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Saturday, November 18, 2017

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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Friday, November 17, 2017

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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Wednesday, November 15, 2017

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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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

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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Friday, November 10, 2017

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 11th 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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Thursday, November 9, 2017

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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