41 thoughts on “News/Politics 3-24-18

  1. It’s about time someone does the job McMaster wouldn’t.

    Get ’em outta here….

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/john-bolton-plans-to-fire-dozens-of-nsc-officials-report/ar-BBKDrVL?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

    “President Trump’s new national security adviser is reportedly planning major staffing changes at the National Security Council.

    Sources close to the situation told Foreign Policy that John Bolton is preparing to “clean house” and remove nearly all of the political appointees brought in by his predecessor.

    “Bolton can and will clean house,” one former White House official told Foreign Policy.

    Another former official said that any National Security Council officials appointed under former President Obama “should start packing their s—.””

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  2. The one good thing to come out of the new omnibus bill.

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/03/taylor-force-act-is-the-one-bright-spot-in-omnibus-bill/

    “Let’s face it. The omnibus bill sucks and proves once against the Republican Party is not the party of fiscal responsibility and small government.

    But they did include the Taylor Force Act, named after the American vet killed two years ago, which will stop payments to the Palestinian Authority until it stops rewarding terrorists for killing Jews and Americans.

    Officials named the act after American veteran and Vanderbilt student Taylor Force, who lost his life in Tel Aviv after a Palestinian terrorist stabbed him to death on March 8, 2016. It happened while Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel.

    The attack became part of what we now call the “Knife Intifada,” a description of the numerous knife attacks the Palestinian terrorists use against Jews and Americans.

    Well, the PA rewards those that engage in these terrorist attacks. The payments are known as “pay to slay.” The Times of Israel published a report that detailed how PA payments to these terrorists “now equal half its foreign budgetary aid.”

    The PA Finance Ministry’s 2017 budget towards the terrorists “will amount to NIS 552 million ($153.4 million).” That is 13% more than the 2016 budget.

    The budget also puts aside $190,869,166 for the families of the terrorists. In 2016, the PA only set aside $174,630,296 for the families.

    All in all, including prisoners and ex-prisoners, the total comes to $344,313,451. That is “equal to 49.6 percent of the funds Ramallah expects donors to contribute to its budget over the year.”

    That’s unacceptable. ”
    ————————–

    Not when a Democrat is president………

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  3. Why, you want us to ship him to you? That way instead of just living rent free in your head, he could actually live with you.

    Something to ponder……..

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  4. I have seen other Trumpkins use the phrase “living rent free in your head” when talking to conservatives. The Trump Cult has developed its own set of cult words and phrases including: Deep State, 4-d chess, soft coup, Fake News, RINO (meaning an enemy of the Cult).

    I know the Mormons have their own cult phrases such as “celestial marriage”. Perhaps Sarah Sanders and the Press Office will be able to issue a glossary of all Trump Cult words and phrases.

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  5. I have a conservative friend from high school whose views are close to those of SolarP. Like SolarP, he has been telling me that when Trump destroys the Republican Party, it will not be a great loss. I am coming around to their point of view and posted this last night:

    1. The spending bill disappoints, but does not surprise me. It is what we got from the Republicans under Little Bush and what we would have received under a President Rubio or Kasich. I like to think that Cruz or Scott Walker or Bobby Jindal would have done a little better. The first is a true conservative. The last two have experience fighting spending battles against Democrats. We will never know what they would have done and we will never know if they could have beaten Hillary. Trump will not learn. He has shown that he is too ignorant, unstable and intellectually lazy to competently engage with legislators.

    2. Trump’s new trade war is an even greater concern to me. Like Bernie Sanders, Trump knows less about the economics of trade than the average college sophomore. Americans who have forgotten the lessons of the Smoot-Hawley tariff are about to get a refresher course. The effect of a trade war on inflation and jobs would be dramatic. We have seen that investors in the stock market are already making moves. It will be interesting to watch how other world leaders try to keep trade flowing and limit collateral damage to their economies as Trump inadvertently works to damage virtually all sectors of the US economy.

    3. For me the saddest part of the Trump Presidency is how his profound ignorance, rudeness, childishness, pathological dishonesty and sexual predation are killing the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement. The next two elections are likely to be disasters. Tim Mitcham may remind me that Republicans have not always been our friends and may also correctly note that any party that would pass this spending bill deserves to die. However, I have been a proud member of the Conservative Movement since age 10, and am sad to see it destroyed by such a ridiculous buffoon and con man.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Jonah Goldberg says goodbye to Kevin D. Williamson in this week’s column.

    I think Goldberg is worried about the future of National Review. Editor Rich Lowry is trying to steer a middle path and appeal both to Trumpkins and traditional conservatives. It is a difficult job, sort of like trying to be a porn star and a legal secretary at the same time. It may be able to walk that tightrope for a while, but eventually the magazine is going to have to choose a direction.

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  7. Why should you care about any of those things. You’ve already kicked the dust from your sandals as far as my country is concerned —

    Liked by 1 person

  8. “For me the saddest part of the Trump Presidency is how his profound ignorance, rudeness, childishness, pathological dishonesty and sexual predation are killing the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement.”

    I think it’s cute that you think Trump was the cause of any of what you listed in the GOP. Especially after such a long and distinguished list of degenerates who came before him

    Do the names Farentold and Barton (from Texas), Dennis Hastert, Phil Murphy, Pat Meehan, Pikering, Ensign, Larry Craig, and David Vitter, along with numerous others ring a bell?

    To act like sexual “predation” and degeneracy in politicians is a Trump thing is asinine, and a rewriting of history.

    Dishonesty, rudeness? How about every politician ever.

    Ignorance? With a genius IQ. Go figure.

    Get real.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Well said, Anonymous Debra. Unfortunately, in 22 days I will be presented with another tab to pay for goodies dished out to and consumed by Democrats and Trumpers.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. AJ, It is true that other Republicans have before displayed profound ignorance, rudeness, childishness, pathological dishonesty and sexual predation. However, when before have you found all of those traits wrapped together and in such abundance in one man? Certainly never before in a President or a Presidential Candidate. The only person in either party that comes to mind other than Trump would be Anthony Weiner. And with Weiner, ignorance is not on display on a daily basis as it is with Trump. However, when Weiner decides to do something ignorant he doesn’t go halfway.

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  11. Clinton was and is a dishonest sexual predator. He was not and is not ignorant. Back in the 90s Republicans were committed to never nominate a Clinton-like character. Now not only have we done it, but we found the infantile, rude, stupid Yankee version. As my wife has said often in the last 14 months, “It wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t so stupid.”

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  12. Is it “name calling” to call Charles Manson a murderer or Bernie Madoff a con man? Can anyone dispute that Trump exhibits each of the five traits I attributed to him?

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  13. Anon Ricky @5:10 Trump is not a moron or an idiot. And he’s probably less a con man than any we’ve had in the White House since…well, probably since JFK (not that I remember anything of his presidency at all). I can’t think of a single president that has been (or has really tried to be) more faithful to the people who elected him and to the promises he was elected on. And he has done so with less support from both his own party and most of the media. He has many flaws, but since his enemies are so quick to point them out, I don’t see a need to.

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  14. American foreign policy is relatively simple; maintain American dominance and act in America’s interest. This is true for both parties and explains the continuity in policy. To throw away experience and knowledge in the name of cleaning house is sheer stupidity. Although its not surprising thus is advocated by Bolton who is closely associated with American’s biggest blunder in recent decades; the Iraqi War. This doesn’t bode well for the western world.

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  15. It is rather simplistic to name calling yet sometimes you just need to be accurate. Trump is basically the laundry list Ricky presented. He’s a con man — Trump University. He’s a shandy and lousy businessman — unpaid contractors and several bankruptcies. He’s a self centered egotistical child who has little time for family and wife. He’s corrupt — his trips to his golf courses enriched his company with govt millions. He never disinvested.

    Parents during the Clinton era complained their children couldn’t watch the news. Trump upped the ante. There’s no doubt Clinton was corrupt but Trump is openly corrupt. Nixon was not a nice guy and would do anything to win. I’m waiting for Mueller on this one but if Russian involvement in right wing parties in Europe is any indication Nixon will look like a boy scout in comparison.

    If you want honesty and family values, I’d suggest Carter. If you want family values plus a little more realpolitik Id suggest Obama.

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  16. Trump weighs in to refute Debra’s first sentence @6:16 yesterday.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Yep. Ford and Carter supported the biggest economic con to be pulled on the American people in a century by normalizing ‘free trade’ with the biggest Communist nation on the planet. That’s a pretty big con in my opinion. ;–)

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Bad news, folks. I tried to tune in to the comedy of The Trump Show this morning. Unfortunately, it has been cancelled on all networks and replaced by this horrible show starring foul-mouthed kids talking about guns. Stormy Daniels is going to make a guest appearance on The Trump Show tonight and will hopefully breathe new life into that enterprise.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Ricky – After your comment recently about needing more Mexicans in your neck of the woods to clean houses and do hard labor, I was wondering. . .Do you folks pay the Mexicans a good enough wage, so that they can get by with one full-time hard job, and can afford to provide for their families?

    Liked by 2 people

  20. Kizzie, I can only speak for myself. I employ one and a half Mexicans. The one now drives an Acura and the half just bought a new house.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. I can tell you a bit more about how it works here in Texas. I try to walk 6 miles a day, so when the weather is bad I may walk at the mall. In the evenings from Monday through Saturday, the mall is full of other old white people like myself, teenagers, rich white women and Trumpers.

    On Sunday afternoons, the mall is full of Mexican families. Most are well dressed and have come from church. The men generally all work on Saturdays. Often boys over 10 will help their Dads at work on Saturday. The wives work much less outside the home. The men fix their own cars and do all their own home repairs. In other words the Mexicans live much like our parents did sixty years ago.

    Liked by 2 people

  22. And just out of curiosity….

    Are they legal or illegal residents of the US?

    “Cuz if they are legal, then you should refer to them by what they are now, Americans, not Mexicans.

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  23. They are certainly legal. They were both born in Texas, but they will refer to themselves both as Texans and as Mexicans. They are Texans because they were born here and they are Mexicans because they are of Mexican descent. I will tell them that a Yankee Trumper has instructed me concerning how I should refer to them. They will laugh, but they do not like Yankee Trumpers.

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  24. Carter was naive and misled (on China) but he wasn’t a con man. Carter merely continued Nixon’s policy on China which was based on two ideas. 1) Engage China to split them from the Soviets and 2) support China’s economic liberalization on the assumption it would lead to political liberalization. The latter is ideological hogwash and the former failed. Xi and Putin are two strongmen intent on creating a multipolar world opposed to western interests. Currently Trump seems to have embraced or the very least ignored the Putin-Xi collaboration.

    Liked by 1 person

  25. I read about this brave man a couple of days ago, but I didn’t know he was a Christian convert. From Rod Dreher:

    France has produced a second martyr — the first was Father Jacques Hamel, slain at the altar while saying mass — in the contemporary battle against radical Islam. From Familie Chretienne, this news about Arnaud Beltrame, the French gendarme who willingly exchanged places with a hostage held by an ISIS militant. (Translated by Google.)

    It turns out that the lieutenant-colonel was a practicing Catholic. The fact is that he did not hide his faith, and that he shone, he testified. We can say that his act of offering is consistent with what he believed. He went to the end of his service to the country and to the end of his testimony of faith. To believe is not only to adhere to a doctrine. It is first to love God and his neighbor, and to testify of his faith concretely in everyday life. In the happy or unhappy, even dramatic circumstances of our lives. The woman, to whom he offered to take his place to save her, took on a particular humanity. Arnaud Beltrame was suddenly close to her to take his place. The anonymous person who, suddenly, becomes close,….

    http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/arnaud-beltrame-hero-martyr/

    Liked by 2 people

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