Obvious Truth

“If you want to defeat a Democrat, don’t use a Democrat.” — Anon.

It is becoming increasingly clear by his actions since being elected as a Republican Senator from Utah, that the 2012 presidential election would have been a loser for America no matter which way it turned out. It was, in fact, a choice between the devil and the deep blue Rhino, Mitt Romney.

This man was spineless and clueless back then ... and has learned not a wit in the meantime. I voted for him but now I am chagrined.  I should have sat on my hands. (His VP aspirant, Paul Ryan, was also a donkey in an elephant costume.)

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Moore or Less

I smell a rat. The Washington Post has published a story, probably with the winking assent of Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Mitt Romney  and a phalanx of other establishment Republicans, designed to take down Judge Roy Moore, Republican candidate for the Senate to replace Jeff Sessions in an Alabama special election ... read it here: WaPo Expose. And, in the process, Steve Bannon would also be neutered ... not something that would bring tears to many in the swamp. This late-hour expose of alleged "inappropriate sexual touching" is clearly of malicious intent ... as such ephemeral attacks are favorites of the liberal media in the last days of a campaign ... so that there is no time to counteract the damage done.

Now, malicious intent is but one part of building a libel case against a public official, the other being veracity. And it is very difficult to determine veracity with such a short time left until the election ... more evidence of the insidious nature of this expose. Are these charges true, that Roy Moore touched a 14-year old girl on top of her bra and had her touch him on top of his underpants 39 years ago? John McCain thinks that the seriousness of this charge should disqualify Judge Moore outright. (Ironic since McCain was subject to this same kind of smear by the New York Times in the last minutes of his presidential campaign against Barack Obama.)

Nowhere in its expose does the WaPo equivocate or use the term "alleged" in its accusations. No, it implies, "It is indeed a fact because we say so ... even though these things occurred so very long ago." Could this woman and the other three minor minor accusers be lying?  Might their memories be colored by politics or thoughts of notoriety? You bet your grits.

So, if I were an Alabama voter, what would I do? I think that I, also being a past modest sinner, would ignore the Washington Post likely libelous story. In fact, I might even cast my vote for Judge Moore as a protest against this type of last-minute smear. If a rapist can stay on as president, maybe it's time an almost pederast can be a senator.

And I honestly believe that if our libel laws were stricter, say like they are in England, such political late-game gambits by the media might be somewhat rarer.

Afterward: The Massachusetts state legislature is considering reducing the age of consent here to 14. I suspect this political scandal might delay this piece of insanity.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Duerte orders Philippine troops to South China Sea reefs ...

Tillerson: 'It would seem that Assad should no longer lead Syria'

Obama to launch big foundation speaking career

Ron Paul: 'Zero chance' Assad behind chemical attack

Mitt Romney exploring Senate run ...

U.S. woman stabbed to death by migrant who recently arrived in France

Breaking: Truck in Sweden reported ramming crowd, several reported dead

Civil war rages throughout the Trump administration

Trump kept up pageantry as Syrian strikes unfolded

Pentagon plans major missile intercept test ...

Trump's troll army isn't ready for war in Syria

Kremlin says support for Assad 'not unconditional' ...

Anything Goes

The political  right is learning the successful "anything goes" tactics of the political left. For generations liberals have used outrageous actions to push their agenda very effectively. Ever since the anti-war protests during the Vietnam war ... which proved very effective ... the left has been building and refining the way that it captures and keeps the national stage. Act Up, Code Pink, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, etc. ... all these myriad radical organizations have elbowed their way onto the front pages of the American media ... and continually moved their agendas forward by staying top of mind.

The right, being naturally conservative had, for the longest time, eschewed such outrageous behavior ... to its regret. Yes, occasionally Republicans like Newt Gingrich, would make small inroads into this rough and tumble world. But they were quickly belted back by the liberal media ... remember Time magazine's front-cover depiction of Newt as the Grinch who stole Christmas? Basically, outrageous behavior was the privileged territory of liberals ... because it worked so well.

But slowly, painfully slowly, conservatives have been shucking their propriety and getting down in the mud with the liberals. Ann Coulter comes immediately to mind. She has honed outrageous rhetoric to a rapier-edge. The more she is attacked, the more she attacks back, whether she is always right is unimportant ... it's the fact that she is undaunted in this political contest of wills ... and that is her calling card.

Others have filled out the ranks of these conservative brick-bat throwers ... Dinesh D'Souza, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos, and now ... enter stage right ... Donald Trump. Matter of fact, one could argue that one of the reasons Trump has been so successful has been his bodacious behavior. Middle America has enthusiastically embraced someone who is finally really pushing back against our steady descent into socialist anarchy, They are willing to hug a less than a perfect conservative merely because he is kicking over a few of the loony left's bar stools.

And the phlegmatic right ... such stalwarts as Mitt Romney, George Will, Jeb Bush, and, to a lesser extent, Charles Krauthammer are aghast at such Trump effrontery. These straight-lacers are not so much turned off by what Trump says ... it's the way that he says it. It cuts against the grain of what a conservative is. "Conservatives just don't behave this way."

Well, we better get used to it. Outrageous behavior is finally working wonders for the Republicans ... to the point that Hellary Clinton is starting to look like a Victorian school marm. For good or evil, politics has finally become a cage match where now, from both sides, anything goes.

The Worm Turns Again

Using an oft-repeated liberal media strategy,  MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show was very supportive of Donald Trump UNTIL he became the presumptive Republican candidate for president. Then what happened? Why this show turned on him like a pack of jackals ... and that includes the token Republican on this program, Joe Scarborough ... to see this worm turning go to: Politico Video.

For the early months of his campaign both Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were very supportive of Trump, usually welcoming his call-ins almost every morning. Now, just a few short months later, you can see the venom falling from their and their guests' lips as they magnify any assumed Trump failing into a disqualifying lapse. This 180-degree turn isn't even subtle. It is too obvious to be caused just by circumstances.

I say "oft repeated" because this very same scenario occurred in the last two presidential elections. Both John McCain and Mitt Romney thought that they were media darlings until they became the Republican nominees. Then the media worms performed their traditional pirouettes and started running hit piece after hit piece on them ... many of them obviously fictionalized. So Joe and Mika are following this same script. Trump has got to be a little taken aback by the swiftness of this u-turn ... as am I. For some reason I thought that these two were sincere in their early warm reception of The Donald. I was wrong.

To me, "Morning Joe" has become as biased as most of the rest of MSNBC's programming ... so toxic that I find it difficult to watch this show anymore.

Now, let us shift to the overarching issue ... should Trump "pivot" and become the personality that the liberal media and the Republican establishment wants him to become? Trump certainly doesn't seem to want to morph into this pablum persona, I believe, because he thinks that he got this far being who he is ... and he feels that this will see him through. I have no idea if this will be the case. But I think one thing for sure ... if he adopts this pablum persona, he will most certainly lose in a landslide. In investment terms, this is called being whipsawed. Voters may not vote for a blowhard ... but they clearly will not vote for a pasty, rehearsed cardboard image ... except, of course, if she is a woman.

Conservation of Energy

In physics there is a law that states that, "in a closed system, the total amount of energy is conserved," Apparently, this is also true in politics ... as recently exemplified by Mitt Romney's attack on fellow Republican and presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Since Romney could really not find the gumption or the traction to attack with force his Democrat opponent, Barack Obummer, during his run for this same post in 2012, Romney. therefore has plenty of energy leftover to vilify his follow-on Republican candidate ... see: NBC News Story.

It is really a shame that these recent brickbats could not have been used four years ago against his then Democrat opponent, Obummer. Romney might have saved our country a whole parcel of grief over this last leaderless term of our now child president.

And has Romney directed any of his current vitriol against Trump's presumptive opponent, Hellery Clinton? No? Strange!

Afterthought: Many of those voters, who didn't pull the lever for Romney in 2012, are now cheering him on ... so sad.

French Kiss

Over the weekend Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, had most talking heads aflutter by saying that he had persuaded an "impressive" person to run for president on the Independent ticket. Who was it ... Mitt Romney ... Paul Ryan ... Ben Sasse ... Tom Cotton ... Rick Perry ... Scott Walker ... Rick Santorum? Whether this end run was to insure that Hellery Clinton would win in November ... or that this band of desperadoes were just trying to cause no candidate to get enough Electoral College votes to win outright ... and thus the House of Representatives would then decide the election ... was the unclear motive. But Bill Kristol clearly has had a hair across his somewhere about Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination.

However, after a few days media tease, we just learned who this dark horse was ... David French, a conservative National Review writer, former Iraqi soldier and Tennessee lawyer... see: Daily Caller Article ... not exactly a household name. Matter of fact I strongly suspect that the person Kristol had in mind over the weekend got cold feet and Mr. French was a last minute substitute to save face. Now since any candidate needs to have a 15% national poll showing to get in the final debate programs, I suspect that Mr. French may have just had his fifteen minutes of fame ... ala Andy Warhol. This bit of snidery on my part is not meant to sully Mr. French, but I can't say the same for Bill Kristol who, to me, has finally stepped over the line into kookdom.

And he calls Donald Trump a "roaring jackass" ...

Insanity

"Insanity is repeating the same task over and over again and expecting different results." -- Albert Einstein

John Boehner believes that, if the Republicans have a deadlocked convention in July, they should pick Paul Ryan as their presidential standard bearer ... see: Politico Story. This is a perfect illustration of how out-of-touch the Republican establishment is ... for, to me, it was clear that Mitt Romney's picking of Paul Ryan as his running mate was the reason that Obummer won re-election in 2012.

Today's Factoids

Mitt Romney said something the other day that caught my attention ... and which has received almost no focus in the national media ... and that was that Donald Trump is not self-funding his campaign as he has stated. He, in fact, is lending his campaign money which he will get back from future contributions. This combined with the fact that all the contributions to veterans that were collected when Trump held a competing charitable event against the Republican Iowa debate he chose not to attend  ... these contributions went directly into the Trump Personal Foundation ... see: The Federalist Article.

What I draw from these two facts suggests to me that the Trump we see is not necessarily the Trump we might get ... not that a lot of people seem to care.

Sense of Decency

The time has come to be even-handed and fair. I have often criticized Obummer for being lewd and un-presidential in his remarks and gestures. So I now really must take Donald Trump to task for his recent x-rated comment about Mitt Romney ... saying that, when Romney was requesting Trump's presidential endorsement in 2012, Romney could have been asked to "get on your knees." This Lewinsky-like reference is about as base as the discourse can go in the current spate of playground taunts from Trump (and others).

To paraphrase Attorney Joseph Welch in the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, "At long last, Mr. Trump, have you no sense of decency?"

Clinton Cachet

Politico has a fascinating story about how Hillary Clinton's campaign team swung into action early to counter the effect of the revealing book by Peter Schweitzer about the Clinton Foundation, "Clinton Cash." This deep inside look into the Clinton war room and how it coordinated with its media friends to blunt the revelations in this book really paints a primer on how politics is played ... see: Politico's Inside Look. I am also reasonably sure that some of the more putrid details of this story have been left on the cutting room floor. If you thought you knew all about the dirty pool of politics, I think you will still learn more about the warts and carbuncles that dot the faces of the players in this "profession."

No wonder Mitt Romney lost to this gang of thieving Democrat cutthroats in 2012 ... he was just too nice. And no wonder that Washington to this day still exudes the stink of the smelly swamp that it once was before its founding.

Unfiltered

The Enigma

Governor Chris Christie is an enigma to me.  He probably is as thuggish as President Obama or the Clinton's … he is from New Jersey after all.  As an example, I do suspect he purposely zinged Mitt Romney right before the last presidential election with his bear hug of Obama  … possibly as retribution for not being picked as Mitt's Vice Presidential running mate. And this had a lot to do with Romney losing the election. I also think that he is more involved in the bridge-gate dust-up than he lets on.  And moreover I believe that, when he was being vetted him for the Vice Presidential slot, Romney’s people found more skeletons in Christie’s closet.  These are bound to eventually come out.

But then again, the man thinks mostly good conservative thoughts and communicates these thoughts well.  He recently spoke to an Economic Club of Chicago gathering in which he convincingly debunked the recent Democrats’ gnashing of teeth over "income inequality." Quoting from the New York Times he said:

The problem is that Americans do not want income equality, suggesting that it is antithetical to the country’s abiding belief in “income opportunity” that rewards hard work and merit. “You want income equality? That is mediocrity,” he said. “Everybody can have an equal, mediocre salary.”

You can see the previous quote in the following Times article, but you need to slog through a number of brickbats first … see: NY Times Article.  (Funny how quickly the Times turned on Christie once Hillary was the presumptive Democrat nominee in 2016.)  I did see Christie deliver these ideas on television and he was quite convincing … dead on … something that the far left needs to worry about if they are going to continue flexing their Socialist muscles over this issue.

There will be a lot of back and forth with this Christie fellow over the next three years.  I don’t think he has a chance of being President … but, if he wanted to, he could serve an enormously useful function in the upcoming election.  He could be the Republicans’ junk-yard dog … popping all of the left’s pomposities as they raise their poll-tested syrupy heads … kind-of like the James Carville of the right.  Then maybe, if the Republicans can regain the White House, he might be rewarded with some useful administrative post … say Chief of Staff or Congressional Liaison?

He, like he has done in New Jersey, could help fix things.

Too Big for His Britches?

This morning on “Morning Joe,” John Heilemann revealed a Governor Chris Christie flaw that has me in a funk.  He said that Christie told Mitt Romney that he could not do a 2012 presidential fund-raiser in New Jersey until Christie had endorsed him (see: Time Magazine Story).  If true, this was obviously one of the (possibly many) vetted reasons that Romney did not pick Christie as his vice-presidential running mate.  And, is the fact that Romney didn’t pick him, the reason why Christie, as retribution, gave President Obama a big bear hug right before the 2012 election?

Christie claimed in his recent two-hour televised denial of any involvement in the Bridgegate “scandal” that he is “not a bully.”  Now, after seeing him operate over the last two years, we all know that this is not quite true.  But his machismo was part of his charm and differentiated him as a possible presidential candidate … he (unlike Romney) could stand up to the take-no-prisoners tactics of the Democrats. But I think most of us believed that his gruffness would just be only directed to his opponents … not toward those in his own party.  Maybe we were naive.

Now if Chris Christie were to win the 2016 Republican nomination, would the American people then be forced to trade-in Chicago-style thuggery for New Jersey- or Arkansas-style thuggery?  Yipes, not a very happy thought!  Let us hope that, in losing some of his physical girth (as a result of his gastric bypass), Christie also loses some of his too-big-for-his-britches management style.  If he learns a little humility and fair-play, then maybe … just maybe … he might make a good President.  If not, choosing between Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie would be very painful indeed.

Beating a Drum

“If you shout a lie long enough and loud enough, it will eventually become a truth” – Thomas Jefferson

Some of my readers accuse me of beating a drum over our President’s multitudinous failures.  Guilty as charged.  But I am but one squeaky little voice trying to contradict stentorian streams of bilious bullsh.t coming out of our government and media.  I realize that this is a fruitless Promethean endeavor, but I cannot let go of this feeling that I must do something, however insignificant, to help our children live in a country that closely resembles that great (yes, exceptional) one in which I was nurtured.

I try not to do this with Lady-Gaga-type hype … nor with flaming prose … but with statistics, studied opinions and references to those who I respect as being good and honorable people.

The thing that upsets me the most about our modern media mouthpieces and political poltroons is that they lie with certain certitude … as though this was the measure of their self worth.  They call it “spinning.”  Thus, they are compelled even to lie about their lying.  If someone like Mitt Romney tells his best and sincere truth about the many dislocations in our current society, he is castigated and made fun of by these same miscreants as though he were the prevaricator.  What did Jack Nicholson once say … “[we] can’t handle the truth?”

That is a very sorry statement about our current out-of-tune national orchestra.

Mo-or-Less-Town

Mitt Romney's campaign prediction has come true.  Detroit, Michigan has declared bankruptcy ... the largest city to ever do so in the United States (see: Detroit News Story).  What a shame! I've only been to Detroit once or twice ... to visit the General Motors headquarters ... so I have not seen the central-city decay there cause by decades of irresponsible fiscal management. But there might be plenty of pain to go around once the courts have divvied up the few remaining assets.

Yes, pensioners there may suffer but, I suspect that the Obama administration will find a sub rosa way of easing their pain.  (There is something called the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation which will probably dump tons of taxpayers money into this financial chasm ... see: Wikipedia Entry.  Yes, this quasi-governmental company is privately-funded now ... but it is running such a huge deficit that we all know that taxpayers will eventually be forced to close this gap.)  The other real sufferers will more likely be all the IRA owners around the country who either are directly or indirectly invested in Detroit municipal bonds.  They, like the previous investors in General Motors debt, will take it in the shorts.

And many other major mismanaged cities around the country are going to find their municipal bond financing costs go up ... possibly dramatically.  So we see that Detroit's pain will likely be shared by all of us ... even though we had no hand in the corruption and fiscal naivete that caused this catastrophe.

I do have a simple suggestion that might allow Detroit to make lemonade out of the bushel of lemons that it now has on hand (a thought I also had for the South Bronx when it was in rampant decay.)  I think that tens if not hundreds of blocks of contiguous abandoned homes and businesses in downtown Detroit should be bulldozed and a gigantic verdant municipal park should be created ... as a centerpiece of an eventually revitalized city.  It might even get Mitt Romney to donate the millions of dollars it will cost ... then name it for his father, George.

Afterward: For another interesting take on Detroit, see: The Diplomad Blog.

The Chicago Way

Al Capone

Today on talk radio Mark Styne used the term “The Chicago Way” to describe the tactic that David Plouffe, a “political adviser” of President Obama, is using to smear the Republican head of the House Oversight Committee, Darrell Issa (see: Huffington Post Story).  Plouffe zinged Issa on Twitter as “Mr. Grand Theft” and “Insurance Swindler,” referring to 30 and 40 year old possible blots on Issa’s record.  No matter that these charges were not legally pursued in either case, clearly these libels are meant to blunt Issa’s attempt to get to the bottom of the numerous Obama scandals … shades of Bill Clinton’s response to his many dishonors (particularly his vicious and press-abetted smears on the Special Prosecutor, Ken Starr.)

We see the Windy City Way repeated over and over again in the career of the President … often spearheaded by his consigliore, David Axelrod.  First, when Obama ran for the Illinois Senate and then later for the U.S. Senate … for the sordid details in both cases see: US Politics Story.  Even, lily-pure Mitt Romney was besmirched last year as best as could be done … in that he “murdered” the wife of one of his employees … and he tortured his dog on the top of his car.  Now, under the aegis of our President, the Obama administration has been exposed for more Al Capone-type thuggery, but on a far far grander scale … in the IRS’s targeted suppression of conservative groups and the sordid and far-ranging Justice Department wire-tapping of AP and Fox News reporters.  Representative Issa now has the unenviable task of getting to the bottom of these political outrages.

How could anyone be surprised by these Chi-Town methods ... really?

Afterward: See also: Breitbart Story for a more complete explanation of the charges against Issa.

Cruzin’

How many remember the tune Cruisin’ by Smokey Robinson?  When I try to recall this tune, I keep bringing up Groovin' on a Sunday Afternoon by the Rascals.  Anyhow, there is a new iconoclastic pol on the Washington stage by the name of Ted Cruz, the new Senator from Texas, and he seems to have shifted immediately from neutral into high gear.  He is taking on almost all of the sacred images in Washington … and getting quite a bit of press in the process.  (See: NY Times Story and Breitbart Comments).

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One case in point, Senator Cruz had the gall to ask Chuck Hagel for his financial records … suggesting that he might have benefited financially from North Korean largess … see: Breitbart Article.  This brought out the long knives in the Senate as it erupted in righteous indignation.  Even Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe went into high dudgeon over this suggestion.  Cruz responded that we won’t know if this is a fact until Hagel releases these sought-for records … which so far he has refused to do.  To me there is a parallel here to Senator Harry Reid accusing Presidential-aspirant, Mitt Romney, of not paying any taxes and requiring him to disprove this negative by releasing more than two years of his tax returns (see: Business Insider.Story).  I don’t recall Scarborough throwing a hissy fit over this much more serious slander ... in that Reid stated these charges as facts … Cruz is just postulating

But one of Ted Cruz’s better acts was his response to Obama’s State of the Union address.  He sat passively while the rest of the Senate wildly applauded the President’s fibs and pleas for bigger government.  Please click on this link to see and read his reactions to same ... Human Events Video and Story.  It is really really worth it.  Now Senator Cruz, being Hispanic, also creates considerable angst among the Democrats in that he might crack the Latino voting block in the coming years.  The difference between him and Marco Rubio is that he is clearly a street fighter … like Obama.  And although I might like to see a kerfuffle between him and (probable-candidate) Hillary Clinton in 2016, I still believe that Rubio would make a better leader. Maybe we could have a two-pronged Hispanic Republican ticket?

The Payoff

Joe Scarborough keeps asking the same question on his Morning Joe show.  How will Obama’s raising the tax rate on the upper 2% of income earners generate any significant amount of revenue?  Were this to happen … Warren Buffet won’t be paying any more taxes.  Michael Moore won’t be paying any more taxes. Harvey Weinstein won’t be paying any more taxes.  Jon Corzine won’t be paying any more taxes.  Hedge fund managers won’t be paying any more taxes.  Anyone who earns money from dividends or capital gains … or those who can afford a good tax attorney won’t be paying any more taxes under Obama’s scheme. 

Do you find it strange that these people are also the ones who have been the big fund raisers for Obama?  So Obama, by being so fiercely adamant in his fiscal-cliff solution, can let his plutocrat friends off the hook while, at the same time, appear to be appeasing the Wall-Street Occupiers.  The people who will be paying more taxes will be those schlemiels who earn $250,000 to $500,000 per year in ordinary income and don’t have any significant offsets.  They are the ones who will be taking in the shorts.  And they are the ones, as the small business owners, who are said to be the major job creators in the country.

On the other hand, how might Obama go after the real millionaires and billionaires?  He could limit total deductions and other income-tax offsets to something like $35,000 or $50,000 or $75,000 … just like what Mitt Romney had proposed in the Presidential debates … and like what the Republicans are currently offering in the fiscal-cliff discussions.  Under this methodology Warren Buffet, Michael Moore, Harvey Weinstein, Jon Corzine, hedge fund managers, and their ilk would be the ones taking in the shorts … instead of the small-business job creators.  And, using this methodology, raising $800 billion in taxes (or much more depending on the limit put on deductions) over ten years would be a piece of cake. 

Therefore, one could reasonably conclude that The Barry’s insistence on just raising taxes-rates on the 2%-ers is really, in truth, a sly payoff to his benefactors by our consummate demagogue-in-chief.

Postscripts:  Please don't assume that, by my not mentioning spending and entitlement cuts, I do not favor them.  I do.  I think they are a must and the ratio of government spending cuts to revenue additions should be at least 6:1.  Also don't infer from the above that I would like to increase the tax rates on dividends and capital gains.  I don't ... however I would be in favor of eliminating the "carried interest" tax loophole that hedge fund managers enjoy.  It is a distasteful  taxing gimmick and it would be a tragedy if this carried-interest tax avoidance loophole was the reason taxes went up on actual capital gains and dividends. 

Prediction

If Mitt Romney were to win the Presidential election on November 6th, the Dow Jones Industrial Average would immediately advance by at least 1,000 points.  (It already is creeping up as Romney keeps doing better in the polls.)