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A good week for sports BUT Zeihan disappoints.
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A good week for sports BUT Zeihan disappoints.

When he gets it wrong, he goes all in!

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Update:  I skimped on the tour.

In a previous post I mentioned the Tour de France.  I am not catching much because it isn’t being carried as heavily as past years and because AT&T douched up my service.  Nothing new there.

I was so caught up last time in my devotion to Jasmine Paolini (who is losing sets in the semifinal as I speak!) that I didn’t share what I have caught of the TdF this year.  And the big news is Mark Cavendish. 

For folks who don’t follow professional cycling you missed the passing of a major sports record.  Cavendish bested Etty Merckx’s 49 year record by winning his 35th career TdF stage win. That was the 5th stage of this Tour.

I’ve followed Cavendish for years.  He’s one of the best sprinters of all time with 164 career pro cycling wins under his belt.1  What is most amazing is how he has amassed this record while riding under what many would consider a dark cloud.  He was knocked out of the tour in 17 after a crash with Peter Sagan. He broke his collarbone so badly they had to insert a screw to fix it.   He was disqualified in ’18 because he didn’t make a stage time requirement.  He didn’t know yet, but he wasn’t just weak, he was very sick at the time. He would be diagnosed with Epstein-Barr Virus a few weeks later.  These cyclists live on the ragged edge of a healthy body fat index. That virus him up rather badly.  His career was stalled.

Cavendish returned to the TdF in 2021 when he tied Merckx’s stage win record.  It wouldn’t be until this year that he finally bested Eddy Merchx. 

He had returned to racing after some doubts, saying he would ride one more year (2024).  Now there are whispers he may be back next year.

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Standings:

A lot of the usual suspects are in the running for the yellow jersey.  It is presently worn by Tadij Pogacar [pogatcher] as Phil Ligget likes to say.  No surprise there. He is followed by Vingegaard. In the running are Yates, Gee, Jorgensen and Thomas.  Girmay has the green jersey (sprinters) right now but the points are tight.  It’s anyone’s race for the Green.  The polka dot jersey is presently also held by Pogacar.  But you can’t wear two jerseys, so his second in the King of the Hill competition, again Vingegaard, is wearing it.  They are in a virtual tie for the category.

It's been a great Tour so far.  Goddamn AT&T.  I’ll catch a few more stages before it’s over.


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Damn, Pete!  Why must you disappoint?

As usual, when straying from his strong suit, numbers and what they mean, Peter Zeihan has gone all cutsie Left.  I’ve noted before that I believe he does this to court a wider market.  To be certain, the answers to the problems he outlines in his serious work WILL NOT be found in the Daisies-in-the-sidewalk world of Lefty dystopia.  So perhaps he needs to sound and look like an art appreciation major, to expand his market to the loony Left.

Peter’s work in demographics and economics has been nothing short of amazing.  Despite his forays into the seedier side of politics, I follow his serious work constantly.  But that comes at a price.

Last week Zeihan did a short piece of propaganda that follows lockstep the Left’s new-ish line on the presidential race.  In that short reel he labeled Biden “delusional” and Trump “demented”.  The comments actively support the adolescent talking points from Biden’s handlers. The message, intended to advance Biden’s candidacy (which may be at an end by the time you read this) is being touted without the slightest blush of irony.

The message: Trump is as old and dithery as Biden…so choose Biden!

When that is all you’ve got, you should have thrown in the towel a long time ago.

Back to Pete.

He says Biden is delusional because he is old and losing touch with the present and instead, living in the past.  Sometimes that vision of the past isn’t quite accurate.

He says Trump is demented (suffering from dementia) because he tells one whopper after another.

Lefty conclusion?  Both creatures are equally addled and that makes this election a tragedy.

While I will grant this election is a world-class shit show, the claim that both men are equally damaged is simply not true.  It IS a talking point, one of many that makes the election a shit show.  And the roots of it all go back to 2015.  Saying Trump is as messed up as Joe Biden is just the latest iteration in what has made the political landscape the disaster it is today.

Here's the reality Pete and the Left hope to convince you to un-know.  Joe Biden is suffering from delusion AND dementia.  His pre-planned, puff ball NATO news conference does nothing to change the facts.  He has spent a career telling stories and lifting other people’s material to the point where he started to believe the bullshit himself.  As he’s aged, the tales he has spun have taken root in his fading mind.  It seems he really believes he received a Naval Academy appointment and that he was slated to play football there.  Reality:  He went to U Del and didn’t do much of anything noteworthy.  He may REALLY believe he was top of his class in law school vs the bottom half – lower HALF of the bottom half.  Cornpop was real, Uncle Bosey DID get eaten by cannibals, and Joe saved 27 kids from drowning.

None of this is true.  This is classic delusion.  Joe’s dementia is separate, newer, but part of the same decline we see today.  I watched him last week standing behind Jill while she extolled his prowess.  Part of the time he was listening and engaged.  But twice, in just a minute or two, his mouth dropped open, his eyes wandered (slightly down) and showed what appeared to be fear.  What was he thinking?  Who can know?  But he wasn’t present.  He wanders off or forgets when and where he should be moving.  He needs step-by-step instructions AND PHOTOS to find his way to a podium.  He exhausts easily and is moved to temper over things that don’t much matter.  THAT is dementia!

Assigning the latter illness to Trump is the Left projecting.  They want to convince you to keep Ridin’ with Biden by saying Trump is a broccoli too.  But Trump is not.

Trump is a lifetime, self-promoting braggart.  He is the same guy he was in 1980.  Full disclosure:  I didn’t like Trump then.  He can still set my teeth on edge today.  When everything he’s done – and he truly has done amazing things – becomes the greatest thing in history, that is when he is at his worst.

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DJT still keeps a grueling schedule, his rallies are long and full of energy (and the incumbent exaggeration).  He still plays golf.  He meets more people in a day than Joe meets in a month.  He interacts with these people independently.  Are these events transactional?  Of course!  He’s a businessman who is also running for office.  I doubt he’d say good morning to you without an angle.

But none of this points to dementia.  Are his exaggerations delusional?  One has to consider that as a matter of degree.  If he really believes his tax cut was the largest in history, then you must assume he’s delusional on that point.  It was the 8th largest.  But with Trump, that kind of “delusion” is not a case of age.  He has sold his work like that since he bought his first building in New York City.  And we know it’s not all true.  Ask the early residents of Trump Tower.  It was NOT the most amazing residential experience in New York history. Far from it.

Trump is a salesman first and foremost.  To be a successful salesman you must project unfettered belief in what you are selling.  And delusional or not, that has been Trump’s stock and trade throughout his entire adult life.  He shows no signs of problems due to age.

So I was surprised Zeihan went down this road.  When your stock and trade is cold analysis you might want to consider going with something that is more true(ish) as the talking point you want to forward.  This one is trash, far beneath Zeihan’s stature.

I’d prefer, considering the value of his REAL work, that Peter stuck with numbers and REAL trends and left the political whoring to his lessers.


Final Update:

As I prepared this episode, the new love of my life, Jasmine, won her semifinal in a nail biter against the Croatian, Vekic. All is well with the world.

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1

second only to Merckx again

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