Laugh of the Day: Rush Limbaugh says Betsy DeVos is a staunch conservative

The woman supported Kasich for crying out loud. And little Justin Amash is the DeVos' libertarian tool in the US House who thinks the future of the Republican Party is in inclusiveness of LGBTQLSMFT.

Here:

RUSH: "Donald Trump has chosen charter school advocate Betsy DeVos as his secretary of education."  A charter school advocate!  This is gonna cause heads to explode in every teachers union building and bunker that there is.  Holy smokes, this is big! Betsy DeVos! You know the DeVos family.  Staunch conservatives, Rich DeVos, Amway, owns the Orlando Magic.  Great, great, great guy.  This woman becomes the second woman chosen to fill a spot in Trump's cabinet. 

1000 libertarians + one room = 499,500 disagreements (I think), aka WAR!

The irony.

The irony.

Drudge is an idiot for calling Wisconsin a battleground based on a WaPo story which is trying to divert Trump's energies

Wisconsin is a distraction. Trump isn't going to win it, and Drudge is a fool for taking the bait and headlining this WaPo story:

‘He’s not one of us’: Trump is still having trouble winning over many Republicans .

Trump is losing Wisconsin to Clinton at this hour by 5.7 points because of #NeverTrump libertarians who follow radio talker Charlie Sykes. That guy's never been on Trump's side and never will be. Wisconsin "conservatives" follow a ridiculous Speaker Paul Ryan who thinks preserving Medicare for future generations is a conservative thing. That's Ripon Society Republicanism, Teddy Roosevelt progressivism.

Libertarian Gary Johnson is polling 6.3 there, way above his current national average of 4.6, accounting for all of Clinton's margin of victory.

Trump shouldn't waste any more time or resources on Wisconsin.

He'd have been far better off trying for Virginia where he is polling better than in Wisconsin, but it's too late for that, too.

Trump's path to the presidency (164 Electoral College votes currently) is through NV, AZ, CO, IA, OH, NC, GA and FL (110).

He might want to visit NH and ME-2 also if he has the resources, but the main battle is in the eight states shown. 

With one week until Election 2016, America is about to elect a crook, Hillary Clinton, president with 305 Electoral College votes

The Real Clear Politics map at this hour shows Clinton with 263 Electoral College votes in her column, Trump with 164, and 111 Toss-Ups.

NH, PA, VA, MI, WI, MN, NM and OR lean Clinton by an average of 6.55 points and are included in her total of 263.

IN, MO, TX and UT lean Trump by an average of 6.5 points and are included in his total of 164.

Based solely on the polling in the Toss-Ups, Clinton is set to win NV, AZ, CO, ME-2 and NC, giving her a total of 305, 35 more than the 270 she needs to win. Her average lead in the polls in these 5 is just 2.04 points.

Trump is set to win IA, OH, GA and FL, giving him a total of 233, 37 fewer than the 270 he needs to win. His average lead in the polls in these 4 is 2.13 points.

Clinton's margin nationally has fallen to +2.2 over Trump. Libertarian Johnson averages 4.6 points and Green Party Stein 2.1 points.

Two weeks to Election 2016 Real Clear Politics polling averages have Clinton beating Trump 333-205 in the Electoral College

With two weeks to go to Election 2016 the Real Clear Politics polling averages have Clinton beating Trump 333-205 in the Electoral College matchup. Hillary has regained momentum in the polling in the last week, up from winning 321-217 last week.

The basic map has Clinton at 272 this morning, already winning, and Trump at 126, with 140 EC votes as toss-ups.

Based on the polling advantages this morning in the toss-ups, Clinton wins NV, AZ, NC and FL with an average lead of 2.95 points, bringing her to 333 EC votes.

Trump wins TX, IA, OH, ME-2 and GA with an average lead of 3.66 points, bringing him to 205 EC votes.

Hillary has 10 states which only lean in her direction. In 9 of these her average lead is 7.3 points (there is no average shown for CT). These are already counted in her 272 EC total this morning. Trump has 4 states only leaning in his direction. His average lead in these is 6.2 points. These are already counted in his total of 126.

Libertarian Gary Johnson continues to poll at 6.0 on average, more than off-setting Clinton's 5.4 lead over Trump (39.9) in a four-way match up including Stein (2.2). But only in CO, NM, MN and NH do Johnson's averages total in excess of Clinton's leads this week. Clinton clearly has made small gains in her own right in OR, WI, MI, PA and VA as voters come to realize this election is binary. Rasmussen and IBD show Clinton only at +1, however, in the four-way match up nationally. 

In a two-way match up IBD also shows Clinton +1, as does the LA Times. Gravis has Clinton and Trump tied in one of the few polls of registered voters, 74% of which vote on average since 1972.

With 21 days to go to election day, Clinton is still winning in the Electoral College but by 6% fewer EC votes than last week

Last week the Real Clear Politics Electoral College map and the polling in the Toss-ups indicated a Clinton win 339-199.

Now with three weeks to go to election day Hillary's advantage has shrunk by 6%, now winning 321-217, and Trump is up by 9%.

Clinton today has 256 EC votes including 9 states which only lean her way.

Trump has 170 EC votes including 5 states which only lean his way.

ME-2 (+5.4) with 1 EC vote is in Trump's column, ME-1 (+19) with 1 EC vote is in Hillary's column.

Polling in the Toss-ups as of this hour has NV in the Clinton column by +2.5, MN by +4.3, NH by +3.6, NC by +2.7, and FL by +3.6. Her average lead is +3.3.

Libertarian Gary Johnson polls an average of 5.9 in these Clinton Toss-up states, in every case out-polling Clinton's actual leading margins, arguably helping Clinton win them. Green Party candidate Jill Stein polls 2.0 in MN, 2.0 in NH, and 1.4 in FL.

And in the Trump column are Toss-ups AZ by +1, IA by +3.7, IN by +4.5, and OH by +0.7. His average lead is +2.5.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein polls 1.5 in AZ, 1.7 in IA, and 2.3 in OH. Arguably Trump is winning in AZ and OH with Stein's help. Johnson polls 8.5 in AZ, 8.3 in IA, 10.0 in IN, and 6.5 in OH.

Overall Gary Johnson is polling an average of 7.0 in the nine Toss-up states and Stein an average of 1.8 in six of them compared with a combined average lead for Clinton or Trump of only 3.0.

Does the Libertarian Party or the Green Party have representation in Congress? If they're not a phenomenon of the people, maybe those parties shouldn't be allowed to spoil presidential elections by running candidates in the first place.

With 28 days to election day, Hillary has expanded her Electoral College lead over Trump and is now projected to win 339-199

With 28 days to go to the election, Hillary has reset the Electoral College map from Real Clear Politics in the last week by adding four states to her blue column: PA, MI, WI, CO. This boosts her Electoral College total by 55 in the last week from 205 to 260. Trump has again added nothing to his column and still stands at 165.

That leaves 113 Electoral College votes in Toss-Up vs. 168 last week.

Of these, the polling as of this morning indicates Trump retains AZ by +1, IA by +3.7, GA by +5, and ME-2 by +8.7. OH has peeled off to Hillary, however, at 0.5, and Trump has lost ground in AZ and IA.

Hillary is winning NV by +1.4, MN by +4.3, NC by +2.6, FL by +2.4, and ME-1 by +3.8. She has lost ground in ME-1 and FL.

To Hillary's 260 therefore add 79 for a total of 339.

To Trump's 165 therefore add 34 for a total of 199.

As of this morning, Clinton's leads over Trump in NM, CO, WI, MI, NH and VA can be explained statistically by the vote peeled off from Trump by libertarian Gary Johnson. But this is not the case in CT, NJ and PA. Johnson also polls higher than the spread in all nine Toss-up states.

Once again Job One for libertarians is to spoil elections for Republicans.

Steve Sailer says it took Trump 1 hour and 1 minute to get to the immigration issue in Debate One because he's winging it

Here.

It never occurs to him it's the libertarians running ruining his campaign telling him to downplay the issue.

Publius Decius Mus eviscerates libertarian James Pethokoukis as a mere leftist materialist, calls him a traitor

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Here are some excerpts, but read the whole thing:

'In the leftist-Hegelian hive mind of which Pethokoukis is but one drone, the benefits of mass immigration and open trade are true simply; therefore popular objections are illegitimate. ... Pethokoukis ... has absorbed the core premises of the Left. “That’s racist!” This points to one of the deepest problems with “conservative intellectualism.” It accepts, out of conviction or fear or both, every restriction the Left places on it. The left rules out-of-bounds any discussion of the cultural or political effects of immigration as “racist,” and the conservatives go along. Hence they can only talk about immigration in economic terms, as if human beings were widgets.

'In fact, this particular intellectual rot defines almost all of “conservatism.” It’s allowed the Left to bully the Right out of talking or thinking about so many subjects that all conservatives can rouse themselves to address any more is the economy. They rationalize such a narrow focus by insisting economics trumps all. But the root is fear. Or was. Fear may have caused the initial retreat, but younger “conservatives” raised in the faith actually believe every line of the Leftist creed. Except the parts about redistribution, because Hayek. Also, the donors don’t like it. ,,,

'Like all self-castrated “conservatives,” Pethokoukis goes right along. Whether out of fear or conviction doesn’t even matter anymore.

'Either way, he—and all the others like him—are obstacles to the near- and long-term project of saving what’s left of American and Western civilization. To climb out of the hole we’re in, we don’t need liberals, we don’t need cowards, and we don’t need traitors.'

Oops, Libertarian VP candidate William Weld says Trump's use of loss carryforward "not that uncommon"

After recently saying Hillary is the most qualified to be president and Gary Johnson himself admitting to not knowing what Aleppo is, the honesty from this libertarian pair is getting to be almost too much.

As in, "We're not serious! We're just running for fun! Look! I'm on TV again!"

Weld on CNN with Chris Cuomo, here, yesterday:

WELD: I say that the net operating loss carryforward is a well-known provision of the tax code. I hate to defend Donald Trump -- believe me when I tell you -- but it's not that uncommon.

The Donald has been politically correct long enough

Hey Donald! We paid to see you burn down the house, to fight for America's forgotten citizens, but ever since August 17th when you brought in your little libertarian clique you've been trying to be too "presidential".

Go for Hillary's jugular. No holds barred. Everything's fair game. Scorch the earth. Dismantle the establishment. Fight until Washington is leveled and you're the last man standing.

You have nothing left to lose, so fight to the death. It's either us or them.

It doesn't occur to Scott Sumner that "libertarian country" is an oxymoron

Here.

Libertarian spoiler Gary Johnson is helping Hillary defeat Trump in eight states and win the presidency, suggesting Trump needs to talk more free market economics

Current polling in "Toss-Up" states shows Libertarian Gary Johnson spoiling it for Trump in FL, ME, MI, MN, NH, PA, VA and WI, handing Hillary 104 Electoral College votes to her base number of 188 for a total of 292, 22 more than she needs to become president. 

Clinton's average win in these eight states right now is by 4.1, with Johnson siphoning off an average of 8.5 from Trump. Clinton is winning in these states despite an average siphon from her totals of 2.4 by Stein.

In FL, it's Clinton winning +1.2 (Johnson 5.8/Stein 1.3).

In ME, it's Clinton +3.8 (Johnson 11.0/Stein 3.8).

In MI, it's Clinton +5.0 (Johnson 8.8/Stein 2.3).

In MN, it's Clinton +4.3 (Johnson 5.3/Stein 2.0).

In NH, it's Clinton +5.7 (Johnson 13.0/Stein 3.0).

In PA, it's Clinton +1.8 (Johnson 5.8/Stein 2.6).

In VA, it's Clinton +6.0 (Johnson 8.7/Stein 1.5).

In WI, it's Clinton +5.0 (Johnson 9.7/Stein 2.3).

In the other "Toss-Ups" Trump is ahead right now, but not by much, by just 2.2 on average. He is vulnerable to shifts toward the other candidates in these seven states. Johnson's average siphon from Trump in these states is already 8.2, while Stein might be contributing to Trump on average only 2.2 taken from Hillary in four, namely AZ, CO, IA and OH. 

In AZ, it's Trump winning +2.2 (Johnson 9.2/Stein 2.2).

In CO, it's Trump +0.5 (Johnson 9.0/Stein 3.3).

In GA, it's Trump +4.5 (Johnson 7.7).

In IA, it's Trump  +5.0 (Johnson 8.8/Stein 1.5).

In NV, it's Trump +0.6 (Johnson 8.4).

In NC, it's Trump +0.8 (Johnson 7.3).

In OH, it's Trump +2.0 (Johnson 6.8/Stein 1.8).

Trump is up against a free-trade, open borders ideology not just in Hillary Clinton, but within his own Republican Party, on which Gary Johnson is capitalizing under the rubric of "freedom". Trump ought to be pointing out to his patriotic followers that the libertarians are not on their side but on the side of the elites running the establishment, which means they are on Hillary's side, and keep emphasizing that he has the back of those who are Americans and love Americans.

What's wrong with America, epitomized by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

He thinks gay libertarian Peter Thiel would be an excellent nominee to the US Supreme Court.

Here.

The libertarian vote is like 1% of the population. LGBTQLSMFT is less than 4% of the population, but there isn't one Protestant on the Supreme Court even though 50% of the country is.  

George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan, who doesn't vote and won't vote, epitomizes everything loathsome about libertarians

It's hard to choose just one thing he says here which is objectionable, since it's all objectionable, but I'll pick this one:

"When I look at voters, I see human beings at their hysterical, innumerate worst. ... [C]onsorting with bad people hurts you deep inside. Politics isn't utterly hopeless, but it's mostly hopeless. The only way I know to escape this darkness is to focus on the tiny corner of the world in my control and make it beautiful and pure. Call me anti-social if you must. Unlike your candidates, at least I'm honest."

Professor Caplan does not know himself, which these days seems to be a requirement of elites and a major cause of modernity's manifold discontents. Clearly he thinks himself above us as if he were a god when he is actually nothing but a wild dog. I pity his students, and his children.

[M]an is by nature a political animal, and a man that is by nature and not merely by fortune citiless is either low in the scale of humanity or above it (like the “clanless, lawless, hearthless" man reviled by Homer, for one by nature unsocial is also ‘a lover of war') inasmuch as he is solitary, like an isolated piece at draughts. ... [A] man who is incapable of entering into partnership, or who is so self-sufficing that he has no need to do so, is no part of a state, so that he must be either a lower animal or a god. ... For as man is the best of the animals when perfected, so he is the worst of all when sundered from law and justice. For unrighteousness is most pernicious when possessed of weapons, and man is born possessing weapons for the use of wisdom and virtue, which it is possible to employ entirely for the opposite ends. Hence when devoid of virtue man is the most unholy and savage of animals, and the worst in regard to sexual indulgence and gluttony.

-- Aristotle, Politics 1.1253a 

Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson asks "What is Aleppo"?

Well, not a long lost Marx brother.

Story here.

What globalists and libertarians agree on

The so-called libertarian Gary Johnson gets all PC, objects to the use of "illegal immigrant" because it's "incendiary"

The better to light your joint with, Gary.

The statement is quoted here.

Where's the freedom, man?

Donald Trump cucked himself and his followers a week ago on deportation: Today he'll try to uncuck himself

Video here on FOX, where Trump actually polls the audience and comes down on the side of legalization of otherwise law-abiding illegal aliens because people everywhere supposedly keep telling him that's what they want, not what he originally stood for in the debates.

What were the primary debates about then, how brown you like your marshmallows?

Trump cucked himself because a week prior to these remarks he caved to open borders libertarians Rebekah Mercer, Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. That's all there is to it. 

Legalizing 11 million or whatever the number is law-breakers yet again will only encourage more law-breaking, undermining whatever else a president Trump might be able to pass to stem the tide of illegal immigration. As Donald Trump might say, Not good!

Trump is compromising long before he has to, which tells you that as president he will roll over on lots of other promises also and get very little of what he has claimed he wants.

Pragmatism in the face of vice is no virtue. 

Hard libertarian billionaire daughter Rebekah Mercer is behind Trump's shift to Bannon and Conway, away from deportation

The price of consensus for Mercer's "help" in retrospect was obviously that Trump soften his deportation stance. Bloomberg's story here in June completely misses the signficance of the Mercers' libertarianism.

The Hill had the story already on August 17, here, the day Trump shook up his campaign by hiring Stephen Bannon as CEO and Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager, detailing Mercer's links to Stanford, the Heritage Foundation, BREITBART, the Ted Cruz campaign and libertarian think tank CATO:

“The Mercers basically own this campaign,” said a source who has worked with Rebekah Mercer in her political activities. “They have installed their people. ... And now they’ve got their data firm in there.” ... Little has been written about the Mercers because they avoid the public spotlight, but conservative sources who know the family, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described them as “kind, civic-minded people and consensus-builders.” ... But that source, who has worked with Mercer in some of her other political ventures, said it was a surprise to some people that the Mercers had swung so forcefully behind Trump, given her ideological bent. “She identifies as a libertarian. At least she always did,” the source said, adding that Mercer was a big supporter of libertarian think tanks like the Goldwater Institute and Cato. “With Bekah you always had to prove your libertarian racing stripes,” the source added. “This seems really strange.”