Obama will be president for only 3 more days, but in the hearts of his countrymen he will always remain . . .

There's your magic negro, your mediocre negro, and then there's your bottom of the barrel negro like elitist negro Marc Lamont Hill

Mark Lamont Hill, quoted here:

LAMONT HILL: Yeah, it's a bunch of mediocre negroes being dragged in front of TV as a photo-op for Donald Trump's exploitive campaign against black people. And you [Bruce LeVell] are the prime example of that.

Boo hoo: Prominent Never Trump letter signers surprised to be on Trump's enemies list

What the hell did they expect? Front row seats?

And you thought Trump was arrogant.

Story here.

John Lewis' boycott of the inaugural isn't unprecedented, nor the reason for it: He also boycotted G. W. Bush

WaPo reported this Sunday, Jan. 21, 2001, here:

Some members of the Black Caucus decided to boycott Inauguration Day; John Lewis, for instance, spent the day in his Atlanta district. He thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush's swearing-in because he doesn't believe Bush is the true elected president.

Legitimate fighter

MLK Jr. is an illegitimate American who opposed our economics, our middle class and our religion

"I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. ... So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. ... [R]eligion [can?] so easily become a tool of the middle class to keep the proletariant oppressed. ... It is probably true that capitalism is on its death bed, but social systems have a way of developing a long and powerful death bed breathing capacity. Remember it took feudalism more than 500 years to pass out from its death bed. Capitalism will be in America quite a few more years my dear. Yet with his basic thesis I would concur. Our economic system is going through a radical change, and certainly this change is needed. I would certainly welcome the day to come when there will be a nationalization of industry." -- July 1952

Rand Paul: John Lewis isn't immune from criticism just because he's a civil rights icon

No, he's immune because he's BLACK, but Rand Paul won't say that.

Rand Paul, quoted here:

[B]eing a civil rights icon ... I would also say that that doesn't make us immune from criticism or debate. So, John Lewis isn't in a position where there can't be a healthy debate back and forth. Because he's a civil rights icon shouldn't make him immune. ...  I should be able to honestly disagree with him, and not have it all come back to, I have no appreciation for a civil rights icon because of this. And I think that's the part that I think is sometimes unfair in this.

Laugh of the Day: WaPo calls MLK Jr. a conservative

Here:

“My friends,” Dr. King said in his Detroit sermon, “all I’m trying to say is that if we are to go forward today, we’ve got to go back and rediscover some mighty precious values that we’ve left behind. That’s the only way that we would be able to make of our world a better world, and to make of this world what God wants it to be. . . .”

Spoken like a true conservative, and a truly great one.

Conservatives think people who think it's possible to make this world what God wants it to be are seriously mistaken.

Complete and utter rubbish from Real Clear Markets on "free market" Martin Luther King Jr. who said "capitalism has outlived its usefulness"

Here in "Martin Luther King's Free-Market Legacy":

Martin Luther King proclaimed that he had a dream that “…my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  His dream was far more powerful than it is given credit for.  It is a general call for freedom and free-market prosperity.

The real Martin Luther King Jr. was a self-confessed socialist as early as July 1952:

By the way (to turn to something more intellectual) I have just completed Bellamy’s Looking Backward. It was both stimulating and fascinating. There can be no doubt about it. Bellamy had the insight of a social prophet as well as the fact finding mind of the social scientist. I welcomed the book because much of its content is in line with my basic ideas. I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human system it fail victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. So I think Bellamy is right in seeing the gradual decline of capitalism.

The CIA chief John Brennan voted Communist in 1976, which is the real reason he takes umbrage with Trump calling him Nazi

"What I do find outrageous is equating intelligence community with Nazi Germany," Brennan said. "I do take great umbrage at that."

Nebraska's Republican Senator Ben Sasse crawls out from underneath his rock to support John Lewis over Trump

First!

Liberal preening.

Here:

Sasse appears to be the only Republican publicly critical of the president-elect's attack so far.

Open borders Republicans join hands with Democrats to extend Obama's Orwellian DACA overreach

Coffman

Remember, they're not "illegal immigrants", they're "childhood arrivals".

The Republicans named in the story here, where it is claimed there are up to 60 supporters in the US House Republican Caucus, are:

Senator Lindsey Grahamnesty Graham of South Carolina

Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado

Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen of Florida

Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida.

The House would need 290 votes to override a Trump veto of a bill exempting "Dreamers" from deportation for three years. In the Senate 67 votes would be required. A coalition of 194 House Democrats and 60 Republicans yields just 254 votes, not enough. In the Senate 19 Republicans would have to join 48 Democrats to override a Trump veto.

So Coffman wants to ram the bill through now, before Obama no longer has his pen and telephone.

Nine Republicans in the US House voted against the Obamacare repeal framework today, the usual malcontents

The roll call vote is here, the framework passing 227-198, 10 not voting (five from each party).

Republicans Amash, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Jones, Katko, Labrador, MacArthur, Massie, and McClintock voted against the measure from the Senate.

Upset by Jeh Johnson election overreach, Mark Levin proposes yet another constitutional amendment

"There outta be a law", we used to say.

As if the other eleven he's already proposed stand a chance of being passed, or followed any more than are the current twenty-seven or the constitution itself. 

President Obama, unfortunately, is correct. The constitution is a mere parchment barrier. That's why he keeps burning it right up to the last minute.

In a decent country, Obama would never have been elected in the first place.

Rand Paul prefers histrionics to repeal of Obamacare, Diane Feinstein absent from vote for pacemaker surgery

The roll call vote, narrowly successful 51-48, is here.

Sen. Paul, making the good the enemy of the perfect as usual for the libertarians, views the repeal framework as a debt disaster:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was the sole Republican to vote against the measure, citing the budget measure’s failure to meet the requirements set forth in the balanced budget amendment.

“As a physician, I cannot wait to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a health care system that relies on freedom to provide quality, comprehensive, and affordable care,” he said in a statement. “But putting nearly $10 trillion more in debt on the American people’s backs through a budget that never balances is not the way to get there. It is the exact opposite of the change Republicans promised, and I cannot support it, even as a placeholder.”

Laugh of the Day: Elizabeth Talking Bull Warren isn't qualified to grill Ben Carson's chicken

Seen here in the comments section.

Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson throws down the gauntlet in South China Sea

Hooah Rex!

From the story here:

In comments expected to enrage Beijing, Rex Tillerson told his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China's building of islands and putting military assets on those islands was "akin to Russia's taking Crimea" from Ukraine.

Asked whether he supported a more aggressive posture toward China, he said: "We're going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and, second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed." ... 

Tillerson called China's South China Sea island-building and declaration of an air defense zone in waters of the East China Sea it contests with Japan "illegal actions."

"They're taking territory or control, or declaring control of territories that are not rightfully China's," he said.

Trump fingers intelligence officials he's met with for leaking about those meetings

Prosecutable.

Story here.

Glenn Greenwald writes that the CIA was trying to defeat Trump and elect Hillary Clinton

Here:

FOR MONTHS, the CIA, with unprecedented clarity, overtly threw its weight behind Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and sought to defeat Donald Trump. In August, former acting CIA Director Michael Morell announced his endorsement of Clinton in the New York Times and claimed that “Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” The CIA and NSA director under George W. Bush, Gen. Michael Hayden, also endorsed Clinton, and went to the Washington Post to warn, in the week before the election, that “Donald Trump really does sound a lot like Vladimir Putin,” adding that Trump is “the useful fool, some naif, manipulated by Moscow, secretly held in contempt, but whose blind support is happily accepted and exploited.”

It is not hard to understand why the CIA preferred Clinton over Trump. Clinton was critical of Obama for restraining the CIA’s proxy war in Syria and was eager to expand that war, while Trump denounced it. Clinton clearly wanted a harder line than Obama took against the CIA’s long-standing foes in Moscow, while Trump wanted improved relations and greater cooperation. In general, Clinton defended and intended to extend the decadeslong international military order on which the CIA and Pentagon’s preeminence depends, while Trump — through a still-uncertain mix of instability and extremist conviction — posed a threat to it.

Steve Liesman tries to be charitable to Trump on 96 million wanting a job, but comes up short 5.9m

From the story here:

Trump said that there "are 96 million wanting a job and they can't get (one). You know that story. The real number. That's the real number."

It is unfortunately very far from the real number. There are in fact 96 million Americans age 16 and older who are not in the labor force. Of this, just 5.4 million, or 91 million fewer than the number cited by Trump, say they want a job. The rest are retired, sick, disabled, running their households or going to school. (This number is 256,000 fewer than last year and 1.7 million fewer than the all-time high for the series in 2013.)

... A more charitable explanation for Trump would expand the number to include those people who are working part time because they can't find full-time work, all the unemployed and those marginally attached to the workforce. This broader measure of slack in the economy, known as the U6, is about 14.7 million. It's the lowest since May 2008, and has come down by nearly 12 million since the worst of the job market effects of the financial crisis in 2010. And remember, many of these folks have work, though it's part time.

This isn't charitable enough because Liesman never adds the 5.4 million to the 14.7 million. He must know you can't do this because that would involve double counting. The monthly Employment Situation Summary always includes the "marginally attached" in the expanded figures, people who are not in the labor force, but they are a subset of the 5.4 million.

But this can easily be remedied, and one wonders why the BLS doesn't do this.

Here's the data, with links.

Not in the labor force, not seasonally adjusted, is 95.8 million.

Not in the labor force, want a job now, not seasonally adjusted, is 5.45 million (peak was 7.2 million in May 2013).

The unemployed represent another 7.5 million from the monthly Employment Situation Summary. Those who work part-time but would rather have full-time represent 5.6 million more in the same report. But both of those groups are in the labor force, a total of 13.1 million.

To those 13.1 million simply add the 5.4 million from not in the labor force above and you get 18.5 million unemployed.

To get that expressed as a percentage you have to add the 5.4 million in to the civilian labor force because they want a job now, here, because the unemployment rate is the unemployed as a percentage of the labor force, which by the addition is now larger, 164.4 million.

So that yields a real unemployment rate of 11.3%. The U6RATE comes up quite short of this, at 9.2%. Meanwhile most people think everything's great because the headline rate is only 4.7% (7.5 million unemployed as a percentage of 159.6 million in the labor force).

There are not 96 million unemployed as Trump laughably says, but neither are there the 12.6 million Liesman ends up with, either.

18.5 million are unemployed in December 2016, at a rate of 11.3%.

The unsavory Robert Creamer was in the front row at lying Obama's farewell speech last night

Creamer had to resign from the DNC after incriminating video surfaced showing he countenanced baiting Trump supporters into violence, planting operatives at his rallies.

Creamer met with Obama 45 times in the White House during his presidency, and was there hundreds of times, but the White House denied they were friends.

The first name in fake news

Trump's first news conference since the election was highly entertaining:

"Your organization is terrible," Trump told CNN’s Jim Acosta when he tried to ask a question.

"You're attacking us, can you give us a question?” Acosta replied.

"Don't be rude. No, I'm not going to give you a question. You are fake news," Trump responded, before calling on a reporter from Breitbart.

A very small John McCain reduced to role of courier for the Trump opposition fake news machine

From the story here:

"Late last year, I received sensitive information that has since been made public. Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI. That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue."

Just 9 more days until Mr. All Talk and No Action is out the door

Mr. All Talk and No Action is talking again one last time tonight as president . . .

. . . but as usual I'm not listening.

After all, a fella has to keep in shape not listening, because you know this guy is going to keep on talking, and talking and talking AFTER he's no longer president, and I want to be prepared not to listen whenever I have to. It's worked pretty well for me so far. He's going away, everything he's done is going away, and all I had to do was not listen.

I like to think of it as negative exercise. It's been good for me, and so easy to do.

Why quit when you can feel the burn?

Weapons cache of long guns, pistols and ammo found hidden last week just 6.5 miles from Inauguration site

By an alert citizen, not the police.

Story here.

USA Today story says Obama leaves a complex legacy, completely ignores this complexity

And Piers Morgan reminds the world Meryl Streep once gave a standing ovation to the child rapist Roman Polanski

It's like finding Nazis in the closet.

Here.

Homeland Security swoops in on states at the last minute, designates election systems "critical infrastructure"

These bastards need to be rounded up, locked up and the key thrown away. We run this country, not the political appointees of a failed president. 50 US Secretaries of State, the Electoral College and the US Congress all have certified Election 2016. We don't believe a bunch of Obama hacks' fancy report.

From the story here:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A last-minute decision by the Obama administration to designate election systems as critical infrastructure drew intense criticism from state and federal elections organizations on Monday.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced the move Friday with 30 minutes' notice to the National Association of Secretaries of State and U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent bipartisan federal agency that develops voluntary voting guidelines and certifies voting systems. ...

McCormick said Homeland Security ignored commissioners' requests to delay a decision until there is more discussion. She called the move an example of "federal overreach" and said she will ask President-elect Donald Trump to review the decision. ...

Johnson's announcement came hours after U.S. intelligence agencies released a declassified report that said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed at the U.S. presidential election. The report said Russian intelligence services had "obtained and maintained access to elements of multiple U.S. state or local electoral boards," but didn't elaborate.

Yeah, but Meryl Streep was too ugly for a MONKEY

China flummoxed because it doesn't know how to intimidate Donald Trump

Good!

Story here.

Are Obama's intelligence agencies blaming Russia for hacking the election to deflect from their own?

Newsmax won't let the story go, here 10 days ago:

[T]here is a far more ominous sequence of events that’s taken place on our own shores. ...

Over the last 10 months, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to infiltrate the Georgia Secretary of State’s voter database network. It did so without Georgia’s consent and, in fact, over its explicit rejection of DHS’s offer to "help" the state check for vulnerabilities in its firewall.

DHS didn’t just try once; it made 10 attempts.

This wasn’t an accident. It was a pattern.

Who ordered the cyberattacks and who conducted them are unclear. ...

Ten hack attempts made by a federal agency against a state-protected voter network over a 10 month period, and each attempt coinciding with an election or congressional testimony in opposition to DHS "help." ...

[N]obody is asking about verified hack attempts made by a federal government agency against a state-protected voter database network.

Final Grand Rapids, Michigan, climate summary for 2016: Fifth warmest and fifth wettest

2016 was the fifth warmest full year on record by average temperature, at 51.2 degrees F. The warmest full year by average temperature was 2012, at 52.8. The coldest full year by average temperature was 1917, at 44.6. The mean annual monthly mean average temperature is 48.1.

The lowest minimum temperature recorded in 2016 was in February, at 1 degree F. The record lowest temperature occurred in February 1899, at -24. The mean annual monthly lowest minimum is -7.

The coldest winter season on record by heating degree days occurred in 1903-1904 with 7712 HDD. The warmest was 2011-2012 with 5253. The mean annual is 6713. December was just slightly above the December mean for HDD. For the season-to-date ending in December there were 2104 HDD. The mean for the season to date is 2488. By contrast, in 2015, which was part of the third warmest season on record by HDD, there were only 1855 HDD July-December. 

It was the fifth snowiest December on record with 37 inches. The snowiest December ever was in 2000, with 59.2 inches. The December mean snowfall is 16 inches.

The maximum temperature in 2016 occurred in June, with 93 degrees F. The record maximum temperature occurred in July 1936, with 108 degrees F. The mean annual monthly highest maximum temperature is 95.

The warmest summer season on record by cooling degree days occurred in 1921 with 1200 CDD. The coolest summer occurred in 1992, with 316. The mean annual is 696. Summer 2016 ranked 15th warmest by CDD, which totaled 936.

2016 turned out to be the fifth wettest year on record, with 46.29 inches of rain. The wettest year on record was in 2008, with 48.8 inches of rain. The driest year on record was 1930, with 20.92. The mean annual rainfall is 34.48.

Congress sucks: Let's make it bigger!

As we all know, Congress sucks.

About only 17% of Americans approved of the Congress in 2016 according to Gallup, which is indicative of the historical lack of esteem for it. The average is just 31% approval since 1974. Real Clear Politics has its own tracker here, going back only to 2009. It is a composite of various polls, yielding an even lower average of 14.5% approval than Gallup's current 18%.

You get the idea. At best only about a third of the people approve of the job Congress is doing at any given time. And the top reasons given are 1) gridlock, bickering, not compromising and 2) not getting anything done, not making decisions.

So why make Congress bigger?

In a word, to make it more representative, end the gridlock and get something done.

In short, make Congress overwhelmingly Republican . . . because the country is.

Currently, just 435 congressmen and women represent districts unnaturally carved out of America's 3,144 counties, parishes, boroughs, census areas, independent cities and the District of Columbia.

I say unnaturally carved out because after every census the gerrymandering fight begins to redraw the congressional district lines to favor incumbents of the party in power whose boundaries transgress all over those counties, parishes, boroughs, census areas, independent cities and DC.

We've already got all these boundaries and units that go back to the beginning of the country in many cases, so we don't need these 435 fake Congressional districts anymore.

My own county with a population of just over 600,000 is carved up by two congressmen who each represent over 700,000 spanning many other counties. That doesn't make any sense.

The constitution never intended this.

It intended representation to grow with population, but in the 1920s Congress saw a loophole and fixed representation at the then current 435. There's nothing magic about 435. Why not 439? 394? 943? Did Moses decree 435? George Washington? The founders never settled the question, but they never intended representation to stop growing with population. If we followed an early formula, we'd have one Congressman for every 50,000 people. That would mean 6,473 in the US House today!

Ever since the 1920s we've been treated to an increase in oligarchy where just 218 votes are needed to ram something down the throats of more and more people.

You know, like Obamacare, which was passed without a single Republican vote.

Meanwhile Republicans just showed that they own the grassroots politically, winning the counties 2623 to 489. Here's the map that shows that, from brilliant maps dot com:

If you want to end the gridlock and get something done, reform the Congress to represent the country for a change. Abolish the Congressional districts, and elect representatives to the US House from every county across this land.

You say you want a revolution . . ..

Nat Hentoff, who called Obama the most un-American president we have ever had, has died at 91

Despite Obamacare, or because of it? The obit here doesn't tell us. WaPo reports it was natural causes.

Neither story tells us how Hentoff really felt about Obama. Neither does his Wikipedia entry. For a sampling, follow my label "Nat Hentoff" below.

He was a true born son of liberty. May he rest in peace.

All Obama gets credit for is the extra 4.483 million jobs since the July 2007 peak: 47,000 jobs a month net increase after 8 years

Secure Fence Act of 2006 may be Trump's vehicle for The Wall

Politico reports here:

Republican leaders, in tandem with Trump’s transition staff, are considering using a 2006 law signed by former President George W. Bush that authorized the construction of 700 miles-plus of “physical barrier” on the southern border. The law was never fully implemented and did not include a sunset provision, allowing Trump to pick up where Bush left off — with the help of new money from Congress. ...

The 2006 Secure Fence Act, included as part of a broader immigration reform package, originally called for 850 miles of double fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border. Lawmakers amended the law in 2008 to reduce the length to a minimum of 700 miles, a change that also gave the secretary of Homeland Security discretion over what kind of “physical barrier” to construct.

Ultimately, only 36 miles of double-layer fencing was erected. U.S. Customs and Border Protection built roughly 350 miles of single-layer pedestrian fences, most which stand about 18 feet, and 300 miles of low-level vehicle barriers that any person could easily walk through, according to sources following the matter.

Liberals believe Russians celebrated Trump's win, but not that US Muslims celebrated 9/11

Hm.

How Obamacare hides federal spending

Seen here:

Obamacare's direct subsidies to insurers are falsely labeled as "tax credits," hiding some $104 billion in federal spending in the process.

Don't miss Chris Plante in the queue at Real Clear Politics talking about all the Democrat hacks still working in "journalism"

Here.

Medicaid enrollment, healthcare for the poor, has exploded by 46% under Obama

In 2009 Medicaid enrollment stood at 50.9 million, but in October 2016 it's 74.4 million.

Generally speaking, you are eligible when your income, if you have any, is up to 133% of the poverty guideline, which came to about $15,650 in 2015. In that year there were only about 52 million individual workers who earned up to that much.

John McCain is the perfect guy to investigate hacking

Laugh of the Day: Democrats haven't been this mad since . . .

Except it's true.

WaPo and White House, but I repeat myself, lie about Obamacare enrollments by 100%

WaPo implies more than 20 million are enrolled in a story out today here:

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama told Democrats that they are well positioned to defend the law, which has extended insurance to more than 20 million Americans.

Extended. As in offered. Here's the reality.

The Motley Fool said in November it checked in June and the number actually enrolled and paying was 10.4 million:

The fourth open enrollment period of Obamacare, Officially known as the Affordable Care Act, kicked off this past Tuesday, Nov. 1, and it's slated to run through the end of January. At last check in June 2016, 10.4 million people were enrolled through the various marketplace exchanges, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Congressional Budget Office has stuck by its forecast that roughly 10 million people will be enrolled and paying by Dec. 31, 2016.

A month earlier the number was 11.1 million, meaning some people who enrolled early in the year subsequently stopped paying and fell out:

As a reminder, 11.1 million people remained enrolled and paying customers as of March 31, 2016 per the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services . . .. 

Since last October it has been widely reported that the Obama Regime, soon to be history, has been predicting just 13.8 million sign-ups by the end of January 2017, which means Josh Earnest is nothing but a Stalinist stooge for the Regime, nothing but a salesman, and WaPo its willing accomplice in continuing to report the highly fanciful figure of 20 million.

Fake news, you see.

Obamacare has failed utterly and will be lucky to hit the 10 million mark this time around before President Trump ends the farce that it is.

So Obama has a phone and a pen, but Trump has Twitter and . . .

. . . an eraser.

Women's March on Washington on Jan. 21 is just a bunch of Democrats who had image of Clinton as their Facebook photo

From the story here:

For her part, Shook said her aim was not to coopt any other movement. It was just an idea that took hold after the victory of a president-elect caught on tape boasting of grabbing women's private parts, and the defeat of a woman who seemed to her much more qualified for the job. She said she had no idea the race of the women she first contacted; in fact, she said, most had an image of Clinton as their Facebook profile photo.

How much does Obamacare suck for my family newly eligible for health insurance from a small business?

New full-time job comes with health insurance for the family!

Except it costs $20,199.24 per year, of which the company pays $3,000. Net = $17,199.24 per year before anyone ever sees a doctor.

Current pre-Obamacare plan, grandfathered in from 2010, costs $4,253.20 per year, before anyone ever sees a doctor. FOUR TIMES LESS.

Congress can't act soon enough to repeal this Obamacare boondoggle.

Tin ear Republicans lead off 2017 with rule changes on ethics

Trump isn't happy. Bloomberg reported the story here.

The congressional job approval rating last measured 18% and hasn't been above 20% since 2012.

Sen. John McCain once again demonstrates the subtlety of a brick thrown through a window, irresponsibly elevating unproven cyberattacks to "an act of war"

Why Arizona keeps inflicting this incompetent gasbag on the rest of the country is difficult to fathom.

You remember John McCain's failed presidential bid, in which he told us we had nothing to fear from a president Obama, and then having lost to him in 2008 and running for reelection to the US Senate in 2010 he told us Obama was all of a sudden on a left wing crusade to bankrupt the country. Well, which is it, Senator?

And now the warmonger in John McCain raises its ugly head, here, in Ukraine of all places, stirring the pot in the Russian Bear's own backyard:

"When you attack a country, it's an act of war," McCain said of the recent hackings on Ukrainian TV, according to a transcript compiled by Reuters. "And so we have to make sure that there is a price to pay so that we can perhaps persuade Russians to stop this kind of attacks on our very fundamentals of democracy."

Hey Senator, what price should Russia pay for an act of war? Usually war is the appropriate response. If you're not really prepared to launch one, SHUT THE HELL UP.

Make teenagers work again: Repeal the minimum wage

3.3 million fewer teens work in 2016 than in 1978 even though

the size of this population in 2016 is the same as in the late '70s

The minimum wage of 30 cents an hour which prevailed throughout World War II is the equivalent of $5.12/hr today using CPI, not the federally mandated $7.25/hr.

The minimum wage today has outpaced CPI by almost 42% since its inception. Meanwhile teenage employment has contracted by almost 40% since the late 1970s peak.

Already by 1978 the minimum wage was wildly out of whack. It should have been only $1.41/hr instead of the federally mandated $2.65/hr, outpacing inflation by a whopping 88%. No wonder employers have sought cheaper labor abroad, wrecking it for everyone, not just teenagers.

Do we believe in free market capitalism, or not?

We have to repeal the Obamacare bill so that you can find out what is in the next bill

h/t Harvey

The best Trump comeback was still the first comeback

Best Ted Cruz meme of 2016

It happened in September 2015 but the dumbest debate question of the 2016 campaign has to be . . .

. . . Jake Tapper of CNN asking each Republican candidate "What would you want your Secret Service code name to be as president?"

Do you prefer white cake, chocolate cake or lemon?

They should have thrown tomatoes at the guy.

Instead they answered.

And the 2016 Woman of the Year award goes to . . .

ENERGIZER!

Kevin Williamson flips out at National Review, compares Trump family to Saddam Hussein's, a reader can't believe it

Here:

​Apparently, N.R. editors didn't read this piece, or worse, they read it and approved it. 

Well, makes perfect sense to me. Kevin Williamson and Co. wants the entire white working class to get out of the way and die, so might as well have the Trump boys fire up the old shredder and start feeding them in.

How come Israel can't be both Jewish and democratic while Miami can?

Ann Coulter wants to know.

Today's most entertaining line: "It takes a lot of chutzpah for Obama to say he wants to help re­build the Demo­crat­ic Party when he’s busy burn­ing it down"

From Josh Kraushaar here in

"Obama’s Parting Shot Against His Party: By thumbing his nose at Israel as he leaves office, the president shows he didn’t learn anything from this year’s election".

He's burned everything else down, might as well burn his own house.

Remind you of anyone?

Obama's policies were on the ballot and defeated by Trump, but Obama still insists he would have won

Obama in October: "But make no mistake, these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them."

Obama in December: “I’m confident that if I — if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it."

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.

Glenn Greenwald: Democrats screaming "Putin! Russia!" is an implausible tactic, a sign of desperation

Here:

Obama spent eight years saying Russia is not a scary threat, he mocked Mitt Romney in 2012 . . .. Democrats, like a lot of Americans, including myself, are sort of dioriented, still in shock, and are grappling for explanations. Screaming 'Putin!' over and over and accusing critics of being Kremlin stooges, I think that is a byproduct of this desperation more than anything else.

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.

Why the economy still feels like it sucks as Obama goes out the door

Obama's GDP in current dollars has grown 28.4% through 3Q2016.

Bush's grew 39% overall and 41.7% through 3Q2008.

If Obama's performance simply matched Bush's 41.7%, we'd have an extra $1.9 trillion in current dollar GDP right now.

But we don't.

Laugh of the Day: Ann Coulter hopes Donald Trump goes on world tour . . .

. . . apologizing for 8 years of Obama.

Here.

Winter begins, and daylight in Grand Rapids Michigan is just 9 hours and 1 minute long

The lowest daylight days of the year, until Dec. 26th when we inch up to 9 hours and 2 minutes.

And you thought there was no hope.

Hillary beats Trump in the shunning department 8-2 as 10 faithless Electoral College electors vote for somebody else

Ugh!

That's the story from ABC tonight here.

It's a stain on our election from both sides that the rules we agree to live by aren't being followed as they should be.

The two defectors from Trump voted for Rand Paul and John Kasich. Five from Hillary voted for Colin Powell, Bernie Sanders and an Injun. Three others were removed and replaced by alternates who ended up voting for Hillary as the people they replaced should have.

On net Trump wins 304-227 instead of 306-232.

Sneering at the Electoral College in 2016, Obama leaves office still hating the constitution he promised to preserve, protect and defend in 2008 and 2012

Quoted here:

“The Electoral College is a vestige, it’s a carryover from an earlier vision of how our federal government was going to work that put a lot of premium on states,” President Obama said Friday during a press conference at the White House.

Obama pardons 78 and shortens sentences of 153 in one day, a record

A total of 148 have been pardoned in his presidency so far, and 1176 have received shortened sentences, including 395 serving life sentences. Expect really bad examples to emerge from among the latter.

Story here.

Revulsion Election update: Electors pledged to Hillary in MN, ME and WA today refused to vote for her

Democrats really did not like Hillary Clinton in 2016. 5.1 million former Obama voters didn't vote for her, and now her electors won "fair and square" are balking.

You can't make this stuff up.

From the MarketWatch story here:

In Washington state, three Democratic electors voted for Colin Powell and one for Faith Spotted Eagle, who has been fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, instead of Clinton. ...

In Minnesota, elector Muhammad Abdurrahman didn’t vote for Clinton and was replaced by an alternate who did. According to the Los Angeles Times, Abdurrahman was a delegate for Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention.

In Maine, elector David Bright tried to vote for Sanders but was rebuffed and ended up voting for Clinton, according to the Associated Press.

Bill Cunningham repeating stupid: "95 million Americans can't find work"

Last night in the first hour of the show.

"Not in the labor force" explained.

They aren't LOOKING for work. They are your retired parents. They are your kids in high school, college and graduate school. They are your stay at home mothers and fathers. They are the sick and the disabled.