What the Hell is Going on Here, Anyway: Trump vanquishing all his GOP rivals.
Patrick Slattery
January 23, 2024
Dear Readers,
This is the second installment of what might become a weekly column called “What the Hell is Going on Here, Anyway,” or perhaps “What in the World is Happening,” depending on editorial input.
Our top story of the week: Trump vanquishing all his GOP rivals.
I know this is a topic that practically anyone can talk about, so I will try to avoid being too pedestrian, whatever that means, and try to focus on big-picture implications. On Monday, January 15 the Iowa Caucuses took place, and Trump received more votes than all his Republican rivals combined. His margin of victory set a new record. Two of his three remaining rivals of any note, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, suspended their campaigns and endorsed Trump while also criticizing his remaining rival, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, as a tool of the establishment. Today is the New Hampshire Primary. Haley has been the beneficiary of massive funding from the Republican establishment, and she has poured it into paid advertisement in New Hampshire. Haley had what may seem to be a respectable finish with over 40% of the vote and at this point says she will continue her campaign, but there is no realistic path forward for her to defeat Trump electorally.
I say that as a lifelong aficionado of presidential elections. Just to keep you, my dear readers, a step ahead of this, the next contests will be in Nevada. Because of a struggle between pro-Trump and anti-Trump forces, Nevada will hold both a primary (on Feb 6) and a caucus (on Feb 8). The primary is mandated by a new state law, but the caucus will decide the delegates. Candidates had to decide between having their name on the primary ballot or the caucus ballot. Haley chose the primary, and Trump chose the caucus. So Trump will win the caucus and all the delegates. Haley presumably will win the primary, but Nevada allows for voters to select “none of the above,” so who knows? The next Republican contest after that will be the South Carolina primary on Feb 24 (Democrats in the state hold their primary on Feb 3). While Haley used to be governor, the state’s elected officials have overwhelmingly endorsed Trump, so Haley will likely be spanked at the ballot box. Also, unlike New Hampshire, South Carolina only allows Republicans to vote in the Republican primary. The only question is how long will the donors be willing to fund a Quixotic Haley campaign as some sort of long shot Plan B to Trump.
A word about Haley before we move on. She has a history of men stating they have had affairs with her. One such claim became the basis for a divorce suit in which Haley was named as the other woman. (SC Gov. Nikki Haley Named As Other Woman In Divorce Case | Crooks and Liars https://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/sc-gov-nikki-haley-named-other-woman-) Of course, nobody really cares about this stuff anymore… Haley, by the way, differs little from Biden in terms of immigration, anti-whitism, and various social issues, and is even more belligerent and war mongering in her foreign policy.
Anti-Trump forces will continue their hi-jinx and shenanigans against the former president, but these efforts are likely to continue to be ineffective, at least as far as depriving him of the Republican nomination is concerned. Hauling him into court has given a new meaning to the term “Trumped-up charges,” and has only increased his popularity. Keeping him off a few primary ballots in and of itself will do nothing to stop the runaway Trump train heading into the Republican convention this summer. Even keeping him off the general election ballots could backfire, as it exudes unfairness and desperation, and there are ways around it by using proxy candidates and the electoral college. There will no doubt be an effort to use massive electoral fraud in the general election this November to steal the election, which worked in 2020. It could work in 2024, but the fact that many of their methods are now well-known should make it at least somewhat more difficult.
So what would it mean to have a second Trump administration. This is very much an open question. Trump is speaking in public for hours and hours every week at his campaign rallies, but even if you feel you understand his words, they only go so far in foretelling his future actions. Trump speaks very unclearly. He purposely leaves much to the imagination, with the hope that his listeners will imagine things in a positive way. A good example of this is his often-repeated contention that the Ukraine War would have never happened had he been president. He usually does not explain why. When I hear him say it, I imagine he means that Victoria Nuland (whom he fired on his inauguration day) would not have been allowed back in the State Department to implement her plot to take down Putin. I imagine that he means he would never have provoked Putin to the extent that Putin felt compelled to invade Ukraine. After all, I voted for Trump in 2016 because he said he thought he could get along with Putin. But the typical Trump supporter probably imagines that Putin fears Trump’s strength and willingness to unleash America’s military might to rudely put Putin back in his place.
Still, Trump had said some interesting things at recent rallies. For instance, he said there would be no central bank digital currency under his administration. He said he would withhold federal funding from schools that implement mask or vaccine mandates. He talks openly about anti-white discrimination. He says the only way to avoid World War III is to elect him. He pledges to finish the wall and deport illegal aliens. These are all positions that his base wants to hear, with the possible exception of World War III, which Americans in general are rather ambivalent about. Americans have come to believe that war is just something you watch on TV, like football. Sure, people get hurt and die in war, but they get hurt and die playing football too, especially since the vaccines. Still, it is good that he is talking about these issues. In general, he is a good influence on people. Plus, he’s funny. Of course, he has a record of being unwilling and/or unable to follow through on his campaign positions.
Meanwhile, the American position in the international system is rapidly deteriorating. There are reports out of the Ukraine that President Zelensky has or is about to dismiss his top military commander General Zaluzhny. Zaluzhny recently stated that Zelensky would face consequences if he were dismissed, and Zaluzhny apparently has the support of the military. Zaluzhny is reportedly being replaced with 38-year-old Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief. Budanov has never commanded troops in battle and instead is a special operations officer. While Zaluzhny has butted heads with Zelensky over the president’s willingness to fight to the last Ukrainian and has preferred a more defensive strategy, he nonetheless is thoroughly invested in the unrealistic proposition that Ukraine could take on Russia militarily. However, Budanov is downright delusional, insisting that Putin is dying of cancer and that victory is just around the corner. His bread and butter has been covert operations, making some sort of false flag operation all the more possible, such as an attack on a nuclear plant that could be blamed on Russia and justify moving the government west to Lvov in order to avoid capitulation and postpone the inevitable. (Ukraine: Zelensky may soon oust military chief Zaluzhny – Asia Times https://asiatimes.com/2024/01/ukraine-zelensky-may-soon-oust-military-chief-zaluzhny/) But Zelensky is under attack from other rivals, including former President and chocolate oligarch Petro Poroshenko, Kiev Mayor and former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, and former Prime Minister and piece of crumpet Yulia Tymoshenko. It’s hard to think that Zelensky’s days are anything but numbered.
Over in Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s situation is also deteriorating. A minister in Israel’s war cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot, is saying that the stated goal of eliminating Hamas is unrealistic.
(US Intelligence Says Israel Nowhere Close to Its Goal of Eliminating Hamas – News From Antiwar.com https://news.antiwar.com/2024/01/21/us-intelligence-says-israel-nowhere-close-to-its-goal-of-eliminating-hamas/) Eisenkot is a general whose son has died in the fighting in Gaza. Now relatives of Jewish captives being held in Gaza have disrupted Knesset proceedings, demanding that their loved ones be brought back. Many dozens of captives were released some last month during a ceasefire, while none have been freed and many killed during the bombing and military operations. It is clear that the release of the captives is not a priority for Netanyahu, and in fact there is ample evidence that on October 7 the Israeli military killed perhaps hundreds of Israelis to prevent them from being taken captive in the first place. Israel has a history of releasing Palestinian prisoners by the dozens or even hundreds to secure a single Jewish captive, which is a result of the public forcing the government’s hand. Netanyahu would have greater freedom of action if all the captives were dead. Netanyahu may thus pivot away from Gaza and towards Hezbollah. Good luck with that. Houthi-dominated Yemen has already declared war on Israel and is blockading ships bound for Israel from entering the Red Sea. A war with Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon would make the 2006 defeat by the militia look like a walk in the park. So much has changed since then.
In 2006 the United States was recognized as the world’s only superpower, and had a large army stationed nearby in Iraq. Public support for Israel in the United States was high. By contrast, in 2024 the United States is increasingly isolated, while the international system is reorganizing itself around Russia and China. The American political elite are still in Israel’s corner, but there are large anti-Israel demonstrations in cities and college campuses on an on-going basis. And the opposition to Israel is coming from the very voters/demonstrators that Biden needs in order to steal another election.
What is remarkable is the contrast in the political positions of the leaders of the Western countries on the one hand and the newly emerging BRICS-centered alignment on the other. While Putin and Xi Jinping enjoy popular support and are completely secure in their positions, it is doubtful that Biden, Netanyahu, Zelensky, British PM Rishi Sunak, or German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz will even survive the year. Moreover, with the possible exception of Biden, there doesn’t seem to be much chance of any of them being replaced by a new leader who can change direction. And make no mistake, the direction that the West is going in is one of decline, de-industrialization, replacement-level immigration, and degeneracy.
And that leads me to the last story this week. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has engaged in a humiliation ritual at the Auschwitz camp in Poland. To make matters worse, he took the trip with “conservative” commentator Ben Shapiro. For my readers who do not know who Ben Shapiro is, I envy you. Shapiro is a yarmulke-donning little twerp who looks like an adolescent despite just having turned 40. For over a decade he has been promoted by the Zionist media establishment as the new voice of the right. He steers the listeners to his massive podcast in what can only be called a kosher direction, emphasizing goals like banning abortion and criticizing the wokeness of the left, while de-emphasizing potentially racial issues like replacement-level immigration. He famously stated that “race doesn’t matter, ideology does,” meaning that it’s fine if half of Latin America moves to the United States as long as they vote Republican. If the richest man in the world voluntarily submits himself to public humiliation by a rabid Jewish activist who supports turning Gaza into a parking lot due to Musk having retweeted people pointing out examples of Jewish power, what does that tell you about the actual power structure in the United States?
Sincerely,
Patrick Slattery