moggies, vote for Trump and Vance.

Later ... many, many memes flow from this whole cat eating outrage, go here to see a bunch. Plenty are cute, because cats are some of this planet's most attractive life forms.

Playing 3D Chess

The Washington Free Beacon reports an example of political chicanery that, presuming you don’t want Harris to defeat Trump, is very fine. A little known PAC is running ads praising Harris’ support for Israel and opposition to antisemitism. 

The ads also make a point of her husband being a Jew, and the historic implications of him becoming the spouse of the president and the first Jew to live in the White House. Amazingly the NY Times calls these pro-Israel ads “antisemitic.”

Oh, we forgot to mention: The ads are airing in the Detroit area. Dearborn, Mich., is an inner-ring suburb of Detroit home to the country’s largest Muslim population, and what the Times report from Katie Glueck doesn’t say is that the 40,000 or so odd Arabs there don’t like Jews. It’s not that the ads are anti-Semitic, it’s that the voters are.

If the ads can convince half of Dearborn to sit out the election, Trump could win Michigan.

Dropping Like a Stone

Stephen Green posts the following chart at Instapundit, showing the rate of new company start-ups in China. Here's Green's comment:

Xi Jinping wanted to restore CCP control over the economy. This is what control looks like.

 

Collusion?

There is "out there" a claim of a claim of the existence of an affidavit alleging that ABC News colluded with the Kamala Harris campaign to 'throw' the debate. Supposedly they did this by giving Harris the questions in advance, accepting suggested questions from Harris, and promising not to fact check her.

The possessor of this affidavit writes it will be released this weekend. I have no idea if any of the foregoing is true, or accurate. 

If it were true it would explain the observed lopsided behavior of the ABC on-screen personnel. It would also be a scandal of Watergate-like proportions and would likely end several careers, much as Dan Rather's career at CBS was ended.

We'll see what, if anything, happens. As was once said in the long-ago days of AM radio, stay tuned....

Later ... It should be noted that ABC has issued a pro-forma denial of these allegations. Not that you'd expect anything less. 

I'm certain those denying collusion fervently hope their claims of innocence are true. Or at least unfalsifiable. 

Friday Snark 2.0

Image courtesy of Instapundit.

and

The satirical Babylon Bee 'reports' the following, while tipping the hat to Indiana Jones II.

Mola Ram Says He Has Found No Evidence To Support Trump’s Claim Of Heart-Ripping Ceremonies Taking Place Within 

Temple Of Doom.

Friday Snark 1.0

Images courtesy of Politico's Nation's Cartoonists on 

the Week in Politics.

More on Debates

Donald Trump says "there will be no third debate." Translation: He debated Biden and then Harris. Harris wants a second debate which would be three for Trump. He says "No, there's no need." 

I believe he is correct, Trump is a well-known political figure. Harris needs another debate but likely won't get one.

The pundit class thought Harris won her debate with Trump, but a lot of regular folks think otherwise. Some post-debate polling suggests Trump got a bounce out of their match-up.

One supposes Vance will debate Walz, and will probably do well in the process. 

What They Do

Power Line's new guy Lloyd Billingsley quotes a lyric by Frank Zappa. Zappa found clever word play to imply "you ain't sh*t." Check it out and note the "ABBAA" rhyme scheme.

Cause what they do
In Washington
They just takes care of NUMBER ONE
An’ number one ain’t you
You ain’t even number two.

Wrong Focus

Sean Trende analyzes politics for RealClearPolitics. I really like his insights, including the following from his analysis of the debate.

From my perspective ... the debate wound up being mostly about Trump, and Trump’s a known quantity. Telling us more about Donald Trump that we already know probably won’t change the trajectory of the race.

Let's hope so. 

Social Class?

John Hinderaker of Power Line writes a long column mulling over the party-changing coat-turning of the Cheneys, father and daughter, and people like Bill Kristol, George Will and Mitt Romney. He tries out several hypotheses and isn't totally convinced by any of them.

A hypothesis I find has considerable explanatory power is that of social class; Hinderaker doesn't consider it. A lot of folks find discussions of social class uncomfortable, or even icky.

So how would social class help us understand old line Republicans bailing out of the party? Trump has made a pitch directly to working class America and they buy what he is selling. 

Pundits left and right now call the GOP the party of those without college degrees and of those who don't live in large cities. How hard is it to imagine that label creates status anxiety for people with degrees? Not very, in my opinion. 

The stalwarts of the old Republican Party often were country club members quite concerned with seeking and maintaining status. Many held what are being called luxury beliefs. Sharing a party affiliation with people of lower social status may feel like "a bridge too" far to them. 

Another Bad Choice

See how The Babylon Bee characterized Taylor Swift endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

Woman Who Made Career Singing About Her Bad Choices Endorses Kamala.

They illustrated their X with this photo.

Wednesday Snark

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics Cartoons of the Week.