Headlines

Trump threatens to unleash gunfire on Minnesota protesters

Twitter flags Trump tweet on Minneapolis for ‘glorifying violence’

Trump vows to use military on ‘thugs’ ...

Report: Channel migrants ‘threaten to throw their children into water’

Trump says he would shut down Twitter if legally possible

Ted Cruz calls for criminal investigation of Twitter

Chinese state media troll Pompeo over MN ...

Mike Lee: You won’t like it if a Dem can regulate social media

UK to increase Hong Kong visa rights if China pushes security law

Coronavirus live updates: Prescriptions for Trump-touted drug surged, GM restarts most U.S. pickup truck production

War zone Minneapolis ... More chaos, more looting ... Unrest spreads in USA ...

Minneapolis mayor to protesters: Please social distance, wear masks

Headlines

Dr. Jill Biden: Lindsey Graham’s Trump-era transformation ‘a little hurtful’

US manufacturing activity rebounds in January

Trump congratulates ‘great state of Kansas’ ...

Le Pen: Brexit is a ‘terrifying failure’ for the European Union

Coronavirus: China says U.S. action ‘spreading fear’ as mainland death toll hits 361

Jeff Bezos sued for defamation by girlfriend’s brother

Hispanics largest minority voting block for first time ...

Ted Cruz: Fauxcahontas delivered last 2 GOP votes against witnesses

Kerry unloads on NBC after report he was overheard talking about 2020 bid

Coronavirus is going to ‘paralyze China’ — El-Erian warns against buying dips

Britain’s productivity decline worst in 250 years!

Boris admits ‘relatively few’ Islamist can be rehabilitated

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

McConnell: No December debt ceiling vote

Supreme Court hands Trump another travel ban win

Harvey/Irma benefit concert: Left-wing sermon ...

... Report: Ryan says no chance for border wall at private dinner

Ted Cruz blames staffer for 'liking' porn tweet

Officers in Freddie Gray case won't face Federal charges

Apple $999 IPhone X launch ... Embarrassing demo fail ...

Alien families, minors cross [U.S.] borders in record numbers ...

Seattle mayor resigns after 5th sex abuse claim

Apple's IPhone X 'FaceID' facial recognition system sparks racism fears

Wall St jumps $2 trillion since Trump ...

Stevie Wonder: Global-warming non-believers 'must be blind'

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. guess which from Politico?

Interest in U.S. diplomatic corps tumbles in early months of Trump

Ted Cruz calls on DOJ to investigate Charlottesville attacks as domestic terrorism

Change or die: American malls confront Amazon era ...

Trump suspects aide [Bannon] of leaking ...

Trump fails to condemn white supremacist in his statement of Charlottesville

Trump issues new statement explicitly condemning white supremacists, neo-Nazis

Elizabeth Warren to Trump: 'You'll never ever build your stupid wall'

Exclusive -- Congressional expert: NKorea satellites could launch surprise attack

Romania intercepts Iraq migrant boat in Black Sea

Trump condemns 'bigotry and violence' in Charlottesville clashes

Kim on standby to launch ... from submarine?

Maher: I'm hoping stock market crashes so Trump loses GOP support

Headlines

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

Ted Cruz calls for $14 billion seized from 'El Chapo' to fund border wall

Trump tax plan: Heavy on promises, light on details

New biography: Young Obama 'considered gayness'

Austrian president: All women must wear headscarves to combat Islamophobia

Chelsea Clinton gets ANOTHER award for doing nothing special ...

Obamacare repeal's exception for Congress raises charges of hypocrisy

Mexico, Canada leaders agree to renegotiate NAFTA

Turkey arrests 1,000+ 'secret Imams' infiltrating police force

CA legislature takes first step toward single-payer healthcare

Spicer: Sanctuary cities 'have the blood of dead Americans on their hands'

Poll: Trump voters stand by president

Congress asked to eliminate $270 million a year in solar subsidies

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

NKorea mocks China ...

[UMich] Food cart serving free meals only for 'black people' ...

Broadcaster Alan Colmes dead ...

Chicagoland: 7 killed in deadliest day this year ...

Social Security Admin. gave $1 billion to those without SSN #s

Cuomo won't endorse any candidate for DNC

Economist: 41% of white working class men are not working

Paglia: Grandeur of Hollywood Oscars is gone ...

Ted Cruz predicts Supreme Court seat will open up this summer

Standing ovations for Bannon at CPAC

Swedish politician proposes paid sex breaks for workers

Trickle of refugees fleeing to Canada could become a deluge

Up Chuck

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

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

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

Romney's Folly

Ted Cruz

Perhaps not his best decision ...



Other than this one ...

Paul Ryan

Frustration

I understand Brent Bozell's frustration at Donald Trump's being the presumptive nominee of the Republican party ... see: his Open Letter to Conservatives. But desperate times require desperate measures and it appears that most of blue-collar America doesn't agree with Bozell's assessment of the situation. Yes, Trump is too often wrong on style but right on substance and this has turned many voters off (like my wife). Even I have spent a considerable amount of this blog space criticizing Trump's vulgarities. But now, resolving myself to his eventual nomination, I am forced to concentrate on his approach to the real issues of our time.

If Trump were to be elected ...  which I now consider highly likely ... how would he govern? I believe that he would go a long way toward solving our economic malaise through tax and regulation reform. (He is even against the carried interest tax loophole enjoyed by the hedge-fund nabobs,) I also believe he would find ways to fix our immigration and international trade problems ... in a tough but rational way. And I expect that our fiscal debt goblin would be put back in the closet through spending cuts and economic growth. Yet he would still rebuild our defense capabilities and put apprehension back in the minds of many the bad actors in the world.

But how would Trump handle the social issues that conservatives, like Bozell, are so focused on? Here I am not so sanguine. I expect that he will disappoint many righties in how he reforms Obamacare and Common Core ... and his Supreme Court picks may not be the best. (Wouldn't it be great if he used Ted Cruz as an adviser in this process?) And his approach to solving entitlement  reform could well be too tempered by the brickbats being tossed at him by the liberal media.

And the Trump administration probably will have its share of faux and real scandals ... just because his management style has often allowed the fringes of society to have a chair at the table. And he will come out of the White House a lot wealthier than he was when he went in.

Will Trump be another Ronald Reagan? No, but he may be a modern-day Andrew Jackson, also a rough and tumble politician ... and put Old Hickory's picture back on the double sawbuck in the process. And the best part? Lena Dunham, Rosie O'Donnell, Michael Moore, and lots of other goofy glitterati will soon be living north of the 49th parallel.

Greasing the Skids

The Republican Party in Colorado has pulled a fast one ... disenfranchising the GOP voters there from having a say in selecting their delegates to the GOP presidential convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July. In a series of sly establishment moves, they have awarded all 36 Colorado delegates to this convention to Ted Cruz ... and Donald Trump is furious as a consequence ... see: Denver Post Story.

These types of delegate stealing tactics are being attempted across the country ... South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri ... to make Cruz delegate richer at the expense of Trump. This is the Republican establishment fighting back under the assumption that a Trump candidacy would cost it the White House and at least one house of Congress. Whether this is the case or not is disputable but is what rationale is being forwarded for these hard-ball actions on the part of the Republican National Committee.

And, while Cruz is basking in this current RNC attention ... thinking that it is greasing the skids for him, he might be surprised, come convention time, when he is jettisoned in favor of a more establishment candidate like Kasich or even a parachuted-in Paul Ryan.

Performing this way on the part of the GOP runs the risk of causing many of its voters to stay home in November ... which creates a possible lose-lose situation if Donal Trump is denied the nomination. But would I vote for Cruz? Yes, if for no other reason than whom he would appoint to the Supreme Court. Would I vote for Kasich? Yes, he might even return us to fiscal sanity. Yes, Trump for his immigration stands. I would even hold my nose and vote for Ryan if it comes down to that. Anyone but Hellery.

Afterthought: The Republicans are Boy Scouts in the nomination process for their candidate when compared to the Democrats.

Election Prediction

It seems clear that President Obummer, abetted by the corrupt Washington establishment, has fulfilled his pledge to fundamentally change this country. It also seems clear that, due to the immense popularity of the otherwise unsavory, non-establishment candidates, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and, to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz, large swaths of Obummer's subjects are very unhappy with these establishment changes.

I therefore predict that the current presidential contest will be a wave election ... and, if it becomes a choice between an establishment and non-establishment candidate, the non-establishment candidate, of either party, will win in a landslide.

Antidisestablishmentarianism

This strange long word involves a 19th century revolution against and in defense of the established religious order in England. And this is similar to what is happening in the United States today ... evidenced by the political campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

These three anti-establishment candidates are clearly embraced because they represent a populist revulsion against how both political parties have been governing. This revulsion is also evidenced by the fact that both parties combined only have a 12% approval rating in Congress ... and by the Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party, and Black Lives Matter movements.

And the establishment members of both parties are fighting back. The Democrats have pretty much neutered Bernie Sanders with super delegates to its convention and with the voting patterns of mostly Southern minorities. So, Hellery Clinton, the establishment Democrat candidate, appears to have prevailed.

On the Republican side, in a desperate twist, Ted Cruz has suddenly become the establishment candidate..And Donald Trump seems well on his way to upsetting the establishment bloc in his party. However this bloc has not given up ... and are posing a number of different tactics to deny Trump its nomination ... including a possibly contested convention and/or a changing of the convention rules.

Moreover  this revolution is not a trivial uprising. Both Trump and Sanders have been drawing enormous crowds at their political rallies ... and their primary campaigns have won many wide and surprising victories. But both political establishments clearly do not want to hear the voice of the people ... and, I predict, will suffer as a consequence.

The upcoming presidential election, if Trump is the eventual nominee of the Republicans, will be a clear contest between the establishment and the non-establishment ... ergo, antidisestablishmentarianism ... and many anti-establishment Bernie Sanders fans may indeed vote for Trump!

2016 Predictions

Once again I post some of the more interesting predictions made at our traditional New Year's Eve festivities:

- Kasich is on Republican ticket with Ted Cruz
               
 - ISIS will be eliminated but darker force takes its place

- One of George’s blogs will be picked up by major newspaper

- Fitbit recalls millions of units – give false sense of higher activity

- Bill Cosby is NOT found guilty

- Merkel is out in Germany                          

- Saudi Arabia will be attacked by ISIS or al Qaeda

- Hillary wins – appoints Trump Secretary of State

- A terrorist strike in London and Berlin

- An illness takes Donald Trump out of presidential race                 

And here are a few of the right-on predictions from last year:

- ISIS creates chaos in France 

- De Blasio will take NYC back to the chaos under David Dinkins

- Obamacare will suffer serious setbacks

- Patriots win Super Bowl

- Malaysian Airlines flight 370 will finally be located

Bomb Throwers

Twitter has turned the United States (and I expect much of the rest of the world) into a bunch of illiterate bomb throwers and insipid twits (remember #bringbackourgirls?) Anxious to get their tiniest thoughts out to their adoring public, users of this instant messaging service post comments on many news events without stopping to consider how their 140 characters of top-of-the-head diatribe or dribble will be viewed. In business we used to refer to this as "ready, fire, aim." As a consequence, clarifications or retractions are often required ... which do nothing but muddy the waters further.

I suspect that Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton (or her Twitter surrogates) and many other presidential aspirants think that they are being hip to tweet out their bon mots at the drop of a news cycle ... to their adoring throngs of millennials and X-ers ... but, to me, using this technology too often appears non-presidential and demeaning. Reading tweets second-hand (I refuse to subscribe) is all too often a cringe-worthy experience. I would personally prefer that the eventual leader of the free world be a little more circumspect in his/her pronouncements.

Idiot glitterati can make asses out of themselves using this medium, but, please ... let's keep our important political leaders free from such pop-star pap.

Fault Line

I've written before on Obamatrade (see: Trust Me), but now, as more and more of the details of this Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact leak out, I am getting very chary about this pact (really a treaty) and how the Obama administration is attempting another end-run around the U.S. Constitution. Heroic Senator Jeff Sessions, unlike many of his Senate-mates, has read this bill and is revealing enough of its onerous details to cause many second thoughts on this fast-track authority that the administration is seeking ... you really should read about his revelations ... see: Breitbart Story.

In fact, Obamatrade might well be the fault line in the Republican field of candidates for the presidential nomination in 2016. Unfortunately, my favorite candidate, Marco Rubio seems once again to be on the wrong side of this geographic schism ... just like he originally was on immigration ... as part of the Senator Chuck Schumer-led Gang of Eight. Also on the wrong side of this issue are Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Ted Cruz and presidential contenders Jeb Bush and Rick Perry. Against this ultra-secret deal are Senator Rand Paul, Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal and Donald Trump. Both Senators Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio voted to authorize this partnership without reading its details.

On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton favors this legislation while Martin O'Malley and Senator Bernie Sanders oppose it.

This week the House of Representatives takes up this bill and, heaven forbid, if they pass it, President Obama will be one step closer to an absolute monarchy ... perhaps, with a more trustworthy president, this partnership wouldn't be so dangerous. (Representative Paul Ryan has already indicated that he is for this bill.) I just hope enough other representatives take the time to read this bill (or talk to Senator Sessions) before they cast their votes.

Foaming at the Mouth

Ted Cruz is announcing his candidacy for the U.S. presidency today, the anniversary of the passing of Obamacare, and much of the media and the looney left are foaming at the mouth with hatred. This morning on the MSNBC show, Morning Joe, both Mika Brzezinski and Donnie ("often wrong but never in doubt") Deutsch could not come up with enough derisive adjectives to express their disdain for this Texas senator. I had to switch channels.

Despite his legacy of media pans and even some Republican critics, Ted Cruz will be a formidable candidate for his perspicacity and combativeness. He is a very good debater and is well versed on all the critical issues facing our nation. Beyond his mediocre polls and the vitriol likely to come his way from many talking heads in the days ahead, I would not count him out. I personally would prefer the somewhat softer-edged Hispanic, Marco Rubio, as the Republican candidate ... but, like the surprising comment from John McCann, if Cruz becomes his party's candidate, I would support him.

It may be that, given how our current Emperor is doing his damnedest to diminish this country, by the time the next election comes around, we may have the appetite for a little more militancy on the part of the Republican candidate. If Hillary Clinton or some other female is the Democrat candidate, then it may well be another election pitting the head against the heart ... a contest that, this time, could well favor the head ... someone like the " courageous conservative" Cruz.

Moonbeams

Governor Jerry Brown of California has stated that, because of his contrarian opinion about global warming, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is "unfit to run for office" ... see: Breitbart Story.

How utterly open-minded can one uber-liberal get?

The Tea Party’s Tea Party

The long knives of the Republican Party are out to emasculate the Tea Party.  Since Republican Representative Paul Ryan got his budget compromise (with Democrat Senator Patty Murray) passed into law, the establishment Republicans are feeling their oats … big mistake.  First John Boehner unloaded both barrels on Ted Cruz and the “Don’t tread on me” crowd … see: Huffington Post Story ... saying, “Frankly, I just think that they’ve [the Tea Party] lost all credibility.”  In the past I have thought that Boehner wasn’t immensely bright … but that he had good political senses.  I think he might have just disproved this supposition of mine.

Joining in this bashing of the right-wing of the Republican party are Karl Rove … see Breitbart Story and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce … see:  Another Breitbart Story  These have both been stalwarts of the Republican party but apparently believe that the ideological purity of the Tea Party members have cost their party too much in the polls and at the polling place.  Yes, to some degree these two representatives of the establishment of the GOP are correct.  But then one can also argue that this same wing of the Republican party have also had their share of political miscues … need I mention John McCain, Mitt Romney, Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush, etc.?  And even George W. Bush, Karl Rove’s hand puppet, did his level best to discourage the more conservative members of his party.

2010 was the coming-out victory for the Tea Party.  As a consequence, what did the Republican establishment do?  They did not monetarily support them (witness the recent governor’s race in Virginia) and did nothing to counter the smear campaign that the main-stream media has been reveling in ever since 2010. In other words, the Tea Party-ers are pariahs to not just Democrats … but also to establishment Republicans.  The Democrats have embraced their radical left, but the Republicans have been much too public in their opposition to their right wing.  How stupid can supposedly bright politicians be?!

The 2016 presidential election will be the acid test for establishment Republicans.  Paul Ryan and Chris Christie will fight for their nod … while Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz (maybe Sarah Palin?) will work the crowd on the Tea-Party right.  If the establishment Republicans nominate their candidate, they will lose once more. (As Rush Limbaugh often says, if voters have a choice between a Democrat and a Democrat, the Democrat ... Hillary Clinton ... will always win.)  If however the Tea Party prevails and the establishment Republicans, out of spite, abandon them in the Presidential election, I predict that this will also mean that Hillary will re-enter the White House.  But the Tea Party will not have lost everything.  They will, in effect, have replaced the old-guard GOPers as the future of their party.  That is, if we have a country left in 2020 to vie for.

A Test

I am herein offering a test to measure the bias of national media outlets .. that is, if and whereof they mention what happened in Congress yesterday that was meant to ameliorate the effect of the government shutdown. The House of Representatives proposed a piece of Ted Cruz's strategy ... a measure that funded the District of Columbia, veterans' services, and the national park service.  But the House Democrats kept this from reaching a required 2/3rds majority ... even after passing a similar measure to fund the Defense Department ... which was later passed by the Senate and signed in to law by President Obama ... see: The Blaze Story.

However, this morning's printed version of the New York Times indicates that somehow this bill made its way to the Senate and Democrat Majority Leader, Harry Reid, refused even to bring this proposal up for a vote in the Senate.  I'm sure that this was meant to punish the Republicans by punishing segments of the American people ... with the cooperation of national media outlets.  How cynical can one political party get?

Although the New York Times did reveal this information on page one this morning, it was in paragraph 8 and referred this measure as a "narrow bill."  I grade the Times with a B- ... it should have been in the headline and the first paragraph ... it's real news!  An exercise that you, dear readers, can use to test our media outlets' biases is to follow how much of this really important development the national media are willing to convey to you.  This should be fun.

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).

.

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?