Travel Blogging X

We are moored in Suva, the capital of Fiji today. It looks like it might rain and is both warm and humid. Yesterday we were in much smaller Lautoka at the other end of Fiji’s rather large island. 

The roadstead at Suva is a busy one, I counted 7-8 ocean-going ships moored offshore. It is no Singapore, but relatively busy for a Pacific island. We’ve been here before and aren’t going ashore. 

The Fiji population is a mixture of indigenous Melanesians and East Indians whose ancestors were brought here as indentured labor to work the sugar cane fields and factories. They subscribe to different religions and have different cultures.

The other DrC was in a market in Lautoka and noted the butcher shop had good looking lamb, probably from New Zealand, but no beef. Thus catering to the sensitivities of the largely Hindu Indian population. Presumably the indigenous Melanesians who are Methodist eat beef but buy it elsewhere, at a market catering to their culture.

The Indians work harder and are better merchants, so they ended up with most of the wealth, such as it is. They were also gaining political control when the Melanesians rose up and overthrew the government. 

For the last 20 years the government of Fiji has been in turmoil, coups and countercoups aplenty. Multiculturalism has been no blessing for Fiji, quite the contrary.

Hypocracy

Have you noticed that public figures who two weeks ago were claiming Trump was worse than Hitler have now congratulated him on winning and stated their intent to cooperate in a smooth, no-snags transition come January? I’m certain that, at a minimum, Biden, Harris, and Obama have done this.

If you really believed Trump was Hitler, wouldn’t you fear being killed and sent to the ovens? Wouldn’t you be booking one-way overseas travel? Liquidating your holdings and sending money overseas? Sewing jewelry into your clothing? Doing all the things German Jews in the 1930s should have done, and a lucky few actually did? In the immortal words of Matt Dillon, “Getting out of Dodge.”

None of the famous people making those claims believed what they were saying; their subsequent behavior makes this clear. They did hope you’d believe enough of it to vote against Trump. If you let yourself be conned, shame on you.

They complain about him exaggerating and bloviating … have they no self-awareness? No realization the election returns make them look absolutely foolish? If an almost-Hitler does someday come along, will their repeated crying “wolf” have deadened the public to a real menace? The three mentioned above and two dozen more are effing pathetic.

Weird Physiology Research

A blogger reports some extremely tentative findings concerning liver size and calorie utilization without gaining weight. It turns out having a larger liver, presuming the cause is not disease or damage, may be associated with being able to consume more calories and burn more calories without gaining weight.

While a number of things will cause a larger liver, most of them are bad for your health, if not fatal. The one thing the author identifies that you can do in pursuit of a larger liver while remaining healthy is eating more protein. She suggests that something called “exercise science” could run tightly controlled studies to see if this (a) works, and (b) has the desired effect of burning more calories while resting or otherwise not exercising.

While we await the findings, order up a medium-rare 16 oz. rib eye and dig in! It will be delicious and could be good for your health as well. Maybe skip the baked potato with sour cream, chives and bacon bits just to be on the safe side. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

How Each County Voted

Take a look at the county map of the U.S. See how your county voted. Any surprises?

Two states - OK and WV - have no counties voting for Harris. Two more have only one county won by Harris - WY and NV, the DrsC live in these latter two states. Incidentally, both impose no state income tax.

In WY only Teton County was carried by Harris. In NV only Clark County was carried by Harris. We don’t live in Teton County, we do live in Clark County, but far from Las Vegas.

The Wrong Women’s Issue

Thinking about the election just conducted, and explaining the pro-Trump outcome, has become a mini-industry. One interesting rumination on this topic is an article in The Free Press which argues the Dims picked the wrong women’s issue to emphasize, while the GOP picked a women’s issue with real political “legs.”

This time around, abortion was the wrong issue for the Dims. The only people realistically angry about abortion were women in red states who had no feasible way to travel to a blue state for an abortion, should they need one. This was not a huge group.

The GOP picked instead the issue of biological men claiming to be women in women’s sports, locker rooms, and restrooms. And the obvious craziness of providing sex change operations for convicted male felons who claim to be women. These issues had relevance in all 50 states, and with women and men everywhere. 

Travel Blogging IX

We were in Samoa yesterday, not the American colony but the former Brit colony, now independent. The other DrC went ashore, I did not. 

We passed the day tied up alongside in the harbor at Apia, the capital. I spent a fair bit of the afternoon sitting in air conditioned comfort at a near floor to ceiling window overlooking the port and city from our observation deck some 120 feet above the water. 

The city and its port resemble the Hilo of two decades ago. Similar harbor, similar development thinning inland as the city grows up the shoulder of an old shield volcano. Similar mix of industrial and recreational along the coastline, similar palm trees, etc. 

Apia has a beautiful Catholic Church - two-tone blue and white, with dark brown trim. The other DrC got pix of the ceiling done in mahogany marquetry. She noted Apia looked too clean to be a tropical city and learned the Commonwealth leaders had recently held a meeting here and everything got spruced up to put Samoa’s best foot forward.

We are at sea today en route to two stops in Fiji. Both Fiji and Samoa have benefitted from Chinese investment and infrastructure projects. A local lady in Apia told the other DrC that these come “with strings attached,” expectations of support in UN votes, etc. China is ‘buying’ friends in the region, using funds earned by selling cell phones, TVs and Temu trinkets to developed nations.

The Verdict Is In

The largest ‘grand jury’ ever convened in this great land had upwards of 140 million members. They considered the charges against Donald J. Trump; both prosecution and defense had three months to make their case. 

A clear majority of ‘jurors’ found him not guilty. Moreover, they designated him their preferred choice for President of these United States. 

It is time to end the prosecutions. We need to allow our President-elect to get on with the business of staffing the policy side of our federal government.

I believe they also rendered a verdict on DOJ Lawfare … they don’t like it, and want no more of it. 

The Presidential Map

Apparently the final map will look almost exactly like the one below. We Republicans ‘own’ most of the country. Democrats ‘own’ about half of the coastal property, less if you count all of Alaska’s coast, and four outlier Midwest/Southwest states. Map courtesy of a post at Instapundit.

Trump the Better Candidate

Richard Porter writes for RealClearPolitics and his topic is the election just ended and the two candidates.

Despite two impeachments, two assassination attempts, four criminal indictments, 34 felony convictions, and coverage from the big three networks that was 85% negative (as opposed to 78% positive for his opponent), Donald Trump triumphed over all the hate and the haters to win his second term in the Oval Office.

Why? Trump was a better president than Joe Biden and a better candidate than Kamala Harris. Ordinary Americans enjoyed measurably more fruitful lives under Trump than Biden. And Trump is noticeably more authentic, relatable, charming, clever, convincing, insightful, intuitive, and fun than Kamala. Trump won on both policy and personality.

Trump’s win is more than an epic personal and policy success story, it’s a vote of “no-confidence” in institutions and governance by authoritative experts. Institutions fail when they do not focus on their core mission. Consider all the institutions in America and Europe that have lost their way, focusing on the politically fashionable and fringe issues.

That’s the explanation for the election outcome we see before us, in three paragraphs I wish I’d written. 

CA Does the Right Things … for a Change

Longtime readers know I’ve devoted untold column inches to documenting the sins and sorrows of my native state, California. When its voters show some evidence of sanity, fairness moves me to note that as well.

In the election just concluded the state as a whole passed Proposition 36, which undoes many of the sins of Prop. 47, backed by Harris. Prop. 47 decriminalized some offenses and reduced others from felony to misdemeanor. Prop. 36 makes penalties more harsh, particularly retail theft or shoplifting.

In addition, the voters of Los Angeles refused to reelect soft-on-crime DA George Gascón and elected in his place a law and order man. Taken together, these two acts suggest the voters remaining in CA are beginning to understand coddling criminals begets more crime … an obvious truth.

With the reminder that one robin does not suggest spring has arrived, and one wise act does not signal a renaissance of sanity in CA, we should applaud any moves in the sensible direction. I hope you liked the wordplay in my title.

Winning BIG

Donald Trump won his second term. He didn’t just win it, he won BIG or as he would say, yuuuuge - far and away more Electoral College votes than the 270 he needed. 

Just how many more remains to be seen as three states have yet to report their winner. Over 300 for certain. He has so far swept all the “battleground” states which have reported, and at this point is ahead in most of the remainder.

Right now the MAGA Republican Party is as much Trump’s as the 1930s Democratic Party was FDR’s. You can’t imagine anyone else running it, although inevitably someone else will eventually do so. J.D. Vance is very talented, perhaps he will.

Now the Dims have to figure out what set of fixes will enable them to be competitive again. When you lose the presidency and the Senate in a single election, introspection is definitely in order. 

From our point of view on the right, a move toward the center seems the logical, if painful choice. Plus a repudiation of some sort of the Squad and its hangers-on like Sens. Warren and Sanders. 

I actually voted for Bill Clinton when he first ran for president, hoping to encourage the Dims to move toward the center formerly occupied by the likes of Sens. Sam Nunn and Scoop Jackson. Those were serious people who knew how to govern.

Fixing the Dims is someone else’s problem, I propose to enjoy being on the winning side for a change. Four more years of “The Donald” lie ahead, if he can close the border, deport criminal aliens, eradicate DEI, and roll back transgenderism, I’ll be happy. I’d love it if he could shrink the FedGov by a third, but that may be a bridge too far.

More Looking Good

As I write this Donald Trump has just been declared the winner in Pennsylvania. This gives him 267 electoral votes, where he needs 270 minimum. Several states remain to report, still counting their votes. 

Bret Baier concludes there is essentially no feasible way for Harris to win all those still outstanding. It is likely his Electoral College total votes will be substantially greater than 270. 

Thus Donald John Trump will be the 47th president, baring the black swan of all times. Hip, Hip, Hooray! As someone on Fox News just said, we’ve seen our Republic “repairing” itself, mending the misstep that was the Biden presidency.

Democrats need to do some serious soul-searching about how and why they screwed up so bad, losing to a guy many thought a boor and a roue’. I’ll have thoughts about what this means tomorrow, after I’ve slept on it.

Later … They just called Wisconsin for Trump, taking him to 277, making his win official. At this point only MI, AZ, NV, and AK remain to be called.

An analyst on MSNBC said “Trump did better among every demographic except college educated women.” I wonder if less partisan outlets will agree? If true, that is a heck of an endorsement.

Instead of being gracious and calling Trump to congratulate him, Harris sent her campaign staff home and went to bed. This is a “no class” move if ever I saw one. The news media are unimpressed and now feel free to say as much.

Last Poll of the Cycle … Looking Good

The poll with the best track record in 2020 was AtlasIntel and their poll taken over the last two days has just dropped. Are they accurate this time? Who knows? Their accuracy last time at least gets them a serious look.

They have Trump ahead 49.2 to 48.1, with the balance going to third party candidates. They predict Trump will take all of the so-called swing states or battleground states with the exception of Minnesota. They predict the Electoral College will go 312 for Trump vs. 226 for Harris.

Their prediction shouldn’t keep anyone from voting, but I like their scenario. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if it proved accurate. 

—————

It is already Nov. 5 - Election Day - here on this side of the International Date Line but that means little as it is still Nov. 4 where the election is yet to happen. We’ll start getting results about 3 p.m. local Samoan time tomorrow after the polls close on the East Coast. I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow p.m.

It is fingers-crossed time, boys and girls, time to think positive thoughts.

Weird Gerontological Science

UPI reports results of a study in the U.K. which followed 8400 older people for 10 years. It found the following:

Folks with more money and better education are at less risk for developing dementia as they grow older, a new study shows.

They found that aging folks with a college education are 43% less likely to have mild cognitive impairment, results showed.

Further, being in the wealthiest third of the population is linked with a 26% lower risk of advancing from mild cognitive impairment into full-blown dementia, researcher said.

Results also showed that advantaged people are more likely to recover from mild cognitive impairment and regain their wits.

The findings are correlational, that is, they do not prove causality. I’d argue that starting out with a better brain and not having to worry about money both help in keeping dementia away from one’s door. 

But the cause could actually be that the more educated and affluent are more likely to be married and that helps with mental health too. As I’ve written too many times in an academic career, “More research on this topic is needed.”

Squirrel Power

For God’s sake, painter Bob Ross had pet squirrels, sometimes in his shirt pocket, while he painted happy little trees. Nobody bothered Bob.

On Tuesday, let’s get vengeance for the late squirrel Peanut and his raccoon pal. Both murdered by faceless NY bureaucrats. Vote for less government interference in our daily lives. Vote Trump/Vance.

Travel Blogging VIII

Sometime in the next 24 hours we cross both the equator and the international date line. We will go from Saturday directly to Monday without ever experiencing Sunday. That is the date line.

We will also go from mid-autumn to mid-spring in the southern hemisphere. That is the equator. Of course here near the equator the seasons don’t mean a lot, but by the time we get to Sydney we’ll notice the difference.

For the last day or so the ocean has been almost dead calm, which makes cruising more pleasant. The air is warm and humid, welcome to the tropics. In the days of sailing ships they’d call what we’re steaming through “the doldrums” and they’d be becalmed as there is no wind.

Experienced mariners in sailing ship days would try to plot routes that avoided the region of little wind. We have no such problem, we burn fuel and keep on truckin’.

The ship we’re on - the Westerdam - is 20 years old, christened in 2004. More modern ships have several specialty restaurants while this one has only two, and one of those tucked in a corner of the Lido deck buffet restaurant. The ship is well maintained, doesn’t look shabby, but does lack some of the modern features. I wonder if she’ll be stationed in Australia/New Zealand for the next several years?

Self-Indulgent

Power Line’s John Hinderaker catches Trump making a “chicken hawk” attack on Liz Cheney and responds thus.

Why on God’s green Earth was Trump talking about Liz Cheney? He should be laser-focused on the border and the cost of living, not petulantly pursuing his personal grudges. This kind of blunder threatens to undo much of the good will he gained with the masterful McDonalds and garbage truck episodes.

This criticism of Trump led me to an insight. Trump is talented for sure, but he is also self-indulgent in his life and in feuds with others. Not for him the steely discipline of sticking to the campaign message regardless, which makes more self-controlled politicians tiresome to listen to. 

He is interesting and entertaining because he follows his whims where they take him in public speaking. Hearing him, you know you’re hearing the real Donald Trump; not some rehearsed ‘improved’ version of him.

Not Far East of Suez….

I just read a RealClearWorld critique of our policy vis-a-vis the Houthi rebels who are attacking Red Sea shipping. It notes that the additional costs associated with their attacks are much less than the cost of our military response. The author makes a valid point, that the U.S. should let them do what they will and ignore it.

I have another take on this, the Houthi acts cost us little. By dramatically cutting traffic through the Suez Canal they cost the Egyptian government plenty, and the nations of the EU quite a bit.

Our interest in Houthi acts is minor, Egypt’s interest when they cut Egyptian income from canal traffic is major. At the end of the day, the Suez Canal isn’t worth much if using it subjects ships to attack.  Egypt will find dealing with them politically difficult, but that is an Egyptian problem.

Why shouldn’t Egypt and the EU deal with the Houthis? By negotiation if possible, or militarily if need be. The world tends to ignore one group of Arabs fighting another group of Arabs. I envision an Egyptian attack on Yemen funded by the EU.

Hat tip to Rudyard Kipling for the inspiration for this title.

Travel Blogging VII

At sea, south of Hawaii:  We’ve left Kona behind and will be sailing for the next six days until we reach  the nation of Samoa, not to be confused with its neighbor American Samoa which we’ve visited. We’ve not been to Samoa so we add another country to our life list.

You know birdwatchers keep a “life list” of the birds they’ve seen, plus where and when? The DrsC have no such formal list but we joke about the number of countries we’ve visited. The other DrC maintains it is currently 140, I’m certain it’s over 100. 

The main places we’ve not visited are in Central Asia, a cluster mostly of former SSRs with -stan in their name. Those and sub Saharan Africa are places we’ve not been and are likely to never reach. Anyway, visiting the nation of Samoa will be +1 to our phantom life list.

In any event, we are abroad on the bosom of the briny and will be for most of a week. This group of experienced travelers won’t have trouble entertaining ourselves. We will read or listen to books, watch films, attend lectures and musical performances, eat too much, lie by the pool, go to the spa and trade travel yarns with other much traveled folk. The time will pass. 

We are now four time zones west of the Pacific coastline. It suggests we have sailed west approximately the distance from New York to California which encompasses four time zones. 

I’ve no idea how many more we’ll cross but everyone of them is more jet lag we have to overcome after flying home. I’m guessing a week of feeling hung over - that’s how I experience jet lag, like a medium hangover, basically the blahs.

Marriage Is a Republican Thing

The Institute for Family Studies is clearly in favor of marriage as an institution. A fair amount of data suggests they are correct in doing so. They’ve published a compendium of research findings. I’d share a few with you.

Republicans continue to be markedly more likely than Democrats to be married—and this is true for several subgroups in the population.

Republicans continue to enjoy significantly happier marriages and somewhat more stable families with children than Democrats.

At the same time, compared to Democrats, Republicans are slightly more likely to have ever been divorced, and, if ever divorced, are markedly more likely to be remarried.

Most progressives today do not think that “children are better off if they have two married parents,” even though the science points clearly in the other direction.

Democratic support for the classic fidelity norm—that having sex with someone besides your spouse is “always wrong”—has fallen about 30 percentage points, especially among college-educated Democrats, even as Republican support for the norm remains high.

There is much more at the article which I found interesting, perhaps you will as well. Full disclosure: the DrsC have been married for over 50 years. Hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.