Saturday, April 30, 2016

Random Thoughts for May, 2016

Random Thoughts for May, 2016. By Robert A. Hall
Feel free to post or forward.

On April 15th, I turned 70. No birthday has ever bothered me, but I used to think that 70 would. 70 is old. But given the events of the last few years, I'm now delighted to still be here for 70, despite my ongoing complications and the time it takes to manage my lung transplant, about 40 hours a week, plus 70 hours of sleep at least.

On April 30, I was 166.9 lbs, four lbs. lower than April 1, and 14.5 lbs. lower than April 30, 2015!

The fact is that for as long as I have known about Donald Trump, I have held him in contempt and disdain. In my book he is a bloviating, coprophagic fustilarian. And always will be. I could never vote for him and still consider myself a person of integrity.

Donald Trump, who as I write has won 37% of he GOP vote and received 45% of the GOP delegates, continues to whine about how unfair, corrupt and dirty the system is.

Unlike Christianity or Judaism, the left protects Islam from any investigation, discussion or criticism. But Islam has a strong fundamentalist faction which is intolerant of other view points (much, I guess, like the left), misogynistic to women, and willing to do violence and murder towards anyone who disagrees. For example, all major Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence, four Sunni and the major Shi'a school, on which Muslim countries draw to establish civil and religious law, proscribe the death penalty for any Muslim who leaves Islam. Pointing this out gets one labeled "Islamophobic," as though noticing and saying the truth is a mental disease. Maybe if Christianity reverted to their medieval views and murdered heretics, the left would suddenly value Christians as well.

I am now supporting Sen. Ted Cruz for president. But let's be clear--if he is nominated the battle against Hillary or Bernie will be uphill. Hillary will have the machine, the money and the media behind her. The electoral college math tilts against any Republican candidate. If Cruz loses to Hillary, the Donaldcrats will say, "I told you so!," ignoring the fact that Cruz does about ten points better than Trump against her.  Jonah Goldberg pointed out the principled conservatives will not vote for Trump (I'm #Never Trump guy), while the Donaldcrats will not vote for anyone else. He said, "This ends in tears no matter what. Get over it and pick a side." A full 36% of Wisconsin Republicans say they will not vote for Trump if he is the nominee. With Cruz, even if we lose, there will be less down-ballot disaster for conservatives. Trump will, I believe, lose huge and take the Senate with him--and maybe the House. With Cruz we may--may I said--be able to save the Senate.

When the left says it supports free speech, it means free speech for those who never deviate from the left's dogma. Anyone else will be intimidated into silence. "Speech codes" are intended to silence anyone with a different point of view from speaking out. Today's universities, or should I say "Today's adult child day-care centers," support every possible diversity except the one that matters most--diversity of thought.

The Trump campaign is going to be the graveyard of political reputations. A Trump Presidency ever more so.

Christian groups are forced off campus if they don't believe in gay marriage. Muslim groups who support Shari'a Law, under which being gay is punishable by death, are celebrated and welcomed on campus.

If Trump promised he was going to teach everyone to fly like birds, the Donaldcrats would say, "See, none of the other candidates will do that." It's why he can get away with promising to build up the military, cut taxes, and eliminate the deficit and much of the debt all at the same time. They think if he says he will repeal the law of gravity, that he will do it. They will be disillusioned if he loses, but exponentially more disillusioned if he wins.

One of the Iron Laws of Economics, of which so many people are ignorant, is that if you increase the cost of something, people buy less of it. If you lower the cost, they buy more. The government proved this once again in the 1980s-90s, when they decided to highly tax high-end pleasure boats. The boat market dropped sharply, workers who built boats were laid off, and less overall tax was collected. They repealed the tax, but never apologized to the workers who lost their jobs. It works the same way for labor. If you raise the cost of unskilled labor through increases in the minimum wage, people hire fewer unskilled workers. But the fairy-dust politicians never tire of promising they can repeal this economic law. Might as well try to repeal the law of gravity.

People who invested up to $35k in Trump University, based on the lie that he was going to handpick the instructors, got burned. People who were creditors of Trump Airlines, Trump Taj Mahal Casino (3 times), Trump Mortgage, Trump Network, Trump Steaks, and Trump vodka got burned. People who invest in "Trump the President" are going to get burned, if he doesn't get the nomination, if he does, but is crushed by Hillary as the polls show, or, worse, if some black swan event makes him president and he brings his know nothing, bullying, crude, insulting, no-core-values approach to managing the country.

Hillary and The Donald get away with lies because their supporters have politely, silently among themselves agreed not to notice.

Shouting down speakers so that their views cannot be heard is an old fascist tactic, now usually used by the illiberal left.

I expect any day for Trump to announce that he is changing all his positions--again--to whatever you want to hear.

If the military can't discriminate in the combat arms on the basis of sex, why can fraternities and sororities on college campuses do so in membership?

Trump was apparently out-maneuvered in Louisiana and Colorado by the Cruz people because, arrogant as ever, he didn't bother to learn the rules. When I was in the Massachusetts Senate, I figured out that, despite being in a minority of seven out of forty, I could have more power if I knew the rules, so I learned them. When I had been there a year, I had three and four term senators asking me about the Senate rules.

The forced integration of women into Marine combat infantry, regardless of differences in physiology, will mean dead Marines, male and female. The blood will be on Obama's hands, but by then he will be making millions on the book and speaking circuit and will escape all responsibility.

I have a lot of good male friends, especially Marine buddies. But I've never had a "bromance." What the hell is up with that silliness?

If you don't like Trump's position on a particular issue, check in tomorrow--it will have likely changed.

Saw an obit for a guy who was born in Smackover, Arkansas. Sounds like my kind of place.

A fervent desire for the unattainable is a solid foundation for misery.

Remember when student radicals in the 1960s were demanding free speech and saying power to the people, instead of wanting to limit speech they find offensive through speech codes and power over people? Good times, huh?

Many universities now have free speech zones. So what are the rest of the university? Anti-free-speech fascist zones?

For years now, any Republican who has varied from the party line on any issue has been a RINO. Of course, Donald Trump has varied from Republican Principles on everything during his career, but that apparently just makes him a smart businessman. Recently a Trump supporter said that I "was part of the Republican Establishment." I guess because once I was in Massachusetts, where I was Republican Whip in the State Senate 35 years ago--not that I had many people to whip! So if you are among the majority of GOP voters so far who have voted against Trump, welcome to the establishment. Cocktails at 6, dinner at 7.

Sacrifice is very popular. Almost everyone is in favor of other people making sacrifices of living standards, convenience or even life to improve the world.

College students who believe in socialism: Starry-eyed and stupid.

I hate that magazines send you renewals years in advance to try to increase their cash flow. I once found that, since I pay bills as they come in, I was almost three years ahead with one magazine. Last check I ever wrote to them.

Our country is like a besieged city in the Middle Ages--think Constantinople--where the population is sure everything will be okay, but the leaders and people who can see ahead know that no help is coming, that food and weapons are running low, the walls are being pounded, and the enemy will eventually take the city by storm. Then the attackers will rape the women, loot the city, sell the children and surviving women into slavery, and put the men to the sword. Facing that, the only choice is to fight on, make them pay dearly, and pray for divine intervention.

If you want to keep something confidential, do not put it on a computer attached to the Internet.

The Republican Establishment: Anyone who doesn't like Trump's record as a life-long liberal with an aversion to transparency, a contempt for the truth and a past record of shady dealings.

Trump's policies are based on wishful thinking and ex-cathedra pronouncements, rather than on facts and reality.

In cases involving leftist sacred-cow talking points, like the existence of a "rape culture" that means one in five college women will be raped in college, an accused person is guilty until proven innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. And maybe still then. It is a legal standard recognizable in every totalitarian system, from the National Socialists to the Russian and Chinese Communists, from the Ancien RĂ©gime to Cuba's rounding up hundreds of thought-crime dissidents so Obama's visit wouldn't be marred by facts.

Feminists from college students to Hillary say that when a women alleges rape she must be believed. Funny how that standard didn't apply to Juanita Broderick and other accusers of Bill Clinton.

If you wish to be a journalist or an academic today, you'd better be a card-carrying member of the lock-step left. It doesn't matter how liberal or progressive your positions have been, one slight deviation from the left's agenda, one thought-crime, will get you instantly demonized, dehumanized, and delegitimized, shamed with racial and sexist slurs if possible, and barred from employment, tenure or advancement. Conform or perish.

One good thing about Trump, he's not really a racist as some have said. He thinks everyone, regardless or race, gender, religion or ethnicity, is inferior to him.

If gun-free zones work, let's make Congress a corruption-free zone.

Trump's wall is of course doable, if the nation wants to pay the cost. Trying to make Mexico pay for it by stopping out-of-country money transfers would do as much damage to our economy as Mexico's. The thing about a barrier like a wall or barbed wire fence, or minefield is that it must be backed by troops to hold it, otherwise it is worthless. People find ways through. So we'd have to pull divisions now facing the threats in Iraq, China, N. Korea, etc. and put them on the border. Even manned, it may be worthless, see the Maginot or Siegfried Lines in WWII. You'd think Trump, who says he got more military training in boarding school than I got in the Marines, would know that.

Tying to get someone fired because you disagree with him/her on a political issue is fascism. Period.

Donald Trump running for president as the liberal caricature of what a "conservative" is, after decades of being a strong liberal on all issues, is as laughable as would be Hillary suddenly running as a "conservative." If you wouldn't believe her, why believe him.

At the Madison Gun Show, one dealer was selling a Ma Deuce--a 50 cal machine gun that had been modified to shoot only semi-auto, thus making it legal. $2,000 plus over $3 per round. Be fun to drive around with it mounted on a jeep, though I suspect the police would take some convincing that it was legal...

People who think they would like to live in the more romantic, simpler past, say pre-1950 back to medieval times are not well read in the history of what individual lives were like. The further back, the worse. The average poor person in America today has better healthcare, nutrition, food choices and entertainment choices that kings did 200 years ago. And far better than much of the "middle class" in the Third World today. Poverty is relative.

I notice that the people who say they will leave the country if this or that candidate is elected are usually going to Canada or some western society with the rule of law, contract enforcement and property rights. Almost never do they say the are going to Mexico, which is advanced in the Third World. And never to a Muslim majority country or one of the sub-Saharan African countries.

Donald Trump is a perfect example of the old adage, "What's bad for the country is good for the news media."

I wish it was as easy to lose ten pounds as it is to gain twenty.

A man's education cannot be considered complete until someone has seriously tried to kill him.

Like Obama, Trump's many weaknesses do not include being hobbled by excessive modesty.

In today's world, you are far more likely to be fired for telling the truth than or lying.

My brother Mark, who lives with us, drives my vehicle to work. It's as you might expect, it's festooned with conservative political and Marine Corps bumper stickers--in the People's Republic of Madison. He came out of work recently to find this polite note on the windshield: "I saw your bumper stickers. If you served in the military thank you for your service to our country! Now I hope you become "enlightened." I had no problem with this, the left here usually feel justified in doing damage to convince you that you should be PC. In 2004, for example, my wife's car with a Bush bumper sticker was keyed. Cars around her with Kerry stickers or no stickers were untouched.

The kids who wear "Che" tee-shirts are the same mentality as those who wear swastikas.

Wisdom from the past: "Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it." --Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775. (The "Liberty or Death" speech. I memorized it--1,228 words if I recall--in high school over a weekend on a $2 bet. Only recall bits of it now. ~Bob)

If it weren't for people's blind stupidity, life would be a lot less exciting and interesting.

Internet inquiry: Why are there no voices calling for implementing a minimum wage in developing countries to take them out of poverty?

Elections often come down to who can assemble the largest coalition by making the most impossible-to-keep promises to the credulous who are unable or unwilling to figure out step two. Which is why government is so often in fiscal crisis.

Some folks feel they must answer every email. But if everyone did, an email chain would never stop, and we'd quickly be dealing with 10,000 a day. Before we murdered the computer.

Employees quitting and leaving are a small problem. Employees quitting and staying are a BIG problem.

A growing number of cute girls are getting ugly tattoos, with no thought that they will be even uglier when they are 50 or 60. Makes me glad my roving days were mostly before this fad. I went out with two girls with tattoos. One date each.

When I see one of those roadside memorials with a cross, plastic flowers, stuffed animals, etc., I often think they should include empty beer, wine or booze bottles in cases, probably a majority, where alcohol was involved.

If they are nominated, both Clinton and Trump are going to say many very nasty things about each other. And both will be right.

A little touch of OCD can make your life more efficient. But it's like salt--too much spoils the meal and is hard to take out.

Pro Tip: If you don't wish to be treated with contempt, don't act in a contemptible way.

Trump's Secret Service code name is "Mogul." But I think it should be "Jupiter." Not for the god, for the planet, a gas giant. My brother Mark suggested "Uranus," also a gas giant and with an almost-eponymous name.

I have a bachelors degree in government and a master's in history. I served as a Marine, including Vietnam and for five terms in the Massachusetts Senate. I have 31 years management experience in the private sector, and am sure I have read more than a thousand books on history, politics, economics and foreign affairs. That doesn't begin to prepare me for the presidency. But it does mean I'm about ten times more prepared than Donald Trump.

A friend tells me her church does give-aways to strangers coming by to show that God loves them: Lemonade, cupcakes, flower bulbs. I suggested ammo.

If a person harbors an "inner jerk," there is nothing like fame and fortune to bring it out.

Today's universities are bastions of physical diversity and mental conformity.

I have had a couple of people ask to be removed from my blog mailing list because I have expressed my decades-old contempt and disdain for Donald Trump. I refunded their full subscription fee.

I hate it that, at 70, I'm probably going to die fairly soon. I'd like to find out what ridiculous rights the left comes up with in the future which, all of a sudden, you agree with or are a bigot and a social outcast.

In the name of "social justice," the unruly and undisciplined students are allowed to disrupt the education of the kids who want to learn. Where is the justice for those kids?

If a Muslim terrorist shoots at you, and you duck, is that Islamophobic?

My wife has bean on a rampage lately, turning any of my undershirts with fraying or a hole into dust rages. After a couple of decades of marriage, you learn to accept such cruel devastation of veteran underwear as part of life. Of course, if I see one in the wash first, I hide it at the bottom of the drawer. Rather like the Danes hiding Jews in the attic during WWII.

The Democrats, who are running two far-left candidates, have their panties in a bunch over how conservative Cruz is. Of course, compared to Trump, Bernie and Hillary, who isn't far right?

Figuring out how to spend money is easy. Figuring out how to get it is hard. Just ask Congress.

Short term interest often abrogate long-held principles. Thus Europe, hungry for Iran's oil, pushes aside what an Iran who can provide nuclear weapons to terrorists might mean for Paris, Brussels or Berlin in ten years.

It's not true, as some conservatives say, that Democrats don't have principles. For example, one principle, strongly held by most Democrats, is that the security of the nation and a strong military should never take priority over wealth transfers to Democrat interest groups.

Lets start a petition to cut off foreign aid to and trade with any country that makes being gay illegal.

Will Bernie Sanders make Trump University tuition free so no more students will get ripped off?

Some people compare Trump to Hitler, but that's wrong. He's more like Mussolini. He even re-tweeted one of Mussolini's quotes; il Duce was an incompetent, narcissistic braggart, a bully who often mistreated women, a "leader" who encouraged his followers to beat up the opposition to silence them. And he led his country to ruin.

Liberals think there are too many blacks in prison. Conservatives think there are too many blacks committing crimes--mostly against other blacks.

People who see the world through rose colored glasses are a problem. But a worse problem is people like Obama, Clinton and Sanders who view the world through red colored glasses.

We often drive around the Amish areas in Wisconsin, shop at their stores and enjoy the scenery. I don't get Amish theology at all, but I admire their work ethic, their craftsmanship and their dedication to their faith.

Get the collection! My “Random Thoughts” from 2008 through July, 2013 are collected in this book: The Old Jarhead's Journal: Random Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Leadership by Robert A. Hall
The Old Jarhead’s Journal is a collection of Random Thoughts on politics and life and Conservative Political Essays, mostly published on the author’s blog, including the essay “I’m Tired” which went viral on the Internet in 2009, “The Hall Platform,” “This I Believe,” and “Why I’m a Republican.” While they will be of interest to conservative thinkers, they are collected here in book form as a service to readers who wish to give a copy to favorite liberals and watch their heads explode. All royalties are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

*****


Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=booksandie=UTF8andqid=1304815980andsr=1-5 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here: http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html. His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Enjoy today's political news and opinion--I'm going dark for a bit.

Malware
A reader said he got a malware warning from my blog site. If anyone else gets one, please let me know. TartanMarine(at)gmail.com

We were out and about Tuesday, couldn't do all the incoming email. ~Bob

Going Dark
My Marine buddy, John Payne, who received a lung five days before me, is doing very poorly. We are going to take off for Louisiana ASAP to visit him and Donna. Please hold all non-personal email starting Wednesday until further notice. ~Bob

Must Read: Reconquista, Part 2. By Tom Kratman
Excerpt: Step one is probably for the cartels to meet to agree to cease fire on each other, to implement a hold in place concerning areas of influence, to agree on a goal, to agree on financing and other support, and to appoint an executive council to carry through on their mission. Step two would probably be either getting control of Univision, or Galavision, or Telemundo. It wouldn’t be necessary to have control of every aspect of any of these; having control over the news of just one, and influence over other programming, would be sufficient for the nonce. Buying a number of radio stations would be to the good, too. Note that it is also possible to do this by gaining control of local stations and controlling only local news. There may be a temptation to launch a political movement at that time. I think that would be premature. Better, for step three, would be to set up the charitable and cultural activities, schools, scholarships, especially legal scholarships, support of religion, free legal clinics – hell, free medical clinics, for that matter. Step three, a), would probably involve the first tentative steps in building up MALA, the Mexican-American Liberation Army, discussed last week and in rough accord with the process lightly gone over, above. (I missed Part II last week. ~Bob)
Conclusion: Reconquista, Part 3: Detachment of the American Southwest from the U.S. By Tom Kratman
http://www.everyjoe.com/2016/04/25/politics/reconquista-detachment-american-southwest-from-u-s/#ixzz46syfZ33b
Excerpt: Indeed, for war, even of the low intensity variety, the enemy – in this case, from the Latino point of view, that would be us – gets a vote such that no formulaic approach really has a chance. Instead one can look only at general operational and strategic principles. Yes, some of the key operating principles are what I’m going to go over today. Moreover, I’ll do so as if I were working for the cartels, as someone who knows what he’s doing eventually will be. Once again, I cannot cover everything. What I can do is give the reader a feel for the approach…that, and scare the crap out of him (or her). Remember the objective, detachment of the American Southwest from the United States. Remember also what really isn’t the objective, which is to say return of those territories to actual Mexican governmental control. A purely notional government control would be acceptable, of course, provided the Mexican government never tries to make that control real. Don’t be in any doubt that, if openly provoked enough, the United States is perfectly capable of imposing control over the area militarily and expelling not just all illegal immigrants, but Latins in toto. If that happens, your cause is finished. Thus, the degree of provocation and violence must be kept below the level that causes that kind of reaction.2 Moreover, sufficient provocation could cause it to invade Mexico. You didn’t like that last time but you will like it even less this time. Moreover, the threat of America doing so may turn the Mexican government from your subtle collaborator to your active enemy, because they didn’t like it the last time, either. Additionally, while any given American government might look weak, under sufficient and sufficiently open provocation, perhaps with major and minor atrocities, you may find you’ve created and brought to power the very government you do not want. Contemplate, for example, that among other factors that led to the ouster of Jiminy Peanut, America’s worst ex-president, was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Note that, looming large among the factors that led to the fall of the Soviet Union was the election of Ronald Reagan, which came about in part because of the perceived (and well perceived it was, too) weakness and incompetence of Carter. How good a deal was that for the Reds, eh? (Tom Kratman is a retired USA LtCol, an occasional contributor to this blog, and an outstand author of military science fiction, including the A Desert Called Peace series. http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Called-Peace-Carrera-Book-ebook/dp/B00B5HJOFY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426715332&sr=8-1&keywords=Peace+Kratman I expect that in 20 years they will move his novel Caliphate to the history section. ~Bob)

Cruz

Interesting: Cruz and Kasich devise strategy to keep Trump from clinching three primary states
Excerpt: Donald Trump's two remaining Republican presidential opponents prepared to campaign Monday after striking an agreement on a strategy to divvy up three states holding primaries in the coming weeks -- an unusual and urgent arrangement aimed at stopping the mogul from clinching the GOP nomination. The campaigns of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich released written statements within minutes of each other Sunday night calling for Kasich to stop competing in Indiana and for Cruz to clear the way for Kasich in New Mexico and Oregon. They called on allied third-party groups to do the same. The deal marked the most significant collaboration between anti-Trump forces yet.

Cruz Campaign Vetting Carly Fiorina for VP

Pro-Life Leaders Slam Donald Trump on Changing GOP Platform: He’s Selling Out Unborn Babies

The Trump Camp’s Cyber-War on Ted Cruz. By Bob Bennett
Excerpt: Most of us think that we have the freedom to choose a candidate and vote for that candidate. But in order to choose the right candidate, we need reliable information.
Something unique has been happening, that prevents a large segment of the electorate from getting that information: The Trump team and its surrogates have driven a massive, unprecedented smear campaign against Ted Cruz that is damaging our system of free and informed voting. Integral to this campaign is an immense dissemination of slanted news and untruths over the Internet. Emblematic of this initiative is the epithet “Lyin’ Ted,” which Trump has not only used over and over in speeches, but has tweeted countless times. Since Trump has over 7 million Twitter followers, this reaches a very large audience. As a result, his supporters firmly believe Cruz is a liar and spread the epithet further around the Internet – though Trump has provided no backup for the slur.

SENIOR REAGAN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ELLIOTT ABRAMS URGES PENNSYLVANIANS TO SUPPORT TED 
Excerpt: Two things were immediately clear in my meetings with Cruz. First, the reputation he has for sheer intelligence was obviously well-deserved. His grasp of the dangers facing American interests in the Middle East and facing Israel was broad and deep. He had the facts and he got the nuances. That’s not to say we agreed all the time. We sometimes disagreed and debated, and I came to appreciate that he wanted to be challenged by someone else who knew the region and also had strong views. He wanted to think it all through. Second, his commitment to Israel’s security was readily apparent and deeply felt.

Trump Humiliated, Cruz Triumphant: Your Complete Saturday Delegate Battle Results

Trump makes bad deals? Cruz dominates, Trump falls short again as more states pick delegates
Excerpt: Ted Cruz dominated the race for delegate seats at weekend Republican meetings nationwide, further positioning the senator from Texas to wrest the GOP presidential nomination from Donald Trump if the contest is decided on later ballots at the Republican National Convention. In some instances, Cruz supporters won delegate seats in states that Trump won, meaning that in most cases they will be required to vote for the businessman on a first ballot. But if Trump fails to win the nomination in the first round, those Cruz supporters could switch to the senator on subsequent ballots. (Looks like Cruz is better at "The Art of the Deal." ~Bob)

Cruz Controls the Delegates. By Erick Erickson  
http://theresurgent.com/cruz-controls-the-delegates/
Excerpt: Ted Cruz had another stunning weekend upsetting Donald Trump’s plans to control the path to 1,237. In multiple states, Cruz swept delegate wins at conventions thereby setting the stage for a convention fight against Trump. Cruz won a minimum of 65 of the 94 total delegates up for grabs and may ultimately win more than that.

Excerpt: As the Republican primary campaign rolls into its final five-week sprint, the effort to stop Donald Trump and save the GOP from disaster will depend heavily on whether moderate voters are willing to pull the lever for Cruz. Especially given the importance of the winner-take-all delegate allocations in Indiana, California, and Washington, moderates will need to abandon John Kasich and unite behind Cruz in order to defeat Trump. Politics is a team sport, and elections are often about a choice of lesser evils. If Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, and Lindsey Graham can get behind Cruz, we have reached the point where people are well past demanding their first choice. Even as a conservative, I did not have Cruz as my first choice, nor even my second. But among the choices remaining, allow me to make the case here for why moderates in the remaining primary states should go out and vote for Cruz, both as a matter of electoral calculation and on the merits of who should be president.

Trump

Good News for President Hillary: Trump completes 5-state primary sweep
Excerpt: Fox News projects Donald Trump will win all five Republican primaries, scoring wins in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware. Hillary Clinton projected to win Delaware Democratic primary. Complete coverage now on Fox News and FoxNews.com

WaPo Editorial: What is Mr. Trump hiding by not releasing his tax returns?
They would show what a lousy businessman he is. ~Bob

True, this: Only Trump could manage to lose to the unpopular Clinton. By Jennifer Rubin 
Excerpt: The latest Battleground bipartisan poll underscores how rotten a candidate Donald Trump would be in the general election and what a wasted opportunity his nomination would be for Republicans. Hillary Clinton is unpopular, so unpopular that 46 percent strongly feel they would not consider voting for her. That leaves her with not much room for error. But wait. Trump is worse — 52 percent strongly feel they would not consider voting for him. It seems that practically any GOP candidate would have a shot against Clinton — except Trump. (Only 45 percent felt strongly they would not consider Sen. Ted Cruz.) It gets worse, however. As a party, the GOP matches up well against the Democrats on which party is best able to handle important issues. 

Donald Trump Humiliates Himself By Getting The Constitution Wrong On Meet The Press
He has been humiliating himself for decades. He's too egotistical to know it. ~Bob

For Supporters, Trump's Ignorance And Stupidity Just Make Him The 'Outsider' America Needs
Excerpt: Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about policy. He’s incredibly ignorant, tremendously lazy, and flippant about both his ignorance and his laziness. But many of Trump’s supporters love it. That’s because Trump is an outsider.

Trump: Obama 'led the way' on executive orders
Excerpt: Donald Trump says President Obama’s irresponsible use of executive orders has paved the way for him to also use them freely if he wins the presidential race. "I won't refuse it. I'm going to do a lot of things," Trump said when asked if he would use executive orders in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Worth Reading: No political makeover can save Donald Trump. By Michael Brendan Dougherty
Excerpt: Becoming an establishment creature now would dispirit many of Trump’s core supporters. It would wreck any momentum his candidacy had at renovating the Republican Party’s stale ideology. Trump will have worse problems than even Mitt Romney did in trying to explain the convenient evolution of his views. Trump’s unreliability extends even to his own stunts. Months ago he skipped a Fox News debate to raise $6 million for veterans. They haven’t seen the money. Trump cannot succeed in a general election without an unforeseeable intervention from beyond our normal politics -- think a sudden economic crash, a terrorist attack, or the likelihood of war. A little campaign makeover certainly won’t change what is now the most well-defined and lustily disliked campaign in modern memory. The Trump reboot will not make Trump viable. It just makes his new campaign manager viable. This is nothing more than another layer of orange-hued makeup on an orange-hued corpse of a campaign.

It's about the money, stupid: From Ukraine to Trump Tower, Paul Manafort unafraid to take on controversial jobs
Excerpt: Over a 40-year career as a lobbyist and political consultant, Manafort and his firms have advised, in no particular order, a business group tied to Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator of the Philippines; Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted Ukrainian president and ally of Vladimir Putin; and Lynden Pindling, the former Bahamian prime minister who was accused of ties to drug traffickers. Now, he works for Donald Trump. (Short version: he's a political whore who will work for any slimeball with cash. ~Bob)

Finally: I Regret Voting For Donald Trump. By Grant Stinchfield
Excerpt: Donald Trump is off the rails. He is a train wreck. It’s not just his antics and childish behavior that has me so put off, it’s his failure to improve as a candidate. After nine months on the campaign trail, I expected Trump to fully grasp the issues and have in-depth policy solutions to our problems. Yet he still is “winging it.” He has failed to surround himself with top-notch, respected experts to craft a legitimate conservative platform. The reality is now clear: Trump has no depth, and he fails to grasp even the most basic conservative principles. (Better late than never say those of us who knew what Trump was decades ago. ~Bob)

No surprise: Trump rejects new adviser’s push to make him ‘presidential.’ Frustrated with Manafort, the GOP front-runner shifts some power back to campaign manager Lewandowski.
Excerpt: Donald Trump is bristling at efforts to implement a more conventional presidential campaign strategy, and has expressed misgivings about the political guru behind them, Paul Manafort, for overstepping his bounds, multiple sources close to the campaign tell POLITICO. Trump became upset late last week when he learned from media reports that Manafort privately told Republican leaders that the billionaire reality TV star was “projecting an image” for voters and would begin toning down his rhetoric, according to the sources. They said that Trump also expressed concern about Manafort bringing several former lobbying colleagues into the campaign, as first reported by POLITICO. (See, being a know-nothing, blustering bully is who he is. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: Culture And Politics In The Age Of Trumpery. By DANIEL JOHNSON
Excerpt: It is time to sum up. Trumpery is the answer to a question that modern America has tried to evade for many years. How did the land of liberty and democracy come to be dominated by a self-satisfied yet censorious oligarchy, while the masses sank into a slough of despondent resentment? The sudden emergence of Trumpery has the character of an American mutiny. One aim of the uprising is vicarious gratification at the spectacle of the apotheosis of narcissism presented by Trump himself. Another is revenge on the Establishment, whose evident discomfiture and even panic evokes a schadenfreude among the “rednecks” that is all the more exquisite because it is so rare. But the underlying motive behind the embrace of Trumpery is sheer bloody-mindedness. That phrase, too, comes from Shakespeare: in Henry VI Part 3, King Edward IV speaks of the “bloody-minded” French Queen Margaret. In 2016, ordinary Americans, too, are feeling bloody-minded: towards immigrants and Muslims, towards Washington and Wall Street, towards all who do not share their values. In such a mood, they are turning — perhaps only temporarily, but certainly enthusiastically — to a megalomaniac whose contempt for his fellow men is naked. This is a man who aspires to leadership, but who knows no restraint. He threatens to build a great wall across America, but he disdains all boundaries in his behaviour. His morality, his mentality and his oratory are all infantile, yet his appeal is all the wider for that. He seems just what T.W. Adorno meant by “the authoritarian personality”; yet he could only have arisen in a society that has long since abolished all authority. Once, Americans lived in fear of divine retribution. Now that they have abandoned such fear, they seem ready to adore an idol with feet of clay. They also seem eager to help him to build his grandiose projects. Have they forgotten their Bible stories?

Worth Reading--WaPo Fact Checker: Trump’s false claim that the Islamic State is ‘making a fortune’ on Libyan oil. By Glenn Kessler
Excerpt: GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump, in his appearance on the “Today” show, was critical of the U.S. intervention in Libya, calling it a “Hillary Clinton deal” to get rid of Libya’s then-dictator, Moammar Gaddafi. “We would have been better off if we never looked at the Middle East for the last 15 years,” Trump asserted. Okay, we realize five years is a long time, so perhaps we should ignore the fact that in 2011 Trump himself, in a video blog unearthed by BuzzFeed, urged an intervention to topple Gaddafi. “Gaddafi in Libya is killing thousands of people,” Trump said then. “Now we should go in, we should stop this guy, which would be very easy and very quick. We could do it surgically, stop him from doing it, and save these lives.” ... Trump’s penchant for exaggeration continues unabated. The terror group’s activities have at times disrupted the flow of oil. But contrary to Trump’s claim on national television, the Islamic State does not control any oil fields and is not “making a fortune” from Libyan oil. But what do you expect from a man who appears to have conveniently forgotten that he urged an intervention in Libya to topple the country’s leader? Four Pinocchios

Trump discovers he’s the one being conned

Trump University Fraud Suit to Go to Trial, Judge Rules

Worth Reading: Conservatives for Trump?. By Dr. Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: The sudden appearance of Donald Trump on the political horizon last year may have been surprising, but not nearly as surprising as seeing some conservatives supporting him. Does Trump have conservative principles? Does he have any principles at all, other than promoting Donald Trump? A smorgasbord of political positions — none of them indicating any serious thought about complicated issues — is not a principle. Nor is cheering for himself and boasting about all the great things he is going to do as President. Haven't we seen this movie before? Wasn't Barack Obama going to heal the racial divide, end the partisan bickering in Washington, have the most transparent administration ever, lower the cost of health care and let you keep your own doctor?

Godot Will Arrive before the New, ‘Presidential’ Trump. By Jim Geraghty
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434431/donald-trump-presidential-maturation-myth?target=topic&tid=1707
Excerpt: Enough of this “new and improved Trump” nonsense. The media are so eager to announce the appearance of a matured Trump that all it takes for them to declare the metamorphosis complete is one speech avoiding the usual ad hominem guff. He’s set the bar so low that when he bothers to clear it for a minute there are plenty of pliant reporters ready to pipe up in amazement.

Hillary

Worth Reading: Donald Trump wipes away Hillary Clinton’s troubles with millennials: New poll shows Clinton sweeping young voters by larger margins than Obama won in 2008. Another poll shows Clinton winning Latino voters against Trump by greater margins than Obama won against McCain
Excerpt: Donald Trump may have finally hit 50 percent support from his own party for the first time, but a new poll out this week finds the Republican frontrunner so deeply unpopular with Latino and young voters that he could swing record turnout against him — handing the eventual Democratic nominee greater margins of support than even Barack Obama’s historic 2008 win.

Sanders

Sanders campaign’s lethal weapon Danny Glover ‘flunks history’ during rally

Other Political News

Interesting: What’s the real gender pay gap? By Robert J. Samuelson
Excerpt: The gender pay gap is back in the news — and it may become a major issue in the presidential campaign. It seems an open-and-shut case of job discrimination. Women earn only percent of men’s average hourly wages. Who could favor that? Actually, the comparison is bogus. A more accurate ratio, after adjusting for differences in gender employment patterns, is closer to 92 percent. Even the remaining gap of 8 percentage points may not stem fully from discrimination.

Just Business: Killings of 8 family members in Ohio `well-planned and methodical' execution, officials say
Excerpt: The execution-style murder of eight Ohio family members Friday were “methodical and well-planned,” according to law enforcement officials, as investigators uncovered three marijuana growing operations - while also warning residents who felt they were in danger "to be armed."

Worth Reading: 21st Century California Reverts Back to the Wild West. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Today I generalize that about every old rural farmhouse in these environs can be characterized by three traits: a) the house is a rental and not connected with the corporate fields around it; b) there are two to three families, in illegal fashion, living in ramshackle trailers and sheds on the property; c) the authorities don’t dare enforce zoning or health laws, on the grounds that enforcement  is a bad investment of their limited time and budget. If I find a dead dog dumped on the alleyway (as I have three or four times over the last 12 months), with a rope around his neck and his insides exposed from dog fighting, I bury him and pass on calling the animal-control people. In fairness to them, what would they do, run an investigation into rural dog fighting—in a state in which felons are routinely released from prisons and jails, and sanctuary cities offer amnesties? I suppose a Queensland with his face ripped off is small potatoes. (Does multiculturalism trump the ASPCA or PETA?)

Interesting: Austria’s Far-Right Party Leads The Vote In Presidential Election
Excerpt: Austria’s far right won more than a third of the vote in the presidential election on Sunday and will face an independent in next month’s run-off, dumping out the country’s two main parties from the post for the first time. It was the Freedom Party’s best result in a national election after a campaign that focused on the impact of the migrant crisis, which has seen around 100,000 asylum seekers arrive in Austria since last summer. Norbert Hofer, who ran on an anti-immigrant and anti-Europe platform, won 36.4 percent of the vote to become head of state. He will face Alexander van der Bellen, a former Green Party figurehead, who won 20.4 percent, according to official preliminary results.

Satire? And the World Was Made Right
Excerpt:    All climate change deniers and skeptics were executed, as advocated for years the Secret Society of the Global Warming Collect, by professional hangmen and executioners hired from ISIS. The first executions were presided over by Al Gore, former vice-president of the old U.S. European culprits were transported to Raqqah, the capital of the Islamic State Caliphate, and dispatched there with graphic footage broadcast to Europe. The experienced executioners there made short work of the liars and falsifiers and acolytes of false science. North American culprits were transported to Death Valley, California, and ISIS executioners were flown in to perform their service. The guilty had been hunted down and rounded up by the combined forces of the European-Islamic Police, of the Special Multi-Gender Law Enforcement Force, and of the American Federal Bureau of Intolerance (FBI) in coordinated raids and dragnets. Once the deniers were gone, all was made right in the world, and the world breathed easier.

Stop Whining. Nobody Owes You A Job. Your job belongs to the person who pays you to do it. Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton all say the opposite, but they’re lying to get your vote. By Mitchel Blatt
Excerpt:  Donald Trump says if he were president, he would force companies that outsourced jobs to bring them back to America. Bernie Sanders says he would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour to put more money into people’s pockets. Occupy Wall Street activist Harrison Schultz said we should all get free houses and he shouldn’t have to work a “menial” job as a dishwasher or a waiter. All of them share a common viewpoint: Americans should be entitled to material benefits from somebody else. It’s time somebody told them there’s no such thing as a free lunch and no one deserves anything by virtue of his existence.

How Christianity Helped Create Our American Democracy. By Carson Holloway
Excerpt: Alexis de Tocqueville, in his masterful work, “Democracy in America,” taught that religion is necessary for a healthy political order. As I argue at greater length in a new First Principles essay, American democracy, according to Tocqueville, owes both its origins and its preservation to Christianity. He thought religion “should be considered the first” of America’s “political institutions.” Tocqueville observed that the modern impulse toward democracy and belief in equality emerged first and made great progress in the Christian nations of Europe. This was no accident: By teaching the equality of all men before God, Christianity laid the groundwork for the rise of a belief in equality of all before the law.

Worth Reading: We can celebrate Harriet Tubman without disparaging Andrew Jackson. By Jim Webb
Excerpt: Into this uninformed debate come the libels of “Old Hickory.” Not unlike the recently lionized Alexander Hamilton, Jackson was himself a “brilliant orphan.” A product of the Scots-Irish migration from war-torn Ulster into the Appalachian Mountains, his father died before he was born. His mother and both brothers died in the Revolutionary War, where he himself became a wounded combat veteran by age 13. Self-made and aggressive, he found wealth in the wilds of Tennessee and, like other plantation owners such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, owned slaves. He was a transformational president, hated by the reigning English American elites as he brought populist, frontier-style democracy to our political system. ... As president, Jackson ordered the removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi to lands west of the river. This approach, supported by a string of presidents, including Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, was a disaster, resulting in the Trail of Tears where thousands died. But was its motivation genocidal? Robert Remini, Jackson’s most prominent biographer, wrote that his intent was to end the increasingly bloody Indian Wars and to protect the Indians from certain annihilation at the hands of an ever-expanding frontier population. Indeed, it would be difficult to call someone genocidal when years before, after one bloody fight, he brought an orphaned Native American baby from the battlefield to his home in Tennessee and raised him as his son.

Worth Reading: President Obama Double Downs On Medicaid's Failures. By Sally Pipes
Excerpt: President Barack Obama is calling on taxpayers to shell out more money for his health reform law’s disastrous Medicaid expansion. The president recently asked Congress to approve $106 billion in new Medicaid spending over the next 10 years. Nevermind that the Congressional Budget Office just concluded that, as is, Medicaid spending will add $1.3 trillion to the federal deficit by 2025. That’s $136 billion more than the agency projected last year. And it’s not as if those dollars are being spent wisely. 

10-Eye-Opening Quotes From Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger

Costly Broken Wind Turbines Give College Whopping Negative 99.14% Return On Investment

Most transparent administration in history: Feds Blow Off House Subpoena For Obamacare Co-Op Docs
Excerpt: Federal health officials refuse to give Congress hundreds of subpoenaed documents on Obamacare’s failed co-ops so that people will continue enrolling in the deeply troubled program, a congressional leader said Tuesday. Twelve of the 23 co-ops created in 2011 under Obamacare at a cost of $2.4 billion have failed, and another eight of the remaining 11 are likely to go under this year. But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) won’t hand over documents subpoenaed months ago by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Alert Bernie Sanders: EXCLUSIVE: Kerry, Heinz Family Have Millions Invested In Offshore Tax Havens
Excerpt: A DCNF investigation has confirmed that the former Massachusetts Democratic senator and his billionaire wife, using an elaborate set of Heinz family trusts, have invested “more than $1 million” each into 11 separate offshore accounts — mainly hedge funds in the Cayman Islands.

Russ Feingold is listening — to big labor and his other out-of-state contributors. By M.D. Kittle  

Religion of Peace News

Fighting Fires with Eyedroppers: Obama announces an additional 250 special operations forces to Syria

The ISIS money man: Biggest intelligence raid in US Special Forces' history exposes spreadsheet-loving jihadi accountant behind terror group's $1million-a-day oil operation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3556994/Documents-seized-Special-Forces-raid-inside-Syria-reveal-ISIS-oil-man-ran-terror-sect-s-1-million-day-fuel-operation.html
Excerpt: Documents seized in the raid that killed a top ISIS oil executive last year have revealed details on how the terror group ran its $1million-a-day oil operation.  Paperwork reviewed by the Wall Street Journal shows ISIS oil man Abu Sayyaf had a job not unlike other oil executives - except he was also faced with issues like factoring slave ownership into salary negotiations, and repairing oil wells damaged in U.S. airstrikes.   A U.S. State Department official has said that more information was obtained from the documents seized in the raid against Abu Sayyaf than from 'any Special Forces operation in history.'

White House set to release part of controversial classified 9/11 report that will 'expose Saudi Arabia's support for hijackers'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3556712/White-House-set-release-secret-9-11-papers-shed-light-possible-Saudi-connections-attackers.html
Excerpt: The Obama administration will likely soon release at least part of a 28-page secret chapter from a congressional inquiry into 9/11 that may shed light on possible Saudi connections to the attackers. The documents, kept in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol, contain information from the joint congressional inquiry into 'specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the United States.' Bob Graham, who was co-chairman of that bipartisan panel, and others say the documents point suspicion at the Saudis. 

What the hell? Artist crucifies Jesus on dartboard
Excerpt: Why, some youngsters even believe that nailing Jesus to a cross with darts – is funny – a Comedy Central chuckle-fest. “It’s hilarious,” wrote one student on Facebook. “We don’t have to cater to the wills of the Church or any denomination of Christianity or religion.” (No laws, no rules, no 10 Commandments....Hedonistic, sadistic and clueless atheists, groomed at the behest of the ACLU and the anti-Christian regime currently in office.  What goes around will come around.  Evil feels it is safe to show its true face; the gullible are tossed like chaff into the winds and those fires they don't believe exist...but are within their dark, empty souls.  Now, if this had been a picture of Mohammed....Barb)

Afghanistan: 106 Schoolgirls Poisoned by Mystery Gas
According to ISISMB, girls are to be used to breed and for pleasure; they don't need an education.  Per ISIS' actions, if they're too old, shoot them and throw them in a ditch.  Yet liberals, UN and Catholic church push agenda of Sunni Muslim refugees' need for importation to EU and US.  Pope Francis booted the Christians from his plane and took the Sunni Muslims.  So WHO has a war on women? --Barb

Greek Migrant Camp Chaos: ‘Weird Things Happen Here… Young Children Are Raped In Bathrooms’

Terror suspect whose flight certificate was linked to Saudis one of Gitmo's most dangerous
Excerpt: One of Guantanamo Bay’s most dangerous and longest-held terror suspects is a Saudi national who knows how to fly planes and build sophisticated bombs, speaks fluent English and remains committed to killing Americans, say former U.S. officials who dealt with Ghassan al Sharbi face-to-face. Revelations last week that Al Sharbi’s flight training certificate, tucked into a Saudi Arabian Embassy envelope, had been found in 2003 among a trove of documents buried in Pakistan following his arrest there, raised fresh questions about the Kingdom’s possible involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Although Al Sharbi, who trained with several of the 9/11 hijackers at an Arizona flight school, did not take part in the attacks, he is seen as one of the most lethal and committed terrorists held at the military base. (Video on link talks about 9 Yemeni released to Saudi Arabia.  Notes Saudis have been lobbying for them to get out of Gitmo and Obama granted their wish prior to his SA conference.  They are committed jihadists and the equivalent of commandos, devoted to terror, per video.  No assurances that they will not return to building caliphate. --Barb)

Not by Christians! Editor of Bangladesh's first LGBT magazine hacked to death. Another person was also killed and one person injured in the attack
Liberals will be silent. Muslims outrank gays in their pantheon of victimhood. ~Bob

UK: Muslim Uber driver refuses to accept blind woman because she had guide dog

Pennsylvania imam who said Hirsi Ali should be killed leads interfaith service. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org
Excerpt: The non-Muslims who participated in this interfaith service were being played for fools, but that is true of most, if not all, “dialogue” between Muslims and non-Muslims. Meanwhile, those who are shocked that Fouad ElBayly turns out to be an “extremist” need to be aware that the death penalty for apostasy is mainstream Islam:

Missouri: Muslim migrant threatens to kill family that sponsored him, faces deportation

Of Interest

"Coming Home"
Excerpt: It was bitterly cold on the rocky ridges of the Chosin Resevoir in that winter of 1950. Sergeant Wilson Meckley Jr., 31st Regimental Combat Team, Task Force Faith, U.S. Army, led his platoon up those rocky ridges.... when all hell broke loose. More than 120,000 Chinese Communists overwhelmed American forces on that day.  And for the next 65 years no one knew the fate of Sergeant Wilson Mackley Jr. First declared Missing In Action, he was finally declared dead. But his family would know no closure over his death.  Then, more than half a century later, the co-mingled remains of several of those long dead were returned to the United States. After pain staking DNA testing the DNA Military Identification Laboratory was able to identify the remains of Sergeant Mackley.

Damn Chinese are trying to butt into the Nigerian Scam
Good day to you, I am sincerely Sorry for bugging into your privacy, it's due to a business deal , l am Mr. Liu Jun, Chief Risk Officer and Executive Director Wing Lung Bank in Hong Kong, I want to present you as the owner of $49.5M In my bank since l am the only one aware of the funds due to my investigations. I want you to also invest the money in your country for the both of us for mutual benefits which we shall share in an agreed ratio. I would provide you with all the necessary documents and information needed to accomplish this deal once I hear from you. If you are interested, kindly get back to my personal email on , if not interested you can delete this mail. If interested reply to mrleungwlok@live.hk.. Mr. Liu Jun.

Hero dog that rescued 7 people after Ecuador quake dies from exhaustion
Excerpt: Dayko, a dog that worked for the Ibara fire service, spent several days searching for survivors after the magnitude-7.8 earthquake, The Telegraph reports. The fire service’s Facebook page said the resilient pup collapsed on Friday and died from a "massive coronary myocardial infarction and acute respiratory failure." The firefighters added, "This four legged friend gave his life in the line of duty." (Highly trained dogs should be given time to rest and recharge, like their human handlers.  Very valuable, costly to train and a sin to abuse. --Barb)