Symphony – Page 57 – Pacific Daily Times Editorials

This was an astonishing victory for Republicans for any year, especially a controlling party midterm. Senate Republicans have rarely held this many seats since the FDR days except Reagan and W Bush. Losses in the House were among the lowest losses for a controlling party midterm. By gaining seats in the Senate, Republicans are winning the long game. We are headed for a possible supermajority by the end of Trump’s second term. In the next two years, House Democrats will have just enough power to be irritating, but not enough to make any difference, other than helping Trump get re-elected in 2020.

Democrats are darned if they do and darned if they don’t. Trump’s appointees can be approved faster and impeachment in the House would die in the Senate. Opposition party power is good for presidential elections. Trump’s best course of action would be to deliver the strongest Conservative proposals so Democrats can go on record as obstructionists. The best course of action for Democrats would be to talk and vote like Republicans, which has always been historically favorable, proven with Democratic Rahm Emanuel -led “blue dog” victory in 2006.

Results are still being counted. At last count, Democrats gained 30 seats in the House and had control of the House by 7. Most of those states had Democratic Senate and gubernatorial victories. In this victory for Democrats, nothing seems out of the ordinary. The election results appear to be real and fair; Democrats won the House fair and square.

The question of some after-election counting and recounting, however, seems sketchy. The Arizona Senate race looks like a lost cause for the Republican candidate. Arguably from Senate voting records, the Arizona seat up for grabs was not gained by Democrats except in name only. That Senate seat will be up the election Trump leaves office. But, that’s a different story from a cluster of recount fiascos in Florida and Georgia, where recounting is a matter of procedure, not questionable results. The losers in those elections are pushing in hopes that close results can easily be tipped. If recounts were to change those results, that would open bigger questions, bigger objections, and bigger investigations. So far, the number of ballots in question would not change the results; miscounts would.

Even with the ground Republicans took, Democrats outspent Republicans by roughly $300M. Ironically, Democrats campaign on a platform of opposing big money and suspect business man Trump of trying to buy the presidency. The spending was bad optics for them.

Trump’s proved helpful on the campaign trail. Many Republicans who pushed him away lost. Senate Republicans defeated incumbents in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota. Senate Republicans also held vacant seats in Tennessee and Utah. 26 Republicans retired, more than any midterm year since 1974, the greatest retirements being 27 in 2008.

FDR holds both the greatest midterm gain and midterm loss since his time as president. After FDR, the greatest midterm loss was Obama’s first midterm. The greatest midterm gain in the Senate was Trump, the second-greatest being JFK with +3. This was a favorable midterm year for Republicans. But, already you read that right here at Pacific Daily Times before the election. So, while Republicans had a historic election, Pacific Daily Times has set a new standard for accuracy in the media.

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, November 5, 2018

SymphonyNovember 5, 2018November 5, 2018

China is less and less popular in the news. It’s almost conspiracy-like—how much negative news comes out against China in the Western press at once.

The Trump administration backs Micron with legal action against Fujian Jinhua, an American company vs a Chinese company, over tech theft. At the same time, Jeff Sessions suddenly decides to appear in front of cameras and decry China for cyberspying on the US—a completely unrelated matter except that it is bad press for China. Then, the Taipei Times runs a front page story on illegal Chinese crabs being imported, but not passing a health inspection, with involved companies given a hefty fine, while pushing a North Korean nuke “restart” story to page five! The Taipei Times ran another front page story of China creating fake social media accounts to meddle in Taiwan’s upcoming midterm election.

The truthfulness of this flood of anti-China news is not as important as its timing and priority among headlines. Popular sentiment is more powerful than missiles in a conflict between nations. On that front, the West has already won. Don’t think for a moment that missiles won’t follow to secure what the war of words already won by a deck stacked in the news.

In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, November 5, 2018

SymphonyNovember 5, 2018November 5, 2018

Doom and gloom flood the media on the eve of Trump’s first midterm election. Americans come off the weekend onto a big, info-flooded, single day of business and news before voting on Tuesday. Will the country gain momentum after the sharp turn it took two years ago or will it do a 170° and head almost back to where it was going under Obama?

Polls and forecasts spelled constant doom for the Republican party these past few months, all while Trump pulls farther and farther ahead in presidential polls. Too many so-called “experts” in mass media predict failure for Conservatives no matter what the outcome will be. With the immature display from Democrats during the Kavanaugh hearings, compounded with the growing #WalkAway movement, Conservatives have become so victimized and energized that it’s hard to imagine Republicans not gaining seats in both the House and Senate. A loss would beg questions of meddling.

Ironically, this election will decide more about the mainstream news media than it will about the nation. A Republican agenda over the next six years is more foreseeable than the media would have the nation believe. But, less clear is how much faith voters will maintain in the media. No matter what party a voter casts a ballot for, news networks that are as wrong they have been the past three years should not be able to stay in business. While voters will likely choose Republicans two elections in a row, viewers—Democratic and Republican alike—will likely choose to keep watching news networks that were wrong about Republicans two elections in a row.

Considering the fact that news networks stay in business with how wrong they were in predicting Trump’s 2016 loss, it’s a miracle any of them are still in business, let alone if they are wrong again in 2018. This miracle of such inaccurate news networks staying in business for so long is a big enough miracle to make the most avid Atheist believe in God.

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, October 29, 2018

SymphonyOctober 28, 2018October 29, 2018

The Pacific Ocean has become a chess board of moving pawns, castling kings, bluffs, and propaganda. China offers the moon to small countries, the US warns that no “free” gift comes without strings attached. When Trump pulled out of the INF treaty for supposed Russian violations, Russia went on high alert at home and called it “preparing for war”. Russia being ready for war means China feeling more confident about busting a move.

Given regional instability, Japan and India are talking big. They want cooperative military exercises. They will also need passage through that section of the ocean—the South Sea—that China drew a nine-dash line around. America won’t be the only challenger to China’s new notion of “ocean ownership”. As China gets more and more assertive, even the British are on edge. Nothing happens in the Western Pacific unnoticed.

Is China strong enough to win a military conflict? A Chinese rocket failed at launch. In the news, it’s reported as a “private company”, but there is no such thing in China, by Western understanding of a “private company” anyhow. The reason it failed is probably rooted in the sister controversy to trade: reverse engineering and technology copying. China couldn’t launch the rocket, in all likelihood, because too much of the technology used by China wasn’t invented by China, but invented by someone else, made in China, and copied by China—but not understood by China. Such is the tech of this “private company” and the tech that made China so big as it is today and the tech it would use in battle. Russia would be wise to not depend on that tech. And, small countries would be wise to remember that the “great China” was made great by a tilted-trade, copied-tech cash cow that is no longer making milk.

China’s National Tourism Administration suspended group tours to one of China’s many coveted destinations in Taiwan. The delay is scheduled to last from early November into April. November is an election month for both the US and Taiwan. It’s a big month for expos in Taiwan, especially a flora expo in the city where tours were suspended, Taichung. November is also when a large group from the US Navy will make a show of force near China’s man-made islands.

In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, October 29, 2018

SymphonyOctober 28, 2018October 29, 2018

This past week began rich in fodder for headline minions. Statements like “bomb delivered to home of… [insert prominent Democrat]” and “Kavanaugh recused in three cases…” might convince a non-self-educated idiot that something was wrong. But, anyone who reads past the headlines should know that these stories shouldn’t even make the third page.

At least thirteen bombs were delivered, but none of them went off. That’s not the work of a “mail bomber”, but the work of a “fail bomber” or a “dud mailer”. Kavanaugh was recused from the cases because he has already been a judge with a decision and an opinion in those cases. In other words, Kavanaugh was recused for being over-qualified as a judge and being such an honest person that he won’t rule a second time on a case he already ruled on in a lower court.

Initially, the mailed duds looked like typical Democratic “wolf” crying. After the Ford testimony theater and unreported proof that another Kavanaugh accusation wasn’t true, Americans suspected the mail duds were also a self-inflicted conspiracy for pre-election sympathy. But, as more and more high profile Democratic heavyweights received dud bomb packages, it seemed more like an unexpected ruse that the Democratic media machine was hoping to salvage.

Then, terror struck. For the Democratic media machine, this meant losing valuable headline space before an election. For Jewish families in Pittsburgh, it meant grief and loss.

Then, the caravan halted. Mexico offered refugee lifestyle—housing, employment, education—a few even applied, making the caravan smaller. A child was kidnapped and the caravan stopped moving.

Midweek, the usual headline fodder took a 110° jackknife turn. What happened?—A shot across the bow happened, from whom we just don’t know.

Whatever story lays behind this “fail dud bomber”, this week was a warning to Democrats at the highest levels. Whether this was a self-inflicted media stunt that failed to get whatever victim election favor status was hoped for or if it was a genuine surprise, Democrats no longer have power. Their caravan can’t move on schedule. They aren’t as popular as they once thought. And, most sacred to Democratic elite class party bosses, their home addresses are known to scary people. If that’s not a shot across their bow, nothing is.

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, October 22, 2018

SymphonyOctober 21, 2018October 22, 2018

By not labeling China a “currency manipulator”, the US is extending an olive branch to Beijing. But, things aren’t as they seem. On every level, China is reaching—almost grasping—to save face.

This new artificial moon is honest and runs deep in Chinese culture. As part of being the center of the universe, Chinese culture arguably orbits the moon. The Lunar New Year is celebrated far more, in Chinese culture, than the Western calendar New Year. While the Western press tells of the man-made moon from China as a kind of narcissism, it’s genuine and normal interest. The threat is US strategy.

While the US throws olive branch after olive branch, the forest yields other fruit than olives. China is losing money fast. Trump tariffs are gobbling up China’s reserves behind the reserves. No matter how friendly China tries to play at this point, the US will continue to deliver one provocation after another until China retaliates with basic human instinct. It won’t matter how many “encounter codes” China and the US agree to. The US has decided that China is an enemy and has determined to convince the world as much.

This is not the first military provocation campaign from the US. But, if China wins, it would be a first naval victory for China. Calculate the odds.