GrumpsReport

STOP the argument about preserving tradition and the “institutions of the Senate”. It’s really pretty basic. Do it now while we have the opportunity to enact nationwide voter‑ID and other  fair election rules, aggressive immigration restrictions and rapid deportation, elimination of sanctuary jurisdictions, large tax and spending changes, and limits on progressive social policies.

If we don’t, the Dems will take any new power they acquire to enact THEIR warped, anti-traditional policies all of which will hasten the demise of our country, and will they themselves abolish the filibuster for their own ends. Look at what’s going on in Virginia right now!

Hell, it was THEY who argued most vehemently for abolition when they were in power, and it was Harry Reid that abolished it for Senate confirmations of judges and cabinet members.

Several Democratic senators have been especially prominent in public campaigns to end or fundamentally weaken the filibuster:

• Elizabeth Warren (D‑MA) has repeatedly called the filibuster a “veto for the minority” and a “Jim Crow relic,” arguing for full abolition so that majorities can pass voting‑rights, labor, and economic reforms.
• Ed Markey (D‑MA) has been one of the bluntest voices, running explicit “abolish the filibuster” messaging, tying it to climate, democracy, and gun‑violence legislation in speeches and online campaigns.

• Chuck Schumer (D‑NY), as majority leader, became the institutional face of efforts to carve out or end the filibuster for democracy and voting‑rights bills, trying to rally reluctant Democrats around targeted rule changes.
• Raphael Warnock (D‑GA) and Cory Booker (D‑NJ) have framed the filibuster as fundamentally incompatible with protecting voting rights, with Warnock in particular giving high‑profile floor speeches likening it to past tools of voter suppression.

• Jeff Merkley (D‑OR) has for years pushed to replace the silent, routine filibuster with a talking filibuster or simple majority rule, making him one of the earliest and most consistent Senate voices for major reform or abolition.
• Amy Klobuchar (D‑MN), especially in her role overseeing elections issues, has pressed to weaken or bypass the filibuster for democracy legislation, arguing that procedural rules should not block basic voting protections.

So let’s rub their noses in their own words and  ABOLISH IT NOW while WE are in the majority!

The answer lies in PRODUCTION VALUES.

“Huh?”

It’s simple. Democrats, their acolytes and their lemming followers are only influenced by input that either tugs at their heartstrings, tickles their fancies, are shiny objects or evoke outrage and anger. They do NOT respond to facts, evidence, good news, REALITY, even when it’s right in front of their eyes or smacks them in the face (e.g. falling gas prices, falling mortgage rates, reductions in crime, a secure border, exposure of fraud, waste and abuse, etc.).

Deceptively edited video, audio, soaring or sinister music…i.e. production values, are what Democrats respond to.

Coupled with selective broadcast over the internet in all social media forms, the Left’s deliberate, performative theatrics, replete with outright lies and misrepresentations but accompanied by emotion-producing color serve up an alternative reality that causes feeble, indolent, Leftist minds to perceive the world in a way that’s almost exactly opposite of what really is.

“ICE is evil.”

“Orange Man Bad”

“No Kings”

And so on and so forth…slogans, epitaphs (on pre-printed signs), chants, weeping, whaling and gnashing of teeth… now, overt profanity to add “shock value” to camera appearances…all designed to garner attention, gen up outrage, fear and mob violence…

We have to counter with our own, high-production value communications and media. How we do that is the bailiwick of the conservatives with the money, clout and skills to do so. The work of Newsmax, One America News Network, still to some extent Fox News, the blogs, eZines and in particular, Hollywood outlets that create their own heartstring-tugging, patriotic, heroes in white hats, wholesome and positive content…need to keep up and accelerate their good work.

Karoline Leavitt, bless her heart, the Right-leaning media and the White House talking heads have a monumental job countering all the BS the Democrats/Left throw in the air. We’re slowly turning the tide but judging by the fact that we recently lost a number of high-profile elections and that there is still an overwhelming amount of unadulterated Democrat/Leftist nonsense permeating the atmosphere, it’s an uphill battle.

But we’ve won uphill battles (Iwo Jima) before, and God willing we’ll win this one too!

Taken from a Perplexity answer to the question: “What are the current major conflicts within the conservative movement?” This is getting nasty!

Among conservatives broadly, the biggest fights right now are over populism vs. traditional conservatism, how far to go on culture‑war issues, and the influence of far‑right/antisemitic voices inside the MAGA world.​

Main fault lines on the right

• Populist‑MAGA vs. traditional/right‑libertarian conservatives: There is a growing split between Trump‑style, government‑willing‑to-act populists (often aligned with things like Heritage’s Project 2025) and older “small‑government, business‑friendly” conservatives who are uneasy with using the state to punish enemies or purge the civil service.​
• Foreign policy and Israel: Conferences like Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest have exposed deep arguments over support for Israel, Ukraine, and non‑interventionism, with figures like Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson publicly clashing over what the right’s stance should be.​
• Extremism and antisemitism inside MAGA: Recent reporting describes MAGA‑aligned influencers accused of antisemitic and extremist rhetoric, leading to resignations and a breakaway Pence‑aligned project from inside the Heritage orbit, framed explicitly as a fight over the movement’s moral and strategic direction.

On the positive:

This internecine fighting shows the Right is not uni-dimensional but comprised of individual passionate thinkers, unlike the Left who parrot the ideology, words and actions of their demagogue, megalomaniacal, cult-leaders.

These divisions have always existed. Time to get them out in the open and resolve them. All of the debaters have more in common than not.

On the negative:

This is airing dirty laundry. Would be so much better if the eyeball and click-seekers among us would just keep their mouths shut and have private sidebars rather than public spats.

The timing sucks. The mid-terms are approaching and the cards are stacked against us as it is.

We need to rally behind the GOOD and what we have IN COMMON, not amplify the arguments that are secondary to the POSITIVE.

Sigh…the problem with being a traditionalist/conservative is we have brains we use, we have rational arguments that we stand up and argue or fight for, and we are individuals, not Leftist Lemmings.

You know what was one of the most wonderful things about being home after four weeks? It was sitting in a regular armchair! Hadn’t done that during the trip and it was a simple pleasure that I immediately enjoyed upon setting foot in the house.

We really pushed it driving the last leg. Even Hudson was excited. When we got within about 10 miles of the house He woke up, started sniffing the air as if he smelled familiarity, and got up in the shotgun seat to look straight out the windshield, something he hadn’t really done the whole trip. He knew we were close, and when we finally pulled into the driveway, he LEAPED out of Fred the RV and into my wife’s arms (practically tearing out her knee and knocking her over) and then started running around the yard yelling, “Home, Home, Home!” (Well not exactly, but I’m sure he was THINKING that!)

It really was the trip of a lifetime. I did it this way because I wanted Hudson to accompany me and I wasn’t comfortable flying him on a plane, especially with the air traffic control/government shutdown problems. I’ll admit the slog to get to The West was long, both ways, but all in all MORE than worth it! I have stories and photos enough to fill 30 scrapbooks, but all the photos and anecdotes in the world couldn’t begin to describe what Hudson and I saw and experienced, really.

Suffice it to say that if ever you have a chance to see our country the way we did, TAKE IT!

And for those of you who were interested enough to follow our journey here, THANKS for your patronage and friendship! May God bless you, and May God bless America.

Grumps Out…

So from Milton, WV I headed northeast back to the place where I made my first stop – Bellefonte/State College, Pennsylvania. A good deal of the day was spent in West Virginia and I now know why the University’s mascot is “The Mountaineers”. West Virginia is ALL mountains. Not 12,000 ft mountains, like out West, but ups and downs nonetheless. And because of the fall foliage, it was a beautiful drive (I was finally BEHIND the storm that plagued the East Coast in prior days).

Last night on the road before returning home. It was sad, exciting…a mix of emotions. I must admit that the prior four or five days since leaving Monument Valley and Mesa Verde was rather anti-climactic after such wonders as we saw in the National Parks and Monuments. But it was also gratifying to see the huge granaries, the rolled hay, the cattle and horses and sheep and goats that make up the foundation of our Breadbasket.

And the people. On the one hand I can attest to the obesity problem in our country. Sad, but it’s true. It’s not that EVERYONE is overweight, but there are far too many who are.

On the other hand, the heartland of our country is comprised of the happiest, friendliest, most helpful and convivial people I’ve met anywhere in the world. And 100 miles from the East Coast, there are far more conservative/traditional roadside posters than there are “No Kings” nonsense. There was virtually NO talk about the government shutdown. The license plate on Fred the RV was from California but people were relieved to find I wasn’t from there and the American flag on my baseball cap and on the dashboard of the RV caused me to immediately become accepted by them. (I think they would have still been “yes ma’am, yes sir” polite had I really been from California, but I think wearing the flag is a marker/symbol in the heartland that I was glad to be showing).

Tomorrow…the home stretch.

PS, no trick or treating occuring in the RV Park!

As I type this those of you on the East Coast are experiencing the deluge and quasi-tropical storm that I just drove through for the last three days. I find myself this evening not down South in Asheville, NC as I had planned, but in the little town of Milton, West Virginia, about 30 miles east of Lexington, Kentucky.

“Why”, you may ask. Well, let me put it this way. There are many ways to experience stress in one’s life but one of the prime ways, as I’ve discovered, is driving along Interstates in a pounding rain with gusts of wind coming out of nowhere up to 30 miles per hour. Oh, and of course the fog is so thick one can barely see the red lights of the cars in front of you, and the oncoming headlights suddenly appearing on the other side of the road are something Hollywood could put in a horror movie. The problem with all this is that one has to be “on” 100% of the time. You can’t relax for even an instant. I did at one point, and an 18 wheeler came by me about 10 mph faster than I was going and I found myself blown off onto the right shoulder with my wheels screaming on the warning pavement. It was everything I could do to keep from overcompensating to get back on the road.

In short, it has been an exhausting three days. So much so that day before yesterday I came to the conclusion that I “just want to get home.” Not a cop out mind you…I said before I left that this trip would either take ten years off my life or put on five. I think the latter is true…perhaps maybe even 7 or 8! So, I decided I would have plenty of time to drive down south to visit my folks in Asheville (you may recall, not my folks per se, but their gravesite) and fit the bypass to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg along the way. Doing that in a regular car will be a LOT easier too!

I do have a couple of minor memories of the last three days that I can share. The first is driving through St. Louis. Yes, it was pouring, but in a crazy moment I reached for my phone and snapped the following picture. If you look closely, you’ll see the famous St. Louis Arch in the distance. That’s as close as I got. I know it’s a magnificent piece of art (I’ve been to St. Louis before on a business trip and seen it up close), but I could only catch this glimpse this time around.

The other anecdote was from today, driving across Kentucky. I-64 is also known as the Bourbon Trail. Indeed, I passed signs marking many of the famous distilleries including: Four Seasons, Bulleit and Buffalo Trace. The latter is known not only for its own label, which is very very good, expensive and hard to find up in the Northeast, but because it is also the distillery where Pappy Van Winkle bourbon is made. For those of you not familiar with PVW…it is perhaps the most sought after Kentucky bourbon in the world; it’s now almost unobtainable and if you were to be able to find some, it’d be outrageously expensive.

Anyhow, as I passed the Buffalo Trace sign I recalled this fun fact.

Next thing I know, I’m at a gas station and attached to the gas station (this is Kentucky after all) is a liquor store. I stroll in and see names of whiskeys I’ve never heard of (my son-in-law, who collects whiskeys, would be hard-pressed to get back on the road after entering this place).

Just for grins and giggles I ask the shopkeeper if she has any Buffalo Trace. “Sure,” she says and goes over to a separate cabinet and pulls out a bottle. “I’m afraid to ask how much you get for that,” I toss out.

“Let’s see,” she says, and when she walks over to the register she looks it up and announces, “$24.99”.

I say to myself, “the last time I saw a bottle of Buffalo Trace back home it was something like $80.00!”

“I’ll take a bottle,” thank you and walked out of the shop a happy camper.

As I continued my drive towards West Virginia I thought to myself, “You idiot, why didn’t you buy more?”

So at the last town before crossing the Ohio River, Ashland, I pull off the Interstate, find another liquor store, and buy another bottle. This one I’ll take home to the family…the other I’m gonna add to MY collection!

Tomorrow I’m going to head back to the same KOA campsite I spent the very first night of this trip at, in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. With that I will have made the full circle.

As my wife would say, “Two more sleeps” and I’ll be home.

Now it’s all driving driving driving…With the National Parks in my rear view mirror, there’s not much to report on. Even coming through Wolf Creek Pass (at 10,857 feet (3,309 meters) was anticlimactic as I did it before dawn. Later that day, however, I passed San Luis Peak, one of the 14’ers, (there are between 53 AND 58 over 14,000 ft in Colorado depending on how they’re defined).

Today, the 27th, was REALLY boring. Driving several hundred miles through a cloud (i.e. FOG) was tedious and mind-numbing, but I made it to WaKeeney, Kansas. What I WILL say is that the second I crossed into Kansas from Colorado the roads immediately became smooth (much to Hudson’s and my delight) and the PEOPLE became SO friendly. Could it have anything to do with Colorado being a blue state versus Kansas, a Red state? The truck drivers I listened to on my CB radio sure seemed to think so, and I’d have to agree.

Here’s what I looked at all day long…

Onward to Kansas City tomorrow.

Today we toured the South Rim Trail. We walked from Trailer Village to the main Village where the famous hotels are located: (El Tovar and Yavapai Lodge to name a couple). It’s also where the Bright Angel Trail that leads to the bottom of the Canyon begins (or ends depending on which way you’re going!) Not for the faint hearted or those out of shape like me.

From there we took the “Red Bus” all the way from Canyon Village to Hermit’s Rest, the furthwest point West, stopping at multiple viewpoints along the way: Maricopa Point, Powell Point (we walked from Powell Point to Hopi Point, to “The Abyss” and on to Hermits Rest. Here’s a sampler of the photos:

On our walk to the Rim Trail.

Rising sun on Maricopa Point.

Sunrise on the Canyon.

Hudson liked the view.

The Bright Angel Trail (note the brave people heading down through the tunnel!)

The Abyss

Hermit’s Rest placard.

Sunset on the Canyon from Hermit’s Rest.

Sigh…on to Monument Valley tomorrow!