Being There

The term of art is "acting presidential." Two weeks ago Donald Trump upstaged President Obummer by four days with his visit to the flooding devastation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and commiserated with the its victims. The only equivalent response that Hellary Clinton could muster was a short phone call to the Louisiana governor ... who then covered for her by saying that her visit was not required.

Now today, Trump is on an invited visit with the current president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, to lay out his positions on the issues that fester between our two nations. The former Mexican president, Vincente Fox, has called this visit a political stunt ... a thought that DJT's contender, HRC, agrees with ... even though she has no plans to reach out in the same way ... even though she too was invited. This is not very presidential of her. And I just watched the joint press conference after this meeting and Trump did well enough to embarrass, once again, his opponent.

In fact, the optics of these two events point out a few bright lines between their two candidates:

- One is energy level. Trump is forward-leaning ... he shows up. Hellary seems to be slogging through the motions of her campaign. She has, for almost nine months, not had the fortitude to hold even a  live press conference. It's as though she believes she can coast right into the front door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

- Two is courage. Trump is willing to deal face-to-face with his friends and potential adversaries. The best that Hellary can muster is staged Teleprompter pap deriding her opponent.

- Three is spontaneity. Hellary is so programmed by her enormous clutch of advisers that she appears almost robotic. Trump is more than willing to respond to events ... one reason that he now seems much more able to don the mantel of presidential power.

Perhaps, Trump is just lucky to do things that have pulled his poll numbers out of the dumpster since Hellary's post-convention bounce. Perhaps like the Chauncey character in Being There, Trump may sometimes be saying inane things ... yet some of us are hearing revelations ... but whatever it is, he is clearly recapturing his mojo.

The Fox is in the Henhouse

This cannot stand!

 President Obummer has continually stretched the powers of his office ... ignoring the Constitution and running roughshod over a wimpy Congress. We, who have believed that this man is a despot at heart ... and feared what he might do as his last term in office was expiring, have now had our worst fears realized. It appears that our tin-horn president is setting things up to cross the line into complete centralized control of our elections. Using the excuse that two states' voting-commission computers may have been recently hacked ... Obummer's Director of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, is suggesting that his department assume control of the upcoming presidential election process ... as this election is a "critical [national] infrastructure" ... see: Washington Examiner Story or The NY Times Article.

I suppose, if this were a different administration, that such a move might be tolerated. But, to me, Jeh Johnson is the consigliere of that criminal mob that currently runs our government. His department, after all, has been at the forefront of not enforcing our immigration laws and he himself has been called out for lying to Congress ... in a rare show of backbone there ... see: Conservative Review Article. This suggested takeover is clearly meant as an insurance policy in case Hellary Clinton does not legitimately prevail at the polls. Then, any number of electronic shenanigans could be invoked to make the results comply with the administration's wishes.

This cannot stand!

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

[South Carolina] School bans American flag from football games

Colin Kaepernick's Mom trashes him on Twitter

Mark Cuban: It wasn't Hillary's fault her server wasn't set up right

Study: Dogs know what you are saying

Barbara Streisand says she will move to Australia if Trump becomes president

MIKA: Mental health professionals should take a look at Trump

Soros funded DA arrested on six counts of helping criminals

Obama to bypass Senate, ratify 'climate' accord himself

Apple Sauced: Apple ordered to pay $15B in EU tax

[Bill] Clinton: Give Detroit jobs to Syrian refugees

Leaked memo reveals Soros plan for federally controlled police

State finds 30 deleted Clinton e-mails on Benghazi

Our Redemptions

It seems to this political observer that the United States has been wallowing in political redemptions for quite some time:

We elected a sex-crazed, Addison-inflicted Irishman as president to prove that we were really really sorry for how we had treated Catholics during their great migrations here.

We elected a fuzzy-thinking peanut farmer as president to prove that we were really really sorry for the mistakes we made in Vietnam and for that crooked leader we had recently ousted.

We elected a former alcoholic, born-again Christian as president to prove that we were really really sorry for the lascivious antics of our previous White House resident

We elected an unvetted Muslim-leaning mulatto as president to prove that we were really really sorry for our slavery past and for tolerating Jim Crow laws.

Now we are poised to elect a blatantly dishonest, money-grubbing lesbian as president to prove that we are really really sorry that it took so long for us to treat women as equals and "not that there is anything wrong with that."

What can possibly be next for our country to redeem with our presidency?

Hell Year -- Month 8

In another bonehead move, Obummer is continuing his petulant final-year hazing of the American people by permitting the turning-over of control of the Internet to another assembly of boneheads, the United Nations ... see: Wall Street Journal Article.

He is also still obsessed in his backdoor attempt to permit more terrorism by releasing more Gitmo prisoners into places where many will surely rejoin their band of Muslim extremists ... killing more innocents ... see: Fox News Story.

He either is a total crazed ideologue ... or he really does hate us.

Huma, Phone Home!

He's at it again. Anthony Weiner is back doing his ugly thing ... sexting, with crotch shots and all, to women he finds online. Don't let your children read the following story and, if you do read it yourself, be prepared to take a shower afterwards ... see: NY Post Story.

This man is not just sick ... he may well be so deranged to be dangerous. Being that his wife, Huma Abedin, is constantly away helping Hellary climb any stairs, Anthony is at home babysitting their son and burning up the Internet with salacious messages describing his Lothario passions. Being that such behavior has already destroyed his political career, it is very strange that he has been unable to rein in these abarrant behaviors.

If, God forbid, Hellary is elected president, I can't imagine that Huma won't be a regular resident of the White House ... attending to her partner-in-crime's every need. And, if this comes about, will Weiner also be invited to ply his nastiness out of one of the back bedrooms? Being that our first residence needed to be fumigated after Bill Clinton left there in 2001. I suspect that, after Hellary were to leave, it may need to be razed.

Afterward: Huma has had enough ... see: Daily Mail Revelation.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Drama: 1/3 of Huma Abedin's e-mails 100% redacted

Kaepernick doesn't stand for 'oppressive' [U.S.] National Anthem

DOJ to handle Sheriff Joe probe

School policy: Don't tell parents that transgender boys sleep with girls on school trips

KKK leader supports Hillary

State hides Hillary sked till after elections

New Black Panther leader: Trump is right about Democrats exploiting Black vote

Morbid: Obamacare exchange sign-ups fall FAR SHORT of forecasts

Former Clinton Global Initiative moderator: Slams Foundation, calls events 'gross' ...

Faces of murders recreated from DNA left at crime scene

French police make woman remove clothing on Nice beach following burkini ban

Poll: Trump shrinks Clinton lead 7 points in 3 days

Burkini Flap

French  authorities have banned Muslim women from wearing the burka ... and now the burkini (an equivalent total cover-up while on the beach or swimming) to the outrage of liberals worldwide ... who point out that nuns often swim while covered from head to toe with their habits. In this case this is a distinction WITH a difference. When was the last time that a nun, with a suicide belt under her habit, exploded herself in a crowd of innocent people?

Since the criminal consequence of this form of Muslim garb, albeit somewhat rare, can be so devastatingly lethal, French society has taken it upon itself to prohibited what would normally seem to be permissible. If the Islamic community wants these dress traditions to be respected, it should stop blowing onlookers up using this form of camouflage.

Simple?

Cartoon of the Week

It's becoming more and more clear ...

From Powerline blog

reddit Gallery CCCLXXIX

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Miss America 1924

Koi in Kyoto

South Pole

Paris Red Sky

Zebrew

Quote of the Day

"

"The world is constantly trying to turn us into composte." -- Anon

Correcting Autocorrect

I just went back to one of my blogs for the umpteenth time to fix some gobbledegook that Apple's maddening invention Autocorrect botched up for me ... it had replaced "you" with "you're" for some stupid reason. Now I am a bad speller so I do derive some benefit from Autocorrect, but this "feature" also makes the most bizarre substitutions when I am not looking ... so I think I loose much more than I gain. (Hint: if you notice a bad Autocorrect in time, you can negate it by hitting  the little "x" at the end of the pop-up box ... thanks, Terry.) What was so wrong with using Spellchecker after you finished your typing?

If Apple can't improve this feature, it should junk it. There is nothing as dumb as a little intelligence ... as Autocorrect and a plethora of current newsmakers demand nitrate (demonstrate).

Six Word Stories

Yesterday on NPR I heard Peter Berg discussing an interesting literary challenge ... to write an ultra-short story in only six words. He related that Earnest Hemingway was once given this dare and he supposedly came up with "For sale. Baby shoes. Never used." Mr Berg gave many other examples of such creative efforts. The only other one that I remember is, "Days are long. Years are short." However, if this concept strikes your fancy, you should go to Berg's website and read more ... see: Six Word Stories ... or Google for more possibilities.

I obviously can't leave this subject without also trying my fingers with this challenge ... so here goes:

"Lifetime of lying ... rewarded with presidency."

$99,999,999.99

Two days after it paid Iran $400M in cash to release four American hostages, the Obummer administration made 13 wire transfer payments of $99,999,999.99 to the salivating mullahs there ... theoretically paying off the rest of $1.7B that some international agency said we owed Iran ... see: NY Sun Articl e. Now there are at least five things seriously wrong with these transactions. You, dear reader, are now challenged to list these travesties (hint -- one is that we still might owe Iran 13 cents). First reader to get them all right wins a "Black Lives Matter" tee shirt.

Headlines

All these headlines are from Internet news sites.

Al Qaida leader calls upon followers to reject ISIS, support Taliban

The North Atlantic: Ground Zero for Global Cooling

Parents outraged over all-nude Shakespeare performance in [Prospect] park

Huma on masthead of radical Muslim journal

Half of those meeting with Hillary at State donated to Clinton Cash

Huma e-mails reveal more 'pay for play'

Voting rights restored again for 13K felons in Virginia

Hundreds of CA kids sent home from school due to new vaccination law ...

Biden: Terrorism is 'not an existential threat' to the U.S.

UK could be covered in small modular nuclear reactors in ten years

Vince Foster files vanish from National Archives

Turkey in cross-border operation to free IS-held Syrian town

Don't Assume

Because if you do, you will assume that I am going to say, "If you assume, you make an ASS out of U and ME."

Smart

What is smart? Bill Clinton combines a prodigious memory with excellent communications skills and is credited with being a political genius. Dr. Dre obviously has mixed excellent rap-rhyming skills with good business acumen into a successful career. Taxi actress Marilu Henner is one of the very few people who has perfect recall (eidetic memory). This together with her good looks  and acting skills has helped make for her a good life. And it seems all good actors and actresses usually merge good memories for lines with good muscle memories (for facial expressions). Albert Einstein clearly had formidable abstract reasoning abilities combined with the ability to communicate these insights to the rest of the world. And there is obviously one other beneficial ingredient ... hard work. As Thomas Edison is credited with saying, "genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Thus comes my premise ... very "smart" people or geniuses most often include two or more three-sigma qualities into one package ... which usually involve good communication skills and hard work. Perspicacity is not always a necessary requirement ... as our current president so aptly exhibits.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Hero dog dies saving life of infant in house fire ...

Senior Muslim Cleric: Universal female genital mutilation 'would be very good'

Federal judge refers Sheriff Joe for criminal contempt

Manafort Out

Gun Owners of American: Disarming good guys does not disarm bad guys

Massachusetts taxes ride sharing apps -- to fund taxis!

ISIS strikes wedding party in Turkey, kills 50+ ... child suicide bomber

[Olympic] Gold for champ at 58 with hip replacement

Salon: GOP must dump Jesus or risk irrelevance in post-Christian America

Venezuela Spiral: Gang breaks into zoo, slaughters horse for food

Climate Philosopher Demands a Tax on Children

'Ben-Hur' bombs at boxoffice

.         

Goose, Goose, Gander

Olympic competitions for female athletes are on their way out. The current mania for erasing the lines between the sexes is surely going to accomplish this sorry task. Recently an "intersex" athlete from South Africa was allowed to compete and win the women's 800-meter race ... in a runaway, even though "her" testosterone levels exceeded what was previously considered acceptable ... see: Daily Caller Article. This win has, I believe, sealed the gloomy fate of the distaff side of Olympic athletics ... and possibly further.

The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has ruled that high testosterone levels don't necessarily give an athlete an advantage. This idiotic CAS ruling has opened the floodgates for gender bending to effectively eliminate female athletic competitions. Years ago the Soviet Union used to field Olympic "female" athletes who clearly were male or testosterone-enhanced and who dominated many track and field competitions. Obvious push-back helped remedy this eligibility flaw. But now the world is upside down once again. It will take only a few more Olympics before the competitions become androgynous ... with shemales winning most if not all of the medals.

Actually things might get even worse if U.S. silly gender-ID norms prevail and an athlete needs only to "self-identify" as female to compete in these events. Then, of course, it will not just be the Olympics ... women's basketball, women's golf, etc. will all gradually be usurped by men posing as women. And, unless sanity returns, female athletics on all levels will be Title 9.5ed out of existence. This obviously would present a paradox for the uber-liberal feminine side of politics. Then their dimwitedness will have solidified "what is good for the goose will forever belong to the gander."

reddit Gallery CCCLXXVIII

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Irony

Strawberry Moon

Ballerina Fountain

Meowstache

Incan Grain Warehouses

Gender Bending

In a very interesting article, Jennifer Jones in the Washington Post has analyzed Hellary Clinton's speaking patterns over the years and found that she is talking more "masculine" with each passing year ... less "I" and "me" more "we" ... less soft emotion and feelings ... more hard feelings. Read this ... it is somewhat complicated, but take the time ... it is worth it ... see: Washington Post Article.

The thing that struck me in reading Ms. Jones' analysis is that those speaking patters, that she deems to be feminine, are the very patterns (e.g., extensive use of first person singular personal pronouns) that we hear from our current president. Perhaps this is why both he and Hellary are such fans of trannsgenderism?

I'm Smiling

A few days ago I wrote that President Obummer had a case of senioritis because he could not leave his Martha's Vineyard vacation to show the flag in flood-ravaged Louisiana ... see: No Fly Zone. So Donald Trump stepped into the void and, with his running mate, Mike Pence, is there today exhibiting his concern and acting presidential ... showing how he might behave if he were to win in November ... see: NOLA Article. And even Hellary outdid her former boss ... at least she (or Huma) picked up her smart phone and called the Democrat governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, to show whatever concern she could muster. The optics of this contrast has the Democrats tied in knots. Governor Bel Edwards has covered for Obummer ... saying that things would not be helped if the president came there (same that was told to George W. Bush in 2005) ... and added that Trump was grandstanding with his visit.

The sweet, sweet irony of this story has me smiling ... at least until the national media either ignores this story or regurgitates the DNC talking points on tonight's TV news ... making Trump and Pence look like political hacks ... and somehow spinning Obummer's lassitude into caring competence.

This just in: Obummer will visit Baton Rouge this coming Tuesday ... after his vacation is over four days from now. I strongly suspect the nightly news will cover this visit with great drama.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Town [Arlington, NY] orders American flags removed from fire trucks

L.A. Times poll: Clinton +1

BBC: Opposing Shiriah law is 'Islamophobic'

Hillary told FBI Colin Powell advised her to use personal e-mail

Germany moves to ban far right party

Spat: EU tries to claim Britain's gold medals as its own ...

Canada fines comedian $42K for a joke

Trump turns presidential in Louisiana as Obama chills

Uber starts self-driving cars in weeks

NPR: Should we be having kids when there is global warming?

DHS Secretary defends golfin' Obama's absence in Louisiana 'Busy schedule' 'Can't be everywhere'

IRANSOM: Obama Admin admits cash for prisoners

Mr. Ridicule

Joe Scarborough, co-host of  the MSNBC show Morning Joe, is a one-trick pony. He is fairly consistent in his commentary style of late ... and that is ridicule ... and he has a razor sharp tongue. I once called him a Judas goat ... see: Judas Goat. But now all he can do is ridicule Donald Trump. It as though he alone can read the political tea leaves and Trump is doing it all wrong. He needed to "pivot" after he was nominated and his not doing this has sunk his chances and those of many of his "down ticket" candidates. Scarborough, because he won a few elections in scarlet red Tallahassee, Florida, makes him the best politician of all time ... and ignoring his advice is political suicide.

We'll see Mr. Know-it-all. We'll see Mr. Ridicule ...

Reality

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." -- Albert Einstein

Kafka is alive and well. He has hacked into the program in that super-mega-giga-computer that Elon Musk believes is running the software simulation hundreds of years from now that has created our current reality. To me, it seems like the world is loosing it balance ... or perhaps it is just a bunch of 22nd century programmers having some fun with our lives? Not only has our current  political process gotten bizarre, but every day events seem to present themselves as head-scratchers. In particular, here are two news items that seem to be three-sigma events.

The black Milwaukee police officer, who shot and killed a black armed thug, turns out to be a part-time rapper and classmate of the very man he shot. Except for the police uniform this would be a forgettable commonplace event in this Blatz-beer  city ... see: Powerline Blog Posting. So effectively blue pants, a blue shirt and a badge have just caused extensive rioting, arson and looting in Milwaukee ... Strange!

For another real dose of reality, the Obummer administration fessed up today ... under the cover of the Olympic's swimmers' scandal ... that it really did pay $400 million as a quid pro quo for the release of four American prisoners ... ransom that is ... see: NY Post Story. This is after many months of adamantly denying same ... including President Obummer. I guess we are all so used to these scum bags lying that they are not even shamed by this revelation ... How very sad!

Mind Boggling!

Democrat Maggie Hassan, who is running for the Senate from New Hampshire, was recently asked three times if Hellary Clinton is honest. And three times she dodged this question in typical political fashion ... answering with unresponsive fluff ... see: Politico Video ... shameful and weird! Also, in a recent NBC poll, only 11% of respondents believe that Clinton is "honest and trustworthy" ... see: Breitbart Article ... even weirder! How can this woman have even the slightest chance of winning the presidency? But she does! This is profoundly mind boggling!

Aside: All the current New Hampshire Senator, Kelly Ayotte, needs to do to retain her seat would be to play this Hassan tape over and over and over as a 30 second political commercial between now and November.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

New York Muslims blame Donald Trump for Imam shooting

1.300 wanted criminals living in subsidized public housing

De Niro: Trump 'totally nuts' ...

Khizr Khan challenges Trump to pass Citizenship Test

Aetna to exit [Obamacare] healthcare exchanges in 11 states

JILL STEIN ATTACKS: questions Hillary's competency

Farmers' Almanac predicts 'ice cold' winter

Gitmo Board clears prisoner for release who still poses threats

Report: Islamic State boils 6 spies alive in tar

McCaskill: Trump and his friend Putin are the founder of ISIS

Uncle Sam goes for Gold: $9,900 tax per medal

Progressives, feminists up attack on Juanita Broaddrick

Dr. Evil

George Soros is the equivalent of a sinister antagonist in a James Bond movie. He is an octogenarian multi-billionaire who likes to use his money to buy politicians and to create mischief in the Western world. He has Hellary Clinton and most of the Democrat party in his back pocket. He snaps open his billfold and they respond with Pavlovian servitude. In leaked e-mails and memos, it has recently been revealed that he basically was issuing marching orders to the United States' State Department through his then Toady-in-Chief, Hellary Clinton ... see: Breitbart Article, Another Breitbart Revelation and Daily Caller Report.

This Hungarian-born naturalized American citizen has a number of favorite causes -- open borders (in the U.S. and Europe), legalization of recreational drugs, anti-Israel organizations, community organizing, assisted suicide, Occupy Wall Street, felons' voting, the Arab Spring, Kosovo independence, Black Lives Matter, etc. ... see: Discover the Networks ... and probably many other causes on which his fingerprints have been wiped clean. (Do we see a correlation to the Clintons' decades-long priorities here?) The only other common denominator that I can discern to all these causes is that Soros champions a sinister push back towards American values and democracy ... strange ... for a person who has benefited so much from the country he apparently hates.

And "We The People" are traveling under the naive assumption that our politicians are beholding to us. No, no, no, for at least the last twenty five years, our politicians have mostly become acolytes of the dead presidents printed on our currency. Truman wasn't in it for the money. Eisenhower wasn't in it for the money. JFK wasn't in it for the money. Ford wasn't in it for the money. Reagan wasn't in it for the money. Even Jimmy Carter wasn't in it for the money. And someone who has truckloads of this green paper ... and knows how to spread it around ... like Soros ... obviously has huge political purchase. A discouragingly large proportion of our today politicians are more interested in personal gain than they are in the betterment of the country over which they govern. This is a recipe for national ptomaine poisoning.

Afterward: See also: WND Article and Daily Caller Article and Daily Caller Revelation.

Law of the Jungle

Sheriff David Clark

Straight-talking Milwaukee Sheriff David Clark has used the above phrase to describe the rioting, arson and looting (by mostly young black men) that has been taking place there as result of the shooting and killing of a young armed black thug by a black policeman ... see: Reuters Story? He started this observation by saying that under these circumstances "tribal behavior" takes over and this replaces law and order. Gasp! Are these racist comments? Can a black man criticize black rioters this way? One can be reasonably assured that lots of opprobrium will soon be thrown at this sheriff ...  which will then be echoed many times throughout the liberal media.

These rioters were misbehaving as outlined above as well as throwing rocks and bricks at the responding police and fire-persons, injuring some ... and also attacking random innocent white folks. This kind of wilding behavior can easily be characterized as Sheriff Clark did ... not that it will embarrass any of them. These rioters listen to a different drumbeat which drowns out any thought of civilized behavior.

By the bye, President Obummer has not, as of this posting, issued any statement calling for calm in Milwaukee. He hasn't even given it a "tsk, tsk." I guess he must be suffering a severe case of senioritis.

No Fly Zone

Louisiana is now experiencing historic record flooding ... not this time from the likes of Hurricane Katrina, but rather because of just plain torrential rains which have flooded many of the same upstate  areas where George Bush's perfidy caused wide devastation back in 2005 ... see: Weather News. Although the death toll between the two events is not comparable, certainly the damage to personal property may soon be nearing parity.

President Obummer, having learned from history, has decided not to fly over these devastated flooded zones to look down in sympathy. Rather, he has opted to play another few rounds of golf on Martha's Vineyard.

"Legal Tender ...

For all debts, public and private." Not so fast! Now, increasingly, businesses are not accepting cash payments for goods or services rendered ... they only accept cell-phone-wallet or credit-card payments. Can they do this? What if one doesn't have plastic or a smart phone? Isn't this the same as "voter suppression" ... shopper suppression? I guess it depends on whose Gore is being oxed? Besides our underclasses don't shop the way that we, the privileged class, does ...

I guess I am naive, but I thought that the term "legal tender" printed on the top of our paper currency meant something ... and refusing fiat money would bring the wrath of our Treasury Department down on one. Apparently not ... we live in the cowardly new world of techno-elitists whose disdain for Luddites, like myself, is brutal and unforgiving. One has to wonder if this lax enforcement of our monetary laws has something to do with the huge political donations coming out of Wall Street and Silicone Valley?

To read all about this strange new merchant meme, please visit ... CBS News Story.

Upon reflection, there actually might be one side benefit to this unnerving new commercial custom ... and that is monetary transactions will be everywhere electronically captured. This would mean that more of the shadow economy would be forced into the sunlight ... and, because of sophisticated data mining algorithms, money laundering might get a little more difficult.

reddit Gallery CCCLXXVII

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Cultural Differences

Sulphur from a Volcano

Woodstock in 1969

Natural Formed Stibnite

Lion and Friend

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

'Support monkey' runs loose on flight to Vegas

1 in 4 Puerto Ricans will have Zika by end of year

Steiner murder trial delayed until after the election

DOJ blocks Clinton Foundation probe

96% of Hillary's 2015 charitable donations went to the Clinton Foundation

BOOM: Yankees will end up paying A-Rod $317 million

Robots wash clothes, clean homes

7 robots replacing farm workers around the world

Summer chill: Malia Obama caught on camera smoking joint

Arianna Huffington to leave Huffington Post

  Newspapers rethink paywalls as digital efforts sputter

,Birthday bash: Fidel rips Obama

A Poem

Clinton Chappaqua Estate

Now comes the time
For us to rhyme
About beloved Hillary

She took a server
Made it serve her
For her skulduggery

From nearly broke
She and her bloke
Found a money tree

With friends inside
They greased the slide
With a phony charity

Others took the bait
With her at State
I scratch you, if you, me

She's made amends
With many friends
One who's partly Cherokee

The pelf rolled in
For all her kin
One ending in maternity

She got so rich
That Oz-land witch
Life was all 99 Chablis

At the Chappaqua manse
She took no chance
It's now a risky property

So, as ye can clearly see
You built a wall for me
But not for thee

Split Personality

Peggy Noonan has chiseled another Op-Ed diamond in the Wall Street Journal. It is about the gulf that has arisen between the lofty ideals exhibited by those espousing virtually unlimited Middle-East immigration (Merkel, Obummer, Hellary, Kerry, etc.) and those who actually end up paying the price for those elites' charity -- the middle and lower-class communities who are required to foot the societal adjustments and monetary bills  ... two different and distinct groups ... and never the twain shall meet ... see:  WSJ Op-Ed.

But what struck me about this well-sharpened Occam's Razor was that Ms. Noonan did not see the disconnect between this spot-on observation and why Donald Trump is resonating with so many Americans. Yes, the same Donald Trump for whom her pen pal, Maureen Dowd, fashioned a new excretory organ just a few short days ago in one of her lesser Op-Ed zircons ... see: With Both Barrels.

Does Maureen Dowd's left brain not talk to Peggy Noonan's right brain? Can she not realize that plenty of middle-Americans see in Trump someone who will push back against these globalists, these trade-at-any-cost-ers, these government-knows-best-ers, these open-border-ites, these bleeding-heart progressives? It would have been nice if Ms. Noonan  suddenly had an epiphany contrasting these two opinion editorials ... but she seems too diplomatic to reference Dowd's Trump scatological reforming.

Or maybe her previous Trump hit piece was just because Dowd was off her meds?

Like Father, Like Son

Donald Trump and his Dad, Fred

If you want to understand what makes Donald Trump tick, you probably should look to his upbringing. The New York Times has just produced a "random piece of journalism" that gives its reader a good glimpse into how Donald Trump became the interesting personality that we see on the stump today. Take a few minutes to read this bio piece. You should then have a clearer notion of who this man is ... and who he might be as president ... see: New York Times Story.

The Way That He Said It

Michael Hayden, former NSA and CIA Director and a man whom I admire greatly, was on TV this morning and he was asked if he agreed with Donald Trump when he said multiple times that Obummer created ISIS. Hayden replied, to the surprise of the questioner, that yes Obummer's premature departure from Iraq, his "red line" back-down with Syria, and his Libyan fiasco ... all helped to spawn ISIS out of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, he did say that the way Trump communicated this fact was impolitic to say the least and he was not happy with it.

General Hayden was then asked about his recent statement, along with 49 other former intelligence officers, that he would not be voting for Trump ... see: VOA News Story. His response was also encouraging ... that he would not be voting for Clinton either. He also added that neither he nor necessarily the 49 other signers were Republicans. Yes, most served in Republican administrations, but that doesn't mean that they are political. He claimed that he has tried to be apolitical ... I think for good reason.

How do I feel about Trump's way of communicating? Yes, he is often immature and impolitic at his rallies ... and I wish he was more like Hayden. However, he is being heard by vast swaths of the voting public who need these simple messages that speak directly and plainly to them. Trump will never be William Buckley or David Brooks at the podium. But, then again, he will never be nuanced to the point of being taken both ways ... like most politicians. And, in some respects, this is his strength ... perhaps his only strength ... possibly why he is so resistant to changing his approach. For this straight talk, no matter the outcome in November, one must give him credit.

He clearly  will live or die as a populist.

Megaphones

"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." -- Barack Obummer in 2008

Today, while traveling by car to and from the grocery store, I was listening to National Public Radio (which I help to fund with my taxes ... so I was interested in what I was buying) and the subject going and coming was Trump's comments yesterday about the Second Amendment being overturned under Hellary Clinton. His comments ("If she picks her judges, Nothing you can do folks ... Although the Second Amendment people, I don't know, maybe there is")  obviously can be interpreted two  different ways: (See: Fox News Story.)

1) The Second Amendment people, having guns, could shoot her.

2) If all the Second Amendment advocates vote as a block, they might defeat her.

Now obviously, having the megaphone and a liberal crush on Hellary, these NPRers were advocating the number one choice ... with little acknowledgement of number two.  (Actually this is what I first thought too.) And this also has been the stentorian approach of all the major networks and newspapers. However, to be fair, there really are two options and Trump says he meant the second.

Now Donald Trump is a pretty proficient Twitter user ... but can one tweet capture more attention than a chorus of megaphones?