It’s not derangement, it’s war.

“It’s Not Trump Derangement Syndrome” – it’s war. Them’s fightin’ words. Karin McQuillan at American Greatness explains:

The Democrats’ onslaught against Trump—the only force that stands in their way—is a testament to their will to power. President Trump didn’t cause the crazy attacks on him. The Russian collusion hoax was foisted on the country by the highest levels of the Obama Administration (likely including Obama himself, although no one will state the obvious) before Trump even entered the Oval Office.

This isn’t delusional or deranged behavior, it is deliberate political behavior aimed directly at the same old political end: power. Democrats — voters as well as party hacks — followed their leaders into the moral abyss because they didn’t care about undoing a legitimate election. They just wanted to win, at any cost to America and to our democracy.

Earlier in her article, McQuillan considered the Democrats' endless and ongoing efforts to corrupt the election processes:

They don’t want any safeguards against voter fraud. In fact, they want to legalize a broad highway to fraud, voter “harvesting.” Paid political operatives go door to door, picking up unused mail-in ballots (sent out without request if Democrats have their way), fill them in for the Democrat candidate, and voilà, the Democrats win. They just rolled out the beta test in Orange County, and it flipped long-time red districts blue.

To win in 2020, Democrats will commit every voter scam and fraud ever invented and they are in the process of inventing a whole lot of new ones. Intimidation and moral grandstanding are keys to success for them. . .

Which is why this report on automatic voter registration at Watchdog Ohio is disturbing:

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced a plan to create a work group that will focus on modernizing the state's voter registration, which would include automatic voter registration.

LaRose said that the current system is unsophisticated and has been used as a tool for political talking points rather than getting people registered and allowing them to more easily update information.

"If you are someone who is concerned about election integrity and preventing fraud, maintaining accurate lists is one of the best ways possible to prevent fraud," LaRose said in a statement. "If you're somebody who like me is concerned that absolutely every Ohioan can participate in the civic exercise of being a registered voter and participating in our elections, this is a great way to do that as well."

Currently, the Ohio voting system requires a person to opt into registration, but the proposal would use interactions that Ohioans already have with the state to automatically opt them in. This way, anyone can participate in elections, opt not to participate or opt out of the registration altogether.

What could possibly go wrong? McQuillan’s article is here. Tyler Arnold’s report at Watchdog Ohio is here.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s "Contact" website is here, with multiple ways to let him know what you think.

# # #

Venezuela tops the list: socialism on display

Monica Showalter at American Thinker reports:

It's no surprise to anyone that socialist Venezuela is an utterly miserable place - there's pictures showing that the capital of Caracas looks like a trash heap, there's the fact that hungry people eat from garbage trucks and drink sewer water, and there's the horrible reality that people are leaving  the country may see a full half of its population flee for any country that will take them.

But there are a lot of crappy places out there and maybe it's just bad press focusing on a few things, right?

Wrong. The sheer awfulness of socialism in Venezuela has been quantified, in hard numbers, by Johns Hopkins University Professor of Economics, Steve Hanke, whose global list, with hard data such as unemployment, inflation, interest rates, minus the percentage change in GDP per capita, quantifies the factors every year. 

Full article, with chart, is here. 

# # #

How the Left is saving me money

image credit: businessingamble.com

James Mullin at American Thinker closed his column “How The Left Is Saving Me Money”:

So, I thought, what else has the Left ruined for me, and in the process saved me money?  Well, I no longer contribute a dime to my college alma mater. . . I attend the movies hardly at all anymore, thanks to Hollywood's antics.  I can't see the character for the repugnant actor or actress.  I also scaled back my cable subscription due to the disgust I have for Comcast and Disney.  I read more and learn more, instead.  Just last week, I chose a much more reasonable store brand sneaker over the odious Nike brand, after it made Kaepernick its spokesperson.  Likewise, I gave up Ben and Jerry's ice cream for store brand and chose AMAC over the costlier AARP as a retirement organization.  I wouldn't give a dime to Progressive Insurance, but in fact, I made a good deal on a less expensive policy from a competitor, with much better service.

Oh, and my savings?  It let me increase my contribution to Judicial Watch. 

To which I would add our own household decisions to change brands (no more Gillette razors or visits to Starbucks, etc.) And I like Mr. Mullin’s plug for Judicial Watch. Full column is here.

# # #

John Boehner gets something right

From The Hill:

Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he "wouldn't bother" launching a primary challenge against President Trump if he were former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R). 

"No, I wouldn't — I wouldn't bother if I were him," Boehner said during an interview on NBC host Chuck Todd's podcast, "Chuck Toddcast," according to Politico Playbook.

. . .

# # #

How the media manipulates the report

investigaction.net

Mark Steyn walks us through exactly HOW the media transmutes a news report into outright propaganda – step by step -- in his "Taqiyya for Easter." He starts off:

Let's say a fire breaks out at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris at the start of Holy Week, and just after two of the city's other most prominent houses of worship - St Sulpice and the Basilica of St Denis - have been attacked and vandalized.

Well, I think we can all confidently say as the first flames are beginning to lick the ceiling that it's undoubtedly an accident. Cigarette butt. Or maybe computer glitch. Probably just an overheated smart phone. We don't need to get in there and sift through the debris. We can just announce it.

On the other hand, when there are coordinated attacks on Easter services at several churches in Sri Lanka, it becomes a little more challenging to pass off multiple suicide-bombings killing nearly three hundred people as an electrical malfunction.

So, in contrast to the confident declarations of a week ago, on Sunday morning the media opted for a subtler narrative. Lead sentence from The Economist:

IT HAS BEEN nearly ten years since the guns fell silent in Sri Lanka's civil war. But bloodshed returned with a vengeance...

So it's something to do with the Tamil Tigers? Their guns fell silent, but now they've returned with a vengeance, eh?

Well, er, no, er, not, ah, precisely... But it's useful for "context", lots and lots of context. And, if you pile up enough context, you can bury the actual story. 

Do read the rest of the how-to analysis here.

# # #

Happy Easter

image credit: redbubble.com

from Cleveland Tea Party

# # #

Another cycle of Media Madness

art credit: cresincorporated.com

Newt Gingrich on “Mueller Media Madness”:

Watching the first wave of reaction to Attorney General Barr’s Press Conference and the release of the Mueller Report led me to conclude America is trapped in a cycle of media madness.

This media madness is crippling the country, maximizing partisan divisions, and absorbing so much time and energy that it cripples America in trying to come to grips with dangers that could destroy us.

Mueller reported after a nearly two-year effort which involved 19 lawyers, 40 staff, more than 2,800 subpoenas, nearly 500 search warrants, and around 500 witnesses. The investigation spent more than $25 million.

If the Mueller team could have found President Trump guilty, they would have. After all, Mueller recruited as his legal team – 14 Democrats, 12 of whom have contributed to Democrats. Of these lawyers seven were Clinton donors, one attended Clinton’s election night party, and one represented the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton herself.

. . .

When almost two years of digging by this anti-Trump wolfpack could produce no signs of guilt, it is reasonable to conclude that was because there were no signs of guilt.

However, the anti-Trump news media has too much invested in hating Trump to give up just because two years of work by 14 highly motivated, aggressive Democrat lawyers found no laws broken.

. . .

Meanwhile, the reality of the Trump presidency – and the renewed strength of President Trump as a vindicated innocent man – will continue to change America in a direction the country likes and the Left hates.

Read the rest here.

# # #

Outlasting the daily assaults and memes

Pensive thoughts for Easter weekend from Richard Fernandez a/k/a Wretchard at PJ Media:

If a viral cocktail of political correctness, socialist dysfunction, and moral relativism is now besetting the West, then reason is as useless against it as Veritatis splendor [The Splendor of the Truth, an encyclical by Pope John Paul II expressing the Catholic Church’s role in moral teaching] was against the devil. The meme can continue to spread regardless of damage until it pulls the host down to its energy level. Is there a way out? The Roman Empire never solved the problem of how to dominate a malignant meme, but humanity found a way of outlasting it. "Western Christianity survived by clinging to places like Skellig Michael, a pinnacle of rock [seven] miles from the Irish coast, rising seven hundred feet out of the sea." The mission of the monks was to remember God -- to remember the truth -- until the mysterious workings of the system brought them forth again…

The rest of his column is here.

# # #

What The Mueller Report will NOT report

It’s scheduled for tomorrow morning. Via Hannity:

Attorney General William Barr will hold a 9:30am press conference Thursday morning regarding Robert Mueller’s final report; setting the stage for a high-stakes showdown just moments before the DOJ is poised to release the special counsel’s conclusions to Congress.

Attorney Sidney Powell has been one of the most effective and informed critics of the abuse of power at DOJ, FBI, CIA, the DNC, etc. Yesterday, she went on record predicting what will be in the Mueller Report, what will be obscured or omitted, how it will be slanted, etc. I expect that she will be 99% correct:

The Mueller Report will try very hard to shroud the real issues–which are:  WHY, WHERE, WHEN, HOW, and BY WHOM did the spying on Mr. Trump and his associates begin?  From all information available so far, per Comey’s own admissions, there was never a legal or factual basis to begin any investigation of anyone associated with Mr. Trump, and they never verified a word of the “Steele dossier.”   The evidence so far exposes a significant group in the CIA, FBI, DOJ, DOD, and State Department, who manufactured the entire counter-intelligence operation from thin air.   It’s smoke tied with baling wire. That is a bombshell from which Mr. Mueller and Mr. Weissmann must distract.

The long-awaited Report will doubtlessly contain a lot of assertions about Russian troll farms–like the unprecedented charges in the Concord indictment that came mostly from an article in a Russian magazine–combined with claims and much jibberish that it was Russians who hacked the DNC.  It will ignore all the work of relentless reporter Luke Rosiak who has fully documented the nefarious work of the Pakistani Awan brothers -– abject criminals to whom Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and at least three dozen Congressional Democrats gave the keys to the kingdom of the DNC and our national intelligence on the Hill.  It will ignore the work of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community and the Inspector General of Congress–both of whom documented exposure of our national secrets by the Awan brothers and Mrs. Clinton, respectively.  It will also ignore the irrefutable fact that if the FBI and DNC really wanted to determine who hacked the DNC, the DNC would have turned over the servers to the FBI–or the FBI would have seized them as it does when it purports to conduct a real investigation as opposed to a sham or a cover-up.

The Truth will be found in documents the Mueller Report avoids -- the documents all the real criminals created when they thought they would never be caught and they would “stop” Trump.  We must have the original documents declassified and disclosed to the public to the maximum extent possible.  This includes, for starters, the 99-page decision of the FISA court in which Chief Judge Rosemary Collyer excoriated the FBI and the NSA for their abuses of the entire surveillance system and tools.

That’s just a start. She specifies the documentation that she recommends – and hopes – will be released with minimal redactions. Read all of her pre-analysis and predictions here.

# # #

Medicare for All Means Private Insurance for None

File under: healthcare in the 2020 debates

Hunt Lawrence and Daniel J. Flynn at The Spectator have a good analysis of the "Medicare For All" proposals supported by, so far, five of the Democrats who have announced they’re running:

Democratic candidates call healthcare a right in mantra-like fashion. Gillibrand, for instance, insisted “health care must be a right, not a privilege” at the rally last week reintroducing the Medicare for All bill. But in what kind of a country do you get to exercise a right only through the government?

Imagine if in affirming a right to free speech one added the caveat that one could communicate only through government-run publications, websites, and broadcast stations. Or, if the freedom of religion found expression only through the one true church established by the state. Or, if the right to transportation meant solely a ride on a smelly, sweaty city bus.

This makes a farce of any sane understanding of rights, as does the notion of a “right” to healthcare exercised through insuring that nobody possesses the right to obtain healthcare save from the state.

This all seems the stuff of Five Year Plans and Great Leaps Forward. Yet, five major presidential candidates — Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand — serve as sponsors in the Senate of the Medicare for All bill. The proposed legislation makes it “unlawful” for “a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this Act” and for “an employer to provide benefits for an employee, former employee, or the dependents of an employee or former employee that duplicate the benefits provided under this Act.”

. . .

As government’s role in healthcare expanded through such programs designed to relieve patients of financial burdens as Medicare Part D’s prescription drug subsidies and Obamacare, a funny thing happened: Prices skyrocketed. Rather than admitting that past panaceas did not do as promised, their backers insist that we do what failed only at increased levels.

. . .

Banning private insurance may prove a winning formula in a Democratic primary. But in a presidential contest, where pragmatism beats ideological purity, promising to take away the existing health insurance of most Americans seems as much a loser politically as it does as policy.

Government-run healthcare means no competition. Higher prices. Rationing. We have all seen what government-run healthcare looks like – and not just Obamacare. There’s the Veteran’s Administration hospitals (a 2017 report is here) and Indian reservations’ healthcare (a 2018 report is here). Full report at The Spectators is here.

# # #

On Tax Day: the Fair Tax option

Today was the deadline to file your income tax returns. Mr. Vodkapundit, Stephen Green, marked the occasion with his column at PJ Media, "Abolish the Income Tax, Abolish the IRS":

The Fair Tax isn't exactly a new idea, but it's one worth reminding people of every April 15.

The Fair Tax would completely eliminate payroll taxes and individual and corporate income taxes by repealing the 16th Amendment. Washington would be funded instead by a national sales tax -- partly offset by a monthly "prebate" paid to every household. As described by Americans for Fair Taxation, the prebate is "an 'advance refund' at the beginning of each month so that purchases made up to the poverty level are tax-free." You would take home 100 percent of your pay, and determine your own tax rate based on how much you spend each month.

The IRS is abolished, replaced by a tax collection mechanism every single merchant is already familiar with. Conspicuous consumption by the rich would be met with a heavy sales tax burden, but investments in jobs and growth and innovation would be tax-free.

Other benefits include zero compliance cost for individuals, no more audits, no more loopholes, and vastly reduced opportunities for official corruption and graft. Almost as good, perhaps, is that only legal U.S. residents are eligible for the prebate, but everybody, from native-born citizen to illegal alien, pays their fair share at the cash register.

Makes sense, which is why it's unlikely to happen. Full article is here.

# # #

Joe DiGenova on James Comey

image/art credit: thinkgeek.com

Joe DiGenova is one of my favorites. He is a “former U.S. Attorney, Independent Counsel, Special Counsel to the House of Representatives, and investigator for more than 40 years,” and he is my nomination for the "Must Read" for the Weekend. His article, James 'Cardinal' Comey — the man who destroyed the FBI” is posted at Fox News, and it begins:

Wyatt Earp. Elliot Ness. J. Edgar Hoover. Inspector Clouseau. James Comey. The names reflect a continuum, from greatness to farce and mediocrity.

In the annals of U.S. law enforcement, no individual has reached such depths of disgrace as James “Cardinal” Comey. The “Cardinal” was a sobriquet that FBI agents used to denigrate their leader. As Deputy Attorney General, he was called “drama queen.” Known for his pomposity and self-regard, Comey cut a swath of arrogance unmatched in the histories of either of those illustrious organizations. He was the cult of personality. He surrounded himself with sycophants, people dedicated to his promotion and their advancement. The Bureau and the public became the losers.

The Comey Memos, a 15-page suicide note, reveal a deeply tortured and troubled man. They have a hausfrau sentimentality. But they are telling nonetheless.

DiGenova’s full column is here.

# # #

Blatant: Google’s censorship

The other day, this blog linked to a report about Google’s dishonest and ham-handed censorship of Kay Cole James, Heritage Foundation President. Now there’s this by Jeffrey Lord at American Spectator:

As we now learn from the Daily Caller, The American Spectator has been blacklisted by Google. The DC’s headline, in a post by J. Arthur Bloom, is this:

Exclusive: Documents Detailing Google’s ‘News Blacklist’ Show Manual Manipulation Of Special Search Results

. . .

[American Spectator founder R. Emmett] Tyrrell drew the analogy of Communists taking over an old-fashioned pre-computer-age public library — and then methodically going through the card catalogue to remove the cards listing conservative books and authors. “Google can make all kinds of excuses,” he added, “but this is censorship, the most blatant censorship imaginable.”

Indeed it is.

. . .

(Google CEO) Sundar Pichai . . . looked a congressional committee in the eye and insisted that “we don’t manually intervene on any particular search result” — while the Daily Caller revelations revealed that “Google does manipulate its search results manually, contrary to the company’s official denials, documents obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller indicate.”

There is a name for doing that. It’s called lying to Congress. A federal crime with jail time attached.

. . .

This time around, the target is The American Spectator. This time around the iron fist belongs to Google.

The question has reached the point that conservatives need to have a serious conversation among themselves. Is it time for government regulation of these tech giants? Or is it — my preference — time for free-market competition that provides serious and successful competition to these companies?

Full report is here.

# # #

Update: Electoral College in Ohio

Good news, for now. Ohio's presidential votes will not be counted in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact but will continue to cast those votes in the Electoral College. Cleveland.com reports:

Organizers have aborted their attempt to change Ohio’s constitution to award the state’s presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who wins Ohio.

J. Corey Colombo, a Columbus elections attorney working for the organizers behind the proposal, wrote a brief letter to Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday saying the group is withdrawing its petitions. The letter (click here for a PDF) did not offer an explanation, but Colombo’s law firm later issued a statement citing time constraints and the large number of signatures required to get the issue on the ballot.

Full report is here.

# # #

How we are losing our Freedom of Speech

Jeffrey Lord has an article titled “Google Bigots and the High-Tech Lynching of Kay James” at The Spectator. The opener:

Kay Cole James, the president of the Heritage Foundation, steps to the podium of the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in suburban Harrisburg and gives the startling update.

Ms. James, at a laughing, self-admitted 70 and famously one of the best known, longtime conservative leaders in the country, announces to the PLC crowd (the PLC is the Pennsylvania version of CPAC and was celebrating its 30th anniversary) that this was her first public comment since she had learned only hours earlier that she had been removed as a recent appointee to Google’s Advanced Technology External Advisory Council. The board, on which she would have served without salary, was designed to review artificial intelligence ethics.

Among other things the outrage mob of over 2000 Google employees accused Kay James of being a “white supremacist.” Kay is an African-American. With a gay son. But Google quickly caved to the mob, dismissing Kay and then dissolving the board entirely.

And Mr. Lord concludes: 

In sum what we are witnessing in Google culture and on too many college campuses is what Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the first head of the then-new Soviet Union’s secret police known as the Cheka, described this way: “We represent in ourselves organized terror — this must be said very clearly.” And that “organized terror,” Dzerzhinsky emphasized, involved “the terrorization, arrests, and extermination of enemies of the revolution on the basis of their class affiliation or of their pre-revolutionary roles.” Or, as in the case of Kay James, the mother of an openly gay son [and] her race.

Kay James just had an up-close and personal encounter with this totalitarian mindset — from a major American high-tech company. The organized terror of a Google lynch mob came for her. The quite deliberate message for the rest of America from Google is: Watch out. The next time it could be you.

Full article is here. Alternative search engines to Google include DuckDuckGo and StartPage.

# # #

When That Did Not Work …

Historian Victor Davis Hanson is always eloquent, and his column here at American Greatness provides a handy history of the Progressives' efforts to de-legitimize candidate Donald Trump, President-Elect Donald Trump, and President Donald Trump. Hanson starts off:

Right after the 2016 election, Green Party candidate Jill Stein—cheered on by Hillary Clinton dead-enders—sued in three states to recount votes and thereby overturn Donald Trump’s victory in the Electoral College. Before the quixotic effort imploded, Stein was praised as an iconic progressive social justice warrior who might stop the hated Trump from even entering the White House.

When that did not work, B-list Hollywood celebrities mobilized, with television and radio commercials, to shame electors in Trump-won states into not voting for the president-elect during the official Electoral College balloting in December 2016. Their idea was that select morally superior electors should reject their constitutional directives and throw the election into the House of Representatives where even more morally superior NeverTrump Republicans might join with even much more morally superior Democrats to find the perfect morally superior NeverTrump alternative.

Hanson recites all the failed efforts -- “When that did not work” -- to rid this country of its duly-elected President.  The full article is here; it’s a good one to save for future reference. 

# # #

Border crisis cartoon

Michael P Ramirez cartoon via Flopping Aces

# # #

People Who Don't Want A Border Wall

and the Chamber of Commerce, and the Koch Brothers . . .

Click here for Ohio Wall Builders.

image credit: blazingcatfur

Update: Build the Wall

image credit: youtube.com

Last December, this blog linked to We The People Will Build the Wall, a project announced by veteran Brian Kolfage; see here. Now Ralph King has posted the following:

Fellow Patriots :

As you know President Trump has declared an National Emergency on our southern border. President Trump also needs our help to deal with this national crisis and below there are several ways you can immediately start to help in Ohio and at a national level. 

To do that, I have been working closely to support the We Build The Wall, Inc. to expand their efforts, energy and base.  In their efforts to grow the volunteer base, they are starting to create state-based Facebook pages - the Ohio Volunteer affiliate page is Ohio Wall Builders. 

Below is exciting & important news from We Build The Wall, Inc. President Brian Kolfage regarding the upcoming historic Wall groundbreaking in April! 

Make no mistake - without the financial and moral support of patriots like you from across the US & the hard work of everyone involved at We Build The Wall, Inc., this groundbreaking would not be possible.  

Here is how you can make it grow:

1.) Join the Ohio Wall Builders Page on Facebook (Click Here to Join)

2.) Invite your family, friends and fellow patriots to join the Ohio Wall Builder (Here) page and We Build the Wall, Inc. Facebook Page (Here)

3.) Make sure to read the email appended below from We Build The Wall, Inc. President Brian Kolfage on the groundbreaking and how you can help continue growing the Wall efforts.

Important details on the confusing GoFundMe opt-in/opt-out process requirement if you have already donated to make sure your donation is not returned.

Build The Wall website is here:   http://www.gofundme.com/TheTrumpWall

Brian Kolfage's email:

Last week when President Trump vetoed a bill that would have prevented him from declaring a national emergency at our border, it was two WeBuildTheWall Advisory Board members that he chose to have flanking him.

April is going to be a big month for this historic project. We anticipate breaking ground on our first segment of wall and on April 11th we will finally be finished with the GoFundMe opt-in/opt-out process that has caused so much confusion. BREAKING GROUND is our moment and we don't want the refunds to take away from what we've worked so hard to accomplish. That means we only have about two weeks to get our fundraising campaign moving in the right direction! If you're still with with us, I need you to do two things: 1: Continue to contribute at www.gofundme.com/thetrumpwall 2: Spread the word about what's really happening with WeBuildTheWall to your friends and family. We cannot trust the corporate media to tell the truth about us and we are counting on you to help us get the truth out!

YESTERDAY:

TODAY:

As you can see, yesterday we raised $73,276 which is a GREAT START. The GoFundMe has been stuck below 21Mil. for months and this weekend we need to finally break through by raising another $211,724. We can get back to the days where we were all refreshing the GoFundMe page to see how much it increased if you'll continue to spread the word and donate at: www.gofundme.com/thetrumpwall

Thank you and God bless, Brian Kolfage President WeBuildTheWall Inc.

# # #

Will Ohio voters support the elimination of the Electoral College?

image credit: calbuzz.com

This blog previously linked to J. Christian Adams’ "How To Steal and Election" – click here. And here's a headline today on cleveland.com:

Ohio’s electoral votes for president

would go to national popular vote winner

under proposed constitutional amendment

From Jeremy Petzer's report:

A proposed Ohio constitutional amendment to award the state’s presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote has cleared an initial hurdle toward making the statewide ballot this November.

. . .

So far, 11 states holding a combined 181 electoral votes have signed the compact. However, the compact doesn’t become binding until it’s joined by states representing at least 270 electoral votes (the minimum needed to win the presidency).

This is scary. Because the Democrat effort to essentially abolish the Electoral College in favor of the National Popular Vote initiative is gaining traction, any number of articles and essays have been popping up on conservative website. Here’s one from a week or so ago on American Thinker.

The latest states to succumb to this misguided attempt to destroy the Electoral College are Delaware and Colorado. If this issue gets enough signatures to get onto the Ohio ballot, Cleveland Tea Party will be sending out Action Alerts so we can let our representatives in Columbus know what we think.

# # #