Joel Pollak
Politics • Lifestyle • News • Travel • Writing
I will share my thoughts about American politics, as well as current events in Israel and elsewhere, based on my experiences in the U.S., South Africa, and the Middle East. I will also discuss books and popular culture from the perspective of a somewhat libertarian, religiously observant conservative living in California. I will also share art and ideas that I find useful and helpful, and link to my content at Breitbart News, Amazon, and elsewhere.
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The pattern of government failures predicting opposition victory

One of the reasons I believe Donald Trump will win the election on Tuesday is that there has been a cascade of failures by the government and the ruling party, as well as by those who claim to speak for it.

You could feel this in 2020, too, when Trump contracted COVID in the first week of October. He recovered, and nearly won the election (yes, I know he thinks he actually did win it), but one could sense it possibly slipping away in that moment.

There's just this phenomenon that ruling parties tend to fail as Election Day gets closer. It's partly a result of media scrutiny, but also seems to be the result of some kind of hidden force, perhaps society's way of telling itself to change.

I first noticed this in 2006, when I was helping Helen Zille's mayoral campaign in Cape Town. For months, Helen had argued that the city had been diverting money from emergency services to public housing as a kind of Potemkin policy.

Then, in the days before the election, a British tourist flicked a cigarette into the brush on Table Mountain and the whole dry mountainside exploded in fire. Lo and behold -- there weren't enough firefighting vehicles, due to budget cuts.

There were also blackouts -- the first of South African's infamous electricity shortages. These were caused by failures in the turbines at the nearby nuclear power plant, which the government blamed on sabotage, but they were also the result of overly aggressive affirmative action policies denuding the country of engineers. All of this fit within the opposition's critique of the government.

I remember walking home from the South African Parliament that day, looking at the orange sun barely peeking through the smoke, and thinking that events were pointing in the direction of an opposition victory. Things had to change.

And they did: the opposition went on to win the city, and has held it since.

Everything is going wrong for the Biden-Harris administration and the Kamala Harris campaign in the last week. Biden's "garbage" comment; Mark Cuban's disparaging comments about conservative women; all of it. These are signs.

I think that the country has already decided that Donald Trump will return to the Oval Office, the first to return after losing a reelection race since Grover Cleveland in 1892. You can feel the country making the collective decision.

Here in my largely-liberal part of the world, you can sense the frustration of some people. I overheard a guy yesterday lamenting the fact that the election would be decided by "non-college educated white men in Pennsylvania." Yep.

That's how it works. In a democracy, the people rule, and not the elites. The elites have a role, but it must also have boundaries. It's time for the elites to learn that -- and then, hopefully, long-overdue healing can begin in the USA.

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Time-lapse sunrise at Temescal Falls
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This is what is left of my special place in the forest

Burned, then covered in mudslides and rockslides. The river still flows through it. But we have lost so much. I have to believe the spirit still lives on.

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The drive home 💔
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Additional note about this week: Sabbath of Vision!

I should have noted in my message about the weekly Torah portion that this week is Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision. We are about to mourn -- but see through that pain to something better that lies beyond, on the other side.

Wishing you the best vision -- and an incredible reality to follow. It happens!

Weekly Torah reading: Devarim (Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22)

We begin the final speech of Moses to the people of Israel before they enter the Promised Land. He relates the ups and downs of the years of wandering in the desert, before, finally, the people have the merit to enter the land itself.

This Sabbath always precedes Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is the anniversary of the destruction of both of the Holy Temples, and a catch-all for many calamities that befell the Jewish people.

A word on Tisha B'Av. This year I am leaving for an overseas trip during the afternoon of the holiday -- in the middle of a fast day. Not idea, but there was no other choice. But my flight is in the afternoon, which is significant.

We relax some of the harsh, mournful customs of the day in the afternoon. We start to pray normally; we sit on regular chairs; we start to have hope again in the redemption that will, one day, lead us all back from exile to our home.

I'll be taking a trip to a land where an important part of ...

Breitbart News Sunday: show rundown (July 27, 2025)

President Trump is in Scotland, playing golf and making big trade deals -- a major deal with the EU, in fact. Meanwhile, there is a global outcry about humanitarian aid to Palestinians (not about the Israeli hostages, mind you).

On top of that, Democrats are at their lowest polling numbers ever -- so they are trying to win control of the House by redistricting in the middle of a 10-year Census cycle. Oh, economic optimism is up, so they have a tough road.

And Tulsi Gabbard's revelations about the Russia collusion investigation make it clear that Obama's lieutenants lied to Congress. How deeply was he himself involved? The media continue to ignore the evidence, but we certainly won't.

Special guests:

Nick Gilbertson - Breitbart News White House correspondent, on EU deal
Frances Martel - Breitbart News foreign editor, on Trump abroad and Russia
John Spencer - urban warfare expert, on humanitarian aid and war in Gaza
Bradley Jaye - Breitbart News congressional correspondent, on the ...

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