Friday's Thoughts: Election, Gary Johnson, and Wolf Children

By Kit

I barely watched the two conventions, though I did follow them. This election already has me worn out and there are about 90 days left until it finally ends. Unless, of course, it is a tie —a real possibility— proving once and for all that God has turned His back on America.

But here are some thoughts, anyway.

Parties United?

Despite the rancor online and on TV the parties are rather united, though not as much as they were in 2012. The cause of the ruckus in Philadelphia this week was largely due to the fact that, because so few local, grassroots Democrats were willing to go against the Clintons, Bernie had to dip outside the usual Democratic Party reservoirs to find delegates to represent him in Philadelphia. He had to find men and women on the left who did not care about making enemies of the Clinton family, which meant nutjobs, amateurs, and nutjob amateurs.

Folks who probably would not have voted Clinton, or even voted, anyway.

But… there are problems. Namely that you have two candidates that nearly everyone, except for their core supporters, loathes. They are damaged goods and we therefore have plenty of undecideds for either to pick up between now and November.


The Russian Connection

A few days ago Trump caused a stir (when does he not?) by saying, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

He was referring, of course, to the 30,000 emails wiped from Hillary’s private server. The media pounced on his statement, one Democrat panelist on Fox called it “treason.” Which begs to mind what she considers it to be when a Secretary of State uses a private server to exchange thousands of classified emails, opening them up to every foreign intelligence agency (including the Russians).

Of course, as over-the-top as the reaction on the Left is, it’s not like Trump hasn’t given them ammo. Evidence of coziness between Trump and Moscow are plenty. Let’s just look at recent events, shall we? Around Christmas he was praising Putin as a “strong leader,” a phrase which in his mind seems to be the highest compliment above all others to pay to a leader (one wonders what he thinks of other “strong leaders” like Stalin or Mao). When he dumped Lewandowski he hired Paul Manafort, a man who spent the past few years helping pro-Putin Ukrainian dictator Then in the week-and-a-half before the most recent statement he said he was not sure if the US should protect the Baltics if they don’t pull their weight in NATO (unaware that they do), talked about lifting sanctions and handing over Crimea to Moscow, and his folks pushed the RNC to soften its language on Russia in the platform. Any one of these would be eyebrow-raising, but taken together they craft a very disturbing image.

If he had spent the campaign season talking tough on Moscow then perhaps the Left’s accusation would have no weight, but since Mr. Trump seems to have a massive man-crush on the tyrant, it carries a bit of weight.


Why I’m voting Gary Johnson —or writing in somebody

I loathe the two candidates. James Woods recently posted a cartoon depicting a Hillary speech as fingernails scratching on a chalkboard. Well, I feel the same way about Trump. I feel that way about both of them. As Charles C.W. Cooke posted on Twitter, "Whichever candidate wins, I think I’m going to destroy my hearing with a screwdriver. Four years of listening to Trump or Clinton? No."

And, as I wrote above, it’s not just the aural aesthetics of their voices that annoy me. You could probably craft a Venn Diagram (they’re in, right now). They have both spent their entire lives using the government to advance their own ends be it the Clintons handing out treats to businesses in exchange for donations to their foundation or Trump buying treats from the government, such as getting the local government to try and force an old widow out of her home to make way for a limousine parking lot. They are symbols of everything that is wrong with modern America.

About the only really good thing you can say of these two crony parasites is that they seemed to have raised good families, but so did Joe Kennedy.

Charles Spurgeon said, “When given the choice between the lesser of two evils choose neither.” There is no reason I should have to choose between voting for Kang and Kodos, and I won’t. I will choose a third option. Since I am in Alabama, my vote won’t count much unless Trump has found ways to blow this election in ways So, that leaves my options rather open. I can actually register a protest vote, and I intend to.

I haven’t decided who, but by November 8 (my birthday, coincidentally) I will have made my choice. Which means I’m probably going to vote for Gary Johnson, or perhaps I will write somebody else in if my state permits it. Maybe F.A. Hayek, granted, he’s ineligible due to being dead and Austrian by birth but his Road to Serfdom is a perfect summary of our current state of affairs.

If I was living in a swing state like Florida or Iowa I would probably be racking myself a good deal more over the noxious choice between a crony politician and crony billionaire* but I don’t so I won’t. Instead, I will add my vote to someone else. It won’t matter much, but I figure every vote for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, or some write-in is further evidence that both our major parties blew it. Big time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go read Lovecraft. I could use the pick-me-up.

*Still not entirely convinced he’s a billionaire.


Wolf Children

If you want something cheerier, I recommend reading my review of Wolf Children a week ago, if you haven’t.

LINK

It’s worth a watch. It’s a wonderful film. The kind of movie that stays with you and it makes for pleasant repeat-viewings. Not in the “oh, wow, I never noticed this before” way but in the way of the warm feeling you get when you meet up with old friends. All of the emotions; the joys, the sorrows, you never want to leave and I always feel kind of sad when I do because I wanted to spend more time with Ame, Yuki, Hana, and Wolfman. But I'm happy that I got to enjoy the company.

I feel the same way whenever I re-read Harry Potter, by the way.

Hillary's Made History

Hillary Clinton is about to make history. Tonight she will officially make her acceptance speech and become the first woman to be nominated as a candidate for President by a major party. "Yey", I guess.

However, she is not the first woman to run for President. That honor goes to Victoria Claflin Woodhull who ran as the Equal Rights Party candidate in 1872. Her running mate was Frederick Douglass. However, since women did not have the right to vote, the Supreme Court ruled against her in her argument to be able run, so she did not actually ever make it to the ballot.

In 1884, Belva Ann Lockwood of the Equal Rights Party did become wthe first woman to make it on an official election ballot. Spoiler alert: She didn't win.

Other women have put their pillbox hats in the ring in the two major parties too, but never made it to the ballot - Gracie Allen (1940 as a joke), Margaret Chase Smith (Republican 1964), Shirley Chishom (Democrat 1972), Patsy Mink (Democrat 1972), Pat Schroeder (Democrat 1988), Elizabeth Dole (Republican 2000), Carol Moseley Braun (Democrat 2004), and, of course, Carly Fiorina (Republican 2016).

And even as we speak, Jill Stein is on the ballot as the Green Party candidate this year.

There have been many women to run over the years from various parties who didn't make this list, but let's give Hillary Clinton her due. She is the first woman to be legitimately nominated by a major party to run for President. Of course, according to some recently released emails, that all depends on what "legitimately" means.

Anyone want to wager on what she will say in her acceptance speech tonight?

Hillary-Con 2016

The Democratic convention has begun. And is it ever a mess. This thing is part whiner's convention... part deceptive ad... and part idiocy. Watch at your own risk. Here are some related thoughts.

● Dress As Success: I've always told you that I look for signs other than polls to figure out what the public is thinking. Polls suck for a number of reasons and ultimately are pretty worthless until right before the election. One of the signs that tells me Trump will win is how both the shop that sold Melina Trump her dress and Ivanka Trump her dress sold out within minutes of them starting to speak. That's a sign that women like them very much. (The Obamas had the same thing happen.) Hillary's tailor isn't going to experience that. Nor will Chelsea.

● Social MEdia: Another sign of what the public is thinking comes from social MEdia. When you look across the vast wasteland of Twitter and Facebook, you really don't see a lot of political memes being passed around this time... not like in 2004, 2008 and 2012. And what there are, are generally evenly split between anti-Hillary and anti-Trump. The image above is going around Pinterest right now. Note that this means that middle aged to youngish white women are passing around anti-Hillary posts. That's super bad for her. Look at the mix too of Bernie supporters -- middle aged white women. Again, this is meant to be Hillary's base and it's not backing her.

In fact, Anthony posted a link in the comments the other day about a poll showing Hillary's support among white women falling month on month to an amazing low. I think critical mass has been reached and she's finished.

● Vouchers: Another way to judge someone is to look at how they try to sell themselves. Hillary actually brought her sixth grade friend to the convention to vouch for her. Oy. In some instances, something like that would be cool. It could show that the candidate is loyal, with a long-term focus, and loved/respected by those around them. But when the public thinks you're a sh*t, doing this is like asking your mom to submit a note telling everyone how nice you are -- worthless. "Please excuse Hillary, she's just an awful person." It also tells us that Hillary understand that people aren't connecting to her, i.e. they don't think she's a good person.

● Personality Matters: I wonder what is destroying Hillary. She is corrupt, yes. But so are many more who have survived their corruption becoming public. She is incompetent. Indeed, her career reeks of failure and playing an ignored second fiddle. No rational person can doubt that without Bill Clinton's name to help her, she would be an angry caseworker at a woman's shelter. But again, W Bush weren't none too smart neither. In fact, he was brutally incompetent and yet he overcame that. She's a failure. That's unforgivable in America. Yet, sometimes losers can make a comeback if they show they've learned their lessons. Awful public speaker? So was Bush. So was Nixon. A me too ideologic-er? So was her better half... good God, how can Bill Clinton be anyone's better half?

So why can't she overcome these things? Is it all just too much? I don't think so. I think her problem is her personality. Her personality is awful. She's adopted the personae of the hateful school marm... the minor villain in films, the nasty teacher everyone remembers and no one liked. She just makes people dislike her.

● Ain't Got No Friends: Have you noticed that Hillary lacks celebrity support? Maybe you haven't, but she does. Most Democrats can count on massive numbers of Hollywood heavyweights being seen with them arm in arm throughout the process. They hold parties on their yachts for them, give speeches and smile benignly from the luxury boxes at their new bestie. Hillary seems to lack the heavyweights. What she's getting instead are mainly B-level women who are part of the Hollywood feminist movement. Because of this, she's not getting an army of pro-Hillary jokes in sitcoms, stages full of celebs fawning over her, or an army of famous people doing pro-Hillary interviews. That's another bad sign, especially as Hollywood thought they had made her husband famous. They seem to have forsaken her.

● In and Out: Finally, has anyone noticed that some of the DNC heavyweights (like Michelle Obama and Bernie and Elisabeth Warren) are all going early at the Democratic Convention? All the people with star power seem to be trying to sneak through before anyone starts paying attention. Interesting. What does that say when your friends don't want to be seen with you?

Thoughts?

DNCinPhilly...

The DNC opened their convention with a WikiLeaks email dump that confirmed how the DNC stacked the deck in Hillary's favor, the DNC Chair resigning because she was revealed to be ethically challenged and was then hired for Hillary's campaign, and the Sanders supporters boo-ing everytime someone said "Hillary Clinton" even during the opening prayer. Oh, and the Russians are everywhere trying to interfere with the elections. Fun times, fun times.

The good news is that the Dems don't seem to be any more together or cohesive than the Republicans. They have their own "Never Hillary" faction who boo-ed when Bernie pleaded with his followers to "Vote For Hillary". The irony didn't escape anyone who has been paying attention. Cruz gets boo-ed for "Vote Your Conscience" and not specifically endorsing Trump and Bernie gets boo-ed for endorsing Hillary. Politics truly does have strange bedfellows.

But it's early. We still have to go through the endless parade of celebrities, illegal...er "undocumented workers", and BLM supporters who will have their say. Oddly, Hillary complained about that is was "so sad" that the Republicans spent so much time talking about her during their convention. She promises to be civil because, as presumptive VP nominee Tim Kaine explained, the Dems gave up name-calling when they were in the 5th Grade. Yeah...

Let's discuss.

Email Email Everywhere

So Clinton names some honkus borus as her choice for VP and hopes to make news. She does so late on a Friday night when most companies release news like how their VP of Production ground up his mother and put her in the secret formula vat and needed to be let go. Within minutes, a shooting in Germany kills what little attention her announcement got. What a loser. But Hillary did make lasting news this weekend in the form of emails... and they weren't even hers!

This weekend, news hit of a treasure trove of trouble in 20,000 emails Wikileaks stole from the Democratic National Committee. Actually, the hacker Guccifer stole them and gave them to Wikileaks. Buried within this dump of emails were some damning little pieces. For example, Debbie Whatshername-Schulz, the official hag of the DNC, used her position to try to get insider benefits like tickets to Hamilton. It also turns out the DNC is a clique full of smug little bullies who love to gossip about each other. Who knew? //rolls eyes

More interestingly though, the DNC did their best to sabotage Bernie Trotsky Sanders. This is despite the DNC officially being required to be neutral until a nominee is chosen. The most interesting anti-Sanders stuff was this:

* The DNC people wanted to conduct a campaign of negative hits by claiming that Sanders' campaign was disorganized. As they put it, that he "couldn't get it together." They planned to do so by claiming that his campaign never responded to their requests and deadlines, failed to put forth nominations, and never complied with requirements. Then they would let it be known that these things only got done if they called Sanders directly. The idea was to create the impression of chaos.

* The DNC wanted to suggest that Sanders, who is Jewish, is an atheist. The DNC Director of Communications apparently wanted to get a trusted journalist to bring this up. Why? Because they thought this might smear him in the South and cost him points:

"Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist."

So think about this. The unbiased arm of the Democratic Party set out to smear progressive Bernie Sanders in the name of helping Hillary Clinton. What's more, they see the idea that he's a Jew and an atheist both as grounds for smearing him. Tell me that won't be news to New York City Jews and college atheists -- two of the Democrats' strongest supporters.

The response to this has been dramatic. It has given life to Bernie's supporters, who had scheduled a pointless rally in Philly today but who now vastly over-performed expectations. There are a tremendous number of calls among Bernie people for Bernie to un-endorse Hillary. What's more, unlike the Benghazi thing, this gives a tangibility to "the email scandal" which has staying power. This plays right into the idea that Hillary and her team of insiders stole the election from Bernie and are lying, cheating and smearing their way across the political landscape. This couldn't be worse for Hillary. And ironically, it wasn't even her emails! Nevertheless, the fact that it was meant to help her as well as her reputation has solidified this connection as an accepted narrative: Hillary plotted to smear Bernie and steal the election.

The immediate result is that the Debbie Whatshername-Schulz has been forced to resign. That is good and bad for the Democrats. It's good because she sucks big time. It's bad because it adds another stain to Hillary's dirty (in)vestments.

The timing on this couldn't be worse either. This hurts Hillary with Jews, progressives, atheists and people who find her dishonest. It hurts her with Bernie people. It will cause dissension and a rift at their convention... look for violent protests. It may hamstring the DNC's operations at a point too where they need to fundraise like mad and finalize plans for November. It also costs her a strong ally at the DNC. It also murders whatever press she got from picking Blandus Rex as her VP. Heck, it even covers up Trump's latest stupidity of speaking up for Roger Ailes. And worse of all, it sticks the word EMAIL back in people's heads... right after she bought off the FBI too. How unfair!

Ha ha. This is going to get ugly.

Thoughts?

Whatevs...

I wish I could have some thoughts, but they just aren't coming. Has anyone been watching the Republican Convention? I just can't. It's too depressing. Keep the dialogue going in that wonderful, random scream...er...stream of conscience way we do.

By the way, is anyone playing the new Pokemon Go game? If you are...stop it. Stop it now. Let's discuss.

More Thoughts

Ain't got nothin' to say, so I'll make some stuff up.

* So there's a vaccine in the works to stop chlamydia, which is an STD which causes giant clams to try to eat your sex parts. This vaccine comes in a nose spray. A nose spray to stop an STD? I must be doing this whole sex thing wrong. My nose never had any problems.

* Hillary says that Trump is the "most dangerous man" ever to run for the presidency. Could be, but I doubt it. On the other hand, Hillary is by definition the most dangerous woman to run for the presidency... the fattest woman... the oldest woman... the dumbest woman and the woman most likely to need nose spray.

* As the popularity of bullying hits an all time high (one of the dance shows just did a special anti-bully dance which I believe caused five actual bullies to die of acute faked regret (AFR)), it's pretty clear that a vast number of fakers are claiming they were bullied... people like Playboy Bunnies who think it's funny to post pictures of fat women working out. The question is, what do we do after everyone claims they were bullied? Do we eliminate the idea from the lexicon? Do we just pretend that everyone really was bullied... like the French pretend that everyone there was part of the resistance and how half the world is part casino Indian? Or do we force people to admit that most of them were actually the bullies? Ooh, that could ugly! Who bullies the bullies indeed!

BTW, Kat von D was bullied by her transvestite I don't know what... boss? Business partner? Friend? Anyways, using liberal logic, clearly transvestites are bullies and need to be bullied until they learn that bullying never solves anything! Bully for us!

* Like almost every Democrat before her, Melina Trump may have lied about her qualifications to be.... uh, just lied. Don't care. She's hot. And the fact that the Roskanda dress she wore sold out as she spoke tells you that people are excited about her. I doubt Bargain Hag will sell out of Hillary's support pantsuit she'll be wearing when she cackles her way through her acceptance speech.

* Taylor Swift is now firing back at Kim Fatdashian and her loser husband Kanye the Douche. So far it's just low level trolling and lobbed allegations. Kanye called Taylor a "bitch" and she got angry a few days after she heard it. Then Kim claimed Taylor gave Kanye permission, but Taylor did... you don't care do you? Neither do I. I just hope this ends in a double driveby.

* Finally, Hillary is looking to Iowan Tom Vlasic as her likely running mate. That puts the party in a pickle. Actually, thinking about it, Hillary using a pickle is somehow appropriate. It's not like it couldn't be worse though. His name could be Tommy Dil-- uh, whoops.... it turns out his name is actually Vilasek. That seems appropriate too as Vila-sectomy sounds like the painful version of the Vasectomy. Ouch. Fitting, but ouch. Anyways, this is more evidence that Hillary needs help in Iowa and other Midwestern states which she should be winning handily. Snicker snicker. Handily. I'll stop now.

And Now It Begins...

The Republican Convention started today and already there have been reports of physical threats, intimidations, walkouts, and ejections, and that's just the first day. As of now, Trump hasn't even taken the stage. What is going to happen next?

The first vote by what delegates have not left or been ejected will be tonight, or not. Please feel free to post what you have seen or heard.

But as little relief from the emerging doomsayers, here is a photo from my recent trip to Niagara Falls. This was the view from my hotel window:

This late afternoon rainbow was not photoshopped, but breathtakingly real...

Quick Thoughts

I didn't have any time to write this weekend, so let me give some quick hit thoughts.

* Anyone who thinks that killing cops is going to help their cause is a moron. These guys think that by killing a cop they will either spark followers to take to the streets or they will cause a reaction that starts a racial war. They're idiots. The history of terrorism shows that people don't give in to killers... they circle the wagons. What's more, by turning to violence, these people disgrace the movements they claim to support. In fact, look at how quickly all the sympathy for the guy in Minnesota has vanished. Look too at how black churches are embracing police officers. When you turn to killing, you kill your own cause.

* Ghostbusters looks to be a disaster, and the studio knew that early on -- having the most hated trailer in YouTube history was a bad start. Well, the studio didn't give up. Instead, they ran the most cynical, nasty ad campaign ever. They played the victim card. They began by accusing the critics of hating women. Then they laid it on thick. Did you know that fashion designers shunned the butch black chick for the red carpet until the last minute! Heavens! Then they lowered the expectations to declare that a $45 million weekend would be a "stunning success" even though this means the film would be a huge bomb -- it needs to earn $300 to break even. They redefined "weekend" to include Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, just so they could claim the $45 million number. And a standard phrase started appearing in "news" articles everywhere that also happened to run Ghostbusters ads: "generally upbeat reviews for Sony's film". This was repeated over and over even though it's almost impossible to find a good review. Finally, the director declared one of the characters gay at the last minute. You were lied too the whole way.

* Turkey is a mess. I don't know why a legitimate government would respond to the end of a coup by a small group of soldiers by arresting 3,000 judges. I know why an illegitimate one would, but not a legitimate one.

* I saw some interesting polls the other day. It turns out 67% of the public think Supreme Court justices should not talk about politics. That's a good thing. It shows that the desire to have a depoliticized judiciary is important to people. Only 22% disagree. 82% think college is important. Only 9% are reel 'merikans. More good news.

* Trump continues to make good choices in terms of advisers. His list of advisers is a who's who of respected conservatives. Now he's adding Mike Pence, who is a well-respected conservative with strong ties to religious conservatives. It seems that Trump is growing up.

* Has it dawned on anybody how pathetic our celebrities are? You have murder, assassination and revolution going on and our idiot actors/actresses/and quasi-actors are posting pictures of themselves on yachts or engaged in twitter fights about idiocy. Are they that out of touch? Clearly.

* Finally, I love my mom. She has always done things to make me proud. Right now, she's baking a cake she plans to give to the police to tell them she supports them. :)

Friday's Thoughts: L'horreur à Nice

By Kit

First it was the mass shooting at Charlie Hebdo coupled with an attack on a Jewish café in January of 2015. That summer it was a gunman on a train, fortunately subdued by several passengers. Then came November and the horror of the Bataclan where 130 people were killed in attacks across the city of Paris and a state of emergency across the country imposed by President Hollande of France.

And outside of France you had San Bernadino, where a mother abandoned her child to join her husband in murdering 14 of his fellow co-workers at a Christmas party. Then came spring and a small group of terrorists, using combined mass shooting/suicide bombing tactic of Bataclan, killed 32 people and left behind the blurred and searing image of an infant baby wailing next to the body of her dead mother. This was followed by Orlando, where a lone gunman slaughtered 50 people at a gay bar, the worst terror attack since 9/11. And, of course, the multitude of bloody attacks across the Middle East.

But since the attacks of November, aside from the slaying of a police chief and his girlfriend by a disturbed young man, France seems to have managed to avoid terror attacks carried out in the name of ISIS or Al-Qaeda. And last night, with the nation, having held its breath through the Euro 2016 in Marseilles and suffering only the ravages of intoxicated Russian hooligans, was getting ready for the end of the state of Emergency in less than two works and celebrating with fireworks and parades Bastille Day, their equivalent of the Fourth of July, with fireworks and parades.

Then, at 10:45pm in the southeastern seaside town of Nice, just as the crowds on the Promenade des Anglais were getting up from having watched the fireworks show over the harbor a man drove a truck down the Promenade into the crowd of spectators for over a mile (2km), swerving to the left and right to kill as many pedestrians as possible. The carnage was horrific. One witness said he “saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route” and in the truck’s wake the corpses of men, women, and even children littered the street.

The details on how it ended are, as of the time I write this, a bit sketchy. It seems, judging from the numerous bullet holes in the windshield of the truck, that the police opened fire on him. There are also reports from French newspapers of him opening fire on either the crowds or the police with a pistol, his truck allegedly had long arms and a defective grenade. Again, details are sketchy. We are still in the first 24 hours of this.

Reports coming out indicate he was a 31-year old man with French-Tunisian citizenship which, along with the statement by Francoise Hollande referencing “Islamic Terrorism,” makes it likely this was an Islamist attack. Granted, France has enough of a political history with Revolutions, Communards, framed Jewish officers, quasi-fascist Catholic reactionaries, and May riots that while it is possible that some far-left radical Communard holding a grudge over the Bloody Week of 1871 or a crazed Reactionary French Catholic holding bitter over the rise of a Satanic-mason-Jewish Republic might have done this, it’s unlikely either would carry dual citizenship with Tunisia.

So, if all the above reports are true then this is very likely an Islamic terrorist attack. In his speech after the attack Hollande said that the state of emergency would be extended another 3 months, 10,000 soldiers are being mobilized to support non-military forces, and the reservists are being mobilized, and her operations in Syrian and Iraq against the Islamic State will continue. Right now the Citizens of the Republic are waking up to discover the country is still at war and still very vulnerable.

And judging by San Bernadino and Orlando so are we. Both Hillary and Trump (yes, both of them) said in the aftermath of the attack that we are at war with radical Islamic jihadism.

We can’t really say more until we learn more. Until then ignore the brown noise of morons on the left who equate this atrocity with our bombing of the Islamic State and on the right who think we can “test every person of Muslim background to see if they believe in sharia.” Such statements are both morally idiotic (never mind constitutionally) and craft an overly simplistic narrative about a struggle against an enemy that is both utterly evil and yet tied to a faith held by 1.2 billion people, from which they will not be easily lodged.

Instead, pray for those who have been affected. Even if you don't put much stock in prayer, it's a far better option than the other two examples.

Hillary's Sale Pitch Fails

With Bev entertaining guests, I'll take her place tonight... Is Hillary qualified to be President? People don't think so, and that's disastrous for her.

There was a poll released the other day after Obama called Hillary the most qualified candidate in history. The reason Obama said this is that this is the crux of Hillary’s campaign. She has no achievements, no ideological platform or grandiose ideas, and no personality. What she’s running on is: “I’m really qualified!” And now that Trump is her opponent, she’s specifically running on: “I’m more qualified than him!” For weeks now, this has been her sales pitch. All of her comments center around it. Her attacks center around it. Her ads are focused on it. Her political allies, i.e. Obama, all repeat it. And her friends in the media sell it.

She got 22%. 65% disagreed.

That’s awful! And it gets worse. When asked if she’s more qualified than Trump, only 41% thought she was more qualified. By comparison, 40% believed that Trump was more qualified. Yikes. That’s a direct refutation of Hillary’s sales pitch!

Even worse, Hillary’s number has fallen from 50% in April while Trump has rise from 27%. Basically, the more Hillary tries to sell herself, the more people think she’s an idiot.

Generally, polls are unreliable for a huge number of different reasons, and I suggest you take them with a grain of salt. The reason I find this one interesting though is that it flies directly in the face of months of sustained advertising by Hillary, the media and all of her allies. Indeed, you would have expected that, at the very least, her 43% base should agree with her claims of confidence, plus some conservatives who want to beat Trump, plus some percentage of mouth-breathers who believe what they are told by the media. That means at least a 50% number. Yet, she got 41%.

That should set off major warning bells for Hillary.

Hillary knows this too. How do I know? Because if she thought her sales pitch was working, she wouldn't be vetting some general as a VP pick. Basically, she's afraid that voters see her as weak on foreign policy and military matters... the very areas she claims to have an advantage... so she's adding muscle to the ticket.

Interestingly, this all comes from the mistake Hillary made in 2008. She thought the reason she failed against Obama was her lack of foreign policy experience, so she took the job as Obama's Secretary of State to pad her resume. It never dawned on her that her real failure was unlikability and that no one cares about foreign policy -- almost all of our recent Presidents had zero foreign policy experience before they got elected. She doesn't realize this, however. She thinks that's why she lost and now she's going to beat Trump on that basis.

Good luck. That's blindness.

I don't see Bernie Sanders' endorsement today helping her either. Sanders looked like he wanted to die as he did it and his followers immediately started twittering that he was “selling out.” Trump, rather smartly, poked this open wound on Twitter:

“Bernie Sanders, who has lost most of his leverage, has totally sold out to Crooked Hillary Clinton. He will endorse her today - fans angry!”

Then he put out a list of five reasons they won’t like Clinton. The GOP got in the action too. They put out a list of 15 attacks by Sanders on Clinton.

These are actually decent attacks, assuming the public is listening... which I’m not sure they are. I think that until after the summer ends, no one will care. But in the meantime, it sounds like Hillary has failed to make her case and she’s failed to land a punch on Trump where she thought he was vulnerable. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

BTW, Iowa is now a battleground state... Iowa. Iowa hasn’t gone Republican since 1984. That’s horrible for Hillary.

A Manufactured Icon

The left always follows a pattern. They love to believe that whatever they do is world-changing and they love to aggrandize their own acts and the acts of people they like. Part of this is the same idea as advertising – they are selling their ideas – but more of it is just self-love. That’s what makes their self-love of the following picture so, so typical:

The photo in question is of some chick named Ieshia Evans, and the photo is the new jerkoff image for the left. Yes, indeed, everywhere you look, leftists are trying to tell each other that this image has somehow changed the world. The photographer, a Jonathan Bachman told leftist Buzzfeed, that he knew right away this would be “an important photo.” How smug.

In one of those bizarre statements where a person tries to sound humble yet makes an incredibly megalomaniac statement, the young woman has said that she considers herself a mere “vessel” for God’s work. Yeah, Charlie Manson felt that way too.

The thing is, the idea that this photo has meaning is being manufactured by the left. It’s not organic. And it won’t last.

Indeed, the only reason this image is being spoken of at all is that the usual delicates at the tech whiner companies, like Yahoo and Buzzfeed, are posting it over and over and telling us how “everyone is talking about it!” They are also automatically labeling it “iconic” etc. etc. Time wrote an article comparing it to famous protest photos from Vietnam. No doubt, this pointless woman will make their person of the year like whoever those other protestors were a few years back... you remember them, they failed.

Well, I hate to crap on this smug little parade of self-relevance-love, but let me ask some questions. Let me start with this: what exactly does this photo represent?

Most iconic photos are iconic because they represent an outrage. The guy in Vietnam got shot in the head. The Buddhist Monk set himself on fire. The students at Kent State were killed by the National Guard. The photo of the dogs being used by police against blacks who were protesting peacefully for equal rights. The tanks in Tiananmen Square. These were visceral photos that brought home ideas that had been ephemeral and now seemed concrete because we could see them. They were people risking their lives for what the believed to be right. What’s more, each of these represented a moment of violence by an abusive state that seemed to be teetering on the edge of collapse. And they became iconic because they contributed to a massive shift in public opinion, which spurred on that collapse.

None of that is true here.

This woman risked no danger. She wasn’t beaten, nor was there any chance that she would be. There was no risk that she might disappear either. Nor is Baton Rouge an abusive state. Protesting is legal. All she risked was a night’s inconvenience in jail for a charge that would be dropped in the morning... like a drunk. A guy who flips off a traffic cop is in more danger and is making a bolder statement.

And what exactly is she challenging? The idea that the police are hunting black men is patently absurd. Only an idiot or someone who wanted to believe it could believe it. What’s more, the state she’s protesting against wants to stop it.

So what does this photo stand for except that it gives a loser generation looking for a cause a moment they can feel like they saw something.

Bet me this photos vanishes from history. Sure, this little group of leftists will push hard to make this “a thing,” just as they pushed us to believe that OWS was a force for change or that another dozen other idiotic manufactured “things” were genuine “things.” They do this every other week, and it never lasts. In a week, they’ll all be back to body shaming fat/thin women while decrying body shaming and writing snarky articles parent shaming people they saw online or writing snarky “articles” attacking other people’s snark as hate.

You can't manufacture significance.

Thoughts?

Open Thread

I am entertaining guests this week, so I am strapped for time. Who knew that there was so much to see and do in NYC! Anyway, please feel free to freeform it today. I will pop in when I can.

Oh, a little bit of historical trivia: 212 years ago today, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton had their famous duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. We all know what happened next. You can find Alexander Hamilton grave at Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Street.

Where's The Love, Hilly Baby?

Hey folks! I'm not going to talk about Dallas and all the obnoxious responses from the left trying to push their own crimes on others, so let's talk about something different.

This is anecdotal evidence, which means it has no reliability, but I think it is suggestive of a problem for Hillary Clinton. I just spent the last couple days in downtown Denver wandering around to various events. In particular, we went to an auto auction (way cool) and then we spent a part of Saturday sitting on the 16th Street pedestrian walk, drinking booze, watching people walk by. Here's what interested me: there was no evidence of Hillary supporters.

Now get this. Denver is liberal country. This is where the Hillary people come from in Colorado. If there is anywhere that will pimp for Hillary, it is this area. What's more, we were at a street festival (of sorts), which is an invitation for the very types of people who vote for the left. There were lots of young (dumb and shallow) women, lots of ethnic minorities, a handful of pimps, some homeless, and lots of hourly-wage service employees. There were even a group of people walking around trying to get a $15 minimum wage thing on the ballot. Yet... there wasn't a single Hillary button, shirt, hat or poster anywhere in sight. Her ads are all over the television in Denver, yet no one mentioned her name anywhere.

It was like there wasn't even an election.

As I said, this is anecdotal evidence and needs to be taken as only suggestive, but it sure seems to me that Hillary's support is soft to say the least. Think back to Obama v. McCain. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting someone in Denver bleating about their love for Obama. They wore shirts, buttons, hats and probably Obama brand underoos. They had fantasies about him which they overshared. It was like walking through a collection of cultists. "Take me, my lord, and make me pure!"

Not this time.

Meanwhile, in Colorado Springs (conservative country) even store clerks will just tell you how they're going to support Trump.

It will be interesting to see what this means.

P.S. Saw The Secret Life of Pets... not as good as I'd hoped. I'll review it this Friday.

Dallas Shooting

Shortly before 9pm CST, on Thursday 7 July 2016, shots were fired on police officers in the city of Dallas at the site of a protest over the recent controversial police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

Here is what the news is saying now, as of 11:30 CST:
—11 police officers shot, 3-4 dead, another 3-4 in critical condition
—Two gunman were responsible, firing from “elevated positions” (I.e., snipers)
—They have released a photo of one person of interest.
—Police have a building surrounded and say one suspect is on the loose. Not clear which of two suspects is in the photo. —Bomb threat made

I will try to update news as it comes in.

Consider this an open thread.

Some updates. Remember, the situation is "in flux" as they say. So some info may prove later to inaccurate.

11:40 Bomb squad securing suspicious package. One of the snipers was in a shootout with police and has been apprehended. Person of interest in photo has allegedly turned himself in.

00:15 Police say "suspected snipers" are in custody. "Threat to public is over."

1:00 Dallas Police Chief: "We still don't have a complete comfort level that we have all the suspects."

1:45 Fox News: "Suspect holed up in high-rise, exchanging gunfire with police."

1:50 Fox News reporting 5th police officer has died. 10:50 Gunman is dead, killed by a police bomb. Death toll is officially 5 dead, making it the worst day for US police since 9/11. Police Chief said gunman claimed he wanted to kill "white people, white cops."

They Didn't Mean To Do It, So It's Okay...

So FBI Director James Comey's announced the FBI's recommendation that no charges be filed against Hillary stemming from their inquiry into Mrs. Clinton’s use of a unsecured, private home email server while serving as the Secretary of State. This is even while during his 15-minute statement where he admitted that everything that she has been saying for almost 2 years about never "receiving or sending emails that were MARKED as classified" or that there were never any security breaches were all the lies we knew them to be.

So let's review the events of last week leading up to this decision -

1. Monday, June 27, 2016 - Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch (a Clinton appointee) meet "by coincidence" on her private plane on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport and have a 30 minute private chat the contents of which are unknown because no one was allowed on the plane or to take photo evidence of same.

2. Thursday, June 30, 2016 - All hell breaks loose when it is revealed that the Clinton/Lynch had this meeting. Lynch stated that all they talked about were grandchildren and golf. Then, after bi-partisan pushback, she later made a statement along the lines that maybe it looked really bad and probably should get some other AG fired for speaking privately to the spouse of subject under investigation with the FBI, but she should be given a pass for showing such poor judgment. Oh, and yeah, she would most certainly abide by the FBI's recommendation whatever that would be but she didn't know at all what that would be because she has nothing to do with the FBI or their investigation and has no influence whatsoever. [Just to be clear, I paraphrase]

3. Friday, July 1, 2016 - After many, many months of trying to schedule it, Hillary Clinton magically "volunteers" to be "interviewed" by the FBI. She justs wants to help the FBI. Of course, it would have to be on July 4th/Independence Day weekend while everyone in the country is off doing patriotic things just like she wants to do with this interview because that is the only time she has to "volunteer" for the sake of the investigation that she wants to help. [Just to be clear, again I paraphrase]

4. Saturday, July 2, 2016 - Hillary Clinton is interviewed for 3 1/2 hours by the FBI.

5. Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 11am - FBI Director James Comey unexpectedly schedules a press conference for 11am to announce that...well, you know the rest.

Here is one of the key quotes amongst many that includes him stating that everything that Hillary et al. did was wrong and pretty much that all of Hillary's lies were really lies. I admit I am cherry picking quotes, so here is the full statement - LINK:

"From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification."

"It is also likely that there are other work-related e-mails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all e-mails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery."

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

And this in its entirety:

"Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past."

In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now."

So they knowingly violate laws governing the handling of classified information, lie about it repeatedly, destroy evidence, lie about the classified content and possible security breaches, and it is all deemed not intentional or willful.

Oh, yeah, one last item for the timeline -

6. Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 2:30pm-ish - Hillary Clinton jumps aboard Air Force One to go campaigning with President Obama after being cleared of all wrongdoing that not even Pres. Obama knew was going to happen at 11am.

M'Kay...any comments?

A Couple Thoughts...

Since most of you are bloated from your Fourth of July Turkey Dinners, I offer a lite article today for easy digestion. Wait, wrong holiday. Oh well. Here are some thoughts.

● Waning Patriotism: By now, you've all seen the article about Americans being less patriotic than evvvvvvver!! Don't believe it. First, the 52% headline number is not Americans who are patriotic, it is Americans who are "extremely proud" of America. That's a category that doesn't even exist most countries. Another 29% say they are "very proud". That's 81% total who are extremely or very proud. That's pretty impressive. Another 13% are "moderately proud." So a total of 81% are extremely or very proud, and 94% are at least moderately proud. Only 5% are "only a little proud" and all of 1% are "not proud at all."

Patriotism is not on the wane.

So why is this 52% number down from 70% right after 9/11? Well, that's to be expected as 9/11 was an artificial high water mark because of the human tendency to circle the wagons when one of their own gets attacked. It's even more understandable given the contentious election cycle, what has each side tearing down their own side in addition to hating the others. Frankly, I'm surprised the number isn't worse. Anyways, don't believe it. Just try finding the 81% and 94% numbers anywhere else.

● Occupied: Bernie's supporters are apparently planning an Occupy type invasion of the Democratic Convention. Oh please! please! please! please! please! please!

● Trump-thusiam: Trump has started making smarter moves of late. His latest is to flirt with Mike Pence as a possible VP candidate. This is the sort of thing that will finally neuter the anti-Trump movement on the right. Indeed, Trump's support among Evangelicals is apparently rising. By the way, none of this counts until the summer ends. That's when the election actually begins.

● Sticky Bill: By and large, political scandals don't stick like people think they do. The reason is that, often times, people either don't care about the issue or it's something they assume everyone does. For example, attacking Clinton for having an affair was stupid because most Americans don't think adultery should be "criminalized" (i.e. it's a private thing for couples to sort out), and they think everyone rich and powerful is doing it anyways, so they don't see a valid reason in singling out one guy. On the other hand, scandals that do stick are the ones that go against public morality (e.g. kiddie sex), that involve hypocrisy (e.g. religious types caught in sexually perverted activities), or that involve taking advantages the public doesn't get.

I am thinking that Bill meeting with Attorney General Lynch, when both his Foundation and Hillary are under investigation, will have legs. The reason is that few in the public think it's acceptable to try to influence a criminal probe and many, especially the lower and middle classes, feel that they get made examples of by prosecutors while rich people skate by making behind the scene deals... and they don't like that. Meeting with Lynch could have been a serious mistake, especially with Hillary now saying she wants Lynch to stay on. Of course, she does... because you bought her.

Thoughts?

By the way, I wrote a rant against 60's films at the film site.

Happy Independence Day!

May The Force Be With You this happy holiday!

Please consider this an open thread for the weekend! Share your thoughts on independence. Tell us how to make a lightsaber. Complain about your spouse. The floor is open.