Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Cruz sweeps, Sanders wins in WI, and more political news

I now have an author's page on Amazon, where you can find all 11 of my books:

Bonnie and I were the 251st and 252nd voters in our precinct Tuesday morning. Monday night we took the granddaughter to a Cruz Rally in Waukesha, so she would get an idea of what it is all about. The young girl who sang the National Anthem was light-years better than any of the celebs at the Super Bowl for the last decade or two.


In the last week, I have been unable to read a lot of my email every day. Slammed with medical stuff, personal stuff and political stuff. On the plus side, on Tuesday my weight hit 169.9 lbs, first time under my target weight in two years. ~Bob

Election Update: Conservatives Win in Wisconsin

Conservative Win: Ted Cruz wins Wisconsin's Republican presidential primary

Excerpt: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz decisively won Wisconsin's Republican primary Tuesday, dealing a setback to national front-runner Donald Trump in a state where the brash billionaire had received a cold reception. ... Cruz's statewide victory assured him 18 of the state's 42 delegates. The state GOP also assigns three delegates per congressional district. Cruz won five districts and Trump won one, the 7th Congressional District in the far northern part of the state. Two districts, including Madison's 2nd congressional district, were too close to call as of midnight. ... Cruz was expected to win Wisconsin based on a number of polls released over the past week, though Trump had the most support in the Marquette Law School Poll as recently as February. ... Trump made a last-ditch push in the state over weekend, changing his schedule to campaign in the state along with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. He even predicted a big victory. (Wisconsin GOP defeats Trump, a for a life-long liberal with an aversion to transparency, a contempt for the truth and a past record of shady dealings. Trump said he was completely prochoice, supported partial -birth abortion, and still supports Planned Parenthood. Trump said the illegal immigrant "Dreamers" had convinced him. Trump said Romney lost because he was too harsh on Immigrants. Trump supports big government taking a person's home to benefit another private party. Trump trashed presidents Reagan and Bush every chance he got. Trump contributed to the election campaigns of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emmanuel. Trump praised Obama and said he would be better than Bush. Trump supported Obama’s 2009 stimulus, TARP, and the 2008 auto bailout.  Trump supports Socialist single-payer health care. Trump has praised "his friend" Hillary Clinton on many occasions and said she was doing a great job. Trump is opposed to free trade. It was Hoover signing the Smoot-Hawley bill that collapsed world trade and locked in the great depression, which was only a recession at that point. Trump contributed to Ed Koch for mayor of NY, but said he turned against Koch because Koch wouldn't do him a favor. He tries to buy politicians, a corrupt practice. Trump said he would come down hard on alcohol, limiting individual freedom with the nanny state. Trump said that the Democrats were better than the Republicans on immigration, because the Republicans were "mean spirited" to immigrants, who supported a path to citizenship for them , and who reported that he employed many illegals. Trump as a "businessman" has stiffed his creditors through four business bankruptcies and who would have more money today if he had put his inherited wealth into an S&P index fund. Trump defrauded working people through Trump University. Trump said he will keep the deal with Iran. Trump claimed Al Sharpton and Don King as friends. Trump was for pulling out of Iraq before Obama was, which would have created ISIS sooner. A man who embraces the left wing "Bush lied, people died" talking points. Far-left economist Paul Krugman said Trump is right on economic issues. Trump said military boarding school was tougher than military service. Trump said sex is "my personal Vietnam - I'm like a great and brave soldier" Trump was so inconsistent in his beliefs that he changed parties several times. Trump, after first supporting Israel, now says he'll be "neutral" in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Trump said he would appoint his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, to the Supreme Court – even though she has ruled in favor of partial birth abortion and is considered a pro-abortion fanatic. Trump said Oprah (!) would be a great vice president. Trump had the Clintons at his last wedding and who was urged to run by Bill Clinton. Trump has praised EPA Chief Lisa Jackson. ~Bob)

Conservative Win: Rebecca Bradley elected to state Supreme Court
Excerpt: Justice Rebecca Bradley was elected Tuesday to a 10-year seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, defeating state Appeals Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg in a bitter, highly charged race. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Bradley held a decisive lead over Kloppenburg, who made her second unsuccessful run for a seat on the state’s highest court.

Cruz

Believe the polls now? Ted Cruz projected to win Wisconsin Republican primary
When I pointed out that Cruz was leading in the Marquette and Fox Business polls by 10, and Fox by 13 among those who said they would definitely vote, and that Hillary was leading Trump by 11, they said, "We don't believe the polls." Okay, as I write here in Madison, WI Cruz is leading by over 20%.

Ted Cruz claims 18-delegate win after North Dakota GOP convention
Excerpt: Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz declared victory in North Dakota's weekend convention, after a long grass-roots campaign to elect supporters to the state's unbound delegate slate largely paid off. "I'm thrilled to have the vote of confidence of Republican voters in North Dakota who delivered such a resounding victory today," the senator from Texas said in a statement Sunday evening. "As I met them over the weekend, North Dakota Republicans recognized that I am the only candidate who can move this country forward by protecting freedom and liberty. Whether we defeat Donald Trump before the convention or at it, I'm energized to have the support of the vast majority of North Dakota delegates."

Dated Monday, 4/4/16: Ted Cruz Had a Really Tremendous Weekend Headed Toward Wisconsin. By Erick Erickson
Excerpt: In Colorado, Cruz began picking up lots of delegates. The process in Colorado is a bit convoluted and carries over into this coming weekend. But so far, Cruz is winning the delegates in Colorado. That bodes well for keeping Trump under 1,237 at the convention. While Colorado was playing out, in North DakotaCruz swept up almost all the delegates. In fact, Cruz not only swept up almost all the debates, but all the other delegates save for one single delegate were in the #NeverTrump camp. Now the polling in Wisconsin has Cruz with a double digit lead over Donald Trump and the Kasich Super PAC effort fading in Wisconsin. As Chris Cillizza notes, there is a day dreaming part of the Republican Establishment that thinks it can get to Cleveland and stop not just Trump, but also Cruz. The reality is that Ted Cruz is the only one consistently stopping Donald Trump. As Trump becomes easier to stop, Cruz becomes harder to stop.

Trump

Worth Reading: Note to Convention Delegates: Nominating Trump Is Political Suicide. By Jim Geraghty
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433519/donald-trump-nomination-political-suicide-republicans
Excerpt: On Monday, July 18, the Republican National Convention’s 2,472 delegates will gather in Cleveland, Ohio, and decide whether or not to save the party from a catastrophic loss in November. If 1,237 of them agree on Donald Trump, he will be the nominee. And if he is the nominee, he will likely be slaughtered by Hillary Clinton. Both the Washington Post/ABC News and Gallup polls have found Trump to be the most unpopular potential presidential nominee in decades. The Post’s summary is succinct and brutal: “Three-quarters of women view him unfavorably. So do nearly two-thirds of independents, 80 percent of young adults, 85 percent of Hispanics and nearly half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.” Such widespread unpopularity is reflected in head-to-head polls of a potential Trump vs. Clinton matchup, where Trump’s numbers have gotten worse of late: What was a three-point deficit in the Real Clear Politics average just one month ago has now stretched to nearly eleven points.

Worth Reading:
Dangerous Donald Trump. By Dr. Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: This might all be just an internal problem of the Republican Party, and of no concern for those of us who are not Republicans, except for one thing. This country is at a dangerous crossroads. We got here by electing a president on the basis of glib words and boastful promises. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake. In addition to internal polarizations, we are threatened by countries that openly declare their hatred of America, and are developing intercontinental missiles that can carry nuclear bombs. In addition, there are international terrorist organizations killing people in Europe and in the United States. In order to deal with these threats, and especially secretive international terrorist organizations, we are going to need the cooperation of many other nations around the world. These nations, knowing that cooperating with the United States will make them targets for terrorists, must first have confidence in the words and deeds of whoever is President of the United States. They cannot have that confidence in someone who is constantly spouting off with irresponsible rhetoric — some of which has to be walked back by his apologists — or someone whose snap judgments about complex and weighty issues betray a superficial knowledge, if not sheer ignorance.

Worth reading: The Trump Effect: Support for Border Wall Plummets 18 Points in Six Months. By Guy Benson
Excerpt: You'd think that support for the border wall, which can easily be cast as a national security precaution, would've ticked up.  You'd be wrong.  Instead, Pew has measures an 18-point net swing against the idea.  What happened?  Donald J. Trump is what happened.  After the summer of 2015 when his candidacy was still widely viewed as a dead-end joke, Americans slowly but surely began to take the possibility of a Trump presidency seriously.  As that has happened, his favorability among key groups has fallen, with his overall favorability rating remaining steadily terrible and  deteriorating badly over the last month.  What we're seeing is that not only does Trump's historic unpopularity render him personally toxic as a potential Republican nominee, it also gravely endangers the GOP's modest Senate majority, and puts more red-held House seats in play than previously imagined.  Beyond that, it also appears to 'toxify' issue stances with which voters most closely associate Trump; "build the wall" is the clearest top-of-mind example of this phenomenon.  Basically, "if Trump's for it, I'm not." 

Trump Town Hall
I'm 50 minutes in to an hour-long "town hall" with Donald Trump in Wisconsin. In 50 minutes, he hasn't answered a single question he's been asked. Not a one. None. He just rambles around dropping superlatives about himself and the questioners are letting him get away with it—and he even gets applause. But the overrated Greta Van Susteren lets it go, too. I think she's intimidated by him. It's like a Trump infomercial. --Tim Donovan

Dated Monday, 4/4/16: Battleground Wisconsin: A Trump loss to Cruz could reshape GOP race
Excerpt: A defeat for Trump would be an embarrassing setback for the front-runner — not just because of the 42 delegates at stake, but because it would demonstrate weakness in a place where he should be strong. The state’s blue-collar demographics, along with party rules allowing independent voters to cast ballots in the primary, have been expected to work in his favor. A decisive loss also would lessen his chance of amassing the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination outright. Failure to do so would force an open convention in Cleveland in July.

Internal memo reveals Trump campaign’s mounting fury with its critics

The soft bigotry of low expectations for Trump. By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: Donald Trump last week made clear that he does not know much about the antiabortion movement — or much of anything else. Consider the list of things he does not know:

Excerpt: Trump’s negatives are sky-high, particularly in populous southeastern Wisconsin, in part because of relentless attacks on his candidacy from the state’s influential conservative talk-radio hosts. Two outside groups, the Club for Growth and Our Principles PAC, amplified that assault by blanketing Wisconsin’s airwaves with anti-Trump ads. The state’s GOP establishment, led by Governor Scott Walker, reacted to the winnowed primary field by rallying around Cruz as the best bet to topple Trump. And swarms of pro-Cruz volunteers and super-PAC workers descended on the state, seizing on the lull in the primary schedule to out-organize the competition as they had done in neighboring Iowa.

Not Surprising: Trump And Sanders In Agreement? The Strange Politics Of Free Trade
Excerpt: They say politics makes strange bedfellows and what could be stranger than Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in alignment? Yet that appears to be the case on international trade, and more specifically trade agreements. This harmonizing between far left Sanders and extreme right Trump is one more odd feature of campaign 2016, but it also reflects a lot of misunderstanding and misleading rhetoric about trade policy itself. (For all the empty hype about Trump being a great businessman, despite a long record of failure, he and Sanders are both woefully ignorant of basic economic principles. Which is also why both have come out for free healthcare, paid for buy the government. ~Bob
Trump on healthcare

Would A Trump Nomination Cost The GOP The House?
Excerpt: Scenario three – and it’s the one that keep the elephant pajama crowd awake at night: Trump melts down and it’s Clinton and the Democrats broadening the November map. In which case, Republicans are all but certain to lose control of the U.S. and maybe the House of Representatives to boot as Hillary’s electoral tally approaches 400 and beyond (here’s what that blue tsunami would look like).

Interesting: 10 unbelievable assertions made by Donald Trump to The Pos. By Jonathan Capehart 
Excerpt: Woodward and Costa tried their best to get Trump to be thoughtful and introspective and to display the humility expected of the occupant of the Oval Office. Their questioning was dogged, both in subject matter and in keeping the candidate focused on the question at hand. You’d think after the strong reactions to what he told The Post’s editorial board, reporters with the New York Times and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Trump would temper his remarks. Not a chance. Over the course of 96 minutes, Woodward and Costa elicited these 10 assertions that were, to borrow one of Trump’s favorite words, unbelievable.

Donald Trump just explained his amazingly depressing vision of the country. Oh boy. By Chris Cillizza

Really: Trump Advisor: We’ll Pay Off the Debt by Selling Off Every Asset the United States Owns
Wonder what a carrier goes for? Of course, once paid off, politicians on both sides will run up the debt again to please favored groups. ~Bob

‘Sheer Idiocy’: Ben Stein Goes Ballistic on Trump for ‘Horrifying’ Economic Ignorance
Excerpt: Trump has recently warned about an impeding recession and the bursting of a financial bubble, and after listening to some of Trump’s remarks, Stein told CNN’s Pamela Brown, “In all my years as an economist… I have never seen such nonsense as we just heard if from Mr. Trump and it breaks my heart, it makes me want to cry.” He said Trump’s talk is akin to saying “men from Mars are coming down’ and “he’s gonna flap his wings and fly.” As far as Stein is concerned, Trump has no idea what he’s talking about on economics and it’s “horrifying” and if there is a recession coming, “he doesn’t know.”

OPERATION TRUMP: Inside the most unorthodox campaign in political history.

Donald Trump is over this whole presidency thing
Excerpt: Sometimes it looks like Donald Trump really doesn't want to be president of the United States. The unconventional nature of his campaign — dependent on free media, self-financing, and attention-grabbing — seems more and more like a kind of calculated malpractice or negligence. When he should be consolidating his hold over the party, he is instead repelling endorsements and muddying his own message. It makes you think he wants this road show to end — and soon. Trump's campaign is designed on the premise that he never needs to buy attention that he can just take for free. And so he doesn't buy commercial time. Trump has also taken a long break from campaigning hard in the last few weeks. Meanwhile Ted Cruz's campaign is doing lots of legwork in trying to master the delegate selection process, and using organizational pressure to take delegates from Trump by any means possible. Trump's response is to threaten to sue. Or to make noise about withdrawing his pledge to support the nominee. None of these things are actually productive.

Democrat Group Files Criminal Complaint Against Trump for Offering Carson a Job in Exchange for His Endorsement

The One Weird Trait That Predicts Whether You’re a Trump Supporter. And it’s not gender, age, income, race or religion.

Hillary

Important: A Nation of Laws—Sort Of. By Victor Davis Hanson
https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/a-nation-of-laws-sort-of/
Excerpt: Any fair reading of State Department and general federal government laws regarding the use of classified information by federal employees makes it is clear that Hillary Clinton violated the law—both by improperly setting up her own private server, and then by sending information through it that was classified. And it is evident that Clinton went to such extraordinary lengths in order to mask her communications and shield them from the sort of Freedom of Information Act suits that now are plaguing her—and that she arbitrarily decided which of her private server emails were public and which private, and then simply destroyed thousands of them without audit. If she is not indicted by the Obama administration for violations of federal laws or conspiracy to obstruct justice, in the future it will be almost impossible to prosecute successfully any federal employee for violating government protocols about the handling of classified information. If Clinton avoids indictment, it will make a mockery of the Obama Justice Department that sought to prosecute Gen. David Petraeus for showing his personal journals, which contained classified information, to his biographer and mistress Paula Broadwell. 

Reminder: Hillary Is Awful On Trade, Too. There’s really not a whole lot of difference between 'economic patriotism' and 'economic nationalism.'. By David Harsanyi
Excerpt: There’s been plenty of apprehension about Donald Trump’s reckless anti-market populism. But none of his bluster should obscure the fact that contemporary Democrats basically share his ideas about trade and manufacturing. Voter-pleasing posturing about “outsourcing,” “we don’t make anything anymore!” and unfair trade agreements have been part of liberal cant for years. Leftist “fair” trade policy is Trumpism stripped of nativist rhetoric and rationale. But most of the economic goals are the same. There’s really not a whole lot of difference in the intent of Hillary Clinton’s “economic patriotism” and Trump’s “economic nationalism.”

Interesting: Cleaning Up Hillary’s Libyan Mess. U.S. officials are pushing a dubious new scheme to “unify” a shattered Libya, but the political risk at home is that voters will finally realize Hillary Clinton’s responsibility for the mess, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry
Excerpt: Hillary Clinton’s signature project as Secretary of State – the “regime change” in Libya – is now sliding from the tragic to the tragicomic as her successors in the Obama administration adopt increasingly desperate strategies for imposing some kind of order on the once-prosperous North African country torn by civil war since Clinton pushed for the overthrow and murder of longtime Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The problem that Clinton did much to create has grown more dangerous since Islamic State terrorists have gained a foothold in Sirte and begun their characteristic beheading of “infidels” as well as their plotting for terror attacks in nearby Europe. There is also desperation among some Obama administration officials because the worsening Libyan fiasco threatens to undermine not only President Barack Obama’s legacy but Clinton’s drive for the Democratic presidential nomination and then the White House. So, the officials felt they had no choice but to throw caution to the wind or — to mix metaphors — some Hail Mary passes.

Hillary's 'classified' smokescreen hides real crime

Hillary Clinton: A Career Criminal
Excerpt: Very, very impressive, the litany of the things they did, and got caught at, and were fined for, is pretty horrific, and then there's all the things they did that they wriggled out of somehow, all the "coincidences" that somehow brought them tons of money while assorted criminals and terrorists got pardons, etc.  Worth the time to watch. --De

Sanders

Interesting: Why Young Democrats Love Bernie Sanders. Part I: They have a lot in common with Ron Paul supporters.. By NATE SILVER
Excerpt: Just as “socialism” is becoming more popular with young Americans, so is another label that implies a highly different set of economic policies. Americans aged 18-29 are much more likely than older generations to have a favorable view of the term “libertarian,” referring to a philosophy that favors free markets and small government. Indeed, the demographics of Sanders’s support now and Ron Paul’s support four years ago are not all that different: Both candidates got much more support from younger voters than from older ones, from men than from women, from white voters than from nonwhite ones, and from secular voters than from religious ones. Like Sanders, Paul drew more support from poorer voters than from wealthier ones in 2012, although that’s not true of libertarianism more generally.4 (Silver is a leftie, but his polling in 08 and 12 was distressingly accurate. his comments are often insightful. ~Bob)

Like Trump: WaPo Fact Checker: Bernie Sanders’s false claim that he has released his full federal tax returns. By Michelle Ye Hee Lee
Excerpt: Plainly put, Sanders has not released his full federal tax return. The little he has released was the Form 1040 in 2014, which is a summary of his tax filing that gives a snapshot of his finances — not what is considered a full tax return. The Sanders campaign confirmed to The Washington Post that it has not released other tax returns prior to 2014, which is a sharp contrast to Clinton’s voluminous release of her complete tax returns. ... Sanders is not required to release his tax filings, and he clearly decided to keep them confidential. That’s his choice. But it doesn’t excuse him from misleading the public to believe otherwise with this false claim. Four Pinocchios

This New York Daily News interview was pretty close

Other Political News

Excerpt: There have always been primary fights and rivalries, but the fights within the Democrats and Republicans this cycle are as intense as the partisan divisions were in past ones. More important, they’re not just about personality or style. Within the parties, primary voters are choosing among extremely different visions and policy ideas. Chunks of each party are looking at their traditional allies and asking just what interests and ideas they really have in common any more. Heading into Tuesday’s primaries, more than 15.8 million people have voted for the five leading candidates. Each candidate has won anywhere from a quarter to a seventh of all the votes cast so far.

Worth Reading: The Obama Doctrine: The Audacity of Ignorance. By Peter Van Buren
Excerpt: Think what it must be like to be one of America’s allies. You enjoy some trade, watch Beyonce and Brad Pitt at the movies, and visit Disneyland on holiday. But then there’s America again at your cubicle, asking again that you join some coalition, get some troops into another wacky American overseas intervention for freedom, or regime change, or to stop another impending genocide only American can see or stop. What can you do? It’s hard to say no knowing what a big bully the U.S. is, but given how poorly the last one worked out, and the one before that, and the one before that, nobody at home is in favor of another round. Still, you’re stuck giving something, so maybe a few special forces, or a couple of airstrikes, as a token…And then you get blamed for being a freeloader when things don’t work out, or America loses interest and expected you to pick up the slack. And why not? America has a lot of coalitions and freedom to look after globally, and just can’t take care of everything. ... That bit of sarcasm unfortuately seems to describe the “Obama Doctrine,” as laid out in a legacy-killing interview with the president in Atlantic magazine.

WaPo Editorial: The administration missed a chance last week to speak truth to autocrats

Worth Reading: Foreign Policy Fueled by Fantasy. By Peter Berkowitz
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/04/05/foreign_policy_fueled_by_fantasy_130183.html
Excerpt: In an extensive interview with Barack Obama in the April issue of The Atlantic, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg recounts a rebuke that the president delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli leader had been explaining “the dangers of the brutal region in which he lives,” when Obama cut in. “Bibi, you have to understand something,” the president said. “I’m the African-American son of a single mother, and I live here, in this house. I live in the White House. I managed to get elected president of the United States. You think I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but I do.” Obama apparently not only believes that his distinctive background and powers of persuasion—rather than, say, a solid grounding in foreign languages, comparative politics and economics, and diplomatic and military history—equip him to understand the geopolitical complexities of tumultuous, faraway regions.  (Arrogant. Sounds like Trump--see below. ~Bob)


Important: The Fannie And Freddie Fiasco. By Richard A. Epstein
Excerpt: To recap the history, both Fannie and Freddie—which are government sponsored entities, or GSEs—were under extreme stress in the fall of 2008, and in order to shore up their finances, they entered into a Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement (SPSPA) with the United States Treasury. Under the SPSPA, Treasury agreed to contribute up to a combined $200 billion in cash to both companies in exchange for a senior-preferred stock that carried a 10 percent dividend. Eventually, Treasury lent about $188 billion per year, which carried a hefty $18.8 billion annual dividend payout. Under the SPSPA, both Fannie and Freddie were given the unlimited option to defer payment of the interest, which was then added to principal as an “in-kind” obligation, at a 12 percent interest rate. Unlike many private corporate bailout plans, this deferment did not call for any loss of control by Fannie and Freddie. Treasury thus held a new senior-preferred stock. The old private-preferred shareholders now held junior-preferred stock.

Euro-court outlaws criticism of EU
Reading "the Silencing" right now. The Illiberal left has become very anti-free speech. ~Bob

Scary: How to Hack an Election. Andrés Sepúlveda rigged elections throughout Latin America for almost a decade. He tells his story for the first time.

Electing Obama Worked! Sea level has been falling on the Atlantic seaboard for the past six years.

Cuban State Media: ‘Negro’ Obama ‘Incited Rebellion and Disorder’
Excerpt: The Havana Tribune, a state-controlled Cuban newspaper, has added insult to injury following Fidel Castro’s scathing criticism of President Barack Obama upon his departure from the island. In an editorial, the title of which refers to President Obama as “negro,” an opinion columnist has accused him of “inciting rebellion.”

U.S. Special Operations units are using faulty rifle sights
Excerpt: U.S. Special Operations forces are using rifle sights that are supposed to help shooters accurately hit their targets but instead have a defect, acknowledged by the manufacturer, that potentially endangers the lives of service members in combat, according to court records and military officials. (Another unbelievable snafu by military procurement.  Maybe at some point it's time to just calibrate and use the iron sights? --Del)

Worth reading, from the left: Obama, the puppet master. By Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen
Excerpt: President Barack Obama is a master at limiting, shaping and manipulating media coverage of himself and his White House. Not for the reason that conservatives suspect: namely, that a liberal press willingly and eagerly allows itself to get manipulated. Instead, the mastery mostly flows from a White House that has taken old tricks for shaping coverage (staged leaks, friendly interviews) and put them on steroids using new ones (social media, content creation, precision targeting). And it’s an equal opportunity strategy: Media across the ideological spectrum are left scrambling for access. The results are transformational. With more technology, and fewer resources at many media companies, the balance of power between the White House and press has tipped unmistakably toward the government. This is an arguably dangerous development, and one that the Obama White House — fluent in digital media and no fan of the mainstream press — has exploited cleverly and ruthlessly. And future presidents from both parties will undoubtedly copy and expand on this approach. (Politico is considered left-leaning. This is an older story I just came across that is worth reading. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Almost six years to the day after the Affordable Care Act was enacted, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken steps to kill health savings accounts (HSAs) in the state health-insurance exchanges. It was bound to happen at some point, although some may be surprised that it took this long. In case you missed it, final regulations published on March 8 will make it impossible to offer HSA-qualified plans in the future.

NAACP Joins Soros Army Plotting DC Disruptions, Civil Disobedience, Mass Arrests

Obama is tougher on America than he is on its enemies. By Richard Cohen, Washington Post
Excerpt: Revealed is the not-very-cozy relationship between Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who proposed that Syria would be more amenable to negotiations if the United States sent some missiles its way — and did not acknowledge where they came from. Obama reportedly got so vexed by this suggestion that he forbade anyone but the secretary of defense from proposing military plans. In other words, Kerry, shut up! It’s a rule that Obama himself should have followed. He speaks the unspeakable, conceding that eastern Ukraine, Moldova and Crimea are Russia’s for the taking. “Now, if there is somebody in this town that would claim that we would consider going to war with Russia over Crimea and eastern Ukraine, they should speak up and be very clear about it,” he told Goldberg.

The Ministry of Truth: 16 Democrat AGs Begin Inquisition Against ‘Climate Change Disbelievers.’ By Hans von Spakovsky 
Excerpt: Beginning in 1478, the Spanish Inquisition systematically silenced any citizen who held views that did not align with the king’s. Using the powerful arm of the government, the grand inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada, and his henchmen sought out all those who held religious, scientific, or moral views that conflicted with the monarch’s, punishing the “heretics” with jail sentences; property confiscation; fines; and in severe cases, torture and execution. One of the lasting results of the Spanish Inquisition was a stifling of speech, thought, and scientific debate throughout Spain. By treating one set of scientific views as absolute, infallible, and above critique, Spain silenced many brilliant individuals and stopped the development of new ideas and technological innovations. Spain became a scientific backwater. As an old adage says, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. So we now have a new inquisition underway in America in the 21st century—something that would have seemed unimaginable not too long ago. (Thought control is coming back to life, and now we have very high ranking officials with a lot of power saying they will use that power to punish anyone who won't toe the line on manmade global warming.  (That's the actual process that it's now PC to refer to as "Climate Change", kind of silly when we know climate changes every day, and has been changing from the time when the planet cooled enough for water to form on the surface.) So far the satellite data don't indicate major warming, but in fact there could be a very slow warming going on, as has happened various times in the past.  Proving that CO2 emissions are the sole and direct cause of any such warming has not been done and in fact even at 500 parts per million (that's the equivalent of 3.5 ounces in a 55 gallon drum that contains 7040 ounces) it's simply not enough to capture sufficient energy to create any warming.  You need a concentration 10-20 times higher than that to really trap enough heat to matter. But none of that matters, the New Thought Police have their mission now, and heaven help anyone who dares get in their way.  This is a very sad day for the nation, when anyone becomes so righteous that they believe they can and should silence all dissent on a subject. -Del)

Every Single One: Since 2009, Obama's DOJ Civil Rights Division Hired ONLY Leftist Lawyers (Hundreds!)
It will take a lot of time/doing to right this.  (hehe)  One of the authors, Christian Adams, chronicles DOJ bias.  That Madam Justice with the scales, she ain't blind no more.....She's got an agenda. --Barb

Obama Admin Tells Landlords They Can’t Refuse To House Criminals
Excerpt: The Obama administration released a warning Monday telling the nation’s landlords that it may be discriminatory for them to refuse to rent to those with criminal records. The Fair Housing Act doesn’t include criminals as a protected class, but the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) says refusing to rent based on a criminal record is a form of racial discrimination, due to racial imbalances in the U.S. justice system. (The arm of the Regime lengthens to housing.  You can't refuse to rent to that coke/crack dealer, heroin pusher, murderer, child molester.  Who do you think you are?  See, they're black and the US laws persecute blacks unfairly--that's why so many are disproportionately afoul of the laws and jailed.  This is straight out of Black Panther agenda. --Barb. I think BO should set the example; move a couple of child molesters or jihadists into the White House. ~Bob)) 

F**k This Flag. F**k This Country’ — BLM Protesters Spit And Stomp On American Flag [VIDEO]
Excerpt: A “peaceful protest” at Donald Trump’s Sunday rally in West AllisWisconsin featured several Black Lives Matter supporters standing on the American flag. In the videos — obtained by InfoWars — protesters stated that the “red, white and blue — this shit is the new swastika.”  “Fuck this flag. Fuck this country,” one man explained. (Can they be given a one-way ticket to the country of their choice and have their citizenship revoked permanently--just to make them happy? --Barb)

Reducing jobs: CaliforniaNew York enact $15 minimum wages
Excerpt: California and New York acted Monday to gradually push their statewide minimum wages to $15 an hour -- the highest in the nation -- as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders again seized on wage disparity and the plight of the working poor as a defining issue in the presidential race.  Clinton joined New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he signed the law that will gradually boost that state's pay rate and she predicted the movement will "sweep our country."  In a statement, Sanders said his campaign is about building on the steps in California and New York "so that everyone in this country can enjoy the dignity and basic economic security that comes from a living wage." (Warning!  Warning, Will Robinson!  Those short-sighted who slow burger production thinking they are pushing in a unionish-way to have a $15 minimum wage as a "living wage" will find the opposite is true.  One gentleman from San Francisco, commenting as a progressive liberal, noted on a recent radio show that--said as an afterthought with his last breath--that a $15/hour wage would lead to ways to do things more efficiently.  Yup! Like OUT OF A JOB.  There will be computerized order takers and who knows?--Maybe even robot-operated cooking assembly lines.  The big push with the progressives/Illuminati is for AI (artificial intelligence) because robots take orders, give no lip, don't unionize and there are no wages, no healthcare and no personnel issues.  Get it?  YOU ARE DISPENSIBLE.  And there parts are replaceable, as is their programming.  So, take your safe spaces and chips on your shoulders and lack of feelings of responsibility for how things are in your life and find a rock to crawl under....  Remember, Hillary pushed and pushed to have Gaddafi overthrown in Libya and we know how that turned out for the world.....Barb.  One of the Iron Laws of Economics, of which so many people are ignorant, is that if you increase the cost of something, people buy less of it. If you lower the cost, they buy more. The government proved this once again in the 1980s-90s, when they decided to highly tax high-end pleasure boats. The boat market dropped sharply, workers who built boats were laid off, and less overall tax was collected. They repealed the tax, but never apologized to the workers who lost their jobs. It works the same way for labor. If you raise the cost of unskilled labor through increases in the minimum wage, people hire fewer unskilled workers. But the fairy-dust politicians never tire of promising they can repeal this economic law. Might as well try to repeal the law of gravity. ~Bob

North Carolina Fights Federal, Corporate Blackmail Over Trans Bathroom Law

Latest attack on POW/MIA religious symbol is cruel
Excerpt: Since the Vietnam War, the military has maintained the sacred tradition of setting a separate table in its dining facilities to honor POW/MIAs.  The table is decorated with several items, each carrying symbolic meaning used to help remember those who were captured or declared missing. Traditionally, one of those items is a Bible, which according the National League of POW/MIA Families represents “the strength gained through faith to sustain those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God.” But now the POW/MIA remembrance table is a target of heartless anti-religion hysteria.   

Law school professors say posting ‘All Lives Matter’ flier was an ‘incident of intolerance’
Tolerating everyone is intolerant, you hateful rubes. --Joe

Rapper Azealia Banks Says That Sarah Palin Should be Gang-Raped by Black Men
And liberals say, "Stop the Hate." ~Bob

Religion of Peace News

Worth Reading: How America Lost Its Groove. President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Clinton all had a hand in it. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Deterrence is lost through lax foreign policy, an erosion of military readiness, and failed supreme command — often insidiously, over time, rather than dramatically, at once. The following random events over the seven years that Barack Obama has been in office have led to the idea abroad that the U.S. is no longer the world’s leader and that regional hegemonies have a golden opportunity to redraw regional maps and spheres of influence — to the disadvantage of the West — in the ten months remaining before the next president is inaugurated. The otherwise disparate Boston Marathon, Fort Hood, and San Bernardino Islamist bombers had three things in common: First, the killers had all communicated on social media with radical jihadists, or had come to the attention of both U.S. and foreign intelligence, or had expressed jihadist beliefs. Second, their attacks were followed by administration warnings about not embracing Islamophobia, as Obama doubled down on his administration’s taboo against the use of terms such as “jihadist,” “radical Islamist,” and “Islamic terrorist.” Third, after each of these incidents, there was no stepped-up administration vigilance; instead, there was a flurry of sermons about not blaming Islam for inciting such killers. The greatest check on ISIS terrorism may lie in the hands of ISIS itself: If its operatives continue to cull the Western herd by a few dozen murders every few months, the U.S. will likely continue to do little. If they get greedy and seek a repeat of something on the scale of 9/11, then the American public will force this administration to act. Unfortunately, ISIS may not be so much energized by anger over supposed Islamophobia as buoyed by the administration’s inability to say “radical Islam.”

Migrant crisis: Greece starts deportations to Turkey
Excerpt: The first boats carrying migrants being deported from Greece have arrived in Turkey as part of an EU plan aimed at easing mass migration to Europe. Most of the 202 people who left Lesbos and Chios, and arrived at Dikili in western Turkey, are Pakistanis. Under the deal, for each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the EU is due to take in another Syrian who has made a legitimate request.

Why don't moderate Muslims speak up? Scotland: Muslims threaten to kill Muslim who opposes jihad terror

ANTI-ZIONISM IS THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM, SAYS BRITAIN'S EX-CHIEF RABBI. By Jonathan Sacks
Excerpt: On March 27, speaking to the Sunday Times, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams expressed his concern at rising levels of anti-Semitism on British university campuses. There are, he said, “worrying echoes” of Germany in the 1930s. Two days later, in The Times, Chris Bryant, the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and a senior member of the British Labour party, warned that the political left was increasingly questioning the right of the state of Israel to exist, a view he called a “not too subtle form of anti-Semitism.” Across Europe, Jews are leaving. A survey in 2013 by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights showed that almost a third of Europe’s Jews have considered emigrating because of anti-Semitism, with numbers as high as 46 percent in France and 48 percent in Hungary. (I think that if you ranked every country with 1 to 100 points on 6 categories all good secular western lefties should agree on (degree of political democracy, status of women, degree of income/wealth equality, rights of minority religions/contribution to world medical research and science/attitudes about the US and the West) Israel ,by any unbiased and informed observer, would rank near the top and Arab/Muslim countries near the bottom, So why do these campus idiots call for sanctions/divestment against Israel, but never mention any of these other far, far worse countries? In some cases I'm sure its anti-Semitism. In most, however, I think its just ignorant, lazy, going along with the hip trend. Like being for boycott of South Africa at a time that there were at least 50 worse countries that they never tried to boycott. --PLM. Comment from  A liberal Jewish friend/legislative colleague. ~Bob)

Time Machine and the Consiglieri
Excerpt: This past week, to our astonishment, we learned that the Obama administration is seriously considering further concessions to Iran, and allowing U.S. dollars to be used to facilitate trade with the terrorist-supporting regime.  Behind this latest concession - behind every action having to do with Iran, and for that matter most other actions of this so-called "Presidency" - we observe the power of a "consigliere," in name Valerie Jarrett.

The Path to Death: How EU Failures Helped Paris Terrorists Obtain Weapons
Excerpt: Cohen died in Paris, in the Hyper Cacher supermarket where, on that Friday in January, 2015, Jews were buying kosher groceries for the Sabbath. The murderer, Amedy Coulibaly, a criminal since his youth who had been radicalized in prison, was carrying two Ceska Sa vz.58 automatic rifles. One of them was the short version, which had once been modified so that it could only fire blanks -- transformed into a harmless noise-maker. (Bolding mine.  Radicalization in prisons used in EU as well as US; plan set in motion in EU; coming here.  Interesting article indicates how EU has tried to control guns and access by population, dictating modifications to fire blanks and how these weapons are being remodified by criminals/terrorists to fire actual ammunition. --Barb)

Activating the Sleepers: Islamic State Adopts a New Strategy in Europe
Excerpt:  Just as Europe was letting out a sigh of relief, having captured one of the Paris terrorists after months of pursuit, the bombers detonated their explosives. The signal sent by the arrest was that Islamic State (IS) is defeatable. But the Brussels attack tells us that isn't the case.

The Beachhead: Islamic State Uses Libya to Gain African Foothold
Excerpt: The Islamic State is using the same strategy it deployed in Syria in order to expand its territory in North AfricaLibya has become the center of its deadly activities in the region.... Libya has become by far the Syrian-Iraqi caliphate's most important beachhead as it seeks to expand its footprint in North Africa, and there are numerous reasons for this development. Libya's disintegration into competing factions and regions provides fertile soil for the jihadists' creeping rise to power. More than 1,000 kilometers (612 miles) of coastline and uncontrolled borders in the south make for easy access to the country. (Remember when Libya was quiet, Before Obama and Hillary? Good times! ~Bob)

Two veteran jihadis, weapons and explosives trainers, freed from Gitmo

Islamic State executes eight people, crucifies their dead bodies. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org
Excerpt: This is not “extremist.” Crucifying people who “fight against Allah and his messenger and hasten about the earth to do corruption” is prescribed in the Qur’an: “This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.” (Qur’an 5:33)

'Hitler' Clothing Store Causes Stir in Cairo

Newly discovered 5th-century church shows violence of Muslim conquest. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org
Excerpt: “We found evidence suggesting that they shattered many of the church items, contrary to what some believe about the ‘enlightened’ Muslim conquest.” The idea that the Byzantine Christians welcomed the Arab troops as liberators in the mid-seventh century is a staple of Islamic apologetics today, and (not surprisingly, given the abysmal state of academia today) is generally accepted among historians. However, it has always had weak foundations, and is actually yet another example of a phenomenon we see increasingly often: the revisionist whitewashing of history to remove any hint of wrongdoing on the part of Muslims.

Islamic State Turns Mosul University Chemistry Lab into Bomb Factory
POTUS sending more experts from Gitmo to help. --Barb

Al Qaeda explosives experts transferred from Guantanamo Bay
Excerpt: Two of Al Qaeda's former explosives experts were just transferred out of Guantanamo Bay and sent to Senegal, the Defense Department confirmed Monday, marking the latest detainees to be shipped out of the prison camp despite the risk they could return to the battlefield. ...Salem Abdu Salam Ghereby is believed to have fought coalition forces at Usama bin Laden’s Tora Bora complex in Afghanistan “and was associated with senior members of Al Qaeda.” Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour Umar was assessed to be likely to “immediately seek out prior associates and reengage in hostilities and extremist support activities” upon his release, according to a 2008 government document. (What constitutes treason?  Sure hates US. --Barb)

Kerry Thanks Senegal for 'Humanitarian Resettlement' of Gitmo Detainees
Excerpt: Kerry said the U.S. "is very grateful to our partner, the Republic of Senegal, for offering humanitarian resettlement to two individuals formerly in Department of Defense custody at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility." The Department of Defense today announced the transfer of Salem Abdu Salam Ghereby and Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour Umar. A 2008 DoD report found Ghereby, a Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) "guesthouse operator," explosives expert and "veteran jihad fighter" who fought with bin Laden at Tora Bora, to be a "high" risk to U.S. interests. ("Humanitarian"?  Kerry liked how the Iranians handled those captured US soldiers, too--making that statue and that movie and all. --Barb)

Obama supports whistleblowers! CENTCOM analysts reportedly claim to have lost jobs over Syria warnings
Excerpt: Two intelligence analysts at U.S. Central Command claim to have been forced out of their jobs for producing skeptical reports about U.S.-backed rebels in Syria, The Daily Beast reported Sunday.  The report claimed that one of the two analysts alleging the reprisals is CENTCOM's top analyst in charge of Syria. He and his colleague doubted the rebels' abilities and commitment to U.S. interests in Syria. For expressing those doubts, the report claims, they have been sidelined from their positions and well (sic) not be working at CENTCOM. (The corruption of American English continues.  Not sure if typo or someone doesn't know the difference between the verb form "will" and the adjective "well.")  These analysts probably upset Regime's and McCain's apple carts.  Giving aid/weapons/food to "the rebels" in Syria has led to reports by those on the battlefront of seeing water/supplies/weapons being dropped to AQ and ISIS troops.  Or they get them and turn them over....as in the tanks, RPGs, etc. Oh, and the DOD's rebels fighting the CIA's rebels.....--Barb)

Of Interest

9-year-old reporter breaks crime news, posts videos, fires back at critics
Excerpt: Reporter Hilde Kate Lysiak got the tip early Saturday afternoon that there was heavy police activity on Ninth Street. She hustled over with her pen and camera, as any good reporter would, and soon she posted something short online, beating all her competitors. Then, working the neighbors and the cops, she nailed down her scoop with a full-length story and this headline: EXCLUSIVE: MURDER ON NINTH STREET!” he online story not only beat the local daily paper, but she also included a short video from the crime scene, assuring viewers that “I’m working hard on this investigation.” Then Monday came and Hilde had to go back to third grade. She is 9. (I subscribed to her paper. Got to encourage good reporting. ~Bob)

Americans Favor Fifteen Dollars an Hour for Congress. BY ANDY BOROWITZ





















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