If you’ve never seen South Park, you should check it out. The most original character is Eric Cartman, a kind of third grade Donald Trump. To get the flavor of the show, the first episode was “Cartman gets an anal probe.” I’ve only seen 15 or 20 episodes, and went to wikipedia to get an accurate description of his character. They describe him as “… a loud, obnoxious, manipulative, racist and obese literal psychopath.” Often the plot involves conflict between Cartman and Kyle, who is Jewish and highly moral.
Jeff Bezos is not Jewish, but I suspect his parents instilled a strong sense of morality in him, and from what I know he’s led an exemplary life. His father was much like Cruz’s father, a Cuban immigrant of high natural intelligence. The story I read about Bezos is that he turned to his parents for the seed money for Amazon. His father had worked his way through college after immigrating, and had a successful career as a petroleum engineer. He wasn’t rich, but he gave his son what he had, and the rest is history. Amazon is one of the few companies I know of which is so revolutionary in the way it alters the way people live and conduct commerce. Sometimes putting your faith in your son is the best thing you can do.
Young Jeff spent summers at his mother’s family’s 25,000 acre ranch in South Texas. I don’t know how a teenage boy can have summers like that and not come out of it with some good, Western values. Bezos doesn’t do politics, although he recently gave a nice contribution to Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, for some reason.
Today Bezos’ WaPo is out a story that makes Donald Trump look like a very weird guy. What kind of guy impersonates his own publicity agent? A nut, that’s who. Trump lied about it, of course, and the war is on. If he’s elected, Trump will try to get the IRS to go after Amazon. That’s serious business, and someone like Trump would actually do it. Whatever motivation Bezos had in taking Trump on, it’s now personal.
If nothing else, this will be the first test of Bezos in the public arena. He’s had the WaPo for about three years, and has yet to do anything with it. His first project is a big one, with a Pulitzer Prize for the having. This will be very entertaining to watch. I broke down a couple months ago, and paid for an on line subscription to the WaPo. I hated doing it, but did so with the hope that Bezos was a little different than the Hive. Maybe I was right.
I shudder when I think of how ugly our politics is going to be for the next two years. Being President in such a political environment would be a challenge to Lincoln, and Clinton won’t be up to it. Things are going to be a mess. By the time she staggers toward the gate in 2020 she’ll be running on fumes. Time for Reagan, part two.
Somebody needs to ask Paul Ryan, “Will you promise that there won’t be a government shutdown?” He’d say yes, and then it’s all over. Surrendering the power of the purse makes Congress irrelevant. It’s all ugliness ahead.
It turns out that the pressure of events led the guys at American Thinker to put off my piece until tomorrow. I hope there’s no conflict there. Thomas Lifson, more or less the main guy, has gone in with Trump, and others disagree. This kind of thing is happening all over, from the Eagle Forum to Republican State Conventions. You’ll see it live, on TV, from Cleveland.
Hey, it’s entertainment.
Summer is here in the Gold Country, nice and warm. Back in Alaska, it’s probably still breakup, with melting snow and ice. My heart’s still up there, but it’s really a young man’s country.
reaganproject.com 