Saturday, January 30, 2016

Today's Worth-Reading Political News and Opinion

Reviews: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
There are now 35 reviews, 89% of them 5-star. ~Bob

Rest in Peace: I regret to learn of the death of Col. Don Myers, USMC (Ret), a blog reader, contributor and great Marine. I again recommend his great book: Pride and Discipline: The Hallmarks of a United States Marine. By Colonel Donald J. Myers USMC (Ret) http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Discipline-Hallmarks-United-States-ebook/dp/B00KNOPONQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411845088&sr=1-1&keywords=Pride+Discipline+Myers

Syrian refugees admitted into US since Paris jihad murders in November: 525 Muslims, 1 Christian

Muslims fill German refugee camp with swastikas, anti-Semitic graffiti

Police officers flee angry mob in Swedish refugee center through back door

Fish Farming May Secure the Egypt-Gaza Border. Egypt may be securing its border with Gaza by fish farming in a moat along the security buffer zone.
As is shown by the Egyptian initiative,  why doesn't Israel complete the job and turn Gaza into an island? No tunnels into Israel! It could be called Shaitan's Island for the 'normal' Arabs condemned to live under Hamas. Cordially, Larry Greenberg

Are the Saudis "un-Islamic"?  Leading Saudi Cleric Says IS and Saudi Arabia 'Follow the Same Thought'
Excerpt: A former imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca has said that the Islamic State (IS) group follows the same brand of Islam as officially espoused by Saudi Arabia. Footage translated by British think tank Integrity UK on Wednesday showed leading cleric Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani speaking to the Dubai-based channel MBC about what he believes are the roots of IS.

8 Hamas terrorists confirmed dead in terror tunnel collapse
They build tunnels with the humanitarian supplies idiots send for schools and hospitals. ~Bob

Interesting: Buzz builds for Rubio in Iowa
Excerpt: Buzz is growing on the ground in Iowa around Marco Rubio, who many political watchers believe is set for a stronger-than-expected showing at Monday’s caucuses. In interviews with The Hill, Iowa Republicans and independent analysts in the state say Rubio is primed to break free from the second tier of contenders and finally emerge as the candidate to save the establishment from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who are battling for the lead in Iowa.

Must Read: It’s Rubio Or Bust For Republicans Who Want To Win. By DAVID WASSERMAN
Excerpt: There are a lot of complex analyses of the 2016 election floating around. My own theory is quite straightforward: If Hillary Clinton is the nominee — and she remains a heavy favorite over Bernie Sanders — her fate largely rests with Republican voters’ decisions over the next few months. If Republicans nominate Rubio, they would have an excellent chance to beat Clinton by broadening their party’s appeal with moderates, millennials and Latinos. The GOP would also have an excellent chance to keep the Senate, hold onto a wide margin in the House and enjoy more control of federal government than they have in over a decade. If they nominate Ted Cruz, Clinton would probably win, the GOP Senate majority would also be in peril and GOP House losses could climb well into the double digits. A Donald Trump nomination would not only make Clinton’s election very likely and raise the odds of a Democratic Senate; it could force down-ballot Republicans to repudiate Trump to survive, increase pressure on a center-right candidate to mount an independent bid and split the GOP asunder.

Trump showed them! GOP debate second-highest rated show in Fox News history
Excerpt: GOP debate scores 12.5 million viewers, making it the second-highest rated telecast in Fox News Channel history. 

Painfully funny: Donald Trump has flip-flopped so much that Stephen Colbert hosted a Trump vs. Trump debate
Excerpt: The final Republican presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses was missing the field's loudest mouth, Donald Trump. But not to worry: Stephen Colbert on Thursday hosted an all-Trump debate — in which Trump debated himself. What followed was a "debate" in which Colbert cut back and forth between some of Trump's many contradicting past comments. Here are the highlights:

Worth Reading: Why isn't Marco Rubio winning?. By Ross Douthat
Excerpt: In the month after that confrontation, Bush’s national numbers slipped into the lower single digits, while Rubio’s climbed steadily. In early December, he and Ted Cruz both had about 15 percent support in the national polls, below Donald Trump but well above all the other professional politicians in the race. It seemed as if they were rising in tandem, and that Rubio was destined to be the establishment’s preferred candidate in a three-man race with Cruz and Trump — and based on past results, the likely nominee.
But instead, Rubio hit a ceiling, while Cruz continued to climb. And despite a long series of “moments” when he was supposed to consolidate his position, the Florida senator is still basically stuck. (From a friend and very liberal colleague from the Massachusetts Legislature: " I fear Rubio more than any of the others. He's young, articulate, and may be the way the Republicans get a better share of the Hispanic vote, not only this year but long term. And he gives the GOP a big edge in Florida, by far the biggest swing state. He's vulnerable in November on his extreme conservatism on some issues and his inexperience, and I understand there are some Florida financial scandals lurking out there, but I still would rather face Cruz or the Donald." --PM)

Excerpt: But since joining the Trump campaign, Pierson has been eager to suggest that it is Cruz himself who is the immigrant. “There’s a ton of voters who are a little uncomfortable voting for someone outside of the country,” she told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer earlier this month, insinuating that Cruz’s birth makes him ineligible for the presidency. Oddly, Pierson had no such concerns when she was campaigning for him — or when, in March 2015, just after Cruz’s presidential announcement and shortly after her comments on The Kelly File, she wrote on Facebook: “Repeating your wishes as facts isn’t going to make them so. Ted Cruz is a natural citizen by BIRTH and is eligible to be President,” adding: “For those constantly citing otherwise is plain whiney and the most unintelligent way to prop up your choice. So, your candidate is just going to have to bring it in the debates. Good luck!”

For Donald Trump, it’s always about control

The great businessman: How Trump Bungled the Deal of a Lifetime
Excerpt: Fueled by a slew of bank loans in the late 1980s, Trump absorbed an airline, a football team, a landmark hotel, a bunch of casinos, a yacht, and other nifty stuff -- almost all of which he eventually lost because he couldn’t juggle the debt payments. He overcame those setbacks, but the man who emerged from that mess wasn’t really a dealmaker anymore. Kept afloat by his wealthy father’s funds and his own gifts for self-promotion, Trump became a reality TV star, golf course developer and human shingle who licensed his name on everything from real estate and vodka to mattresses and underwear.

Donald Trump Wanted Vets Kicked Off Fifth Avenue
Excerpt: Instead of debating his presidential rivals Thursday, the GOP frontrunner is hosting an event ‘to raise money’ for veterans. That’s rich, say the disabled veterans he tried to eject from the street outside Trump Tower.

Trump's Tax Plan: So Terrific That It Would Add More Debt Than Obama's Seven Years In Office
Excerpt: For a man who is running to “make America great again,” Donald Trump’s tax plan is exceedingly expensive. According to an analysis by the Tax Foundation, Trump’s plan would add trillions to the national debt, more than the current sum added after seven years of President Obama’s policies (via Weekly Standard):

Worth Reading: The Only Book You Need to Understand Donald Trump's Popularity
Excerpt: Here is a man who has never held public office and has achieved less in business than Paris Hilton; who, except for the real estate knowledge, connections, and fortune, all of which he inherited from his father, has failed at pretty much everything except real estate and, of course, self-promotion; who touts himself as a champion of the little guy while being "famous for not paying his bills" to the "little guys" who service him; who is known for threatening to sue critics; whose political views change constantly (for example, opposed raising the minimum wage in the first primary debate, now supports it); who "switched political party affiliations at least five times since the late '80s, according to voting records." ... But never mind all that, because Trump's deals are fabulous!  Like this one, for the Plaza Hotel: Paid $407.5 million. Lost $74 million the first year. Plaza in bankruptcy protection just one year after Trump bought it. Plaza eventually sold for $325. Not to mention, of course, the casinos.  And the New Jersey Generals.  And the Trump Shuttle.  And…well, they're all there for the Googling by those willing to take the trouble to look.  And for those who do, be sure to Google Trump's connections with Philip "Chicken Man" Testa, Nicademo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, Phillip "Crazy Phil" Leonetti, and Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno.  Despite having never met Messrs. Testa, Scarfo, Leonettie, and Salerno, they don't sound to this writer like the kind of guys a presidential candidate can throw under the bus as did Barack Obama with Jeremiah Wright.  Or refuse a favor should that candidate someday occupy the Oval Office.

Interesting: FBI's Hillary Clinton email investigation not letting up. By Julian Hattem, The Hill
Excerpt: Six months after it began, the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server shows no signs of slowing down. Former FBI officials said the length of the probe is not unusual and speculated that a decision on whether to file charges against Clinton or her top aides could come later this year, during the heat of the general election campaign. “I don’t know that there’s any magical cutoff date,” said Ron Hosko, the FBI’s former assistant director of the criminal investigative division and a 30-year veteran of the bureau. For Democrats, the extended investigation has become a source of some anxiety, with Republicans gleefully raising the prospect of the Democratic presidential front-runner being indicted.

Flint, Michigan: Did race and poverty factor into water crisis?
Excerpt: The contamination of drinking water in Flint, Michigan, has so outraged community advocates that they now pose a powerful question: Was the city neglected because it is mostly black and about 40% poor? Several advocates say yes. They charge that Flint residents are victims of "environmental racism" -- that is, race and poverty factored into how Flint wasn't adequately protected and how its water became contaminated with lead, making the tap water undrinkable. (let's play this out: Republican governor appoints Democrat emergency manager; new Democrat mayor and town council; Democrat decision to save money by switching water source.  Now NAACP cries racism.  What to do?  Replace city government and you overturn the will of the people, and second-guess their abilities to self-determination.  Don't replace city government and continue business as usual. --George. Note that a majority of the 100% Democrat council are black. ~Bob)

Worth watching: HIDDEN CAMERA: Buying Machine Guns without Background Checks?
Excerpt: If you’re a leftist who believes other leftists, it’s probable you think guns (even fully automatic ones) can easily be purchased without a background check. You hold this notion for a simple reason: your leftist leaders in political circles reaching as high as the White House, say such silly things as “Guns are easier to buy than books.” A myth which is as true as receiving a college scholarship from the tooth fairy. To prove how wrong leftists are about guns, we took a hidden camera to gun shows and gun dealers. We tried weaseling through the “gun show loophole” and even tried getting automatic weapons without background checks. It went as well as anyone who’s ever purchased a gun legally would expect it to go.

Serious Trend: Trans-Species. Woman claims She Was Born a Cat…

Worth Seeing: Land of the Freebies

Interesting: Not to be trusted. By Alan W. Dowd
Excerpt: In 1938, Hitler’s SS destroyed 300 synagogues and arrested 25,000 Jews. A year later, he began to deport Germany’s Jewish population to Eastern Europe, where his war on religion would crescendo. By the end of the war, Hitler had murdered 6 million Jews. 
Likewise, the Nazi regime desired “a complete extirpation of Christianity,” as the U.S. government concluded after combing through Nazi records, but “considerations of expediency made it impossible” to do so in one fell swoop. So Hitler employed a policy of gradualism: lying to church leaders about the Nazi program and then lying about church leaders to the German people, abrogating laws protecting religious independence, seizing control of church institutions, shuttering religious schools and seminaries, declaring certain denominations illegal, fomenting violence against church leaders, sending anti-Nazi church leaders to concentration camps and murdering others. 
Imperial Japan elevated its emperor to a god status, making it easier for his high command to justify anything and everything. (Very nicely done, from the American Legion magazine. --Del)

Obama administration needs to abandon its Petraeus obsession. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt:  In politically driven moods, the ancient Romans often wiped from history all mention of a prior hero or celebrity. They called such erasures damnatio memoriae. The Soviet Union likewise airbrushed away, or "Trotskyized," all the images of any past kingpin who became politically incorrect. The Obama administration seems obsessed with doing the same to retired Gen. David Petraeus. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is now thinking of retroactively taking away one or two of Petraeus’ four stars. (For doing less than Hillary did. ~Bob)

The ISIS model: When College Radicals Obliterate History
Excerpt: But of all the protests that have swept across campuses in recent months, the ones that are especially troubling are those that seek to plant a kind of ‘malware’ that distorts and even erases history. It appeared most visibly at Princeton University, with calls to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from its School of International and Public Affairs, as well as a mural of Wilson from the campus over his “racist legacy.” No matter that Wilson was an important president in Princeton’s development, or a widely acknowledged progressive president of the United States. His legacy should no longer be remembered or celebrated at Princeton because of his efforts to re-segregate the civil service. (If you are going to eliminate references to slavery from history, you must eliminate all history, as every society, including black ones, practiced slavery. I have read that white slaves were being sold in Cairo as late as the 1800s. And Dr. Thomas Sowell writes, in "The real history of slavery," that during the period when 500,000 black slaves were brought to north America, 1,000,000 white slaves were kidnapped in Europe and taken into Muslim lands in north Africa. ~Bob)

Important: WHO: Zika virus ‘spreading explosively,’ level of alarm ‘extremely high’

Important: DR. MANNY: 3 serious dangers of the Zika virus
2nd point--neurological inflammation in spine in adults--new. --Barb. Bring back DDT. ~Bob)

The forgotten Confederate general who deserves a monument
Excerpt: Born in 1821 in South Carolina, James Longstreet graduated from West Point in 1842 and served with distinction in the Mexican War. As the officer corps split along sectional lines, he joined the Confederacy in 1861, eventually rising to join Gen. Robert E. Lee’s inner circle. But it was after Appomattox that Longstreet truly distinguished himself — as the rare ex-Rebel to accept the South’s defeat, and its consequences. He urged fellow white Southerners to support the federal government and help rebuild their region on the basis of greater racial equality. He joined Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party. In the 1870s, he commanded a biracial state militia loyal to Louisiana’s Reconstruction government, aggravating an old war wound while fighting alongside his troops against violent white supremacists in the streets of New Orleans.

Wounded Warrior Project: Padding Their Own Pockets or Helping Vets?
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/10/wounded-warrior-project-padding-their-own-pockets-or-helping-vets/

President or King? Translated, that’s what the Supreme Court is asking. By Fred Barbash
Excerpt: All is forgiven if you’re not familiar with the “take care” clause in Article II of the Constitution about the presidency, the words that say “he shall take Care that the laws be faithfully executed.” The Supreme Court hasn’t fooled with it in many years. The words are buried below the State of the Union clause, and the business of receiving “Ambassadors and other public Ministers.” They lack resonance; they sound polite.
But their meaning, traced back through hundreds of years of history and translated into today’s colloquial English is indeed a command: They mean “Mr. President, don’t act like a king” — administer the law, but don’t dispense with it or change it.

The admiral in charge of Navy intelligence has not been allowed to see military secrets for years

Bernie Sanders, The Bum Who Wants Your Money
Excerpt: It wasn’t as bad as he says. His family managed to send him to the University of Chicago. Despite a prestigious degree, however, Sanders failed to earn a living, even as an adult. It took him 40 years to collect his first steady paycheck — and it was a government check. “I never had any money my entire life,” Sanders told Vermont public TV in 1985, after settling into his first real job as mayor of Burlington. Sanders spent most of his life as an angry radical and agitator who never accomplished much of anything. And yet now he thinks he deserves the power to run your life and your finances — “We will raise taxes;” he confirmed Monday, “yes, we will.”

Vote Cruz in Iowa as if the Republic Depends on It. By David Limbaugh (Rush's brother)
http://townhall.com/columnists/davidlimbaugh/2016/01/29/vote-cruz-in-iowa-as-if-the-republic-depends-on-it-n2111509?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=How is Ted Cruz too conservative? Don’t you really mean that Cruz is too committed to his principles,  that he will actually fight against the establishment and thus he is a thorn in their side?

Important: The State Department: Hillary Clinton’s email correspondence contained ‘top secret’ material. By Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger, Washington Post
Excerpt: The State Department acknowledged for the first time Friday that “top secret” information has been found in emails that passed through the private email server Hillary Clinton used while leading the agency, elevating the issue in the presidential campaign three days before the hotly contested Iowa caucuses. The information was contained in 22 emails, across seven email chains, that were sent or received by Clinton, according to a State Department spokesman. The emails will not be disclosed as part of an ongoing  release of Clinton’s email correspondence from her years as secretary of state, even in highly redacted form. (I don't believe the Obama politicized DOJ will indict her. ~Bob)

Another Socialist Paradise: Venezuela is on the brink of a complete economic collapse


Older, but interesting: Davis-Bacon: Jim Crow's Last Stand
Excerpt: Today, however, most people like to believe that their government fairly represents the interests of everyone, regardless of race. Unfortunately, the states and the federal government still discriminate against blacks, but this state-sponsored racism has taken on more subtle forms. Thus while great strides have been made since the Jim Crow era, some relics remain. One of them is the Davis-Bacon Act. ... The Act was passed in order to prevent non-unionized black and immigrant laborers from competing with unionized white workers. The discriminatory effects continue, as even today minorities tend to be vastly under-represented in highly unionized skilled trades, and over- represented in the pool of unskilled workers. Davis-Bacon restricts the economic opportunities of low-income individuals in a number of ways. 

The Goldberg File. By Jonah Goldberg

Worth Reading: WHERE'S OUR PRESIDENT? By Col. Andy Weddington, USMC (Ret)

Chinese military force to take lead on cyber, space defense

Archaeologists Dig Up An 800-Year-Old Native American Pot. What They Found Inside Is Changing History

Worth Reading: America the Indispensable. By Rupert Murdoch
Excerpt: Recent tragic events have highlighted the importance of a robust military and of leadership. Leaders sense when difficult decisions must be taken and that is a rare quality in an age too often defined by narcissism. No leader will fight for values, for principles if their government is a value-free vacuum.  Moral relativism is morally wrong. For a US Secretary of State to suggest that Islamic terrorists had a “rationale” in slaughtering journalists is one of the low points of recent Western diplomacy and it is indicative of a serious malaise. (A lot of people don't like Mr. Murdoch, for various reasons.  I am no expert on the man, but I can say that this speech makes perfect sense to me, and I am grateful and happy that he was able to put those thoughts together.  In an age seemingly filled with professors, pundits, and various actors and other famous people who are eager to denigrate this nation and make little of its many achievements, to hear the positive side of it, the important side of it, is a really great thing.  I only wish more people could read or hear these words and understand how valid they are. --Del)

Worth Reading: The simple arithmetic that could jump-start America’s economic growth. By George F. Will
Excerpt: If there is going to be growth-igniting tax reform — and if there isn’t, American politics will sink deeper into distributional strife — Brady will begin it. Fortunately, the Houston congressman is focused on this simple arithmetic: Three percent growth is not 1 percent better than 2 percent growth, it is 50 percent better. If the Obama era’s average annual growth of 2.2 percent becomes the “new normal,” over the next 50 years real gross domestic product will grow from today’s $16.3 trillion (in 2009 dollars) to $48.3 trillion. If, however, growth averages 3.2 percent, real GDP in 2065 will be $78.6 trillion. At 2.2 percent growth, the cumulative lost wealth would be $521 trillion.

Too funny: Congratulate North Korea on getting a hydrogen bomb.

























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