I saw this earlier, but didn't post it. Today a couple of readers have linked to it (including DisGuested), so here it is. My caveat: place "some" in front of "Americans"

/

Konsantin Kisin

10 Reasons You Didn't See This Coming

Nov 06, 2024

For my British and European friends who are "shocked" and "surprised", here are 10 reasons you didn't see this coming. Read this short post and then read the replies from our American friends who will confirm what I'm saying.

1. Americans love their country and want it to be the best in the world. America is a nation of people who conquered a continent. They love strength. They love winning. Any leader who appeals to that has an automatic advantage.

2. Unlike Europeans, Americans have not accepted managed decline. They don't have Net Zero here, they believe in producing their own energy and making it as cheap as possible because they know that their prosperity depends on it.

3. Prices for most basic goods in the US have increased rapidly and are sky high. What the official statistics say about inflation and the reality of people's lives are not the same.

4. Unlike you, Americans do not believe in socialism. They believe in meritocracy. They don't care about the super rich being super rich because they know that they live in a country where being super rich is available to anyone with the talent and drive to make it. They don't resent success, they celebrate it.

5. Americans are the most pro-immigration people in the world. Read that again. Seriously, read it again. Americans love an immigrant success story. They want more talented immigrants to come to America. But they refuse to accept people coming illegally. They believe in having a border.

Subscribe

6. Americans are sensitive about racial issues and their country's imperfect history. They believe that those who are disadvantaged by the circumstances of their birth should be given the opportunity to succeed. What they reject, however, is the idea that in order to address the errors of the past new errors must be made. DEI is racist. They know it and they reject it precisely because they are not racist.

7. Americans are the most philosemitic nation on earth. October 7 and the pro-Hamas left's reaction shocked them to their very core because, among other things, they remember what 9/11 was like and they know jihad when they see it.

8. Americans are extremely practical people. They care about what works, not what sounds good. In Europe, we produce great writers and intellectuals. In America they produce (and attract) great engineers, businessmen and investors. Because of this, they care less about Trump's rhetoric than you do and more about his policies than you do.

9. Americans are deeply optimistic people. They hate negativity. The woke view of American history as a series of evils for which they must eternally apologise is utterly abhorrent to them. They believe in moving forward together, not endlessly obsessing about the past.

10. America is a country whose founding story is one of resistance to government overreach. They loathe unnecessary restrictions, regulations and control. They understand that freedom comes with the price of self-reliance and they pay it gladly.

On the other hand, Portland, Maine deserves exactly what it's about to receive, good and hard

/

Portland Elects Second Democratic Socialist to City Council

Wes Pelletier, a longtime member of the Maine Democratic Socialists of America (Maine DSA) was elected to the Portland City Council on Tuesday, making him the second democratic socialist who will be serving on the city’s nine-member policymaking body.

[RELATED: ‘They’re not gonna jump up and bite ya’: Socialist Portland City Councilor Claims ‘no public health risk’ Caused by Used Heroin Needles…]

…. He will join District 5 City Councilor Kate Sykes, the former co-chair of Maine DSA, as the second democratic socialist on the Portland City Council.

[RELATED: Maine DSA Stages Pro-Hamas Rally in Portland, Calls Terror Attacks on Israel “Morally and Legally Legitimate”…]

The national DSA put out a statement on X Wednesday congratulating Pelletier on his victory.

“A former chapter co-chair, Wes has been a member of DSA for close to a decade where he has fought to bolster rent control in Portland to take on an unprecedented housing crisis,” the DSA wrote.

Portland’s socialists are mostly made up from non-taxpaying students at the University of Southern Maine, and that institution’s graduate baristas and folk singers, supplemented by all the best people from Massachusetts. Because Portland’s charter allows any proposed law, no matter how stupid, to appear on the ballot with just a handful of signatures, the Socialists have put rent control (5% maximum increase, with no credit for repairs or improvements) and a $22 per hour minimum wage up for voting on recent years, and both, as well as a myriad of of other dystopian plans have passed by slim majorities. Portland’s very liberal mayor, Kate Synder, was so frustrated by the process: “issues that should be discussed and considered in a rational way are reduced to one or simple sentences that are voted on without thought” that she chose not to seek a second term, and got out of Dodge.

She had this to say about the group last year:

In November of last year, former Portland Mayor Kate Snyder described the influence of the Maine DSA on the city’s political landscape as “very real, and very powerful.”

“I think the national platform of the Democratic Socialists of America has really taken hold in Portland, Maine,” Snyder told WGAN Morning News host Matt Gagnon. “And there are many people who are very receptive to the message and who have taken on that mantle, and who are moving that national agenda forward in our small city.”

After two decades of growth, Portland is still thriving, and perhaps it will continue to prosper. But I remember the decades when the city was a dive, with a commercial vacancy rate of 67% as recently as the late 90s, and I expect to see those days return, soon. What can’t continue, won’t, and the student socialists and their adult enablers are working hard to ensure that the halcyon days of abandoned buildings and low-to-no rent are part of the city’s future.

Speaking of garbage ....

/

And …