The Shortcomings of the Political Class

There were a lot of rare sightings yesterday that’s for sure. The Donald’s lewd, crude comments weren’t among them. Unfortunately that sort of thing is distressingly, uh…not rare amongst the warrior class.

So let’s focus on the rarities, first a Bigfoot sighting in Michigan:

Now I will caution you that this could easily be some racist jerk in a gorilla suit trying to punk you or culturally appropriate the Scary Clown craze. Or it could be the real thing – there are just so many trees in the frame that it’s hard to see the forest.

Second rare sighting, Hillary speaks the truth (H/T WikiLeaks):

“But If Everybody's Watching, You Know, All Of The Back Room Discussions And The Deals, You Know, Then People Get A Little Nervous, To Say The Least. So, You Need Both A Public And A Private Position.”*

These remarks came from one of Hillary’s not-so-rare “Wall Street” speeches that paid so well and were kept so private. Interestingly, this is came from remarks she made to the NMHC, a trade organization representing apartment building owners and developers; The Donald could have been in the audience!

Somewhat surprising - Hilary sounds about as articulate as, you know, her one time heir apparent to the New York Senate seat:

I lost count after 100 “you knows”

Third rare sighting yesterday, Trump apologizes.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump apologized for lewd comments about women he made in 2005 and went on to pledge “to be a better man tomorrow.” That would be enough if he were the Democratic candidate; of course if he were the Democrat nominee he could just blame the right wing attack machine and deny it: “These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people.”

However, in our age of polarizing political relativity the words on one side of the divide are worse than actions on the other. Some things are forgivable (in the case of Bill Clinton) and others are not (“I can no longer support Donald Trump for president.”). I would simply like to point out that when Trump made those disgusting comments over a decade ago he was still a Democrat.  Since then he has had a religious experience, repented and is seeking salvation. I know Democrats are big believers in rehabilitation for offenders, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how Republicans and Independents feel about it.

Unfortunately there isn’t enough time for Trump to go to rehab before the election so carry on troops. This one is left in the hands of the American electorate not the politicians who are all off cowering in the corner for fear of taint.

MACBETH
Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly,
False thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures:
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

- Shakespeare, Macbeth Act 5 Scene 3

Come on people, we don’t need any more Scottish tragedies, let’s just Make America Great Again despite the shortcomings of the warrior class.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Why Does the Sun Set in the West? It’s Science.

 Washington’s ‘governing elite’ think Americans are morons. How is this news?

Recently, Johns Hopkins University political scientists Jennifer Bachner and Benjamin Ginsberg conducted a study of the unglamorous D.C. bureaucrat. These are the people who keep the federal government humming — the Hill staffers, the project managers and all those desk workers who vaguely describe themselves as “analysts.”

As Bachner and Ginsberg argue, civil servants exercise real power over how the government operates. They write and enforce rules and regulations. They might not decide what becomes law, but they have a hand in how laws are drawn up and how laws are implemented.

For all their influence, though, nearly all of these technocrats are unelected, and they spend most of their time with people who are just like them — other highly educated folk who jog conspicuously in college tees and own a collection of NPR totes.

In their new book, which is part ethnography and part polemic, Bachner and Ginsberg argue that Washington’s bureaucrats have grown too dismissive of the people they are supposed to serve. Bachner and Ginsberg recently sent around an informal survey to selected members of this technocratic class, and the results, they say, were shocking.

“Many civil servants expressed utter contempt for the citizens they served,” they write in their book, “What Washington Gets Wrong.” “Further, we found a wide gulf between the life experiences of ordinary Americans and the denizens of official Washington. We were left deeply worried about the health and future of popular government in the United States.” – WaPo

Of course the point of this WaPo article is not that our government “betters” think we are all morons, it’s that Bachner and Gisnberg’s conclusions are not based on a “scientific” survey; since when did that become a standard for reportage? And need I point out the number of times the “scientific studies” conducted at the behest of the “governing elite” to promote a predetermined agenda have been reversed, debunked or quietly written over?

Butt we’re the morons

And Jeff Guo also wrote the article to demonstrate that the ruling elites are correct: in both their assumptions and remedies:

A lot of this elitism is probably justifiable. When only 36 percent of adults can name the three branches of government, you wouldn’t want to hand over control of FDA to, say, your next-door neighbor.

Yeah; nor would I want to turn my health care over to Obama’s Death Panels, butt I didn’t get a choice.

“Call it the stupidity of the American people, or whatever.” – J. Gruber

If these technocrats are suspicious of public opinion, it is only that they believe that average Americans might change their minds if they had enough time to study the policy issue in depth.

Finally, Americans have changed their minds.

Finally, Jeff wraps up his argument with the tone of superiority befitting a member of the elite political class:

But respect, as the saying goes, is a two-way street, and Americans have a long and ignoble tradition of denigrating expertise. Today, nearly 40 percent of adults think  there isn’t evidence for global warming. Skeptical parents won't vaccinate their children, endangering their communities with breakouts of preventable diseases like measles. So maybe we can make a deal. If we want experts to listen to our opinions, we might also do them the courtesy of sometimes listening to their opinions, too.

Thus proving the Bachner and Ginsberg’s case. How dare you ignorant sluts question the existence of global warming!? Bravo WaPo, well done indeed.

Butt we’re the morons, because, you know, GLOBAL WARMING!

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

What Other Conclusion Could I Draw?

Yesterday Barry, applying the new Obama Logic standards, established a strong link between Man Made Global Warming/Climate Change and unrest in the Middle East; and in the process gave himself and the First Female President-in-Waiting a complete pass for the mess in Egypt, Libya, Iran, Iraq, and Syria:

“There’s already some really interesting work — not definitive, but powerful — showing that the droughts that happened in Syria contributed to the unrest and the Syrian civil war,” Obama said during the South By South Lawn event at the White House Monday.

Obama made the remarks alongside actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who was there to debut his global warming film “Before the Flood.” Obama’s tying global warming into Syria is part of his administration’s effort to make it a national security issue.

“Well, if you start magnifying that across a lot of states, a lot of nation states that already contain a lot of poor people who are just right at the margins of survival, this becomes a national security issue,” Obama said Monday. Daily Caller

Because who knows more about about politics and science than the man who can act the part of both politician and scientist – no, not Barry; Leonardo.

Using this somewhat new non-scientific standard of relativity, I think I can also draw some conclusions about Islamo-Fascism and the recent spate of bombings and train incidents. To refresh your memory - which I’m sure has been consumed lately with Hillary’s charms and The Donald’s crassness: -there was another train incident in New York yesterday. This follows hot on the heels of the Seaside pipe bombing, the Chelsea dumpster bombing (that Afghan born Muslim Ahmad Rahami has been  charged with), the bomb detonation in the Elisabeth New Jersey train station, and the commuter train crash into the Hoboken station. Also, a pertinent aside: the two men who stole a travel bag, butt left a perfectly good pressure cooker bomb sitting on the ground in Manhattan, were (Muslim) security guards employed by Air Egypt.

Therefore, using the Obama third to the second power law of convenient political dynamics, I conclude that Islamo-fascism was at play here: “there’s already some really interesting work — not definitive, but powerful — showing that the terrorist incidents and accidents that happened in NY/NJ contributed to the bombings and train accidents.”

What other conclusion could I possibly draw? Global Warming?

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

“Democrats Calling Cesar Millan! Stat!”

Everyone says that Tim Kaine, despite his creepily uncanny resemblance to several dummies, is a really nice guy. And everyone concedes that Mike Pence is a genuinely nice guy; which is why this is the debate everybody was expecting:

Butt OMG! what we got was more like this:

The Dems sent Timmy/Triumph the insult dog instead of Timmy the Joker.

Good grief Dems, a word of advice: stop beating your dogs. The only thing last night’s pet trick accomplished was to make Kaine – if this is even humanly possible –  less likeable than his running mate.

Tim, channeling all of Hillary’s anti-charisma.

What transpired on the debate stage was another unwatchable 2-on-1 interrupted only by multiple #STFUKaine moments.

And how about that Elaine Quijano? Charter member of MINO (moderators in name only), is she even a real pretend journalist? Can she even spell “moderate”?

Whew! That was really something; when your trained dog loses control it can get ugly. I’m going to suggest Hillary hire one more member for her campaign staff; a personal coach of sorts.

"No dog is too much for me to handle. I rehabilitate dogs, I train people. I am the dog whisperer." -

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

“She Lives To Be Elected” or: “I Run Therefore I Am”

Well, if she’s going to lose she’ll have to do it on her own. Like every other narcissist it appears that Julian Assange doesn’t really have all that many arrows in his quiver. The Wikileaks “leak” was just another Kardashian Kaper.

Don’t worry though - even with help from the MSM and the fake enthusiasm generated by the fake polls 

H/T Francinepink

and fake polls fakes, she could lose.

Although the actual Monmouth Pollsters claim it’s a fake, I still have my doubts. Like Harry Reid’s unsubstantiated claim that Romney paid no taxes for 10 years, or the NYT claim that Trump paid none for 20 years, if you want to believe it, it’s true.

And let’s be fair, Hillary is perfectly capable of losing on her own. Take yesterday for instance, where, speaking about Trump, she told a crowd in Toledo that she doesn’t see “how anybody can lose a dollar, let alone a billion dollars.” Apparently she’s forgotten about that $6 billion that went missing from the State Department while she was at the helm for 4 years;

if I’ve done the math correctly that works out to $1.5 billion a year. At least Trump lost his own money.

And if she can’t somehow manage to lose on her own she’s still got old passive-aggressive Bill to help out. Here he is, reminding all potential Hillary voters just how stupidly wrong-headed the Democrat plans have been over the past 8 years:

“You’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people are out there busting it… wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half.”

Where the heck was Bill back in 2010 when this sort of insight might have actually been influential instead of just obvious?

Should Hillary somehow manage to lose despite all the little boosts she’s getting along the way don’t expect her to simply fade away into the background. Convinced she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary for a reason, she will continue to pursue the Presidency until she’s dead. And she’s never going to die.

Poster compliments of Biff Spackle, via Doug Ross

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Is America Still Lucky?

Today’s reading assignment: Richard Fernandez’ Zone of Insanity. Two excerpts, the first an anecdote that Shimon Peres related to a reporter:

I am very good friends with Putin. And I shall give you, in brief, the content of one of our recent discussions.

I told him, “You’re 63 years old, I’m 93 years old. Tell me, what do you want to achieve in the coming 30 years? What are you fighting for? Are you hoping to piss off America?”

He says, “No.”

“America wants a piece of Russia? No. You have trouble discussing things with Obama?”

He says, “Why do you ask?

I said, “Look, I am not a spy, whatever, tell me.”

He says, “What do you think?”

And I said, “America will win no matter what you do.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because they are lucky, and you are not.”

[Laughs]

Indeed, America has been “lucky,”  in the way John Milton meant when he said “Luck is the residue of design.”

Or in the way Seneca meant by “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” 

Butt is America’s luck about to run out?  Is it indeed the end of the American century?

Will America no longer be there when the world needs our “luck?”

Is America really out of “Great Men” – or is it, as Robert Draper seems to argue in the New York Times, only the Republicans that lack Great Men and Talking Points: 

Unlike the progressives who have Titans in abundance conservatives are led by men not notably better than themselves and possibly a good deal worse.  The lack of a clear winner has pitted "voter against voter, congressman against congressman, Bob Dole against the Bushes"  and divided conservative punditry to the point where actual arguments break out among them proving that the conservatives had neither Party nor a Party Line; no mastermind nor manifesto, certainly fatal defects.  "Trump ... simply fulfills the ineffable urge many have to, as Michael Needham, the chief executive of the conservative policy group Heritage Action for America, puts it, 'punch Washington in the face.'"

I guess we’ll find out soon enough. It could be that we don’t need no stinkin’ Great Men and Talking Points at this juncture. Maybe all we need is a “lucky” man willing to punch Washington in the face – along with anyone else on the world scene who needs a face–punching.

“Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.” – E.B. White

Fernandez says that you can substitute “take a risk” for Perez’ word “lucky” to get a better sense of what he was trying to tell Putin. If that’s true, than this presidential election is a no-brainer. Do you vote for a calculating risk-taker willing to Make America Great Again, or a manipulator of fact and fiction whose idea of risk is getting out of bed every morning? In my book of life, the riskier path is voting for yet another Democrat Titan who doesn’t even realize the risks she’s willing to take on behalf of the American people.

And now that I hear Julian is ready to open the gates of hell in his video tomorrow, If I was Hilz I’d start asking myself if I was feeling lucky. And then I’d go searching for my lucky underpants. Even though I doubt they will be adequate.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

HIIO: You Hack It, We’ll Flak it

Well, it’s October, here come the surprises:

Surprise #1.  Trump Tax Records Obtained by The Times Reveal He Could Have Avoided Paying Taxes for Nearly Two Decades

Note the use of the word “obtained” not modified by the adverb “illegally,” probably because that’s the only way they could have obtained them. So just as scientists begin to question the existence of “dark matter” (more on that at a later date) here we have definitive proof of its existence. At the same time we have evidence of what many of us non-scientists have long suspected: the IRS has been weaponized for use against the Deplorables. Prepare to locate a tax shelter.

By the NYT’s own admission there is absolutely no evidence that Trump did anything wrong, i.e. lie to federal officials, illegally deleted emails, or did anything contrary to IRS code like funneling income through a charitable trust. Nevertheless they have judged him to be morally deficient.

Using that standard, I suppose we can also obtain Hillary’s emails regarding Benghazi by any means necessary…oh wait: no we can’t; she had them “Bleach-bit” out of existence. Well shoot. I guess we may as well get back to Trump’s 3:00 am Tweets in that case.

By the way, I may have solved The Donald’s late-night Tweeting habitué: I’ve asked Eric Trump to change his password without telling him. If that doesn’t work I’ll contact “our people” at Twitter and have his account suspended for TOS violations (Tweets of Stupidity).

Anyway, if the NYT can extrapolate 18 years of tax payments from 3 pages of Trump’s purloined state tax  filings, I think I should be able to extrapolate 8 hours of illegal, unethical and morally reprehensible behavior on Hillary’s part towards our Libyan Ambassador and his attachés from her 15,000 deleted emails.  Or maybe Julian Assange will save me the trouble by releasing October surprise #2 on Tuesday.

After all, it is harvest season.

HIIO: You Hack It, We’ll Flak it

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network