Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

The Growing Election 2024 Preference Cascade

Posted: June 9, 2024 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, election 2024, elections
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Prime Minister James Hacker:  If there were a conflict of interests which side would the civil service really be on?

Bernard Woolley:  The winning side prime Minister

Yes Prime Minister:  A Real Partnership 1985

If there is one axiom in the political world it’s that people want to be on the winning side because it’s the winning side that will decide who gets the contracts and patronage that comes from government.

Furthermore it’s the losing side that tends to get scrutiny and if you are someone doing something dishonest or if the people who decide to examine you (think J6 committee) are dishonest.

This is what came to my mind when I saw this story:

On Friday, in a Fox News exclusive interview, former President Donald Trump reportedly received $12 million from tech company giants in the Silicon Valley fundraiser Thursday evening, and gained the expected endorsement from one of the Valley’s heavy hitters, David Sacks:

and this one:

You see people are figuring out which way the wind is blowing and have decided that it might be a good idea to follow that breeze rather than sail against it. They might not care for Trump and they may or may not have pure motives for it but they don’t want to be on the wrong side when all is said and done.

There is a passage in the book Lord Hornblower that is a great example of how such things work:

Two hours” said Hornblower “will be ample for all preparations to be made, for the deputation to assemble, for the streets to be decorated, for quarters to be prepared for His Royal Highness and his’s suite.”

“Monsieur, you do not understand all that this implies” protested the Mayor. “It means ”

“It means that you have having to decide whether to enjoy the King’s favour or not” .said Hornblower. “That is the choice before you.”

C. S. Forester: Lord Hornblower 1946

Now even late in the Napoleonic Wars such a decision to come out against Bonaparte carried danger, unfortunately for the Democrats this is the person they are crying Vive L’Empereur! for.

and this:

You don’t need the Journal to tell you that Biden is diminished. You need only to open your eyes. Go over Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report into Biden’s unauthorized removal of classified documents. Review Biden’s Oval Office meltdown after Hur released his findings. Watch Biden try to sit at a D-Day commemoration in France on Thursday.

Or read, if you dare, the transcript of Time magazine correspondent Massimo Calabresi and editor in chief Sam Jacobs’s recent interview of Biden. It appeared the same day as Linskey and Hughes’s story.

This is the interview where Biden says—twice—that Russia invaded Russia. Where, immediately after saying, “I’m not going to comment,”

or even this:

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest if you’re reached the point of low level comics offering to hump a black voter if they come out against Trump odds are your side is not putting the fear of God into anyone..

The people see the writing on the wall and are acting accordingly.

Under the Fedora: Jonah Goldberg and the New Rules, Pride Month Savings on Sports, The annual Business ritual, More Utilitarian Candidates, What Bread of Life Discourses?

Posted: June 3, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Trump, business, catholic, culture, election 2024, elections, politics, Sports, under the fedora
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This weekend Jonah Goldberg noted that a lot of people on the right were comparing Trump to Christ and weren’t taking into account the idea that he cheated on his wife with a porn star.

Well there are two things I’d like to say to that. While Jonah is of course free do disagree on the merits of either verdict the fact is we compare Trump to Christ because Trump we believe both were found guilty unjustly, not of sleeping around but of a completely made up bookkeeping felony, so like Christ he was unjustly found guilty. Nobody (with the possible exception of Laura Loomer) on the right compares Trump to Christ’s divinity.

Second while I do in fact find it plausible that a really rich guy decided to bang a porn star and tried to keep it quiet (frankly I’d hate to have my performance in bed judged by a professional) folks like me who under the old rules thought such things should be disqualifying were massively outvoted on said rules so until the left decides to go back to said rules we aren’t either.

We’re in the middle of a baseball season where the Redsox have a great crop of young players and at the end of a basketball season where the Celtics are in the finals with a solid shot of winning and least we forget the Pats have a new 1st round QB and an old Brady era vet to mentor him. All these things are strong temptations to have me pony up for one of various sports packages from NESN to MLB to NBA etc etc etc…

…and then June roles around and all the professional teams go out of their way to remind me that they are not on my side in the culture wars and suddenly radio and hitting a local bar/restaurant to watch a game rather then giving these guys my money becomes an attractive alternative.

My thanks to various leagues for helping me appreciate the joy of free sports.

Oh and the annual ritual of business shoving gay pride down our throats in the west while making it a point to avoid the same in the middle east continues as always, with BMW actually admitting what we all know that it’s all about the risk and reward of the mob.

Of course in a new years the Ghastly Tom Hagan math will catch up with the west and when it does the west will drop their pride campaigns faster than the Democrats dropped Israel

Speaking of a lack of principles there are quite a few GOP candidates who had been pushing their pro-life credentials in the past who suddenly find themselves willing to compromise on life to gain higher office.

Now there are no shortage of Democrats who run as republicans in red states or republican who run as dems in blue states to get power nor is there a shortage in either party of people whose primary principle is to advance their political power. And the reality is that given the number of honest men & women in politics you likely can’t get a majority without these sorts.

So when there is no other choice by all means elect them but keep such folks away from the true levers of party power because people willing to sell out their principles or their God will have little trouble selling you.

Finally episode one of the Chosen is available free and those who expected to see the aftermath of the feeding of the 5000 and the calming of the waters which closed last season might have been shocked to see they went back to Luke Chapter 1 to the Visitation as their lead.

Granted they decided to knock off John the Baptist in episode one but if there is one thing you could always be sure of in any protestant movie about Christ skips the 6th chapter of John once it reaches verse 26 the beginning of the bread to life discourses. The only exception being word for word adaptions of Gospel.

Given that The Chosen is a TV series rather than a movie there would have been more than enough time to include them but as Catholic as Jonathan Roumie is, he does not have creative control so the bread of life discourses had to go.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good episode and I liked the juxtaposition of the Canticle of Zachariah (the Morning Prayer of the Catholic Church) with the scenes of John’s end and the reaction to it but some things never change, and if you were expecting to see The Chosen break that mold you will be mistaken.

Oh and I’d watch it via the youtube live stream because the loading time of the app seems to be very slow likely due to the sheer number of people trying to watch it there.

Meta AI on Facebook gives biased answers on Biden and Trump’s health

Posted: June 2, 2024 by John Ruberry in election 2024, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Artificial Intelligence, AI for short, is dangerous.

Musical instruments can be used to create beautiful and soul-stirring music, such as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; they can also be abused to grind out aural rubbish such as Screaming Lord Sutch’s Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends, which a BBC poll found to be the worst album of all time.

Artificial intelligence can be twisted to produce ugliness, distortions, and lies.

On my smartphone, I asked Meta AI, thru Facebook, “Is Biden healthy?”

This is the answer I received:

President Joe Biden has generally been considered healthy for his age. In 2021, his physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, released a medical report stating that Biden was “healthy” and “vigorous” and that he was fit to serve as president.

However, like many people his age, Biden has had some health issues, including:

– A history of brain aneurysms (Successfully treated in 1988).
– A pulmonary embolism (treated in 1988).
– Atrial fibrillation (an irregular heartbeat).
– High cholesterol.
– Acid reflux.
– A minor foot fracture in 2020.
– COVID-19 in 2022 (mild symptoms).

Despite these issues, Biden has maintained an active schedule and has been cleared by his doctors to continue serving as president.

While I am not a doctor, but clearly the president is that the president is “an old 81” and at the very least, should submit to a full cognitive exam from a qualified and unbiased team of psychiatrists.

Meta AI doesn’t mention Biden’s frequent mental wanderings, the most recent of which was last month’s disastrous Biden press conference that was abruptly ended by Karine Jean-Pierre.

Let’s check into Meta AI’s opinion on the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump.

“Is Trump healthy?”

Former President Donald Trump’s health has been a subject of interest and controversy. In 2019, his then-personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, wrote a letter stating that Trump was in “excellent physical health” and that his lab results were “astonishingly excellent.” However, there have been some concerns and controversies surrounding Trump’s health, including:

– Obesity (he is reportedly 6’3″ and weighed 230 pounds in 2019).
– High cholesterol.
– A history of fast food consumption and poor diet.
– Questions about his mental health and cognitive abilities.
. – A bout of COVID-19 in 2020 (he was hospitalized for a few days).
– A history of esophageal reflux and sleep apnea.

It’s important to note that Trump’s health records have not been fully disclosed, and some of his medical information has been disputed or controversial.

Shameful.

As the Washington Post says, “Democracy dies in darkness.” It can also choke to death from lies.

Yes, Trump’s diet sucks and he’s overweight. Yet one Meta AI distortion about Trump jumps out: “Questions about his mental health and cognitive abilities.” Trump’s political rallies are an exercise of streams of consciousness. No one ever questioned James Joyce’s cognitive abilities. The same goes for legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel. Trump’s mind is as sharp as a pin, while Biden can’t even make it through a brief speech in front of a teleprompter.

“Controversy” and “controversial” are used in Meta AI’s account of Trump’s health, but not in Biden’s health rundown.

I could go on and on, but two more things: I’ve always been skeptical about the established line that Biden’s “minor foot fracture” was the result of the then-president-elect playing with his dog. And while Meta AI while mentions that Trump suffers from sleep apnea, it’s been widely reported–but not by Meta AI–that Biden uses a CPAP machine to treat his sleep apnea.

If America ever collapses, an Edward Gibbon of the future will need to include a chapter or two about social media in that account of the decline and fall.

I played around the Meta AI a bit more, not every answer about Trump’s health was a biased as the one documented here, but perhaps Meta AI was getting wise to me.

I’m sure Meta AI has a file on me that includes the words “right-wing lunatic.”

John Ruberry regularly blogs, without the use of AI, at Marathon Pundit.

To fight back against the left, I say we should refer to all Illinois criminals as “justice-impacted individuals”

Posted: May 26, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Oh, for the days when Illinois was normal.

My state is a solid blue state, but it wasn’t always that way. 

In the 20th century, only twice, in 1912 and 1916, Illinois failed to back the presidential winner in the general election.

The Land of Lincoln, the home of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, began its slide to the left in 1988, when George H.W. Bush won Illinois by just 95,000 votes in his blowout win, nationally that is, over Michael Dukakis. Democrat gerrymandering and feckless leadership from the state GOP have demoralized Illinois conservatives. Real conservatives, that is, not the country club phonies who are embarrassed by Donald Trump.

Illinois has now gone hard left, thanks to decades of gerrymandering. At the top of the heap is likely 2028 presidential candidate, J.B. Pritzker, who is nearly halfway into his second term as governor. 

To embellish his woke credentials for his presidential run, Pritzker signed into law and championed the SAFE-T Act, which abolishes cash bail in Illinois. It’s been in effect for nine months. The numbers are still coming in, but at least in Chicago, other than a slight dip in murders, violent crime is up.

Still, criminals manage to get caught and convicted in Illinois, despite the presence until December of a George Soros-funded so-called prosecutor, Kim Foxx, in the state’s largest county, Cook.

But some of those unlucky Illinois crooks soon may not soon be officially known as “felons,” “offenders,” or “convicts” or “ex-cons,” If it’s not on his desk already, it soon will be, but Illinois House Bill 4409 will classify participants in the Adult Redeploy Illinois program as “justice-impacted individuals.”

To be fair, not all convicted criminals in the state will be referred to as such if Pritzker signs HB 4409 into law, but considering that the billionaire governor has proven to be cautious about being out-woked, look for all lawbreakers to be referred to be officially classified as such in that sanitized, Orwellian phrase.

Conservatives and centrists, who, despite Democratic dominance in in the Land of Lincoln, still make up a majority in this state, have two surefire ways to fight back.

They can remind leftists that Illinois–for good reason–has been losing population annually for a decade. 

The other method of attack is to refer to criminals, when a progressive is in earshot or likely to read a social media post, as “justice-impacted individuals.” Leftists can’t process the wrongheadedness of their political beliefs, such as men being able to give birth, and they despise ridicule. 

Believers in common sense, you have your assignment. Think of yourselves as Groucho Marx and the leftist in front of you as the kind of pompous fool the legendary comedian regularly humiliated. 

With some laughs, we might be able turn Illinois, even slightly, to the right direction.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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