Bart Lower of Ionia, Michigan, is no Republican: In January he was a dues-paying member of the Libertarian Party and actually thought he could be president!

Oh how the mighty are fallen, running for president but six months later running for a lowly state house seat.

As usual The New York Times projects its own ludicrousness onto others

Here, where what's ludicrous is that The New York Times can't bring itself to say that the confessed devotee of Islamic State actually killed the 49 people, who somehow ended up dead:

“Right now, what we want to do is have a good conversation where we calm things down and we talk about solutions,” Speaker Paul Ryan explained in retreating from an issue — the ease with which terrorism suspects can buy guns — that Republicans had vowed to take up after a confessed devotee of the Islamic State last month opened fire in an Orlando nightclub, where 49 people were killed.

Mr. Ryan’s words deserve close inspection. They’re ludicrous. 

CBS/NYT poll has Trump tied with Hilliary 40-40

Here:

Heading into the two parties' conventions, the race for President is a dead heat, a change from last month when Hillary Clinton led by six points. Forty percent of registered voters now say they will back Clinton (a dip of three points), while 40 percent will vote for Trump (a bump up of three points). A month ago, Clinton led Trump 43 to 37 percent.

Rasmussen has Trump at +7 over Hilliary

Here:

The latest Rasmussen Reports weekly White House Watch survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds Trump with 44% support to Clinton’s 37%.

Hillary Clinton: Imagine if Trump had the IRS to go after his critics and opponents

Yeah, imagine.

China's vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin declares most of South China Sea "China's territory"

Reported here:

Mr Liu insisted that most of the South China Sea, including the Spratly and Paracel island chains, were China’s "inherent territory". He added: "We hope that other countries will not take this opportunity to threaten China and work with China to protect the peace and stability of the South China Sea, and not let it become the origin of a war.”

Jonathan Turley rips Justice Ruth "Buzzi" Ginsburg, agrees with Trump that her statements are unethical and undermine the Supreme Court

Here:

[Trump] is right. What she did is not just wrong ethically. It undermines the integrity of the Supreme Court. it's a very serious blow to that court.

A proposed definition of "transvestite" for The Devil's Dictionary

TRANSVESTITE, noun: An utopian; an infantile person for whom the irreducible distinctions of reality are unacceptable and can readily be exchanged in a closet.

The Devil's Dictionary definition of a republic aptly captures the growing absence of law and order in America

In a republic the foundation of public order is the ever lessening habit of submission inherited from ancestors who, being truly governed, submitted because they had to. There are as many kinds of republics as there are gradations between the despotism whence they came and the anarchy whither they lead.

Are millions in America experiencing economic crisis?

If you lost your full-time middle class job in 2008 at the age of 51 and now by the age of 59 have only been able to find part-time work paying you one fifth of that, well yeah, it's a crisis.

Or maybe it's more like being slowly strangled to death because you saved enough before that to last this long, because you wouldn't still be alive to read this had you not. It's the real life version of "the continuing crisis" that used to be mocked in a monthly column at The American Spectator.

Hence our rage. Hence Trump. 

But otherwise, no, everything's just fine, sweetie.

The issue is briefly discussed here and here.

Hague Tribunal rules in favor of Philippines in South China Sea, saying China has never exercised exclusive authority over the waters

China doesn't give a damn.

Story here.

Andrea Leadsom withdraws in Britain, Theresa May to become Conservative Leader and PM by Wednesday

Cynical Brits torpedoed Leadsom by portraying her as someone who thought her traditional role as a mother gave her a leg up over her childless opponent.

Can't have that in queer-friendly England now can we?

Story here.

And yet, 71% think the economy is "rigged"

Discussed here:

 

No wonder the "rigged economy" has become one of the biggest talking points on the 2016 campaign trail. Bernie Sanders may have started it, but Donald Trump now uses that exact term and Hillary Clinton talks often about how she'll help those "left behind."

Americans have good reason to think this way. The typical middle class family is earning about the same amount of money -- just under $54,000 -- as they did in 1996, once you adjust for inflation.

Gallup: When fooling half the people all the time is good enough

50% of Americans still say Obama deserves little or no blame for the country's CURRENT economic troubles. 64% still blame Bush outright or somewhat.

Gallup, here.

On Sunday nights Drudge pays illegal aliens to write the headlines

It's hundreds, not thousands, of fringe bad actors organized by Black Lives Matter in major cities committing violence and calling for violent revolution

From the NBC story here:

Around 100 protesters were taken into custody in Saint Paul, while more than 100 people were arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police in both cities said. ... In Saint Paul, protesters blocked Interstate 94 ... Authorities used smoke bombs when 200 protesters refused to leave the roadway just after midnight. ...

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hundreds of protesters gathered ...

Several hundred protesters took to the streets of San Francisco, blocking several roads and ramps to get on and off the Bay Bridge. ...

In central California, several hundred protesters blocked several intersections as they marched against police brutality in central Fresno. ...

In Chicago, hundreds of protesters held demonstrations downtown Saturday, and a group attempted to disrupt the a city-sponsored food and music festival. ...

Hundreds of people also marched in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale Saturday as part of the Black Lives Matter movement ....

A protest march was also held in Philadelphia. "Clearly this is REVOLUTION time. We know this," an organizer wrote on Facebook. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, several hundred people broke off from Pittsburgh's 200th anniversary parade and marched to a courthouse to denounce the shootings of black men. ...

More than 150 people also gathered in downtown Newport, Rhode Island, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The current very strong El Nino is now 15 months long, averaging 1.45 on the index, and looks about done

This El Nino looks about done, with the last running 3-month mean value coming to just 0.7 on the index. Anything below 0.5 next time will mean we are truly finished with it. 

Five months after peak, the fall-off has come to almost 70% of peak value, a little less impressive than the fall-off of over 78% similarly measured for the 1997-98 episode.

The 1997-98 very strong El Nino was 13 months long and averaged 1.56 on the index.

The 1982-83 VSE was 15 months long and averaged 1.33.

The weather will be a changin'.

Flashback Hillary Clinton 1996: Not just gangs of kids but superpredators who must be brought to heel

Here.

Now she's excusing their violence.

Blacks commit homicides at a rate 8x higher than whites, but Hillary says it's whites who need to change

Hillary quoted here:

“I’m going to be talking to white people, we’re the ones who have to start listening to the legitimate cries coming from our African-American fellow citizens,” she said.

US Department of Justice here, reporting on the period 1980-2008:

The offending rate for blacks (34.4 per 100,000) was almost 8 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000).

Loretta Lynch would never say to the Tea Party what she said to her precious protesters: "Don't be discouraged"

Here:

[S]he urged peaceful protesters not to give up.

“I want you to know that your voice is important,” Lynch said Friday during a news conference at the Justice Department. “Do not be discouraged by those who would use your lawful actions as cover for their heinous violence. We will continue to safeguard your constitutional rights and to work with you in the difficult mission of building a better nation and a brighter future.”

Why term limits for political offices in Michigan is wrong-headed

In short because it's harder to hit a moving target. By the time the voters catch on, they're gone.

Hillary Clinton's seven perjuries before Congress: Clinton v Comey July 2016

Clinton: "I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email”.

Comey: “There was classified material emailed".

Clinton: “There was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received”.

Comey: “There were a small number of portion markings on, I think, three of the documents. I don't think that our investigation established she was actually particularly sophisticated with respect to classified information and the levels and treatment. Even if information is not marked ‘classified’ in an email, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it".

Clinton: “It [her private e-mail set up] was allowed, but it was not a good choice”.

Comey: “You could be walked out [for that at the FBI] or, depending on the nature of the facts, you could be reprimanded".

Clinton: “I provided the department … with all of my work-related emails, all that I had”.

Comey:  "The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014."

Clinton: “I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two”.

Comey: "[She] used multiple devices during the four years of her term as secretary of state".

Clinton: "“The FBI has the server that was used during the tenure of my State Department service”.

Comey: "Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain. As new servers and equipment were employed, older servers were taken out of service, stored, and decommissioned in various ways." 

Clinton: “There were no security breaches”.

Comey: "[W]e assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account".

Read the whole thing here at The Hill.

The communist "Party for Socialism and Liberation" infiltrated the protests this week against police brutality

The PSL advocates a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and introduction of socialism where profit from labor is prohibited.

Has anyone asked whether its violent rhetoric had anything to do with the sniper attacks on the police in Dallas?

Probably not Loretta Lynch.

John Kass declares himself a Clinton loather because being a Clinton hater is just irrational

Here:

Instead, I'm probably something of a Clinton-Loather. Hate is about the loss of control, like the barking of a dog or someone who shrieks into the wind or at a crowd. Loathing takes time and consideration. And I've had years of watching the Clintons lie and dissemble and tell partial truths and get away with it, and take advantage of the principles of honorable men such as James Comey.

Rush Limbaugh brought up Ann Coulter the other day, now appears to be reading her

Here:

RUSH:  Say, folks, this one candidate, by the way, who practically every appearance praises the police -- there's one candidate in this presidential campaign, goes out of his way every appearance to acknowledge the police, to thank the police, to ask everybody to express their gratitude to the police.  You know who that candidate is?  That would be the Trumpster.

Milwaukee County Sheriff Clarke condemns Black Lives Matter, so should you

Sir, yes sir!

Milwaukee County Sheriff Clarke can't wait until Obama's out of office and Trump is president

Dittos, bro.

Here:

“I cannot wait until January 20, 2017 when President Obama leaves the White House for the last time,” Clarke said. “And I hope, I pray that Donald J. Trump becomes the next commander-in-chief because we need a president who is going to stand beside us and support us all across the country unambiguously by the way and we know we’re not going to get that out of Mrs. Bill Clinton. I think the saddest day for law enforcement will be if she were to become the president of the United States.”

This is the cancer . . .

This is the chemo:

Kimberley Strassel eviscerates the record of James Comey, the coward running the rule of law into the ground

Here.

Obama inflamed tensions before massacre of police in Dallas by proclaiming there's a conspiracy of racism among cops

Here, yesterday, commenting on the police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota:

President Barack Obama said Thursday that all Americans should be troubled by recent police shootings, calling on the U.S. to "do better" amid rekindled nationwide debate about the use of force by police.

"These are not isolated incidents. They're symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system," Obama said. 

Meanwhile in Chicago to date in 2016 police have shot and killed 4 of 309 total killed in shootings there.

Where's the presidential outrage over the broader set of disparities, huh?

Brexiters Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage both back Andrea Leadsom for UK PM

Story here.

Rasmussen has Trump at +2

Here.

Ann Coulter: Trump's VP needs to give him impeachment insurance, that's all

Here:

Among the possibilities Trump ought to be considering are people like Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo (the latter two are up for re-election this year, but perhaps they can run for both offices simultaneously).

Yeah, I can't imagine a President Kobach, a President Brown, a President McCrory or a President Crapo, either.

Although the current president is pretty crappy.

Mm mm no good, Mm mm no good . . .

Desperate liberals know they're losing, paint Donald Trump anti-Semitic over this . . .

Good idea: John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell call for transcript of FBI interview with Hillary Clinton

That's good. If there's nothing to see here, the FBI won't mind us having a look.

Story here.

James Comey has never cared about the law, just the outcome

He actively worked to overturn the will of 7 million Californians who lawfully passed Proposition 8, and now he's added intent to a statute that doesn't contain it in order to exonerate Hillary Clinton's many violations of the law.

"I'm sorry, officer, I didn't mean to speed, jump the curb, hit that mailbox and kill the postman."

"Oh, well, then no problem, you're free to go!"

In other words, same sex marriage and a Hillary presidency must be the outcome.

One law for me, another for thee

FBI director James Commie announces there will be NO CHARGES against Hillary Clinton, David Petraeus is just chopped liver

Politico reported here just minutes ago.

Foreign Policy pinhead Fredrik deBoer erupts with reverse racism against whites, feigns concern over increase in white suicides to slam gun ownership

Evidently the same self-loathing white guy featured here for whom more neoliberalism isn't an option and FDR was just another affluent bastard who short-circuited socialism. It's always about the guns, isn't it, because the guns in the hands of the people stop commies like this from taking power. And hey, thanks to Foreign Policy and Business Insider for giving this creep a forum. deBoer must laugh to himself at how easy it is to subvert the country.

Here:

[W]hite Americans overall continue to enjoy significant advantages over black and Hispanic Americans in metrics like unemployment, college completion rate, and incarceration rate, which is not surprising in a country that still suffers from immense and structural white supremacy.

But this does not change the fact that white workers without college degrees have seen their overall quality of life eroded in a variety of ways that almost certainly contribute to the suicide rate. For example, as a New York Times story on the report points out, unmarried men have dramatically higher suicide rates, and divorce rates are strongly tied to income and education, with those in lower income brackets and educational levels suffering from far higher rates.

Why white Americans are so much more likely to commit suicide than black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, whose rates are less than half that of white Americans, is something of a mystery.

This might paradoxically be part of the legacy of white privilege: Because white Americans have traditionally enjoyed greater affluence and cultural prestige than people of color, they might take unemployment, poverty, and their attendant indignities as harder to stomach. ... Owning a gun is one of the most powerful predictors of suicide risk overall. 

Hey Obama, it's the 4th of July and gas averages $2.26/gallon all across this country you've been pissing on what seems like forever! And soon you will be gone! Hahahahaha!

The Rebellious Stripes flag of the Sons of Liberty 1767: Gather your feathers and warm up your tar!

Grand Rapids, Michigan, has just logged its third warmest winter ever in terms of heating degree days in 2015-16

June 2016 is over and the data are in.

From 1892 Grand Rapids, Michigan, has just experienced its third warmest winter ever in terms of heating degree days for the winter measuring season ending in June. When we have fewer heating degree days here up north that means lower demand for heat during the typical eight month long period when heating is needed. 

Mean heating degree days for the season from the beginning of the record to date now average 6713, but in 2015-16 Grand Rapids logged just 5617, a whopping 1096 below the long term mean, about 16.3% fewer heating degree days than normal. In my case that translated into a natural gas consumption reduction of about 10% compared with most winters I have experienced.

The warmest winter on record was actually quite recent and unrelated to an El Nino as now. In 2011-12 just 5253 heating degree days were logged in Grand Rapids. Second place belongs to the long ago winter of 1920-21, with 5520 heating degree days.

At the same time that we experienced these warmer conditions snowfall for the season came in only 5.6 inches lower than the long term mean of 66.7, at 61.1 inches.

Last November I predicted much less snow at 47.85 inches and many more heating degree days at 6148, both representing averages of previous observations in Grand Rapids during Very Strong El Nino periods in 1982-83 and 1997-98. But we were this season much snowier and warmer than those averages predicted. 

Turning to the year to date categories, rainfall is actually running 1.41 inches above the mean to date of 16.54 inches, at 17.95. This is despite the extremely dry conditions in June which have left our lawns brown.

The cumulative average temperature year to date is running a total of 18.6 degrees F above the long term mean for the six months to date. That's about one tenth of a degree above normal per day to date.

The current Very Strong El Nino after fourteen months is averaging 1.5 monthly on the index. June data is not yet available. The most recent previous Very Strong El Nino averaged 1.56 monthly over thirteen months, in 1997-98.

The Hill reports that Hillary Clinton was interviewed at FBI headquarters today for almost 4 hours

Here.

The Daily Caller here reported yesterday right after lunch that the meeting was going to occur today, based on inside information.

Sounds like Bill Clinton had the same information earlier, like already on Tuesday when he tracked down Loretta Lynch in Arizona for a chat.

Get back Loretta

Matt Taibbi laments the first successful revolt in ages against one of the two major parties

Here:

But choosing a dangerous race-baiting lunatic as the vehicle for the first successful revolt in ages against one of the two major parties will have many profound negative consequences for voters. The most serious will surely be this burgeoning movement to describe voting and democracy as inherently dangerous. 

Yeah, don't anger the jailers too much or you won't get any bread with your soup.

Trump: Hillary's married to the man who signed NAFTA, she's not bringing your jobs back

Why do Bush Republicans support Hillary Clinton when even the Manchester Union Leader calls her a lying liar?

Birds of a feather flock together maybe?

From the editorial today, here:

Hillary Clinton lied. ... Hillary Clinton lying is not breaking news. ... For weeks, the administration framed the [Benghazi] attack as a response to a YouTube video, lying to the American people. Hillary Clinton personally peddled that lie to the victims’ relatives. ... She’s counting on the tribalism rife in modern American politics to shield her from responsibility for her blunders and lies. The Obama administration lied about what happened in Benghazi to win the 2012 presidential election. The Clinton campaign is hoping that history repeats itself.

Bushie Brent Scowcroft also endorses Hillary Clinton: Who's next, Jeb?

Story here.

Traitors to the Republican Party: Bushie Bailout King Hank Paulson joins Bushie Dick Armitage endorsing Hillary Clinton

Story here.

Lois Lerner committed a crime, sending 1.25 million pages of taxpayer returns to Obama's Justice Department

The crime occurred in October 2010, but Obama's Justice Department, which participated in the crime, decided in 2015 not to prosecute Lerner.

It is the most corrupt regime in the history of the republic.

The whole damn lot of them should be in jail, not in office.

Details here.

Rasmussen has Trump +4 over Clinton: 43-39

Here:

The tables have turned in this week’s White House Watch. After trailing Hillary Clinton by five points for the prior two weeks, Donald Trump has now taken a four-point lead.

George Will leaves Republican Party over Trump: You know, the guy who predicted Mitt Romney to win in a landslide

Look up "tin ear for politics" and you will find George Will's picture: 321 Romney to 217 Obama, reported here November 4, 2012.

He's also a Cubs fan and an atheist, which somehow makes perfect sense: George Will believes in lost causes.

Trump is gonna eat her for Brexit

Seen here in the comments.

No surprise: National Health Interview Survey finds just 2.4% of respondents, WHO WERE MUCH SICKER ON AVERAGE, were lesbian, gay and bi

Except the story never does the math to show how small a minority is LGBT, and never once mentions rampant sexually transmitted diseases among perverts because of their promiscuity, just "distress" from "discrimination" leading to increased alcohol and tobacco abuse.

Here:

Overall, 67,150 survey respondents were heterosexual, 525 lesbian, 624 gay and 515 bisexual. The average age was about 47.

She came, she saw, she effed it up

Smartest president ever says "forebearers" when he meant "forebears"

Once again, the smartest president ever hatchets the English language, but he'll continue to be portrayed as an intellectual giant in comparison to boobs like Sarah Palin. But "corpseman" lives, along with "intercontinental railroad" and other such gems. The press office transcript spells the word correctly, but of course Obama didn't pronounce it correctly.

As far as I can tell, only The Hill here accurately quoted Obama's mistake (which is on video here at about the 10:50 mark):

"We're going to have to make a decision about whether we are a people who tolerate the hypocrisy of a system where the workers who pick our fruit or make our beds never have the chance to get right with the law, or whether we're going to give them a chance, just like our forbearers had a chance, to take responsibility and give their kids a better future," he said.

Meanwhile The Hill leaves out the "e" and without a proper [sic] demonstrates it probably doesn't know it's a mistake.

Just call us WHUPS, as in whup your ass

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of the Brits' country

Like her husband, Hillary Clinton did not tell the truth under oath

From the story here:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Secretary Hillary Clinton failed to turn over a copy of a key message involving problems caused by her use of a private homebrew email server, the State Department confirmed Thursday. The disclosure makes it unclear what other work-related emails may have been deleted by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. ...

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said the November 2010 email cited in the inspector general audit was one of several work-related emails that his group identified that Clinton sent or received but later failed to turn over the State Department.

"Contrary to her statement under oath suggesting otherwise, Mrs. Clinton did not return all her government emails to the State Department," Fitton said. "Our goal is to find out what other emails Mrs. Clinton and the State Department are hiding."

Die Gedanken sind noch frei in England!

17.4 million for Leave, 16.1 million for Remain

Well, well, well, the UK votes to leave the EU after all

Prediction: Britain has become a nation of cowards because of the foreign influence, so Brexit will fail

Surpize me, brothers.

Six plus years on the federal gravy train have been bery bery good to Justice Sonia Sotomayor

2009

2015

You're a loudmouth, baby ...

Today was the first day Trump ever asked me for a campaign contribution

That's a year without a request, until now.

Dilbert knows liberals have to have the presidency because without the Court they've got bupkiss

Hm. Maybe they did knock off Antonin Scalia.

Here:

When you encounter a rabid anti-Trumper, ask her what are the biggest concerns of a potential Trump presidency. 

If “Supreme Court nominee” is one of the top objections, discontinue your persuasion for ethical reasons. This person has put some thought into the decision and has a legitimate opinion that is at least partly based on reason. I don’t recommend changing that person’s mind.

Janet Daley finds the Cameron-Osborne leadership rather oddly out of touch about Brexit and gay marriage

Here:

This disconnect with the people has confirmed the widely accepted view of the Cameron-Osborne Tory leadership as – how to put this? – rather odd. On the one hand, they are so self-consciously modern and anti-traditional that they made gay marriage one of their flagship policies. But on the other, they seem so loftily contemptuous of the real‑life concerns of ordinary people that they make comic misjudgments about the effects of their public pronouncements.

Hillary Clinton: "First you select the e-mail you want to delete by clicking on it . . ."

Way to go, John Nadler

Fighting the good fight for Donald Trump in Chappaqua, NY, here.

Obama's directly responsible for Orlando, but John McCain is directly responsible for Sarah Palin

Seen here in the comments.

Leave it to a liberal to trivialize mass murder.

Trump throws social conservatives overboard, marginalizes opposition to homosexuality as anti-American, anti-Western

Which would come as quite a shock to the founding generation, whose colonies made homosexuals "universally subject to the death penalty."

From the story here:

Trump also called on Muslim-Americans to turn in members of their community that they suspect of terror links, saying radical Islam isn’t compatible with “Western values and institutions” because it is “anti-woman, anti-gay and anti-American.”

Unfortunately, Trump is wrong on banning weapons purchases and Ryan is correct: It'll become a backdoor to disarm conservatives

If you want to know what could stop me from voting for Trump, this is it.

From the story here:

“A mid-level bureaucrat can put anybody on a no-fly list with no due process rights,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told a local Wisconsin newspaper in December, as Democrats tried unsuccessfully to move the bill following a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. 

Visa overstays: ICE official concedes there were 480,000 last year, 5 million total living here illegally, mostly from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany and Italy

Craig Healy, Assistant Director for National Security Investigations at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, featured here.

Philip Johnston of the UK Telegraph also comes out for Brexit

Here.

When trying to explain election outcomes, when trying to explain the polling data . . .

. . . don't forget that 30% of the adults in this country are taking psychiatric medications: 72 million adults over the age of 17 in 2013, approximately 30.1% of the 239 million adults over the age of 17 at the time.