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I appeared on Silvo Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas.  It's here.

SEPTEMBER 19-20, 2022

BULLETIN:  PUTIN MOBILIZES:  Vladimir Putin has taken a significant step that makes a dangerous situation even more dangerous.  From AP:

"WKYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia as the war in Ukraine reaches nearly seven months and Moscow loses ground on the battlefield. Putin also warned the West that “it’s not a bluff” that Russia would use all the means at its disposal to protect its territory.

The total number of reservists to be called up is 300,000, officials said.

The Russian leader’s televised address to the nation released Wednesday came a day after Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans to hold votes on becoming integral parts of Russia. Putin’s remarks also come against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly in New York at which Moscow was warned about its referendum plans.

The Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war following Ukrainian successes. The referendums, which have been expected to take place since the first months of the war, will start Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

Putin accused the West in engaging in “nuclear blackmail” and noted “statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO states about the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia.”

“To those who allow themselves such statements regarding Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for separate components and more modern than those of NATO countries and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal,” Putin said.

He added: “It’s not a bluff.”

COMMENT:  And I wouldn't take it as a bluff, considering Putin's recklessness in Ukraine.  You get the sense of a lighted match held in your hand, with the fire getting closer and closer to your fingers.

And the Russians see weakness and indecisiveness in Washington.

September 19-20, 2022       Permalink

WISCONSIN DRAMA – RON GAINS.  We must hold the Wisconsin Senate seat currently occupied by Ron Johnson.  The Democrats have nominated a world-class, certified whackjob right out of CRT central casting.  And...he was leading.  Now, though, Ron appears to be making great progress, as voters learn more about his opponent.  From The Hill: 

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has a 4-point lead over Democratic challenger Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, according to a new Emerson College poll released on Tuesday.

Forty-eight percent of very likely voters said they support the sitting senator, while 44 percent said they will vote for Barnes, according to the poll.

After winning the Democratic primary last month, Barnes briefly polled ahead of Johnson. However, Johnson has since closed the gap, and recent polling — including a Spectrum News-Siena College poll also released on Tuesday — showed the candidates within 1 percentage point of each other. 

Regardless of who they plan to support, 54 percent of respondents in the Emerson poll said they expect Johnson to win, compared to 46 percent expecting a win for Barnes.

More voters said they view Johnson favorably than said the same of the lieutenant governor. However, more voters also said they view the incumbent senator unfavorably than said the same of Barnes. The difference comes from the 9 percent of voters who said they were unsure of how they viewed Barnes, compared to 3 percent who said they were unsure on Johnson.

The Emerson poll was conducted from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18 with 860 very likely voters and had a margin of error of 3.27 percentage points.

COMMENT:  The fight for control of the U.S. Senate, where judges are confirmed, is tight and bitter.  We cannot afford unforced errors, like losing seats we already have.  Besides Wisconsin, we have a major fight in Pennsylvania, where the seat currently occupied by Republican Pat Toomey, who is retiring, is up for grabs.  And even Florida is close, where the excellent Republican Senator Marco Rubio is fighting off a tough challenge.  Always fight as if you're 20 points behind. 

September 19-20, 2022       Permalink     

NOW THIS IS IMPORTANT:  America's military is deteriorating.  It faces a stunning manpower shortage, with no end in sight.  Morale is being decimated by the injection of "woke" thinking into military training.  The Democratic Party is dominated by those who want to defund the police and the military simultaneously, and that party is currently in power.  Most of the press doesn't care.  But if there is an international crisis, we could wind up in serious trouble.  There is no guarantee the United States will continue.  From Fox: 

The U.S. military’s all-volunteer force (AVF) is slowly dying. In the five decades since conscription ended, the AVF produced the high-quality force it promised. In conflict after conflict, the more-experienced, better-motivated, and professional U.S. troops dominated the battlefield.

Today, however, the armed services are struggling to meet their recruiting goals as rarely before. The Army is the most affected, projected to fall short by up to 15,000 soldiers, with a larger deficit expected next year. Experts point to a variety of reasons, such as insufficient pay and benefits, a difficult work-life environment, "culture war" issues, COVID-19, and a strong job market. Even if each were "fixed," the core issues driving the AVF’s decline still won’t be reversed.

The fact is the pool of Americans aged 17-24 who are qualified and interested in serving continues to shrink. When I was secretary of the Army in 2018, 71% of these 34 million young people could not meet the military’s entry requirements due mostly to obesity, drug use, physical and mental health problems, and criminal misconduct. Four years later, that number is even higher. Further, of the 23% eligible to serve today, another 10% don’t meet the military’s academic standards. Worse, of the 3.5 million young Americans remaining, only 9% (~320,000) have a proclivity to serve. A nation of 332 million people should do better than that.

The numbers are all heading in the wrong direction, driven by broader cultural and lifestyle trends and a population unfamiliar with the less than 1% of the U.S. population in uniform that protects them. When the draft ended in 1973, most young people had a family connection to the armed forces who could explain military life and encourage service to country; today that number is far lower. Major reductions in the size of the U.S. military and in the number of bases across the country after the Cold War’s end contributed to this problem. A "knowledge gap" has grown over time due to civilians’ lack of interaction with those in uniform. This has led to an "identity gap" that inhibits many from considering a stint in the armed forces. It’s no mystery why a military caste has developed in America, with nearly 80% of today’s service members having a family member that served. All of this affects a broader set of civil-military relations with which the nation is wrestling.

The scope and scale of these trends are beyond the ability of the Pentagon to remedy. There are actions the services can and are taking, but these only

address the problem at the margins. Because the ability of the military to defend the country depends directly on a sizable force of top-notch volunteers, this is a national challenge that must be addressed at the highest levels.

COMMENT:  Please read the rest.  It's important.  With the kind of leadership we have today, it's unlikely the main problems will even be addressed.  We are entering a period when foreign enemies will see a weaker American military than they've seen in many years.  Weakness leads to war, never to peace.  Yet, we don't hear the alarm sounded.

September 19-20, 2022       Permalink

SEPTEMBER 17-18, 2022

THE START OF THE WAKING UP:  At last, even news reporters are starting to ask serious questions about electric cars.   The left may be horrified that anyone would question the genius behind these God-given vehicles, which clearly will save us from being flooded up to the 82nd floor of the Empire State Building.  But, alas, questions are being asked, and some of the askers are political leaders.  From Fox: 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., dismissed California's intent to ban sales of gas-powered cars by 2035, arguing that until there is new battery technology, electric cars will still be relying on fossil fuels for power.

During a press conference held at Resurrection Muscle Cars in West Palm Beach, Florida, Rubio fielded a question from Fox News Digital about California's ban, which the state approved soon before a heat wave led to an advisory for residents to limit charging their electric cars.

"Well, if they’re going to go to all battery-powered cars, then I guess they’re going to be charging their cars with coal and natural gas because that’s how you produce electricity because they don’t like nuclear plants," Rubio pointed out. "And I don’t think you can generate enough power for a state like California based on solar and wind. So in the end, it’s self-defeating."

Rubio did not oppose the idea of electric cars in general, and he was even confident that there will be technological advancements that make them practical and more prevalent.

"I don’t think you’re going to get there through government mandates that force you to get to that point," he said.

Republicans criticized California's ban when soon after the state's power grid operator said that a heat wave over Labor Day weekend could necessitate people not charging their cars in the evening hours to ease the burden placed on the grid.

"I think the silliness of it is, you’re going to ban electric cars by 2030, but you’re telling people please don’t charge your electric cars during the day because it’s putting pressure on the grid," Rubio said.

The Florida senator reiterated that he thinks the U.S. is "going to get there" when it comes to electric cars in time. 

"But when you try to get there before the science gets there, the only thing you’re going to do is create ridiculous outcomes, heavier burdens, heavier costs, and in the end, people are going to go to Nevada and buy gasoline-powered cars and bring them back into California," he said.

COMMENT:  That's called common sense, a phrase that the Democratic Party would like to ban.   I welcome the new skepticism surrounding electric vehicles.  It's long overdue.  These are not miracle machines.  They are a form of technology that is far from developed, and may create more problems than it solves.

September 18, 2022     Permalink

THE OTHER NEW BRITISH LEADER:  Britain got a new king last week, but, possibly more important in terms of governing, a new prime minister as well.  So far, she's making the right moves.  From PJ MEDIA: 

The news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the round-the-clock coverage of her upcoming funeral has almost made us forget that the UK also has a new prime minister. Liz Truss won the heated contest to replace Boris Johnson as the leader of the Conservative (Tory) Party and thus moved into 10 Downing Street as prime minister.

On Truss’s third day in office, her monarch died, which put politics on the back burner, but she kicked off the Liz Truss era in a head-turning way. She began leading the Tories and governing her nation as an actual conservative.

Tom Harris, a former Labour member of Parliament, writes at the Telegraph about what we’ve seen of Truss so far as prime minister.

“At least for now, she seems to have brought a clear philosophy back to government, a philosophy that, however opposed it might be in some quarters, is at least recognisable,” Harris writes. “It differs from the politics of the previous regime in that it is distinctly Conservative: small state, low tax, less nanny statism.”

It’s a far cry from the last several Tory prime ministers who talked a conservative talk but have often avoided walking a conservative walk.

Harris cites the move by Truss’s pick for Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Karteng, to buck the European trend of capping the bonuses that bankers can earn as a bold move. He writes that “the motivation and long-termism embraced by Kwasi Kwarteng is at least clear and sound. In a post-Brexit world, there is much to be gained in making London the world’s most attractive capital in which to conduct financial business.”

Another positive step for the Truss government is backing off from the “war on obesity” that brought nanny-state intervention to the kitchen and the restaurant table...

...To these bold, conservative moves, I would add Truss’s removal of the UK’s ban on fracking in the North Sea, a move that could do much to lower energy prices for the British public.

“The lifting of the moratorium on so-called fracking was part of a package of measures announced on Thursday [Sept. 8, the same day Queen Elizabeth passed away] to tackle soaring energy prices that are hammering households and businesses, reported Bloomberg last week. “Even with the renewed government support, the shale gas industry still faces an uncertain road, with significant opposition from local communities and challenges related to the country’s geology.”

COMMENT:  These are the things we like to see.  Truss has a bit of the Maggie Thatcher in her.  Of course, if worldwide economic conditions darken, the British people might foolishly turn to the leftist, often irresponsible Labour Party for immediate relief.  Not a good prospect.  We will cheer Liz Truss and root for her success.

September 17, 2022     Permalink