24 thoughts on “News/Politics 5-19-16

  1. From “US News and World Report” via Drudge:

    Recent events in the U.S. are destroying Americans’ ability to connect to God, according to Cardinal Robert Sarah, a native of the West African nation of Guinea.

    In a keynote address at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Cardinal Sarah said that in the United States, “God is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated,” Catholic News Agency reports.

    Cardinal Sarah pointed out specific events “in the name of ‘tolerance'” that have contributed to this erosion, including “the legalization of same sex marriage, the obligation to accept contraception within health care programs, and even ‘bathroom bills’ that allow men to use the women’s restrooms and locker rooms.”

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  2. Boom!

    The gloves are off. 🙂

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-drops-rape-accusation-on-bill-clinton/ar-BBtdMVK?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U142DHP

    “Donald Trump escalated his attacks on former President Bill Clinton, accusing him of rape in a Fox News interview Wednesday.

    In an interview with Fox News’ “Hannity,” Sean Hannity compared allegations of Trump harassing women that appeared in The New York Times with accusations made against the former president.

    “For example, I looked at The New York Times,” Hannity said. “Are they going to interview Juanita Broaddrick? Are they going to interview Paula Jones? Are they going to interview Kathleen Willey?” he said, listing women who have made allegations of sexual misconduct against Clinton.

    “In one case, it’s about exposure,” he continued. “In another case, it’s about groping and fondling and touching against a woman’s will.”

    “And rape,” Trump responded.

    “And rape,” Hannity said.

    “And big settlements, massive settlements,” Trump continued. “And lots of other things. And impeachment for lying.”

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  3. Krauthammer:

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/18/krauthammer_cascade_of_people_will_come_out_and_support_trump_once_it_starts_its_not_going_to_stop.html
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    The one thing holding back people who’ve resisted supporting Trump or at least the major thing is the fear of what a Clinton presidency would do to the Supreme Court and how it would change it for a generation.

    Now you get a list of 11 who are quite sterling, three of them clerked for Justice Thomas, two of them for Justice Scalia. The six federal judges all appointed by George W. which means they are conservative, and they are relatively young. So this is a future looking list.

    The only caveat is what you and I heard in the interview on Hannity tonight where Trump said his appointee will most likely be from this list. Not going to be, but most likely. How do you interpret that? I don’t know. He always leaves himself wiggle room. He says he likes to have leverage. He keeps the leverage, but what he does is to kindle a little bit of doubt. …

    (but) I think that (the announcement of potential court nominees) is going to be a very important step. It starts this sort of cascade of who’s going to come out and support Trump. And once it starts, it’s not going to stop.
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    At worst, another pundit pointed out elsewhere, Trump would appoint centrists to the court — which still is much better than leftists.

    And quite the firestorm playing out in the Democratic party this week with Bernie . Combined with new polls showing Clinton falling behind Trump by a few points, I’m guessing the party bosses are in a lot of huddles over what the heck they can, if anything, do …

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  4. AJ here,

    Sure Ricky, and you believe you can get a mix or Dems, Reps, and Indies to support the same candidate? Once you name the person, at least half of that support will disappear since it’s not from their party or ideology. And then you’re back to not enough to win. Now if you’re goal is to ensure a Hillary win, you might get enough conservatives to jump ship to make that happen. But then the consequences of Hillary’s numerous liberal supreme court picks is on you. I know folks like to think that voting neither or not voting somehow absolves you from the consequences, but it doesn’t. We’ll all suffer equally.

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  5. Haven’t Mitt Romney + company abandoned the 3rd party idea?

    Too little too late, I’m afraid. Even if there were time — and there was (which there’s not) an obvious, popular, good candidate, it would just split the vote up in 3 ways rather than in two.

    Third-party votes are largely protest votes — which have their place (and I wouldn’t altogether rule it out when faced with awful choices myself).

    But they don’t elect anyone — other than the mainstream candidate who winds up winning.

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  6. And if Trump nukes Denmark or appoints his sister to the Supreme Court or starts a trade war or World War III or stalks or molests the females at various international meetings, it is on you and the other Trumpkins.

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  7. On the other hand, my Grand-Dog is cute, more sane than Trump, more honest that Trump or Hillary and has never owned a strip club or casino or cursed in front of children. He may be homophobic as he disliked and bit a questionable person who was clipping his claws and giving him a bath.

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  8. None of us like Trump. At all.

    That said, I suspect some of the fears of what he might do are overwrought. I say that bathed in prayer, of course. But I also think the comparisons to Hitler, etc., have a tinge of “what if” hysteria to them.

    It’s a fair choice to abstain from voting this time, considering the candidates before us (or to vote for a 3rd party). It’s a decision each of us is going to have to continue to wrestle with and pray about. Let’s hope the next few months will offer more clarity.

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  9. It’s perhaps easier when we remember that we’re pilgrims here — and thus we can expect to feel alienated from (and sometimes even horrified by) our culture and government.

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  10. In Texas we find it to be mighty strange when a grown man:
    A. Calls reporters pretending to be his own press agent; and
    B. Tells them he must divorce his wife (who was his floozy girlfriend when he was married to one of his other wives) because:
    C. He has to satisfy the demands of his legion of female admirers including Madonna.

    We regard such a man to be a world class weirdo, but maybe in New York that is considered to be normal behavior.

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  11. From Fox’s recent polling data:

    “Donald Trump tops Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, according to a new Fox News Poll that also finds majorities of voters feel both front runners lack strong moral values and will say anything to get elected.”

    And that’s where we are. Depressing, for sure.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/18/fox-news-poll-trump-tops-clinton-both-seen-as-deeply-flawed-candidates.html?intcmp=hpbt3

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  12. You know, the “who will they pick for the Supreme Court?” gets trotted out every election cycle, usually with inflated estimates of how many nominees a president will actually get to choose in the next cycle, and recent Republican picks have largely not been much better than recent Democrat ones. I’m sticking with my original “I can’t currently imagine anything that would make me vote for Trump.” He doesn’t have the character to deserve the job, nor does he have the necessary skills. And at least if Hillary gets elected, we know she isn’t one of us. (Elect a really bad Republican, and it looks bad for Republicans. Elect a really bad Democrat, and we can put a stronger candidate against her in four years.) I’m pretty close to “done” with either party. But I’ve voted for Dole and all the other Republican lites we’ve had through the years, and I’m not holding my nose and voting for this one. He isn’t conservative, he isn’t a Republican, and he’s a moral reprobate. Is he better than Hillary? Maybe, but I’m not convinced, and at any rate he isn’t “enough” better to get my vote. They’re both in it for themselves, not for us, and both are morally unqualified for any leadership position.

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  13. If we ran Cruz or Sasse as a third party candidate, it would help Hillary. That is the genius of running a dog who will no doubt do well with young voters, 91% of whom want a third option. Arnold will do well with college girls who voted for Bernie in the primary as long as his homophobia doesn’t come out.

    The Dems are about to nominate a historically bad candidate. The Republicans are about to nominate a joke. We need to fight fire with fire and respond with our own joke.

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  14. I must admit there is a sadistic part of me that would like to see a President Trump. I can see him arrive at his first G7 meeting and immediately ask Angela Merkel to change into a bathing suit.

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  15. Donna J, The Supreme Court has already forced the conservative states to legalize abortion and perverted marriage. It has twice upheld the unconstitutional Obamacare. What is left to do? Make homosexuality mandatory?

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  16. I suppose this most accurately reflects my thoughts. (Written by a commentator who’s still undecided about how he will vote):

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/05/undecided.php

    Now I suppose it’s fair to say the fight is over, we’ve lost, let’s let the country go. I’ve had those thoughts. But I think it’s also valid to participate thinking perhaps there can at least be a “stop” put on the far left trajectory following 8 years of Obama. In that time, one can hope and pray the nation comes to its senses.

    If not, Oh well.

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    … The foregoing discussion inclines me to vote for neither candidate. However, there is one major consideration that I believe militates in favor of voting for Trump — the Supreme Court.

    There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton would nominate left-wing Justices, just as her more politically moderate husband did (in the form of Justices Breyer and Ginsburg) during more moderate times. It’s no accident that we hear talk about the Republican Senate confirming Obama’s liberal nominee, Merrick Garland, if Clinton wins. Folks recognize that Clinton would almost surely reach further left for her nominee.

    Trump, I think, is unlikely to nominate leftists. He probably would select centrists along the lines of Justices Kennedy and O’Connor. One can envisage him nominating Chris Christie. That’s far from ideal, but much better than what we would get from Hillary Clinton.

    Moreover, there’s a chance that Trump would opt for conservatives. After all, Sen. Jeff Sessions is his go-to guy on these sorts of matters, at least right now.

    Let’s put it this way: the odds of Trump nominating a conservative to the Supreme Court are considerably greater than the odds of Clinton nominating even a centrist. …
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  17. If it weren’t for that issue, I would be a lot easier about choosing not to vote for president this time around. As it is, I continue to wrestle.

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