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November 22, 2023

Finding your DNA roots is proving interesting. It used to be that the racists said that if you had a drop of African blood you were black. Well a dear friend of mine is white but she found via the 1870 census that her great great great grandmother is listed as mulatto yet she still considers herself as white. On a hunting trip with a father and son, they found that their DNA listed them as one percent African. They joked about it and still consider themselves as white, not black. I am one percent Native American – presumably Cherokee – but am still black. I wonder why if all these other people have African blood, why aren’t they not African-American? Obviously they are not or else they would be able to dance much better than they can right now.

So who is really African-American? I don’t use the term for myself even though I am 50 percent African. If I go to Togo, Benin or the Congo, none of the residents look vaguely like me. No one is going to come up to me and say welcome home my brother in whatever language they speak. We blacks in America are a unique race, having been thoroughly mixed up. I have 10 distinct DNA strains. My mother was 32 percent British but never claimed that nationality. In fact the term African-American was first used by racists at emancipation to denigrate the newly minted black citizens as being a lesser American. Isn’t it interesting that we have adopted the same term? 

When the term “black” was first used in the civil rights era my father refused to call himself that. In those days, the terms “Negro” and “colored” were used. My Dad used to say “well what are we calling ourselves this week? The term black then denoted something that was not positive. He finally came around to using “black”. I find African-American as ignoring all the other DNA strains. I guess I am a Mongrel-American but that term will never get traction.

A friend of mine said that for him African-American denoted all of us who have African roots and whose ancestors were enslaved. So I guess that excludes all blacks who were not the product of slavery. What of the blacks who came as indentured servants and were never slaves? Are they African-Americans too? What about the black immigrants? Are they African-Americans?

What all this means is that the one drop of blood no longer defines what is an African-American but neither does slavery. What are we and what should we call ourselves? The term African-American is a cop-out and is the product of intellectual laziness. Yet it is convenient. I will still use the term black but I am a dying breed.

What do you call yourself? I know Italian-Americans, Greek-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans and other hyphenated Americans. Yet few if any are “pure”. They claim the dominate DNA gene. One person I know mother’s side came from Italy and his father’s side came from Poland. What is he? His last name is Polish but he doesn’t consider himself a Polish-American. He actually says he has closer ties to his mother’s side of the family yet he doesn’t say he is Italian-American. This country has been truly a melting pot and perhaps one day all this racial distinction will fade and we will all recognize ourselves as a mixed breed. Obama had an African father and a white mother. Is he mixed race? Tiger Woods has a Thai mother and a black father. Is he mixed race? What about the rest of us? American-Americans anyone?

Knoxville Focus

knoxfocus.com

November 20, 2023

I read that if the US transitioned over night to all electric motor vehicles, the impact would be at most a 12 percent reduction of the earth’s carbon emissions. It would actually be much less given the negative environmental impacts of electric vehicles which may be more damaging to the environment than internal combustion engines (ICE). If true, then the war that the Biden Administration has been conducting on automobiles, fossil fuels, small engines, leaf blowers, weed eaters, gas furnaces, wood fired ovens, light bulbs and all the rest will have a negligible effect on the environment. So to quote Stevie Wonder “What the Fuss?” 

There is a large scientific literature – mostly suppressed – that finds that the world is not in imminent danger from changes in the climate. Many prominent scientific journals will not publish these studies and many funding sources will not fund research contrary to the climate change narrative. Since researchers are driven to publish for success and to acquire funding, they are motivated to cheat and falsify their findings in order to achieve the “correct” results. It has been reported elsewhere that over 60 percent of published empirical results may be compromised. 

Part of the review process for submission to a journal entails peer review. The paper is sent out to one or two experts in the field to opine on the worthiness of publishing. Reviewers are apt to reject even a well reasoned paper if the results fall contrary to what the reviewer believes. I have encountered this with several papers and ended up submitting to other journals in hopes of finding a sympathetic reviewer. Biases exist. I rejected a paper solely on the basis that the although the author had cited several of my papers, my name appeared in the references as African-American, Harold A. I kid you not.

These falsifications are not merely of young assistant professors struggling to publish in the top journals to achieve tenure and promotion. It is also the most eminent scientists in the country. The climate director at Berkeley altered results in order to get a paper published. The president of Stanford recently resigned accused of falsifying data. Plagiarism has always been rife within academics (as well as politics, see Joe Biden). 

The false reporting by scientists and other researchers and the rejection of contrary narratives were magnified by COVID. Many of the most cited studies of COVID were found to be false. COVID deaths were inflated. Dubious models predicted the end of the world and led governments to shut down the economy, force vaccinations and masks on the public. Papers that questioned these models were refused publication and labelled “misinformation.”

I have conducted empirical research over a 40 year period. During that time, I have been an expert witness in cases where statistics are used by both sides to “prove” their arguments. Often I was on the opposite side of the government. Invariably, the government’s experts used incorrect models, or data, or statistical models to generate results favorable to the government. When I produced evidence demonstrating that my models, methods, data, et. al were more plausible, my side prevailed. We did not lose a single case to the government.

I have come to the point where I don’t necessarily believe what scientists purport to find unless I – or some disinterested third party – can corroborate the findings. I do not believe the CDC’s pronouncements or that from any agency in the current administration. Biden and his minions lie to us with a straight face, i.e., “the border is secure.” They know they are lying. We know they are lying. They know that we know that they are lying. But they do it anyway and their apologists simply make excuses.

I am not alone. Trust in the government is low perhaps because the public knows their officials are lying. It is becoming evident that the climate “crisis” may not be a real crisis and may be manufactured in order for governments to manipulate their constituents and exert control over them. Many businesses and individuals have become rich promoting their “inconvenient facts” about the climate and have their useful idiots who block highways, deface priceless art and spike trees. A recent study of glacial ice finds that from a historical standpoint, the planet is not warming. It is warming only from a particular point in recent history and still well below what has been the norm for the planet.

I’ve always said “Prove me wrong. If you do, I will adopt your view.” So my challenge to the environmental doom-and-gloomers, show me your evidence. Show me your models. Show me your data.

Knoxville Focus

Knoxfocus.com

November 13, 2023

Hamas committed an unspeakable evil. It targeted defenseless civilians for extermination. How anyone regardless of their feelings toward Israel could sympathize with this barbaric act is beyond me. Israel seems intent on destroying northern Gaza and to that end is forcing its 1 million Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza. What is striking is that Egypt and Jordan have closed their borders to the Palestinians. Lebanon and Iran haven’t opened their borders to them either. In fact, the only ones who want to accept refugees are members of the Squad and their fellow Democrats. If Muslim nations do not want Palestinian refugees, then neither should we.

In retrospect the Israelis were incredibly stupid. Israel has tough gun control laws. Less than 2 percent of Israelis are permitted to have guns. It would seem that all Israelis should have guns and that gun ownership should be mandatory in the settlements that are close to Gaza and Lebanon to counter Hamas and Hezbollah. Apparently, the Israelis thought that their military could respond quickly to any threat and protect their citizenry. They were wrong. Why they didn’t have armed security at the music festival is beyond me. They need to rethink the security of their citizens who live so close to those that want to kill them. The only reason for such strict gun control is that they must fear their Muslim citizens. This is akin to the gun control laws in the deep south that were enacted to prevent blacks from owning guns.

Those who hate Israel often refer to it as an apartheid state. Those who try to counter the charges are wasting their time and the name callers should be ignored. Defenders of Israel point to its Muslim citizens having the vote and being in the Knesset. However, Israeli actions on the West Bank are akin to apartheid. Nevertheless, all the Muslim countries in the Middle East practice apartheid themselves. All restrict the actions and liberties of non-Muslims and discriminate against them. They also restrict women’s rights, persecute Christians and non-Muslims and are uniformly intolerant to the LBGTQ. Why aren’t they called apartheid too?

One thing is certain. As the war progresses people will forget the atrocities that caused it and will turn against the Israelis as the progressive Western press will blame Israel for the suffering of the Palestinians. Hopefully, Israel will ignore all noise and do what it considers best in order to survive.

The Palestinians resoundingly reject Biden’s suggestion of a two state solution. Rather they and their supporters call for a Palestine “from river to sea.” This is the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Here Israel is situated meaning the Palestinians want to erase Israel. These are the Palestinian homelands. But these are also the Jewish homelands and the Jews have words from the Old Testament to justify their claim. Exodus 23:31 says “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you.” This was literally done and created both the modern state of Israel and its eternal enemies.

There has never been a Palestinian state. Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, as was most of the Middle East. After World War I, that territory became administered by Britain. The Brits led by Winston Churchill subsequently divided the territory into nations and established Israel. Although the Palestinians did not have a nation, there were over 500 villages and 600,000 residents living in the territory that had to be either relocated or absorbed into the new nation of Israel. In many cases, the removal of the residents by force was not peaceful and in some cases tragic. The worse instance was in the village of Deir Yassin where Zionist paramilitary groups killed (some say massacred) men, women and children Palestinians. I had a Palestinian MBA student whose family survived the massacre and called it Palestine’s Wounded Knee. In fact, the removal and displacement of the Palestinians is akin to that of the American Indians. It is a miracle that we do not have Native American terrorists killing whites and demanding the return of their Homelands.

Israel now exists and will continue to exist. The Jews who fled Europe have created a miracle in the desert. They have taken barren desert and transformed it into a vibrant dynamic economy that is as rich in human capital and ingenuity as it is empty in natural resources. However, with both Palestinians and Israelis claiming the same land and evoking the same god, peaceful coexistence will be an eternal challenge. 

Its no secret that I love baseball. Now that Shohei Ohtani has rejected his qualifying offer, he is reputed set to receive a record free agent contract. A qualifying offer is made to free agents by their current team. A qualifying offer is the average of the top 125 contracts by annual value. This year that figure is $20,325,000. Ohtani was one of 7 who rejected their offers. The others were Cody Bellinger (who is rumored to go to the Yankees), Josh Hader, Blake Snell (who may win the Cy Young in the National League), Aaron Nola (who is from New Orleans!), Sonny Gray and Matt Chapman. Gray and Chapman were surprises to me. I would have taken the money.

I really like Ohtani. He will win another American League MVP. If he pitched full time he would win the Cy Young. If he DH’ed full time he would win the Triple Crown. But doing both has resulted in his getting hurt too often. But he is worth the price of admission. We go to St Petersburg and camp for a week and go to two Rays’ games when the Angels come to visit. Ohtani will likely get a guaranteed contract in excess of $60 million a year. The question is how many years. Naturally the Yankees are listed as a possible suitor. But they should know better. They got GianCarlo Stanton in free agency from the Marlins. Stanton has been a bust mainly because of his frail health. He was awful last year batting .191 with 24 home runs. The Yankees may waive him but are on the hook for the $94 million remaining on his contract.

Currently the richest contract in the majors is Ohtani’s teammate Mike Trout. Yet with Ohtani, Trout and a former high priced free agent in Antony Rendon the Angels have never made the playoffs. That got me to wondering if these free agents are worth the money. I know you will say the Texas Rangers who paid dearly for Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager and Matt Scherzer. But deGrom was hurt all year and Scherzer came via trade late. But Corey Seager may have been worth the $325 million. He has been a consistent all star, won the World Series with the Dodgers and Rangers and was MVP in both. Nevertheless, the Rangers are a collection of no names. The same is true of the Tampa Bay Rays who have of late out performed the high priced Yankees and Red Sox in their division despite having very little fan support and one of the lowest payrolls in baseball.

All this leads me to wonder if the team with the highest payroll ever won the World Series. The answer is yes. The Yankees in 2009 and the Red Sox in 2018. I was surprised that the Dodgers were not on that list when they won the World Series in 2020. They had Mookie Betts and Clayton Kershaw but were second in payroll to the Yankees. Corey Seager was MVP was paid “only” $13.75 million. So expect Ohtani to get record bucks, be a huge attraction and win MVPs. But don’t expect his team to win the World Series.

Harold A Black

I am not an expert on immigration. But neither are the vast majority of our politicians who are expected to enact laws on immigration. There are some common sense (to me) actions that would address the problem of the massive movement of illegals to our southern border. One of my friends asked me how would I deal with the crisis. Here are my ideas. Please tell me where I am wrong and how to fix it.

Suggestions on illegal immigration:

Provide pathway to citizenship to the “Dreamers”

End citizenship for children born in the country to noncitizens

Require work permits for all able bodied adults

Deport those without work permits

Deport “got-aways”

Provide an easier pathway to citizenship to legal immigrants

Provide financial support to communities on the border

Require visas for entry at border (obtained through US Embassies or consulates)

Return all unaccompanied minors to their home country

Reinstitute ICE removals

Tie aid to foreign countries to assistance with illegals migrating from those countries

Reinstitute remain in Mexico policy

End catch and release and replace it with catch and deport

End the hearings where illegals are held in detention for 20 days and then released with a hearing date

Require those with visas and work permits to renew or be deported

I know that some will say that this will result in profiling where those who look foreign will be required to prove that they are legal, resulting in harassment of Latinos and people of color. It will be akin to my being pulled over for driving while black (DWB). I admit this bothers me but the alternative bothers me more.

By the way, the photo was taken by me in during a hunting trip to Eagle Pass, TX

A reader of my column in the Knoxville Focus (knoxfocus.com) asked me to cite Biden’s failures. I told him that if he had to ask, then there was no use for me to cite them. He insisted and said that I might be able to convince him. Again I told him that I didn’t consider it my duty to convince anyone of anything. What I have found is that those things that I consider a failure, those on the left consider it a success. But here goes.

Afghanistan pullout

Afghan aid

Iran nuclear deal

Iran blackmail dollars

Paris Accord

Foreign policy

Domestic policy

Incompetent cabinet

Keystone pipeline

Woke military

Illegals

Green new deal

Spending

Inflation

Economy

Bidenomics

Woke administrative state

Weaponization of DoJ

School trans policy

COVID 19 tyranny

Energy dependence

Federal debt

“Gender affirming” care

Gaffes and Blunders (too numerous to list)

Most divisive president since Abraham Lincoln

Did I leave anything out?

November 8, 2023

I am going on my annual deer hunting trip to Eagle Pass, TX, the epicenter of the illegal crisis. Seemingly every night Fox News has a report from there. I wonder why they only interview white ranchers. Even though the rancher where I hunt is at his wits end, the people most severely impacted are the residents of Eagle Pass whose town is inundated with illegals. Most of the residents are Hispanic as are the town officials. Why Fox doesn’t interview ordinary citizens is beyond me. Las year while sitting in a shooting tower, we saw two groups of illegals walking through the ranch all wearing backpacks and looking at their cell phones. In addition to hunting deer, I guess I’ll wave at them as they stroll by. At last count the border patrol had apprehended “migrants” from 160 countries. Mind you there are only 195 countries in the world. There are over 40,000 from India along with those from China, the Middle East and who knows where.

I don’t understand the Taylor Swift phenomena. Sure she is cute but I have yet to get past her videos.

Why is it that all the burglars on the security commercials are white males?

Previously the anti-Israel crowd claimed that it was not anti-Semitic. It supposedly was against the Israeli occupation of Palestine denying the Palestinians access to their homelands. Of course, the same ground is the homelands of Israel too. The attacks on Jews in this country and others puts a lie to the claim of not being anti-Semitic. It is pitiful to hear the Biden folks warn against Islamophobia when the attacks on Jews are tenfold that on Muslims.

The news coverage of pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses makes it appear that most students are anti-Semitic. I wonder if that is true. It seems that all the quotes are from professors in the humanities. What about the professors of business and engineering? I wonder how many business and engineering students are in the protests.

I applaud Brandeis University for expelling the radical Jewish hate group Students for Justice in Palestine from its campus. Florida has done the same. I wish more universities had the guts to follow suit. Imagine what would be the consequences of another student group using the same rhetoric against blacks. I am waiting with baited breath for the SPLC to label Students for Justice in Palestine a hate group.

The Deep State has reared its head in the Israel-Hamas war. Civil servants in high places in the Federal government are criticizing Biden for supporting aid and arms to Israel. We know that the Deep State worked to thwart Trump when he was in office. Now it is doing the same with Biden. Something has to be done about this. Civil servants should be agenda free carrying out the wishes of their bosses. You always hear about term limits for politicians. What about term limits for civil servants?

As I have noted before, Israel is creating a schism in the Democrat party. Yet all those that I have seen interviewed who are members of the Hamas Caucus at the state and federal level are all politicians of color. Aren’t there some white progressives who hate Isreal too?

We were at the Georgia – Missouri game and for the first time in four years were able to sit with my granddaughter who is a graduating senior at Georgia. She is a recruiting specialist and at every home game is with the recruits. She was able to be excused during this game to come sit with us in the Terry College’s box. My thanks to the Dean for making this happen. It was great. I am proud of her achievements at UGA and look forward to being her commencement speaker December 15.

Knoxville Focus

knoxfocus.com

November 6, 2023

I am suffering from Trump Fatigue Syndrome (TFS).

Trump dominates the news. When he was president 92 percent of the media coverage of him was negative. Amazingly – but not surprising – Biden has received less negative media coverage than any president on record. Who was it that said that the legacy media was the PR arm of the democrat party?

There is a new COVID variant afoot. The CDC and the media are already starting to raise the possibility of masks and mandatory vaccinations. I thought this was the “my body my choice” crowd?

Trump has a video in which he says “The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fearmongering about the new variants that are coming.” “But to every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: We will not comply, so don’t even think about it. We will not shut down our schools. We will not accept your lockdowns. We will not abide by your mask mandates, and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.” 

I guess that he forgot that he was the first to impose mandates that shut the economy down, issued mask mandates and closed the schools. Remember flattening the curve? Remember 15 days to stop the spread? That was Trump. Remember Operation Warp Speed and the rush to produce mRNA experimental vaccines that indemnified Big Pharma? That was Trump. 

I don’t blame Trump for his initial response with all the fear mongering from Fauci, the CDC and all the models predicting the end of the world. But Fauci and the CDC were lying and the models were bogus. I do blame Trump for shutting down small businesses while allowing the giants to remain open leading to thousands of small business failure. I do blame Trump for not pivoting when the evidence came in showing the folly of masks and vaccines for less vulnerable groups. Masking and vaccinating children are akin to child abuse. Those who are most vulnerable should be protected and the rest of us left alone. For the vast majority of us, COVID is a bad cold or the flu and we don’t shut down and mask for either even though 50,000 die from the flu yearly.

The vaccines have come with serious adverse effects. I have two otherwise healthy friends who almost died from the Moderna vaccine. There were also adverse reactions to the Pfizer/AstraZeneca vaccine with myocarditis and pericarditis risks. It just stands to reason that if Big Pharma is indemnified then they would be less careful in the production of the drug.

It’s no wonder that the new booster is sitting on the shelves gathering dust. I don’t know anyone who has gotten it. Do you?

Biden is so bad that he has made Trump look good. We tend to forget Trump’s inability to govern and his disastrous cabinet appointments. He pledged to end the administrative state and reform the Civil Service. He did neither. Instead he wasted his time on trying to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. That was a mistake. The two should have been separate. The first should be to repeal and then introduce an act to replace. The effort failed due to the one vote of John McCain who likely voted “no” simply because he hated Trump. Now Obamacare with all its warts is imbedded and will never be repealed.

Trump also ranted and raved about NAFTA claiming that it was the worse trade deal ever. Studies had shown that those states most adversely affected by NAFTA actually had positive gains in employment post NAFTA. But facts don’t matter in politics. So Trump and his people worked for countless hours to replace NAFTA with USMCA – the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Rolls right off the tongue. Close scrutiny shows that there is not much difference in the two despite the rhetoric.  

But Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices, made America energy independent and stemmed the flow of illegals crossing the southern border. He also reduced the regulatory burden on Americans. Those positives mean four more years of Trump will be better for the country than four more years of Biden who seems intent on destroying the economy.

I am a baseball fan. When the NFL and MLB seasons overlap I invariably watch baseball. I find the NFL boring while most find baseball boring. Yet this year I did not watch a single inning of the World Series. Neither did many others making this World Series one of the least watched in history. However, I was glad that the Texas Rangers won. They are the only MLB team that does not have a “Pride” night. That was enough for me to buy a Rangers cap.

The new speaker is causing much consternation among the left. They hate him. He would be wise to ignore all their criticism and follow his own muse. As expected, the Israel support bill coming out of the House did not contain funding for the Ukraine. What was unexpected is that the bill did not include new funding, rather the $14 b was drawn from the ludicrous $80 b slated to go to the IRS in the likewise ludicrous “Inflation Reduction” Act. The Senate Democrats howled and said the bill was dead on arrival. Mitch McConnell was not apparently happy either. Good. Although I thank McConnell for not allowing the hack attorney general Merrick Garland a seat on the Supreme Court, he has been too much of an establishment Republican for my taste. You know the type: content with the status quo, big spender but not as big as the Democrats. 

McConnell and the establishment Republicans act as if they want the approval of the mainstream media. Right now the media hates Mike Johnson. I hope he does not try to curry their favor. Let’s hope he sees their criticism as evidence that he is doing a good job.

Empirical research has been always suspect but never more so than now. Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases handed out over $45 b in research grants with some institutions receiving over $300 m a year. It should not be surprising that the recipients of the grants seldom produced results that ran afoul of Fauci. ”Research” supported Fauci’s claim that COVID did not come from the Wuhan lab, even though that made the most sense. The Center for Disease Control was in lock step with Fauci and its woeful director Rochelle Walensky was embarrassing. The result being that few people believed her utterances and fewer belied the results of their reported “research” results. Not surprisingly, the new COVID boosters are sitting on the shelves.

The Southern Poverty and Law Center brands organizations as hate groups and brands conservative groups with the label. So the Alliance Defending Freedom where Johnson was an attorney is labelled a “hate group”. Why? Because it is an anti LGBTQ advocacy group and is anti-abortion. The SPLC also brands Moms for Liberty as a hate group for their opposition to imposing LBGTQ, critical race theory and transgender curricula in public schools. However, the SPLC does not list Antifa as a hate group. Go figure.

The anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, demonstrations on and off college campuses are clearly anti-Semitic. Why else would Jews be targeted by the demonstrators and attacked? Why else are Jewish businesses attacked?  That the left is anti-Israel and labelled it an apartheid state is puzzling. Is Israel practicing apartheid within is borders? Are its Muslim citizens second-class? Apparently not. Yet Israel’s actions in the West Bank are clearly apartheid-like. Nonetheless, all of Israel’s Muslim neighbors are clearly apartheid states. They do not tolerate LGBTQ. They do not tolerate other religions and are clearly racist. Yet the progressives would rather support the Muslims over Israel. Why? The only reason that I can figure is that it is racial. The Israelis are being portrayed as the white oppressor of brown people.

Automobile manufacturers in the US and Europe are scaling back their production of EVs. The majority of the public would rather not have them. The initial sales spurts are over. The save the world crowd has gotten their EVs and the rest of us are buying the gasoline/diesel vehicles. The only way to get EVs widely purchased is to mandate them and ban internal combustion engines. Europe has moved in that direction as have California and other states. Biden’s new fleet milage requirements can only be met by EVs. This will lead to increased demand for used cars. The question is whether people will rebel and vote out the greenies.

EVs are evidence of Harold Black’s Laws 4-7.

4. If something fails the market test and exists only because of the government, it is bad.
5. If it is mandated it is bad.
6. If it is subsidized, it is bad.
7. If it is protected, it is bad.

The Republican caucus is a mess. Unlike the Democrats who seem to be able to vote unanimously on most issues despite some ideological differences, the Republicans have difficulty getting their act together. Being Speaker for them is like trying to herd cats. Contrast what the Republicans were doing with the relative ease that Hakeem Jeffries was voted in as minority leader, replacing Nancy Pelosi. Although Pelosi was an anathema to most Republicans, she was the unchallenged leader of the House Democrats. When she was challenged in her congressional races, it was always from the left who asserted that she was too moderate and not progressive enough. Yet she was elected to Speaker unanimously by the Democrats. Jeffries is in the same mold. Although many on the right try to paint him as a socialist, in fact he is anything but. By New York standards he is a “moderate” and actively campaigns against candidates of the Democratic Socialists of America. He would like nothing better than the socialists to lose in state races and in particular in races for the House. It is clear that he does not care for Jamaal Bowman and would like to see him defeated. I have written previously of how the Democrats could enact certain parts of their agenda even with the House Republican majority. All it would take would be seven defections from the Republicans and a unanimous Democrat vote. Thank goodness the Republicans finally elected a speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Who? Mike Johnson. Perhaps Johnson was the beneficiary of fatigue and exasperation, but finally we have a speaker. None to soon. The world is blowing up, the government shutdown is looming and the image in my mind is Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burns.

As expected, the Democrats and their allies have taken out the sharp knives to go after Johnson, instantly labelling him as the MAGA speaker. They have attacked his devout Christianity, his stand against abortion, against gay marriage and the administration’s trans policies. He was a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund defending conservative Christian interests. The ADF has been branded as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is becoming a badge of honor.

Johnson is a devout Christian with solid conservative credentials. He voted for McCarthy. He did not join Gaetz’ gang to ouster McCarthy. But he voted against the Ukrainian supplemental appropriations bill and supported the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the Trump defeats in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Johnson also voted for the resolution to impeach Joe Biden and is an advocate for single appropriations bills rather than the omnibus bills of Nancy Pelosi that no one had the time to read. Remember “We will find out what is in the bill after we pass it?” No wonder Trump endorsed him – but of course he also endorsed McCarthy. What will be interesting is that Johnson has only been in his fourth term making him one of the least experienced speakers in history. Hopefully he can successfully herd cats.

At least the Republicans tired of as my mother would say “making a fool out of themselves” and elected a speaker. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the House, especially with regards to the Federal budget. Expect any bill not to be passed by the Senate. Instead, the bills will go to conference to find a compromise. In the past, compromise mean Republican surrender. I have the feeling that with Johnson, it will be a true compromise. However, expect the Democrats to test him and maybe even force a government “shutdown” thinking that the Republicans will fold given the pressure from the Democrats’ allies in the media.