Archive for the 'Politics' Category

This is a twisted tale, and you will want to stay tuned until the very end.  But in order to set this up, you first need to read this stunningly good article posted at National Review.  It is written by Lisa Smiley, entitled True Pro-Life Convictions Are Non-Negotiable.  We’ve covered this before, my readers and I.  Trump is a believer in abortion and Eugenics viz. Margaret Sanger.  But put aside my pedestrian writing for a moment.  Read all of Lisa’s piece.

Lisa is not just a Proverbs 31 woman.  She is a warrior, a stalwart of the faith, and a thousand times more of a man than any of the male Trump supporters to come in and throw comments around like monkeys jumping around in cages and throwing their feces.  The commenters (those who are detractors) are screeching gargoyles, worthy of your most sincere disapprobation and disgust.

I commented about this article that hell would freeze over before I ever vote for a man who supports abortion and eugenics.  Some particularly stolid comments still don’t understand that this has only partially to do with whether he has actually performed abortions.  First it has to do with policy as it concerns judicial appointments and support for candidates for the Senate and House.  Secondarily it has to do with moral judgment.  In any case, I pointed out that the GOP is on its own should the voters elect Trump as their candidate (and I do blame the voters as much as I do the establishment – no one is holding a gun to their heads and forcing them to vote for Trump).

More specifically, I said this.

Thank you. If bamboo splints are shoved under my fingernails, my toenails are pulled off, I undergo dental work like I was in “Marathon Man,” and I am beaten until dead, I will never, under any circumstances, for any reason, not if hell freezes over, vote for a man who supports abortion and believes in the eugenics of Margaret Sanger and the Nazis. If the voters are without scruples enough to make this awful man the GOP candidate, it is no longer my party. I’ll never return to the GOP. It will have lost me forever. Whether it wins or loses will be immaterial to me. it can all burn to the ground. In an analogy I once drew with the Texas A&M bonfire, it will be a wonderful thing to behold, beautiful and stunning. I’ll light the match, or pour gasoline on it. God bless the fire. I hope to see it.

Enter a commenter using the nom de guerre empirical101, who said this according to Disqus.

You are unhinged and full of BS if you believe what you just typed out, LOL.

Except not really.  Disqus remembers everything, even when you delete your comment, or most of it.  You see, it sends you the real text of the comment via email when it is posted, and when it was posted by empirical101, it went like this (I don’t intend to use sic for every spelling and grammar error since that would break the flow of the comment).  Remember folks as you read this, Herschel is the one who is unhinged.  I’m unhinged.

You are unhinged and full of BS if you believe what you just typed out, LOL.

If the we lose to Hillary, because you keep f ing around screwing around with the front runner, then i will help her take all you old farts Social Security by never get another inflation pay increase.

I will help legalize all the young illegal so they will vote in the marxist syste m to screw you.

I will help school Hillary’s people on how best to completely turn the U.S. military into a Soviet style police force. I served 20 years and did half of it in man power.
I know exactly were to go to stack the officer ranks with hard core marxist/communist filth.
It will take 8-10 years more and you turds will be total slaves.

Bring it,
I have been in war twice and still young enough to help them drag you to prison, i will convert and help them. Got nothing to lose at that point and got nothing to live for but revenge.
You want it turds, then you will get it.

This country will burn and i will laugh in your faces.

5:01 p.m., Thursday March 10 | Other comments by empirical101

There you have it friends.  A Trump supporter, threatening me with enslavement if I don’t support Trump.  Now, to be sure, I am not in the least worried about his threats.  He doesn’t know anything about me, whether I can still hump a 60 lb. backpack, shoot an AR-15 or 1911 or take care of myself.  Nor does he know anything about my beliefs, commitments or value system.

Furthermore, with the military increasingly imbibed of feminism with females in every MOS, transgender and homosexual coming out parties in the Pentagon, and the pathetic Ashton Carter at the helm, I am more amused than anything else at his threat to use the military against anything at all.  I hope he doesn’t mind if I chuckle a bit.  My former Marine son chuckled at this post when I read it to him.

But this does go to show his mental weakness and moral value system (or lack thereof), that he would immediately rush to thoughts of enslavement and collectivist force to ensure that his leader’s wishes were followed.

Can anyone say “Fascist?”

CNN:

Bold move for a politician? Perhaps.

But the decision reflects Cruz’s deepening alliance with the powerful gun lobby and his effort to cast himself as an unapologetic warrior for the Second Amendment.

A CNN review of speeches, interviews and court filings shows that Cruz has spent years forging ties with defenders of the Second Amendment — including a group to the right of the NRA. Some of those he’s allied himself with disdain all gun control, including gun-free zones at schools and other government buildings. Cruz has embraced those relationships as an aspect of his candidacy that sets himself apart from his rivals.

[ … ]

Throughout the primary process, Cruz has touted his endorsement by the Gun Owners of America, a gun-rights group that boasts a “no compromise” stance on gun control.

In an election season that has defied all odds, the gun-rights debate has not followed a predictable path in the primaries. And while Cruz has worked to establish his Second Amendment bona fides, some establishment figures in the Republican Party see this alliance as one of the most serious problems he would face in broadening his appeal if he reaches the general election.

“This is a group that could be portrayed as extreme, and off in a ditch,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a former 2016 presidential candidate who has tangled with Cruz in the Senate but now sees him as a preferable alternative to Trump. “Anybody they endorse will have to carry those bags.”

[ … ]

The group’s executive director, Larry Pratt, opposes all gun control and sees massacres like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School as evidence of the need for more, not fewer weapons in America.

Pratt has little tolerance for those who oppose his views, including the President and members of Congress. He said “it’s kind of a good thing” that politicians who favor gun control are in fear of being assassinated or deposed.

“That’s what the Second Amendment is,” Pratt said, “It’s a warning.”

There is much more at CNN.  It’s a very lengthy article, and good except for the assumption that Cruz has triangulated his position rather than holding it outright.  I wouldn’t expect much more than that from the MSM.  But read the rest of the article.  His position on gun rights goes way, way back, well before he ever even got into politics.

As for the awful little woman Lindsey Graham, his hand-wringing over the baggage associated with Larry Pratt is amusing and pitiful.  Larry is right.  The second amendment is a warning – a warning to people like Lindsey Graham to stop lording it over the people and do their bidding.  That’s why Graham is so uncomfortable with it.

As for what people thing about Pratt’s endorsement, my God.  What a bunch of little girls.  What happened to the men of America, who would stand on principle and say what they thought, back it up, and refuse to equivocate?  It appears we’ve lost most of them.  Cruz is one of the good guys, one who has never backed away from gun rights.

Don’t forget Who said it, Trump or Kanye?, or Who tweeted it, Trump or Kanye?  No indication yet whether Trump is going to select Kanye as his running mate.  I think it’s a match made in heaven.  Well, now there’s the Trump twitter bot.  I agree with one of the commenters here.  I don’t really think this is AI (artificial intelligence).  I don’t think it sounds intelligent at all, which is why it sounds so much like Trump.

Oh poppycock.  I don’t really think Trump is trying to make a photo look like Sieg Heil!  I think he is goading people to make (Biblically) unlawful oaths or vows.  Those folks don’t know everything about the candidate, and it’s foolish for them to swear to vote for a man who may later turn out to violate a tenet of their own conscience.

Trump wants to torture.  It will make us stronger, says he.  But then he won’t require any Soldier or Marine to do anything against the law (as if they would even be tempted to disobey the UCMJ and have their First Sergeant beat the hell out of them before they go to Leavenworth).  But he wants to change the law so that we can torture (what R. J. Rushdoony says about torture in The Institutes of Biblical Law comes to mind here).  So if you’re against torture, the good news for you is that Donald Trump is too.  On the other hand, if you’re for torture, the good news for you is that Donald Trump is too!

Trump is a Rorschach ink blot.  You get to project what you want.  He is your wildest imaginations, all of your hopes and dreams, the caretaker of your concerns, and in short, everything to everyone.  And he’s going to make America great again.  I can’t wait for the advertisement.  “Join the Army, drive bamboo splints under fingernails, watch the sobbing, hear the screams!  Kill women and children.”  It’ll be awesome.

Folks sure appear to be explaining their morals in this election cycle.  Ann Coulter apparently said, “I’d be happy to support Trump if he wanted to perform abortions in the White House.”  Well, there you go.

Uh Oh!!! Guess who’s a HUGE fan of immigration work visas?  That’s right, your favorite savior, Trump!  Please don’t tell me everyone knows he’s a fraud?  I just don’t think I could take not doing these little Fun With The Candidates pieces!

Fun With The Candidates, Part I

Fun With The Candidates, Part II

So much for the Rubio pro-gun rights advocacy.

Trump on outsourcing jobs overseas.

Back in the days of Trump’s blog on the website of his now-defunct Trump University website, however, he wrote a post in defense of outsourcing titled, “Outsourcing Creates Jobs in the Long Run.”

“We hear terrible things about outsourcing jobs — how sending work outside of our companies is contributing to the demise of American businesses,” wrote Trump. “But in this instance I have to take the unpopular stance that it is not always a terrible thing.”

“I understand that outsourcing means that employees lose jobs,” continued Trump. “Because work is often outsourced to other countries, it means Americans lose jobs. In other cases, nonunion employees get the work. Losing jobs is never a good thing, but we have to look at the bigger picture.”

But as Trump himself has said, “everything is negotiable.”  And just like Rubio above, this was all before he decided to run for president.  So there’s that.

Ace:

Ben Smith, at Buzzfeed:

On Saturday, columnist Gail Collins, one of the attendees at the meeting (which also included editor-in-chief Dean Baquet), floated a bit of speculation in her column:

The most optimistic analysis of Trump as a presidential candidate is that he just doesn’t believe in positions, except the ones you adopt for strategic purposes when you’re making a deal. So you obviously can’t explain how you’re going to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, because it’s going to be the first bid in some future monster negotiation session.

Sources familiar with the recording and transcript –which have reached near-mythical status at the Times — tell me that the second sentence is a bit more than speculation. It reflects, instead, something Trump said about the flexibility of his hard-line anti-immigration stance.

So what exactly did Trump say about immigration, about deportations, about the wall? Did he abandon a core promise of his campaign in a private conversation with liberal power brokers in New York?

…

“If [Trump] wants to call up and ask us to release this transcript, he’s free to do that and then we can decide what we would do,” Rosenthal said.

If you visit the source article at Buzzfeed, there is a little more than what Ace includes, and a link to a demand by Cruz that Trump release the transcript.

Speaking to reporters in San Antonio, Texas, Cruz called for the tape to be made public before Super Tuesday.

“Apparently there is a secret tape that the New York Times editorial board has of Donald Trump saying that he doesn’t believe what he’s saying on immigration, saying that all of his promises to secure the border are not real and if he’s president he doesn’t intend to do what he said,” Cruz said. “I call on Donald: ask the New York Times to release the tape and do so today before the Super Tuesday primary.”

He won’t, but he should.  Sadly, his supporters won’t really know his sincere positions (as opposed to what used car salesmen do) until it’s far too late.

Release the transcript, Donald.  Do it.  Just do it.  I care about my readers.  Your supporters deserve to know.

Oh dear.  Mike Vanderboegh is in some health trouble.  I don’t like what I’m hearing.  Keep praying for him.

Actually, I’m interested in what you think the lesson is, David?  I’ve thought about it some, now what are your thoughts?  You go first.

Make sure to check out the comments on David’s most recent article.  They are enlightening.

Distributed lethality.  Because I want you to be aware of current military doctrine.

Megacities and littoral regions.  Because I want you to be aware of current military doctrine.

Ace’s thoughts on Donald Trump.  No one says it quite like Ace.  Read it all.

I haven’t watched much of the republican debates, but I have occasionally passed through while my wife was watching.  Tonight was one such time.  I heard Trump say something like, “You aren’t endorsed by a single Senator …  You should be ashamed of yourself!”

I heard that and thought, “You have got to be kidding?  Did you just say that?  Seriously?  Seriously?”  The one who has claimed that he will bring everyone into the Oval office and cut deals, but who has previously sworn to burn it all down according to his bot followers, has hurled the insult at Cruz that he isn’t loved in Washington.  Reality is more bizarre than fiction.  I couldn’t have made this up if I tried.

A couple of days before the primary in South Carolina, I heard the following men speak: Ted Cruz, Louie Gohmert, Mike Lee, and Dave Brat (Congressman Jeff Duncan of South Carolina was there and praised by Ted Cruz, although he didn’t speak), and others (Mark Levin, etc.).  I listened intently to Louie Gohmert describe the events leading up to the death of the “gang of eight bill.”  I am a political wonk, and I keep up with these things.  Even I didn’t know some of what he told us.  I cannot give you all of the details, but I can provide a summary.

Gohmert described the intense strategic meetings to plot the death of the bill.  The meetings were held between Cruz, Lee, Brat, Gohmert, Duncan and others.  When the bill hit the House, it was all but a done deal because the gang had a pretty new face to put with it, i.e., Rubio.  It was very hard to turn it back.  America doesn’t know how close we were to having the gang of eight bill as law.

One of the tactics was a poison pill by Ted Cruz placed into the bill during deliberations between the House and Senate, but it also required much work in the House proper.  And all of this was led by whom, you asked?  Why, it was led by Ted Cruz, with all the meetings in Ted’s office.  If Louie Gohmert was lying, Mike Lee, or Congressman Brat or Duncan could have stopped Gohmert.  None did, because Gohmert was telling the truth.  You don’t have a gang of eight law because Ted Cruz led the effort to kill it.  Why doesn’t America know this?  Well, Ted is trying ever so hard to tell them, but they can’t hear it for the confusion of the mob of monkeys as they screech and bark and howl and sling their feces everywhere.

That’s why Ted Cruz is hated in Washington.  And I’ve thought about my own life this evening in terms of being hated.  In a way, a man’s measure is found in his enemies.  I drifted off this evening to what my grave marker might read.  If it reads something like this: “Herschel was an objectionable and loathsome man but for the sovereign grace of God.  He led a nondescript life.  In fact, he wasn’t worth much even after God saved him … except that he was hated in Washington,”  I would die a happy man.

How do I do that?  How do I make it to 33rd degree blogger-hated-in-Washington?  I so want to be hated in Washington.  Good heavens.  If someone hurled that insult at me, I would wear it as a badge of honor.

Marco Rubio is a robot.  Well, actually I think of him more like a windup doll who in this case got stuck on the same line, over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Trump: “What the hell is a caucus … no one even knows what a caucus is?”  Well, I think I know what a caucus is.  And I think I’m someone.

Trump: “What the hell is he talking about?”  Well, this, Donald, where you said:

AL: I’d like to talk about public land. Seventy percent of hunters in the West hunt on public lands managed by the federal government. Right now, there’s a lot of discussion about the federal government transferring those lands to states and the divesting of that land. Is that something you would support as President?

DT: I don’t like the idea because I want to keep the lands great, and you don’t know what the state is going to do. I mean, are they going to sell if they get into a little bit of trouble? And I don’t think it’s something that should be sold. We have to be great stewards of this land. This is magnificent land. And we have to be great stewards of this land. And the hunters do such a great job—I mean, the hunters and the fishermen and all of the different people that use that land. So I’ve been hearing more and more about that. And it’s just like the erosion of the Second Amendment. I mean, every day you hear Hillary Clinton wants to essentially wipe out the Second Amendment. We have to protect the Second Amendment, and we have to protect our lands.

You likened federal ownership of land to protection of the second amendment, remember Donald?

Who said it, Trump or Kanye?  I confess that I didn’t even get close to 100%.

Who tweeted it, Trump or Kanye?  I confess that I didn’t even get close to 100%.

Perhaps Trump could pick Kanye as his running mate.  They go together just fine.

Vicente Fox: “We’re not paying for that f***ing wall!”  Hey, you sound like a carnival barker.  Our carnival barker is louder and more obnoxious than you are.

See how much fun this can be?  As the republican field winnows to a single candidate very soon, this should become easier with a veritable smorgasbord of things to discuss.

NYT:

Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., describes itself as “one of the most highly regarded private clubs in the world,” and it is not just the very-well-to-do who want to get in.

Since 2010, nearly 300 United States residents have applied or been referred for jobs as waiters, waitresses, cooks and housekeepers there. But according to federal records, only 17 have been hired.

In all but a handful of cases, Mar-a-Lago sought to fill the jobs with hundreds of foreign guest workers from Romania and other countries.

In his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Trump has stoked his crowds by promising to bring back jobs that have been snatched by illegal immigrants or outsourced by corporations, and voters worried about immigration have been his strongest backers.

But he has also pursued more than 500 visas for foreign workers at Mar-a-Lago since 2010, according to the United States Department of Labor, while hundreds of domestic applicants failed to get the same jobs.

Charles C.W. Cooke comments:

Or, put another way, Trump has deliberately chosen to hire foreign workers to fill those jobs that “Americans just won’t do.” 17 out of 300? That’s 5.6 percent. 17 out of 500? That’s 3.4 percent. Bad! So what’s Trump’s excuse? That’s he’s a businessman and that these are the realities on the ground? That, I’m afraid, won’t wash. When Disney behaved like this, there was a loud and sustained outcry from . . . well, no less than Donald Trump himself. In an interview with Breitbart, Trump argued that Disney should be forced to rehire any Americans it had overlooked or replaced. Trump also said this: If I am President, I will not issue any H-1B visas to companies that replace American workers and my Department of Justice will pursue action against them. And he offered this critique of expanding the “H” program: It would allow any company in America to replace any worker with cheaper foreign labor. It legalizes job theft. It gives companies the legal right to pass over Americans, displace Americans, or directly replace Americans for good-paying middle class jobs.

Oh dear.  You mean to tell me that Donald Trump is a charlatan, hypocrite and liar?  Remember boys and girls.  Noise, light and magic.  Noise, lights and magic.

At Zero Hedge, from user barkingcat:

“General populace is dumber than a box of rocks.

They are mesmerized by whores and pimps and charlatans with shinny trinkets.

They do not care about anything but numbing their brains and stuffing their bellies with factory manufactured GMO crap.”