Friday, November 30, 2018

Rush Limbaugh joins the "No Labels" crowd, now eschews "conservative", Geno from the Bronx tells him off

Mark Levin responded unfavorably to the idea on his show last night, advocating that we still embrace the label, and now an angry Geno from the Bronx has blasted Limbaugh for his shapeshifting, saying what a lot of us have been thinking for years.

It'll do no good, Geno. The guy's unreachable. But good show bro!


So I would suggest to you, when you’re out and about and if you run into an occasion where you have the opportunity to talk politics, people that don’t agree with you, do not use the word “conservative.”

Do everything else, but don’t call yourself that, don’t promote it, don’t reference it, just talk about we need to solve problems and tell people how you would do it. Leave the label out of it. We’ve got a brand problem. I hate it. I hate having to admit it. But there are too many mind-numbed, brain-dead robots who have a totally incorrect and blasphemes opinion of the word “conservative” and “conservatism” that it’s just — get rid of it. Stop calling yourself that. Just be one. Just talk to people as one.

When you talk to people about issues, refer to them as problems that need to be fixed. Don’t say you’ve got a conservative idea or conservative philosophy. Just articulate it but don’t label it. And my point is I think you’ll have a far better chance of being persuasive if you don’t use the term. And after all, what’s the objective? 



RUSH: To the Bronx up next. Geno, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Rush, I’m very disappointed in you and in fact, quite honestly, I’m angry with you because of what you told that lady two days ago and what you told the other call today earlier today in the program. You’re advising us, your loyal audience for 30 years, that have stood by you and that have made you the Moses of conservatism. You are now telling us that we should call ourselves “problem solvers” rather than conservatives so that we can try to get the political power that we need. I’m here to tell you it’s time for you to go back to the way you were and take back what you said today! Because I’m gonna give it to you straight. I live in the Bronx. I’m on the front lines. I every day have to confront left-wing lizards and brain-dead Bolsheviks! And they give me a hard time every day, but I get right back in their face and I tell ’em, “You go to hell!” Because I don’t want my country, I don’t want what my parents and my family and everybody I’ve ever known in my life to surrender to these brain-dead idiots that are gonna destroy our country. And now you gonna tell me that I should back down and that I should somehow say, well, I’m not a conservative, but I’m a problem solver because I should fear these fools that are out there. No, Rush. It’s time for you to get back to basics. You gotta be the same person you were 30 years ago that had my loyalty up until today. You have to be the Johnny Carson that you have been for the last 30 years and say “no!” You get in people’s faces! You tell them no! You’re an imbecile, you’re an idiot, you’re a jackass and you’re gonna help destroy our country from within, if we listen to the crap that you’re trying to tell us. There is no such thing as being transgender, you’re either male or female. There’s no such thing as 37 different flavors of sexism. No. You’re a man or a woman and the same with the abortion issue. You gave that up a long time ago, and so did your other brethren on conservative talk radio, which I don’t even call conservative anymore. Millions of Americans have died because of the schmucks that we have to pay attention to and the scum in the media that have turned everything that’s bad and unholy into what is righteous and it’s completely wrong. So I’m gonna give you an opportunity right here and now, Rush, on your own show to take back what you said to that lady yesterday and earlier today, otherwise what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna come and I’m gonna take that microphone away from you and gonna be the Jay Leno to your Johnny Carson! And I’m gonna be the one that’s gonna be the leader of the new conservative movement. It’s either that or I go to the Trumpster and I tell him to stop giving you interviews and that’s it. It’s gonna be Mark Levin and a handful of others because now it seems to me that you have gone soft and you’ve gone weak-willed. The same way you criticize Republican slobs like Jeff Sessions and the other mutants who stab us in the back every time and you don’t bust their chops anymore, I noticed that recently. Now I’m gonna do that to you and I’m gonna go every other radio program until and unless you take back what you said that we should not say that we are conservatives anymore but that we’re problem solvers. That’s wrong! Admit you’re wrong and do it right here, right now.

RUSH: I never said back down, and I never said not to get in their face. I simply said do not use a term to describe yourself that makes it impossible to have any kind of solution with these people. That’s all. I’m not saying don’t be a conservative.

CALLER: (shouting)

RUSH: Wait a minute, Geno. I didn’t tell you not to be a conservative. I didn’t tell you to back down. I didn’t tell you to tell these scum to go soft or any of that. None of that at all. Do you not…? Let me ask: Do you not agree that just the name conservative has a little bit of a PR problem right now?

CALLER: That PR is because left-wing maggots in the media have made it that way, but when we confront them, then they back down. That’s the thing that you should be reemphasizing like you did 30 years ago. You were my hero for the last 30 years, and now all of the sudden you have backed down because you have become weak-willed —

RUSH: I’m not backing down, Geno, and I haven’t —

CALLER: — thinks that you gonna (unintelligible) and escape from these problems. I want to save America, if you don’t step aside and I’ll do it for you.

RUSH: You have drawn a whole lot of conclusions here that are nowhere near true. I have not backed down from anything. I’ve never backed down from anything. I’m not advocating that you back down. I’m not telling you to stop talking about them the way you want to talk about them. I’m not telling you not to get in their face and if you think they’re a bunch of reprobate rats, tell ’em so. That’s all. I’m just talking about the label. I’m not telling you to not be conservative, Geno.

CALLER: But you said we shouldn’t admit to it. That’s an act of cowardice —

RUSH: No, I did not say you shouldn’t admit to it! I did not say —

CALLER: (shouting)

RUSH: I did not —

CALLER: (shouting)

RUSH: Don’t change anything. Don’t change your behavior, don’t change your technique in persuading. None of that.

CALLER: Bolsheviks will get in your face. You should get in their face and stand up to them. Otherwise they take over, we all lose, and America falls by the wayside like it did for my ancient ancestors 1,500 years ago.

RUSH: What do you think I do here every day?

CALLER: Well, you tell me. You tell me that why we shouldn’t be calling ourselves conservatives anymore. To me it’s an act of cowardice.

RUSH: I’m simply talking about the label. I’m putting it out there as an idea. I’m not talking about strategy. I am talking about strategy. I’m not talking about the actual ideologue belief system. I’m not saying you should abandon anything.

CALLER: Sorry, Rush, you’re not buying me on this one. I hate to say this, but after 30 years my loyalty now for you is gone and that chicken parmesan dinner that I was supposed to cook for you and your wife you identify, you can forget that deal, Mr. Snerdley will get it before you do. You’ll have to pay for that dinner.

RUSH: I wasn’t aware that you were gonna fix me a chicken parmesan.

CALLER: Well, that was three years ago when I last called in when you gave the speech about Hildebeast and why we should vote for the Trumpster. Remember?

RUSH: Well —

CALLER: Apparently you forgot because, again you know, you’re too fat and happy now —

RUSH: You think I was for the Hildebeast? You think I spent the last two years ago advocating for the Hildebeast?

CALLER: You have… You’re basically what you’re doing is telling us we should surrender our title as conservatives.

RUSH: I am not telling you anything of the sort.

CALLER: — beat the evil empire. That’s what you’re backing down on.

RUSH: No, I’m not backing down at all. I’m not backing down —

CALLER: If you lived here in the Bronx, trust me, you would feal —

RUSH: Geno, I am surrounded by a bunch of left-wing liberals here that are brain-dead, judgmental, mean-spirited, superiorist little butts. I’m surrounded by ’em. You can’t avoid ’em everywhere you go.

CALLER: But then you’re telling us that we shouldn’t even identify as conservatives. Why, because some schmuck on CNN is gonna give us a hard time?

RUSH: No!

CALLER: We give them a hard time! We take Jim Acosta, take him out and giving us a beating if we have to. We do everything that you used to tell us 30 years ago but apparently now you’ve gotten a little too soft Rush. It’s time for you to step aside. Let me take the microphone from you for a few days. And I’ll straighten out your audience.

RUSH: I’ll tell you what, Geno. Why don’t we do that. You can have this microphone starting tomorrow. I haven’t taken a vacation this year. You can come down here tomorrow, you can take the microphone and you can deal with it however you want.

CALLER: More than happy to do that, and then I’ll reinstate your chicken parmesan with you and your wife.

RUSH: Okay. Well, I don’t like chicken parm.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: That’s what happens when the Red Sox beat the Yankees. It’s tough out there. We’re all surrounded by these “commie bastards” out there, Geno.

James Pinkerton for The American Conservative completely falls for Hillary's "new" immigration views

Hillary Clinton: Conservatives Were Right on Mass Migration:

[H]ere in the U.S., conservatives—as distinct, of course, from libertarians—are now able to say, “Even Hillary Clinton and John Kerry agree on the need for border enforcement.” And in political terms, that’s not a small victory.

 Commenter Blitzkrieg spoke for many when he opined that Pinkerton "missed the point entirely".

When the opposition's blindness blinds you into thinking a top priority is the only priority


Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina sinks confirmation of Thomas Farr to US District Court in this congress, but cocaine Mitch may have another plan


South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott announced Thursday he will oppose embattled judicial nominee Thomas Farr, in a reversal of his position a day earlier that seemingly ends the nominee's chances for now amid fierce criticism by civil rights groups. ...

Farr was first nominated to the federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina by former President George W. Bush in 2006, but never received a confirmation vote. ...

Prominent Democrats immediately applauded Scott's decision Thursday to oppose Farr, and attacked President Trump for doubling down on Bush's nomination. ...

Top Republicans had also stood behind Farr this week. It remains unclear whether the Senate's GOP leadership will try to reconsider Farr when the new 53-47 Republican majority -- sans Flake -- is seated in January.

“The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary -- a body that's frequently been held up by my Democratic colleagues as the ‘gold standard’ -- has awarded Mr. Farr its highest possible rating: unanimously well qualified,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Mao's struggle sessions literally come home: Surplus Chinese communists placed in Muslim homes to convert Uighurs to Han secularism


The old woman was a spy, sent by the Chinese government to infiltrate his family.

There are many like her. According to the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, as of the end of September, 1.1 million local government workers have been deployed to ethnic minorities’ living rooms, dining areas and Muslim prayer spaces, not to mention at weddings, funerals and other occasions once considered intimate and private.

All this is taking place in China’s far west region of Xinjiang, home to the predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uighurs, who have long reported discrimination at the hands of the country’s majority Han Chinese.

While government notices about the “Pair Up and Become Family” program portray it as an affectionate cultural exchange, Uighurs living in exile in Turkey said their loved ones saw the campaign as a chilling intrusion into the only place that they once felt safe.

They believe the program is aimed at coercing Uighurs into living secular lives like the Han majority. Anything diverging from the party’s prescribed lifestyle can be viewed by authorities as a sign of potential extremism — from suddenly giving up smoking or alcohol, to having an “abnormal” beard or an overly religious name.

Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Uighur homeland has been blanketed with stifling surveillance, from armed checkpoints on street corners to facial-recognition-equipped CCTV cameras steadily surveying passers-by. Now, Uighurs say, they must live under the watchful eye of the ruling Communist Party even inside their own homes. ...

The Xinjiang United Front Work Department said in February that government workers should live with their assigned families every two months, for five days at a time.

The United Front, a Communist Party agency, indicates in the notice that the program is mandatory for cadres. ...

A February piece on the Communist Party’s official news site said: “The vast majority of party cadres are not only living inside villagers’ homes, but also living inside the hearts of the masses.”

Overseas Uighurs said the “visits” to their relatives’ homes often lasted longer than five days, and they were closely monitored the whole time. The cadres would ask their family members where they were going and who they were meeting whenever they wanted to leave the house. ...

All government employees in the region are required to conduct such visits in order to better understand villagers’ needs, according to Gu: “Because we’re always sitting in our offices, we don’t know what they really need. Only through penetrating the masses can we truly serve them.”



Like Hillary vs. Trump, Beto O'Rourke outspent Ted Cruz and lost, but some Democrats think he's their guy in 2020

But not Rahm Emanuel.


"If Beto O'Rourke wants to go and run for president, God bless him, he should put his hat in and make his case. But, he lost. You don't usually promote a loser to the top of party," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday on MSNBC, becoming the highest-profile Democrat yet to air doubts about the excitement swirling around El Paso congressman. ...

One reason Democrats see potential for O'Rourke in a crowded presidential field is that he displayed a rare gift for inspiring donors nationwide.

He smashed through all fundraising records for any Senate candidate anywhere ever. He had a $38 million haul in one three-month period alone on his way past the $70 million mark. A final post-election disclosure due next week will push the total even higher. He outspent Cruz roughly 3-1. 

In Democrats' current short list for 2020 Beto runs third behind Lunchbox Joe and Bernie Sanders. Hillary's not on the list. Methinks Rahm would like to be.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Real Clear Markets: Why Victoria's Secret Is Struggling To Stay Relevant by Amy Odell, TIME

There is no business model for remaining relevant in a world gone mad.

Dateline Trump World Golf Club Dubai: President offers to resign if he can keep Air Force One


"Easy mark" is the flipside of "paper tiger"


VP Mike Pence overcomes Republican Jeff Flake alliance with Democrats to advance nomination of Thomas Farr to NC US District Court post vacant since 2005


The judgeship is just one of 136 current federal court vacancies. Authorized positions in 2018 are north of 860.

Senators typically veto nominees they don't like in their jurisdictions by returning a negative blue slip on the individual.

North Carolina is a playground for Supreme Court intervention in representation decisions involving race through the 1965 Voting Rights Act, making judicial appointments there radioactive. Both US Senators from North Carolina have been Republicans since 2014 when Tillis defeated Hagan. Burr was re-elected in 2016. 

Barack Obama lets one go: "Suddenly America's like the biggest . . . gas, that was me, people"


Whooooooweeeeee, that one smells:








The blocked rule would not have affected most fracking operations in the United States, since it would have applied only to fracking on federal lands. The vast majority of fracking in the United States — almost 90 percent — is done on state and private land and is governed by state and local regulations. The rule was unlikely to have stopped most new fracking on public lands, although oil and gas companies complained that it could have slowed operations by creating burdensome paperwork.






Wednesday, November 28, 2018

I'm guessing the Broward County election results upset her stomach


Wilson allegedly pulled a small “lock back knife” from her purse, “opened the knife and told the victim she was going to ‘gut’ him,” the police report said.

While doing so, she pulled back her right hand with the knife as if she was going to attack the victim with it, the report read.



Why blacks didn't turn out for Hillary in 2016: They all look alike


Arkansas still votes Republican.



I'll bet it didn't taste very good after that

If you need an attorney in Tucson, Arizona, make sure you pick one who knows the difference between "in" and "out"

The readers are having none of attorney Frances Lynch's opinion at USA Today, or at her Twitter feed.

The images of the Berlin barbed wire are only in her head. Be careful that you don't cut yourself. 

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Ha ha, Jack Ma, member of the Chinese Communist Party since the 1980s


State-run Chinese media on Tuesday reported on a social media post from someone claiming to be a former classmate of Ma's, who said that they joined the Communist Party while in university.

"We all joined the party around the second or third year of university. Back then, joining the party meant not just that you were a good student, but also that you had integrity, organizational ability, enthusiasm and idealism," the post said, according to a translation that matched a screenshot of the post seen by CNBC.

When it comes to divide and conquer, libertarians are the easiest to defeat because they're already divided

Something something about hang together or hang separately.

Today's fake news discourtesy of Reuters and CNBC: Republican proposes taxes on retirement plans


The article says no such thing.

Uighur woman named Mihrigul Tursun claims genocidal Chinese communists tortured her with electrocution


One day, Tursun recalled, she was led into a room and placed in a high chair, and her legs and arms were locked in place.

“The authorities put a helmet-like thing on my head, and each time I was electrocuted, my whole body would shake violently and I would feel the pain in my veins,” Tursun said in a statement read by a translator.

“I don’t remember the rest. White foam came out of my mouth, and I began to lose consciousness,” Tursun said. “The last word I heard them saying is that you being ... Uighur is a crime.”

Monday, November 26, 2018

China's richest man outed as Communist Party member after pre-mature resignation announcement

Like these are unrelated developments, or surprising after the rise of Xi Jinping Pooh.

No one makes Jack Ma kind of money in China without the blessing of the Communist Party. And no one stops making Jack Ma kind of money without the urging of the Communist Party.

People do very well indeed under "communism".


Jack Ma, the head of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is a Communist Party member, the official Party newspaper said on Monday, debunking a public assumption the billionaire was politically unattached.

The People's Daily revealed Ma's Party membership in a list of 100 people it said had helped drive the country "reform and opening up" process. Ma is China's richest man with a fortune of $35.8 billion, according to Forbes.


If you thought Hawaii's Senator Mazie Hirono was a dingbat, its Senator Brian Schatz just proved he's fit to be her equally loopy consort

Melania Trump inaugurates Christmas truce between warring Republican factions


They also stormed the southern border at Thanksgiving time 2013

Dramatic video of "border rush"

"Staged by a few instigators"

Hm.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Justin Raimondo knows Mexico is the real threat to America, but he's so against war he can't argue for it when he needs to

Forget the Russian ‘Threat’: Mexico Is Our Real Problem:

The cartels control our southern neighbor

[W]e hear almost nothing about the one country where journalists who report on official corruption are routinely killed, and in such numbers that the death toll makes Russia look like a utopian paradise – Mexico, where more than one-hundred reporters have been slaughtered by the drug cartels and their collaborators inside the Mexican government. The killers are rarely found, let alone punished:  as of 2012, 98% of homicides in Mexico went unsolved. ...

Some problems don’t have solutions, and this may be one of them. The accumulated stupidity and venality of the Mexican and US authorities over past decades has created such a toxic brew of social decomposition and political dysfunction that we can only await the coming explosion with a mixture of fear and hope – hope that our leaders will force their gaze away from the far horizons of the Middle East and focus on the rising crisis right here on our own southern border.

 

The number of doofusses taking Hillary's recent immigration comments seriously is truly astounding

It's self-evident that Hillary's "new" view about immigration is nothing more than immigration reform as a means to an end, namely the center-left's election to power in order to defeat populism and the right.

Her response to the situation of her defeat is completely in keeping with Marx, who viewed the embrace of the free-trade doctrine of unalloyed capitalism as an accelerant for The Revolution. The important thing is not that the left is wrong about "late stage capitalism". The important thing is that they are insincere about what they say they believe in common with us. 

Yet everywhere I go otherwise sane people are talking shit about this. Ooh everyone's coming around to Trump's way of thinking, and so on.

Like Obama who lied about his own mother's health insurance in propounding Obamacare, Hillary will use anything and anyone to get where she wants to go.
 




Obviously what's needed isn't a Wall with Mexico, what's needed is a War

Take over the Central Plateau and then push them into the seas east and west.



Friday, November 23, 2018

Under my proposal Chief Justice John Roberts' appointment to the Supreme Court would have expired in 2017

Do you think Trump would have reappointed him to four more years?



"There are too many people in prison"


Yeah like Harry Reid getting rid of the Senate filibuster rule for "Obama judges" wasn't called "the nuclear option" BY EVERYONE


If only Democrats realized that the easiest and cheapest way to get rid of Donald Trump is to give him his damn Wall

What's he going to run on after that, huh?

In the lame duck Pelosi in the House and Schumer in the Senate could allow just enough Democrats to go along with it that they could arguably still blame it on the Republican controlled 115th Congress.

But they are mean bastards. They'd rather inflict us with him for eight years instead of four.



Stephen Miller's Exhibit A for why all pie is garbage


Thursday, November 22, 2018

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em: Hillary now laughably blames fear of immigrants for her loss, says Europe must curb immigration, thinks the people crave tyranny!

Now we're sure she's a drunk. 

Both Clintons used to say this crap about immigration to America back in ancient times when they ruled in Washington, even as they did NOTHING to reduce the levels of legal immigration into the United States, levels which were dramatically ramped up by their predecessor, George Herbert Walker Bush.

They don't give a damn about Americans. Immigration is only a problem to them because it puts the wrong people in power.


“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” Clinton said, speaking as part of a series of interviews with senior centrist political figures about the rise of populists, particularly on the right, in Europe and the Americas.

“I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message – ‘we are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support’ – because if we don’t deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic.” ...

Clinton urged forces opposed to rightwing populism in Europe and the US not to neglect the concerns about race and identity issues that she says were behind her losing key votes in 2016. She accused Trump of exploiting the issue in the election contest – and in office. ...

“The whole American system was designed so that you would eliminate the threat from a strong, authoritarian king or other leader and maybe people are just tired of it. They don’t want that much responsibility and freedom. They want to be told what to do and where to go and how to live … and only given one version of reality.

One way to reform the federal judiciary

One way to reform the federal judiciary would be simply to appoint judges to serve for a period of twelve years but not after that but for the pleasure of the president.

That way any judge coming up on the end of his or her twelfth year would continue to serve only at the pleasure of the current president for four more years, and the president after him or her for four more years, and so on after that. Only new appointees to a court would enjoy the initial twelve year privilege.

The restriction would extend some accountability which now vanishes once one receives a lifetime appointment.

This way there is more hopefulness about the judiciary for both sides of the political spectrum. Both liberals and conservatives would have the reasonable expectation that the consequences of the political process would endure, but not for what might as well be forever, making all parties more accountable to the people.

Senator Chuck Grassley joins President Trump in piling on Bush's Chief Justice John Roberts over Obama's judges

The track record of presidents' judicial appointees is effulgent with political consequence, which is why liberals don't want you to think about the court that way and try to mask it with the myth of judicial independence.

Liberals impose their will by judicial fiat because they can't get their policies through the ordinary democratic way by winning elections.

Hurrah for Grassley! 

Chuck Grassley to Chief Justice John Roberts: You Rebuked Trump — but Sat Silent Through Obama’s Abuse

 

 

"Ten years ago I made over $22 an hour"

"Now I make $11."

"Thanks a lot."

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

And Stephen Miller reminds us it takes a bitch to know one


Too late, Representative Tulsi Gabbard says being Saudi Arabia's bitch is not America First


One term president doesn't understand the importance of not appearing to be Saudi Arabia's bitch


One term president happy to keep digging his own grave, cares for nothing but money and glory

It would be so easy to develop more oil here in the USA, but there's another promise out the window. All in the hope of getting a piece of paper declaring peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The United $emites run this country.

Mia Love loses in UT-4, seat flips to Democrats for a net +38 seats with two races undecided: NY-22 and GA-7


Despicable libertarian judge Bernard Friedman appointed by Ronald Reagan dismisses cases against Muslim clit cutters in Detroit

This is the same libertarian, anti-conservative, judge who overturned Michigan's 2004 Marriage Act in 2014. He threw out the cases on the grounds the law passed under the Commerce Clause had nothing to do with commerce because Muslim clit cutting isn't a large market with a measurable impact on commerce. It will have when the country is full of Muslims. What a damn fool.

Why must we still live under the thumb of judges, let alone under those appointed in the 1980s?

 Judge dismisses female genital mutilation charges in historic case:

In a major blow to the federal government, a judge in Detroit has declared America's female genital mutilation law unconstitutional, thereby dismissing the key charges against two Michigan doctors and six others accused of subjecting at least nine minor girls to the cutting procedure in the nation's first FGM case.

The historic case involves minor girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, including some who cried, screamed and bled during the procedure and one who was given Valium ground in liquid Tylenol to keep her calm, court records show.

The judge's ruling also dismissed charges against three mothers, including two Minnesota women whom prosecutors said tricked their 7 -year-old daughters into thinking they were coming to metro Detroit for a girls' weekend, but instead had their genitals cut at a Livonia clinic as part of a religious procedure.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman concluded that "as despicable as this practice may be," Congress did not have the authority to pass the 22-year-old federal law that criminalizes female genital mutilation, and that FGM is for the states to regulate. FGM is banned worldwide and has been outlawed in more than 30 countries, though the U.S. statute had never been tested before this case. 

"As laudable as the prohibition of a particular type of abuse of girls may be ... federalism concerns deprive Congress of the power to enact this statute," Friedman wrote in his 28-page opinion, noting: "Congress overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM ... FGM is a 'local criminal activity' which, in keeping with long-standing tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress." 

Currently, 27 states have laws that criminalize female genital mutilation, including Michigan, whose FGM law is stiffer than the federal statute, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, compared with five under federal law. Michigan's FGM law was passed last year in the wake of the historic case and applies to both doctors who conduct the procedure, and parents who transport a child to have it done. The defendants in this case can't be retroactively charged under the new law. ...

"There is nothing commercial or economic about FGM," Friedman writes. "As despicable as this practice may be, it is essentially a criminal assault. ... FGM is not part of a larger market and it has no demonstrated effect on interstate commerce. The commerce clause does not permit Congress to regulate a crime of this nature."

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

One term president sells out our values to keep a foreign relationship, says it's business as usual with Saudi Arabia despite unacceptable, horrible crime by MBS

What a disgusting spectacle!

This guy knows a thing or two from personal experience about transgressing values in order to have relationships!

MBS, along with every other foreign dictator, including Erdogan, now has a license to kill courtesy of the president of the United States.

Utterly revolting.


"It's a complex issue, it's a shame, but it is what it is," Trump said. "It is America first to me, it is all about America first." "I'm not going to destroy the world economy and I'm not going to destroy the economy for our country by being foolish with Saudi Arabia," he went on. “Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an “enemy of the state” and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but my decision is in no way based on that – this is an unacceptable and horrible crime,” Trump said in his statement issued earlier Tuesday. “King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” Trump said in the statement. He went on: “Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” ... "The idea that it goes all the way to the top is blindingly obvious," said the State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.


Famous last words, Larry Kudlow edition


It's always amusing to see what triggers CNBC liberals, in this case a Johnny Reb hat worn by US Senate hopeful Cindy-Hyde Smith

Appearances are everything to liberals, who are our time's cave dwellers of Plato's Republic, who have never seen a reenactment of a War Between The States battle, as I have right here in Yankee Michigan. Yes, we've had full blown Confederate armies here, the state which just witnessed a Democrat sweep of state offices in Election 2018.

A lousy gray hat from yesteryear triggers the headline (the blue Yankee hat goes unremarked):





Young whites are fleeing the Republican Party under Trump: Down 11 points in 18-29 since 2014, 10 points in 30-44

2018 CNN exit poll

2014 CNN exit poll

Fake news: Rush Limbaugh just said Valadao in CA-21 is going to lose when he was already declared the winner


Myth of the white supremacy surge: Rather than a 4-point decline in the white vote for Republicans from 2016 to 2018 per the NYT, a better comparison is 2018 vs. 2014 showing a 6-point decline

It's better to compare midterm election with midterm than it is midterm with general.

Whatever Trump and the Republicans have been doing, it's not causing the white majority to vote for Republicans in greater numbers when Trump most needs them to do so to advance his agenda.

Arguably every racial group is running away from what Republicans stand for under Trump. 

Contrary to Richard Spencer who says Trump has made inroads with minority communities, Trump has alienated minorities from the Republican Party since 2014, the black vote by 1-point, the Latino vote by 7-points, and none more than the Asian vote, by a whopping 27-points, partly a function no doubt of Trump's (correct) anti-China rhetoric.

Trump's prospects for reelection in 2020 do not look good at all. Whatever "movement" he thinks he had was nonexistent, and instead of growing his support it's going the other way.

Election 2016 remains The Revulsion Election, and if Trump's not careful he'll be on the receiving end of the revulsion instead of Hillary come 2020.

CNN 2018 exit poll

CNN 2014 exit poll

Julie Kelly entertainingly calls David French's warnings about a "white supremacy surge" hysterical

Reminds me of when Ann Coulter called National Review a collection of girly-boys.

Also, nice to see some of the old Takimag commenters showing up in reply.

There Is No ‘Surge’ in White Supremacy:

So, despite the hysterical warnings from French and his collaborators in the media, there was only a small increase in hate crimes last year and those numbers dropped significantly in the first half of the year. This means there is no “surge” either in hate crimes or white supremacy. (The synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh last month singularly will change that forecast for the year. Trump also has been blamed for that massacre by French’s NR colleague, Jonah Goldberg, even though the shooter did not vote for Trump and criticized the president for being “surrounded by kikes.”)

Monday, November 19, 2018

Looks like Richard Spencer is taking the NYT as seriously as Ann Coulter

2018 support from whites fell to 54%. Trump has suppressed the white vote.

Where all da white wymyn at? Cuckin' der men, dats where.


Brenda Snipes, PhD and Supervisor of Elections in Broward County, Florida, resigns after long history of incompetence


In 2004, Snipes said 58,000 absentee ballots in heavily Democratic Broward County were lost – a detriment to the campaign of John Kerry's campaign. ...

In 2016, however, her office illegally destroyed 6,000 ballots after they were counted but a judge ordered them to be preserved.

In 2018, her office sent out a sample ballot that did not resemble the real ballot used on Election Day. The ballot arguably made it difficult to locate the U.S. Senate race on the ballot to cast a vote.

Lastly, Snipes' office submitted the results of a machine recount two minutes past the deadline and also lost over 2,000 ballots for the 2018 midterm.

Well, if anyone should know a thing or two about self-dealing and corruption, it's The New York Times


Two years on 67% of The Astrology Party says the Russkies tampered with 2016 vote totals to elect Trump, just 17% of The Stupid Party, and 41% of the nitwits in between

Well, it was question 26C. Maybe they were tired and confused by that time, or on to their third beer.

Rush Limbaugh trumpeted the Republican retirements myth to blame them for losing the House, Twitter fools run wild with it

There weren't 43 House retirements in 2018 "fearing a wave".

Just 23 House Republicans "fled" politics and retired. But of those just 8 seats flipped to the Democrats, or 35%. 65% were Republican holds.

Republicans lost CA-39, CA-49, FL-27, MI-11, NJ-2, NJ-11, PA-06 and WA-8. If you want to blame these losses on Republican retirements, you might as well credit Republican retirements for keeping the remaining 15 seats Republican: FL-15, FL-17, KS-2, MS-03, PA-13, SC-04, TN-02, TX-02, TX-03, TX-05, TX-06, TX-21, VA-05, VA-06 and WI-01 (Paul Ryan's seat). Which will it be?

The whole idea is stupid and vindictive, especially when considering that Republicans still allocated big bucks trying to retain control of retired seats even as Republican incumbents went down to defeat in six of the ten costliest races in the nation: CA-25, CA-48, CO-6, FL-26, MN-3 and NY-19.

Reuters ranked the retired Republican WA-8 loss the second most expensive House race in the country. Another analysis put the retired Republican losses in CA-39 and CA-49 fourth and third among the ten costliest House races in the country, with the GOP-retained seat in retired TX-02 the ninth most expensive House race.

The fact of the matter is Democrats outraised and outspent Republicans in this cycle in order to repudiate the 2016 Trump victory. Considering that it was by far the most expensive midterm ever, it's a wonder Democrats didn't do better than they did. 

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Republican Rick Scott defeats Democrat Senator Bill Nelson in Florida by 10,033 votes in manual recount


Overall, Republicans picked off Senate seats from Democrats in Election 2018 in Florida, Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota.

Democrats picked off Nevada and Arizona from Republicans who end up controlling the US Senate by only a net +2, or 52-47 at the moment.

A run-off in Mississippi in nine days will determine whether Republicans enjoy a 53-47 majority or a 52-48.

Andrew Gillum concedes in FL (again), and Stacey Abrams in GA joins Roy Moore in AL in not conceding at all

What matters in these affairs is election certification by the respective Secretaries of State, not whether the losing candidates concede or the winning candidates claim victory.

Still, it is considered un-American not to concede when you've lost, simply because that means you don't accept the rules Americans agree to live by in these matters. Without that glue, the whole thing is in danger of descending into chaos, conflict and perhaps civil war.

One such un-American person stoking these flames is Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio who said "if Stacey Abrams doesn't win in Georgia, they stole it, it's clear. It's clear. I say that publicly."

Obviously not clear to the final authority in this matter, Senator.

In rejecting the non-conceders, one might say the voters got it right in electing their opponents, including in Alabama, except that in Ohio Sherrod Brown just won six more years in the US Senate by 275,000 votes.

The mills of the gods grind slowly . . .. 



Gillum had conceded to DeSantis on election night, but retracted it after the margin between the two candidates narrowed.


Her speech Friday effectively puts a stop to the contest. The final result had been in doubt for 10 days after the election.

Abrams stressed as she spoke: "This is not a speech of concession."

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Trump's losses in the US House are more than double the average Republican president's first midterm losses

The average loss of seats in the US House for the first midterm after a Republican's initial election to presidential office has been 17 up to Trump, who is set to lose 36.

A loss of 36 is more like what a Democrat president would lose in the first midterm, which averages 31.

Trump, of course, used to be a Democrat.