Michigan Republicans boo Romney the "loser", call for his deportation

Byron York reports here:

Trump instinctively sensed that he could bash Romney in Romney's home state with no consequences at all. "This guy Romney came out yesterday," Trump began, which brought on lots and lots of boos. "The hatred he has, the jealousy, the hatred, it's hard to believe."

More boos. "You guys should like him, right?" Trump said. Still more boos.

'Deport Romney!" yelled a man in the crowd.

"Thank you," said Trump.

"Loser," yelled a woman near me.

The anger and frustration did not stop with political figures. A number of people complained to me about conservative media, which they believe hasn't treated Trump fairly. "I'm a National Review reader," said a man who walked up to me during Trump's speech. "I can't even look at the site anymore. It looks like Salon. Nine stories tearing [Trump] apart, man. I don't get it."

Ted Cruz: The sleaziest dirty tricks campaigner of modern American history

So says Conrad Black here.

And Conrad Black knows a thing or two about that.

Turnout in Republican primaries is nearly 49% higher than in Democrat contests to date

Popular votes for Republicans are running at 10.1 million vs. 6.8 million for Democrats, unless you count Rubio and Kasich as Democrats, in which case Democrats are winning by 35%.

Unify the party you poster boys for prophylactics.

Mitt Romney is Democrats best friend in 2016

Trump popular vote in LA, KS, ME and KY yesterday beat both Romney in 2012 and McCain in 2008

Trump garnered 230,443 votes in Louisiana, Kansas, Maine and Kentucky yesterday, beating Romney's total in 2012 (north of 174,000) and McCain's total in 2008 (north of 214,000). Ted Cruz received 230,209 popular votes.

In Kentucky neither Trump nor Cruz beat Romney or McCain but together the first and second place finishers yesterday garnered north of 154,000 votes, beating Romney's 117,000 in 2012 and McCain's 142,000 in 2008, both late May contests in those years unlike in 2016.

Turnout in Kentucky in 2016 exceeded 225,000, eclipsing the previous contests significantly. In 2012 turnout was only 176,000, even weaker than 2008's 185,000. Enthusiasm for Romney in 2012 had also been down in Louisiana, where McCain previously in 2008 had mustered 18,000 more votes than Romney did four years later.

In Louisiana, Kansas and Maine Trump beat Romney 2.6:1 and McCain 2:1 despite losing Kansas and Maine to Cruz yesterday, who himself obliterated Romney in Kansas 5.8:1 and McCain 8.75:1. In Maine Cruz crushed Romney 4:1 and McCain 8:1. Cruz yesterday beat the former GOP candidates for president 2.75:1 and 2.2:1 in Louisiana, Kansas and Maine combined.

Despite Trump winning the popular vote yesterday by 234 votes in the four contests, Cruz won 16 more delegates than Trump.

Ted Cruz is a "me too" wall builder and is soft on illegal immigration: Trump's central ideas in June 2015 speech predate Cruz' by five months

Noted here:

Cruz unveiled his immigration plan in November, the first plank of which is to "build a wall that works" — a suggestion that his call for more border agents, surveillance and biometric entry-exit tracking is simply a more sophisticated version of Trump's blunt-force proposals. "The unsecured border with Mexico invites illegal immigrants, criminals, and terrorists to tread on American soil. I will complete the wall," the plan says in yet another nod to Trump.

Not only did it take five months for Cruz to copy Trump's ideas, the only wall Ted Cruz ever mentioned in his own speech announcing his run for president in March 2015 was the Berlin Wall.

Securing the border is just a one-liner in the speech among many other one-liners, and unlike Trump Cruz emphasized legal immigration in the speech, a nod to his long-suspected softness on the issue:

(APPLAUSE)

Imagine abolishing the IRS.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of the lawlessness and the president’s unconstitutional executive amnesty, imagine a president that finally, finally, finally secures the borders.

(APPLAUSE)

And imagine a legal immigration system that welcomes and celebrates those who come to achieve the American dream.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of a federal government that wages an assault on our religious liberty, that goes after Hobby Lobby, that goes after . . ..

Peter Beinart notes leftists are upset with liberals who won't "undo systemic justice"

Leave the typo as it is, Peter. You got it right the first time.

The Detroit News adopts Mitt Romney's talking points against Trump ahead of the primary, but still won't tell us how it really feels

Here, calling him an opportunist, shallow, delusional, volatile and a fraud.

What, that's all?

How it holds back I can hardly tell!

"He may not be a racist, misogynist, nativist xenophobe. But too often he sure sounds like one."

Come on, why don't you tell us how you really feel, Nolan?

Cowards. Just like Romney.

John Kasich, lunatic Bushie who wants to start a hot war with Russia over Ukraine, Finland or Sweden

From the debate in Detroit:

In Russia, we need to tell them we're going to arm the Ukrainians with defensive lethal weapons. And we're going to tell Putin if you attack anybody in Eastern Europe in NATO, you attack Finland and Sweden, which is not in NATO, consider it an attack on us. And he will understand that.

Representative Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48) says "This is belligerent nonsense". 

Momentum for all GOP candidates has slowed since Super Tuesday, but Trump's Mo is still tops

Momentum for all GOP candidates was slowed by Super Saturday yesterday, but Trump retains the easiest path to 1,237 despite a bitter attack from Mitt Romney and the establishment on Thursday morning and an ugly debate in Detroit on Thursday evening.

After Super Tuesday, Trump needed 51.45% of remaining delegates* to clinch the nomination with 1,237. Now he needs 52.57% of the remaining after Saturday's contests. His Mo has slowed by 2.2% but overall remains better than Cruz', who did well yesterday with indignant Christian Kansans and oddball libertarian Mainers.

Cruz has seen his Mo slow the least of all the candidates yesterday, needing 56.67% of remaining delegates after Super Tuesday to needing 57.64% now, or slowing by just 1.7%.

Rubio and Kasich, however, have both had flat tires on their journey to 1,237 yesterday.

After Super Tuesday, Rubio needed an untenable 63.17% of remaining delegates, but now he needs 68.17%. His Mo is down 7.9%.

And Kasich not only had a flat yesterday, his ball joint broke, too. Needing 67.93% of remaining delegates after Super Tuesday, he needs 73.62% now. His Mo is down 8.4%. He clearly sees himself as a monkey wrench, attempting to yet queer both upcoming Michigan and Ohio just enough to set the conditions for a contested convention in his home state of Ohio this summer.

Not very sportsmanlike. But hey, that's the establishment for you.

*Don't forget Ben Carson who dropped out on Friday when calculating delegate allocations. He has eight in his pocket.

Rubio and Kasich both want to send US ground troops in large numbers back to the Middle East

From the debate in Detroit:

BAIER: Gentlemen, the next topic to discuss is terrorism. Senator Rubio, ISIS is a big topic of conversation on Facebook. We have a map that shows the conservation about ISIS around the country. You proposed sending a larger number of American ground troops to help defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq...

RUBIO: That's correct, and Libya. ...

KASICH: Fortunately in Libya, there's only a few cities on the coast, because most of Libya is a desert. The fact of the matter is, we absolutely have to be -- and not just with special forces. I mean, that's not going to work. Come on. You've got to go back to the invasion when we pushed Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. We have to be there on the ground in significant numbers. We do have to include our Muslim Arab friends to work with us on that. And we have to be in the air.

And we -- it should be a broad coalition, made up of the kinds of people that were involved when we defeated Saddam. Now, you've got to be on the ground and in the air both in Syria and Iraq. And at some point, we will have to deal with Libya. I am very concerned about ISIS getting their hands on the oilfields in Libya and being able to fund their operations. The fact is cool, calm, deliberate, effective, take care of the job, and then come home. That's what we need to do with our military foreign policy.

Trump 2016 v McCain 2008 through the Super Tuesday primaries: Trump wins by 45%

Trump beats McCain in every state except for liberal Vermont, 3.358 million to 2.317 million:

IA: Trump .045m v McCain .016m

NH: .100m v .089m

SC: .239m v .148m

NV: .034m v .006m

GA: .501m v .305m

TN: .332m v .175m

VA: .355m v .244m

MA: .311m v .204m

VT: .019m v .028m

MN: .024m v .014m

AL: .371m v .211m

OK: .130m v .123m

AK: .007m v .002m

TX: .757m v .708m

AR: .133m v .044m.

Trump in 2016 also beats Romney in 2012 by 33%, 3.358 million votes to 2.519 million, losing to Romney only in Texas (prefers homeboy Ted Cruz) and Vermont (prefers liberals).

Incidentally, despite Romney outperforming McCain overall in this comparison which ought to be a natural outgrowth of increasing population, he underperformed McCain in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Minnesota, Alabama and Oklahoma in 2012, an ominous sign for Romney. There was little enthusiasm for the man in too many places, which his recent demonstrations of disloyalty only underscore.

But Trump is crushing them both.

John Kasich stumbles, associates himself with bitter Mitt Romney remarks

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

Here:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grand Rapids, MI in February 2016 experienced a temperature anomaly of 2.7 degrees F above normal on average

Temperature averaged 29.5 degrees F.

The very long term mean average temperature in February, however, is 24.4 degrees F using the full NOWdata, so NOAA is saying the normal average is 26.8 based on a smaller data set which does not incorporate the full record available. Otherwise the anomaly would be 5.1 degrees F, not 2.7.

Do these people know what they're doing?

Precipitation was 0.99 inches above normal, coming in at 2.78 inches. The very long term mean precipitation average is 1.76 inches in February, however, not 1.79.

Snowfall was 14.8 inches, 1.7 inches above the mean average of 13.1 for the month calculated going back to the beginning of the record. January is typically the snowiest month at 18.5 inches, followed by December at 15.9 and then February at 13.1.

Heating degree days in February were 10.35% below the very long term mean of 1140 at 1022. Cumulatively for the season HDD are running 827 below normal (4077 v 4904), about 16.9% to date, thanks to the El Nino.

Partly due to the warmer winter weather than normal, my natural gas consumption in February is down almost 26% year over year. But I also remedied an attic insulation defect last summer.

The current very strong El Nino now averages 2.2 on the enso index for four consecutive measuring periods

The 1997-98 El Nino averaged 2.18 for five consecutive periods.

The 1982-83 El Nino averaged 2.1 for three consecutive periods.

The current El Nino is eleven periods long so far, averaging 1.49, the '97 was thirteen total averaging 1.56 and the '82 was fifteen total averaging 1.30, according to the most recent data.

Illegal immigrant flood is Bush's fault, and Mexico's: W's 2008 anti-human trafficking law prohibiting immediate deportation is the magnet

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports here that Mexico just sends their problem north to us, and Bush's law requires us to waste time and resources tracking down the traffickers, all while it's in Obama's political interests to be lenient:

Fleeing punishing poverty and brutal gangs, tens of thousands of people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras started surging across the border in 2014. Their numbers fell toward the end of that year and stayed lower in early 2015 before rising sharply again. Between October of 2015 and January of this year, apprehensions on the southwest border were more than double the number from the same period the year before. Most of those who were caught are from Central America. Some are from Mexico. ...

A 2008 anti-human trafficking law — signed by President George W. Bush — prevents the government from immediately deporting them. Instead, the government is required to feed, shelter and provide medical care to them until they can be released to the care of sponsors, who are usually relatives. Meanwhile, the children undergo deportation proceedings in federal immigration courts in Georgia and other states where they can seek relief to stay in the U.S. ...

[T]he government is in a better position to respond to the surges this year because it has opened several processing centers — converted warehouses — for the apprehended immigrants in McAllen, Texas. At those centers, authorities try to identify their smugglers and the routes they took to get into the U.S.

One impediment to building a decent wall to stop this flood is that much of the border land is privately owned.

Now you understand why Trump is talking up eminent domain. Talking about taking land to build a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf is simply preparation for taking land to build the Great Wall of Trump.

Trump is serious, folks.

Tea Party Patriots pat themselves on the back at CPAC in Maryland while Trump heads to Kansas to talk to the people

Noted here:

Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said the businessman "has no business thinking he is Tea Party. Trump is about love of himself," she said. "But the Tea Party is about love of country and the love of our constitution."

The Tea Party in South Carolina begs to differ, giving about equal love to Trump and Cruz.

Bruce Bartlett goes off his meds again

Here:

[T]he system is out of balance, creating gridlock even as the public cries out for action on serious problems such as our deteriorating public infrastructure, epitomized by that in Flint, Michigan. ... The government was shut down, increases in the debt limit are constantly at risk, nominations to even the most minor administration positions are blocked and, now, the president has been denied the opportunity, which is his right under the Constitution, to name a new justice to the Supreme Court.

Let's see.

Incompetent Democrats failed to treat the water of the Flint River properly before tapping it, ruining Flint's infrastructure.

Republicans gained seats after the government shutdown. Maybe they should do it more often.

Republicans subsequently extended the debt limit until after Mr Teflon is gone so as not to interfere with the president's many golf outings and vacations.

The president still can name whoever he wants to whatever he wants.

Meanwhile the public cries out for Donald Trump, not action.

GOP delegate totals through Super Tuesday 2016: Trump dominates with 319, 46% of the 688 decided so far