The Next Two Years

 

I could end the Ukraine War in one day?  Fail

Investigate Butler?  Fail

DOGE? Fail

MAHA?  Haha

MAGA?  Don’t make me laugh

Close the border?  Succeed

Deport those here illegally, at least the criminals?  Fail

Release Epstein files? Fail

Kick out Thomas Massie?  Succeed

Drain the swamp? Fail

No new wars? Fail

America First?  You-know-which-country first

Against DEI?  Fail

Bring prices down? Fail

Investigate Charlie Kirk murder?  Fail

Jail the corrupt?  Fail

Massive financial corruption?  Succeed

By the way, add to these dumping on his most loyal voters: farmers got higher diesel and fertilizer prices, and middle America (so-called “flyover country”) got data centers.  The only part of his coalition from two years ago that he kept happy was the one that wanted continued genocide and wanted him to bomb Iran and keep the war in Ukraine going.

Therefore…

2026 election results? 

Trump: "Not my fault!"

 

Now, Trump has slightly modified that statement; he now says (although this could also change by the time this post goes live) that the war in Iran cost the republicans, but it was still the right thing to do and one day everyone will see how genius he was for bombing Iran.

Or I think he said something like that.  I really stopped paying attention to what he says a long while ago.

Well, what was obviously going to happen on election night, happened.  The only way it wouldn’t have happened was if republicans were as good as democrats at rigging elections, and they are not.

It is truly amazing, how one person took perhaps the greatest political comeback in history, pulled together a broad coalition of voters, won the popular vote for the first time in the three times he ran – and turned it into as big a debacle of a mid-term election since…I don’t know when.  Maybe Watergate?  Maybe 1938 with the country weary of Roosevelt’s depression when republicans picked up 81 seats in the house?  For goodness’ sakes, a couple of states have a democrat as senator for the first time in 40 – 80 years or more! 

This very broad coalition voted for one set of programs and got completely the opposite – in almost every case!

The amount of hopium that was poured into how brilliant Trump is by the cult followers – even up to election day – has been shown to be false hope, worship of a false god. 

Understand what was lost: a broad coalition was brought together with one overriding agenda, and that was to save the country from madness.  Madness internally and madness externally.  No, not pure libertarians, no not socially or ethnically of one stripe, but all with some common overriding objective: put America and Americans first.

It is this that has been lost.

So, now where are we?  I am going to paint a picture of how the disaster of Trump can be turned into making a better republican party and a chance for a republican win in 2028.  Not that I think this will send the country in a better direction; just that it will not go in as bad a direction as it would with a democrat in office and democrats controlling both houses of congress – which is the current path we are on.

What is necessary to turn the tide back toward republicans?  The house and senate must conduct hearings, issue subpoenas, hold people in contempt, file and prosecute impeachments, investigate and prosecute corruption. 

Of course, none of the big names will be touched – well, maybe Hegseth as he barely made it out of the senate in the first place.  People you never heard of will have their lives ruined.

No problem getting democrats on board with most of this.  But a few republicans, especially in the senate, will have to join in.  The group in the senate to watch are those who are up for reelection in 2028 – actually, whether they run or if they retire but want to see a republican win the seat.  Specifically, those republican senators in states that went blue or purple this past week – they likely will have to join in if they want to retain their seat in two years.

So the questions are: which republican seats are up in two years, and how much risk is there to republicans in two years based on how their state voted in 2026?

Republican senators / seats up for re-election in 2028, and how the state voted in 2026:

Alabama: Katie Britt                                  Iowa: Chuck Grassley                     

Arkansas: John Boozman                           Kansas: Jerry Moran                       

Idaho: Mike Crapo                                      North Carolina: Ted Budd             

Indiana: Todd Young                                   Wisconsin: Ron Johnson

Kentucky: Rand Paul                                   Alaska: Lisa Murkowski

Missouri: Eric Schmitt                                 Florida: Ashley Moody

North Dakota: John Hoeven                         Louisiana: John Kennedy

Oklahoma: James Lankford                         South Carolina: Tim Scott

South Dakota: John Thune        

Utah: Mike Lee

 

Look at the column on the right.  Four of these seats are in states that went democrat (blue), and four of these are in states that were borderline between democrat and republican (purple).

These eight senators in the blue / purple states can easily be brought into a group to prosecute, subpoena, investigate, and impeach (with the same caveat as noted above).  And to protect their future, to be very public about it.

Distance yourselves from Trump and his cabinet.  If JD Vance thinks he has any shot at a political future, he needs to take the lead on this.  His post on the morning after the election might have been his opening salvo.

This distancing from Trump should start even now – don’t wait eight weeks for the new congress.  Republican committee chairs should openly and very publicly start working with the democrats who will take over the chairs in January to get all the ducks lined up.  Every republican who thinks he or she wants a future in politics should jump on board this train – today.

Conclusion

Again, in the big picture, it won’t change the general direction of the government: the military-industrial-spook complex and the banking / financial complex will keep driving this train into the ground while sucking out ever dollar of your blood in the process.  No amount of voting will change this, and no president or congress or court is in charge of this.  Control the Heartland (call it Eastern Europe and Central Asia), and if not, then turn it into chaos so no one can control it.  This objective remains, as it has for over 100 years.

But at least some of the other lunacy that affects our day-to-day lives if the democrats control all arms of the state will be kept tamped down.  That would be nice.

One fly in the ointment: it is more important for republicans to get rid of Trump soon than it is for democrats.  For democrats, their best chance to win in 2028 is to keep Trump in office until then.  For republicans…well, that’s what I reviewed above.  So, it may take Trump’s resignation (I strongly doubt this), death, or action by his cabinet. 

We are in for some interesting political theater.  And, oh by the way, war and the economy are likely to play meaningful supporting roles.

One Step Closer to Kafka

 

Starting with a post from almost two years ago: Please, No DOGE.  Several months before DOGE blew up, but after noting that there is no chance that the bureaucracy and those who live off its fat would allow Musk to take $2 trillion (or even $2 million) out of government spending, I offered:

But there is a bigger problem: do I want the government to more efficiently kill innocents overseas; more efficiently spy on me; more efficiently incarcerate perpetrators of victimless crimes; more efficiently process illegal aliens?  Oh, the list can go on.

Concluding with:

At most, Musk and his buddies will make some aspects of government more efficient – Blackwater will fix the DOD, Palantir will fix the CIA and FBI, etc.  You get the idea.  

I want none of that.

Well, the “good” parts of DOGE disappeared very quickly, and look what we are left with:

Beginning next year, U.S. citizens can apply for their first passport fully online, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

"By the end of 2027, our goal is for the vast majority of Americans to be able to apply for a passport or a passport card on America.gov," Rubio said during a Sept. 29 remark at an event launching the America.gov platform.

Now, setting aside the wisdom of such an idea (not my subject for today), this is just one step in a larger plan to make the government more “efficient.”  There is an entirely new platform being developed, consolidating every bit of federal government data into one location:

The America.gov platform was launched by President Donald Trump on Sept. 29.

Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to integrate their services with the platform.

The new web portal is aimed at making it easier for people to find government-related information, enabling people to ask questions and get guidance on how to procure various services.

The portal serves as a landing page that consolidates almost 30,000 federal government websites into one chatbot.

To the extent any of this is accomplished (also not my subject today), I suspect Russian and Chinese hackers are giggling with glee at how much easier this will make their work (and…also not my subject today). 

This is my subject:

Answers to questions about government services come directly from official government websites with links to sources, according to the platform.

If anywhere close to accomplished, this could reach all aspects of interaction with government.

Next year, the site is scheduled to offer assistance in finding Medicare coverage and enrollment.

Already a bankrupt program, but now we will make it go bankrupt even more efficiently?

The site will also make it easier for Americans to find a job in the federal government.

What?  If you are making the government more efficient, why make this part of the government more efficient?  Wouldn’t we require fewer government employees, not more?

Citizens will submit their resumes, and the platform will match them with positions fitting their experience.

If there was any true intent to make government more efficient (there isn’t), the government would do fewer things (say, start by looking at the actual Constitution for a blueprint); it wouldn’t work to do everything it does and more even more efficiently.

Conclusion

Now, if I believed this would result in some reduction in government spending due to a reduced need for wasteful hiring (say, at least $1 trillion), I might be willing to make the tradeoff.

And who knows what else they are planning to make more efficient (which, of course, they aren’t telling us about until it goes live – if then).  It is the “what else” that is the really scary stuff…assuming they could actually do any of this (although, there is always a bright and evil someone willing to trade their evil for a few coins).

To this end, returning to my post from two years ago:

Almost all that the government does are things that I do not want the government to do.  So why would I want the government to be more efficient at any of these?

I want none of this.

I am certain they will make the stuff I don’t want more efficient.  There are dozens of tech companies already serving or lining up to serve these ends.  Some of the brightest (and most dangerous) minds in the western world are telling us loudly what they intend in this regard.