Is Trump Done After The Red Sprinkle Election?

It bears repeating: you had

  • Unpopular president, who is checked out on inflation and cost of living increases, completely blew it on Afghanistan and Ukraine, takes the weekend off almost every weekend, is hyperpartisan, and typically in DementiaLand
  • Elected Democrats who are divorced from the working and middle class, and tell us to buy EVs and solar panels to save a little bit of money
  • High gas prices, and diesel is in short supply
  • Democrats ignoring and even causing rising crime
  • Citizens saying the country is on the wrong track and they are very unsatisfied
  • Democrats pushing abortion up to birth, CRT, and transgender madness, and replacing women with transgenders
  • The COVID tyranny, including firing citizens who would not take the vaccine, which we now find out doesn’t do all that much. And masking children

And so much more. Yet, you saw what happened. The GOP could end up with fewer Senate seats, and, should just barely have control of the House. Some Trump endorsed candidates won, too many lost. So…

Midterm election results raise DeSantis’s stock, scramble 2024 calculus for Trump

The 2022 midterm results Tuesday helped set the stage for the 2024 Republican nomination, further elevating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the chief rival to former President Donald Trump, should both men formally enter the race.

But it also injected new uncertainty into a presidential race that, until Tuesday, had been viewed as Trump’s to lose, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republican operatives and others keeping tabs on the nascent 2024 battle.

DeSantis, they said, clearly saw his stock rise in a party that has grown increasingly tired of being dragged down at the ballot box by Trump. But Trump’s grip on a strong plurality of Republican voters appears firm, despite a string of losses on Tuesday by his acolytes, and Republicans are still trying to determine if DeSantis could unseat the long-reigning king of the GOP.

Longtime conservative radio host and blogger Erick Erickson wrote in his newsletter that DeSantis’s performance Tuesday night reminded him of another governor who beat expectations in a strong year for Democrats and later went on to serve two terms in the White House: George W. Bush.

Former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany urged Trump to skip campaigning for Herschel Walker in the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff, lest he cost Republicans control of the Senate a second time in a row.

The New York Post, a tabloid that’s long been one of Trump’s favorite reads, declared DeSantis “DeFUTURE” of the Republican Party in a splashy front page on Wednesday celebrating his win. And other conservative news outlets continued drifting away from Trump.

“Trump is done,” said a veteran Republican operative.

Erickson was certainly in the Trump Derangement Syndrome bleachers, though, not to the degree of those at places like The Bulwark. That said, there are plenty of people who supported Trump, not necessarily the Trump Train, who say it’s time to move on. I’ve always said that Trump needed to tone it down against everyone excluding the Media and elected Democrats, and, even then, spend more time saying what he and his admin were doing rather than battling the media. Use honey rather than vinegar with Republicans and those who could attempt to sway. He did a poor job in explaining what he and his admin were doing, what Republicans were doing, and what they were trying to do and wanted to do.

His action during COVID were mostly right: it wasn’t the federal government’s job to do most stuff, it was the job of the states. He was right to block flights from China, then Europe, just a little late on that. Instead of truly explaining it, he battled with the media. And he’s still battling too much. And battling with Republicans, like DeSantis. The ideas of fighting back against the Dems and Credentialed Media are great, and the ideas are there. He’s just not the best to push them. He showed Republicans they can fight back. They don’t have to be get along go along anymore. We don’t need bull in a china shop anymore. We need more smooth, like a DeSantis, and Abbott, a Kristy Noem, to name a few.

If DeSantis does run, it will look bad for Trump, because Ron and his team are masters of turning things around, for bringing receipts. At one point I was enthused by Palin: but, then she pulled her will she won’t she for the 2012 elections, then was forced to say she wouldn’t. And was showing she was spending zero time learning about national and international issues. I moved on (and caught a lot of crap for it), and it is time to move on from Trump. He’s not really helping.

Read: Is Trump Done After The Red Sprinkle Election? »

Good News: Brandon Has Ignored Diesel Fuel Issues

There’s already been two big price spikes this year due to the cost of diesel. Just wait till the next one hits

Biden overlooked diesel fuel inflation. Why that’s extra bad for the economy.

Joe Biden Ice Cream AfghanistanFor the last six months, President Biden and his top advisors have obsessed over gasoline prices, for obvious reasons. That’s because no single price rattles consumers as much as the cost of gas, which crept up to a new record high of $5 per gallon in June. So it comes as no surprise that soaring gas prices corresponded directly with Biden’s sinking approval rating.

Since then, gas prices have fallen by about $1.10 per gallon. Biden may have helped a little by releasing oil from the US strategic reserve. Market forces, tough, have been a bigger factor. Still, that hasn’t stopped Biden from touting the drop in prices and claiming he deserves the credit.

But Biden has largely ignored another important type of fuel: diesel fuel, which is critical for the production and transportation of many everyday products. There’s a reason for Biden’s silence: Diesel prices remain uncomfortably high, and they’re contributing to food inflation and other consumer pain points. Around the same time gas hit $5, diesel hit a record high of $5.81 per gallon. Gas prices are now 22% below their peak, but diesel is just 8% lower. On a year-over-year basis, gas prices are up 15% while diesel is up 43%.

That plays a huge part in all your food and clothes and stuff, because diesel trucks deliver those goods. Autos are up $400-$1400 this year, much of it due to the price of diesel.

The American Farm Bureau Federation sent a letter to Biden on November 4 drawing attention to the problem. “Our nation’s food supply is driven by diesel,” Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall wrote. “High diesel prices are severely impacting our farmers and ranchers, causing increased costs to consumers, and adding to food insecurity.” While the pace of gasoline inflation has moderated substantially in recent months, food inflation has generally gotten worse, and now stands at 13% year-over-year. Wages are only rising by around 5%, so it takes a bigger chunk of the family paycheck to fill the refrigerator.

The US energy market is complex and there’s no single cause for higher diesel prices. Part of the explanation is a 4% reduction in diesel refining capacity that began in 2020, when oil prices crashed and many producers lost money. There’s less refining capacity for gasoline, too, which is why the “spread” between the cost of oil and the cost of refined products has been higher than normal for most of this year—there’s a bottleneck in the conversion of crude oil into consumer products, which tends to push the cost of finished products up.

We’re potentially looking at not just low levels of diesel, but, a big shortage. Which will drive prices up, and then food and goods prices will go up. Biden’s choices are limited: it’s something that should have been addressed long ago, just like with the continuing baby formula shortage. He’s not worried, because he’s rich, and the taxpayer is picking up the tab for most of his food.

Read: Good News: Brandon Has Ignored Diesel Fuel Issues »

If All You See…

…is horrible heat snow because Other People won’t take the bus, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is This ain’t Hell…, with a post on your feel good stories of the day.

Read: If All You See… »

Bummer: Warmists Are Missing Hot Water, Food, And Trash Cans At Climate Conference

Don’t they want to save the planet? Hot water requires lots of energy to make. Food, especially meat, is bad for the planet, we’re told. The Egyptian government should ban the use of fossil fuels, so, all those 10K+ 40K+ attendees will have to find alternative ways to get home, rather than fossil fueled flights. Anyhow, the NY Times doesn’t see anything wrong with Warmists missing out on things

A Few Things Are Hard to Find at the Conference: Hot Food, Water and Trash Cans

On the third day, the smell of burgers wafted through the air. All around the courtyard of the vast conference complex where this year’s United Nations global climate summit is being held, hungry delegates perked up.

“I haven’t eaten much here,” said Sylvia Muia, a Kenyan reporter for Climate Tracker who had followed her nose Tuesday afternoon to a line that stretched across the entire courtyard. At the front of it was a kiosk selling $12 burgers, the first hot food available in the area all conference.

Told that kiosk workers had promised more food by Wednesday, she laughed. “That’s a bit late,” she said. “Uh, we’re already starving.”

It was early days yet, but COP27 was already drawing joking comparisons to the Fyre Festival, the catastrophically fraudulent 2017 music festival in the Bahamas where attendees were left clawing for wet mattresses and cold sandwiches when the luxury villas, pig roasts and celebrity acts that had been advertised failed to materialize.

The conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh had plenty of headliners, not to mention real beds. But a distinct shortage of food and water as some 40,000 delegates descended on the conference was causing audible consternation.

Yeah, 40K took long fossil fueled trips to Sharm el-Sheikh to complain about Other People using fossil fuels. You won’t find any stories about the attendees traveling around in private EVs.

But Monday and Tuesday, as world leaders claimed the summit stage and the crowds grew, most of the climate activists, oil and gas executives, government negotiators, and other dignitaries found themselves waiting in hot, hourlong lines at a handful of kiosks selling overpriced Nescafe coffee and pastries, which ran out by midafternoon.

The world leaders were not much better off. The VIP tent where they sat before delivering their speeches was empty of food by about 6 p.m. Monday.

Are we seriously supposed to fee bad for these people? They could have done this by video-conference, rather than all those fossil fueled trips.

Before the summit, Egypt had announced that Sharm el-Sheikh would go green. Cloth bags and biodegradable food packaging replaced plastic cutlery and bags; recycling bins were supplied, and solar panels went up. The delegates shuttled around in electric buses or buses fueled by natural gas, which Egypt said burns cleaner than other fuels.

But, there were lots of traffic jams, so, people had to wait 45 minutes for a bus! ZOMG!

At the venue, it was easy to find colorful new bins for recycling paper, plastic and cans. But places to throw away other waste were scarce.

By day’s end Monday, many of the recycling bins were filled with trash.

Why did they have so much that couldn’t be recycled? Bad, bad Warmists.

Read: Bummer: Warmists Are Missing Hot Water, Food, And Trash Cans At Climate Conference »

Daily Caller: Call It The Red Wedding

So, what happened?

GOP Hopes Dashed On The Rocks

Republicans under-performed across the country Tuesday, with Donald Trump-endorsed nominees losing or trailing in swing districts and Senate and gubernatorial races.

Trump endorsed more than 400 candidates across the 2022 midterms, according to Ballotpedia, making his presence felt in swing races in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. In all three states, Trump-endorsed candidates have under-performed.

Fox News and NBC have projected that Democrat John Fetterman will defeat Republican Mehmet Oz in the Keystone State, and Democrat Josh Shapiro is projected to defeat Republican Doug Mastriano in its gubernatorial contest. Trump’s endorsement helped Oz through a heavily-contested primary, despite misgivings from many conservatives.

Both Masters and Lake won divided primaries that pitted Trump endorsees against candidates supported by former Vice President Mike Pence. They trail Democrats Mark Kelly and Katie Hobbs, respectively. Many polls had shown Lake with a small lead against Hobbs, who refused to debate the Republican and was hobbled by a racial discrimination lawsuit.

Masters and Walker still have a chance, it’s pretty close. Ron Johnson is holding on by the skin of his teeth. In Nevada, Laxalt has a slight lead. All four would need to win for the GOP to take the Senate by the barest of margins. Democrats have also flipped a few House seats that Republicans should have won

Republicans only needed to net five seats to take back the House of Representatives, and are still likely to do so. GOP challengers have picked up at least two seats in New York, and Republican Anna Paulina Luna won the Tampa-area district vacated by Democrat Charlie Crist.

We’ll have to see how this ends up. Even minor control is better than no control. For governor, Stacy Abrams and Beto RunsForEverything lost tight races. DeSantis annihilated Charlie Crist, and even flipped the Miami-Dade area Red, which also helped Marco Rubio destroy Val Demmings.

Kari Lake still has a chance in Arizona, just behind Hobbs with 67% reporting. Massachusetts and Maryland flipped to Democrat, but, that’s really not too unexpected. Oregon is too close to know, that would be a big pickup for the GOP. Pennsylvania was pretty much a blowout, with the Dems keeping the gov’s mansion. Lee Zeldin is down 5%, so, that’s rather disappointing after the trends, but, he gave it a shot. Disappointing is Michigan. How do those people re-elect Whitmer, who totally, well, fucked them during COVID? She was pretty much the most dictatorial governor in the nation.

Add that all up, and no wave. Probably control of the House. What happened? Good question. Maybe Democrats really got out the vote better. You would have thought with the state of the economy, inflation, crime, and the border, plus Biden’s poor poll numbers, the GOP would have done much better. How did Independents break? We’ll have to wait for those numbers. And, here’s a big one: how did Trump’s influence do? Because it doesn’t look like he helped. He may have hurt, much like Obama hurt Democrats in 2010, 2012.

There is a bright spot

Tighter GOP grip on North Carolina legislature, high court limits Democrats’ options

The political landscape in North Carolina tilted further toward Republicans in Tuesday’s elections, giving the party control of the state Supreme Court, a larger majority in the state House and a supermajority in the state Senate for the final two years of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s second term.

But Republican legislative and judicial gains on Tuesday — the GOP swept four statewide appellate judge races, too — could weaken Cooper and Democrats’ ability to shape policy debates in the same manner. Hot-button social issues such as abortion, transgender rights and school curriculum could move to the fore under more solid Republican control.

Senate Republicans won 30 seats in the 50-member chamber, up from their previous 28-seat majority. In the House, Republicans won 71 seats in the 120-member chamber, two more than they previously held and just one shy of the 60% threshold needed to override gubernatorial vetoes without any support from the other party. That small victory offered Cooper and Democrats a bit of solace.

What do other states look like? Florida Republicans gained 4 seats in their Senate. Still waiting on House numbers. Other states are seeing some movement towards the GOP in their general assemblies.

At the end of the day, even just controlling the House is better than nothing. It would stop the Democrats extreme agenda. It’s not a great consolation prize, but, it is what it is.

Read: Daily Caller: Call It The Red Wedding »

US Government Releases Hyperventilating, Doom Laden Climate Report

Interestingly, all the big wigs in government who are pushing this are refusing to give up their own big carbon footprints and change their own lives

Climate change threatens to destroy ‘the things Americans value most,’ U.S. government warns

The U.S. must ramp up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades as climate change worsens disasters and threatens water supplies and public health across the country, according to a major draft report released by the federal government on Monday.

“The things Americans value most are at risk,” the National Climate Assessment authors wrote in the 1,695-page draft. “Many of the harmful impacts that people across the country are already experiencing will worsen as warming increases, and new risks will emerge.”

So give up your money and freedom to government, peons.

The report also described how millions of Americans could be displaced by climate disasters such as severe wildfires in the U.S. West and sea level rise in coastal cities. Climate change is also damaging regional economies by slashing crop yields in the Midwest and disrupting fishery operations in Alaska, among other negative effects.

The authors highlighted how a slew of catastrophes fueled by climate change have disproportionately burdened U.S. communities that have lower carbon footprints than average.

Doom! Especially that best standard of living in history thing is bad for ‘climate change’.

“The effects of climate change are felt most strongly by communities that are already overburdened, including Indigenous peoples, people of color, and low-income communities,” the authors wrote. “These frontline communities experience harmful climate impacts first and worst, yet are often the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.”

Interesting how the Cult Of Climastrology always thinks so poorly of minorities and Indigenous peoples, eh?

The authors noted several actions with near-term benefits, such as accelerating low-carbon technologies, ramping up public transit, incentivizing renewable energy and electric vehicle purchases, as well as improving cropland management. But they warned that many of the adaptation efforts put forth by states and cities are inadequately funded, calling their potential impact “incremental” rather than transformative.

Where do they think this money comes from?

Report: Drastic changes needed for U.S. to stymie climate change’s effects

The U.S. needs to make much bigger greenhouse gas emissions cuts to meet the Biden administration’s climate goal of realizing a?net-zero?economy by 2050, a new government report warns.

Why it matters: The National Climate Assessment is a congressionally mandated report that’s the most comprehensive and authoritative federal climate analysis of the U.S. region by region, with specific projections for economic sectors and ecosystems.

You know what Axios doesn’t want to tell us? What those “drastic changes” are. Because people will be shocked by what the climate cult wants to do.

Read: US Government Releases Hyperventilating, Doom Laden Climate Report »

Bummer: ‘Climate Change’ Stayed Backstage During Election Season

The climate cult seems very surprised that few politicians yammered about it. It once again shows that few actually care about it in practice, especially when real world issues are front and center

Climate change stayed backstage in campaign homestretch

During a debate last month, Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan boasted about his party’s landmark climate law and its economic benefits.

“We’ve seen a stream of investments here in Ohio since the Inflation Reduction Act passed. In electric vehicles, in batteries. Honda just announced a huge investment here. The solar industry up in Toledo, hundreds of millions of dollars in investments,” Ryan, who is running for Senate against Republican J.D. Vance, said when asked to defend his support for the law.

“I was the one who made sure we had all the investments in electric vehicles in the Inflation Reduction Act,” Ryan argued, pointing to EV- and battery-related development in Lordstown, Ohio. “This is the future for us.”

It was a pointed example of Democrats talking about the Inflation Reduction Act on the campaign trail as a boon to jobs and the economy rather than a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to save the planet.

Because the bill was supposed to be about inflation reduction, and, if they yammered about climate doom, the Independents and such would wonder about the bill, feeling it was snake oil

“With the Inflation Reduction Act passing, it for the first time really gives pro-climate Democrats, the political climate community … something specific to talk about that candidates have done,” he said.

That doesn’t mean voters will reward Democrats with a midterm election victory. Polls show climate change below immigration, crime and inflation as top concerns, fueling the possibility of Republicans taking both chambers of Congress next year.

What it all means is that Democrats are mostly ignoring climate apocalypse, since then they have to explain how people suffering from inflation, seeing their wages erode, can afford to pay $20K plus for solar panels to save a little bit on their energy bills, which are also rising heavily.

Meanwhile

From New York to Texas, climate candidates are gaining momentum in local races

Sarahana Shrestha did not want to run for office. She was working as a part-time organizer for the advocacy groups Democratic Socialists of America and the Public Power NY Coalition, trying to mobilize the public on climate issues and pass state-level renewable energy legislation. She was happy and settled in her job, but a major setback during last year’s New York legislative session forced her to rethink her plans.

Shrestha and her fellow advocates/activists had spent a year organizing around a package of bills to give a state agency the authority to provide power to energy customers — allowing it to compete against private utilities and incentivize renewable energy. But the group’s efforts ultimately failed after the bill stalled in the state assembly.

Interesting. A hardcore leftist in a group of hardcore leftists who want your energy to come from The Government

“Climate change is not just about the environment,” Shrestha told Grist. “It means economic disruption, supply chain disruptions, food disruptions, and migration that we haven’t really planned for… It permeates through everything.”

And they have government solutions to control everything

Shrestha is among the latest wave of climate and environmental organizers running for office. This midterms, they’re seeking seats in statehouses, mayorships, and city councils. Activists have long been part of the funnel for political candidates, but what makes this election different is that for the first time, many climate advocates have cleared the biggest hurdle: crowded primaries. Now, they look poised to win in several key races, affecting climate action from state to local levels.

Anyone voting these authoritarian nutjobs into office need to keep their complaints to themselves.

Read: Bummer: ‘Climate Change’ Stayed Backstage During Election Season »

If All You See…

…are mountains that will soon lose all their snow because Other People won’t switch to EVs, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Evil Blogger Lady, with a post on season 1 of White Lotus.

Read: If All You See… »

Washington Post Is Rather Upset That Republicans Can Have Their Say On Social Media

The Washington Post considers almost everything a Republican writes to be “misinformation”. Weirdly, they do not touch on any of the crazy spewed by Democrats (non-paywalled Yahoo version here)

This year, GOP election deniers got a free pass from Twitter and Facebook

Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate seeking to oversee Arizona’s election system as that state’s secretary of state, made a last-minute fundraising pitch on Wednesday using one of his favorite talking points: the looming threat of voter fraud.

Finchem falsely argued on Facebook and Twitter that his Democratic opponent, Adrian Fontes, is a member of the Chinese Communist Party and a “Cartel criminal” who has “rigged elections before.”

It wasn’t the first time Finchem spread unfounded election-rigging conspiracy theories on social media. In September, Finchem misleadingly posted that Fontes was being “bankrolled” by billionaire George Soros and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and they want to “RIG our elections & our voter rolls.”

Nowhere in the article does the WP show that Finchem is wrong. I also cannot find that specific accusation, though, Finchem does show that Fontes took trips sponsored by a Chinese Communist influence group. And Fontes does support open borders.

For years, Facebook and Twitter have pledged to fight falsehoods that could confuse users about America’s electoral system by tagging questionable posts with accurate information about voting and removing rule-breaking misinformation. But this electoral cycle, at least 26 candidates have posted inaccurate election claims since April, but the platforms have done virtually nothing to refute them, according to a Washington Post review of the companies’ misinformation labeling practices.

In August, Facebook said it had received feedback from users that its labels promoting reliable information were so overused that the company had decided if they did use labels it would be in a more “targeted and strategic way.” Late last year, Twitter started experimenting with newly designed misinformation labels that the company says led to decreases in replies, retweets and likes of falsehoods and an increase in people clicking through to the debunking content.

In Liberal World, everything that doesn’t help them is considered misinformation.

The Post reviewed thousands of social media posts on Twitter, Facebook and other, smaller platforms from nearly 300 GOP elected officials and candidates to evaluate how they have been portraying the upcoming vote over the past six months and the platforms’ reaction to that.The Post’s review relied on a previous Post analysis from October that examined every Republican running for House, Senate or key statewide offices to see whether they had challenged or refused to accept the results of the 2020 election.

Yet, they didn’t do this for the Democrats. No, no, don’t call the WP biased. It’s really not the job of Facebook or Twitter to moderate what is “misinformation”: people can look it up themselves. A Biden tweet, probably written by an intern, was flagged and had context added. That’s not a bad method, but, that could end up being overused, too. Regardless, the WP offers zero proof that any of the tweets and posts by Republicans are factually incorrect. We’re just supposed to take their word for it. The Washington Post is, itself, a leader in misinformation, spinning things to make them great for Democrats and bad for Republicans.

Politics has always included massive amounts of spin. Welcome to Politics 101. What the Credentialed Media doesn’t like is the ability of Republican candidates to get their message out, bypassing the CM. You can bet that the CM will use this as a reason for Democratic Party losses, especially for close races.

Read: Washington Post Is Rather Upset That Republicans Can Have Their Say On Social Media »

Brandon Promises Climate Cult To End Drilling

Here’s Joe today

Here’s also Joe

Joe Biden Promises Climate Activist at Rally in New York: ‘No More Drilling’

President Joe Biden told a climate activist on Sunday he would not allow any new drilling in the United States, just days after he complained that oil companies are not drilling enough.

“No more drilling. There is no more drilling,” Biden said, speaking to a climate activist as he finished up a rally in New York for Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY). “I haven’t formed any new drilling.”

A young woman standing front and center held up a sign protesting Biden for allowing drilling on federal lands.

There’s video at the link. Friday Joe flew from California to Chicago. Saturday from Chicago to Philly, then to Delaware. Sunday from Delaware to NY, then to DC.  These all required fossil fueled flights on a jumbo jet, followed by a backup jumbo jet and fighter jets, then large convoys to get where he’s going, then reverse back to the airport. Then a big convoy to a rally in Maryland Monday Biden has also said he would talk directly to oil companies. They do not care

Big Oil Is Not Dancing To Government Tunes. Period.

Several days ago, President Biden made a media splash when he threatened oil companies with windfall taxes and “other restrictions” if they don’t stop returning cash to shareholders and start investing this cash in more oil production.

The industry, via the American Petroleum Institute, responded with yet another reiteration of the fact that the oil market is a global one, and producers don’t have complete control over prices because it is also a free market.

Oil producers, big and small, did not react to the U.S. President’s latest attack on it. The industry simply continued what it has been doing since oil prices rebounded: returning cash to shareholders and planning its spending carefully.

Bloomberg’s Javier Blas summed the situation up in a pithy commentary that basically reminded everyone that this same administration that is now calling for more oil, just two years ago pledged to reduce oil drilling in the U.S. as much as possible. And that this administration, along with other powerful institutions was the same one that convinced the oil industry there was really no point in including strong production growth in their long-term plans.

Joe’s a fool. And a hypocrite. He doesn’t care if your gas and oil costs are high.

Read: Brandon Promises Climate Cult To End Drilling »

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