Posted on 10/04/2026 7:55:16 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Trump is the great magnetic north of our political metabolism.
Harold Macmillan, prime minister of Great Britain from 1957 to 1963, was once asked by a journalist what was the most troubling problem he faced during his prime ministership. “Events, my dear boy, events,” was his reply.
It was ever thus, of course. But in the great pudding of life, the currents of events seem to cluster more thickly in some moments than in others. I understand that every age is naturally inclined to exaggerate the importance and vividness of its own dramas. The incessant beat of our 24-hour news cycle abets that sense of perpetual emergency. One of the great lessons of history is that no period, whatever its reputation for stability, is really free from an obligato of successive crises. That said, some moments seem to be marked “presto” even as they are orchestrated for booming timpani and blaring horns. Is not America living through such a moment now?
I think it is. Forget about the midterm elections. The party in power has gained seats in both houses of Congress only twice in modern history. In 1934, as the country began the slow climb out of the Great Depression, FDR made gains in both houses. In 2002, in the aftermath of the 9/11 Islamist terror attacks, George W. Bush likewise saw gains in both houses. Most pollsters, and nearly all pundits, believe that the Democrats will retake the House in November. Many believe the Senate is up for grabs as well. Having elevated my moistened finger into the air, I discern some contradictory crosscurrents. Back in 2022, I agreed with the conventional wisdom that the election would be a blowout for Republicans. I was wrong. This time, I suspect that the conventional wisdom has failed to price into its calculations the astonishing number of victories the Trump administration has racked up in its first 18 months.
It is a long list. The Dems recently learned the word “affordability” and have been practicing saying it aloud early and often. News from many quarters is undercutting their complaints. Yes, gas prices, which peaked in 2022 under Biden, are still elevated because of the war in Iran. But they are on their way down and will plummet in coming weeks as markets begin to register Iran’s defeat. Recently, the Atlanta Fed predicted that real growth in the third quarter will come in at a blistering 5.0–5.1 percent. At the same time, the Census Bureau released data showing that the poverty rate fell to 10.2 percent, the lowest in our history. Blue-collar income has jumped between 4 and 5 percent since January 2025, when Trump began his second term. Manufacturing—and manufacturing jobs—are flooding back into the United States.
On the foreign policy front, it is hard to keep up. At the beginning of the year, Trump nabbed Nicolás Maduro and his wife from their supposedly impregnable fortress in Caracas. He then made what the White House called “the biggest oil deal in world history, delivering U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela.” Last month, Trump signed a permanent security deal with Denmark and Greenland. The agreement recognized official “Danish sovereignty and Greenlandic self-determination.” It is an odd or “lite” version of sovereignty, however, since the agreement also grants to the United States the exclusive right to maintain and expand military bases in Greenland. The deal also grants the U.S. exclusive say about access to Greenland’s extensive mineral wealth and “sensitive sector investment.”
Then there is technology. Trump recently convened a meeting at the White House with the crème de la crème of America’s high-tech titans. As is so often the case with presidents, the ceremony involved a naming-the-animals moment. What had been called “AI” or “artificial intelligence” was rebaptized “SI,” “super intelligence.” It is too soon to say whether the change of name will catch on. I think it might. I will do what I can to encourage the change of rubric.
One of the main reasons Trump convened the meeting was to address concerns about the safety of SI. It is something that Elon Musk broached several years ago. Like any powerful technology, SI can and doubtless will be abused. Trump and his team want to make sure that reasonable guardrails are in place. But the biggest news coming out of that meeting was Elon Musk’s prediction that SI would usher in not just an age of abundance but also an age of superabundance. That, he said, is the “most likely” scenario.
Trump also just launched a new government website, America.gov. Described as a digital “front door” to government information and services, the SI-powered site will obviate the roughly 29,000 federal, state, and local websites that hover over the populace like a paralyzing net. It is early days yet, but soon one will be able to do everything on the new chatbot-style website, from renewing a passport and applying for Medicare to getting park permits, business registrations, or changing your name when you get married. Readers with long memories will want to compare the rollout of this new user-friendly utility to the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website in 2013.
You may also have noticed, Dear Reader, a marked uptick in ads, video clips, and social media memes disseminated by Trump World. Some are official administration products; some are produced independently. As I write, the midterm elections are exactly 30 days away. Expect that uptick to crescendo in the coming weeks. The legacy media will do what it can to keep the spotlight off the president as the midterms approach. But they will fail. Trump is the great magnetic north of our political metabolism. He will be crisscrossing the country over the course of October to hold his signature rallies and support GOP candidates. How strong his determination to reach out to his supporters and rally the troops became apparent the other day when the Secret Service warned him that the weather was too inclement to fly from Texas, where he attended an event for Senate candidate Ken Paxton, to a long-planned event in Oklahoma. “How fast does the Beast [the presidential limo] travel?” he asked his entourage. “Almost 100 miles an hour,” he was told. “Get your asses in that car,” he said. “We’re going to Oklahoma.”
I think I can hear the anti-Trump sorority sniff at that demotic locution. Very unpresidential, you know, to use such language. But in the rushing stream of “events, my dear boy, events,” the kaleidoscope of Trump’s indefatigable ministrations is a piercing beacon in the storm.
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The DSA does not seem to scare many democRATs.
Ask a dem what “affordability” means. Ask them what it looks like. Watch the hilarity ensue.
I don’t understand how the Democrats have glommed onto this affordability thing.
Some talk about a need for affordable housing for example. Some of the most expensive housing in America is found in places where Democrats are in control politically. So how can that be an issue which benefits Democrats politically.
A couple thoughts on that:
Democrats can say “There is an affordability crisis! And the solution is socialism, because then everything will be free!”
A lot of young people are looking for a solution — any solution — and if the only solution being offered is socialism and Democrat candidates, some of the young people will go in that direction.
It would nice if the Republicans would:
a) Acknowledge that there is an actual affordability problem.
b) Offer some kind of solution which isn’t socialism.
I see a lot of older people who just shrug and say there really is no affordability crisis at all and kids today just need to stop being lazy and stupid. I can tell you that this REALLY pisses off young people and it drives them toward socialism — because (apparently!) that is the only solution being offered. And the Democrats appear to be the only people who care.
I say: Conservatives need to wake up and express a little empathy.
Perhaps there will be independents or republicans angry with Trump, a narrative the media likes to stoke
But as I tell some Democrat colleagues: Let’s assume that is true. Some people are angry with Trump - what’s the alternative?
A Democrat Party that is effectively marxist, open borders, hates white people, and is all-in on bizarre sexual perversions turned into a political cause?
Any sane person will say “NO THANKS.”
I agree. We see a lot of comments like that on Free Republic. Some older folks here will say they bought a house with Jimmy Carter’s high interest rates, and they tightened their belts and made it work.
If we compare incomes from decades ago, compared to the price of houses decades ago, you will see that houses are more expensive, adjusted for inflation, than they were decades ago.
I think we conservatives should have empathy to young people today on these economic issues such as home affordability. Young people today are facing a different world than we faced decades ago.
I like to ask everyone, if they could afford to buy their house today with their income today. I personally could not afford to buy the house. I’ve lived in for thirty six years now, if I had to buy it today at today’s prices, even considering my income has escalated quite a bit over the decades.
Back then you still had the concept of “fixer-uppers”, which allowed you to start building equity at a relatively young age.
Good luck today trying to find a good fixer-upper in a neighborhood that isn’t crime-ridden.
bkmk
This has all happened before.
it would be nice if those who are agreeable with Democrats got just exactly what the Dems have to offer....but nobody else did. Now that, in my mind, would be perfect justice.
Good post.
I doubt it registers with many posters and most Federal elected officials.
“home affordability”
What should be done?
Lower prices by X% so recent buyers lose X% on their investments?
Twenty percent on a $400,000 would be $80,000.
Ask the young folks to consider alternatives?
Use Google Streetview to take a look at Detroit.
This is a map of the Washington, DC area in 1951:
The high-quality housing covered maybe 20 square miles.
Duplicates (or better) could be erected on 20 other square miles.
Casa Griffin is a concrete block house. The front wall is 48 feet long, the longest side wall is 32 feet long. The concrete block walls are 160 feet long.
An 8”x8”x16” concrete block was $2.17 at Lowe’s when I checked.
My Florida house would be built on a slab with integrated poured footings nowadays. That means stacking those blocks 12 high for 8’-foot ceilings.
To run 16” blocks 160 feet means 120 of them.
Leaving out windows which are more costly than blocks, that would mean 12x120 blocks or 1,440 blocks which at $2.17 each would cost $3,124.80 for concrete blocks to build Casa Griffin.
Casa Griffin is L-shaped and its front wall is 48 feet long and its longest side wall is 32 feet long and the shortest side wall is about 27-feet long.
Its slab areas are a 10’x10’ lanai slab plus the main slab of 48’x32’[1,532 sq. ft.] less roughly 34’x5’[170 sq. ft.], with the garage being on a lower slab, for a total of 1,452 sq. ft., for about 18 cu. yds. of concrete 4” deep.
Adding in concrete of about 1.5 cu. ft./linear foot to form a footing for what would be the main slab would add about 240 cu. ft.
Adding in concrete of about .75 cu. ft./linear foot to form a footing for what would be the lanai slab would add about 30 cu. ft.
Together, the slab concrete if Casa Griffin was to be built in 2025 would be about 28 cu. yds.
To add in footing concrete for a lower garage slab would add about 60 cu. ft., for about 30 cu. yds.
To fill an 8”x8”x16” concrete block would take about 1/3th of a cubic foot of concrete. To fill 1,440 of them would take about 480 cu. ft. or about 18 cu. yds.
That’s about 48 cu. yds. of concrete to build Casa Griffin. At $180 per cu. yd., the concrete would come to $8,640.
Its driveway is 10 feet wide and 60 feet long. Its sidewalk is 3 feet wide and 25 feet long. At 4” thick, that would come to 8⅓ cu. yds. of concrete and about $1,500.
The cost of the concrete would sum to about $10,140.
[That would not include the webs, reinforcing bars or their supports.]
“fixer-uppers”
I bought a fixer-upper.
A good quality house was sold thereafter for about 7% more.
I made a mistake.
Under the Democrats’ imagination, anyone in the world who could scale or crawl under a Trump wall and make their way to LA, NY or Chicago and find affordable housing.
In reality, not every area is going to be affordable.
Why would people live in Utica, NY or Flint, MI if LA and its splendid weather was affordable?
Especially since under Biden they made it worse.
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