Monday, February 29, 2016

Today's Important Political News and Opinion

I felt better on Sunday, but on Monday the cold struck back and I spent most of the day in bed, accomplishing little, including leaving a lot of email unopened. ~Bob

Book Recommendation: 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley 
In 1453, the Turks finished the centuries-old Muslim crusade to take Constantinople and destroy Orthodox Christianity in the East. Six times in the past the city had withstood Muslim sieges, starting in 674 and 717. In 1453, Constantinople was divided along ethnic lines, and more importantly along religious lines, between Roman and Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox were split between those who favored union with the Catholic church to stave off disaster and those who would have no truck with the pope. The city was worn down, poor and under-manned. The Turks brought western technology in the form of ships and cannon, which they developed in great numbers, using renegade Europeans. They also out-numbered the defender by eight or ten to one. Despite this, the siege was a near-run thing. Had the last assault failed, the Sultan would likely have been compelled to lift the 53-day old siege. From there, the Muslims went on to try to conquer Europe. Their troops went into battle shouting, "Roma, Roma," Rome being the new goal. In 1481, they invaded Italy, took several cities and were headed for Rome when the death of the Sultan, Mehmet caused the campaign to fall apart,. They were turned back at Vienna in 1529, and in the siege of Malta, a near run thing in 1565. In 1571, the divided European powers pulled together a fleet under The Holy League, which defeated a massive Muslim fleet at the battle of Lepanto. Finally, in 1683, the last serious attempt of Muslims (until the current refugee crisis) to conquer Europe was defeated in a second siege at Vienna. I ordered this book because I read Crowley's excellent Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World. It did not disappoint, being balanced, well-researched and well-written. It is more than ancient history of interest only to military history buffs. Three quotes from the book: "It remained inconceivable in Islamic theology that the whole of mankind would not, in time, accept Islam or submit to Muslim rule." (P-13) And these quotes from Mehmet after the city's fall: "There must be ... only one empire, one faith and one sovereignty in the world." (P-240), "...I pray he will let me live long enough to capture and subjugate Old Rome as I have New Rome." (P-241). There is nothing here that would conflict with the views of ISIS, al Qaeda other Jihadist groups, or a great many of the "refugees" currently flooding into Europe.

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

Must Read: How to cool down Donald Trump. By George F. Will
Excerpt: “Hell,” said Alabama’s Democratic Gov. George Wallace before roiling the 1968 presidential race, “we got too much dignity in government now, what we need is some meanness .” Twelve elections later, Wallace’s wish is approaching fulfillment as Republicans contemplate nominating someone who would run to Hillary Clinton’s left. Donald Trump, unencumbered by any ballast of convictions, would court Bernie Sanders’s disaffected voters with promises to enrich rather than reform the welfare state’s entitlement menu —Trump already says, “I am going to take care of everybody” — and to make America great again by having it cower behind trade barriers. If elected, Trump presumably would seek reelection, so there would be no conservative choice for president until at least 2024. ... Trump, who was a big-government liberal Democrat until he recently discovered he was a conservative Republican, has the upturned jutted jaw, the celebration of “energy” and the flirtation with violence and torture that characterized the Italian who was a radical socialist until he decided he was a fascist. Trump, however, is as American as Huey Long.

Worth Reading: Don’t Assume Conservatives Will Rally Behind Trump. By NATE SILVER
Excerpt: If Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination, he’ll have undermined a lot of assumptions we once held about the GOP. He’ll have become the nominee despite neither being reliably conservative nor being very electable, supposedly the two things Republicans care most about. He’ll have done it with very little support from “party elites” (although with some recent exceptions like Chris Christie). He’ll have attacked the Republican Party’s three previous candidates — Mitt RomneyJohn McCain and George W. Bush — without many consequences. If a Trump nomination happens, it will imply that the Republican Party has been weakened and is perhaps even on the brink of failure, unable to coordinate on a plan to stop Trump despite the existential threat he poses to it. ... And if you are a movement conservative, Trump is arguably a pretty terrible choice, taking your conservative party and remaking it in his unpredictable medley of nationalismpopulism  and big-government Trumpism.

Sanders And Trump Are Singing From The Same Tattered Single-Payer Hymnal. Sally Pipes
Excerpt: Perhaps the cold — or the proximity to Canada — got to New Hampshire’s voters on February 9. Both Republicans and Democrats in the Granite State handed presidential primary victories to candidates who have — at one time or another — supported government-run, Canadian-style single-payer healthcare.

Real Clear Politics Polling Average
Trump loses to Clinton. So does Sanders, but by only a half point. All other Republicans beat Clinton, Kasich and Rubio by the most. ~Bob

Worth Reading: Trump Is the Ultimate Insider. The Donald’s rivals have given him a pass on his greatest vulnerabilities. By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Excerpt: And therein lies Mr. Trump’s vulnerability. Because, you see, Donald Trump is the man. An outsider to the elite society that Washington inhabits? An avenging angel of a faltering working class? Laugh. Out. Loud. This is the man who was born to a silver spoon, who self-selected a life strictly in the company of the rich and powerful, and who built a fortune by using his connections and sticking it to the little guy. Of all the Republicans on the stage, he is the only insider. Ted Cruz is not to be seen regularly in the company of hotel and casino magnates, movie producers, celebrity athletes and others with privileged access to Washington brokers. Marco Rubio did not have Bill and Hillary Clinton at his wedding. John Kasich would have to beg for an audience with people who jump to return Mr. Trump’s calls.

But if he'll make me AG...Chris Christie: Donald Trump doesn't have the 'temperament' to be president. By Colin Campbell, August, 2015
Excerpt: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Thursday that GOP presidential rival Donald Trump has the right mindset to be president.
"Donald's a great guy and a good person. But I just don't think that he's suited to be president of the United States," he told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren as they walked along the Jersey Shore.

Donald Trump Said A Lot Of Gross Things About Women On “Howard Stern”

More Biz for Lawyers: Trump Promises to Loosen Libel Laws So It’ll Be Easier for Him to Sue Newspapers
Less freedom for regular folks. ~Bob

Funny: Dude, Even The DICTIONARY Is Making Fun of Trump Today

Worth Reading: Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump does tax return dodge
Excerpt: So Trump shouldn’t have to release his tax returns because he says The Wall Street Journal doesn’t like him. The truth is we cover him like any other politician, and we defended him against the pope and Ted Cruz. This is the second time he’s called on us to be fired, which are moments we’ll always treasure. The first time he also threatened to sue us if we didn’t apologize for noting his lack of trade knowledge; we didn’t apologize. ... As we wrote a week ago, Trump should release his tax returns now to avoid Mitt Romney’s mistake of waiting for Democrats to make an issue of it, which they will. As the potential GOP nominee, he also owes the details to Republicans so they know as much as they can about the man who would be president. Is there something in those tax returns you want to hide, Mr. Trump?

America, you’re stupid: Donald Trump’s political triumph makes it official — we’re a nation of idiots
Excerpt: I hate to have to say it, but the conclusion stares us in the face: We’re a stupid country, full of loud, illiterate and credulous people. Trump has marched straight to the nomination without offering anything like a platform or a plan. With a vocabulary of roughly a dozen words – wall, Mexicans, low-energy, loser, Muslims, stupid, China, negotiate, deals, America, great, again – he’s bamboozled millions of Americans. And it’s not just splenetic conservatives supporting Trump or your garden-variety bigots (although that’s the center of his coalition), it’s also independents, pro-choice Republicans, and a subset of Reagan Democrats.

Worth Reading: Dear Donald, It’s Not You, It’s Me. By Steve Berman
Excerpt: The way you bought and sold properties, using other people’s money, and convinced them to pay overinflated prices for them as you walked away with the profits is legendary. You really stuck Merv Griffin, a real loser, with Resorts International Inc. and made a cool $264 million while he held the bag with a nearly billion dollar mortgage. And the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, it was the greatest thing ever, until it went bust four times. I wanted to be just like you, Donald. ... You said Winston Churchill was a figure from history who inspired you. Churchill, who said “Great and good are seldom the same man,” would hate your guts. He stood for something and inspired his people to fight against evil because it was evil. You would have made a great deal with Herr Hitler.
You’re running for president and you haven’t really changed your tune. It’s about ego. It’s about human moves. It’s about getting what you want and getting the other guy to give it to you. You’ve really thought a lot about running for president.

Worth Reading: Last Night The Good Associated … Trump Delenda Est! By Aaron Gardner 
Excerpt: Fortunately that isn’t what happened. The good associated and the bad man was exposed. That said, Rubio and Cruz only began the work that must be done, and they are not the only ones with a duty at this point. Now is the time, as Erick Erickson noted early today, for all good men to stand up together and associate. Let it be known where you stand. Tell everyone publicly, early, and often that you will not support Donald Trump as the GOP nominee.

Donald Trump Gets Hillary Clinton Elected #NeverTrump. By Erick Erickson
Excerpt: Yes, Trump voters are right.  If Donald Trump gets the Republican nomination for President and conservatives sit it out, Hillary Clinton will get elected.
That is the point of getting the disclosure out there in the primary that we won’t vote for Donald in the general.  Trump voters need to understand that a Hillary Presidency will be on them.  If they want to gamble that they can get Donald across the finish line without us, let them.  It is their choice.

Clinton wins South Carolina primary, Fox News projects
Excerpt: Fox News projects that Hillary Clinton will win the South Carolina Democratic primary, beating Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by a wide margin. The win gives Clinton significant momentum as she heads into the crucial Super Tuesday contests next week, where hundreds of delegates are up for grabs in Southern states with large African-American populations -- a major force in Clinton’s win in South Carolina.

From the Left: Bernie Sanders misses mark with black voters. By Fred McKissack Jr.
Excerpt: Everybody is aggrieved. Clinton has no real plan to end systemic discrimination or racism, but she’s cherished for her truthiness. It’s no wonder Cornel West called her the Milli Vanilli of the 2016 campaign — just as fake as she is fabulous.

Chris Rickert: Really expensive cheese is only one cost of legal dairy workforce
It's against the law to hire illegals. It's also against the law to ask applicants for documentation. Go figure. ~Bob

In Irving, Ben Carson says he has been offered money, political support to drop out
Excerpt:  ....“We’re just trying to entertain people,” Carson said. “It reminds me so much of ancient Rome — everyone wants to go to the Coliseum and somebody stabs someone with a sword and they go, ‘Yeah, this is great.’ And a tiger tears somebody’s head off, and they go, ‘Ah, this is wonderful.’ And nobody is paying attention to the crumbling society around them.”

Virginia officer killed on her first day on job, 2 other officers injured in shooting
Excerpt: A Virginia police officer who was on her first shift with a department was shot and killed Saturday and two other officers were wounded in a standoff stemming from a call about a domestic-related incident.

Yuri Maltsev: Socialism, Fascism, and Trumpism

While everyone’s focused on campaign. By Allen West
Excerpt: Compared with the explosion of our debt under the Obama tenure, it’s extremely disconcerting. Matter of fact, if you want to talk about an extremist, Barack Obama has to be at the top of the list when it comes to insurgent-like warfare against the American economy...The simple statement by Barack Obama back in July 13, 2012 that, “if you own a business, you didn’t build that,” is reflective of an ideology not interested in real economic growth.

Lawmakers: Obama Administration Illegally Diverted Billions Intended for U.S. Treasury to Insurers. By Melissa Quinn 
Excerpt: Republicans on Capitol Hill are questioning the legality of a move by the Obama administration to give billions to insurers under a program implemented under Obamacare that they say is equal to an insurer bailout. At issue for lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services violated the Affordable Care Act by diverting $3.5 billion intended for the U.S. Treasury to insurance companies. (Well of course Obama cannot let the shortfall from the system failure to gain any attention, so the hell with what's legal, just move the billions to where they need to go to keep things working.  "Laws?  We don't need no stinking laws!"  What else is new with this Administration? --Del)

Denmark: We Are Not The Socialist Utopia Bernie Sanders Thinks We Are
Excerpt: But Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government this week, says Sanders got more than a few things wrong. “I know that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.”

Worth Hearing: Yuri Maltsev: Socialism, Fascism, and Trumpism.
Maltsev is a Ph.D. in economics and served Gorbachev as economic advisor.

Excerpt: Trump University is currently the defendant in three lawsuits — two class-action lawsuits filed in California, and one filed in New York by then-attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who told CNN’s New Day in 2013: “We started looking at Trump University and discovered that it was a classic bait-and-switch scheme. It was a scam, starting with the fact that it was not a university.” Trump U “students” say the same. In his affidavit, Richard Hewson reported that he and his wife “concluded that we had paid over $20,000 for nothing, based on our belief in Donald Trump and the promises made at the [organization’s] free seminar and three-day workshop.” But “the whole thing was a scam.”

From the left: What Trump and Clinton have in common: A resistance to transparency
Excerpt: Still, both candidates are resisting disclosure. Both are wrong. And both are revealing a troubling attitude that can only be expected to persist and worsen in the White House.

Donald Trump: Don't hand federal lands to states

Yes, Trump is the liberal Republican in the race
Excerpt: It upsets some liberals to say this — and it persuades no Trump supporters — but Donald Trump is a liberal Republican. He would be the most liberal Republican nominee in at least in 20 years. Here are seven reasons, off the top of my head, why that's true.

No, Seriously, Trump Is a Fascist. By Walter Hudson
Excerpt: Right now, we have an actual fascist running for president of the United States, and he seems poised to secure the Republican nomination. Donald Trump is a fascist, not in a vague rhetorical sense, but according to the father of fascism's own definition. Benito Mussolini coined the term and defined it as complete subjugation of the individual to the state.

The Head of the IRS Weighs In on Trump’s Tax Audit Situation
Excerpt: Koskinen also clarified that Trump is not blocked by law from releasing his returns if he wanted to.

Trump’s Fake 2000 Campaign: Gun Bans, Single-Payer Health Care, And Taxes

Donald Trump Tells Jake Tapper He Won't Denounce David Duke or The KKK

Other Peoples’ Money is No Way to Finance Health Care. By Devon Herrick
Excerpt: Patients’ out-of-pocket spend was only about 11 percent in 2014 and out-of-pocket payments in hospitals was about 3 percent. Yet, some consumers have deductibles that made their share of hospital bills a bite in the wallet. The typical Silver Plan has deductibles of $2,556 while Bronze Plans often have $5,328. Apparently, if someone owes more than 5 percent of their annual income on a hospital bill, the likelihood of collecting is about nil.

Interesting: The Republican Party’s implosion over Donald Trump’s candidacy has arrived
Excerpt: The implosion over Donald Trump’s candidacy that Republicans had hoped to avoid arrived so virulently this weekend that many party leaders vowed never to back the billionaire and openly questioned whether the GOP could come together this election year. At a moment when Republicans had hoped to begin taking on Hillary Clinton — who is seemingly on her way to wrapping up the Democratic nomination — the GOP has instead become consumed by a crisis over its identity and core values that is almost certain to last through the July party convention, if not the rest of the year.

Trump Mortgage failed. Here’s what that says about the GOP front-runner.
Excerpt: As a presidential candidate a decade later, Trump says he would use the skills that made him successful in real estate to fix Washington. His decision to embrace the mortgage business illustrates the potential dangers of a business philosophy that has relied in part on a willingness to put aside the advice of experts and take risks.

WaPo Fact Checker: A trio of truthful attack ads about Trump University
Excerpt: “We are going to have professors and adjunct professors that are absolutely terrific, terrific brains, successful. We are going to have the best of the best. Honestly, if you don’t learn from them, if you don’t learn from me, if you don’t learn from the people that we will be putting forward — and these are all people who are going to be handpicked by me — then you are just not going to make it in terms of the world of success.” — Donald Trump, remarks in an introductory video for Trump University. One could quibble that the travails of Trump University do not directly prove that Trump himself is a “BS artist,” as Scott claims. But our own experience in fact checking Trump during this campaign suggests he has little regard for factual accuracy. We award these ads the coveted Geppetto Checkmark. 

Worth Reading: The benefits of a Republican Party breakup. By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: As we have discussed, if Trump is the nominee — and we are still not there yet, as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) rises to the occasion — all sorts of interesting possibilities unfold. A third presidential candidate is quite likely, but more important, a new party. Let’s face it: There is a lot deserving of abandonment in the GOP right now. Nativism has thoroughly infected its agenda, turning otherwise well-rounded conservatives into small-minded xenophobes. The inability to recognize lost causes (reversing gay marriage) and the refusal to address real ones (e.g. poverty) have paralyzed too many Republicans. The search for ideological purity and support for fringe candidates as well as a nihilistic approach to government personified in the shutdown have gripped vast swaths of the party. The opportunity now may present itself to leave all of this behind, to form a 21st-century party reflective of today’s United States and with a coherent vision of governance.

Has Trump revulsion reached critical mass? By Jennifer Rubin 
Excerpt: This weekend at least felt like a tipping point in the Donald Trump phenomenon. Partly the feeling is attributable to Sen. Marco Rubio’s demonstrated ability to draw huge crowds and substantial free media to his all-out battle against Trump. In taunting Trump, denouncing him for failure to condemn David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan and making his own campaign into a crusade to stop Trump from absconding with the GOP, the senator from Florida helped dispel the sense of fatalism gripping many Republicans and shred the mainstream-media narrative that the race is all but over. The media — which slavishly covered every Trump rally and afforded endless free media access — is now aghast that Rubio would make fun of Trump’s spray tan, tiny hands and business failures. Rubio, it seems, has hit a nerve and deprived liberal pundits of the certainty that Hillary Clinton will get to face in the general election a vulgar bigot.

A CONTRAST: AWARDS FOR MEN AND FOR MIMICS. By Andy Weddington

Interesting: Trump knew David Duke in 2000!
Excerpt: Mr. Trump painted a fairly dark picture of the Reform Party in his statement, noting the role of Mr. Buchanan, along with the roles of David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and Lenora Fulani, the former standard-bearer of the New Alliance Party and an advocate of Marxist-Leninist politics. ''The Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. Fulani,'' he said in his statement. ''This is not company I wish to keep.''

Tulsi Gabbard, Rising Democratic Star, Endorses Bernie Sanders
“As a vice chair of the D.N.C., I am required to stay neutral in democratic primaries, but I cannot remain neutral any longer,” she added. “The stakes are just too high. That’s why today I’m endorsing Senator Bernie Sanders to be our next president and commander in chief of the United States.”

Worth Reading: The albatross of a Trump endorsement. By George F. Will
Excerpt: For example, on Friday, during a long stream of semi-consciousness in Fort Worth, this man who as president would nominate members of the federal judiciary vowed to “open up” libel laws to make it easier to sue — to intimidate and punish — people who write “negative” things. Well. Trump, the thin-skinned tough guy, resembles a campus crybaby who has wandered out of his “safe space.” It is not news that he has neither respect for nor knowledge of the Constitution, and he probably is unaware that he would have to “open up” many Supreme Court First Amendment rulings in order to achieve his aim. His obvious aim is to chill free speech, for the comfort of the political class, of which he is now a gaudy ornament.

Interesting: Republican senator: We need ‘third option’ if Trump wins nomination. By Paul Kane
Excerpt: Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a freshman in office barely one year, took to social media Sunday night to declare that he would not support Donald Trump if he sews up the Republican presidential nomination and formally called for an independent challenge from the right as a conservative option to the real estate billionaire. “I sincerely hope we select one of the other GOP candidates, but if Donald Trump ends up as the GOP nominee, conservatives will need to find a third option,” Sasse wrote in a roughly 1,600-word missive posted on Facebook, much of which he also threw into a series of tweets to his followers.

This Has Festered Long Enough. By Erick Erickson 
Excerpt: I think the time has come to stop letting egos and Trump fester. I think the candidates must now consider that whoever comes out of Tuesday with the most delegates behind Trump be the Presidential nominee and whoever is third be the uniting Vice President. In 1980, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush put aside their egos and attacks at a time of Soviet threats and a rising Iranian menace. If Cruz and Rubio are unable to do the same and unite in the face of an ISIS threat and a rising Russian menace, they will be men who failed to rise to the challenges of their age. Now is the time for the partisans of both candidates to be willing to unite against Trump. We cannot wait till March 15th.

Religion of Peace News

So, is Iran "Un-Islamic"? Iran’s Hard-Line Press Adds to Bounty on Salman Rushdie
Excerpt: A group of hard-line Iranian news media organizations says it has raised $600,000 to add to a bounty for the killing of the British novelist Salman Rushdie.
Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989 calling for Mr. Rushdie to be killed because of his book “The Satanic Verses,” which the ayatollah found to be blasphemous and insulting toward Muslims. Mr. Rushdie has since then been living largely out of sight and under the protection of bodyguards. (Has Obama or Kerry called the Religion of Peace out on this? ~Bob)

Refugee: New Haven man charged with alleged ‘vicious’ Hamden sexual assault while pretending to be Uber driver
Excerpt: A New Haven man who police say is an Iraqi refugee was charged Friday with allegedly “viciously” sexually assaulting a woman while posing as an Uber driver. Ahman Bahjat, 29, faces several charges in Hamden after he was taken into custody in New York earlier this month while allegedly trying to re-enter the United States after fleeing

30 Immigrant Men Circle 3 Teenage Girls In Germany
Excerpt: Police said the main suspects are two Afghan men who allegedly stalked the girls prior to the incident. They filmed the girls and shared the videos and photos with their friends to attract a larger crowd. Two of the girls managed to escape when they realized they were getting stalked, but they later returned to help their friend. (US giving smart phones to immigrants....so helpful, obviously. --Barb)

Obama Administration Changes Rule To Welcome Immigrants With STDs
Excerpt: The U.S. has the highest rate of HIV infection of any developed nation. More than 1.2 million people in this country are HIV positive. In that same Jan. 26 ruling, the Obama administration changed tuberculosis testing requirements for aliens wishing to enter the country. (Reportedly, many have sexually transmitted diseases from repetitive raping.  With incurable TB being introduced with illegals from SA and other regions of the globe, change in TB testing indicates "the folks" native to US no longer protected by their laws.  Show me your shocked face.  TB doesn't recognize skin color.....nor do STDs. --Barb)

School forces students to recite “Islam is great.” When a MARINE father hears about it…
Excerpt:  ... And I can also speak from experience here, because after retiring from the Army, I taught World History at Deerfield Beach High School in Florida. I don’t recall any lesson where I needed to have students recite the “shahada” or discuss the five pillars of Islam. Then again, I was teaching and educating, not indoctrinating.

World Trade Center
Was watching the Decades Channel for 02/26 and they ran a feature on the first bombing of the NY trade towers.  They indicated the Muslim Brotherhood was behind the bombing and showed mug shots of several members, indicating those arrested and charged and that the plan had been to get one tower to explode and lean into the other one, taking both down; something accomplished in 2001 by a relative of one of those Muslim Brotherhood operatives charged.  Amazing that now the Muslim Brotherhood is so closely involved with the US regime. --Barb

Woman Dismembered by Imam for Wearing a Bathing Suit
Excerpt: An imam named Muhammad Zulkifal is on trial in Italy for murdering two of his fellow Pakistanis for the crime of wearing bathing suits at the beach.
At least one of the victims, a woman, was dismembered.

Things in Calais are escalating quickly, police about to tear gas #CalaisJungle

Of Interest

Satire: “Trumped" Starring Matthew Broderick & Nathan Lane

Sands of Iwo Jima Flag Raising

RARE COLOR FILM : IWO JIMA : US FLAG ON MT SURIBACHI
71 years ago February 23. ~Bob



















Sunday, February 28, 2016

Random Thoughts for March

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

If Trump wins the GOP nomination, it means we will have a choice in November between two life-long liberals. Maybe three if Bloomberg gets in. I am starting to hear rumbles that a conservative, no names mentioned yet, will run as a third party candidate to give those of us who will not compromise conservative principles for crude bombast someone to vote for.

If Obama gets his appointment to the supreme Court confirmed, the constitution will now mean whatever Obama wants it to mean. If he goes far enough on guns, abortion or open citizenship, it may mean violence.

To be fair, any Obama nominee to the Supreme Court should get the full "Bork" treatment, pioneered by Democrats.

First thoughts on Iowa: The tie between Hillary and Bernie is good for Republicans. Let the bloodletting begin. As expected, Trump claimed a win, as he'd do if he finished last, but he was soundly beaten by Cruz and barely edged my preferred candidate Rubio, by a point. This is a win for Rubio, given a short while ago he was at 10%. Note that over 60% of Iowa Republicans, in a 91% white state, voted for one of the minority candidates (two Hispanics and a Black guy), while 100% of Democrats voted for an old white person. On the other hand, if you add the Clinton, Sanders and Trump votes, clearly a majority for progressive principles. I think that after New Hampshire there will only be three, maybe four Republicans still in the race.

First thoughts of New Hampshire: In brief, Hillary Clinton only got 38% of the Democrat votes, so lost big. Donald Trump, who is on record as saying that Hillary would be a great president, got 35% of the Republican vote, so won big. Go figure.

First thoughts on South Carolina and Nevada. In NH, Trump won big with 35% of the GOP vote, Hillary lost big with 38% of the Dem vote. Now, once again, Trump wins with 32.5 % of the GOP vote in SC, while Sanders loses with 47% of the Dem vote in NV. This shows why we need run-off elections when no one gets 50%, so the people really get to decide. If we are to have any hope of having a conservative on the ballot in November, we need to unite behind Rubio or Cruz. Otherwise, we will have a choice between the Trotskyite Sanders or the Corrupt Liberal Clinton, versus the bombastic, self-serving, life-ling progressive Trump. With maybe the far left Bloomberg thrown in for fun. In that case, the thin glimmer of hope that we can prevent the Republic from collapsing will vanish entirely. Oh, and once again in SC, a Majority of Republicans voted for a black or Hispanic minority, while in Nevada, 100% of the Democrats voted for an olds, white person. Update: Clinton swept the SC Democrat primary. The Clinton money machine is beginning to tell.

I think it's past time for Carson and Kasich to drop out. Then Rubio and Cruz should flip a coin, with the loser dropping out and endorsing the winner. Otherwise we may get that Faux Conservative Trump.

What happens if President Hillary Clinton gets this call from Iran: "We insist that the US allow Assad to continue to rule; otherwise we will have no choice but to release the classified emails from your server a hacker gave to us"?

Democrats pulling for Crude Trump on the GOP side, and Republicans hoping for Red Bernie on the Democrat side might want to think about what a Trump or a Sanders presidency would mean for the Country. I already have trouble seeing a path to survival for the Republic, but I believe that a Clinton, Sanders or Trump presidency would put us over the tipping point. It may be unavoidable anyway.

"I'm officially suspending my campaign for President." Translation: "It is now clear to everyone I have no more chance at being elected President than I do at being elected Pope."

I assume the initials "HRC" stand for "Her Royal Clintoness."

It doesn't matter who the big-government statists are, Communists, Kings, Nazis, Socialists, Progressives, Democrats, Trump eventually they all resort to coercion, first against speech, then behavior. It doesn't matter if they call it sedition, hate speech, incitement to violence or whatever. But the first right they have to take is freedom of speech. See that great progressive Woodrow Wilson.

If Islam has nothing to do with terror, rape and murder, as Obama and the left says, why does that need to be said. No one feels compelled to say the Amish have nothing to do with terror--it's self-evident. Maybe it is self-evident to most people that every day Muslims claiming they are doing Allah's will, commit such acts.

Americans claim to believe in a classless society. But when you note how they fawn over European, Hollywood, or political royalty (the Clintons, Kennedys, Bushes), you'd be forgiven for not believing it.

Glad I'm not young and single. As I read the fiction titles offered on my free/low price Kindle e-book newsletter, all the best looking young woman are interested in young billionaires or good looking vampires.

Have a friend who calls liberals, "Gender Deniers." But I think "Jihad Deniers" also fits.

A lot of young liberals are for Sanders because they heard he gives out free stuff...and they love fried chicken!

Pacifism is usually a philosophical veneer used by cowards to cover their shame.

Old fairy tale: "Once upon a time." New fairy tale: "Elect me and what you want most will be free."

Bernie promises free college, Trump promises a free border wall.

Hyper-religious people seem to always be pushing their certitude about the one true path to God. Pastors excepted, for whom it is their job, the zealous religious proselytizers seem to me to be trying to convince themselves, rather than the subject of their proselytizing. The same, of course, applies to proselytizing atheists, who, not content to disbelieve in private, are always trying to convince believers to join them, to validate their lack of belief.

What is Kim Jung Un but Nero with Nukes? In a few years, when Obama's nuke deal with Iran turns out to be as worthless as Clinton's nuke deal with North Korea, Iran will be simply Nazis with Nukes. God help us.

If you don't raise your sons to be heroes, there will be no heroes when you need them. And you will need them. Very soon.

Obama and Kerry say the Islamic State, which throws gays off rooftops, is un-Islamic. They do not say that Iran, which hangs gays, is un-Islamic. Apparently there is some theological difference I have missed in the length of the drop.

The Nanny State Gone Wild: I cannot send my nurse transplant coordinator at the VA an email with a question about my health care as it might violate HIPAA. Can I be fined for violating my own HIPAA rights, even if I don't give a tinker's damn about HIPAA?

Some people are "Killer Cooks." That is, the food they prepare is both irresistible and very fattening. And obesity is the second largest killer, right behind tobacco. Especially deadly for people with no ability to delay gratification.

The Fall of the Roman Republic didn't begin with Caesar, it began with Marius and Sulla, when the army was made loyal to their general, not the senate, and when Sulla altered the constitution. I guess it was a "living document."

No one can be perfectly Politically Correct. No matter how hard a progressive tries, there is always someone to his left, ready to bring him down with some here-to-fore unknown offense. The professors and administrators at the universities being brought down by Black Lives Matter and student protests are not conservatives, not Wall Street bankers, but full throated progressive who have worshiped at the alter of the State and preached the gospel of political correctness all their lives.

My next book: "Men are from football, women are from shopping."

Recently heard: "I'm so thankful for Facebook. Otherwise, I'd have to call 645 people every morning to tell them what I had for breakfast."

From my friend Andy: If the believers in what is now called "climate change" were true believers then why did they change the name from "global warming" to the innocuous "climate change"? 

All cultures are equally valid...say the vapid.

The more they degrade our military, the more threatening the operations' names become. I expect out gender and sexual-orientation unified forces will next go to war in "Operation Thundering Multiculturalism." Which we will lose.

If you use gutter language in public, you must expect the public to believe you belong in the gutter.

I asked my friend Jim, a well educated, intelligent guy, what he thought of the NH Primary results. "I'm really not following the political cycle this year," he said. "It seems more like a bad reality TV show than an election." I had no comeback.

If gold is such a great investment, why do they have to pitch it so hard in TV ads?

In America, optimists are learning Spanish. Pessimists are learning Arabic. Optimists are buying gold. Pessimists are buying ammo and canned goods.

Making your property a "Gun Free Zone" does not keep it gun free. It only keeps it free of guns carried by the law-abiding, not the law-breakers. The criminals will appreciate your concern for their safety if they target you for a crime.

All you need to know about Iran is that celebrating Valentines Day is a crime.

I do not see how the Republic can survive. To take a new direction now that might, just might lead us through would be opposed by 90%+ of the people because now it would mean sacrifices beyond when they think we can tolerate. Perhaps those of us who fight on will leave some small sparks of freedom and honor that will fan a flame after the collapse and decades of chaos. Perhaps. But we can do no other.

Socialism leads to the Katyn Forest.

Hat hair has nothing on CPAP hair.

Liberals were happier about the death of Justice Scalia than about the death of bin Laden.

With many people, if you expect the worst, you will seldom be disappointed.

Our pets seem to think they will feel better if they can make it to a carpet before they throw up.

Progressives complained that the Doritos Super Bowl Ad "humanized" human fetuses. Too bad Doritos can't humanize Hillary for them.

Obama knows that the Republican base hates him. He also knows that Trump would be crushed by Hillary. Thus he tries to help Trump win the GOP nomination by saying, "Trump will not be president." If you can't see that, I'd like to talk to you about a great waterfront property deal in Florida. Liberals saying they will leave the country if Trump is nominated/elected, the Pope, who lives behind a wall, complaining about Trump's plan for a border wall, and the English signing a petition to ban Trump from the UK all help Trump. But give them the benefit of the doubt. Unlike Obama, they may be too stupid to know they are helping Trump with the GOP base.

Fainted-hearted and effete college students, who wish to remove any vestiges of slavery or any tributes to slave owners, least their feeble feelings be hurt, may want to remember that Mohammed was a slave owner, and the Qur'an has rules for sex with slaves and slaves as booty.

A grievance-mongers work is never done. Once you remove the statues of Confederate leaders, there are Army bases, like Fort Bragg, Fort Stewart, and Fort Hood named for them. There is Washington DC, The Washington Post, and Washington State, plus any number of Jackson and Jefferson Cities, all named for slave owners. There is Oklahoma, which means "Red Man" in Choctaw, thus surely as offensive as "The Redskins," as both the Washington NFL franchise and the Red Mesa Navaho High School teams are called. There is Michigan State whose mascot is The Spartans. If Indian Names demean native Americans, surely this demeans Greeks. Not to mention that the historical Spartans held slaves, called "helots," in a far greater percentage than the old Confederacy. And of course The NFL Vikings are named after the Nazi's of their time. They used to go on "hostings," raiding, pillaging, burning, murdering, and raping for the pure joy of it. Not to mention that they held "thrall," as their slaves were called. The term slavery came into use much later, as it is generally believed to come from the word "Slav," because so many of that people were captured and held as slaves during the Middle Ages. And of course, the Native Americans, south and north, held other Indians as slaves, raped captured women, and tortured captives, often just for entertainment, their Internet being down all the time. So Indian names of rivers, cities, states and places must go. Time to get to work, students! Don't forget your safe spaces.

Foreign Aid is a bribe to the corrupt and powerful in the Third World to convince the poor folks under their heels not to hate us. That's like trying to bribe the tide not to come in.

Some things never change. I read that during the Civil war, an officer in Sherman's Army had broken the Confederate signal flag code, so they were reading the Rebel's mail. Unfortunately, a reporter for a NY paper published the information, and the Rebels changed the code. Sherman said if he had hanged the reporter, 10,000 lives would have been saved.

Our country has been in a long period of technical and material advance and spiritual and moral decline.

There was a time when Hollywood stars, professional athletes and even politicians had class. Now if you want class, you must look to our military, police, firefighters and other average people. The wealthy elites think class is below them. Certainly the word has never been associated with Donald Trump.

If you have to say, "That's funny, I don't care who you are," it's probably not that funny.

Rather than being the "post racial" president Obama promised, race is everything to him. This has brought not only the racists out from under their rocks, but has made a majority, black and white, hyper-sensitive about race, both sides feeling they are the victims of racism. Good job.

Taxes are not about "fairness," there is no such universal concept, regardless of what politicians says. They are about power, for every tax scheme, including our current one, has winners and losers. The winners view that particular plan as fair. The losers not so much.

I have friends, left and right, who never met a conspiracy theory they didn't love--as long as they could believe the conspiracy was directed at their side by the other side.

The bad thing about my Kindle Book Reader is that when I finish a book on it, I can't put it out in our Little Free Library.

Socialists are builders of sand castles, forever saying, "This time the tide won't come in."

In America you can become rich and famous making a career of being a jerk. For example, Kayne West, Michael Moore and Donald Trump. Though that's not fair to Trump in that he inherited his money, which made him a jerk before his career.

Multiculturalists on the left view the Jihadist problem as a criminal matter, where a tiny minority of extremists who commit crimes must be apprehended, evidence gathered against them, they must be put on trial, and released if found not guilty or sent to prison if guilty. The problem is the Jihadists are treating it as a war. In war, you identify your enemies and go and kill them. If there is collateral damage, well, they shouldn't have been around or helping your enemy. Estimates of Muslims who want to impose Shari'a Law on everyone, with the loss of rights and freedom, ranges from 10% in the west to 90% in Afghanistan. If ten percent word wide are radicals who want Shari'a imposed by force, we would have to arrest 160 million Muslims. We are trying to use the law to stop them. They are trying to kill us. Who do you think is going to win?

Your race, religion, age, gender, ethnic heritage or sexual orientation does not exempt you from the norms of decent, civilized behavior. Thinking so makes you despised, plus a hardship on the decent members of your group.

There was a time when blacks, eager to take their place in the general society, attempted to be more respectable and better behaved than other people. Yet another dignity they were robbed of by the dependency state. Of course, there are millions of black folks who still try, but they are undermined by the thugocracy that has grown up as a black subculture.

The Pope, who is surrounded by armed guards wherever he goes, and lives in his own tiny country surrounded by a wall, says people who make guns and people who build walls are not Christian.

Socialism is like a pass-fail course in college, rewarding the industrious and the lazy, the intelligent and the mediocre, the talented and the talentless all equally.

When I was in school, they taught the seven recognized propaganda techniques. Now the schools just practice them.

President Bernie Sanders will be able to fly around without Air Force One. If he can ignore the laws of economics, why not the law of gravity?

When I read the paper, I think some people should be put down like rabid dogs. I'm heartless? Have a heart for the sociopaths' and thugs next victims.

Spread misery and misery will return to you. Spread joy and joy will return to you.

We are not fighting a war against ISIS. We are pretending to fight a war against ISIS.

"Scotch Tape" is an ethnic slur and should come with a trigger warning. #ScotsLivesMatter.

Heard at a dinner: "Madison, where the hippies didn't disappear--they got tenure.

When you meet an adult who habitually lies and steals, seeing the only problem is if they get caught, you can bet it started in their teens or earlier, stealing from Mom's wallet. With some folks, decency doesn't take.

From my friend Tom: "Russ Feingold. Went to Washington to do good. Stayed to do very, very well."

Democrats seem to think that because their hearts are pure, they are exempt from the Iron Laws of economics. And if they turn out not to be exempt, it's an unfair Tea Party plot.

When people say, "Only a fraction," it really means nothing. E.G. "I kept only a fraction of the profits for myself," or "At only a fraction of the cost." 99/100s is a fraction.

Trump's supporters remind me of Obama's supporters--complete unmoved by facts. Reasoning with either one is impossible. At least Bernie supporters know what they want: free stuff paid for be future generations. Trump supporters hate most of his past policy positions and support for leftist politicians, but it doesn't matter, they want Trump. Because he tells it like they want to hear.

An anti-gun letter in the Wisconsin State Journal said, "The NRA has been writing Wisconsin gun laws...every thing is backward and out of sink." The writer needs to get his words in synch... 

Time is not money, time is life.

Bread and prayers are best homemade.

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.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Trump, Rubio, some humor and more political news

ER Visit Tuesday
On Saturday, I started my first head cold in over eight years. Usually using a Neti pot twice a day, 365, holds them at bay. Not this time. It grew worse day by day, finally, Tuesday, I got up with a temp of 100, dropped to 99 an hour later, was 98.8 when I got up again at noon. Blood pressure was 88/49. Coughing got worse by the day, very productive with color in it. Had some chills during the night. So I checked in with my transplant coordinator. She sent me to the ER for tests. It looked for a while as if they would keep me, but thankfully not.  No flu. Blood work okay. Chest x-ray not great, but no worse than in December. So they gave me a course of antibiotics and sent me home with strict instructions to return if I got worse.  Some better each day since, though still coughing more than normal, and very tired. We shall see. ~Bob

No Surprise: Gov. Chris Christie endorses Donald Trump for president
No Surprise: Gov. Chris Christie endorses Donald Trump for president
No one should have been surprised. Ah, yes, Chris Christie, who was my least favorite candidate until Trump jumped in. Christie, who's "hurricane bromance" with Obama in October of 2012 gave the Democrats momentum going into the election, angering conservatives. Christie, who has been soft on punishing Jihadists and tough punishing political opponents in NJ. Christie, long vilified as a RINO by conservatives. Now from the uber-RINO Trump. Trumpeters will no doubt now declare that Christie, like Trump, has always been a staunch conservatives, a fact no one noticed a couple of years ago. Christie can't be angling for the VP spot, as someone on Fox said. A Trump-Christie ticket would get crushed in both NY and NY, and do worse in the rest of the country. But given how bleak Christie's political future looks in NJ, he is clearly hoping for a spot in DC. My guess is his price is AG in a Trump Administration. But if there is a Trump administration, Christie may appoint him, but he and all Trump supporters will be bitterly disappointed at the end of the first year. You read it here first, though I pray I don't get to say, "I told you so." ~Bob

Excerpt: Christie spent a year telling the world that the entitlement crisis is the gravest threat to the future of the country (for instance, in the January 14 debate: “The reason why no one wants to answer entitlements up here is because it’s hard”). But the day after Trump insisted that we don’t need to touch entitlements and that we can balance the budget by finding “waste, fraud and abuse” and eliminating Common Core, Christie comes out and celebrates Trump as the guy the country needs. Christie boasted constantly about the need to tell the American people hard truths and he endorsed the guy who tells little more than easy lies. What a profile in courage.

4 reasons Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump

Chris Christie’s despicable endorsement of Trump

Too Funny: Feel the yearn! BernieSingles.com aims to connect Sanders supporters looking for love
Excerpt: This was bound to happen. Millennials love Bernie Sanders. And millennials love online dating. Enter BernieSingles.com, a website aimed at connecting the Vermont senator’s single supporters who may be looking for that special fellow democratic socialist. (My first thought was, "Dear God, progressives are going to breed." Then I remembered they have tenure at the universities, so they don't have to breed, merely indoctrinate the children of moderates and conservatives. I expect that some trolls will sign up pretending to be young, single attractive Bernie supporters to mess with them for entertainment. My next though was we should start a website for single, female leftist multiculturalists wanting to meet your Muslim immigrant men to make them feel welcome. No better way to educate them on the position of women in Islam and under Shari'a Law, a position enforced by violence. "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them."--Qur’an 4:34. ~Bob)

Report finds Obama rule could cost low- and middle-income earners billions. By M.D. Kittle
Excerpt:  An Obama administration’s hastily implemented retirement investment rule, sold as a middle-class white knight to greedy Wall Street brokers, could cost U.S. retirement savings as much as $80 billion a year, according to a congressional report released this week. “The Labor Department’s rule threatens to harm low- and middle-income Americans by increasing the cost of investment advice,” U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement Tuesday.

Fast and Furious Court Victory for Judicial Watch. By Tom Fitton
Excerpt: This is an important story about Judicial Watch’s complicated and complex investigation into the Obama administration’s deadly Operation Fast and Furious scandal.  And this is one story that should be shared far and wide. Earlier this week Judicial Watch was pleased to announce that we scored a victory in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit regarding a September 5, 2013, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for all records of communications between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on settlement discussions in the Committee’s 2012 contempt of Congress lawsuit against former Attorney General Eric Holder. The contempt citation stemmed from Holder’s refusal to turn over documents to Congress related to the Operation Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.  The appeals court decision was issued last week, on February 12. (Really good news! Thank heaven for these guys and their persistence.  Someday the ugly truth my finally come out despite all the desperate efforts to maintain a huge coverup.  Won't that be nice, to be able to demonstrate the idiocy, incompetence, and then deceptions committed by the Obama leadership in this particular case? --Del)

Worth Reading: : How African-Americans and African Immigrants Differ: The rift between African-Americans and recent African immigrants to the United States.  By Jacob Conteh
As an immigrant to the United States from Sierra Leone, I perceive a huge chasm between African-Americans and African immigrants in the United States. That chasm has widened over the years. It has caused deep animosity between many African-Americans and their African immigrant cousins. The chasm has prevented African-Americans from participating in the current economic boom in Africa and it has shut many African immigrants out of opportunities for economic advancement here in the United States. ... However, the time has come for African Americans to realize that while racism still persists, the best thing they can do for their children is to teach them to take full responsibility for their actions. Fathers need to take care of their children and young women need to stay in school instead of having children. It is only when black people, be they from Africa or America, unite to instill discipline and respect for each other that the chasm that has divided us will narrow. Then we can finally work together to remove poverty from our people both here in the United States and Africa. (I have been fortunate to get to know several immigrants from African countries, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and this article mirrors what I heard and learned from them.  Their initial reactions to the push from Black Americans to join in local psychology about race was puzzlement and then lack of enthusiasm, for which they ended up getting flak.  My Nigerian pharmacist lady was told she was an "oreo" because in Pharmacy College she was studying with the other advanced students, who were White! The writer makes an excellent final point. --Del. A few years ago in DC I met an African immigrant working as a waiter, while he got his second degree. he was very unhappy with illegal immigrants, having waited in line for several years to come here. Very sharp guy. ~Bob)

Squandered: Our Military's Technological Edge. BY STEPHEN GREEN 
Excerpt: Daniel L. Davis reports on the Pentagon's broken procurement system:
The rest of the world has simply not suffered from the same acquisition impotence as the Pentagon. The yawning capability gap that once existed between the United States and the rest of the world has now shriveled to nearly nothing. The clearest example—and should be the most embarrassing to America—has been the creation and now production of the Russian Armata Universal Combat Platform. (We used to lead, by far.  No longer, the bureaucracy, the politicians, the lobbyists, have all combined to make weapons development a huge, expensive, never-ending boondoggle.  This is crazy, and dangerous, really dangerous. --Del)

Bernie Sanders will take it all the way to the convention. Here’s why.
Excerpt: It’s perfectly plausible — though far from certain — that by mid-March, after the voting in another two dozen states or so, Hillary Clinton will have accumulated an advantage over Bernie Sanders in delegates that is all but insurmountable. But even if that does happen, the Democratic contest probably won’t end there. Because it may be in Sanders’s interests to take this all the way to the Democratic convention this summer. And it’s likely that he’ll have the means to do so, as well.

Anti-Gun Senator: Lee sentenced to 5 years to 9 years for political corruption
Excerpt: Yee, a Democrat, formerly represented the western half of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County in the state Senate. Yee and Jackson were arrested in March 2014 and have been free on bail since then. (Anti-gun state senator headed for the big house for running guns and public corruption. Good. --Joe)

California Senate's Top Gun Control Advocate Arrested In Firearms Trafficking Plot

Marco Rubio keeps losing. So did Bill Clinton.
Excerpt: Notice the distinct lack of 1's. Yet Rubio's still in, and many people think he's still got a shot, if he can consolidate the establishment vote and then the anti-Trump vote. But he keeps losing! Trump's rolling. Well, no. They probably have the burden of proof, but they're not necessarily delusional. The recent history of nominations, in fact, makes clear that the fight can often be long, drawn out -- and the eventual victor slow to get out of the gates.

Worth Reading: Donald Trump-Christian Martyr. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: “Well, maybe because of the fact that I’m a strong Christian, and I feel strongly about it and maybe there’s a bias,” Trump said. Cuomo cut in again: “You think you can get audited for being a strong Christian?” “Well, you see what’s happened,” Trump said. “You have many religious groups that are complaining about that. They’ve been complaining about it for a long time.” “Spit take” doesn’t even come close to describing my reaction. As it was, I gagged so hard my spleen almost came out my nose. It was nearly the first recorded instance of spontaneous self-mummification. I scared the cats because I reacted like members of Delta House when the picture of Flounder appeared on the screen. There are two possibilities here. Either Donald Trump believes what he said, or he doesn’t. If he does believe this, he’s sufficiently delusional to disqualify himself for public office. If he doesn’t believe this, he thinks his conservative Christian supporters are morons. ... The IRS is different. It’s like the eye of Sauron searching the land for “strong Christians.” When its cruel gaze landed upon the failed casino magnate, beauty-pageant impresario, thrice-married and confessed adulterer who’s talked about how his own daughter is so hot he’d date her if she wasn’t his daughter and bragged about how it doesn’t matter what critics say about you so long as “you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass,” and who told Howard Stern that his ability to avoid getting the clap while sleeping around was his “personal Vietnam,” the IRS immediately saw the truth of the matter. (Yes Donald Trump, who turns 70 in June two months after I do, and his 45-year-old Russian model third wife, are winning the "Family values" vote. ~Bob. How is it that Trump has never mentioned the fact that he’s being audited by the Internal Revenue Service every year for twelve years before? How is it that Mr. “Two Corinthians” never bothered to mention that he believes he’s being targeted -- since before the Obama administration! -- by the IRS over his religious belief. And last night he started hedging on whether he’ll be able to release his returns until this audit is complete. --Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Of course: Donald Trump Empire Sought Visas For At Least 1,100 Foreign Workers
Won't matter at all. His supporters don't care what he has said or done in the past, they love what he said today. And if, as so often happens, he says something different tomorrow, they love that too. After all, "he tells it like it is" and that changed daily. ~Bob

Rubio pounds Trump at Houston debate. Cruz, Kasich, Carson left on the sidelines

A Rubio-Cruz Ticket Might Be the Only Way to Stop Trump. By Jonah Goldberg
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431778/marco-rubio-ted-cruz-stop-donald-trump

Excerpt: In June 2009, Richard and Shelly Hewson paid the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, an educational venture owned by businessman and now–presidential candidate Donald Trump, $21,490 for classes that promised to teach them how to flip homes for profit. They ponied up the high price “because we had faith in Donald Trump,” Richard wrote in a January 2015 affidavit. “We thought that if this was his program, we would be learning to do real estate deals from his people who knew his techniques.”

Poll: Trump’s negatives among Hispanics rise; worst in GOP field

WaPo Fact Checker: Timeline of Trump’s comments on Iraq invasion: Not loud, not strong, and no headlines
Excerpt: March 21, 2003: Trump actually praises the invasion in an interview with Fox News. BuzzFeed News published an audio clip, where Trump says: “Well, I think Wall Street’s waiting to see what happens but even before the fact they’re obviously taking it a little bit for granted and it looks like a tremendous success from a military standpoint and I think this is really nothing compared to what you’re gonna see after the war is over. … I think Wall Street’s just gonna go up like a rocket, even beyond, and it’s gonna continue and, you know, we have a strong and powerful country and let’s hope it all works out.” 

Mitt Romney believes ‘there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes’
Excerpt: Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney  assailed billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump on  Wednesday afternoon for failing to disclose back taxes, repeatedly suggesting that the billionaire’s financial records may contain “a bombshell” that could damage his White House bid. “I think we have good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes. I think there is something there,” Romney said on Fox News’ “Your World” with Neil Cavuto. “The reason I think there is a bombshell in there is because every time he is asked about his taxes, he dodges and delays.”

Worth Reading: After screaming for a real conservative for years, will Republicans nominate a liberal?
Excerpt: Outside of immigration, Donald Trump is a liberal. Outside of immigration, Donald Trump is to the left of Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and at times he’s even to the left of Hillary Clinton. Immigration is Donald Trump’s Republican stance. On just about everything else, he’s running as a democrat. His supporters don’t see it that way. They usually fall into one of two camps: those who believe he’s a conservative because of his immigration stance and those who are switching to his populist narrative and not worrying about conservatism anymore. The first group gets something of a pass since they’re simply being misled by Trump’s incredible sales pitch and his unwillingness to offer details about his policies. (Even on Immigration, he once said that the Dreamers had convinced him. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: The tough choices of overseas intervention. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: The United States has targeted a lot of rogues and their regimes in recent decades: Muammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, Manuel Noriega and the Taliban. As a general rule over the last 100 years, any time the U.S. has bombed or intervened and then abruptly left the targeted country, chaos has followed. But when America has followed up its use of force with unpopular peacekeeping, sometimes American interventions have led to something better. The belated entry of the United States into World War I saved the sinking Allied cause in 1917. Yet after the November 1918 armistice, the United States abruptly went home, washed its hands of Europe’s perennial squabbling and disarmed. A far bloodier World War II followed just two decades later. It may have been wise or foolish for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to have intervened in Vietnam in 1963-1964 to try to save the beleaguered non-communist south. But after 10 years of hard fighting and a costly stalemate, it was nihilistic for America to abandon a viable South Vietnam to invading communist North Vietnam. Re-education camps, mass executions and boat people followed — along with more than 40 years of communist oppression.

Wisconsin’s right-to-work law goes on trial
Excerpt: Right-to-work goes on trial in Dane County on Thursday morning.
The Machinists Local Lodge 1061 at 10 a.m. is slated to argue its case in a Dane County court that Wisconsin’s right-to-work law, signed by Gov. Scott Walker last March, is unconstitutional. The union filed its original lawsuit one day after Walker signed the bill.

First John Doe documents released from lawsuit show GAB’s partisan motives. By M.D. Kittle  
Excerpt: Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. has issued an order unsealing “the vast majority of the parties’ filings” in a taxpayer lawsuit brought against the GAB by conservative activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth. The first round of documents were being released Thursday, although some records that could prove particularly embarrassing to the GAB will have to wait. The agency has 30 days to decide whether it wants to appeal their release.

Conservative leaders consider ditching Cruz for Rubio: report
Super Tuesday may be too late. ~Bob

Horowitz: Where the Hell was Trump When We Needed Him?
Excerpt: This begs the question: Where the hell was Donald Trump’s aggressive voice and impervious persona when we needed him on this fight or any other political battle?  We are not talking about ancient history here; this was three years ago.  If his passionate words about our sovereignty are to be taken at face value, it’s hard to explain his silence at the time.

David Duke: Voting against Trump is 'treason to your heritage'

The white nationalist and former KKK grand wizard encouraged his listeners to volunteer for Trump.

His Supporters Don't Care: Donald Trump's Orgy of Irresponsibility
Excerpt: Donald Trump does not try to ingratiate himself by telling Americans how good they are. He does it by telling them it's commendable to be bad. His campaign is not so much a challenge to prevailing standards as a rejection of all standards.  Other candidates fudge, exaggerate, and mislead, but they operate within accepted limits on dishonesty. Trump denies truth and embraces falsehood. He can't be proven wrong because he and his followers deny the authority of facts. He encourages his audiences to trust what they feel—and nothing else.  "Donald J. Trump's record on truth and accuracy is astonishingly poor," Angie Drobnic Holan, a reporter for PolitiFact, wrote in December in The New York Times. "So far, we've fact-checked more than 70 Trump statements and rated fully three-quarters of them as Mostly False, False or 'Pants on Fire' (we reserve this last designation for a claim that is not only inaccurate but also ridiculous)." (Trump's supporters remind me of Obama's supporters--complete unmoved by facts. Reasoning with either one is impossible. At least Bernie supporters know what they want: free stuff paid for be future generations. trump supporters hate most of his past policy positions and support for leftist politicians, but it doesn't matter, they want Trump. Because he tells it like they want to hear. ~Bob)

Few Choices for U.S. as China Militarizes South Pacific. By Sydney J. Freedberg, Jr.

Horowitz: Trump Takes Obama’s Position on Israel

Trump says he WILL release his tax returns – once the IRS is done auditing him – and suggests he was targeted because 'I'm a strong Christian'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3465020/Trump-says-release-tax-returns-soon-IRS-auditing-said-Mitt-Romney-looked-like-fool-delaying-own.html
Is there such a thing as 'a routine audit?' Seems to me if I was a GOP presidential candidate and a Democrat run administration's IRS audited me right now, wouldn't you be upset about it? I think he's a BS'er, period. He said about a week or so ago that he wouldn't release them until after Super Tuesday. ... anyway, why does it matter if he's being audited and we see his returns? --Nanette.

Donald Trump Turned Down 94.4 Percent of American Job Applicants, Applied for Hundreds of ‘H’ Visas Instead
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/431908/donald-trump-immigration-hypocrite-who-ignores-american-workers

Know Who Else Has Received Loans from Citibank and Goldman Sachs? Donald Trump.

NYT Opinion: Register All Guns, License All Gun Owners. By AWR Hawkins       
Excerpt: On February 24 New York Times op-ed contributors Abner Mikva and Lawrence Rosenthal argued that it is time to register all guns and license all gun owners; background checks are not enough. Moreover, the authors suggested such licensing and registration would not violate the Second Amendment. According to the NYT op-ed, background checks are not sufficient, there are too many ways to go around them. “A more effective system would require everyone who owns or acquires a gun to register it.” And a second component to this “effective system” would be a licensing requirement for all persons who wish to register guns. (Yep, registering all guns and licensing all owners is just a great idea.  It's always worked in the past for the governments to set up for initially reducing gun ownership and ultimately seizing guns from the people.  Let's check out the countries where private gun ownership has in fact reduced gun crime to near nothing.  China, Cuba, Viet Nam for starters.  Of course, the detail that there is no freedom in those places can't be important.  Hitler took all the guns from Jews, Stalin took them from about everyone, but hey, let's not dwell on those details. Yes, there is a price the society pays for comparatively free access to guns.  Crazy people use them to kill, criminals use them to rob and kill, and there are accidents as well.  But the absence of gun ownership by the people gives all power to the central government, and our Founders to a man never wanted that to happen.  Neither do it, particularly after seeing how that government has been behaving in the past decades. Mikval and Rosenthal can put their bright idea where the sun doesn't shine, this is just one more of the never-ending attempt to control, control, control everyone that certain ideologues love. --Del)

Money for ISIS Refugees, though: Lacking Basic Gear, Special Operators Stuck Buying Their Own Equipment. By Travis J. Tritten
Excerpt: Sean Matson, who recently left active duty as a Navy SEAL, said the military measured his head four times -- each time before deployment -- with plans to provide him a more advanced ballistic helmet. But the new helmet never materialized. During a deployment in Africa, Matson and six of his fellow SEALs each shelled out about $900 for updated helmets that held the lights, communications devices and batteries needed for their missions. "There was never a clear solution to it, so guys were going out spending $800-$900 on their own ballistic helmet," said Matson, who is now CEO of the military supply company Matbock. (Every time I think I've heard all the bad news possible about undercutting, weakening, inflicting PC, and other abuses of our military, sure enough, along comes another one of those "WTF!  You HAVE to be s*****ing me!" stories.  So here it is.  (But all those people in Congress have great pay, benefits, their own medical plan, and pretty much want for nothing other than a guarantee of being reelected.) --Del)

Worth Reading: Bernie Supporters’ Hatred Of Work Is Why Trump Supporters Are So Mad. By Mark Hemingway
Excerpt: While this reads like so much Hallmark pablum we take for granted, if you think about it, it’s hard not to be offended by this Forest Gumpery. Seriously, did she just say “don’t take a job just for the money”? Is that why Clinton and her husband spent a decade giving speeches to Goldman Sachs for $300,000 and a favor to be named later? Or struck million-dollar deals with shady post-Soviet oligarchs with terrible human rights records? But if there’s another piece of advice here that absolutely disqualifies Clinton for the presidency, it’s “do what you love.” The truth is, that is simply not an option for most people. When it’s 39 degrees and raining in February, do you think the guy who picks up your trash is staring at your acrid, bacteria-laden refuse at 6 a.m. and saying, “Thank God, I love what I do”?

Excerpt: There’s still time to turn it around, of course. But now that many conservatives are moving from the bargaining phase to the depression phase of the Kübler-Ross model, we can begin to grapple with the prospective reality of a Trump-versus-Hillary general election. Whether you’re an ideological conservative, a proponent of limited government, or someone who believes that the president has too much power already, you shouldn’t think of this matchup as a contest between horrifying candidates. Rather, you should ask yourself which scenario would be more damaging. I’m pretty sure you’d find that Donald Trump is the form of the Destructor.

Excerpt: Almost as soon as Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee — which may be as early as March 15 — Democrats will surely start to churn out their negative ads.   They will attack Trump’s credentials as a tribune of the little guy by focusing on a money-grubbing venture like Trump University, designed to extract as much cash as possible from people who thought they would learn something from the shell of a school.   They will dissect his business record. They will fasten on his failed casinos and the bankruptcies he used to stiff creditors while maintaining a lavish lifestyle.   They will fry him for hypocrisy on immigration by pointing out that Trump Tower was built by illegal Polish immigrants worked to the bone and that, according to news reports, illegal immigrants are helping build his new hotel in Washington.

Obama Stimulus Dished Out Hundreds Of Millions To FILIPINO Vets
President Obama’s $757 billion economic stimulus program was promoted in 2009 as a way to jump-start the U.S. economy by injecting tax dollars that would stimulate new jobs and growth, especially through spending on new infrastructure like roads and bridges. But hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the program went instead to elderly Filipinos, much of it virtually guaranteed never to make its way back to the U.S. economy. Tucked away in the stimulus was a provision to pay $9,000 each to residents of the Philippines who fought alongside the U.S. in World War II. Those who had become U.S. citizens since the war got $15,000. (As the forensic profiler said, expect the OPPOSITE of what he says. --Barb)

Zuckerberg Berates Facebook Employees Who Think ‘All Lives Matter'
Excerpt: According to Zuckerberg’s recently circulated company memo — obtained by Gizmodo — Facebook has “never had rules around what people can write on our walls — we expect everybody to treat each other with respect.” “Regardless of the content or location, crossing out something means silencing speech, or that one person’s speech is more important than another’s,” the Harvard dropout continued. “I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior before, but… I now consider this malicious as well.”
                                                                                                
Religion of Peace News

Worth Reading: Iraq: The Real Story: Donald Trump’s account of the Iraq War is all wrong. Why aren’t his Republican opponents saying so? By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Donald Trump constantly brings up Iraq to remind voters that Jeb Bush supported his brother’s war, while Trump, alone of the Republican candidates, supposedly opposed it well before it started. That is a flat-out lie. There is no evidence that Trump opposed the war before the March 20, 2003 invasion. Like most Americans, he supported the invasion and said just that very clearly in interviews. And like most Americans, Trump quickly turned on a once popular intervention — but only when the postwar occupation was beginning to cost too much in blood and treasure. Trump’s serial invocations of the war are good reminders of just how mythical Iraq has now become. We need to recall a few facts. Bill Clinton bombed Iraq (Operation Desert Fox) on December 16 to 19, 1998, without prior congressional or U.N. approval. As Clinton put it at the time, our armed forces wanted “to attack Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Their purpose is to protect the national interest of the United States, and indeed the interests of people throughout the Middle East and around the world. Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas, or biological weapons.” At the time of Clinton’s warning about Iraq’s WMD capability, George W. Bush was a relatively obscure Texas governor. (Trump's supporters remind me of Obama's supporters--complete unmoved by facts. ~Bob)

VIDEO REPORT – ISIS comes to Montesano Wa

Pat Condell on why Trump is popular.
Condell is a controversial character, but a good communicator and mostly logical.  He points out here a really critical thing about why Mr. Trump is so popular, and he's right. -Del. Condell says Trump is giving us honesty. He is saying things that many people (often me) believe to be true. But he has said many other progressive things in the past. I think his only core values are self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. ~Bob

Didn't Kerry explain the Religion of Peace thing? Kerry on Gitmo Detainee Who Returned to Terrorism: ‘He’s Not Supposed to Be Doing That’
Excerpt: Secretary of State John Kerry lamented Wednesday that a terrorist who the Obama administration released from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay subsequently returned to fight for al Qaeda, telling lawmakers “he’s not supposed to be doing that.” Appearing before the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Kerry made the statement while testifying about the State Department’s budget request for the fiscal year 2017. (Good old John Kerry, always good for a laugh. --Del)

Canadian Imam at Friday Prayers: Rome Will Be Conquered Just Like Constantinople (VIDEO). By Jim Hoft 
I'm currently reading 1453 a history of the conclusion of the centuries old Muslim crusade to conquer the Christian city of Constantinople. Fascinating and frightening. ~Bob

Hungarian Leader Says ‘People Would Hang Me’ If He Accepted Refugees
Excerpt:  ... “If you take a lot of immigrants from the Middle East, you also import terrorism, crime, antisemitism and homophobia,” Orban told Bild. “In Hungary we don’t have ghettos. No areas where you don’t want to go. No scenes like the ones in Cologne on New Year’s Eve." (TRANSFORMATION--What the current US regime wishes for its people...such hatred.  But hey, folks aren't aware.  Keep your noses in that video game, phone, iPod. --Barb)

Of Interest

Humor: DARTH TRUMP - Auralnauts

Humor: Trump Ad by the Poorly Educated

Satire: Fake Bernie Ad

Satire: Winter is Trumping

The Boy Who Became a World War II Veteran at 13 Years Old. By Gilbert King

Ronald Reagan's Humor

The Elephants Who came to Dinner