The best source of relevant American news is on the Internet and often on the websites of UK newspapers. The Daily Mail, which is not at all honest when printing UK news for its British readers, is surprisingly informative about US news on its website.
It is there that I learned that the recently escaped Mexican drug baron has gone on line to threaten Donald Trump. American newspapers and TV will not make much of this in case it helps Trump’s election campaign.
Guzman is said to be a billionaire and even when in prison wields enormous power. He has a history of eliminating rivals and enemies but we doubt that he intends to waste time on Trump when he has so many scores to settle on his own doorstep.
The war being waged on Trump by America’s political establishment continues to heat up and the Republican leaders and opinion formers are in the forefront. The latest Donald bashers include Senator Mary-Ann Lindsay Graham and the WSJ’s John Fund who has been summoned by the Jewish owners of the Journal to follow up on Peggy Noonan’s Saturday hit-piece.
Fund, who in the past has written well on Democrat election fraud, briefly takes The Donald to task on substance, but with little success, and soon resorts to personal pettiness. None of Trump’s detractors dare to tackle him head-on on illegal immigration. The bitterest criticism of Trump that unites all his detractors is that his comments on illegal immigration and crime are resonating with citizens. This is dismissed as ‘populism’, ‘bigotry’ and evidence of insincerity. The charge is that Trump does not believe what he is saying but is calculating that the topic is appealing to ignorant and irrationally angry people. I have never heard this charge made against Obama and his pandering to African Americans. Trump, in his Phoenix speech did not strike me as calculating or insincere.
When the Republican primaries began in the Spring I doubt any commentator, including this website‘s writer, expected that Trump’s entry would have any impact. The obvious serious contenders included Governors Christie, Bobby Jindal, and Scott Walker, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and former Governor Jeb Bush. They were all expected to either point to their records of financial reforms as Republican Governors, their accomplishments in the Senate or their racial appeal to minorities.
Trump’s speech on illegal immigrants and crime, its resonance with the Republican grass-roots and beyond, and the rage he has drawn from the MSM, its Leftist allies, Big Business and the Republican elite, has, at least for the time being, eclipsed all the contenders except Bush. From this point on it looks as though the Republican contest is going to be between two heavyweights.
Whether those of us on the Right are happy with this makes little difference for we cannot change the dynamic that has emerged. Suddenly, all the other contenders look like featherweights. It is possible to see with hindsight that the immigration issue has been the elephant in the room all along, suppressed by the MSM, the Left, Big Business and the Republican Party’s elite. Who would have thought that the one contender without a Republican office and no base in any State would hit the hot button and define the powerful insider Bush as the defender of open borders? Pity poor Carlie Fiorina who has just entered the race as a business woman untainted by political office and finds that Trump has beaten her to the ‘outsider’ claim. Pity poor Scott Walker, whose legitimate claim to be the governor who faced down the Public Service Unions, announces his candicy when every Republican activist is talking about Trump.
Today Rush Limbaugh was trying to talk up Walker’s candidacy, drawing attention to Walker’s promise to re-energize conservatives. At any other time Walker would have been the anti-Bush. Now not even Rush can put him in the ring where there is only room for two and the hot issue is borders/immigration. The problem for all the contenders who now find that the heavyweights have the ring is that fine boxing skills may be laudable but the public is drawn to heavyweight contests.
Bush is a heavyweight, but not because he is intellectually smart, has built a reputation as a fighter or because he is personally appealing. He is none of these things but everyone knows that those who promote the contests have their money on him and he is the insiders’ favorite. There is a lot of big money riding on the Bush candidacy. Trump is the challenger who is brash and confident, has long odds, seemingly has been training in secret and whose victory would hurt the rich and powerful.
But Trump is also exciting. When he makes his way down to the ring the spectators will crane their necks to see him and the atmosphere will be charged. I watched Walker’s Governor victory speech and he is not exciting. He may have more of the lightweight’s fancy footwork, the fast little punches and a boxer’s brain, but fight fans always choose to follow the more lumbering heavyweights because the punches, though fewer, are more devastating and the final result is the big prize.
Trump is no Reagan, though as one website visitor emailed, he may be America’s best bet since the Gipper. In contemporary dumbed-down America, sad to say, Reagan’s sophisticated speeches would fail to connect with many. Trump’s comparatively simple, night club style may be suitable to the times and would surely make Bush seem even more vapid.
Trump has been creating the kind of excitement that Sarah Palin briefly created among conservatives but he may also have the gift to be able to ignite it among those who normally avoid politics. One thing is certain, he has, maybe unwittingly at first, entered the big ring and is pitted against the Ruling Class and it allies. The more rounds he wins, the more he looks like a winner the more chance he will be taken down. Make no mistake, under the cloak of ‘politics as usual’ a deadly revolution is taking place and the revolutionaries will stop at nothing. Let us hope that Trump knows the risks. El Chapo may have enough on his plate but the Ruling Class could surely find an illegal killer to hire on the streets of LA or New York.
Global Warming Watch
Here in middle California temperatures have been normal or a little below. In many parts of the USA the weather has been colder than usual for July. Climate experts are now predicting a little ice age beginning in 2030. They need to talk to the Pope before he makes an even bigger fool of himself.
Music Choice
For bebop lovers! In 1948 pianist Tadd Dameron, a composer of many good tunes, took a sextet of great musicians into New York’s legendary Royal Roost. One of the numbers recorded was ‘The Tadd Walk’, not one of Dameron’s best compositions but it featured the excellent and now-forgotten tenor sax player Allen Eager and the Parker partner Fats Navarro on trumpet. Rudy Williams on alto is also long forgotten though Curly Russell (bass) and drummer Kenny Clarke made a bigger impact on the jazz scene. Primitive recording techniques on live sessions make this a hard but worthwhile listening experience. 1948’s jazz scene was full of musicians who were on fire and lived for their music.