Four more years???

 Polls show 60% of American voters want someone other than President Biden leading the country, but more than 50% say they will vote against Trump.

Those polls show that, of those who vote in Republican primaries (and caucuses), a large plurality want Trump, so he'll get the nomination and lose the election.

There are a few Republicans who figure, if they nominate Trump, he'll lose in 2024 the exact same way he lost in 2020, so they want someone else, but for now, those are a minority of the Republicans who bother to vote in primaries and caucuses.

US Debt Ceiling

 As usual, the dimmycrats say the US might default and it's all the raypublicans' fault, while the raypublicans say it's the opposite.

Both agree that, if the other side does not cave, it means a global disaster.

I've watched this movie many times.

First, the Secretary of the Treasury says the US is about to hit the debt ceiling and the Congress must act to raise it or suspend it. I think that was in 2022.

Then the Secretary of the Treasury says the US has hit the debt ceiling, but there's a way to finagle finances to function, but not for much longer. This was in January 2023.

Then the Secretary of the Treasury announces the date when the US really will hit the debt ceiling and that will be a total disaster, that was in February 2023, when she said the drop-dead date will be 1 June 2023. When that happens, she says, Social Security and Medicare and the Defence and all payments on US government notes and bonds will stop, the US will be in default, the value of all US notes and bonds will collapse, and will take the whole world economy with it, so Congress absolutely must act NOW.

As I said, I've seen this over and over and over. Sometimes the Congress caves. Sometimes they keep procrastinating until the Secretary of the Treasury announces that the US government has really hit the debt ceiling.

Then disaster. Every US National Park and Museum must close, non-essential Federal Workers must go home without pay, essential Federal Workers must work without pay. For those who did not have a reservation to go to a National Park or Museum, they don't really notice anything except that the Secretary of the Treasury and all the news channels are yelling that the Congress now absolutely, positively must raise or suspend the debt ceiling.

Federal workers don't get paid for about a fortnight, then the Congress caves and raises the debt ceiling and the president signs it, and all the Federal workers get all their back pay, even those who were sitting at home and not doing any work. All the US National Parks and Museums reopen. And Life Goes On.

But Secretary Yellen says this time, she really will stop Social Security and Medicare and stop all payments on US government notes and bonds. That's not really legal, Social Security and Medicare are not paid with US $$$ that are covered by the debt ceiling, they're covered by the Social Security and Medicare Funds. Likewise, the Federal Law says all the US military must continue to bomb places like Iraq and Syria and get paid for doing it. So what will Secretary Yellen really do?

No one will have any idea until she announces that the US has really hit the debt ceiling.

Will she make it worse than it's been every other time the US hit the debt ceiling? Can she?

I guess we might find out, but the 1 June is almost certainly a fake date just to try to get the Congress to cave. And it's not clear what it will take to raise the debt ceiling. The raypublican House, the dimmycrat Senate, and president Brandon all have to agree on the bill to raise the ceiling, and now the Senate says they will not pass any of the House proposed bills, and the President says he will veto any bill except the one he's demanding. So it is not looking like they'll smoke a peace pipe before Secretary Yellen says the US has really hit the limit and must stop spending. And it's not clear when that will be or what Yellen will do about it.

But we might find out if the Congress don't cave.

Russian Disinformation

Some of us have read that the US Department of Justice is run by dimmycrats, that they did everything they could to torpedo Trump's campaign in 2016 and 2020, producing fake news that Trump was a dupe or fellow traveller of the Soviets, that the Soviets successfully rigged the 2016 election and tried but failed to rig the 2020 election. That the Steele Dossier that Trump went to Moscow, hired prostitutes, and engaged in some rather strange activities with them has been proven false.

But not if one reads the establishment media.

Those stories that Russia stole the 2016 election and tried desperately to steal the 2020 election but failed? The FBI and DoJ have carefully investigated. Not the tiniest flaw, every claim made not the slightest evidence that it could possibly be false. Yes, the Russians stole the 2016 election and tried but failed to steal the 2020 election. Yes, Trump went to Moscow to do weird things with young ladies of negotiable virtue. Yes, the Steele Dossier has been totally verified. Yes, the so-called Hunter Laptop is 110% a Russian disinformation project, nothing real, all fake. Those Russians are so good that video phone calls by Joe Biden, when tested with a computer against the real Joe Biden's voice, say it's really his voice, but sophisticated (and TS/SCI/NOFORN/BBR classified information that we can never show you) show that those video phone calls are all fake, that laptop is fake, Biden has been, by far, the 2nd Best President the US of A has ever had. Hundreds of millions of American lives were saved by his brilliant handling of the Pandemic after Trump did everything he could to block a vaccine, but Trump could not stop St Biden from creating that vaccine in just a few hours and saving the lives of every American except for the million who died because of Trump and Trump's refusal to accept vaccines and modern anti-virals, preferring old, useless things normally used only for horses. All irrefutably verified, according to the New York Times and the rest of the establishment media.

Some sceptics, who must never be listened to, say they need to see some proof. Obviously, they must be working for Russia, asking to see TS/SCI/NOFORN/BBR State Secrets that, if ever revealed, would leave the US vulnerable to a Russian attack. Every decent American knows to believe the always-truthful US government, and no decent American would ever ask for the slenderest shred of proof for any of the always-TRVTHFUL US government statements.

Just read the New York Times. Everyone knows all this is TRVE, and, except for traitors, no one asks to see the slenderest shred of proof.

So we all know the US will completely destroy Russia and the PRC, who have only the most primitive weapons against the US ultra-smart and sophisticated weapons. Both Russia and the PRC will be broken up into many small, independent, unarmed states that can never challenge the Great US Hegemony, where the US have been ruling the world with Peace, Justice, and Prosperity for All, a felicitous condition threatened by Russia and the PRC, so the US must put an end to that once and for all.

The Total Collapse of the Russian Economy

 I watched Secretary Yellen on CNN. She explained that the entire Russian economy was based on selling energy to the West and then using the money to buy everything Russia needed from the West. The only businesses in Russia are producing and selling energy and importing and selling Western products.

So, after Putin's colossal blunder of his unprovoked aggression against the Ukraine for absolutely no reason, the Western sanctions mean Russia cannot sell any energy and cannot buy anything, so the Russian economy, formerly 11th largest in the world, totally collapsed, and, according to reliable Western sources, is now one of the poorest countries in the world. Russia has no money to produce weapons, so Putin is sending young boys and old men with Czarist weapons and no ammunition to die in the  Ukraine. Russia have lost just about their entire invasion force. Russia is now very close to total collapse and regime change, after which Russian energy resources will be given to US oiligarchs as war reparations, and Russia will be broken up into small, independent, unarmed Republics.

That is, if one sticks to reliable Western news media.

But if one foolishly reads Indian media, one is told that the Russian economy rose from 11th place in 2021 to 8th place in 2023. Based on such unreliable media, the Russian burn rate of ammunition and troops is much less than the Russian replacement rate, as opposed to NATO who are burning through a lot more materiel than they can produce.

If one could believe the Indian media, it looks like Russia will defeat all of NATO in the Ukraine, but, of course, no one would ever believe a 3rd world country over such reliable sources as CNN, BBC, and the New York Times. Just because that Indian source seems to find no need to release stories that are contradictory to former stories that must be carefully buried where they cannot be found, a task that seems to fall on CNN, BBC, and the New York Times more often than not.

US attacks Kremlin???

 The US reported that two drones managed to set off explosions near the Kremlin, and that the drones were obviously Russian, set up to trick the world into believing the Ukraine had attacked the Kremlin when the Ukraine have refrained from bombing Moscow, something they are quite capable of, but have been showing great restraint in spite of Putin's unjustified and totally unprovoked attack, where he is hoping to rebuild the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, but is losing badly to the brave Ukrainians who have advanced US weapons while Russia can't buy or build any new weapons because of the sanctions and only have Soviet and Czarist weapons.

As Russia note, the drones came from the Ukraine, but the Ukraine do nothing except to chust vollow orders from their Masters of the Universe: the US of A. 

So Russia blame the US and promise retaliation at some time and place that the US of A do not expect.

The US intend to remain Global Hegemon, and will not tolerate Russia or the PRC as a serious competitor that could limit the US right to destroy any country that does not follow the "Rules-based-order" where the US make all the rules and give all the orders.

The US wars have been described as losses in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, but the US destroyed all three countries then left behind countries without any infrastructure. And stole all the money they had in Western banks. So the US got what they wanted from all the wars they've waged since 1953, when the Korean War did not go to plan, and the DPRK remain a threat to $trillions of US assets in South Korea.

But now the US are taking on a First World country, not a Third World country.

Russia, for reasons they are trying to understand, wanted to be part of Europe, and sold Europe energy at below market prices to prove their friendship. But the European leadership agree with the plan in "My Struggle" a book written in the 1920s by someone who was elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933. The Plan is for the Russians to be removed to make Lebensraum for the Western Europeans, and their energy confiscated and handed over to US oiligarchs. So Europe are buying a lot less Russian energy to teach Russia a lesson they will not soon forget.

So Europe left Russia with a lot of energy to sell, and the US ordered that no one could buy it.

The net, of course, was that some non-European customers were ready to buy just about all of it, and don't seem to care about the US order that buying Russian energy is strictly prohibited under the Rules-based-order and will be punished severely. Giving Russia's non-corrupt Defence Industry plenty of money with which to keep the Russian military supplied with weapons and ammunition, while NATO have been drawing down their stocks of weapons and ammunition to supply the Ukrainians and are having a hard time replacing what they've used up. And the countries buying cheap Russian energy seem quite happy with it.

The real question is, will the US accept a world where they are no longer Global Hegemon, or will they figure having no world at all is the better alternative?

At work 50 years ago

My job was helping Freshmen (and Freshwomen) with their homework, providing assistance and advice to help them understand. Mostly, I sat alone in my office for several hours a day and got paid $200 a month.

Then, one day, two co-eds came into my office.

"Can I help you with your homework?" I asked.

"No. I am in love with this really hot boy and I want to know the secret to get him to fall in love with me. You're a man, so I know you know the secret, and I desperately need you to tell me," she said.

"I don't know the secret. I've heard two versions. One is, let him know you're interested. I don't know if that will work. The other is from Pride and Prejudice. Mr Darcy is the richest, hottest bachelor in the entire UK. Every marriageable woman wants to marry him. He is rude to Elizabeth, but then asks her to dance and she says 'No,' and he almost immediately proposes to her because she is the only woman in all of England who ever said 'No' when he asked her to dance."

"So you won't tell me the secret. You men are all alike." and she left my office.

So there she is, and she wants to know the secret to get the hottest man in (choose) the UK, the US, Texas, or just The University of Texas, or maybe just among the Freshmen at the University of Texas in 1973. With 25,000 other coeds who want him, there are two possibilities: they'll all strike out at getting him for a permanent partner, but he'll take a lot of them for quickies, or he'll pick one, but why she'd be the one, I have no idea. But the two girls both believed there was a simple secret that every man knew but none of us would reveal to any woman. (So she gave me a low rating as homework assistant since I provided absolutely no help with the only 'homework' she was interested in doing.)