If Trump goes, the hate won’t go away …

Democrats and the left hate Donald Trump.  They hate the man.  They hate the way he acts. They hate the way he talks.  They hate everything about him. 

He is evil incarnate.  He must be destroyed.  They’ll tell you that. 

It’s completely irrational. There’s really nothing he’s said or done that warrants this. It’s a visceral hatred of the man himself; it’s certainly not because of his policies. 

In fact, many of the positions he’s taken echo Democrat positions from only a few years ago. He’s actually more like a traditional moderate Democrat than the classic Republican. 

The weirdest part of all this is the amount of projection going on.   

They claim he’s divided the nation along racial, ethnic and gender lines. Yet he didn’t do that – they did as a craven political strategy. They have for years.  And they continue to do it.

His stance on illegal immigration – and creating a barrier on our southern border – is practically identical to that of Bill Clinton, then Senator and later President Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and other prominent Democrats back a few years. Only most of them then wanted to spend much more money and cover much more of that border than he does. And they supported this largely for the same reasons as Trump – because illegal immigration suppresses wages of citizens, increases crime, aids and abets human traffickers, and drains resources from programs for legal citizens. 

But that doesn’t matter. Trump’s a bigot who hates immigrants. That’s the difference.       

They claim he doesn’t care about the poor, minorities, or working families – but it was their social and economic policies over the past 40 years that have hurt the poor, minorities, and working families. Their misguided policies and subsequent failures are a big reason Trump was elected. 

Everything he’s done in two short years has helped all three of those groups – there are fewer people on food stamps, unemployment is at historic lows in all groups including minorities, wages are up, families have more money in their pockets and the economy is booming.

He’s even pushed for and signed sweeping criminal justice reform. That’s something Democrats and the left have supported for years but never accomplished. He got it done.  Yes, Trump did.    

Despite this, Trump the man will always be the target of their hate.  It’s personal.  Nothing will please them until Trump is driven from office in disgrace.  Sooner the better.    

When Trump leaves office will they stop hating?  No.

That's because it’s not just Trump they hate.  They hate everyone who voted for him. They hate anyone who supports anything he does, anyone who says he might have a good idea from time to time, even when it's something they've always supported. 

In short, they hate about half the citizens here.  While most of us cringed when Hillary did her “deplorables” speech, they thought she was dead on. They truly believe half of all Americans are beneath contempt – racist, homophobic, xenophobic, whatever.

They agreed with Hillary wholeheartedly.     

They hate anyone who doesn’t agree with them. Anyone. Even their usual friends.    

Let someone in the media, typically their ally, or some Democrat break ranks ever so briefly to concede Trump deserves some credit for doing something good. They’ll descend on them as if they were heretics worthy of burning at the stake.  The outrage is vicious and way off the charts. 

Wishing people death, or at least a long, painful illness, isn’t unusual.  Women they dislike should be brutally raped. Children of politicians they hate should be kidnapped and abused by pedophiles.  They’ve said all these things.  Seriously, they have. 

In perhaps the height of hypocrisy, they claim the only way to stop hateful rhetoric and divisiveness in this country is to restore them to power. 

Sure.  That will work.  Look how they’re acting now.  Imagine if they were in control again.  Imagine if they had the power to use the FBI, the other intelligence agencies, and the courts to pursue their enemies without restraint.   

If that doesn’t scare the hell out of you, I don’t know what will.  

The low self-esteem of Republicans …

Republicans desperately want everyone to like them.

They have little self-respect. They have low self-esteem.  They’ll do anything to get even a tiny bit of approval.  It’s pathetic. 

It also makes them exploitable.  All anyone – the Democrats, the media or whomever – have to do is shame them or promise to throw them a bone and Republicans will do whatever they’re asked. Their principles go right out the window and they are reduced to groveling. 

Again and again.  It’s an endless loop of Charley Brown and Lucy and the football. 

Republicans never seem to learn.  They never give up hope that this time, maybe this time finally, they can trust Democrats and the media to treat them fairly.

Sorry, Republicans, but that’s never going to happen. 

Democrats and the media despise you, primarily because you’re weak.  They take advantage of you because they know you are so needy. They enjoy it. They laugh about it.  They belittle you publicly. They can punch you in the face any time they like because they know you won’t do anything about it.  Because they know you’ll always come back for more.

Always seeking their approval.  

You think you must be doing something wrong to make them hate you so much and treat you so badly. In short, you think it must be your own fault, somehow. If only you could figure out how to please them everything would be better. They'd like you. They'd stop hurting you.   

Face it, Republicans: You are in an abusive relationship. Your tormentors always tell you that this time will be different, but it never is. It’s always the same. They own you.  And they know it. 

In 1986 Reagan gave amnesty to millions of illegals on the promise that Congress would secure the borders and clamp down on illegal immigration.  Did they? Of course not.

More recently, when the Kavanaugh hearings were going on, did Democrats play fair? 

When the hearings should have concluded, did Democrats not pull a fast one to postpone a vote by introducing “evidence” they’d been sitting on for weeks?  When Democrats then demanded that the Judiciary Committee hear from the alleged accuser in person before voting, you agreed, even though that delayed things another week or so.  After this televised circus, Democrats then demanded an FBI investigation into that and additional allegations, which “should only take three days,” and once again you complied.  

Did they like you any better? Did it change their votes? Nope.   

It was all to run out the clock on Kavanaugh’s nomination. All but one of the Democrats on that committee had already decided to oppose anyone Trump nominated.  They opposed him even before he was nominated. They had no intention of playing fairly. You knew that.  

You had a majority on the committee, but Democrats played you like a fiddle hoping they could invent enough dirt on Kavanaugh – true or not – and pile it up so high you’d be afraid to vote to move his nomination out of committee.  And it almost worked.   

Thanks to a Democrat, Joe Manchin, Kavanaugh was confirmed in a razor thin Senate vote.   

Do you want to know why Democrats took back the House in the midterms? One reason is that so many incumbent House Republicans – 23 – resigned or retired, not to seek higher office but to cut and run for cover. Three Republican Senators retired, with two – Corker and Flake – most likely because they were going to get primaried out anyway.

That’s a lot of churn.  And guess what, the next election in 2020 will have more Republican Senate seats than Democrat Senate seats up for grabs. 

Keep folding like a cheap suit any time Democrats and the media challenge you and you’ll lose control of the Senate, too, and probably the Presidency as well because you don’t have the guts to stand up for anything or fight as hard to win as the Democrats.

It will be your own damn fault if that happens. 

Trump – love him or hate him – has tried to get you to show some courage and fight for things the American public wants.  Reducing illegal immigration.  Increasing funding for defense. Bringing our troops home from costly and seemingly endless foreign wars. Taking on unfair trade practices of China and others.  Restoring good paying manufacturing jobs here. Improving the economy.  Putting more conservative judges on the Federal courts. 

He’s willing to be a one-term President to get these done. 

And what have you done?  Dither.  Tremble.  Don’t blame Trump; he’s tried. 

Right now there’s a partial government shutdown because Trump won’t relent on getting a measly $5.7 billion for enhanced border security, and to start funding a border barrier. 

Will you stand up for that? Or will you cave as always? The signs are already there.   

People vote for politicians because they expect them to represent them and their interests. Honestly. Fairly. And aggressively, if need be. Even when it’s unpopular among others.   

You are failing that test.  You worry too much about being liked, rather than doing your job. 

If you ever wonder why fewer and fewer Americans respect Republicans, that’s why. 

The rush to impeach Trump ...

As expected, the Democrats are in a rush to impeach Trump. 

A lot of the talking heads say it’s because Democrats simply hate him.  Democrats still believe he cheated to win the Presidency; there’s no other rational way to explain it for them.  They hate the tax cuts. They hate what they perceive as his anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric.  They hate that he taunts them at every opportunity.  They think he’s just an awful excuse for a human being.

He’s also not what many – Democrats and establishment Republicans alike – think a President should be or act. Trump’s crass, vulgar, rude, arrogant and quite possibly unstable. 

He’s an embarrassment, in other words.  

Still, if you take away Trump’s personality flaws, which are many, he’s done some pretty good things for the country in two short years.  Some of those things would be wildly applauded by Democrats if they were done by anyone other than Trump. 

The economy’s booming.  Unemployment is at record lows for minorities.  Wages are going up.  Gas prices are down. We’re now the world’s biggest oil producer.  Natural gas prices are so low that cleaner burning natural gas is replacing coal in many power plants, reducing air pollution.

We’ve pretty much destroyed ISIS. We’ve made our NATO and other allies pony-up for a larger share of their own defense.  We’ve taken China to task for unfair trade practices.  We’ve renegotiated many trade agreements to be more favorable to American workers.  We’re bringing our troops home from Syria and might do the same from Afghanistan where we’ve been waging war and spending billions for decades with little to show for all that. 

Democrats should love this guy.

So why are they so hot to impeach him as quickly as possible?

I think I know the real answer. Democrat leaders and the left know precisely what it is but won’t say it out loud. And when you cut through all the histrionics it’s obvious. 

It’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg. More specifically, what happens when she leaves the court. 

She’s old.  She’s not well. She’s only holding on by a thread until Democrats retake the Senate and Presidency. I don’t think she’s going to make it, nor do the Democrats. Having another open seat on the Supreme Court filled by Trump is Democrats’ and the left’s worst nightmare. 

I don’t wish her ill will, but her time’s running out.  It’s just nature, not politics. 

I suspect she was planning to retire when Hillary was elected; then Hillary would replace her and fill Scalia’s vacant seat with two solid activist liberals, preferably young. That would insure the court would swing left and stay that way for decades to come, effectively making laws without the nuisance of getting these passed by Congress. Or within the guidelines of the Constitution. 

We all know how that turned out. 

And now, while Democrats are publicly crowing about winning the House, Republicans have increased their hold on the Senate where Supreme Court nominees are confirmed. Plus, weasels like Jeff Flake and Bob Corker who could have been counted on to appease Democrats aren’t in the Senate anymore. 

Finally, while Democrats were all in for the nuclear option under Harry Reid, Republican Senate leadership is deploying the same nuclear option to confirm Justices with only 51 votes.      

This is what’s really behind the rush to impeach Trump. It’s about filling Supreme Court vacancies. It’s highly probable that he’ll get another bite at the apple before his term is up.  If he appoints another Gorsuch or Kavanaugh to the Court it’s game over for the next 20-30 years, regardless of who becomes President after him.

Certainly, some Democrats – especially the newly elected ones – want to impeach Trump simply because they hate him. They aren’t sure why, except for the bogus talking points the left has been pushing since he was elected.

He hasn’t committed any high crimes and misdemeanors, apparently. Democrats are waiting breathlessly in hopes that the Mueller probe comes up with something. 

So far, nothing. 

In the meantime, Trump has the ability to appoint new Supreme Court justices, and a Senate majority to confirm his choices, when a vacancy occurs. 

His chance may come soon. 

That’s why Democrats are rushing to impeach him. 

Christmas in Miami ...

As a little kid growing up in Miami, Christmas was a big event.

The Holsum bakery in South Miami would pull out all the stops with elaborate animated window displays and – as always – the smell of fresh-baked bread that traveled for miles. Department stores like Burdines and Jordan Marsh dominated Christmas shopping.  Shopping center Santas surrounded by fake snow and pink flamingo props sporting little Santa hats were a big draw.

On one of the three TV stations in Miami back then we watched the black and white Christmas classics – It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34^th Street, A Christmas Carol – that always had people bundled up against the bitter cold and usually snow, which most of us had never experienced. There were also always Christmas specials on TV, with stars like Perry Como, Dean Martin and others. Local weathercasters like Jim Dooley (“Come on down!”) and Weaver the Weatherman would track the progress of Santa’s sleigh for us. 

As kids in Miami, we wondered how Santa came down the chimney, since almost no houses in Miami at the time had real wood-burning fireplaces and, as such, no chimneys.    

Always the best part of Christmas was going to my grandmother’s house. She and my grandfather still lived in the same house they'd moved to from Ohio in the mid-to-late 1920s, along with one of their married daughters, her husband George and son.  My grandparents had raised four girls and two boys of their own in that house. There was a lot of history in that house, which still stands.

My grandmother (Anabel) and grandfather (“Cappy”) could not be more different from each other.  She was a former teacher, a staunch Methodist and serious teetotaler; he was a practical joker who always kept a bottle of Old Crow or Old Grandad around, loved to play checkers, torment his daughters' dates, and head down to “the corner” with my Uncle George for a “cool one” (beer).

Outside of Christmas, when I would come over my grandmother would teach me how to read.  My grandfather would whip me at checkers and play pranks on me.  If he was heading to “the corner” I could often tag along and get an ice-cold Yoo-Hoo. I loved going there. 

And Lord, how my grandmother could cook.  Sunday dinners there were a feast.  

But back to Christmas. To understand our Christmas you need to understand the family.  There were a lot of characters.

Amber was the oldest daughter and was married to George. Amber was a former schoolteacher and George worked for the Post Office delivering mail from a bicycle (yes, that’s how they did it in Miami then). Amber was regal; George was the epitome of politically incorrect.  George had an identical twin brother Forrest (always pronounced Foist) and was originally from West Virginia. We rarely saw Forrest.    

Josephine was the next oldest and married to Ray – who played tennis at the University of Florida, was part of the D-Day invasion, and was later the tennis pro at The Greenbrier Hotel for decades. Josephine also worked for The Greenbrier in the tennis shop.  Most of the year they lived at the hotel and rubbed elbows with the rich and famous, even though they were technically staff. To us they were as close as we came to having celebrities in the family.  

Then came Ilo, who was also married to a Ray. She was the manager of women’s sportswear at the Burdines on Miami Beach for decades while Ray owned a furniture refinishing business. Ray was also in WWII but stationed in Pensacola spray-painting planes.  While Josephine’s Ray who actually saw brutal combat never talked about the war, Ilo’s Ray never ceased talking about it.  But I really liked Ilo and Ray; they were ferociously in love and solely dedicated to each other as long as they lived. To his dying day, Ray always called Ilo "Babe." 

Ruth came after Ilo and broke ranks from the Methodists by marrying Joe, a Catholic, and moving to North Carolina where Joe worked for a tobacco company.  Unlike Josephine and Ilo, they had kids and of course raised them as Catholics.  We rarely saw Ruth and her family.

Jimmy also married a Catholic, Margie, and had a couple of kids. Jimmy worked for FPL his whole career and had to deal with Margie’s nasty mother who moved in with them.  Margie’s mother made it a point to belittle Jimmy at every opportunity; Jimmy was a nice guy but his life was a living Hell. 

My mother Jean was the youngest girl, spoiled rotten by everyone, apparently. She married my father when he was a 25-year-old Captain in the Army Air Force and she was at FSU. Like Ilo’s Ray, my father never saw combat, but naturally talked about his war experiences all the time. 

To his credit, however, he earned his degree at the University of Miami, then after the service worked nights at the Post Office to support us while he got his Masters in Far Eastern History.  At 55 he earned his Ph.D.  He was extraordinarily well educated and had an amazing memory, perhaps eidetic, but didn’t have a lick of common sense or much in the way of people skills. Or self awareness. His arrogance about his education tended to rub the rest of the more down-to-earth family the wrong way. He came off as a stuffed shirt.       

Finally, there was Buddy, the true baby of my mother’s family. Buddy was brilliant and had a Ph.D. in Biology or Chemistry. Buddy was also crazy.  He married another crazy person with an advanced degree, Molly, and had a bunch of kids who, like him, were brilliant but crazy.  I think all of them ended up with Ph.D.s. But they were really weird; kind of like nuts not falling far from the original nut tree.  Pale, strange, distant people as a group who really wanted nothing to do with the rest of us. Especially Molly.   

So here’s how Christmas shaped up. 

Christmas Eve.  Big tree.  Presents under the tree.  Adults in the living room.  Kids in the piano room. Adults – except for Grandma – would be drinking. 

Uncle George – Amber’s husband – would enter the piano room and ask the kids if they wanted a Coke; then he would wink conspiratorially and ask sotto voce if we wanted “something extra” in our Coke. Older kids knew what he meant; younger kids just knew something was up.  Of course we all said yes, please. George would return with our Cokes to which he’d added maybe a teaspoon of rum and swore us to absolute secrecy – we could never tell our parents.   

Thus compromised, we never said a word. We just sipped away and smiled knowingly the rest of the night.  He had coopted us into best behavior. 

For years, none of the adults could ever understand why all the kids behaved so well at the family Christmas.  But we did. 

As the party heated up, the inevitable gossip about the still missing Buddy and Molly would begin. Would they actually show up? Would they even remember to come?

Then, an hour or so after everybody else had arrived, Buddy, Molly, and their strange kids would show up. As always, Buddy would have a bag from the drug store and as always Molly would have a bad attitude.  Buddy would hand out Whitman’s Samplers he’d obviously picked up on his drive over.  Molly and their kids would ignore everyone.  Which was okay, because their kids were like aliens from a distant planet.  Plus, nobody ever knew what would set Molly off, prompting her to tell Buddy they weren’t welcome there and it was time to go.  With Molly you always knew it was coming.      

Before long, suddenly, predictably, Molly would get in a huff – nobody ever knew the reason – and start her dramatic exit; Buddy would apologize, gather up their weird brood and leave. Everybody would remain mystified for a few moments, shrug it off, and the tension in the room whenever Molly was around would subside. 

Meanwhile, not far behind Buddy and Molly’s leaving, Jimmy and Margie would start to argue.  Most often it was something Margie’s mother had said about Jimmy before they got there. Or it was about his drinking, which wasn’t excessive by any measure, and which, knowing what a complete bitch Margie’s mother was, and Margie was as well, no one could hardly blame him.  Jimmy’s spoiled kids then would start whining and before we knew it the whole bunch of them were out the door. 

Josephine would tell off-color jokes; her husband Ray would cringe. My father would start telling politically incorrect jokes.  Ilo’s Ray would reminisce about winning WWII in Pensacola with his spray gun. My mother would bring up Dinky, the dog her family had when she was little.  Uncle George would continue making sure everybody had a drink.

It was the same every Christmas. 

And it was great. 

About that proposed Carbon Tax ...

You’ve been hearing lately about a proposed Carbon Tax.  With Democrats taking over the House in 2019, you’ll hear a lot more. 

It’s being presented as a new solution to slow down global warming.  It’s also been said it’s an efficient and revenue-neutral way to wean us off fossil fuels. 

Some have even claimed it will put more money in consumers’ pockets.

Here’s a bit of perspective on what it’s really all about …

More than 40 years ago I wrote a high-end newsletter focused on energy policy and legislation for about 10,000 key decision makers at big industrial energy users here and abroad.  For six years I covered energy-related legislation and energy technologies from fossil fuels to geothermal to solar to coal gasification to laser fusion and more.

Back then there was a push for renewable energy forms over oil – not because of concerns about pollution or global warming (since we were actually in a cycle of “global cooling” then), but because America was so dependent on foreign sources for petroleum.

Think OPEC and the oil embargo.  Think gasoline rationing.   

It was considered a “national security” issue.  We needed long-term alternatives to oil or we’d be forever beholden to Middle East dictators like the Saudis. Alarmists claimed America was running out of its own oil reserves and soon there would be no more American oil to extract.    

In short, we were screwed.  We needed to something now, right now, or we’d all be huddled in the dark and the cold in the very near future.  Seriously, that was threat. 

The big push then was on solar.  It was “free.”  It was clean.  As long as the sun came out it was there every day for the taking.  With enough windmills and solar panels, we could produce enough energy to replace oil or coal-fired utility plants.  We could stop building risky nuclear power plants.  And the electricity we produced could power clean-energy electric cars.

Mind you, this was 40 years ago. But doesn’t it sound familiar today? 

Best of all, you could produce all the power you needed for your home without relying on monopolistic public utilities or oil companies.  Just put solar panels on your house or business. 

I saved that tidbit for last because it really was the unspoken goal of the solar theology – you could put the greedy oil companies and public utilities out of business with solar. You could take away their power over you by becoming your own energy producer. Hell, you could make them pay you for extra power you generated instead of always paying them.   

For the true solar zealots, it was all about taking down “the man.” And making a buck.   

Of course, the high priests of solar and other alternatives back then conveniently ignored both fundamental economics and basic physics. They still do today.

People will always do what’s in their own economic best interest. If electricity produced from burning oil or natural gas is cheaper than from windmills or solar-panel farms, it wins in the marketplace. If it’s cheaper to heat your home or business with oil or natural gas than with solar panels, oil or natural gas win.  If it’s cheaper to buy and easier to operate an automobile or a truck powered by gasoline or diesel than an all-electric vehicle, gasoline and diesel win.   

Hence the Carbon Tax.  The only way fossil-fuel opponents can make solar or other alternatives appear economically attractive without subsidies is if they can artificially raise the price of fossil fuels for consumers and businesses dramatically. The Carbon Tax would do that. 

That’s the plan. It’s always been the plan.  It’s not about saving the planet; it’s about making fossil fuels more expensive.  It’s also about a new money grab on false promises. The beneficiaries of the Carbon Tax won’t be consumers – because a tax on fossil fuels is a tax consumers will ultimately pay.

Politicians and bureaucrats will collect the tax and then dole it out, after taking a cut for themselves, to favored constituencies. Think Solyndra and other green-energy money-sucking boondoggles.  Think also of fat-cat leftist billionaires like Tom Steyer and others who hold big stakes in alternative energy companies. And also remember hypocrites like Al Gore who plan to make millions, perhaps billions, trading Carbon Tax offsets.

Meanwhile, as they all get richer consumers will pay more for everything. Count on it.   

I laughed the other night when one lobbyist on TV said consumers would financially benefit from the Carbon Tax.  How?  They’d get money back in rebates from the government to offset higher fuel prices, he said. In fact, consumers would get more money back than the difference in the higher prices they’d pay.  And that cash transfer would help boost the economy.

Yeah, right. Sure … that’s believable.     

We don’t have an oil or natural gas shortage anymore.  Honestly, we never did.  Despite drilling more wells in America than the rest of the world combined, two-thirds of all the oil we found here was still in the ground and there was ample gas trapped in shale. 

We just needed new technologies to get both out at a profit. And these arrived.    

With fracking and other enhanced recovery tools it became economically sound to go after all that oil and natural gas.  Supplies went way up and prices came down. So much for the predicted fossil-fuel-shortage apocalypse.  At the same time, natural gas is now so cheap – and burns so clean – it’s powering utility plants and reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. Automobile and truck engines are also more fuel efficient and clean. 

Then why do we need a Carbon Tax to reduce use of fossil fuels?   

The answer is deceptively simple:  the economic breakeven for solar and other alternatives has always been like chasing the horizon. It’s always “so close”; but it’s been the same promise for more than 40 years.  That’s because market forces hold down fossil fuel prices and cleaner burning and higher efficiency technologies like hybrid engines keep improving. Even when oil and gas prices do go up the cost of making and shipping solar devices – like wind turbines and photovoltaic panels – goes up as well because both are very energy intensive and not very efficient power producers.   

Without government subsidies – like tax credits to encourage solar and other “renewables,” or tax penalties to discourage fossil fuel use – the needle never moves. And once any subsidies are removed, solar power or electric cars don’t make economic sense for most people. 

Rich people, who don’t need the subsidies anyway, will drive a Tesla or Chevy Volt to show how virtuous they are, forgetting entirely that the electricity they’re using came from a nuclear, coal, natural gas or oil-fired utility. Where do they think that electricity came from?  Their Tesla or Volt? Or maybe some magic socket? 

Politicians like incenting consumers to use alternatives to fossil fuels. It feels good, and shows they are "doing something" about helping the environment, but it doesn’t make much economic sense in the long run.  Or environmental sense.  It’s make-believe. 

If you give people $7500 for buying an all-electric car, what's accomplished?  Yes, they won’t use gasoline as much, but they’ll pay for electricity.  That electricity will likely be produced by burning fossil fuels. And oh, by the way, transmitting electricity to their garage robs 70% of its efficiency.

But won’t goosing demand for all-electric cars via subsidies create economies of scale and lower prices for future electric cars?  Nope. GM just announced it’s discontinuing its Chevy Volt because of disappointing sales, even with the subsidies. Instead it will retool for a hybrid.

That's because, except for the rich and the virtue signalers, as long as oil and natural gas are so cheap nobody really wants an all-electric car that can only go 200 miles before it needs to be charged overnight.  No ordinary consumers want the upfront expense to install solar photovoltaic panels that take 30 years – the average life of their roof anyway – to start to hit economic breakeven, if then.    

All-electric cars and solar will only take off when they make economic sense on their own without subsidies or artificially raising the prices of oil and gas. 

Remember that when Democrats and the left start pushing the Carbon Tax.

The Carbon Tax will only make some rich people richer and the rest of us poorer. It can’t overturn the basic laws of supply and demand nor spur new technology to make alternatives cheaper and more efficient.  It’s just another money grab wrapped in virtuous clothing. 

Now, that's funny ...

Don’t hear that much anymore, do you? 

You can thank the political correctness movement.  The PC police – you know, the killjoys who want to ensure that no one, nowhere is offended by anything. Especially a joke.   

Because jokes can hurt. It’s not right to repeat, much less laugh at, jokes that might hurt. You never know when you risk offending someone. So, no jokes allowed.

Unless, of course, you’re mocking Trump, Melania, Christians, Pence, Republicans, white people, conservatives, or anyone with a religious belief. Then anything goes; it’s fine – and funny. 

There are other rules, however. They also depend on who you are.  

Today if you’re black you can make fun of anyone, even other blacks, except gay blacks – that’s not allowed. Gay people can mock any straight people, but straight people of any race can’t make jokes about anybody who might be LGBTQIAPK (that covers a lot of ground, look it up). 

Gay conservatives – and there are some – are stuck in the same rut as white conservatives and can’t make fun of anybody. That would be offensive.   

Just thought I’d lay out the new rules as I see them.  But you already knew them, right?  We’re all tiptoeing around subjects to stay politically correct. We live in fear of telling a joke in a crowd that goes over like a fart at a funeral. 

That’s too bad.  I’ve always loved a good joke.  Most of us still do. Yet everyone’s too afraid these days to tell a great joke, or even laugh at something that’s clearly funny. 

Humor is about incongruity, the things in life that make no sense, and also about making fun of stereotypical situations – in short, about the things that make us all fallible humans. Especially when it’s about ourselves and our everyday lives; self-deprecating humor is often the funniest. 

Humor is also about stripping away pretensions.  Humbling the haughty.  Poking fun at the powerful. But most of all, knocking the arrogant and self-righteous off their high horse.  

Ridicule, sarcasm, and the well-timed joke are valuable weapons in bringing the mighty down to earth and leveling the playing field.  Humor has always been an equal opportunity offender and a healthier way to vent frustration than physical violence.   

It’s been that way since the dawn of time in every culture, every society, and every nation. Archeologists constantly find written or visual jokes dating back thousands of years. Some are quite crude bathroom humor, and quite graphic.  Others deal with sexual preferences or performance. Some impugn the character of politicians, other ethnic groups, and other religions. Some even make fun of particular gods and myths.   

And I’ll bet in their day these were all considered hilarious.  In bad taste at times, I’m sure, but probably had their audiences laughing their ancient asses off. 

There’s nothing wrong with humor.  Even when it’s at someone else’s expense.  And it’s perfectly okay to laugh at whatever you find funny.  Doubt that? 

Tell me honestly that seeing some arrogant jerk take a pratfall isn’t funny.  Or that the famous pix of Chris Christie in the beach chair isn’t hilarious.  Or Clint Eastwood’s joke in the movie Gran Torino about “a Mexican, a Jew and a colored guy walk into a bar …” wasn’t, either. Tell me you’ve never laughed at Robin Williams doing standup. Or Chris Rock doing standup, or in his video “How to avoid getting your ass kicked by the police.”  Or Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles.  Or a website I really miss called Regretsy ("Where DIY meets WTF") that mocked silly "handmade" items people were trying to sell on Etsy.  

Or whatever is often obviously in bad taste but still obviously funny to you. 

You’re forgiven for being human and having a sense of humor.  It’s okay. 

It’s the people who have no sense of humor that should worry us. 

They need to get a life instead of trying to ruin ours. 

Lavrentiy Beria and Robert Mueller …

The two have much in common. True, Beria was the longest serving head of Stalin’s secret police and Mueller is the former head of the FBI, yet they share one thing in common.

And based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s a big thing. 

Beria is often quoted as saying: “Show me the man and I’ll find the crime.”  Isn’t that what Mueller is doing in his role as head of the current Special Counsel Investigation?

Here in America we normally require there be a crime before we investigate. Mueller and his team have flipped that and are apparently following Beria’s philosophy.  They are targeting individuals first and trying to find the crimes second.  This isn’t how it’s supposed to work. 

They are targeting Trump as their end game. That much is perfectly clear.  They also don’t care how they get him.  That’s also clear.  They have the entire justice apparatus to help them, along with cheerleading from Democrats and the media. It’s an awesome array of power.   

So far Mueller and his team have uncovered crimes that have nothing directly implicating Trump in an actual crime.  Bad judgement on Trump’s part, perhaps, but not a crime. 

They hope that terrorizing anybody associated with Trump with threats of financial ruin and lengthy jail time will get someone, somewhere frightened enough to incriminate Trump in a major crime.  Almost every day there’s a news story about someone Trump knows – a former lawyer, a Trump campaign associate, a Trump donor, someone Trump had sex with, someone who had business dealings with Trump or his companies before he took office, and others – who has revealed details to Mueller’s team that tie Trump to some possible crime. 

But so far, despite all the breathless reporting, there’s been no “there” there. 

Sure, a bunch of Trump supporters and hangers-on have been subjected to the wrath of Mueller’s team.  Some have copped pleas to past crimes that have nothing to do with Trump or his election. Some have been convicted of lying to Congress or the FBI, or both, on matters not related to Trump, even though whether they actually intentionally lied is questionable. Some, like Cohen, have blamed Trump for illegal acts they may have committed.  And every day the media reports that the noose is tightening around the neck of Donald J. Trump and pushing him toward inevitable impeachment.   

Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, has even said that Trump may be the first President in years to face jail time when he leaves office. 

What Mueller, Democrats, never-Trumpers like Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, and the media won’t admit is they have zero chance of removing Trump from office before his term’s up. Democrats don’t have the votes in Congress to impeach him, even after the midterms.  They’d need two thirds of the Senate to convict him of an impeachable offense, and that’s never going to happen. 

As far as Trump going to jail, forget about that, too.  His cabinet invoking the 25^th Amendment to force him out – something talking heads at CNN and MSNBC, as well as geniuses like Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, have pushed for – isn’t going to happen, either.   

Trump may not be their idea of a President – in fact, they hate him with a passion that borders on insanity – but they can’t kick him out before his term expires. Just not going to happen.  To believe otherwise is a fever dream. The best they can hope for is to damage him so much he doesn’t get re-elected in 2020.  And even that’s a long shot. 

They’ll continue to vent their frustration.  Mueller will continue to torture anyone he can to try to make his two years of investigations and the millions he’s spent yield something of substance. Even though he knows, as all torturers know, that with enough pain and pressure anyone will eventually say whatever you want them to say, whether it’s true or not.  

Beria knew that.  Mueller and his team know it as well. 

Mueller and his team are using Beria’s tactics, plain and simple.  I don’t know if he’s pissed because he got passed over for FBI Director by Trump. I don’t know if he’s pissed because his buddy James Comey got canned by Trump. 

I honestly can’t figure out his motives, except to get Trump at all costs. 

It’s a sad time for our justice system when a murderous monster like Beria is a de facto role model for how we now conduct investigations. 

It’s also a sad reflection on who we’ve allowed ourselves to become as a nation. 

We should all be appalled.