Something New, Something Blue

By: Bill Schoettler

July 26, 2023

When it becomes necessary in the course of human events, to examine the world as it seems to be, most of us turn to respected resources for our examination efforts. The trouble trying to accomplish this today is that respected resources aren’t respected anymore…which leaves us a bit out of sorts when it comes to research and investigation. 

Looking at facts, as they are reported by various news organizations is one way of going about this. The trouble, however, is that sometimes facts aren’t even being reported. And sometimes false facts are reported, real facts are so distorted by the method of reporting that reliability just doesn’t exist. 

We refer here to the Washington Post’s story about the pending case against Hunter Biden. We have heard that he is being charged with illegally purchasing a handgun and failing to pay taxes on $1.5 M income. Without any editorializing, these would seem to be straightforward charges. Sounds simple.

Most citizens know that earned income is subject to taxes. When we get paychecks, complete with information about hours worked, money withheld and the net proceeds we can use to buy at least one tank of gasoline, we are reminded that we have contributed our share to the cost of running the county. Then, as April 15 approaches every year, we are bombarded with tax preparers, people, and companies that will fill out the complicated paperwork that accompanies filing a 1040 tax form and file it, many times along with another financial contribution. Any citizen who has held a job during the year is required to go through this exercise. Then we wait for either a check-in-the-mail for our possible overpayment or at least hold our breath in fear of receiving a notice from the IRS that we have made a mistake and owe more money. But the experience is an annual one and is felt by most adults of any gender, mostly without any enthusiasm. 

Because Hunter Biden is the President’s son [and history tells us he was also the Vice President’s son in the recent past] the public’s attention has been drawn to this case. Questions have arisen as to how the son of a VP and subsequent Pres possibly failed to abide by firearms laws when his father has been one of the most vociferous critics of firearms ownership in the country. C’mon, folks. Joe Biden can see no reason for private ownership of firearms and his son goes out and purchases a gun…illegally? Gimme a break.

Oh yes, not to be forgotten is how Hunter Biden could possibly have failed to pay income tax on money earned from a shoe-shine stand, much less the sums about which he is now being challenged.

AND, this same kid, the one illegally buying a gun, this same kid somehow manages to acquire $1.5M. Stop here because this last statement raises the interesting question of how in the world a notorious drug-addicted, unemployed, untrained, and apparently unqualified individual with no apparent talent, somehow acquired $1.5 million. Very little has been said about this, but much has been said about how Hunter Biden was employed by foreign companies in, of all places, Ukraine, to work in a field normally requiring highly qualified and experienced people, this same Hunter Biden with no such qualifications, and is to be paid enormous sums of money. Then, without having to apparently spend any time in-house (speaking here of the “house” of the company which hired him) he manages to obtain further sums of money from Chinese nationals, in China, for something else. Don’t ask what the “else” is because that has yet to be explained.

AND, for whatever reason Hunter Biden is accused of failing to pay his fair share of the nation’s operating expenses out of his earnings. Why the IRS chose to go after taxes for $1.5 M instead of the much greater amounts reportedly received from Ukraine and China has not been explained. Perhaps this whole tax thingy is a reflection of the IRS’s gratification for receiving the appropriate amounts of taxes from all the other amounts of money Hunter received and the fact his math problems in calculating the other millions of income somehow caused a modestly acceptable amount of confusion over this relatively paltry sum.

Far be it for me to suggest that this relatively harmless Hunter Biden conflagration is merely a diversion to draw attention away from the almost-casual charges being thrown at Joe Biden concerning his equally nefarious dealings with the foreign governments of China and Ukraine, not to mention his continuing bumbling performance as the chief executive of this country. 

It is interesting how little is revealed by the many news organizations about the entire nature of the legal proceedings against Hunter and the current total absence of any proceedings against his father. While I have little doubt about adequate information being provided in future history books, it would be nice to have a little flavor of these subjects while they are occurring.

Reflections of the Judge

Something New, Something Blue

By: Bill Schoettler

July 26, 2023

When it becomes necessary in the course of human events, to examine the world as it seems to be, most of us turn to respected resources for our examination efforts. The trouble trying to accomplish this today is that respected resources aren’t respected anymore…which leaves us a bit out of sorts when it comes to research and investigation. 

Looking at facts, as they are reported by various news organizations is one way of going about this. The trouble, however, is that sometimes facts aren’t even being reported. And sometimes false facts are reported, real facts are so distorted by the method of reporting that reliability just doesn’t exist. 

We refer here to the Washington Post’s story about the pending case against Hunter Biden. We have heard that he is being charged with illegally purchasing a handgun and failing to pay taxes on $1.5 M income. Without any editorializing, these would seem to be straightforward charges. Sounds simple.

Most citizens know that earned income is subject to taxes. When we get paychecks, complete with information about hours worked, money withheld and the net proceeds we can use to buy at least one tank of gasoline, we are reminded that we have contributed our share to the cost of running the county. Then, as April 15 approaches every year, we are bombarded with tax preparers, people, and companies that will fill out the complicated paperwork that accompanies filing a 1040 tax form and file it, many times along with another financial contribution. Any citizen who has held a job during the year is required to go through this exercise. Then we wait for either a check-in-the-mail for our possible overpayment or at least hold our breath in fear of receiving a notice from the IRS that we have made a mistake and owe more money. But the experience is an annual one and is felt by most adults of any gender, mostly without any enthusiasm. 

Because Hunter Biden is the President’s son [and history tells us he was also the Vice President’s son in the recent past] the public’s attention has been drawn to this case. Questions have arisen as to how the son of a VP and subsequent Pres possibly failed to abide by firearms laws when his father has been one of the most vociferous critics of firearms ownership in the country. C’mon, folks. Joe Biden can see no reason for private ownership of firearms and his son goes out and purchases a gun…illegally? Gimme a break.

Oh yes, not to be forgotten is how Hunter Biden could possibly have failed to pay income tax on money earned from a shoe-shine stand, much less the sums about which he is now being challenged.

AND, this same kid, the one illegally buying a gun, this same kid somehow manages to acquire $1.5M. Stop here because this last statement raises the interesting question of how in the world a notorious drug-addicted, unemployed, untrained, and apparently unqualified individual with no apparent talent, somehow acquired $1.5 million. Very little has been said about this, but much has been said about how Hunter Biden was employed by foreign companies in, of all places, Ukraine, to work in a field normally requiring highly qualified and experienced people, this same Hunter Biden with no such qualifications, and is to be paid enormous sums of money. Then, without having to apparently spend any time in-house (speaking here of the “house” of the company which hired him) he manages to obtain further sums of money from Chinese nationals, in China, for something else. Don’t ask what the “else” is because that has yet to be explained.

AND, for whatever reason Hunter Biden is accused of failing to pay his fair share of the nation’s operating expenses out of his earnings. Why the IRS chose to go after taxes for $1.5 M instead of the much greater amounts reportedly received from Ukraine and China has not been explained. Perhaps this whole tax thingy is a reflection of the IRS’s gratification for receiving the appropriate amounts of taxes from all the other amounts of money Hunter received and the fact his math problems in calculating the other millions of income somehow caused a modestly acceptable amount of confusion over this relatively paltry sum.

Far be it for me to suggest that this relatively harmless Hunter Biden conflagration is merely a diversion to draw attention away from the almost-casual charges being thrown at Joe Biden concerning his equally nefarious dealings with the foreign governments of China and Ukraine, not to mention his continuing bumbling performance as the chief executive of this country. 

It is interesting how little is revealed by the many news organizations about the entire nature of the legal proceedings against Hunter and the current total absence of any proceedings against his father. While I have little doubt about adequate information being provided in future history books, it would be nice to have a little flavor of these subjects while they are occurring.

July 30, 2023

Special Edition

Reflections of the Judge

Something New, Something Blue

By: Bill Schoettler

July 26, 2023

When it becomes necessary in the course of human events, to examine the world as it seems to be, most of us turn to respected resources for our examination efforts. The trouble trying to accomplish this today is that …which leaves us a bit out of sorts when it comes to research and investigation. 

Looking at facts, as they are reported by various news organizations is one way of going about this. The trouble, however, is that sometimes facts aren’t even being reported. And sometimes false facts are reported, real facts are so distorted by the method of reporting that reliability just doesn’t exist. 

We refer here to the Washington Post’s story about the pending case against Hunter Biden. We have heard that he is being charged with illegally purchasing a handgun and failing to pay taxes on $1.5 M income. Without any editorializing, these would seem to be straightforward charges. Sounds simple.

Most citizens know that earned income is subject to taxes. When we get paychecks, complete with information about hours worked, money withheld and the net proceeds we can use to buy at least one tank of gasoline, we are reminded that we have contributed our share to the cost of running the county. Then, as April 15 approaches every year, we are bombarded with tax preparers, people, and companies that will fill out the complicated paperwork that accompanies filing a 1040 tax form and file it, many times along with another financial contribution. Any citizen who has held a job during the year is required to go through this exercise. Then we wait for either a check-in-the-mail for our possible overpayment or at least hold our breath in fear of receiving a notice from the IRS that we have made a mistake and owe more money. But the experience is an annual one and is felt by most adults of any gender, mostly without any enthusiasm. 

Because Hunter Biden is the President’s son [and history tells us he was also the Vice President’s son in the recent past] the public’s attention has been drawn to this case. Questions have arisen as to how the son of a VP and subsequent Pres possibly failed to abide by firearms laws when his father has been one of the most vociferous critics of firearms ownership in the country. C’mon, folks. Joe Biden can see no reason for private ownership of firearms and his son goes out and purchases a gun…illegally? Gimme a break.

Oh yes, not to be forgotten is how Hunter Biden could possibly have failed to pay income tax on money earned from a shoe-shine stand, much less the sums about which he is now being challenged.

AND, this same kid, the one illegally buying a gun, this same kid somehow manages to acquire $1.5M. Stop here because this last statement raises the interesting question of how in the world a notorious drug-addicted, unemployed, untrained, and apparently unqualified individual with no apparent talent, somehow acquired $1.5 million. Very little has been said about this, but much has been said about how Hunter Biden was employed by foreign companies in, of all places, Ukraine, to work in a field normally requiring highly qualified and experienced people, this same Hunter Biden with no such qualifications, and is to be paid enormous sums of money. Then, without having to apparently spend any time in-house (speaking here of the “house” of the company which hired him) he manages to obtain further sums of money from Chinese nationals, in China, for something else. Don’t ask what the “else” is because that has yet to be explained.

AND, for whatever reason Hunter Biden is accused of failing to pay his fair share of the nation’s operating expenses out of his earnings. Why the IRS chose to go after taxes for $1.5 M instead of the much greater amounts reportedly received from Ukraine and China has not been explained. Perhaps this whole tax thingy is a reflection of the IRS’s gratification for receiving the appropriate amounts of taxes from all the other amounts of money Hunter received and the fact his math problems in calculating the other millions of income somehow caused a modestly acceptable amount of confusion over this relatively paltry sum.

Far be it for me to suggest that this relatively harmless Hunter Biden conflagration is merely a diversion to draw attention away from the almost-casual charges being thrown at Joe Biden concerning his equally nefarious dealings with the foreign governments of China and Ukraine, not to mention his continuing bumbling performance as the chief executive of this country. 

It is interesting how little is revealed by the many news organizations about the entire nature of the legal proceedings against Hunter and the current total absence of any proceedings against his father. While I have little doubt about adequate information being provided in future history books, it would be nice to have a little flavor of these subjects while they are occurring.

By Judd Garrett

Objectivity is the Objective

July 30, 2023

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris gave a fiery speech attacking Florida’s new standards for teaching African American history, in particular, the teaching about slavery. She said, “Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.” When you have absolutely no ability or skill as a politician, and you are completely unlikeable, your only resort is to try to enflame the racial divide in the country, and she has succeeded in doing so. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson piggy-backed on Harris’ speech, calling the legislation “an attempt to bring our country back to a 19th century America where black life was not valued, nor our rights protected.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called Harris’s remarks “absolutely ridiculous, totally outrageous”, and defended the legislation that he signed into law by stating, “These are the most robust standards in African American history, probably anywhere in the country. Anyone who reads that will see that it’s very thorough, very factual, and for them to try to demagogue it… Nobody is buying their nonsense anymore.”

Dr. William Allen, a black professor and a member of the Florida African American History Standards Workgroup, who co-authored Florida’s educational curriculum told Fox News that the newly approved curriculum that teaches students about slavery and black history, and “… is devoted to telling the truth whereas Kamala Harris has retold a lie.”

At what point in our country did stating observable truths become racist and bigoted? We saw this last week with Robert Kennedy Jr when he stated known facts about the origins of Covid-19 and was called a “racist” and an “antisemite”. When the curriculum says that slaves benefitted in some way from slavery, that was not an endorsement of slavery, it was stating a fact. We all know as human beings that going through hard and difficult times creates strength and resiliency in us. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”

It has been said that Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles’s musical careers, most likely benefited from being blind. The fact that they could not see caused their other senses, mainly their sense of hearing to become that much more acute, sensitive, and nuanced, which they both used to express their musical genius. By stating that fact, no one is claiming that the best thing we can do for young people who are interested in pursuing a music career, is to poke their eyes out. Nobody believes that the fact that Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles were blind, was good for them. They overcame hardship and turned it into a positive in their life. It is a testament to the human spirit. We can observe how deprivation of one sense, can enhance other senses, without glorifying the loss of the original sense.

A similar observation is made about Jewish people all the time. The long history of suffering and persecution that the Jewish people have endured in their existence, has created strength, resiliency, resourcefulness, and intelligence, which is very beneficial to them today. And it is not non-Jews who are making that observation. I’ve heard many Jewish people make that very observation themselves. The struggles that their people have suffered through for thousands of years have made the Jewish race stronger. It is not racist or bigoted to make that observation. And making that observation is not glorifying nor advocating for the persecution of other people.

That observation only makes sense. Our hardships make us stronger. And that applies to individuals as well as a race of people. Suffering, if we can endure it, makes us stronger. Most people who go through extreme hardships in life, either wither away or are strengthened by it. That’s why going to a weight room and pushing your muscles through pain until failure, makes your muscles stronger. And, conversely, avoiding suffering, avoiding pain, a life of leisure, makes us weaker. To quote from the movie, the Dark Knight Rises, “Victory has defeated you.” Former President Teddy Roosevelt once said, “A soft, easy life is not worth living if it impairs the fiber of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great, and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.”

But Democrats never miss an opportunity to demagogue, though. Andrew Spar, the president of Florida’s Teachers’ Association said, “How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don’t have a full, honest picture of where we’ve come from?” Wouldn’t Mr. Spar want black children to be taught that members of their race, their ancestors, in particular, who endured unimaginable evil and suffering came through it stronger and victorious? Wouldn’t that build them up, especially since it’s true? No, Mr. Spar wants black kids to be taught that they are perpetual victims and can only succeed in life with a handout from the government or some benevolent liberal.  

In her speech, Harris also said, “When we send our children to school as parents, we want to know that they’re being taught the truth. It is a reasonable expectation.” That is coming from one of the leaders of the party which is promoting Radical Gender Ideology to be taught in public schools from the earliest ages, teaching kids that boys can be girls, advocating for pornography in elementary school libraries, and endorsing grown men dressed in women’s lingerie to read stories to 6-year-olds. When I send my children to school, I want to know that they will not be sexualized by pedophiles and sexual predators. But Kamala Harris’ party is pushing for child sexualization to become the norm.

But if Harris and the rest of the Democrats want children to be taught the truth about slavery, let’s teach the children the truth about slavery. Let’s teach about how the overwhelming majority of the Democrats in Congress in 1864 voted against the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. In 1868, the Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the 14th amendment to give freed slaves United States citizenship. And in 1870, the Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the 15th Amendment which gave black people the right to vote in American elections. All three of those amendments were passed and ratified primarily by Republicans and Republican votes. 

While we are at it, let’s teach the children the real truth about America’s history of racism. Let’s teach them about how the Democrats were the party that passed the Jim Crow laws in the South which legalized segregation, and it was the southern Democrats who started the Ku Klux Klan which terrorized and lynched countless black people for decades. The history of racism in America is the history of the Democrat party. But the Democrats are the ones who are teaching a white-washed, revisionist history version of slavery to school children. It’s a fair bet to say that very little of the Democrat sponsored curriculum cares to mention the fact that the Democrats were the party that perpetrated the evil of slavery and segregation on the black population. 

The Democrat party is so intertwined with slavery, that the name of the Democrat party should be as reviled of a word as the “n-word” is. The Democrat party stood for everything that the “n-word” represents. We have people going around the country, tearing down statues of Robert E Lee because he was a general for the Confederate army. The Democrat party was the Confederacy. And the Democrat party’s legacy of racism is still present today. The Democrat party continues to lie to black people. Joe Biden once demagogued an audience of black people, telling them that if Mitt Romney is elected President, he’s “gonna to put y’all back in chains.” But black people are still in chains. They are chained to the Democrat party which destroyed their past, controls their present, and will continue to rob them of their future.

The Wild 2024 Race

By: Victor Davis Hanson

American Greatness

July 27, 2023

Current polls, pundits, and politicos insist that the 2024 race is a sure rematch between former President Donald Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden.

It may well turn out that way.

But in past election cycles, summer polls 15 months before the general election usually did not mean much.

In December 2003, the CBS poll headline blared, “Dean Pulls Away in Dem Race.” Howard Dean would eventually be clobbered by nominee John Kerry.

In the Gallup Poll of late June 2007, Hillary Clinton continued to enjoy her wide lead in the Democratic primary over eventual nominee and elected president Barack Obama.

On the Republican side, Gallup noted of its summer 2007 polls that, “There has been little serious threat to the frontrunner, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani”—who bombed out early in the race.

About this time in 2015, Jeb Bush was leading Donald Trump in the Republican primary. Or as CNN characterized their summer poll, “He [Bush] holds a significant lead over the second-place candidate Trump.”

By January 2016, the favorite, can-do Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was leading all candidates by a substantial margin as they headed for the Iowa caucuses.

There are lots of reasons to believe that 2024 may prove to be the most volatile race in recent memory.

Not since 1912—when third-party ex-president Theodore Roosevelt challenged incumbent President William Howard Taft in a three-way race with Woodrow Wilson—have two presidents run against each other.

Both, remember, lost that year to the far less experienced Wilson.

Second, Donald Trump is currently the target of at least four state and federal prosecutors.

Millions of Americans feel that current and likely future indictments are patently political. The Trump prosecutions would never have gone ahead had he not run for the presidency a third time.

Leftwing strategists believe that these partisan indictments will earn Trump Republican empathy.

The legal persecutions supposedly will ensure him the nomination, but then intensify during the 2024 general campaign to bleed him out—ensuring a Democratic victory.

Perhaps.

But the Left’s weaponization of the legal system is playing with fire.

They have no real idea whether their hounding will result in an indicted, inert Trump at election time, or fuel more empathy to empower him over his eventual Democratic rival, regardless of his legal status.

Or will the nonending legal morass eventually wear out Republican primary voters, resulting in their rage at such unfairness in helping another Republican candidate?

Third, despite Democratic denials, there is mounting evidence—from emails, laptop communications, IRS whistleblowers, testimony from Biden family business associates, and likely bank records—that Joe Biden was directly involved in his son’s illegal activities.

Yet daily new details elicit only incoherent fury from Biden—especially since he clearly has serially lied that he had no knowledge of his son Hunter’s business misadventures.

Fourth, not since Woodrow Wilson’s incapacity rendered him bedridden and all but incommunicado for the last 17 months of his presidency, has a president appeared so enfeebled.

The 80-year-old Biden has fallen repeatedly. He often slurs his words to the point of inaudibility.

His halting gait radiates frailty.

Often aides must remind Biden where he is.

Biden appears frustrated and angry at his increasing cognitive decline—forgetting the names of foreign leaders and close associates.

To be blunt, Joe Biden is one more serious fall from physical incapacity—and a Vice President Kamala Harris stewardship of his presidency.

Increasing leftwing leaks and rumors spread alarm about Biden’s legal problems. Liberal writers chart his mental confusion. Progressive columnists decry his treatment of his illegitimate granddaughter.

Apparently, Democratic insiders hope Biden does not run for reelection—but by all accounts must finish his term to prevent a Kamala Harris presidency in either 2023-4 or thereafter.

So, the leaks of Biden’s impropriety and incapacity are aimed at ensuring Biden does not run in 2024.

Yet they apparently must not prove actionable enough to abort his current presidency.

Fifth, the first Republican primary debate is still almost a month away. And debates often have proven the graveyard of sure-thing front-runners.

Donald Trump has understandably indicated it would be foolish to debate while enjoying a sizable lead in the polls.

Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that Trump, a proven and skilled debater, would pass up the stage of a multimillion-person televised audience only to be ritually trashed in absentia on it.

It is even more difficult to envision a frail Joe Biden holding his own against either Democratic rivals or a Republican contender in the general election.

Add it all up, and the presidential race is unpredictable with an array of known “unknowns.”

The only certain fact is that anyone who currently declares the outcomes of the primary races or general election a foregone conclusion is utterly delusional.

California Catholics Under Attack

June 1, 2023 //  Archbishop

Vandals get off with a misdemeanor charge for defacing a statue as police looked on.

Below are clips of the original story that ran in the Wall Street Journal online and in print June 2, 2023. Read the entire article. 

By Salvatore J. Cordileone

“‘History never repeats itself,’ Mark Twain is supposed to have said. ‘But it rhymes.’ Consider the American Catholic Church over the past two centuries.

In 1834, a frenzied mob attacked and burned to the ground a convent of Ursuline nuns outside Boston. The act was the culmination of years of anti-Catholic preaching and aggression toward the church’s property. None of the firemen present intervened, and some reportedly joined the riot. Later that century, the Know Nothing Party emerged to suppress the rights of German and Irish Catholic immigrants, fearful of a Catholic conspiracy to take over the country.

Not long after that, the Ku Klux Klan began to terrorize black Americans, Catholics and Jews. In 1921 an enraged Klansman fatally shot Father James Coyle after the priest celebrated the wedding of the gunman’s Catholic-convert daughter to a Puerto Rican man. The killer was acquitted at trial by a Klansman judge and Klan-filled jury.

Our nation is now struggling to come to terms with its history of racism. Yet universally ignored is its long, deep and sordid history of anti-Catholicism. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reports that “at least 260 incidents”—attacks on church property—“have occurred across 43 states and the District of Columbia since May 2020.” The behavior runs the gamut, from arson to spray-painting, beheading and toppling statues, to defacing gravestones with swastikas and anti-Catholic messages. Arrests in these cases, and especially prosecutions, have been extremely rare.”

“In October 2020, protesters trespassed onto the property of Mission San Rafael carrying paint, tools and rope with the intention of desecrating and destroying a beloved statue of St. Junípero Serra. Five perpetrators were later charged with felony vandalism.

Yet on May 25, the Marin County district attorney’s office decided to resolve the case through “an innovative restorative justice solution”—reducing the charges to a misdemeanor if the defendants were willing to say “I’m sorry” and pay an unspecified sum toward restitution, along with other minor stipulations. In other words: Mea culpa, nothing else to see here.

Catholics believe in contrition, but we also believe in justice. This is neither. These five committed a felony, which was witnessed, recorded and widely publicized. Damage to the saint’s statue—which was sprayed with red paint and dragged to the ground—is estimated as high as $40,000, the parish told me.

Worse yet, officers from the San Rafael Police Department saw the crime in real time and decided to “observe the demonstration and not intervene” for fear of escalation. Never mind that what transpired was hardly a “demonstration.” Parish leaders told me that the police violated a promise they made with the church to step up if protesters trespassed on the property.

A felony charge is the least reparation that can be made to Catholics in the Bay Area who are deeply disturbed by this attack. The district attorney has instead given the signal that attacks on our houses of worship and sacred images may continue without serious legal consequence.

History teaches that when we don’t treat religiously or racially motivated crime seriously, we will see more and worse aggression. Already we are witnessing what such laxity has wrought across America. Transgender activists on social media have threatened heinous violence against Christian “transphobes” who don’t subscribe to their ideology.”

The Wild 2024 Race

By: Victor Davis Hanson

American Greatness

July 27, 2023

Current polls, pundits, and politicos insist that the 2024 race is a sure rematch between former President Donald Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden.

It may well turn out that way.

But in past election cycles, summer polls 15 months before the general election usually did not mean much.

In December 2003, the CBS poll headline blared, “Dean Pulls Away in Dem Race.” Howard Dean would eventually be clobbered by nominee John Kerry.

In the Gallup Poll of late June 2007, Hillary Clinton continued to enjoy her wide lead in the Democratic primary over eventual nominee and elected president Barack Obama.

On the Republican side, Gallup noted of its summer 2007 polls that, “There has been little serious threat to the frontrunner, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani”—who bombed out early in the race.

About this time in 2015, Jeb Bush was leading Donald Trump in the Republican primary. Or as CNN characterized their summer poll, “He [Bush] holds a significant lead over the second-place candidate Trump.”

By January 2016, the favorite, can-do Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was leading all candidates by a substantial margin as they headed for the Iowa caucuses.

There are lots of reasons to believe that 2024 may prove to be the most volatile race in recent memory.

Not since 1912—when third-party ex-president Theodore Roosevelt challenged incumbent President William Howard Taft in a three-way race with Woodrow Wilson—have two presidents run against each other.

Both, remember, lost that year to the far less experienced Wilson.

Second, Donald Trump is currently the target of at least four state and federal prosecutors.

Millions of Americans feel that current and likely future indictments are patently political. The Trump prosecutions would never have gone ahead had he not run for the presidency a third time.

Leftwing strategists believe that these partisan indictments will earn Trump Republican empathy.

The legal persecutions supposedly will ensure him the nomination, but then intensify during the 2024 general campaign to bleed him out—ensuring a Democratic victory.

Perhaps.

But the Left’s weaponization of the legal system is playing with fire.

They have no real idea whether their hounding will result in an indicted, inert Trump at election time, or fuel more empathy to empower him over his eventual Democratic rival, regardless of his legal status.

Or will the nonending legal morass eventually wear out Republican primary voters, resulting in their rage at such unfairness in helping another Republican candidate?

Third, despite Democratic denials, there is mounting evidence—from emails, laptop communications, IRS whistleblowers, testimony from Biden family business associates, and likely bank records—that Joe Biden was directly involved in his son’s illegal activities.

Yet daily new details elicit only incoherent fury from Biden—especially since he clearly has serially lied that he had no knowledge of his son Hunter’s business misadventures.

Fourth, not since Woodrow Wilson’s incapacity rendered him bedridden and all but incommunicado for the last 17 months of his presidency, has a president appeared so enfeebled.

The 80-year-old Biden has fallen repeatedly. He often slurs his words to the point of inaudibility.

His halting gait radiates frailty.

Often aides must remind Biden where he is.

Biden appears frustrated and angry at his increasing cognitive decline—forgetting the names of foreign leaders and close associates.

To be blunt, Joe Biden is one more serious fall from physical incapacity—and a Vice President Kamala Harris stewardship of his presidency.

Increasing leftwing leaks and rumors spread alarm about Biden’s legal problems. Liberal writers chart his mental confusion. Progressive columnists decry his treatment of his illegitimate granddaughter.

Apparently, Democratic insiders hope Biden does not run for reelection—but by all accounts must finish his term to prevent a Kamala Harris presidency in either 2023-4 or thereafter.

So, the leaks of Biden’s impropriety and incapacity are aimed at ensuring Biden does not run in 2024.

Yet they apparently must not prove actionable enough to abort his current presidency.

Fifth, the first Republican primary debate is still almost a month away. And debates often have proven the graveyard of sure-thing front-runners.

Donald Trump has understandably indicated it would be foolish to debate while enjoying a sizable lead in the polls.

Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that Trump, a proven and skilled debater, would pass up the stage of a multimillion-person televised audience only to be ritually trashed in absentia on it.

It is even more difficult to envision a frail Joe Biden holding his own against either Democratic rivals or a Republican contender in the general election.

Add it all up, and the presidential race is unpredictable with an array of known “unknowns.”

The only certain fact is that anyone who currently declares the outcomes of the primary races or general election a foregone conclusion is utterly delusional.

Sin: More Deadly Than the Coronavirus, part twenty-four

Inbox

Thomas Droleskey	Jul 25, 2023, 11:06 PM (2 days ago)
to Thomas, bcc: me

Dear Friends in Our Lord and Our Lady:

Although I published this commentary a week ago tonight, I went on from there to write several other commentaries that consumed my time.

Thus, I am sending this “blast” email in the event that any of its recipients who might be unaware of the fact that Sin: More Deadly Than the Coronavirus, part twenty-four,  has been published. Its text was supplement on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, the Feast of Saint James the Greater and the Commemoration of Saint Christopher, with reports of three people who have collapsed suddenly within the past few days. 

Finally, here are links (listed in reverse order of publication) to some recent commentaries if you have been away from the site for a while:

George Walker Bush’s “Liberation” of Iraq Has “Liberated” Iraq of Most Its Chaldean Rite Catholics

Honoring Saint James the Moorslayer, Saint Christopher, and Our Good Saint Anne

Jorge Mario Bergoglio is Only the End Product of a False Religion, “Father” Missigbeto

Anything That Is “Of, By, and For” The “People” Is Bound to Perish from the Face of the Earth

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.’s., Ultimate Treason is Against Christ the King

Sin: More Deadly Than the Coronavirus, part twenty-four

On the Commemoration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Who Shields Us With Her Love and Care

On the Feast of Saint Henry the Emperor

Jorge Continues to Stuff the Ballot Box While Giving Photo-Ops to Enemies of Christ the King

Saint John Gualbert Reconciled Enemies One to Another

“Hands Off My Family” Won’t Work for the “Big Guy” with Christ the King at the Particular Judgment

Not An Ecumenist Among Them

Remember, Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr., That You Have A Soul

A Reprise: Declaring Independence from the Declaration of Independence

Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s Version of Beat the Clock

China to Wage War on America

 from the Arctic

By: Gordon G. Chang

Gatestone Institute

July 24, 2023

This month, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that the Shanghai-based Polar Research Institute of China revealed that “China has completed the field testing and evaluation of an underwater listening device that will be deployed on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean.”

The innocuous-sounding report tells us that China intends to wage war against the United States and Canada from the Arctic.

China installed the “polar subglacial shallow surface acoustic monitoring buoy system” on floating ice in the Arctic on August 9, 2021. Information obtained by the device was uplinked to Chinese satellites.

The research institute, a Chinese central government agency that “plans and coordinates China’s polar activities,” stated that the devices could be used for “subglacial communication, navigation and positioning, target detection, and the reconstruction of marine environmental parameters.” This buoy “can be massively used in the construction of the Arctic Ocean environmental monitoring network.”

Other than this buoy, the institute said, China had “never planted a listening device there.”

That assertion is not truthful. Last fall, the Canadian military, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail in February, removed buoys placed by China in Canadian waters in the Arctic.

Not much is known about the removed Chinese devices. Pierre LeBlanc, a former commander of the Canadian armed forces in the Arctic, told Voice of America that Canada has not revealed the location of the removed buoys or their type, but it is nonetheless apparent the Chinese military placed them in or near Canada’s Northwest Passage without permission.

“China’s intent to dominate the Arctic region of North America is of increasing priority for the Xi Jinping regime,” Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute told Gatestone: 

“Moving forward from the illogical assertion that China is a ‘near-Arctic nation’ and Xi’s touting of the ‘Polar Silk Road,’ China is now covertly preparing the groundwork for the militarization of the largely undefended northern territory and critical Arctic sea routes.”

Retired Lieutenant-General Michael Day told the Globe and Mail that China’s buoys would likely have been mapping environmental conditions such as seabeds and ice thickness. Buoys can also monitor ice movement, ocean currents, water temperature, and salinity.

All of this data is needed to listen for submarines, specifically American ones. China wants to track and destroy American subs from the top of the world before they can flood into Asian waters.

The frozen Arctic is a hot topic these days, and China is trying to control it. The Polar Research Institute of China attempted to buy an airport in Lapland, Finland, but under U.S. pressure the government there blocked the purchase.

In addition, a Chinese state mining company attempted to buy land close to a facility maintained by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the joint Canada-U.S. military command that provides early warning. That purchase was also stopped.

Said James Fanell of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy to this publication:

“Since the advent of the Cold War, the Arctic has been the domain of two nuclear powers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, now the Russian Federation, These two states demonstrated an understanding of the balance of power and observed an uneasy truce within the waters of the Arctic. Since 2017, the People’s Republic of China, led by Xi Jinping, has made it clear it covets access to the Arctic and recognition of its major-power status there.”

China has, Fanell points out, announced three Blue Economic Corridors, one of which includes the Arctic. These corridors are part of Xi’s worldwide Belt and Road Initiative.

Unlike Moscow and Washington, Beijing, with its forays into the Arctic, is upending stability. As Fanell, also a former U.S. Navy captain who served as Director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, points out, “Beijing arrogantly believes they deserve a place in the Arctic Council to ‘call the shots’ and expand Chinese influence and access to this vital region atop the planet.”

The U.S.’s generous “engagement” approach to China has resulted in China obtaining observer status in the Arctic Council although no Chinese territory is in or near the Arctic.

There are eight states with territory inside the Arctic Circle. With the exceptions of Russia and Sweden, all are NATO members. This year, Sweden should join that alliance.

Moreover, the five Arctic littoral states—the Arctic Five of Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States—are all NATO members other than Russia. This gives America the ability to determine outcomes in the Arctic, especially if Washington were to oppose China’s initiatives, as it of course should.

China already has two permanent research stations in the Arctic, one in Norway and the other in Iceland. That is two too many.

The Chinese know the value of the Arctic. Warming temperatures are melting Arctic ice, making drilling and mining in the region more feasible. Moreover, melting ice opens up shorter routes for container ships and other vessels.

Yet for China, the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air. The spy balloon that flew over the lower 48 states this year initially crossed into Alaska and Western Canada.

China is not only pressing the United States and Canada from the north. In the other direction, China is establishing military bases in South America and the Caribbean and is infiltrating saboteurs across the border with Mexico. The Biden administration is allowing a hostile state to go hard against America from all sides. A menacing China is now everywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow and a member of its Advisory Board.

China to Wage War on America

 from the Arctic

By: Gordon G. Chang

Gatestone Institute

July 24, 2023

This month, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that the Shanghai-based Polar Research Institute of China revealed that “China has completed the field testing and evaluation of an underwater listening device that will be deployed on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean.”

The innocuous-sounding report tells us that China intends to wage war against the United States and Canada from the Arctic.

China installed the “polar subglacial shallow surface acoustic monitoring buoy system” on floating ice in the Arctic on August 9, 2021. Information obtained by the device was uplinked to Chinese satellites.

The research institute, a Chinese central government agency that “plans and coordinates China’s polar activities,” stated that the devices could be used for “subglacial communication, navigation and positioning, target detection, and the reconstruction of marine environmental parameters.” This buoy “can be massively used in the construction of the Arctic Ocean environmental monitoring network.”

Other than this buoy, the institute said, China had “never planted a listening device there.”

That assertion is not truthful. Last fall, the Canadian military, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail in February, removed buoys placed by China in Canadian waters in the Arctic.

Not much is known about the removed Chinese devices. Pierre LeBlanc, a former commander of the Canadian armed forces in the Arctic, told Voice of America that Canada has not revealed the location of the removed buoys or their type, but it is nonetheless apparent the Chinese military placed them in or near Canada’s Northwest Passage without permission.

“China’s intent to dominate the Arctic region of North America is of increasing priority for the Xi Jinping regime,” Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute told Gatestone: 

“Moving forward from the illogical assertion that China is a ‘near-Arctic nation’ and Xi’s touting of the ‘Polar Silk Road,’ China is now covertly preparing the groundwork for the militarization of the largely undefended northern territory and critical Arctic sea routes.”

Retired Lieutenant-General Michael Day told the Globe and Mail that China’s buoys would likely have been mapping environmental conditions such as seabeds and ice thickness. Buoys can also monitor ice movement, ocean currents, water temperature, and salinity.

All of this data is needed to listen for submarines, specifically American ones. China wants to track and destroy American subs from the top of the world before they can flood into Asian waters.

The frozen Arctic is a hot topic these days, and China is trying to control it. The Polar Research Institute of China attempted to buy an airport in Lapland, Finland, but under U.S. pressure the government there blocked the purchase.

In addition, a Chinese state mining company attempted to buy land close to a facility maintained by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the joint Canada-U.S. military command that provides early warning. That purchase was also stopped.

Said James Fanell of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy to this publication:

“Since the advent of the Cold War, the Arctic has been the domain of two nuclear powers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, now the Russian Federation, These two states demonstrated an understanding of the balance of power and observed an uneasy truce within the waters of the Arctic. Since 2017, the People’s Republic of China, led by Xi Jinping, has made it clear it covets access to the Arctic and recognition of its major-power status there.”

China has, Fanell points out, announced three Blue Economic Corridors, one of which includes the Arctic. These corridors are part of Xi’s worldwide Belt and Road Initiative.

Unlike Moscow and Washington, Beijing, with its forays into the Arctic, is upending stability. As Fanell, also a former U.S. Navy captain who served as Director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, points out, “Beijing arrogantly believes they deserve a place in the Arctic Council to ‘call the shots’ and expand Chinese influence and access to this vital region atop the planet.”

The U.S.’s generous “engagement” approach to China has resulted in China obtaining observer status in the Arctic Council although no Chinese territory is in or near the Arctic.

There are eight states with territory inside the Arctic Circle. With the exceptions of Russia and Sweden, all are NATO members. This year, Sweden should join that alliance.

Moreover, the five Arctic littoral states—the Arctic Five of Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States—are all NATO members other than Russia. This gives America the ability to determine outcomes in the Arctic, especially if Washington were to oppose China’s initiatives, as it of course should.

China already has two permanent research stations in the Arctic, one in Norway and the other in Iceland. That is two too many.

The Chinese know the value of the Arctic. Warming temperatures are melting Arctic ice, making drilling and mining in the region more feasible. Moreover, melting ice opens up shorter routes for container ships and other vessels.

Yet for China, the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air. The spy balloon that flew over the lower 48 states this year initially crossed into Alaska and Western Canada.

China is not only pressing the United States and Canada from the north. In the other direction, China is establishing military bases in South America and the Caribbean and is infiltrating saboteurs across the border with Mexico. The Biden administration is allowing a hostile state to go hard against America from all sides. A menacing China is now everywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow and a member of its Advisory Board.