Obamacare Repeal? Here we go again.

art credit: angry.net

Just before the Memorial Day weekend, The Spectator reported that

Obamacare Repeal Will Be Hard and McConnell Just Made It Harder

According to this report, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave RINOs … more reason to dig in their heels:

This week in an interview with Reuters he said, “I don’t know how we get to 50 [votes] at the moment. But that’s the goal. And exactly what the composition of that [bill] is I’m not going to speculate about because it serves no purpose.”

Let’s count the ways that remark is foolish.

First, it sends a signal to RINOs in the Senate like Bill Cassidy (R-Gutless) and Susan Collins (R-Weak Knees) that McConnell isn’t going to fight very hard to repeal Obamacare. Thus, they can be obstinate in their demands, knowing that McConnell will eventually give in.

Second, it boosts the morale of Obamacare proponents. For example, both Talking Points Memo and the Daily Kos could scarcely contain their glee in reporting McConnell’s remarks.

Finally, it discourages the Republican base. How many times has McConnell said repealing Obamacare was a top priority? In 2012, McConnell insisted he would repeal Obamacare if he became Senate Majority Leader. He reiterated those sentiments the following year when he told CPAC that Obamacare should be repealed “root and branch.” About a month after Trump won the election, McConnell said the “Obamacare repeal resolution will be the first item up in the New Year.” Now he is, in effect, saying, “Gosh, this is too hard.” That sends the message to the Republican base that he was never serious about Obamacare repeal to begin with. It’s not a good idea going into the 2018 election with Republican voters thinking, “Yep, Senate Republicans sold us out again.”

There is nothing wrong with admitting that repealing Obamacare is going to be difficult. You’d have to be sprinkling something pretty potent on your breakfast cereal to think otherwise. But McConnell needed to do so in such a way that rallies the base, lets RINOs know that they won’t have much leeway, and puts Democrats on the defensive.

The rest of the report is here. Main take-away: The GOP hides behind the label “Party of Stupid.” It's better than being exposed as the Party of “Bought” – as in “Uniparty.”

# # #

Memorial Day weekend in Cleveland

photo by Pat J Dooley Photography

Memorial Day parades and ceremonies in Northeast Ohio

photo credit: history.com

                               

Cleveland.com has a list of Memorial Day parades and events here.

 # # #

The Manchester jihad attack

Victim in Manchester: eight-year-old Saffie Roussos

photo from Religion of Peace website

Being a Tea Party person, I subscribe to the three core values:

Fiscal responsibility

Limited government

Free markets

Those values are under attack by ISIS and jihadists who have declared war on all infidels, such as us. The Manchester suicide bombing is only the latest in the continuing jihad against Western Civilization.

And to hear the official government responses, the UK (and Germany and France and Sweden and . . . ) are still playing defense. That guarantees one result: more terror attacks. As usual, Mark Steyn nails it in his “Dangerous Woman Meets Danger Man” column:

Angela Merkel pronounced the attack "incomprehensible". But she can't be that uncomprehending, can she? Our declared enemies are perfectly straightforward in their stated goals, and their actions are consistent with their words. They select their targets with some care. . . .

the arithmetic is not difficult: Poland and Hungary and Slovakia do not have Islamic terrorism because they have very little Islam. France and Germany and Belgium admit more and more Islam, and thus more and more terrorism.

. . .

Few of us have gotten things as disastrously wrong as May and Merkel and Hollande and an entire generation of European political leaders who insist that remorseless incremental Islamization is both unstoppable and manageable. It is neither - and, for the sake of the dead of last night's carnage and for those of the next one, it is necessary to face that honestly.

Theresa May's statement in Downing Street is said by my old friends at The Spectator to be "defiant", but what she is defying is not terrorism but reality. So too for all the exhausted accessories of defiance chic: candles, teddy bears, hashtags, the pitiful passive rote gestures that acknowledge atrocity without addressing it - like the Eloi in H G Wells' Time Machine, too evolved to resist the Morlocks.

. . .

If Mrs May or Frau Merkel has a happier ending, I'd be interested to hear it. If not, it is necessary not to carry on, but to change, and soon - before it's too late.

The rest of his column is here.

# # #

Trump Derangement Syndrome behavior

 cartoon credit here 

So many of my friends and relatives seem to live rational lives, yet when it comes to politics, their emotions take over. That makes it next to impossible to apply critical thinking to a discussion of issues of concern. But it’s not a new phenomenon.

Paul Murphy just published a column at the American Thinker website, provocatively titled “Democrats in the Cesspits of Despair.” He goes into the theory of cognitive dissonance and applies it to what we’ve seen with Bush or Palin Derangement Syndrome, and now, Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Murphy’s analysis won’t make hard left liberals (and that’s most of the media) more honest or less destructive, but at least it explains the behaviour. (Another article on the related topic of “The Obama Cult” is here).

Anyway, here are a few take-aways from Murphy’s column (and the entire article is here):

When Leon Festinger and his associates undertook the work leading to their widely misunderstood and maligned theory of cognitive dissonance, their ultimate goal was to understand how forty million decent Germans and tens of millions in the rest of Europe could so enthusiastically support Nazi methods -- and it's their research on how cult members react to the unequivocal disproof of some central belief that's important today -- because the increasing calls among Democrats for violence shows that same process at work here as in Germany of the 1930s.

In brief, what happens when events disprove a cult's major belief is that some adherents drop out; a majority first reshape their vision of reality to accommodate both their belief and an edited version of reality and then either gradually fade out of the cult or double down on their efforts to find confirmatory opinion by compromising others; and, a few set out to force others to act as if the belief stands unchallenged.

. . .

The key elements that have to be in place for the true believers to slide toward dishonesty and violence are personal commitment to the belief, undeniable disproof, and enough rationality for the person to know that the belief has been disproven.

That two of these are in place with the Trump victory deniers is obvious: most of the journalists and others now attacking Trump in particular and Republicans in general have overwhelming and long term commitments to the progressive cause. This despite the fact that every major attempt to act on those beliefs, whether by Uncle Joe, Chairman Mao, the Kim Dynasty in North Korea, or that great hero and champion of the poor, Hugo Chavez, has turned into a murderous regime corrupting everyone and everything it touched.

. . .

Thus the behavioral explanation for the fact that conservatives will generally accept electoral defeat gracefully whereas Democrats eagerly embrace hypocrisy, corruption, dishonesty and even violence to continue the fight by any means necessary is simply this: reality supports conservative belief, but pushes leftists down the slippery slope to the insanity of Trump derangement syndrome.  Reality forces them to continually choose between recognizing the emptiness and historical absurdity of their core beliefs or holding themselves hostage to those beliefs by escalating their commitment, no matter what foul means may be required to make reality conform to their fantasy.

The few times that I have had any success in persuading someone who leans liberal to reconsider their worldview, it’s been because I kept suggesting that they expand their sources of news. Most of the time, the person had at least heard of the Drudge Report or Yahoo News, but otherwise didn’t know about other alternative news aggregators (such as Real Clear Politics, or two of the conservative aggregators, PolitiPage and Lucianne). In other words, accessing more news has on occasion led to someone dropping out of the cult.

# # #

Anti-Trump Media Bias chart

ZeroHedge has a report (via Heat Street) on the Harvard University study of media bias with respect to the Trump administration. Here’s one of the three charts from the report:

Click here for the chart comparing the media's current tone to that of the three previous administrations.  The report concludes:

Trump has repeatedly claimed that his treatment by the media is unprecedented in its hostility.

This study suggests that, at least when it comes to recent history, he’s right.

# # #

Trump Derangement Syndrome

 art credit: Buzzie

James Delingpole reports on his and Melanie Phillips’ debate with two journalists who suffer from Anti-Trump Derangement Syndrome. His headline reads

Trump Derangement syndrome has jumped the shark

I hope he’s right. Read his report at Breitbart London here.

# # #

Who's crazy?

Glenn McCoy’s cartoon at Townhall succinctly illustrates the past two (lengthy) blog posts here and here.

# # #

Newt: The President Owes the News Media Nothing

art credit:  Australian National Review

I subscribe to any number of newsletters, alert lists, and daily update links. Today, Speaker Newt Gingrich posted a piece at Fox News and then sent his op-ed to his e-list. I am copying it below in full, especially for those who may miss the Speaker's frequent guest slots on Hannity and other prime time news programs. The media continues to astonish in its capacity to sink to new lows--  to undermine, sabotage, and attempt to de-legitimatize the Trump administration. Say what you like about Newt, he hits the nail on the head calling out the corrupt media class and its dishonest coverage of President Trump:

Note: I wrote this before the latest despicable, dishonest smearing of the President, but that incident simplify magnifies my case.

Here is what National Security Adviser Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster said Monday in response to the latest Washington press corps hysteria:

"There's nothing that the president takes more seriously than the security of the American people. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed. And the President did not discuss any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. Their on-the-record accounts should outweigh anonymous sources. And I was in the room, it didn’t happen."

This simply reinforces the following, which I wrote earlier this week.

After almost four months of watching the news media’s unending dishonesty, hostility, and contempt toward the Trump administration, it is time to have a blunt conversation.

The President owes Americans the defense of the United States Constitution.

The President owes the American people a sound job as commander in chief, protecting the country.

The President owes the American people a dramatically stronger economy with more jobs, better take home pay, and increased opportunities for investment growth; which will help people prepare for retirement, strengthen pension funds, and guarantee Social Security’s solvency.

The President owes the American people a better health system with greater access, lower costs, and better health outcomes.

Indeed, the President owes the American people many things.

But the President does not owe anything to the Washington press corps and the left-wing hypocrites who dominate today's news media.

I first learned this rule after reading the transcript from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s opening press conference with the White House Press Corps on March 8, 1933. During FDR’s inaugural meeting with the press, no one was permitted to directly quote the President except via a prepared quote from his office. The vast majority of the conversation was either without attribution or completely off the record. The purpose of the meeting was for the media to understand what was going on – not for them to play gotcha or win clever attacks disguised as questions. Those were the rules.

Since Watergate, the news media has acquired a steadily more arrogant attitude and has moved further and further to the left. Today, they are adversarial opponents of conservatives– especially the Trump administration.

I learned the hard way as Speaker of the House that I could not regularly meet with reporters on camera. It set up an arena for gotcha questions. Reporters gained imaginary points for finding stupid, narrow, often irrelevant things to argue over. Instead of being an opportunity for a genuine public dialogue, the daily on-camera briefings became a bloody battleground – totally to my disadvantage. Within a few weeks, we were forced to stop.

President Trump's instinct to radically overhaul his relationship with the media is exactly right.

When reporters behave like picadors in daily briefings, trying desperately to taunt and embarrass Sean Spicer rather than listen to and report on what he’s saying, it undermines our free society's right to accurate information. The daily briefing may draw big audiences as a reality television spectacle, but it does not serve the country or President Trump well.

While there remain some serious, historically-minded reporters, they are unfortunately becoming more of a rarity. Instead, much of the Washington press corps has become an incestuous collection of voyeurs who watch, judge, and attack without knowledge or responsibility. This creates a hostile, propagandistic, and distorted version of news coverage.

A visit by Egyptian President el-Sisi to the White House last month led to a young American woman being released from an Egyptian jail. Had Obama achieved this, it would have been lauded by the press as a major sign of leadership and compassion. However, because it was President Trump, the media mostly ignored it.

Similarly, when the new relationship between President Trump and the Chinese President Xi Jinping directly resulted in a trade breakthrough for American beef, natural gas, and certain financial services, ending a 13-year period in which the Chinese refused to buy American beef, we heard very little from the media. It should bring billions of dollars into the United States, yet the media felt it wasn’t important enough to cover.

The recent jobs numbers – manufacturing, in particular – have been remarkable. But, of course, most Washington reporters treat the release of these numbers as non-events. After all, this would mean they have to report good news, and in the left-wing newsrooms in which they are all so deeply embedded, positive news related to the President is simply not permissible.

The President’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Brussels, and the G-7 in Sicily is a remarkable tour for a new president – especially one who the media insisted knew nothing about international relations. But, of course, the Washington news media wants to trivialize the trip with a discussion of White House gossip and whether the diplomatic journey will have a big domestic effect – as they define it.

If you review the first four months of news coverage – much of which is based on unnamed sources – it becomes obvious how overwhelmingly negative, hostile, gossipy, and focused on undermining and weakening President Trump and his team the press corps truly is.

Given a choice between writing a story about a big historic accomplishment and a petty piece about infighting in the White House, the Washington press corps will go for the dirt every time. If Washington is the swamp, the media is the muck.

I challenge anyone to analyze the last four months of news coverage of President Trump and come to the conclusion that it is unbiased, serious, or focused on important topics.

My guess is, that you will unfortunately come to the same conclusion that I have. In this instance, President Trump should take a note from FDR to remind the Washington press corps that he works for the American people – not the elite media.

For the latest on the smear that Trump asked Comey to end the investigation of Michael Flynn, check this out.

# # #

More on Trump Derangement Syndrome

art credit here

Alicia Colon is another favorite columnist – informed, succinct, and easy to read. And she is a Deplorable. Her column today in Jewish World News resonated with me, It will probably strike a chord with most Main Street Patriots who have liberal friends and relatives who will not engage in any discussions on politics and who rely on the mainstream media for their news:

No, I Am Not a Moron but Half the Country is Deranged

A dear friend called me just before the last election to vent her disgust at the choices we had for president. She wasn't going to vote for Hillary and was leaning towards anybody but Trump.

She called the Trump supporters, 'morons' and when I told her I planned to vote for him, she quickly said, "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

That's the typical response I always got when I tried to discuss the election. I don't mind being called a moron because I know I'm not one, nor are most of the voters who went for Trump.

We 'deplorables' have probably done more research on the issues and are dumbfounded as to why anyone would ever think that Hillary Clinton was a viable candidate.

Since the recent firing of FBI Director Comey, the Democrats in Congress have donned their tin foil hats and view this as Trump's 'get out of jail' card to avoid a Russian investigation. If anyone has a Russian connection, it would be Hillary who as Secretary of State allowed Clinton donors to sell their company Uranium One to the Russians. This gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States.

Incredibly this was reported by Jo Becker and Mike McIntire in of all places The New York Times in April 2015. This tidbit was in the article: 

"And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock."

Recently Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina alleged that then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called her office and demanded that she snag a special job for a big Clinton Foundation donor.

We 'morons' knew all about the shady dealing of the Clintons and their Foundation because we read the detailed research in, "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich".

Thus the jackals in Congress keep regurgitating a non issue proving that they are partisan to the detriment of any integrity. I have no problem having a Special investigation into any Russian collusion as long as it includes an in depth look into the very real connections to the Clinton camp and that means John Podesta's 75,000 shares of stock from a Kremlin-financed company which he failed to disclose.

. . .

Most of us deplorables were incensed that Hillary Clinton was getting a pass after breaking the Espionage Act but Comey testified in Congress that she was not going to be indicted because there was no intent to break the law. WHAT? Hillary Clinton's reckless and negligent e-mails included the names of CIA officers serving overseas and foreigners who are on the spy agency's payroll -- potentially endangering their lives. Remember Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, was jailed for allegedly outing Valerie Plame, who was a CIA desk jockey, not a spy in the field? . . .

In the very short time Donald Trump has been president, he is probably the most besieged leader since Abraham Lincoln presiding over a super polarized nation. This polarization is not based on the serious issue of slavery but by the lies and malicious machinations of a hostile opposition party and the lapdog media minions. They have successfully turned half this nation into blithering, infantile, angry non thinkers who base their anger on faux news emanated by the liberal fascists in the media.

To fully understand what I wrote in my headline, consider three issues where the derangement is most evident-Black Lives Matter, gender politics and Climate Change.

Ms. Colon comments on these three issues; the rest of her article is here.

# # #

Jon Husted running for Governor: #NeverHusted

From Ralph King's FB page:

In 2010 when Jon Husted ran for Ohio Secretary of State, he campaigned on "leading the charge" for Photo-ID for voting in Ohio.

Once elected, Husted's work to STOP 3 efforts to enact Photo-ID for voting in Ohio earned him the title of "Ohio's Pro-Fraud Republican" from WSJ.

Jon Husted now wants you to trust him to be Governor of Ohio! 

#NeverHusted #CantBeTrusted

# # #

Gary Varvel cartoon of the day

Cartoon of the day by Gary Varvel, via Townhall.

# # #

Trump Supporters Protest Bill Kristol Fundraiser In The Rain

Cleveland Deplorables

This just in: Patrick Howley at Big League Politics reports:

 A handful of indefatigable Deplorables protested Bill Kristol’s appearance at a $300-a-plate luncheon for the Cuyahoga County Republican Party in Ohio Friday.

#NeverTrump town crier Kristol’s speech at the luncheon inflamed Trump-supporting Ohio Republicans, who remember the difficulties of taking on the GOP Establishment to elect Trump on John Kasich’s home turf.

Brian Wollet, an executive committee member of the Cuyahoga County party, had his Trump sign ready to go to meet Kristol and the luncheon guests.

Wollet described it as “A cold and rainy morning that felt more like November than May.”

Nevertheless, Wollet told Big League Politics that the protest was “fun.”

Cleveland Tea Party and Main Street Patriots co-founder Ralph King told Big League Politics that the public appreciated the protest, which took place outside the Marriott East.

“The weather was literally terrible. It was cold, it was windy, it was rainy. But we had a good reception among the cars that were driving by. So we were well received by traffic and the public. Friday morning, raining, nasty, blowing, I was happy with the response,” King said.

“I’m still floored that they had William Kristol to come in to address anybody. When you read this guy’s stuff or look at what he stands for, two things come to mind. The snobbery of the Establishment elite is why the American public rejected both the Democrat and Republican parties and elected Donald Trump. William Kristol, listening to him talk, you would think the Democrat Party would bring him in to talk. The way he continually criticizes President Trump? He should be used as a fundraiser for the Cuyahoga County Democrats.”

King pointed to Kristol’s current Weekly Standard article “After Trump,” which he calls “absolutely ridiculous.”

“William Kristol is a cheerleader for the Democrats. You know, being in DC, that the Democrats and establishment Republicans are the same. There’s no difference,” King said.

“The party was doing everything they could to increase attendance. Most of the people I associate with would never go to anything like this,” he continued.

“They don’t get why Donald Trump was elected. They think it was because of the Republicans. No! It didn’t have anything to do with you. Conservatism? That was rejected too. Ted Cruz didn’t win. People wanted somebody to get things done. If they wanted conservative ideology, they would have elected T-shirt Ted Cruz, the T-shirt preacher.”

Kristol, his preferred candidates vanquished in the primaries, led a harebrained scheme to run a third-party challenger against Trump in the general election to help Hillary Clinton’s chances. General James Mattis, now the Defense Secretary, considered Kristol’s offer but turned him down. After a lot of searching and speculation — involving Mitt Romney among others — Kristol backed no-name National Review writer David French for president. French declined to run. Kristol then supported the independent bid of Evan McMullin, who ran in Utah to peel off Mormon votes from Trump to try to stop the Republican nominee from reaching 270 in the Electoral College.

McMullin, known colloquially as “McMuffin,” and Kristol failed.

Kristol’s star has dimmed considerably since the Iraq War, a failed experiment based to a large degree on Kristol’s own inaccurate and dishonest projections. But despite helping to tank a Republican administration and fighting tooth and nail against a Republican nominee, Kristol still lingers in Republican circles, talking to people for $300 a pop. 

# # #

Obamacare Repeal, Replace, or just more Kabuki Theatre?

Photo credit: toki/tokyo

Lots of chatter over the House passing the Replacement (not the Repeal Only) bill to rid us of Obamacare, but my guess is it’s just more Kabuki Theater. Kemberlee Kaye at Legal Insurrection is probably on the mark:

The bill now heads to the Senate where as Politico reports, “Republicans have expressed deep reservations about it.”

. . .

Seeing as the vote immediately preceding the Obamacare repeal vote was to exempt Congress from their own health insurance legislation, I remain fairly skeptical of what lies ahead.

Read the article here.

# # #