U.S. Presidential election discussion thread. Part VI

Posted on April 18, 2016 by | 352 Comments

by Judith Curry

The election is heating up with the forthcoming primary in New York

A cartoon that I spotted a few weeks ago

Slide1

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352 responses to “U.S. Presidential election discussion thread. Part VI”

  1. joekano76 | April 18, 2016 at 6:25 pm |

    Reblogged this on TheFlippinTruth.

  2. rebelronin | April 18, 2016 at 7:18 pm |

    Relax everyone.
    Mrs. Clinton will be President.
    Perhaps we can look forward to the first female President improving relations between men and women as the the first African American President has improved relations among ethnic groups.

    • jim2 | April 18, 2016 at 8:05 pm |

      In that case, I’m sure all the divorce lawyers will be voting multiple times for Hillary :)

      • JCH | April 18, 2016 at 8:12 pm |

        She’s been married one time, and the marriage has lasted 41 years.

      • jim2 | April 18, 2016 at 8:15 pm |

        MINO.

      • JCH | April 18, 2016 at 8:57 pm |

        How does that help divorce lawyers?

      • David Springer | April 29, 2016 at 4:32 am |

        JCH you missed the sarcasm in “improved relations among ethnic groups”. Obama made that worse. Therefore if Hillary “improves” relations between men and women in the same manner then she’ll make those relations worse. Hence the divorce lawyers will have more business.

    • max1ok | April 19, 2016 at 12:59 am |

      Not only the first female president but the first president to have a spouse who is a former president. Has that ever happened anywhere before?

      • fernandoleanme | April 19, 2016 at 3:32 am |

        Cristina Kirchner, Argentina.

      • Daniel E Hofford | April 19, 2016 at 8:43 pm |

        Probably not and it’s a horrible idea…a self made dynasty of political elites doing government to make themselves wealthy is not one of the better ideas of Western Civilization.

        But if she is elected it will be a watershed moment in the demise of the noble experiment of America.

        Corruption will have been voted in by the ‘peoples.’ And while government has had corruption since 1776, (Generals in the Revolutionary Army were selling swampland to Europeans) it has been just a factor. With Clinton it will come to dominate every aspect of the Government. She will perform as admirably as she did on Benghazi. What joy for the corruptocrats.

        What a dilemma for Democrats. An ill tempered, vile, corrupt, thuggish, incompetent or a guano crazy bean bag who thinks Socialism deserves a chance cause Bernie never got to do it so with him at the helm, Utopia is just around a short corner, and past the men in white coats.

        This is how civilizations die.

    • nickels | April 19, 2016 at 5:42 pm |

      On point.

  3. William B Dawson Jr | April 18, 2016 at 7:32 pm |

    Rebelronin: You are bat-sh*it crazy. It’s a shame this has to be my first post since Judy first came online. I’m getting a touch sensitive as the election gets closer.

    • fizzymagic | April 18, 2016 at 7:51 pm |

      I believe you missed the sarcasm in his statement.

    • rebelronin | April 18, 2016 at 8:11 pm |

      William
      If this is your first comment since Judith started her blog, I feel oddly … proud. :)
      I certainly share your sensitivity as November approaches.
      I don’t know if you’ve ever read any of the LBJ bio stuff or heard any of the the Oval Office tapes from his Presidency?
      We’ve had problem personalities in power before.
      I think the Republic will survive.
      It’s the genius of the Founders.
      You sound cool.
      Don’t be a stranger.

    • Peter M Davies | April 18, 2016 at 9:38 pm |

      I believe rebelronin is a “she” Fizzymagic and William had indeed missed the sarcasim.

  4. Pointman | April 18, 2016 at 7:42 pm |

    The media may be infatuated with Hillary, but down home folks America isn’t, and the way the Trump situation is being handled isn’t very encouraging either.

    https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/how-to-get-run-over-by-the-trump-juggernaut/

    Pointman

  5. Danny Thomas | April 18, 2016 at 7:42 pm |

    We really don’t need any more of these posts do we? After all, apparently the entire nomination process is ‘rigged’, so therefore a foregone conclusion.

    • jim2 | April 18, 2016 at 8:08 pm |

      The Soul-stealing Redimowit Elite ravage the Base.

    • Peter Lang | April 18, 2016 at 8:09 pm |

      Danny,

      There has to be a sandpit for Springer to let off steam.

    • climatereason | April 19, 2016 at 8:49 am |

      Danny

      With six Presidential threads to date and still another 7 months to go, I have used the state of the art climate model installed on my computer-which you may rest assured is known by 97% of its users to be highly robust- and have calculated that by poll time there will have been 237 threads about The Presidential race.

      The same model forecasts there will be none at all on Brexit.

      tonyb

      • jim2 | April 19, 2016 at 8:19 pm |

        Looks like the brexit discussion there is approaching the inanity here. From the article:
        …
        Later, Osborne defended the Treasury’s latest analysis that after Leave campaigners said the figures were “absurd.” Justice Secretary Michael Gove delivered a response to Osborne’s document on Tuesday in which he accused Remain campaigners of treating people like “mere children.” During his speech in London, he also accused the Stay camp of conjuring up “bogeymen” and making dire predictions about the consequences of leaving the EU.

        “The City of London would become a ghost town, our manufacturing industries would be sanctioned more punitively than even communist North Korea, decades would pass before a single British Land Rover or Mr Kipling cake could ever again be sold in France and in the meantime our farmers would have been driven from the land by poverty worse than the potato famine,” Gove joked.

        Patisserie Valerie’s Johnson, who has a variety of business interests in the U.K., said that “scare tactics” were being used by the pro-EU camp and that he believed certain costs of living would decrease rather than rise, as Remain campaigners believe.

        “The truth of the matter is actually food costs in this country would almost certainly fall if we left the EU because they create huge barriers so that high-cost producers within the EU have special preference…the idea that if we were no longer part of the single market everything would go up in cost is simply an error.”
        …
        http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/19/getting-scary-appalling-tactics-used-in-brexit-debate.html

  6. Wagathon | April 18, 2016 at 7:45 pm |

    Lyin’ Cruz will have to brush up on New York values to run successfully against crooked Hillary and self-fund Trump.

  7. jim2 | April 18, 2016 at 8:08 pm |

    New York Republican Presidential Primary Emerson Trump 55, Kasich 21, Cruz 18 Trump +34
    New York Republican Presidential Primary Gravis Trump 57, Kasich 22, Cruz 20 Trump +35
    Pennsylvania Republican Presidential Primary Morning Call Trump 41, Cruz 23, Kasich 26 Trump +15
    New Jersey Republican Presidential Primary Rutgers-Eagleton Trump 52, Kasich 24, Cruz 18 Trump +28

  8. ordvic | April 18, 2016 at 8:19 pm |

    My prediction: Trump and Clinton win NY; whew, hard one that.

    • edbarbar | April 19, 2016 at 2:47 am |

      The question is who wins NY in the general: Trump or Hillary. If Hillary comes out not so good in NY, it will propel Trump in the general.

      • Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 5:47 am |

        Trump claims that when he finally turns his guns on Clinton, he will easily blow her out of the water.

        And he may be right.

        Has anyone done more to destroy the American working-, lower middle- and middle-middle classes than the Clintons and Obama have?

        Obviously Trump wants to run against Clinton and not Sanders, so has held his fire against Clinton thus far. But when he finally turns his guns on Clinton, he won’t treat her with kid gloves the way Sanders has.

  9. rebelronin | April 18, 2016 at 8:47 pm |

    being serious for a moment …
    I’ve been hearing noises about possible new revelations concerning Saudi involvement with the 911 attacks.
    A secret guarded for 16 years by both Parties.
    A summertime expose could have a huge impact for an outsider or a third party candidate.
    Especially if Trump some survives as a contender.

  10. Glenn Stehle | April 18, 2016 at 8:51 pm |

    Here’s an interesting video on Trump’s boyhood and where he grew up:

    See Donald Trump’s boyhood neighborhood
    http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/15/politics/early-trump-photos/index.html

  12. jim2 | April 18, 2016 at 9:01 pm |

    Well, this is one of the nicer ones …

    https://dekerivers.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/61.jpg

  17. omanuel | April 18, 2016 at 9:22 pm |

    The answered question: Who can take control government science and policy away from the US National Academy of Sciences and restore society to contact with reality?

  25. jim2 | April 18, 2016 at 10:03 pm |

    This is one of the real reasons Dimowits are dangerous to the common citizen. From the article:
    …
    The war between Republicans and Democrats on the politically splintered Federal Election Commission flared late Monday when a Republican commissioner and former chairman charged that the panel’s Democrats want to regulate the press and end free election media.

    The moves by Democrats “signal an active regulatory effort within the agency, caution press organizations to look over their shoulders, and chill the free exercise of press activity,” said Republican Lee E. Goodman in a statement on a recent FEC split vote.

    On that vote, the Democrats voted as a block to punish the maker of an anti-Obama movie distributed free before the 2012 election. The Republicans argued that he should receive the standard media exemption, as Democrats on the FEC have granted liberal moviemakers in the past. The split voted blocked any action against Joel Gilbert and Highway 61 films for his Dreams of My Real Father: A Story of Reds and Deception.
    …
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dems-on-fec-charged-with-trying-to-regulate-press-end-free-election-news/article/2588872

  27. mosomoso | April 18, 2016 at 10:14 pm |

    Imagine: Germany stretches its rickety new empire toward the Carpathians and Anatolia (for some reason), Russia grabs the energy corridors west by preserving Syria against the Sunni/Nato bloc and by moving down the Caspian to Azerbaijan. The neo-Ottomans are not happy…

    Will it help that the new prez is a girl, a black, a white, a ginger or Canadian-Hispanic? The world may have other concerns.

    I’d start by not electing the girl who gave us Libya and Syria. Squirting toothpaste all over the bathroom floor then trying to get it back in the tube has not been good policy to date.

  28. David Springer | April 18, 2016 at 10:22 pm |

    snag.gy changed – what a shame

    https://snag.gy/mCP3f9.jpg

  30. George Turner | April 18, 2016 at 10:40 pm |

    The way to screw up the primary was to let a Canadian run. That knocked out Fiorina, Jindal, Santorum, and others.

  31. Wagathon | April 18, 2016 at 10:54 pm |

    We’ve learned a lot and we owe that to Trump–e.g., nothing against Wisconsin… it’s a weird state, like no other state and I never realized until now; and, Ohio is a total disappointment: what a waste of votes! But the biggest surprise: California votes matter. Who knew? And, the two-party system ain’t broken. There is not two-party system: it’s only one party–the difference between the two is nada.

    • Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 6:13 am |

      The anti-Trumpism forces saw California as the last hope to stop Trump, as Redstate.com reported:

      But California’s Presidential primary is still a closed primary even if the state has gone to Washington-style blanket primaries for other races. And they may just tip the balance in enough districts that California will be the final straw denying Donald Trump a majority of delegates in Cleveland.

      http://www.redstate.com/neil_stevens/2016/04/07/shock-poll-california-poll-suggests-tough-fight-ahead-gop-delegates/

      But Trump seems to be gaining in the polls in California, so California may be shaping up to be Custer’s last stand for anti-Trumpism.

      http://i.imgur.com/Up3QnXQ.png

      • Wagathon | April 19, 2016 at 10:43 am |

        Only registered as Republicans can vote in CA’s Republican primary because the establishment felt too threatened by the possibility of Indys who might choose to participate in the Rep. primary. Nevertheless, everyone sees that the Republican party in California has absolutely zero say in running of the state. Turning over the apple cart (e.g., voting for Trump) is at least a possible path to creating a legitimate 2-party system again (which is needed to go toe-to-toe with the tax-and-spend Leftists that are empowered by the public employee unions).

  32. Wagathon | April 18, 2016 at 11:47 pm |

    Say it ain’t so, Joe:

    Scientific regress firstthings.com/article/2016/0…

    Does this mean the consensus is… based on science that cannot be duplicated and if so, why didn’t Al Gore know this? Anyone missing George Bush yet?

    • George Turner | April 19, 2016 at 1:24 am |

      Whenever I read psychological papers, I think “They’re crazy.”

      One interesting result in psychology is that American college students are the far end of the bell curve. Compared to the other 7 billion people on the planet, they’re quite abnormal, but they’re the basis of the vast majority of psychology papers. Of course given the way students are behaving now, we should be comparing them to seven-year old children in less spoiled countries.

      The other day I saw a nice video where an average white guy went to a college campus and told students he was actually a 6′ 5″ Chinese woman – and they weren’t willing to openly disbelieve him. I’m thinking of telling students that they’re not seeing “TRUMP 2016” chalked on their sidewalks, they’re seeing the chalk self-actualizing.

      • Peter Lang | April 19, 2016 at 2:09 am |

        The developed countries have become fat, rich and complacent – just like the Roman Empire before it went into decay and collapsed.

    • PA | April 19, 2016 at 6:35 am |

      The problem with psychologists is they are from the left end of the spectrum and there is an integrity+”echo chamber” problem. If you have unethically discriminated against conservatives to drive them from your field, you have nothing to say that is worth listing to.

      The careerism, pal-review, and expertise at creating statistical significance from random data cannot be overcome from within the science field, or they would have been overcome from within the science field.

      The solution may require a new approach. The solution in the global warming field may be to take several hundred million a year from the global warming budget and pay an outside group to discredit global warming studies. After a scientist’s name appeared on several discredited studies he would be debarred to stop the science hole from getting deeper.

      We shouldn’t be paying scientists to do bad studies and we can stop it or at least slow it down by marking the bad studies and eliminating the serial offenders..

      The threat of loss of grant access would result in more careful and objective science. We need to thresh the global warming studies and separate the wheat from the chaff.

      • Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 6:56 am |

        Science’s legitimacy and credibility problem — what Wilson calls “the Cult of Science” — is a lot more ubiquitous than just the fields of psychology and climate science.

        To quote from the article again:

        If science was unprepared for the influx of careerists, it was even less prepared for the blossoming of the Cult of Science.

        The Cult is related to the phenomenon described as “scientism”; both have a tendency to treat the body of scientific knowledge as a holy book or an a-religious revelation that offers simple and decisive resolutions to deep questions. But it adds to this a pinch of glib frivolity and a dash of unembarrassed ignorance.

        Its rhetorical tics include a forced enthusiasm (a search on Twitter for the hashtag “#sciencedancing” speaks volumes) and a penchant for profanity. Here in Silicon Valley, one can scarcely go a day without seeing a t-shirt reading “Science: It works, b—es!” The hero of the recent popular movie The Martian boasts that he will “science the sh— out of” a situation.

        One of the largest groups on Facebook is titled “I f—ing love Science!” (a name which, combined with the group’s penchant for posting scarcely any actual scientific material but a lot of pictures of natural phenomena, has prompted more than one actual scientist of my acquaintance to mutter under her breath, “What you truly love is pictures”).

        Some of the Cult’s leaders like to play dress-up as scientists—Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson are two particularly prominent examples— but hardly any of them have contributed any research results of note. Rather, Cult leadership trends heavily in the direction of educators, popularizers, and journalists.

      • Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 8:19 am |

        http://images.christianpost.com/full/82529/bill-nye.jpg
        Bill Nye “The Science Guy” acknowledges applause as U.S. President Barack Obama mentions him in his remarks at the 2015 White House Science Fair at the White House in Washington, March 23, 2015.

        PA,

        It’s also important to connect the dots, so as to see clearly see the Cult of Science’s true agenda:

        Bill Nye, known popularly as “The Science Guy” for his scientific kids show, says he is in favor of trying those who question climate change as criminals and jailing them.

        In a video interview with Climate Depot’s Marc Morano this week, Nye was asked how he feels about environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy’s call to jail climate skeptics for treason and lock them up at the Hague.

        “We interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the environmentalist here at the People’s Climate March in 2014 and he said that climate deniers CEO’s belong at The Hague with three square meals and a cot with all the other war criminals. What is your thought on that? And do you think some of the rhetoric on your side gets too carried away? What’s your thought on jailing skeptics as war criminals?” Morano asked.

        Nye, the Planetary Society CEO, responded, “Well, we’ll see what happens,” comparing global warming skeptics to “people from the cigarette industry who insisted that this addictive product was not addictive.”

        Nye, who also believes and propagates that evolution is the only way to explain life on Earth, continued, “For me as a taxpayer and voter — the introduction of this extreme doubt about climate change is affecting my quality of life as a public citizen. So I can see where people are very concerned about this, and they’re pursuing criminal investigations as well as engaging in discussions like this… That there is a chilling effect on scientists who are in extreme doubt about climate change, I think that is good.”

        Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/bill-nye-the-science-guy-favors-jailing-climate-change-skeptics-161854/#AEew88odclxGLWIK.99

        Another Darwinian fundamentalist, or “ultra” as Stephen Jay Gould called them, who is also a leading evangelist of the Cult of Science, is Richard Dawkins. At a conference hosted by The Science Network he blasted children’s religious instrucion as “child abuse”:

        RICHARD DAWKINS: [minute 32:28] So I think there is an awful lot of bending over backwards to be nice to religion going on…

        But when we’ve lost religion, as I hope one day we shall, we shall have lost the appalling guilt that afflicts people…, we shall have lost the brainwashing of children which indeed labels them as sharing the same religious opinions as their parents, a form of child abuse. We shall have lost the subversión of science which comes from teaching children that faith is a virtue, faith meaning belief without evidence. Children are systematically taught that there is a higher kind of knowledge which comes from faith, which comes through revelation, which comes from scripture, which comes from tradition, and it’s the equal if not the superior of knowledge that comes from real evidence.

        http://thesciencenetwork.org/programs/beyond-belief-science-religion-reason-and-survival/session-3-3

        The Jacobinism, the cultural imperialism, the naive empiricism, the declaiming against traditional religion, all of these are of course the sanctioned activities of the counterculture. It takes no bravery, and there is no risk in smahing the icons.

        And I suppose none of this is too harmful as long as it exists at the margins of the culture. But I shudder to think of what would happen if the Cult of Science should some day rise to cultural predominance.

      • PA | April 19, 2016 at 9:10 am |

        Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 8:19 am |

        It’s also important to connect the dots, so as to see clearly see the Cult of Science’s true agenda:

        From the AMS survey on Global Warming:
        3% of AMS members think feeding the starving poor is entirely harmful.
        47% of AMS members think feeding the starving poor is primarily harmful.

        Who are the criminals here?

  33. johnvonderlin | April 19, 2016 at 12:15 am |

    Hi Folks,
    Thanks to California’s huge majority of Democrats I can usually vote for all sorts of odd characters in Primaries and General Elections without worrying about who is going to win whether I support them or not. This year’s Primary may be different and the Naked Party may have to get along without my ballot box support.
    Fortunately, with The Donald visiting the Bay Area in a few weeks I can re-activate my political activism, in hibernation since the Viet Nam War and my stint as a Precinct Captain for Eugene McCarthy. I figured I would make up a protest sign sticking with one of the Trumpster’s favorite tactics; personal insults. But, which one to choose? Being a former buffet fan I decided the whole enchilada would be best. Here’s my alphabet soup so far. Understand I think Trump isn’t who he says he is and would vote for him rather than Lyin’ Ted and possibly even before the wild-eyed Class Warrior, Bernie.
    I should admit that if in the excitement of a political protest, a youthful, attractive woman, with father issues and feeling the Bern was to find my sign moving, I might fudge the latter.
    A) Arrogant
    B) Blowhard
    C) Con-man
    D) Demagogue
    E) Egomaniac
    F) Fraud
    G) Gauche
    H) Hatemonger
    I) Idiot
    J) Jerk
    K) Knucklehead
    L) Loser
    M) Misogynist
    N) Nutjob
    O) Oaf
    P) Pig
    Q) Quarrelsome
    R) Racist
    S) Snake Oil Salesman
    T) Tinhorn
    U) Racist
    V) Vulgarian
    W) Whiner
    X) Xenophobe
    Y) Yahoo
    Z) Zealot

  34. edbarbar | April 19, 2016 at 2:43 am |

    1. Cruz can not win the nomination by popular vote.
    2. In order for Cruz to win a contested convention, Cruz is going to have to give (establishment) delegates what they want.
    3. Trump can win the popular vote. If he does, he owes the establishment nothing, and has more power to implement his policies.
    4. Cruz is strengthening the power of the establishment, at an outside chance he can be the nominee.

    Cruz portrays himself as anti-establishment, but now we know he is willing to sell out to the establishment to win. Lyin’ Cruz fits as a moniker, and is a linguistic kill shot.

    • George Turner | April 19, 2016 at 4:07 am |

      Cruz is playing the establishment. The establishment is playing Cruz.

      He cannot be the nominee because he’s foreign born, and thus ineligible. The establishment is just using him as a CGI candidate that can stop Trump. They were using him as a decoy to mop up the strong conservative and evangelical base so they could give his delegates to Jeb, then Rubio, and then Kasich, or whoever else they want, without the establishment candidates ever going on video at a tent revival.

      In for a penny, in for a pound, and they’re going to ride that pony till it bites the dust. At National Review you can say any horrifying thing about Cruz you want except for pointing out that he’s ineligible. They will delete entire subthreads in the blink of an eye because they’re party to the disenfranchisement of conservative voters, having ridden along as an underhanded tactical trick turned in to a survival strategy.

      Their present course is to try to discredit or gaslight anyone who points out the blindingly obvious fact that the Constitution requires the President to be a native born citizen, which is why birthers even exist, those who desperately try to imply that a particular candidate was secretly born outside the United States so as to disqualify them. Somehow it doesn’t register that to explain their motive, it must be true that people who are born on foreign soil are disqualified from the office.

      The Democrats are fully on board with the deception of silence, hoping and praying that the Republicans nominate an ineligible candidate so they win by default. Make no mistake. If the Republicans did nominate Cruz it wouldn’t be long before you’d see “Next up on The View, Constitutional scholars who say Cruz is ineligible.” Slate, Mother Jones, Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, WaPo, and every other liberal media outlet would follow suit, and suddenly three fourths of the country would be pointing out the obvious and laughing at the Republican morons as we all wake from the mass delusion.

      From 1803 to 2015, the Supreme Court has read “natural born” as “native born”, as always noting the exceptions clearly explained under the common law regarding diplomats, invading armies, and all else that arose from common sense and logic.

      The media will do this, and Cruz would have no answer that sounds any better than Hillary trying to explain her e-mail servers because he’s not eligible. I’ve spent months pointing this out. I’ve read and quoted extensively from Blackstone (1765), George Tucker (1803), James Kent (circa 1830), Joseph Story, John Marshall, James Madison, Dred Scott v Standford (1857), Murray v The Charming Betsy (1803), US v Wong Kim Ark (1898), Zivotofsky v Kerry (2015), and Lord know how many others..

      It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. I’ve yet to see anyone cite a single contrary document, law, ruling, or court case, because there are none or I would have found them. The closest was a comment by Justice Clarence Thomas in Zivotofsky v Kerry where he assumed a person born abroad to US parents was a natural born citizen, but then spent a bucket of ink as he delved into the Article I powers of Congress to naturalize such aliens.

      At present, the Republican establishment is keeping quiet because they need Cruz to knock out Trump as the rules committee works on their real candidate. The Democrat establishment is keeping quiet and keeping their fingers crossed, with lawyers hoping and praying that Cruz delegates will take over Cleveland so the Democrat party can just spike the ball in Cruz’s face and dance in the end zone.

      The whole thing reeks. At this point, if you even cite a Supreme Court ruling at National Review or several other conservative sites your comment will get deleted within a few minutes.. Far from being the defenders of the Constitution, they have become the No-Constitution zones. They might as well call it “The document that will not be referenced.”

      I do not care if I’m the only person in the universe pointing any of this out, I can do no other. There are times when you have to point out a position’s uncertainty; it’s reliance on ambiguity, or consensus, or what can be said in polite society, is just a social construct, and then there are times when a politically charged topic is an objective matter of law or science. I do not fear because I cannot lose on the facts. When Kerry ran against Bush I pulled up satellite maps of his engagements and said he was lying his ass off, as he was. Cruz is lying about his eligibility, and can join Kerry and the CIA on their assault on the Island of Misfit Toys.

  35. edbarbar | April 19, 2016 at 2:51 am |

    Here is an interesting turn:

    Megyn Kelly went to Trump Tower last week to “clear the air” with Donald Trump, wrote Emily Jane Fox in Vanity Fair’s online magazine. Kelly “entered Trump’s building incognito,” said the story, which also quoted the not-quite-incognito Kelly saying “the doormen appeared a bit stunned when I walked in.”

    The battle between Kelly and Trump started last summer when she criticized his descriptions of women, and he fired back by accusing her of menstruating.

    This is the San Francisco Chronical. Note the progressive media bias, as they claim Trump accused her of menstruating, stated as if it were a fact. In truth, Trump claims he did not mean “menstruation” when he said bleeding out of her eyes, bleeding out of her where-ever, which was a fill in word for not coming up with another good place to say she was bleeding.

    • Scottish Sceptic | April 19, 2016 at 3:46 am |

      I’m not a Trump fan, but surely the obvious metaphors are crocodile tears and bleeding hearts. So, if whatever her name was pretending to be concerned about some issue which she then accused Trump of not being concerned about, it would be a good metaphor.

    • timg56 | April 19, 2016 at 5:08 pm |

      You all saw where the Florida Prosecutor declined to charge Lewandowski?

      At least not everyone has gone batsh*t crazy.

  36. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 5:29 am |

    Romney: 3-man race throws Trump the nomination

    http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/18/politics/mitt-romney-david-gregory-podcast/index.html?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial

    “If (Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz) are both going at it aggressively until the very end then I think Trump gets it on the first ballot,” Romney said.

  37. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 9:13 am |

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/opinion/campaign-stops/trumpism-and-clintonismare-the-future.html?emc=edit_ee_20160418&nl=todaysheadlines-europe&nlid=56747151&referer=

    Interesting take by Michael Lind, who argues there’s a historic realignment going on, and when the policy realignment is complete, what we will have is the:

    • Democratic Party: The Bernie Sanders “old Roosevelt New Deal coalition” will have been banished, and what will be left are the gazillionaire fat cats allied with the identity politicians The party will advocate for the economic interests of the gazillioaire fat cats, as well as the cultural, but not so much the economic, interests of cultural “minorities.” (This fits Peter Skerry’s definition of “elite-network” politics to a tee).

    • Republican Party: The “Rockefeller Republicans” (concerned exclusively with the economic interests of the 1% but culturally liberal) will have been banished, and what will be left are white folks who have to work for a living. The party will advocate for the pocketbook issues of white people who live by the sweat of their brow, but not so much for the special group interests of cultural “minorities” or fat cat gazillionaires.

    The Democratic Party establishment is betting that, with the browning of America, it can make it all about identity politics and pocketbook issues will fall by the wayside, to be attended to by the people who matter.

    The Democratic Party is also betting on this:

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YCVlWgJL4nk/VwwcbKbRzAI/AAAAAAAACtw/Sd5f2jNbvEoU4ltZBSwaO67-7wRyvzvSg/s1600/Blankfein_Cfs0ag0UYAE26qw.jpg

  38. cerescokid | April 19, 2016 at 9:22 am |

    There are a great bunch of comments and cartoons above. I don’t remember politics being so hilarious 60 years ago. Is it that cartoonists are so much more funny and talented or that the material they have to work with is so much more bizarre. If the current crop of choices is indicative of a trend, I pity our grandchildren.

    My mother spent her mornings enthralled with soap operas. With their near demise, we are now delighted with 24 hours a day of a new variant of “Days of Our Lives”

  39. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 10:36 am |

    Bernie Sanders says he will ban fracking in all 50 states
    http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/news/2016-04-12/information_dk-Sanders-wins-support-from-NYs-climate-movement

    Bernie Sanders has broad support among the climate movement, among other things as a follow-on to his opposition to fracking and the fossil energy industry….

    The democratic presidential candidate is received with an ear-deafening greeting, that could raise the roof over the sports hall. The next-largest applause is given to Sanders’s promise that he as president would issue a declaration that bans fracking in all USA’s 50 states.

    The democratic socialist, that regularly thunders against the fossil energy industry and “matadors” on the Wall Street stock exchange, has in his opposition against fracking found a topic that wakes a grassroots movement to action in that part of New York….

    In connection with the primary campaign in New York has Toxics Targeting in a letter requested all presidential candidates for a promise to support a nationwide ban against fracking. Up to now no one has answered.

    “That confirms that neither Clinton nor Sanders are willing to go so far. What we hear from Sanders is just political chitchat,” says Walter Hang.

    But there is an important difference between the two democratic presidential candidates. During the campaign has Clinton’s environmental stance become more progressive.

    She has turned against the oil pipeline Keystone XL and oil drilling near USA’s coast and has said that she as president will tighten the regulation of fracking technique to such a level, that “fracking will only take place few places in the USA.”

    Sanders has in contrast without condition blessed the american climate movement’s demand for a phasing out of the the fossil energy industry in the USA. Climate activists therefore trust in him. In contrast, they don’t in Clinton.

    • jeffnsails850 | April 19, 2016 at 5:41 pm |

      Sanders also promised to end nuclear power. The environmental movement also objects to dams.
      More evidence that neither Sanders nor “climate activists” are at all serious about global warming.

      • PA | April 19, 2016 at 7:00 pm |

        “Climate Activists” aren’t all that serous about facts, logic, honesty, and rational thought. Why would “global warming” be any different?

  40. mikerestin | April 19, 2016 at 10:43 am |

    We don’t need a third candidate from our one party system.
    We need a candidate from another party other than the Socialist/Democrat/Republican party.
    We need a Libertarian candidate to make Washington wake up.
    It’s time to get back to our founding.

  41. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 10:55 am |

    Ted Cruz could be the mirror image of Bill Nye and Richard Dawkins.

    One Simple Question for Ted Cruz
    http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/4/18/123319/696/Front_Page/One_Simple_Question_for_Ted_Cruz

    Predictably, Ted Cruz’s political allies are pooh-poohing the issue…and…are trying to discredit those who point out the candidate’s links with Dominionism.

    His defenders include neoconservative Catholic strategist Robert P. George, (who has also endorsed Cruz’s candidacy) as well as conservative Christian writers Robert Gagnon and Edith Humphrey who authored a smear article for Christianity Today magazine. The stock attack lines include the unsupported claim that the senator’s critics confuse Dominionism with his being “a constitutionalist”.

    Among those under fire are Frederick Clarkson and evangelical historian John Fea of Messiah College. Indeed, it was Fea who made a strong circumstantial case with this observation:

    The elder [Rafael] Cruz told the congregation that God would anoint Christian “kings” to preside over an “end-time transfer of wealth” from the wicked to the righteous. After this sermon, Larry Huch, the pastor of New Beginnings, claimed Cruz’s recent election to the U.S. Senate was a sign that he was one of these kings.

    According to his father and Huch, Ted Cruz is anointed by God to help Christians in their effort to “go to the marketplace and occupy the land … and take dominion” over it. This “end-time transfer of wealth” will relieve Christians of all financial woes, allowing true believers to ascend to a position of political and cultural power in which they can build a Christian civilization. When this Christian nation is in place (or back in place), Jesus will return.

    As I stated in my last piece, Senator Cruz has never publicly embraced this Dominionist vision. But then, has also not denied it.

  42. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 11:22 am |

    How the GOP Is Losing Its Grip on Working-Class Republicans

    The Tea Party was a red herring. The real revolt of the Republican rank-and-file is upon us.
    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/04/how_the_gop_is_losing_its_grip_on_working_class_republicans.html

    The Reagan Democrats have become the Trump Republicans, and signs point once again to a breach with the party they have reflexively supported for decades….

    While their self-interest aligned with Democratic policies designed to help insulate the vulnerable from economic transition, Republicans managed to persuade working-class voters to support the very policies that were doing them harm. They accomplished this by diverting the attention of less-educated whites with coded racial appeals, emphasizing cultural issues like abortion and gay rights, and stirring resentment against liberal “elites.”….

    Working-class Republicans are waking up to the reality that their new party doesn’t represent them any more than the Democrats did. On issue after issue, Trump’s supporters are at odds with GOP dogma. They don’t support free trade and globalization. They don’t favor tax cuts for the wealthy, or bailouts for banks, or financial deregulation, or the rollback of consumer protections. They’re against privatizing Social Security, paring back Medicare, and eliminating other government programs that aid the middle class. While they’ve been encouraged to regard Barack Obama as an extraterrestrial, they’re not demanding the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Though nationalistic, their families are the ones that paid the human cost for the neoconservative fantasy of bringing democracy to Iraq….

    With his real estate developer’s nose for opportunity, Donald Trump has bought up the swampy property between Republican leaders and the Republican led. His most effective line of attack is against sensible immigration reform, which the party’s donor class supports and its constituent base rejects. Trump’s voters couldn’t care less about bringing Latinos into the GOP. But his rallying cry of “build the wall and make them pay for it” isn’t just about nativism. It expresses a broader distress over the consequences of globalization, free trade, deindustrialization, and deunionization….

    Working-class Republicans were enraged because they saw the federal government bailing out Wall Street banks instead of ordinary citizens. The Tea Party quickly dissipated into irrelevancy because it didn’t represent the people it claimed to represent.

    Granted the nomination, Trump will drive away the Republican elite in this year’s election. Denied the nomination, he may lead the white working class out of the party for good, or clear the path for its slow-motion removal. But people who agree on next to nothing can’t go on cohabiting indefinitely….

    What seems least likely is for the voters aroused by Trump to return to their previous docility. They won’t fall back on supporting another corporate conservative like Mitt Romney, or a soft libertarian like Paul Ryan. Once parties rupture the way the GOP is now doing, only a master of constructive ambiguity like Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton can paper over their fundamental disagreements. There is currently no such figure at large in the Republican Party.

  43. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 11:24 am |

    Betrayal is at the heart of U.S. politics
    http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/04/18/betrayal-is-at-the-heart-of-u-s-politics/

    A powerful sense of betrayal is driving the 2016 campaign. The Donald Trump campaign has always been angry. We are now beginning to see the same anger in the Bernie Sanders campaign. No candidate left in the race is echoing Barack Obama’s 2008 message of hope and optimism. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush tried it — and look where it got them.

    • George Turner | April 19, 2016 at 12:55 pm |

      I supported Rubio long after it was apparent that he was over-rehearsed and lacking in depth. He had memorized some great essays on a variety of topics and could recite them by heart, whereas Reagan wrote great essays in the course of his normal day. At the end it was so bad that I couldn’t tell the difference between his speech announcing the end of his candidacy from the speech he gave to announce his candidacy. It’s like he only had the one speech. It was a great speech the first or second time you heard it. By the 15th time you wondered if he’d swallowed a dictaphone.

      I was never going to support Jeb because America shouldn’t have ruling dynasties, and Jeb radiated the attitude that the job should be his by right and bloodline. His positions and personality left people flat, and as his campaign burned through money I was reminded of a sermon I heard about a dog food company.

      The CEO called a meeting demanding to know why his brand wasn’t #1. “Don’t we have the best product? Don’t we use the freshest ingredients? Isn’t it the most nutritious? Don’t we have the best commercials, the best coupons, the best shelf placement, the best print advertising, the best marketing campaign?! Why then are sales lagging?” One timid executive meekly replied “Sir. The dogs just don’t like it.”

      In the end, Jeb looked at his supporters and said “Please clap.”

      Then there was Carson, showing us what it would be like if Xanax took Xanax, and Huckabee showing why he always drops out early. Fiorina just reminded me why I own a Dell and not an HP.

      There was the usual raft of governors whose main talking points all started with “Well in my state, I…” and ended with “Well if you look at what I did in my state.” Kasich was one of those, but happened to be too delusional to quit.

      The position that most resonated was Trump’s when he said “They’re all morons.”

    • Curious George | April 19, 2016 at 5:41 pm |

      I see results of a message of hope and optimism everywhere.

    • PA | April 19, 2016 at 6:29 pm |

      No candidate left in the race is echoing Barack Obama’s 2008 message of hope and optimism.

      Thank God.

      Barry Soetoro was an incompetent community organizer who wouldn’t know good policy if it bit him in the *ss and dragged him down the street. He had a message of “Hope” because he hoped he wouldn’t skew up too badly, and “Change” because he really didn’t know what to do.

      We got change. By objective standards in almost any area the current president made things worse. We have had all of the change of that kind the country can tolerate.

  44. Joshua | April 19, 2016 at 2:37 pm |

    I have to admit, while i started out skeptical of Trump, I’ve come around. I think what pushed me over the top was when i realized how deeply he was moved by 7/11.

    How can you not vote for a guy who takes convenience stores that seriously?

  45. James Cross | April 19, 2016 at 3:58 pm |

    When he’s President we will have the best convenience stores in the world!

    The very best!

    They will be so convenient that they will have what you want waiting for you when you go to them. They will even have what you need that you didn’t know you wanted.

    They will be so convenient that you will get tired of it and wish for the old convenience stores back so you can buy the day old hot dogs rotating on the grill!

    • JCH | April 19, 2016 at 4:20 pm |

      Back in the heyday for Southland Corporation they actually opened a 7-Eleven that stocked expensive wines and fine cigars. The intended to build twin towers: on on each side of Central Expressway. There was going to be a sky bridge between the two buildings. My wife was born on 7-11, so I once held a surprise birthday party for her at the “boutique” 7-Eleven. One of the oil busts hurt them. I don’t know if they could keep 7-Elevens open with no Muslim clerks.

      • timg56 | April 19, 2016 at 5:13 pm |

        Muslim?

      • Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 6:08 pm |

        It wasn’t “one of the oil busts” that “hurt” Southland. It was the LBO.

        The Southland LBO didn’t take place until 1987, and it was one of those Michael Milken deals.

        The LBO happened well after the oil bust, which began in 1980 when world oil demand began to plummet. Oil prices bottomed out in March 1986 at just a little bit over $10 per barrel, but by the time of the Southland LBO had recovered to almost $20 per barrel.

        http://i.imgur.com/Q9AKzjp.jpg

        Occidental bought Cities Service Oil Company in 1982 and in 1983 sold the downstream operations — CITGO Petroleum — to Southland. So Southland never owned any upstream O&G operaitons, so had no exposure to them. And anyway, all this happened well before the LBO.

        The Thompsons only owned about 10% of Southland stock before the LBO, which was worth about $200 million. At the time Southland was the second largest retailer in the United States, with sales second only to Wal-Mart. The LBO was for over $5 billion, and the Thompsons put no equity into the new enterprise when they took it private — it was 100% financed. So they took $500 million, the value of the 10% of Southland stock they had owned, in cash out when they did the deal.

        This left a company with just too much debt, and when the major oil companies began opening C-stores, Southland couldn’t fade the competition. It was too cash strapped to mount a defense.

        In 1990, Southland filed for bankruptcy protection.

        Southland emerged from bankruptcy about a half a year later and, in order to get the Thompasons out, the Japanese had to pay them another $100 million.

        So all in all the Thompson’s turned a $200 million dollar asset into $600 million in a few short years.

        The Thompasons took advantage of the financialization of the U.S. economy, securing financing for a massive deal with no equity and no personal guarantee.

        At the time, what the Thompsons did was frowned upon in some sectors. However, it is now looked upon as BAU, and It is a way of doing business that Donald Trump has repeated many times during his career. In other words: heads I win, tails I win.

        With the financializaton of the U.S. economy, it has turned into one big zero sums game.

  46. cerescokid | April 19, 2016 at 7:44 pm |

    CBSNewYork says hundreds of thousands in NYC have problems at the polls. Another problem when socialists take over.

  48. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 8:45 pm |

    Clinton Campaign’s Mook: Pattern of “Personal, Negative Dangerous and Harmful Attacks” From Sanders Campaign

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/04/19/clinton_campaigns_mook_pattern_of_personal_negative_dangerous_and_harmful_attacks_from_sanders_campaign.html

  49. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 8:46 pm |

    Howard Dean: Sanders Has To “Tone Down” His “Bitter” Rhetoric, It “Weakens Progressives”

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/04/19/howard_dean_sanders_has_to_tone_down_his_bitter_rhetoric_it_weakens_progressives.html

  51. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 8:59 pm |

    Cenk Uygur: “Ridiculous” CNN And MSNBC Claim “Bernie Bros” Are Sexist For Throwing Cash At Hillary

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/04/19/cenk_uygur_ridiculous_cnn_and_msnbc_claim_bernie_bros_are_sexist_for_throwing_cash_at_hillary.html

  53. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 9:15 pm |

    Looks like this is going to be an all nighter.

    No wonder Clinton trotted out all her attack dogs to maul Sanders for being “a sexist” and running a “bitter” and “negative” campaign.

    http://i.imgur.com/Bls8QQS.png

  56. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 9:40 pm |

    Identity politics all the way:

    Should they win tonight – as they expect – Clinton’s top campaign aides believe it will be, in large part, because of their outreach to African-American and Latino voters.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/19/politics/new-york-primary-live-updates/index.html

  57. Wagathon | April 19, 2016 at 10:52 pm |

    I watched Clinton’s speech and of all the put-upon groups that have been victimized in America –e.g., all poorly paid women, illegal immigrants, blacks, LGBTQs, Muslims — and, by who? all white males? rich folks? business? the Irish? a free enterprise economy? And yet, no mention of Jews. No mention of Asians. Is Clinton anti-Semitic and anti-Asian?

  58. Jim D | April 19, 2016 at 11:08 pm |

    Both Clinton and Sanders got way more votes than Trump in New York today. He might not want to mention that in his “victory” speech.

  59. Glenn Stehle | April 19, 2016 at 11:21 pm |

    It was just almost a clean sweep by Trump.

    http://i.imgur.com/7V8wpQY.png

    • Glenn Stehle | April 20, 2016 at 2:08 pm |

      °°°°°From the article:

      The sheriff said, “Since 2008, this Administration has weakened immigration enforcement by dismissing deportation cases, rescinding 287g agreements, encouraging sanctuary policies, and watering down detainer policies.”

      “Case by case amnesty, back door amnesty, DACA programs, and the Dream Act were pushed through by executive order,” Jenkins said. He added, “In effect, criminal aliens that should have been deported have been allowed to remain and commit more serious crimes becoming violent offenders.”

      The empirical data, however, tell a very different story.

      Entirely too many people, on both sides of the aisle, and for very different reasons, believe the political lies and fall victim to the disinformation campaigns conducted by law enforcement officers like Sheriff Charles Jenkins.

      http://i.imgur.com/5VgllU5.png
      http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/02/u-s-deportations-of-immigrants-reach-record-high-in-2013/

      °°°°°From the article:

      “The criminal alien gang numbers are growing, and the serious crimes being committed are increasing,” he testified. “There is also a nexus between the deferred action on unaccompanied minors and the increases we are seeing in gang crimes.”

      Both MS-13 and 18th Street are recruiting in schools in his county and at one high school the two alien gangs break out into fights frequently.

      One more time Sheriff Jenkins is making empirical claims that are false.

      MS-13 is not and “alien gang.”

      Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California. It has spread to other parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America.[4]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-13

      Nor is 18th street an “alien gang.”

      18th Street gang, also known as Calle 18, Barrio 18, La18 or Mara-18 in Central America,[1][3][4][5] is a multi-ethnic transnational criminal organization that started as a street gang in the Rampart area of Los Angeles, California. They are considered to be the largest transnational criminal gang in Los Angeles and it is estimated that there are tens of thousands of members in Los Angeles County alone.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_Street_gang

      • jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 2:39 pm |

        Just because it began in LA does not mean it isn’t related to immigrants.
        …
        he MS13 was founded in the “barrios” of Los Angeles in the 1980s. As a result of the civil wars wracking El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, refugees flooded northward. Many of them wound up in Los Angeles, living among the mostly Mexican barrios of East Los Angeles. While the Mexican gangs reined in the local underworld, the war-hardened immigrants quickly organized themselves into competing groups, the strongest of which was called the Mara Salvatrucha.
        The gang was initially composed of refugees from El Salvador in the Pico Union neighborhood, which is where the name comes from: “mara” is a Central American term for gang; “salva” refers to El Salvador; “trucha,” which means “trout” in English, is a slang term for “clever” or “sharp.” However, with the concentration of Spanish speakers in Los Angeles, the gang expanded into other nationalities and then into other cities.
        …
        http://www.insightcrime.org/el-salvador-organized-crime-news/mara-salvatrucha-ms-13-profile

      • Glenn Stehle | April 20, 2016 at 3:34 pm |

        jim2,

        There’s an outstanding movie about las Maras that is now available on Vimeo, and it’s got English subtitles:

    • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 3:21 pm |

      The largest hispanic gang in the US today was founded in Chicago in the 1940’s by Puerto Ricans.

      It is estimated a little less than half of the nation’s 1 million gang members are hispanic. Almost certainly a sizeable fraction of those are Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and others not from our neighbor Mexico. As well, given that most gang members are young, most of them are probably natural born citizens.

      So in my reckoning about 10% – 15% of US gang members are illegal Mexicans. The same source that estimates <50% of gang members are hispanic estimates that 13% of US gang members are white. Those white gang members would almost certainly all be natural born citizens of the US.

      So the gang problem isn't an illegal Mexican gang problem it's just a gang problem with diversity in membership.

      I wonder if we should count militias such as the Michigan Militia where Tim McVeigh the Oklahoma City Bomber had attended meetings. Or motorcycle clubs like Hells Angels. Or crime syndicates like the Cosa Nostra.

      I remain convinced that illegal Mexicans are no more than designated scapegoats of convenience for problems which they have little culpability.

      • jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 3:54 pm |

        I would rather find them (not sure how) and have them sign up for any of the current immigration documents we already have. I really don’t see why we have to have another document or another law. Just follow the ones we have. We could give amnesty from deportation in order for the signup to occur. After the amnesty period is done, then we begin to deport.

  61. jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 7:33 am |

    From the article:
    …
    Sean Hannity got a little frustrated with Ted Cruz during a radio interview this afternoon over his campaign’s delegate game.

    Cruz said he doesn’t think most people care about this stuff. Hannity shot back by invoking his millions of followers and saying plenty of people “find this whole process confusing.”

    When Cruz dismissively said only Donald Trump‘s people are complaining, Hannity kind of blew up:

    “Senator, why do you do this? Every single time––no, you gotta stop! Every time I have you on the air and I ask you a legitimate question, you try to throw this in my face, I’m getting sick of it!”
    …
    http://www.mediaite.com/online/you-gotta-stop-hannity-loses-his-cool-with-ted-cruz-over-delegates/

  62. jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 7:35 am |

    Obama’s failed policy … from the article:
    …
    Twelve of the 23 co-ops created in 2011 under Obamacare at a cost of $2.4 billion have failed, and another eight of the remaining 11 are likely to go under this year. But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) won’t hand over documents subpoenaed months ago by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

    Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who chairs the House oversight committee, thinks HHS officials are purposely keeping potential co-op customers in the dark as long as possible.

    “Health and Human Services has not provided any valid legal reason for withholding information from this committee,” Chaffetz said during a Tuesday hearing on federal agencies’ failures to comply with congressional document requests. “Rather, they assert that if certain information was released publicly, it could cause consumers to think twice before enrolling in CO-OP insurance plans.”
    …
    http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/20/feds-blow-off-house-subpoena-for-obamacare-co-op-docs/

    • PA | April 20, 2016 at 7:42 am |

      You don’t need to state “Obama’s failed policy”, that is redundant. Please just use the phrase “Obama’s policy”…

  63. jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 7:38 am |

    From the article:
    …
    There are more illegal immigrant criminals in the United States than the population of major U.S. cities, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)86%
    argues, expressing frustration at the Obama administration’s focus on the plight of illegal immigrants rather than the victims of their crimes.
    …
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/19/trey-gowdy-more-illegal-immigrants-convicted-of-crimes-at-large-in-the-u-s-than-the-population-of-pittsburgh/

    • Glenn Stehle | April 20, 2016 at 2:59 pm |

      °°°°°From the article:

      “Today there are over 350,000 known criminal aliens in the United States who are not detained by ICE, 350,000,” Gowdy, the chairman of the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee, said opening a hearing examining the victims of illegal immigrant crime….

      Gowdy noted that, according to ICE, between October 2011 and December 2014, ICE released criminal aliens over 100,000 times.

      “According to ICE those released have been convicted of more than 10,000 assaults, more than 800 sexual assaults, more than 400 homicide-related offenses, and more than 300 kidnappings,” he said.

      So let’s see:

      350,000 total crimes – 10,000 assaults – 800 sexual assaults – 400 homicides – 300 kidnappings = 338,500 non-violent crimes

      So of the 350,000 “criminal aliens” that Gowdy is bloviating about, 338,500, or 97% of them, committed non-violent crimes?

      So what crime did they commit, jaywalking?

    • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 3:56 pm |

      350,000 illegal aliens who’ve committed any type of crime from class C misdemeanor like jaywalking (Class C carries maximum fine of $500, no jail time) to capital fel0nies like murder. Predominantly they are traffic crimes like almost all of us have committed and where a great many of us have been caught, convicted, and fined.

      That’s one illegal alien who was picked up for predominantly petty crimes per each 10 square miles. Seems like we should be able to handle that without getting our panties all in a bunch.

      Comparatively speaking nearly ten times as many people are not just criminals, they are convicted criminals serving prison sentences. Of illegal immigrants serving prison time the vast majority of those are immigration crimes.

      We have a huge ($70 billion) for-profit prison industry in the United States that is out of control. The US has the highest incarceration rate of any nation in the world. 0.5% of the population is in prison and another 3% are on correctional supervision (probation or parole). Russia is in second place. Police cost the nation $1 TRILLION dollars per decade, prisons another $600 billion, and criminal justice $500 billion.

      Imagine the strength of the lobbyists in an industry that accounts for over $2 TRILLION in public spending each decade. The military-industrial complex only spends $3 trillion per decade.

      You want to cut public spending then gut this prison-industrial complex.

      • Glenn Stehle | April 20, 2016 at 6:34 pm |

        Punishment and Profits: Immigration Detention
        Fault Lines investigates the business of immigrant detention in the US.

        http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2012/04/201241081117980874.html

        Immigration is a key issue in the US presidential election, with the Republican candidates trying to demonstrate their tough stance on undocumented immigrants.

        But under the Obama administration, the detention and deportation of immigrants has reached an all-time high.

        Every day, the US government detains more than 33,000 non-citizens at the cost of $5.5mn a day. That is a lot of money for the powerful private prison industry, which spends millions of dollars on lobbying and now operates nearly half of the country’s immigration detention centres.

        Fault Lines travels to Texas and Florida to investigate the business of immigrant detention in the US and to find out how a handful of companies have managed to shape US immigration laws.

  64. David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 11:34 am |

    I’m a native New Yorker. Results last night and Trump’s taking it down a notch with the rhetoric is moving me to his side. I’m still uncomfortable about Hilary’s consistently coming out 6% ahead in general election polls but if anyone can figure out how to turn that around it’s Trump. I watched his two sons and one daughter interviewed by Sean Hannity last night and they were more persuasive than Trump himself. Especially the two boys. They know him better than anyone else in the world. The respect and admiration they held for him was touching. Reagan’s kids on the other hand were generally messed up and complained their father was remote. I’m holding out a tentative hope that Trump can attract working class democrats to his side and history might know them as Trump Democrats much as history remembers Reagan Democrats.

    • jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 11:35 am |

      Welcome to the Dark Side.

      • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 11:55 am |

        New York win was impressive. He won practically every county in the state. That’s a tough nut to crack because the cultural divergence between the city and rest of the state is stark. Hillary’s win demonstrated what I’d expect in any election. She won the population centers NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and virtually nowhere else. But that’s over half the population in just those 4 cities.

      • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 11:58 am |

        Trump and Cruz need to bury the hatchet. If Cruz were to be on the ticket as VP it would bring the religious and ultra-conservatives back into the fold and hopefully form a coalition that could beat that snake Hillary.

      • jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 11:59 am |

        I think Trump needs a woman with some political chops for VP, not Palin, but maybe someone like Rice, or … I dunno … but one who could pull in the No-one-but-Trump Redimowits and independents.

      • ordvic | April 20, 2016 at 12:15 pm |

        VP selection: Mia Love UT. She may not have all the political chops but she is an intelligent and charming African American conservative. It would be hard for the media to go after her.

      • ordvic | April 20, 2016 at 12:35 pm |

        I still have Trump as easily winning 1102 to 1132 delegates. He would have to convince about 10% of the unbound and 10% of the Rubio delegates to win. Certainly feasible.

      • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 12:37 pm |

        The religious right and other staunch conservatives are needed to win. Palin is damaged goods. McCain’s idea was right but his choice was wrong mostly from haste. Palin wasn’t vetted well.

      • AK | April 20, 2016 at 4:50 pm |

        He could make Ayaan Hirsi Ali his chief immigration policy advisor. It would send some messages.

    • jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 11:57 am |

      Of course, I always have to consider the possibility your are simply staging a position for the sake of argument :)

      • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 12:05 pm |

        No hearing his children singing his praises seemed honest and seeing the very diverse state of New York come together like they did was equally impressive. Plus he was a tad more humble in his victory speech and for the first time referred to Cruz as Senator Cruz instead of Lyin’ Ted. I’m also impressed by his gearing up for a general election by hiring some people who know what they are doing. His boys said though that the guy in charge of the campaign is and always will be their father. Coming this far on his own recognizance with no organization on a shoestring budget is impressive but it’s also a reason that he’s struggling to reach 50% of the delegates. He needed boots on the ground in Louisiana, Colorado, and Virginia among other places to prevent Cruz from poaching delegates.

    • jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 12:01 pm |

      I thought Trump’s position on immigration and illegal immigrants was a deal beaker for you?

      • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 12:27 pm |

        He doesn’t have enough popular support to pull it off. Cruz, before he started pandering to Trump bigots, had the best plan. Give illegals currently in the country special forever green cards that don’t make the holder eligible for citizenship after five years (or ever). For citizenship they have to apply through the same channels as anyone else. Probably about as close to fair, equitable, and compassionate as we are going to get on this difficult issue. I definitely don’t believe in rewarding people who broke our immigration laws with citizenship and the benefits that go with it. Their children born in the US will assimilate just fine so long as we don’t deny them a public education and other normal benefits of citizenship.

      • ordvic | April 20, 2016 at 12:44 pm |

        Thanks Springer, I had no idea that was Cruz’s position.

      • climatereason | April 20, 2016 at 1:47 pm |

        Trump with Cruz as vice Presdent would seem to be a solution for the republicans who look a very fractured party from this side of the pond

        However, I can not see Cruz going for that as he probably believes he can still make it on his own, or failing that he would be crowned by the party big wigs anyway at a brokered convention.

        That would be profoundly unfair as Trump is the popular choice, but if he doesn’t make enough delegates to automatically receive the nomination I can not see the party allowing him to be their candidate.

        It is interesting that David has back pedalled as he was very critical of Trump. The fact that he can be swayed perhaps suggests that Trump can appeal to a wider electorate than his opponents believe?

        Mind you, it’s a terrible set of candidates all round, but the likely democrat winner is the worst of the lot. Obama then Clinton? Surely the American electorate can not be that daft?

        Tonyb

      • ordvic | April 20, 2016 at 1:52 pm |

        climatereason: ” Surely the American electorate can not be that daft?”

        That’s why the founding fathers created a republic. Even the stupidest leaders are held in check.

      • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 2:45 pm |

        Cruz and legalizing illegal aliens. It’s complicated. Read this and tell me what you think.

        http://www.factcheck.org/2015/12/did-cruz-support-legalization/

      • climatereason | April 20, 2016 at 3:44 pm |

        David

        I read it twice but it’s hard to get to the bottom of it All as his position seems contradictory, opaque and perhaPs overlaid with a bluff or a double bluff. It’s a real politicians position where he can claim whatever he wants.

        The trouble with legalising illegal immigration is three fold as we have found in the UK

        Firstly they are rewarded for an illegal act

        Secondly, if there is the likelihood of an amnesty in due course more will follow them and thirdly it’s Unfair on those that go through the official channels.

        I would guess also that it forces down wages of those already at the bottom end of the employment ladder. also if someone is there illegally are they more likely to be drawn into the criminal underworld? I do not know if there are studies on this but think jim posted something Upthread.

        It seems to me that there needs to be something done for illegals, but do not know what level of official approval is appropriate for american circumstances.

        However, surely full citizenship should only be offered to people entering the country legally, so some sort of restricted citizenship only would seem appropriate, which would send out the message that ultimately illegal entry does not pay.

        Tonyb

      • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 6:20 pm |

        @Tony

        Cruz is a Harvard attorney and former Solicitor General of Texas. He’s a politician’s politician. Lyin’ Ted is a good nickname for him. Crude but accurate enough depending on what the definition of “is” is. LOL

      • David Springer | April 20, 2016 at 6:42 pm |

        Impact on the economy is negligible for those that are working. People have a wrong notion about this. Illegals work cheap. Consumers benefit from lower priced goods and services. There’s no net loss.

        Say you are paying $10 less per week on fruit and vegetables because it’s harvested by migrant workers who are paid less than minimum wage with no benefits. If that fruit is picked instead by minimum wage legal workers your grocery bill goes up $10. You now have to work enough extra time each week to make $10 more to pay your higher grocery bill.

      • jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 7:22 pm |

        My only concern about illegals is if they get a special path to citizenship.
        That would cement the Dimowits in power and that would be a bad thing. If all illegals got a legal work permit and played by the rules after that, I would be good with it. Another this is we need to get rid of the insane rule that any baby born on US soil is a citizen. Almost no other country does something that insane.

      • Steven Mosher | April 21, 2016 at 1:37 am |

        “Trump with Cruz as vice Presdent would seem to be a solution for the republicans who look a very fractured party from this side of the pond”

        If trump is smart he will appoint Cruz to the supreme court.
        that said Cruz as VP would insure that he is not impeached.

        Palin as VP would be dumb and dumber

        If he picks an establishment VP he is begging for impeachment.

        it will be an interesting choice.

      • David Springer | April 21, 2016 at 5:56 am |

        Impeachment on what grounds?

      • Peter Lang | April 21, 2016 at 6:01 am |

        For imposing a carbon tax (to pay for a fence).

      • David Springer | April 21, 2016 at 6:16 am |

        Cruz would be nearly the youngest ever-appointed SCOTUS justice. Given his extreme unpopularity in the Senate it also seems unlikely he’d be confirmed. While politicians later becoming SCOTUS members are not unheard of (President Taft went on to sit on SCOTUS) it’s rare. For a sitting Senator to be grilled in front the body he sits on would be a first. Would he get to vote on his own nomination?

        While it’s far from the stupidest suggestion Mosher has ever made it is still pretty stupid.

  66. Glenn Stehle | April 20, 2016 at 8:53 pm |

    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2016/0419/Why-Trump-abandoned-his-cheapskate-campaign

    Through the end of February, Trump’s campaign committee has spent a grand total of $33 million during the 2016 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission reports. In contrast, Ted Cruz has spent $58.5 million during that same time period. Hillary Clinton has spent $129 million.

  67. Glenn Stehle | April 20, 2016 at 8:57 pm |

    After New York Win, Clinton Campaign Says Sanders’ Attacks Help Republicans
    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/after-new-york-win-clinton-campaign-says-bernie-sanders-attacks-help-republicans

    Speaking with reporters after Clinton’s victory rally in Manhattan Tuesday night, the Clinton campaign’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, called on Sanders to run a more positive, issue-based campaign.

    “He needs to decide as he closes out the Democratic primary if he is going to continue on the destructive path that he started down in the New York primary, where he is making personal character attacks against her that mimic the attacks that Republicans make and aid Republicans, or if he is going to end this primary the way that he promised to run—the kind of campaign he said he would [run]—that was focused on issues,” she said.

    “There’s no question that Sen. Sanders, that the behavior of him and his campaign has been destructive.”

  68. jim2 | April 20, 2016 at 9:37 pm |

    From the article:
    …
    A study released April 20 by the Brennan Center for Justice shows that the murder rate jumped 13.3 percent in America’s biggest cities during 2015.

    Three Democrat-run, heavily gun-controlled cities–Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington DC–“account for more than half” of the murder increase, the report admits.
    …
    Again, the three cities in view–which by themselves constitute more than half the increase in murders for 2015–are run by Democrats and have been run by Democrats for decades. And another shared trait between these cities is the fact that they are heavily gun-controlled.
    …
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/20/study-murders-increased-2015-thanks-democrat-run-gun-controlled-cities/

    • climatereason | April 21, 2016 at 4:35 pm |

      Jim

      The three places seem to have an ‘assault weapon” ban

      I would hardly call that heavily gun controlled. You are surely not suggesting that if everyone bought assault weapons that these cities would be safer?

      Tonyb

      • jim2 | April 21, 2016 at 5:16 pm |

        I believe the point is that in spite of the gun control laws murders spiked in those cities. Gun control laws don’t work, in general.

        Australia has had some success banning guns, but they are literally an island. We in the US border Mexico. There is no way to ban guns here from criminals. Better to let the populous have guns to defend themselves when they don’t have five or ten minutes to wait for the police to arrive.

        The semi-automatic rifles aren’t full blown assault weapons, which are fully automatic. Not saying they won’t do some damage, but so will a 9 mm pistol.

      • jim2 | April 21, 2016 at 10:37 pm |

        I’ve been thinking about your specific question. Even considering the fact that killing in self defense isn’t considered murder, I’m not sure what would happen if everyone had, say, an AR-15. There might be a spike in murders due to more gang killings, but it might well level off and maybe even go down. I’m not sure.

    • Jim D | April 21, 2016 at 11:00 pm |

      The problem isn’t gun control. It is just too easy to get guns through the black market, and there is no ability to trace them back to dealers, some of whom are crooked and account for a large share.
      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html

      • Mike Flynn | April 21, 2016 at 5:09 am |

        Yes, but only 80% of Americans claim they think the climate is better than 40 years ago, as against 97% of 100 self proclaimed climatologists telling them they are mistaken.

        And what is this journal Nature, anyway? Is it like the Naturist Journal, but with less titillating pictures?

        The weather’s always nice in the Naturist journal. Maybe it’s different in Nature.

        Cheers.

      • JCH | April 21, 2016 at 6:33 am |

        They think it’s better because mankind’s fossil fuel burning ways have wrapped a blanket around the earth’s corpse and warmed its nether regions: North Dakota, Minnesota, and the Michigan’s upper peninsula.

      • Mike Flynn | April 21, 2016 at 7:03 am |

        JCH,

        Are you really implying that the US is the ar*sehole of the world?

        Maybe you’re just passing through?

        Wrapping a blanket round a corpse will warm it just as much as wrapping it with CO2 – not at all. Putting it in the sunlight, sans blanket or CO2, will increase its surface temperature – just like the Earth, really.

        You seem confused about the supposed magical warming abilities of CO2.

        Cheers.

      • Glenn Stehle | April 21, 2016 at 8:37 am |

        Let’s see.

        The article is written by Patrick Egan, a political scientist at New York University, and Megan Mullin, professor of environmental politics at Duke University.

        The subtext of the article is the lack of alarm by the ignorant, unwashed masses at the alarm being sounded by the almarmists, who of course are all-knowing and extraordinarily wise:

        So when news of weather milestones — such as Los Angeles’ hottest February on record — breaks, what happens?

        “Climate scientists are reporting those results with alarm, but based on these findings the public is not receiving the message with alarm,” Mullin said. “They’re receiving it with complacency. They’re thinking of warm, sunny winter days.”

        Mullin suggested climate scientists and climate communicators focus the message on extreme weather events — the wildfires, droughts, floods and hurricanes that take significant human and economic tolls.

        So it’s spin, and more spin, and yet more spin! How is one to keep from getting tipsy with all the spin?

        Is all this spinning part of a climate scientist’s job?

        And when it comes to spinning, nobody does it better than Bloomberg. Just take a look at these optics:

        http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-04-19/earth-s-temperature-just-shattered-the-thermometer

        http://i.imgur.com/zKvqzD1.png
        http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iFYc0ACVgqQ0/v1/-1x-1.jpg

    • climatereason | April 21, 2016 at 4:37 pm |

      Willard

      Nice.

      However they could have added that every trump sentence, as well as having words, is also shouted.

      Tonyb

  70. Peter Lang | April 21, 2016 at 8:39 am |

    Australian Attorney-General: ‘Climate Science Is Not Settled’

    Australian Attorney-General George Brandis has questioned the science of climate change, saying he’s not ‘at all’ convinced it is settled. ‘It doesn’t seem to me that the science is settled at all,’ Senator Brandis told parliament on Tuesday during debate on the tabling of documents relating to the CSIRO. The attorney-general was addressing a recent CSIRO restructure – undertaken internally – which will move the focus away from collecting climate data. –Sky News, 20 April 2016

    H/T Benny Peiser, GWPF

    The Aussie Attorney General seems to be a bit smarter than the US Attorneys General. Perhaps, in the absence of good leadership by the US, Australia will lead the way to free the world from the stupidity of the CAGW alarmists.

  71. Glenn Stehle | April 21, 2016 at 9:10 am |

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YCVlWgJL4nk/VwwcbKbRzAI/AAAAAAAACtw/Sd5f2jNbvEoU4ltZBSwaO67-7wRyvzvSg/s1600/Blankfein_Cfs0ag0UYAE26qw.jpg

    Here’s an interesting development.

    Could it be that capitalism isn’t working all that well any longer for “the people that matter”?

    Have these greedy, sociopathic bastards finally managed to slaughter the milk cow?

    Blankfein’s Decade Ending With a Thud on a Humbled Wall Street
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-20/blankfein-s-decade-ending-with-a-thud-on-a-humbled-wall-street

    https://assets.bwbx.io/images/iApxf1X6LDJg/v2/-1x-1.png

    https://assets.bwbx.io/images/ih7qBx6yDCr4/v2/-1x-1.png

    https://assets.bwbx.io/images/iKACRwWrJJ.4/v2/-1x-1.png

    • Glenn Stehle | April 21, 2016 at 9:16 am |

      There are going to be a lot of unhappy masters of the universe:

      Goldman posts weakest results in four years, revenue tumbles 40 percent
      http://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldmansachs-results-idUSKCN0XG1EV

      • jim2 | April 21, 2016 at 9:27 am |

        We need someone like Trump who can focus on the health of the economy instead of what bathroom a penis can use. The economy has taken back seat to so many other things, “climate change” being one of the worst.

        At any rate, even though many here don’t take it seriously; automation, robotics, and AI will, I believe, actually result in a net loss of jobs. It’s already happening in restaurants, driven in part by the mindless push for $15 an hour for menial jobs. JMO.

  72. Glenn Stehle | April 22, 2016 at 9:16 am |

    2016: When the Rules Change the Game
    http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/04/20/election-delegate-fight-when-rules-change-game/

    Trump is dead right when he says the nominating system is “rigged.” The fundamental fact is that the Republican Party’s process for selecting its presidential candidate is controlled by the base. The Republican National Committee leaves the rules for delegate selection up to the states and territories, and many states, through obscure state executive committees, have adopted procedures that reward the candidate who’s closest to the base, the most active members, the ones who participate in party politics between elections—and these are the more conservative voters. The rules, then, favor a conservative candidate with strong organization at the local level. (By contrast, the Democratic party awards delegates in proportion to a candidate’s votes in the state contest.)….

    The rules can be used against Trump in other important ways even if he has a sufficient number of delegates. Ben Ginsberg, a Washington lawyer and the reigning expert on Republican election rules, said in an interview, “Even if delegates are bound on the first ballot, they don’t have to support that candidate’s position on other matters including rules issues, credentials challenges, procedural floor votes, or the selection of a vice president.” That’s quite a lot that can go awry for the front-runner if he has a determined opponent.

  73. Glenn Stehle | April 22, 2016 at 9:22 am |

    Why Democrats Are Becoming the Party of the 1 Percent
    http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/04/why-democrats-are-becoming-the-party-of-the-1-percent

    Trumpism, on the other hand, is the doctrine of a different Republican Party, one that would cater not to the donor class, but rather to the white working class. Rich people do not like that idea….

    Trumpism—friendly to entitlements, unfriendly to expanded trade and high immigration—will be the platform of the Republican Party in the years going forward. Clintonism—friendly both to business and to social and racial liberalism—will cobble together numerous interest groups and ditch the white working class….

    Traditionally, though, the Republican Party has been seen as the better friend to the wealthy, offering lower taxes, fewer business regulations, generous defense contracts, increased global trade, high immigration, and resistance to organized labor. It’s been the buddy of homebuilders, oil barons, defense contractors, and other influential business leaders.

    Trumpism changes the equation….

    Clintonism, by comparison, starts to look much more appealing.

    All good, say some Democrats. The more people that Trumpism scares away, the broader and more powerful the liberal-left coalition will be. But nobody offers their support without expecting something in return….

    In a world of Trumpism and Clintonism, Democrats would become the party of globalist-minded elites, both economic and cultural, while Republicans would become the party of the working class. Democrats would win backing from those who support expanded trade and immigration, while Republicans would win the support of those who prefer less of both. Erstwhile neocons would go over to Democrats (as they are already promising to do), while doves and isolationists would stick with Republicans. Democrats would remain culturally liberal, while Republicans would remain culturally conservative.

    The combination of super-rich Democrats and poor Democrats would exacerbate internal party tensions, but the party would probably resort to forms of appeasement that are already in use. To their rich constituents, Democrats offer more trade, more immigration, and general globalism. To their non-rich constituents, they offer the promise of social justice, which critics might call identity politics. That’s one reason why Democrats have devoted so much attention to issues such as transgender rights, sexual assault on campus, racial disparities in criminal justice, and immigration reform. The causes may be worthy—and they attract sincere advocates—but politically they’re also useful. They don’t bother rich people.

  74. Glenn Stehle | April 22, 2016 at 9:27 am |

    The (un)Democratic Primary: Why We Need a New Party of the 99%
    http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/21/the-undemocratic-primary-why-we-need-a-new-party-of-the-99/

    Despite a decisive victory Tuesday providing further confirmation of her likely nomination, in many respects Hillary Clinton emerges from the New York primary more damaged, her party more divided, than she entered it.

    What came to be called The Battle of New York has served only to further expose what millions of people in the U.S. are becoming painfully aware of – the Democratic Party primary is rigged in favor of the establishment.

    A discussion which started with the top-down superdelegate system and enormous influence of corporate money in politics, has gone on to raise awareness about the generally undemocratic nature of the Democratic primary and party itself – with its myriad of anti-democratic voting rules, frontloading of conservative states, heavy tilting of the playing field by the media establishment, and antagonistic role of Democratic Party leaders towards grassroots challengers like Sanders.

  75. Glenn Stehle | April 22, 2016 at 9:45 am |

    Andrew Bacevich: Why America’s All-Volunteer Force fails to win wars
    http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20160418-andrew-bacevich-why-americas-all-volunteer-force-fails-to-win-wars.ece

    A conundrum: Today’s American soldier is by common consent the world’s finest, even history’s finest, but the United States doesn’t win its wars. Time and again, the mission – the overall aim of the exercise – goes unaccomplished, while the war itself continues as if on autopilot. Why?….

    When conceived toward the end of Vietnam, the All-Volunteer Force assured Americans that the government would never again force citizens to fight a war they oppose. Henceforth, when it came to military service, the state might solicit, but it could no longer command.

    For civilian and military officials charged with managing American wars, the AVF offered a different set of assurances: Never again would their successors have to tolerate the popular obstructionism that had complicated Vietnam. The All-Volunteer Force promised them autonomy.

    In the event, the AVF delivered on both of these expectations, albeit with consequences that few expected. Today, the people have by-and-large tuned out war or accept it as someone else’s concern. Meanwhile, the free hand allowed the national security establishment has encouraged the worst sort of mindless groupthink.

  76. jim2 | April 22, 2016 at 11:32 am |

    From the article:
    …
    Boris Johnson has criticised the US president Barack Obama and suggested his attitude to Britain might be based on his “part-Kenyan” heritage and “ancestral dislike of the British empire”.

    Writing a column for The Sun newspaper the outgoing Mayor of London recounted a story about a bust of Winston Churchill purportedly being removed from White House.

    “Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender,” he wrote.
    …
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-suggests-part-kenyan-obama-may-have-an-ancestral-dislike-of-britain-a6995826.html

  77. jim2 | April 22, 2016 at 11:39 am |

    Looks like the UK has the same respect for its citizens as the US, that it – none whatsoever. From the article:
    …
    The UK’s intelligence agencies such as MI5, MI6, and GCHQ have been collecting personal information from citizens who are “unlikely to be of intelligence or security interest” since the 1990s, a thousand pages of documents published on Thursday revealed. The documents were published as a result of a lawsuit filed by Privacy International, a UK-based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world. According to the documents, GCHQ and others have been collecting bulk personal data sets since 1998 under the provisions of section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984. J.M. Porup, reports for Ars Technica:
    …
    https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/22/1321209/uk-intel-agencies-have-been-spying-on-millions-of-people-of-no-security-interest-since-1990s

  78. jim2 | April 22, 2016 at 11:50 am |

    The Redimowit party will cease to exist in the near future. Kiss your guns goodbye. From the article:
    …
    There are 55.3 million Latinos in America, nearly triple the 1980 population, and those under 18 years old are the largest group, a demographic fact likely to influence the future of the country, according to Census figures.

    A new analysis from the Pew Research Center, found that the vast majority are of “Mexican origin,” and most of the younger Latinos were born in the United States to immigrants. Hispanics represent over 17 percent of the total U.S. population and 21 percent of all millennials, said Pew.
    …
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/american-future-55-million-latinos-in-u.s.-one-third-under-18/article/2589272

  79. Joseph | April 22, 2016 at 7:42 pm |

    You can try to put lipstick on a pig, but..

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3551312/Trump-Cruz-feud-shifts-luxury-seaside-resort-Florida.html

    Donald Trump’s chief lieutenants told skeptical Republican leaders Thursday that the GOP front-runner has been “projecting an image” so far in the 2016 primary season and “the part that he’s been playing is now evolving” in a way that will improve his standing among general election voters.

    The message, delivered behind closed doors in a private briefing, is part of the campaign’s intensifying effort to convince party leaders Trump will moderate his tone in the coming months to help deliver big electoral gains this fall, despite his contentious ways.

  81. jim2 | April 23, 2016 at 11:22 am |

    From the article:
    …
    WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA announced his support last week for a Federal Communications Commission plan to open the market for cable set-top boxes — a big win for consumers, but also for Google — the cable and telecommunications giants who used to have a near-stranglehold on tech policy were furious. AT&T chief lobbyist Jim Cicconi lashed out at what he called White House intervention on behalf of “the Google proposal.”
    …
    Another potential conflict arises from the enormous amount of data that Google and the government each have stored on American citizens. Google recently acknowledged having mined the data of student users of its education apps, and has been accused repeatedly of violating user privacy in other contexts. An overly close partnership risks Google putting its data in the government’s hands or gaining access to what the government has collected.
    …
    The Wall Street Journal noted that Google’s White House visits increased right around that time. And in 2013, the presidentially appointed commissioners of the FTC overrode their staff, voting unanimously not to file any charges.

    Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said the administration “has been a huge help” to Google both by protecting it from attempts to limit its market power and by blocking privacy legislation. “Google has been able to thwart regulatory scrutiny in terms of anti-competitive practices, and has played a key role in ensuring that the United States doesn’t protect at all the privacy of its citizens and its consumers,” Chester said.

    At a congressional hearing earlier this month, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, citing the possibility of consumer harm, called on the FTC to reconsider the kind of antitrust charges against Google recently filed in Europe.
    …
    https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/googles-remarkably-close-relationship-with-the-obama-white-house-in-two-charts/

  82. Ragnaar | April 23, 2016 at 8:07 pm |

    http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/15/investing/donald-trump-trade-oped/
    Trump’s claim: Trade is killing jobs
    “”The American worker is being crushed” by trade, Trump says…”
    Appealing to a victim mentality. It’s so simple, build a trade wall even though we have many companies that trade internationally.
    Trump: Ohio has lost 100,000 jobs to trade
    “Ohio has a 4.9% unemployment rate…”
    Things change, adapt.
    Trump’s plan: The art of the (trade) deal
    Negotiate and Tariffs. Content free answers.
    Trump says stop the TPP trade deal
    A Pacific Free Trade Zone. We can’t compete with those people from Peru and Vietnam.
    It’s giving up. It’s admitting defeat.

    • jim2 | April 23, 2016 at 8:14 pm |

      Here are all 5,544 pages of the TPP. Ragnaar, did you read it all? Has anyone, even the politicians who will vote for it? I’m thinking not.

      Here it is, in all it’s glory:

      https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/trans-pacific-partnership/TPP-Full-Text

      • Ragnaar | April 23, 2016 at 8:39 pm |

        “Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who opposes fast track, stated that trade agreements like the TPP “have ended up devastating working families and enriching large corporations.””
        Who we’d expect to be against it, sometimes is against it. The un and under-employed have Trump to tell them it’s not their fault.
        “Taleb is seeking to describe the properties of adaptive or evolutionary systems that become better and reach even higher levels of performance as a consequence of encountering and overcoming challenges. They are dynamic rather than static. They thrive and grow in new directions rather than simply sustain themselves. They actually need random events to strengthen and grow and they become brittle and atrophy in the absence of these random events.”
        You are brittle and atrophying. Don’t worry. I am putting you into a nursing home. I am going to take care of you. And the Mexicans are going to pay for it.

      • PA | April 25, 2016 at 11:09 am |

        Since Don and Bernie have staked out reasonable positions on the TPP all that is left to cheer against Hillary.

        But Hillary’s public statements are soft on the TPP and she seems to be leaning against it.

        Very seldom all the viable candidates have a sensible position on a subject. This is good news.

    • jim2 | April 23, 2016 at 9:04 pm |

      Once again, Ragnaar parrots the lefty party line. From the article:
      …
      The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multinational trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement. The main problems are two-fold:
      …
      (1) Digital Policies that Benefit Big Corporations at the Expense of the Public
      …
      Lack of Transparency
      …
      Overall, the TPP’s provisions that recognize the rights of the public are non-binding, whereas almost everything that benefits rightsholders is binding.
      …
      Expand Copyright Terms: Create copyright terms well beyond the internationally agreed period in the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
      …
      Escalate Protections for DRM (aka Digital Locks): It will compel signatory nations to enact laws banning circumvention of digital locks (technological protection measures or TPMs)
      …
      Create New Threats for Journalists and Whistleblowers:
      …
      Enact a “Three-Step Test” Language That Puts Restrictions on Fair Use: The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is putting fair use at risk with restrictive language in the TPP’s IP chapter.
      …
      Adopt Heavy Criminal Sanctions: Adopt criminal sanctions for copyright infringement that is done without commercial motivation. Users could be jailed or hit with debilitating fines over file sharing, and may have their property or domains seized or destroyed even without a formal complaint from the copyright holder.
      …
      https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp

    • Arch Stanton | April 23, 2016 at 9:11 pm |

      Since at least the old days of the RVN, there has obviously been no interest of ever ‘winning’, displays of power, yes. Would there be the waves of immigrants all around the world leaving their homelands behind just to make a buck if we had not become involved? I don’t think so. You have to wonder if the strategy all along was to make us all feel defeated? If so, they could not be much more successful.

  83. Glenn Stehle | April 24, 2016 at 11:14 am |

    Woman who ran Obamacare warns of BIG insurance prices hikes
    http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/22/woman-who-ran-obamacare-warns-of-big-insurance-prices-hikes.html

    Tavenner’s warning of sharp hikes in insurance prices comes as insurers prepare to propose their 2017 Obamacare plan rates, and as the major insurer UnitedHealth has revealed it is exiting most Obamacare marketplaces where it has sold plans….

    But the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, which includes CMS, has been pushing back in the past week against dire predictions like those of Tavenner and others about high Obamacare price hikes…..

    [I]n 2016, the average premium among HealthCare.gov customer increased 8 percent from 2015 to 2016, after taking into account the shopping that existing customers did when they selected a new plan and actual new customers.

    And when the federal subsidies, or tax credits, that about 85 percent of HealthCare.gov customers receive were factored in, the average net monthly price increase was only $4, or 4 percent, the analysis found.

  84. Glenn Stehle | April 24, 2016 at 11:23 am |

    Trump’s Makeover Will Fail
    It is too late for a New Trump, but a streamlined Trumpism could win in the future.
    https://newrepublic.com/article/132950/trumps-makeover-will-fail

    “The part that he’s been playing is evolving into the part that now you’ve been expecting, but he wasn’t ready for, because he had first to complete the first phase,” Manafort said. “The negatives will come down. The image is going to change.”

  85. Glenn Stehle | April 24, 2016 at 11:29 am |

    A new Trump, like the new Nixon?
    http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/277275-a-new-trump-like-the-new-nixon

    According to multiple news organizations, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s (R) new campaign chief, told the Republican National Committee that his candidate’s incendiary style and anti-establishment populist rhetoroic was little more than an act.

    Manafort, who has done well for himself in business involving the corporate interests and foreign governments that Trump has spent months attacking, said it is time for Trump to adopt a new persona and that “the part that he has been playing is evolving.”

    I predict that well before Election Day, some of Trump’s supporters will realize they have been bamboozled by his anti-establishment performance in recent months.

    If Manafort was truly representing Trump, what he is saying is that his candidate isn’t really running against the establishment — he wants to lead the establishment!

    To Trump supporters, be warned….

    Look for Trump to become the nominee of the GOP, which is now close to inevitable. And if a new Trump replaces the old Trump, and his script changes from attacking the establishment to revealing he wants to lead it, look for some of his most fervent supporters to take a second look and conclude they have been sold a bill of goods….

    If Manafort’s phrasing at the Republican National Committee truly represents the new Donald Trump that is coming, Hillary Clinton look like a pillar of authenticity by comparison. The new Trump will remind voters of the old Richard Nixon and a Democratic landslide will come to pass.

    • Jim D | April 24, 2016 at 11:46 am |

      There’s plenty of video of Trump being Trump, so any transformation will be tough, along with facing questions based on his own quotes. It usually looks bad to disagree with your own quotes, more especially recent ones, so he is a bit caged in by what he has been saying.

      • Glenn Stehle | April 24, 2016 at 11:54 am |

        With Clinton it’s a pretty safe bet to predict that she will take a hard turn to the right after she has the nomination in the bag.

        But Trump? Maybe so, but I don’t believe he’s quite as predictable as Clinton.

      • Jim D | April 24, 2016 at 12:01 pm |

        She has to attract the Bernie voters too, so I would not say it is a safe bet. I don’t think she would adopt any of the Republican “ideas” from the current crop.

      • Glenn Stehle | April 24, 2016 at 12:17 pm |

        Jim D,

        According to the NY Times article, when it comes to foreign policy Clinton already is way to the right of either Trump or Cruz:

        As Hillary Clinton makes another run for president, it can be tempting to view her hard-edged rhetoric about the world less as deeply felt core principle than as calculated political maneuver.

        But Clinton’s foreign-policy instincts are bred in the bone — grounded in cold realism about human nature and what one aide calls “a textbook view of American exceptionalism.”

        It set her apart from her rival-turned-boss, Barack Obama, who avoided military entanglements and tried to reconcile Americans to a world in which the United States was no longer the undisputed hegemon.

        And it will likely set her apart from the Republican candidate she meets in the general election. For all their bluster about bombing the Islamic State into oblivion, neither Donald J. Trump nor Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have demonstrated anywhere near the appetite for military engagement abroad that Clinton has.

        http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/magazine/how-hillary-clinton-became-a-hawk.html?_r=0

        I have a number of friends who are supporting Sanders, but say they will support Trump if Sanders doesn’t get the nomination.

        So as strange as it may seem, it’s not outside the realm of possiblities that Trump will make a play for the Bernie voters.

      • Jim D | April 24, 2016 at 12:28 pm |

        When it comes to foreign policy, Trump and Cruz don’t have any credible ideas behind their rhetoric, while Clinton would be seen as carrying on the Obama-Kerry worldview which has been moderate.

  86. Jim D | April 24, 2016 at 11:34 am |

    Interesting.
    “Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, a key source of financing for conservative Republican causes along with his brother, said Democrat Hillary Clinton might make a better president than the candidates in the Republican field.”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/koch-clinton-president-republicans_us_571c35c5e4b0d912d5fee371

  87. Glenn Stehle | April 24, 2016 at 11:37 am |

    BUSTED: Pro-Clinton Super PAC Caught Spending $1 Million on Social Media Trolls
    http://usuncut.com/politics/clinton-super-pac-busted/

    A Super PAC headed by a longtime Clinton operative is spending $1 million to hire online trolls to “correct” Bernie Sanders’ supporters on social media.

    Correct The Record (CTR), which is operated by Clinton attack dog and new owner of Blue Nation Review David Brock, launched a new initiative this week called “Barrier Breakers 2016” ….

    The “Barrier Breakers” will also publicly thank Hillary Clinton’s superdelegates and fans for supporting her campaign. The paid trolls are professional communicators, coming from public relations and media backgrounds.

    “The task force staff’s backgrounds are as diverse as the community they will be engaging with and include former reporters, bloggers, public affairs specialists, designers, Ready for Hillary alumni, and Hillary super fans who have led groups similar to those with which the task force will organize,” CTR stated.

  88. Glenn Stehle | April 24, 2016 at 11:45 am |


    Meet Hillary Clinton’s “Greatest Influence” on Military Issues, a Fox News Pundit Who Makes Money From War
    http://gawker.com/meet-hillary-clintons-greatest-influence-on-military-1772539756

    A profile of Hillary Clinton in the latest issue of the New York Times Magazine makes the case, convincingly, that the Democratic frontrunner is the most hawkish candidate in the race, from her upbringing as the daughter of a Navy training officer to her disagreements, as secretary of state, with President Obama over use of force. The piece outlines her relationships with several powerful current and former members of the military, and notes that the “single greatest influence” on her thinking about the military is a retired George W. Bush-era four-star general named Jack Keane.

    Fox News viewers may recognize Keane as one of the network’s frequently consulted military analysts, a role he has used to call withdrawal from Iraq a “disaster,” to argue against closing Guantanamo Bay, and to call a 2014 Pentagon report on climate change evidence of a “misguided priority” in the Obama administration.

  90. jim2 | April 24, 2016 at 8:54 pm |

    From the article:
    …
    Two new polls of the Republican presidential primary in Indiana show GOP frontrunner Donald Trump holding a small lead over Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97%
    .

    Ohio Governor John Kasich is a distant third. The Hoosier State’s primary on May 3 may well determine the outcome of the Republican nomination.

    Trump holds an 8 point lead over Cruz, according to a poll from Fox News. He has 41 percent support against 33 percent for Cruz. Kasich is a distant third with 16 percent support.

    A poll from Indianapolis TV station WTHR shows a tighter race, with Trump leading Cruz by 6 points, 37 percent to 31 percent. Kasich is again third, with 22 percent support. Among core Republican voters, though, the race between Trump and Cruz is a virtual tie.
    …
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/23/trump-holds-edge-indiana/

  91. jim2 | April 24, 2016 at 9:33 pm |

    From the article:
    …
    Chief executives at big American companies are increasingly frustrated by the populist tone of the presidential campaign, and concerns are mounting in boardrooms and corner offices that antibusiness rhetoric may solidify even after the November election.

    Some business groups had looked to a Republican administration next January that might peel back some Obama administration regulations. But that hope now is in doubt, and such groups are instead focused on key Senate and House races.

    While some observers believe candidates may soften their stances once elected, executives worry that for now, the rhetoric of the election discussion could weigh on consumer confidence, thwart any immigration overhaul and derail a sweeping 12-nation trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, that the U.S. struck last year and that many businesses support.
    …
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/campaigns-populist-tone-rankles-americas-ceos-1461542822

  92. jim2 | April 24, 2016 at 10:04 pm |

    From the article:
    …
    From the supporters of Donald Trump to the street protesters of southern Europe, voters around the world are mad as hell. Inequality, immigration, and the establishment’s perceived indifference are firing up electorates in a way that’s rarely been seen before. As the following charts from Bloomberg show, the forces shaping the disruption of global politics have been building for years and aren’t about to diminish…
    …
    The share of wealth owned by the middle class declined in every part of the world on a relative basis
    …
    And in the past century, the rich have gotten markedly richer
    …
    Incomes in Europe’s southern crisis countries have fallen since 2009, while rising elsewhere
    …
    Things are even worse for young people
    …
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-24/why-voters-will-stay-angry

  93. Glenn Stehle | April 24, 2016 at 11:11 pm |

    Trump expected to have solid Tuesday in five states
    http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/trump-expected-to-have-solid-tuesday-in-five-states/

    While Trump’s campaign has made recent efforts to reshape his image to act more presedential, Trump defied and even mocked the idea of a transformation.

    http://i.imgur.com/a54pZPM.png

    http://i.imgur.com/whONw93.png

  95. Jim D | April 26, 2016 at 3:59 am |

    I haven’t read the article yet, but the picture is great.
    http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/trump-at-war/

  96. Glenn Stehle | April 26, 2016 at 4:25 pm |

    Democrats move to shut down criticism of Clinton’s Wall Street ties
    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/25/sand-a25.html

    • AK | April 26, 2016 at 4:49 pm |

      Don’t worry, They won’t be able to stop Trump from talking about it.

      • Danny Thomas | May 5, 2016 at 7:52 pm |

        AK,

        Love it! Talk about it? Why not just do the same. Self funding? So much B.S. looks like he’ll be beholding to folks after all. Wall street included? http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-wont-self-fund-general-election-campaign-1462399502

        Somebody should start the list now of what will change from the primaries (when folks voted) to his flip flopped new, effective today, forget what I said yesterday propaganda.

      • jim2 | May 5, 2016 at 8:16 pm |

        Hey Danny. You could burn a good bit of time if you list Obummer’s lies and flipflops. If your not totally exhausted after that exercise, do the same for Hillbilly.

      • Danny Thomas | May 5, 2016 at 9:07 pm |

        Jim2,
        Please don’t confuse me with an Obama apologist. But to be clear, I’m not carrying a torch for any of these candidates unlike some. Those who chose to drink the koolaid and don’t take in to account the difference between rhetoric and propaganda vs. the actual policy and actions need not be taken seriously. Surely on this we could agree?

        The list should be started as it’s only just begun. If indeed it were ‘lying Ted’ then surely a milder ‘fibbing Trump’ is earned with this substantial turn of events, eh?

      • Joshua | May 5, 2016 at 8:39 pm |

        ==> Hey Danny. You could burn a good bit of time if you list Obummer’s lies and flipflops. If your not totally exhausted after that exercise, do the same for Hillbilly.

        Ah yes, the ol’ “They do it tooouuuu” form of advocacy. Never gets old, does it?

      • jim2 | May 5, 2016 at 8:50 pm |

        If I had to list all of Obummer’s lies and flipflops, I daresay it would get old.

      • Danny Thomas | May 5, 2016 at 9:12 pm |

        Jim2,
        So is the impression you’re wishing to leave here is such that “Obama done it a whole bunches” so Trump doing it’s just fine? Or is there some volume at which point Trump goes from fine, to not fine?

        Call it like it is Jim. The comments about Clinton and Obama are only distractions.

      • jim2 | May 5, 2016 at 10:21 pm |

        Trump IS doing just fine. Against 100’s of millions of dollars and an assortment of talking heads, he had prevailed. I don’t expect him to lay out policy in detail at this point, he can’t. He doesn’t have all the info he will have when he is President, so it would be foolish for him to do that now. Anyway, you would just accuse him of flip flopping when he did something different later.

        At this point in the process, it is enough to paint policy objectives in broad strokes.

        As to his tactics, I love them. That’s exactly what it will take to defeat Hillbilly – down and dirty. That’s the way the Dimowits fight and Trump can Ace them at their own game.

        I predict he will even win over women before the election gets here. After all, his daughter is the highest female executive in his organization. She appears to be an awesome person. He raised her.

        From the article:
        …
        Call him unpredictable, a brilliant businessman, rude, refreshingly bold, or egregious, but there is one thing we should call Donald Trump: a good father. And this counts for a lot.
        …
        http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/05/trumps-secret-weapon-ivanka/

        And then there’s this, from the article:
        …
        During his campaign rally in West Virginia on Thursday night, Donald Trump responded to Breitbart News’s recent interview with former Mexican President Vicente Fox in California on Wednesday, in which Fox apologized for using vulgar language about Trump and invited him to Mexico.
        …
        “I thought it was very nice that he apologized,” Trump repeated, adding, “We’re going to have a great relationship with Mexico, but we need a border.”
        …
        http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/05/donald-trump-vicente-fox-accept-apology/

      • Danny Thomas | May 5, 2016 at 10:40 pm |

        “Trump IS doing just fine.” Trump apologist? Already?

        His actions are counter to his words in the arena of his campaign financing. And he’s going in part to Wall Street hands outward. Hillary has been pilloried for the same actions.

      • jim2 | May 5, 2016 at 10:24 pm |

        From the article:
        …
        West Virginia Coal Association Endorses Donald Trump over Hillary, ‘War on Coal”
        …
        http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/05/west-virginia-coal-association-endorses-donald-trump/

      • jim2 | May 5, 2016 at 10:26 pm |

        Rep. Louie Gohmert: If Trump Apologizes I’ll Come on Board

        Rick Perry Endorses Trump for President

        http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/

      • jim2 | May 5, 2016 at 11:11 pm |

        Danny – your indignant protestations tell me Trump is absolutely on the right track. He will have to have more money to run against the Dimowits who have tucked away about a billion dollars for the upcoming fight. It is what it is. In the meantime, Hillbilly won’t even reveal the contents of her speeches to Wall Street. She’s got some gall.

      • Danny Thomas | May 6, 2016 at 9:47 am |

        Jim2,

        Interesting that you point out my ” indignant protestations ” when they really should be yours in that he’s obviously your candidate of choice and he told you one thing and is doing the opposite. “Indignant”? This change of method on his part is exactly what I expected and to get things done he’s going to be beholding in other ways (maybe even his ‘tone’:http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/05/politics/paul-ryan-donald-trump-gop-nominee/ ). This is politics, after all.

        “In the meantime, Hillbilly……………..” is only further distraction from the topic at hand. Trump didn’t say Hillary was going to run for president using her own money. Trump said that’s what Trump was doing.

        Start the list. You’ll need it. NO different than any other politico.

  98. Glenn Stehle | April 26, 2016 at 4:40 pm |

    This article attacks not so much Trump as his supporters.

    These elitists like Lissack don’t have a clue.

    What the media will never understand about Trump supporters
    https://medium.com/@michael.lissack/what-the-media-will-never-understand-about-trump-supporters-a32c8b50f487#.g24022td1

    https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*2LyAHB2TyeH6hWgWR06Ymw.jpeg

  100. jim2 | April 26, 2016 at 10:54 pm |

    From the article:
    Donald Trump declared himself the “presumptive nominee” of the Republican Party after he won five Northeastern states in a landslide and set his sights on taking down Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

    “I consider myself the presumptive nominee, absolutely,” the real estate mogul said in a speech at Trump Tower in New York, after he won Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut. “As far as I am concerned, it’s over,” he declared.
    …
    Trump not only won all the states on Tuesday but also an overwhelming number of delegates, seizing at least 105 of the 118 bound delegates available.

    “We not only won,” Trump declared. “We won big.”
    …
    http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/donald-trump-april-gop-primaries-222465

  101. jim2 | April 27, 2016 at 12:10 pm |

    Apparently, Trump won every county in all five states yesterday.

  102. jim2 | April 27, 2016 at 9:24 pm |

    From the article:
    …
    More than half of American voters believe that the system U.S. political parties use to pick their candidates for the White House is “rigged” and more than two-thirds want to see the process changed. The results echo complaints from Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders that the system is stacked against them in favor of candidates with close ties to their parties — a critique that has triggered a nationwide debate over whether the process is fair.
    …
    https://politics.slashdot.org/story/16/04/27/1955205/half-of-americans-think-presidential-nominating-system-rigged

  103. jim2 | April 29, 2016 at 8:29 am |

    From the article:
    …
    Protesters clash with cops at California Trump rally: Hundreds of Mexican flag-waving demonstrators smash up a squad car, punch a Donald supporter and scuffle with riot police amid angry scenes
    …
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3565010/Police-clash-protesters-outside-Donald-Trump-rally-California.html

    • Glenn Stehle | April 29, 2016 at 1:08 pm |

      Here’s CNN coverage:

      Protesters take to streets after Trump rally in California
      http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/29/politics/donald-trump-california-protest/index.html

      Several people damaged a police car, smashing its back window before jumping on it and kicking its doors. As a crowd formed around the car, police officers in tactical and riot gear moved into action, forming a perimeter around the crowd before forcing the demonstrators to move down the road.

      While some demonstrators shouted insults and slurs at police officers, others focused on delivering a message of protest against the Republican front-runner’s rhetoric…..

      Rojelio Banuelos, a 26-year-old student, carried a sign that read, “Liberation not deportation.”

      “I’m against Trump’s nativist and nationalistic agenda, which divides people and is very hateful of the other,” he said.

      While Banuelos simply marched through the streets, he called the property damage and anger some demonstrators expressed Friday night “the symptom of hate speech.”

      http://i.imgur.com/xWbPhZY.png

      So the violent acts the anti-Trump demonstrators committed against the police and Trump supporters is all the fault of Trump’s “hate speech?”

      Who can argue with “logic” like that?

  104. jim2 | April 29, 2016 at 9:10 am |

    From the article:
    …
    ROWNSVILLE – The number of people crossing the border illegally is on the rise. The Border Patrol chief said the number of people coming across is consistent with the surge two years ago.

    Chief Patrol Agent and Commander of the South Texas Corridor Manuel Padilla Jr. insisted this time, his agents are better prepared and border security isn’t in jeopardy.

    However, some people don’t agree.

    More than 80,000 people crossed the border illegally since October. It includes more unaccompanied children and family members from Central America and Mexico.

    It’s about the same as during the immigration crisis of 2014.

    But Padilla said this time, it’s different.

    “So what happened in 2014, we had a surge but it became a crisis because we did not have the infrastructure and the processes to deal with those numbers. I can tell you 2016, even if we were to reach the numbers of 2014, it will not be a crisis,” Padilla said.

    Numbers for Central Americans went up or stayed consistent. The number of Mexicans being apprehended by Border Patrol went down. Padilla said fewer Mexicans are crossing over.

    “If you look at the demographics of Mexico, right now, the family units that we saw in Mexico when I was growing up, when you had families with 10 plus kids, that isn’t a common thing anymore. Now it’s two or three kids, so the economy in Mexico and here has some factors,” Padilla said.
    …
    http://www.krgv.com/story/31844858/consistent-surge-of-undocumented-immigrants

  105. jim2 | April 29, 2016 at 12:49 pm |

    There isn’t going to be enough popcorn to go around. From the article:
    …
    When Chris Cox rolls into Cleveland in mid-July with other motorcycle-riding supporters of Donald Trump, he plans to celebrate the billionaire’s coronation as the Republican presidential nominee. He also counts on joining protests if a battle over the nomination ensues.

    “I’m anticipating we’ll be doing a victory dance,” said Cox, 47, a chainsaw artist and founder of Bikers for Trump, thousands of whom he estimates will hit the Ohio city for the July 18-21 Republican National Convention.

    “But if the Republican Party tries to pull off any backroom deals and ignores the will of the people, our role will change.”

    Bikers For Trump is part of a diverse array of groups coordinating to hold thousands-strong protests and marches if the real-estate mogul is denied outright victory at the Republican Party’s nominating convention in Cleveland.

    The risks of confrontation and violence surrounding Trump events were highlighted again on Thursday, when around 20 people were arrested following clashes between anti-Trump protesters and police outside a rally for the candidate in California. It was the worst outbreak of violence since Trump was forced to cancel a rally in Chicago in mid-March.

    Anti-Trump protests are expected in Cleveland. In late March, the left-leaning National Lawyers Guild held a conference in the city to coordinate legal support to protesters in the event of mass arrests during demonstrations.
    …
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-convention-idUSKCN0XQ1YJ

    • David Springer | April 29, 2016 at 1:04 pm |

      Making it more interesting is that Kasich is commander-in-chief of the Ohio National Guard who would be called in to quell a riot.

      • jim2 | April 29, 2016 at 1:10 pm |

        They need to bring out the water canons. That’s one of the fastest methods to handle this problem. Firetrucks would work also.

      • David Springer | May 1, 2016 at 8:17 am |

        Or we could let the pro-Trump and anti-Trump protesters go at each other until they’ve got it out of their systems.

  106. Glenn Stehle | May 1, 2016 at 7:06 am |

    Are violent anti-Donald Trump protests helping him?
    http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/are-violent-anti-donald-trump-protests-helping-him/

    Protesters burn American flag at anti-Trump protest
    http://i.imgur.com/Cc2vJUL.png

    But while the protesters are burning the American flag, destroying police cars and hurling objects and insults at the police, they argue they are for peace, love and “no hate.”

    http://i.imgur.com/LVCbAum.png

  107. ordvic | May 2, 2016 at 1:29 pm |

    Cruz is HISTORY if he doesn’t win tomorrow!

  108. jim2 | May 2, 2016 at 9:33 pm |

    General Election: Trump vs. Clinton Rasmussen Reports Clinton 39, Trump 41 Trump +2 !!!

  109. David Springer | May 3, 2016 at 7:25 pm |

    It appears to be worse than that for Cruz. Networks called it for Trump 1 minute after the polls closed leading by 20%. Still leading by 54% v. 34% with 15% reporting.

    Not much way Trump won’t make the magic number by June 7th at the latest. He’s the nominee.

    Interestingly Clinton and Sanders are in a dead tie in Indiana. FWIW the republican party is as united as democrats.

    • jim2 | May 3, 2016 at 9:46 pm |

      Cruz just “suspended” his campaign.

    • jim2 | May 3, 2016 at 9:47 pm |

      “Cruz drops out of presidential race following major defeat by Trump in Indiana”

      http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/03/cruz-drops-out-presidential-race-following-major-defeat-by-trump-in-indiana.html?intcmp=hpbt1

    • David Springer | May 4, 2016 at 2:05 am |

      You boys are lucky I wasn’t the kiss of death when I was persuaded by the NY primary outcome two weeks ago to reconsider Trump. I have a really bad record of picking winners in presidential elections.

      Congratulations to all of you who were behind Trump from the word go. Good call. I hope the hell he can beat Hillary but at this point I’m beginning to believe if he pulled off a takeover of the GOP he can go all the way.

      • climatereason | May 4, 2016 at 2:39 am |

        I thought that until very recently Cruz was some 20 points ahead in this latest race? Trump seems to have delivered a knock out blow.

        In the interviews I have heard today Trump certainly seems to have toned down the language and the volume.

        The theory is now that many republicans hate Trump so much that they will vote for Hillary. I think he remains poorly regarded by female voters.

        tonyb

      • JCH | May 4, 2016 at 2:53 am |

        tonyb – Trump hating Republicans are not likely to vote for Hillary. A tiny number may not vote at all, but the vast majority of Trump hating Republicans will hold their noses and vote for Trump.

        Yeah, I know, they called him every vile name in the book.They said they would not go down and vote for that maggot infested thing. Well, they’re going to do down, noses squeezed tightly shut, on that maggot infested thing.

      • climatereason | May 4, 2016 at 3:02 am |

        JCH

        Judging by Sandersons’ respectable showing, there are a lot of people-especially the young- who would prefer his brand of Democrats to that of Hillary. Will they automatically switch to her or are they likely not to vote at all?

        tonyb

      • opluso | May 4, 2016 at 8:13 am |

        tonyb:

        The youth vote in America is historically fickle. Shiny objects distract them and they “forget” to vote in the actual election. Yet in a close election, a small percentage increase could make the difference.
        https://www.census.gov/prod/2014pubs/p20-573.pdf

        Sanders also has a large labor union following which opposed the Clintons’ pro-trade agreement positions. Helps in states like Indiana.

        Because Sanders cannot catch Clinton without a miracle (i.e., major scandal) his campaign against her is now effectively a pro-Trump stance.

    • David Springer | May 4, 2016 at 2:09 am |

      That was the right thing for Cruz to do. I’ve been busy this evening concentrating on software coding and just now read the news. Kasich should also pull out too so Trump can start going after Hillary. I can hardly wait.

      • stevenreincarnated | May 4, 2016 at 7:14 am |

        Pop your popcorn and get ready for the nastiest election period in our time all centered around who was doing what with Epstein.

  110. jim2 | May 3, 2016 at 9:52 pm |

    May Bernie live long and prosper …

    Bernie Sanders scored a meaningful victory Tuesday in Indiana’s primary, narrowly defeating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in an election dynamic defined by the loss of manufacturing jobs in the state.

    http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/03/indiana-democrats-president-election-primary-race-clinton-sanders/83828026/

  111. jim2 | May 4, 2016 at 7:52 am |

    Trump has time to repair whatever damage there is with women. But Hillary has a big zit named Bill who’s shenanigans aren’t going away. One of his women wrote a piece on their affair. She said he was a bit small, but made up for it orally – won’t go into details, but that’s what ole Hill will be facing. Hannity has a list of stuff on Hill and of course we know Trump will go for the jugular.

    • jim2 | May 4, 2016 at 7:53 am |

      who’s should have been whose. Ick!

    • Glenn Stehle | May 4, 2016 at 8:32 am |

      jim2,

      If Trump dances with the one who brought him to the dance, and doesn’t abandon them like wall flowers the way Obama did, I see the contest being a little bit more substantive than that.

      It will be a historic realignment. Here’s how I see it:

      Republican Party after Trumpism:

      • Labor
      • Real capitalists who want to ally with labor

      Democratic Party after Clintonism:

      • Cultural minorities and identity politicians
      • Neocons
      • Finance capitalists
      • Real capitalists who want to ally with finance capitalists (Koch brothers)
      • Environmentalists

      This assumes the theory articulated by Stephan Schulmeister, which holds that there are two types of capitalism: real capitalism and finance capitalism.

      http://stephan.schulmeister.wifo.ac.at/fileadmin/homepage_schulmeister/files/Navigation_Leipzig_22_06_13_ohne_verk.pdf

      http://i.imgur.com/hB4bsY4.png

      http://i.imgur.com/YcZIFv4.png

      • Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 2:17 pm |

        Schulmeister:
        Real Capitalism – Keynesianism
        Finance Capitalism – Monetarism/Neoliberalism
        Schulmeister makes some good points. While we favor Exxon Mobil we don’t so much favor brokers. I could suggest that brokers don’t add much value in total. They do serve a function but at the end of the day, they consume more than they create. His favoring Keynesian economics is problematic for me. Is monetarism any better? Control of the money supply in theory, seems less wasteful to me.

      • Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 2:41 pm |

        • Labor
        • Real capitalists who want to ally with labor

        What happened to this natural alliance of two value creators? I’d suggest both players made suboptimal choices. While a Labor/Capital alliance sounds good, what makes us think Trump could pull it off?

      • jim2 | May 4, 2016 at 7:41 pm |

        Glenn. Sorry, but I don’t have the time I’m sure it deserves to dig into this. Debt certainly has become a problem all around, but used judiciously, I believe it has a place.

  112. opluso | May 4, 2016 at 8:58 am |

    Speaking of flawed models, Larry Sabato’s group has a better model for projecting Democratic primary winners than most professional polling groups.
    http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/forecast-model-beats-the-polls/

  113. Arch Stanton | May 4, 2016 at 9:09 am |

    If the underdogs win you would think that Reince or Debbie, will recall this old quote soon after the General Elections and the Inauguration are over.

    “You have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you, for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you.”

    Cornelius Vanderbilt

    Sincerely,
    Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders

    • Arch Stanton | May 4, 2016 at 2:11 pm |

      How else could you explain the situation we are facing today? We trusted our elected officials and all the crap we learned in school. Now we have to all pay the price for our pride.

      • David Springer | May 4, 2016 at 7:06 pm |

        Arch,

        I’ve been telling this joke for 30 years. Probably picked it up in Reader’s Digest.

        Kid comes around to your door taking a survey:

        Kid: Sir, what do you believe is the worse problem in America today; ignorance or apathy?

        Homeowner: I don’t know and I don’t care.

    • Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 4:07 pm |

      Willard:
      Do you agree with Trump here?

      • Willard | May 4, 2016 at 5:25 pm |

        Would you like a sandwich too, Ragnaar?

      • Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 7:07 pm |

        Willard:
        Is the sandwich a metaphor for something?

      • Willard | May 4, 2016 at 7:32 pm |

        Do you eat metaphors, Ragnaar?

      • Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 8:31 pm |

        “It goes like this. When a leader must confront a team member about unacceptable behavior, or provide any sort of unpleasant feedback, he or she should start by saying something nice, something positive. Then, give them the criticism or negative feedback. Conclude with some praise. The idea being that surrounded by the upbeat, constructive phrases, the team member will be more receptive to the bad news. Thus a “sandwich.” A little bread, the real meat, then a little more bread.”

      • willard (@nevaudit) | May 5, 2016 at 7:34 pm |

        Good quote, Ragnaar.

        However, there’s no citation, and your original question is a squirrel.

        Thank you for your concerns.

      • Ragnaar | May 5, 2016 at 8:04 pm |

        Look, a squirrel. I get that one. It was an embarrassing quote. So maybe you’re saying it doesn’t matter at this time if you think that most people are idiots. After all we are discussing the election. We will see if Trump can get elected while calling most people idiots? What does a doubling of the number of idiots do to Trump’s chances? I do not mean his voters but the establishment. I’ve started dropping citations as one can use Google to find them, and maybe there’s a ‘fallacy of citation’ that hurts the case by typing Here, Here and Here.

      • Willard | May 6, 2016 at 8:40 am |

        I believe in the normal distribution, Ragnaar. What about you?

        Believe it of not, I also believe in American poetry. I believe it so much it might be one of the rare things that could redeem us all:

        Some tiny insects make a seething sound,
        And swarm and jitter furiously around,
        Which seems to me sufficient explanation
        Of why there is a gnat in indignation.

      • Mike Flynn | May 6, 2016 at 8:47 am |

        Willard,

        You asked Ragnaar –

        “I believe in the normal distribution, Ragnaar. What about you?”

        You may believe as you like. If the facts don’t support your belief, what do you do? Change your thinking? Ignore the facts?

        Cheers.

      • Ragnaar | May 6, 2016 at 1:50 pm |

        But others will argue for the barbell distribution. A yin and a yang, debits and credits.
        There once was a scientist from Nantucket.
        Point taken. When I went to college I had more liberal arts than you could shake a stick at. The U of MN no longer seems to value that as much using a sample size of one son. Total ethics and morality classes ended up to be zero. Where is the poetry in quark-gluon plasma?

    • David Springer | May 4, 2016 at 6:52 pm |

      Evidently Twitter got tired of it. The link is dead, Jim Willard.

    • David Springer | May 5, 2016 at 5:00 am |

      Guess what, Willard. I’m not going to condemn them either. The media is part of the problem in this country. Maybe some examples ought to be made.

      • willard (@nevaudit) | May 5, 2016 at 7:32 pm |

        > Maybe some examples ought to be made.

        That argument has been made before, Big Dave:

        Seeing that action depended on himself alone, and used to taking the lead and setting an example, Viel shouted “If anybody tries to escape, shoot him!”, pulled out his pistol, and began walking around the rim of the pit firing at the workers inside.

        http://willzuzak.ca/lp/rambam02.html

        That’ll teach journalists to do their job.

  117. jim2 | May 4, 2016 at 9:26 pm |

    From the article:
    …
    Romanian hacker Guccifer: I breached Clinton server, ‘it was easy’
    …
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/04/romanian-hacker-guccifer-breached-clinton-server-it-was-easy.html

  118. Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 10:12 pm |

    “The idea that leading conservatives would rather vote for a Clinton than pull the lever for their own party’s presidential nominee, however distasteful, is astounding.”
    Not astounding. They are more like Clinton than they are like Trump. Their kind is going to once again, save us from outsiders, like Trump. As Trump would save us from outsiders. So whether you’re the establishment or Trump, the problem is outsiders. The establishment is as xenophobic about outsiders (3rd parties) as Trump is about Mexicans. The establishment built a wall to keep out 3rd parties and you paid for it. This is so much fun.

    • Joshua | May 5, 2016 at 1:18 pm |

      ==> Their kind is going to once again, save us from outsiders, like Trump.

      Trump is an “outsider?” Really?

      Who, say five of six years ago would have characterized Trump as an “outsider.” So someone who was born into enormous wealth, and worked within the “establishment” to leverage his wealth, is now an “outsider?”

      It’s quite remarkable to me how effective Trump is a promoting an image and having people line up to follow….even when what he’s promoting is ridiculous.

      It’s like the ridiculous notion that Trump is “telling it like it is,” as he “really feels,” when (1) he clearly crafts his message to appeal to a particular constituency, (2) has changed that message from his previous stated beliefs in order to appeal to a particular constituency and, (3) reverses his positions (and sometimes reverses his reversals) depending on how what he has said is received by the public.

      • David Springer | May 5, 2016 at 4:31 pm |

        Outsider as in not a professional politician.

        Fercrisakes did you fall off the turnip truck yesterday?

      • Ragnaar | May 5, 2016 at 5:29 pm |

        Joshua:
        Is Trump an outsider? Yes and no.
        He’s packaged himself as one. The Republican establishment thinks he is. So do his supporters.
        Where do outsiders come from? Sometimes the middle. Using the libertarian two axis idea, Ventura was an outsider from the middle. Somewhat libertarian, somewhat populist. The two machines can find an outsider better than McCarthy could find a commie. The machines protect us from them, sometimes they protect us from ourselves which is the middle. Sometimes the machine allows moderate politicians but they are to be watched closely and not trusted too much.
        I agree this is ridiculous. To see a carefully crafted and funded machine stagger and slow. To see many pundits get it wrong. To see the rules of ridiculousness not apply. To see the gatekeepers on the wrong side of the gate they built.
        Your 3 numbered points, that’s a politician.
        Similar to Ventura’s victory, the Republicans don’t know what to do? Best guess was to throw money at the problem. Both parties appear to have outspent Ventura 5 to 1. It’s like finding out the CO2 doesn’t really warm that much. If it doesn’t, then things change.
        To try to clarify my position I hope Trump now beats Clinton therefore weakening the Democrat establishment as much as Trump weakens the Republican establishment.

      • Joshua | May 5, 2016 at 7:47 pm |

        ==> Outsider as in not a professional politician.

        Except the reference is to “the establishment,” not even the “political establishment.” So by your argument, only politicians comprise “the establishment?”

        Let’s look at your reasoning a bit further. So the non-politicians who legally bribe politicians are outside of the establishment, but the politicians that accept the legal bribes inside the establishment?

        If that works for you, have at it.

        For me, the notion of him being an “outsider” is the rhetoric of a con, intended to gather support from the gullible. People love the idea of an independent, rebel, who isn’t playing the system to his own advantage – and they will create such a picture even when it’s a ridiculous distortion.

        Perhaps that’s why it works for you?

      • Joshua | May 5, 2016 at 9:46 pm |

        Ragnaar –

        ==> Ventura was an outsider from the middle.

        But Ventura wasn’t part of the “establishment” like Trump has been for decades.

        Further…

        Your 3 numbered points, that’s a politician.

        Funny that you would say that since David was saying that Trump is an “outsider” because he isn’t a politician. So by David’s logic, he acts just like a politician, but he is an outsider because he isn’t a politician…???

        It is to laugh.

      • Ragnaar | May 6, 2016 at 2:07 pm |

        Joshua:
        We are arguing what shade of gray? I’ll continue to go for the time being with he was treated like an outsider. Perhaps that is the problem. That he was incorrectly defined by the voters. A good story can include an outsider coming to the rescue. Lord knows the people pretty much have no options to fix their own problems.

  119. Barn E. Rubble | May 4, 2016 at 10:16 pm |

    I’d like to think I’m one of those who doesn’t have a dog in this race. However, the reality is that the US president is also the leader of the free world. That includes me. So out of what, 350 million people? Hillary or Donald is the best you have? Not just for you US citizens but the rest of us.

    Perhaps ‘The Donald’ will prove to be more than expected. I recall Regan being bashed in the media mostly because he was nothing but a ‘B’ actor . . . and now he’s only one more miracle away from sainthood.

    But again, 350 million people? And your only choices are . . .? Who’s fault is that? I mean really, who’s fault is that?

    • Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 10:43 pm |

      The voters fault.

      • AK | May 5, 2016 at 4:05 am |

        Not really. In 2008 the Republican voters choice an experienced (if somewhat jaded) reformer, who in turn chose a much less experienced reformer as a running mate.

        Between the hostility of the MSM, Palin’s creationism, and the way the Republican party leadership failed to get behind them, it was a shoe-in for Obama.

        So this time around, there’s Trump.

      • Rob Starkey (@Robbuffy) | May 5, 2016 at 12:14 pm |

        Republican voters picked John McCain and he was a terrible choice and lost as a result.

    • AK | May 5, 2016 at 7:41 pm |

      I’ve said it before: maybe the ballot should be required to include “none of the above”.

  120. Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 10:42 pm |

    Rather than what’s wrong with Clinton, we could focus on what’s right with Sanders.

    He voted against the defense of marriage act when most were for it.
    He supports the decriminalization of pot.
    He flies coach.
    He believes in treating immigrants fairly.
    Compared to others, he has a more cautious approach to military engagements.
    The great majority of super delegates aren’t supporting him now. Super delegates? What are we? Too stupid to decide?
    He has stood against the “prison industrial complex and the practice of over-criminalization”, that has costs, debatable outcomes, and detrimental results for poor families.

  121. Barn E. Rubble | May 5, 2016 at 12:53 am |

    RE: Ragnaar | May 4, 2016 at 10:43 pm | Reply
    “The voters fault.”

    I don’t think so . . . or at least not entirely. The problem seems to go back to the choices available. How many voters are involved with those choices?

    Winston Churchill said: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Winston Churchill

    And W.C. also noted:

    “Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” —Churchill By Himself

    • Ragnaar | May 5, 2016 at 2:05 pm |

      I believe in democracy. To be practical, a representative democracy. One adult, one vote. The Republican party apparatus that gave us various rules for this primary season derived the rules and procedures from the voters. The Democrats will most likely keep Sanders out using similar rules. Their voters are responsible for that. As they protected themselves from libertarians and greens, a spin off of that was they protected us from a lot of peoples favorite from winning the primary. I call what each party has to keep out outsiders, machines. The machine failed the Republicans this time but not the Democrats. 8 years ago the Democrat machine defeated Clinton. Depending on the situation, we can rail against the machines, but they were created and supported by the voters.

      • David Springer | May 5, 2016 at 4:39 pm |

        I believe in constitutional republics. Democracies don’t protect individual and minority rights.

      • David Springer | May 5, 2016 at 4:40 pm |

        I believe in constitutional republics. Democracies don’t protect individual and minority rights.

        http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/AmericanIdeal/aspects/demrep.html

      • Ragnaar | May 5, 2016 at 5:48 pm |

        I used to be what might be called a Constitutionalist without a party affiliation. That’s because of the utility of our Constitution. But then the question of where do rights arise from? The answer I like is, you don’t steal your neighbor’s lawnmower. He has a right to it. And you grant him that right. There are many reasons why you do that. Notice the lack of government in what said. The lack of rights is a bunch of hooligans without morals or ethics. Let’s say you die and are worth $10 million. Do your kids get all that money? In most cases no. They may have been granted that right by you, but the government doesn’t agree. This is a case of negative rights. The voters decided your childrens rights by removing some of them. The Constitution didn’t do anything except for provide arguments why their rights should have been what you intended. It was the people that took your childrens rights. Those same people may be persuaded to stop doing that. Contests between the Constitution and the people eventually are won be the people. I am just a crazy libertarian who couldn’t get elected to the lowest office.

      • David Springer | May 6, 2016 at 7:42 am |

        Ragnaar that response was so obtuse I won’t try to respond.

  122. Glenn Stehle | May 5, 2016 at 10:55 am |

    The most reactionary right-wingers — neocons, finance capital, real capital that has declared war on labor — are deserting Trump and the Republican Party for Clinton:

    Now That Trump Is The Nominee, These Republicans Say They’re Voting For Hillary
    http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/05/03/3775104/never-trump-has-failed-republican-party/

    This is part of a historic realignment.

    Interesting times we live in.

  123. Glenn Stehle | May 5, 2016 at 11:16 am |

    This explains why the arch-conservatives are abandoning the Reublican Party for Hillary.

    The arch-conservatives certainly know where their bread is buttered, and it sure to heck ain’t Donald.

    Mattis versus Trump
    http://www.voltairenet.org/article191595.html

    …. a whole machinery is now being set in motion to block the real estate promoter, who is threatening the interests of the WASP ruling class….

    While on the side of the Democrats, the duel between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders may be resumed as experience in the service of the rich against idealism in the service of the greatest number, all attention is now focused on the combat opposing Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for the Republican nomination.

    Cruz is a pure product of a private military «psychological operations» agency. In terms of foreign relations policy, he has gathered a team composed of people who were trained during the Cold War around senator Henry Scoop Jackson, and who remain hysterically anti-Soviet. He has taken position against any form of legal limitation of US power, and thus against the very principle of international law.

    Until last week, we did not know Donald Trump’s position on this matter….

    According to Trump, it was fundamental error to have attempted to export by force the Western democratic model to people who had no interest in it. He delivered a criticism of neo-conservative ideology, which has held power since the coup d’etat of September 11th 2001….

    After having denounced the gigantic human and economic waste of the neo-conservative policy, for the countries concerned as well as for the United States themselves, he continued with an indirect attack on the «military-industrial complex», blaming the general excess of weapons in the world. There was no mistake – for the first time since the assassination of John Kennedy, a presidential candidate was denouncing the omnipotence of the arms manufacturers, who have eaten up almost all of US industry….

    And so the adversaries of Donald Trump are presenting him in a false light. He is absolutely not an isolationist like Ron Paul, but a genuine realist….

    Donald Trump placed his project for a new foreign policy under the slogan «America First»….

    [T]he association of the same name which existed before the Second World War…remains in peoples’ memories as a Nazi lobby which attempted to prevent the «Land of Freedom» from going to the help of the British, who were under attack by the perpetrators of the anti-Jewish genocide.

    In reality, «America First», which was indeed diverted from its mission by the US extreme right, was originally a huge association created by the Quakers, and denounced the World War as a confrontation between imperialist powers, and consequently refused to take part….

    De facto, the confrontation which is looming opposes…the neo-conservative ideal of global democratisation, in other words the destruction of national identities and the imposition of a régime of universal governance.

    • Joshua | May 5, 2016 at 8:06 pm |

      ==> who is threatening the interests of the WASP ruling class….

      Wow. Some people will believe anything.

    • Glenn Stehle | May 6, 2016 at 6:13 am |

      Joshua,

      Maybe so.

      But besides the millions of middle- and working-class folks that voted for Trump and won him the nomination, the establishment also seems to believe Trump will do what he says.

      The powers-that-be have closed ranks across party lines, both Republican and Democrat, to make sure Trump never reaches the White House.

      Why do you believe that is?

      Has it ever ocurred to you that maybe these people are right, and you are wrong?

      http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/02/koch-brothers-take-on-trump
      http://i.imgur.com/8epcNzX.png

      • Glenn Stehle | May 6, 2016 at 10:35 am |

        Ryan fans GOP civil war over Donald Trump
        http://thehill.com/homenews/house/278945-ryan-fans-gop-civil-war-over-donald-trump

        Paul Ryan on Thursday pressed presumptive nominee Donald Trump to do more to unify the party. But the Speaker’s latest public break with Trump has started tearing Republicans apart.

        Members of the #NeverTrump movement and Trump’s biggest critics on Capitol Hill cheered Ryan’s remarks on CNN that he could not in good conscience endorse or support the bombastic New York businessman at this time….

        Ryan’s comments are remarkable for another reason: Trump has won waves of support and run away with the GOP primary contest on one message. Ryan now wants him to change it to another.

        It’s a request Trump flat-out rejected on Thursday.

        “I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda,” Trump said in a terse statement. “Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people. They have been treated so badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them first!”….

        But it’s Ryan who may get an earful from rank-and-file Republicans when Congress returns to Washington next week.

        “The Republican leadership doesn’t get to tell the people what the party is all about. The people tell the leadership what the party is all about. And right now, the party is about Donald Trump,” said the GOP lawmaker, who requested anonymity to speak freely about Ryan.

        “Republican voters get to decide what the party stands for and who the nominee is. Right now, the party nominee is Donald Trump, and we need to find a way to support him.”

        http://i.imgur.com/q3MBvIN.png

        http://i.imgur.com/wTkbiDC.png

  124. Ragnaar | May 5, 2016 at 7:41 pm |

    We aren’t going to biggest club event that happens every 4 years because the person we wanted didn’t win. We helped build the club, we have personally benefited from the club’s activities over the years. We have helped raise money for the club. Now when members who we generally don’t let into the club, that we supposedly represent, defeat all of our people under club rules we feel something should be done. We feel the club’s goals is to get the people we want elected. What the voters want is conflicting with that goal. The club’s goal can be generalized to beating that other club in elections, with our oversight. After all, we built this club and have defended in the past from outsiders. We have to balance our goals with those of the voters. Preserving the club’s ongoing existence is not something we are so sure about. You all can use the club as we know how bad it would look if we didn’t do that. We just will not be there. Now mind you, we haven’t decided if we’ll take our donors with us? We feel they are our donors as few of the voters spent much time on the phone with them as we did nor did they shepherd their donations to the extent we did. We know it may appear that all that stuff we said about the other club, some of it wasn’t true. It may appear compared to our voters this time around, the other club doesn’t look so bad. I mean their voters voted the right way. They kept the outsider out. Which by the way is another part of club rules. Only one other club can participate in the games. We may need to rethink that rule but hindsight is 20/20. And our club whose 4 year event we aren’t attending might want to rethink that rule too. Since we may have to start a new club when this fiasco is all over, it we be nice if people forgave and forgot and give 3rd parties the same access as the other 2 clubs. We did so many things for the club, but you just didn’t do what we wanted.
    http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/05/politics/mitt-romney-skips-republican-convention/

  126. jim2 | May 5, 2016 at 10:29 pm |

    From the article:
    …
    If in the Land of the Blind, the one-eyed man is king, then columnist David Brooks of the New York Times is blind, deaf and dumb inside the Beltway.

    In an election year where all the experts have been exactly wrong about absolutely everything, it really is something of a feat to be as spectacularly and enthusiastically wrong as Mr. Brooks.

    This probably should not come as much of a surprise, given how highly revered the pundit-scribe is inside the Beltway. He serves as some kind of “Republican voice” for the New York Times and offers up nerdy commentary for “News Hour” on National People’s Television.

    Mr. Brooks inducted himself into the Hall of Fame for the blind, deaf and dumb with a stupid and arrogant column he wrote last week in which he finally realized that Donald Trump is leading to become the Republican nominee for president.
    …
    http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/04/nuclear-option-david-brooks-stay-little-bourgeois-strata/

  127. Glenn Stehle | May 6, 2016 at 6:41 am |

    http://i.imgur.com/Ows5azE.png

    http://www.salon.com/2016/05/04/donald_trump_is_what_happens_when_you_screw_the_middle_class/

    Taken along with Senator Bernie Sanders win over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Indiana Tuesday night, and Main Street is roaring back against Congress’s bi-partisan embrace of global free trade that for decades has put multinational corporate profits over the well being of their own constituents.

    For decades now, irrespective of which political party was in power, this bi-partisan agreement molded our nation to fit the demands of globalization, which we were told was powered by bareknuckled competition between the world’s leading nations. It was just a matter of basic survival, went the argument. Let free and unfettered capital sail around the earth, looking for the most profitable place to land and watch the wave of wealth and wellbeing swell to embrace all of humanity, the boosters promised. To stand in its way would be to impede its genius.

    This was a mega-trend that was as undeniably real as gravity itself, said the promoters like Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. If we chose to ignore it, we would be banished from prosperity, left cold and naked, in a sort of continent-wide fetal position. “Get with it, or be condemned to a world of want and deprivation,” went the free-trade mantra….

    To buy into this we would have to ignore the increasing wealth concentration at the top, the erosion of benefits, and our own growing household debt that papered over the deflation of our wages. We were told that the closing of tens of thousands of our factories was just a necessary sacrifice at the altar of a brighter tomorrow. Yes, went this logic, there would be local pain and suffering, but we would prosper in the aggregate and democracy would flourish.

    And so now, all these years after NAFTA, and an alphabet soup of subsequent trade deals, our biggest corporations are global players. They have no national loyalty, having bought off the elites of both political parties, and have mastered ways to reduce their U.S. tax liability, shifting it back to America’s Main Streets, which are increasingly falling into disrepair…

    Decades into this free-market global free-for-all, what we have is a planet worse for the wear, with grotesque wealth inequality and increasing geopolitical insecurity that has produced millions of displaced persons and refugees.

    According to a 2015 report from Oxfam, 1 percent of the world’s richest people own 48 percent of the world’s wealth, leaving just 52 percent to be shared with 99 percent of the rest of the adults on the planet. Almost all of the balance of that global wealth is held by the earth’s richest 20 percent, with just 5.5 percent of the planet’s wealth to be shard by the bottom 80 percent.

    On this side of the 21st century, it looks like global free trade was nothing more than a pyramid scheme retread.

  128. Glenn Stehle | May 6, 2016 at 7:15 am |

    http://i.imgur.com/QLToW2E.png

    https://fabiusmaximus.com/2016/03/27/clinton-will-win-in-november-95355/

    Summary: Inevitably, Trump’s support crumbles as he becomes a more serious candidate. Millions like him as a fun fantasy football-like candidate, but not as a potential president. If the GOP nominates Trump (as seems likely), this will be a landslide — almost as large as Goldwater-Johnson in 1964 (nowhere near the record set by Nixon-McGovern in 1972).

    The results might look like this, but with more red
    http://i.imgur.com/KD6aJTe.png

  129. Glenn Stehle | May 6, 2016 at 7:28 am |

    http://i.imgur.com/shjJDez.png

    https://fabiusmaximus.com/2016/05/05/maximilian-forete-explains-why-trump-will-win-in-november-96431/

    Summary: Anthropologist Maximilian Forte explains why he expects Trump to win in November. Readers of the FM website will recognize most of his reasons, although Forte reasons intuitively rather than from theory (as I usually do). And we reach different conclusions (See Forecast: Clinton will crush Trump in November).

  130. Glenn Stehle | May 6, 2016 at 8:14 am |

    How Ted Cruz was out-outsidered by Donald Trump
    http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/06/politics/ted-cruz-outsider-donald-trump/index.html

    From the outset, Cruz staked his claim as the “true conservative” in the race, a brand built on standing up to the corruption of the nation’s capital.

    He talked about building a coalition of young people, evangelicals, libertarians, minorities and Reagan Democrats.

    “Republicans are uniting and coming together behind our campaign,” he said as part of his regular stump speech, at press conferences, at quick stops in small towns across the country…

    Too many things got in the way, but mostly it was Donald Trump. Cruz…got burned when Trump started questioning his eligibility to be president and named him “Lyin’ Ted.” Cruz’s outsider credentials — a tea party-aligned senator, leader of a government shutdown fight against President Barack Obama over Obamacare — suddenly weren’t enough. And the evangelical candidate who first announced his campaign at Liberty University couldn’t nail down the evangelical vote.

    How could a consumate neocon and neoliberal like Cruz ever be billed as an “outsider”?

    The CNN pundits are certainly in the running for the dumbest of the dumbasses award, trying to make the election about things most people, or at least most Republicans, don’t care that much about, like cultural politics (evangelicals and minorities).

  131. jim2 | May 6, 2016 at 8:17 am |

    And now, for something completely different … the UK elections …

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/06/uk-elections-2016—results-in-full-map-and-find-out-who-won-in/

  132. jim2 | May 6, 2016 at 8:19 am |

    From the article:
    …
    Wrong, wrong, wrong — to the very end, we got it wrong.

    Just a couple of weeks ago, political prognosticators in television and print media were describing Indiana as the “most important test” for Donald J. Trump and a “firewall” where Ted Cruz “should do well.” It was one of those states Mr. Cruz could have used to force the likely — if not “guaranteed” — prospect of a contested convention in Cleveland, where, boy, were we in for a spectacular show.

    Still more recently — as in Tuesday — the data journalist Nate Silver, who founded the FiveThirtyEight website, gave Hillary Clinton a 90 percent chance of beating Bernie Sanders in Indiana. Mr. Sanders won by a comfortable margin of about five percentage points.
    …
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/business/media/the-republican-horse-race-is-over-and-journalism-lost.html

  133. jim2 | May 6, 2016 at 8:21 am |

    Is it time for a new Presidential thread?

  134. Mike Flynn | May 6, 2016 at 8:41 am |

    Pundit –

    “1670s, “learned Hindu,” especially one versed in Sanskrit lore, from Hindi payndit “a learned man, master, teacher,” from Sanskrit payndita-s “a learned man, scholar,” of uncertain origin. Broader application in English is first recorded 1816.”

    I could write the Hindi form of “pundit” if someone could kindly let me know how to insert Devanagari characters into a comment, without too much trouble. Some of my Nepalese friends (not specifically including or excluding Narendra Gajendra Pachendra), regard me as a pundit, even though, as a Westerner, I cannot possibly be a Hindu.

    In all modesty, I must decline the appellation. I don’t regard myself as a learned man, or a master, or teacher. Unlike latter day political pundits, I claim no ability to see into the future.

    Political pundits in the US apparently believe that they can not only see the future, but also influence or determine the future. I disagree with this belief.

    Their record is not looking good at the moment.

    Cheers.

  135. jim2 | May 6, 2016 at 9:29 am |

    This article highlights the conundrum faced by the ultra-rich Captains of Bytes. Once all this automation is created, maximized THEIR productivity and fortunes, while the rest of us hit the welfare lines, there won’t be a viable market for their “products.” Everyone will be broke, and eventually, they will be too. From the article:
    …

    In news that is sure to depress anyone under the age of 30, Gross, the co-founder of bond investment firm PIMCO, who now runs a fund with Denver-based Janus Capital, says that while presidential hopefuls in the US spout mantras about how they are going to spur growth, none are addressing the reality of the future: that robots and technology are going to render “millions” of jobs redundant.
    “Virtually every industry in existence is likely to become less labour-intensive in future years as new technology is assimilated into existing business models,” Gross writes in his monthly note to investors.
    …
    It’s not just blue-collar jobs at risk, and Gross warns aspiring fund managers that their industry is no exception.
    But there is a solution to this conundrum: policymakers should invest in infrastructure, healthcare and, sensationally, a universal basic income of perhaps $10,000 per citizen.
    While socialist in theory, Gross says the idea has support among more conservatives than liberals and is the rage in Silicon Valley – how else will a shrinking workforce pay for the latest gadget?
    …
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/bill-gross-says-helicopter-money-the-answer-to-millennial-job-crisis-20160504-gomm6h.html
    …