I am forced to listen to NPR on the way to work. I cannot stomach the histrionics of conservative talk radio. How I miss the calm, intelligence of Charlie Jones on Texas Overnight.
That being said, I am thoroughly disgusted with Congress and their budget negotiations. Or should I say “CR” negotiations. Why do we vote for people who cannot even do their job. How many years has it been since a real budget was passed, much less, a balanced budget?
RK, someone said last night
“Congress’ job is not to govern, it is to get reelected.”
Do they want to please the voters?
No. They want to please the contributors.
Someone, may have been Rush, said that most of our laws are written on K-Street.
Here’s a very thoughtful article from Peter Spiliakos at First Things.
John Maynard Keynes once wrote, “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” That quote dates from the 1930s. We are now a lesser people, and so our practical men are now the slaves, not of economists and philosophers, but of bloggers and social media mavens.
We can see how this works with that most practical of men, Mitt Romney. In 2012, Romney, a man with two advanced degrees from Harvard University, a sparkling family life, and an extremely successful business career, stood up before an audience of wealthy donors and proceeded to describe the “47 percent” of Americans who didn’t have a net income tax liability as entitled deadbeats who could not be convinced to care about their own lives. Where did Romney pick up such nonsense, which would be embarrassing coming from a drunk on a barstool?
Whether directly or indirectly, he got the idea from a blogger named Erick Erickson. Erickson is not a rich man. The people who make up his audience and have allowed him to earn a living through political opinionating tend to be favorable to Trump. Erickson has risked his career to criticize Trump, bitterly and often correctly. If I am ever similarly tested, I hope that I will show the same integrity. And yet Erickson is one of the accidental architects of the Trump phenomenon.
Back in 2011, Erick Erickson started the We Are the 53 Percent blog. It was a response to the Left’s “We Are the 99 Percent” meme, in which people held up messages explaining that they were struggling because of the greed of the rich. Erickson showed people holding up messages identifying them as part of the 53 percent that allegedly had a net income tax liability. They were the 53 percent because they worked hard, were responsible, and didn’t take handouts.
We Are The 53 Percent was supposed to own liberals, but it was a terrible misfire. It didn’t hit George Soros or Nancy Pelosi. It hit wage-earners who were working hard and not making a lot of money. It was supposed to mock the ideas of Leftists, but it ended up dismissing the work of those who earned just below the median income. If you lost a job that had paid well, and were struggling to make do with one around the minimum wage, what did the We Are the 53 Percent people think about you?
Romney worked out the implications of Erickson’s blog. If being in the 53 percent meant you were hardworking and responsible, then what did that make the 47 percent? Romney told us: “And so my job is not to worry about those people [the 47 percent]. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Many of those 47 percent voted for Trump. So, probably, did many of the 53 percent who didn’t like the idea of voting for someone who thought they would be bums if their employers cut back their hours. …..
“President Donald Trump will address Friday’s March For Life in D.C. live from the White House Rose Garden via satellite, making him the first sitting U.S. president to address the event from the White House.
“We’re excited to announce that @POTUS will be the first sitting President to address the #MarchforLife from the @WhiteHouse… The President is committed to protecting the life of the unborn,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Wednesday.”
“Luckily for women everywhere, in 2018 it has finally been accomplished.
Naturally, Vogue has written about it. Cosmopolitan has shouted it from the rooftops, as has MSNBC and every other liberal news outlet.
If only that last part were true.
Despite impressive hiring practices during his first year in the White House, President Donald Trump has received little to no credit for his choice of women for the most senior positions on his cabinet, as well as the West Wing.
In fact, the mainstream media only selectively reported on the male appointees of the Trump administration, claiming that he was appointing “more white and male than any first cabinet since Reagan.” This myth was perpetuated by Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) comments as well as media reports that Trump only valued the opinions of “guys named Steve.”
The New York Times even reported on Jan. 13, 2017 — a full week before Trump even took the oath of office or set foot in the oval office — that he apparently preferred men over women for senior roles.
The organization never published a follow-up story in the same way touting the roles that women impressively took on within the administration. Instead, they chose to focus on the inane differences of “inner-cabinet” members (those in line of succession to the presidency) versus other cabinet members, rather than looking at the wide-sweeping empowerment and hiring of women across the entire White House operation.
One of the greatest successes of Trump’s first year in office has been the empowerment of women. Certainly, there have been plenty of other successes in the first year of the Trump administration — a record stock market surpassing 25,000, unemployment at a 17-year low, illegal border crossings lowered by 76 percent, a unanimous United Nations resolution against a nuclear North Korea, and more than 1 million bonuses given to American workers in just the last three weeks thanks to Trump’s leadership on tax reform. However, to write about those accomplishments without mentioning the women who helped make it happen is to miss part of the story.
So, why have the mainstream media given him no credit? Why haven’t the glossy magazines – who pride themselves on empowering women in the workplace — given him credit where credit is due? If Hillary Clinton were president, they would be touting her accomplishments.
The answer is because Trump is a republican. It’s accurate to state that he is just not their guy.”
“Jeff Flake compares Trump’s attacks on ‘Fake News’ media to STALIN in blistering speech to nearly empty Senate chamber as White House says he’s ‘looking for attention’
Senator Jeff Flake delivered a scathing anti-Trump speech Wednesday
He compared the president to Soviet despot Joseph Stalin for calling five news outlets ‘the enemy of the American people’
Flake slammed Trump for using ‘words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies’
The Republican announced in October he would no longer run for re-election under the Trump administration
Only two fellow senators, both Democrats, attended Wednesday’s speech
White House fired back saying Flake ‘has terrible poll numbers’ and is ‘looking for some attention’
Press secretary noted that while Flake complained about despots, he defended Cuba’s government this month over ‘sonic weapon’ attacks on U.S. diplomats”
Meanwhile Trump’s Fake News Awards crashed the GOP website.
I think it’s obvious who’s winning this messaging war.
Tonight, https://t.co/YTZAIJpNhb saw more traffic than ever before. Even though the servers were scaled up, the interest was even greater than anticipated. Traffic is off the charts. Come back soon.
“Jeff Sessions has suggested the U.S. should adopt Canada’s policy on immigration, backing a stricter set of criteria that prevented “illiterate” people from coming into the country.
The attorney general claimed President Donald Trump is not anti-immigration, but he said the administration wanted to see that people had the skills and education to prosper.
“What the American people want, have a right to, and what’s good for America is a lawful system of immigration. And when we admit people to our country, we should be like Canada,” he said in an interview with Tucker Carlson Tonight on Tuesday.
“We should evaluate them and make sure they are going to be lawful, they are not threats to us, they have the education and skills level to prosper in America. That’s good for them and good for America,” he added on the Fox News show. “What good does it do to bring in somebody who is illiterate in their own country, has no skills, and is going to struggle in our country and not be successful? That is not what a good nation should do and we need to get away from it.”
Sessions also backed Trump’s calls to do away with a lottery system, which the attorney general described as “ridiculous” and “absurd,” and suggested immigration from dangerous areas including those that had a “high number of terrorists” should be vetted and limited.”
——————————-
Yeah, about that lottery thing….. he may have a point.
“Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev was both lucky and evil.
His luck was demonstrated when he won admission to the United States through the diversity visa lottery; his evilness, by his stated willingness to assassinate the president of the United States or commit a terrorist attack in New York City — if he could not travel to Syria to join the Islamic State, and if that is what the Islamic State ordered him to do.
When Juraboev was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Oct. 27, 2017, New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill summarized his case in a statement released by the U.S. Justice Department.
“The defendant in this case lived in Brooklyn while making plans to travel to Syria to support a design(at)ed terrorist organization,” O’Neill said. “If that was not successful, the defendant schemed of bombing Coney Island or killing the president of the United States.””
“Newsweek published a scoop yesterday about President Trump’s medical report. It seems the medication Trump takes to prevent hair loss can cause erectile dysfunction. Newsweek doesn’t know that Trump has ED, but the magazine still felt there was enough there for an entire story on this topic:”
“The State Department is hiding a classified report on Palestinian refugees that insiders say could be a game changer in how the United States approaches the situation and allocates millions in taxpayer funds to a key United Nations agency, according to multiple sources briefed on the situation.
As the United States moves forward with a decision to slash funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the agency responsible for providing education and support to some five million Palestinian refugees, officials on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have been pressuring the State Department to declassify a report that is believed to show the actual number of refugees is far fewer than the U.N. claims.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told the Washington Free Beacon that the State Department first classified the report under the Obama administration and still refuses to provide U.S. officials with the information despite laws mandating its release.
The report was described to the Free Beacon as a potential tipping point in the debate over UNRWA and its mission, which has come under increased criticism in Congress for what many claim is the agency’s anti-Israel bias and routine promotion of pro-terrorism doctrines.”
Rod Dreher linked to a very interesting interview of a psychologist I’ve never heard of, Jordan Peterson, by British journalist, Cathy Newman. It’s not sensational, though it’s lively and intelligent. Dreher only makes a couple of comments, so the interview (which touches on traditional male/female relationships, gender pay gap and leftist philosophy in general) is the main attraction.
I googled Forbes to see why I wouldn’t want to know why it’s trending. Does it have something to do with someone wanting to be spanked with a copy of the magazine?
And in other news, our favorite trading partner demands that Marriott hotels shut down their international website for the supreme crime of referring to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and Macao as ‘countries’. Shame on Marriott! Profuse apologies were forthcoming to the supreme imperials in China as the hotelier rushed to comply. Ah the sweet smell of ‘free trade’—it just makes your heart swell, doesn’t it.
You guys are really getting desperate with the smears now.
But make up your minds already is he sleeping with porn stars as Mother Jones alleges, or impotent from medication as Newsweek alleges, or will just any old slime you can throw, do?
So it supposedly happened 12 years ago, Trump made a non-disclose deal, not uncommon, and you think this helps you how?
I mean other than to just smear the president. I know that carries value for you, but what is it you think is gained from this private, 12 yr. old personal matter being dredged up now?
Why is this the News/Politics thread and not just the “if you didn’t get enough political news to last a lifetime in the 2016 election” thread? I hear about “big news” happening around the world (like, say, the arrest of those parents of 13 children up to age 29 hold hostage in their house) but on here you wouldn’t know anything ever happens outside Washington, D.C.
Wandering Views 
Here are a couple of small ideas from Reason to reduce health care costs.
LikeLiked by 2 people
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/january-web-only/trump-remark-immigration-haiti.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am forced to listen to NPR on the way to work. I cannot stomach the histrionics of conservative talk radio. How I miss the calm, intelligence of Charlie Jones on Texas Overnight.
That being said, I am thoroughly disgusted with Congress and their budget negotiations. Or should I say “CR” negotiations. Why do we vote for people who cannot even do their job. How many years has it been since a real budget was passed, much less, a balanced budget?
LikeLiked by 6 people
https://twitter.com/ewerickson/status/953996808161845249
LikeLiked by 2 people
A pleasant ending to the French/Reid dispute.
LikeLiked by 1 person
RK, someone said last night
“Congress’ job is not to govern, it is to get reelected.”
Do they want to please the voters?
No. They want to please the contributors.
Someone, may have been Rush, said that most of our laws are written on K-Street.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Here’s a very thoughtful article from Peter Spiliakos at First Things.
Good news.
http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/17/trump-will-address-march-for-life-via-satellite/
“President Donald Trump will address Friday’s March For Life in D.C. live from the White House Rose Garden via satellite, making him the first sitting U.S. president to address the event from the White House.
“We’re excited to announce that @POTUS will be the first sitting President to address the #MarchforLife from the @WhiteHouse… The President is committed to protecting the life of the unborn,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Wednesday.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
I see the War on Women continues………
Oh wait.
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/369112-trumps-first-year-in-office-was-the-year-of-the-woman
“Luckily for women everywhere, in 2018 it has finally been accomplished.
Naturally, Vogue has written about it. Cosmopolitan has shouted it from the rooftops, as has MSNBC and every other liberal news outlet.
If only that last part were true.
Despite impressive hiring practices during his first year in the White House, President Donald Trump has received little to no credit for his choice of women for the most senior positions on his cabinet, as well as the West Wing.
In fact, the mainstream media only selectively reported on the male appointees of the Trump administration, claiming that he was appointing “more white and male than any first cabinet since Reagan.” This myth was perpetuated by Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) comments as well as media reports that Trump only valued the opinions of “guys named Steve.”
The New York Times even reported on Jan. 13, 2017 — a full week before Trump even took the oath of office or set foot in the oval office — that he apparently preferred men over women for senior roles.
The organization never published a follow-up story in the same way touting the roles that women impressively took on within the administration. Instead, they chose to focus on the inane differences of “inner-cabinet” members (those in line of succession to the presidency) versus other cabinet members, rather than looking at the wide-sweeping empowerment and hiring of women across the entire White House operation.
One of the greatest successes of Trump’s first year in office has been the empowerment of women. Certainly, there have been plenty of other successes in the first year of the Trump administration — a record stock market surpassing 25,000, unemployment at a 17-year low, illegal border crossings lowered by 76 percent, a unanimous United Nations resolution against a nuclear North Korea, and more than 1 million bonuses given to American workers in just the last three weeks thanks to Trump’s leadership on tax reform. However, to write about those accomplishments without mentioning the women who helped make it happen is to miss part of the story.
So, why have the mainstream media given him no credit? Why haven’t the glossy magazines – who pride themselves on empowering women in the workplace — given him credit where credit is due? If Hillary Clinton were president, they would be touting her accomplishments.
The answer is because Trump is a republican. It’s accurate to state that he is just not their guy.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I actually feel a little bit bad for Flake, but only a little. He gave his message, to an audience of two. Democrats…..
Total fail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5280095/Flake-compares-Trumps-media-attacks-Joseph-STALIN.html
“Jeff Flake compares Trump’s attacks on ‘Fake News’ media to STALIN in blistering speech to nearly empty Senate chamber as White House says he’s ‘looking for attention’
Senator Jeff Flake delivered a scathing anti-Trump speech Wednesday
He compared the president to Soviet despot Joseph Stalin for calling five news outlets ‘the enemy of the American people’
Flake slammed Trump for using ‘words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies’
The Republican announced in October he would no longer run for re-election under the Trump administration
Only two fellow senators, both Democrats, attended Wednesday’s speech
White House fired back saying Flake ‘has terrible poll numbers’ and is ‘looking for some attention’
Press secretary noted that while Flake complained about despots, he defended Cuba’s government this month over ‘sonic weapon’ attacks on U.S. diplomats”
LikeLike
Meanwhile Trump’s Fake News Awards crashed the GOP website.
I think it’s obvious who’s winning this messaging war.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmmmmm…..
https://www.yahoo.com/news/sessions-thinks-u-apos-canada-152854407.html
“Jeff Sessions has suggested the U.S. should adopt Canada’s policy on immigration, backing a stricter set of criteria that prevented “illiterate” people from coming into the country.
The attorney general claimed President Donald Trump is not anti-immigration, but he said the administration wanted to see that people had the skills and education to prosper.
“What the American people want, have a right to, and what’s good for America is a lawful system of immigration. And when we admit people to our country, we should be like Canada,” he said in an interview with Tucker Carlson Tonight on Tuesday.
“We should evaluate them and make sure they are going to be lawful, they are not threats to us, they have the education and skills level to prosper in America. That’s good for them and good for America,” he added on the Fox News show. “What good does it do to bring in somebody who is illiterate in their own country, has no skills, and is going to struggle in our country and not be successful? That is not what a good nation should do and we need to get away from it.”
Sessions also backed Trump’s calls to do away with a lottery system, which the attorney general described as “ridiculous” and “absurd,” and suggested immigration from dangerous areas including those that had a “high number of terrorists” should be vetted and limited.”
——————————-
Yeah, about that lottery thing….. he may have a point.
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/diversity-visa-lottery-winner-offered-kill-obama-isis
“Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev was both lucky and evil.
His luck was demonstrated when he won admission to the United States through the diversity visa lottery; his evilness, by his stated willingness to assassinate the president of the United States or commit a terrorist attack in New York City — if he could not travel to Syria to join the Islamic State, and if that is what the Islamic State ordered him to do.
When Juraboev was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Oct. 27, 2017, New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill summarized his case in a statement released by the U.S. Justice Department.
“The defendant in this case lived in Brooklyn while making plans to travel to Syria to support a design(at)ed terrorist organization,” O’Neill said. “If that was not successful, the defendant schemed of bombing Coney Island or killing the president of the United States.””
LikeLike
Head. Desk.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/01/18/newsweek-trump-taking-drug-causes-erectile-dysfunction/
“Newsweek published a scoop yesterday about President Trump’s medical report. It seems the medication Trump takes to prevent hair loss can cause erectile dysfunction. Newsweek doesn’t know that Trump has ED, but the magazine still felt there was enough there for an entire story on this topic:”
LikeLike
Good news.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/01/18/devos-casually-announces-funeral-common-core/
LikeLiked by 1 person
The UN fudging refugee numbers? Say it isn’t so…. 🙄
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-department-hiding-game-changer-report-myth-palestinian-refugees/
“The State Department is hiding a classified report on Palestinian refugees that insiders say could be a game changer in how the United States approaches the situation and allocates millions in taxpayer funds to a key United Nations agency, according to multiple sources briefed on the situation.
As the United States moves forward with a decision to slash funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the agency responsible for providing education and support to some five million Palestinian refugees, officials on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have been pressuring the State Department to declassify a report that is believed to show the actual number of refugees is far fewer than the U.N. claims.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told the Washington Free Beacon that the State Department first classified the report under the Obama administration and still refuses to provide U.S. officials with the information despite laws mandating its release.
The report was described to the Free Beacon as a potential tipping point in the debate over UNRWA and its mission, which has come under increased criticism in Congress for what many claim is the agency’s anti-Israel bias and routine promotion of pro-terrorism doctrines.”
LikeLike
Rod Dreher linked to a very interesting interview of a psychologist I’ve never heard of, Jordan Peterson, by British journalist, Cathy Newman. It’s not sensational, though it’s lively and intelligent. Dreher only makes a couple of comments, so the interview (which touches on traditional male/female relationships, gender pay gap and leftist philosophy in general) is the main attraction.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/jordan-peterson-hero/
LikeLiked by 2 people
LikeLike
I googled Forbes to see why I wouldn’t want to know why it’s trending. Does it have something to do with someone wanting to be spanked with a copy of the magazine?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Allegedly, that is.
LikeLike
There is just no bottom to this presidency.
LikeLike
And in other news, our favorite trading partner demands that Marriott hotels shut down their international website for the supreme crime of referring to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and Macao as ‘countries’. Shame on Marriott! Profuse apologies were forthcoming to the supreme imperials in China as the hotelier rushed to comply. Ah the sweet smell of ‘free trade’—it just makes your heart swell, doesn’t it.
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-marriott-tweets-censorship-2018-1
LikeLike
There’s certainly no bottom to the depths those trying to destroy this presidency will go.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No wonder he paid her $130,000. He made her spank him with Forbes magazine AND watch 3 hours of Shark Week.
https://twitter.com/bendreyfuss/status/954103257571512332
LikeLike
LikeLike
You guys are really getting desperate with the smears now.
But make up your minds already is he sleeping with porn stars as Mother Jones alleges, or impotent from medication as Newsweek alleges, or will just any old slime you can throw, do?
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know guys, I really try to avoid tawdy stuff like this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So it supposedly happened 12 years ago, Trump made a non-disclose deal, not uncommon, and you think this helps you how?
I mean other than to just smear the president. I know that carries value for you, but what is it you think is gained from this private, 12 yr. old personal matter being dredged up now?
LikeLike
Why is this the News/Politics thread and not just the “if you didn’t get enough political news to last a lifetime in the 2016 election” thread? I hear about “big news” happening around the world (like, say, the arrest of those parents of 13 children up to age 29 hold hostage in their house) but on here you wouldn’t know anything ever happens outside Washington, D.C.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s a good point, Cheryl.
LikeLike
I am sorry I mentioned what I did at 8:49. I wasn’t even sure that’s what it was about.
LikeLike