"We were here first" comes to the US House: Justin Amash discovers identity politics eight years too late

Must see video: Tucker Carlson says socialism is exactly what we're going to get unless we stop worshipping at the altar of (capitalist) materialism

Pretty smart coming from a guy who eschews intellectualism.

For example, I wish he had said that you can't have limited government without individuals composing it who first limit themselves. He says that, and more, just not in a lapidary way. Tucker is revolting against the reductionism of Conservatism Inc. to mere materialism. He is revolting against ideology, and it's amazing. 

Here.

Bons mots:

Republicans see it as their duty to make the world safe for banking.

Questioning markets feels like apostasy to social conservatives.

Economics and culture are not separable one from the other.

Rural America now looks like Detroit.

Putting corporations first is bondage.

We tax capital at half the rate we tax labor.

Divided countries are easier to rule.

Market capitalism is not a religion. It's a tool.

Libertarians tell a lie when they say any deviation from market fundamentalism is socialism.

Ann Coulter says she agrees with AOC: Raise taxes on the rich

Ann just wants to punish the Koch Brothers in the process, but there's a better reason to agree.

Good government acts like a curb on a street, steering behavior. That's what taxing the rich used to be all about.

How so?

Once enacted in 1916, high taxation of ordinary income didn't result in high revenues for government. That's why the income tax was extended to almost all earners instead of just the rich when it became clear within a few years that government wouldn't have enough money to play in the international sandbox without more dough. For their part the rich won long term tax concessions through diverting derivation of income from capitalist enterprises, the latter benefiting not just themselves as owners but also individuals with jobs, the country with productivity, and the government with additional multiple streams of revenue. It was an intricate but effective way of benefiting all concerned. 

The mistake with the Reagan Revolution was that it misunderstood human nature. It thought lots of new untaxed ordinary income would end up getting invested just the same way, and turn America into something never before seen. But the money didn't get invested the same way. It fled abroad where the cost of doing business was cheaper. It helped create middle classes wherever it went, but ours withered on the vine. Meanwhile the number of US billionaires mushroomed, the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay went ballistic, and general income inequality increased dramatically. Real incomes for most people have barely moved up since the 1970s.

And now here we are with an America never before seen indeed, where libertarian advocates of this destructive system tell us with a straight face that this is patriotism.

Unfortunately, none of this is in the pea brain of AOC, let alone in Ann Coulter's, Kevin McCarthy's or Donald Trump's.  

Michael Savage calls AOC "Alexandria Occasional Cortex", which is just . . . savage

I'm going to miss his three hour show. He's moving to one hour plus a podcast starting Monday. He'll be 77 this year. He's getting a little tired, phoning it in so to speak. You can tell when that happens because he'll occasionally get simple facts wrong.

I suppose of all the talkers I've listened to over the years, Savage has been my favorite. For his general positions on borders, language and culture, yes, but more so because he's an independent thinker. It's not just that he's independent. It's that he thinks. No thinking man is a party man. Which is probably why he's out the door.

Not sure I'm a podcast guy, but there's that for those who are more active than passive listeners. I like the radio because it's (mostly) live. Anything big which could happen you hear about almost instantly. And anyone could call in. It's more spontaneous and more exciting.  I like to listen while I'm cooking dinner. 

Radio certainly is changing. Laura Ingraham hung up the headset in November after many years carrying the baton on immigration. Burning the candle at both ends she was. Chris Plante out of DC is a very welcome alternative to Laura in the mornings. He's very quick upstairs, trenchant and funny.

It would be nice if Mark Steyn replaced Rush Limbaugh one of these days, but somehow I think the Rush Limbaugh show goes away when Rush goes away.

But all of them need to take more callers, and let them talk, dammit. Which is probably too much to ask. Most of the callers aren't any good.

But there was that guy, Geno from The Bronx . . .. 

Yep, you guessed it, the inventor of sliced bread was white . . . and German-American . . . and from Iowa

Ve haf vays ov makinck your lunch qvicker.

The horror. The horror.

Otto Frederick Rohwedder (1880-1960)

Democrats take control of the US House and promptly vote to give away money . . . to foreigners

Democrat Spending Bill Offers $12 Billion More for Foreign Aid, $0 for Border Wall

America is still a long way from recovery from job destruction under Barack H. Obama

Ann Coulter: The media are trying to convince Trump that if he abandons the wall, he’ll be a statesman . . .

Bush 41 accepted the Profiles in Courage award from Democrats for abandoning his Read My Lips No New Taxes pledge, many years later of course, proof that the voters were right to turn out the bum in 1992 for his betrayal.

Will Trump follow in his footsteps?

Coulter: Please, No More ‘Border Security’:

Nearly every Republican presidential candidate tried to con voters with these meaningless catchphrases about “border security.”

Here are The Des Moines Register’s summaries of some of the candidates’ positions on immigration a few weeks before the 2016 Iowa caucus:

Jeb Bush: “has called for enhanced border security.”

Marco Rubio: “proposes … improved security on the border.”

John Kasich: “believes border security should be strengthened.”

Chris Christie: “urges … using technology to improve border surveillance …”

Rand Paul: “would secure the border immediately.”

Carly Fiorina: “would secure the border, which she says requires only money and manpower.”

They all lost.

The guy who won: “Trump has said many illegal immigrants are rapists and are bringing drugs and crime to the United States. He has called for building a wall along the southern border, and has said he would make Mexico pay for it. He said he would immediately terminate President Barack Obama’s ‘illegal executive order on immigration.'”

Trump got more votes than any other Republican in the history of presidential primaries. No one was falling for “border security” then, and they aren’t now.

But instead of doing what he said and building a wall, Trump has hired people who don’t even grasp that the point is to make it unattractive to break into our country.

Start with your father Rashida, eldest of 14 children

Another Cooley Law School graduate rises to the level of her incompetence. Michael Cohen will keep a cot warm for you, Rashida.

Maybe Democrats are silent when cops are killed because Democrats support anti-cop Antifa's no borders, no walls, no USA at all

Hooah Ronna Romney McDaniel to Uncle Mitt: Your comments are disappointing and unproductive

Rand Paul to Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts Puritan: Cut the petty holier than thou crap

Ain't gonna happen Senator Paul. There's something in the water up there in Massachusetts that once you drink of it, you're infected forever. Same thing happens with the water in Utah. But hooah anyway.

Rand Paul on Romney: There Will Be A "Backlash" For "Holier Than Thou" Anti-Trump Op-Ed:

I don`t know how it really helps anybody`s cause for people to stand up there like they`re holier than thou. And it`s like, look at me, how virtuous I am. And I`m going to bring down the presidency by criticizing his character in front of the whole nation. It does nobody any good. And, in the end, I think it`s going to look petty, and I think there`s going to be a backlash to this. ...

I question [Trump] on policy when I disagree with him. He knows I have stood up to him. I have talked to him on the phone and he says, "I know where your principles are and I know you can`t move on this particular vote." And we still have a good conversation. And I think that`s different than attacking and trying to go for the jugular of someone`s character. And so I do think it`s different. ...

[I]f there were an election between Donald Trump in a primary and Romney, I think Romney would be wiped out.  

Hooah Newt Gingrich to Mitt Romney: The Senate doesn't care who you used to be

Gingrich to Romney: The Senate Doesn't Care Who You Used To Be:

It is kind of sad. As a freshman, he could have come in, he could have written as the former governor of Massachusetts, his views on Elizabeth Warren running for office. He could have written about the shutdown and offered an idea, such as combining help for the DREAMers with building the wall and securing the border. He could have written about things he knows a great deal about. 

Among whites Trump 2016 underperformed Romney 2012 57%-59% overall, but crushed him with whites in eleven states and in seven to win the presidency

Mitt Romney is back, but he really ought to just zip it. He's a loser.

States where Trump 2016 (wins in red) outperformed Romney 2012 (wins in blue) among whites:

Florida 64%-61%

Indiana 64%-60%

Iowa 54%-47%

Maine 46%-40%

Michigan 57%-55%

Minnesota 50%-49%

Missouri 66%-65%

New Hampshire 48%-47%

New York 51%-49%

Ohio 62%-57%

Wisconsin 53%-51%.

Where Trump underperformed Romney Trump still won the same contests, but also reeled in Pennsylvania which Romney did not. Overall Trump won 10 states to Romney's 4, largely on improved performance among whites.

States where Romney 2012 (wins in blue) outperformed Trump 2016 (wins in red) among whites:

Arizona 66%-54%

California 53%-45%

Colorado 54%-47%

New Jersey 56%-54%

New Mexico 56%-47%

North Carolina 68%-63%

Oregon 44%-42%

Pennsylvania 57%-56%

Virginia 61%-59%

Washington 46%-40%.

Exit polling via CNN.

Peter Dutton of the US Naval War College doesn't think China can control the South China Sea

One of the rare hopeful appraisals I have read, which ought to be sobering . . . for China.

China doesn't have the capabilities to control the South China Sea

The LA Times is just fine with foreign influence in US elections

Wow, Liawatha's actually JUST LIKE John Kerry, says "I'm gonna GET ME a beer"

"Can I get me a huntin' license here?"

Here.

Yeah, they're just like us.

Next stop for beer-drinking Cherokee woman Elizabeth Warren: A visit to the hardware store "to get me a huntin' license"

Must be something in the water up there in Massachusetts that turns people into phony baloney plastic banana good time rock-n-rollas. Michael Dukakis in the tank, John Kerry goes a huntin', and now Elizabeth Warren cracks open a cold one in a New Year's Eve chat streamed live. Hm. Tongues are a-wagging. A drinking Indian, huh? Was it an India Pale Ale?

The article forgets to mention the incident involving John Kerry, who served in Vietnam.

 Cashman: Elizabeth Warren racks up another Dukakis moment :

With the beer vid — trying to sell herself as your average beer-swigging multimillionaire former Harvard Law prof who’s a champion of the middle class — Warren has racked up two strikes in short order. Three strikes and … it could be just Beto O’Rourke vs. Kamala Harris on the left side of the Democrats’ debate stage.

 

Cherokee Elizabeth Warren headed to Sioux City for important meeting of the tribes

Americans should ask Democrat Ilhan Omar, MN-5, whether she's a victim of Muslim female genital mutilation

Suddenly Obamacare is not much of a muchness to Democrats, a mere stepping stone to the socialist future

The next development will be Republicans arguing, as Paul Ryan did in 2012 about Medicare, that conservatism means we must preserve Obamacare for future generations. 

Terry McAuliffe on 2020 Democratic Candidates: "We All Support Medicare For All"

Lindsey Grahamnesty points out that the Gang of Eight bill was tougher on border security than Trump is now

Suddenly the Gang of Eight bill is conservatism. Trump is now to the left of the entire Republican primary field of 2016 on immigration, begging for just $5 billion and willing to take less.

What suckers he takes us for.

Lindsey Graham: "The Wall Has Become A Metaphor For Border Security," Democrats Supported In The Past:

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: What I can tell you is Democrats have voted for 700 miles of the Secure Fence Act that had double-layered fencing. Call that whatever you'd like. In the Gang of Eight bill we had $42 billion for border security, including $9 billion for physical barriers. 

The wall has become a metaphor for border security. And what we're talking about is a physical barrier where it makes sense. In the past, every Democrat has voted for these physical barriers. It can't be just about because Trump wants it we no longer agree with it. 

There is nothing immoral about a physical barrier along the border in places that make sense. There will never be a deal that doesn't have money for the physical barriers that we all in the past have agreed we need.

Laugh of the Day: Trump calls Elizabeth Talking Bull crazy without calling her crazy

The president has this part of politics down pat. Too bad the follow through on policy utterly escapes him.

From the transcript here:

HEGSETH: She says she’s in the fight all the way, Mr. President. Do you really think she believes she can win? 

TRUMP: Well that I don’t know. You’d have to ask her psychiatrist. But honestly, I just, you know --

(LAUGHTER)

H. Ross Perot's $13/hr factory jobs going to Mexico in 1992 should pay $27/hr today adjusted for inflation but pay only $18

The giant sucking sound clip from 1992 is here.

Perot characterized factory wages in 1992 as typically paying between $12 and $14 per hour.

Adjusted for inflation the $13 job in 2017 would pay nearly $27 per hour. The reality is it pays a lot less than that. Factory work in Michigan today basically starts at $15, up only 25% not 107%. The average manufacturing job paying $21+ is composed of a lot of such lower paying positions.

The reality is in Michigan that the top eventual $18/hr advertised wage is the equivalent of less than $9/hr in 1992.

The jobs have gone out of the country, expanding middle classes abroad while impoverishing our own at home.

Oakland California mayor Libby Schaaf, let's lock her up

OK, let's be honest: Racism is so yesterday when unpatriotic Republicans and Democrats get rich and get votes off cheap foreign labor

Republicans specialize in spending money on putting Americans out of work, by importing cheap foreign labor and giving tax breaks to job-exporting corporations

Democrats specialize in spending money on things which don't work, like welfare recipients, not on things which do, like walls

Outgoing Trump Chief of Staff General John Kelly attacks Jeff Sessions, was just one in the retinue opposing Trump's policies whom Trump himself appointed

That's rich, attacking the only guy in the administration who tried to implement the policies the candidate ran on.

Good riddance!

John Kelly blames Jeff Sessions for 'zero tolerance,' family separations along border:

“What happened was Jeff Sessions, he was the one that instituted the zero-tolerance process on the border that resulted in both people being detained and the family separation,” Kelly said. “He surprised us.” ... “The president still says ‘wall’ – oftentimes frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing,’ now he’s tended toward steel slats," Kelly said. "But we (moved away from) a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.” ... “Illegal immigrants, overwhelmingly, are not bad people,” Kelly said. “I have nothing but compassion for them, the young kids.” ... He said the job was arduous and he often clashed with Trump over policy. But he was determined to stay through the 2018 midterm elections.

Trump already compromised on The Wall, and that's the problem

Trump gave away 80% of what he wanted without getting anything in return.

It's political malpractice. 

Even worse, he's shut down the government now over the remaining 20% at the most politically inopportune time, having nothing left to bargain with.

The time to have done this was when Republicans were in control of Congress, in January 2017, or February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January 2018, February . . ..

Forgive us for thinking he was never serious about The Wall, at all.

The Wall is now and may always have been simply a political tool, like opposition to abortion. He stopped being serious about it in August 2016 after the immigration issue secured him the nomination, when this "advisor", Kellyanne Conway, came on board from the Ted Cruz campaign, which likewise was never serious about The Wall. Ted had one throwaway line about immigration in his entire speech announcing his candidacy, that's it. It was Trump who completely blindsided him and the rest of the Republican field with the issue. But ever since it's only red meat for the base. He never made it a priority, and fired the only person actively pursuing immigration reform in his administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That's how unimportant The Wall has been to the president. 

The Wall riles up the news, keeping Trump in it, that's all.

Kellyanne Conway: Trump "Already Compromised" On Border Wall Funding, Originally Asked for $25 Billion:

I believe the president has already compromised. He originally asked for $25 billion. The House is at $5.6 billion. They did their job. The Senate has to come back. It is a modest investment.

State elections board still refuses to certify Republican Mark Harris the winner in NC-9

North Carolina seat in U.S. Congress likely to stay vacant as fraud controversy intensifies:

Harris filed an emergency petition earlier on Friday to be certified as victor of last month’s election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. His request was rejected by a state elections board reviewing whether mail-in ballots were illegally handled in some rural counties.

But the future of that investigation was thrown into doubt by a state court ruling and newly passed law. The state elections board was disbanded on Friday, after a state court on Thursday declined to extend a stay on a previous order declaring the composition of the board unconstitutional.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said he would immediately appoint an interim board to continue the investigation until a restructured elections board was due to begin operating at the end of January under a new state law.

The US has wasted trillion$ in the Middle East if the president can't fly-in to Iraq like he can to Berlin

Laugh of the Day: WGVU's school closings page shows its most recent information dates to Dec 31, 1969, or 25.7 million minutes ago

The assholes in the media will report every illegal's rare death in custody but NEVER report on their much more numerous murders of Americans

So why did Trump appoint a Secretary of Agriculture who doesn't support The Wall?

The only other explanation than the one below is that Trump isn't really serious about The Wall and never has been, and is only interested in how he can play the politics of The Wall.

Donald Trump can fund the border wall without congressional approval:

Opposition to the wall within Trump’s own administration has prevented progress on this issue, which is wildly popular with the GOP’s conservative base and is the consequence of the president surrounding himself with establishment advisers who have worked to thwart his populist agenda from within. For example, after being briefed on the concept of selling USDA commercial paper to pay for border security, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s then-Chief of Staff Heidi Green shot down the idea by curtly stating, “The secretary does not want the wall.”

Of course Justin Raimondo exonerates third parties from spoiling elections, that's his party's specialty

Laugh of the Day: SECDEF Jim Mattis resigned effective Feb. 28, 2019 to ensure a smooth transition, Trump boots him effective Jan. 1 after reading what he said about him

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis Resigning in February

After criticism, Trump pushes out Mattis sooner than planned

 

Eight House Republicans who voted against funding The Wall include Amash and Upton in Michigan, eleven others didn't even bother to vote

Funding passed the US House 217-185 with 31 not voting.

Eight House Republicans voted against funding The Wall (the question involved in this piece of sausage, Child Protection Improvements Act of 2017, is humorously described as "On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment to the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment with Amendment", part of politicians' perennially deliberate efforts to obscure what the hell they are doing so that we tire of tracking it):

Justin Amash, MI-3

Ken Buck, CO-4

Carlos Curbelo, FL-26 (defeated in 2018)

Will Hurd, TX-23

Erik Paulsen, MN-3 (defeated in 2018)

Ros-Lehtinen, FL-27 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

Fred Upton, MI-6

David Valadao, CA-21 (defeated in 2018)

Eleven House Republicans didn't bother to vote at all on funding The Wall:

Diane Lynn Black, TN-6 (didn't run in 2018, ran for governor and lost in primary)

Barbara Comstock, VA-10 (defeated in 2018)

Jeff Duncan, SC-3

Randy Hultgren, IL-14 (defeated in 2018)

Darrell Issa, CA-49 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

Lynn Jenkins, KS-2 (didn't run in 2018)

Walter Jones, NC-3

Mia Love, UT-4 (defeated in 2018)

Kristi Noem, SD (didn't run in 2018, ran for governor and won)

Peter Roskam, IL-6 (defeated in 2018)

Dave Trott, MI-11 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

[Red indicates they'll be back in the US House in January 2019, to torment us.]

Marshall Auerback: George W. Bush's naïve China Fantasy mimicked FDR on Joseph Stalin

Liberalism misunderestimating our enemies, as usual, because it believes human nature is essentially good.

All of our bets on China have been wrong:

In contrast to diplomat and historian George Kennan’s famous telegram about the old Soviet Union (which correctly rebutted US president Franklin D Roosevelt’s naïve assumptions about Josef Stalin and provided the diplomatic underpinnings for a sustained policy of Western containment after World War II), today’s Cold War 2.0 is typified by what author James Mann calls the West’s “China fantasy,” a notion encapsulated by former US president George W Bush’s remark: “Trade freely with China, and time is on our side.”

Yellow Vest protests against high prices of essentials like fuel, electricity, food and water spread to Tel Aviv

Copycat protests are popping up everywhere, in some cases adapted to pre-existing political factions representing disparate issues such as marijuana legalization, which is hardly what it's about in France.

'YELLOW VEST' PROTESTERS SWARM THE STREETS OF TEL AVIV:

The movement which only started a week ago, in mid-December, in Israel, followed the wave of "yellow vest" protests in France that started in May 2018, mainly objecting the high coast of living and rising fuel prices. 

The Israeli copy has similar objectives- stop the rising electricity and water prices, which they believe will directly affect food prices.

Sidney Powell: Special Counsel Robert Mueller committed crimes by wiping Peter Strzok's and Lisa Page's cell phones

Comey and the FBI committed similar crimes in the Hillary investigation to protect her and her associates.

POWELL: NEW FACTS INDICATE MUELLER DESTROYED EVIDENCE, OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE:

The Inspector General of the Department of Justice reported late last week that Mueller wiped Peter Strzok’s cell phone of all messages during the crucial time he was working for special counsel. The IG was unable to recover any text messages from it.

This was after the inspector general informed Mueller of the extreme bias of Strzok and Page evidenced by thousands of text messages on their phones. These messages were so egregious they required their termination from Mueller’s squad. Not only did Mueller hide this development from Congress, but he destroyed evidence on Strzok’s phone and allowed DOJ to do the same for Page’s phone. That’s a crime. Mueller put Paul Manafort in solitary confinement for simply trying to contact a witness.

Any ethical law Department of Justice official would have taken custody of all electronic devices of Strzok and Page immediately upon discovery of their extreme bias and blatant misconduct — or certainly upon their termination — and preserved all the evidence. For Mueller to destroy this evidence is blatant obstruction of justice that warrants his immediate termination. The same is true for Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein who was “overseeing” it at the time.

It doesn't matter what side they're on they just want someone else to fight their wars

That's what she said: Max Boot thinks it was wrong to go in, now wrong to pull out

Trump's $5 billion request would build just 100 miles of new wall, 115 miles of replacement barrier

Ted Cruz says Trump 'won't capitulate' over $5B demand, enough for 215 miles of border wall — half of it replacement:

[T]he $5 billion the House has approved for a border wall would be enough for about 215 miles of barrier. Less than half of that — about 100 miles, mostly in South Texas — would be frontier that doesn't already have a fence. The rest would go to replace older, less-effective fencing or to build secondary fencing. ...

Senior officials from the Homeland Security Department briefed journalists Friday afternoon on what the proposed $5 billion could accomplish. Their estimate of 215 miles' worth of new and replacement fencing works out to more than $23 million a mile, on average. That's far higher than the nearly 700 miles of barrier already in place along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Most of that was authorized under President George W. Bush, in the Secure Fences Act of 2006. The Government Accountability Office issued a report in 2009 that put the initial cost per mile at $2.8 to $3.9 million. But that was in urban areas, where roads were already in place. Some of the replacement fencing installed during the Trump administration has cost about $8 million a mile. The more remote the area, the higher the cost. Homeland Security officials insisted that comparisons are inappropriate. "Every mile of border is different," said one official. "It depends on the terrain" and other factors.

Since Trump took office, Congress has approved $341 million for 40 miles of replacement fencing and new gates in San Diego, New Mexico and West Texas, plus gates in the Rio Grande Valley to close gaps between existing fence. Of that, 34 miles is complete.

Earlier this year, Congress provided an additional $1.375 billion for about 84 miles of new and replacement border barrier. That includes levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley, with construction expected to start in February, plus some new wall construction in that area of South Texas, along with replacement barrier in Arizona and California. ...

When Congress authorized wall funding earlier this year, it restricted construction to designs already in use.

Rush Limbaugh thanks Mark Meadows today when it was Meadows who helped stop the immigration showdown in October

Neither Meadows nor Limbaugh (Ted Cruz supporter) really want the wall.

And Trump obviously doesn't either, otherwise he wouldn't have treated the issue like he has, in sharp contrast to his campaign for president.

Here's the grifter today taking money from you suckers:

Nancy doesn’t even run the House yet, and she’s out there saying Trump couldn’t get the votes — and he did, and it was because of Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan and the Freedom Caucus. They did their special order earlier this week and they let the president that know they would have his back. It’d be easy for the president to think that he’s isolated, but it was I think a very important thing that they did to make it a point to go to the floor of the House and special orders to make sure that everybody knew — not just the president — that they, significant number of Republicans in the House, would have his back.

Merry Christmas: Rush Limbaugh is off the air til next year and we don't have to keep hearing how we don't have to have a wall

Justin Raimondo on General Mad Dog Mattis resignation: We got the leaker

And maybe his conduit, too.

Democrats colluded with Russkies to beat Roy Moore in Alabama

Bart Simpson: Hey immigrants! Beat it! Country's full!

Here.

Sure, sure, 1,147 hard-working Americans scared of losing their jobs sat patiently all the way through this Quinnipiac Poll until Question 47 on The Wall

December 18, 2018 - U.S. Voters Say No Wall And Don't Shut Down Government, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds;Focus On Issues, Not Impeachment, Voters Tell Dems 7-1 

Trump has no veto weapon in the criminal justice reform bill to get the border wall

The criminal justice reform bill passed the Senate 87-12 on Tuesday and the House 358-36 on Thursday and awaits the president's signature.

He could hold it hostage to get what he wants on the wall today even though he supports the bill, but Congress has the votes to override his veto, 66 in the Senate and 287 in the House.

Worse still, a government shutdown tonight would shut down Homeland Security and the State Department only, both of which are kind of critical to controlling immigration in any event, wall or no wall.

The president has yet to come anywhere near mastering the art of getting what he wants in DC.

Lame Duck House passes $5 billion border wall funding attached to spending bill 217-185

House passes spending bill with border wall money — setting up shutdown stalemate with Senate:

During a televised Oval Office fracas last week, Pelosi challenged Trump by saying he did not have the votes for wall money in the House. It turns out he did.

Today Syria . . .

. . . tomorrow Afghanistan.

It's EASY to understand opposition to the wall: The Wall effectively stops the inflow of drugs, off of which powerful people make money to buy members of Congress

Hey Trump! Money for border security is weasel words!

Money for a border wall isn't.

WaPo in March: 7% of Obama 2012 voters stayed home in 2016 (4.4 million), 1.6 million of them black

WaPo spins this, chalking it up to 1) Russian voter suppression of stupid people (pretty damn condescending!);  2) Republicans (!) dredging up Hillary's own 1996 statement that blacks = super predators to suppress their vote (naw, she's not racist); 3) Obama wasn't on the ballot, suppressing the black vote!

 

But why blame blacks, WaPo? Kinda racist of you to put it all on them, especially in Michigan and Pennsylvania. 2.8 million others stayed home, too, you know. Their votes count just as much as black votes, don't they? Don't they? Well let's hear it for the young, disaffected voters for Bernie in the primaries! They didn't show up either, apparently. Why? They also found Hillary quite revolting. Trump revolted them too, but that goes without saying. What matters is the Democrat candidate suppressed all these votes, but WaPo and the Democrats, but I repeat myself, just can't bring themselves to utter this truth.

 

Anyway, it's nice of WaPo, and The New York Times, finally getting around over a year and a half later to pointing out what we were pointing out only days after Election 2016:

 

Hillary sucked more than Trump did. 

 

4.4 million 2012 Obama voters stayed home in 2016 — more than a third of them black: 

 

Exit polling suggests that black voters made up 12 percent of the electorate in 2016, down slightly from 2008 and 2012. Trump’s claim that many black voters stayed home ... is correct. ...

 

Eleven percent of black Obama 2012 voters stayed home. ...

 

In 2016, black turnout was down eight points from 2012, helping contribute to that lower percentage that black voters made up of the overall electorate. ...

 

About 5 million white Obama 2012 voters supported Trump; about 1.6 million black voters stayed home.

As Trump pulls 2,000 US troops out of Syria, 5,000 ISIS fighters remain, 5,200 US troops still in Iraq

Reported here:

ISIS RETURN: Islamic State kill 700 in terror horror - 5000 jihadists holed up in Syria

Justin Raimondo, a libertarian with class; Justin Amash, not so much

The great divide on the right is between those of us who want to invade Mexico and those who want to invade Canada

One term president now wants a wall which pleases Democrats' artistic sensibilities and which Mexicans admire as they're climbing through it

Rush Limbaugh: There are some people in prison who shouldn't be

Oh really?

Stupid caller Michelle to Chris Plante still thinks Republicans retiring caused loss of the US House, to punish Trump supporters

There were fewer than ten seats retired by Republicans which flipped to the Democrats.

Politics is the art of the possible, not the art of the deal. If Trump couldn't pass his agenda with control of everything, he won't in this Lame Duck, and certainly not next year when Pelosi runs the show in the House.

Republicans are dead. Trump is dead. Justin Raimondo is dead. But only Justin Raimondo knows it.

One term president bans bump stocks, pulls out of Syria, gets ready to empty the prisons, and caves on the wall

I'm soooooooo sick of winning, President Norman Vincent Peale.

Disgraceful Judge Emmet Sullivan, elevated to the federal bench by Bill Clinton, trumpeted by disgraceful media

All the news plays at the top of the hour is Judge Sullivan saying that General Michael Flynn sold out his country, not mentioning Sullivan immediately backtracked on his insinuations that Flynn committed treason.

Damage done.

Sullivan got his first affirmative action appointment from Ronald Reagan.

This reaction to the sentencing hearing yesterday suggests Flynn is going to jail, eventually.

This isn't about a crime; it's about criminalizing a foreign policy opinion different from the establishment's opinion, elections be damned.

The world will be an emptier, more insane place without Justin Raimondo

Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer ignores the violence done to the attorney-client relationship by Robert Mueller

The rule of law is dead if your lawyer can't and won't keep a confidence, if we let an unelected appointee of an unelected appointee usurp the powers reserved to duly elected constitutional officers go on a fishing expedition and illegally search and seize the confidential papers of citizens supposedly protected under the Fourth Amendment.

Minor details to this wizard of smart.

State capitalism means rewarding bankrupt Sears executives with $25 million in bonuses

Oh come on, Greenwald, Trump this, Trump that, ditch the Trump derangement syndrome already

Trump was the needed not-Hillary, that's all.

Next!

As the flipside version of Chinese state capitalism, it is fitting that fascist America have a show trial now and again

Actually The Weekly Standard didn't get what it deserved

Russia tampered with US Election 2016 = Iraq 2002 has WMD

Amy Siskind remains blind to Hillary underperforming Barack Obama 2008 by 3.65 million votes

The sign of a growing movement is building on past achievements, at which Hillary miserably failed.

She didn't even beat Obama 2012, but hey, go for alienating the voters again with her.

And there's your slogan for 2020, too: "I'm (alienating the voters again) with her".

It didn't take Russians to keep blacks from voting in 2016

It took Hillary.

AP confirms sportswear sold on US college campuses is made by the forced labor of Muslim prisoners in Western China

In locked compound, minorities in China make clothes for US:

The Associated Press has tracked recent, ongoing shipments from one such factory inside an internment camp to Badger Sportswear, a leading supplier in Statesville, North Carolina. ... At least 10 times this year shipping containers filled with thousands of men’s, women’s and youth polyester knitted T-shirts and pants were sent to Badger Sportswear, a 47-year-old athletic gear seller. ... Dozens of college bookstores advertise their gear printed on Badger Sportswear, including Texas A&M, University of Pennsylvania, Appalachian State University, University of Northern Iowa, University of Evansville and Bates College. ... [I]n April this year, it began importing 100 percent polyester T-shirts and pants from Hetian Taida Apparel, according to U.S. customs data provided by ImportGenius, which analyzes consumer shipments. The address on the shipping records is the same as for the detention camp.

 

FBI and Mueller framed Flynn, 302 evidence against Flynn is seven months old, isn't contemporaneous with the January 2017 informal interview

Missing Flynn document in Mueller file could rile judge at sentencing hearing :

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan had ordered the special counsel to turn over all government documents and “memoranda” related to the questioning of Flynn, after his attorneys claimed the FBI had discouraged him from bringing a lawyer to his fateful Jan. 24, 2017 interview with agents at the White House. ...

Mueller met Sullivan’s Friday afternoon deadline and provided documents, some of which were heavily redacted.

Apart from a new memo from Mueller's team defending the FBI's handling of the interview -- and saying nothing about the way it was conducted “caused the defendant to make false statements to the FBI” -- the filing included a January 2017 memo on Flynn from then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and a "302" (a document memorializing interviews) detailing a July 19, 2017 interview with then-FBI agent Peter Strzok. Strzok, one of two agents who interviewed Flynn, described that meeting in the document, filed Aug. 22 of that year.

But not included in the filing was an original 302 from the period of the January 2017 Flynn interview.

It's unclear whether the document exists. However, the Strzok interview file appeared to repeatedly refer to a 302 drafted after the Flynn interview. "Strzok conducted the interview and [REDACTED] was primarily responsible for taking notes and writing the FD-302," one section said. Another said that throughout the interview, Flynn did not give any indication of deception and only hedged once, "which they documented in the 302."

James Trusty, a former senior Justice Department official who now works as a criminal defense attorney at Ifrah Law, predicted Sullivan would notice that the 302 submitted Friday is dated seven months after the Flynn interview took place.

“Judge Sullivan has a well-established history of taking on discovery issues head-on,” Trusty said. “So providing a seven-month-old FBI 302 is absolutely going to be a red flag for the judge, and I can’t imagine there are not going to be questions tomorrow about whether there are contemporaneous notes, or a contemporaneous report, that is in the FBI’s possession.” ...

Strzok was removed from the Russia probe in late July 2017 -- just days after he apparently gave the interview that formed the basis for the 302 in Mueller's filing -- for his apparent anti-Trump bias. No audio recording or other documentation of Flynn's comments to the FBI have been produced. ...

Last week, Comey was asked how the FBI agents ended up at the White House to interview Flynn in the first place. Comey’s response provided new details about the circumstances that fueled criticism of the bureau’s conduct:

“I sent them,” Comey said in a panel discussion with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, and added that it was “something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in a more…organized administration.”

The interview was arranged directly with Flynn, he explained, acknowledging this was not standard procedure.

I wish it were The Mark Steyn Show instead of The Rush Limbaugh Show

Steyn just called for the entire US justice system to be torn down and rebuilt.

Hooah, Mark.

Yeah right, unite the whites, just like in 1066, 1517, 1688, 1776, 1789, 1861, 1914, 1939, 1954, 1969 . . .

Obamacare liar Jonathan Gruber decides it's safe to lie again, this time in The Boston Globe

Jonathan Gruber leaves out that millions of Americans already have unusable insurance right now under Obamacare, and that it already costs them tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket every year because their crappy, no-good rotten piece of shit Obamacare-era health insurance plan SUCKS, covering nada, nothing, nichts, doodlysquat.

Gruber just decides not to mention them.

Major lying asshole yesterday, today and forever.

 

Texas court strikes down Affordable Care Act, putting the health of Americans and our democracy at risk:

Millions of Americans who don’t read the fine print of their insurance contracts could once again buy insurance that leaves them with tens of thousands of dollars in uncovered medical bills.

Priceless: As The Weekly Standard shutters Bill Kristol says "Onward"

How The Anti-Trump, Conservative ‘Weekly Standard’ Bit The Dust:

Kristol, meanwhile, tweeted optimistically that “we have much more to do. Onward.” 

Close enough.

 

Rule by the clitheads instead of the dickheads would only appear to be different

Hm, CNN followed the Women's March organizers for a whole year and completely missed their anti-Semites