More maneuvering on taxes, spending, and immigration ?

art credit: crooksandliars.com

What Is Little Marco Up to?

Sen. Marco Rubio was interviewed yesterday evening on Fox’s Ingraham Angle. Sundance @ ConservativeTreehouse explains why his alarm bells went off:

There’s a big con job just over the horizon.  All of the elements are there.  The timing, the platform, the personalities, the discussion topics, etc., it’s a familiar script.  CTH would like to direct attention to this interview which took place last night on Laura Ingraham’s new Fox News show.  Listen carefully to three elements:

·         On Tax Reform – on one side of Rubio’s ‘full-throated‘ mouth he wants higher taxes on corporations 22% -vs- 20%. In the almost the same breath, inside the same argument, he says “it’s not their (the government’s) money”.  Try to reconcile that.

·         On DACA – [Remember, three months ago President Trump gave congress six months to fix DACA]  Rubio says the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) program is not the “Dreamers”.  What? Yes it is. The childhood arrivals ARE the so-called ‘dreamers’.

·         However, much more importantly, listen to what is said on “chain migration“.  Ingraham asks if Rubio supports “chain migration”.   Rubio says no, then immediately says: “I’ve always agreed to limiting chain migration to immediate family members”. WHAT? That is chain migration.

. . .

Something is going on in DC that precipitated this interview.

The rest of Sundance’s analysis is here (includes video).

Here is what may be “going on in DC that precipitated this interview.” NumbersUSA, an immigration & amnesty legislation watchdog, sent out an alert today. It includes the following:

Congress loves to add unpopular provisions to must-pass spending bills, and that's why we're on high alert.

As most of you know, the Trump administration stopped accepting new applications for Pres. Obama's unconstitutional executive amnesty for young illegal aliens (DACA) in September. Since then, both Democrats and Republicans have introduced several proposals that would give a permanent amnesty to DACA recipients. The must-pass December spending bill provides the vehicle to do so.

We've seen this play out before. Congress has used massive spending bills to hide unpopular immigration provisions or tried to pass amnesty when voters were less engaged during the holiday season.

. . .

A handful of high-profile Democratic Senators have announced that they'll withhold support for the spending bill if it doesn't include an amnesty for DACA recipients. To support their efforts, the open-borders lobbying group Partnership for a New American Economy is investing heavily in grassroots lobbying efforts over the next few weeks.

So far, both Pres. Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have said that they don't want DACA to be included in the December bill.

Which side wins could depend on how much opposition to adding a DACA amnesty to the spending bill lawmakers in Washington hear from their constituents.

And here is a NumbersUSA Action Alert:

Over the next several weeks, Members of Congress need to hear a constant beat of opposition to adding an amnesty for DACA illegal aliens to the must-pass spending bill. Here are two actions you can take to get you started:

1) Call Senate GOP Leaders

While Speaker Ryan has been vocal about his opposition to DACA's inclusion in the spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been quiet. However, the third ranking Senate Republican, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) did say over the weekend that he doesn't think DACA should be part of the spending deal, but fell short of saying it won't be part of the final package.

Please call the following GOP Leaders in the Senate and tell them that you oppose adding the DACA amnesty to any must-pass spending bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- (202) 224-2541

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn -- (202) 224-2934

Senate GOP Caucus Chair John Thune -- (202) 224-2321

The NumbersUSA website is here. I expect more Alerts over the next couple of weeks.

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Geronimo!

My Favorite tweet today: 

Clock to embiggen!

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Making Christmas great again

For the past eight years, the previous administration sent out politically correct "holiday" or "Season's Greetings" cards. Bah humbug! Here's President Trump & family's 2017 Christmas card:

via Fox News Twitter

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Christmas choo choo train

Video credit: Pat Dooley Photography

Yesterday, a huge crowd of Clevelanders descended on Public Square to enjoy the Winterfest and the lighting of the yyuuge Christmas tree. You’ve already seen photos of the Christmas lights, but I just got the video clip (maybe 5 seconds) of the fun chasing lights on the choo-choo train display, posted above.

For more photos, including that of the yuge tree, check out cleveland.com’s photo essay here.

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Trey Gowdy FAKE NEWS ALERT

ALERT! I wondered why the bigger blogs were not picking up this story. According to this Hoax website, the report below is 

FAKE NEWS!!! Sorry.

My blog post below went up this morning. I am re-blogging to correct the record. -Diana

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Image via C-Span

Trey Gowdy talks a great game, but just like all the other congressional investigations over the past eight years, the one he chaired (the Select Committee on Benghazi) went nowhere. A couple of days ago, The American News reported:

For five years, Trey Gowdy asked the Oval Office for the tools necessary to do his job properly, and for five years he was told “no” by the Obama administration.

One of the most difficult parts of Trey Gowdy’s job as congressional inquisitor is security clearance. When investigating people who held titles like “Secretary of State” and “Special Aide to the President” or even “President,” Gowdy runs into the issue of security clearance all the time.

“It’s a matter of national security” has become a term Mr. Gowdy hears far too often. It is the single-best excuse Hillary Clinton and her lawyers have been able to come up with when they don’t have an actual answer to his questions.

President Trump has just removed that blockade. By executive order, Trey Gowdy has been given the highest security clearance possible. He could now sit in on presidential intel briefings if he felt he needed to.

The first thing Gowdy did with his newfound ability to investigate is to re-open the Benghazi case. There was a 6-hour window that Clinton never answered for because she said she was in meetings with the president and joint chiefs that were highly classified. Gowdy will begin his investigation by revisiting those discussions and finding out exactly why four men were left to die.

Next, with his newfound freedom of information, he’ll look into just how far Obama went when he sent weapons and cash to the Muslim Brotherhood after they took Egypt by force.

Nothing about this wonderful new power is going to be good for Obama, Clinton or any other Demonrat that thinks they’re above the law.

Maybe now SOMETHING will happen. We live in hope.

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Trey Gowdy gets top security clearance UPDATE: FAKE NEWS

ALERT! I wondered why the bigger blogs were not picking up this story. According to this Hoax website, the report below is 

FAKE NEWS!!! Sorry.

Image via C-Span

Trey Gowdy talks a great game, but just like all the other congressional investigations over the past eight years, the one he chaired (the Select Committee on Benghazi) went nowhere. A couple of days ago, The American News reported:

For five years, Trey Gowdy asked the Oval Office for the tools necessary to do his job properly, and for five years he was told “no” by the Obama administration.

One of the most difficult parts of Trey Gowdy’s job as congressional inquisitor is security clearance. When investigating people who held titles like “Secretary of State” and “Special Aide to the President” or even “President,” Gowdy runs into the issue of security clearance all the time.

“It’s a matter of national security” has become a term Mr. Gowdy hears far too often. It is the single-best excuse Hillary Clinton and her lawyers have been able to come up with when they don’t have an actual answer to his questions.

President Trump has just removed that blockade. By executive order, Trey Gowdy has been given the highest security clearance possible. He could now sit in on presidential intel briefings if he felt he needed to.

The first thing Gowdy did with his newfound ability to investigate is to re-open the Benghazi case. There was a 6-hour window that Clinton never answered for because she said she was in meetings with the president and joint chiefs that were highly classified. Gowdy will begin his investigation by revisiting those discussions and finding out exactly why four men were left to die.

Next, with his newfound freedom of information, he’ll look into just how far Obama went when he sent weapons and cash to the Muslim Brotherhood after they took Egypt by force.

Nothing about this wonderful new power is going to be good for Obama, Clinton or any other Demonrat that thinks they’re above the law.

Maybe now SOMETHING will happen. We live in hope.

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Tomi Lahren's D-Day photoshop

h/t Instapundit
###

The Christmas lights are up in Public Square

 Photographs by Cleveland Tea Party’s roving photographer, Pat Dooley

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Bob Gorrell cartoon via Townhall blog

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Giving thanks for abundance is giving thanks for free enterprise

Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

Re-posted from earlier Cleveland Tea Party blogs:

What Thanksgiving really means To Americans

A couple of years ago, Jerry Bowyer, writing in Forbes Magazine, recounted the real significance of Thanksgiving, a significance that is too often lost among the turkey dinners, football games, and stories about Indians who befriended the early settlers. 

In 1620, the Plymouth pilgrims based their original community on Plato’s Republic, a collective model that appealed to their religious convictions and morality. But the communal model didn’t work for them. After over two years of failing harvests and resulting malnutrition, disease, starvation, and deaths, the pilgrims replaced the communal model with a model based on private property. The ensuing harvest was abundant, with surpluses available for trade.

Their Thanksgiving celebrated the triumph of the individual, private property, and incentive, over collectivism. At first, the pilgrims felt guilty because they were putting self-interest over the seeming altruism of socialism. Yet the devout survivors had learned two lessons: 1) that a theoretical and Utopian collective society fails, and (2) in real life, private property and capitalism produce prosperity. For them, God, not Plato, knew best. Accepting the principles of private property and self-interest was God’s way of harnessing self-interest to the greater good. We know all of this because an elder of the Plymouth plantation, William Bradford, kept a journal and it survives today. Mr. Bowyer’s earlier article, with additional historical background, is here.) 

Here’s Bowyer's “How A Failed Commune Gave Us What is Now Thanksgiving.”

It’s wrong to say that American was founded by capitalists. In fact, America was founded by socialists who had the humility to learn from their initial mistakes and embrace freedom. One of the earliest and arguably most historically significant North American colonies was Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620 in what is now known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. As I’ve outlined in greater detail here before (Lessons From a Capitalist Thanksgiving), the original colony had written into its charter a system of communal property and labor. 

As William Bradford recorded in his Of Plymouth Plantation, a people who had formerly been known for their virtue and hard work became lazy and unproductive. Resources were squandered, vegetables were allowed to rot on the ground and mass starvation was the result. And where there is starvation, there is plague. 

After 2 1/2 years, the leaders of the colony decided to abandon their socialist mandate and create a system which honored private property. The colony survived and thrived and the abundance which resulted was what was celebrated at that iconic Thanksgiving feast.

As my friend Reuven Brenner has taught me, history is a series of experiments: The Human Gamble. Some gambles work and are adopted by history and some do not and should be abandoned by it. The problem is that the human gamble only works if there is a record of experimental outcomes and if decision makers consult that record. For many years, the story of the first failed commune of Plymouth Bay was part of the collective memory of American students. But Progressive Education found that story unhelpful and it has fallen into obscurity, which explains why (as I alluded to before) a well-educated establishment figure like Jared Bernstein would be unaware of it.

I’m often asked why our current leadership class forgets the lessons of the past so often. They are, after all, very smart men and women. Don’t they know that collectivism will fail?

No, they don’t. Not anymore. For much of our history, our leaders were educated in the principles which were to help them avoid errors once they have joined the ruling class. They studied to learn how to not misuse power. Now our leaders learn nothing of the dangers of abusing power: their education is entirely geared to its acquisition.  All of their neurons are trained on that one objective – to get to the top. What they do when they get there is a matter for later. And what happens to the country when they’re done with their experiments is beside the point: after all, their experiments will not really affect them personally. History is the story of the limitations of human power. But the limits of power is a topic for people who doubt themselves and their right to rule, not the self-anointed.

That’s how it is now, and that’s how it was in 1620. The charter of the Plymouth Colony reflected the most up-to-date economic, philosophical and religious thinking of the early 17th century. Plato was in vogue then, and Plato believed in central planning by intellectuals in the context of communal property, centralized state education, state centralized cultural offerings and communal family structure. For Plato, it literally did take a village to raise a child. This collectivist impulse reflected itself in various heretical offshoots of Protestant Christianity with names like The True Levelers, and the Diggers, mass movements of people who believed that property and income distinctions should be eliminated, that the wealthy should have their property expropriated and given to what we now call the 99%. This kind of thinking was rife in the 1600s and is perhaps why the Pilgrim settlers settled for a charter which did not create a private property system.

But the Pilgrims learned and prospered. And what they learned, we have forgotten and we fade.  Now, new waves of ignorant masses flood into parks and public squares. New Platonists demand control of other people’s property. New True Levelers legally occupy the prestige pulpits of our nation, secular and sacred. And now, as then, the productive class of our now gigantic, colony-turned-superpower, learn and teach again, the painful lessons of history. Collectivism violates the iron laws of human nature. It has always failed. It is always failing, and it will always fail. I thank God that it is failing now. Providence is teaching us once again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Starting the Christmas season with a smile

YouTube: The First Lady Receives the 2017 White House Christmas Tree

A short video clip (4 minutes) to put a smile on your face as we head into the holiday Christmas season (h/t Sundance)

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Department of Homeland Security nominee Kirstjen Nielsen

From Steve Salvi’s website Ohio Jobs &Justice Pac [posted yesterday]:

FEDERAL: CITIZEN ACTION ALERT!  

Warning: Pres. Trump's new nominee for DHS Secretary is an Obama holdover and open border/pro-amnesty sellout!

Help Stop Kirstjen Nielsen's confirmation and appointment!

What you can do:

1.    Call the White House--say you oppose Kirstjen Nielsen's nomination as DHS Secretary (see background articles below)

The White House Phone Numbers

Comments: 202-456-1111

Switchboard: 202-456-1414

2.    Spread the word on social media.

For background, below are articles about Kirstjen Nielsen and immigration:

·         Ann Coulter: Trump’s Nominee for DHS Kirstjen Nielsen Is ‘An Open Borders Zealot’

·         Trump’s DHS Nominee: ‘Ready to Work with Congress’ on DACA Amnesty

·         Cheap Labor, Open Borders Swamp Embraces Trump’s DHS Pick: ‘Experience Being Valued over Outsiders’

And here’s Market Watch’s Nielson’s Commitment to the Trump Immigration Agenda Remains Questionable, cautions FAIR  

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Good news, bad news

image credit: wgme.com

Good news for our friends in coal country (via Selena Zito at New York Post):

Last weekend in Beijing, as part of his 12-day trip to Asia, President Trump announced that the US and China had signed an $83.7 billion memorandum of understanding to create a number of petrochemical projects in West Virginia over the next 20 years.

If the agreement holds tight, it is an economic game changer for the state.

Bad news for our friends in coal country (via Thomas Lifson at American Thinker):

the mainstream media are able to suppress life-changing news that could rescue the beleaguered economy of an entire state so thoroughly that ordinary folks in street are unaware of it.

. . .

So, this is a deal that would transform economic life for some of the most economically depressed people in the country, and they have no idea at all that it is in process, needs their support, and could be derailed. 

If you have family or friends in West Virginia, downstate Ohio, or western Pennsylvania, forward the news along!

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Update on Richard Cordray and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Dilbert (Scott Adams) cartoon via powerlineblog.com

Clarice Feldman closes her Sunday column at American Thinker with this summary:

Probably the most important development this week is the effective end of the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), a power grab by Democrats led by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, which gives a single director who can only be fired for cause by the president (a structure designed to operate outside Congressional or executive control) power to regulate mortgages, credit cards, and retirement and pension investments -- in sum, all consumer financial transactions. Warren originally wanted to run this outfit, but when it was clear she’d never get Congressional approval, Richard Cordray became the one-man credit czar. Last October the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that placing so much power in a single commissioner not answerable to the president was unconstitutional.

The Obama Administration sought en banc review by the entire Circuit Court Panel.  In March, the new administration reversed the government’s position. The entire panel heard the case in May. While the decision in that case is still pending, Cordray this week resigned, and the president appointed in his place OMB chief Mike Mulvaney as interim head. Mulvaney strongly opposed the creation of this bureau. The President thus has now put in place someone who can be counted on to undo the Democrats’ machinations to control all our financial transactions by the fiat of a single man. By their own hands, they created a situation they are powerless to undo -- just as by tarring Judge Moore with suspect accusations they open themselves to the same treatment. 

Richard Cordray has not yet confirmed his candidacy for Governor of Ohio, but the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Cleveland media expect him to announce soon.

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Another Anti-Trump Plot?

image credit: money.cnn.com

Some pundits in the blogosphere are looking at the allegations of sexual misconduct – re: Judge Roy Moore and Sen. Al Franken – through the prism of a deliberate anti-Trump strategy. Another crazy conspiracy theory? Well, it’s not like the mainstream media hasn’t moved in lockstep before to achieve a desired political outcome. We know most of the networks and big print media are still having their own temper tantrums over Trump’s win over Hillary - over a year ago. 

Here are three bloggers on the bigger picture behind the feeding frenzies over Judge Roy Moore / Sen. Al Franken / Harvey Weinstein --- as well as leading Democrats starting to throw the Clintons under the bus (starting with “Sen. Kirsten Gillibranddisavows Bill Clinton now that he can’t help her anymore”).  


From Thomas Lifson at American Thinker:

HEADLINE: Al Franken's career is collateral damage for the Dems on the way to getting Trump

Lifson outlines his hypothetical strategy:

The logical steps for getting Trump  are clear.

Step one: Establish that sexual harassment before taking office is sufficient grounds to remove someone from office.  This is the necessary predicate.  Franken's departure from office will establish the purported sincerity of the Democrats in establishing this brand-new principle.  As a number of observers point out, nobody has ever been thrown out of the Senate for actions prior to taking office.

Step two: Apply this doctrine to Roy Moore if he should win the Senate seat for which he running.  If he loses, triumphantly announce that even the reddest of red states agrees that previous misbehavior is dispositive in removing an incumbent.

Step three: Throw Bill Clinton under the bus.  Rend garments, pull hair out, and otherwise demonstrate what looks like sincere regret that Bill Clinton remained in office thanks to rock-solid Democrat solidarity, now that there is no incumbency to protect.  Hillary, who has become a drag on the party, is thus to be intimidated into quietly caring for her grandchildren.

This is a dangerous assumption, because Hillary will fight back, and thanks to her access to FBI files while living in the White House, she has access to a lot of dirt on many Democrats as well as Republicans, not to mention whatever other dirt she and her machine have come across in the intervening decades.  She fights dirty and still has plenty of friends in the media.

Step four: As the hysteria mounts, following the blood sacrifices, demand that President Trump be impeached for actions before he took office.  Failing that, tell voters that by hanging onto office, he is disgracing the nation and telling little boys to grope their little girl classmates in first grade.

. . .[Lifson concludes]

So we have a situation in which something approaching mutual assured destruction could be unleashed on Congress, but with heavier damage likely on the Democrats' side of the aisle.  In this circumstance, the only winners would be those Americans who want to drain the swamp.  A wholesale bloodletting on Capitol Hill would not be the worst possible outcome, so long as the new legislators are wisely chosen in sufficient numbers.

Now is the time to start planning those candidacies. 

From The Sparta Report:

There are lots of ways in which this could play out, of course, but we are certainly in for a ride over the coming days and weeks as the Democrats try to ride the current “sexual misconduct” hysteria, and turn it to their advantage in their relentless quest to destroy Trump by any means they can find.

From DC Whispers:

According to whispers, it wasn’t just taking “political shot” at Moore that motivating the McConnell camp. They want Roy Moore out of the way and replaced with someone of McConnell’s choosing, or even Moore’s Democrat opponent, Doug Jones, a man whose career is linked to the Bill Clinton administration. Moore would be a vehement defender of POTUS Trump and his policies. If McConnell is to succeed in laying the groundwork for an impeachment trial and vote in the Senate, he will need fewer senators like Roy Moore to contend with.

. . .

The motivation to go after Trump is there. What is left is a simple matter of numbers. Getting rid of a Roy Moore and replacing him with an anti-Trump senator would give McConnell that much more leverage to make his dreams of eliminating Trump a reality.

Don’t forget what Mitch McConnell and the GOPe did to Chris McDaniel vs Thad Cochran in Mississippi.

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Sen. Orrin Hatch pushes back on Sen. Sherrod Brown

From Freedom’s Lighthouse (about 2 minutes, from last Thursday):

YouTube: "Hatch Rejects Class-Warfare Talking Points on Tax Bill"

Here is GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch doing what more Republicans should do when Democrats spout their Class-Warfare nonsense they have been using for 50 years. Hatch absolutely schools Leftist Democrat Sherrod Brown last night after Brown used the Democrats’ usual talking points to attack the GOP Tax Cut Plan for all Americans. Hatch called it “crap,” and told Brown he should “stop it.” This was one of Orrin Hatch’s finest moments!

Keep it up!

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Mark the date: Dec. 4 gubernatorial debate (D)

From Seth A. Richardson at cleveland.com:

The City Club of Cleveland will host a free Democratic gubernatorial debate in early December, the first in the Cleveland area.

The debate is scheduled for 7 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 4 at the Westfield Insurance Studio Theatre in the Idea Center at Playhouse Square. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The debate also will be live-streamed on the City Club's website, ideastream and WKYC Channel 3.

Four of the five declared candidates are scheduled to be on stage. Former state Rep. Connie Pillich, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley are all confirmed participants.

Not included in the lineup are Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill and outgoing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray. Cordray has not yet announced whether he will run and O'Neill has yet to go through the vetting process - and has told the party he will drop out if Cordray enters.

Possible candidate Justice O’Neill made headlines today when he responded to the Al Franken scandal by disclosing his own conquests (via Washington Examiner).

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Cordray, the CFPB, and Ohio Governor Ohio race

Bob Gorrell cartoon credit: ww: ff.org

If this report is confirmed, it’s a start. From Kemberlee Kaye at Legal Insurrection:

Richard Cordray, an Obama appointee and head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced to staff in an email Wednesday his plans to resign. While he’s yet to confirm his plans, there’s speculation Cordray will return home to run for Ohio’s governorship.

The CFPB functions as, “a regulator set up in response to the 2008 financial crisis to police mortgages, credit cards and other financial products,” and was the brainchild of Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Unlike other agencies, due to the unique circumstanced through which the CFPB was created (was part of Dodd-Frank in 2010), Cordray answered to no one. As the bureau’s director, Cordray controlled the budget (other federal entities are subject to Congressional budget allocation), and was subject to no term limits.

“We are long overdue for new leadership at the CFPB, a [rogue] agency that has done more [to] hurt consumers than help them. The extreme overregulation it imposes on our economy leads to higher costs and less access to financial products and services, particularly for Americans with lower incomes,” said House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas.

“Overdue for new leadership at the CFPB” at the CFPB? Sen. Hensarling, wouldn’t it be better to eliminate the “rogue agency” altogether?

Full report is here.

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Primal Screams and Mass Hysteria

art credit: MaliaLitman.com

We all had a good laugh over the anti-Trump “Screaming Helplessly at The Sky” temper tantrums last week, but in a sense, the Scream Fests are not funny. There is something on the order of mass hysteria going on here. It's a year after the election, and adults are still stamping their feet and wearing stupid pink hats and screaming in genuine outrage.

I’ve come across a few think pieces on the phenomenon. Victor Davis Hanson examines the various “hysterias and frenzies” we have been witnessing:

Human nature is prone to a herd mentality and the politics of excess. Groupthink offers a sense of belonging and reinforcement to most people. Democracies in particular in their radical egalitarian culture and exalted sense of self-righteousness are particularly prone to shared frenzies. 

Richard Fernandez, Mr. Belmont Club, summed up his take on the Primal Scream-a-thon:

What they were mourning was not some conservative's sublunar fallibility, but their own. Whatever happens now, the progressives have lost decades of "gains," not to the alt-right, which is nothing special, but to the realization of their own human frailty. 

  

Last summer, Dilbert / Scott Adams wrote about the “mass hysteria bubble” and how he defines it:

if you are not experiencing mass hysteria, you might be totally confused by the actions of the people who are. They appear to be irrational, but in ways that are hard to define. You can’t tell if they are stupid, unscrupulous, ignorant, mentally ill, emotionally unstable or what. It just looks frickin’ crazy.

I thought I would post these links, since we live in crazy times, and maybe we are not the crazy ones. All three articles are worth the read.

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Veteran’s Day 2017

Saturday (tomorrow) is Veteran's Day.  Several weeks ago, CTP reader John Macky sent us links to his website, so I am pleased to include them here. From one of his posting at Veteran’s Day Guide:

Veterans Day is observed to honor all such war veterans who have put their lives at stake for the safety and freedom of their people. Celebrated on 11^th of November 2017, the Veterans Day is marked to celebrate war veterans who are alive; unlike Memorial Day which is observed to honor the members of the US Armed forces who have sacrificed their lives while fighting for their nation. . . .

  

Cleveland’s Veteran’s Day parade is scheduled to begin downtown at 12:30 midday on Saturday, Nov. 11 in front of City Hall, 601 Lakeside Ave. Details are here.

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More Media Fail: Trump in China

photo via @JonLemire

Remember when President Obama arrived in Beijing and the formal staircase failed to show up on the tarmac alongside Air Force One, and he was obliged to deplane through the service door at the back?  A not so subtle snub.  When President Trump and Melania arrived in Beijing the other day, not only was the rolling staircase there (see above), Sundance reports:

President Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet complete with marching band and joyful children for the arrival of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

The pageantry was the highest level China presents in public display honoring any visiting head of state; and U.S. Media never carried it. 

From DC Whispers: 

Chinese officials have shown the current POTUS every courtesy, including opening up the Forbidden City to him. This act itself is of great historic importance as it makes Mr. Trump the first American president to be allowed to dine in the Forbidden City since the creation of modern China.

To get a sense of the scope of the ceremonial details and show of great respect to President Trump, go to the Conservative Treehouse blogs – for example, here - for photos and videos that most of the media are not running (e.g. USA Media Ignores Historic Prime Time Broadcast of Official Beijing Welcome For President Trump…).

photo via conservative treehouse

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