Headlines

Trump’s job approval falls amid racial unrest, while Biden jumps to 14-point lead

Prince Andrew pushes back as prosecutors seek interview in Epstein case

GOFUNDME suspends Candice Owens ...

Speaker so woke: Pelosi, Democrats kneel at Capitol, ready police overhaul plan

Feds press criminal case against Flynn partner

Comcast pledges $100 million to fight injustice and inequality

600 NYC police officers considering exit?

German official attacks Trump’s ‘unacceptable’ troop withdrawal

Minneapolis looks to end current police force

Coronavirus updates: New York City starts reopening, New Zealand says it ‘eliminated’ the virus

Shock: Trump approval 38% ... Jimmy Carter levels ...

Obama to 2020 graduates: Hope is a ‘hammer’ to ‘break the glass’

Headlines

Police groups break with Biden

Jobless claims, total unemployment level worse than expected

Autopsy: George Floyd had coronavirus ...

Ellison elevating charges on Derek Chauvin, charging other officers

Trump promises Stone won’t serve prison time: ‘He can sleep well at night’

ECB takes its pandemic bond buying to 1.35 trillion euros to try to prop up economy

Two NYPD officers shot, one stabbed in Brooklyn ...

2 million first-time gun owners in first half of 2020 alone

Jimmy Carter calls out police injustice, but says violence is ‘not a solution’

CDC wants people to drive solo to avoid coronavirus, sparking fear over more congenstion and emissions

Another one turns ... Mattis rips Trump for dividing America ...

Donald Trump: Gen. Jim Mattis ‘world’s most overrated general’

Headlines

The shutdown backlash is coming soon — with a vengeance

Small business rescue loan program hits $349 billion limit and is now out of money

Professional gamblers in Nevada now able to collect unemployment ...

Jimmy Carter ‘distressed’ over Trump halting W.H.O. Funding

‘Inexcusable’: Debbie Dingle slams Michigan protestors

Coronavirus live update: Trump to unveil reopening guidelines, China races toward a vaccine

Bailout checks go to the dead!

Dems demand halt construction on border wall during coronavirus crisis

Top Muslim political group backs Biden

The US economy has erased nearly all the job gains since the Great Recession

22 million jobs vanish in month ...

NJ governor: ‘I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights’ when issuing stay-at-home order

Headlines

Trump dives into red-state races to reverse impeachment slump

SoftBank to take control of WeWork: Sources

President’s cabinet meeting devolves into 71 minutes of grievances ...

Pompeo warns Turkey: Trump ‘fully prepared’ to take military action over Syria

Jimmy Carter hospitalized after fall in Georgia home

Negative rates have consequences we don’t fully understand, Jamie Dimon says

Trudeau wins second term but loses majority ...

Transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon keeps smashing women’s records

Drug pricing proposal could result in loss of 700k American jobs

Biogen to seek US approval for Alzheimer’s drug, sending shares soaring 37%

US may now keep some troops in Syria — to guard oil fields ...

Persecuted Turkish journalist: ‘Turkey has been hosting ISIS for years’

Headlines

Kamala’s attack on Biden was months in the making

Trump says he agreed with Xi to hold off on new tariffs and to let Huawei buy US products

France hottest day in history! Manure explodes in Spain

Poll: 5 in 9 likely voters oppose free health care for illegal aliens

Trump announces negotiations with China are ‘back on track’

By the numbers: Best June for Dow since 1938,  S&P 500’s best first half in two decades

Apple moves assembly of Mac Pro to China ...

DHS: Illegal migrants drop 25 percent in June amid U.S., Mexican crackdown

Trump offers to meet Kim Jong Un at Korean border

‘She owned the stage’ —  Pollster says Kamala Harris was the winner of both 2020 debate nights

Jimmy Carter says Trump is an illegitimate President

Cruz to Christian Conservatives: We are not going to let Big Tech silence us

Headlines

2020 Democrats see Jimmy Carter as antidote to Trump

A slew of CEOs charged in college entrance cheating scam

UK plunged into chaos

Page: Obama DOJ ordered FBI not to prosecute Hillary

Pilots complained at least 5 times about Boeing 737 MAX problems, records show

US wholesale inflation remained tame in February

5.3 mag quake jolts Hawaii ...

Eurocrats talk of rejecting Brexit delay, tells U.K. to prepare for no deal

Poll: Majority still oppose Trump emergency measure

Europe’s taxes on tech are not anti-US, top EU official says

Coulter demands ‘precise longitude and latitude’ of new border wall Trump ‘built’ ...

Study: Migrants using nearly 2X the welfare of native-born Americans

Inflection Point

Martin Luther King Jr. was a bit of a bounder. There are numerous salacious stories of his behavior off the pulpit. So why do we celebrate this man today? Simple ... his "I have a dream" speech was an inflection point between when this country was majority racist against blacks and when we weren't. Yes I agree that racism did not and will not totally disappear from America ... just that the tide had changed against this societal poison -- prejudice against blacks. The proof being that we have since elected an African-American twice to our highest office.

This forgiveness of past bad behavior by Americans is not unique to MLK Jr. We have often looked past dalliances by other of our heroes -- JFK, LBJ, FDR, Thomas Jefferson, DDE and many, if not most, of our past leaders ... except lusting onl in his mind ... Jimmy Carter. The reason for such myopia is that the sum total of the good that these men did far outweighed their misconduct.

There, of course is one major exception. Much of America refuses to recognize any of the positive results from our current president's short tenure. Instead there is a fixation in the media about his negatives -- two scoops of ice cream, Stormy Daniels, his exaggerations, long neckties, etc. Will Trump ever be given the same latitude as many of our past less-than-perfect leaders, like the man whose birthday we celebrate today? He clearly is striving mightily to create an inflection point between the decline of America and a return to our historic greatness ... with large portions of this country undermining these efforts at every step.

History will tell ... but it will be a serious number of years hence.

Headlines

Atlanta Fed raises GDP forecast to 4.6% ...

Trump's approval  remains stable despite week's political storm: NBC/WSJ poll

2008 NIGHTMARE: Obama beat McCain by a two-to-one electoral college margin ...

... Palin: 'Today we lost an American original' ...

McCain and Trump: A pugilistic relationship to the end

US softens demand for NAFTA 'sunset clause': Mexican official

BOMBSHELL: Pope Francis accused of covering up for an abusive priest ...

Kenesaw State cuts cheerleaders who took knee during anthem

Mueller team shortens estimated length of 2nd Manafort trial

Former president Jimmy Carter lives in a $167,000 house and shops at Dollar General

Lane's rainfall topples records, inundates [Hawaii's] Big Island ...

Left emboldened: Maddow surges in ratings as Resistance takes a victory lap

Headlines

Trump administration freezes $200 million in funds for Syrian reconstruction

Visa seekers will have o disclose social media ...

Trump says Washington Post should register as Amazon 'lobbyist'

Ingraham to take 'Easter break' from show amid advertiser boycotts

Tesla Autopilot activated before fatal accident ...

Massive loans. Damaged credit. Nothing to save. How student loans make home ownership a pipe dream

Jimmy Carter rips Trump: America 'apparently wants a jerk' for president

Elizabeth Warren attacks Trump's Asia 'chaos' and ridicules his 'happy-faced' views toward China

Google staff organized to fight cyber bullying -- at Google ...

MIT researchers are tackling a major challenge for self-driving cars -- fog

Media apparently using Hamas-supplied casualty figures for Gaza rioting

Big Pharma's billion dollar scramble to invest in start-ups to fuel innovation

Mischief Maker

President Obama is taking a page out of the Clinton playbook. He is on an around the world tour ...  in particular, China, India and France where he is going to meet with the leaders of these countries and also give paid speeches. I strongly suspect he will also be soliciting contributions to the Obama Foundation like the Clinton crime family had taught him. I have been unable to find out what his speech fees are, but I am certain he is not cheap ... see: Chicago Trib Article. (It has been predicted that he and Michelle could pull in a billion dollars once out of office.)

However, the thing that most disturbs me is what will go down in Barack's meetings with these world leaders.  Being a bit of a Obamaphobe, could it be that he is going to suggest that he is still running an American shadow government that will step in to run things once Trump is impeached? (Clue: watch to see if Valarie Jarrett accompanies him on this trip.) Will such Obama duplicity diminish Trump's foreign policy effectiveness? Will these foreign leaders pull back and await such a palace coup?

I will be watching for any change in the relationships between these countries and the U.S. once Obama comes home.I suggest you keep an ear to the ground too.

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico.

Jimmy Carter collapses at Habitat build ...

Senate Republicans one vote away from Obamacare repeal failure

Shortage of foreign labor forces Maine businesses to hire local workers

He's in: Kid Rock running for Senate

Stock market up 17% since Trump election ...

Trump: I may slap quotas and tariffs on steel

Pelosi: Funding sex change preserves national security

Shock: Criminal aliens drawn to sanctuary cities

Hollywood relying on China to halt box office slide ...

Trump: Democrats overplayed their hand on 'the Russia thing'

Liberal media bias got Trump elected, says former federal prosecutor

Study: 73% of Democrats would give up alcohol for Trump impeachment

Throwing the Dice

I hate to be so slavishly supportive of anyone's political opinions, but I need to reference once again The Diplomad and the logic behind his choice to vote for Donald Trump ... see: Why I Will Vote for Trump. Please read his blog post and all the comments that swing back and forth between support and skepticism. His audience is generally quite well informed and eruditely expressive.

Basically, W. Lewis Amselem (The Diplomad) states that he recognizes that Trump is not the perfect candidate and there are reasonable doubts about the degree to which Trump might follow through on his rhetoric. I also understand that voting for Trump amounts to a throwing of the dice ... but no matter what the probabilities are in this gamble, they are still better than the result we would get from Hellery ... particularly since her campaign promises are so onerous.

In many ways I see a similarity between this upcoming election and Ronald Reagan's in 1980. Back then I held my nose and voted for his opponent, Jimmy Carter, using the rationale of "how can a B-grade movie actor make a good president?" I was wrong and plan not to be so naive this time around.

Anyone who has been reading this blog knows that I have had plenty of problems with Trump's performances ... but generally not his policies and priorities. I realize that, if Trump wins in November, he, like Andrew Jackson, will bring a certain coarseness to the White House. And I also would expect that he will not follow the Tea Party line with many of his decisions. (I particularly worry about his Supreme Court choices.) But I think that this is the unfortunate price that must be paid to get our nation back on the tracks and moving forward after 7 1/2 years of spiteful governance.

No matter how poorly Obummer has ministered to our nation since 2009, I am certain that Hellery would put a Clinton Foundation stake through our heart. And the fact that the Europeans are in her corner is enough evidence for me that she would be a disaster.

So, in November I too will cross my fingers, spit three times and pull a lukewarm lever for Trump.

Afterward: Insofar as Trump bringing a certain coarseness to the presidency, it seems that, since two out of our last three presidents were basically low-lifes, the American people have gotten somewhat used to such poor behavior.

Cuba No, Yankee Si

President Obummer travels to Cuba Sunday to prostrate himself in front of this decrepit monument to Communism. He, of course, has taken this opportunity in his last months in office to try to burnish his tarnished legacy by emulating Nixon's opening to China. This bit of capitulation would make some sense if there was any indication that the Castro brothers were inclined to relax their iron grip on this island nation. Unfortunately this seems not the case. Even Obummer's meeting with dissidents while there seems to be a staged production with very little chance that he will encounter the genuine articles ... see: L. A. Times Story.

In his last debate appearance in Miami, Marco Rubio excoriated Obummer for this Cuban trip saying:

Nothing will change for the Cuban people … In fact things are worse, than they were before this opening. The only result of “the opening” was that the Cuban government had more sources of money.

See: The Guardian Story for more details.

Lastly, do not be surprised if Obummer, while groveling in Havana, does not cave in on our relinquishing of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay naval base ... much like the then-President Jimmy Carter caved on returning the U.S. Canal Zone to Panama. This of course would force Congress to allow his clearing this prison of Islamist combatants ... which would be another sour taste of Obummer's egotistical rule.

Afterward: See: USA Today Story.

Predictions

Every year a group of our friends get together to celebrate New Year's Eve. One tradition is for us to make predictions for the ensuing year and then, come the next New Year's Eve, prizes are given for the most prescience. Here are a few of this year’s more interesting predictions:

                                                                                                                    

• New vaccine to slow the onset of Alzheimer’s disease

• Prince and Elton John appear together on tour      

• Amazon takes over US Postal Service

• Drop in oil price puts kibosh on XL Pipeline

• President Obama’s approval rating reaches 58% 

• Republicans will lose two more House members due to misbehavior

• Superbowl will be lowest scoring game in history

• Google will buy Netflix      

• Greece will be asked to leave the European Union

• Joe Biden is not VP at the end of 2015

• Cosmic pulse disrupts communications for days

• Deval Patrick appointed judge of a high court or ambassador

• Hillary urged to drop out in favor of Elizabeth Warren

• Lost Malaysian jet debris discovered in unexpected location

• Joyce Carol Oates will win Noble Prize in literature

• Putin removed from office as Russian economy tanks

 • RIP – George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter

• George Clooney and wife separate

• Miley Cyrus marries Patrick Schwarzenegger

• Patriots win Super Bowl

• Iran acquires atomic weaponry

• Stock Market will correct by at least 10%

• Eddie Redmayne wins Best Actor for “Theory of Everything”

• “Selma” wins Best Picture

• Major LA earthquake … extensive damage
• Latin America pushes Middle East off of 24/7 news casting    

• Brazil will launch a satellite

• Sony Pictures will sell off its library of movies
• Apple stock soars 50%

• Keith Richards dies

• Aaron Hernandez found not guilty

• Marathon bomber – guilty but no death penalty

• “Boyhood” wins Best Picture

• Russia will default on its debts … again

Tune in this time next year for the results …

Women’s Suffrage

At a July 4^th party last night I made the comment, half in jest, that I thought giving women the vote was a mistake … to the startled gasps of most in the room. I say half in jest because, even though I know this is a losing cause, there are arguments that might still be made on both sides of this “settled law.”  Nothing has 100% positive results and I believe that the 19^th amendment is recently exhibiting its downside … in particular a relatively recent and persistent gender gap ... see: New York Times Article.

Yes, I know that many of you now have steam coming from your ears … and are vowing never to read another thing I write … including the rest of this blog.  But bear with me, please.

Clearly there were many excellent presidents who were elected because of the female vote; FDR, and JFK come to mind. But then again, I believe that females were also instrumental in electing Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama (twice) … and, to my mind, as a result of knee-jerk feminism. One can also make the argument that Bill Clinton’s bad-boy image helped many females pull the voting lever for him two times too. Whether he was a good or bad president is still open for debate … but he clearly was better than the other two I have mentioned. And let us not forget that an all-male voting population did elect quite a number of presidential lemons before 1920 … Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce … to name just a few.

I know making generalizations is dangerous, but I believe that many … but clearly not all … women vote with their hearts and not with their heads. And I believe that politicians try to take advantage of this propensity when they callously put forward issues like “the war on women.” Perhaps I can be (wrongly) accused of being a misogynist, but no sane Republican politician cares to be tarred with that brush. If a female were to vote for a Democrat purely because she believes that she will have her birth control pills paid for by the government, then she is a silly and willing victim of this demagogy.

And I also know that, if Hillary Clinton runs for president in 2016, millions of voters, including a number of males, will vote for her just because she is a woman. And, if she doesn’t run, which name comes up next most often? … the female Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, that woman with Amerind cheekbones … a double whammy for the emotional voter. Does this not prove that savvy political operatives feel that gender is now a bigger vote getter than experience and qualifications? (Just as race was, I firmly believe, a big political plus to the voters in 2008 and 2012 … and we see what a mare’s nest that this voter naiveté has caused.)

Does this mean that I would never vote for a woman? Of course not. I can name many woman politicians whom I have admired … Maggie Thatcher, Barbara Jordan, Golda Meir, Condoleezza Rice … probably just as many as I can name outstanding male solons.  But this does beg the question: Have we now a population of callow voters who do not know … nor care to know the issues confronting this country … and will let their emotions govern how they vote? And I do believe that a statistically significant higher percentage of this voting bloc is likely comprised of women? This is my point regarding women's suffrage.

Perhaps, a 28^th amendment?  Just kidding …

The American Voter

Yesterday, the United States' Attorney General, Eric Holder, addressed the NAACP convention and made his pitch to negate the "stand your ground" laws in many states.  He based this appeal upon the outcome of the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman trial where, as it turns out, this law was never claimed as a defense by Zimmerman's lawyers.  Never you mind.  Even though Holder obviously knew this, he was clearly confident that his audience and the American public didn't.  So he assumed the majority of American voters would not notice such demagoguery and, except for Fox News and some radio talk shows, they didn't.  All around the country, sleazy politicians, over-paid athletes, nebbish news makers, ego-maniacal movie stars and others wishing to get into or stay in the spotlight are using George Zimmerman's acquittal as a way of burnishing their images with America's dumbed-down populus.

The one notable exception, believe it or not, was former President, Jimmy Carter, who thought the verdict was justified ... based upon the charges and the facts ... see: Politico Story.  It seems about ever ten years or so Jimmy gets it right ... but not so the case with Hillary Clinton's $200,000 30-minute sisterhood speech ... see: Another Politico Story.

To me, our majority-moronic electorate is a very frightening demographic.  If such nose-picking behavior has become the norm in our society, how will we ever retain our military, economic, and moral hegemony in the world?  I sadly suppose we won't ... unless things change.  Perhaps, instead of encouraging absolutely everyone to vote (sometimes more than once), it might be a good idea to limit future voter eligibility by using some reasonable metric of perspicacity?  Perhaps, what was Hillary Clinton's former job?  Or where is Benghazi?  Or, within a few trillion dollars, how big is our national debt?  (But not, who is Justin Bieber?!)

2013 Predictions

- At least one country will leave the European Economic Comm.

- Oil and gas fracking will be outlawed by the E.P.A

- Jimmy Carter will attend Hugo Chavez’s funeral … or visa versa

- Massive student-loan meltdown ...  U.S. taxpayers foot the bill

- China will annex more territory … possibly part of Mongolia

- U.S. economy will fall into another recession

 - Iran and Egypt form a pan-Islamic alliance

- Hillary Clinton will not remember Benghazi in front of Congress

- Iran gets atom bomb … U.S. and Israel do nothing militarily

- It’s Denver vs. San Francisco in Super Bowl ... Denver wins

- Inflation finally bites … up 5%+

- At least one state will go bankrupt ... U.S. taxpayers foot the bill

Do No Harm

I have been of the opinion that Condoleezza Rice was a fairly ineffectual Secretary of State ... certainly when compared to the likes of Jim Baker under George Bush, 41  Although I admire this woman greatly ... for no other reason than her profound revelation that "slavery was America's birth defect" ... I thought her tenure under George Bush, 43 was marked by little real progress in international affairs.  That is, until I see what a real bull-in-a-china-shop Secretary of State like Hillary Clinton can do.  She has clearly set back the United States's position in the world ... something on the magnitude of what our National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, did under President Carter.  Admittedly, Hillary has not done this on her own.  She has had a willing co-conspirator in her boss, The Barry.  But nevertheless, Ms. Clinton has made such a dog's breakfast of our foreign policy that I have been forced to rethink my evaluation of Ms. Rice in this role.

I have concluded that Secretaries of State should behave a lot like doctors and, at the very least, "do no harm."  And I believe that Condoleezza Rice left her post at Foggy Bottom without degrading our position in the world one iota ... no mean feat.  So, my belated hazzahs to Condi.

Nostradamus and Me

That famous seer, Nostradamus, has a set of dire predictions for 2012 ... see his Grim News.  Although I do not partake of hallucinogenics nor gaze into a bowl of shimmering mercury (or was it water?), I, along with my friends and family, also make annual predictions as part of our New Year's Eve festivities.  Mine are not quite so dour.  For what its worth, here they are::

• China’s economy will weaken significantly … resulting in much civil unrest
• At least one country will leave the EuroZone
• A third party candidate will run for President … almost assuring Obama’s re-election
• Massive student-loan meltdown. U.S. taxpayers foot the bill.
• China will annex more territory … possibly part of Mongolia
• Jimmy Carter will attend Hugo Chavez’s funeral
• Another Solyndra-like green-energy scandal in the Obama Energy Dept.
• The Iran “navy” will be destroyed trying to stop shipping through the Strait of Hormuz
• Hillary Clinton will replace Joe Biden on the Obama ticket
• Israel will attack Iran … destroying many nuclear facilities
• It’s Green Bay vs. Patriots in Super Bowl. Green Bay wins.
• Inflation finally bites … up 5%
• The Occupiers will re-emerge with the warm weather … resulting in meaningless bloodshed
• At least one state will go bankrupt. U.S. taxpayers foot the bill.

Solar Flare

Once again we learn the painful lesson that the federal government is seldom a savvy investor.  It seems that The Barry has thrown $535 million of taxpayer money down a rat hole to show how sensitive he is to growing "green jobs" (see: Solyndra Shuts Down). 

As it turns out, these 1,100 jobs at Solyndra Corp. in Fremont, CA lasted only a little over one year and now the only green left there is the envy that these erstwhile environmentalists feel for their neighbors who are still gainfully employed.  To be perfectly fair, one has to mention that $600 million of private venture capital had also been frittered away on this cadre of tree-huggers (see: The Green Wombat).  And this also parallels an even more foolish investment of something like $20 billion of federal funds in 1979 by Jimmy Carter on the pie-in-the-sky Synthetic Fuels Corp. (see: Synfuel Sin).

Now, Thursday next in his "jobs, jobs, jobs" pep rally, when The Barry calls for our government to "invest" in more green jobs, please also invest a healthy amount of scepticism on your own at his pom-pom waving.