We will soon see Donald Trump sew up the Republican presidential nomination. There have likely been private polls on how various Democratic candidates would fare against Trump. If not, there soon will be. With the unpopular former President locked in as the opponent, finding the best replacement ticket for Joe and Pamela is in full swing.

Already millions of dollars are a bet on  Michelle Obama in the ’24 presidential race, putting her in third place behind only Trump and Biden and ahead of Nikki Haley and Robert Kennedy Jr. Gavin Newsom is right behind her. People willing to risk big bucks might know something.

The private polls winnow the field and alert the significant donors to the best bets. Closer to the convention, we’ll see public polls showing how badly Trump fares against the new competition. Once the Democrats see a new ticket leading to victory, giving them a possible eight years of rule, a delegation of eminent Dems led by South Carolina Rep. James Claiborne will sit Joe Biden and wife Jill down to discuss their retirement plans. 

Joe’s dim prospects evaporate without Claiborne and other luminaries in his corner. If Joe hesitates, Democrats might have information on the Biden influence-peddling business they haven’t shared. It’s better to accept thanks for their service and ride out in the Sunset than lose their place in a positive history.

Agreeing on the replacement candidates ahead of the Democratic Convention in August will eliminate the messiness of previous conventions. The present delight in right-wing media over polls showing Trump edging out Biden will only slowly give way to dismay as they realize they’ll be facing a younger, robust ticket without the baggage of either Trump or Biden. 

A riveting Democratic convention energizes that party. The Republicans are stuck with a candidate who has never received majority approval anywhere. The August Democratic convention leaves Trump little time to recover.

Trump’s ugliness toward Nikki Haley, the only Republican demonstrating appeal to voters the Republicans must get, never Trumpers, independents, and persuadable Democrats, leaves him only his narrow base. 

Don’t expect Haley to rush to help Trump to save her position in the party. If the Trump-led Republicans have a fourth straight defeat, Haley will have the credibility and visibility to either reorganize the Republicans or form a successor party.

I prophecized the Biden replacement in my”We’ve Been Had” post last April. So far, everything has gone as forecast. The mass of mostly silly legal cases against Trump had the desired result, making Republicans rally around him. With Trump dominating the news, other, more electable Republicans couldn’t get off the ground. The Democrats again picked the weakest Republican candidate to run against.  

V.P. Kamala Harris calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. U.S. planes dropping food to “starving” Gazans. The President calls your tactics “over the top.” Israel is finding what the Afghans and Ukrainians learned about their “friend,” Biden’s U.S.: winning wars isn’t part of the playbook. After the horrendous Hamas attack, I proposed the relentless destruction of every structure in Gaza. Give people a chance to leave before the leveling. Unlimited supply ships bring in sustenance for the displaced. Of course, those ships were filled with women, the infirm, and children when leaving.

If this plan were in place, leveling a big part of Gaza might have already taken place. However, half of the structures no longer stand as is. The difference is that there are fewer casualties and no starvation possibility, transferring women and children to a better place: Arab nations and others bemoaning innocent life loss forced to put up or shut up. Ultimately, Hamas surrenders its hostages and tunnels, or the last Gazan leaves on the last ship. Either way, it’s a better outcome than the present circumstances.

Having overinvested in “green products” such as windmills, solar panels, and electric vehicles, China, with a rapidly slowing economy, has no choice but to dump its excess production on the rest of the world. With the U.S. and others also wallowing in problem Green Products, a trade and tariff war appears in the offing. Dictating what to produce rather than following market signals where to invest fails in the modern world. The breadth and speed of Innovation make it impossible for group elites to impose solutions.

In the last few weeks, I’ve found many excellent possible solutions to the affordable green energy problem. Nuclear Fusion provides net energy, promising eventual almost unlimited cheap power. Deep drilling can unlock steam to heat and power modern towns. Naturally occurring pure Hydrogen is found in more places to move large transport such as trucks, ships, and planes with zero carbon emissions. Wide availability for trucks will also make it attractive for autos. 

Locating hot spots for natural steam and Hydrogen will require the oil industry’s geological know-how. The same sector many on the left demand we stop investing in. There is a new world of possibilities beneath us, and the ones who found a way to get energy out of rocks will likely be the ones to find it. 

Some of the ideas seem far out, such as an electric Hydrogen highway with speeds up to 500 mph, but the increasing pace of Innovation aided by AI is expanding the range of possibilities. 

Sadly, we desperately need the vast sums wasted to resolve problems such as our underfunded defense and compensate for the COVID-19 learning losses. The fact that Russia and China have hypersonic weapons and we don’t is downright scary.

Whether it’s Republicans, despite clear signs otherwise, convincing themselves, they’ll face Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Israel’s inability to think outside the box, leaving open the possibility of losing to Hamas when the U.S. pulls the rug, and trillions wasted on windmills, solar panels, and electric vehicles, it’s no fun to be correct if people ignore the warnings and persist in driving off cliffs.