14 thoughts on “News/Politics 9-16-15

  1. The problem I have with the “establishment” Republicans is their hypocrisy.

    Remember early on when people (including Kristol) were throwing a fit because Trump wouldn’t sign a pledge to not run 3rd party if he didn’t get the R nomination? They had quite the hissy over it, said he needed to support the candidate if he lost.

    Well now the hypocrites are changing their tune because they fear Trump might actually be the nominee.

    http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/14/media/bill-kristol-donald-trump/

    “Donald Trump has signed a pledge to support the Republican Party’s presidential nominee — even if it isn’t him. But one of the best-known pundits in conservative media isn’t making the same promise.

    Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, said he would likely look beyond both of the major parties if Trump, the clear frontrunner in the GOP’s crowded presidential field, emerged with the party’s nomination.

    “I doubt I’d support Donald. I doubt I’d support the Democrat,” Kristol told CNNMoney in an email. “I think I’d support getting someone good on the ballot as a third party candidate.””

    Hypocrite.

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  2. Oh boy…. 🙄

    http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/09/13/439833719/true-believer-why-donald-trump-is-the-choice-of-the-religious-right?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news

    “When Donald Trump stepped to the podium in a football stadium in Mobile, Alabama, filled with 30,000 people there to hear him spread the gospel of Trump, he was overcome.

    “Now I know how the great Billy Graham felt,” Trump said last month.

    Trump and Graham, the famed Baptist revival preacher and counselor to presidents, are not exactly cut from the same cloth. And yet, Trump is winning over Christian conservatives in the current Republican presidential primary.

    That’s right — the candidate currently leading among the most faith-filled voters is a twice-divorced casino mogul, who isn’t an active member of any church, once supported abortion rights, has a history of crass language — and who says he’s never asked God’s forgiveness for any of it.

    If that sounds like an Onion story, it’s not. His blunt talk against a broken political system in a country rank-and-file evangelicals believe is veering away from its traditional cultural roots is connecting. He pledges to “Make America Great Again,” a positive spin on the similar Tea Party refrain of “Take Our Country Back.”

    That redeeming message — and his tough talk on immigration, foreign policy and the Republican establishment — is quite literally trumping traditional evangelical concerns about a candidate’s morality or religious beliefs.”

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  3. Oh look, they did exactly what they accused Bush of doing….

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/09/exclusive-50-spies-say-isis-intelligence-was-cooked.html

    “More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military’s Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials, The Daily Beast has learned.

    The complaints spurred the Pentagon’s inspector general to open an investigation into the alleged manipulation of intelligence. The fact that so many people complained suggests there are deep-rooted, systemic problems in how the U.S. military command charged with the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State assesses intelligence.

    “The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command,” one defense official said.

    Two senior analysts at CENTCOM signed a written complaint sent to the Defense Department inspector general in July alleging that the reports, some of which were briefed to President Obama, portrayed the terror groups as weaker than the analysts believe they are. The reports were changed by CENTCOM higher-ups to adhere to the administration’s public line that the U.S. is winning the battle against ISIS and al Nusra, al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the analysts claim.

    That complaint was supported by 50 other analysts, some of whom have complained about politicizing of intelligence reports for months. That’s according to 11 individuals who are knowledgeable about the details of the report and who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity.”

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  4. So you think you deserve 15 an hour to flip burgers?

    Well you don’t, and neither does your replacements.

    http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/09/08/mcjobless-in-seattle-as-order-screens-arrive-labor-day-reality-check-for-15-minimum-wage-249245

    “While it seems liberals may think that raising the minimum wage will raise living standards for poor Americans, they should have seen this coming.

    With Los Angeles joining Seattle in setting a $15 minimum wage (Los Angeles by 2020, and Seattle by 2021), it stands to reason that McDonald’s would find a way around simply paying workers more, as Vox pointed out the obvious fact that “the reality is that McDonald’s just wants to make money.””

    “McDonald’s has unveiled its plan to use touch-screen technology in self-service kiosks where customers can order and pay for their food.”

    And now you’re unemployed, so at least you’ll have spare time for protesting. 🙂

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  5. If Trump is a monster, then the GOP establishment is Dr. Frankenstein.

    They brought this on themselves/

    http://townhall.com/columnists/davidlimbaugh/2015/09/15/the-establishment-birthed-trump-n2052148/page/full

    “Their overwrought analysis, their hand-wringing and their contemptuousness for Trump betray a disdain not only for Trump but for Americans who recognize the gravity of America’s predicament — and who, in desperation, have turned to Trump for bold action.

    It’s hard to overstate Americans’ concern for the state of the nation. Horrified by President Obama’s Sherman-esque march through America, they are tired of hearing that nothing can be done. They are through with empty promises from establishment politicians.

    People are tired of Obama’s pitting blacks against whites, women against men, gays against heterosexuals, rich against poor, non-taxpayers against taxpayers, citizens against cops and non-Christians against Christians. They can no longer stomach Obama’s apologizing for America and excusing terrorists while rushing to attack Christians at every turn.

    People are sick of being called racists for things that happened in this country before they were born or before they could vote, for opposing Obama’s destructive agenda, or for simply being Republicans. They abhor the war on cops orchestrated by racial hucksters and pandering politicians. They are incredulous that any president would deliberately engineer America’s decline and degrade our military. They are tired of the nation’s chief executive officer’s flouting laws and thwarting the people’s will.

    Americans are sick of Obama’s trashing America’s founding, assaulting capitalism, and bellowing about man-made global warming as a pretense to impose more liberty-smothering regulations. They are nauseated by politicians who are more interested in bipartisanship with scofflaws than with saving the nation.

    People are mortified by the nation’s fiscal instability, its unbridled national debt, its spiraling entitlements and Washington’s refusal to address them. They are sick of the fraudulent spending “cuts.” They have had their fill of the lies, especially about Obamacare, whose costs dwarf Obama’s promised projections and are getting worse. They’ve reached their limit with this administration’s rewarding unemployment and punishing work, its honoring socialism and demonizing capitalism.

    People are sick of politically correct bullies. They are exhausted by lectures about not paying their fair share when half the income earners don’t pay income taxes. They are fed up with lies about decreasing unemployment rates when tens of millions have dropped out of the workforce.

    Every other week, we face a new existential threat to the nation — threats perpetrated or enabled by Obama and the Washington establishment. But the establishment meets these perils with barely disguised indifference.Islamic terrorism is overrunning the Middle East and has reached our mainland, and Obama doesn’t dare whisper its name. Obama refuses to enforce the borders; he orders his administration not to enforce immigration laws; he lawlessly grants amnesty to millions of immigrants who are here illegally; and he and his party set up sanctuary cities that harbor criminal immigrants.”

    They built this.

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  6. Remember the image of the poor dead child of supposed refugees that was all over a week or so back?

    Things are not always what they seem. But hey, it made for some good propaganda.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3233802/Second-passenger-claims-Aylan-Kurdi-s-father-driving-boat-son-died-working-people-smugglers.html#ixzz3ljr8Ivqn Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    “A second passenger on board the boat that claimed the life of Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi says the boy’s father was driving.
    Amir Haider, 22, repeated allegations that Abdullah Kurdi, who lost his wife and two children in the tragedy, was at the helm of the boat until it sank.
    Last week, another passenger, Zainab Abbas, whose son and daughter died on the doomed boat trip, first made the claims, which were vehemently denied by Mr Kurdi.

    Aylan, three, died alongside his brother Galip, five, and mother, when their boat capsized on route to the Greek island of Kos.
    The photograph of his tiny body washed up on a beach in Bodrum, Turkey, sparked a global outpouring of support for Syrian refugees as well as his grieving father.
    But just days after Mr Kurdi returned to the Syrian city of Kobane to bury his family, fellow passengers on board the dinghy began making allegations against him.
    Ahmed Hadi Jawwad and his wife Zainab Abbas, whose 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son drowned, said Mr Kurdi panicked and accelerated when a wave hit the boat.
    ‘The story that (Mr Kurdi) told is untrue,’ Mr Jawwad said, speaking from his in-laws’ house in Baghdad on Friday. ‘I don’t know what made him lie, maybe fear.
    ‘He was the driver from the very beginning until the boat sank.'”

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  7. Any predictions about tonight’s debate?

    I was talking to a political reporter last night who kept insisting that Hillary would prevail and that it’s virtually impossible for a Republican to win a presidential election at this point based on the electoral system, especially (he said) since the GOP now has all these “crazies” (and by that I understood him to be talking about conservatives in general 🙂 ) who could never win an election beyond the party base. He just was so dismissive and smug, it irked me.

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  8. Here’s AP’s take on tonight:

    http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150916/us–gop_2016-debate-98235c5105.html
    _____________________________________
    WASHINGTON (AP) — In the first Republican presidential debate, most candidates took a hands-off approach to Donald Trump and hoped the brash billionaire would hurt himself.
    Instead, he only got stronger.

    Trump’s unexpected durability has led some of his rivals to shift their strategy for Wednesday’s second showdown. Now their goal is to engage Trump, without inflicting any damage on their own campaigns. …
    _____________________________________

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  9. Yeah… sure, “engage” him, that’ll work. .

    Ask Megan Kelly how that worked out. 🙄

    If the established candidates/RINOs try that they run the risk of driving more support to him. If it looks like they’re attacking him, he’ll get even more support from anti-incumbent types. A great deal of his support comes because he’s an outsider. If the clique attacks, Trump wins.

    Again.

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  10. Cruz, maybe Carson, Fiorina, or Paul. I’d even take Rubio over Trump.

    Anybody but Bush or Christie, If it came down to Trump, Christie, or Bush….

    I’d take Trump. Sure he’s left-leaning, but at least he’s honest about it, unlike Bush, Christie, Kasich, and so on…..

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  11. I’m trying to follow the debate, but it’s hit and miss — watching it at work proved difficult (in a newsroom full — well, as full as we can be anymore — of liberals; Huckabee was a special target) — then catching some of it on the radio and (after a stop at the store and UPS center on the way home) now I’m trying to catch the rest of it on TV (only 40 minutes left).

    It’s discouraging, maybe because I’m surrounded by liberals; sometimes I really do think the country is simply tumbled too far down that slope, at least for now, to reverse itself (even if a conservative could win).

    Obama was a flat-out disaster. I feel so sorry about what’s happened in the last 7 years. 😦 😦

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  12. I asked a colleague today, when he mentioned “crazies,” what he meant by that — conservatives Republicans? He said no, but that really is what it comes down to. Anyone who disagrees with me is crazy or a nut or worse.

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