Castor Oil

The heel biters have won. They have brought down their prey, Donald Trump, with his decision to sign the omnibus $1.3 trillion spending bill -- a "Christmas tree" so laden with hundreds of special-interest spending that its branches are figuratively breaking. But this tree doesn't have a nickle for"the wall" and, as a result, Donal Trump is humiliated. He has faced his moment of truth and he has blinked. And now all his enemies ... from Chuck Schumer to Kim Jong-Un now unfortunately know he is blinkable.

There is the feel of a Greek tragedy in his last minute decision not to  listen to his gut and, rather, use the excuse of fully funding our military ... as his lamo rationale. Whether voters will remind him of this capitulation this fall and in 2020 cannot be known. But, for this voter, it will be like taking a large dose of Castor Oil.

Afterthought: I would take my bitter medicine and vote for Trump because, from what I have seen of possible Democtat candidates, voting for one of them would be like drinking lye.

Tax Cut

Republicans are high-fiving each other while Democrats are besides themselves ... claiming that the opponents are stealing from the U.S. Treasury. This first big legislative win for the Republicans looks like it will boost economic growth ... possibly dramatically. Is it perfect? No ... carried interest still exists, the highest bracket has been reduced, and there are plenty of cutouts designed to get the necessary Republican votes. But the sausage making is done and, overall, this bill will likely do the job.

And, if and when it does, quite a few of the Democrats who kowtowed to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and voted "nyet," may wish they can take a Mulligan ... particularly if they are on the ballot next year. If they realize that they are out on a limb being sawed off by their ideology, we might then get some cooperation toward fixing the remainder of the problems that B.H.O. never minded to either remedy or even pay attention to.

To paraphrase Uncle Wiggly, if the deep-state lollipop vendors don't force Trump to step down and disown all his deputies ... and if the cotton-candy Earth doesn't get a fatal fever ... or if the pecan-pie stock market doesn't swoon into the arms of Bernie Sanders ... then Trump might just pull a "beautiful" bunch of establishment Rinos over the finish line next November.

Tax cuts can cut both ways ...

Crossed Fingers

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made a surprising revelation on CNBC this morning ... and that is that people earning a million dollars or more a year will see, under the new tax laws, their taxes go UP on average by 3%! If this be true, then not only is this a good populist stance, but it flies in the face of all the Democrat demagoguery ... that this tax reform is a gigantic tax cut for the wealthy.

This Chuck Schumer claim is predicated on the elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) ... an elimination which I hope doesn't happen (see featured post on this blog ... Taxing Times ... which basically is an updated form of an AMT). But, if Mnuchin is being truthful, then I applaud the efforts of Congress on tax reform.

My fingers are crossed.

Trump's Lies

Former FBI Director James Comey has unhesitatingly called President Trump a liar. This is not such a shocking  accusation since America's media has been forwarding this image of Trump for many months. Is he a liar? Well, he is a politician and anyone who is breathing knows that politicians often color the facts in their favor, Clearly, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took this political penchant to extreme levels. But this is still no excuse ... so I Googled "Trump's lies" and found the following list of lies that Trump has supposedly told. Politifact, like most such sites is blatantly liberal and is run by the Tampa Bay Times ... which is what I wanted, since it should have most all of the whoppers Trump has supposedly told. See: Politifact List.

Take some time and peruse this list. I found them pretty thin gruel. Yes, there is Trump puffery. There is some fuzzy interpretation of older facts. There is also Trump's ego on display. There might even have been forgetfulness. I also found many statements I believe to be at least half true (half lies if you are a lib). But I didn't find anything that I believe to be malicious mendacity that was meant to benefit Trump to the detriment of America ... like I have often seen Democrats proffering. For example, Comey testified that the senior Congressional leadership (the "Gang of Eight") has known for months that Trump was not suspected of colluding with the Russians. Yet, over this same period, the Democrat Minority Leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has repeatedly said the exact opposite. Now this is a clear example of an ultra-partisan bald-faced lie. Find one of this seriousness, if you can, in the above Politifact list.

Afterward: Did I mention all the former administration's e-mail server, Iran nuclear deal, IRS, Fast and Furious,  Obamacare and Behghazi lies?

After afterward: If the FBI didn't know for sure whether Trump was taping his conversations with Comey, then this agency has gone down a notch in my estimation.

Two Birds ...

... with one stone.

President Trump is ridiculed as a buffoon. Well he just buffooned his way out of a no-win situation on healthcare reform by demanding a vote today in the House. If the bill passes (it probably won't), he wins. If it doesn't pass, then his nemesis, Paul Ryan, loses his leadership mojo ... and that even bigger nemesis, Chuck Schumer, is left holding that 100 pound bag of horse manure called Obamacare. Let him now try to fix this mess that the Democrats left for the Republicans to remedy. The Republicans tried and likely got not one Democrat vote... which says that the Dems still like Obamacare ... which can't help them in 2018

Our buffoon president may have just killed three birds with one stone...

Impeachment!

Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii has joined with six other judges from Washington, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut in issuing a restraining order prohibiting President Trump from using his Twitter account to communicate with the American people. This gaggle of jurists has indicated that nowhere in our Constitution does it state that tweeting is included in our First Amendment protections.

Were President Trump to violate this injunction, Representative Maxine Waters of California is prepared to initiate impeachment hearings in the House with the proviso that any member who is a Twitter fan of Trump's will be ineligible to vote in this matter. Senator Chuck Schumer has gone on all the major networks reading a statement in support of Water's initiative and adding that, were a trial to be held in the Senate, these same voting restriction will apply.

Some Poignant Questions

"Poignant" may not be the right word ... perhaps "embarrassing" or even "rhetorical" would be better? Anyway these queries should somehow be answered:

How many Somali refugees have been settled in Wellesley? Bethesda? Oak Park? Brentwood?

How many more years can college tuition increases significantly outpace our inflation rate?

Why did no financial executives or politicians go to jail as a result of the sub-prime mortgage crisis?

Will Amazon keep its market share as it raises prices finally to generate merchandising profits?

What will be our appropriate response be to North Korea or Iran after their first atomic  attack?

What does Chuck Schumer feel is gained by slowing down President Trump's appointments?

Will the media ever revert back to ,nationalistic jingoism like in the early Twentieth century?

Was the Monty Python canary really dead and did the cheese shop have any cheese whatsoever?

The Resistance

We are living in interesting times wherein there is a strident and seemingly widespread resistance to our current Trump administration ... unfortunately even some of it from within the administration itself ... as witnessed by the continued embarrassing security leaks. The energy in this resistance over-states its actual support as much of Middle America seems to understand the time-worn dynamic of how those on the left ... much of the print media, many entertainers, some judges, SNL, paid agitators, prog politicians, cable TV talking heads, even some foreign leaders ... are over-reacting to a few greenhorn missteps by the Trump posse.

Many on the left ... Meryl Streep, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Rosie O'Donnell, Chuck Schumer, Lena Dunham, Mark Cuban, Elizabeth Warren, etc. ... are all elbowing each other out of the headlines ... fishing to be first in the public's eye with even more outrageous Trump and Company smears.

And John Hinderaker, like always, has it pretty much right in his Powerline Blog diagnosis of the double teaming that SNL and the AP perform almost every weekend since Trump was inaugurated. Their purpose has clearly expanded well beyond humor to delegitimizing our current administration ... see: Powerline Blog. This is verification of the extent and vigor of the resistance I am noting above. Somehow, I think that these naysayers will eventually tire of concocting their innuendo and fake news and Trump will prevail ... just like he did in the general election. He will "punch through" this picket line of pikers.

Useless Idiots

Stalin had a term for the fifth-column Communists around the world.  He called them "useful idiots." President Trump has a different set of issues ... "useless idiots" ...  a large set of detractors who bend over backwards to undermine his efforts to keep America safe. I know it is early-on, but here are my nominations for the Useless Idiots of the Year ... those stentorian radical-Islam apologists who apear to care more for their own ideologies and election ambitions. I'm sure that some of my liberal readers might have some other names to put forward:

Bill "Big Bird" DeBlasio

Justin "Timber" Trudeau

Elizabeth "Lieawatha" Warren

Barack "Bathhouse Barry" Obama

Chuck "Tiny Tears" Schumer

Hillary "Sir Edmund" Clinton

Rahm "Godfather" Emanuel

Nancy "Botox" Pelosi

Keith "I CAIR" Ellison

Up Chuck

That consummate chowderhead, Harry Reid, the former minority leader of the Senate has been replaced by a slightly less vile Chuck Schumer, Senator from New York and supposed friend of our President Elect, Donald Trump. Chuckie has wasted no time in marking his territory with leg-lifting pronouncements ... Supreme Court nominees will be filibustered ... Jeff Sessions is in for a rough and tumble confirmation hearings for Attorney General ... and, as is his style, Schumer will cram the upcoming news cycles with his metro-macho pressers challenging anything that strikes his lefty fancy.

However, Harry Reid already defanged Schumer when he stupidly changed the Senate rules to allow simple-majority votes for confirmations of all court and administration appointments except the Supreme Court. In other words Trump can have his way with Schumer with the kind assistance of the majority leader Mitch McConnell. Yes, filling the empty Supreme Court seat might be a little more difficult ... but, if Trump nominates Ted Cruz, I suspect he will be confirmed overnight. The entire Senate would be thrilled to be rid of him.

And given the number of Senate Democrats up for re-election from red states in 2018, this body might well be filibuster-proof then. At this point, up-Chuck would be as redundant as another Obummer post White House private home (they now have five).

Buffalo Springfield

"Everybody look what's goin' 'round ..."

Hellary Clinton it appears has "pneumonia" ... this is why she collapsed halfway through the 9/11 ceremony on Sunday. Now, many other Democrat operatives also have pneumonia ... it's goin' 'round ... Senator Chuck Schumer, Campaign Manager Robbie Mook, and others in her Brooklyn campaign headquarters ... see: People Magazine. Boston radio host, Howie Carr, has compared this pneumonia echo to the "I am Spartacus" scene in the Kirk Douglas movie where all the escaped slaves step forward with this same avowal to protect Kirk.

But the real 64 million dollar question is: Does Huma Abedin also have pneumonia?

I have another skeptical comment about Hellary's health problems. Her persistent and serious coughing has been attributed to "seasonal allergies." Now, since this malady was first evidenced in her public appearances this last January 25th ... exactly what season are we talking about? It has been with her now for three seasons?

Act of Love

Former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, has created a bit of a huff and puff with his comments about those immigrants who come to this country illegally because they want to do well by their families. As per Bush, their breaking of the immigration laws of the United States is actually done as an “act of love,” an obviously unwise generalization … see: Breitbart Commentary.

Of course, in many instances … who knows the exact percentage … he is correct. But there are also many other nefarious reasons why our porous borders are breached by those who are less family-affectionate … the sex trade, drug smuggling, gang member recruiting, terrorist activities, those looking for our government’s handouts, those escaping criminal prosecutions at home, etc. The trouble is that there is no filtering process on this illegal immigrant influx to try to exclude such undesirables.

And even if 100% of these illegal immigrants were acting out of familial love, there still is the problem of America eventually becoming overrun with everyone in the world who is devoted to one’s own … there must be billions of them. The United States cannot possibly absorb all such caring people without imploding. Therefore, Jeb Bush has crawled out on an emotional limb which is easily pruned with simple logic.

Blanket amnesty cannot be the solution to the years of lax enforcement of our immigration laws … even if it is well-intentioned. This issue is now so thoroughly wrapped up in political motivations that it cannot be solved by naive utterances by would-be presidential candidates … of any party. I believe that the American people, in general, understand the conundrum we face … and such simple answers will not suffice.

I have previously offered my thoughts on this issue … see: Carrying Water in a Sieve. I believe that any real solution to this problem needs to stop the bleeding by strict enforcement of our existing immigration laws … including exporting of criminals and  those who overstay their visas … tighter inspection of amnesty claims … and an unbreachable barrier on our southern border. If this were done, maybe in twenty or thirty years this national problem would naturally dissipate ... without the granting of impassioned amnesty.

And I firmly believe that politicians who claim that they will enforce our immigration laws and then don’t ... are not acting out of love of country or compassion for those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” They (yes, you know their names) are craven and self-serving.

Unconscionable

When Barack Obama took his oath of office as President, he swore to protect the American people “from all enemies both foreign and domestic.”  So, once more our Mr. Wimple has wimped out of this primary pledge for clearly political reasons.  He has allowed (probably encouraged) his former head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano to release tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who also are criminals of another sort back into our society to commit their crimes of choice once more. See: A Sad Breitbart Story 

His “so there” attitude (I can think of a stronger term) is meant to both display his autocratic mien and punish those who won’t support his push for illegal-alien amnesty.  I think that this heinous act on his part constitutes an unconscionable abandonment of his sacred oath of office. He is clearly not now protecting us from our domestic enemies. I only wish that Americans could be made to appreciate this indictment.

As people who can tie their shoes can clearly see, if the Obama administration won’t enforce existing statues and deport 68,000 foreign criminals, how could we possibly depend upon it to uphold any other immigration reforms … particularly those that that villainous Cheshire cat, Chuck Schumer, is trying to peddle with all of his amnesty hand-wringing?

Little Bighorn

The Republican Party is holding a retreat on the shores of the scenic Chesapeake Bay … a meeting whose stated purpose is to solidify the Republican position on immigration.  It appears that the Republican leadership, as prodded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that Democratic Svengali, Chuck Schumer, and many in the old-guard Republican establishment, would very much like to pass an immigration reform bill this year.  

The stated objective for this immigration reform (read "concession") is that it will persuade many Hispanics to pull the voting lever for them in future elections.  Balderdash!  This would clearly be an unforced error … a Waterloo … a Donnybrook … a Little Bighorn … a Pickett’s Charge … a retreat retreat if you will.

Fortunately, as the GOP leadership is discovering in between bites of Maryland blue crab, that something like three-quarters of their House Republicans don’t buy this silly logic … and are pushing back.  I have in the past explained why I think that the Republican leaderships’ rationales are flawed … and I repeat them here from my Carrying Water in a Sieve blog.  These misconceptions are:

1)       Illegal immigrants will come forward to take advantage of this path to citizenship of whatever form it takes.  Think about it … why would you as an illegal immigrant … living in the shadows and getting many if not most of the benefits of citizenship, come forward and get your name entered in a database that would possibly take away some of these benefits and/or get the Internal Revenue Service on your trail to pay taxes and/or fines (see: The Daily Beast Story)? By staying in the shadows, it is also reasonable to assume that any onerous aspects of being “illegal” will be ameliorated by President Obama and any future Democrat administrations … witness the above-mentioned executive order last summer.  Thus, the status quo has a very attractive appeal to this class on non-citizen. With something like the Dream Act, they might even be required to learn English for heavens sake! 

2)       Illegal immigrants, as an indication of gratitude for their efforts, might vote in greater percentages for Republicans than such Hispanics and other immigrant groups now do. Why?  Survey after survey has shown that the reason such immigrants vote for Democrats is that they are for big-brother government and all the largess that such form of government returns to them (see: Huffington Post Opinion).  Besides, in many states (such as Nevada), many of these illegal immigrants vote Democrat already … goaded on by their conspiratorial unions (see: FrontPage Story).

Afterward: Small victory ... see: Breitbart Story.

Democrat Butt Boy

Marco Rubio

“Marco Rubio is our Republican,” says Chuck Schumer … see the disturbing story here: Powerline Story  I had had high hopes for Marco Rubio, but he, of late, is behaving like a leashed-lapdog on immigration reform.  He is being turned into the Republican poster boy for the Democrats’ attempt to lock up nine million more liberal voters (rather, those votes that they don’t already have.)

I somewhat recently posted my concerns with the immigration reform bill that the Gang of Eight has proposed … primarily that many immigrants will probably prefer to stay in the shadows ... and its provisions will not be enforced … at least not by the Obama administration.  See: Crossing the Rubio-con . Although I do believe Rubio’s objectives are noble, he seems under the Svengali-spell of that ever-smiling New York Senator, Chuck Schumer.  This suggests to me another juxtaposition possibility:

Chuck Schumer

Cheshire Cat

Or perhaps Schumer is the cat ... and Rubio is the canary?

Be a Sport

Societies were supposed to have created sports  to be the palliative of the masses. Romans watched gladiators kill each other so they would not overthrow their corrupt emperors. Coming up on the Big Football Game (I’m not allowed to use the protected  term “Super Bowl” … if I did, I think I would be used as a tackling dummy for Ray Lewis), it is interesting to note how passions are aroused by a few men kicking a ball around a big field … even to the point of giving up one’s life.  Just recently 74 soccer fans died in Egypt at a riot over a grudge match there. (see: AP News Story )  Then 21 fans and security personnel were sentenced to death for their part in this melee while another 52 will go on trial in March.  These death sentences next set off another riot in which an additional 37 fans were killed and 110 injured … apparently when the funerals for the previous martyrs morphed into more sports-fan protests and then into a political riot … chanting slogans against Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi.

Now, I’ve heard of hooliganism on the part of English soccer fans, but these Egyptian uprisings seem a little over the top … particularly in that Morsi became a target of the sports fans … when such contests are supposed to assuage such feelings.  Imagine the Baltimore Ravens' fans charging the field in New Orleans next weekend … insisting that President Obama make Beyonce actually sing the words to the National Anthem … and then the 49ers' fans cornering Governor Jerry Brown … forcing him to retract  the recent income tax increases in California.  The Baltimore cheerleaders would then have at the San Francisco pom-pom wavers … to the point where all the half-time TV commercials would be scrubbed in order to televise this lascivious girl-on-girl wrestling.  Even without any fatalities, this would result, the following Monday, in a number of camera-grabbers in Congress (e.g., Chuck Schumer?) calling for the banning of “this grotesque, violent sport” (see: Breitbart Story) … or at least eliminate all the festivities therein … and all football fans should be registered and fingerprinted.

Or perhaps I'm daydreaming again?