Some consider the Nation’s Capital as “Fantasyland on the Potomac”. Other outsiders are “Fed Up” with the Federal City. It's better to consider D.C. as “the District of Calamity” (sic).
Friday, September 30, 2016
Hillary Panders to Latinos with Bland Salsa
While speaking before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Hillary Clinton tried to ingratiate herself with Hispanic voters by making a big deal about taco trucks.
This shout out to Latinos seems prepackaged, calling to mind the old Pace Picante Salsa commercial which impeached prepackaged salsa from New York City.
Perhaps this is why the Clinton Campaign has pivoted on pandering to Hispanics by pushing the Miss Universe/Trump angle-- it's a two for one with Latinos' and the Womens' vote.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Monday, September 26, 2016
Keeping Up with Kim Kardashian's Presidential Preferences
Celebutard Kim Kardashian seems to be conflicted about her choices for President in 2016. At first, Kim Kardashian was all in for Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY). But after chatting with her stepfather Bruce ("Call Me Caitlyn") Jenner, Kardashian claims that she is now on the fence and may vote for Republican Presidential . Sure.
Apparently, Kim Kardashian has forgiven Trump for his honest ejaculation on Howard Stern's radio program. The Manhattan real estate mogul turned reality television star now starring in "Who Wants to Be President?" offered aesthetic impressions of Kim Kardashian's gluteus maximus.
But if Trump wins the White House, will her support of her Celebrity Apprentice Boss be endangered by the high spirited candidacy of her husband Kanye West in 2020?
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Friday, September 23, 2016
Chaffets: FBI Handed Out Immunity Like Candy
Representative Jason Chaffets (R-UT 3rd), the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, expressed exasperation at trying to bring justice to the Clinton Email case. The news that Hillary Clinton's 25 year aide-de-camp Cheryl Mills allowed access to her computers only if federal investigators gave her immunity. Chaffets quipped that immunity was being handed out like candy.
Bryan Pagliano, the IT "expert" who Hillary turned to in order to dispose of her unwanted State Department emails, was granted immunity but refused to testify before Congress despite being subpoenaed. Immunity deals were also proffered to Clinton aide Heather Samuelson and then State Department Information Resource Management Director John Bethel.
Although it is little solace from those suffering from too many sweets, Uncle Sam ought to remember that too many candies rots the teeth, like the respect for the rule of law.
Israeli P.M. Netanyahu: "UN has become a moral farce"
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the United Nations General Assembly, he neither minced words in mealy mouthed diplomatic-speak nor pandered in progressive platitudes.
Netanyahu called out the numerous ironic admonishments from the United Nations. Nevertheless, Netanyahu expressed optimism that the General Assembly will change because Israel is on the right side regarding Iran and ISIS and eventually this understanding will trickle down to Turtle Bay.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Don King on Donald Trump
In his continued outreach to Black voters, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY) visited a predominantly Black church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Trump was introduced by boxing entrepreneur and former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Don King.
Don King's positioning as warm up for Trump at a Church was about as egregious as another Celebrity Apprentice alum, Mike Tyson. King made some controversial soundbites in his introduction.
King certainly generated some attention to Trump's trip to the New Spirit Revival Center but it is uncertain if a star studded event will have a discernible effect on Election 2016. Trump is only polling at 3% among African American voters. But the Obama electorate garnered heavy support from that constituency. Mrs. Clinton has to hope that much of that historic support for the first Black President transfers to votes for the first woman President in key swing states like Ohio and Florida.
Bono on America and Donald Trump
Bono, the front man of the rock super band U-2, was interviewed by Charlie Rose and offered polemic perspectives on America and Donald Trump.
Bono was in New York to speak before the Clinton Global Initiative, sponsored by the Clinton Foundation, and to hobnob with dignitaries at the United Nations General Assembly.
Howard Fineman on Naked Id of Politics
Better to be the Naked Id of politics than to have "nekkid" statues erected in public squares in five American cities as what happened in August with pieces sculpted by Joshua "Ginger" Monroe.
They may not have been up long but they certainly made an impression.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
On Skittles and Syrian Refugees
Donald Trump Jr. posted a meme which stirred up considerable controversy on Twitter. The Republican Presidential nominee's eldest son shared a graphic which compared the Syrian refugee conundrum to a bowl of Skittles with a few poisoned candies mixed in.
Some chaffed at analogizing the immigration issue with a tampered bowl of candy. Progressives impugned perceived strands of racism.
Trump fans thought that the metaphor mirrored the difficulty of accepting groups of refugees without proper vetting. This Twitter controversy comes on the heels of news that the US Immigration and Naturalization service conferred citizenship upon over 800 individual who were actually slated for deportation, but they were finally processed without matching up their digital fingerprints.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Josh-ing Earnestly (sic): "We're in a War of Narratives"
White House spokesman Josh Earnest appeared on MSNBC's "The Morning Joe" to mollify public concerns over the weekend after an IED bomb exploded in Manhattan on a marathon route, attempted bombs in New Jersey and eight people being stabbed by a Somali shouting "Allahu Akbar" in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Earnest insisted that the Obama Administration is engaged in a "War of Narratives", touting the inroads he believes it has made on social media.
The two salient questions are against whom are Obama allies are engaged in a War of Narratives? In addition, will this go any better than LBJ's War on Poverty?
Armed Societies are Polite Societies
A Somali Muslim stabbed eight people at the Crossroad Center Mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota before being fatally shot three times by Jason Falconer, an off duty law enforcement officer. The assailant shouted Allahu Akbar (Arabic for "God is Great") and asked one stabbing victims if they were Muslim before he was felled by the legal concealed carry permit holder. There were several mall cops on duty but they were unarmed.
Once again it seems that guns don't kill people as much as gun free zones kill innocent people. Thankfully, a trained concealed carry citizen could mitigate the madness at the mall.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Donald Trump on Flint and Water
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY) visited a water plant in Flint, Michigan in an effort to court Black voters in a minority majority city and win a potential Rust Belt swing state.
During the visit, Trump belted out a zinger about Flint, Mexico and water. While some could see this just as a cheap shot at the host city of Flint, it may have been targeted witticism.
Aside from burnished the Trump political brand against Mexico, it also played off of news that Ford Motor Company will be moving all of its small car manufacturing from the United States to Mexico in order to produce a profitable product. Such a move would hurt automotive jobs in Michigan and goes against Trump's mantra "To Make America Great Again."
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Destroying Blackberry Alibis
As Congress investigated the Benghazi bungle, the House Select Committee subpoenaed then Obama Secretary of State and now Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for her communication devices.
The FBI's pre-Labor Day data dump included news that the FBI never received Secretary Clinton's eight State Department Blackberries.
The FBI also sought five other mobile devices as part of the inquiry, but Mrs. Clinton's lawyers could not provide any of these devices. One source indicates that two of Hillary's devices were destroyed by breaking them in half or by hammer. That is a lot of trouble for emails about wedding dresses and Yoga.
This seemed like another instance of Clinton stonewalling and obstruction of justice. But the salient detail about destruction of the communication devices presented an opportunity for Hillary critics to put the hammer down.
Fox News personality and strong Trump supporter Judge Jeanine Pirro, used her "Street Justice" segment to put to a lie that it was easy to break Blackberries so as not to turn them over to the FBI or the DOJ.
Donald Trump on Phyllis Schlafly
Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, the founder of the Eagle forum and who was instrumental in the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s died at at the age of 92.
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump (R-NY) spoke before her funeral at the Basilica Cathedral of St. Louis.
In many ways Schlafly's legacy from years of right wing activism compliments elements of Donald Trump's success. Schlafly was an outsider who earned the loyal support of activists in "fly over country" who were not aspiring members of "the smart class". The Equal Rights Amendment seemed like a slam dunk in 1972 as Schlafly embarked in the STOP ERA movement. The proposed 27th Amendment was defeated by a revolt by conservative leaning individuals who were not normally political activists.
Later in life, Schlafly exhibited two tendencies which also seem concordant with Trump-ism. Despite her conservative credentials, Schafly was chary about invoking an Article V Convention of States. This effectively kept power concentrated in the District of Calamity. Trump may speak about regulatory reform and chatter that pleases conservatives, but it is dubious that he would seriously embark on shrinking the size of government, especially if it politically cost him.
The other trait that Trump and the older Schlafly shared was a reluctance to foreign help with troubling ties to race. As the baseball season began, Mrs. Schlafly proffered a piece which extolled the virtues of limiting foreign players in American Baseball.
Nonetheless, Trump offered noble and kind words. This had the virtue of also being smart political gesture as it burnished his and and it offered another modicum of conciliation that the nationalist populist has towards the conservative moment
Monday, September 12, 2016
More Hints of Democrat Skiddishness About Hillary's Health
After Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY) had her medical episode at the 9/11 memorial, MSNBC's David Shuster posted on Twitter scuttlebutt that the DNC would be considering options if their nominee had to be replaced.
This report was not a one-off. NPR's political commentator Cokie Roberts also considered the skiddishness that some Democrats have at the Hillary's Health issue.
Roberts emphasized that the manner in which a national nominee could be replaced was by an emergency vote called by the chairman of the Democrat National Committee and won by a majority vote of those present.
Perhaps the resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC Chair and her temporary replacement by Donna Brazile will make a difference if push comes to shove.
Ed Rollins on The Deplorables
At a Democrat fundraiser in New York, Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY) labeled half of her Republican opponent Donald Trump (R-NY) as being a Basket of Deplorables.
This created a political firestorm over the weekend and she tried to walk the statement back a bit, to little avail Judge Jeanine Pirro labeled this gesture as a "half assed" apology and elicited an angry animus.
Trump supporter Ed Rollins took a different tact--ridicule.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Hillary Clinton's 9/11 Collapse Raises Dem Concerns
Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY) attended a 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero in New York, but left an hour and a half early. This might raise some eyebrows among news junkies and politicos in the throes of a General Election campaign in her home state at a solemn memorial.
However, as Mrs. Clinton was waiting for her transportation to arrive, videographers captured a medical episode.
Eyewitnesses reported that Hillary's knees buckled and had to be helped (carried) into the van. Reporters on the Hillary 2016 beat were not allowed to follow. They were told, and most of the media dutifully reported that Secretary Clinton just "stumbled". Then the story shifted to Hillary was suffering from a minor case of heat exhaustion and was dehydrated on a 72 degree morning with low humity.
Hillary was taken to her daughter Chelseas's $10 Million flat in the Flatiron District. After a spell, Hillary briefly appeared and claimed that she was fine on a beautiful New York late summer afternoon and was taken to her home in Chappuqua.
When this facile fabrications were not bought for long by the Lamestream Media, the campaign facilitated a statement from Dr. Lisa Beckett that Hillary has been diagnosed with a case of pneumonia related to her allergic cough. It is curious that Hillary's staffers neither presented the public with the truth (first calling the incident a stumble and then blaming it on heat exhaustion rather than the pneumonia diagnosed three days before) nor did they modify her schedule for more rest. Hillary spoke at a New York fundraiser on Friday, in which she accused half of Donald Trump supporters to be a "Basket of Deplorables". The Clinton campaign has postponed a September 13 Hollywood fundraiser to give Hillary more rest.
There are some reports that Democrat operatives are concerned about the whirlwind of Hillary concerns. The dogged reports about Hillary's Health may prompt the DNC to hold an emergency meeting to "consider" a replacement in case Mrs. Clinton needs to drop out for health reasons.
Because Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) did not concede with acclamation, there is a strong case that the number two Democrat candidate should become the party's nominee. But there are a couple of problems with this scenario.
Firstly, Sanders announced at the Democrat convention that he was again leaving the Democrat party to become an Independent (Socialist). Secondly, if the 68 year old Mrs. Clinton has to bow out of the Presidential race, it would be really bad optics to replace her with a 75 year old. Then there is the problem of logistics. Sanders ran as an outsider. Having a substitute candidate would necessitate working in close cooperation with party insiders and big money donors to retool the Democrat ticket on the fly.
Then there is the reality that rules don't really matter to Democrats when it gets in the way of winning. Think about how ex-Senator Bob Torriccelli (D-NJ) in 1996, which he was replaced after substitute closing date by Senator Frank Lautenburg (D-NJ). In 2000, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan (D-MO) died in a plane crash three weeks before the general election. In that instance, voters elected a dead person so his widow Jean Carnahan (D-MO) could assume the Senatte office by appointment from the Democrats. When Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) died in a plane crash in 2002 11 days before the general election, Minnesota Democrats inserted former Vice President Walter Mondale. But Democrats seemed to have overplayed their hand when they turned the televised Wellstone memorial into a Democrat pep rally. Mondale lost to Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN).
In Presidential politics, the last major substitution was when it became public that Democrat Vice Presidential nominee Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-MO) had been hospitalized for severe depression and supposedly undertook "shock therapy". This embarrassed the Democrat nominee Senator George McGovern (D-SD). So Eagleton withdraw at McGovern's request on August 1, 1972 and Kennedy inlaw Sargent Shriver was named to be the Democrat VP. Mc Govern/Shriver went on to lose 49 states.
If Hillary did bow out from what was supposed to be a sure coronation, who would realistically replace her? Bernie backers would be ideologically appeased if a progressive like Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were chosen. But Warren may not have the name recognition this cycle to be a successful short notice substitution. Moreover, her anti-Wall Street message might well cause big moneyed backers to back off.
This would leave the affable but verbally blunder bound current Vice President Joe Biden. Biden refrained from running in 2016 because he was grief stricken at the death of his son Beau. He has national name recognition, the backing of the Obama Administration, a carefully cultivate image as "Lunch Bucket Joe", but he is not known for being strident against Wall Street. That being said, Biden would be 74 years old on Inauguration Day.
In an already extraordinary election year, Democrats may well find religion in the message of this church sign.
However, as Mrs. Clinton was waiting for her transportation to arrive, videographers captured a medical episode.
Eyewitnesses reported that Hillary's knees buckled and had to be helped (carried) into the van. Reporters on the Hillary 2016 beat were not allowed to follow. They were told, and most of the media dutifully reported that Secretary Clinton just "stumbled". Then the story shifted to Hillary was suffering from a minor case of heat exhaustion and was dehydrated on a 72 degree morning with low humity.
Hillary was taken to her daughter Chelseas's $10 Million flat in the Flatiron District. After a spell, Hillary briefly appeared and claimed that she was fine on a beautiful New York late summer afternoon and was taken to her home in Chappuqua.
When this facile fabrications were not bought for long by the Lamestream Media, the campaign facilitated a statement from Dr. Lisa Beckett that Hillary has been diagnosed with a case of pneumonia related to her allergic cough. It is curious that Hillary's staffers neither presented the public with the truth (first calling the incident a stumble and then blaming it on heat exhaustion rather than the pneumonia diagnosed three days before) nor did they modify her schedule for more rest. Hillary spoke at a New York fundraiser on Friday, in which she accused half of Donald Trump supporters to be a "Basket of Deplorables". The Clinton campaign has postponed a September 13 Hollywood fundraiser to give Hillary more rest.
There are some reports that Democrat operatives are concerned about the whirlwind of Hillary concerns. The dogged reports about Hillary's Health may prompt the DNC to hold an emergency meeting to "consider" a replacement in case Mrs. Clinton needs to drop out for health reasons.
Because Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) did not concede with acclamation, there is a strong case that the number two Democrat candidate should become the party's nominee. But there are a couple of problems with this scenario.
Firstly, Sanders announced at the Democrat convention that he was again leaving the Democrat party to become an Independent (Socialist). Secondly, if the 68 year old Mrs. Clinton has to bow out of the Presidential race, it would be really bad optics to replace her with a 75 year old. Then there is the problem of logistics. Sanders ran as an outsider. Having a substitute candidate would necessitate working in close cooperation with party insiders and big money donors to retool the Democrat ticket on the fly.
Then there is the reality that rules don't really matter to Democrats when it gets in the way of winning. Think about how ex-Senator Bob Torriccelli (D-NJ) in 1996, which he was replaced after substitute closing date by Senator Frank Lautenburg (D-NJ). In 2000, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan (D-MO) died in a plane crash three weeks before the general election. In that instance, voters elected a dead person so his widow Jean Carnahan (D-MO) could assume the Senatte office by appointment from the Democrats. When Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) died in a plane crash in 2002 11 days before the general election, Minnesota Democrats inserted former Vice President Walter Mondale. But Democrats seemed to have overplayed their hand when they turned the televised Wellstone memorial into a Democrat pep rally. Mondale lost to Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN).
In Presidential politics, the last major substitution was when it became public that Democrat Vice Presidential nominee Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-MO) had been hospitalized for severe depression and supposedly undertook "shock therapy". This embarrassed the Democrat nominee Senator George McGovern (D-SD). So Eagleton withdraw at McGovern's request on August 1, 1972 and Kennedy inlaw Sargent Shriver was named to be the Democrat VP. Mc Govern/Shriver went on to lose 49 states.
If Hillary did bow out from what was supposed to be a sure coronation, who would realistically replace her? Bernie backers would be ideologically appeased if a progressive like Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were chosen. But Warren may not have the name recognition this cycle to be a successful short notice substitution. Moreover, her anti-Wall Street message might well cause big moneyed backers to back off.
This would leave the affable but verbally blunder bound current Vice President Joe Biden. Biden refrained from running in 2016 because he was grief stricken at the death of his son Beau. He has national name recognition, the backing of the Obama Administration, a carefully cultivate image as "Lunch Bucket Joe", but he is not known for being strident against Wall Street. That being said, Biden would be 74 years old on Inauguration Day.
In an already extraordinary election year, Democrats may well find religion in the message of this church sign.
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