Can Trump win? I'm beginning to think....

  Anyone who reads my blogging (and I DO mean ONE) knows I'm not a huge fan of Donald Trump.
  He worries me for a number of reasons. 

•   The idolatry of Trump is akin to Obama idolatry. Hey, he's just a guy.
•   Is Trump a conservative? I don't think so, considering that his book and previous writings indicate he supports national health care, the KELO decision and some pretty erroneous trade/tax provisions. 
•   Trump claims to love the Bible. Why? Don't claim to love the Bible and be a Christian if you aren't. I'd rather someone be outright about who and what they are than pretend to be something they are not to get votes. I think we've had enough of that.

  That said, I have to say something very strange is happening, so strange that even I am getting wind of it.
  I've just spent the last month in California visiting relatives; I'm not a fan of the state, with all its loans and grievances and inefficiencies.
  Let me share two anecdotes and I might add, that's all they are but still.
  While I was out there, one relative who is absolutely apolitical and who has routinely refused to participate in any political discussions at all made a point to ask what a friend of mine--who again is fairly non-political but anti-Obama--what he thought of Trump.
  Unsolicited, this relative mentioned Obama's Muslim comment. He is not anti-Leftist and certainly not anti-Muslim but said, "Something has to be done. Would it be so bad to call a moratorium for 2 years until we can figure out what the heck we are doing and develop a better system?"
  Now, of course, we were in the San Bernardino area where nerves are still raw after the latest terrorist attack. There's great anxiety for a number of reasons: the San Bernardino has a heavily Muslim populated area, Saed's fellow workers actually gave him a baby shower and Saed had been--extraordinarily--allowed great leeway to go home to pray 5 times and travel on a Hajj.
  So this relative--who is quite mild mannered and pleasant--felt Trump is providing a voice for those of us who simply want a moratorium on importing terrorists until we can filter out the malevolent ones.
  The other unusual event that happened was this.
  Someone completely unfamiliar from San Bernardino struck up a conversation and then asked about Trump.
  This person was Christian with a faint Hispanic accent but was eager to say he feels Trump is the only solution to some of the problems we have which seem so intractable. The conversation was extended but what was most remarkable is that it was so unsolicited and the guy volunteered so much about his feelings about Trump.
  Now I'm not saying this is any bellwether of any kind.
  And admittedly is WAS in San Bernardino.
  But I have to admit that even I am not incapable of some affection for Trump, who at least is confronting issues that the RNC refuses to confront.
  Yet Trump has stirred some emotion in even the least political of us who do not want to see this country ruined. At some point, one has to wonder if the unions will come along, given that the huge rush of immigrants to this country will be not only taking middle class Americans' jobs but will be generally lowering middle class wages.
  It really is quite amusing to see the RNC, the RINOs and even Fox try to stump for first Jeb! and then Rubio.
  So far, it doesn't seem to be working; they are all quite dismissive of the likes of Trump, Cruz and Carson, as if because in their own brilliant brains the political glitterati have figured who can and can't be POTUS.
  Well, we'll just have to see about that.
  Can Trump win?
  I haven't thought so before but. 
  Oh, and BTW, San Bernardino IS the Inland Empire, where you may have seen THIS sign.

Driving N/B 15 fwy in Corona look what we saw had to turn around and record this !!!! 
Posted by Nikki Miles Worden on Friday, December 25, 2015

Hee hee. Then there's New Hampshire....

OMG! Geraldine Ferraro got schlonged too. It's an epidemic!

Who knew that Democratic women have been getting schlonged for years? Yep, it happened to Geraldine Ferraro way back '84 and that comes from NPR not conservative talk radio.



Who knew the Donald learned Yiddish by listening to NPR?

Hillary: Patron Saint of Toilets

  I'll be honest. It's not because I'm old.
  I just don't like a whole lotta PDA.
  I didn't like it when I was in school passing a couple teenagers necking at their lockers.
  I do not like it at the store.
  I do not like it at the bank or the sidewalk or at my house.
  I do not like PDA.
  So when Hillary's campaign "came out" last week with their latest ad, I don't think it was homophobia that caused my lip to curl and my stomach to heave.
  The campaign ad which can be seen at Breitbart is full, bounding with gay people kissing, some of which looks pretty intense.
  Breitbart reminds us that Hillary's record--in spite of what the ad claims--is one of denying "rights" to gays until 2013 which, if my calculations are correct, was only 18 months ago.
  This is just to relate to the commoners, I suppose, just like Hillary starts speaking with a Southern drawl when she's campaigning there. 
  Oh, and there's the whole really embarrassing Black dialect thingie she pulls in front of Black audiences, who apparently aren't offended at all and her "appropriation" of their language.
  Walter Williams, who we must admit isn't genuinely Black (support examples here and here and here of racist Leftists' stereotyping of Black conservatives) because he's conservative:

"I don't feel no ways tired. I come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy. I don't believe He brought me this far," drawled presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton, mimicking black voice to a black audience, at the First Baptist Church of Selma, Alabama. I'm wondering if Mrs. Clinton visits an Indian reservation she might cozy up to them saying, "How! Me not tired. Me come heap long way. Road mighty rough. Sky Spirit no bring me this far." Or, seeking the Asian vote she might say, "I no wray tired. Come too far I started flum. Road berry clooked. Number one Dragon King take me far."

  Now Hillary--the pro abortionist-- is reaching out to the Hispanic community (dubbed Hispandering) as a grandmother in thinly veiled sycophantic persuasions.
  She's an abuela who knows best, y'all stupidos.
  Never mind that California whose population is "minority" voted against gay marriage and that abortions are actually considered murder by many in the Catholic Hispanic community.
  Can't we ever talk about the issues?
  Oh.
  Like how women are discriminated against in toilets because Hillary wouldn't share a rest room with another woman in a stall had to walk almost 2 minutes to get to a bathroom at that last debate, a timing fact I sorta doubt.
  And, yes.
  The New York Times really did write an article about Hillary's toilet situation, extrapolating out that all women are discriminated against because toilets signal how welcome you are in the world.
  Because women are victims, ya know.
  Unless they're conservative.
  So Queen Hillary, Patron Saint of Toilets, is floating in on her heavenly cloud to rescue women from the dastardly dilemma of having to wait for others to clear out of the bathroom so each woman can all be alone, not just in a stall, but the whole place, the entire bathroom.
  Except....  
  I dunno. 
  Most of us are into sharing. 
  If I were vulgar (which I am on occasion), I might suggest that in most issues Hillary is really the Patron Saint of B.S.

Trump up by 21 in CNN / ORC poll.

Yesterday's Quinnipiac poll showing Ted Cruz trailing Donald Trump by only 4 points appears to have been an outlier. Recently Fox News, PPP and the ABC / Washington Post polls had given Trump leads of 21%, 16% and 23%. Today's CNN / ORC poll puts Trump at 39% with a lead over Cruz of 21%. Better yet for Trump the poll gives him the highest scores he has ever achieved for his perceived ability to handle the economy, illegal immigration and ISIS.

Once again Trump has played the media like a Stradivarius.

This is getting as predictable as a Chevy Chase pratfall on the old Saturday Night Live. Once again Donald Trump has served up the red meat and once again cable television has taken the bait and once again has rewarded the Donald with hours of free media attention.
Charles Krauthammer is old enough to know better. He laments the "coarsening of our culture' while forgetting the connotation the adjective Trumanesque once had. Yes, President Harry Truman once called newspaper columnist Drew Pearson a son of a bitch. To his credit Truman confined is Chaucerian English to private conversations but the public was well aware of his spicy vocabulary.
Trump could have said the Hillary had been gypped out of the nomination but the political correctness crowd would have had a cat so he used a Yiddish noun which he converted to a verb. Hillary Clinton ' got schlonged ' according Trump. Of course he wasn't speaking literally. Most voters suspect Hillary has been literally schlonged in a month of Sundays but Trump's choice of that euphemism was calculated to send the media into a screaming frenzy and as usual the media was quick to comply.
Eventually Trump's defenders turned the questioning of Trump's words into the questioning of Bill Clinton's actions in the White House as the nation's Schlonger-in-Chief but again Trump has played the media like a Stradivarius.


 

Government: be very afraid of bullying but not terrorism

  Have you noticed how many government PSAs are on the air about having a plan in case of catastrophe, getting healthcare, making sure you don't have the latest illness.
  My gosh, I'm checking my heart rate after I hear some of those commercials. 
  Am I starving, hungry? Is my neighbor one of the 1 out of 5 who is starving in this country, regardless the welfare programs and WIC twenty somethings I've seen running their government credit cards at Churchills?
  Are my muscles weak? Could I be suffering from a mysterious debilitating muscular abnormality?
  Am I or is anyone in my family autistic?
  As an elderly person, have I suffered abuse or been bullied? When my 6 pound dog barked continually the other day, should I count that as bullying? Or WORSE! have I bullied someone by asking too many questions?
  Am I guilty of abusing the language by saying, "That's so gay!" in reference to something I didn't like?
  Do I try to include people of all colors in my life? And God forbid have I EXCLUDED anyone because of the color of their. Skin. Yeah. No.
  So think about this.
  Assume that you as an American citizen absorb all these warnings, the accusatory microaggressions and complaints about mistreatment, racism and everything else y'all are doing wrong by being yourselves.
  Read that Obama's official governmental policy is to "nudge" people to do what he wants, employing behavioral science technicians and techniques to shape Americans' behavior.It's called the "nudge" philosophy and even has a Wikipedia entry. One might term it a psy-ops campaign to lull you into needing the government to make sure you're ok.
  I suggest that if you spend any time at all online or watching television, you'll be a nervous wreck, more consumed with your personal mental, physical and economic health than you are with either the world or your neighbors.
  Now if you've listened to the news the last couple days, you might be aware that before he jetted out of DC, Obama gave a wide ranging interview to NPR in which he claimed that many people who disagree with him do so because of the color of his skin. 

Inskeep pointed out that polls show that most Americans disapprove of Obama’s handling of ISIS. “Well, I think what’s fair is that post-Paris you had a saturation of news about the horrible attack there. And ISIL combines viciousness with very savvy media operations,” the president said.

And as a consequence, if you’ve been watching television for the last month, all you have been seeing, all you have been hearing about is these guys with masks or black flags who are potentially coming to get you,” he said. “And so I understand why people are concerned about it…”

“You referred to ISIL’s sophisticated media operation and also referred to what Americans are seeing in the American media,” Inskeep said. “Are you suggesting that the media are being played in a sense here?”

“Look, the media is pursuing ratings,” Obama said. “This is a legitimate news story. I think that, you know, it’s up to the media to make a determination about how they want to cover things.”

“There is no doubt that the actions of ISIL are designed to amplify their power and the threat that they pose. That helps them recruit, that adds in the twisted thoughts of some young person that they might want to have carry out an action, that somehow they’re part of a larger movement. And so I think that the American people absorb that, understandably are of concern.”

  Note that Mr. Obama refers to ISIS as ISIL, a slam to Israel. 
  Note also that as an American living in Obama's America, you aren't supposed to be afraid of terrorism in any form or any of the hideous diseases immigrants might bring over, regardless what Snopes says about the US being too cold here to support it.
  So basically you ARE supposed to fear conditions and abuses dramatically described in government PSAs but you are NOT supposed to fear being blown apart at work or on a Las Vegas sidewalk because those incidents are just, you know, really really rare, even if they've happened in Boston, New York, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, Chattanooga, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Washington, Richmond, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia.... 
  It's just the media pursuing ratings.
  And you. It's your fault.
  It's just you. 
  Admittedly, my 6 pound dog really is a bully.
  I'm afraid.

Faith? Obama's faith is only in himself

  So the Washington Post has a great article about how Obama's "faith" has meant so much to him during his presidency.  It is entitled: The quiet impact of Obama’s Christian faith:Why the president’s convictions led him to believe he could unite a divided country — and why he failed
  It is replete with touching photographs of Obama praying, bowing his head, holding hands with other people.
  What I didn't get was the "why he failed" part because it just isn't in there. Here's a sample of the meaningful and touching rhetoric of Jaffe in describing Obama's deeply held faith: 

Obama did not grow up in a religious household and became a practicing Christian as an adult. He has written more extensively about his spiritual awakening than almost any other modern president, addressing it in two books before he was elected to the White House and in more than a dozen speeches since.

His faith had been central to his identity as a new kind of Democrat who would bring civility to the country’s political debates by appealing to Republicans through the shared language of their Judeo-Christian values.

With just one year left in his second term, Obama now holds a different distinction: No modern president has had his faith more routinely questioned and disparaged. Recent polls show that 29 percent of Americans and nearly 45 percent of Republicans say he is a Muslim.

  A primary relationship Jaffe cites is with a doctor who is pro-life who wrote him a letter while he was in the Illinois legislature. This relationship, to my mind, perfectly exemplifies the trouble with Obama's relating to other people.
  The doctor wrote to Obama, expressing concern that so often abortion rights advocates use heated language in describing pro-lifers....language that indicates that the pro-lifer is somehow deficient in understanding the dilemma of pregnant women. 
  Of course, the doctor and Obama have never met, but somehow Obama knew enough about the doctor to assume other political positions about him and repeatedly cite the doctor anonymously in numerous speeches and even his biography. 
  Obama felt comfortable talking about this letter to millions of people but never bothered to actually meet with him for that fair and balanced debate he's always claiming he's up for.
  In fact, the doctor was upset because Obama voted four times against the Born Alive Act in which babies who are born alive are protected by law as human beings, what Lila Rose calls "infanticide."
  We all know how Obama has pampered Planned Parenthood, even in the midst of the horrifying video scandal which revealed the marketing and sale of baby body parts. Democrats challenged the videos only by saying they had been "edited," which they had for time. The pro life group of course, released the videos in their entirety. Anyone watching those videos would have trouble believing that Planned Parenthood didn't know what they were doing.
  The WaPo article is typical of the media: release small details and paint a broad picture of compassion of any Democrat, even when the Democrat party are the ones who actually booed God.
  Now, I know God can take it, but I can't.
  The announcement today that the Obama administration will investigate the government's role in fetal tissue research leaves out the part about not investigating the Planned Parenthood scandal.
  This proposal on the Post's part that Obama actually has any kind of Christian faith is absurd.
  He not only doesn't value Christians or Christianity, he mocks and ridicules them.
  I know one thing.
  I doubt if, in my lifetime, I will ever vote for a Democrat again.

Pardon My Schadenfreude

Steve Harvey says no one feels worse about the Miss Universe error than he does. Ya think?
"Miss Universe host Steve Harvey says no one feels worse than he does about his mistake awarding Colombia the crown before Miss Universe. Harvey spoke to reporters assembled at the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino where the pageant concluded with him awarding the crown to the wrong person."
How the hell does something like this happen? Colombia contestant Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo was already wearing the crown and had walked down the runway before Harvey caught the mistake. Normally I don't comment on show biz but there is a certain irony to the faux paz. For several years the Miss Universe Contest had been a Donald Trump enterprise until Univision in a fit of moral pique severed the connection after Trump made less than flattering comments about the low morality of some Mexican illegals.
Celebrity judge and ass clown Perez Hilton celebrated the liberation from the racist Trump and Harvey was much amused.



But not for long.



Trump was quick to capitalize on the error.

"@Themyamccurry: Where's @realDonaldTrump when you need em? #MissUniverse2015"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2015

Not content with his on air fiasco Harvey took to Twitter to prove that his writing skills are just as lacking as his reading skills by misspelling the countries of origin of both contestants. The tweet was captured before Harvey could delete it.

Deleted now but here it was. Oof pic.twitter.com/we7aNEpbm3

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) December 21, 2015

Hey! When you're hot you're hot. Trump is like an Old Testament God. Mock him and there is immediate retribution.

All eyes are on Bernie Sanders

If you're thinking with the upcoming Democratic debate all eyes are on Hillary you're wrong. According to Google Trends Bernie Sanders leads all comers in Google searches in the 4 hours
leading up to the debate.

Thanks Speaker Ryan. Omnibus spending bill promises more foreign workers, more Syrian refugees, more abortions, and more cyber surveillance.

Numbers USA, the immigration reform group has put members of Congress on notice that it will score votes on the omnibus spending bill. A letter to House members reads in part;

At a time when U.S. immigration policy is under public fire for endangering national security, taking scarce jobs from American workers, and depressing American wages, it is outrageous that Congress would use the omnibus spending bill to double down on precisely these objections.
The bill completely thwarts the will of the American people--and risks their physical safety--by fully funding President Obama's plan to bring to the United States an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees who cannot be properly vetted, according to the FBI and intelligence experts. In fact, the omnibus increases funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for resettling refugees in the United States, by more than $100 million over last year's level.
Even worse, the omnibus includes a provision that would effectively quadruple low-skilled H-2B temporary non-agricultural workers and further undercut America's most vulnerable workers. This provision has not been debated by any congressional committee and has no place in a spending bill.

In truth the spending bill goes beyond permitting Obama to import 10,000 Syrian potential terrorists it provides $1.6 billion to resettle them. This is a betrayal of the voters. The H-2B visa program was expanded without discussion. There were no committee hearings. It is blatant constituency service for a few wealthy Washington insiders whom Speaker Ryan views as his true constituency.
Also slipped into the corrupt document although not as egregious as continuing the funding of the giant baby parts wholesaler Planned Parenthood is the cyber security language that has garnered bipartisan opposition from Republican Justin Amash and Democrat Zoe Lofgren. Again with no hearings.   "The bill should not be in the omnibus. It's a surveillance bill more than a cyber bill. I'm going to vote against the omnibus as a consequence," say Lofgren.
In the end there is nothing in this bill for the nation writ large. It's merely graft. Do just be angry, call (202) 224-3121 and give your congressman an earful.

Those Crazy Interventionist Republicans

The GOP presidential debates have been hard on viewers. With 9 people speaking at once there is a general drift from topic leaving the viewer grasping for continuity and coherence. Kudos to Wolf Blitzer who stumbled upon a real divide in the Republican Party, a substantial and important divide. On the matter of foreign policy Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Donald Trump part company with the rest of the field. They define their objective quite simply to protect the nation by destroying ISIS, limiting immigration and securing the border. The remainder of the field is stuck in the NeoCon thinking of the Bush - Cheney era. They would remove Bashar Assad, establish a no fly zone in Syria, repartition Iraq, punch Putin in the nose, shoot down Russian planes and somehow conscript an army of moderate Sunni Muslims to do the dirty work. The Book of Revelations looks like rather modest speculation compared to the things they have planned for this planet.



Had Donald Trump threatened to shoot down a Russian fighter jet Paul Ryan would have again broken his rule of not commenting on presidential politics and excoriated Trump. Reince Priebus would have begun chatting about a contested convention again and someone from NATO would have denounced him as a war monger. Even during the cold war Christie's empty-headed threat would have been condemned in the world press but probably because of his insignificance in the race his opinion went unnoticed. To refer to John Kasich as unhinged would almost be a redundancy. The man is a brick shy of a full load but just for spite he would punch Russia in the nose as soon has he finishes repartitioning Iraq. Marco Rubio would be better served running in the other party. He backed Obama and Hillary in the Libyan War and his role in the Gang of 8 immigration bill would make him a certain for Veep. Carson, Cruz, Trump and Paul have a realistic perception of governments' ability to do good while the establishment pack have boundless faith.
And we thought Trump and Cruz were the crazies.

So who won last night's debate?

  Charles Hurt is right in one respect; the next debate needs to be winnowed down to the primary candidates, including Bush, Kasich, Paul and maybe even Carly need to drop down to the kids' debate. Overrun that debate with the lesser popular candidates.
  As far as who won.
  Well, I hate to say it, but I think Trump performed well, generally, though I did not see the opening 20 minutes due to grandkids screaming in the background.
  Bush, Kasich and Paul all seem to have a bad case of indigestion and maybe even constipation. Carly is an excellent debater and I'd hate to see her go but she doesn't seem to be getting any traction. She did well by focusing on Hillary and the larger issues rather than sniping at the other candidates.
  I am a huge Carson fan; he's a fine human being and will be my number one candidate until he drops out.
  Cruz sounded good but again I keep hearing women say they simply do not like him: something about him irritates women.  We'll see how that goes: his investment banker wife is said to be an important part of Cruz's future success; even Dershowitz says Cruz was the brightest student he ever taught.
  Cruz's brightness is a real benefit; he knows how to turn a negative situation into a positive. He's not condescending or shrill and he is capable of understanding intellectually how to retrieve success from a difficult situation.
  Trump is bright in his own way, but he, as most of the candidates last night, needs to get some new talking points. I get the feeling Trump is more like a shark in the water, hunting prey and a good opportunity.
  People are saying today that Rubio did well on foreign policy; Rubio seems like a really nice guy but an establishment guy.
  Rumors are out there that Cruz might actually be someone the big money Republicans are looking at. If so, that'd be interesting.
  My personal assessment is that Trump, Cruz and Rubio did well for themselves. Carson's still in the running, but the rest are not.
 

Obama administration incompetence on display in DHS hearing

  I had heard about this DHS employee's performance in front of the House Oversight Committee but hadn't seen it until now.
  Her behavior is just incredible: it brings to mind more questions about Obama's appointees.
  Does he pick incompetent people on purpose to fulfill the Alinsky model of overwhelming the system with enormous debt, a huge bureaucracy that will collapse of its own weight, thus ushering in a more totalitarian government to solve everyone's infantile needs?
  Really.
  Why are there so many people like this in his administration?
  Like the Obamacare website that cost millions and millions of dollars more than any other website in the world and yet still fails to operate correctly, does Obama intentionally find cronies who are willing to look like complete dolts to the entire country and yet destroy any semblance of organization or efficiency only to be offered some cushy crony job when they leave the most transparent administration in the history of the country?
  Really.

Trump vs Cruz, Heart vs Head

If we are to believe the hype tomorrows night's CNN debate will be the battle between two Titans, Trump and Cruz for the hearts and minds of the Republican Party. Not quite. Donald Trump has already won its heart but Ted Cruz has won its mind. The thought of a Ted Cruz inauguration few weeks less than 8 years after Rick Santelli's epic rant that launched the Tea Party would be a dream come true. Cruz is not just a Tea Party politician he is the hardest of the hard liners. He has never compromised on a solitary principle of conservatism. One example of his steadfast adherence to principle is his instance that the ethanol mandate be abolished and he had the integrity to tell the corn farmers of Iowa as much. Not even Texas Governor Rick Perry whose home state produces the most oil in the nation agreed. “I don’t think you pull the RFS (Renewable Fuel Standards) out and discriminate against the RFS and leave all these other subsidies,” he said. Almost every other Republican in the field at that time which included Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Scott Walker echoed Perry's sentiment.
Whether the issue is Obamacare, gun rights, abortion or amnesty Cruz has never flinched. He is universally detested by the leadership of both parties and biggest threat to the bipartisan cooperation  since the attack on Fort Sumter.
Trump on the other hand is not without his strong points. He has truly made politics fun. He revels in controversy, he brags, he bullies, he exaggerates but yet there is method to this madness. By breaking every rule of politics and polite decorum he now holds a 27 point lead over the field. In a world of self doubting, equivocating and frequently corrupt sycophants he is a breath of fresh air. He plays the Marlboro Man to Obama"s Pajama Boy. His bold nationalism is a refreshing relief to Obama's global-interdepent-communtiy-of-nations bullshit.
As amusing as his what appears to be impulsive behavior is to watch one must wonder if a Trump administration would be as much fun as a Trump campaign. He has not fought for a single conservative or for that matter liberal principle. Only he knows his true convictions. There is no record on which to judge him. He is a blank slate. It will be an interesting debate.

Dr. Judith Curry and Mark Steyn school climate science denier Sen. Ed Markey on global warming.

Ouch! Dinesh D'souza checks Amherst student's white privilege

Notice how he loses some of his enthusiasm for social justice when Dinesh D'souza suggests that he give up his own place at Amherst.

Will the next Republican debate reveal that only Obama and Trump think we are at war?

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump did not get to be a billionaire businessman by opening with his best offer. When I wrote that he would win the Muslim travel ban debate I noted that he intentionally tries to make controversial policies sound as unpalatable as possible. He didn't get rich by leaving money on the negotiating table. This the same tactic he used when he spelled out his solution to the Mexican immigration issue and perhaps we will see it again. It is a tactic and not a new tactic but one his opponents fall for every time. Democrats, Republicans, and the media cannot resist taking the bait. I just looks too good. They can't help themselves. They fuss, fume and tweet while waiting for the polling data. Then they cultivate acceptance.
There are at least 3 advantages to this ploy. First it moves the debate from the middle of the field toward his position. Now the entire electorate expects that as president Trump would build that wall and at least enforce immigration law at the border and the workplace even if he cannot deport all 11 million. Second it allows the opposition to claim some sort of face saving victory. If for instance an open border lobby could insist that he only deport 10 million an agreement here would be a huge victory. Third, it emboldens those who feel the same to come forward.
Larry Kudlow would be an example of the third advantage. Kudlow worked in the Office of Budget and Management during the Reagan years and while never being an on air liberal he was circumspect enough to keep a job at CNBC. Since his retirement he has been making noise about opposing Senator Richard Blumenthal to become senator from Connecticut. He has been a consistent conservative but never a wild-eyed Trumpster. Suddenly he is demanding that the border be secured and all visa waivers be halted. In a post at National Review Online he makes it clear he is ready to go to the mattresses.

I know this is not my usual position. But this is a war. Therefore I have come to believe there should be no immigration or visa waivers until the U.S. adopts a completely new system to stop radical Islamic terrorists from entering the country. A wartime lockdown. And a big change in my thinking. ISIS and related Islamic terrorists are already here. More are coming. We must stop them. Until FBI director James Comey gives us the green light, I say seal the borders.

A wartime lockdown? Trump didn't go that far. Kudlow points out that he does not agree with Trump that Muslims should be banned as he would ban everyone but in doing so he makes Trump sound like the moderate. Now that polls show considerable support for Trump's position how many Republican candidates will maintain in the next debate that migration to the United States is a global civil right? One suspects they will be very close to either Trump or Kudlow by Tuesday.

Shake the bushes and you'll scare out the rabbits

The adage states "Shake the bushes and you'll scare out the rabbits" but who knew the ACLU was this hare brained? The ACLU did eventually sack board member Loring Wirbel but not until after it had defended his right to urge his FaceBook followers to shoot Republicans. Considering the organization's historical reverence for the first amendment and its recent misguided crusade against gun ownership having a director who urged gun violence against the voters must have been just too embarrassing to sustain.
Wirbel at first tried the Weiner defense maintaining that the screen capture of his post was somehow a collection of things he posted in the past and did not reflect the contents of this post.


One wonders if the Colorado Springs Police Department, FaceBook, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch would have been so sanguine and so protective of Wirbel's right to his opinion had he suggested shooting Muslims before election day.
While I have some concern that I may enjoy the Trump campaign a lot more than the Trump administration I subscribe to the opinion that only a polarizing candidate can win the 2016 election. Any candidate genuinely against the Washington Establishment, its corruption and its political correctness is, ipso facto, polarizing. The louder Trump turns up the volume the more rabbits like Wirbel will jump out of the bushes and it will be Hillary who will have to defend her loony surrogates and followers.

Christie surges in New Hampshire, sort of

One could hardly call one good poll a trend but placing second in a New Hampshire poll probably exceeded the Christie team's wildest dreams. The WBUR / Mass Poll gives Christie 12% which is good enough for second place in the Granite State. Undoubtedly voters remember that Christie was a federal prosecutor before he was an Obama hugger and reason he would be handy to have around after a terrorist attack. Put another way he is in first place among the also ran's

Trump	27%
Christie	12%
Rubio	11%
Cruz	10%
Bush	8%
Kasich	7%
Carson	6%

They know what ISIS wants

Are you the only mope on the planet who doesn't know exactly what ISIS wants?

Mr. Brokaw, have you no shame?

It's both fair and accurate, I believe, to define the Washington Establishment as primarily the leadership of both political parties, lobbyists, political consultancies, high level bureaucrats and former elected and appointed officials and most importantly the enforcer of Establishment ethics, the liberal media. Since 2010 the Tea Party has challenged the Establishment and for its efforts has been subjected to abuse from high level bureaucrats primarily from the IRS and from a almost constant barrage of malice and calumny from the liberal media.
As of late Donald Trump with the support of some Tea Party partisans and opposition from other has emerged as the chief threat to Washington insiders and their privileged way of life. When Trump challenged liberal dogma and political correctness he incurred bipartisan wrath as could be expected. If there is one thing the highest elected office holder of both parties, Speaker Paul Ryan and Barrack Obama, through his spokesman Josh Ernest, could agree upon it was Donald Trump is no good. He is not who we are. He does not represent the thinking of most Americans and the final absurdity, he is a recruiting tool for ISIS.
Enter media henchman Tom Brokaw whose organization NBC, regularly probes the lower limits of journalistic integrity with blatant falsehoods from Brian Williams and Obama administration talking points served up by Al Sharpton as if they were his own. In less than 3 minutes Brokaw manages to compare Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler and Joe McCarthy while linking him to the Japanese interment and the Jim Crow South concluding with Obama's premise that any criticism of Islam is a recruiting tool for ISIS.

Poll: 65% of Republican primary voters agree with Trump

There are some problems with online polling but its proponents point out that the accuracy of online polling when conducted by reputable polling firms compares favorably with traditional telephone polling. Aside from being cheaper online polls can be conducted must faster. That said a recent Bloomberg poll conducted by the polling firm Purple Strategies finds that 65% of Republican primary voters agree with his call to stop the immigration of all Muslims into the US.



If conventional polling bears this finding out it congressional Republicans who condemned Trump owe the voters an apology. In a moral universe they would resign.

Trump vs Media Group Think

I suspect one of the reasons Donald Trump prefers phone interviews, which both network and cable television is happy to arrange, is because he has trouble keeping a straight face. For a full day he dominated the news cycle while the media beclowned itself. It was like Jerry Springer on all 3 cable channels as alleged experts on religion, constitutional law and electoral politics pondered whether Trump could be indicted for hate speech, how Muslims serving in the military and deployed abroad would ever get home and was this the opportunity that so long had eluded Jeb Bush. It was television at it's very worst in technical terms as if each anchor had been issued a glossary of the most hackneyed prose in the English tongue. Boots on the ground, media firestorm, moderate Muslims, and the perennial favorite, at the end of the day, were served up in an orgy of moral outrage and political correctness. Almost every personage displayed a pained facial expression probably causing many a viewer to wonder if the nation was not in the midst of a hemorrhoid epidemic.
Trump is guilty, guilty of politically incorrect speech and many who consider themselves to be quite immune to that thought malady gave it up for Speaker Paul Ryan who announced that this was not what his party stood for. Only in Washington can a person pass legislation restricting the flow of refugees and condemn someone who suggests taking it one step further. Only in Washington can supposed leaders be so distant from the very real fears of the people they presume to represent. A recent ABC / Washington Post poll found only 26% of Americans wanted to take in Syrian refugees and the House voted 289 to 137 to block the inflow but when Trump proposed expanding the ban to all Muslims until Ryan and his cohorts could figure out how to keep out the likes of Malik Tashfeen, well, that is not what the Republican Party is about.
Many consider Bill Clinton to be the sharpest politician of all time but he could not shine Donald Trump's shoes. It is like Patterson versus Liston or Fischer versus Spassky or Secretariat versus the field. It may not be true tomorrow but today Trump is in a league of his own. He is a real anomaly, a blue collar billionaire who without polling or focus groups is more in tune with the guy mounting tires 40 hours a week than the rest of the Republican Party cum Frank Luntz.
Everybody took the head fake but eventually Trump will roll out the specifics of his presumed plan to persecute Muslims and it will be like his plan for dealing with the Mexican immigration problem. It will be stern but not outrageous. In the meantime Trump has received more free air time than the candidates of both parties could purchase in 10 years.
I meant to post the video below earlier just after it was filmed but enjoy it now. It's unlikely you saw it on television but to balance today's excesses watch the bigoted billionaire interrupt his speech, leave the stage and promise a disabled veteran to do his best to get him the medical care he deserves. It's a bit more genuine than Obama's fainting woman act.

Immigration from countries whose populations want to kill us? Stupid.

  I've written before that I'm not a big Trump fan: I dislike that so many of his acolytes behave exactly like Obama's acolytes.
  I also dislike the fact that he is continuing the Obama tradition of excoriating political enemies and lowering the bar for civility. 
  That said, I've also written that every time I say something like that, he says or does something that makes me laugh at the pompous asses who feel they know better than the rest of us rubes. They busily write about Obama's pant creases, their tony vacations abroad with the morons who actually work for a living, and the shock they feel when someone actually tells the truth.
  Really, I despise them. I say this a bit regretfully because I have found that though I am passionate about politics, it doesn't do a person any good to shout invectives at circumstances they can't change.
  But, really, this whole immigration business.
  That jackass Josh "Earnest" stands up at his little podium and announces that Trump should withdraw because he's not fit for office really, really pisses me off, evidence by the fact that I'm swearing while writing and not following my own advice. That the likes of Obama, Hillary and Kerry, after lying repeatedly to the people, contemptuously breaking laws with impunity, lording it over the taxpayers by manipulating tax code and laws, that the likes of those liars would feel they have the moral authority to tell ANYONE they aren't fit for office really pisses me off.
  Hoosierman is right.
  Trump will win this debate.
  Frankly, I don't know exactly what he said. It didn't sound very nice, it's true, but the reality is that something needs to be done about immigration from countries where people want to kill us just because.
  And that's exactly what has the average American angry; they don't take us seriously. They live behind their gated communities with their armed guards and criticize the likes of us for not wanting to end up like Sweden which has become the rape capital of the West, Germany whose population will soon be overwhelmed by young violent immigrants, or France which has no-go zones where police are not allowed to set foot, much less a Jewish person.
  So, yes, Trump WILL win this debate because people are so dang tired of all the political correctness, dodging and manipulation.
  See, we know you laugh at us.
  We know you think you are better than us, smarter than us, richer than us, wiser than us.
  Only thing is you're not.
  Any of those things.
  And we all know it. 
  Trump has a way of sliding the knife in (figuratively speaking) while crudely making his point. 
  Let me be clear.
  I don't feel hostile toward all Muslims. I just think it makes sense to take a break from importing people who want to kill us and I do wonder why the Obama State Department thinks it's even rational to deny Christians--who are the most persecuted in the Middle East--immigration status because they aren't persecuted by their government. They're just being tortured and beheaded because the people of their own countries hate them.
  I also don't want Trump to be president, though I'd vote for him over the liar Hillary.
  I just think, though crudely stated, he's right.
  Since I'm visiting out here in San Bernardino, you can bet that I DO think he's right, even though Obama and the rest of his true believers are acting like there's no such thing as terrorism. 
  OR it's a nuisance. A setback.
  So, no, we don't need James Taylor out here singing "you've got a friend."
  We need the people we pay to keep this country secure to do their jobs.
  Slugs, thugs and profligates.
  And does anyone remember when Jimmy Carter banned Iranians? 
  And about that Constitutional issue? It's not a problem. Instapundit points out that the Supreme Court even upheld FDR's Japanese internment.

Trump will win the Muslim travel ban debate

Here we go again. One would think seasoned media figures and especially fellow Republican presidential candidates would learn to listen to Donald Trump before they comment. When he said he would build a wall there was unanimous outrage. He was a xenophobic, racist, jingoistic, chauvinistic imbecile who would be hounded of of the presidential race if not the country. Univision dropped his Miss Universe contest and Macy's cancelled his line of ties and shirts. The Mexican government found his remarks to be "prejudicial and absurd" and front runner Jeb Bush assured everyone that the wall would not work and furthermore the Republican Party faced "a stark choice–both on issues and world view between himself and the real estate mogul and reality television celebrity"
Since then Trump has sued Univision, 30,000 Macy customers have cut up their Macy's credit cards and Jeb Bush is at 3% in the polls, the voter having made the stark choice–both on issues and world view between him and the real estate mogul and reality television celebrity.
Today when Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the country until "our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." his fellow candidates went berserk as did the media. Here's a sample:

.@realdonaldtrump removes all doubt: he is running for President as a fascist demagogue.

— Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley) December 7, 2015

The U.S. is a strong nation when we stand together. We are weak when we allow racism and xenophobia to divide us. cc: @realDonaldTrump

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 7, 2015

Donald Trump is unhinged. His "policy" proposals are not serious.

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 7, 2015

.@Realdonaldtrump has gone from making absurd comments to being downright dangerous with his bombastic rhetoric.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 7, 2015

Donald Trump is unhinged. His "policy" proposals are not serious.

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 7, 2015

.@Realdonaldtrump has gone from making absurd comments to being downright dangerous with his bombastic rhetoric.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 7, 2015

Is a temporary ban on all Muslim travel to this country all that far out? President Obama did say the nation was at war with ISIL. If the country is on a wartime footing is not security to be taken seriously? The House and Senate are currently trying to draft legislation that would prevent an influx of Syrian refugees. Is that dangerous and bombastic? The fact that San Bernardino shooter Malik Tashfeen entered the country legally as did the Tsamarv brothers and all of the 9/11 hijackers certainly begs the question as to how well visa applicants are vetted. But just because a plan may be reasonable doesn't mean that's the way Trump sells it. He appears to go out of his way to to make it sound  unpalatable, allow the critics to take their shots and watch as his poll numbers rise. His critics always take the head fake, fume, fret and tweet and eventually crawfish their way close to his position. Within a week all of the GOP candidates will be close to Trump's position. He plays them and they love it.

Between parties, Obama scolds America

  So The Prince--Obama--broke himself away from a party with *movie stars*! who undoubtedly slavered all over him encouraging his speech to do nothing to combat terrorism--only to return to the party after those wearisome 13 minutes addressing the issue of dead Americans to live Americans.
  Wait. Was that what the speech was about? 
  Mmmmmm. Maybe it was about how so many Americans are so mean to Muslims. 
  Huh. Or maybe it was about how the people who were murdered who were Asian, black, white.....but what relation does race have--again--to do with the San Bernardino murders? Aren't these are post-racial days, now that we have a black president?
  Huh uh. Well, maybe it was about taking guns away from law abiding citizens so they can't stop murderers like the quiet typical housewife named Tashfeen Malik whose name is also the name of a historical Muslim jihadist "symbolic with Muslim victory over Christians."
    Uh, no. Or maybe it was about shaming Republicans for not passing a law that would actually limit the powers of the presidency.
   Well, maybe that speech was really about the first responders at San Bernardino or the fact that America was attacked by terrorists...again. Oh. But he spent only 6 and a 1/2 minutes talking about terrorists while he spent 3 1/2 minutes talking about not discriminating against Muslims. Didn't mention first responders because.
  So what was it about?
  I think....I'm just guessing here...it was an attempt to comfort people that he's hard at work on the job keeping Americans safe in spite of reports that numerous military and security agencies have said Obama ignores the truth about our nation's security.
  And then back to the party.

AP Photo from USA Today

  Yes, back to the party, where the likes of John Kerry (ISIS is a nuisance!) can fete his neighbors for their accomplishments of making movies and singing and stuff.
  And then there's the party--a ball!--tonight, where Michelle! will be able to wear yet another Oscar de la Renta gown that costs a year's salary for those poor McDonald's workers the left is always lamenting.
   But, hey, it's not like it's D-Day all over again or anything.

"Diamond" and "Silk" bring down the house at Trump's rally

Maybe by the time someone writes the history of the 2016 presidential election it will dawn on them that much of Donald Trump's popularity comes from the fact that he has made politics fun. He would be anathema on major college campuses which are dominated by blue nosed, over privileged, supercilious under achievers but in the heartland he rocks. His campaign rallies are a throw back to the days when Norman Lear and Mel Brooks dominated comedy. If his rallies are short on information they are long on entertainment. They are mocking, irreverent, boisterous and a little bit bawdy. Serious and sometimes outrageous statements are juxtaposed with banter and comic burlesque which drive his success in the polls.
Who else but Donald Trump would invite Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson to share the stage? Mitt Romney? John McCain? Hillary Clinton? No they are too consumed with the importance of their own words.
"Diamond" and "Silk" bring down the house at Trump's Raleigh, North Carolina rally with;

He's gonna build that wall
He's gonna build it tall
He's gonna protect us all

Too dumb to wash your hands? We have an app for you.

Imagine if you will, that you have just crossed the southern border and now find yourself picking lettuce in the Salinas Valley. Suddenly you realize that no one ever showed you how to wash you hands. No problem. Just whip out your iPhone and download the Hand Washing App. If you are an Android user maybe you can go on sabbatical until an app becomes available for your Obamaphone.
You cannot make this stuff up. Rather than enforce immigration law it is easier to hire illegal workers from God knows where and teach them to wash their hand so the diners at Chipolte don't get E.coli. From an industry web site The Packer.

New field workers can learn about proper handwashing from a smartphone thanks to a new app from the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement.

April Ward, LGMA’s communications director, said during Fresh Summit, that the group just made the app available on Apple devices and soon will have it on Android.

It’s a five-minute video, available in English and Spanish, which shows proper handwashing procedure in six easy steps.

“We know field worker turnover is high, so they need to be able to learn quickly,” Ward said Oct. 25.

She said LGMA’s technical director Mike Villaneva coordinated the effort, and the group plans to have another app on hygiene soon.

Learn quickly? Does she mean by age 40? These workers have reached adulthood without having mastered that arcane skill but if they have 600 bucks to shell out for iPhone they can learn how to not piss on their fingers in only 5 minutes. What next? A put the condom on the cucumber app? Are you bothered by the fact that some people find it easier to use a smartphone than wash their hands?

Loretta Lynch reveal her greatest fear, " the incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric"

Fourteen Americans died and another 21 were wounded so it's only natural that Attorney General Loretta Lynch would threaten with prosecution anyone who speaks ill of Muslims. Did the slimy bitch have time to go to California and console the victims and the families of the deceased? No. She rushed to  Muslim Advocates' 10th anniversary dinner to express her worst fear namely, the "incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric" in America and vowed to prosecute anyone guilty of what she deemed violence-inspiring speech.
Perhaps the San Bernardino massacre could have been prevented had a neighbor informed authorities of the suspicious activity at her neighbor's home but the poor woman had been cowered into silence by the likes of Loretta Lynch. While FBI Director James Comey has announced that the San Bernardino shooting is being investigated as terrorism you will not hear that word from Ms Lynch let alone Muslim terrorism.

Terrorists' family attorneys press conference was RIDICULOUS

  Wow. That was the worst press conference I have ever seen, excepting maybe when Patricia Schroeder, running for POTUS, burst into tears when she withdrew from the race.
  Or maybe Gary Rice declaring follow me.
  There was some Democrat who turned into a nutbag on camera too and broke down weeping but I can't remember his name.
  This press conference was absurd.
  They blamed the FBI for investigating. 
  Whined about family members being QUESTIONED about what their family members did.
  Complained the murderer was BULLIED over a beard.
  Said TWO DAYS AFTER THE MURDERS that this press conference was ALL ABOUT HEALING and FORGIVENESS.
  REALLY????
  The FBI is being MEAN to the family members.
  The murderous woman was simply a "caring housewife," quiet and demure.
  The murderous son tinkered with cars.
  The family had NO IDEA there were dozens of bombs and ammo and a bomb making facility in their dwellings.
  This ISN'T what America is ABOUT, they explained, and what AMERICA IS ABOUT is freedom of faith and loving Muslims who never DREAM of doing anything like this.
  There is NO connection, the nutbag lawyers explained, between the murderers and terrorist organizations and the FBI is leaping to conclusions.
  One lawyer actually said just because he looked at a Britney Spears video didn't mean anything because he hates Britney Spears' music just as Farook spent time on terrorist websites, the wife LIKED something on Facebook and they destroyed their hard drives and phones, put on Kevlar and set pipe bombs in the facility...that doesn't mean they were terrorists!
  I realize that was a poorly written sentence but I'm so mad right now I could spit.
  Meanwhile local concerns are that there are more men in this terror cell in San Bernardino.
  Breathtaking!
  And typical of the Obama outlook on how to manipulate the sheeple.
  MEANWHILE, does America even know we've been hit by a terrorist attack? AGAIN?
  Just a coupla misunderstood gentle giants, RIGHT?

San Bernardino: was Farook's wife a jihad fighter? More...

  It's a great time to be visiting San Bernardino, eh? 
  My timing is almost as good as the president, given his propensity to leap to conclusions.
  Many offices in the area of the shooting are closed through the weekend; a nearby church was used as a retreat for the survivors. The street that church sits on is still closed today as authorities comb it for clues.
  Frankly, I was and continue to be shocked by Obama's and his administration's response to this terrorist attack.
  The man who called the Fort Hood attack "workplace violence" is still hoping to tag this monstrous event as such, anything to avoid saying that Muslim extremists are blood thirsty haters who relish American and Christian blood.
  I don't know how anyone could say or think that this president actually cares about the people of the United States.
  He offers limpid sympathy for the victims and sends his DOJ out to warn that any American who "edges toward violence" in speech toward Muslims will be prosecuted. 
  How's that for sympathy?
  The nation reels and the media cozies up to the workplace violence rationale, which borders on such absurdity that it is inconceivable that any intelligent human being would or could possibly believe it.
  Several items which, unfortunately, are something we all need to keep in mind.

• This husband and wife may be part of a larger cell in the area, given the fact that they destroyed their hard drives, phones and contact information and given the fact that larger numbers of Middle Eastern men were seen going in and out of the house which held numerous bombs.
• The identify of the wife is still not really known though details are beginning to drip out.  Shoebat believes her name is a nom de guerre for a jihadist fighter who seeks revenge on Christians:

Tashfeen Malik (King) is a nom de guerre for a Muslim Jihadist from the annals of Muslim history. As he is known to Muslims “تاشفين ملك الموحدين” Tashfeen Malik Al-Muahideen, in English: Tafhseen King of the Unitarians (Muslims) and the conquerer of the west. The history stems from when Yusuf ibn Tashfin led the Muslim forces in the Battle of Zallaqa/Sagrajas. He came to Andalusia from Morocco to help the Muslims fight against Alfonso VI, eventually achieving victory and allowing the Muslims to remain in Spain for centuries. The battle has been symbolic for Muslim victory against the Christians.

This is a hallmark of ISIS. Another hallmark is that Farook was a devout Muslim, but rarely discussed religion at work. Mr. Farook, 28, born in Illinois and who had Pakistani origins. Police says of his operation that “These were people that came prepared,” “There had to have been some degree of planning that went into this.”

• The administration is deliberately covering for Islamists while attacking Americans who do not want to import more terrorists. Shoebat details the process of acquiring a visa and says it is a joke. 
• Democrats are absolutely out on a freakin' limb, accusing Christians, the NRA, militia groups for this heinous crime in complete denial of reality. As Shoebat says, it will take a multitude of American deaths for them to retreat from their foolhardy positions. For example, though California has the most stringent gun laws in the country, Barbara Boxer said in response to the attack that the nation needs to pass national laws like the ones in California that didn't work so something like this doesn't happen again. The woman as all Democrats seems oblivious that evil exists and that the government can't get to the scene fast enough to prevent it. CRIMINALS DON'T OBEY THE LAW.
• I'm not really impressed with CAIR's expressions of "sympathy."
• The overseas press is doing a better job reporting than most of the American press perhaps because they aren't all leftist democrats.
• Political correctness and political gamesmanship are at an all time high in this country. 
•  Megyn Kelly interviewed several people Thursday night, one of whom (Morten Storm) suggested that the next 3 weeks are critical in watching for new attacks. Two weeks ago, Storm predicted this week's terrorist attack.

  If you do nothing else today, read this article on what to do in an active shooter situation: reframe your thinking and decide what to do beforehand.
  And, personally, the line about his "wife" training Farook seems to indicate the man has less responsibility for his behavior and/or that he was led down the path by an ISIS female fighter. 
  They're all wicked.

Trump leads by 20

The latest ORC / CNN poll puts Donald Trump 20 points ahead of second placed Ted Cruz as gentle Ben Carson fades to third place. To no one's surprise the number one issue concerning voters is terrorism with 50% of respondents making that call. Briefly the top 5:

Trump	36%
Cruz	16%
Carson	14%
Rubio	12%
Christie	4%

The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Trump running away from the field.

Click to enlarge

The Huffington Post average reflects the same.

Not since Bowe Bergdahl went over the hill

It's good to see in these times of strife that at least one civic leader has the wisdom and the courage to put aside the distractions that have consumed both the public and the media for the past two days and focus on the very real threat of climate change. With almost Churchillian resolve Governor Jerry Brown leaves the tranquility of his beloved California and plunges headlong into the messy and deadly business of saving the planet in Paris.
 Environmental battles are nothing new to the stalwart champion of the snail darter and the med fly but the less wise and the less courageous among us are apt to question the Governor's priorities. They may also question his absence and the absence of practically every other elected California state official.
There are absences and there are excused absences and many of California's state leaders of taken their cue from Governor Brown and made the arduous journey to the City of Lights, following a higher calling according to the LA Times.
In an glowing post the Times tells us that during his week long trip, the governor will tout California’s policies, rub shoulders with corporate executives, sign agreements with foreign leaders and be feted at the U.S. ambassador’s residence for his efforts to urge a stronger international accord at the summit which certainly beats the hell out of dealing with the dead and wounded in San Bernardino.
“They’re not calling him Moonbeam anymore,” said Tom Hayden, an environmental activist and former state legislator, former Weatherman and former husband of Jane Fonda who has worked with Brown for years. “This is his moment.”
Oh well!
So who could expect him to cancel his trip? He will however take maybe as much as 4 hours on his way out of the country to console the families of the victims. He had been scheduled to speak at an event Friday with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He will miss that event but will likely maintain the rest of his nearly week-long schedule in France, with his first appearances now expected on Saturday.
While some may quibble he is terribly heavy on noblesse and awful light on the oblige the Sacramento Bee puts it all in perspective.

Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, said there is little Brown can do in the aftermath of the attack that would require him to cancel his plans in France entirely.
“As a practical matter, there probably isn’t much he can do in the situation,” Pitney said. “He may want to make a symbolic show of concern, to demonstrate his sorrow. But again, on the ground level, the governor can’t really do that much anyway, so there probably isn’t a reason for him to shift his plans apart from making a visit to San Bernardino.”

Correct. The state runs itself but the world needs Jerry Brown. To quote the Mamas and the Papas, California dreaming is becoming a reality.

Black Votes Matter!

The media was eager to announce that Donald Trump had met with 100 black pastors but failed to secure an endorsement. It is reported that the meeting was cordial and lasted for 3 hours. One can score the attempt as a loss for Trump but had Mitt Romney managed to persuade a little more than half a million blacks to change their votes from D to R he would be president today. Yes, just 1,074,523 black votes coming from Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit and Richmond would have sealed the deal. Obama won Michigan by 449,313, Ohio by 166,272, Pennsylvania by 309,840 and Virginia by 149,298. Those 4 states cast 67 electoral votes which would have given Romney a total of 273.
Nationwide Obama carried 93% of the black vote and it's very doubtful that Hillary can begin to match that. As can be seen in the graphic below Hillary is not trending in the right direction. To win the election all Trump must do is pare Hillary's share of the black vote to less than 85%. Black votes matter and Trump, should he win the nomination, needs to court this group.

Can you spare a trillion to fight global warming?

One cable news reporter, and I do not remember the network, spoke warmly about the enthusiasm shown by some of the poorest nations attending the Paris COP21 conference to curb green house gases. Indeed some of the poorest nations on the planet stepped up to the plate with the most ambitious plans to save the world. Who could have guessed that? Probably anyone with a rudimentary understanding as to how the ambitious plans would be funded.
The Australian web site Sky News reports that the 48 Least Developed Countries (LDC's) will need a small cash infusion of almost $1 trillion between 2020 and 2030 to deliver on their end of the bargain.

Estimates based on plans submitted by the least-developed countries (LDCs) toward a new UN deal to curb global warming show they will cost around $US93.7 billion ($A130.22 billion) a year from 2020, when an agreement expected to be ironed out in Paris over the next two weeks is due to take effect.

Ironed out? Maybe Barack and Michelle can take in ironing to help out. Of course the LDC's developed ambitious plans; they expect to be paid to implement them. So far the 11 donor nations, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States have pledged a whopping $248 million in additional aid.

This is not about saving the planet this is about shaking down the developed world. The World Bank provides some interesting data. Total GDP for these 48 nations was $867.9 billion in 2014 compared to Texas's $1.648 trillion. The combined population is 932 million which exists on an average of $915 per year. Only 31% percent of that population lives in urban centers so there is little industry so little in fact that per capita emission of CO 2 is 0.3 metric tons compared to China's per capita of 6.7  and the Untied States' 17 metric tons. If the 48 LCD's produced no CO 2 the effect on global temperature models would be zero.
The COP21 plan starts at the top of the marginal cost curve. Put another way the cheapest sources of any commodity are always exploited first whether one is speaking of gold, oil, coal, agriculture land and the resulting crops and even labor. Carbon is no different. If the UN seriously wanted to address the problem it would encourage the donor nations to keep their money at home and not pour it down this rat hole. In a COP21 world McDonalds would recruit its fry cooks from Ivy League schools and farmers would plow deserts. Yet the UN is hot for idea of rewarding countries for doing nothing, countries more renowned for their political corruption, dictatorships, tribal, ethnic and religious conflagrations than for any idealistic aims to save the planet.
So follow the money. Who would benefit from the carbon tax necessary to fund this mania? What sane businessman thinks carbon pricing is a good idea? A sane businessman who worked for a New York bank. From GreenBiz:

The six largest U.S. banking institutions on Monday called for a “strong global climate agreement” and policies that “recognize the cost of carbon.”
JP Morgan Chase Bank, Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo, and Citibank — the four largest commercial banks with assets of $6.5 trillion according to Federal Reserve data — along with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the largest and second largest investment banks with $1.1 trillion in managed mergers and acquisitions — also committed to provide “significant resources” to finance climate solutions.
At a press conference in New York, officers from these banks issued their open letter, timed to coincide with the start of the United Nations General Assembly's new session for which climate change and sustainable development dominate the agenda. This  current UN meeting is seen as a chance to forward hopes for a climate deal at the COP21 UN Climate Convention in Paris later this year.

Are these the same banks Bernie, Elizabeth and Hillary hate? With enemies like them who needs friends?

Clown Obama in Paris: America's the only country with mass shootings

  Whoopsie! Obama, standing in the city of Paris where 130 people were just shot dead in a mass shooting, says without irony:

“With respect to Planned Parenthood, obviously, my heart goes out to the families of those impacted,” Obama said in response to a reporter’s question. “I mean, I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings; this just doesn’t happen in other countries.”

  Even in the left wing "fact checker" (air quotes) Politifact declared Obama's frequent claim that mass shootings happen only in the undesireable country of America.

The data shows that it clearly happens in other countries, and in at least three of them, there’s evidence that the rate of killings in mass-shooting events occurred at a higher per-capita rate than in the United States between 2000 and 2014. The only partial support for Obama’s claim is that the per-capita gun-incident fatality rate in the United States does rank in the top one-third of the list of 11 countries studied. On balance, we rate the claim Mostly False.

  Let's remind ourselves that the reason the founders of this country inserted the Second Amendment was so that we can defend ourselves against an out of control government, especially a fundamentally transformed one.

Obama: a clown on a world stage

  Apparently Obama didn't get "the signal" in Paris when he talked and talked and talked as the French buzzer kept ringing to get him off the stage. Where's a good hook when you need it?
  He's got his big boy face on when he gets buzzed repeatedly; allotted 3 minutes as all leaders, Obama went on and on for a grand total time of 11 minutes over the allotted time others went by.
  It's funny how he purses his mouth up and sternly stares that blank stare out into the crowd, as if people are actually still taking him seriously.
  Seriously.
  Does this guy, who thinks he's a "pretty good president" who ought to be able to run again, not know he's a world laughing stock, voiced out loud by Putin and whispered by many Americans?
  Even some of the faithful can now see it.
  So Mr. Finger Wagging Put Myself in Every Picture-Talk as Long as I want Without Answering Questions--apparently didn't get the signal that he should STFU.
  He's not the anti-Christ but he sure is an agent of the apocalypse.
  Just sayin.'

Under Obama, we really are two different nations

  We are indeed two nations.
  In one nation, people are allowed to say and do whatever they please.
  In another, people fight their government at every turn and are prosecuted for speaking their minds.
  In one nation, citizens have protectors bearing arms against marauders.
  In another, citizens are arrested for personally bearing those arms for protection.
  In one nation, people sit down to meals that cost thousands of dollars at an exclusive highly touted eatery, even while admonishing the hoi polloi against getting near the expensive crystal, joking "you can't afford [to replace it]."
  In another, homeless veterans roam the streets, estimated to be as high as 1 in 4 homeless people.
  In one nation, racism is ignored by the media. It's no big deal to threaten to murder 16 white guys. 
  In another, a leader elected by a majority of people declares racism is "in our DNA."
  In one nation,  children spoiled by indulgent parents and racist overly protective academicians are storming offices, demanding reparations and counseling if someone disagrees with them. Microaggressions range from perceived slights to needing police assistance and then counseling after the terrible trauma of finding a mouse in their apartment.
  In another, a university president announces it's not a bad thing to have a conscience because a university is not a day care center and young people fight and die in other countries, protecting and defending, regardless the ROE declared by the first nation.
  In one nation, a leader stands in another country where dozens of people were injured and murdered and claims massive shootings only happen in America.
  In another, in that same leader's home town a citizen--usually the same race as that same leader-- is murdered every 17 hours by another citizen as the same race as that same leader.
  There's more, of course, but we are all getting the picture.
  Under Obama, the elite have created their own Hunger Games capital, as the wealthiest areas in the entire country are concentrated in the capital, surrounded by other districts who wallow in poverty, anger and crime.
  Congratulations, Barack Obama.
  You have indeed fundamentally transformed America.
  Apparently it was all part of your plan. 
  Most of us don't agree with you but that'd be hard to figure out, given that much of the media who are supposed to report the truth are part of your coterie.