Do Democrats and the media have no shame?

The answer is apparently not.

Schumer, Pelosi and others in that party are already blaming Trump for the coronavirus. Instead of, for once, putting aside their irrational and unrelenting hatred of Trump in the interest of finding realistic solutions to protect American lives, they simply can’t.

Make no mistake, this is a display of mental illness. 

Democrats and the media know the virus came from China.  Trump acted early to shut down travel to and from infected zones about a month ago. Democrats and the media accused him of overreacting and being a racist for doing so at the time.  Now they accuse Trump of not doing more sooner. 

Trump held a press conference the other day to say that we are prepared to take on the virus and he appointed VP Pence to lead the effort.  Democrats ridiculed the choice of Pence as a religious fanatic who didn’t believe in science, and said Trump downplayed the dangers of the virus. Talking heads on MSNBC and CNN sarcastically suggested Pence might substitute prayer for vaccines.  They also implied Trump was too stupid and too anti-science to handle this crisis.  They criticized Trump for only devoting $2.5 billion initially to address it.   

WTF is wrong with these people?  Seriously. Here are the facts as we know them.   

There’s a highly contagious virus that came from China. Its symptoms resemble the common flu, which is why so many of the early cases were misdiagnosed. Like the flu if not treated in time it can kill, especially those with compromised health conditions and the elderly, and it has.  Nobody is certain how it spreads or how to vaccinate people against it, although a variety of companies here and abroad are working on vaccines.  However, at present there is no proven vaccine. 

Still, most Americans in reasonably fair health and with no underlying conditions have little to worry about; in that way it’s like the common flu.  They might get infected, it might be unpleasant, but caught early it’s treatable with conventional medicines and not likely to be life threatening.

It seems to have an incubation period of 14 days, so conventional quarantine and isolation protocols appear to work. That’s the approach our health systems – the best in the world, BTW – have used so far. And they’ve been successful: no one in America has died from the coronavirus to date. The virus may stay alive on surfaces up to nine days, but it can also be killed on surfaces using common disinfectants such as Lysol spray and Clorox disinfecting wipes.     

That’s not to say it isn’t dangerous. It is. Mainly because the Chinese dropped the ball. 

Yet we have Democrats and bozos in the media trying to blame Trump for this virus.

This is the virus that sprung mysteriously and suddenly in China. The virus China didn’t take seriously enough when it first appeared. The virus China couldn’t contain.  The virus and the deaths from it China essentially hid from the rest of the world to avoid embarrassment. And the same virus that China refused to allow our top infectious disease experts in to help address. 

Yeah, that virus.  Tell me again how Trump is responsible … 

Look, this coronavirus is potentially dangerous. It should be taken seriously.  People can die from it.  Panic over it has disrupted supply chains worldwide. That same panic has caused the U.S. stock market to crater over fears of a pandemic. 

But in the end, it’s still mostly unwarranted panic – fed by politicians who should know better and media fools who want to terrify everyone to get ratings. 

They all should be ashamed. But they’re not. They’re just following the Rahm Emanuel edict to never let a good crisis go to waste.  The Democrats want to sink Trump. The media want ratings. Neither will ever let the facts get in the way of what they want.   

How sad.

The Bloomberg mirage ...

Mike Bloomberg is an arrogant sexist pig. No doubt about that.

He’s a letch. He brags to other guys he’d “fuck her in a second” when he sees an especially attractive young female employee – even in front of her.  He says this so often he’s got it to shorthand – he just says “in a second” and all his fellow pigs know. 

He openly berates women who aren’t stunningly beautiful and sexy. He’s not beyond calling someone a “fat broad” to their face, or opining about “horse-faced lesbians,” calling transgender people men wearing dresses or simply “it,” or implying that all woman are essentially whores. 

It doesn’t end there. 

He once asked a female employee if she was giving good blowjobs to her boyfriend. When he learned one of his female employees was pregnant, he asked her: “Are you going to kill it?”

This is a truly abhorrent and insensitive human being. This is just a smattering. 

He makes Donald Trump look like Mr. Rogers and that’s not easy.   

Now he’s running for the Democrat nomination.  Well, he’s not actually running for it in the conventional sense as much as trying to buy it. 

He’s already spent about $400 million on a carpet-bombing campaign of self-promoting TV ads in key primary states coming up.  He’s also hired hundreds, if not thousands, of social media types to post positive things about him online to their friends every week for up to $2,500 a month; he also wants them to turn over their contacts to his campaign for future harvesting as well.  He’s rumored to be paying double the norm to campaign staffers while providing a bunch of other novel perks, like free Apple iPads and other goodies. 

He's getting endorsements, not surprisingly, from the same organizations he’s been funding and subsidizing for decades. They dare not step out of line; they’ve been bought.    

He’s told some Democrats he might spend up to $2 billion of his estimated $62 billion in wealth to win this election; he’s told others he will spend whatever it takes to win. Democrat party leaders are salivating over access to so much money to defeat Trump.  So much so that they were willing to change the rules for getting on the Nevada debate stage to accommodate Bloomberg – who skipped the first primaries altogether and isn’t even on the primary ballot in Nevada.

The other candidates may howl in outrage at the DNC’s actions to support Bloomberg, but in the end it won’t matter.  Bloomberg is this cycle’s Hillary: like her, Bloomberg has the money to play big; party leaders will do anything to stop Bernie Sanders; and they will do anything to defeat Trump, even if it means putting forth an amoral, sociopath scumbag like Bloomberg.

Democrat leaders know exactly who Bloomberg is.  They know his past. They know all about him.  But they are desperate.   

That’s how low the Democrat Party has gone.  They look at the current candidates and they know not one of them has the snowball’s chance in Hell to defeat Trump. 

So they are willing to make a deal with the devil. Unfortunately, it’s not going to work. 

They never learn.

Like Hillary, Bloomberg is a fake. Like Hillary, he doesn’t really like ordinary Americans – and it shows. Like Hillary, he’s a terrible liar; it’s so obvious when he lies and tries to weasel out of what he actually said or did.  And worse, like Hillary, his arrogance and condescension are always on display; you can just see from his expressions he’s thinking “how dare you” whenever he’s questioned by someone he sees as beneath him.  Which is pretty much everybody.      

Hillary proved it’s hard to get people you openly loathe to vote for you. I suspect Bloomberg will find the same is true for him. Although he’s so self-absorbed he may not see that.  

I’m sure he can lock down the looney left that hates Trump.  They’d bring Hitler back to life and run him if they were convinced he’d beat Trump.  But the same thing that tanked Hillary will ultimately tank Bloomberg: he can’t have an honest conversation with ordinary Americans.

He doesn’t really believe anything he says to potential voters. Like her, he says what he thinks voters want to hear, even though it's clear he's just reading from a script created by consultants. More importantly, because he doesn’t associate with ordinary voters – or apparently feel the need to – he doesn’t know firsthand what ordinary Americans really want.   Honestly, he doesn’t really care; they’re nobodies to him. 

In person he’s wooden, cold, and, quite frankly, unlikeable.  You always come away with the sense that he’s holding back something unpleasant he’d really like to say but won’t right now.  But you know he’d like to tell everybody to shove it – don’t they know who they’re talking to?   

Bernie Sanders may be nuts, but he’s the real deal. His supporters love him because of this. It’s why as crazy and unrealistic as Bernie’s ideas may be, they’ll follow him through Hell and back. They are as loyal a base as Trump supporters. Nothing shakes them. 

Bernie’s real. Trump is real.  The Mike Bloomberg being presented to the public now isn’t and all the slick ads and manufactured online support can’t overcome that. 

If Bernie doesn’t get the nomination this time, his supporters will burn down the party. And if DNC types think Bernie’s supporters will support any Democrat other than him, they’re insane. Bernie's supporters may hate Trump but they’ll hate getting screwed over by their own party again even more. They won't take it. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bernie run as an independent if the DNC screws him again.    

Then again, Bernie and the other candidates may be forced to support Bloomberg in the end. But his people won't. 

Taking out the trash ...

After he was acquitted in the Senate on two charges, Trump removed the Lt. Colonels Vindman – yes, there were two, twins in fact – from the National Security Council. He also relieved Ambassador Sondland of his position.  

Was it retribution? An act of vengeance? Flushing the pipes, as someone said?

I sure hope so.  And I hope it’s just the beginning.

Now the impeachment farce, at least the first iteration, has ended, Trump should move quickly to purge who sits in on briefings, who has access to internal memos, and who is suspected of leaking to the media. He needs to cut down the number of people surrounding him. There should be no more “automatic” inclusions to confidential meetings or discussion. In essence, he needs to lock down access to information within the Executive Branch to a select few.  

Better late than never.  And it is very late in the game.  He should have done this on his very first day as President. Why he didn’t is a mystery. He should have known better.        

Trump’s made a lot of mistakes because he was a first-time politician.

But his biggest was not doing what many past Presidents did immediately upon taking office: they cleaned house. They removed or reassigned as many political appointees from the predecessor administration as they could as soon as possible to put in their own people. 

Obama recalled every Bush-era politically appointed ambassador, asked for the resignations of all the Federal prosecutors, and replaced as many as he could with his own people. He wasn’t the first. It was standard procedure among both incoming Republican and Democrat Presidents.

Trump didn’t do this.  Perhaps nobody expected him to win – maybe even him – so when he did he and his advisors were unprepared to take out Obama’s leftovers. That was a grave error.  It left him with a lot of players with little if any loyalty to him, and many who privately plotted against him. Few of them took him seriously, especially on his promise to drain the swamp. 

He was surrounded by career politicians, hacks and backstabbing weasels who didn’t care what his agenda was, or what he wanted. They had their own agenda.

Which was, bluntly, to make sure nothing really changed.  A goal shared by both Republican and Democrat party leaders, and the bloated government bureaucracy.   

He might have been elected President, but to them he was an inexperienced bumpkin. A rube. A naïf.  And it wasn’t just his Executive Branch members from previous administrations who felt this way, it was also the consensus among establishment politicians on both sides of the aisle, heads of our intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, top U.S. military officials, career bureaucrats throughout the government, as well as most foreign leaders.  

Our political establishment’s plan was to control him as they had so many other Presidents. They’d encourage the bureaucracy to use delay, dissent, and endless challenges to grind him down.  They’d co-opt his appointees as soon as possible to protect their interests, and if that failed they’d move to discredit them and drive them from their positions.

They’d keep him from doing things they didn’t like by ignoring or tabling his orders. Because they knew better.  They’d been running things their way long before he got there and they’d run things their way long after he was out of office – which, they hoped, wouldn’t be too long. 

Whenever they could they’d give him a gentle push out the door by leaking to the media, embarrassing him, and if that failed actively working behind the scenes to overthrow him.

The establishment didn’t like what Trump was selling one bit.  

He threatened their plans to keep us in wars to support the military-industrial complex. He threatened to cut foreign aid to the same countries that employed the sons and daughters of our political establishment.  He threatened to reduce dependence on government assistance for millions of able-bodied people who didn’t really need it.  He threatened to stop or at least reduce access to cheap illegal immigrant labor.  He threatened to stop trade deals that encouraged U.S. companies to move our jobs offshore for bigger profits.  He threatened to force big pharma to cut prices, and big healthcare providers to reduce their costs to consumers. 

Worst of all, he threatened the myth that think-tank wonks, beltway consultants, and career bureaucrats actually knew what they were doing.  He kept proving that they didn’t. 

He had to be destroyed. So for the past 3+ years they did everything they could to bring him down. They leaked to the press. They used hacks from previous administrations to point out how wrong – and dangerous, he was. They used our own intelligence agencies to discredit him.  They sued him. They found other people to sue him.  They launched nonstop investigations of him, his past business dealings, and his friends and former advisors, sending some of them to prison.   

They attacked his family as well.  

And Democrats in the House impeached him, to the cheers of their pals in the media and their increasingly lunatic base. Making him only the third President ever to be impeached.     

Most others in Trump’s position would have quit.  It’s not like he needed the job.  He had plenty of money, a hot wife, and a good family for the most part. It wouldn’t have been surprising to have him come on TV one night and say: “This is bullshit.  I don’t have to take this crap. And I’m not going to anymore. I’m outta here. “ 

But he hasn’t.  I don’t think he will.  Maybe he’s just ornery enough, pig-headed enough, or feels he has nothing to lose, but he’s hanging in there.  Perhaps it’s just for spite. 

Maybe so, but his base still loves him.  Despite all the attacks on him, and impeachment, his numbers are up.  Every time there’s a new attack on him he gets more popular.

As it stands now, I suspect he’ll probably be reelected.  If he does he might even retain control of the Senate and regain control of the House. 

I hope he’ll be better prepared to clean house the next time.

The Democrats' biggest problem isn't Trump the man ...

Or even what he says. 

It’s that so many Americans may not admit it but they agree with Trump.  They might not like him as a person.  They may think he’s an embarrassment as President.  They may cringe when he lets loose on someone he doesn’t like.  They’ll concede at times he’s an obnoxious asshole. 

Still, his policies largely reflect what they believe.  He’s doing what they want him to.  He’s saying what they think much of the time. And he says it in a way they can understand, in words they would use themselves.  He’s a more accurate and authentic reflection of them than any other politician on the national stage today. Or perhaps in years. 

Sure, he’s a billionaire with a fashion-model wife and an MBA from Wharton.  As the President of the United States he’s also the most powerful man in the world. 

But he never talks down to his supporters. They all know he’s not a regular guy – he’ll never be just like them – but the refreshing part is that he never pretends to be that, either.  They know he’ll never tell them he “feels their pain,” because that would be fake.  There’s no way a guy like him could feel their pain or know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck.  How would he?

He does, however, recognize their frustration at being ignored and continually ridiculed by the left and the media for their beliefs, their patriotism, their optimism, and for holding to their values. While he may not be one of them, they feel he’s always fighting for them and what they believe.  

That’s most important to them.  They can clearly separate their feelings about Trump the man from his policies. They may not like him as a person, but they like what he’s accomplishing and for taking on the battles he’s willing to fight on their behalf.  

That’s why they voted for him. And probably will again.  

This has been the problem for Democrats and the media all along: they simply can’t understand why so many Americans support Trump, when he’s so personally unpopular.  They can’t grasp the difference between support and personal popularity.

Ever since Trump announced he was running for President the media and the Democrats have launched attacks almost exclusively on Trump the man. They’ve made sure everyone knew he cheated on his wife with pornstars and Playboy playmates and paid them to keep quiet. He did shady business deals and declared bankruptcy a few times, stiffing his vendors.  He refused to release his taxes even though in recent years most candidates did voluntarily. He was a bully, a draft dodger, a possible sexual predator, and all-around sorry excuse for a human being. 

For God’s sake, he was a reality-show star! Not a seasoned, rational politician.  He’d never held elected office.  There was no telling what a man like him would do if he won.

And then he won. He ended the prospect for a Clinton dynasty.  He stopped the Bush dynasty dead in its tracks.  The permanent political class in DC was horrified.   

They shouldn’t have been surprised.  But they were, mainly because they never listened to what he was saying in his rallies. Or the reaction he was getting from those who attended the rallies.  The political establishment was too focused on the man, rather than his message.  They obviously felt if they discredited the man, no one would care about his message. 

They should have listened.  If they had, they’d have known that the Trump movement was bigger than Trump the man. Yes, he was a gifted messenger yet that wasn’t it.  He spoke directly to the masses – not over the masses or through the media.  He was raw; he was real.  If he was attacked, he punched back. Wasn’t always pretty but clearly he was no patsy. 

He talked about things that mattered to ordinary citizens:  jobs, supporting law enforcement, stopping illegal immigration, ending foreign wars, rebuilding our defenses, reducing taxes, protecting their rights – including to own a gun, and taking back power from unelected bureaucrats in DC and giving it back to the citizens.  He promised to remake the courts with judges who strictly followed the Constitution instead of with more activist judges who didn’t.

He spoke about common sense, and the need to bring more of it to Washington.  Millions of Americans heard his message and agreed.  They still agree.  Not with him, but with his message. His messages have become policies, and many Americans are pleased with the results. 

The past 3+ years have proven that the left, Democrats and the media haven’t learned a single thing – they are all still attacking Trump the man.  They did it with the Billy Bush/Access Hollywood tape.  They did it with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. They did it with Michael Cohen. They did it with the Mueller hoax.  And most recently the Ukraine/impeachment hoax.    

Net/net? Trump isn’t Mister Rogers. Or Pope Francis.  Never claimed to be. 

But the Americans who like what he’s accomplishing don’t care.  They don’t have to like him to support what he’s done and plans to do.  If anything, the more he’s attacked frivolously the more his support grows and the less seriously taken are his attackers. Especially when the attacks are almost never about his policies, which are, usually, just common sense to many Americans who don’t start every day with a mocha no-fat latte and avocado toast.    

This drives the left, the Democrats and the media bat-shit crazy.  They hate Trump so much simply for who he is.  They can’t understand why everyone else doesn’t hate him, too.  Everyone they know hates him as much as they do. 

Once again, as in 2016, it’s the people they don’t know – the people they continue to ignore – that may give him another four years.    

Not watching the impeachment trial ...

I haven’t watched a minute of the live coverage. 

I know there was more on Saturday.  Didn’t watch that.  I know there’s more this week. 

Guess what.  I’m not watching that either. 

I might watch the actual final vote in the Senate.  Perhaps not. 

Apparently, I’m not alone.  I saw a piece comparing network ratings during the Democrats’ presentation over three agonizing days.  The first day drew less than half the normal daytime ratings for the usual soaps it preempted. Ratings plummeted more on the second and third days.

About 3 million viewers tuned in to the presentations on average across all three broadcast networks – CBS, ABC and NBC.  Understand that some of the individual soaps typically get almost 2 million viewers daily each. So despite all the drama promised by the Democrats, most folks still would have preferred to watch Days of our Lives or Bold and the Beautiful.

Part of this is likely because people have made up their minds already.

People who hate Trump would still hate him no matter what.  He could personally rescue dozens of disabled transgender black and Hispanic veterans from a burning building while toting a basket each of puppies and kittens to safety and they’d still hate him. 

They were probably the only people glued to their screens for the three days so they didn’t miss a moment of the presentations. Granted, they didn’t hear anything new – because there wasn’t anything revealed that hadn’t been beat to death for months already. But it made them feel good that finally – finally! – the American public would learn how awful Trump is, 

Except practically nobody else was watching but them. 

Part of the reason nobody was watching is also because everybody knows how this ends.  

(Spoiler Alert: Trump doesn’t get convicted in the Senate and removed from office.)  

It’s the same reason most people don’t record football games to watch later. Once you know how the game ends, the suspense is long gone.  Unless there’s a surprise ending, a shocking ending no one could have expected, there's little point to rehashing a game. 

The probability of Democrats getting the necessary 67 votes in the Senate to convict Trump is, well, for all intents and purposes, zero.  The odds of the Senate then voting to remove Trump from office are even lower, if that’s possible. In short, there’s no way Trump is forced from office. The only way he leaves the Oval Office against his will is by losing the 2020 election.   

The Democrats know this. Their pals in the media know this. That’s the whole reason for all the impeachment nonsense.  What’s going on now is a show trial designed to dirty up Trump and all Republicans as a desperate ploy to regain power by the Democrats.   

Sorry, but I won’t take part. 

I don’t care what Schiff, Schumer, Nadler or Pelosi have to say, because I know what they’re really trying to do, and it’s not saving democracy or protecting the Constitution.  I also don’t care what establishment weasels like Romney and Lamar Alexander have to say, either.  I’ve heard it all before.  I don’t trust any of these people, and never have; why would I start now? 

Oh, and what about John Bolton?  I never trusted that jackass warmonger.  Almost every time he’s been in an administration he’s argued for wars and usually got his way, costing us trillions of dollars and thousands of lives for essentially nothing. He’s still pissed he couldn’t convince Trump to go to war with Iran, or to send even more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to keep expanding those wars. That’s why he resigned/got fired from the Trump administration.

And now he has a book about to be released that claims Trump told him he was withholding aid to Ukraine until he got results of their investigations into the Bidens.  How convenient.  Just in time for Trump’s impeachment trial.   

Trump says he never said that to Bolton.  Even if he did it actually doesn’t matter – Trump has the legal authority as President to withhold aid to any country for whatever reason he wants.  The withholding of aid was never discussed with Ukrainian officials anyway, even in Bolton’s meeting with them after the infamous phone call.  Or any other meeting with Ukrainians after the call.

This whole impeachment event is a badly written, poorly acted, amateurish attempt to sell a story that has no hooks or dramatic twists to keep its intended audience engaged.  It’s an overlong show about a subject few care about, featuring a cast of washed up players and wannabe thespians who repeat the same lines over and over.  And then wonder why no one is applauding. 

They don’t seem to realize almost nobody is watching. 

There's no point. Everybody knows how the story ends.  

But wait, there's more ...

The Democrats never tire of this. 

They like whipping out “new evidence” at the last minute.

It’s their Perry Mason moment.  Or what they wish was a Perry Mason moment. 

I think of it always as a Ron Popeil tactic. The only thing missing is “Operators are standing by.” 

Just when you think you’ve heard the last from them, voila – there’s always a surprise.  A new witness.  A letter they’ve had for months.  A new set of documents, e-mails, or something else. It’s always designed to change everybody’s opinion. 

It never does. Mainly because their “aha” new stuff is almost always irrelevant, meaningless, and often outright lies. Plus, by now most people with the good sense of a sweet potato know what the Democrats are doing, probably because Democrats do it over and over again. 

Almost always with the same results: the media initially go crazy that “this changes everything.” There’s nonstop talk of “the smoking gun.” 

And of course, the “just when you thought it was over” nonsense. 

Then it turns out the “new” evidence either isn’t new, doesn’t actually bring anything useful to the table, or is completely bogus and unverifiable. In most cases the “new” materials come from sketchy sources with an axe to grind, greedy hustlers, those willing to lie for partisan reasons, total nutjobs, or those hoping to avoid or lessen prosecution of themselves.   

Remember Michael Cohen.  Christine Blasey Ford.  Julie Swetnick.   Deborah Ramirez.  The Ukraine-call alleged whistleblower. The alleged second whistleblower who never appeared.  

And now, Lev Parnas. 

Is anyone surprised Democrats pulled these weasels, these “witnesses,” out of thin air at the last minute? Democrats do it every time they’re losing in the court of public opinion.  It’s their grandstanding go-to tactic of choice. 

It’s also a major reason why I have grown to despise them as a political party as well as their shills in the media.  They’ve all embraced lying, misrepresenting and falsifying information to such a level I don’t know how anyone can ever take them seriously again.  I certainly can’t.

They did it throughout the Mueller investigation.  They did it in the Kavanaugh hearings. They did it in the most recent House impeachment investigations. Now they are doing it again, after discovering – much to their surprise – more than half of Americans clearly don’t give a rat’s patoot about impeaching and removing Trump from office.

Not when there’s an election a few months away, anyway. 

I just imagine Democrat leaders all huddled in some conference room somewhere trying to dream up something else to keep their narrative going. 

Someone says: “Hey, I know a guy.  I think he's a Ukrainian.  Maybe a Russian? Yeah, the Feds indicted him for fraud, money laundering for the Russians, lying and a bunch of other stuff, but I think I can get him. He knows Giuliani.  And he’s got a picture of himself with Trump.  Sure, it’s the usual grip and grin politicians take all the time with people they don’t know – but it’s still Trump and him together.  I bet he’d be thrilled to do interviews with our media friends – he’s got an ego as big as all outdoors.”

And whoomp.  There’s Lev Parnas.  On Maddow.  With Anderson Cooper.  Everywhere. Bullshitting his way to fame.  Getting the media all hot and bothered. “New evidence!” “Plots!” “Collusion with Russians!” “Giuliani, Pence, and Pompeo involved!” “Trump knew!” And now: “Voinovich surveilled and stalked!”

However, it’s all bullshit.  Parnas’ interviews had so many outrageous and unsupported claims – many of which he himself contradicted and refuted during the same interview – it’s clear he’s a con man.  And not a very good one at that. He can’t keep his own stories straight.

But he’s just another in a long line of last-minute liars Democrats love so much. 

Just like the others, Democrats will dump him when he’s no longer useful. Or when they find some other hack to lie for them. Which they will – count on it. 

Then they’ll push him or her forward promising “bombshell” revelations. 

Those revelations, as usual, will ultimately fall apart.  Because like Ronco’s Hair in a Can, these are only somewhat effective in the short-term, as long as no one looks too closely. 

The media won’t.  But eventually somebody will.  The lies will be exposed.  Always are.

Then the Democrats will simply move on to their next “bombshell” witness, as if the previous failed bombshells never even happened.  

It’s as predictable as a Ron Popeil TV ad closing with: “But wait, there’s more …”   

Because with the Democrats, there’s always more.

How to leave Iraq and Afghanistan ...

Just take our ball and go home. That’s the answer. 

There’s nothing for us there. Nothing worth fighting for. And certainly nothing worth dying for.  It’s just a bottomless hole to pour money and American lives down. 

The cold hard reality of 2020 is that we don’t need anything from anyone there.  We don’t even need their oil anymore. We have plenty of our own, thank you. 

So I say, let’s just leave.  Pack up our stuff and go. 

They claim they don't want us there, anyway.  Okay.  

Fly our combat aircraft to other bases in Europe, then run a bunch of military cargo planes and container ships out there and load up everything we can and bring it all home. Everything: tanks, Humvees, jeeps, artillery, heavy weapons, missiles, antiaircraft systems, small arms, all the ammunition, and whatever else we’ve given them.   

Don’t leave anything behind.  Seriously, leave nothing useful.  

What we can’t ship back, we should destroy.  Not just pull distributor caps, let the air out of tires, or paint a giant pink X on it.  I’m talking molten heaps of stuff.  No way to recover. 

Of course, that’s wasteful.  But it was a waste to ship in all that stuff in the first place. If we leave anything useful behind for our “allies” the bad guys will soon have everything we left.  Corrupt weasels in Iraq or Afghanistan will just give it or sell it to the same people we’ve been fighting against on their behalf for all these years.  They’ve done it repeatedly before.        

What about our loyal allies there?  Are we just going to turn our back on all of them now?

Yessiree-bob.  The same way they turn their backs on us all the time. 

Everybody needs to come to grips with the fact that we don’t have any loyal allies there.  Nobody in that region is the loyal ally of anyone, much less us.  Every “alliance” is temporary and merely one of convenience. They all hate each other, and us.  They hated each other before we got there, and, trust me, they’ll continue to hate each other long after we’re gone.

We’ve deluded ourselves for years that by supporting some despot or warlord with money and weapons they become our ally.  Our friend.  They’d support us when it mattered. 

That’s completely delusional. None of them would lift a finger to help us. Most of them think we’re hopelessly naïve, that we’ll never understand that region, and they are right. They’re happy to take our money and weapons and wait for us to leave. Then they can go back to killing each other – which is really their favorite pastime.   

We have no business there.  We’re just interfering with the natural order. We're holding up play.  

Think-tank wonks hate to admit it but the Middle East is nothing but a toxic mix of warring tribes and ethnic and religious hostilities.  Persians, Arabs, Kurds, Pashtun, and God knows what other ethnic groups are there and usually at each other’s throats. 

Some religious groups – like the Sunni and Shia – have hated and killed each other for over a thousand years.  Some Sunni hate other Sunni who aren’t fundamentalist enough for their tastes.

It’s a mistake to think they all want lasting peace.  They don’t. 

Their leaders love never ending wars; wars distract their people from realizing how corrupt their governments are. Wars keep them in power, keep foreign aid money flowing, and hide a lot of economic shortcomings.  Wars are also much needed jobs programs. Because, frankly, there’s not a lot else worthwhile to do for a living in most of these places. 

The warmongers in our Congress and their lobbyist pals know this. They know supporting foreign wars is a complete waste of our money and military lives.  But that’s how they keep power and make money – spending taxpayer money to stay in office and enrich themselves.     

DOD spending drives the economies of many regions stateside and keeps high-paying manufacturing and research jobs in key states and Congressional districts. Lobbyists for these defense contractors and foreign governments are a rich source of campaign contributions for Congress, and lucrative post-government positions with lobbying firms or defense contractors. 

Foreign wars consume what our defense industry makes. More wars mean we need to make more to keep up with demand. More wars, more local jobs, more profits, more campaign money, more votes. 

That’s the real reason hawks in Congress support meaningless foreign wars.  Forget the BS about protecting allies abroad from bad guys.  Forget the line that “if we don’t fight them there, we’ll have to fight them here.” Forget “domino theory” analogies.  Forget all the crap about our obligation to uphold human rights and foster democracy around the world. 

If we walk away from the Middle East, it won’t change anything.  If we stay there it won’t change anything either, except cost us more money and American lives. 

It’s long past time to cut our losses.  What’s the worst that could happen? 

We’d lose face. Our “allies” would be concerned that they could no longer trust us to protect them.  Good. Maybe they’d get off their ass and protect themselves. 

Russia would move into the fill the void.  Good luck there, Ivan.  Remember Afghanistan? It’s just a matter of time before the locals turn on you, too. Religious extremists on all sides will take time out from killing each other to kill your people.  Just for sport.   

Iran will take over Iraq.  Well, they’ll have to fight the Kurds, the Sunni militias, Shia militias that turn on them, and who knows else to pull that off. It will be Iran’s Vietnam and Afghanistan rolled into one. That is, if the mullahs aren’t overthrown by the Iranians first. 

Meanwhile, US public opinion will largely welcome and support the withdrawal. Much to the chagrin of talking heads and pundits on cable news and elsewhere.   

Oh, I am forgetting some other consequences.  Our media and Democrats will go berserk; the same media and Democrats usually in favor of cutting our defense budget and getting out of meaningless wars.  Lobbyists will flood the hallways of Congress.  In a rare display of bipartisanship, the House and Senate will pass a resolution condemning our withdrawal.  

Our State Department will warn of dire consequences to our international reputation. Former State Department officials, and past military officials like Mattis, will testify before Congress that we’re putting the security of the world at risk.  And creating an existential threat to our nation.   

Lindsey Graham will go on TV to dramatically announce he’s sending a “very strong letter” to the President opposing withdrawal from the Middle East.

One last repercussion: the Europeans will follow us out of the Middle East – our withdrawal will give them the cover they’ve been waiting for to get out, too. 

Let’s do it.