Category: Politics and Issues

In Great Britain and France, the right suffers losses but there are lessons to be drawn from both. In the case of France, the political establishment of President Macron worked hand in hand with hard core leftist, socialist, communist, and Islamist to oppose Ms. LePen National Rally.  Macron joined with these radicals to frustrate the far right.  This required whichever groups finished third, the candidate dropped out and allowing both to consolidate their support against the right.  The result was a disaster for France but great for the left as they will now dominate the Assembly and Jean-Luc Melancon is ready to be the new Prime Minister.

A more natural alliance would be the Macron Party working with Le Pen Right alliance to oppose the socialists and Islamist, but he chose to support those who oppose unlimited immigration. John Hinderaker noted, “So the establishment united to block what it considers to be the ultimate horror–a sensible immigration policy. It is revealing, I think, that the French establishment was happy to unite with Communists rather than allow the “far right” to gain power. They certainly don’t want any extremists in the government!” This is the high-water mark for the genuinely conservative parties in France, but it shows that the establishment prefers the policies of the hard left. 

Great Britain also moved left but barely.  If the Tories did not have to deal with the reform Party, this election would have been closer and maybe, the Tories may have prevailed.  The Reform Party kept the Tories from any chance of winning.  Mark Steyn observed, “Across the United Kingdom almost every constituency voted for lefties of various stripes – not just victorious Labour lefties, but also Scots nationalist lefties, Irish republican lefties, eco-lefties, Islamo-lefties and, of course, duplicitous pseudo-conservative lefties: you can get it in any colour as long as it’s red. So, if you’re one of those Britons concerned about, say, transformative mass migration or the right to freedom of speech, things are going to spend the next few years getting worse before there is any prospect of course correction… Sir Keir has lost four sitting Labour MPs (and potential Cabinet ministers) to “pro-Gaza independents” – by name, Shockat Adam (in Leicester), Adnan Hussain (in Blackburn), Ayoub Khan (in Perry Barr) and Iqbal Hussain Mohamed (in Dewsbury). … Four “pro-Gaza” MPs doesn’t sound like a lot, but, for purposes of comparison, it’s exactly the same number as Nigel Farage’s Reform party managed to elect.”  What you see is radical view sweeping British and Labour have their own problems as they lost seats to independents who are supporters of Hamas and now Labour may find itself in supporting the hard-core Islamists who are bringing antisemitism into their political movement. 

Why did Reform refuse to step aside in 2024 when they did in 2019 allowing Boris Johnson to win a massive victory?  The reason is simple, Tories promoted lockdowns in the pandemic, net zero policies and did nothing to stem immigration.  Nigel Farage decided it was time to form a new conservative movement that profoundly move to restore sound immigration policy and oppose net zero.  The lesson in Great Britain is that when conservative don’t follow through on promise, they lose and the lesson in France when the establishment and political center choses to oppose the right in favor of the left, you end up with worse policies.

Much of the establishment in the US, like the French are perfectly willing to allow socialism to triumphs and willing to eliminate our borders with unlimited immigration than put up with a populist version of conservatism.  When I read “conservative” never Trumpers just as Bill Kristol, they are merely behaving like Macron, willing to allow the left to triumph because of an irrational hatred of  Donald Trump even though what the left has promoted was open border, unlimited immigration, net zero sum, and this administration has been willing to stretch the rule of law by lawfare against their political opposition which the “Never Trumpers” applaud.  As Glen Reynolds observed much of the establishment cabal worked tirelessly to elect Joe Biden and our FBI and CIA lied about the Hunter Biden laptop as the media covered it up, just as they covered up Biden’s health issues.. 

For the GOP, to win and then govern effectively, give the voters what they want beginning with immigration reform that closes the border, reduces the administrative state, and move forward with policies that enhances the middle classes income.  Keep your promises and you won’t find yourself in the position of Great Britain conservative and splitting your coalition and allowing the left to win.

For those in the conservative establishment, abandon your hatred of Trump and the MAGA movement but understand the left is far worse,  Biden was worse than Trump ever could be and if Biden doesn’t survive does anyone think for one second that Harris or whoever the left puts up will be better?

Francis Menton in his blog Manhattan Contrarian, “This is not at all a close contest. President Biden is actually a huge threat to “our democracy,” and has shown that by his actions in many contexts over his three plus years in office. And I haven’t even gotten to things like his (or his family’s) taking large bribes from the likes of China and Putin-ally Burisma. The constant repetition of the “threat to our democracy” theme only emphasizes how little of substance Biden has to run on.” 

The right must unite to win and accept that Trump is not perfect, but he is the horse the right is riding and that the alternative is worse.  French and British voters will soon find out that their political establishment betrayed them and in the case of the British voter, it was their conservative establishment that betrayed them not the reform Party.   This little aside from Powerline blog shows the immediate results of Labour victory, “Migrants in northern France celebrating a Labour victory have given Sir Keir Starmer a nickname and have vowed to cross the Channel at the “first chance” they get…Speaking to the Telegraph, some of the migrants welcomed a new government and said they would risk crossing the Channel in small boats as soon as weather permitted…Amir, 23, a bean seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.

He said: “We are calling him [Starmer] ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.” Amir added that he would make the crossing “as soon as possible” now Sir Keir Starmer is in power.I’m not sure the Brits are going to like that for which they voted.

This is the story of two people, one who I follow on twitter and one I got to know during times on the Donelson Files. One is a conservative who has extreme doubts about Trump and the other a woman of the left. 

In the case of the conservative, he has made a case against Trump for the past few years and why he should not be our nominee and added we should leave the President slot empty.  Unlike many never Trumpers I have observed, he is under no illusion that Joe Biden is simply bad and wont’ pull the lever for him.   The problem that I have is, what choice do we have since one of these two will be President. 

And my liberal friend is intent on believing that Trump is a fascist.  As I wrote last August, “It can be argued that we have to fear the present administration more and its violations of civil liberties including working with social media to censor stories.  We saw during the end of the Obama administration, our FBI pursuing an investigation to keep Trump from winning the election and then later, uses the same false story of Russian collusion as the basis for impeachment.  The FBI continued the investigation despite knowing the story was false as did President Obama and Vice-President Biden. Of course, Hillary knew since she was the one who started the false stories…In the Biden administration, we have seen pro-life arrested on the flimsy of excuses or parents viewed as domestic terrorists and of course the massive censorship efforts on the Covid.  I could go on, but you would be hard press to find a similar record during the Trump administration for it was Trump who was the victim of the Deep state machinations.” 

If anything, there is a far greater threat from the Democrats and Joe Biden of America slipping into a dictator ship than under Trump.  Trump was President for four years and I don’t remember the concentration camps being set up or did I miss that?  Trump had a chance to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her wanton disregard for national security and lack of protection classified information with her personal server but chose not to.  This good deed has been rewarded by Democrats attempt to bankrupt Trump and his family while trying to put him in jail on the flimsy of evidence.  A sign of a Banana Republic is when you attempt to jail your political opponents especially if they have a chance to defeat you.

The conservative twitter friend has noticed Biden foreign policy and his abandonment of Israel and the rise of antisemitism on the left.   I wrote after October 7^th, “The recent Hamas attack on Israel may have expanded as it is being reported that Iranian backed Hezbollah are attacking from the North.  The pincer movement if true shows Iran making a bold mood to attack Israel while sending a message to the Sunni states the price they pay if they work with Israel, directly or indirectly.  What is obvious is that Obama/Biden strategy of an integrated Middle East with Iran as a centerpiece has been a disaster and one of the most ill-conceived foreign policy mistakes, period.  World is more unstable today it was under Trump, and it is getting worse.  What we are witnessing the complete failure of Obama/Biden worldview…This disaster had its roots in the Obama Administration. The Obama view was ascendant Iran would be a counterbalance to Israel and like previous administration, view the Middle East problems through the prism of Palestinian-Israeli conflict plus this move toward Iran was also supposed to counter our allies just as the Saudi’s.  A balance of power existing among the powers of the region and this balance of power would force Israel hand in dealing with the Palestinians and reduce America’s footprint in the Middle East…This regional restructuring was Obama’s version of realism, but it was not that.  If you want to reduce your presence in the Region it would help to have energy independent policy but both Obama and Biden went green which depends upon minerals produced by China.”

It has gotten worse as Biden restricted intelligence to Israel, delayed arm shipment if they went into Rafal and Biden has yet to condemn the antisemites in his own party but instead is begging them for votes.  Representative Tlaib, who is a real Jew hating Marxist, has not once been condemned by Biden but he is sure anxious that her constituents vote for him.  He is willing to sacrifice Israel for votes of Jew haters.

Consider how Israel is treated compared to Ukraine. Joe Biden and Democratic leaders (I am looking at Senator Schumer) have called for regime change in Israel but has told the Ukrainian government they can cancel elections. He has impeded Israel almost every step of the way including Rafal, but he has given weapons to Ukraine to strike Russian proper.  Russia under Putin is now part of an Axis of evil like Iran and Iranian proxies including  Hamas so there is a legitimate reason to be made to support Ukraine.  Biden is still hoping to strike a deal with Iran who is the puppet master behind Hamas. 

We can debate what United States policy in Ukraine. I wrote January of this year, “Ukraine is interesting case point and not necessarily an easy case study.  The one thing that everyone agrees or should agree, that it is not in our interest to involved American troops in Ukraine. The problem has been that the Biden Administration has failed to garner bipartisan support among the American people for aiding Ukraine nor have there been an endgame defined for what is considered a victory or acceptable to our side and Ukrainians.  There are many who will not view this in our national interest, but others could argue that if Russia succeed in Ukraine, this could encourage China to move against Taiwan.  Using the ideas behind Weinberger doctrine, policy makers need to make case if this is in our interest and how our long-term interest is being served.  If China is our number rival, does this enhance or disrupt our objectives against China? It is the responsibility for Biden to explain to the American people why Ukraine matters and what support for Ukraine need to prevail.  For many Americans, there is no real national interest in aiding Ukraine when our own borders are open and wondering when the billions flowing to Ukraine will end? …As for the Ukraine, is it similar to helping mujahideen to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan? After the Russian invasion, we aided the mujahideen against the Russians and they provided the blood and we the money and arms.  In the case of the Ukraine, there is no support for American troops to be involved in the defense of Ukraine and that Ukraine fate is up to the Ukrainian people.  Since Ukraine is not NATO country, there is no reason to involved European troops nor will NATO get involved as they already rejected Ukraine acceptance in NATO as long as the war continues. Any acceptance of Ukraine into NATO has to wait until the conflict ends…Within the Republican primary, Republican candidates shows differences, but there are some similar takes.  Nikki Haley’s argument is that there is a connection between Tawain and Ukraine, if we fail to support Ukraine or China may view Taiwan as vulnerable whereas others fear that our we are concentrating on the Ukraine at the expense of the Chinese threat?  The reasoning begins with using up our own military stock and the billions we have spent with no end game in sight.  The one thing that everyone agrees with, no United States troop will enter the conflict to aid the Ukrainians and it is their war to win or lose. ..The question is how much support is too much and what is the end goal?  Has the aid been parcel out bits by bits and in a half-hearted fashion?  Has Biden’s administration delay in providing M-1 tank and F-16 fighters violated the dictum that forces should be committed wholeheartedly or not at all?  And what are the clearly defined political and military objectives?  What is victory?  And how does the definition of victory change in the course of war?  During Korean war, once the Chinese joined the fight, the objective went from unifying the entire the Korean peninsula as one entity favorable to the West to merely defending the status quo of independent South Korea not controlled by communists. South Korea has zoomed ahead of North Korean since then and is not just a developed nation economically but is a leading military power in the region.  The Weinberger doctrine makes it clear foreign policy and military activities need to be reassessed. ..In the case of the Ukraine, a NATO official hinted that a negotiated peace would allow Ukraine to be part of NATO and Russia in control of eastern portion of Ukraine.  Ukraine gets the protection of NATO in the future and aligned with NATO and EU, has a chance to provide its own economic miracle as a counter to Russia.  Certainly, having a military power of quarter of million soldiers with armed citizenry behind it will provide security for much of central Europe, the Nordic and Baltic states along with Poland which is in the process of strengthening their military.  The Polish-Ukraine alliance will include a minimum of 500,000 soldiers, well trained and with the latest military equipment.  Poland economy is on the verge of overtaking Great Britain by the end of the decade and many of the Baltic and Nordic states have their own sound economics bordering Russia.  This gives both United States and NATO option if Central European nations are capable of defending against Russia in the future.  This could be seen as a military objective in which followers of a modest foreign policy could get behind.  This is one policy that both Haley and DeSantis could agree on along most Republicans.    There will be some debate on whether Ukraine should be a member of NATO, but the reality is that in order to gain a peace treaty, Ukraine has to be guaranteed some security arrangements against future excursion from Russia.”

 As I stated on the Frontier of Freedom weekly report, we have three options, one surrender Ukraine to Russia and face future wars in Central Europe and Scandinavia. (Recently one of Putin’s allies mention it would be nice to have Poland and Finland part of Russia. When these people say these things, believe them.)  The other two options begin with complete removal of Russians from Ukraine but is that still possible?  As long Putin is in charge of Russia, he will fight to the last Russian to conquer Ukraine. The other is a truce. The latter is similar to Korean solution not perfect, but it will allow Ukraine to rebuild their country and more importantly, as long as the West is prepared to secure Ukraine borders that exist, then we are talking a well trained 250,000 soldiers combined with other NATO including Poland troops against any future Russian invasion.  If you put together Sweden, Norway, Finland, Polish Army along with Ukrainian army, you are talking at least 750, 000 to nearly a million men guarding central Europe and even the Artic ocean, armed with latest technology.  That essentially means that Americans troops may not be required to defend Europe.  (By the end of this century it is estimated that the Polish Army will have the largest land army in Europe.)

That also means both political parties need to rethink their own objectives for many in American first movement who been willing to ditch Ukraine as not in our national interest may want to reexamine the idea that a truce will give us NATO plus Ukraine in a position to defend Europe without American troops, giving America more liberty to pursue a more rigorous foreign policy in the Pacific and Indian Ocean against China.

In the Middle East, the Trump policy of forming an alliance between Sunni states and Israel was working before Biden blew it up.  Can we go back to that policy?

And it is time to realize that while terms like Nazis and Fascist are thrown around, we might want to examine what a 21^st Nazis regime looks like.  Strategy page detailed Hamas plan for Israel, “Documents collected, and interviews conducted by Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that senior Hamas leaders had a plan for what they would do if they somehow invaded and conquered Israel. First, Palestinian occupied Israel would be divided up into several cantons, each ruled by a Hamas leader. The plan included details on which Israelis would be killed, expelled, or forced to remain because they were educated Jews and experts in the areas of medicine, engineering, technology, and civilian and military industry.”  The end of Israel and along with their sponsor Iran Hamas is what Nazis regime looks like. Winning: What Hamas Planned To Do In Israel (strategypage.com)    Trump may be many things but a Nazis or Fascist he is not.  Hamas as a group are Nazis and those politicians like Representative Tlaib and others who are vocal supporter of Hamas are supporting Nazis rather they realize it or not. Tlaib does know what Hamas is and yeah, I will say it, she is Nazis. 

Which leaves us when dealing with Trump and Biden?  I didn’t vote for Trump in the 2024 Iowa caucus but will vote for him in 2024 for the simple reason, Biden is far worse.  Trump did not instruct his DOJ to put his political opponents on trial, but Biden has.  Trump left Biden with a safer world than what Biden will leave Trump if Trump is elected.  Ukraine was at peace under Trump, but now we have witnessed the bloodiest war in Europe and at least a million of civilians and soldiers on both sides have already died. Middle East was as peaceful as Middle East could be when Trump left office, but not now under Biden.  Iran was suffering economically and there was a chance for a coalition left in place to confront Iran but now that has to be rebuilt.  China is threatening Tawain and the Philippines under the brilliance of Biden’s foreign policy team. I could go on.

I criticized Trump handling of Covid and was right with my criticism but then so was Ron DeSantis, Kris Noem, Kim Reynolds, and Brian Kemp. The lockdown were a failures and various Vaccine, and mask mandates were equally a failure so hopefully a Second Trump term will learn but I know Biden was not better on Covid and you can even make the case that more people died from Covid under Biden equally inept leadership and much of the policy followed in the wake of Covid has led to our present inflation and other issues with the economy.   Biden has proven to be a threat to civil liberties, his foreign policy has been a disaster including his treatment of Israel and that alone will be enough to vote against him.  His energy policy against fossil fuels and his promotion of renewables will end up aiding China and hurt the cause of cheap domestically energy here at home.  Then there is the half century of Biden’s family profiting from Joe Biden’s time as a public official. We had no more corrupt politician as President than Biden in my lifetime.   You may not like Trump but then who do you vote for? Because the alternative is Biden.

Notes

Trump Should he be elected. – by Tom Donelson/ F of F (substack.com)

Election 2024 and Trump vs Biden – by Tom Donelson/ F of F (substack.com)

To Vote For Trump or Not – by Tom Donelson/ F of F (substack.com)

Foreign policy for GOP – by Tom Donelson/ F of F (substack.com)

Biden/Obama approach to foreign policy is a failure (substack.com)

Will a Second Trump term lead us to a dictatorship? (substack.com)

Grand Strategy – by Tom Donelson/ F of F (substack.com)

On our weekly report, we talk Vice President possibility in particular Ron DeSantis, Tulsi Gabbard, and Tim Scott.  The recent meeting with DeSantis and Trump dealt with moving forward in winning 2024.  As for Ron DeSantis, he would be the best choice for the Vice President since his record on Florida showed his ability to lead.  As the campaign progressed last fall,  DeSantis became more comfortable and he showed in winning one on one with Newsome and Haley, he is capable of taking  the fight to Biden and Harris.  His advantage is the following.

1. He was right on the Pandemic and by the fall of 2020, Florida was open for business. This could help with the one weakness Trump has, his failure on the pandemic including the lockdown which was economic disaster and did little to stop pandemic.
2. He has served in the military.
3. His economic record as governor of Florida. 
4. His record on taking on the bureaucracy in Florida and it can be transferred to Washington.

The disadvantage is as follows.

1. Both live in Florida and so one of the two has to move and won’t be the governor. Trump does have one option, Virginia, where the attorney General will not try to arrest him.  He has a winery in Virginia and property in DC which he can watch from Virginia.  New York is out of the questions since he is already under target in the state.
2. Both men are Alpha and could Trump co-exist with DeSantis and how would DeSantis work with Trump?
3. DeSantis is neither a woman or a minority.

Tim Scott has one attribute he is black.  Now the question is he tough enough to be Vice President and potentially President? He did get engaged recently so no more questions on why a 57-year-old Senator is still single. Plus, a nice touch for a man who might be a Vice President.

1. Scott is a nice guy and likeable, something that Trump is not.
2. He is black and man who came up from poverty to become a United States Senator.
3. He will not compete for being alpha in an administration run by an alpha male.
4. Vice President usually are attack dogs, but Trump is his own attack dog and having a nice person as second on the ticket is a benefit.
5. He will give comfort to any social conservatives that their view will be represented.

The disadvantage for Scott

1. Is he tough enough to be taken on the swamp and administrative state?

Tulsi Gabbard has made it clear she is ready to become a Republican if Trump asks her to join the ticket.  The advantage of Tulsi is that she still serves in the reserve and like DeSantis served in the Middle East. Tulsi is the riskiest of the candidates since her own view seems to be evolving and there is no certainty on the big issues where she presently stands.  Among the advantages include:

1. She is a veteran that has served, and her foreign policy may fit the modest foreign policy desire of Trump.  She is big supporter of Israel but not sold on Ukraine being in our nation interest.
2. As a woman who is more social liberal than most in the Republican party , she might appeal to the suburban female.
3. She destroyed Kamala Harris in the 2020 Democratic primary in one of the great put down in debate histories.  There is no reason that she would not repeat.
4. She is advocate of free speech, oppose censorship, and understand the extent that Democrats will go to win.

What are the disadvantages?

1. There is still much to learn about her views and evolution of where she now stands versus when she was Democrat. 
2. Is she too much of a non-interventionist in foreign policy? 

Tulsi Gabbard has made it clear she is willing to serve as Trump Vice President and while I am not sold as Gabbard as VP since the VP will be odds on favorite to be 2028 nominee, and more importantly, Trump legal issues only intensifies and let be blunt, he is 78 years old and there is a possibility that he could die in office. You better sure who the VP is ready to be President and just as important in tune with the grassroots of the GOP.  Tulsi may not yet part of the new conservative revolution.  There is a toughness with Tulsi that you also see in DeSantis.  Unlike DeSantis, she may not be as threatening to the chief Alpha dog but somehow I get the impression, she would be willing to stand up to Trump if she thinks he is wrong.  If I had a choice, DeSantis would be the top candidate simply because he is the most prepared to be President, but Tulsi could integrally part of the Trump administration.  However, there is little chance to pick DeSantis and not sure Tulsi will be

This article is inspired by an exchange by a Liberal friend and instead of writing a few words on social media, I would write a more detailed piece why I will be voting for Trump.  She asked if I was following British politics and the decline of the conservative party. And of course there is the old line, Trump is a dictator or fascist. 

I will begin with the decline of the conservative Party in Great Britain, and yes there is a lesson, and the lesson is that a conservative party should govern conservatively.  When Boris Johnson won his election in 2019 he had the opportunity of a lifetime to cement the conservative party as the party of the common person but alas, the pandemic short circuited those goals and like Trump, Johnson made the mistake of locking down the economy and unlike Trump, adopted the zero sum/ green agenda which made energy cost higher.  When the conservative attempted a U turn with Liz Truss, the establishment ended that quickly and the present Tory party is now led by the hapless Rishi Sunak. The conservative will lose the next election in UK and they have earned the loss. If I lived in UK, I vote for the reform party before I pulled the lever for the present British conservative party.

 Trump mistake in the Pandemic was not firing Debbie Birks and Tony Fauci when it became apparent that by April that the lockdown would be an economic disaster and that the virus would be not as lethal as originally thought.  The good news for Republicans was that many GOP governors moved away from the bad science of Fauci and Birks and toward the superior science of the Great Barrington Declaration. (While DeSantis was considered the leader of this movement, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem never closed the state economy  and Georgia governor Brian Kemp opened his up before April ended.  DeSantis did popularize the views of the Great Barrington Declaration and showed there was another way. Doesn’t guarantee victory but if the GOP wins, there is a new generation that is beyond Washington with the experiences of being effective. (Meanwhile in Washington, the Republicans in the House have been less than effective in governing.)

From August 2020 to the end of 2022, Republican states outperformed their Democratic counterpart economically and Americas Majority Foundation which I work for conducted four studies by Wilfred Reilly and myself that showed  this and other studies have confirmed this.  As mentioned in my book Americas At The Abyss, Where America Survive? and previous book, the Rise of National Populism and Democratic Socialism, the Democratic party is the socialist party of America even if the majority of Democratic office holders won’t admit it but in the case of Republicans it is a battle over populism, conservatism and how best to combine the two. Many Republican states have proven to be effective in pushing reforms that can be transfer to Washington and Trump biggest successes came when he combined his populism with Reagan conservativism.  His foreign policy was not isolationist but a modest foreign policy. 

As the recent college campus riots, “protest,” and various tactics to interfere with most normal people life like blocking roadways have shown, the left has now unleashed the Anti-Semitism as part of their ideology and we are now within that moment in America history where forces of evil are being released, threatening the very fabric of our society.   The left revolution is declaring war on what made American works and yeah, add antisemitism to the mix, we are now traveling in areas not seen in decades.  

As someone who did not vote for Trump in the Iowa caucus, the choice is clear not because so much of Trump qualities but lack of qualities in his opponent.  We have seen over the past several years should wake up Americans, the war on Democracy is not being committed by Trump but by his opponents.   We had a fake Russian collusion hoax used as  pretense to try remove Trump from office despite this hoax began with a fake dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton campaign.   Is Trump a dictator?  Well, we had four years of Trump as President, and there were no concentration camps and when Trump DOJ had the opportunity to punish Hillary  Clinton for her misuse of classified documents, he chose not to.  Maybe he should have; she was guilty of violating classified comments just as the present President.   Certainly, we are witnessing lawfare against a political opponent, never witnessed in my lifetime with Biden and his DOJ along with working  with local politics, are trying to jail a political opponent.  Or as a friend of mine who has taught constitutional, trial in New York is a trial in search of crime.

As for January 6^th, I make this point.  On January 7^th, I condemned the violence and observed that when people no longer view that elections are fair or that their government no longer cares, this is the result.  Since then, I have not changed my mind that that many should have been arrested but we are witnessing people being thrown in jail for merely walking in the Capital or outside.  It is overkill and let be blunt, most political violence has been caused by the left and not the right since 2016.  We can trace two acts of violence tracked to the right on January 6^th   and 2017 Charlottesville riot ¹, but there were some 500 to 700 riots that responsible for billion of dollars of damage to cities and at least 30 deaths by the left under the BLM label. That  represented 2-4 riots as bad or worse than January 6th .  In Washington DC,  January 6^th wasn’t even the worse riots in DC as rioters under the BLM banners put the White House under siege and attacked law enforcement with makeshift weapons as many were attacked on January 6^th. and buildings including a local historical church.   Today, a friend observed to me we are witnessing at least one Charlottesville every day only the Nazis are not “right wingers” but hard-core lefties with congressional support from the congressional “squad.”   We are seeing support from many elite universities for what can only be described as Nazism.  If you are Jew hating Marxist, then you can make the case that you are national socialist and if you are national socialist, then you are Nazis.  Something to think about when one hears the phrase Trump is a Fascist.  There is one party that has an elected officials who has openly called for a Palestinian state from the river to the sea which is another phrase that means the elimination of Israel.  That is Tlaib from Michigan, and she is a Democrat and part of the squad led by Alexandra Cortes.  So, if a Party tolerates an anti-Semite like Tlaib, is not in a position to judge who is a fascist or Nazis and who is not.

Here is what we have seen from this administration has been censorship as they worked with social media to censor those who disagreed, we saw during the 2020 election in which law enforcements pressure social media to keep the Hunter Biden laptop off their media and when NY post broke the story, twitter blocked Post on twitter for over a week. Right now, this administration has given the Supreme Court the middle finger as Biden is still releasing college students from paying their debt after the Supreme Court told them it was unconstitutional and of course, they have ignored all laws dealing with enforcing the border.  There have been efforts to remove Trump from ballots of state until the Colorado attempt was derailed by the Supreme Court.  The problem with Trump derangement syndrome is that you fail to see that the Left is attempting to undermine freedom of speech and the Pandemic open the door for massive government power to control even what is considered an essential businesses and churches closed down while gambling casinos kept open.  On this, Trump played his role but Biden continued into is administration including vaccine and mask mandates even though the vast majority of studies fail to see any benefit of mask and the vaccine didn’t even prevent transmission and there are still questions on its efficacy.  (Depending on the study you read, it may have impacted the severity of the disease but there was no reason to force people to lose their jobs over this and forcing many young people to have a vaccine despite that the benefit outweighed the risk. )

In foreign policy, Biden policy has been a disaster beginning with Afghanistan withdrawal which sent a signal to Putin that Ukraine was available, Biden like Obama before him has attempted to reignite Iranian deal and those billions released have been used to arm their proxies including Hamas and the present war between Hamas and Israel began in part of Biden appeasement of Iran. 

China is now threatening Philippines and Taiwan contrary to popular view and media narrative, we were safer under Trump than under Biden where a wider war in Europe and Middle East is becoming a possibility.   Under Trump, we had peace in the Middle East and Europe while Pacific was quiet.  Trump left Biden with alliances of Sunni Arabs and Israel against Iran while Iran was economically strapped. In Europe, Ukraine was not at war and NATO began to increase defense spending.²

For three years, Trump economy was fine as majority of Americans saw increase in their living standard and if the Pandemic not occurred, we would be in the midst of non-inflationary growth.  While we lost 20 million jobs  in April due to the lockdown, we saw nearly 55 percent of all jobs returned by the end of 2020 and unemployment dropped by more than double and below all expectations.  Biden inherited a 20 percent growth in GDP from July 2020 and million plus jobs returned from the April peak.   Trump made his share of mistakes in the pandemic and many of those Republicans governors who ignored Fauci/Birks fallacy were proven right. 

Biden is a corrupt politician who used his power to enrich his family and as a former Secretary of Defense noted, there wasn’t a foreign policy Biden got right in his career. Still true.  And at the age 81, there is no doubt that Biden is not as sharp as in the past and there may be even dementia setting in.  Trump may be 78 but so far the deterioration in mental capacity has not been seen as we are witnessing with Biden. 

Trump will not provide miracles and face challenges, but Biden has been a disaster in foreign policy and the average American has seen their income decline due to inflation and Biden is placing future burden on the economy starting with debts exceeding 34 trillion dollars,  the war on American energy will add to the burden of average American with higher energy prices and finally, our basic civil liberties are under siege as already outline. 

I voted for DeSantis in Iowa and in November will vote with Trump not because he is the right man for the job in 2024 but Biden has been the worse President in my lifetime beginning with Eisenhower administration. And it is time to end the real war on Democracy, send Biden packing back to Delaware where his family can enjoy their wealth created by corruption. 

It is time to be rid of Trump derangement syndrome and recognize that Trump maybe imperfect who may have paid a porn star to keep quiet about an affair may or may not have happened is not illegal but unseemly.  Something the voters should decide not the courts and if challenging the result of an election a crime then Hillary Clinton who has spent the last several years blaming Putin for Trump victory or Stacy Abrams who made a career of challenging the 2018 elections even though her losing margin was nearly five times what Trump lost in 2020.   If Trump should be punished for classified documents then what about Biden who according to Hur did in fact state Biden was guilty of mishandling classified documents since he was a Senator, but he didn’t want to put an old doddering old man on the stand in a DC court, figuring that the pursuing the case against a old man who can’t even remember when his son died would be fruitless. (My lawyer friend view is that Hur should have allowed the case to proceed if he felt that Biden was guilty regardless of Biden mental health.)  The problem is that if Biden is incapable of being indicted due to his possible dementia maybe he shouldn’t be President.  The world we live in, a world in which a man is determine not to be of sound mind to stand trial but to be of sound mind to be President.   You can criticize Trump for his views or what you criticize for his performance during the pandemic (I have) but he less of a Nazis or fascist than his opponent. He did not put his opponent on show trials or did his party attempt to keep his opponent of the ballot nor has he called for destruction of Israel unlike some of his opponents.   And the world was more peaceful under Trump than Biden.  Case closed.  Put country upon politics, vote for Trump.

1. Richard Spencer, who organized the Charlottesville unite the right in 2017 and supposedly inspire Joe Biden to run for President, tweeted his support for Biden because “Democrat are more competent.”  He might even be more impressed how openly some of the squads have shown their anti-Semitism openly and gotten away with it.   Noted former KKK and anti-Semitic David Duke gave his support of the squad member Representative Omar as well.  There is whole of lot of racist supporting Democrats. I detailed this in my two most recent books. 
2. Toward a Modest Foreign Policy – by Tom Donelson/ F of F (substack.com)

In 1983, Ronald Reagan proposed what he called Strategic Defense Initiative and his opponent called it star wars with disdain. One United States Senator spoke at the National Press club in 1986, “Star Wars represents a fundamental assault on the concepts, alliances and arms-control agreements that have buttressed American security for several decades, and the president’s continued adherence to it constitutes one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in the history of modern statecraft.”  This past weekend, this Senator found himself working with Israel to knock down those missiles.  Yes, Joe Biden should be thankful to Ronald Reagan for his foresight.

 The goal was to defend America against ballistic missiles.  In 1988, I ran a congressional campaign in Missouri 5^th district and my candidate, Mary Ellen Lobb, reviewed data on SDI and as we talked about the concept and how to use it in the election.  We wrote up a position paper and she insisted that we must include regional powers about Iran. Ms. Lobb was prophetic about the importance of SDI, and it use against Iran. This was 1988. 

Israel realized the importance of missile defense and within two years of Reagan announcement, Israel began working with the United States and this past weekend, the world watched in real time how SDI worked in protecting Israel population.   While United States didn’t develop a space-based system, the technology has put together an arsenal of ground, air, and sea basked interceptors and Israel developed an iron dome to protect the population from short range missile along with David’s sling protection includes medium range missiles and the Arrow 2 and 3 hit missiles at high attitudes.   

Now that we have a  spaced based force, it should be obvious that a space-based system will protect American population from missiles but maybe also protects our satellites as well. 

Maybe it is time to review the Reagan years for on many issues, Reagan was ahead of the game and SDI was one area.  He understood that keeping a world on the edge of mutual destruction was not the long-term strategy, but SDI allowed something different, a defense against missiles.

Israel has showed the ability to protect their population and shown how SDI does have a role in future of the warfare.  

Biden foreign policy is the extension of the Obama’s foreign policy and in comparison with the Trump years, there is no comparison for Trump era was superior to both Obama and Biden’s years.  In the Obama years, Russian took a piece of Ukraine while Joe Biden’s son was making money working with corrupt oligarchies.  Obama never viewed Ukraine as part of our national interest and while you can debate the merit of his views, the 1994 Budapest accord made it clear that Ukraine sovereignty would be respected in exchange of giving its nuclear stockpiles.  Obama essentially ignored the Budapest accord.

Obama Middle East policy was to appeased Iran and work on the false assumption that Iran could be a partner of stability in the Middle East.  Obama pull out in Iraq would be the model for Biden’s disastrous Afghan retreat. Obama declared victory and ISIS ended up in control of good portion of Iraq in quick order and Syria ignored Obama’s redline on use of chemical weapons.   Obama had to send troops back in. 

When Trump came into office, ISIS was in control of significant territory, Russia was embedded in the Middle East after decades of foreign policy keeping Russia out, Iran was going for a nuclear weapon and collecting money courtesy of Obama’s administration and using that largess to sponsor terrorism.  Russia penetrated Ukraine and the world was less safe.

Under Trump, ISIS defeated and due to reimposition of sanctions, Iran economy was in a shambles. Trump left Biden’s administration with the Abraham accord in which Israel making peace with Sunni states against Iran.  Europe was quiet and no Russian further encroachment of Ukraine.   Trump left Biden’s with a more peaceful world. 

Now the world is on fire, thanks to incompetence of the Biden’s administration and it should be noted, Biden followed Obama initiative in the Middle East of appeasing Iran and providing Iran with the money to create instability once again in the Middle East.  The present Israeli war against Hamas is the direct of results of Obama/Biden foreign policy and the disastrous pull out of Afghanistan left billions of dollars of military equipment in the hands of the Taliban. Putin viewed the rest of Ukraine fair game after the Afghanistan pullout and Biden’s weakness led to the worse military conflict in Europe since World War II and the war still in doubt as the debate on further aid is in jeopardy. The Middle East war has expanded to Yemen threatening our trade routes,  Hezbollah raining missiles on Northern Israel along with Gaza. Iran launched their own attack from their soil directly against Israel.

Our border is a disaster as 8 million plus have crossed the border into the United States and we have an immigration policy that has at least two illegal immigrants coming into the United States compared to one legal immigrant.  This is unstainable. 

We were told that Biden’s administration were the grown-ups to bring normalcy and “sound foreign policy” but they have failed to bring normalcy and their foreign policy has been a disaster.   Decline is a choice for nations and the Biden administration is choosing decline.

The No Labels movement has ended for now and the failure of establishing this centrist party is based on No Labels lack of understanding of where the political center is.  Jeffrey Carter noted, “No Labels also failed to understand the underlying currents in American politics. If there is a commonality behind the early Bernie Sanders supporters, the Ron Paul supporters, and the Tea Party movement it is to get big government and big corporate out of their lives.,,No Labels was for big government. Hence, it didn’t have what we call in the startup community, product-market fit.” The reasons are many but here are two that stuck me as obvious. This was a top-down movement with few donors and few dissatisfied insiders who mostly reside in Washington DC and there were never any grassroots efforts.  If the No Labels were serious, they would have understood that this was a movement that would take time and find a niche to penetrate.

The other problem is what a reporter friend of mine told me, this was a big grift that was designed to stop one guy, Donald Trump and he relayed to me that if there is a chance that this could help Trump, they would cease to operate, and Joe Manchin and Larry Hogan chose not the run after they were told they could aid Trump against Biden.   Again, this top-down movement was not serious about forming a political Party and appealing to grass roots.

Carter noted, “The old Reagan Republicans are different than the Romney crew. They are free traders, and for small government. They are for a strong defense. They are pro-innovation. They are pro-life.” What people don’t remember that Reagan was not the choice of the Republican establishment and while he had to compromise with them, his economic plan, and his plan to win the cold war, had many within the establishment opposing him or as one Presidential candidate in the 1980 primary claimed, Reagan economic plan was “voodoo economics.”  Eventually that candidate made peace with Reagan and ended up his Vice President.

If you looked at their proposals, they were reflective of what many Republicans believe and for many Republicans who are tired of the Trump drama, this could have given them an option.   We were talking getting our border under control, combining voter ID and early voting similar to laws passed in Red States like Georgia.  Election security is important Americans and No-Labels promoted that.  Congress needed to get our financial house in order and  on energy, it is “all of the above” as they noted, “When Washington tries to prohibit exploration of America’s fossil fuel resources or discourage investment in the sector, all it does is weaken our country and strengthen other oil- and gas producing countries like Russia that will gladly meet the world’s growing demand for energy. Meanwhile, neither Democrats nor Republicans in Washington have done enough to champion the expansion of carbon-free nuclear power, which is more reliable than wind and solar and cleaner than oil and gas. Despite the fact that US nuclear facilities are among the safest industrial facilities in the world—and newer reactor designs could make them even safer—the number of nuclear reactors in the US hasn’t increased in three decades.”

So, there were issues that many within the populist movement who would support border security, or the energy plan proposed by No-Label movement.  And as I noted a few months ago, “Democratic Party, which has become the socialist party of the America, but the GOP is still trying to define itself, is it the Party of main street and the common folks.  Who will stand up for the middle class?     They also stand up for parents to be able to escape failing schools and protect citizens from criminals.”

And I added, “I made the case that the importance of supply side economy and that its definition must be expanded in my book, “Americas at the Abyss, will America survive?” I made the case that government spending must be controlled, regulations burden reduced, and supply side had to move beyond just tax cuts. Trump did two of three, reduce regulation and tax reduction which benefited most Americans. The result was continuation of the recovery and more importantly the middle class, minorities, and lower income saw their income increase.  Economic growth matters but Trump failure to get government under control hurt his overall economic plan and the massive spending during the Covid pandemic along with the anti-growth lockdown hurt the economy in 2020 and ended Trump chances to win. 

We are now in the decisive battle as a movement to identify what conservatism will be in the 21^st century and be able to turn this nation around.  The future of conservatism is to combine Trump populism with Reagan conservatism. 

 Dominic Pino detailed this recently, “For decades, tax cuts have been at the center of the conservative economic agenda. But some on the right want to deprioritize them in favor of other economic goals. Senators Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, J. D. Vance, and others talk of the need for a new Republican economic agenda focused on things such as industrial policy or social policy. The Trump administration sought to increase tariffs, and conservative defenders of protectionism are being more vocal…Tax cuts seem to irk some right-wing commentators. In May 2020, writing for the American Conservative, Michael Cuenco bemoaned the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the 2017 tax-cut law that Donald Trump signed, and called for a “reformulation of fiscal policy along populist economic nationalist lines.” He wrote, “The reformist right should ask: is there any way to stand athwart the supply-side swamp yelling Stop?”

The Republican governors led by Ron DeSantis and others did several things simultaneously, keep spending under control, actual tax reform, school reforms including promoting school choice for parents and actually be concern what is taught in most classroom.  Many of them promoted social conservatives ideals and showed that Trump populism and Reagan conservatism can synergized in a package but then Trump administration showed the same thing.

The No-Labels movement started a direct rebellion  not just against Trump but  the radicalization of Biden and the Democrats.  Joe Manchin, whose own political career as United States Senator ended in 2024 and he effectively left the Party as he represented a state that depends upon fossil fuels and saw his constituents betrayed by the Party he served faithfully for decades.

The MAGA movement is not the radical movement, and the No-Labels could have the opportunity to combine their ideas with Trump populism/Reagan conservatism in the post Trump era.   Instead, they became a movement directed at one man and it was the wrong man, when instead of targeting Trump, Biden is the one who should have been targeted.  The Trump supporters and some RFK supporters are mad as hell, but they are not wrong being angry. They are tired of constant wars that many participated and not sure what foreign aid is accomplished and as Jeffrey Carter noted, “Big Government has foisted upon them because they know they are the only ones that have to pay the price. They might actually be worried about some unsolvable problem like global warming but know full well the people that are producing the solution will put it all on their back. Electronic vehicles are a good example.”

They don’t have the fancy degrees the elites have but they are the ones that make the country work.  They understand much is wrong with America and unlike many of the elites they understand the principles that our country was founded on.  They view that Trump gets them, and he does speak their language. As a real estate developer, he collaborated with them as they essentially built his empire.  RFK is an interesting case since he may be targeting the Middle Class only from the left.  He can take advantage of their distrust of corporate leaders who seem to benefit from their relationship with big government and his opposition to the Lockdowns and mandates contrast to Trump who instituted the lockdown to begin with and allowed the health care bureaucracy to take over running the country and Biden who took advantage of this to institute leftist ideas starting the Green New Deal and expansion of government.  RFK made it clear that he doesn’t buy into Trump is the biggest threat to government as he noticed that it was Biden worked with social media to censored Biden’s opponents and a Justice department that attempts to punish Biden’s political opponents starting with Trump and RFK is not afraid to say what is obvious, it is Biden and Democrats who are the biggest threat to Democracy.  RFK recent decision to review what happened on January 6^th and this too is an attempt to move to center. 

I showed in past article how an American first policy could deliver a modest foreign policy as I mention in a previous article, “Advocate of an America’s First foreign policy might begin reviewing the former Secretary of Defense Cap Weinberger six rules for engagement.  The principles were:

1. Forces should not be committed unless the action is vital to national interest.

2. Forces should be committed wholeheartedly with the intention of winning – or they should not be committed at all (No half-hearted commitment).

3. Forces should be committed with clearly defined political and military objectives.

4. The use of force should be the last resort (after all diplomatic initiatives have been exhausted).

5. The relationship between objectives and the force committed should be continually reassessed and adjusted if necessary.

6. Before committing forces abroad (in foreign countries) there should be some reasonable assurance of public support.”

The first Gulf War pretty much followed the Weinberger Doctrine. The first Gulf War was influenced by this principle as United States and their alliance went into Kuwait with overwhelming force, defeated the Iraqi army easily before ending the war.  And Bush administration went to the American people and Congress to gain approval to use force if diplomacy failed in persuading Hussein to leave Kuwait.  After the failure of diplomacy, the first Gulf War commenced.  The war was quick as the United States and its allies went in with overwhelming force, destroying the Iraqi’s army.  The big controversy was if United States should occupy Iraq, but Bush and his administration decided not to, figuring the military objectives were achieved, and there was not much support beyond the war for a permanent occupation but followed a containment policy against Hussein and Iraq.   You can judge for yourself if the conflicts of the twenty-first century we participated in followed the Weinberger Doctrine.

Which let circle back to the No Label movement.  One problem with the No-Label movement is that they disdain Trump Republicans but who are these Trump Republicans?  They want the border controlled, economic opportunities to move up, and they want election security.  They want free speech and know that if they speak about any issues they won’t be canceled and they want to worship on Sunday in peace.  They really want to be left alone and they like their pickup truck and supporting the police in their neighborhood.  No-Labels never understood that many of their own goals they claim to represent also is supported by many with the Trump Republican movement, but it is hard to set up a grass root movement when you don’t understand the grass roots.  No-Labels were comfortable with big government and promised no real reform of big government and the administration state.  The failure of No-Label movement began with a movement against one man and the man who they opposed was not the greatest threat to Democracy but his opponent.  No-Label believed in a consensus politics that didn’t exist and they never understood that the politicians they had worked with for decades were the problem.