Chicago's resident spokesman for Big Brother, Eric Zorn, proclaims anti-Americanism is the true patriotism

In The Chicago Tribune here:

I resent that Trump has chosen to use what was a minor controversy about a few kneeling football players into a major wedge issue.

Not just because it flagrantly insults the concept of liberty that true patriotism embraces, but also because his focus threatens to turn standing for the national anthem into a partisan act. It’s the same bit of branding judo he’s trying to perform on the expression “Merry Christmas.”

The vehicle for the obscene $1.1 trillion House omnibus spending bill was the HIRE Vets Act

They can't even tell the truth about the name of the bill.

The $1.1 trillion bill passed with support from both parties in a 309-118 vote. Fifteen Democrats and 103 Republicans voted against it. ... House Democrats have repeatedly been needed to help pass spending bills since Republicans took over the majority in 2011.

The roll call vote is here.

131 Republicans united with 178 Democrats to pass the bill, which once again defies regular order for appropriations.

Spineless Michigan Republicans Upton, Trott, Bergman, Walberg, Mike Bishop, Huizenga, Moolenaar and Mitchell all voted for the included Christmas tree of goodies for Democrats in order to get the increased defense spending in the bill.

Only Justin Amash of the Michigan Republican US House caucus voted against the damn thing.

Talk radio and Republicans are trying to defend this latest indefensible continuing spending resolution

When Democrats took control of the Congress under Obama in 2009, they promptly added about $700 billion to Bush's outlays in the middle of his last fiscal year, and successfully made the new level of spending the baseline for the rest of Obama's two terms. This was done in the name of rescuing the country from the financial/housing crisis.

They sold it as an $800 billion stimulus, but it was in reality the most outrageous expansion of federal spending ever: $5.6 trillion over 8 years. The sum is $1.28 trillion in excess of Obama's entire dollar GDP increase for his presidency. It means we spent $1.30 for every $1 of Obama's GDP.

But you have heard nothing about it because Republicans are co-dependents in government spending.

Spending soared overnight from $2.8 trillion to $3.5 trillion, and stayed at that level right through the final days of the Obama administration, despite Republicans taking the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.

Now that the tables are turned, Republicans are claiming "the rules" mean they have to compromise with Democrats and continue spending on Democrat items under the Christmas Tree, like Planned Parenthood, sanctuary cities, border security without The Wall, and a variety of non-defense spending items, in order to get what they want in the $1.1 trillion continuing spending resolution, which basically boils down to a big increase in defense spending, but not much for what Trump advocated and promised the people.

Disappointed doesn't begin to describe our displeasure with this disgraceful pack of spendthrift bastards occupying The Swamp.

And they appear to have eaten Donald Trump.

Hey Mark Steyn, the patriots weren't polite to the enemy!

Newsflash for those of you who think Trump's talk of an inherited mess is silly

You obviously had full-time work under Obama. We didn't for almost eight years, and not even part-time work for five. Our best money-saving work years are now all lost.

You obviously enjoyed the stock market recovery and even continued to invest, but we had to sell assets to preserve them and liquidate some just to survive.

Now we're stuck with non-income producing investments thanks to Ben and Janet and a stock market which is too expensive for a sane person to buy.

You obviously refinanced your mortgage at rock bottom rates, but we couldn't without that full-time job. And now that we can, it's hardly worth the expense thanks to Elizabeth Warren and her CFPB.

Meanwhile the gutters leak, the driveway needs paving, and the snowblower needs an overhaul.

You obviously drive on fresh wheels, but our cars are 10 and 20 years old in 2017. We'll probably keep them another ten because our mechanic is an honest Christian.

You obviously feel entitled to vacations and take them regularly, but we haven't had a real one since the 1990s.

You obviously enjoy dining out at restaurants, but we shop for bargains and cook at home almost every night.

You obviously consume healthcare like you do jet fuel, but we only go to a doctor, dentist, ENT or ophthalmologist when we absolutely have to because it's all out of pocket because of ObamaCare.

At Christmas we mostly give each other necessities, like new shirts socks and underwear, just so we have plenty of things to open to make the holiday seem more festive than it is.

We don't have television service because it's a costly waste of time, but for entertainment we enjoy listenting to Donald Trump on the radio dressing you down.

He's the best thing that's happened to us in years.

In England singer George Michael gets a post mortem as a matter of routine, but in the US not Justice Antonin Scalia

From the story here:

The Thames Valley Police, calling the death "unexplained but not suspicious," sent THR the following statement: "Thames Valley Police were called to a property in Goring-on-Thames shortly before 2pm Christmas Day. Sadly, a 53-year-old man was confirmed deceased at the scene. At this stage the death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious. A post mortem will be undertaken in due course. There will be no further updates from Thames Valley Police until the post mortem has taken place."

Flashback to February here:

[A]fter Scalia died, it was Texas state law, not any federal framework, that guided officials’ actions—and left a single judge to make the call that an autopsy wasn’t needed.

While you were preparing to celebrate Christmas, America's first Muslim president abstained at the UN Security Counsel, effectively condemning Israeli settlements

From the story "Obama faces widespread backlash after abstaining from UN Israel vote" here:

On Friday, the Security Council voted 14-0 on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory as a “flagrant violation” of international law that have “"no legal validity." It demands a halt to "all Israeli settlement activities," saying this "is essential for salvaging the two-state solution."

The United States has veto power in the Security Council and has used it for similar resolutions in the past. The Obama administration’s decision to abstain represents a break from the longstanding U.S. policy of shielding Israel from U.N. reproaches.

A Christmas card from Ann Coulter

Carl Paladino rips "lazy ass" Obama: Flashback to Dec. 24th, 2011 when Obama admitted as much

Obama in 2011, quoted here:

Asked by [ABC's Barbara] Walters to name "the trait you most deplore in yourself," the president -- who was interviewed alongside his wife Michelle -- responded, "laziness."

"You're lazy?" Walters asked.

"You know it's interesting, there is a deep down, underneath all the work I do, I think there's a laziness in me.

"It's probably from, you know, growing up in Hawaii and it's sunny outside, and sitting on the beach," Obama said with a smile.

Carl Paladino in 2016, here:

This is in response to my comments published in Artvoice:

It has nothing to do with race.  That’s the typical stance of the press when they can’t otherwise defend the acts of the person being attacked.

It’s about two progressive elitist ingrates who have hated their country so badly and destroyed its fabric in so many respects in 8 years.

It’s about them diminishing the respect for their country on the world scene, surrendering its status as the protector of human rights, disgracing the memory of its veterans who gave so much.

It’s about demeaning and weakening what was the most powerful military in the world, firing hundreds of good soldier Generals and Admirals who refused Barack’s illegal and irresponsible dictates.

Michelle hated America before her husband won.  She then enjoyed all the attention, the multi -million dollar vacations, the huge staff and other benefits.  Then when Hillary lost, she and Barack realized that without Hillary, there was no one to protect the little, if any, legacy he had.  That’s when Michelle came out and said there is no hope for America.  Good, let her leave and go someplace she will be happy.

As for Barack, he’s a yellow-bellied coward who left thousands to die in Syria and especially Aleppo and he gets on TV and says he feels bad he couldn’t do anything about it.

He supported the mass migration without vetting of people from Muslim countries and the open borders, not for the people, but to expand the democratic base to a permanent majority.

He couldn’t care less about the people.  He just commuted the sentences of another 650 drug pushers responsible for selling poison to our kids.

It’s about the middle class, silent majority, rising up to destroy the Republican and Democrat establishment in America.

It’s about the end of an era when the people took all their information from the main street media, letting them tell us what the issues are and how to resolve those issues. People no longer trust the press.

It’s about that fraudulent, shadow government with a lazy ass president who allowed non-Americans like Valerie Jarret to run the government on a day to day basis and order the Stand down in Benghazi and the later cover-up that does matter.

It’s about Lois Lerner and the head of the IRS and the other criminal officials who haven’t been prosecuted or even investigated because the leaders of the progressive movement are above the law.

It’s about the end of the progressive movement and reset of the direction of America for the next 30 years.

It’s about a president who interfered in a presidential election for his successor so flagrantly that he called Trump unfit for office.

It’s about a president who for eight years did absolutely nothing for black children in our urban centers held prisoner by the cycle of poverty and illegitimate black leadership more interested in power and preserving their voting base by keeping them hungry and uneducated in the inner cities.

And yes, it’s about a little deprecating humor which America lost for a long time.  Merry Christmas and  tough luck if you don’t like my answer.

Peggy Noonan's Democrat friends are delicate, fragile creatures

My world is full of Hillary Clinton supporters and intimates. At a Manhattan Christmas party last week a despairing Democrat told me that she had not only wept on election night she had vomited. She was still beside herself.

The rest is here.

John McLaughlin, whose health appears to have declined markedly since Christmas, fails to appear on this week's McLaughlin Group

Watch it here, but it's uncomfortable without the old boy, who turned 89 in March.

Laugh of the Day: NY Times calls CPAC a "gathering of traditional conservatives"

Here:

As polls showed Mr. Trump likely to capture the Louisiana primary on Saturday, the biggest prize among states holding contests this weekend, the party establishment in Washington seemed seized by anxiety and despair. At the Conservative Political Action Conference, a long-running gathering of traditional conservatives, attendees feared that they were witnessing an event that has not occurred in more than a century: the breaking apart of a major American political party.

CPAC is dominated by a bunch of libertarian wankers who in 2013, 2014 and 2015 picked Rand Paul as their man for president. You remember him. He flew high in the polls until Donald Trump appeared last summer and shot him out of the sky. Before 2013, CPACers picked other well known losers like Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Jack Kemp.

The only "winner" they picked was George W. Bush in 2000, and we all know how that's worked out.

Everyone has nostalgia for the Reagan years, not the Bush years.

Traditional conservatives emphasize traditions like the church, Christmas, English, marriage between a man and a woman, homeownership, babies and law and order, all of which are expendable to libertarians but are essential to conservatives because they are essential to maintaining continuity with the American past which gave us the nation in the first place.

If conservatism is cracking up in America, it's because of the continuing bad influence from libertarian lunatics, but I repeat myself.

Obama ties military's hands with stricter rules of engagement than the law of war requires or even France follows, leaflets the enemy before attacking

From the story here on Christmas Eve:

"We will do everything we can to prevent civilian casualties," said Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren on Wednesday. ... Donatella Rovera, senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty International, said the leaflet drops actually started last week, but it has been difficult for people to leave.  ... The Obama administration has come under fire from critics for adhering to restrictive rules of engagement and trying to avoid any civilian casualties in the fight against ISIS. Some say the rules are allowing ISIS fighters to escape.  ... A U.S. defense official said the current U.S. rules of engagement for airstrikes, which are more restrictive than what the law of war requires, would remain the same as Iraqi forces push into Ramadi. Other coalition members — such as France — adhere to looser rules of engagement, however, and it's not clear who will be doing the striking in Ramadi.

We had ham on Christmas Eve . . . it was delicious

To Tim Carney, the soul of the Republican Party in 2015 and beyond boils down to (mere) materialism

Here, without the mere:

"More broadly, the rising tide against Ex-Im exemplified a nascent Republican move away from corporate welfare. Marco Rubio led the fight to block an insurer bailout through Obamacare. Ted Cruz is leading in Iowa polls while unambiguously pledging to kill the ethanol mandate. Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina and most of the rest of the field also feel compelled to inveigh against corporate welfare, even if they don't oppose it in every specific instance. There's a long way for the party to go, but they're at least marching in the right direction, because they're no longer always marching to K Street's tune. ... Dole, Lott, subsidized exporters and ethanol executives will have all the material blessings they need at Christmas. But conservatives will have a much stronger hold on the soul of the Republican Party than they did just 10 years ago, and that's something they can be happy about."

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"Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people 'I offer you a good time,' Hitler has said to them 'I offer you struggle, danger and death,' and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet." -- George Orwell, 1940

World leaders agree to totally toothless climate accord

Story here.

Coal for Christmas everybody!

Liberal Kevin Drum fears mocking Republicans over Syrian refugee stance will lead to electoral disaster

Here:

"In general, we should act like this is a legitimate thing to be concerned about and then work from there. Mocking it is the worst thing we could do. It validates all the worst stereotypes about liberals that we put political correctness ahead of national security. It doesn't matter if that's right or wrong. Ordinary people see the refugees as a common sense thing to be concerned about. We shouldn't respond by essentially calling them idiots. That way lies electoral disaster."

In other words, liberals should LIE by feigning concern.

Remind you of anyone?

If you guessed Muslims, you get a cookie!

Liberals are so bend over backwards friendly towards Muslims because in them they rightly see kindred spirits, people who routinely lie to the unbeliever as a matter of principle.

WaPo Gen Xer drinks climate Kool-Aid, attacks Baby Boomers for causing global warming and running up the $18 trillion debt

spotted headed to Mt. Rushmore

Here:

"Boomers soaked up a lot of economic opportunity without bothering to preserve much for the generations to come. They burned a lot of cheap fossil fuels, filled the atmosphere with heat-trapping gases, and will probably never pay the costs of averting catastrophic climate change or helping their grandchildren adapt to a warmer world. They took control of Washington at the turn of the millennium, and they used it to rack up a lot of federal debt, even before the Great Recession hit."

Substitute "liberals" everytime you see "boomers" in the essay and it makes a lot more sense than attacking your parents per se. Instead the author prefers to commit Maoism in "Baby boomers are what’s wrong with America’s economy". 

Meanwhile, exporting good jobs and importing cheap labor were artifacts of the 1960s revolution, advanced by people who were fellow travelers under FDR. The height of the baby boom generation was what, aged 10 in 1967? 

In the end, Jim Tankersley can't add and subtract, but what his father gave him for Christmas in 2012 for his patricidal thesis says it all:

"After I first outlined this argument to my father in 2012, he gifted me an actual lump of coal for Christmas."

Well done, Dad! The earth remains full of coal, especially American earth, ensuring energy independence as far as the eye can see, as well as oil and natural gas and . . . thorium! If only we'll use it. 

It makes more sense to rely on these going forward because they remain so plentiful, employing technologies to make them harmless to human health, invented by smart people from every generation.

But if a Maunder Minimum ensues in 2030, we might not care as much about the health as the warmth.

Moochelle and Barack have milked the taxpayers well over $40 million for vacations with two years left to go

Moochelle with mother and daughters on safari in June 2011 

As reported here, where there appear to be some lacunae involving the extracurricular activities enjoyed while on official trips:

"Costs are hard to pin down, and most come as a result of Freedom of Information Act suits from taxpayer watchdog Judicial Watch which pegged the Obama-Biden vacation tab at $40 million last year [2014]. That was before first lady and daughters took spring break in China, and the first family's annual summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Christmas in Hawaii, and this year's holidays [2015]."

Part-time jobs peak at the end of the year, and full-time jobs peak in the middle of the year

Part-time jobs hit a new all-time high level in November at 28.225 million. This follows a pattern of part-time peaking at Christmas time and full-time peaking around Independence Day. The oscillation between the two is best observed in the not-seasonally-adjusted data.