Will the President of Joy Improve the Lives of Ordinary American Men?

 I edit most of my writing through Grammarly. Whenever I type ‘elderly,' my faithful editor reminds me that some people are offended by the word and suggests I substitute the word 'older.'

This is the world we live in. Our society is sensitive about what we call old people, but we're not concerned about the quality of their lives.  In particular, we aren’t interested in the health and welfare of older men.

Richard V. Reeves published an op-ed essay yesterday about a health crisis among American men. According to Reeves, "The life expectancy gap between men and women widened from less than five years in 2010 to nearly six years in 2002."

Why are men dying at an earlier age? Reeves reports that men's life expectancy is going down due to "deaths of despair," most notably suicide and drug poisoning, and to higher death rates from COVID-19.

Men take their own lives at four times the rate of women, and this disparity in suicide rates increases with age. Among people aged 75-84, men's suicide rate is 7 times higher than the rate for women.

Alcohol abuse also contributes to “deaths of despair” among American men. The Centers for Disease Control reported that male deaths attributed to alcohol abuse increased by 26.8 percent between 2016-2017 and 2020-2021.

The Biden-Harris administration has done virtually nothing to address the growing disparity between mortality rates for American men and women and the high suicide rate for men, and older men in particular. President Biden and VP Harris have shown more concern about the right of gender-confused boys to play girls' basketball than the rising mortality rate for the nation's male citizens.

If Harris is elected "the president of joy, " things may change. Perhaps she'll distribute some of her joy to ordinary American men. 

Somehow, I doubt it. If Harris becomes president, her joy zone will be restricted to her base: Hollywood, the intellectual and media elites, the financial class, and the DEI crowd.  Average American men will see their quality of life continue to deteriorate. And suicide rates for elderly men will remain high.

Cheer up! The President of Joy will solve all your problems.

Harris-Trump Bring Excitement and Ectasy to Presidential Campaign: The Russians Aren't Feeling the Joy

You got no right to take my joy, I want it back.

Joy by Lucinda Williams

Posing as vaudeville comedians, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz wrapped up the Democratic convention last week. Harris waved her arms like a seance conjurer, and Walz strutted and gesticulated around the DNC stage like a game show host.

What was the convention’s theme? Not the economy, not crime, not the nation’s border. No, the theme was joy. 

Kamala Harris is “the president of joy,” Bill Clinton told the convention delegates. He knows a lot about joy. He spilled some of it on a blue dress when he was president. 

New York Times columnist Patrick Healy observed that joy is not a strategy for winning an election, but Healy may be wrong. Harris is ahead of Donald Trump in the polls, even though she hasn’t granted an interview with a real journalist since becoming the Dems' presidential candidate.

Harris is dodging the press because she's afraid a reporter might ask an inconvenient question, which is this: What the fuck are we doing in Ukraine? Such a question might dampen the joy that currently infuses Harris’s frenzied supporters.

Americans whose minds have been turned to Jello by the New York Times, WaPo, and CNN are enthralled by Harris’s clownish behavior, but the Russians aren't feeling the joy. They've suffered over a half million casualties inflicted by NATO weapons, including American cluster bombs, Abrams tanks, uranium-depleted artillery shells, and Bradley fighting vehicles.

If Harris wins the November election, she will find that joy doesn't travel well. I doubt Harris’s cackle will charm Vladimir Putin into surrendering Crimea. 

The politics of joy in Ukraine

Are American mercenaries fighting in Russia? Say it ain't so, Kamala

 Zero Hedge reported today that the Russian foreign ministry summoned a senior American diplomat in Moscow to protest the presence of CNN reporters and American mercenaries on Russian soil. 

Russia did not identify the mercenary organization but flagged a posting by Forward Observations Group, a military contractor, showing a photo of three FOG military operatives supposedly inside Russia's Kursk region.

Without a doubt, CNN journalists were recently in Russia under the protection of the invading Ukrainian army. CNN reporter Nick Paton acknowledged that fact in his reporting.

It is not so clear whether American mercenaries are fighting in Russia, but CNN can confirm that story since their people were traveling with the Ukrainian military.

Suppose we want to get to the bottom of the matter. In that case, American reporters should simply ask Vice President Kamala Harris this question: Are American military personnel or American contractors on Russian soil assisting the Ukrainian invaders? 

That's a yes-or-no question, but I doubt any non-leftist journalist will be allowed to get close enough to VP Harris to ask it.

Maybe the truth about American involvement in the Ukrainian invasion of Russia will be revealed after the November election.  Or maybe not.

Are American mercenaries in Kursk?

Ukraine invades Russia with Western armor. Should Americans be cheering?

 Ukraine invaded the Kursk region of Russia earlier this month. The U.S. government claims the Ukrainians didn't consult the Americans about this "incursion." Nevertheless, the Ukrainians crossed the Russian border with British tanks and American armor.

Should we be happy about this development? Senator Lindsey Graham believes we should be delighted. He called the Kursk offensive "bold, brilliant, and beautiful" and added, "Putin started this. Kick his ass."

Pardon me for not popping the champagne corks over the expansion of the Ukraine war, a war that has dragged on for two and a half years and produced more than a million casualties. I have no interest in kicking Vladimir Putin's ass, and I'm emphatically opposed to American involvement in stoking a senseless war with a nuclear power--a war that might eventually involve my grandchildren.

Ukraine's conflict with Russia was fomented by the United States when the CIA meddled in Ukrainian politics in 2014.  Although it's true that Russia initially tried to take over all of Ukraine when it invaded in February 2022, the fight now is essentially a border dispute over the Donbas, where most residents speak Russian as their first language.

We Americans have become a feckless and frivolous people governed by fools. At the moment, we are enthralled and enchanted by Vice President Kamala Harris, a chronic giggler, and Governor Tim Walz, a union hack from Minnesota, who allowed a large section of his state's largest city to burn down.

Most Americans seem unphased by the fact that the U.S. government is pouring billions of dollars into two wars that could have been prevented if America had behaved like a strong and confident world power. Our national debt is growing by a trillion dollars every 100 days. Yet, presidential candidate Kamala Harris thinks the U.S. Treasury has enough loose change lying about to give all first-time homebuyers $25,000.

Meanwhile, anti-Semitic lunatics are roaming our universities in support of racist terrorists, making a mockery of higher education's "diversity, equity, and inclusion" agenda.

The Ukraine war will end badly--not only for the Russians and the Ukrainians but for Americans as well. The era of Pax Americana is coming to an end, and the end is coming sooner than most people think.

.

Kursk

Should the State of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation? Almost a quarter of likely Texas voters say yes

The natives are restless. Across America, independence movements have sprung up, calling for individual states to secede from the Union.

 According to a recent Newsweek article, secession campaigns are active in twelve states: Oregon, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Louisiana, California, Washington, Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania. That list does not include two more states with active independence movements: Alaska and Florida. 

In Texas, the Texas Nationalist Movement is making significant strides in its campaign for independence. TNM is pushing for a statewide, nonbinding referendum allowing Texans to voice their opinion on a single question: "Should the state of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation?" The movement collected 140,000 signatures for this question to be placed on the Republican primary ballot this year.

Indeed, Texas independence has become a mainstream political issue in the Lone Star State. The Texas Republican Party's "official legislative platform" includes a plank calling for an independence vote. A recent poll of likely Texas voters found that 23 percent would vote for Texas independence if allowed to vote on the question.

Why do some Texans want to secede from the United States? I can think of three reasons. 

First, Texans are alarmed by the federal government's open border policy, which has allowed millions of immigrants to enter the country illegally and enabled drug traffickers to smuggle illegal drugs, including fentanyl, across the nation's southern border.  

Second, many Texans are concerned about the spiraling national debt, which is growing by one trillion dollars every 100 days.

Finally, many Texans are offended by attacks on traditional Texas culture by the federal government and the East Coast mainstream media. The Biden administration's push for transgender participation in girls' varsity sports is just one example of the federal government's disdain for the cultural values of the Heartland.

I am not a resident of Texas, but I support the Texas independence movement. I believe Texas will thrive as an independent nation. 

After all, Texas's economy is the eighth-largest in the world. The state has abundant energy resources and has been the top exporting state for 22 years in a row. 

Perhaps, most importantly, Texas is an agreeable place to live and do business. That's why Texas has attracted so many Californians and California corporations.

I'm beginning to wonder if a nation of 330 million people can maintain a healthy democracy under a government dominated by soulless bureaucrats, repressive government regulations, and an obsession with race and sexual orientation. I also wonder whether a healthy national discourse about major public policy issues can occur in a social media environment easily manipulated and censored by governmental agencies and their corporate lackeys.

On the other hand, Texas has demonstrated that a clearly defined geographic region with a well-educated population, abundant natural resources, access to sea lanes, and a traditional work ethic can prosper.

Maybe it is time for Americans in all 50 states to ponder whether they would be better off leaving the Deep State with its weaponized legal system, political corruption, and universities-inspired culture of victimhood to strike out on their own. 

The people living in the states that make up Flyover Country might prosper as smaller political units, and the coastal elites would be glad to see us go.

Tampons in the boys' bathroom and deer hunting in the rural South

Deer hunting in the rural South is as popular as tennis in the Hamptons. Several Southern states have a traditional rifle hunting season, a bowhunting season, a season for hunting with primitive rifles, and a season for hunting deer with dogs.

Hunting deer with dogs is a brutal sport involving dogs that chase deer to the point of exhaustion and then attack them by the throat. Sometimes, a panicked deer will plunge into a river or stream, hoping to escape its canine pursuers, but the dogs go in after it and occasionally drown a deer before the hunter arrives on the scene.

In a video I watched, I saw a large deer with impressive antlers standing in water up to its neck in an ice-cold slough, wholly exhausted. A relentless tracking dog harassed it, lunging at its throat. The buck was too tired to defend itself.

A hunter, stripped to his boxer shorts and an international orange sweatshirt, waded into the frigid water and shot the deer with his rifle from a distance of about five feet. The deer made a last desperate lunge at the hunter, who shot it a second time. Then he dragged the deer out of the slough onto dry land.

I found myself wondering about this dauntless hunter's politics. I asked myself what he might think about tampon dispensers in the boys' bathrooms at his son's school. Perhaps the man has a high-school-age daughter. Would he be okay if a six-foot kid with a penis and hairy testicles competed against his daughter on the varsity girls basketball team?

Somehow, I doubt it.

Today, our Ivy League-trained politicians are poking the Russian bear, enabling Ukraine, where elections have been suspended, to invade Russia. Vladimir Putin has warned of a nuclear conflict. Meanwhile, President Biden is playing patsy with Iran, which has vowed death to America and Israel. 

Where will Americans go if we are plunged into nuclear war? Will we feel safe if we shelter in the Hamptons, where we can play tennis with the swells as we breathe radioactive air? Or will we be better off living down a rural Southern road from a deer hunter who will go to almost any length to bring meat home to his family and might deign to teach an urbanite how to hunt deer?

Deer hunting with dogs: Better than ice fishing with Tim Walz

Are we nuts? Ukraine invades Russia

When the good guys invade a country, it’s called an incursion. When the bad guys invade a country, it’s called an invasion. Thus, when the United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, the press described the event as an incursion.

When the good guys sponsor an independence election, it’s an exercise of democracy. When the bad guys sponsor an independence election, it’s called an illegal annexation and a violation of international law.

Over the years, the United States has supported free elections worldwide to further democracy. Nevertheless, when the people of Crimea voted to join Russia and the people of the Donbas region did likewise, the Western press described these expressions of democracy as fraudulent violations of international law.

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Now, Ukraine has invaded Russia. According to the American sycophant press, Ukraine’s action is an incursion, not an invasion. Nothing to see here folks; please move along.

Ukraine has sunk about a third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and now it has pushed Ukrainian troops into the Kursk region of Russia. Ukraine could not have done those things without American approval and logistics support. It would not be unfair to say that the United States has attacked Russia by destroying the Russian navy and invading Russian soil. Indeed, Vladimir Putin sees it that way, and Putin has nuclear weapons.

How smart are the Americans who have managed the Ukraine war? Let’s face it. Joe Biden is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and Kamala Harris is no brighter.

Americans are not giving much thought to the war in Ukraine. The mainline press is obsessed with the November election, and the Labor Day holiday is approaching. We aren't concerned with events in Ukraine, where war has produced a million casualties.

Putin has warned us that an escalation of the war in Ukraine could force Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons. I believe him. Biden, Congress, and the New York Times apparently believe that Putin is just blowing smoke.

If nuclear war breaks out because of our stupid meddling in Eastern Europe, I will be in Mississippi catching catfish on the Buffalo River. The residents of New York, Boston, and Washington, DC, will be the people at risk. 

And when the apocalypse descends on America, the coastal elites will suddenly discover the charms of Flyover Country. They will be welcome to shelter in the rural South so long as they leave their arrogant and self-centered politics behind.

Russian refugees from the Kursk region

Golly gee, It doesn't matter who we elect as president

Well, golly gee, what have you done to me?

Well, I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

Buddy Holly (1956)

Americans are caught up in a frenzy about the November election as if it matters who we choose as president. But it doesn't. 

An economic, military, and political hurricane is building strength just off our coast, and soon, it will slam ashore as a Category 5 storm--destroying our economy, our status as a world power, and our way of life.

Here's what's coming our way:

The war in Ukraine. Separatists and Russian troops have been fighting Ukraine in the Donbas for ten years. Ukraine has lost that war and will never reclaim the territory Russia holds. It's lunacy to talk about throwing Russia out of Crimea.

Americans are treating the war like the lottery. Every month, we pour money down the Ukrainian rathole, hoping we'll eventually buy the winning ticket. We don't seem to realize it's a sucker's bet.

Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.  Israel has been fighting Islamic hatred since 1948, and American money and armaments have kept the wolves at bay.

But the progressive left is bored with Israel, and it's now fashionable to support the Palestinians. President Biden and Antony Blinken are at the roulette table, and they think they can win if they put half their resources on red and half on black. Another sucker's bet.

Our sucker economy. Our government has maxed out all its credit cards. There's not enough money to fight a war in Ukraine and another in the Middle East while paying out all those Social Security checks, Medicare bills, and student loan payouts. Soon, we'll be asking the global loan sharks for cash, but we can't afford the vig. Yet another sucker's game.

So, to riff Buddy Holly, golly gee, who gets sworn in as president doesn't matter anymore. Neither Harris nor Trump can turn the ship of state around.

In short, Americans have behaved like gamblers playing the slots at a Biloxi casino—they didn't realize they were on the dirty side of the storm until the hurricane arrived to blow their gambling den to smithereens.

Is it time to stock up on canned goods and ammunition? Maybe not. But it's definitely time to stop gambling with America's future.