Splendid Isolation

Sick Of The Exaggeration

From Stephen Green (and a veritable host of others):

“The Democrats have a destructive addiction to the 20% side of a whole host of 80/20 issues.”

I can’t remember who first uttered the “80/20 issues” trope, but I’ll bet it was a Democrat like James Carville or Bill Maher.

With all things, scale matters.

Are you telling me that 20% of voters — that’s one in every five voters — supports:

  • men competing in women’s sports
  • gender-reversal surgery on minor children without parental notification (let alone consent)
  • not expelling criminal illegal aliens
  • not ending the flood of illegal immigrants who draw money from public health- and education services, at the expense of U.S. citizens
  • deficit spending and a ballooning national debt
  • a voting system that enables voter fraud and crooked elections (in guess who’s favor)
  • Hamas-sponsored riots and
  • anti-Semitic attacks on Jews in college campuses
  • eco-terrorism and obstructive demonstrations
  • violent demonstrations against public officials (e.g. Supreme Court justices) who dare to oppose their agenda
  • waste, abuse and outright fraud in the federal government budget
  • sending foreign aid money — by the billion — to sponsor overt anti-American activities abroad
  • siphoning “foreign aid” money — by the tens of millions — to line the pockets of executives running Washington D.C. non-profit organizations
  • a military weakened by woke DEI policies and regulations
  • a foreign policy that supports enemies of the U.S. (e.g. Iran) rather than chastises them
  • over-regulation of industry which chokes off economic progress
  • schools which have failed our children, and the government department that is responsible for that failure
  • a mandate that all cars sold in the U.S. be EVs, by 2030 — i.e. five years’ time — with no supporting infrastructure to sustain them
  • [insert your favorite issues here]

Seriously?  One in every five voters supports all the above?

Let me tell you right now:  it’s not 20%, but more like 5%.  In other words, the Democrats are supporting splinter issues that may find favor with only five in every hundred U.S. citizens — and even 5% may be too high.

So let’s quit this exaggeration of their support, please.  Most of their positions are deeply unpopular with almost all voters, and an “80/20” apportionment gives a misleading impression.  Numbers matter, so let’s start using the more-correct one.


Speaking of numbers, here’s a recent poll highlight:

When asked in an open-ended question to name the Democratic leader they feel “best reflects the core values” of the party, “10% of Democratic-aligned adults name New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 9% former vice president Kamala Harris, 8% Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and 6% House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Another 4% each name former president Barack Obama and Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, with Schumer joining a handful of others at 2%.”

When AOC is your standard-bearer (and the rest are equally dire)…

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

This one made my heart swell with pride  (but also with sorrow):

According to Kentucky State Police, troopers were dispatched to the home in Manchester around 4:30 a.m. Saturday for reports of a shooting.  When troopers arrived, they found two men with gunshot wounds.

Jeffrey Allen, 51, was pronounced dead at the scene. Roger Smith, 44, was transported to an area hospital but later died.

Police said that the two men had broken into the home with the intention of stealing firearms from a safe.  During the break-in, a juvenile living in the home saw the men holding firearms. Acting in self-defense, police said, the child retrieved a handgun and shot both men before escaping through a bedroom window.

Police did not give the exact age of the child who shot the alleged intruders.

Now, why is my heart filled with sorrow?  Because as much as I applaud the kid’s actions, I hope like hell that this doesn’t cause him mental anguish.

Folks, it’s no fun taking a human life, even when the taking is both morally and legally justified.  And as much as I post these events and make light of them, I truly do not want kids to be involved.  It’s bad enough for an adult to deal with;  it’s horrible for a young ‘un.

That said, at least this kid wasn’t a victim of these two asshole goblins;  now that would have made me really angry.


In passing, the “Emily van der Riet” in the byline is this young lady:

She may even be a Seffrican, with that name — it’s quite a common one back in the Vaderland.  As long as she isn’t a liberal…

SOLD!

Talk about welcome news:

Danish campaigners are proposing to buy California from the United States and turn it into a territory of Denmark in response to Donald Trump‘s bid to acquire Greenland.

The ‘Denmarkification’ campaign says it seeks to crowdfund $1trillion to purchase the US state, after which it plans to instill it with Danish values and make the most of its sunny weather and resources.

Good luck with instilling any values — let alone Danish ones — into that cauldron of assholes, guys.  Hell, if you could clean up L.A. and San Francisco alone, you’d be doing the world a favor.

At least the new Danish “settlers” would be used to over-priced real estate, and the current crop of Californians would welcome your free healthcare and rampant socialism.  And don’t forget to include the cost of a wall around the place — we’ve had more than enough Californians infest the rest of the country, thank you.

And you Danes might as well forget speaking that throat-clearing stuff you call a language and learn to speak Spanish. Although that need may disappear soon, if you get your way:

Denmark’s immigration approach has been influenced by Right-wing parties for more than 20 years, with Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister and leader of the centre-Left Social Democrats, pursuing a “zero refugee” policy since coming to power in 2019.

The country of around six million people received 2,300 asylum requests last year.

“Last year, authorities granted the smallest number of residency permits to asylum seekers that we have seen in recent years,” Kaare Dybvad Bek, the immigration minister, said, calling the figure “historic”.

If you can do that in California… see the title of this post.

Bad Pennies

I don’t like this latest thing by the POTUS:

President Donald Trump announced he had instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to have the Treasury Department stop making new pennies, explaining that it costs more than two cents to make them.

Yes, it makes sense on a facile cost : benefit basis, but what it does is surrender to the trope that inflation (created by government in the first place) has rendered the penny valueless.

Why not work to rein in inflation and lower prices so that a penny becomes worth something again?

Oh wait;  that would be more difficult than just quitting on the penny.

Let Africa

…do without U.S. aid dollars?  The very thought!

In all fairness, it should be said that the “former Kenyan president” has more money than Bill Gates, earned quite honestly, promise.

Nevertheless, his point is valid;  I recall someone saying something quite similar about, oh, twenty years ago.