Pride in America

Gallup has dropped their latest annual survey of the extent to which Americans are proud of our country. Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link.

A record-low 58% of U.S. adults say they are “extremely” (41%) or “very” (17%) proud to be an American, down nine percentage points from last year and five points below the prior low from 2020.

Democrats are mostly responsible for the drop in U.S. pride this year, with 36% saying they are extremely or very proud, down from 62% a year ago. [emphasis added]

Political independents’ pride has also reached a low point, with 53% expressing a great deal of pride, down seven points from last year, which had been the previous low for this group. Independents’ pride has been declining since the early 2000s, dropping below 80% for the first time in 2005, then below 70% in 2019 and below 60% this year.

Republicans' level of national pride has been much steadier, typically registering above 90%, including 92% this year, up from 85% in 2024.

Democrats tell themselves they represent what is best in America. When the electorate hands them a clear-cut vote of no confidence, as it did in 2024, I'd expect what Gallup found. Namely, a shared disappointment in our nation. A majority of us did not want what the Dems offered. 

Speaking of pride in our nation, I need to go put out our Stars and Stripes to show the DrsC are proud.

Mamdani’s Background

Two quotes from a post by Instapundit Reynolds, about the background of Zohran Mamdani. I wonder if they are accurate?

Mamdani’s mother is a world-famous, Academy Award-nominated Bollywood director worth tens of millions of dollars. His father is a chaired professor at Columbia.

He says he “grew up in the third world” but he was living in the United States attending private school since he was 7 years old—that’s not “code switching,” that’s lying.

In current slang, Mamdani is a nepo baby from a privileged background trying to claim “victim” status he clearly doesn’t deserve. It explains why he is so at ease and charming, however. He resembles AOC, only much more so.

Editorial Note

Two days ago on Saturday I wrote that I would no longer be considering meme contributions made by readers of Power Line’s The Week in Pictures, as the process had become too onerous. Today PL notes the following concerning comments.

As of today, through the continued efforts of our publisher, I believe that up to 500 comments will be visible to all readers on each post and images posted in comments should be accessible without the necessity of a click.

That sounds like they’ve solved the issue that concerned me. On Saturday we will see the next Week in Pictures; we’ll learn if “onerous” no longer describes the process.  If that’s the case, we’ll revert to our prior model and include contributions from the Comments section. I am hopeful.

Dying Influencers

Just a quick post about something I've noticed. A lot of influencers are dying young, I see the announcements as I scan the Internet news. Their deaths are news because they had many followers.

Many are in their 20s, some are even younger. Is it drug abuse or other risky behavior? The stress of being constantly "on?" Are people already in some kind of difficulties - emotional or physical - more likely to become influencers? How many are suicides?

In their teens and twenties people should be at their absolute healthiest ever. Someone ought to look into this phenomenon.

To Tenure, or Not to Tenure

Once upon a time, a university was a collection of scholars who decided to do some ancillary activities in concert.  The dons/scholars/professors made group decisions and some few of their number sacrificed themselves administering those ancillary activities part-time. Those days are long gone, at least in the US.

Recent decades have seen rampant growth in administrative overhead, and a corresponding diminution in the ranks of tenure track faculty. DEI hires made this trend worse. "Tenure track" includes both tenured faculty and those in junior positions where one is must either get promoted and earn tenure or leave.

Of course, when there are fewer tenure track faculty, the classes they would have taught are taught by the non-tenure track instructional staff, variously called adjuncts, instructors, visitors, locums, teaching fellows, contract faculty, and part-timers. 

These often don't know from term to term if they'll be reemployed. Typically, gig faculty teach lower division introductory and general education courses and supervise labs. They aren't paid especially well and many part-timers don't get health insurance.

Some campuses have experimented with giving faculty 5 year renewable contracts in lieu of tenure. The renewal decision comes in the fourth year so someone not renewed has time to make future arrangements while still employed.

Today I saw an article in the RealClearPolicy list with this title: "Tenure Track in Higher Ed Is Going Extinct," published in The American Mind, a Claremont Institute publication. Assuming the trend line doesn't reach an inflection point, the predicted extinction is a distinct possibility.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about tenure. I had it, was glad I did, and relied upon it to keep my job open while I took a couple of leaves to do "growth" things. Yet I saw examples of the harm it can do to both students and the institution. 

In the business school faculty (n = 50+) from which I retired we had one tenured faculty member who spent an inordinate amount of class time obsessing about nuclear disarmament and another who routinely told his students they were pathetic losers who would amount to nothing. 

We never succeeded in getting rid of either, although we tried. A couple more were not quite as bad, but most of us did our jobs acceptably and behaved. The ratio was similar in the other DrC's college. 

I have to admit the ratio was even worse among administrators. They could be fired, and some were. I remember a woman dean who was a drunk, and a Vice President who sexually harassed female staff. Both moved on eventually, possibly under threat but not actually fired.

Poll: No Popular Democrats

Since President Trump is in his second-and-last constitutionally permitted term, it isn't too early to begin thinking about who will run in 2028. A firm named Political Polls surveyed both Democrats and Republicans about their support for the people who've been talked about as contenders. Breitbart's John Nolte has the findings:

The Democrats are butt-hurt, see their 'preferiti' with the percentage favoring each.

> Buttigieg 16%
> Harris 13%
> Newsom 12%
> Shapiro 7%
> AOC 7%
> Sanders 5%

I summed those percentages and they total 60%. Something like a third don't like any of these, and might stay home. Meanwhile the leading Republicans are in better shape, see the percentage favoring each.

> Vance 46%
> Rubio 12%.
> DeSantis 9%

Nolte concludes a Republican would be favored to win if you were betting now, he dreams of a Vance/Rubio ticket.

The Trump Magic

Every two years following the national election, Pew does a poll - the Validated Voter Survey - highly esteemed because it polls only individuals whom state voting rolls show actually voted in the recent election. Those findings just dropped for 2024, and they are very good indeed.

Republicans and GOP-leaning independents were 51% of the total electorate in 2024, up from 47% in 2020. Democrats and their affiliated indies dropped from 50% in 2020 to 48% in 2024. That 6-point shift in the partisan balance precisely mirrors Trump’s 6-point improvement in his popular vote margin.

In other words, Trump didn’t win because he got disaffected Democrats and independents to vote for him; he won because he got those people to switch parties entirely. [emphasis added]

Those who changed parties - to the MAGA GOP - are likely to keep voting GOP, absent some major screw-up or catastrophe. The D brand is becoming toxic to a majority of actual voters, excellent news. 

Editorial Note

My Saturday Snark normally ends with "Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures and its Comments section." Today, and going forward, I will no longer include material from the Comments, much of which was good.

Since last week Power Line has implemented a new internal structure. In order to view comments the reader must tediously open each reader contribution individually, this was not formerly the case. 

I don't have the patience to do what is now required. If you must see them, they are there for you to laboriously dig through. I will make my selections from the Power Line post and leave the Comments unread.

Satirday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures.

Friday Snark

Images courtesy of Politico's

The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

Cat Fight at SCOTUS

The New York Post quotes some of Justice Amy Coney Barrett's rejoinder to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissent in a decision just announced. That decision curtails the power of district judges to issue nationwide injunctions against this or that executive action. Barrett, who wrote the majority decision, included the following aimed at Jackson.

We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself. We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.

Attorney Kostas Moros wrote on X in response to Barrett’s “imperial Judiciary” quote. “Translated: ‘you are so stupid that you aren’t even worth responding to.'”

Barrett's critique appeared in the majority decision signed by five sitting Justices plus Chief Justice Roberts. Your kindly aunt would sorrowfully conclude that Jackson "appears to be having difficulty adjusting to the culture of the Court." 

Thinking About Trans

I have been thinking about the plight of families with kids who decide they are transexual. First the parents, think about their dilemma.

They have a child who is disturbed, moody, perhaps has suicidal thoughts, exhibits outbursts of anger and frustration. They wonder what, if anything, they did wrong. Who wants to accept their child has mental illness, a set of conditions we aren't much good at curing, although they can be "managed?"

The LGBTQ+ folks hold out the hope perhaps their child is "nomal" after all, merely a badly misunderstood transgendered individual. Wouldn't that be a 'lifeline' to a 'drowning' parent? The temptation to grab it would be very great.

From the child's point of view, clouded as it is by depression, confusion and a sense of "otherness," wouldn't the idea that we have a way to explain all their painful thoughts and feelings, and to make them better seem like a miracle? It would, thinking "I'm an unhappy boy, perhaps I'd be a happy girl" could seem logical.

So we can understand how people want their child to be "normal" by redefining what "normal" consists of. And why the child might hope trans is their "solution." 

That doesn't mean it works; as the Europeans have decided, it doesn't work. The mental illness is still there, in spite of a charade to claim it as a newly understood form of normal.

The fact that some people become delusional doesn't mean we all have to concur with their delusion. What is wrong isn't our definition of "normal," what is wrong is their mentation. Sadly, we aren't very adept at fixing a miswired mind. 

Luckily some grow out of their confusion and at least some evidence suggests they can become relatively well-adjusted attracted-to-same-sex individuals - gays and lesbians. Society lets such individuals live and prosper so long as they let us be heterosexual, without recruiting our children.

Claim: the US Propped Up Iran

Writing at Tablet, a site friendly to Israel, Tony Badran makes the claim that the US has been an on-and-off ally of Iran. He particularly calls out the two Obama terms and the related third term fronted by Joe Biden. 

Badran alleges the Israelis had to "work around" US interference and absolute coercion aimed at crippling their anti-Iran efforts, and gives examples. He believes Iran never was particularly powerful but put up a good front with the help of Obama and his claque. 

The thing to hold in mind about the Obamas is that neither Barack nor Michelle have much fondness for the US. It's something they've taken pains to make clear on multiple occasions. Those are views to which they are entitled, but the views don't recommend them as its leadership.

Obama's closest advisor was and is Valery Jarrett.  She was born in Iran to American expat parents and learned Farsi along with English as a child. Things she shares with Barack include expat childhood exposure to a Muslim culture and mixed race ancestry.

Obama's fondness for things Persian was obvious while in office. I don't think we realized Israel viewed Obama as a de facto ally of Iran, although in hindsight that conclusion certainly seems plausible. I suppose we were more concerned about his shortcomings as our President.

The Trump Whisperer

We've cited Salena Tito's columns over 20 times here at COTTonLINE, now here is a column in The Times of London where she is the subject. People in politics and journalism started calling her "the Trump whisperer" because the President likes her, trusts her, and really appreciates her unique ability to communicate with his core voters and tell their stories, particularly those in the Rust Belt.

She is this generation's Jimmy Breslin, and a regular contributor to the Washington Examiner. She is a young grandmother, never went to college, has big hair, and normally wears cowboy boots. She is an authentic original, and worth reading about. 

A Chicago Circle

David Burge, who blogs as Iowahawk, posted this model he calls the "Chicago Circle" on X and Stephen Green reposted it on Instapundit. I believe it goes a long way to explaining how a Muslim socialist antisemite could win the Democratic nomination to be New York City's next mayor.

It gets its name from the last two yahoos elected mayor of Chicago, Ms. Bad and Mr. Worse. Los Angeles looks like it is headed down the same chute whose nether end debouches onto a dunghill.

Back when Jesse Jackson memorably described NYC as "Hymietown," a third of New Yorkers were Jews. Today they are 1 out of 8. Evidence of "smart people fleeing." 

All these years urban planners unwittingly have been designing asylums for the ungifted and unwell. Three or four laps around this "doom loop" and you've got a dead-eyed dystopia. 

Harry Harrison's sci. fi. book Make Room, Make Room (1966) describes the result in some detail. The book was adapted to be the 1973 film Soylent Green, but the book has the more vivid description. 

I Have a Hunch

I've looked at a number of photos of the newly nominated Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. I think I know why he won the Dem. primary. He has a genuinely nice smile, he looks friendly and happy.

This piece in the New York Post has 5 or 6 different photos of the guy campaigning.  It appears his face just falls into a toothy smile nearly automatically.

You might argue, people don't vote for someone because they like his or looks. I think the evidence is many do. 

My dear mother, dead nearly 30 years, would say of this or that politician "I don't like his looks" or "He seems nice." My dad never voiced such opinions and I wasn't convinced. However, I don't believe her approach is all that uncommon. My sense is people liked Mamdani's public persona.

He looks friendly but his policy choices are terrible. As a NYC resident I would be unlikely to know or interact with the mayor but would be affected by his policies. I would not vote for him. 

After Action Report

A really good summary of the 12 day war in the Jerusalem Post, by John Spencer, with three amazing quotes.

Tehran is now further from a nuclear bomb than it has been in over a decade.

The [US] administration demonstrated a doctrine of force without occupation. No regime change. No long-term ground presence. No ambiguity. Clear ends, clear ways, clear means. The foreign policy scars of Iraq and Afghanistan did not dictate paralysis. America led with strength, purpose, and results.

Clausewitz wrote that war is the use of force to compel an enemy to do your will. Israel compelled Iran to stop. The United States reinforced that outcome. Iran, for all its threats and weapons, could not impose its will on anyone.

It is my hope, and I assume yours, that this will remain our view when we look back at it ten years from now. 

Leveling the Field

Reading this article about men who believe they are, or should be, women playing in women’s sports, I had an insight I hope is worth sharing. We’ve had several examples of this happening and the trans athletes pretty much always win. 

From those examples we learned that it is physiology, not mentation that gives trans the edge in women’s sports. Even assuming trans have a female “mind set,” if they do, it isn’t enough to level the playing field. It is the male body they were born with and perhaps, from their viewpoint, are stuck with, that gives them a winning edge. 

Presuming we don’t want to convert women’s sports into a competition between XY trans athletes, excluding those actually born XX female, we need to limit participation to those whose female orientation is genetic, not mind over matter. The reasoning is like weight classes in boxing, leveling the playing field.

However much we want men and women to be equal, there is no getting past the fact evolution designed us to differ in some respects. Those specializations had survival value and as their descendants, we inherited those differences. 

Most of those survival-oriented specializations happened when we were still hunter-gatherers, and it would seem males did most of the hunting, while females tended the young and gathered. In modern life those specializations are less useful, but some are repurposed in sports and in warfare. You can perhaps think of other examples.

Loony Toons

I know we've reported this before but a new compilation by website Issues & Insights puts it together in a nice compact form.

The data from a 60,000-participant survey shows that conservatives are far better off emotionally than their counterparts on the left.

Nine in 10 conservatives self-report their mental health to be excellent (51%) or very good (39%). Those who consider themselves liberals are struggling, with only 20% saying their mental health is excellent and 26% believing it is very good.

Only 19% of conservatives say their mental health is poor, while 45% of liberals say they have poor mental health.

Those aren't tiny little differences and, for survey research, that is a really big sample. It tells you that, among other things, the homeless camped out along urban streets are merely Democrats whose mental health has gotten too dysfunctional to hold a job.

It explains why liberal policies are often impractical, or irrational. They are formed by and for people with "poor mental health."

No Surprise

We are hearing this morning that Iran violated the ceasefire giving Israel an excuse to keep bombing them. And we hear that this irritates Trump who was relishing his role as peace-maker. None of this surprises me much.

Let’s remember who has the missiles Iran is firing at Israel. It isn’t the Iranian Army, it is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. IRGC exists to recruit young Persians who are inspired by the holy cause of Islamic supremacy, and, once recruited, stoking their fervor however possible.

I have no trouble imagining one or more young fanatics manning missile sites who viewed the ceasefire as a betrayal, committed by those less fanatical than they. They might decide to keep the fight going by ignoring the ceasefire. 

There are likewise people in the IDF who would like to keep bombing Iran and are delighted the ceasefire didn’t hold. The undefended skies of Iran must feel like a giant first person shooter video game to IDF pilots who are over it with bombs and missile to unload on bad folks who live to destroy Israel.

Trump is mad because he likes to win. For the ceasefire to fail when he’d already bragged about it is like taking candy from a toddler.

In summary, none of this is surprising but it is disappointing to those of us not actually in the fight. Who would like to have one less war to worry about.

Deserving Each Other

In a long life I have met a lot of New Yorkers and believe I have known exactly one New Yorker I liked. He was a mixed bag but on balance a good guy - a former RC priest, married to an ex-nun. 

All of this by way of saying Nu Yawk isn't my favorite city. So when I read in the New York Post that it looks like socialist Zohran Mamdani may win the mayors race this fall you can imagine what I thought.

I thought it's a match made in heaven. They deserve each other.  His election will be almost perfect karma, he will facilitate the city's richly deserved decay and disintegration. Best of all, icky New Yorkers will have brought it on themselves.

Ceasefire and Truce, Maybe

Townhall's Katie Pavich has a bombshell announcement from President Trump. Here is what he posted on Truth Social.

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED! Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL.

On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, 'THE 12 DAY WAR.' This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!

Fingers crossed, friends. Let's hope it holds. If it is on the level, Iran is showing more judgment than I had given them credit for. Maybe Roubini's prediction (below) came true sooner than expected? 

Meanwhile Democrats are eating TACOs filled with crow.

Later ... as of 5:45 p.m. Mountain Time, neither Israel nor Iran has confirmed what Trump announced. Can he have jumped the gun, announced something negotiators agreed upon that the folks back home won't honor? 

Roubini Predicts

Economic prognosticator Nouriel Roubini writes at the Project Syndicate website that he expects the regime in Iran to fall with the next year. Here he summarizes its problems.

Today, Iranians face skyrocketing inflation, collapsing real incomes, mass poverty, and even hunger not because of US and Western sanctions but because of their rulers’ nonsensical policies. A country that could have been richer than any Gulf oil state is near bankruptcy, owing to the regime’s corruption, incompetence, and strategic recklessness. (emphasis added)

In addition to being a curse to its own people, the Islamic Republic has financed terrorist groups in the Middle East for decades and has caused state failure or semi-failure across the region: in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza/Palestine, Iraq.

When nations put a cause ahead of their national interest, they don't do well in the longer run. Iran is certainly the example of this currently in our news. When Russia wore its Soviet Union hat, it too was the world headquarters of a cause - Communism - and it too found that didn't work out well - the "hat" is no more. 

Even the US has flirted at times with pushing the cause of democracy and representative government. Its experiments with "nation building" have most often failed. 

I conclude that just as separation of church and state is a good governing principle, more generally the separation of state and any cause (religious or otherwise) is likewise preferred. Cause-driven governments suboptimize routine business, at the expense of national life, in order to prioritize the cause, normally beyond their borders. The nation suffers from this neglect.

A Comparison

I have been impressed with how good a governor Ron DeSantis is, even if his campaign skills aren’t the best. You could, I believe, make a fair argument that he’s this nation’s most effective at actual day-to-day governing.

For proof, I offer this article by Francis Menton at his Manhattan Contrarian website. He compares two states with roughly equal populations and shows how New York spends nearly twice as much per person as Florida while delivering essentially identical services. 

How does FL accomplish this? Florida has fewer state employees than NY and is more parsimonious with Medicaid benefits. Hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.

Afterthought:  I wouldn't be surprised if FL deals with fewer or less powerful public employee unions than NY.

VDH: Thinking About Iran

Historian Victor Davis Hanson, writing at American Greatness, answers 10 questions about Iran following Saturday’s bombing of their nuclear sites. We have often cited his work in the past. I found his answers reassuring, perhaps you will as well. Here are the questions.

1. What are we to make of Saturday night’s destruction of the three Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan?
2. But what happens now? Won’t Iran release its terrorist cells in the U.S., or attack U.S. bases nearby with missiles and drones, or unleash missiles at the Gulf oil fields, or mine the Straits of Hormuz, or unleash a new unforeseen volley of missiles at Israel?
3. What will be the reaction of the Iranian street or the military?
4. What was Trump doing by announcing a 1-14 day window to decide the use of force?
5. What is the attitude of the Arab Islamic world—specifically the proximate Gulf states, Egypt, and Jordan—to the American elimination of the Iranian nuclear program?
6. After the attack, will the MAGA base splinter Trump’s support and help weaken his agenda before the midterms?
7. Will Russia or China put pressure on the U.S. to restrain Israel, intervene, or cause havoc?
8. How will Trump fare in the war?
9. Will the image and profile of Israel in the Middle East change after the invasion war?

I believe you will find his answers to these questions useful. 

At War?

Roger Kimball, writing for American Greatness, considers Iran in its region, and gives several examples.

As we contemplate the future of Iran, I would suggest pondering the possibility that, even if “we are not at war with Islam,” Islam may well be at war with us.

It does feel that way sometimes, doesn't it? Some call it "the Long War," another name for the Global War on Terror. Not to be confused with the sci. fi. and gamer usages of the LW label, which search engines bring up first.

The Morning After ....

We've been wondering what action(s) Iran would take in retribution for our bombing their nuke sites all to blazes. So far today there are a couple of things to report.

The first is that they have taken preliminary steps to close the Straits of Hormuz as the New York Post reports.

Iran’s parliament has voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping channel through which around 20% of the world’s daily oil flows.

The move, which could block $1 billion in oil shipments per day, is likely to send oil prices soaring. It will come into effect pending a final decision by Iran’s Supreme Council. The Supreme Council’s decision must be made by tonight, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.

The second was something reported by Zero Hedge.

Russia's former president and current deputy chairman of the country's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev [noted:] A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.

I believe the first is much more likely than the second. Loaned nukes would be a game-changer, and could start a nuclear war which almost nobody wants any part of.

----------

Nineteen years ago, Henry Kissinger wrote of Iran as follows.

A modern, strong, peaceful Iran could become a pillar of stability and progress in the region. This cannot happen unless Iran's leaders decide whether they are representing a cause or a nation — whether their basic motivation is crusading or international cooperation.

I believe we know what they decided, as this piece in The Atlantic points out about missile attacks on Israel:

The strikes had been carried out not by Iran’s military but by a militia, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization whose name doesn’t even include Iran: the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

This is not some bureaucratic “fun fact.” Rather, it illustrates a fundamental truth about Iran: the duality of its institutions, many of which are explicitly defined to be autonomous of both the nation and the state.

This duality is Iran's red clown nose, they leave it off and act as "the voice of Allah," then pop it on and pretend to be a normal country. Are we supposed to take them at their word both times? Balderdash and poppycock. They are a bloodthirsty religious movement, when it suits them wearing as camouflage the hide of the nation they killed when they deposed the Shah.

Update

Late last week the TV weather guessers were predicting a super hot weekend running into Monday with most of the nation sweltering. For all I know, maybe they were right.

About most of the country, that is. Here in the northern Rockies yesterday - Saturday - was actually too cool for a short sleeve shirt to be comfy. I don’t think we reached 70℉, we ate supper indoors instead of on the preferred screened porch.

This morning is overcast, though what happens later is anybody’s guess. Our predicted high today is 55℉ and there is a freeze warning for tonight (29℉ predicted).

I believe I’ve mentioned we have a short growing season here. “Growing season” is the number of days between the last freezing night in Spring (quite possibly tonight) and the first freezing night of Autumn. Locals have tried to home garden tomatoes and corn, but most years those are forlorn hopes and few make a second attempt.

At this altitude we grow mostly irrigated fodder - hay and alfalfa. These are fed to cattle which are raised for meat, cow/calf operations predominate. 

Dairying once was common but the work is just too unrelenting. When we first arrived here 30 years ago there was a thriving cheese factory but it and the dairies that supported it are long gone.

The area is making a gradual transition from alpine agriculture to two-season tourist area like Vail or Sun Valley. There are lakes, ski resorts and National Parks within an hour’s drive, plus lots of hunting, fishing, snowmobiling and off-roading in the two local National Forests. Just this year a KOA joined several local RV parks already here.

Not Surprised

COTTonLINE gave you a heads up about a likely bombing attack on Iran almost a month ago. Here is some of what we posted on March 27.

US long-range bombing assets are massing at Diego Garcia. The means one of two things.

Either they are there to add weight to the pressure Trump will put on Iran to reach a no-nukes deal, or they are there to bring pressure and, if the diplomatic effort fails, bomb to destruction Iran's nuclear program using (non-nuclear) ground-penetrating high explosive bombs. Carrier based assets will aid in this latter effort.

Long range bombers delivered most of the attack on Iran, and according to Jennifer Griffin, Fox News' longtime Pentagon reporter, carrier based EA-18 electronic warfare planes supported the mission. There were also submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles fired at surface targets. One source even claims a B-52 dropped a bunker buster too.

This last point could turn out to be important, namely that B-52s can operate more-or-less safely over Iran. They are capable of carrying well over a hundred 500 lb. dumb bombs per mission, of the sort that can carpet bomb cities into rubble fields. Trump warned that Iran has "many targets left" and he is willing to destroy them too if surrender is not forthcoming.

I wonder when and how this ends?

He Decided, and the Bombs Dropped

Fox News and other sites are reporting that US B-2 heavy bombers have successfully bombed three sites in Iran: Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. President Trump announced on Truth Social that the aircraft are all safely out of Iran and, presumably by now, headed home. 

His earlier talk of deciding whether to bomb happening sometime in the next two weeks was obviously meant to keep both Iran and Congress off guard, thinking they had time. It turned out to be more like 2 days. 

It remains to be seen how the members of Congress who wanted Trump to run it by them first will react. Not happily, one supposes.

It has been announced Trump will be making an Oval Office announcement about the attack on TV tonight at 10 p.m. eastern time, which will be 8 p.m here in mountain time. I intend to watch that broadcast.

Things could get exciting in the next few days or weeks, or not. We'll have to see if Iran infiltrated sleeper squads through Biden's wide-open border during the last four years, and if they will choose to activate them.

Be on the watch for things that don't look quite right, don't look normal here at home, in the next few weeks. If you see something, say something.

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Friday Snark

Images courtesy of Politico's
The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

Prey vs. Predator

 A Donald Trump quote gives insight into his frame of mind as both 45 and now as 47.

Asked by a reporter what gave him the idea for the giant flag, he replied: “I’ve had it for a long time. The first time I had it, you guys [the media] were after me and I said, ‘I had to focus.'”

“I was the hunted,” Trump said of his first term, “and now I’m the hunter. It’s a big difference.”

Hat tip to Power Line’s Scott Johnson for sharing the quote. I predict presidential historians will write of Trump that losing his first reelection bid paradoxically made his second term, when he won it, much more consequential.

Saluting the Solstice

Later today at 8:42 p.m. Mountain Time, the Summer Solstice will occur in the Northern Hemisphere. Today will be our longest day (and shortest night) of the year. 

Perhaps most important it will be the official first day of our Northern Hemisphere summer. We have yet to run our AC here in the mountains. 500+ miles south, and nearly a mile closer to sea level, our winter quarters have already had several days with highs over 100℉, today is predicted to reach 108℉.

One of my most memorable summer solstices happened sometime in the early 1980s. We did a late spring RV trip up the Alaskan Highway in our little motorhome and kept going north to Fairbanks, AK. On this date that year we were parked at a Fairbanks RV camp and at 1 a.m I went outside and there was enough natural light to read a newspaper. The mosquitoes were fierce so I didn’t tarry. That trip was some adventure.  

Conservatives Happier People

Data guy Nate Silver posts survey data on X which shows conservatives are just plain happier people than liberals. He writes:

Here's an attempt at a deeper dive at understanding why conservatives are so much happier than liberals. Mostly looking at how persistent the gap is in survey data rather than extrapolating too much.

After which he posts this table, but doesn't give its source which this site says is CES standing for Cooperative Election Survey.

If Silver doesn't want to give the most obvious answer, I will. Conservatives resist change because they feel no need, the world is treating them okay or better, and change could make it worse. Liberals seek change because in one way or several the world doesn't suit them as it now is, and they feel they've less to lose if change goes sour.

This leaves aside the whole "neurotics and normals can view the exact same objective set of circumstances and see quite different things" issue. Liberals are much more likely to self-report having been given a less-than-positive mental health diagnosis.

Regardless, for men and women of all races, all age groups, all education levels conservatives are happier than liberals. The differences are not trivial and this is not a new finding.

Full disclosure: I am a conservative white man from the Silent generation with a postgraduate degree. That's like drawing a straight flush. I should be (and mostly am) giddy with happiness when the vicissitudes of aging don't put a damper on my spirits.

How to Bust a Bunker

Several recent posts have discussed the possibility of US B-2 heavy bombers dropping massive "bunker buster" bombs on the underground Fordow nuclear site in Iran. 

If your interest extends to "how would those work," Fox News has an excellent column (with diagrams) describing the bombs' two step process and how it might be done. Enjoy.

DJT Hints at the Iran Endgame

Here in the Mountain time zone we get Bret Baier live at 4 p.m., which isn't a convenient time to watch so we record it and watch it in the local 6-7 p.m. window. That explains why I just saw President Trump say the following, which I roughly paraphrase.

For at least 15 years I have been saying Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons. I don't want to go to war. If shutting down their weapon development can be accomplished peacefully, fine. If not, then it still must happen.

My reading of what he said is the following. Iran surrenders and allows outsiders to destroy their nuclear program or we bomb it into rubble. Asked about regime change, he didn't show much interest. Trump is a long-time critic of "nation building," at which the US is not succeeded in the last half century.

Meanwhile, Trump is in no hurry to act. The longer the mullahs hold out in Iran, the more the Israelis degrade Iran's infrastructure, economy, and leadership with air strikes and assassinations. Letting this process continue for 2-3 more weeks has certain advantages. 

What Divide?

Red State has the results of a poll which finds MAGA voters are not much divided on US support for Israel.

The poll, which was prepared by GrayHouse for the Senate Republican Committee, showed MAGA far from being fractured, with a staggering 80 percent of Trump voters voicing their support for the U.S. providing Israel with offensive weapons in its efforts to destroy Iran's military and nuclear capabilities.

That's not all. Poll results show that 83 percent of Trump voters support the strikes on Iran's nuclear program, with 72 percent supporting the U.S. taking "direct military action" to prevent Tehran from developing its nuclear capabilities.

This last stat is the key, because what DJT appears to be pondering is the US bombing of the underground Fordow uranium enrichment plant. Roughly 3 out of 4 Trump voters seem okay with that, if the poll is to be believed.

This puts me in mind of a parody lyric of the Beach Boys' hit Barbara Ann, in which the refrain goes: "Bomb, bomb, bomb ... bomb, bomb Iran." It dates back to the Reagan era.

Later ... I have subsequently seen another poll which finds essentially the reverse of that shown above. I suspect the second poll asked the general public while the first asked Trump voters.  We would expect different results from those two populations, not sure we'd expect differences of the size reported.

Indispensable

Watching Bret Baier of Fox News interview Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday, I was struck by how far he has surpassed his competitors in the broadcast and cable networks. If you want it from the horse's mouth, Baier will have that pony sitting for an interview and behaving themself.

With nothing much to lose, I fearlessly predict historians will declare Bret Baier the Walter Cronkite of the Trump era. His is the indispensable talking head even the opposition watches because those who matter want to sit opposite him and be interviewed. 

Who gets the credit? It certainly begins with Bret himself, he is a talented anchor. Some credit also goes to Brit Hume, his similarly talented predecessor and a bunch more to the Murdoch organization for recognizing the mostly empty market niche of a news show where conservatives are treated as reasonable humans with stories to tell and common sense perspectives.

Viewpoint Diversity

The Wall Street Journal runs an opinion piece by John Ellis, a prof at UC Santa Cruz.  He makes a very well reasoned argument for why funding agencies should demand viewpoint diversity among university faculty. 

Perhaps Ellis is conservative, or perhaps he is just a smart progressive. His column is excellent, and not behind the WSJ paywall.

We conservatives were darned scarce when I retired some 20+ years ago, even in the business school which you'd (incorrectly) suppose might be a hotbed of capitalist thought. It has only gotten worse since.

How bad is the campus anti-capitalist bias? Some campuses don't even have a business school, students who want to pursue a career in the private sector major in what is euphemistically called "applied economics." You can almost hear an 18th century upper class Brit sneering that a déclassé person is "in trade," said in much the same tones as claiming they were birthed on a dungheap by a slattern.

Whatever ... in the absence of viewpoint diversity, higher ed will continue to be seen as indoctrination academies serving a discredited ideology.

Wisdom

Instapundit Reynolds posts a quote worth keeping and cherishing, by economist Thomas Sowell.

If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.

Election Fraud Claim

Writing for PJ Media, Matt Margolis reports on information recently given by the new FBI Director Kash Patel to Sen. Grassley (R-IA).

The FBI had a relatively new confidential source who provided information in summer 2020 that the Chinese government was manufacturing and exporting fake U.S. driver's licenses as part of a plot to create voter identities for Chinese residents living in the United States so they could vote with fake mail-in ballots. The intelligence source claimed the plot was specifically designed to benefit Biden.

In fact, another agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, had intercepted nearly 20,000 fake licenses around the time the intelligence came in a possible corroboration of the report, officials said.

Then-FBI Director Chris Wray sat on the information so it did not become public knowledge and harm the Biden campaign.

Tuesday Snark

Image courtesy of Lucianne.com, 6/17/2025.

Lend-Lease

Iran has a nuclear enrichment site - Fordow - located under a mountain, some half mile down in man-made caves. Israel doesn't have the only weapon that site fears, the "bunker-buster bomb," and the B-2 heavy bomber to deliver it. Those the US has.

The solution to this dilemma is 84 years old, courtesy of President Franklin Roosevelt. FDR or one of his minions coined the term "lend-lease," which the FDR Library describes as follows.

He introduced to the public the idea of lending, as opposed to selling, military supplies to Britain. He likened the plan to lending a garden hose to a neighbor so that the neighbor could put out a fire in his house; the neighbor would then return the hose “intact” or, if it got “smashed up—holes in it—during the fire,” replace it with a new one.

We lend the Israelis a B-2, several bunker-buster bombs, and a couple of aerial refueling planes. They bomb Fordow into rubble, and return the plane to us. Trump explains our rationale as being the logical response to theocratic Iran which has our death as a primary national goal.

Have Some Fun

AI is doing some impressive stuff. See an extremely clever parody of the Mamas and Papas’ California Dreaming featuring Gov. Newsom and Mayor Bass in clown paint, the CA grizzly bear hamming it up, and President Trump performing the flute solo. Great lyrics too. 

California Freedom is genuinely entertaining, as well as politically on point. Enjoy!

No Change

Yesterday the Democrats held a series of rallies across the country under the banner of "No Kings." Their point being, one supposes, that President Trump has been acting king-like. 

With the national legislatures quite evenly split, and the Senate's filibuster requiring 60 votes to override, the legislative branch is more than a little stymied. If the government is going to do anything, the executive branch will have to do it. 

Trump as the executive has stepped up, and acted. Democrats are aghast. Hence their rallies.

The truth is this country has had no king since George III. His reign here ended in either 1776 with the Declaration of Independence or in 1783 when the revolutionary war ended, take your pick.

What worries Democrats is that Trump's popularity is more king-like than what most presidents achieve. As a showman, he "reads the room," plays to the crowd, and they love it.

So ... the US had no king last century, last decade, last year, and last week. Today, it still has no king, as I'm sure Trump would agree. It does have a hyperactive President, and I am happy about that.

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.