What Next

Well kids, it is time for Pimpernel to make a decision. This blog has been around for about 9 years. Last year I hit 100,000 hits and this year 150,000 hits. As my long term readers know, I have this blog twice and deleted all the previous posts. This blog began as a spiritual and philosophical blog, looking at questions that few ask in their day to day lives. In about 2010 I started discussing tech and the future and politics and the news of the day. I have gone out of my way to provide my readers with source documents to the news of the day.

This blog is very personal to me and I have discussed personal issues over the years. A few years back I almost deleted everything again; but, didn't want to delete the posts regarding Pastor Daniels because I knew her family had read them and others looking into the case had read this blog. I have never and will never monetize this blog, I have never asked for contributions nor do I have a Patreon or PayPal account. I have never received a single penny for this blog and perhaps it is not worth one, that is for the readers to decide. On this and other sites I have accurately predicted where we would be in many areas.

A few months ago I made an investment in a laptop with a microphone and a camera. I have been considering moving to YouTube. I have never posted on Facebook or Twitter. I do not use Instagram either. Over the years I have been saddened by the lack of comments from readers, I had wanted to build something more interactive. Some have suggested I do a podcast, when I retired I considered doing a radio show once a week for truckers. I did not end up moving where I planned which was near the radio station.

My friends we are moving into bleak times and I don't mean economically. Artificial Intelligence will control our decisions, self driving transportation will control our movement and virtual reality will control our reality. As we clamp down on open expression we will find ourselves unable to consider the truth. We live in a world of corporate control over media, the government and our reality. The game is rigged against small businesses bringing true innovation so that only large corporate and increasingly consolidated industries can flourish. We have destroyed half this nation to benefit a few on the coasts.

I guess the question for me is how is my time best spent. How can I reach people, how can I get them to see what is coming when their days are spent barely getting by? I welcome any thoughts.

150,000 Hits

Hi all. Well, it has finally happened, this site has had 150,000 hits since being started. Blogs are dying and YouTube videos are thriving and I have still managed to get 150,000 hits. My single biggest post is still the one I did about Pastor Carol Daniels. In the almost 10 years since her passing, people still come to read about her. As anyone who follows this blog knows, I almost never talk about crimes and usually talk about politics and technology.

So much has changed since I started this blog. Anyways, just wanted to mark this occasion. Be well dear readers.

The Illusion of Democracy in Britain With Update

About 40 years ago I read a book, it was by a man named Thucydides called "History of the Peloponnesian War". It is considered by some to be the first book focused on history. It was written about 2400 years ago. We had just come out of the Vietnam war when I read the book. Funny thing was, the claims made and rhetoric used during the Peloponnesian war were the same as were told to us by out politicians and generals.

I thought of that book today as I watched what happened in England regarding Brexit. Here is how things went down. Britain is part of the European Union (EU). What began as a free trade agreement became something more. The EU is becoming it's own nation eliminating restrictions between countries within it and making all the countries within it have to place EU law above their own. Currently half of the laws in Britain were written by the EU. The only time you see agreements like this is when a country lost a war and another country gets to write their laws. As this became clearer to the British, they decided to leave the EU and voted to do so in what is called Brexit. Lets be clear, unlike in America, in Britain a law can be directly voted on in a referendum. They voted to leave the EU.

For two years Britain and the EU have been working on a "deal" to leave. If no deal is reached, they just go back to being a sovereign nation. The Prime Minister of Britain, Theresa May, has brought back a proposed deal. The problem is that the deal forces Britain to accept all the EU rules, it doesn't change anything other than not allow Britain to vote in the EU. True taxation without representation. It basically puts Britain in the same position with the EU as America had with Britain prior to the American Revolution.

One might ask why any country would accept such a deal, it's not about the deal. It is about getting a second vote on leaving the EU. Parliament will bicker back and forth and be unable to come to a decision and the solution offered will be to put leaving the EU up for another vote. The choice will be between taking the deal or staying in the EU, as an alternative it will be between staying in the EU or leaving with no deal. This deal is not about leaving the EU, it is about whether to leave at all. The vote should be whether to accept the deal or leave the EU with no deal. They have already voted to leave the EU.

This is a show, all politics is theater. Giving up your sovereignty and democracy is easy, capitulate to another. Getting back your democracy and sovereignty is much harder. If the EU had it's proposed EU army, you just might see a civil war between the EU and Britain and the EU would lose because we would support Britain as would Australia and Canada. The EU could not count on help from Russia or China. In Europe Britain and France have nukes. They will not be launched to keep Britain in the EU. Britain will be allowed to leave the EU with no deal and will immediately try to have agreements with Canada, Australian and the United States and they will get them.

Draft Agreement on the withdrawal of  the United Kingdom of Great Britain  and Northern Ireland from the  European Union and the European  Atomic Energy Community. This is the actual document being presented regarding Brexit.

It is pretty simple kids, globalism means the end of democracy.

Hypocricy - Jim Acosta and Alex Jones

So, CNN's Jim Acosta was kicked out of the White House. The reason has to do with his refusal to abide by the rules. The White House press corps is typically given one question per reporter. After asking two questions he refused to hand over the microphone back to the intern who takes it from person to person. In the course of this exchange he brushed the intern's arm. In response CNN is suing Trump for violating Acosta's free speech.

This is amusing on so many levels. Remember back during the 2016 election a female reporter tried to stop Trump as he was exiting an event and she was blocked to the side by some staffer? After that she claimed the person had thrown her to the ground except there was video proving she lied. That story was hot news for a week or so. What a difference a day makes.

As for the free speech argument, it's garbage. Mr. Acosta is still on CNN. In fact, there is no right to be in the White House press briefings. The real irony is that Acosta and others in the mainstream media screamed for Alex Jones to be removed from the internet and prevented from putting his show on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter. Acosta and CNN seem to believe that the establishment reporters have an innate right to attend briefings and that "alternative" media doesn't have a right to exist at all. This case is scheduled to go before a Federal judge and it will not go well for CNN because judges regularly keep the press out of court. In fact, the press is not allowed to film inside the Supreme Court or in closed sessions of congress.

Trump seems to trigger and piss off the media more than anyone in history. If he sneezes it makes the national news. Acosta sees his job as getting ratings and being part of the story more than reporting the news. It should also be remembered that the White House is NOT required to give press briefings at all.

Democrats to Protect the Richest Man in the World

Fox - Dems to probe Trump's treatment of CNN, Amazon, Washington Post in triple-threaded abuse-of-power inquiries.

Adam Schiff the congressman from California and soon to be new chair of the House Intelligence Committee has declared that the Democrats plan on investigating Trump for saying that Amazon is subsidized by the postal service. Well, they are given preferred pricing. It is a valid complaint except for the fact that the post office is self funding and does not rely on any taxes. The second part of the investigation is into the administrations use of anti-trust policies in their review of the AT&T - Time Warner merger and is just to hurt CNN. Six companies own 90% of all the media in the United States whereas there used to be 2000 companies. That my friends is market consolidation and that should be something Democrats should be against.

So one of the first acts of the Democratic house will be to protect Amazon and Time Warner. Great to know they are looking out for the little guy. Nope, the Democratic establishment is protecting the billionaire class. This is exactly why the Democratic party is going to lose the progressives. Once again I did not vote; but, for Democrats that did, was it so your representatives could protect Bezos? Who owns the Democratic party? Big Tech and Finance. The Democrats should be calling for the reinstatement of Glass-Stiegel; but they are not. They should be working on Universal healthcare; but, they wont. They should be looking into anti-trust violations; but, instead they will protect the monopolies. Did a single Democrat income inequality during the election? Shouldn't they all have?

A Smile Beats a Frown

I had a bad ten days. Not so much personally as bad things happened to people I know. Not horrible, just sad for others. When I am feeling blue, I like comedy and cooking. I have a couple people for you that make me smile. The first one up is Cowboy Kent Rollins. The man is serious cook and has been featured on the Food Network. He is also one of the nicest men I have met online.

The nest video is by some bat shit crazy cracker lady. Please understand she is playing a character. She calls herself Trailer Trash Tammy, it is not even her name. It is a character.

The next one is Auntie Fee. She was as they say, rude, crude and socially unacceptable. She was also loving, caring and a one of a kind. Unfortunately, she has passed away. She was about to become a television star for real. This woman was funny as hell.

Another favorite is Melissa Hunter; but, her videos were removed from her channel. I don't know how long this video will stay up.

Been some bad times here in California in the last few days that have nothing to do with the election. Shootings, fires and the death of a personal friend of mine. Some other things but I will not discuss them here. Here is my advice, when you are feeling down watch amusing things by people who express affection for others.

Midterm Outcome, What Next?

Well, the midterms are mostly over. The Democrats appear to have gained a razor thin majority in the house; but, that is still enough to take over the speakership and determine who heads the committees. The Republicans appear to have a stronger majority in the house; but, not a supermajority. The Republicans also gained in governorships. We don't know about the local races because there are just too many to look at.

So what happens. Well, my guess is the Democrats will spend the next two years conducting non-stop investigations of Trump and will call for impeachment. They cannot win an impeachment trial (those are done by the Senate); but, we will hear nonstop rage and fury from them. As for getting things done, nothing will get done, we will return to gridlock.

It works out mostly good for Trump. He can blame his inability to get things done on the Democrats for the next two years and he will be able to consolidate his control over the Republican party. The fact is, the candidates he stumped for won and the Republicans who fought him lost to Democrats. This election has also further divided Democrats between the corporate Democrats and the liberal Democrats. That fight will determine who runs in 2020.

Midterm Predictions.

Polling is garbage as we have seen in the last election, so, I am going to discuss trends and people's thinking. Lets start with this, the Democratic strongholds on the coast are not going to change. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland already have Democratic people in the House. The question is what the Midwest, southwest and south are going to do. My guess, they are going to vote in Republicans where they have Democrats or at least not turn Democrat. The simple fact is that unemployment is down for the first time in many of these areas. These areas had not had hope for 40 years and now believe they have some. If you want some allegorical evidence, look at Trump's rallies. He can fill a 20,000 person arena on any day, at anytime in these areas. These people are going to vote again because they finally believe their vote matters when it hasn't in a very long time. You can like it or dislike it; but, this is my guess and it is not based on party, I am still a socialist.

Now comes the fun stuff, what comes next if I am right? Well, a deep, deep depression within the Democratic establishment. There current plan, if they were to take the House, would be to spend the next two years trying to impeach Trump. Not to get rid of him; but, to explain the gridlock they intend to create. They don't have a backup plan. If they do not take the House or Senate, they will have to deal with the division within their own party between corporate Democrats and "progressives". As for the Republican party, they will all start to step in line behind Trump or face elimination. Trump has singlehandedly changed the whole party. Every Republican who keeps their office will support Trump more vocally out of fear of losing his voters support.

During the last election I wanted to see Bernie win; but, it did not influence by analysis of the race and I knew Trump was going to win and as much the media said he would not, it was obvious they were lying. When the Media and Hillary vilified the voters prior to the election, it was clear how it would end. Up and including on election night we were told it was over 90% that Hillary would win; but, her campaign new better. Weeks before the election, they cancelled the purchase of the fireworks for election night.

Now here is where it could get really weird. What happens if the Republican party gains even one seat in the House and Senate? You will see a complete and utter meltdown of the media and the Democratic party. Firstly, Trump would get his wall. Now, if he denuclearize North Korea, he gains even more Democratic support and international support. He would also be perfectly positioned in Arabia to negotiate peace with Israel. The midterms are being hotly watched all over the world for the first time. The midterms will prove whether or not populism, majority rule, can effect elections more than wealthy donors and the elites.

I am going to use a strange analogy. The establishment and the wealthy live in a state of constant fear that they may lose what they have. They focus on issues they believe will emotionally impact the rest of us. The last thing they want is to discuss economics or privilege of the wealthy. The social issues are what motivate the well off because economic ones have only benefitted them. The analogy, Roseanne was the number one show on television. She was crushing the ratings. The media hated her for being a Trump supporter. She screwed up and was publicly lynched. The show was way to successful to be forgot, so they killed her off and brought the show back without her. In it's second week it lost half of it's viewership. It has since lost another 25%. The trend is obvious and the media has polled on it, oddly enough everything gets polled. The network carrying her show has ordered just one more episode. That will be a finale. People at the network have said publicly that they may have acted too hastily in firing Roseanne. They thought they could succeed without her; but, they found out they couldn't. They figured they made a mistake only because of the loss in revenue. The media is a business. If Republicans keep the House and Senate, the media will begin acting differently about the Trump voters.

Many states allow early voting and the Republicans are coming out in droves. Biggest numbers in history for early voting. In the rust belt, the Democrats will not get back a single voter and they know it. Hillary continues to vilify people in the Midwest and the popularity of the Democrats is taking a major blow. You cannot insult people for two years and then ask them for their vote. Telling them you want to eliminate the electoral college doesn't make them want to vote for you either.

I am going to watch this election like it was any other action film. I don't really care who wins, in fact I have absolutely no intention to vote. My predictions are not because of my biases, they are because of what I have seen over the last two years. The media and the Democratic party have demonized the Midwest for the past two years nonstop. They now know what the Democratic party thinks of them and why they have not been helped in the last 40 years.

UPDATE:

I finished writing this and posted it then I saw this skit from tonight's Saturday Night Live.

The comments made on YouTube are hilarious. The skit is of people saying they are positive the Democrats will win and showing just how little they actually believe it. The comments to the video are a bunch of Democrats saying that is exactly how they feel. Just imagine what these people will be like if the Republicans gain seats. One of the reasons Democrats are not confident is that they no longer believe the media either. They know the media is biased against Trump and support it for that reason; but, they don't trust them to be honest. These people were told there was a 97% chance Hillary would win the day before the election. They have been freaking out since Trump got elected. They have been going through the stages of grief, literally. First came denial (remember "not my president"). Next came anger, lots and lots of anger. Next comes bargaining, the endless stream of if only's that we have heard. If only for the Russians, white women, green party, misogynists, racists, whatever, we would have won. The next stage is depression. That is what we are seeing now. It starts with a loss of hope and leads to the final step, acceptance.

The Democratic party has had two years to come up with a platform that benefits workers and they haven't. They have a joke platform that starts with Trump bad. There number one issue is healthcare. That is a joke. There most discussed issue is wanting to bring in more immigrants. Wow. Talk about tone deaf. After that they want to talk about trans rights. How is this meant to bring back workers votes?

I am going to tell a little story now. It is meant to help you understand why the Kavanaugh hearings increased Republican support. Most of the people that worked for me were female. I was thought fairly highly by them, they came to me with their personal issues sometimes. I was the safe married guy who was all business for myself and gentle with my employees. In the decades these people worked with me, they never see me flirt with anyone. Not even after my divorce. After the divorce, a few asked me what happened and I told them my wife left me for a family friend and I now had to pay her a very large alimony. The women I knew were outraged that I had to pay her alimony at all. Men on the other hand said, yeah that is what happens. The thing people seem to forget in the media is that women aren't stupid and know other women and they know women who would lie about such a thing. I don't know of a single woman who believes all women. I will further say this, when I got divorced not a single person asked me if I had cheated on my wife. I cannot tell you how many asked if my wife had cheated on me.

The question that remains is, if my prediction is correct, will the Democratic establishment learn a lesson. The answer is probably no. In Texas No Limit Poker (my favorite pastime in life that I can no longer play online) there is a point where you can become what we call "pot committed". You have overcommitted to a hand and cannot afford to pull out. Only the best professionals can walk away from that hand and that happens rarely even for professionals. The  Democratic party is pot committed to their donors for the 2020 Presidential election. Big tech and the banks have committed well over a billion to defeating Trump; but, if after the midterms the Democrats attempt to go more progressive, they will not get that money.

A final note, something most people missed. Trump is travelling the nation talking at Republican events. You can watch the videos. You know what he isn't doing, he isn't saying that you need to send in money for the Republican candidates. He is not fundraising, in fact, I don't believe he even charges an admission fee for the rally's. You are a fool if you think the people attending the rally's would not pay ten or twenty bucks to be there and support Trump. They are willing to wait hours in line and even stand outside and never get in, just to be there. You know what else you haven't heard, you haven't heard of Trump attending endless fundraisers because he hasn't. Why not? His appearance and support for a candidate brings all his voters to the candidate. It is worth more than money. He says to his voters, if this candidate loses, we lose because I will not be able to get anything done. A lot of Trump voters hate Ted Cruz; but, they will vote for him because Trump has asked them to in support of him and they believe him. You are watching history be made.

UPDATE 2:

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did a episode tonight on "family separation". It was about how about 6 months ago, when a family of illegal immigrants would arrive they would separate the children from the parents. His conclusion is that the Democrats should make this election about it. Don't make the election about how your representatives should be looking out for your best interests, make it about how your representatives should be looking out for people that aren't even in the country. This is why the Democratic party is doomed on Tuesday. The media and the corporate Democrats don't give a damn about the millions of kids in Foster care and they don't give a damn about the homeless. The corporate Republicans don't give a damn about them either; but, the Republicans are running on helping Americans. The Democrats are running on this rather that universal healthcare or breaking up the banks. Stupid.