Today's political news and conservative opinion

Update

Posting early as taking John around and to dinner. Allergies and mucus in the lung is killing me. But I like the warm weather anyway. ~Bob

General News and Comment

Income inequality? Chipotle Manager: Hillary Clinton Didn't Leave Anything in Tip Jar. By David Knowles

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-15/chipotle-manager-hillary-clinton-didn-t-leave-anything-in-tip-jar

Excerpt: One of the great political mysteries of the early 2016 presidential campaign has been solved: Hillary Clinton did not leave a tip at the Chipotle restaurant she visited during her road trip to Iowa on Sunday. "Her bill was $20 and some change, and they paid with $21 and left" without putting anything in a tip jar on the counter, Charles Wright, the manager at the Maumee, Ohio, Chipotle restaurant told Bloomberg. (Hillary Clinton told us, “Everyday Americans need a champion.” Apparently that champion doesn’t need to leave tips. Listen. The combined net worth of the Clintons is “anywhere from $100 to $200 million.” She can afford to tip, and she chooses to not leave a tip. Right then and there, she’s got the opportunity to help out the people behind the counter at Chipotle, and she chose not to. We’re supposed to elect her because she’s going to be the “champion” of “everyday Americans,” but she decided she needs those coins, totaling less than a dollar, more than the staff does. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt. You don't get to be a dead-broke multi-millionaire by throwing money away on the little people. ~Bob)

Lefties don't Tip? By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

http://www.nationalreview.com/newsletters

Excerpt: Apparently some lefties have picked up the habit of leaving little pre-printed screeds against the practice of tipping, declaring that “I do not leave tips anywhere because the law governing tipping causes pay inequality” and the practice “encourages both customers and servers to stereotype and discriminate.” Let me tell you something you don’t want to hear, anti-tip lefties: You’re cheap. You like your money, and you don’t like giving up any more of your money than you absolutely must to get your burrito or meal or whatever good or service you just purchased. You can dress up your selfishness and tightfistedness in as many social-justice slogans as you like, the same way you dress up your burrito with toppings, but you’re not fooling anyone. You’re greedy. You want money, and you’re not willing to part with another 15 or 20 percent of the agreed price the way everyone else does, because you don’t care enough about the guy or gal who just served you. You aren’t really that compassionate. You aren’t really that appreciative of people who work hard. None of the servers who served you see your little note and nod appreciatively at your principled stand. They swear under their breath. You’re worse than the non-tippers who you would call tightwads. Because the ordinary tightwads aren’t arrogant and selfish enough to claim that they’re doing the wait staff a favor.

Will Congress Follow Hillary?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cknLVq_n8-Y&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf461rN0LVk

Good ads on the Export-Import Bank. (Look, if you’re not willing to ditch “unseemly, inefficient, and irrelevant” “corporate welfare” “in the business of subsidizing private companies with taxpayer dollars” . . . then you’re not serious about cutting government spending. The Export-Import Bank is the sort of thing that liberals and progressive Democrats would oppose if they believed their anti-corporate rhetoric, and it’s the sort of thing any free-market, as opposed to pro-big-business, Republican should oppose. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Future Indictments Related to Export-Import Bank Likely, Agency Watchdog Says. By Melissa Quinn

http://dailysignal.com/2015/04/15/future-indictments-related-to-export-import-bank-likely-agency-watchdog-says/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRojuajMZKXonjHpfsX56e0vWK%2BzlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4GT8ZqI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D

Excerpt: As lawmakers debate whether to extend the life of the highly contested Export-Import Bank, the agency’s chief watchdog said today it’s likely more indictments could be issued as a result of more than 31 investigations into alleged fraud at the bank.

Michael McCarthy, the agency’s acting inspector general, made the comments during a joint hearing on the bank with the House Financial Services and Oversight and Government Reform Committees. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questioned the bank’s watchdog on the indictment of former Ex-Im official Johnny Gutierrez, who allegedly accepted bribes from a Florida company in exchange for help securing taxpayer-backed financing.

Worth Reading (good video too): Clinton Foundation to keep accepting donations from foreign governments

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/16/clinton-foundation-to-keep-accepting-donations-from-foreign-governments/

Excerpt: The Clinton Foundation said late Wednesday that it will continue to accept donations from foreign governments during Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, despite concerns that such gifts will create a conflict of interest for the Democratic front-runner. The foundation's board said that donations directly to the foundation would only be allowed from six governments — Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. However, other governments could continue to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a subsidiary program that encourages donors to match contributions from others to tackle international problems without direct donations to the charity. 

Well, duh: Bill Clinton admits focusing on taxing the rich, like him, isn't enough to balance the budget
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2617909/Bill-Clinton-tax-percent-wouldnt-balance-budget.html

Excerpt: America's financial problems could not be solved by raising taxes on the rich, Bill Clinton said on Wednesday. During an economic speech in Washington, D.C. at Georgetown University caught on tape by Breitbart News former President Bill Clinton hypothetically said taking all of rich peoples' money wouldn't be enough to balance the United States budget.

Clinton, who is the richest living president, said he doesn't mind paying higher taxes than other Americans, 'but you could tax me at a hundred percent, and we couldn't bring growth back into the economy enough to balance the budget.' (But the Democrats keep willing the votes of middle and lower income American by passing programs they promise will be paid for by somebody else. ~Bob)

Obama White House Has Stalinized American Universities. By Mark Horne

http://politicaloutcast.com/2015/04/obama-white-house-has-stalinized-american-universities/

Excerpt: American Universities are now places where students can launch heresy trials against professors for expressing politically incorrect opinions. Laura Kipnis is a professor in the department of radio, television, and film at Northwestern University. She recently wrote an editorial that was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education: “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe.” (Smart male students will stop dating female students and will avoid being alone with them. Risk is now too great. I had a black roommate in college, Joe Ferguson. Doubt that would be happen today--he's get too much heat from other militant black students. ~Bob)

Important: Greece in new downgrade by S&P for "unsustainable" commitments

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32326547?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=%2AMorning%20Brief&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign

Excerpt: Ratings agency S&P has downgraded Greece's credit rating again, saying it expects its debt and other financial commitments will be "unsustainable". It has dropped long and short-term sovereign credit ratings to CCC+/C from B-/B and says its outlook is negative. Markets use sovereign ratings to work out the interest rate at which investors should lend to a country. (If you lend to Greece, you are betting German taxpayers will go on bailing them out. Almost all countries with progressive welfare systems are swirling around the drain. America included. See: "The West and the Tyranny of Public Debt" http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/27/the-west-and-the-tyranny-of-public-debt.html. See also: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic: And what you can do to prevent it. By Robert A. Hall http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5)

Gwyneth Paltrow’s poverty voyeurism. By Michelle Malkin
http://michellemalkin.com/2015/04/15/gwyneth-paltrows-poverty-voyeurism/

Excerpt: Gwynnie P is down with the struggle, comrades. She may make $19 million a year, own mansions in London, New York, Brentwood, Malibu and the Hamptons, charge $550 for her Goop.com “travel backgammon set,” and fly by private jet, but she feels your pain. OK, it’s not as painful as her last $5,200 Thermage session in Santa Monica, but still, she really, really does feel the agony of the ordinary. (Young, fit-looking guy at Walgreens tried to buy two energy drinks with his SNAP card. It denied them, so he paid with a $100 bill. After he left, the tired-looking, forty-something clerk looked at me and said, "Our money." Just that. ~Bob)

Two Tax Bills Could Soon Affect Future Tax Returns

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=25564&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Excerpt: Even the most ardent supporters of taxing the rich are starting to realize that the estate tax is more bother than it's worth. It doesn't really target the very wealthy as much as it does those who are less wealthy but have planned their estates in order to pay as little of it as possible. Many heirs are asset rich, but cash poor. It only accounts for about one percent of federal tax revenues. Moreover, it does a poor job of redistributing wealth since most fortunes now are earned, not inherited.

Abolishing the Death Tax Could Increase Wages and Investments

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=25566&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Excerpt: Currently, the federal government seizes over 40 percent of an individual's estate when they die. While the President wants to destroy so many of those legacies and raise taxes, Congress has the chance to go in a different direction. Supporters often claim the death tax is vital for revenue, but in reality, it is a poor way for a state to raise revenue and has led people to leave a given state. According to a study by the Ocean State Research Institute, the death tax was the primary factor in residents leaving Rhode Island. The study found 107,086 or (one in ten) residents left the state between 1991 and 2009. While the state collected $341.3 million in estate tax receipts, it lost over $500 million in other taxes due to people migrating to other states.

Chicago: Economic Death Spiral After 84 Years of Democratic Control. By Larry Elder

http://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2015/04/16/chicago-economic-death-spiral-after-84-years-of-democratic-control-n1985661?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Excerpt: Public schools are a mess, and the city's finances place their bonds at near junk level. In 2013, the city averaged 36 homicides a month, with the majority of them unsolved. CNN aired a series on Chicago called "Chicagoland," starring the city's dynamic mayor. ... The eight-part series showed a beleaguered city, struggling to get by on limited funds. In one episode, a valiant but embattled inner-city high school principal literally maps out "safe passage zones" -- routes her students could take to and from school to avoid gang violence. Think of it. A public school principal literally advising students on how they can go to and from school -- without getting shot.

L. Ron Obama and the Church of Progressivism. By Bruce Thornton 

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/bruce-thornton/l-ron-obama-and-the-church-of-progressivism/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=c6fbc59536-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag&utm_term=0_57e32c1dad-c6fbc59536-156414477

Excerpt: Scientism has similarly characterized Progressivism from its beginnings. The core conceit of progressives is that traditional knowledge and wisdom are inadequate for understanding human nature and solving the more complex problems created by industrialism and new technologies. Those problems needed “sciences” like sociology, economics, and psychology: “The great triumph of modern psychology,” Walter Lippmann wrote in 1914, “is the growing capacity for penetrating to the desires that govern our thought.” Thus we need government by the elite “hundreds who are wise,” as Woodrow Wilson put it in 1887, and “enlightened administration,” as F.D.R. called it in 1932. Politics should no longer be, as the Founders envisioned, about leaders of virtue, experience, and wisdom governing within the Constitutional order that protects political freedom from conflicting factions and clashing “passions and interests.” (See: The Great Progressive Church by Robert A. Hall

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/m-the_great_progressive_church.html)

Fondle-fest: More men claim groped at airport

http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/fondle-fest-more-men-claim-groped-at-airport/?cat_orig=us

Excerpt: The additional statements have prompted prosecutors to confirm they are reviewing the earlier case, which they said wasn’t prosecuted because the passenger couldn’t be identified. Lynn Kimbrough, a spokeswoman for the Denver prosecutor’s office, told the Post, “We were looking at it before through the narrow lens of a sex crime – now we’re broadening our perspective. It’s possible that some other charge may be appropriate.” ... “The media coverage may help us identify actual victims and that could make all the difference in how we go forward, but we are still in the investigative part of the process,” she said.

Rand Paul Blasts Loretta Lynch On Civil Asset Forfeiture

http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/15/rand-paul-blasts-loretta-lynch-on-civil-asset-forfeiture/

Excerpt: Sen. Rand Paul lambasted President Barack Obama’s nominee for attorney general, Loretta Lynch, at a Senate hearing Wednesday because of her role in “horrendous abuses” of civil asset forfeiture laws while a U.S. attorney. ...“Loretta Lynch became famous for her Herculean confiscation of private property,” Paul, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, said at the hearing. Paul said Lynch confiscated over $100 million dollars during her time as U.S. attorney using the process of civil asset forfeiture, a process wrought with abuses.

Experts: Cuba Still Sponsoring Terrorism
http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/15/experts-cuba-still-sponsoring-terrorism/

Excerpt: Number one—Cuba is still involved with terrorism and is still harboring American and Spanish terrorists in Cuba—is still involved with Hamas and Hezbollah,” Suchlicki told the Daily Caller.... (Joanne) Chesimard fled the United States for Cuba in 1979 during a prison break 2 years after she was convicted of killing execution-style New Jersey State trooper Werner Foerster. She has been living in Castro’s regime ever since. According to the New York Times, she has been studying, writing and, caring for her daughter “as a guest” of the Cuban Government, which refuses to extradite her to the United States. (Expect she will be welcomed with open arms by Regime to join Sharpton's black liberation crew. --Barb)

Race Card News

Ethnic Constructs Are Pointless in Our Multiracial Society. By Victor Davis Hanson 

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/34633

Excerpt: Vijay Chokal-Ingam, whose family immigrated from India, and who is the brother of sitcom actress Mindy Kaling, recently confessed that he, too, once changed his ethnic identity in frustration over not being admitted to medical school. The dark-skinned Chokal-Ingam shaved his head, used his middle name Jojo, and was admitted to Saint Louis Medical School as a minority African-American. Was he or was he not “black”? Bush and Chokal-Ingam are not the only ones who may be confused about ethnic identity or may believe such identity can be assumed or alleged instead of being innate. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren for much of her career advantageously checked off “Native American” when under consideration for law professorships.

VIDEO: Teens Launch Mob Attack on Man With Toddler… Here’s Why the Media Is Ignoring It

http://conservativetribune.com/teens-launch-mob-attack/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=936184&utm_campaign=0

Excerpt: Surveillance footage showed a group of black teens launching a brutal, unprovoked mob-style attack on a man who was simply getting into his vehicle at a BP gas station in Memphis, Tenn., Monday. Memphis police said the teens were students at Northwest Prep academy and attacked the black man for absolutely no reason — and the national media has all but ignored it, apparently because it was a black-on-black crime. Rest assured that if this was a group of white children attacking the same black man, Memphis would have already erupted in city-wide protests.

Al Sharpton – “You are a waste of Human Flesh”

https://pitchforkpatriots.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/al-sharpton-you-are-a-waste-of-human-flesh/

Video by a black kid. ~Bob

"You're Greener than Gore" News

Sustainability Gone Wild. By George F. Will

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/34609

Excerpt: Syracuse University alumni are new additions to the lengthening list of persons who can stop contributing to their alma maters. The university has succumbed — after, one suspects, not much agonizing — to the temptation to indulge in progressive gestures. It will divest all fossil fuel stocks from its endowment. It thereby trumps Stanford, whose halfhearted exercise in right-mindedness has been to divest only coal stocks. Evidently carbon from coal is more morally disquieting than carbon from petroleum. The effect of these decisions on consumption of fossil fuels will be nil; the effect on the growth of institutions' endowments will be negative. The effect on alumni giving should be substantial, because divesting institutions are proclaiming that the goal of expanding educational resources is less important than the striking of righteous poses — if there can be anything righteous about flamboyant futility.

In Defense of Fossil Fuels, CO2, Prosperity, and Skeptical Scientists. By John Hayward

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/16/in-defense-of-fossil-fuels-co2-prosperity-and-skeptical-scientists/

Excerpt: Well, then they wouldn’t want anything to do with the likes of the Climategate authors who admitted “obfuscating climate science,” or promoters of the false “hockey stick” graph that conjured historical warming trends out of tortured data, or former NASA scientist James Hansen, whose global warming predictions were off by a good 400 percent, would they? But of course, that’s not the kind of “obfuscation” they have in mind. Hansen is the first signatory on the letter. Their example of a forbidden museum sponsor is, of course, David Koch of the Koch Brothers, who loom so large as devils in the left’s theology. The writers of this letter definitely know who their audience is and what sort of whistles they respond to. (I want the oil companies and the Koch Brothers to know that I'm still accepting donations from them. ~Bob)

What’s the True Cost of Wind Power? By Randy Simmons, Newsweek

http://www.newsweek.com/whats-true-cost-wind-power-321480

Excerpt: As consumers, we pay for electricity twice: once through our monthly electricity bill and a second time through taxes that finance massive subsidies for inefficient wind and other energy producers. Most cost estimates for wind power disregard the heavy burden of these subsidies on US taxpayers. But if Americans realized the full cost of generating energy from wind power, they would be less willing to foot the bill – because it’s more than most people think. Over the past 35 years, wind energy – which supplied just 4.4% of US electricity in 2014 – has received US$30 billion in federal subsidies and grants. 

Religion of Peace News

Muslim Censorship: Four Muslims arrested but get American Sniper viewing shut down at Eastern Michigan University

 https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/four-muslim-students-arrested-but-get-american-sniper-viewing-shut-down-at-eastern-michigan-univ/

Excerpt: Four students were arrested after disrupting the planned showing of “American Sniper” Friday evening in the EMU Student Center Auditorium. The film had begun but was stopped and eventually cancelled. The 10 p.m. showing was cancelled as well. (If we don't like it, you can't see it. ~Bob)

Christians in Pakistan Continue Faithfully Even in the Face of Horrible Persecution

http://eaglerising.com/17329/christians-in-pakistan-continue-faithfully-even-in-the-face-of-horrible-persecution/

Excerpt: About 2.5 million people in Pakistan today claim the title of Christian (half Protestant and half Roman Catholic), and each new day brings the unknown to their doorstep. Today, will their church get bombed? Today, will their child’s school be attacked by gunmen? Today, will their neighbors attack their family and burn down their homes? Each day is filled with the unknown, but still they faithfully continue.

Afghan Colonel Was Paid $250,000 to Kill U.S. Air Force Personnel, Pentagon Cover-Up Ensued. By Patrick Poole

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/04/15/bombshell-afghan-colonel-was-paid-250000-to-kill-us-air-force-personnel-pentagon-cover-up-ensued/

Excerpt: A bombshell revelation has emerged about the incident responsible for the greatest U.S. Air Force loss of life during the War on Terror, the deadliest “green-on-blue” attack during U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. On April 27, 2011, Afghan Air Force Colonel Ahmad Gul gunned down eight U.S. Air Force personnel and a civilian contractor inside the Afghan Air Force headquarters, including investigators who had just arrived in the country to examine rampant corruption in the Afghan military.

Wisconsin: Public school students must “pretend you’re a Muslim.” By Robert Spencer, Jihadwatch.Org

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/04/wisconsin-public-school-students-must-pretend-youre-a-muslim?utm_source=Jihad+Watch+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=77c6d3ec4c-Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ffcbf57bbb-77c6d3ec4c-97564174

Excerpt: Once they’re pretending they’re Muslim, students must describe the “struggles” they face. When will Union Grove High School have students pretend that they’re Nigerian Christians, and the struggles they face when Muslims of Boko Haram come to their village, burn down their church, and take their female children captive as sex slaves? When will Union Grove High School have students pretend they’re Jews in Paris, mocked and menaced and physically attacked by Muslims for daring to be Jews? (If they get into it, they'll murder any gay students. ~Bob)

Syrian Scud Unveils Turk Vulnerabilities. By Burak Bekdil

http://www.meforum.org/5180/syrian-scud-turk-vulnerability

Excerpt: On the morning of March 25, a Russian-made Syrian scud missile estimated to have been fired from a range of 180 kilometers exploded near the Reyhanli district in Turkey's southernmost city of Hatay, neighboring Syria. The projectile left a 15-meter-wide crater in a stream bed, broke the windows of the surrounding houses, caused the roof of a building in the nearby military unit to collapse, damaged two military vehicles and inflicted minor injuries on five Turkish civilians.

*****

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=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=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.