After all the noise dies down, my assessment is whether the policies of the candidate will do good for our country or damage it. I assume we had learned our lesson from the disastrous Carter administration, that governing based on leftist ideology would create crisis and disaster. I was wrong. We didn’t learn our lesson. Never has a president damaged our country more than FJB. Economy, Security, Culture, Freedom,, Foreign Policy… all ideological and all have been unnecessarily flushed down the toilet by this regime. I will not call them an administration. They can’t administer a lemonade stand. We have suffered greatly under FJB. It astonishes me that a complete incompetent can be marketed as a savior by throwing celebrities and money at her. Is our country that brainwashed???
"It astonishes me that a complete incompetent can be marketed as a savior by throwing celebrities and money at her. Is our country that brainwashed???"
This is the way that two Troodos in Canada made it to the office of the Prime Minister, in order to destroy the country. The celebrity schtick is part of the brainwashing.
However, ultimately this says little for the masses in the electorate! Whether through ignorance of real facts (political influencing through the msm (aka, their Deep State puppet masters) or simply tribalism, reality often suffers the most.
Yes, I'm afraid that is a sad truth. Look at the cartloads of fools in Britain last July 4 who either failed to vote, or voted Labour -- thus ushering a totalitarian PM into 10 Downing Street.
Brainwashing in our universities? Of course. It is a given, No one is saying that every professor did so. But there were enough engaged in this to spread the social contagion.
Lest we forget that the 2020 election results were undeniably altered in the wee hours of the morning following election day. There is no room for political naivety in this era of modern day politics. Remember that election laws were changed at the final moment in places like the Pennsylvania house chambers to favor the Democrat candidate. Or, that the results suddenly went blank and were held up for "additional vote counting" when it appeared that Trump had clearly won the election in spite of what the MSM unjustifiably did to him. Or, that viewing windows for pole watchers were unceremoniously covered up with paper in some large tabulating centers even though other centers (Georgia) were caught red-handed by remote videos showing carts of new voting ballots being wheeled into the process after the closing of ballot acceptance beyond midnight and re-entering of previous;y counted ballots s e v e r a l times through the machines.
Remember finally that the Democrat mantra is to "Win at all costs!" Beware America of what we will face again on November 5th.
I saw that horror show all night, and more. All the king’s attorneys and all the kings’s men couldn’t put the votes back together again.
I have had the important matters of this election you named, Chris, since the day of the raid at MAL. I would add two more considerations: President Trump left office in January 2021, leaving a nation in good shape for the Biden Harris administration. Economically, we had bounced back from the Pandemic, and economic engine, a next exporter of oil, with no geopolitical conflicts, a Wall nearly finished with immigration policy in place that kept our borders relatively free of illegal crossers. All of these policies/conditions were quickly reversed. The man who is capable of resolving the mess we are in now is standing ready and willing to do it again. This is our last opportunity to elect him. I don’t understand passing up the last opportunity for our Nation in Decline to have its fortunes reversed by “trying out” someone else, especially a person who has never been an Executive, in Government, or in Business. She would have all the power of the Executive branch vested in her. She is clearly not capable YET. If she were, she would tout that experience, but she is talking about her prosecution experience when she was in her 20’s. The buck stops with the President, and an experienced Executive, both in the WH is what we need in this season. MAGA is for Everyone!
Yes, today's Western world is that brainwashed .... by the self-serving, amoral mainstream media in collusion with the 'Democratic' party.
It's a combination of George Orwell's 1984 with Big Brother and the 1960s Bizarro-world comic books about a fictitious Htrae (Earth) planet of defective humans.
We have already seen the results of mass brainwashing in the former Soviet countries, and in Communist China, to name the two largest.
People tend to think that brute force was the main driver of Communism in these countries. No doubt there was a great deal of brute force involved, but just as powerful was the mass mind-capture.
The fundamental difference between capitalism and communism is that capitalism incentivizes bad men to do good and communism incentivizes good men to do evil.
Milton Friedman had it right. of all, tell me: Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.
Trump has never hidden who he is. He is a successful businessman with charisma that draws ladies. His kids are reputable and successful and his ex-wives to not trash him in public. He treats Melania like a queen. He abided by the Constitution while president. Here is the real man:
I agree completely. Everyone should read the link that you provided. It gives a far more accurate assessment of President Trump than anything I have read about him in the media. It is an honest assessment that focuses on his strengths that are exactly what this country needs at this point in our history. We will never find a candidate without weaknesses but right now we need one with the strengths that President Trump has to lead our nation. Strengths that his opponent does not possess!
"We will never find a candidate without weaknesses but right now we need one with the strengths that President Trump has to lead our nation. Strengths that his opponent does not possess!"
This Forbes article is great. Sadly many in our society are not interested in well reasoned decisions. They are all about feelings and the Democrats are using this need to make Harris special so people vote not what is best for the country but how they feel when they wear a t shirt or attend a rally or come from the ballot box.
I would make the distinction in the "bad" category that any psychopathic personality -- who are often found seeking great power in totalitarian ways -- is very rarely going to be having a day during which they decide to operate against form and do good. That would be an unheard-of phenomenon.
Where do you find psychopathy in politics? In totalitarian ideologies and pursuits. I find a difference between the usual "bad boy" behaviours, and the psychopaths.
I agree that Trump is not a psychopath. He's a big sinner (but then, who isn't?), but it's obvious that he has genuine care and concern for other people and for his country.
Harris, on the other hand, has displayed zero signs of being anything other than a psychopath. I've been following her ever since, as California Attorney General, she authorized the raid of David Daleiden's apartment in 2015, to persecute him for using questionable journalistic tactics to uncover Planned Parenthood's trafficking in human baby body parts. Planned Parenthood's atrocities weren't a problem for her, but Daleiden's tactics were.
Harris had risen to political power by having a very public affair with Willie Brown, a married man more than twice her age. Her mother approved of this behavior, saying in a 2003 interview, "Why shouldn't she have gone out with Willie Brown? He was a player. And what could Willie Brown expect from her in the future? He has not much life left." (
She traffics in vicious false accusations (just like the world's most famous Prosecuting Attorney):
--She trashed Joe Biden during the 2020 primary season, accusing him of being a racist, and later saying that she believed the women who accused him of sexual misconduct. Then, seeking power, she happily signed on as his VP.
--She promoted the 2020 "mostly peaceful" George Floyd riots, based on false accusations of the rampant "murder" of black men by police, saying to Stephen Colbert "Everyone beware. They're not gonna stop before election day in November, and they're not gonna stop after election day... They’re not gonna let up and they should not.".
--She solicited donations for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bailed out rioters - " If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota."
--she tweeted out support for Jussie Smollett's ridiculous false accusations "@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate."
--she told rapist Jacob Blake that she was "proud of him".
--as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she was incredibly nasty as she hissed bizarre accusations at Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh:
I looked it up, and that law firm had 252 lawyers! How did she expect Kavanaugh to know which one she was talking about?
--also as a Senator, she tried to trick ICE nominee Ronald Vitello into lying, while simultaneously smearing ICE as equivalent to the KKK, by asking if he was aware that some people perceive ICE as similar to the KKK:
And things haven't improved. As VP, she's lost most of her staff.
She's also able to switch on the charm and "joy" at will, just like any garden variety psychopath, and also like any garden variety psychopath, is able to fool lots of people. I'd like to be wrong, but I don't think I am.
In a country such as Canada, where abortion is legal until the moment of birth, taxpayers certainly do pay directly through the socialized health system.
I am reading that this week, in Australia, the Senate did not support babies born of botched abortions receiving medical treatment. Taxes will pay to kill them, apparently, but not to save them in such circumstances. Lord God....what kind of societies are we now breeding in the West?
Rebel News Australia
"Senate REJECTS motion to help babies left for dead
A motion calling for care for newborns surviving abortions has been shut down in the Senate."
I forgot she has had David Daleidan in prison for over 10 years now for recording Planned Parenthood’s conversation in a restaurant. The journalism revealed to Americans the selling of aborted baby’s body parts as their primary income source.
I have a female friend who recently told me that "she knows everything wrong with her dad, and she loves him anyway". So goes the Republicans and Donald Trump.
On the other hand, Democrats seem completely blind to their own candidates faults. I doubt
most know about Harris's personal history. She was Montel Williams side chick before she became
Willie Brown's misstress.
Which adds more intriuge to the 2024 campaign. MAGA is about returning power back to the people.
Closing the border, lowering taxes, drilling, less government regulations, lowering inflation, notching down the influence the federal government influence on education, and on and on.
The raison de etre for the Harris campaign is vote for me because I'm wonderful. Even better a vote
for Harris makes you a better more enlightned person. There is no talk about the middle class and their problems.
Bravo, James! MAGA is about returning power back to the people. There are two principal factors in conflict here - those in the electorate who independently put the effort into researching the true moral perspective of issues and their consequences vs. those who form opinions on the sway of the crowd (consensus). This is much the same as things were back in the 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts.
Superb commentary. And maybe the voters will finally concentrate on politicians’ views of the actual issues at stake. A very slim possibility but not impossible. Thank you Mr. Rufo.
How can we expect that “the voters will finally concentrate on politicians’ views of the actual issues at stake” when the politician himself is not focused? Frankly, it is unfair to apply a higher standard to the electorate then to a candidate.
I appreciate what Trump was able to accomplish in four years: with all the “resistance” he encountered, it is truly remarkable. He has proved he has stamina, and I don’t see anyone else on the political scene who could endure so many blows and still be standing. But I do not believe an average voter is able to break through his personal traits and see the essence. An average voter is not necessarily a political junkie and judges superficially due to a certain degree of ignorance and laziness. I think many are currently frustrated with our political and economical realities, and I can see how it is easier to take an empty vessel like Harris and fill it up with dreams and hopes. The shape and the color of the vessel, after all, are pretty. And the democratic propaganda machine is super powerful and effective. It is a lot more difficult to feel soft and fuzzy about Trump when he attacks and insults non stop. After all, our culture puts joy and feeling good on top of the list. Laughing loudly and twerking is liberating. A lot more liberating than listening to and accepting an old guy, not very inarticulate and with a limited vocabulary, even when he is trying to save the country. What a tough predicament we are in.
Limited vocabulary? Not very articulate? But able to hold an audience’s attention for hours because he knows how to change topics. return, and add momentary humor. Listening to policy only is how to lose an audience. Remember Trump was an Entertainer at the top of the field. He does have a Queens accent, but everyone from NYC has a NY Accent. Like Texans have Texas accents.
For me, this is not a matter of "no longer pretending or of greater realism" because the radical leftist Democrats continue to disguise their destructive Marxist agenda and pretend to be defenders of "democracy." For me, the matter is best understood as a difference between the WHAT of an issue and the WHO. Voters would be well advised to ignore candidates' personalities, race, gender, style = the WHO, and focus solely on policies and their consequences = the WHAT of every issue. Consider the Biden/Harris/Obama regime’s catastrophic open borders policy. It does not matter whether Biden appointed Kamala to be the Border Czar or not––that is a distraction. It does not matter how Kamala tries to defend her lack of performance on the border issue––an even greater distraction. What matters is that under the radical Democrat Biden/Harris/Obama regime, our borders are wide open and the consequences are collapsing the nation economically and increasing crime exponentially. In my opinion, focusing on a candidate's POLICIES regarding economics, migration, crime, trade, and war would be the much needed and far superior alternative method of evaluation. Facts, not feelings, need to be the metric for voter choices in November if there is to be any hope of saving our constitutional republic and preserving our precious American freedoms.
But it's hard to imagine how the voters will be able to see and understand "the facts, not feelings" since the former are consistently hidden behind a fog of "feelings" and lies from the mainstream media, Democrat party, and their incompetent, anti-civilization Deep State department heads.
Sadly, I fear feelings are going to win. And if they don’t, the oligarchs will destroy the nation under the guise of democracy. Whoever wins, we all lose.
Christopher…… That was great writing! Walking over the superficial and into the heart of our real problems and towards a philosophical shift in values.
Hopefully, sometime in the future, a country of 340 million can produce a President that has the brilliance and depth to bind us together.
When it comes to their purse, humans are mostly logical and that is exactly why Trump will win. All the other side has is free abortions and vesectomies. Whether Trump will become the president, that is a different question.
Please note that in Canada, JT pushes the abortion industry with absolute gusto. It is one of his main policies. Abortion and the MAID legislation of state-killing.
Anywhere you find the promotion of a death-culture like this....know that you are looking at totalitarianism.
And no......abortion was never about women's rights. That was just the cover. Though many did swallow it.
On the Subject of a Death-Culture, learning how crazy the US Military-Industrial Complex was during the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis, thinking there would be no consequences for Americans launching a 1st strike against Russia, and after defusing the Crisis through Diplomacy not happening with Russia TODAY, President Kennedy resolved to find the way to establish a durable Peace with the Soviets.
This 1 line in his Peace Speech to the American University Convocation June 10, 1963 was the last straw for the US Military-Industrial Complex that would lose sales and profits if Kennedy's new Policy was implemented and succeeded.
That is what got him killed months later. Kennedy uttered the essential TRUTH that can keep us alive today: “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
The US hasn't learned a damn thing since 1962 as it leads this World to WWIII once again in the US WAR with Russia over Ukraine in NATO so US troops and missiles can be right on Russia's border.
The US perpetrated the 1st Act of War during the Cuban Missile Crisis so offended Soviet troops and missiles were 90 miles away from the US Mainland.
Americans aren't that exceptional! Russians feel the same way these Days about NATO ON IT'S BORDER as the US did about Soviet troops and missiles in 1962 Cuba.
The CIA and the Eisenhower administration were responsible for an "act of war" prior to the Missile Crisis: the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy didn't have the will to put an end to it, so denied air cover to the army assembled by the spooks, and they were slaughtered by the Cubans, who anticipated the invasion and even had Klieg lights arrayed on the beach to meet these dupes.
The Missile Crisis followed the very next year, unsurprisingly. Hindsight suggests that the Russians were acting as a good ally to Cuba, given the Bay of Pigs fiasco, so that bit of brinkmanship can be attributed to the CIA as well.
The CIA still poses the worst threat to our security and political future. The President who dismantles this cancerous blight on the nation will go down as a hero, or more likely a martyr, to liberty.
Yes Bull, that and the US deploying missiles in NATO member Turkey aimed at Soviet Russia.
US actions in this World pushed Russian and Cuba to identify their common interests.
Cuba wanted the Soviets in Cuba to act as a deterrent to the US so they would not attempt another invasion. Russia thought if the US could put their missiles in Turkey, they could put their missiles in Cuba.
My reply could be book-length here, Ray. So I will just say that I think of JFK as a "bad boy" who decided to do good. And you are right -- it got him killed.
That 1963 event ushered-in the Neo-Marxist era of America. While Americans were emotionally vulnerable was an excellent time to hit....which is a tenet of brainwashing techniques.
How, exactly, did "That 1963 event [usher]-in the Neo-Marxist era of America"?
The anti-war movement gave rise to the "new left" that morphed into the neo-Marxist movement you refer to, once it was clear that the masses were too comfortable to be goaded into any sort of revolution. Marxism was revised by the Frankfurt School political philosophers and turned into this unfortunately successful cultural revolution.
I would say that the Vietnam war, together with the cultural upheaval instigated by the widespread use of psychedelics, is what made Americans "emotionally vulnerable" to neo-Marxist propaganda, their faux utopian fairy tales and the social chaos caused by their elevation of sexual deviants and libertines to demigod status.
A, maybe you can paraphrase as I had to with my comment or offer a synopsis?
I agree with you. Kennedy may have been a "bad boy" who decided to do right."
We are all "sinners" except for Trump who said he does not sin and has nothing to confess to God.
Personally, I think "$Billionaires" are a Crime against HUMANITY in a MONEY driven World. The Bible has much recorded about what Christ thinks about the rich.
Christ comes for those bad boys who reform themselves and decide to do good in joining with him to plead the cause of the poor and oppressed of the World.
As for Jews, Christians and Muslims TODAY, the Spirit of God-Christ can see not much has changed in this 2024th Year of The Lord Christ Jesus since he said,
You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
This people draws close to me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Obviously, those words are not addressed to Atheists and those who don't believe in the Salvation of Christ, but to those who think they do.
Today is the 91st Day of my 81st Year counting up, not down. I never wrote a book, but I have a WordPress Blog and a recent article continues in the spirit of the letter in my comment above you replied to. You can make a comment as long as it takes to express your understandings and POV.
See the link in the reply to Bull Hubbard upstream.
Agree completely. For months now I've felt that unless Trump wins by an overwhelming landslide the democrat machine will retain power -- regardless of the vote count.
And are the States doing enough to clean the voter rolls? PasS the SAVE ACT? Election Integrity Act? It is the Legislatures’ responsibility to encode the STATUTES. They can’t be the same as 2020 with people receiving 5 ballots.
That’s a big part of the problem. A huge, and growing, segment of our society’s “purse” is provided by the government. So they vote that way. That GDP/capita in the EU is 2/3 of the US doesn’t mean anything to the average voter but that is the result of a lot of things including our capitalist, market driven economy with relatively robust (at least historically) incentives to work, invent, create. It is what has allowed us to provide defense for the whole world, subsidize drug development for the world, have 5.3% of the working age population between 18 and 64 receiving Social Security disability benefits, allow first responders to retire after 20 or 25 years with lifetime pensions and health benefits and still provide a lot of Americans with bigger houses, more and bigger cars and generally more consumption than EU citizens. Right now we can print the money to pay for all of it but eventually the markets will say no mas. I think we know what the future for this country looks like…eventually we will be a socialist democracy like Europe. With its slow growth, sclerotic economy. We are just a younger country so the build up of safety nets and disincentives to work are a few decades or so behind.
“Humans are mostly logical”. Respectfully, what is the basis for it in history? All the major cataclysms happened because humans are easily susceptible to brainwashing propaganda and mass psychosis.
Virtually every person has immature mistakes, youthful indiscretions, etc. but when they become adult moral positions and ideologies that they will fight to the end for, then they become the persons character. It felt like it used time be that people voted for character and actions. Now it seems people vote for a narrative that has been created in a lab based on the hot buttons of voting blocks, polling results and demographics.
Where in my opinion it truly breaks down is when the media takes sides. No more objective reporting of facts, no more digging and digging for the truth. And if anyone thinks this is just about Trump, I suggest you take a look at what was written about DeSantis when he was winning in Florida and active in the republican primary. Or look at how they treated W. during his tenure. He was called a nazi, stupid, etc. Republicans are the enemy of the msm and have been, and will continue to be treated as such, no matter whose name is on the ballot.
I'd kinda like to buy into this hypothesis. But I can't make it come to terms with "opening night" of the DNC convention last night. The power of the national media was out in full force alright, from Californiawood to the New York Timesland. Kamala presented more like a newly crowned Miss America than a presidential candidate. It wasn't just lacking reality, it was a slap reality's face.
If you want to understand the big difference between standard "bad boys" and Psychopaths, especially in the political arena, I recommend a deep-dive with the following book (not a light read):
"Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and the Origins of Totalitarianism : by Andrew Lobaczewski
Re: this- The Manhattan Prosecutor allowed the porn star who the President allegedly had a consensual one night affair with, to testify about that, affair. He was unable to rebut it, but both of them have. The point was to make the case about sex, not business records. There was no crime committed. The NDA is a legal document.
After all the noise dies down, my assessment is whether the policies of the candidate will do good for our country or damage it. I assume we had learned our lesson from the disastrous Carter administration, that governing based on leftist ideology would create crisis and disaster. I was wrong. We didn’t learn our lesson. Never has a president damaged our country more than FJB. Economy, Security, Culture, Freedom,, Foreign Policy… all ideological and all have been unnecessarily flushed down the toilet by this regime. I will not call them an administration. They can’t administer a lemonade stand. We have suffered greatly under FJB. It astonishes me that a complete incompetent can be marketed as a savior by throwing celebrities and money at her. Is our country that brainwashed???
"It astonishes me that a complete incompetent can be marketed as a savior by throwing celebrities and money at her. Is our country that brainwashed???"
This is the way that two Troodos in Canada made it to the office of the Prime Minister, in order to destroy the country. The celebrity schtick is part of the brainwashing.
Please join our movement!
We always spell his name "Turdeau".
Make it stick!
I still like Castreau
👍
Yes, Pierre Trudeau and Justin Castreau…
Communists all.
However, ultimately this says little for the masses in the electorate! Whether through ignorance of real facts (political influencing through the msm (aka, their Deep State puppet masters) or simply tribalism, reality often suffers the most.
Yes, I'm afraid that is a sad truth. Look at the cartloads of fools in Britain last July 4 who either failed to vote, or voted Labour -- thus ushering a totalitarian PM into 10 Downing Street.
God help us.
George, we have communicated previously.
Brainwashing in our universities? Of course. It is a given, No one is saying that every professor did so. But there were enough engaged in this to spread the social contagion.
Lest we forget that the 2020 election results were undeniably altered in the wee hours of the morning following election day. There is no room for political naivety in this era of modern day politics. Remember that election laws were changed at the final moment in places like the Pennsylvania house chambers to favor the Democrat candidate. Or, that the results suddenly went blank and were held up for "additional vote counting" when it appeared that Trump had clearly won the election in spite of what the MSM unjustifiably did to him. Or, that viewing windows for pole watchers were unceremoniously covered up with paper in some large tabulating centers even though other centers (Georgia) were caught red-handed by remote videos showing carts of new voting ballots being wheeled into the process after the closing of ballot acceptance beyond midnight and re-entering of previous;y counted ballots s e v e r a l times through the machines.
Remember finally that the Democrat mantra is to "Win at all costs!" Beware America of what we will face again on November 5th.
I’m with you Savvy, I’m not confident on the outcome.
This occurring one more time will ruin us.
Savvy senior
I saw that horror show all night, and more. All the king’s attorneys and all the kings’s men couldn’t put the votes back together again.
I have had the important matters of this election you named, Chris, since the day of the raid at MAL. I would add two more considerations: President Trump left office in January 2021, leaving a nation in good shape for the Biden Harris administration. Economically, we had bounced back from the Pandemic, and economic engine, a next exporter of oil, with no geopolitical conflicts, a Wall nearly finished with immigration policy in place that kept our borders relatively free of illegal crossers. All of these policies/conditions were quickly reversed. The man who is capable of resolving the mess we are in now is standing ready and willing to do it again. This is our last opportunity to elect him. I don’t understand passing up the last opportunity for our Nation in Decline to have its fortunes reversed by “trying out” someone else, especially a person who has never been an Executive, in Government, or in Business. She would have all the power of the Executive branch vested in her. She is clearly not capable YET. If she were, she would tout that experience, but she is talking about her prosecution experience when she was in her 20’s. The buck stops with the President, and an experienced Executive, both in the WH is what we need in this season. MAGA is for Everyone!
Yes, today's Western world is that brainwashed .... by the self-serving, amoral mainstream media in collusion with the 'Democratic' party.
It's a combination of George Orwell's 1984 with Big Brother and the 1960s Bizarro-world comic books about a fictitious Htrae (Earth) planet of defective humans.
We have already seen the results of mass brainwashing in the former Soviet countries, and in Communist China, to name the two largest.
People tend to think that brute force was the main driver of Communism in these countries. No doubt there was a great deal of brute force involved, but just as powerful was the mass mind-capture.
Yes.
The fundamental difference between capitalism and communism is that capitalism incentivizes bad men to do good and communism incentivizes good men to do evil.
Yes!
Milton Friedman had it right. of all, tell me: Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.
Trump has never hidden who he is. He is a successful businessman with charisma that draws ladies. His kids are reputable and successful and his ex-wives to not trash him in public. He treats Melania like a queen. He abided by the Constitution while president. Here is the real man:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/08/19/the-day-i-went-head-to-head-with-donald-trump/#624a2a035570
I agree completely. Everyone should read the link that you provided. It gives a far more accurate assessment of President Trump than anything I have read about him in the media. It is an honest assessment that focuses on his strengths that are exactly what this country needs at this point in our history. We will never find a candidate without weaknesses but right now we need one with the strengths that President Trump has to lead our nation. Strengths that his opponent does not possess!
"We will never find a candidate without weaknesses but right now we need one with the strengths that President Trump has to lead our nation. Strengths that his opponent does not possess!"
You have taken the words out of my mouth.
Absolutely . . . This was worth reading twice!
Could you imagine biden or harris thinking that quick?
This Forbes article is great. Sadly many in our society are not interested in well reasoned decisions. They are all about feelings and the Democrats are using this need to make Harris special so people vote not what is best for the country but how they feel when they wear a t shirt or attend a rally or come from the ballot box.
Good article. And I agree with your own assessment too.
Great description of the man we need to return for the last time.
I would make the distinction in the "bad" category that any psychopathic personality -- who are often found seeking great power in totalitarian ways -- is very rarely going to be having a day during which they decide to operate against form and do good. That would be an unheard-of phenomenon.
Where do you find psychopathy in politics? In totalitarian ideologies and pursuits. I find a difference between the usual "bad boy" behaviours, and the psychopaths.
And no...Trump is not a Psychopath.
Agreed on your first point.
I agree that Trump is not a psychopath. He's a big sinner (but then, who isn't?), but it's obvious that he has genuine care and concern for other people and for his country.
Harris, on the other hand, has displayed zero signs of being anything other than a psychopath. I've been following her ever since, as California Attorney General, she authorized the raid of David Daleiden's apartment in 2015, to persecute him for using questionable journalistic tactics to uncover Planned Parenthood's trafficking in human baby body parts. Planned Parenthood's atrocities weren't a problem for her, but Daleiden's tactics were.
Harris had risen to political power by having a very public affair with Willie Brown, a married man more than twice her age. Her mother approved of this behavior, saying in a 2003 interview, "Why shouldn't she have gone out with Willie Brown? He was a player. And what could Willie Brown expect from her in the future? He has not much life left." (
https://web.archive.org/web/20191213071339/https://www.sfweekly.com/news/kamalas-karma/). The coconut doesn't fall very far from the tree.
She traffics in vicious false accusations (just like the world's most famous Prosecuting Attorney):
--She trashed Joe Biden during the 2020 primary season, accusing him of being a racist, and later saying that she believed the women who accused him of sexual misconduct. Then, seeking power, she happily signed on as his VP.
--She promoted the 2020 "mostly peaceful" George Floyd riots, based on false accusations of the rampant "murder" of black men by police, saying to Stephen Colbert "Everyone beware. They're not gonna stop before election day in November, and they're not gonna stop after election day... They’re not gonna let up and they should not.".
--She solicited donations for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bailed out rioters - " If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota."
--she tweeted out support for Jussie Smollett's ridiculous false accusations "@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate."
--she told rapist Jacob Blake that she was "proud of him".
--as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she was incredibly nasty as she hissed bizarre accusations at Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR8qhuur9OY
I looked it up, and that law firm had 252 lawyers! How did she expect Kavanaugh to know which one she was talking about?
--also as a Senator, she tried to trick ICE nominee Ronald Vitello into lying, while simultaneously smearing ICE as equivalent to the KKK, by asking if he was aware that some people perceive ICE as similar to the KKK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM-4PROZkUM
Also, she treats her staff horribly. Here's a shocking essay from 2019, by a Democrat whose son worked as an intern for Harris:
https://www.theunion.com/opinion/columns/terry-mcateer-another-side-to-kamala-harris/article_f79b5fff-5a50-5eed-a63b-d67d8419c3d3.html
And things haven't improved. As VP, she's lost most of her staff.
She's also able to switch on the charm and "joy" at will, just like any garden variety psychopath, and also like any garden variety psychopath, is able to fool lots of people. I'd like to be wrong, but I don't think I am.
I might be talked in to believing Kamala is a Psychopath, Smadnip. She checks off many features on the Hare Checklist of Psychopathy.
I would not want her as my next-door neighbour, or babysitting my children. Ever. Let's put it that way.
She’s a voodoo child for certain.
Harris is a card carrying Communist. Many of her heinous political crimes are rooted in the communist playbook.
Yes, indeed. She is one of the numerous North American Communists in politics these days.
"Planned Parenthood's atrocities weren't a problem for her, but Daleiden's tactics were."
Planned Parenthood means planned eugenics. Always has. They just hide it behind nice cozy labels.
The problem is that taxpayers pays for these abortions/murders
It is far more than just a payment issue. I call them murders. I always will. Eugenics at its finest....
How women can live with themselves doing this, only God knows.
And I am a woman.
In a country such as Canada, where abortion is legal until the moment of birth, taxpayers certainly do pay directly through the socialized health system.
I am reading that this week, in Australia, the Senate did not support babies born of botched abortions receiving medical treatment. Taxes will pay to kill them, apparently, but not to save them in such circumstances. Lord God....what kind of societies are we now breeding in the West?
Rebel News Australia
"Senate REJECTS motion to help babies left for dead
A motion calling for care for newborns surviving abortions has been shut down in the Senate."
I forgot she has had David Daleidan in prison for over 10 years now for recording Planned Parenthood’s conversation in a restaurant. The journalism revealed to Americans the selling of aborted baby’s body parts as their primary income source.
Amen.
I have a female friend who recently told me that "she knows everything wrong with her dad, and she loves him anyway". So goes the Republicans and Donald Trump.
On the other hand, Democrats seem completely blind to their own candidates faults. I doubt
most know about Harris's personal history. She was Montel Williams side chick before she became
Willie Brown's misstress.
Which adds more intriuge to the 2024 campaign. MAGA is about returning power back to the people.
Closing the border, lowering taxes, drilling, less government regulations, lowering inflation, notching down the influence the federal government influence on education, and on and on.
The raison de etre for the Harris campaign is vote for me because I'm wonderful. Even better a vote
for Harris makes you a better more enlightned person. There is no talk about the middle class and their problems.
Bravo, James! MAGA is about returning power back to the people. There are two principal factors in conflict here - those in the electorate who independently put the effort into researching the true moral perspective of issues and their consequences vs. those who form opinions on the sway of the crowd (consensus). This is much the same as things were back in the 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts.
Ha ha, talking to the wrong crowd.
Economics, crime, trade, migration and war, Trump most qualified, by far without a doubt.
Agreed.
Brilliant, and clarifying. Thank you.
Superb commentary. And maybe the voters will finally concentrate on politicians’ views of the actual issues at stake. A very slim possibility but not impossible. Thank you Mr. Rufo.
How can we expect that “the voters will finally concentrate on politicians’ views of the actual issues at stake” when the politician himself is not focused? Frankly, it is unfair to apply a higher standard to the electorate then to a candidate.
I appreciate what Trump was able to accomplish in four years: with all the “resistance” he encountered, it is truly remarkable. He has proved he has stamina, and I don’t see anyone else on the political scene who could endure so many blows and still be standing. But I do not believe an average voter is able to break through his personal traits and see the essence. An average voter is not necessarily a political junkie and judges superficially due to a certain degree of ignorance and laziness. I think many are currently frustrated with our political and economical realities, and I can see how it is easier to take an empty vessel like Harris and fill it up with dreams and hopes. The shape and the color of the vessel, after all, are pretty. And the democratic propaganda machine is super powerful and effective. It is a lot more difficult to feel soft and fuzzy about Trump when he attacks and insults non stop. After all, our culture puts joy and feeling good on top of the list. Laughing loudly and twerking is liberating. A lot more liberating than listening to and accepting an old guy, not very inarticulate and with a limited vocabulary, even when he is trying to save the country. What a tough predicament we are in.
Limited vocabulary? Not very articulate? But able to hold an audience’s attention for hours because he knows how to change topics. return, and add momentary humor. Listening to policy only is how to lose an audience. Remember Trump was an Entertainer at the top of the field. He does have a Queens accent, but everyone from NYC has a NY Accent. Like Texans have Texas accents.
And their proven abilities to complete the task before them.
For me, this is not a matter of "no longer pretending or of greater realism" because the radical leftist Democrats continue to disguise their destructive Marxist agenda and pretend to be defenders of "democracy." For me, the matter is best understood as a difference between the WHAT of an issue and the WHO. Voters would be well advised to ignore candidates' personalities, race, gender, style = the WHO, and focus solely on policies and their consequences = the WHAT of every issue. Consider the Biden/Harris/Obama regime’s catastrophic open borders policy. It does not matter whether Biden appointed Kamala to be the Border Czar or not––that is a distraction. It does not matter how Kamala tries to defend her lack of performance on the border issue––an even greater distraction. What matters is that under the radical Democrat Biden/Harris/Obama regime, our borders are wide open and the consequences are collapsing the nation economically and increasing crime exponentially. In my opinion, focusing on a candidate's POLICIES regarding economics, migration, crime, trade, and war would be the much needed and far superior alternative method of evaluation. Facts, not feelings, need to be the metric for voter choices in November if there is to be any hope of saving our constitutional republic and preserving our precious American freedoms.
Totally agree.
But it's hard to imagine how the voters will be able to see and understand "the facts, not feelings" since the former are consistently hidden behind a fog of "feelings" and lies from the mainstream media, Democrat party, and their incompetent, anti-civilization Deep State department heads.
Yes! First things first.
Amen! Well said and spot on!
Sadly, I fear feelings are going to win. And if they don’t, the oligarchs will destroy the nation under the guise of democracy. Whoever wins, we all lose.
How will the oligarchs win?
Christopher…… That was great writing! Walking over the superficial and into the heart of our real problems and towards a philosophical shift in values.
Hopefully, sometime in the future, a country of 340 million can produce a President that has the brilliance and depth to bind us together.
When it comes to their purse, humans are mostly logical and that is exactly why Trump will win. All the other side has is free abortions and vesectomies. Whether Trump will become the president, that is a different question.
Please note that in Canada, JT pushes the abortion industry with absolute gusto. It is one of his main policies. Abortion and the MAID legislation of state-killing.
Anywhere you find the promotion of a death-culture like this....know that you are looking at totalitarianism.
And no......abortion was never about women's rights. That was just the cover. Though many did swallow it.
On the Subject of a Death-Culture, learning how crazy the US Military-Industrial Complex was during the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis, thinking there would be no consequences for Americans launching a 1st strike against Russia, and after defusing the Crisis through Diplomacy not happening with Russia TODAY, President Kennedy resolved to find the way to establish a durable Peace with the Soviets.
This 1 line in his Peace Speech to the American University Convocation June 10, 1963 was the last straw for the US Military-Industrial Complex that would lose sales and profits if Kennedy's new Policy was implemented and succeeded.
That is what got him killed months later. Kennedy uttered the essential TRUTH that can keep us alive today: “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
President Kennedy's PEACE SPEECH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGH741Qmsg:
The US hasn't learned a damn thing since 1962 as it leads this World to WWIII once again in the US WAR with Russia over Ukraine in NATO so US troops and missiles can be right on Russia's border.
The US perpetrated the 1st Act of War during the Cuban Missile Crisis so offended Soviet troops and missiles were 90 miles away from the US Mainland.
Americans aren't that exceptional! Russians feel the same way these Days about NATO ON IT'S BORDER as the US did about Soviet troops and missiles in 1962 Cuba.
The CIA and the Eisenhower administration were responsible for an "act of war" prior to the Missile Crisis: the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy didn't have the will to put an end to it, so denied air cover to the army assembled by the spooks, and they were slaughtered by the Cubans, who anticipated the invasion and even had Klieg lights arrayed on the beach to meet these dupes.
The Missile Crisis followed the very next year, unsurprisingly. Hindsight suggests that the Russians were acting as a good ally to Cuba, given the Bay of Pigs fiasco, so that bit of brinkmanship can be attributed to the CIA as well.
The CIA still poses the worst threat to our security and political future. The President who dismantles this cancerous blight on the nation will go down as a hero, or more likely a martyr, to liberty.
Yes Bull, that and the US deploying missiles in NATO member Turkey aimed at Soviet Russia.
US actions in this World pushed Russian and Cuba to identify their common interests.
Cuba wanted the Soviets in Cuba to act as a deterrent to the US so they would not attempt another invasion. Russia thought if the US could put their missiles in Turkey, they could put their missiles in Cuba.
https://rayjc.com/2024/07/13/us-natowar-peace/
My reply could be book-length here, Ray. So I will just say that I think of JFK as a "bad boy" who decided to do good. And you are right -- it got him killed.
That 1963 event ushered-in the Neo-Marxist era of America. While Americans were emotionally vulnerable was an excellent time to hit....which is a tenet of brainwashing techniques.
How, exactly, did "That 1963 event [usher]-in the Neo-Marxist era of America"?
The anti-war movement gave rise to the "new left" that morphed into the neo-Marxist movement you refer to, once it was clear that the masses were too comfortable to be goaded into any sort of revolution. Marxism was revised by the Frankfurt School political philosophers and turned into this unfortunately successful cultural revolution.
I would say that the Vietnam war, together with the cultural upheaval instigated by the widespread use of psychedelics, is what made Americans "emotionally vulnerable" to neo-Marxist propaganda, their faux utopian fairy tales and the social chaos caused by their elevation of sexual deviants and libertines to demigod status.
After posting my reply to A, I thought I should have asked the same question?
It was 1963, due to the circumstances required by the Neo-Marxists for mass brainwashing.
By 1965, the birth control pill and Vatican II were already established as early successes.
Chris Rufo, in his book, marks the start of American Neo-Marxism as 1968. I say it was November 1963.
If you know about the techniques for brainwashing, you would understand why.
I usually don't reply to you any more, after the last time.
However, I stand by my assertion that the JFK assassination launched the nation-wide vulnerability.
Sorry, I don't recall what I might have written that offended you.
You make a good point. Kennedy's assassination killed any illusions of American exceptionalism and may have encouraged academic revolutionaries.
A, maybe you can paraphrase as I had to with my comment or offer a synopsis?
I agree with you. Kennedy may have been a "bad boy" who decided to do right."
We are all "sinners" except for Trump who said he does not sin and has nothing to confess to God.
Personally, I think "$Billionaires" are a Crime against HUMANITY in a MONEY driven World. The Bible has much recorded about what Christ thinks about the rich.
Christ comes for those bad boys who reform themselves and decide to do good in joining with him to plead the cause of the poor and oppressed of the World.
As for Jews, Christians and Muslims TODAY, the Spirit of God-Christ can see not much has changed in this 2024th Year of The Lord Christ Jesus since he said,
You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
This people draws close to me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Obviously, those words are not addressed to Atheists and those who don't believe in the Salvation of Christ, but to those who think they do.
Today is the 91st Day of my 81st Year counting up, not down. I never wrote a book, but I have a WordPress Blog and a recent article continues in the spirit of the letter in my comment above you replied to. You can make a comment as long as it takes to express your understandings and POV.
See the link in the reply to Bull Hubbard upstream.
Agree completely. For months now I've felt that unless Trump wins by an overwhelming landslide the democrat machine will retain power -- regardless of the vote count.
And are the States doing enough to clean the voter rolls? PasS the SAVE ACT? Election Integrity Act? It is the Legislatures’ responsibility to encode the STATUTES. They can’t be the same as 2020 with people receiving 5 ballots.
That’s a big part of the problem. A huge, and growing, segment of our society’s “purse” is provided by the government. So they vote that way. That GDP/capita in the EU is 2/3 of the US doesn’t mean anything to the average voter but that is the result of a lot of things including our capitalist, market driven economy with relatively robust (at least historically) incentives to work, invent, create. It is what has allowed us to provide defense for the whole world, subsidize drug development for the world, have 5.3% of the working age population between 18 and 64 receiving Social Security disability benefits, allow first responders to retire after 20 or 25 years with lifetime pensions and health benefits and still provide a lot of Americans with bigger houses, more and bigger cars and generally more consumption than EU citizens. Right now we can print the money to pay for all of it but eventually the markets will say no mas. I think we know what the future for this country looks like…eventually we will be a socialist democracy like Europe. With its slow growth, sclerotic economy. We are just a younger country so the build up of safety nets and disincentives to work are a few decades or so behind.
Great distinction.
“Humans are mostly logical”. Respectfully, what is the basis for it in history? All the major cataclysms happened because humans are easily susceptible to brainwashing propaganda and mass psychosis.
Virtually every person has immature mistakes, youthful indiscretions, etc. but when they become adult moral positions and ideologies that they will fight to the end for, then they become the persons character. It felt like it used time be that people voted for character and actions. Now it seems people vote for a narrative that has been created in a lab based on the hot buttons of voting blocks, polling results and demographics.
Where in my opinion it truly breaks down is when the media takes sides. No more objective reporting of facts, no more digging and digging for the truth. And if anyone thinks this is just about Trump, I suggest you take a look at what was written about DeSantis when he was winning in Florida and active in the republican primary. Or look at how they treated W. during his tenure. He was called a nazi, stupid, etc. Republicans are the enemy of the msm and have been, and will continue to be treated as such, no matter whose name is on the ballot.
It's called Propaganda. The media has long been an excellent tool for this. Even more so now.
I'd kinda like to buy into this hypothesis. But I can't make it come to terms with "opening night" of the DNC convention last night. The power of the national media was out in full force alright, from Californiawood to the New York Timesland. Kamala presented more like a newly crowned Miss America than a presidential candidate. It wasn't just lacking reality, it was a slap reality's face.
"I'd kinda like to buy into this hypothesis. But I can't make it come to terms with "opening night" of the DNC convention last night."
Or the last 8 years
4years pretty good 31/2 years...lets just say Not So Good.
We’re all sinners. I kind of like a bit of the the homage vice pays to virtue, however.
A good line.
If you want to understand the big difference between standard "bad boys" and Psychopaths, especially in the political arena, I recommend a deep-dive with the following book (not a light read):
"Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and the Origins of Totalitarianism : by Andrew Lobaczewski
The editor also runs a Substack.
Excellent article. A Bad person who does good vs a good person that does bad.
Yes, I’ll take the former over the latter.
You mean a "good person" as a cultivated public image? I.e. "virtue signaler"?
Re: this- The Manhattan Prosecutor allowed the porn star who the President allegedly had a consensual one night affair with, to testify about that, affair. He was unable to rebut it, but both of them have. The point was to make the case about sex, not business records. There was no crime committed. The NDA is a legal document.
Yes, it is a very important point. It opens up a viable way of looking at Trump, for those who identify him as a "bad boy".
I also consider JFK to have been a "bad boy" who turned around and did good.
Well, sometimes.