Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Ronald Reagan was a moderate and a demagogue

According to moderate Bruce Bartlett, here, who voted for Obama at least once:

"Although the far right’s mythology paints the Reagan years as the triumph of their ideas, the truth is that he governed very much in the moderate tradition of postwar Republican presidents. Reagan raised taxes 11 times, gave amnesty to illegal aliens, pulled American troops out of the Middle East, supported environmental regulations, raised the debt limit and appointed many moderates to key positions, including on the Supreme Court. But he skillfully kept his right flank protected by using thundering conservative rhetoric, even as he violated his own stated principles on a regular basis."

Ivana Trump goes on the record today saying The Donald will make an incredible president

Quoted here in The New York Daily News:

“Incidentally, I think he would make an incredible President,” Ivana Trump, who divorced her husband in 1992, added.

Donald Trump takes Laura Ingraham to school on her support for the Iraq War

This morning in the second half hour on her own show, Donald Trump told Laura Ingraham that she had made a mistake supporting the Iraq War, stating that he was opposed to it from the beginning.

Trump's opposition to the Iraq War will alienate most Republicans, except for the Buchanan Brigades (which can't number many more than 500,000).

The position will, however, be popular with independents who tend to vote Democrat, the much ballyhooed middle.

When it comes to third party candidacies, what party does Bernie Sanders represent, and why doesn't anybody talk about it?

Self-described Socialist polls 17.5% for Democrat nomination.
Seen here:

"[W]hat happens if the USS HRod begins taking on water. What would Democrats do? Is there an emergency "break the glass" option if real questions of Clinton's electability arise? It seems extremely unlikely that any one issue could bring Clinton down, but what if she begins to suffer 'death by a thousand cuts'?

"Would Vice President Joe Biden and/or Sen. Elizabeth Warren jump in? Or would/could someone not being currently mentioned throw a hat into the ring, like say, Sen. Sherrod Brown or former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg? Presumably Bloomberg would need to join the Democratic Party, but then again, has Sanders joined yet?'"

Monday, July 27, 2015

Leonid Bershidsky has it exactly backwards: Syriza's Left Platform turns out to be Greece's true conservative party, they just don't realize it

Here right out of the gate, and the rest of it is also quite as silly, not in the least because it asks the EuroGroup to devise the mechanism by which those already in the Euro will be shown the exit:

'Elect far-left politicians to run a country and they will still plot a revolution. That, apparently, is what ministers from the Syriza bloc were doing while negotiations with creditors were taking place. Though none of the crazy things they planned came to pass, Greece's radicals may someday be tempted to carry out a Syriza-style "Plan B." Euro-zone officials need to prepare for this eventuality and work out an exit procedure -- one that might still be needed.'

Yes, Greece's radicals. They went for the root alright, back to the drachma.

No, the real revolution was enticing Greece with the Euro because the Euro took the decision making about money out of the Greek people's hands. Revolting against that now is technically reactionary, but only in chronology, the new hobgoblin of little Hegelian minds. In reality preparing to go back to the drachma is an attempt to undo the revolution which the Euro wrought in Greece in the first place.

Greek dignity means having its own currency, just as it has its own glorious history, its own cooking, its own weather, language, culture, borders and so on. The drachma they can value and devalue on their terms, not someone else's. When the left in Greece and the rest of Europe wake up to the central importance of this fact, maybe the nightmare of this Euro farce will finally come to an end.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Paying off the $18.1 trillion national debt in 30 years . . .

Financed at 3.5%, it would require annual payments of $977.4 billion to retire the $18.1 trillion national debt in 30 years.

This assumes deficit spending (projected to average $512 billion annually, already factoring in increasing revenues going forward to 2020) would cease in order to balance the books and cap the debt.

Together debt repayments and cessation of deficit spending imply cutting current allocations by a total of $1.5 trillion annually, leaving just $1.7 trillion to fund government outlays in fiscal 2015 projected to soar to $3.8 trillion.

Out of control and misplaced spending therefore amounts to 55% of projected outlays in fiscal 2015, or $2.1 trillion.

In the already low GDP environment, a 55% fiscal contraction is utterly unthinkable to anyone in either political party, the equivalent of an 8.5% hit to the current dollar GDP at $17.69 trillion.

The revenue projection for fiscal 2015 is just $3.2 trillion, but will be the highest ever.

Average annual federal deficit projection 2015-2020

$512 billion, which will add $3.07 trillion to the national debt in six years.

Obama has added $6.3 trillion to the national debt 2009-2014, $1.05 trillion per year, with plenty of help from Republicans since 2010.

The voters think Hillary Clinton is a lying sack of shit by almost 2-1 in Colorado

The Hill reported here:

'This week’s poll by Quinnipiac University showed large majorities of voters in Iowa, Virginia and Colorado — three swing states Democrats hope to win — do not find her honest and trustworthy. The margin in the Colorado poll between those who don't trust her and those who do was almost 2-to-1.' 

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Once upon a time in America there was a thing called conservatism which yelled Stop!

It's still up there, here.

Peter Berkowitz stands athwart history murmuring "slow down" while praying his version of The Serenity Prayer

Here, where else?, but in The Wall Street Journal:

'[Conservatives] should forthrightly reaffirm their commitment to the Constitution’s principles of individual freedom, equality under law, and limited government—all of which presuppose and protect religious faith and traditional morality. They should distinguish among what they can alter, what they must accept and what they should embrace. And they should design principled reforms that can win majority support in a country where diversity ensures that any conceivable national majority will include a significant spectrum of opinion.'

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference. -- Reinhold Niebuhr, circa 1943

Friday, July 24, 2015

Insane Hillary Clinton proposes Chinese Communist Party-style interference in free-markets, obliterating short term/long term holding definition

current law says long term holding begins after 365 days
law under Hillary extends that to six years

Story here.

Sounds similar to the Chinese Communist Party recently telling investors they cannot sell. 

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Trump widens lead in Real Clear Politics average to +4.2


TNR article on John Kasich's religion never tells you he's an Anglican convert from Catholicism


Liberalism always has something to hide.

Kasich's Anglicanism isn't what you might expect, according to this story:

'"But he does belong to a church — St. Augustine in Westerville, Ohio, part of the conservative splinter group the Anglican Church in North America. The denomination broke away from the Episcopal Church after that denomination consecrated an openly gay bishop. The ACNA does not permit female bishops or ordain LGBT priests. ... Kasich voted for the Defense of Marriage Act years ago and supported Ohio’s ban on gay marriage. But he was pragmatic after the Supreme Court ruling June 26 overturned state bans. Two days later, he was interviewed on “Face the Nation” and said: “I believe in traditional marriage, but the Supreme Court has ruled. It’s the law of the land, and we’ll abide by it. … It’s time to move on.”'


Retired admirals can swallow gays in the military, but not Donald Trump

A couple of retired lawyer-admirals are fit to be tied over Trump's attack on John McCain, according to this story in The Daily Beast, which purports to represent the feelings of the military generally:

"And it wasn’t just them—veterans groups and veterans themselves have taken deep offense to Trump’s remarks, especially given Trump never served in the Vietnam War, as the Arizona senator did. Trump instead received a medical deferment in 1968."

Did anyone, anywhere in the military, retired or otherwise, similarly rise up to denounce the Gay Putsch?

I STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU MAGGOTS!

The fact of the matter is, this country doesn't need a house cleaning of just its political class, but of its officer corps as well. Obama has thought so, too, getting rid of the men we most need, the patriots who believe in moral absolutes, in killing the enemy and winning, and replacing them with women, faggots and attorneys. You know, people like himself.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Sorry Noah Smith: There isn't just one way to boost GDP growth

Smith says we need more immigration to solve our low growth problem. There is an alternative. Have more children of our own.

Noah Smith, here:

"Gross domestic product is simply the product of output per person and the number of people. The more people in your country, the higher the output. That's why China, whose output per person is only about a quarter of the U.S.'s, is now the largest economy on the planet. It just has more bodies."


The open borders libertarians

Noah Smith for Bloomberg, here:

"Exactly this sort of open borders immigration policy has received enthusiastic support from a dedicated core of libertarian economists, notably Bryan Caplan of George Mason University. These economists believe in relaxed immigration rules not because they want higher GDP growth, but because of principle -- they view national borders themselves as an unacceptable form of government intervention in the economy. The open borders crusaders are so zealous that moderate supporters of increased immigration, such as tech entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa, are often the targets of their ire. University of Chicago economist John Cochrane has also voiced support for the open borders idea." 

Democrat General Wesley Clark wants to put radicalized Muslims in camps: And you thought deportation of illegal aliens was impractical

From the story here:

"It's a sad choice, but if people choose ISIS, they should be treated as spies or enemy combatants – or both. I’m frustrated with the argument that sedition is free speech because there is a role for government to step in to prevent a dissenter from becoming an active shooter, or worse.

"Any implication that I support racial profiling or interning people based on their ethnicity or heritage is dead wrong. I’m for separating people who have made dangerous decisions from the rest of society.

"The US has the obligation to protect our own population from terrorists. And ‎if the domestic terrorist threat grows due to ISIS, we must act responsibly and promptly."

Monday, July 20, 2015

Manhattan Democrat says parks are for everyone, except Donald Trump!

Seen here:

"Our parks are for everyone," the Manhattan Democrat [Mark Levine] said. "Trump's continued ownership of parks concessions runs directly contrary to that spirit."

Obama State Department stonewalls everybody on FOIA requests

Story here. No mention that this is the State Department's long record of behavior under Hillary Clinton, let alone under her successor John F. Kerry, who served in Viet Nam.

At least the judge is as pissed as he can be.

I guess they are too busy over there at State securing Obama's legacy, and covering up Benghazi: