Trump Shouldn’t Testify Under Oath: This Would Weaken His Presidency Even More As He Doesn’t Know When to Pipe Down and Listen

President Trump should not testify before Congress because he doesn’t know when to pipe down, and doesn’t care to either.

I’m sorry to say that about him, but he’s even more of a loose cannon than I had predicted he would be during the election.   I remain unconvinced that he’s temperamentally suited to be President.

I am convinced, however, that if Trump were to go before Congress and testify, that neither the Dems nor Reps would confine themselves to asking only about former FBI Director Comey’s testimony.  Trump has a lot of controversies going on, and the temptation to go after Trump’s wall, his travel ban, Michael Flynn, the entire Russia affair, witness tampering, obstruction of justice and all the other yaadaa yaadaa swirling around the President would be too tempting to ignore.

I would like to note that there is precedence for sitting Presidents and Vice Presidents to go before Congress to testify.  Some examples:

President Washington testified before the entire Senate on the various Indian treaties of the time.

President Lincoln (1862) went to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about a leak in the White House.  President Lincoln helped to free a New York Herald reporter who had refused to name his source that had given him an advanced copy of Lincoln’s State of the Union speech.  Congress was convinced that Mary Lincoln was the source, but President Lincoln assured them that no member of his family was involved.

Vice President Colfax (1873) went before the House Select Committee to answer charges that he was involved in the Credit Mobiler scandal.  Colfax had denied owning stock in the company, but got caught in a lie.  He did not run for office again.

President Wilson (1919) went before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to extoll the benefits of joining the new League of Nations following World War I.  The Senate rejected the treaty twice and the U.S. never joined the League.

President Ford (1974) went before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice & the House Judiciary Committee on why he gave former President Nixon a full presidential pardon. 

Former Presidents have also testified before Congress, including Theodore Roosevelt (twice), Harry S. Truman, and Gerald R. Ford after his term of office (on the bicentennial of the Constitution).

Because of Trump’s repeated changing of his stories, he’d be put into a real negative light, much more so than he is right now.

I think he should tell Congress “no” to testifying.  He has nothing to gain, except petty revenge against Comey, and much more to lose.

I can’t help but think that he’s looking to be kicked out of office so he can resume his business dealings.

“Even North Korea’s Signed the Paris Climate Accords!” North Korea’s Fixing to NUKE Us! What Will That Do to Global Temperatures?

Some idiot came up with a new political slogan against President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the worst global groupthink disaster in history that says “Even North Korea Signed the Paris Climate Accords!”

What a stupid idiotic thing to say.   North Korea’s signature is worth even less than the useless Paris Climate Accord.

Last time I checked, North Korea’s threatening to nuke us.  What would a nuclear attack against the United States and South Korea and the subsequent nuclear destruction of North Korea by the U.S. nuclear counterattack do to global temperatures?

Raise them for a while before nuclear winter set in.

So North Korea signed.  Big whoop!

Any by the way, 195 countries can only drop the expected temperature change by only 0.2 degrees Celsius?   That alone shows how useless the current treaty is.   “Something is better than nothing” groupthink is what got us here and why 195 countries signed it.

Paris Accord is a Joke: It’s a “Feel Good” Treaty with “Set Your Own Goals” and “Make the United States Pay For It” Provisions; The Real Joke Will Come When We Drop Our Emissions Faster Than Most of the Treaty-Bound Nations Who Are Currently Condemning Trump

OK, the whining from the libs and global warming alarmists is too delicious to ignore.   Time for some lunch!

The Paris Accord isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, and it’s cost the United States billions to pay for other nations to lower their own emissions while transferring coal burning rights to other nations, and all at the expense of the American worker and economy.

It’s nothing more than a “feel good” treaty with “set your own limits” provisions and has absolutely no enforcement teeth.

Plus it was never submitted to the United States Senate for approval, which made it illegal by the Constitutional measure.  

No international treaty should be the basis for using American courts to force compliance with laws of any kind.  The Constitution of the United States reigns supreme here, and any international treaty that says otherwise is NULL and VOID.

Trump put America first in this case. 

I had earlier suggested remaining in it, but with European nations saying that the treaty cannot and will not be renegotiated changed my mind.  

I wonder how many nations who have signed the Paris Accords would sign a new treaty if it had strict rules, signatories had to pay 1% of their GDP across the board and could be enforced without infringing on the sovereign rights of the nations in question.   Not nearly as many as this weak smorgasbord treaty has.

Businesses want more efficient ways of doing things; so do people.  And if it is cleaner, more efficient, cost effective, and happens to lower CO2 emissions along the way, so much the better. 

The only thing funnier than this treaty will be if an Accord-unbound U.S. beats 95% of the treaty signatories in dropping CO2 emissions in the suggested timeframe.  2015 saw the U.S. lead the world in CO2 cuts at nearly 145 million tons.  This is at odds with the alarmist narrative.

I suggest  that those who are crying over this get over themselves, go buy a pack of LED lights, screw them in, and enjoy their lower electrical bill.  That’s a cheaper feel-good way to contribute to emissions cuts than a feel-good treaty that’s cost us in the neighborhood of $250 billion.

President Should Sidestep the Withdrawal from the Paris Accords Debate and Submit the Treaty to the Senate As Constitutionally-Called For: Congress Needs to Be Forced to Publicly Take a Stand With Their Votes for Approval or Disapproval

President Trump has an easy way to temporarily side-step the entire debate on whether or not to stay in the Paris Accords: submit the treaty to the Senate for approval or disapproval.   Such a far-reaching treaty with foreign governments needs to be put before the Senate for a vote, as called for by the Constitution, and not by presidential fiat (Executive Orders). 

I hope this is what he does.

This president has shown that he’s not afraid to reverse Obama-era Executive Orders, and this would be another way to re-establish the balance of power that the Obama Administration managed to blur beyond recognition..

If the Senate somehow manages to pass this flawed treaty that tells us to do what our businesses sector is already doing more efficiently than many Paris Accord-bound nations have been able to do so far with their treaty-imposed limits, President Trump always has the veto option available down the road. 

U.S. taxpayers should not be footing the bill for other nations to meet their own treaty obligations (referred to in the Accords as “climate finance.”)  

I really hope this is the option that President Trump takes.   Congress needs to go on the record, while at the same time fulfilling their Constitutional duties.

Merkel Says Europe Shouldn’t Rely on U.S. or U.K.: About Time She Figured It Out

Now that Angela Merkel has figured out that the United States isn’t big brother to Europe and Europe isn’t big brother to the United States, we can finally start to deal with each other on equal terms.

It’s a moment that’s been in the making for a long time.

We’re also seeing the difference in between an Omega leader and an Alpha leader, in terms of President Obama and President Trump’ s leadership styles.  Obama meekly went along with the crowd, while Trump won’t tuck tail and submit to European groupthink. 

I suspect Trump will keep the U.S. in the Paris Accords, but he’ll insist on stringent new conditions and exemptions in return for the U.S. honoring the treaty.   I also think that he will submit the treaty to the Senate for ratification, which is what should have happened years ago, but Obama chose not to out of fear that the GOP-controlled Senate would (rightly) reject it.

Merkel’s frustration with Trump is a very good sign; his speech calling on NATO members to pay their fair share was dead-on too.  It’s too bad it seemed to fall on deaf European ears, but hopefully they’ll come around.

There’s too much evil in the world for NATO to confront without having to deal with a budget shortfall created by its own members.

Government People Leaking Information to the Media Need to Be Found and Prosecuted: British Police Stop Sharing Information with U.S. Because They “Don’t Want Their Investigation Hindered”

The news from Britain was not entirely unexpected; British police have stopped sharing intelligence from their bombing investigation with the United States out of fear that it’ll be leaked to the news media over here and set their investigation back.

When our own allies don’t trust our government to handle sensitive information, that’s one more indicator that the sources---all of them---need to be found and prosecuted.   And the price they pay needs to be so high that it’ll discourage others from considering doing the same thing.

And President Trump needs to stay on-script with foreign leaders too, especially with governments that are not our friends.   Trusting them with intelligence gathered by the Israeli intelligence network?   That may not have been the best move, but what’s done is done.   Hopefully Israel asked President Trump to check with them first before revealing Israeli-generated intelligence.

Time to go back to Cold War tactics to catch spies and serial leakers.

Trump Fires FBI Director: He Didn’t Have Much of a Choice; This FBI Director Made Too Many Mistakes and Was Badly Damaged

The office of the FBI Director needs to be clear of political entanglements, and Director Comey was up to his eyeballs on them.  He had to go.  The timing was awful, but with everything going on, there was no guarantee that there would be a better time down the road.

An FBI director who doesn’t follow the chain of command is among the most dangerous people in federal government, because of the power of his agency.  He may not be able to order nuclear missiles to be launched, but his was the power to order investigations of national security issues on all levels of government, and out in public too.   Counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, and criminal investigations are just the tip of the FBI spear.

The FBI director also needs to be an independent observer and do his/her part to protect the public and to stay out of politics, which he didn’t do.  He was badly damaged from his foray into the political realm.

I had said on this blog back in October that I felt that the FBI Director had been overthrown because President Obama wouldn’t order an investigation of his preferred Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, and that the Department of Justice was probably involved.

It’s a reality now.

The hypocrisy of the Democrats who were screaming for Comey’s head eleven days before the election was on full display MINUTES after news broke, of course, but that label also extended to Republicans as well.   Senators and Congresspeople alike from both parties who wanted Comey gone were screaming bloody murder about his dismissal.

This firing has created another circus for the Administration to deal with, and it’s self-inflicted.   I’ve never seen an Administration stab itself in the leg as often as this one does.   Trump should have appointed an independent prosecutor at the same time…this would have given Trump some credibility that he so badly needs.

This is going to get seriously ugly.

Fox’s Letting O’Reilly Go Was the Right Move to Make in Spite of the Pain in the Ratings the Move Will Cost: Now They Need to Find Another Conservative Firebrand

Bill O’Reilly is out at Fox News, and it was the correct move to make.   O’Reilly’s alleged behavior was a continued liability exposure to Fox that could no longer be tolerated.

In doing this, Fox will probably lose their ranking in the ratings during the “O’Reilly Factor” timeslot for the time being, but if they put someone in there who is a firebrand and can keep part of the conservative audience that O’Reilly enjoyed, they’ll do OK and claw their ratings and advertisers back. 

Fifty companies pulled their ads out of the “Factor” timeslot when news of this scandal broke, which were worth in the neighborhood of $100 million.

Fox may be at risk of a lawsuit from O’Reilly, and possibly from the victims for failing to act, so their legal troubles aren’t over.   They’ll have to pay more out, but if they can change the culture over there, the hemorrhage will slow and stop, or move to a more manageable level, similar to other like-sized companies. 

It will be interesting to watch.

Fox Still Has Problems Over at Their News Division: Nothing’s Been Done to Deal With Fox & Friends Issues, and Now Bill O’Reilly’s on the Radar Too

The sexual harassment problem plaguing Fox News is still there and is intensifying; this is not good.

They’ve done nothing to reprimand members of the Fox & Friends team, and now Bill O’Reilly has popped up on the radar, and not in a good way.  One F&F cast member featured prominently in a sexual harassment lawsuit and helped to establish a hostile work environment, as I wrote about back in 2016.

Now, Bill O’Reilly has been settling lawsuits with accusers who have come forward to the tune of $10 million of his own money, and $3 million of the network’s money. 

If he was using just his own money to settle with women who are after him, I’d be willing to accept his explanation that he’s a target for lawsuits, and that he was trying to protect his kids from being humiliated.  But the fact that the network is contributing to payoffs to these women tells me there’s much more to the story than what has been revealed.

Fox management needs to deal severely with these situations.  It’s already cost them a lot of credibility with their conservative audience, at least $60 million to settle the Gretchen Carlson lawsuit and millions more to cover up whatever O’Reilly’s doing,  and they’ll lose a lot more if they don’t start making some examples out of these people and enforcing sexual harassment laws on and off the set.

Workplace sexual harassment is ILLEGAL.

Solution to North Korean Problem Rests With Chinese PLA Forces: They Could Seize Control of North Korean Nuclear Facilities, Missile Complexes and Weapons and Make It Unnecessary for U.S to Launch Military Strikes

China holds the key to solving the North Korean nuclear problem once and for all, and it is going to have to make a decision soon.

We already know that China doesn’t like the idea of U.S. and South Korean troops near its border with North Korea, as demonstrated in the 1950s when the Chinese sent their army across the border into North Korea to attack advancing UN troops.   

In this current crisis, North Korea doesn’t seem interested in following the advice of China, which has threatened to use force if North Korean actions lead to any kind of damage to northeastern China.  This is very interesting, especially since any use of nuclear weapons above ground will undoubtably damage large swaths of the Chinese electrical grid, and not just in the northeastern part of the country.

I say “above ground” because it is entirely possible that if a military confrontation begins between the U.S. and South Korea against North Korea, the idiot running Pyongyang will use nuclear weapons first, possibly on South Korean territory, possibly on his own territory or elsewhere.   Hopefully he hasn’t developed nuclear torpedoes yet.

China could stop this before it even started, if they were to send their army across the border and seize the missile fields, nuclear facilities/materials and weapons and take them back to China with them, along with North Korea’s nuclear scientists.   I think North Korean nuclear weapons under Beijing’s control is preferable to the immature and insane North Korean leader’s questionable control. 

I find it doubtful that the North Korean military would be prepared for a sudden Chinese military move.  They’re focusing all their attention south and not taking China seriously.

This is probably all wishful thinking, but if it were to happen, China could keep the peace on it’s own terms, prevent an exodus of North Korean refugees, and put Pyongyang in check, so that it would start to behave to international norms. 

I think we’d leave North Korea alone if they started behaving like grown-ups and not the petulant child nation.

Major Turn-Around in Trump’s Reaction to Assad and Syrian Use of Chemical Weapons: U.S. Military Hits Syrian Airfield Where Airstrike Originated

Finally, some decisive action on the Syrian chemical weapons attack.  Hopefully North Korea and China are watching very carefully, and considering what kind of U.S. President that they’re dealing with now.  

President Trump may still be formulating his foreign policy, but once he decides to do something, it’s become very clear that he will.   It’s very encouraging, and a reversal of his words from a couple of days before.  The videos coming out of Syria horrified President Trump, too.  

U.S. forces struck the Syrian airbase where the chemical airstrike originated from.   I think that Assad took a gamble that the U.S. would do nothing, and he miscalculated very badly.  This is not the previous Administration.

Russia and China should encourage their clients to start behaving to international norms.   They’re in a very good position to do so now, if they weren’t before. 

I found it interesting that Russian air defenses apparently did not engage the Tomahawk cruise missiles.  I’m sure we’ll hear more about this as the story develops.

Trump Language on Syria Chemical Weapons Attack is Disappointing: We Need a Really Strong Response

President Trump took the opportunity to blame Obama’s weak red line foreign policy concerning Syria’s chemical weapons and ducked saying what he’s going to do about today’s chemical weapons attack.

Old news, Mr. President.  What are you going to do differently?

And for that matter, are we sure that is was the Syrian government, or was it ISIS with aircraft that they’ve seized from Syrian air bases during the initial  ISIS overrun of Syria?   I doubt it was Russia.

What I saw on TV this evening in the aftermath of the chemical attack is going to give me nightmares.   

If the world doesn’t react with overwhelming negativity and start handing out some severe punishments, this won’t be the last time that we’ll see chemical weapons being used in a war zone.  They’re either illegal, or they’re not.

I hope President Trump watches those videos coming out of Syria in detail.  They’re HORRIFIC.

“Nuclear Option?” Nonsense! Senate Should Have Been on Majority Vote (51 Votes to Cloture) LONG Before Now, Not This 60 Votes Garbage That Has Paralyzed Congress for Far Too Long

I’ve never liked the 60 vote rule in the United States Senate, and think they should have been doing majority votes LONG before the current Supreme Court nominee was up for a vote.

The sooner they go back to majority rules in the Senate, the better.

The only 2/3 or 3/4 votes that should be required are the ones specifically mentioned by the Constitution of the United States.  Everything else should be a simple majority, like in the House.

If a Supreme Court nominee is truly awful, or is discovered to be an axe murderer during the confirmation process, he or she will not get 51 votes.  Enough people in Congress will vote against the nominee, or they’ll convince either the nominee or the President to withdraw the candidacy and choose someone more palatable.

And if the party who doesn’t control the Senate doesn’t like being in the minority, then they need to do a better job of getting people in their states out to vote for their party’s candidates. 

Currently the Republicans run the Senate, but there will more than likely be a turnover eventually, as control has swung in both directions at one point or another.

If anything, we’ll get better Congressional performances from both parties, which have been dismal going back to before the 2000 elections.

Forget about Friday, change the rules now.

GOP Sabotaged Their Own Bill By Trying to Go It Alone: With Their Own Party in Disarray, How Could They Possibly Hope to Pass Anything Until Their Ducks Are in a Row?

I’m trying to comprehend how a political party that is as fractured as the GOP possibly thought they could ramrod their incomplete health care bill through the House with every Democrat prepared to vote “No” on it.  

The attempt to do this was done in extreme haste, and without doing the groundwork first.   Votes should never have been scheduled until the GOP had their entire party on board, which they never did with the health care reform bill.   Moderate Republicans thought the bill went too far, the conservatives didn’t think it went far enough, and everybody else was scattered across the divide.

The GOP couldn’t have more than twenty-one of their members vote against the bill; in between thirty and forty indicated that they wouldn’t support it.  That number, combined with the Democratic numbers was enough to cause the GOP leadership to pull the vote.

If this kind of GOP thinking continues, and they don’t do their homework, I fully expect this kind of thing to happen again on the other agenda items that President Trump has.  I’d prefer he didn’t rule by Presidential fiat in the same way that President Obama did (through Executive Orders). 

I don’t know if Speaker Ryan will be able to hold onto his leadership position, given the kind of defeat he’s just been handed.  If he can’t control his own party in the House, he can’t be expected to control the direction of the whole House either.

Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

GOP Effort to Repeal and Replace Obamacare Will Likely Fail: Their Plan, Quite Frankly, Isn’t As Good as What They’re Attempting to Repeal, So They Should Probably Focus on Fixing What’s Already in Place

I can’t support the Republicans on their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare until they present a plan that is much better and less expensive than what’s already in place.

Which leads me to this point: the original Affordable Care Act was put into place with a plan to put amendments in to fix shortcomings of the law, but the wind direction shifted in Washington and the GOP got control of both houses of Congress, and those amendments were never made.

Someone in Washington needs to look at those amendments and see if they are viable fixes that will help fix the problems, or if they’ll make the situation worse.   Nobody in Washington seems to be talking about this.

People see and feel the monthly premiums the most, and many states have seen double-digit increases in their monthly premiums; insured citizens in Arizona will see a 116% jump in 2017.   This isn’t right or affordable. 

I think the GOP needs to focus on fixing what’s already in place.   Those who are saying that if the GOP screws this up are right: they (the GOP) will pay a heavy price during the midterm elections if millions lose their health insurance.

It may be “Obamacare Light”, but it will have a better chance of succeeding in both houses of Congress, especially with enough of the Republicans in open revolt over supporting the GOP alternative.

They need to do what is necessary to lower premiums, lower costs, and get rid of the mandate. 

Get it right, GOP, or suffer the consequences at the next election.

Police Agencies Should Be Reimbursed for President’s Weekend Trips to Florida and for Protecting Trump Tower: Local Police Aren’t Equipped to Protect President and His Family 24/7/365

President Trump seems to be asking a lot of police departments in New York City and in Florida.   They’re being required to supplement the Secret Service and provide equipment and personnel to protect the President and his family in areas of the country where it’s traditionally not happened before.

Presidential vacations are one thing, but the First Family is residing in Trump Tower in downtown NYC, instead of the White House, and President Trump has spent 1/4 of his Presidency living in Florida.

What gives?  He tweeted in 2016 that he was going to be so busy that he wouldn’t leave the White House.  Yet he’s been in Florida every weekend at his resort, resulting in $60,000 a day in police protection that was not budgeted by Palm Beach County for their Sheriff’s Department.  Residents shouldn’t have to have their taxes raised to pay for President Trump’s protection.

In New York, where the First Family is, it’s even worse.  It’s $146,000 per day, which is actually down from the November-January transition time, which cost NYC $308,000 per day.

The sooner that the First Family moves to the White House, the better.  That way the Secret Service can boost their personnel on the White House grounds, and provide better protection to the President and his family.  Recent security problems at the White House illustrate the need for more Secret Service agents to be on the grounds.   Taking 17 minutes to detect someone (who has no military or infiltration training) who hopped the fence?  That’s a huge problem.

The federal government should reimburse Palm Beach County and New York City for the extra protection that they’re providing.   And President Trump should spend more weekends at the White House to give the residents of Palm Beach a break.

Also, President Trump’s budget will cut federal funding to cities for anti-terrorism efforts, so why is he asking them to spend more while cutting the budget for their police forces?  That doesn’t make sense.

Arrangements need to be made, and a policy written or updated for the future protection of the First Family.

Streisand Tweets That Trump is Making Her Gain Weight: No, Mrs. Streisand, Your Choices Are Doing That

Understand that this is not a fat shaming post as I despise fat shamers.

Barb Streisand tweeted over the weekend that President Trump was causing her to gain weight.

With all due respect to Mrs. Streisand, her choices in foods and when she eats them are responsible for all that, not another person.   If the news is causing stress, turn it off.   Throw the maple syrup out if it’s causing a problem and switch to something else.

Hypothetical: I just ate fifty jelly donuts, and it’s Barbara Streisand’s fault because I don’t like her political stands.   It’s all her fault for my eating fifty jelly donuts and putting on 200 pounds as I eat fifty jelly donuts a day.   Barbara Streisand is going to kill me!   Sound utterly ridiculous?  Now read the story in that vein.

Reality: I hate jelly donuts.   And I eat what I want because I want to.  That’s on me.   Barbara Streisand and her political beliefs have nothing to do with it.   It’s all about making personal choices and taking responsibility for them.   That’s how I see it.

Where Did Trump Get His Information About Wiretapping Going On at Trump Tower From? Did He Get a Briefing on It? And If So, Who Gave It?

If President Trump doesn’t get his act together fast, and start providing information on where he got the notion that Trump Tower was being wiretapped, his adversaries are going to multiply exponentially.

Trump needs allies in Washington if he’s going to make anything of his first term of office, and going off the way he has based (according to some) on the meaningless prattling of an ultra-right wing radio show host (not Rush Limbaugh) simply will not do.  The petulant child routine from President Trump is getting real old, real quick, whether the Tower was bugged or not.

Was President Trump briefed by someone at 6am in the morning?  His first tweet at 6:35am said that he had just found out that the Tower had been wiretapped.  Context, please, Mr. President.

I liked the President Trump I saw on TV addressing Congress.  That’s the one that needs to be out in front, not the Twitter lunatic.

Yes, he should be upset at the Russia story upstaging him again.   And Sessions probably should have talked to the White House as a professional courtesy before having his press conference.

Trump’s chief of staff isn’t doing his job in coordinating the efforts of the Administration.   It’s time to get rid of some people, starting with the chief of staff.

Some Liberal Networks Replace “Fact Check” With “Reality Check”: Former Term Became Too Politicized, And So Will the New One

I see that NBC News and CNN both replaced their “fact checks” with “reality checks.”  I thought something like that was going to happen as “fact checks” and all the variants had become political hot potatoes.   And since President Trump is openly treating the news networks as an opposition party, the fact check terminology was not working to their advantage anymore.

A lot of people would instantly start to bristle if they heard a news anchor even say “fact check” or read it on an openly biased news network’s web site.    I looked at CNN’s evaluation of the President’s address to Congress last night, and the only thing that changed was the title of the piece.

They still issued verdicts of Trump’s statements as being “true”, “true but misleading”, “mostly true”, and “false.”

The problem with these kinds of checks is that the statements of CNN and other news organizations in their fact checks also have to be checked for accuracy.  They got into a nasty habit of misleading readers with inaccurate statements in their own fact checks.

For instance, the following on-screen fact check was put on the air on August 11th, 2016, in response to Trump’s political statement that Obama founded ISIS:

See the fact check?  It’s wrong.  ISIS was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, while al-Baghdadi was the leader of ISIS after al-Zarqawi’s death.   I found it particularly funny that CNN had “He’s Not” in parenthesis in their defense of their Great Leader.

Trump was making a political statement that because the Obama Administration pulled troops out of Iraq too soon, it became possible for groups like ISIS to fill the vacuum as the still-in-training Iraqi Army wasn’t up to the task of fighting off ISIS.   (The Iraqi Army was badly beaten in 2014 and ISIS took over a large swath of Iraq).   Trump was saying Obama should be credited for making the conditions possible for ISIS to flourish, but it didn’t come across right and the left tried to make political hay about it with….mixed results as the photo above shows.

And then there’s the question of one news outlet saying that a statement is true, and another one blasts the same statement as being absolutely false, especially if both news outlets are of the same political color—such as CNN vs. MSNBC.   Throw both fact checks out and go to a third, fourth, fifth or sixth source.

I couldn’t help but notice that the Washington Post’s fact check piece focused in only on statements it considered false and ignored everything else from the rest of the speech, including statements that CNN said were true. 

“Reality checks” will take on the same hue as “fact checks” did, and possibly faster, even without a red-hot political campaign raging across the country.  They’re mostly political attack articles from the Democrats, who really need to get over themselves.

What? The Second Round of the Celebrity Democratic Pity Party Was On Last Night? Oh, Gee, I Missed It When I Turned Off the TV and Went to Bed: Did Anything Happen Other Than the Usual Bull?5

Not that I care.

The news people keep talking about some kind of a screw-up at the end of the show, but I think the entire show is a screw-up.   If they kept the politics out of it and would cease their unending meltdown over the election, I’d probably stay up to watch it or at least DVR it.

I’m not remotely interested in anything that a melting/melted down celebrity has to say about politics.  Get over it.

Quick Repeal of Obamacare Was Never Realistic: GOP Needs to Slow Down, Take a Good Look at Existing Health Care Law, and Proceed One Step at a Time

The GOP is finally realizing that a quick repeal of Obamacare was never a realistic goal.   To quickly repeal it would lead to even more chaos in the health care insurance field than there already is, and no Republican wants to be responsible for large numbers of American losing what they already have.

This is why I’m in favor of a slow examination of  the law, and gradual implementation of a new system, which may or may not involve keeping the better parts of the ACA.

Caution is warranted, not speed, when it comes to health care.  The repeal of Obamacare cannot be done by Executive Order alone, which is as it should be.   It took an act of Congress to pass the ACA, and the repeal or replacement has to follow the same course.

Whatever they do, at the end of the process, people need to have access to health insurance, whether by mandate or by their own volition, and it can’t involve raising premiums much higher than they are now.   A decrease in premiums would be very welcome news, especially in states that have had huge increases in premiums.

Oh, and an $89,000 medication?   I think not.  A $600 epipen injector that’s available in Britain for $69?  That kind of health care robbery has to end.  The $89,000 drug is available overseas for $1,200 and has been for years.

Proceed with caution, GOP.

John McCain Pulled a Bill Clinton-Like Stunt With a Twist: Protesting Against the Government He’s Overseas Representing?

I jumped all over Bill Clinton in 1992 when it came out that he participated in anti-Vietnam War protests against his own country (while he was a student living overseas) in 1969, and now it appears I must jump all over a United States Senator for pulling a Clinton-like stunt over the weekend.

John McCain also made waves during the 1992 campaign, criticizing Bill Clinton’s choices while he (Clinton) was protesting overseas as a student (and at the same time that McCain was being tortured in North Vietnam for information), so I’m having a hard time believing that John McCain would do this.

McCain made a mistake when he traveled to Germany and delivered a speech that was critical of the Trump Administration.

I’m sorry, but a senior Senator like McCain should know better than to pull a Bill Clinton.  He has every right to say what he did, but not off American soil.  He’s over there representing the United States government, and he just slapped it in the face in the presence of a foreign audience.  Gee, thanks for nothing, Senator.

It was a bad decision, and one I can’t support.   And I don’t care how mad he is; American domestic politics stops at the waterline.   Politicians should know better than to air their laundry away from home.
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Just how many of Senator McCain's Arizona constituents live in Munich, anyway?

If the Mainstream Media Still Thinks It’s Part of the Government After Yesterday’s “Press Conference”, Then They’re Delusional: A Free and Independent Press Cannot Be Joined At The Hip With the President The Way That They Were During the Obama Administration

The liberal headlines about President Trump’s impromptu press conference yesterday were exactly as expected.  Terms that they used were mostly negative (epic rant, unhinged, rambling, media-bashing, unplugged, crazy, scorched-earth, wild, shock, bluster, bravado, exaggeration (that’s the one term I agree with), and about a dozen other terms that they looked in the thesaurus to find). 

I called it brilliant, and exactly what the arrogant elitist press needed to hear: a sitting President putting them into their place.

Some of the elitists still believe that the press is part of the federal government, which is dead wrong.  A free, independent and healthy press must not seen to be a part of the government, or they run the risk of becoming presidential spokespeople, which is what they were for the Obama  Administration, and for the failed Obama heir-apparent . 

I believe Trump served them up a big helping of humble pie yesterday.  And the press is still trying to figure out what it is they’re dealing with.   They withered under Trump’s fire, and that’s a good thing.   He’s treating the media as political opposition, which is what they’ve allowed themselves to become.  And it’s a good strategy for now.   He needs results when the public gets bored with his current antics. 

Now, there are still a lot of unanswered questions that President Trump hasn’t answered yet, and he said some things that were blatantly incorrect during the press conference, like his Electoral College being the biggest one since Reagan.   Nope.  Not even close.  In the eight Presidential elections after the 1984 Reagan landslide, five of the victors had more electoral votes than President Trump’s 306 electoral votes.  He really needs to get with the program, stop putting out incorrect information and be honest about how rough things have been so far.

And it is the media’s job to ask probing questions. but as the free press, and not the political opposition, and certainly not as the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.

The real free press has been missing in action for a long time.  I wonder if we’ll ever see them again, without all the liberal bias that currently exists in today’s news media.

In the meantime, the liberal press can have fun with the monster that they themselves helped to create.  

White House Chief of Staff, National Security Advisor and Press Secretary’s Jobs Are in Varying Degrees of Danger: Chief of Staff and Press Secretary Will Probably Be Able to Hold On, But National Security Advisor is Likely to Resign or Be Fired

Three members of the Trump Administration appear to be in danger of being forced to resign or being fired outright.

The National Security Advisor appears to be in very hot water as he may have misled the White House on his communications with the Russian government prior to President Trump taking office.   This is not good.   If something happens here, it will happen in the next day or two.

The Chief of Staff doesn’t seem to have a handle on the White House staff.   A good Chief of Staff not only manages the staff, but also the message being put out by the staff as representatives of the Executive Branch.   He/she also controls who gets access to the President.   With so many contradictory statements coming from the Executive Branch, they need to get things under control fast.  This is a very disorganized White House.

Finally, the Press Secretary is a fool and is putting on quite the side show, and given the President’s reputation for being a no-nonsense businessman, he may be forced to find someone else who will more accurately represent him to the media, which he doesn’t particularly care for.

It’s likely that the Press Secretary and the Chief of Staff will keep their jobs, but I’m not so sure about the National Security Advisor.   He’s in big trouble.

Before Questioning Trump’s Mental Health, Liberal Snowflakes Should Get Their Own Heads Into Order Before Making a Sound About What’s Rattling Around in Trump’s Head

Ultra liberal Al Franken made the rounds on the Sunday news shows, saying that President Trump’s mental health needs to be examined.

Um, which side organized cry-ins, therapy dogs and free grief counseling services across the country to our dear dear precious snowflake population after the election?   It wasn’t the Trump people, those deplorable people who got tired of liberal hypocrisies and whining and voted the way they really wanted to just to stick it to the Democrats and Hillary Clinton.

It turned out that being called a deplorable was like being awarded a badge of honor.

Trump’s White House IS very disorganized, and he may need to clean house three weeks into his Administration and bring in some new people to correct some of the big screw-ups.

But for the king of hypocrites telling the President to get his head examined?   Al Franken should tell his side to go get their heads examined first.  After all, one of those snowflake basket cases needing free grief counseling over a lost election might be President down the road.  (God help us if we have a crybaby for a President!)

We knew going in to the campaign that Donald Trump might not be temperamentally suited to be President; are the libs just figuring this out?

Usually When a Circuit Court Rules an Act of Congress Unconstitutional, It Throws the Law Out: 9th Circuit Did No Such Thing When It Refused to Reinstate Trump’s Executive Order

Something’s very wrong here.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate President Trump’s travel suspension on Constitutional grounds, but left the law being quoted by the Executive Order intact instead of throwing it out like it’s supposed to.

In fact, it barely mentions the law, 8 U.S. Code § 1182, in its ruling.  That law was passed in 1952 by the Democratic-controlled House and Senate, vetoed by Democratic President Truman, whose veto was then successfully overridden by his own party in both houses of Congress. 

It’s ironic that a law passed by the Democrats with such decisiveness (including overriding their own party’s President) is being used by a Republican President under the exact circumstances that prompted the Democrats to pass it in the first place.

The 9th Circuit has definitely screwed something up.  And as huge a problem that was created by the failed rollout of this EO, the Supreme Court will have to look at the 9th Circuit decision and decide if judicial activism has inserted itself into a (seriously fouled-up) national security situation.

I look forward to hearing what the Supreme Court has to say on the matter.

Where is the President Getting His Information? Is He Even Bothering to Look Up The Facts He’s Getting Wrong? FBI Records Show That The U.S. Murder Rate is Among the LOWEST in Fifty-One Years, Not Highest in Forty-Seven Years As He Claims

I can’t believe what I’m hearing the President say on an almost daily basis.   He keeps getting facts wrong, to an extreme level.

For example, today he told a law enforcement group that the U.S. murder rate was the highest in forty-seven years.  Yet a simple Google search clearly shows that the murder rate is among the LOWEST in almost fifty-one years.

I don’t know where President Trump is getting his information from, but if it’s from someone other than himself, he needs to fire that individual for misleading him.

He’s been claiming that during the campaign too, but he’s just plain wrong.  

President Trump needs to start looking up information himself and quit parroting back false information.  In a way, he’s spreading the very kind of false news that he’s accused others of doing.  He isn’t helping his Presidency.

Still waiting.

DeVos Confirmed: Disappointing, But Not the End of the World

As anticipated, the Senate tied 50-50 on voting for the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education, and Vice-President Pence cast the deciding vote.

While this did not go the way many were hoping, it’s not the end of the world.  Hopefully she helps all students in all forms of education, and not just her failed system.   With any luck, the Michigan Department of Education will take care of her mess in western Lower Michigan.

Moving on.

Senate Should Vote Against Betsy DeVos and Send Her Back to Michigan to Clean Up the Mess She Created: There Are Much Better Potential Nominees for Secretary of Education Out There

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the Secretary of Education nominee, Betsy DeVos, around noontime today.

She’s created quite the mess back home, and hopefully the Senate will not confirm her, so that she can return to Michigan and clean up her huge mess that she made in the years prior to her nomination.

We don’t need a rich lobbyist as the Secretary of Education….we need someone who was the Superintendent of a highly successful public school district with a proven track record of turning a failing system around, which is something that DeVos has failed at.

Republicans have a reputation for not rewarding failure, and to have them vote for someone with a track record like hers would be downright discouraging and a huge black mark against that reputation.

I hope the Senate votes wisely today and turns her nomination down.

House Bill HR861 Will Eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Not Sure if This Is Good Or Bad, But It’s Likely That the Next Democratic President and Congress Will Revive It

It looks like the EPA itself is becoming a hot potato, with threatened termination of the agency.  A GOP Representative introduced HR861, which calls for the termination of the Environmental Protection Agency.

I’m not sure how to react to this, but I’m enjoying the initial reaction to the news from liberals, who are melting down again.   One of my associates wrote on Facebook that…“we ought to get our Representatives on speed dial, ‘cause they’re going after the f’ing EPA!!”

Relax, liberals.  Agencies come and go and come again, depending on who’s in power.

I have mixed feelings on this topic.  On one hand, the EPA has done a lot of good to help protect the environment and the public, but they’ve made some critical mistakes in their interpretation of various acts of Congress, such as the Clean Air Act.  In one such instance, the Supreme Court ruled the EPA was in error with their interpretation of the Act in regards to cost.  I also am wondering if the EPA is effective against major polluters.

Many of the EPA’s functions can be transferred to the states if this proposed bill becomes law.

This is still in the early stages, and it may not advance, but I’ll be watching with great interest.

Trump Still Hasn’t Got It Together: He’s Still in “Impulse” Mode, Still Tweeting, and Still Acting Un-Presidential While Things Are Going From Bad to Worse

Still waiting for President Trump to start acting like he won the election, waiting for him to get off Twitter and start using traditional Presidential communications mediums, and waiting for him to act like he’s the President and not a petulant child who’s just been denied something at the supermarket or on a school playground.

We also don’t need a part-time President.  We need and expect a full-time President who does the job he was elected to do.  And he doesn’t need to comment on everything in sight, whether it’s Ah-nold’s ratings, what this celebrity or that celebrity was wearing on the red carpet, or anything else.  

(Non-emergency) Executive Orders (EOs) that are intended to take immediate effect need to be disseminated to the agencies that will be responsible for carrying them out so that they can explain to and train their personnel in how to handle the myriad of issues that are sure to arise.  This needs to be done before any EO comes into force.

As we saw with the non-vetted travel ban, and now which has a nationwide injunction against it, the government was ill-prepared to execute this plan, because it was drafted by political people, and not shared with the right agencies.   And the result was almost beyond belief. 

The TSA and Immigration/Naturalization people did the best they could given the limited information that they had.   The blame for the disaster that unfolded rests with the Trump Administration, not the rank and file trying to do their jobs.

Now President Trump’s EO is unenforceable by court order, and we’re left with the petulant child syndrome taking center stage again.  The President took to Twitter and attacked the judge who did his job better than President Trump is doing his.   If he had vetted this EO first, the President wouldn’t be in this very bad political spot.

The travel ban EO is and remains a self-inflicted wound that cannot be repeated by President Trump if he has any hope of getting stuff done and fulfilling his pledges.  

He also needs to get with his party in Congress and talk to them to get them on his side, because right now, everybody’s on their own side: Trump, the Republican House, and the Republican Senate act like the other doesn’t matter and Congressional Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump’s self-inflicted injuries. 

I encourage the President to change his strategy.  He’s got a lot of stuff to get done.

8 U.S. Code § 1182 Gives President the Power to Stop or Suspend Classes of People From Entering the United States Under Certain Conditions: Trump Administration’s Interpretation Will Probably Have to Undergo Court Test

It appears that President Trump’s 90-day travel ban Executive Order is based in part on a federal law-- 8 U.S. Code § 1182 which is titled  “Inadmissible Aliens.”  The part of the federal law being discussed is in Section 3 of that code.

It’s an open question as to whether this federal law can be applied to what President Trump wants to do.  Detecting someone who might be a terrorist simply because they’re from a country that has known terror affiliates in their territory may not pass Constitutional muster.  The courts will have to determine it.

The link above leads to the law in question.  Here is the link to President Trump’s Executive Order.

President Should Probably Dispose of Any Leftover Obama Appointees: He’s Firing Away at Pillars of Obama Legacy So Rapidly That Anyone With Loyalty to President Obama Will Not Be Able to Take It

Word broke tonight that the President fired the Acting Attorney General and appointed a new one after the former Acting AG refused to do her duty which she swore to do. 

All political appointees serve at the pleasure of the President, and if they can’t follow Presidential directives, they should resign immediately.   President Trump didn’t wait very long to make his move.

This probably isn’t the last quick termination that we’ll see.

Openly defying the President by ordering her subordinates to not defend the policy was the wrong way to go about making her point.  

What next? 

Trump’s Travel Ban Seems to Rely on “Winging It”: Nice Theory, But This Should Have Been Implemented in Stages, Rather Than Everything at the Same Time

President Trump signed a 90-day immigration ban via Executive Order on Friday, which took effect immediately.  And shortly afterwards, people began to be detained, especially from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

The result was immediate chaos and confusion, and the filing of at least one lawsuit, which resulted in a partial injunction against the order.  Protests were quickly organized at many airports, which compounded the airport problems.

I’m not sure that the White House alerted the Customs and Immigration people that this was in the pipeline.   The rank and file appear to have been taken by surprise, which is never a good thing.

A roll-out of this immigration policy should have been done in smaller steps, such as Trump’s first order against Obamacare.

I’m looking at the other issues. 

It’s amazing how a page and a half Executive Order can wreak so much havoc almost instantly across the country. 

Before He Authorizes Torture, President Trump Should Follow the Example of Others and Voluntarily Undergo Waterboarding Himself; He May Not Want Others to Go Through It After That

Veterans who have undergone waterboarding at the hands of enemy nations have told us for a long time that the technique is torture.   Navy SEALs undergo waterboarding as part of their survival training; some former SEALs like Jesse Ventura are adamantly opposed to it, as are war veterans like John McCain who were brutally tortured by the North Vietnamese.

Journalists such as Christopher Hitchens have voluntarily undergone waterboarding to have firsthand experience on what it’s actually like.   Here’s the video of him being waterboarded.  So did Steve Harrigan of Fox News.

I’m of the opinion that if a politician who has not served time in the military and has not been captured and tortured by the enemy should not order torture without undergoing a brief torture session themselves, so that they understand what they’re ordering done to others.

I think President Trump should voluntarily undergo a brief waterboarding so that he can see the consequences of what his executive order authorizing torture really entails.  He may sing a different tune afterwards.

Liberal Outlets Zero In on Trump’s Unsubstantiated Claims Again: Still Waiting for Trump Administration to Knock It Off

Sources: CNN.com, ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com, NBCNews.com

These stories were at or near the top of the news sites listed above this evening, with CNN’s lead story remaining unchanged for most of the day today.   They continued with a “Breaking News” theme on their evening TV shows, even though they carried the story throughout the entire day and it wasn’t the dramatic “Breaking News” that they crave.

Rehashing these stories isn’t helping President Trump build support or confidence in his Presidency. 

I really don’t know if Trump’s Press Secretary is helping or hurting him.   In any case, Trump or anyone in the Administration mentioning any of his more controversial/incorrect statements ends up dominating another news cycle, as it did today.

The Administration needs to settle down and focus on what the President is currently doing, not rehashing past controversies that President Trump hasn’t got time to fight. 

Trump Administration Needs to Stop Giving the Media Ammunition and Tell It Like It Is: Obama’s Inaugurations Were More Well Attended, But In the End, Who Cares? This is a HUGE Distraction, Which is Exactly What the Media Wants

The Trump Administration needs to get rid of the “Whose Inauguration Was Bigger” issue, and they need to do so now.

President Trump needs to accept that Obama’s inauguration was bigger, because President Obama had access to a portion of the population that didn’t vote for Trump, and he needs to state it publicly.   This is a serious non-issue that is providing ammo to an openly hostile press that is gleefully firing it right back at President Trump and his Administration.

His Press Secretary is seriously damaged and may need to be replaced.  “Alternative facts?”  I think not.   That notion needs to be permanently banned from White House communications and President Trump should set the example.   His press conference statement that he’s not sure that he’ll get along with Russia’s President Putin was open and honest and he needs to be like that all the time.  So does his Press Secretary.

He’s thinking like an entertainer and he needs to shift gears, and fast.  Ratings and turnouts to parties don’t matter.

Trump Has Four Thousand Appointments to Make: They’ve Got a Lot of Work to Do

I wasn’t kidding on my last post when I said that the Trump Administration needs time to get set up before getting entangled in various foreign policy entanglements.  Here is the updated list of appointments, and it’s breathtaking. 

Look at all the ambassadors who need to be named, Senate confirmation hearings scheduled, and votes taken.  

It will be some time before full ambassadors are sent to nations around the world, so it’ll be up to the career diplomats in the State Department to keep things together until that happens.

As for the other positions, hopefully wise choices are made, votes are taken and appointees are able to take up their positions very soon.

Senate Needs to Decline Tillerson and DeVos Nominations and Trump Needs Better Choices: Tillerson Will Tempt China to Take Radical Military Action Before New Administration is Ready and DeVos is Heralding a Failed System

The Senate should reject Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State and Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education.

I know the new President wants his choices confirmed, but I think he’s made a major mistake with Tillerson and another with DeVos.
   
The more that the Senate interviews Tillerson, the more I think he’ll provoke the Chinese into taking precipitous military action in the South China Sea before the new government is ready to take them on in a military confrontation, which China thinks it can win.  (It can’t.)

The new Administration needs time to get on its feet and formulate American foreign policy, and the last thing President Trump needs is another military situation at the beginning of his term.  If Tillerson is going to make statements like “we should deny China access to their man-made islands!” then we should prepare to fight for them.  His lack of foreign policy experience is on full display.

If China uses those island bases to close critical international shipping lanes, that’s different, but egging China on before the Trump Administration is fully set up to deal with an international aggressor?   Not a particularly good idea.

I am encouraged that the Senate is expected to approve his choices for Homeland Security and the Department of Defense either shortly before or after President Trump’s inauguration tomorrow.  That will take care of the noise coming out of CNN and other outlets.

With Betsy DeVos, she’s made one mistake after another, and her results have been less than stellar.  Her Great Lakes Educational Project model is inferior to other private school models and is also inferior to that of many public school districts in the state.   At a time when private schools have been very popular in parts of the state, the state’s overall scores on core subjects have declined, and private school scores have been worse than comparable public schools.

Private school competition to public schools is good ONLY if it shows results, and the DeVos model hasn’t.  If a model is failing, it should not be shared nationally, which is partially why I am opposed to the DeVos nomination.

I’m hoping the Senate rejects  both nominees so that President Trump can pick better candidates.  I have no objections to any of his other nominees so far.

It’s OK for Democratic Lawmakers to Criticize Trump, But When He Responds in Kind, It Isn’t OK? Snowflake Hypocrites Are Their Own Worst Enemy

Georgia Congressman John Lewis took a shot at President-elect Trump on the eve of MLK observances across the country but had the unmitigated gall to act surprised when Trump returned fire, regardless of the timing.

Haven’t we all learned by now that if Trump feels like taking to Twitter at 3am in the morning to comment on something, that’s exactly what he will do?  And that he’ll step (stomp) on toes across the political spectrum to get his two cents (and then some) in?

Lewis deliberately timed his pronouncement so that Trump would come under criticism for firing back during civil rights observances being done prior to Monday.

If Lewis wants to stay away from the inauguration, that’s his choice.  I’m staying away from it too, but for my own reasons which are not political.  The way I’m looking at it, there will already be enough of a cross-section of American society that I feel like I’m already represented there.  And it’s going to be a zoo.

As of this morning, 25 others have joined Congressman Lewis in his boycott.  Good, we won’t have to put up with them crying in public next Friday.

It’s a shame that Congressman Lewis chose to use the MLK weekend to make his political statement.  It’s not unparalleled; Democrats have turned funerals, such as Muhammed Ali’s funeral and Paul Wellstone’s (from Minnesota) funeral, into political rallies.

Then-Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura walked out of the Wellstone funeral and then appointed an independent to Senator Wellstone’s seat instead of a Democrat.    The Democrats then lost big in the state and national elections that happened six days after the Wellstone funeral.

By all means, boycott the inauguration.  They should institute a rule that says a work stoppage in Congress means a paycheck stoppage too, just like it is for everybody else.

News Media Can No Longer Use Three Sources: With the Power That Fake News Now Wields, They Need to Have More Non-Web Sources to Confirm a Story

Throughout 2016, there were many fake news stories that have been directed at our political candidates and others.  Some of the more memorable headlines (I left off some of the more disgusting ones) :

“Russians Have Dirt on President-Elect Trump”

"Obama Signs Executive Order Banning The Pledge Of Allegiance In Schools Nationwide"

"Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement"

"Trump Offering Free One-Way Tickets to Africa; Mexico for Those Who Wanna Leave America"

"Florida man dies in meth-lab explosion after lighting farts on fire"

"FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide"

"RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE To Reunite And Release Anti Donald Trump Album"

"Police Find 19 White Female Bodies In Freezers With “Black Lives Matter” Carved Into Skin"

"ISIS Leader Calls for American Muslim Voters to Support Hillary Clinton"

Hillary Clinton In 2013: “I Would Like To See People Like Donald Trump Run For Office; They’re Honest And Can’t Be Bought”

"Woman murders college roommate for sending too many Candy Crush requests"

"Donald Trump Protester Speaks Out: "I Was Paid $3,500 To Protest Trump's Rally"

“Obama passed law for grandparents to get all their grandchildren every weekend”

"President Obama Confirms He Will Refuse To Leave Office If Trump Is Elected"

"Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy – 'We Don’t Like The Blacks Either'"

"Security Detail Tackles Homeless Man On Oscars Red Carpet, Turned Out To Be Rob Zombie"

Pence: “Michelle Obama Is The Most Vulgar First Lady We’ve Ever Had”

“African Billionaire Will Give $1 Million To Anyone Who Wants To Leave America if Donald Trump is Elected President”

“Obama Signs Executive Order Declaring Investigation Into Election Results; Revote Planned For Dec. 19th”

“Graham Says Christians Must Support Trump or Face Death Camps”

“BREAKING Romanian Hacker With Access To Clinton Emails Found Dead In Jail Cell”

“The United States Revokes Scientology's Tax-Exempt Status - ABC News”

“Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Hillary Clinton for President, Releases Statement”

“Trump Claims America Should Never Have Given Canada Its Independence”

-----------------
Many who should know better have been suckered in.  All the news networks, both party candidates, members of the House and Senate, including one from today during the DHS secretary confirmation hearings, have been taken. 

Does anyone remember Rathergate?  The Stephen Glass scandal?  There used to be a time when reporters who used unconfirmed stories (or in the case of Glass, falsified ones) in their reporting were punished.   Brian Williams is still paying the price for his part in embellishing his stories.  

Get it together, news media.

Liberal Meltdown Continues Unabated: Libs Took to Stage at Golden Globes Last Night (As Expected) and Turned It Into a Democratic Pity Party Again

I decided that I wasn’t going to watch the Golden Globes again, as I knew it was going to be a Democratic pity party and liberal meltdown scene again, which it was.   Actors took to the stage and cried about mean Mr. Trump being the president. 

Organizers failed to stem the tide, even with their very expensive participation handouts.  Guess that only works with the college students, not with over-emotional actors who do raise a few valid concerns about Trump’s vicious streak but manage to insult voters at the same time. 

I found in watching the recaps that I focused more on what they said about Trump voters more than what they were actually talking about.  Good job. 

I’m hoping that once Trump takes office he’ll tone it down (a lot) and act presidential, as he’s done in some of his more recent speeches.

Biden Did His Constitutional Duty and Kept Joint Session of Congress On-Track in Verifying Electoral College Results

I was impressed with Vice-President Biden’s presiding over a joint session of Congress to verify the Electoral College votes.

He really stuck to the rules and shut down 15 objections because they were not in order.  Here is the entire session; it’s very interesting.

Electoral College Does It’s Duty: Donald Trump is the 45th President

The campaign to stop Trump at the Electoral College utterly failed, as anticipated, and Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States.

This kind of campaign should never be attempted again, by activists on either side.  The Constitutional quagmire that would result if the College was disrupted cannot be allowed to happen, under any circumstances.

The effort was an attack on the Constitution itself, by desperate people who seem to want to feed parts of the Constitution into a shredder, without any thought of what would happen afterwards.

Yes, the election would go into the House of Representatives, and the majority party would almost certainly vote for their candidate, but why do that?  We have a system that works without getting the do-nothing Congress involved.

Hey, I didn’t like the College very much either, when they voted for Barack Obama twice and for Bill Clinton twice.  But they did their duty, which is something that is very necessary to the health of our electoral system, no matter who is elected. 

The Constitution must prevail.

Intel Briefing for Electoral College Electors is Unnecessary and Possibly Unconstitutional: They’re There to Do a Job and Vote For Whichever Candidate Won Their State

I am opposed to having the Electoral College receive any kind of intelligence briefing.  They’re simply there to vote for whichever candidate won their state, and nothing else.

I find it distasteful that nearly all the electors demanding a briefing are Democratic electors and won’t be voting for Donald Trump anyways.  They’re from states that Hillary Clinton won and who they’re supposed to vote for.

Only one Republican has joined in the call for a briefing, which is not enough to sway the Electoral College vote.

Electors refusing to do their duty to the Constitution and their respective states should be replaced by their home states that they’re at the Electoral College to represent.  The various state laws as they pertain to electors are available for download here through the National Association of Secretaries of State web site as a PDF.
 
I’m going to add that it’s highly hypocritical that the Democrats who were screaming about the Electoral College before the general election are now making all this noise about using the Electoral College to stop Trump from taking office.  Get over it.

Rex Tillerson Will Be Trump’s Nominee for Secretary of State: Senate Needs to Block This Nomination

Donald Trump confirmed that Rex Tillerson will be his choice as the new Secretary of State.

This is a mistake, and I hope that the Senate blocks the nomination.  He’s not qualified for the reasons stated in an earlier post. 

Russia and China will run in circles around him, no matter how much they say they like him.   I’m sure they’ll be nice to him at first, but when the new President comes into conflict with Putin or with the Chinese government (and he will), they won’t pull any punches.

I dislike this nominee as much as I disliked Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and that’s saying something.  His name was well-known to me prior to President-elect Trump putting him under consideration for the Secretary of State position.

The more I read about his activism (not only with the BSA, but elsewhere too), the more opposed I get to the idea of this nominee making it through the confirmation process.

Did Trump really do his homework on this nominee?

Those Protesting “Star Wars: Rogue One” As Being Anti-Trump Are Not Well-Read: They Ought to Spend a Few Weekends Reading Some Books

I’m really finding it amusing that some Trump fans are threatening to boycott the new “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” movie hitting theaters on Friday as they’re claiming some of the reshoots establish the Empire as a racist outfit with a Trump-like figure having a prominent role in the construction of the Death Star.

They obviously haven’t read any of the Star Wars Expanded Universe books.  Unfortunately for them, I have.  This is going to be a fun entry.  For me.

It’s pretty clearly established in multiple books that the Galactic Empire in the Star Wars Expanded Universe WAS a “humans only” organization. 

The Emperor’s circle of advisors was entirely human, the stormtroopers and clonetroopers were all human, and they enslaved races such as the Wookies and the Bothans.  You don’t see aliens in Imperial service in any of the seven Star Wars movies so far, but tons of them in Rebel/Resistance service. 

Here are the Emperor’s Advisors posing on the Death Star II set:

Nice hats.  Crabby looking bunch.

The only alien in Emperor Palpatine’s Imperial command structure in the Expanded Universe was Grand Admiral Thrawn, a blue-skinned, red eyed Chiss who the Emperor liked because of his proven military genius and his dedication to the Empire.  He was featured in the “Heir to the Empire” series and is currently appearing on “Star Wars Rebels.”

Grand Admiral Thrawn as he appears in “Star Wars Rebels.”

In contrast, the Rebel Alliance had many alien species in it, from Mon Calamari to Wookies to Bothans to dozens of other sentient species.

Admiral Ackbar, Commander-in-Chief of the Rebel fleet, in “Return of the Jedi.”

True science fiction fans take these things in stride, but political hacks interpret a humans-only Empire (that has been established over dozens of books and long before Trump entered politics) as an anti-Trump thing. 

Sorry, boycott participants, but enjoy your weekend at home.  I’m planning on seeing it once in our little theater in town, and then once in a larger theater within a week or two, and I’ll plan on not having to share any theater space with the likes of you.

Couple of questions:

Have you even considered that your boycott may be base on fake news?

And you’re not the same group that boycotted “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” because there was a black stormtrooper, are you? 

One note: the Expanded Universe was scrapped by Disney as they’re re-writing Star Wars canon.  They did pull Grand Admiral Thrawn over from the scrapped EU, and some other interesting characters and ideas, but it remains to be seen as to what else Disney’s going to do as they expand the Star Wars franchise.  They may not carry over the “humans only” part of the Empire into the new stories.  It is what it is, and what it will be, and I’m fine with it.

ExxonMobile’s CEO to Be Secretary of State? This May Not Be a Good Idea: The Chief Diplomat of the United States Should Have Some Diplomatic Experience

I’m not sure if this is accurate, but NBC is reporting that Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobile, is expected to be nominated by President-elect Trump to be his Secretary of State.

I’m opposed to this idea, and only for the fact that Mr. Tillerson has not held a government office or position before, and has no diplomatic experience.  The Secretary of State is fourth in line of succession to the President, and is the chief diplomat of the United States.  

The international situation is very complex, and requires someone who has an idea of how to deal with the EU/Brexit situation, the ISIS situation, the Middle East troubles, Iran, piracy on the high seas, the China/Taiwan situation, international terrorism, and a whole myriad of other entanglements.
Russia’s and China’s foreign ministers will be challenging enough for an experienced American diplomat, but putting someone with no diplomatic experience up against them is not an appealing idea.  

I think the U.S. and Russia will engage in a conventional war over Syria, or at least a limited battle (probably a clash between the U.S. and Russian air forces), and it will take a skilled American diplomat to lower tensions.  Negotiating a gas contract is not the same as negotiating a cease-fire between nations at war.

I hope this story is wrong and the President-elect is going in a different direction with his choice for Secretary of State.

As Anticipated, Trump Calls Air Force One a Step Down From His Own Aircraft; Calls on Boeing to Cancel Air Force One Order Over Potential Costs

I saw this one coming.

Trump doesn’t like the idea of flying in Air Force One, with all of its advanced communications and on-board defense technology and considers it a step-down.

It’s easy to see why:

The above photo is one section of Air Force One.  That’s pretty much the motif throughout the aircraft in terms of design and comfort.

The photo below is a shot from Trump One, or whatever he’s calling his personal aircraft.   It’s gorgeous.     

 

The President-elect fired off a Tweet yesterday citing the potential $4 billion development cost for a new-generation Air Force One currently under design over at Boeing and calling for the order to be canceled.   That caused a stir.

Just wait until then-President Trump has to fly aboard a no-bells-or-whistles Air Force transport into a conflict zone.  The Air Force may get some nice upgrades afterwards.

In any case, I don’t like the idea of putting military tech onto a civilian aircraft.  He should bite the bullet, and get used to flying on Air Force One.  

The development cost should be looked at.   Is it better to upgrade a 25 year old airframe, or buy a new one? 

What’s the Media Doing, Pointing Out Giuliani Conflicts of Interest, While Sticking Their Head in the Sand When SecState/Clinton Foundation Problems Were Made Public? Hypocrites!

The media shouldn’t give Giuliani a hard time about conflict of interests; they didn’t even bat an eye when Clinton’s pay-to-play affair was going on with the Clinton Foundation and gave her a virtual pass during the campaign.  A few papers pointed out the problems, but most didn’t.

The press has no leg to stand on.  Attacking Giuliani for doing a good job for his company as a private citizen, while ignoring Clinton violations of the law that gets other public officials into serious trouble is among the worst kinds of journalism out there.  There are literally dozens of stories on lesser (than Secretary of State) public officials being shown the door because they broke the law.   Do a Google search on “conflict of interest resigns” and see what happens.  Hit the News tab.

The media’s ploy to get their candidate into the White House failed, and now they’re doing their best to disparage everybody who is being looked at for a possible position in the Trump  Administration.  Tabloid journalists.

Romney Would Do a Better Job as Administrator for the Small Business Administration or Postmaster General than as Secretary of State: Trump Needs Someone as SecState Who Has a Similar Worldview as He Does

I’m concerned about a possible Mitt Romney nomination as Secretary of State.   He and President-elect Trump do not share a similar worldview, which is vital for the President and Secretary of State to have.

The last thing we need is a SecState making deals overseas and then having President Trump override him, which would severely undermine Romney’s credibility.  That’s the very last thing we need after all the damage that Clinton and Kerry did during their times as Secretary of State.

I think Romney would be better in the Small Business Administration or even as Postmaster General.

Rudy Giuliani seems to share a similar worldview and could represent President-elect Trump very efficiently.  

As far as Giuliani’s conflict of interests goes, the media seems to be overlooking the fact that his overseas deals were as a private citizen on behalf of his company, not as any kind of a government official.  There can be no talk of conflict of interest at this stage of the game because the conditions for it to exist didn’t.  The media’s putting the wagon before the horse.   

The Secretary of State is required to comply with conflict-of-interest laws and he would have to separate from his business interests, unlike the President.  I think he’d put  his business affairs in order before taking office, if President-elect Trump chose him and he agreed to do it.

A decision should be made soon.

Castro’s Finally Gone? Too Bad His Entire Government Didn’t Go With Him

Castro’s finally gone?  Meh. 

Nothing’s changed for the everyday Cuban.  His government is still in place with his brother running things.  It’s too soon to tell if the passing of Fidel Castro is a turning point, or a moot point for Cuba.

We’ll see what the Cubans do next.

Electoral College is the Whipping Boy of the Left Again: Founders Knew What They Were Doing When They Wrote It Into the Constitution

There’s been a lot of talk about blocking the election of Donald Trump in the Electoral College, but it will not happen.  And it shouldn’t.   The Founders knew what they were doing when they designed it.  First, let’s look at a map of the United States as it is today:

The blue-shaded areas are the counties where fully half of the population of the United States lives.   There are roughly 3,000 counties in the U.S. and half the population lives in 146 of them.  Everybody else lives in the remaining 2,854 counties across the country. 

If it was pure democracy as some have suggested, and the Electoral College was no more, the 146 counties above would dominate American politics and elections, leaving the remaining 2,854 counties in the dust and potentially voiceless.  I don’t want to be disrespectful to anyone in these 146 counties, but those are typically Democratic strongholds.

The Founders were so concerned that smaller states would be dominated by bigger ones that they created two houses of Congress: one based on population and one based on equal representation.  They also made the population-based house the “lower” house while the two-per-state Senate is the “upper” house.

I do not live in one of the blue-shaded counties, nor would I want to.  But I do want an equal say in who represents me in Congress, and in the White House.  The Electoral College guarantees it.

Currently we have a part of our population so concerned that President-elect Trump will destroy the country that they’ve taken it upon themselves to destroy the country themselves.  I find it very interesting that the majority of the riots are in the larger blue-shaded areas.  Some aren’t, but many of them are.

Compare the 146 county map with the map where the riots and protests are taking place:

Credit for riot map: Fox News

I’ll take the Electoral College over mob rule every time, thank you very much.

Liberals Should Quit the “Petulant Child” Routine, Act Their Age and Help Fix This Country’s Problems: Saving America By Burning Parts of It Down That You Don’t Like Isn’t the Way!

------NOTE: this applies to the protesters out in the streets, not the people who woke up the next day, went to work and carried on with their lives like normal people do.-----

It’s funny how hypocritical the Dems and Libs street-protesting Donald Trump’s victory are. 

They condemn hate groups and “alt-right” (I had to look up the term as the liberal media has been going on and on about it) fringe elements, but it’s OK for them to go out and burn down buildings, riot, pull people with different skin colors out of their cars and screaming “YOU VOTED FOR TRUMP!” and savagely beating them.  

They should really stop with the “petulant child” routine, act their age and help fix the problem, not contribute to it and then throw blame on everybody else, or the Electoral College, or whatever the scapegoat of the day happens to be.

The ones moaning and bellyaching on Facebook and issuing death threats to this person and that person really need to be locked up for a while, including this fool, although he’s already paid a steep price. 

Street protesters from either side need to practice restraint and respect their fellow Americans.  And take the time to VOTE, not sit home and expect your side to win when not enough voters turn out.

Hate groups can go crawl back under their rotten logs and stay there.

Trump Wins, But He’s Got a Lot to Prove: He Needs to Start by Acting Presidential

Hillary Clinton lost her second bid to become President, and I’m grateful for that.   She can get back to making $100,000 a speech on the lecture circuit. 

But Donald Trump as the next President will be a challenge in itself.  Since he’s been on both sides of just about every issue, I’m more than a little concerned about his positions.  Let’s get out and say it…he’s not an experienced politician.  He’s an entertainer.  I’d feel better if he had at least one other elected position under his belt, like Ronald Reagan did.  Reagan was an actor, but he had been governor of California (twice) before taking office as President in 1981. 

As Trump’s real positions develop, my support or opposition will develop accordingly.

I am enjoying how much the press is wailing and how bad the pollsters look after royally screwing up their numbers.   This isn’t the first time that the polls got it wrong.   Some people are squirming and I’m enjoying every moment of it.

Trump needs to hire some wise and experienced advisors and listen to what they’re telling him.   And he needs to make nice with the other 48% that didn’t support him.  He also needs to limit his Twitter time and stop feuding with people.   It’s un-presidential to do that kind of stuff and we really need him to be presidential.

It’s Become Clear That the American Voter Will Have to Deliver the Justice That the FBI Won’t or Can’t: Vote Your Conscience, America

I do believe that the FBI Director has been overthrown, possibly from within his own agency in a worst-case scenario, or by the Department of Justice, which has become a personal shield for Democratic Presidents and their appointees.  He was trying to do the right thing and appeared to backtrack when he said that there was nothing new in the emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer.  I think he will be sacked before President Obama leaves office.

I’m also wondering where the number 600,000 came from with references to the number of emails found on he-who-will-not-be-named from this point forward’s laptop.   Was that his own personal emails mixed in with the Clinton emails, or were these 600,000+ emails from the Clinton campaign?  That’s pretty unclear.  In their prior statements, the FBI referenced some 33,000 emails that they were looking at from Mrs. Clinton’s private server, plus an unknown(?) number of emails that were deleted. 

Now, since the FBI isn’t going to move forward on delivering justice in this case, the American voter has the opportunity to do the same thing tomorrow.  Do not elect Hillary Clinton.  There are plenty of other candidates who aren’t criminals who would do a acceptable job as President, whether they have an (R) after their name, or an (I).  Whether they would be able to get anything done with a deeply polarized Congress is an open question, but they’d be confronting the same issues as a Clinton or Trump Administration.

We will see what happens, but all I’m going to say is this: vote your conscience, America.    I’ll have a lot to say about the celebrities who have vowed to leave this country if Trump wins. 

No Clowns Got Shot on Halloween: A Bit of Rationality Takes Hold in Crazy Times

There have been no reports of any costumed clowns getting shot by armed parents over Halloween, but several incidents from before Halloween remain under investigation.

Hopefully this is the end of this particular phenomenon. 

Trouble-Making Clowns, Beware: People Aren’t Acting Rationally and May Be Armed on Halloween..Do Us All a Favor and Stay Home

I am predicting that nationally, at least two costume-wearing clowns will be shot and killed on Halloween by people who will be very quick on the trigger.

Some people are using the fear inspired by horror movies involving killer clowns to dress up and scare the living daylights out of other people.  It isn’t funny.  There are tons of videos on YouTube of various pranks, with clowns jumping out of bushes, brandishing weapons, laughing crazily and chasing their frightened victims down the streets.  This has been going on for a while, but it really picked up this year on social media.

People are not acting rationally—both the clowns and the victims are prone to miscalculate and someone may die.   It’s not just a U.S. thing either—it’s going on internationally too.  I just watched a video of a man going berserk after being ambushed by a clown in broad daylight and breaking a bottle over the clown’s head in London.  If someone tells you to “wait here!”, RUN!!

Everyone needs to settle down and think about what’s happening.

Trump Suckered Everyone Again With Comments on Accepting Results of Election: This is a Ploy to Generate Media Attention

Politician after politician and media outlets have piled onto Donald Trump’s comments that he will only accept the results if he wins the election.

Trump is an entertainer and he knows how to entertain people.  In that area, he’s a genius and no one in the entertainment industry can match him for the publicity he can generate, almost at the drop of a hat.  Politicians and the media (who are supposed to be experts on entertainment reporting) have played right into it.

I think he’ll challenge only if something looks fishy, or if Hillary’s campaign sues first.

Anybody But Trump, Glenn Beck? Darrell Castle, Then, Not Hillary Clinton!

Glenn Beck seems to have started back up on his “Anybody but Trump” motif again and seems to be indicating that conservatives should vote for Hillary Clinton to stop Trump.

Bad move.

If conservatives don’t want to vote for Trump, then they should vote for the Constitution Party.  Darrell Castle is the candidate for the Constitution Party, which used to be called the U.S. Taxpayer Party.

He’s pro-life and pro-gun, which are big sellers for me.  He’s also in favor of the U.S. getting out of the United Nations, getting rid of the Federal Reserve (not sure about that move) and other conservative initiatives.

I’d rather see Beck supporting someone like Castle and drawing attention to his platform, rather than fall into the trap of “anyone but Trump.”

Another Example of Global Warming Hubris and Their Settled Science: “All the Arctic Sea Ice Will Be Gone by September 2016!”

If global warming is “settled science,” then why do they keep getting stuff wrong? 

And their unwillingness to accept that the scientific method is the only sure way to properly vet out fact from fiction is playing out again.  How embarrassing for them.

In 2012, certain climate change scientists predicted that the Arctic would be entirely ice-free by September 2016.  Yet there’s currently 21% more ice than in 2012 when the prediction was made.  This prediction was flat-out wrong.

Any responsible and reputable scientist wouldn’t be as inflexible as this in their climate model predictions.  But because there’s a political aspect to the science now, and it’s “settled,” they can’t deviate from the global warming alarmist position, which is in itself flawed by the political narrative.

Climate change scientists need to be more independent and report on what they find, regardless of the established political narrative. 

Russia Deploys Advanced Anti-Aircraft Missile Batteries to Syria: If a Single Shot is Taken at a U.S. Aircraft, U.S. Should Immediately Provide Stinger Missiles to Rebels Being Bombed By Russia and Syria

Russia continued its humiliation of the U.S. by deploying anti-aircraft missile systems in Syria to protect Syrian government facilities.

Enough!

It’s time to give Stinger missiles to the rebels and train them as U.S. forces trained Afghan fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s during the Soviet invasion.

Russia didn’t deploy those weapons to fight the ISIS Air Force.   They’re there to shoot down coalition aircraft, inbound cruise missiles and anything that goes against their stated support of Assad.

I think a limited war with Russia is possible, now that they’re engaged in a full-court press to humiliate the current Administration.  I think Russia will pull the trigger to make a point because they don’t think we’ll respond in kind.  We must.

Better to turn all of Syria’s airspace into a total no-fly zone than to allow Syria and Russia to keep bombing civilians with impunity.

Global Warming Alarmists Are Trumpeting Their Hot Air Again: CO2 Levels Hit 400ppm and They’re Saying That Levels Will “Never Return to Environmentally-Friendly Levels for the Indefinite Future”; Who Wrote This Piece of Crap?

The hubris is getting mighty deep over at Climate Central.

They’ve gone out on a limb with a sophomoric piece entitled “Enjoy Earth While It Lasts: Atmospheric Carbon Levels Reach Point of No Return.”  It looks like it was written by a high school English student who has just been handed a major science article and skipped to the last page without reading the rest of it.

First of all, legitimate scientists avoid absolutes like the plague, and this article is full of them.   The reason why is that if they’re using the scientific method, they realize that a hypothesis may have to be changed once the hypothesis is tested.

But global warming alarmists don’t use a recognizable version of the scientific method, and if research emerges that disproves their hypothesis (which they label “settled science”, the offending research is suppressed, the authors demonized and then marginalized. 

I also found it interesting that they mentioned a little tidbit near the end of this high school writing assignment that the Arctic “…hasn’t reached the 400ppm level in millions of years.”  What?  You mean it’s been above 400ppm before?  Why of course it has.   It’s been up to over 5,000ppm before.  And human industry wasn't around in those days either (during the Ordovician Era, some 440 million years ago).

They’ve also conveniently failed to define what “environmentally friendly” levels of CO2 are.

By all means, slow down the production of CO2 and quit destroying the rain forests, but don’t try shoveling this “ever” and “permanent” business down our throats.  There’s no such thing.

The planet doesn’t need saving.   It’s survived everything up to planetary impacts and is still here.   It’s our struggling civilization that needs saving, and the sooner global warming alarmists get with the program, the faster that can happen.

I’m not going to get worked up over the CO2 levels reaching the 400ppm -level.  The planet will take care of that too, and if we’re not careful, it’ll take care of us at the same time.