We had some fun, Janice. However, in the clear light of the morning I actually for the first time think Trump will be our nominee. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse…
It is still very unclear to me that any of the Democrats is any worse than Trump. Like Sanders he favors socialized medicine. Like Gore his whole history is in crony capitalism. He likes his pro-abortion sister for the Supreme Court. On top of all that he is a lunatic.
Nobody, not even Hillary could be worse that Obama.
Obama doesn’t like America. Clinton doesn’t hate America. She loves money and power. She would sell out the country, but only for a price.
Obama would do it for spite.
Trump would do it on principle. Only he has no principle.
He just wants power. He doesn’t yet know what he will do with it.
None of the Republicans, with the exception of Trump, would be “worse” than — or as bad as — Clinton or Sanders. And I’m with Chas, none of the above could possibly (I don’t think, anyway) be worse than what we’ve had the past 7 years. A sheer disaster.
I do think some of the Republicans (and 1 of the Dems, O’Malley, of course) need to consider dropping out soon, including Bush, Kasich, probably Carson. But I suppose they’re all waiting for the first few weeks of caucuses/primaries to roll out before making those decisions.
Long-term, I still feel there’s hope when I read the likes of the National Review lineup featured in the arguments against Trump. We have some smart, thoughtful, principled conservative voices in this country. Sowell, Charen, Krauthhammer …
And while I realize the primaries are just getting underway, I hope Republicans will spend less money & effort whacking away at each other (Bush relentlessly going after Rubio is getting old and is beginning to look really petty and mean-spirited) and look more at the big picture.
I’d agree with Krauthhamer’s assessment of the party here and I’d also fall into the same category he puts himself in (although it’s interesting to see that on this blog some of us certainly aren’t on the same page)
… The 2016 presidential race has turned into an epic contest between the ethno-nationalist populism of Donald Trump and traditional conservatism, though in two varieties: the scorched-earth fundamentalist version of Ted Cruz, and a reformist version represented by Marco Rubio (and several so-called establishment candidates) — and articulated most fully by non-candidate Paul Ryan and a cluster of productive thinkers and wonks dubbed “reformicons.” …
__________________________________
How many of you were hoping that the headlines this morning would read: “Trump fails to show up for debate. Iowa removes his name from Monday’s caucus.”
Immigration is simply not the line-in-the-sand issue for me as it is for some others. I believe strongly that we need to get our border controlled and both parties have been unwilling or unable to do that (or even to have a serious discussion about it recently).
For those already here, I’m not among those who advocates “rounding” folks up for deportation — unless there is cause for that (criminal records, etc.). It’s impractical at this stage, like it or not. So I’d even say a path toward citizenship or going home should be the option offered.
I suppose I know of too many people who are here from Mexico who are hard-working, many of them brought here by their parents when they were young.
Enticed by the promise that their children could go to school in America, numerous Guatemalan parents paid to have their children smuggled into the U.S. No one knows how many made it across the border, but some of the children were detained by immigration official and transferred to the custody of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Once in the hands of the federal government, the children should have been safe. Instead, the HHS gave at least a dozen children over to human traffickers. …
_________________________________________________________
I don’t think it hurt Trump to skip the debate last night. It didn’t really help him either. The uneducated or under-educated Trump supporters will vote for him regardless. He was probably accurate last week when he said he could shoot someone and get away with it.
I have to disagree. Clinton is just as bad as Obama, and in fact has already said she plans to keep and expand many of his policies and exec. orders. Sanders would be even worse. He wears his socialist/communist credentials as a badge of honor. He’s got the potential to be even worse than Barry.
And if this keeps up, Sanders is looking more and more likely. Time for the Dem establishment to get Biden and Warren ready to step in,.
“The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained some of the U.S. government’s most closely guarded secrets, censoring 22 emails with material demanding one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes just three days before the Iowa presidential nominating caucuses in which Clinton is a candidate.
The State Department will release its next batch of emails from Clinton’s time as secretary of state later Friday.
But The Associated Press has learned seven email chains are being withheld in full because they contain information deemed to be “top secret.” The 37 pages include messages recently described by a key intelligence official as concerning so-called “special access programs” — a highly restricted subset of classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes or government eavesdropping.
Department officials wouldn’t describe the substance of the emails, or say if Clinton sent any herself. They also wouldn’t disclose if any of the documents reflected information that was classified at the time of transmission, but indicated that the agency’s Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus have begun looking into that question.
“The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP, describing the decision to withhold documents in full as “not unusual.” That means they won’t be published online with the rest of the documents, even with blacked-out boxes.”
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And just imagine what may have been on Clinton’s CoS Cheryl Mills’ “missing or lost” blackberry.
The immigration issue isn’t just about “rounding up and deporting” the lawbreakers already here. It’s also about the systematic abuse of the visa and worker visa issues as well, the identity theft and ruined lives, the crime victims of criminal illegals, and our overcrowded prison system and the cost of social services. Anyone who cares about the economy should care about immigration, because it’s a drain on the economy. Billions leave our economy every year and head south out of the country. We’re being flooded with workers, just as many “legally” thru exec order as are crossing “illegally”.and American workers are paying the price. I get that many are hardworking….. at jobs they have no right to hold, and at the cost of an American worker. If proper reform and enforcement don’t occur, this will only get worse. While I agree we can’t deport them all, or even most, the abuse must stop. We need to be more discerning than we currently are about who gets in, and who gets to stay. And those who remain, once legalized, need to pay a penalty for their lawbreaking.
But I doubt that happens, especially with Clinton, Rubio, Bush, Trump, or Sanders. We’ll be Europe within a decade at the present rate, and you see how well that’s working out for them. That’s why it’s a line in the sand issue for me. I get that you folks in Cali and places like Texas, already overburdened and paying for it, are immune to it. You guys lost that fight years ago. Some of us want better for our states, and don’t wish to see them become sanctuaries like Cali. That fight is lost on your front, but we’re still trying to hold the line here.
I agree that immigration has been woefully ignored, on purpose by the Democrats and via incompetence mostly by the Republicans. Or maybe a lack of political will. It’s a disaster in the making.
We need to address it soon, although the Democratic party — from what I can tell anyway — is now basically an open-border party, an economically and socially unsustainable position once held only by libertarians.
So getting to anything close to a sane approach won’t be easy or quick.
And Clinton and Sanders would be “worse” only in the sense that now they can build upon — and take to further extremes — the changes Obama already has been able to make. He’s laid a groundwork that, if not somewhat reversed fairly quickly, will carry us far afield from what the country has been since its founding. We’ll become a shadow of Europe (and look how great they’re all doing!).
The Supreme Court would be a complete loss for at least a generation.
And with the GOP in shambles following a general election defeat, the Democrats could wind up with a blank check, at least for a while, until some kind of organized and unified opposition could regroup, a stiff challenge in itself judging from what we’re seeing in these primaries.
And the ‘sanctuary city’ concept really is not good, but you’re right, we’re saddled with that in our state now. Police aren’t even able to inquire immigration status on stops, it’s literally against the law. That seems insane to me. But it’s been that way for a very long time now.
Don’t ask, don’t tell is the rule that is, for the time being, carved in stone.
Our national immigration policy, such as it is (or isn’t) is pure chaos.
But again, I don’t see the Democrats willing to change that.
“Little more than a decade ago, voters in both parties generally agreed that unchecked immigration was a significant threat to U.S. vital interests — with Democrats actually topping Republicans in that belief, 63 percent to 58 percent. Now, however, the parties diverge wildly, with 63 percent of Republicans saying immigration is a threat, while just 29 percent of Democrats rate it so. …
… Under President Clinton, a Democrat who oversaw the stiffest immigration policies in modern politics, the parties generally agreed that mass immigration was a threat to U.S. interests — and Democrats were even slightly more staunch in that view, at 58 percent to 56 percent for the GOP. But those attitudes changed, ironically, under Mr. Bush, who pushed for more leniency for illegal immigrants.
Democrats appeared to side with Mr. Bush, while his own GOP loyalists split from him. The divide has only deepened under President Obama, who has used the issue as a political wedge, urging Hispanic voters to punish Republicans for not embracing legalization.
But that’s an unpopular opinion within Republican circles, where 45 percent said illegal immigrants should be forced to leave the country, and another 16 percent said they can stay but should never be allowed to apply for citizenship. By contrast, the vast majority of Democrats say they should be allowed to stay and become citizens, either immediately or after they pay a penalty and “wait a few years.” …
The presidential candidates mirror that divide.
Democratic candidates are competing to be the most generous toward illegal immigrants, with several of them vowing to go beyond Mr. Obama’s executive actions and grant a deportation amnesty to even more than the 5 million this current White House has tried to include in its policies.
Republican candidates, meanwhile, are sparring over whether illegal immigrants should be granted any legal status at all, even if it does fall short of a special new pathway to citizenship. …
______________________________________________
One aspect of illegal immigration that doesn’t get mentioned are foreign students who overstay their student visa. Perhaps ICE should attend every college graduation and escort the foreign students out of the country as soon as they have their diplomas.
Wandering Views 
Interesting thread here last night that I just read this morning.
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We had some fun, Janice. However, in the clear light of the morning I actually for the first time think Trump will be our nominee. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse…
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That’s just it Ricky, we still can get way worse than even Trump.
Clinton, Sanders, Bloomberg, and Bush are the obvious examples….. 😦
And we’ve had way worse for the last 7 years too.
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It is still very unclear to me that any of the Democrats is any worse than Trump. Like Sanders he favors socialized medicine. Like Gore his whole history is in crony capitalism. He likes his pro-abortion sister for the Supreme Court. On top of all that he is a lunatic.
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Nobody, not even Hillary could be worse that Obama.
Obama doesn’t like America. Clinton doesn’t hate America. She loves money and power. She would sell out the country, but only for a price.
Obama would do it for spite.
Trump would do it on principle. Only he has no principle.
He just wants power. He doesn’t yet know what he will do with it.
LikeLiked by 4 people
None of the Republicans, with the exception of Trump, would be “worse” than — or as bad as — Clinton or Sanders. And I’m with Chas, none of the above could possibly (I don’t think, anyway) be worse than what we’ve had the past 7 years. A sheer disaster.
I do think some of the Republicans (and 1 of the Dems, O’Malley, of course) need to consider dropping out soon, including Bush, Kasich, probably Carson. But I suppose they’re all waiting for the first few weeks of caucuses/primaries to roll out before making those decisions.
Long-term, I still feel there’s hope when I read the likes of the National Review lineup featured in the arguments against Trump. We have some smart, thoughtful, principled conservative voices in this country. Sowell, Charen, Krauthhammer …
LikeLiked by 4 people
And while I realize the primaries are just getting underway, I hope Republicans will spend less money & effort whacking away at each other (Bush relentlessly going after Rubio is getting old and is beginning to look really petty and mean-spirited) and look more at the big picture.
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I’d agree with Krauthhamer’s assessment of the party here and I’d also fall into the same category he puts himself in (although it’s interesting to see that on this blog some of us certainly aren’t on the same page)
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/charles-krauthammer-battle-gop-soul-article-1.2512858
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… The 2016 presidential race has turned into an epic contest between the ethno-nationalist populism of Donald Trump and traditional conservatism, though in two varieties: the scorched-earth fundamentalist version of Ted Cruz, and a reformist version represented by Marco Rubio (and several so-called establishment candidates) — and articulated most fully by non-candidate Paul Ryan and a cluster of productive thinkers and wonks dubbed “reformicons.” …
__________________________________
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There is a poll on Drudge. It has Trump0 leading by over 60%.
I voted for Cruz.
Twice
That tells you how reliable that poll is.
😆
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The reason I voted twice was to test the poll.
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Well, a Drudge poll can be expected to attract an inordinate number of Trump supporters, I’d guess. 🙄
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Rubio a reformist? Pfffttt…….
Rubio, like Bush and the Dems would sell us out on immigration. He showed as much with his Gang of Eight deal, most of which he had a hand in writing.
I guess by reform they mean sell out.
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How many of you were hoping that the headlines this morning would read: “Trump fails to show up for debate. Iowa removes his name from Monday’s caucus.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
Immigration is simply not the line-in-the-sand issue for me as it is for some others. I believe strongly that we need to get our border controlled and both parties have been unwilling or unable to do that (or even to have a serious discussion about it recently).
For those already here, I’m not among those who advocates “rounding” folks up for deportation — unless there is cause for that (criminal records, etc.). It’s impractical at this stage, like it or not. So I’d even say a path toward citizenship or going home should be the option offered.
I suppose I know of too many people who are here from Mexico who are hard-working, many of them brought here by their parents when they were young.
So I still like Rubio. 🙂
But also this for all of us:
http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2016/01/29/believers-must-not-divide-in-the-midst-of-this-political-season-n2111880
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and here’s a tragic story from Joe Carter:
http://blog.acton.org/archives/84774-federal-government-handed-immigrant-children-over-to-human-traffickers.html
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Enticed by the promise that their children could go to school in America, numerous Guatemalan parents paid to have their children smuggled into the U.S. No one knows how many made it across the border, but some of the children were detained by immigration official and transferred to the custody of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Once in the hands of the federal government, the children should have been safe. Instead, the HHS gave at least a dozen children over to human traffickers. …
_________________________________________________________
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I don’t think it hurt Trump to skip the debate last night. It didn’t really help him either. The uneducated or under-educated Trump supporters will vote for him regardless. He was probably accurate last week when he said he could shoot someone and get away with it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to disagree. Clinton is just as bad as Obama, and in fact has already said she plans to keep and expand many of his policies and exec. orders. Sanders would be even worse. He wears his socialist/communist credentials as a badge of honor. He’s got the potential to be even worse than Barry.
And if this keeps up, Sanders is looking more and more likely. Time for the Dem establishment to get Biden and Warren ready to step in,.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/government-declares-22-clinton-emails-top-secret/ar-BBoSo4n?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U142DHP
“The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained some of the U.S. government’s most closely guarded secrets, censoring 22 emails with material demanding one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes just three days before the Iowa presidential nominating caucuses in which Clinton is a candidate.
The State Department will release its next batch of emails from Clinton’s time as secretary of state later Friday.
But The Associated Press has learned seven email chains are being withheld in full because they contain information deemed to be “top secret.” The 37 pages include messages recently described by a key intelligence official as concerning so-called “special access programs” — a highly restricted subset of classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes or government eavesdropping.
Department officials wouldn’t describe the substance of the emails, or say if Clinton sent any herself. They also wouldn’t disclose if any of the documents reflected information that was classified at the time of transmission, but indicated that the agency’s Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus have begun looking into that question.
“The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP, describing the decision to withhold documents in full as “not unusual.” That means they won’t be published online with the rest of the documents, even with blacked-out boxes.”
—————————
And just imagine what may have been on Clinton’s CoS Cheryl Mills’ “missing or lost” blackberry.
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Donna,
The immigration issue isn’t just about “rounding up and deporting” the lawbreakers already here. It’s also about the systematic abuse of the visa and worker visa issues as well, the identity theft and ruined lives, the crime victims of criminal illegals, and our overcrowded prison system and the cost of social services. Anyone who cares about the economy should care about immigration, because it’s a drain on the economy. Billions leave our economy every year and head south out of the country. We’re being flooded with workers, just as many “legally” thru exec order as are crossing “illegally”.and American workers are paying the price. I get that many are hardworking….. at jobs they have no right to hold, and at the cost of an American worker. If proper reform and enforcement don’t occur, this will only get worse. While I agree we can’t deport them all, or even most, the abuse must stop. We need to be more discerning than we currently are about who gets in, and who gets to stay. And those who remain, once legalized, need to pay a penalty for their lawbreaking.
But I doubt that happens, especially with Clinton, Rubio, Bush, Trump, or Sanders. We’ll be Europe within a decade at the present rate, and you see how well that’s working out for them. That’s why it’s a line in the sand issue for me. I get that you folks in Cali and places like Texas, already overburdened and paying for it, are immune to it. You guys lost that fight years ago. Some of us want better for our states, and don’t wish to see them become sanctuaries like Cali. That fight is lost on your front, but we’re still trying to hold the line here.
LikeLike
I agree that immigration has been woefully ignored, on purpose by the Democrats and via incompetence mostly by the Republicans. Or maybe a lack of political will. It’s a disaster in the making.
We need to address it soon, although the Democratic party — from what I can tell anyway — is now basically an open-border party, an economically and socially unsustainable position once held only by libertarians.
So getting to anything close to a sane approach won’t be easy or quick.
And Clinton and Sanders would be “worse” only in the sense that now they can build upon — and take to further extremes — the changes Obama already has been able to make. He’s laid a groundwork that, if not somewhat reversed fairly quickly, will carry us far afield from what the country has been since its founding. We’ll become a shadow of Europe (and look how great they’re all doing!).
The Supreme Court would be a complete loss for at least a generation.
And with the GOP in shambles following a general election defeat, the Democrats could wind up with a blank check, at least for a while, until some kind of organized and unified opposition could regroup, a stiff challenge in itself judging from what we’re seeing in these primaries.
It would be grim.
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If we were willing to elect an actor to run our country, we ought to be willing to elect a brain surgeon.
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And the ‘sanctuary city’ concept really is not good, but you’re right, we’re saddled with that in our state now. Police aren’t even able to inquire immigration status on stops, it’s literally against the law. That seems insane to me. But it’s been that way for a very long time now.
Don’t ask, don’t tell is the rule that is, for the time being, carved in stone.
Our national immigration policy, such as it is (or isn’t) is pure chaos.
But again, I don’t see the Democrats willing to change that.
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/15/democrats-shift-radically-on-illegal-immigration-a/?page=all
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“Little more than a decade ago, voters in both parties generally agreed that unchecked immigration was a significant threat to U.S. vital interests — with Democrats actually topping Republicans in that belief, 63 percent to 58 percent. Now, however, the parties diverge wildly, with 63 percent of Republicans saying immigration is a threat, while just 29 percent of Democrats rate it so. …
… Under President Clinton, a Democrat who oversaw the stiffest immigration policies in modern politics, the parties generally agreed that mass immigration was a threat to U.S. interests — and Democrats were even slightly more staunch in that view, at 58 percent to 56 percent for the GOP. But those attitudes changed, ironically, under Mr. Bush, who pushed for more leniency for illegal immigrants.
Democrats appeared to side with Mr. Bush, while his own GOP loyalists split from him. The divide has only deepened under President Obama, who has used the issue as a political wedge, urging Hispanic voters to punish Republicans for not embracing legalization.
But that’s an unpopular opinion within Republican circles, where 45 percent said illegal immigrants should be forced to leave the country, and another 16 percent said they can stay but should never be allowed to apply for citizenship. By contrast, the vast majority of Democrats say they should be allowed to stay and become citizens, either immediately or after they pay a penalty and “wait a few years.” …
The presidential candidates mirror that divide.
Democratic candidates are competing to be the most generous toward illegal immigrants, with several of them vowing to go beyond Mr. Obama’s executive actions and grant a deportation amnesty to even more than the 5 million this current White House has tried to include in its policies.
Republican candidates, meanwhile, are sparring over whether illegal immigrants should be granted any legal status at all, even if it does fall short of a special new pathway to citizenship. …
______________________________________________
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One aspect of illegal immigration that doesn’t get mentioned are foreign students who overstay their student visa. Perhaps ICE should attend every college graduation and escort the foreign students out of the country as soon as they have their diplomas.
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Oh, and a lot of those students are Europeans who blend in with Americans because of their light skin.
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Seems like we could all agree to start with better securing the border — figure out the rest of it later.
But the Democrats don’t seem at all interested in even doing that much. 😦
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