Headlines

Japan Prime Minister Shinto Abe says he’s resigning due to health reasons

S&P 500’s stunning summer rally points to best August since 1986

U.S consumer spending increased more than expected in July

Michelle Obama: White people have treated me like I don’t exist

Biden snags ‘Keep America Great’ domain in latest act of Trump trolling

Fed’s Harker says he would be OK with inflation creeping past 2.5%

Far-left lunatics attack Rand Paul and others leaving Trump speech

Kenosha, Wisconsin: Teenager Kyle Rittenhouse charged with murder

Pelosi says Dems will release Trump’s tax returns if they win White House

Hurricane Laura leaves damage in Louisiana and weakens into tropical depression

Russian nuclear submarine surfaces near Alaska, alarming American fishing vessels

FNC’s Wallace: Trump’s speech ‘surprisingly flat, far too long’


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Quotable Quote

“Americans are thinking, there are some good members of Congress but we can’t figure out what they are good for. Others are thinking, how did these morons make it through the birth canal.” — John N. Kennedy, Louisiana Senator

Quotable Quote

President Trump is a hard dog to keep on the porch. He's not a porch dog; he's a running dog. He likes to do things his way. — John N. Kennedy, Senator Louisiana

Quotable Quote

'If you trust government, you obviously failed history class.' — John N. Kennedy, Louisiana Senator

Headlines

Biden to Trump: ‘Stop thinking out loud’

Coronavirus live updates: Global deaths top 30,000, RI orders 14-day quarantine for out-of-state travelers

U..S. death toll doubles in two days ... Fauci projects 100,000 - 200,000 ...

It begins: L.A. moves homeless to rec centers as data shows indoor transmission 19x more likely

De Blasio downplays CDC travel advisory

Michigan and Louisiana are becoming virus hot spots, — their governors are warning supplies are running out

Florida state border checkpoints begin ...

Spain: Record 838 dead in single day

Mnuchin task force unanimously shunned Trump’s quarantine idea

Trump backs off quarantine of New York region as CDC advises against nonessential travel

Flashback: Why second wave of 1918 Spanish flu was so deadly ...

French expert: Second study shows malaria drug helps fight coronavirus

Headlines

Trump mulls NY, NJ, CT ‘quarantine’ ... Duomo slams ...

New York postpones Democrat primary amid coronavirus outbreak, the 11th state to do so

DeSantis expands quarantine to Louisiana travelers

Former Republican Senators, Tom Coburn, the ‘Dr. No’ of Congress, dies at 72

Rhode Island police hunt down New Yorkers seeking refuge ...

Coronavirus live updates: NY gov balks at federal quarantine talk, CDC warns on chloroquine

Trump authorizes DOD to order National Guard troops to active duty

Biden campaign denies sexual assault allegation

USA tops 100,000 cases ...

Trump push’s back against congressional oversight for $500 billion bailout fund

Spain logs 832 fatalities in 24 hours, IMF confirms world in recession ...

Dreamers to Supreme Court: Ending DACA amid coronavirus pandemic would be ‘catastrophic’

Headlines

Louisiana delivers Trump a black eye

China and U.S. has ‘constructive’ discussion’ about phase-one trade deal, state media says

26 Muslim candidates won elections across USA this year ...

Turner: Trump tweet ‘unfortunate’ not criminal

Steve Scalise: Trump's military pardons  boost troop morale

Saudi Aramco’s IPO is set to value the oil giant at up to $1.9 trillion

President makes ‘unprecedented’ Walter Reed visit for medical exam ...

Shifty Schiff busted omitting pro-Trump evidence from Morrison transcript summary

Bloomberg says he was ‘wrong’ on ‘stop-and-frisk’

Democrats hold on to Louisiana governor’s seat despite Trump

USA, SKorea shelve military exercise in bid to break nuke deadlock with North ...

Pelosi: Trump ‘so much worse than Nixon’ ...

Headlines

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

Theresa May heads to Canada to seek trade deal

Hurricane Maria barrels toward battered Caribbean islands, Jose to lash the East Coast

White man arrested in Louisiana killing of black man ...

... Mexican guv denies cartel violence -- despite 32 executions in days

McMaster rejects report that U.S. will remain in Paris deal as 'false'

Merkel!s election victory looks assured -- but the real test comes after

U.S. may close Cuban embassy after 'attacks' on diplomats ...

Trump shares meme of him hitting Hillary with golf ball

Another prosecutor joins Trump-Russia probe

Japanese Prime Minister: 'Dialog with North Korea' is 'a dead end'

Macron wants to remind world France nuclear power too ...

Feinstein: Russian probe could rake another 'year-and-half'

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.

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

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.

Honkie Crackers

No, Honkie Crackers are not what you put cheese or peanut butter on ... for those of you internationals who don't know the American vernacular ... they are two African-American pejorative terms for white people. Yes, believe it or not, there is reverse racism in the United States which sometimes spins out of control ... like now.

Yesterday's Baton Rouge, Louisiana's three police murders were carried out by Gavin Eugene Long, a black Nation of Islam member ... see: The Daily Caller Article. For the longest time I have wondered why this Louis Farrakhan's organization has not been a major terrorist problem in the United States. Clearly they practice a form of Islam and often rail against the American white establishment (honkies or crackers) and its culture.

Yes, the Nation of Islam religion is what caused Cassius Clay to morph into Mohamed Ali ... along with other prominent black America sports and rap stars. I'm not sure I can say how this sect differs from classical Islam ... I suspect it parallels how Reform Jews differ from Orthodox Jews. Nevertheless, it's leader, Louis  Farrakhan is not known for warm and fuzzy rhetoric towards white America. Nor has he yet separated his organization from these Gavin Long murders.

Yet, Long's rampage in Baton Rouge is surprisingly the first example of violent class warfare that I can recall coming out of this Nation of Islam. I, as a honkie cracker, do hope that it is the last.

Afterward: Did a little research and it seems that the Nation of Islam is being heavily influenced by the Scientology kooks ...

All Lives Matter

Former governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, was interviewed by Shepard Smith on Fox News this afternoon about his reaction to the killing of three policemen in Baton Rouge this morning. In the course of his facile remarks, Governor Jindal said, "all lives matter," at which point Shepard Smith blanched and  took him to task because this phase had been denounced as racists ... by racists.

What in heaven's name is wrong with saying, "all lives matter?" Has its form been copywritten by the Black Panthers? As Jindal expanded on this phrase saying, "black lives matter ... brown lives matter ... white lives matter ... red lives matter ... all lives matter," Smith was still playing his PC violin. He then went on and on taking Jindal to task to the point I was shouting at the television (I'm over 70 and am allowed). It got so bad I had to turn the TV off in order to shut Shepard Smith up. Are we so conditioned by our liberal media (even on Fox) that we can't say something innocently appropriate like "all lives matter?"

What a perfect sphincter that pompous Smith is!

Contrast

Tonight Democrat Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, in his State of the State Message, is going to push for his proposed change in his state’s income tax rate from 5.25% to 5.66% … almost an 8% increase.  Allegedly he wants to use the extra annual one billion dollars of revenue that this rate increase would generate for important transportation and educational projects (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).  For more on this see: Boston Globe Story . 

Also, the stick-it-to-em voters in California (run by Democrat Governor Jerry Brown) recently voted to increase (retroactively) the income tax rate for those making $250,000+  from 9.3% to 10.3% and those earning $1,000,000+ from 10.3% to 13.3%. (I would opine that these are confiscatory rates and, as such, few of the California glitterati end-up actually paying these taxes.).  Also the low-information voters there voted in a sales tax increase from 7.25% to 7.50%.  (Surprisingly, this is a regressive tax ... proving that those assenting voters were really low-information ones.)  See: Fox News Story

Contrast with these two Democrat-pushed tax-rate increases, two Republican governors, Dave Heineman from Nebraska and Bobby Jindel from Louisiana, have both recently proposed that their states eliminate their state’s income taxes altogether … see: Reuters Story. 

And to better emphasize this political-party contrast, I suggest that you visit the following website to see how taxes are imposed on a state by state basis across our nation … Retirement Living Story.   I would love to have the time to superimpose on this data an indication of which of these states are run by Democrats versus by Republicans … but I believe that you can pretty much figure out these checkerboard results for yourselves.  Perhaps you might even be able to rationalize this disparity.

AFTERWARD:  I was wrong ... Patrick actually proposed last night to raise the state income tax to 6.25% (a full percentage point) and reduce the state sales tax from 6.25% to 4.5% ... spoken like a true tax-and-spend Democrat.