Jumping the Gun

"Data drives out speculation."

President Trump's Commission on Election Integrity has just begun its work ... collecting the necessary facts so that data analysis can determine if there is voter fraud in this country and, if so, how widespread it is. Part of this process is to collect voter data from our 50 states including voter registration info and voting history ... all generally public records which are used by both political parties in their campaigns.

Hold on ... some 29 states (mostly historically Democrat) have demurred in various forms using a litany of excuses ... see: NY Times Listing. The common unofficial reason for this possible non-compliance is that liberal bugaboo, "voter suppression."And John Hinderaker of the Powerline Blog has dissected a specific instance of this refusal ... see: Minnesota's Objections.

Now, are not these demurring states getting a little ahead of themselves? Jumping the gun if you will? One cannot possibly be accused of something unless and until the results are in ... and the remedies, after much litigation, are implemented ... if such are required. The fact that so-called "voter suppression" remedies are presumed means to this voter that these demurring states must already know that this Commission's requested data may have some embarrassing revelations once put through the big-data grinder.

Reading Between the Lines

In preparation for today's melodrama in Congress, former FBI Director Comey's testimony about his interactions with President Trump, may I recommend that you read a very good, careful lawyer, John Hinderaker's parsing of Comey's prepared remarks ... see: Powerline Blog Analysis. Take a few minutes to understand what Comey may possibly be up to.

For myself, I find it revealing that Comey was so meticulous in his approach to Donald Trump ... yet so sloppy in his handling of the Hillary Clinton affair last year ... see: Comey, I Shrunk the Fibs ... and, in general, how blatantly political the FBI had been under his tutelage.

Ah Ha Moment

John Hinderaker has done it again in his Powerline blog post on Pepsi's latest contraversial commercial. He has explained why I can no longer sit through the pap movies coming out of Hollywood ... see: Why Movies No Longer Move Me. Here is Hinderaker's observation that had escaped me:

Let’s start with Hollywood: why are most of its films so mind-numbingly stupid? Why do most have no dialogue above a grade-school level? Why are they mainly about explosions, superheroes, car chases and so on? And why are American movies no longer patriotic? A big part of the answer is that the Hollywood studios don’t care much about Americans anymore. Their biggest market is China, and foreign sales overall dwarf U.S. sales. American movies are made mostly for Chinese and Indian film-goers. If you think about it, that explains a lot.

If you want to see the context of this ah ha moment, see: Powerline Blog.

Double Standard

It is not yet clear what exactly was discussed with the Russians in the intercepted conversation(s) of General Flynn (and possibly others) before Trump's inauguration. But we do know what Barack Obama communicated to the Iranian mullahs before he was installed as president in 2009. And it clearly was subverting President Bush's nuclear negotiations with this country ... see: Powerline Blog. Ever-alert John Hinderaker has dig into his archives and found this parallel ... which, of course, was scrupulously ignored by the media back then ... except, in a random act of journalism,  by the New York Times. I doubt if it will repeat this mistake today.

Here are the most damning passages in Hinderaker's reverie:

... let’s not forget an infinitely bigger scandal: in 2008, while he was running for the presidency, Barack Obama deliberately undermined American foreign policy by secretly encouraging Iran’s mullahs to hold out until he became president, because he would be easier to deal with than President George Bush.

And:

The Iranians held firm to their position, perhaps because they knew that help was on the way, in the form of a new president. Barack Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3. At some point either before or after that date, but prior to the election, he secretly let the Iranians know that he would be much easier to bargain with than President Bush. 

And:

So Obama secretly told the mullahs not to make a deal until he assumed the presidency, when they would be able to make a better agreement. Which is exactly what happened: Obama abandoned the requirement that Iran stop enriching uranium, so that Iran’s nuclear program has sped ahead over the months and years that negotiations have dragged on. When an interim agreement in the form of a “Joint Plan of Action” was announced in late 2013, Iran’s leaders exulted in the fact that the West had acknowledged its right to continue its uranium enrichment program ...

 And it is now speculated by some in the media that General Flynn was submarined by Obama holdovers, ironically, because of his hard line against Obama's resulting Iranian nuclear deal ... and he might have been trying to get the Russians to back away from its support of this travesty. Of course we won't really know the true nature of his intercepted conversation(s) unless they are released in unredacted form ... which is quite unlikely.

The Ninth Circus

I.m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.  But last night's Ninth Circuit (in San Francisco) court's decision in President Trump's temporary immigration ban is certainly curious. If you have a legal mind, I point you to John Hinderaker, Esq. of the Powerline blog who has dissected this opinion and also finds it lacking ... see: Powerline Blog. Here are Hinderacker's  key legal analyses:

The three judges found that there was a likelihood that someone’s due process rights could be violated by the order. The people in question are not citizens of the seven countries who have never been to the United States, and now want to travel or immigrate here. Those people have no rights under our Constitution, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly held. Rather, the 9th Circuit panel seized on the idea that a few people covered by the order–those who have come here legally already, and now want to return–have constitutional due process rights.

 And:

The 9th Circuit panel adopted the anti-Trump view of this situation, and took the position that if there is a single person with due process rights who is affected by the order, the entire order can be blocked ... So, the 9th Circuit reasons, Trump’s order might be valid as to 99% of those affected, but if there are 1% who have due process rights, the entire order must be voided. This strikes me as a radical approach.

So, it appears that our Constitution really is, according to these three ... a lion tamer, a clown and a trapeze artist ... a suicide pact.

Cooking the Books

I have in the past revealed how the U.S.'s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) has been caught cooking the books on the data it keeps on U.S. temperature records ... "adjusting" early year's temperatures down to make current ones appear warmer ... to justify global warming claims ... see:  Bold-Faced. Now, John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog has uncovered the degree to which NOAA had adjusted things and it is quite startling ... see: Powerline Blog. The two charts below are what John has discovered ... the first being the actual data ... and the second, the cooked data:

Actual Data

"Cooked" Data

These comparisons are visually quite revealing, but, for the details of this chicanery, read John's blog entry. And these NOAA people call themselves "scientists!"

Bottom line (literally): When government takes it upon itself to deceive its populous, its populous should throw these scoundrels out.

Spot On

As they frequently do, John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog and his favorite cartoonist, Michael Ramirez, have nailed it once again ... calling out Obummer for his flighty attack on law enforcement ... see: Tear Down This Wall.

(Should I have used the word "insidious" instead of "flighty?")

A Clowder of Cats

When our current president took his oath of office, he swore to faithfully execute the laws of the United States. One of my heroes, Senator Jeff Sessions, is currently holding hearings that clearly expose Obummer's failure to fulfill this sworn oath. This failure has been done in the way our president has refused to deport illegal aliens, particularly those who are otherwise criminals... choosing rather to release them back into the general U.S. population ... endangering those of us without Secret Service protection. Another of my favorites, John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog, has highlighted Jeff Session's hearings about this dereliction of duty in This Powerline Blog Posting.

Such callous and blatant contempt for his duties as our country's chief executive surely is a high crime and, although Hinderaker won't say it,  is therefore grounds for impeachment. But, our clowder in Congress is reticent to undertake such a drastic measure against our first black president ... I suppose feeling that this might be taken as institutional racism. In other words, doing what would otherwise be the right thing in the face of a possible devastating media onslaught has effectively tied their hands. Of course, most Democrats in Congress would also vociferously resist such a move purely on political grounds. Self-serving politics too often trumps morality and good judgment.

What therefore to do? Perhaps we might elect as our next POTUS someone who is not a pussy cat about such things ... and who would not only fix this dangerous  transgression, but then also cause Congress to condemn Obummer in retrospect ... and add Slick Willie to that list. At least we could then get the history lesson right.

Afterward: It's not just releasing illegal immigrant criminals. The Obummer administration is planning to spring 70,000 more felons without Congress's prison sentencing reform legislation being enacted  ... see: Breitbart Article. Do we see an out-of-bounds pattern here?

After Afterward: See also: Daily Caller Revelation.

Hell Year -- Month 4

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has generally seemed to be fairly rational at the Justice Department (other than her slow-walking the Hellery Clinton private e-mail server prosecution.) However, she has now gone full-throated political in her attack on North Carolina's gender-specific bathroom law. John Hinderaker, an excellent lawyer, has dissected this Lynch decision at the Powerline Blog and finds it to be without any semblance of legal logic.

I have in the past surmised that President Obummer would slake a vengeance in his last year on the country he has misgoverned for a seeming eternity ... see: Hell Year. This Justice Department attack on North Carolina, threatening to freeze federal funding to it unless it toes the administration's transgender line, is but another of these vengances. We are now into month four of Obummer's hazing of his countrymen before he retires to Chicago or Hawaii next January to write his Manifesto. And I am not the only one who feels that Obummer will salt the fields and poison the wells of his "native" land on his way out ... see: Michael Savage Comments..

And there are a few more of these paddlings that are currently  in the Obummer pipeline ... see: The Hill Story and Fox News Story.. And I am certain that there are more to come ... each getting more onerous as his sun is finally setting.

Afterward: Take your blood pressure meds and also read: Ben Rhodes Spills the Beans.

Unaffordable Care Act

Obamacare has been characterized in this blog as the Affordable Careless Act for how poorly it is being administered. Now evidence is surfacing from a Harvard School of Public Health and National Public Radio survey that shows that this attempted revamping of our health-care system is, for many too many people, UNAFFORDABLE ... see: Powerline Blog. The above chart (click to enlarge) drawn from this survey done by these two previously-supportive players of Obamacare and detailed in the above Powerline Blog entry by John Hinderaker tells it all.

If only 4% more of respondents believe that their benefits have increased than decreased (probably the pre-existing conditions exemption and the extension of coverage to older children) ... yet 31% more respondents believe that their co-pays and deductions have gone up ... and 41% more believe that their premiums have gone up ... then one can easily conclude that the word "affordable" in this law was, at best, a horrible sham. Thank you Harry Reid and Nancy Pilosi!

So now, I guess, Obamacare should be called the Unaffordable Careless Act ... and, if Trump or Cruz is elected as our next president, it will become an Unact (not so sure about Trump). Thus, another of Obummer's legacy items, a marble pillar of his presidency, would come crashing down ... hopefully to be replaced by some democratically-enacted health-care sanity.

A Different Yardstick

Read how poorly the Washington Post and John Hinderaker view Obummer's opening of relations with Cuba has progressed ... see: Powerline Blog Post. But then again, Obummer measures success with a different yardstick. If someday Cuba does reform ... say after the Castro brothers assume room temperature ... Obummer's worshippers will credit his grace.

Idaho Alaska

That is the answer ... what is the question? If Miss Issippi lent Miss Ouri her New Jersey, what would Dela Ware? Why is this pertinent? Because President Obama is using a trip to Alaska today to once more pitch his global warming hokum to the uninformed ... see: AP News Story ... and Della would then not need her New Jersey. I suspect that The Barry's advance team is now searching the coast off of this state for some poor polar bear stuck on a melting ice floe ... in order to get a money shot to put on the front pages of American newspapers. After all ... isn't the kind of pictorial misinformation that the majority of global-warming alarmists use to justify their hysteria?

But now for the rest of the story ... if you are even a bit interested. It seems that three German scientists have determined that the small global warming blip at the end of the last century was within normal limits, but, more importantly, that the world is now entering a sixty-year cooling period. If you, dear reader, are willing to listen to these scientists (who must not be part of the 97% of those scientists who claim we are doomed), then read John Hinderaker's posting on the Powerline blog ... see: Nothing Unusual.

If an extended cooling period is indeed what is in store for the world, then President Obama's arm-waving CO2 killing initiatives are likely to make matters worse. Wouldn't that be a unique legacy for our current monarch? (Of course, the Kool-Aid drinkers will claim that we got cooler because of Obama's economy-crippling efforts ...)

And for a bit of sweet, sweet irony, President Obama is likely to be met with some rare summer snow in Alaska today ... now wouldn't that be special ... see: Dr. Roy Spencer Item.

Feet of Clay

John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog points out that in a recent CNN interview, Donald Trump's thoughts on immigration have gone through a bit of a metamorphosis and that he is now sounding very much like the Democrat that he has been most of his life ... see: Trump Goes Soft on Immigration. Has the stalwart Trump suddenly gotten feet of clay? In particular please, dear reader, explain how Trump's following stream-of-conscious quotes from this interview sound any different from what Senator Chuck Schumer or Jeb Bush might spout:

Then we have a law, right? You’re supposed to come in legally. I would get people out, and I would have an expedited way of getting them back into the country so they can be legal ... We have to bring great people into this country, okay? And I want to bring — I love the idea of immigration, but it’s got to be legal immigration. Now, a lot of these people are helping us, whether it’s the grapes, or whether it’s jobs, and sometimes it’s jobs, in all fairness, I love our country, but sometimes it’s jobs that a citizen of the United States doesn’t want to do. I mean, there are jobs that a lot of people don’t want to do ... We’re going to something. I’ve been giving it so much thought, you know you have a — on a humanitarian basis, you have a lot of deep thought going into this, believe me. I actually have a big heart. … I mean, a lot of people don’t understand that, but the DREAMers, it’s a tough situation, we’re going to do something, and one of the things we’re going to do is expedite — when somebody’s terrific, we want them back here, but they have to be legally –.

Is Trump getting squishy and back-peddling on his previous diatribe against illegal Mexican criminal immigrants? Perhaps as with most controversies, The Donald likes to stake claims on both sides of the issue. And he says he is not a politician ...

Bill the Cat

Comments on the recent multilateral agreement with Iran on curtailing its nuclear program ...

Translation: snivelling appeasement ... see: John Hinderaker's Assessment and the Diplomad's Take (two men who have actually read it and who are also qualified to comment)

Fact Checker

The Washington Post disputes Donald Trump's assertion that illegal immigrants have a higher crime rate than native-born Americans ... awarding him four Pinocchios after a obfuscating and wandering set of often-biased statistics and tables ... see: Wsshington Post Story. (For instance switching back and forth between legal and illegal immigrant categories.) If you can follow the logic of this rambling put-downs, then you probably also appreciate Hillary Clinton's way of (not) answering questions.

However, there is a much more lucid analysis of the real numbers which I have previously referenced in another blog (Trump d'Oeil) ... wherein I presented a short analysis of same by John Hinderaker in the Powerline blog ... see: Donald Trump Was Right. Somehow the Washington Post never found its way to these very revealing statistics from the U.S. Sentencing Commission that Hinderaker quotes. I can't help but wonder why?

Also I suggest that other Republican candidates, the Republican establishment, and media pundits also try to digest these numbers before they lash out at The Donald. (However there may be one flaw in Hinderaker's analysis ... and that is that he assumes that there are 11 million illegal immigrants in this country. If this number is 20 or 30 million, then the proportion of illegal immigrants who are criminals is a little more understandable ... but still unnerving.)

The real question is ... who fact checks the fact checker?

Trump d'Oeil

Donald Trump has made some interesting generalizations in his recent rant against illegal Mexican immigrants ... saying that Mexico sends to the United States the dregs of their society ... rapists, murderers, drug dealers, gang members and other felons. Even as admitted by Trump, clearly not all those Mexicans and other Latinos are bad people . But, it is now estimated that about 347,000 illegal-immigrant felons are loose in our country ... see: Breitbart Story. This is about 3% of the estimated 11 million such illegal immigrants now in the United States. Assuming that this number does not count all those illegal immigrant felons who are in jail, on parole, or have already been deported, one could easily double or triple this estimate ... bringing a reasonable estimate to close to 10% or so ... or about one in ten illegal immigrants matching Trump's pejorative slight.

So The Donald has probably engaged in a bit of hyperbole during his campaign announcement ... and may deserve a little push back .... but he should not be so castigated by as many Republicans and media pundits as are now doing. He has pointed out a very serious problem.

But, these numbers still do not include all the myriad catch-and-release numbers of illegal immigrant miscreants who pass through our judicial system untouched because local authorities have been instructed on the futility of pursuing such cases ... because of false identities and the cost of their police showing up in court when these criminals seldom do. John Hinderaker of the Powerline also does a deeper top-down analysis and surprisingly concludes that illegal immigrants commit serious crimes by as much as ten times the rate of U.S. citizens ... see: Powerline Blog. Perhaps, now some ambitious, but naive and vocal Republican candidates need to hold their tongues a little more.

Afterward: Actually Hinderaker's and my analyses might be flawed for the following reason: What if there are substantially more than 11 million illegal immigrants in this country ... say by a factor of 2 or 3?

The Heavy Hand of Government

If you can't trust the government, then whom can you trust? Well, apparently NOAA's reputation as an impartial observer of global warming has once again taking a hit as it has been revealed that, over the last two years, it has been revising down older recorded temperature data from Maine in order to make it look like things have been warming up there ... and in the rest of the country ... when in fact they haven't. John Hinderaker of Powerline has just pointed this out in his recent blog posting ... see: Powerline Blog Entry for all the sordid details.

This fast and loose revisionism is about as smarmy as a supposed "scientific" government agency can possibly become. I realize that such malfeasance might get them in good with the current Democrat administration ... but, longer term, this can't be good. I suggest that this agency now is vying with the IRS, the State Department, HHS, the Secret Service, the EPA, the White House, the VA, the CDC, NSA, and the TSA for this year's Heavy Hand of Government medal ... an award which I just coined.

Perhaps we could have an annual ceremony for the winner ... with all the hoopla of Oscar Night? With Al Gore or Michael Moore as its Master of Ceremonies?

Smiling Cobra

John Hinderaker, my favorite at the Powerline blog, loves our president almost as much as I do  He states that by the time he leaves office we will have $20 trillion in national debt ... see: Powerline blog ... but then he goes on:

Americans everywhere are counting down to the end of the Obama presidency. The damage he has wreaked is beyond calculation. He has hobbled our economy, trashed the Constitution, eroded trust in government, politicized one federal agency after another, poisoned relations among the races, stifled opportunity for poorer Americans, weakened our armed forces, conducted a perverse foreign policy, made the U.S. a laughingstock abroad…the list goes on and on. And we have almost two years yet to go!

But John ... you forgot ... he has a sharp crease in his pants.

Unvarnished Truth

Like in much of Western Europe, there is a growing cultural clash occurring in the United States as a result of our shift towards favoring Islamic immigrants over other cultures. In particular, honor killings, clitoridectomies, Shariah law, terrorist incitements, and face veils (niqabs) are but a few of the Islamic practices that cut across the grain of our American culture. 

John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog has faced this issue head on and bravely suggests that the United States re-evaluate its current immigration policies with the unvarnished thought that “the most prudent course would be to end immigration from predominantly Muslim countries, with exceptions for adherents of other faiths –Christians, Hindus, and so on – who are fleeing persecution.” For his full discussion and rationales see: Cultural Differences, Assimilation and Immigration Policy.

This suggestion surprised me a bit for I have not seen it elsewhere so boldly expressed. However, I too feel that, for the indefinite future, this immigration policy change makes supreme sense.

Reagan vs. Obama

John Hinderaker has an interesting post at the Powerline blog. Basically it uses three charts from the Senate Budget Committee to track the strength of the 5 plus-year recoveries after the 1981 recession (under Reagan) and the 2007 recession (under Obama) … see: Powerline Blog (it’s short and sweet). For those of us who care, the difference is dramatic,

Why Dirty Harry Reid would allow a committee under his soiled thumb to publish this raw and revealing truth is surprising.  Perhaps he really is getting senile?