Nancy Pelosi on Vulgar Calls for Impeaching President Trump

Newly elected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to tamp down the controversy  created by freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's vulgar call to impeach President Trump.

Pelosi dismissed criticism of Tlaib's vow to impeach the "motherf*cker as being "No big deal" as it was free speech from an individual and is just the way people talk




However, Pelosi proclaimed that President Trump's rhetoric mattered as his words have a direct impact on people. Huh? Hypocrisy much?  

Perhaps Pelosi ought to consider the context of Rashida Tlaib's crude call for impeachment.  Even though Tlaib doubled down on her remarks as speaking truth to power, the reality was that her crude comment was directed to her young son.   So such free speech has no impact "on the children"?  Sure. 

h/t: MRC

George H.W. Bush on Heaven

SecDef James Mattis on Iran

Are GOP Congress Critters Really RINOS or Conservative Chameleons?

After the way that Establishment Republicans acted in their profligate  $1.3 TRILLION  for the remaining six months of FY 2018 in the Omnibus spending bill, one wonders if how Republicans ought to be portrayed.

Traditionally, the Grand Old Party's symbol is an elephant (remember?).  Cynics charge that they should be exposed as RINOs.  But considering they way many Congressional Republicans change from being a fiscally conservative party when they strive for power and then profligately spend when they are in charge, perhaps they would be better depicted as conservative chameleons.  But can they survive if the proverbial swamp is drained in the District of Calamity (sic).  

Mike Lee on the Omnibus Spending Bill

To What End Does The Mooch Diss Bannon Some Moore (sic)?

"The Mooch's" animus against Steve Bannon and sticking the Establishment in the eye is nothing new. During his ten day tenure in the White House communication shop, Anthony Scaramucci angled to distance President Trump from the likes of Steve Bannon.

After the GOP defeat in the Alabama Senate Special Election, and with Republicans holding a slim one seat majority in the Senate for the remainder of the 115th Congress, perhaps "The Mooch" is trying to guide the Trump Administration to work work cooperatively with Wall Street Democrats to get things done. 

Senator Joe Manchin on Politics

George Orwell on Objective Truth

Bruce Springsteen on Honest Work

All those years of building an image of being a working class hero seems to have been all a conceit. 

With such a dodgey work history, one wonders who's really "The Boss" at the Springsteen household.

Well, at least let's hope that Bruce doesn't try to compensate by buying Nordstrom's $425 fake work jeans with the simulated mud coating. 

Trey Gowdy Galled by "Dutch Uncle" Chuck Schumer 's Modest Proposals

The Resistance plan for Democrats in the District of Calamity seems to be the Soros inspired discredit your opponents to dictate the political agenda.  

While talk about the impeachment of President Trump has temporarily waned among most elected officials, there is a full court press to besmirch Trump advisers and allies in Washington by implicating them as untrustworthy due to the supposed Russian interference with the 2012 General Election of Mr. Trump.  Currently, this is culminating on a call for and independent counsel to investigate the charges which intelligence chiefs have already dismissed.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took the lead in casting doubt about House Intelligence Select Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA 22), who went to the White House to brief the Administration there was incidental surveillance of the Trump family and Trump transition staff and American names had been improperly unmasked and leaked.  Schumer was upset that Intelligence Chairman Nunes did not go to his Democrat Intelligence Minority Leader Adam Schiff (D-CA 28th) first, thus the accusation that Nunes is in the pocket of President Trump and must step aside.

Congressman Trey Gowdy  dismissed the disparagement of Chairman Nunes by "Dutch Uncle Chuck Schumer with prejudice. 

Of course, Senator Schumer has not been subtle about being an obstructionist to the Trump Administration unless the President totally accedes to Democrat druthers. 

Mika on the Media's Metier

On Trump Resistance and a Soft Coup D'Etat

Between the astroturf agitation seemingly sponsored by George Soros and the strategic intelligence leaks from holdovers inside the government, former US attorney Joe Di Genova frets that a soft coup d'etat is underway.

Giuliani Jibes at Obama's Just-Us Department

Outrage Over EpiPen Exploitation

As the school year is beginning and students with allergies are adjusting to new environs and routines, it has come to light that the cost of EpiPens, a life saving medical device to treat anaphylaxis from food allergies and bee stings, has skyrocketed.

The price of an EpiPen has gone from $57 to over $400 a unit.  This dramatic price increase prompted one exasperated mother to concede that she is no longer putting away money for her kid's college fund but in order to save for EpiPens.

While Mylan, the manufacturer of EpiPens, has declined to indicate the reasons for the price spike, pharmaceutical manufacturers typically impose significant price in the waning years of a monopoly before generic alternatives are allowed on the market.  However, in this case, the FDA has unexpectedly rejected a generic anaphalaxis alternative from Teva, requiring "more data".  And dosing problems prompted Sanofi pharmaceuticals to pull Auvi-Q (a non-generic treatment) from the market.  So EpiPens has a virtual monopoly on anaphylactic remedies as Mylan was seeking to suck every last cent of profit from EpiPens.

It may raise eyebrows that as Mylan acquired its virtual monopoly for EpiPens, Mylan's CEO Heather Bresch saw a 671% increase in  salary and compensation, going from $2.4 Million to a reported $18.9 Million. And it is an inconvenient truth that Ms. Bresch is the daughter of Senator Joe Manchin III (D-WV) who has donated $60,750 from 2011 to 2015. Between the generous financial support and filial ties,  it raises the specter of crony capitalism and possible nepotism. 

While Senator Manchin does not directly sit on heath committees and has voiced public concern over the incredible cost increases for EpiPens, his daughter might not be grilled harshly by his colleagues.  And it is unclear how the FDA decided that they needed more data for the generic.  With accusations of State Department concierge service associated with the Clinton Foundation and the politicization of Executive Branch Agencies (EPA, Energy, Agriculture etc..) and supposedly Independent Agencies (e.g. FCC on net neutrality), family ties may expedite an advantageous environment.  Or perhaps it's just another isolated incident of corporate serendipity .

The public was outraged by the EpiPen exploitation.  Sarah Jessica Parker, whose son suffers from anaphylactic shock, agreed to be the celebrity spokeman for EpiPens.  When this controversy arose, Sarah Jessica Parker went on social media to end her association with Mylan, thus walking away from a lucrative endorsement contract.

Mylan sought to mitigate the public relations mess about EpiPens by announcing that a family of four making $97,000 would pay nothing out of pocket for the prescription. That sounds nice but the inflated costs are just passed along to insurers and employers. With Obamacare on the precipice of a financial death spiral in 2017 and insurers pulling out of health exchange markets, this solution is a mere chimera. 

Obama Solicitor General's Logic on Immigration Non-Enforcement

Herbert Simon on Information Overload

Northrup Frye on Metaphorical Shepherds

Trump's Cites Key Personal Scriptural Passage: An Eye for an Eye

In a telling interview with a Rochester, New York radio station, Republican Presidential front-runner Donald Trump revealed the Bible passage which has most informed his thinking-- An Eye for an Eye.

Naturally,  Mr Trump did not spew out the exact scriptural reference, so for all he knew it was the Code of Hammurabi instead of the Book of  Levitucus 24:19-21.   It's not exactly something that one would hear about from Two Corinthians (sic). Nor did Trump appreciate how St. Augustine marked it as a controversial passage showing the vengeful nature of the Old Testament. 

An eye for an eye is known as the Lex Taliones (Latin for Law of the Talon)  for a law of retaliation which today has particular relevance in tort law, for translating non-economic losses into money.

Considering Trump's public persona, which craves flattery but lashes out when others' oppose him and his persistent pugilism, Trump's memory verse rings true.  Trump's candid scriptural citation certainly peers into what burnishes his soul. 

Elections certainly ought to be about vetting ideas of how to govern the polity.  But they can also act as a measure of a man's character.  To install a leader of the free world who swears by lex taliones may make being a pirate commonplace.

Cavaet emptor. 

Trump's Penn State Pandering

While at a campaign event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,  Republican Presidential front-runner Donald Trump confused the crowd of 8,000 by suggesting to bring Joe Paterno back.

Many mock Trump's entreaty, implying that the Manhattan mogul did not know that the legendary former Penn State football coach had been dead for nearly four years, after being ousted in the wake of the Assistant Coach Sandusky pedophilia scandal.  What was more likely is that Trump was referring to the statue of Paterno, which was unceremoniously removed from exterior of Beaver Stadium in University Park.

What was remarkable was how disjointed and desultory that Donald Trump sounded even when reading from prepared remarks. In addition, Trump types are proud that their leader would be beholden to no special interest.  Yet the pathetic Paterno pleading before Keystone voters right before the Pennsylvania primary belies that brag. 

Donald Trump on Success