So the other day we notice Victor Davis Hanson
Another, more helpful, exegesis, however, is to understand that if we’d seen a Hillary Clinton victory in November 2016, which was supposed to be a sure thing, there would now be no scandals at all.
That is, the current players probably broke laws and committed ethical violations not just because they were assured there would be no consequences but also because they thought they’d be rewarded for their laxity. . . .
If we consider the mentality of government elite careerists, we see that the election-cycle machinations and later indiscretions of Strzok and Page were not liabilities at all. They were good investments. They signaled their loyalty to the incoming administration and that they were worthy of commendation and reward.
Hillary Clinton’s sure victory certainly also explains the likely warping of the FISA courts by FBI careerists seeking to use a suspect dossier to surveille Trump associates — and the apparent requests by Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and others to read surveilled transcripts of Trump associates, unmask names, and leak them to pet reporters. Again, all these insiders were playing the careerist odds. What we view as reprehensible behavior, they at the time considered wise investments that would earn rewards with an ascendant President Hillary Clinton.
(Sigh)
Well, that’s certainly part of it …but only part.
Long time readers will remember that at the time of the 9-11 attacks, while recognizing the need for this kind of ability under the conditions that 9/11 presented, I warned that abuses of our ability to monitor various conversations documents and so on under the umbrella of National Security would certainly increase absent moral people in positions of power within this process including the White House. If nothing else, these events as they have so far been revealed, are examples of precisely that… And more such Revelations are certainly coming.
But this is not quite as simple as politically motivated or career-minded FBI agents putting their own values above those that they swore to uphold.
As J.D. Tuccille observes:
Leaked text messages shared by two romantically involved FBI employees who were involved in the probe into Russian meddling revealed their belief that Trump is “loathsome” and an “idiot.” At the same time, they had a soft spot for his major opponent, Hillary Clinton, noting that they should take it easy in investigating her conduct because “She might be our next president. The last thing you need us going in there loaded for bear’”
So clearly, the absence of the morality, to say nothing of the laws that law enforcement are supposed to subscribe to, has us with these two acting as the Stazi, or perhaps a part of it since we know this corruption goes higher, and is probably wider then what we know of so far. Witness, for example, the Steele dossier and its history. Witness also the number of people resigning over this business. One gets the impression that we’re going to see these people dragged up in either a congressional investigation or a court of law, someplace.
(#ReleaseTheMemo)
Will releasing the information about these abuses damage our ability to collect information on this nation’s enemies?
Quite probably… But I submit that the damage has already been done by those seeking to bypass the Constitution and place Hillary Clinton in the White House for whatever reason.
I submit further that anything short of releasing all the information about who did what when and to whom is going to result in a rising call from everyone in the country to put a halt to monitoring our enemies because certain among us believe that American conservatives are the enemy. The way to put an end to those calls is to work quickly to reestablish the trust required.
Look…
Does anybody doubt that the gang of thugs that tried to falsely blame a YouTube video for the deaths of our ambassadors in Benghazi, the gang that quite certainly fixed their parties primary and probably tried to fix an election with the help of their longtime friends and uranium customers, the Russians, would be guilty also of polluting the nation’s top law enforcement agency?
At this stage I submit that the only way to reestablish Trust in our government, in our law enforcement, and in their processes is to drag those responsible, quite publicly, to the vertical bar Hotel. Let the American people know that the high-sounding words actually mean something.
The first step is to release the memo.
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Kurt Schlichter at Town Hall;
It’s panic time as the liberals struggle to halt the winning streak of President Donald Trump (Yeah, President Donald Trump – get used to it!). It’s tacky, petty, and pathetic, and exactly what we’ve come to expect from the kind of people who shamelessly backed Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit while screeching “#MeToo!”
Yeah, pretty much.
I note with some interest, Nate Silver;
The Senate map is really tough for Democrats, with 26 Democratic seats in play next year (including a newly opened seat in Minnesota after Al Franken announced his intention to retire) as compared to just eight Republican ones. Moreover, five of the Democratic-held seats — the ones in West Virginia, North Dakota, Montana, Missouri and Indiana — are in states that President Trump won by 18 percentage points or more.
Add to those numbers the idea that the Democrats usually don’t do so well in off term elections… The S JW crowd, and the voters who tend to be recipients of governmental largesse (usually, one in the same) and so on generally don’t show up unless it’s a presidential election.
Add all this up, and I do believe we can easily write off the Democrat party’s chances of taking the senate in the midterms regardless of what happens between now and then.
The house, meanwhile seems a bit more difficult to predict. Silver seems to feel that the Democrats could conceivably take 35 seats. But that seems to me a stretch. Possibly 20 would be more likely and that assumes that the situation with the Democrat Party is a whole remains stable… Which is at best a pipe dream, particularly if that memo we’ve been hearing so much about becomes public.
And as regards to that, I am one of the people that have sent memoranda to the White House urging the President to read that document during his State of the Union Address.
Over at instapundit, Ed Driscoll passes along this…
RULES FOR RADICAL REPUBLICANS: Gonzo Street Artist Challenges Grammys Hypocrisy With Racy Posters.
Kurt Schlichter wrote last year, “[Shove] Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals Right Back in the Left’s Ugly Face.” Sabo, working in deepest blue Los Angeles is one of the very best at it.
indeed so but it’s not like I haven’t been saying this for quite a while. For example, I wrote back in 2012….
At what point do we stop going for the mythical center? At what point does the GOP leadership start actually BEING conservative? At what point do the rank and file GOP have a real say? It makes one really wonder just what the motivations of the GOP Establishment really are.
I suggest, as do rally attendance figures that Palin, Ryan and the other far more conservative candidates’ popularity far outstrips the GOP leadership’s chosen ones… and the treatment they receive at the hands of the GOP establishment outright proves that, as well. Conservative ideas and ideals will win the day every time they’re tried…. and the real issue is they’ve not been so tried in many decades because theGOP Establishment won’t allow it to happen. Of course the left knows it as well. They each know very well know someone with real conservative ideas and ideals will suck all the air out of the room.
Consider the question I asked last week; “Will Ryan get the Palin Treatment?” I said then:
Sarah Palin
As with Palin, what we have with Ryan is someone who understands what Reagan meant when he said government isn’t the solution, but the PROBLEM. As such, Ryan, clearly, has the ability to argue these points forcefully and convincingly. That can only be a plus, however, if the Romney campaign is willing to stand up and be counted as conservative.
The question seems to me open as to how seriously Romney and the remainder of the GOP leadership take that point, today.
As a measurement of that, watch with me to see if the GOP will make the same mistake with Ryan as they did with Palin; Muzzling him in an effort to appease the left, which is masquerading as “the center”. Again, speaking for myself in the suspicion that a Reagan-sized majority agrees with me, I will say my support for Romney/Ryan will be established if they do not muzzle Ryan, if they do not ignore the message the public support of Ryan shows.
Of course it was deeper than that then. We had a GOP establishment that was deathly afraid of confronting the left on their own ground. Using their own methods.
Alas we have progressed to the point now where it’s the only way we’re going to get the country back from both the GOP establishment and from the knee-jerk Democrats.
And what was the election of Donald Trump and the wild amount of support that Ted Cruz got over the establishment choice of Jeb Bush but a rejection of the establishment of both parties? A hunger for somebody that was willing to fight back?
Comic strip artist Mort Walker, a World War II veteran who satirized the Army and tickled millions of newspaper readers with the antics of the lazy private Beetle Bailey, died Saturday. He was 94.
Walker died at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, said Greg Walker, his eldest son and a collaborator. His father’s advanced age was the cause of death, he said.
Mort Walker was reported to have based his characters of both Lt. Fuzz and Beetle Bailey on himself. We would so a fly over, but Camp Swampy appears to be incapable of handling it.
Again, Reynolds:
PAUL KRUGMAN ON ELECTION NIGHT: “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.”
The first thing we get from this is a rather obvious confirmation of comments David and I have had about Paul Krugman in the past. His knee jerk regurgitation of the Democrat party line is nothing short of legend for its reliability. He can always be depended upon to support the left.
His problem is of course, that the facts don’t agree.
His observations and predictions are so infrequently correct that one wonders why anyone listens to him at all.
Perhaps the Press keeps dragging him out because of his left-leaning dependability in spite of the facts. Certainly, the Press will never point out that the man’s observations being glaringly wrong is as Dependable as the sun rise.
Glenn Reynolds, yesterday:
YESTERDAY: President Trump may be giving a speech to a empty room in Davos.
Now… guess which one saw more ink here in the states.
This…
“Liberals who watch only CNN and MSNBC probably haven’t a clue what’s about to hit them. Trust me, that light at the end of the tunnel is a train headed straight for the Democrat Party.
We all know — thanks to former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile — that Hillary rigged the Democrat presidential primary against Bernie Sanders. That was a precursor of what was to come.
Does it shock anyone that someone brazen enough to rig a presidential primary would also try to rig the general election?
Don’t look now, but Donald J. Trump may be the first person in world history to win an election rigged against him. Hillary — with the backing of Barack Obama and the leadership of the FBI and Department of Justice — fixed the general election so Trump couldn’t win. And Trump — this relentless bull in a china shop — won anyway.
No wonder Hillary was so confident in the days leading up to Election Day. No wonder she was so shocked and distraught on election night. Keep in mind the point of fixing the election. It wasn’t just about Hillary winning. It was about covering up her crimes.
It’s all coming down upon this cabal of criminals like a ton of boulders. Hillary, Obama, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, John Podesta, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice, Huma Abedin and leaders of the FBI and DOJ — they’re all looking at possible prison terms as this massive, brazen scandal and conspiracy unravels.”
… is pure gold.
Wayne Allyn Root, this is as about as well put as I’ve seen any commentary on the subject of these last few weeks.
The idea that the Democrats are going to end up paying for this with some serious jail time to say nothing of their electoral chances for the next generation at least is earthshaking enough.
But then Ponder the idea that not only did the Democrats rig a primary, they rigged a general election, where their candidate was given the debate questions in advance, and yet still lost to a man that she swears even today is her inferior.
The Palestinian Authority does not want peace with Israel. Rather she wants peace instead of Israel. President Donald Trump has sent a message to the Palies, no peace, no more American money, from Times of Israel
DAVOS, Switzerland — In unscripted remarks to the press on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said the US would no longer transfer monetary aid to the Palestinians unless they entered peace negotiations with Israel, and excoriated the Palestinian leadership’s reaction to his decision last month to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
[…]
“That money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace, because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace, and they’re going to have to want to make peace, too, or we’re going to have nothing to do with it any longer,” he said.
Meanwhile back at the dude ranch, former Secretary of State, Jon Kary tries to Lurch the Palies back to war, from Jerusalem Post:
While the White House has confirmed that since the Jerusalem Declaration there has been a complete disconnect between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration, it turns out that the previous administration has maintained contact with PA officials.
Maariv reported that former US secretary of state John Kerry met in London with a close associate of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Hussein Agha, for a long and open conversation about a variety of topics. Agha apparently reported details of the conversation to senior PA officials in Ramallah. A senior PA official confirmed to Maariv that the meeting took place.
[…]
During the conversation, according to the report, Kerry asked Agha to convey a message to Abbas and ask him to “hold on and be strong.” Tell him, he told Agha, “that he should stay strong in his spirit and play for time, that he will not break and will not yield to President [Donald] Trump’s demands.”
If Lurch had a brain, he would either lead, follow or get out of the way. He does neither.
Senator Chuckles, b/k/a Charles Schumer(D-NY) thinks himself a smart man, as does the media. Others, such as myself, have more modest opinion of Chuckles’ supposed intellectual acumen, video:
Much like Reverend Wright described Nine Eleven, Senator Chuckles have come home to roost. I mean, it not like there are lot of Dreamers, are even people outside the media that care about them. Chuckles has drawn his line in the sand. Let him defend it. The grand arc of history will show that Chuckles is no U.S. Grant.
Victor Davis Hanson on the Dreamers, from Los Angeles Times:
Democrats are so focused on the 800,000 Dreamers — less than 10% of the undocumented population — because they’re politically photogenic and for now seen as the easiest group to exempt from efforts to control illegal immigration. In blanket fashion, the media consistently report that they are model youth, fulfilling their proverbial “dreams” of finishing college and achieving upward mobility.
That narrative lacks subtlety, if it’s not outright deceptive. The average age of DACA participants is now 24. Few after entering adulthood sought to address their known illegal status. Surveys suggest that most are not in school; fewer than 5% have graduated from college. Those employed earn a median hourly wage of $15.34, which means they are forced to compete on the lower end of the wage ladder. Only about a tenth of 1% of DACA youth serve in the U.S. military — fewer than 900 total.
Exit question, should the Dreamers just go back from whence they came, or should they take Jorge Ramos back with them?
By now you’ve all seen that the government is back up and running because Schumer figured out he wasn’t going to get anywhere.
There’s a few points in all of this that I don’t see much chatter about.
The fact of the matter is Schumer knew going in he wasn’t going to get anything out of this, at least in the short term. He didn’t have the votes, and didn’t have the support amongst the electorate… Even among his own party. I suspect and suppose that old Chuckles was playing the longer view here.
Certainly it cost him short-term image.. but as has been demonstrated often enough over the last 40 years the American voter, particularly the Democrat voter has a rather short memory.
It’s interesting to note that even members of the press… even the outlets that normally carry Charles Schumer’s water for him… were calling this Charles Schumer’s government shutdown. That’s kind of earthshaking in itself, and perhaps a clue of deeper rifts within the Democrat Party than we’ve been led to believe.
Something else of Interest… It was Schumer who put up the white flag. Not Trump. Now how could he do that… How could he end the government shutdown if this was Donald Trump’s shutdown? Suddenly, the Imaging on this is all wrong in the short term for Schumer. But as I say I suspect he was playing the long-term here.
Personally I find it quite encouraging that the Republicans actually stood their ground on this. It’s my view that Schumer less than half expected it. I suspect that the ripples on this one are going to be playing out for at least the next three years as other negotiating points come up. For the first time since Reagan was in office we’ve actually got somebody that’s willing to play hardball with the Democrats. I don’t think they know how to handle it. Trust me, Democrat tactics will change based on this experience.
I see a lot of people In a lot of corners telling everybody that Schumer got absolutely nothing out of this deal. Au contraire, he actually did get rather a lot out of this despite the appearances…
First of all he got a rallying cry for the troops. True there’s a lot of bitching and moaning going on amongst Democrat right now but there would have been a lot more if he done absolutely nothing. If he hadn’t played this little game of government shutdown. As it is right now he’s got a rallying cry, a motivational point to play so the next couple of Elections. That’s something he wouldn’t have had if he hadn’t shut down the government over DACA.
So his shutting down the government was a win-win situation. If the Republicans caved, he would have won outright. If they didn’t cave he at least got the rallying cry for the Democrats in the next couple of Cycles.
And and finally I think what finally turned the tide to a large degree was a large number of people reminding Schumer and the Democrats that Schumer himself had promised never to shut down the government over immigration issues. So much for the value of Democrat promises. There will be a large amount of anger over going back on his word, particularly among those who do not vote Democrat. Enough I think two cancel out any games he might have made by generating the rallying cry.
I recognize that some of these comments are at least partially contradictory, but that’s how these things play out. Any game of political Intrigue has contradictory points. It becomes a game of percentages at that point. A game of momentum.
A thought comes to us by way of Ann Coulter…..
Anybody remember why Obama issued his DACA amnesty as an executive order? Because neither D nor R congresses could pass it into law. -Ann Coulter
This is an important point on several levels.
First, the Democrats are now defending DACA, which they never had the votes to pass in the first place.
Secondly, blaming the Republicans for the current impasse in the Congress is at the very least highly inaccurate, and in truth is probably the largest and most blatant incidence of blank shifting to be seen in the last hundred years of Congress, and that is saying something.
Finally, there’s a reason why neither party had the votes to pass DACA as such….. The American people didn’t want it, they polls being ballyhooed by MSNBC and CNN notwithstanding. Let’s remember folks, these are the same people that told us that Hillary Clinton’s didn’t stand a chance in hell of losing the election.
At this stage of the game, the Democrats have failed to come up with an even close to reasonable explanation for their shutdown of the government. And it is in fact the Democrats who are directly responsible for this.
Personally, I’m looking forward to this thing going down in flames and the Democrats trying to use it as a campaign issue in the next cycle.
Senator Schumer this is problem with DACA
You have two families: “Joe Legal” and “Jose Illegal”. Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California .. Joe Legal works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes $25.00 per hour with taxes deducted. Jose Illegal also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 cash “under the table”.
Ready? Now pay attention….
Joe Legal: $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00 per year. Now take 30% away for state and federal tax; Joe Legal now has $31,231.00.
Jose Illegal: $15.00 per hour x 40 hours = $600.00 per week, or $31,200.0 0 per year. Jose Illegal pays no taxes. Jose Illegal now has $31,200.00.
Joe Legal pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year.
Joe Legal now has $24,031.00.
Jose Illegal has full medical and dental coverage through the state and local clinics and emergency hospitals at a cost of $0.00 per year.
Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.
Joe Legal makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or welfare. Joe Legal pays $500.00 per month for food, or $6,000.00 per year. Joe Legal now has $18,031.00.
Jose Illegal has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps, WIC and welfare. Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.
Joe Legal pays rent of $1,200.00 per month, or $14,400.00 per year. Joe Legal now has 9,631 .00.
Jose Illegal receives a $500.00 per month Federal Rent Subsidy. Jose Illegal pays out that $500.00 per month,or $6,000.00 per year. Jose Illegal still has $ 31,200.00.
Joe Legal pays $200.00 per month, or $2,400.00 for car insurance. Some of that is uninsured motorist insurance. Joe Legal now has $7,231.00.
Jose Illegal says, “We don’t need no stinkin’ insurance!” and still has $31,200.00.
Joe Legal has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, etc..
Jose Illegal has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, and what he sends out of the country every month..
Joe Legal now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after work.
Jose Illegal has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family.
Joe Legal’s and Jose Illegal’s children both attend the same elementary school.
Joe Legal pays for his children’s lunches, while Jose Illegal’s children get a government sponsored lunch. Jose Illegal’s children have an after school ESL program. Joe Legal’s children go home.
Now, when they reach college age, Joe Legal’s kids may not get into a State School and may not qualify for scholarships, grants or other tuition help, even though Joe has been paying for State Schools through his taxes, while Jose Illegal’s kids “go to the head of the class” because they are a minority.
Joe Legal and Jose Illegal both enjoy the same police and fire services, but Joe paid for them and Jose did not pay.
Do you get it, now?
If you vote for or support any politician that supports illegal aliens… You are part of the problem
It’s way PAST time to take a stand for America and America!
I dare to make the suggestion to you that the government shutdown which is apparently so important to the Democrats that they are willing to vote down a bill that they actually support, is nothing more and nothing less than a stalinist tactic.
In the following manner;
The Soviet novelist, Chingiz Aitmatov recounted a story in one of his articles written near the end of the failed Marxist movement in Soviet Union.
In 1935, Stalin invited his trusted senior advisors and some media henchmen to a meeting with intent to make a point using the most evocative of methods. When everyone was gathered at the barnyard, he called for a live chicken and vigorously clenched it in one hand. With the other hand, he then began to pluck out the chicken’s feathers in handfuls. The poor bird squawked under the torment but Stalin kept at denuding the chicken until it convulsed with agony. Remarkably unperturbed by the feeling of disgust obvious on the faces of the people too afraid to express their unease to the dictator, he continued until the chicken was completely unfeathered.
He then put the bird down by a small heap of grain and stood up to finish the last act while the people curiously observed the chicken move towards the grain. As the chicken started to peck, Stalin put his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out another fistful of grain, putting it out in front of the wounded bird. To the utter surprise of the transfixed spectators, the chicken managed a weak-kneed stagger back to Stalin and started to peck the fresh grain right out of the hand that moments ago had inflicted unbearable pain on it. Stalin had made his point — loud and clear.
He turned to the people and said, “People are like this chicken. It doesn’t matter how much pain you inflict on them. The moment you offer them what they need, they will still follow you and turn to you for their survival.”
I will leave to the reader the implications here.
Do you think it was the accent? Justin Baragona, Mediaite, gets his panties in a wad over what Mark Steyn did not say, or at least what Baragona did not bother to quote, how Baragona characterizs Steny:
Mark Steyn Bashes Immigrants: At Least ‘White Supremacists are American Citizens’
What Baragona quotes:
“Chris Cuomo went on to say that the real problem is white supremacists in America,” Steyn said. “They are the real monsters. Not these nice hard working illegal immigrants. That may be well and true.”
He continued, “I mean, for the purposes of argument let’s say he is right, it’s irrelevant. The white supremacists are American citizens. The illegal immigrants are people who shouldn’t be here.”
Steyn is right and Baragona is liar. Baragona quotes Steyn describing illegal immigrants, and the characterizes Steyn as bashing all immigrants, legal and otherwise.
The clear loser in Steyn comments was representative Nancy Pelosi, who Steyn accused to placing the interests of illegal aliens over that of American citizens. What say you Mrs. Pelosi?
Left wing reax, from Joe Cunningham Red State:
That’s… a really crappy defense, Mark. What it boils down to is “The racists are American citizens. The DREAMers are not. No brainer as to who’s right here.”
I will, without hesitation, gladly trade all the white supremacists for the DREAMers who came here and worked their asses off to make a life here, despite the terrible circumstances that surrounded their early life. White supremacists are utter human garbage and not worthy of any defense here.
Wow, Cunningham savages people for holding a belief in which he does not believe. No safe spaces for white folks. No moonshine for you Joe.
