Sunday, December 27, 2015

PAPER: Elites and media really hate Trump voters...

Mutual!

http://pulse.me/s/5tK03c

PAPER: Elites and media really hate Trump voters ... read more

Even lame-duck Obama has waded in, cheekily blaming "economic stresses" and flatlining wages for Trump's groundswell. "Particularly, blue-collar men have had a lot of trouble in this new economy, where they are no longer getting the same bargain that they got when they were going to a factory and able to support their families on a single paycheck . . . Somebody like Mr. Trump is taking advantage of that."

Webb Attacks Clinton With Eye on Independent Run

Way to go Webb!

THE PLOT THICKENS?
Webb Attacks Clinton With Eye on Independent Run
If he declared an outsider presidential bid, the former Democratic candidate could have an outsize effect on the race.
  Ben Brody

December 26, 2015 — 3:26 PM EST 

When Jim Webb quit the Democratic presidential race on Oct. 20 amid low poll numbers and a minimal debate presence, the former Virginia senator left open the possibility he'd return for a White House run in a different political guise. Now he appears to be edging closer to making good on it. 
On Saturday morning, Webb used Twitter and his Facebook page to attack Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for her handling of Libya during her time as secretary of state.

The lengthy condemnation on Facebook, which said, among other things that "Clinton should be called to account for her inept leadership that brought about the chaos in Libya," came just days before the end of the year, which his team had previously told CNN would be reasonable time for them to make a decision about an independent bid.
Since dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination, Webb has continued to maintain his Webb2016 website, which he has updated with posts about the possibilities of an independent run. On Twitter, he and his fans have been promoting a #WebbNation hashtag.
A run by Webb, who often manages his own social media accounts and has also used them recently to promote a petition in favor of his run and to deliver kudos to Bernie Sanders in his battles with the Democratic National Committee ("nothing more than an arm for the Clinton campaign," Webb tweeted), could further complicate the already unpredictable 2016 election.
While observers typically have analyzed the prospect of a third-party or independent run by Republican front-runner Donald Trump — or even one from Sanders — Webb could still alter the dynamics of the race even with his smaller profile.
A recent CNN poll, for instance, forecast tight races between Clinton and several Republican contenders in hypothetical match-ups for the general election. Webb's campaign has told Bloomberg it would concentrate on mobilizing voters in the ideological middle, along with people who have become dissatisfied with politics.
In a tight race, even a small base of support could make him a factor. Ralph Nader, for instance, famously won only small percentages of the vote in many states in the 2000 presidential election, yet that arguably helped tip the Electoral College vote to then-Texas Governor George W. Bush, denying Democratic Vice President Al Gore, the winner of the popular vote, the presidency. 
Webb could also get a boost from the organizers of the general election debates, who are preparing for the possibility of three candidates onstage, albeit ones who thus far, have managed to command far more support than Webb the roughly one percent of Democratic support Webb managed to muster by the time he quote the race.
There's no ensuring that Webb would be a spoiler for Clinton even as he attacks her. Although he ran as a Democrat to serve in the Senate, he is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who also served for a time as President Reagan's secretary of the navy and has won conservative plaudits. Even Saturday's attack echoed the talking points of Republican candidates and groups.
His public statements, meanwhile, have focused economic populism and breaking the monopoly of the two-party system.
Despite the apparent escalation of his interest in an independent bid and his aides previously stated interest in making Webb's intentions known by the beginning of 2016, history suggests he could toy with voters for quite some time. Webb missed his own self-imposed deadline for getting into the Democratic race and blatantly disregarded conventional wisdom on political timing when finally declared hours before the beginning of the July 4 holiday.
In addition, the earliest state deadline for submitting signatures for an independent presidential run is May 9 in Texas, according to Ballot Access News. Given that most filing deadlines occur in August, Webb's post-Christmas social activity could be another trial balloon.
Craig Crawford, a top aide on the small campaign, did not immediately return request for comment on Saturday on the prospect that Webb is planning an imminent return to the race, nor did a Clinton spokesman respond to the attack.
Crawford, though, told Bloomberg in October that he has been studying the Nader playbook and that an outsider bid is easier than it was 15 years ago but still "requires a lot more multitasking."
Yet the main question was the feasibility of that multitasking, including primarily gathering signatures to get on the ballot, rather than Webb's belief in his message, Crawford added.
"Are we comfortable that there's actually a chance to get on enough ballots to actually have a mathematical chance?" Crawford said the campaign was asking. "Jim's not going to do this as a protest thing."

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-12-26/webb-attacks-clinton-with-eye-on-independent-run
©2015 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved

Saturday, December 26, 2015

BREAKING: Suspect arrested after leaving suspicious packages


BREAKING: Suspect arrested after leaving suspicious packages

(https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/680875980085313536)

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Trump Is Finished

Previously Discussed "COLD ANGER"  Today's Article: TRUMP SUPPORTERS ARE ANGRY

Bluto's List of Failed Talking Points: "Trump Is Finished"

The Latest:

*Lindsey Graham drops out! All his Base Belongs To Jeb! Trump is toast.

*Obama takes time out from golfing to drop a big pile of "Racist p0op" on Trump's supporters. Demonizing Americans is always a smart move. Trump is done.

*Trump isn't begging for $$$ = HE'S BROKE!!! OMG! Trump has no money!!!

*Hillary claims Isis is spontaneously recruiting in reaction to a Trump YouTube video. Susan Rice goes into hiding, screaming "Not this again!".

*Congress deploys the annual last-minute Giant Trillion Dollar Middle Finger to Americans yet again. Everything is under control in DC, nobody could possible want Trump now.

*Putin endorses Trump. Democrat's heads explode with worry that they'll lose the coveted Communist Voter Base. Trump is Finished.

*Trump mistakenly thinks it's better to get along with Russia & accepts Putin's praise. World War Three advocates promptly denounce Trump as evil

*Jeb! puts on his best Mr. Rodgers Sweater, Hulks-out & shouts, "Donald Trump is a Jerk" – tens of people rise up & give him the obligatory golf clap response.

*Journalists roll out the Putin Kills Journalists meme in a effort to get Trump to stop beating them like a Red-headed Step-child. The plan backfires spectacularly & the beatings continue. Americans love affair with journalists will destroy Trump, right?

*John Kasich deploys the devastating whirlwind of his Kung-Fu Hands 100% during the debate. Nobody can survive his Karate Chops – even Trump.

*Trump's poll numbers climb yet again after the debate. He's definitely finished this time.

*Trump has peaked. He'll slowly fall off and quit. He's finished.

trump rally michigan

He won't run

He's not serious

He has funny hair, we hate funny hair

Bankruptcy!!! OH NOES! (pretend it's not legal, mmmkay?)

He won't file his candidacy papers

He's never held public office. He can't win.

He won't connect with the voters

He's finished if he doesn't apologize to Univision

He's finished if he doesn't apologize to Nascar

He's finished if he doesn't apologize to Macy's

He's finished if he doesn't apologize to ESPN

He's finished if he doesn't apologize to McCain

He's finished if he doesn't apologize on demand, period.

He'll never poll well. He's finished.

He'll never lead in the polls. He's finished.

He'll never file his financials. He's finished.

He's offended all veterans. He's finished.

He thinks raping his wife is dandy. He's finished.

Some contrived, bizzaro crap about breastfeeding. WTF?

He's against Amnesty. He's finished.

He's for Amnesty. He's finished.

Just scream Amnesty…it'll dazzle everybody

He doesn't really want to be President. He's finished.

He said stuff about blood! OMG OMG! He's finished!

He'll be exposed in the debates and fail miserably. He's finished.

Frank Luntz said Trump has collapsed. He's finished.

Redstate claims he won't make it to Iowa. He's finished.

George Will says Trump can't sit down to tea & talk to voters. Finished!

He's offended all women. He's finished.

He's just a carnival barker. He's finished.

He won't last,he's done after tomorrow….err..next week…err…next month

He can't defeat Bush, He's finished.

He can't beat Hillary ,it's already been decided

He's finished if he doesn't apologize to Megyn Kelly

He falsely claimed he's Batman. He's Finished.

He insulted Mexicans again by beating up poor Jorge Ramos

He's not a REAL conservative (in Spanish!), He's finished.

Repeat the lie that he want's single payer healthcare. He's Finished!

He won't sign the Pledge. He's a jerk. He's finished.

He DID sign the Pledge. He's a jerk.. He's finished.

He thinks Candidates should speak English! OH THE HORROR! Finished.

He failed the Hugh Hewitt Trivia Quiz of Crap

Foreign policy is much more important than immigration. Trump is finished.

His 5 second comment re: Syrian Refugees = Detailed Amnesty Policy!

He joked about Carly's face! OMG OMG OMG. He's finished!

He won't apologize to Carly. He's Finished.

He won't apologize to Carson. He's Finished.

He can't win without the Evangelicals. He's Finished.

Bobby Jindal called him names. He's Finished.

Ben Carson questions Trump's faith. OMG! He's finished.

The country wants a Minister not a CEO. He's Finished!

Scott Walker drops out. This is bad for Trump. He's finished!,

Greg Gutfield thinks Trump is a clown. He's Finished!

His poll numbers are down. He's still in the lead. He's Finished!

Trump won't give us details. He's finished!

Trump releases 2nd Amend policy details. Ignore it! He's finished!

He's finished if he doesn't apologize to all Muslims.

Carly won the debate. His poll numbers are down. He's finished!

Trump fatigue is upon the electorate. He's Finished!

Some random dude said "Obama is a Muslim". It's Trump's fault.

Trump MUST apologize for random "Obama is a Muslim" dude

He's finished if he won't apologize to Jeb!s wife

George Will declares Trump a crybaby, uses the word "apogee". finished.

Trump legally hired seasonal workers. It was legal! That's wrong! He's toast.

CNN says his rallies are actually poorly attended. Oh dear! He's done.

Trump called Rubio a clown. Clowns everywhere are offended. He's finished.

He won't go on FoxNews, He's Finished!

He acts brash and immature on Twitter. He's finished!

The Donald has the temerity to shout the word bullsh** on live TV. OMG! Done.

Trump refused to partake in the fleecing scam by the Hispanic CofC. He's finished.

Romney declares Trump will not be nominee. Mitt's an expert loser, he knows.

Trump says Putin can take out Isis. Trump should stop him! We can't have that.

Oh no! Trump's back on Fox News. He caved. He's a whiner. He's Finished.

He doesn't have a Tax Plan. He's Finished!

He DOES have a Tax Plan! He's Finished!

He's stolen Jeb!s Tax Plan. It's good? It's bad? We don't know, but it's stolen.

Trump's Tax Plan is will raise the debt by Trillions. Freak out! Freak out!

He's for single payer healthcare. Repeat the lie again. He's finished.

Trump alienates Republicans with his Tax Plan. He's Toast.

Trump's a dope, he loves the Pope. He's gone.

Rich Lowry claims The Donald's had his balls cut off. Trump is done.

Trump rally illinois 4

NY Times claims Trump's campaign hats are so ugly that only Hipsters will wear them as a symbol of their superior sense of irony. Good God, if Hipsters don't like Trump, he'll NEVER win! He's finished.

The Donald admits if he somehow was able to poll as horribly as Graham, Jindal, Christie, Gilmore, Perry, Walker, Kasich, Santorum, Pataki & Huckabee combined, he would exit the race. Brilliant Mathematician Chuck Todd concluded that polling consistently 10 times those candidate's numbers means Trump is quitting tomorrow.

Trump claims our Govt actually collected intelligence as far back as 2001! They even had intel before Sept. 11th. No way! That's Crazy!

Trump took donations from the public & not lobbyists! OMG! He's a fake!

Trump claims Dubya was actually the President in 2001. Crazy!

Crazy Trump claims Bush was actually POTUS & compels Jeb! to denounce Trump. nobody can survive the wrath of a Bush. He's finished.

George Will goes bonkers. Debunks Trump & Snidely claims TVs are actually made in America (even though they're not). Will mocks Trump. Trump is done.

Trump's led the polls nearly every day for almost 4 months. He can't sustain that type of success. He's finished.

Cruz says he thinks he'll get the nomination. Breaking news! A candidate wants to win and actually says so. This can only mean Trump is done.

Jeb! staffer & Ginger Groupie Actress conspires with CNN to push the "War on Woman" narrative. Trump is taken out yet again by an angry Bimbo. The Horror.

Trump melted down in Iowa Speech. He's Done

He made fun of poor delicate flower Ben Carson. He's finished.

Trump lost the debate. Everybody else is Surging! Toast.

Trump said "bomb the $h** out of 'em" in public! OMG OMG. Finished

Trump made John Harwood lie on national TV. He's finished.

Carson is surging! Carson top of the polls! Trump is finished.

Jeb rolls out "Jeb Can Fix It" Ruh Roh! He's serious. Trump is out.

Hillary had a great day lying to Congress! She's a winner. Trump is done.

Trump can't win without the Lying Leftist Reporter voting bloc. He's Finished.

Trump insulted a reporter with a disability.WHAT? The HORROR!!!

Kasich did some ads. OMG! Advertisements! Those are unheard of in an election!

Trump can't take Advertisements…..OMG they're on TV too!!! He's DOOMED

Ted Cruz surged to 12%. Crap! Trump is only at 38%! What will he do?

Raging "Black Life Matters" Idiot goes wacko at Trump Rally. Obviously Trump's
fault. Trump is a big meany for allowing idiots to be idiots. He's finished.

Trump claims Waterboarding is useful. Lindsey Graham counters with support for Snowboarding. Trump is finished.

Trump outrageously claims that French people should be able to defend themselves using…oh dear…GUNS. How crazy? Self defense? NO WAY!

Trump is a Database loving Nazi! Everybody say it: Nazi! He's Finished!

WH Spokesman goes 100% Presidential & Insults Trump's Hair. We've gone full circle! We are now back to THE HAIR!! Recycled Talking Point of DOOM!

Trump has successfully united the DEMS, the GOP, The Media & Islam. Nobody has ever done that before, he's doomed.

One week after 14 People are slaughtered by Muslims, the Media & DC join hands and decide Trump is a bigger Enemy to Americans than a murderous cult of Jihadists heII bent on our destruction. That's gonnawork. He's done.

All the King's Media & All the King's Politicians collectively freak out over Trump's claim that we should protect our Citizens from Islamic Terror. Even Humpty Dumpty pooped his pants with panic.

Paul Ryan demands Trump drop from the Race. That will happen, right?

Lindsey Graham "Mr. Zero %" tells Trump to Go to HeII. Trump says he doesn't have time for a Christmas Party in California right now.

Paul Ryan takes a break from selling out our country to tell us how The Donald is Horrible. Trump withers.

Trump prefers to stop our Islamic Enemies from entering the country rather than curtailing American's rights. He's Finished!

Trump claims that Islamic Terrorists have a problem assimilating in our
society and makes all of DC & the media wet it's pants.

Trump thinks maybe we should have Muslim Control instead of Gun Control.

Trump makes the mistake of actually refers to Islamic Terror by using the words "Islamic Terror". He can't do that!

Trump goes Full Capt. Obvious: Claims terrorist's Mom who shared bomb-making
residence with Farook-McBoomy-Beard must have known stuff was goin' down.

Trump wants to get serious about Islamic Terrorists by going after the poor innocent family members who enable their Jihad Plans. The left collectively wets their pants, blame Trump for the urine smell. He's finished.

Trump is going to start WW3! Everybody panic! He's out!

Trump dares to say Muslims were celebrating 9-11. What? Muslims hate America? That's just so kooky & crazy! Trump is insane. Muslims love us!

GOP Establishment leaders claim Trump is finished in a memo that pleads for

GOP Establishment to study Trump because he's Winning. Wat????

He's Finished.

trump brilliant


http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/12/22/its-not-just-anger-its-cold-anger-a-resolve/

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

0bama Phone Home

Ever get the feeling that Obama just doesn't care any more? That he's mailing it in?

Trump: Turn the Cameras

Turn the cameras, show everyone how many people come to these rallies.


Thank you, that's the first time they've ever done that. 
Because what's going on is amazing.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Pan the crowds


Yesterday we shared a comment/question about Frank Luntz's focus group motives and intents.  KathyCA, a brilliant mind, shared some common sense in that regard, and deserves expansion:

Absolutely.  One of the main reasons Trump has such yuge support, imo, is because he's taken on the media and the GOPe on behalf of the average citizen who thinks the way he does but has become afraid to say so.

Like the CTH, he makes people realize they are NOT in a tiny, vulgar, misguided minority — indeed, they're not a minority at all. They've just been brainwashed to think so.

So Trump says "pan the crowds" — you're not alone! And Luntz tries to do the same in the opposite direction. Thankfully, Luntz's efforts haven't been effective, to say the least. (link)

trump rally tennessee 2

Kathyca is 100% spot on.  Donald Trump says to the media "pan the crowds", not because he wants to inflate his own ego or following, but rather because he needs YOU to see the visible representation that YOUR opinions and beliefs are widely held.

Trump is countering the MSM narrative which wants YOU to believe YOUR opinions are in the minority, and THEIR opinions as delivered are the MAJORITY.  This is how the corporate media influence you.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

America First -- or World War III – Patrick J. Buchanan

You share Trump's foreign policy goals... read on.

America First — or World War III
By Patrick J. Buchanan

"If you're in favor of World War III, you have your candidate."

So said Rand Paul, looking directly at Gov. Chris Christie, who had just responded to a question from CNN's Wolf Blitzer as to whether he would shoot down a Russian plane that violated his no-fly zone in Syria.

"Not only would I be prepared to do it, I would do it," blurted Christie: "I would talk to Vladimir Putin … I'd say to him, 'Listen, Mr. President, there's a no-fly zone in Syria; you fly in, it applies to you.'

"Yes, we would shoot down the planes of Russian pilots if in fact they were stupid enough to think that this president was the same feckless weakling … we have in the Oval Office … right now."

Ex-Gov. George Pataki and ex-Sen. Rick Santorum would also..

These warhawks apparently assume that President Putin is a coward who, if you shoot down his warplanes, will back away from a fight.

Are we sure? After the Turks shot down that Sukhoi SU-24, Moscow sent fighter planes to Syria to escort its bombers and has reportedly deployed its lethal S-300 antiaircraft system there.

A U.S. Marine Corps aviator describes the S-300: "A complete game changer for all fourth-gen aircraft [like the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18]. That thing is a beast and you don't want to get near it." There are press reports that an angry Putin has ordered the even more advanced S-400 system moved into Syria.

Is Putin bluffing? Are we prepared to ride the up-escalator, at the top of which is nuclear war, if Putin, who has been boasting of his modernized nuclear forces, is also willing to ride it rather than back down?

Uber-hawk Lindsey Graham wants to send tens of thousands of American troops to fight ISIS, and refuses to work with Iran, Russia, or Syria's Bashar Assad to crush our common enemy ISIS.

Graham prefers "allies," like the Saudis and Gulf Arabs.

But both have bailed out of the air war on ISIS, and sent troops and bombers instead to attack the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Result: The Houthis have been in retreat and al-Qaida and ISIS are moving into the vacated territory.

Another Mideast base camp for terrorists is being created — by us.

"I miss George W. Bush!" wailed Graham in the undercard debate.

How many other Americans are, like Graham, pining for the return of a Bush foreign policy that gave us Barack Obama?

Yet, now, a rival school is taking center stage in the Republican presidential campaign, rejecting the knee-jerk hostility to working with Putin. Not only does Rand Paul belong to this school, so, apparently, do Donald Trump and his strongest challenger, Sen. Ted Cruz.

Cruz had previously disparaged the legacy of the "neocons" who prodded Bush into war in Iraq and championed a democracy crusade in the Middle East. In Las Vegas, he spoke of a new national-interest-based foreign policy, a policy that puts "America First."

"If we topple Assad … ISIS will take over Syria, and it will worsen national security interests. And the approach — instead of being … a democracy promoter, we ought to hunt down our enemies and kill ISIS rather than creating opportunities for ISIS to control new countries."

Cruz rejects the Manichaean worldview of the neocons and their reflexive hostility to Russia, and appears willing to work with a Russian autocrat to crush a monstrous evil like ISIS, as U.S. presidents did in working with anti-Communist dictators to win the Cold War.

Midway through the debate, Trump cut loose with a sweeping indictment of mindless American interventionism in the Middle East:

"We've spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that, frankly, if they were there and if we could have spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems — our airports and all the other problems we have — we would have been a lot better off. …

"We have done a tremendous disservice not only to the Middle East — we've done a tremendous disservice to humanity. The people that have been killed, the people that have been wiped away — and for what? It's not like we had victory. It's a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized, a total and complete mess. I wish we had the 4 trillion dollars or 5 trillion dollars. I wish it were spent right here in the United States on schools, hospitals, roads, airports, and everything else that are all falling apart!"

If we do not want Syria in 2016 to become what Sarajevo became in 1914, the powder keg that explodes into a world war, the War Party Republicans, who have learned nothing from the past, should be relegated to the past.

http://buchanan.org/blog/america-first-or-world-war-iii-124443?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatrickBuchanan+%28Pat+Buchanan+Update%29

Merry Christmas!

Great Again!

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Build a wall

I built a wall. This was a big beautiful large wooded fenced in area around my house so that my greyhound does not escape. But she gets away at least once a month anyway, at first because of weaknesses in the wall, and later, once I reinforce those, she finds gate-mishaps, where someone inadvertently leaves the gate ajar. 

So I go trudging through my hundred acre wood trying to catch her, and being a greyhound she's way faster than me, of course. My only hope is that it's daytime (she's black) and she stops often to sniff and explore the ground. And when I finally trap her in a stand of snags and fallen trees, I walk her way back home. 

Yet my adventure isn't over  because the eastern woods here are strewn with ticks from the deer. So we have to spend an hour, both of us, looking for ticks and ridding ourselves of them. And when one gets past my hunt, it bites me and is hard to remove, it's very painful and itchy. So I go to the doctor's to get antibiotics as a precaution against Lyme's disease, which I only pray and hope actually works. And the dog, I hope she's ok, she's got all her shots and I often apply ointment that rids her of fleas and ticks. 

Yet I know if she gets out the fenced in area, she'd surely take that opportunity again. Oh, and the wall, that's to keep her in, and to keep the deer out. And I'll have the deer pay for it.

[response to a story here:
]

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Donald Trump Statement Regarding Paul Ryan Omnibus Spending Bill

"If anyone needed more evidence of why the American people are suffering at the hands of their own government, look no further than the budget deal announced by Speaker Ryan. In order to avoid a government shutdown, a cowardly threat from an incompetent President, the elected Republicans in Congress threw in the towel and showed absolutely no budget discipline.

"The American people will have to absorb higher deficits, greater debt,less economic liberty and more corporate welfare. Congress cannot seem to help itself in bending to every whim of special interests. How can they face their constituents when they continue to burden our children and grandchildren with debts they will never be able to repay? Our government is failing us, so we must do something about it. Who knows how bad things will be when the next administration comes in and has to pick up the pieces?

"The only special interest not being served by our government is the American people. It is time we imposed budget discipline by holding the line on spending, getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse, and by taking on our debt. To do these things, we need a President who can lead the fight to hold Congress and the rest of government accountable. Together, we will Make America Great Again." - Donald J. Trump

Kimmel: Donald Trump children's book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJecWvOTIT8&sns=em

Must see! Funny

Friday, December 11, 2015

Ben Carson blasts RNC


Well said, Dr. Carson!
What do you think, Trump/Carson 2016? Sounds good



Ben Carson blasts RNC, threatens to leave Republican Party

By Nolan D. McCaskill

Ben Carson on Friday blasted the Republican National Committee following a Washington Post report that nearly two-dozen establishment party figures were prepping for a potential brokered convention as Donald Trump continues to lead most polls.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus held a dinner in Washington, D.C., on Monday, and, according to five people who spoke with the Post, the possibility of Trump heading into the Cleveland convention with a noteworthy number of delegates was a topic of discussion. In the meeting, a number of Republicans suggested the establishment lay the groundwork for a floor fight that would lead the party's mainstream wing to unite behind an alternative.

"If the leaders of the Republican Party want to destroy the party, they should continue to hold meetings like the one described in the Washington Post this morning," Carson said in a statement released by his campaign.

Carson said he prays the Post's report is incorrect and threatened to leave the GOP. "If it is correct, every voter who is standing for change must know they are being betrayed. I won't stand for it," said Carson, who noted that if the plot is accurate, "I assure you Donald Trump won't be the only one leaving the party."

The retired neurosurgeon said that next summer's Cleveland convention could be the last Republican National Convention if leaders try to manipulate it.

"I am prepared to lose fair and square, as I am sure is Donald," Carson said. "But I will not sit by and watch a theft. I intend on being the nominee. If I am not, the winner will have my support. If the winner isn't our nominee then we have a massive problem."


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/ben-carson-rnc-washington-post-216674#ixzz3u1j53n1F
151211_ben_carson_gty_1160.jpg

Monday, December 07, 2015

Peter Thiel Goes Nuclear

http://www.popsci.com/peter-thiel-goes-nuclear

Peter Thiel Goes Nuclear

Molten salt reactor - Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Circa 1960s

Just as climate talks kicked off in Paris last week, billionaire tech
mogul Peter Thiel lobbed a nuclear challenge at his fellow
billionaires, as well as politicians in Washington.

If we truly want a carbon-free future (and with it a chance at
lowering, or at the least halting, the planet's rising heat levels),
we need to cast our minds back to the 1960s, to our lost embrace of
nuclear power.

In a hot-button editorial in The New York Times, the PayPal co-founder
noted that wind and solar, while great alternatives to fossil fuels,
"provide less than 2 percent of the world's energy" today. And they
"aren't growing anywhere near fast enough," he writes, to replace the
greenhouse-gas emitting stuff we haul from the ground.

That stuff pumps five billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the
air annually. And that's just in the U.S. Look no further than
Beijing's smog-blanketed streets for visible proof of what the end
times might look like.

What derailed our nuclear future more than a generation ago was a
one-two punch of ominous events: The 1979 Hollywood thriller, The
China Syndrome, with its dark tales of nuclear safety cover ups, and
the life-imitates-art accident that took place at Three Mile
Island—just 12 days after the meltdown movie hit theaters.

"Our power grid could have been carbon-free years ago."

In the wake of these events, hysteria reigned and legislators scuttled
plans for some 100 planned nuclear reactors. Had that not been the
case way back then, Thiel argues, "our power grid could have been
carbon-free years ago."

We now have the choice (once again) to follow science rather than
hysteria. A number of venture capitalists are putting money into new
nuclear reactor designs, such as small modular reactors and those
using alternative fuels, and some not so new designs, such as the one
Thiel's Founders Fund is backing: molten salt.

Creating fission from salt

A little-known, and even less understood, company called Transatomic
Power, run by a couple of young MIT grads and backed by Thiel, has
taken a 1960s reactor design and set about reviving it. Their molten
salt reactor burns liquid uranium (unlike a traditional light water
reactor which burns solid fuel), and acts as a kind of nuclear
waste-eating generator.

It can actually run on the spent fuel of other reactors. When you
consider that the 99 reactors operating in the U.S. today churn out
2,000 tons of nuclear waste a year (for a total of 80,000 tons and
counting), molten salt reactors make a ton of sense. In fact, our
current radioactive waste heap could supply all of the nation's energy
needs for the next 80 years.

Not only that, but their risk of meltdown is exponentially lower.

All of which make Transatomic's founders Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie
(who Popular Science profiled this summer) worth listening to. With as
much as $6 million in backing, the pair is testing their design in a
lab on the MIT campus. They plan to build a 20-megawatt demo reactor
within five years. Their goal is to build a 520-watt commercial
reactor for $1.7 billion--half the cost of a traditional reactor.

How their reactor does its job better than any other

In light water reactors, uranium is packed in rods and submerged in
water. Through fission, this produces heat that creates steam, which
drives a turbine that produces electricity. The downside is that
fission byproducts, like krypton and xenon, build up in the rods. They
eventually halt fission entirely. The rods must be replaced every four
years and are now radioactive waste—with 96 percent of their energy
still intact.

Molten salt reactors, on the other hand, flip that equation producing
only 4 percent waste and using 96 percent of their energy. They do
this by using solid uranium salt as fuel. The salt heats up, via
fission, changes to a liquid, flows through pipes, along with spent
fuel pellets, and eventually cause water in adjacent pipes to heat,
convert to steam, and all the rest of it.

As the fuel flows, the fission byproducts aren't trapped. They are
safely off-gassed. As Dewan told PopSci, the reactor can "simmer like
a Crock-Pot for decades." The liquid fuel salt constantly flows past a
drain with a freeze plug of uranium. Should the reactor lose
electricity (the cause of most meltdowns), the plug would melt and the
fuel would drain into a tank where it would cool and solidify.

That makes the reactor not only insanely efficient, but safe.

So why don't we already have one of these?

For the past half century, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) has been focused on only one type of reactor—the inefficient
light-water reactor. They have not turned their attention to other
types (and there are others, including the traveling wave nuclear
reactor, a sodium-cooled fast reactor that uses depleted uranium as
fuel, and which Bill Gates' TerraPower is developing with China). So
it's unclear if the regulators will be prepared when Dewan and Massie
(and Gates and others) come to them to unleash their reactors on the
electric grid.

What we need is a path forward. Without one, future investors might
lack to the guts to put up money, as Thiel has, for these next
generation nukes.

Ironically, and some say dangerously, the NRC is now focused on
whether or not to extend licenses for the nation's clutch of aging
nukes that should be readying for the retirement vaults. Some nuclear
operators, led by Dominion Resources, want the NRC to extend reactors'
lifespan to 80 years, twice as long as was originally permitted. Most
of the nation's nukes have already received extensions of 20 years,
past their original 40-year operating licenses.

The anti-nuke crowd has complained that decades of wear and tear make
it a risky prospect. The NRC, however, is looking at it seriously.
Next month, it is expected to release a draft of safety measures it
would require if it were to extend the lifespan of these nukes.

What we need is a path forward.

The other thing holding back next-gen nuclear energy is competition.
Cheap and abundant natural gas from shale fields have squeezed the
economics of our current nuclear operators, suffering from high
operating costs and cheap power. Federal environmental regulations
cracking down on carbon emissions are expected to squeeze back at gas
producers. No one is holding their breath that these rules and their
business costs will tip the economic balance anytime soon.

There is, however, one dark and indisputable cost that refuses to
budge. As Thiel points out, fewer than 50 people died in the worst
nuclear reactor accident in history, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster,
which was caused by bad design and human incompetence. By contrast, he
notes, "the American Lung Association estimates that smoke from
coal-fired power plants kill 13,000 people every year."

Now that's something to get hysterical about.

Sunday, December 06, 2015

$18.8 trillion

Thanks 0bama. ..
The last time US rates were above zero, total US debt was $10 trillion. It is now $18.8 trillion

Beautiful sunset!

Enjoy

Friday, December 04, 2015

2015-12-04 16:54

Deflation is hurting us all!

Why This Sucker Is Going Down... Again

You ought to like this article, it totally bashes George Bush for
appointing Bernanke to the Federal Reserve. And I agree, Keynesean
central banking policy is creating bubbles which will someday burst
all over again causing more recession. What we need is a hands-off
approach, let capitalism alone to do it's own thing. Banks are NOT too
big to fail. If truth be know, it's likely Bush listened to his stupid
advisers because he wanted McCain to win the upcoming election. Yet he
didn't see that McCain lost because of his stupid idea that he should
suspend his campaign to address the housing crisis. He should have
voted against TARP and stayed on the campaign trail.



Why This Sucker Is Going Down... Again
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-04/why-sucker-going-down-again

by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

George Bush famously told an assembled group of Congressional leaders
in the aftermath of the Lehman filing that unless they immediately
passed an open-ended Wall Street bailout "this sucker is going down".

They blindly complied. Yet for awhile it seemed of no avail.

By the post-crisis bottom in Q1 2009, household net worth had plunged
from $68 trillion to $55 trillion or by nearly 20%. That reflected a
60% collapse in the stock averages and a 35% meltdown of housing
prices.

For a fleeting moment it appeared that economic truth had come home to
roost. Namely, that permanent gains in wealth and living standards
cannot be achieved by the kind of rampant speculation and debt-fueled
financialization that had generated the phony boom of the Greenspan
era.

But that didn't reckon with the greatest and most unfortunate accident
of modern financial history. The clueless White House advisors who
counseled George Bush in September 2008 to violate the free market in
order to save it, had also advised him to appoint Ben Bernanke to the
Fed in 2002, and then to promote him to the post of Chairman of the
Council of Economic Advisors in 2005 and finally to become head of the
Fed in January 2006.

But here's the thing. Bernanke was an academic hybrid of the two worst
economic influences of the 20th century——the out and out statism of
John Maynard Keynes and the backdoor statism of Milton Freidman's
central bank based monetarism.

Both of these grand theoreticians got the causes of the Great
Depression wrong, and Bernanke did doubly so. You can reduce all of
his vaunted expertise about the 1930s to a single proposition.

To wit, the Fed should have bought up the entire $17 billion of
government bonds outstanding at the time in order to liquefy the
banking system and thereby arrest the plunge in economic output.

I have refuted that hoary tale in detail in the Great Deformation. The
short of it is that the banking system collapsed because it was
insolvent after the 15-year, debt-fueled boom of World War I and the
Roaring Twenties, not because it was parched for liquidity or because
the Fed had been too stingy in the provision of reserves.

In fact, money market interest rates barely exceeded 1% during the
1930-1932 period when Friedman and Bernanke claim the Fed was too
tight; and excess (i.e. idle) reserves in the banking system soared by
15X.

There is no evidence that any solvent bank that was a member of the
Federal Reserve System was denied discount loans or that solvent main
street business that wanted more credit couldn't get it.

Instead, what happened was that the reckless expansion of bank credit
during the years prior to the 1929 crash was liquidated because it
couldn't be serviced or repaid.

Total loans outstanding had grown from $15 billion to $40 billion
during the proceeding decade and one-half, but much of it had gone
into margin loans on Wall Street, real estate speculation and massive
over-investment in US export and capital goods industries that
collapsed once Wall Street financing of foreign customers dried up
after the crash.

So the money supply measured as M1 shrunk by about 30% during the
three years after the crash because bad loans were being liquidated
and bank deposits extinguished. There was no disappearance of that
Keynesian ether called "aggregate demand". Rather, it was that the
phony wealth of the prior credit boom which inexorably evaporated.

Needless to say, the events in the fall of 2008 had nothing to do with
what actually occurred after the 1929 crash. Back then the US was the
world's powerhouse exporter and creditor, but like in China today the
apparent prosperity of the times depended upon vendor finance.

That is, with the help of the Federal Reserve, the US banking system
and bond market had advanced the equivalent of $2 trillion in today's
economic scale to foreign customers of US farmers and manufacturers.

When the stock market bubble collapsed in October 1929, however, the
Wall Street market in foreign debt went stone cold, triggering a
cascade of worldwide defaults. By early 1933, the booming foreign debt
market of the 1920s had become the subprime mortgage market of its
day—-with debt prices sinking to less than ten cents on the dollar.

In short order, Warren Buffett's famous metaphor about naked swimmers
being exposed when the tide goes out was well demonstrated; it
transpired that US export customers had been borrowing new money in
order to pay interest on their accumulating debts, but without access
to new credits they had no option but to drastically curtail new
orders.

Accordingly, US exports collapsed by 80% during the three years after
the 1929 peak, leaving US industry stranded in excess capacity and
overloaded with working inventories of raw materials, intermediate
goods and finished products.

The latter, for example, dropped from $40 billion to $18 billion and
capital spending dropped by 75% during 1930-1933. Likewise, with the
collapse of the stock market and the easy credit boom, sales of
durable goods like autos, washing machines and radios dropped by
upwards of 70%.

In short, the Great Depression was not an avoidable mistake of the Fed
during 1930-1933 as Bernanke falsely demonstrated when he xeroxed
Milton Friedman's erroneous history of the 1930s; it was the economic
consequence of the unsustainable 1916-1929 credit and financial bubble
that had been fostered by the Fed.

So Bernanke had it upside-down as a historical matter, and way out in
left field as a contemporary policy matter. That is, as he ran around
Washington in the fall of 2008 yelling that Great Depression 2.0 was
at hand he was preaching groundless hysteria.

The fact is, at the time of the housing and mortgage bust the US
economy did not resemble that of 1929 in the slightest; and there was
not even a remote risk of the kind of industrial depression that had
occurred in the early 1930s.

That's because after 20 years of Greenspan-Bernanke money printing and
its replication by China and the rest of the EM export mercantilist
central banks, the US economy had been essentially de-industrialized.
There was no risk whatsoever that the kind of capital spending
reduction and inventory liquidation that had occurred in the early
1930s would be replicated.

Indeed, for a short period of time the brunt of the industrial
production adjustment occurred in China and the EM. In effect, China
and its supply chain had become the exporter/creditors of the present
era.

Thus, the post-crash Hoovervilles this time around were in the Chinese
interior as 100 million migrant workers streamed home after suddenly
being thrown out of work when world trade collapsed in the fall/winter
of 2008-2009.

By the same token, spending by US households after the 2008 crisis was
bolstered by a surge of automatic income transfer payments for
unemployment insurance, food stamps, Medicaid/Medicare and other
safety net programs; and by employment in the vast domestic service
sector that as an inherent structural matter does not shutdown to
liquidate inventories because it has none.

During a spending recession service businesses shrink incrementally,
not radically. Pilates instructors book less hours but their studios
do not go dark like factories.

Needless to say, the global debtor, massive importer, service-based
de-industrialized welfare state that the US had become by September
2008 was the polar opposite of the 1930s economy that Bernanke so
badly misunderstood in the first place. And for that reason, a classic
industrial depression was never in the cards.

To take one example, inventory liquidation during the Great Depression
amounted to a 20% shrinkage of GDP, but only a 2% reduction during the
Great Recession.

In fact, as I also demonstrated in The Great Deformation, the moderate
liquidation of the excess inventories and payrolls that had built-up
during the Fed's unsustainable housing and credit boom was over and
done by mid-2009. Indeed, the recession had cured itself even before
the $800 billion Obama stimulus program or the Fed's massive QE
maneuver had any measurable impact on the US economy.

So Bernanke lunatic money printing spree which took the Fed's balance
sheet from $900 billion on the eve of the crisis to $4.5 trillion did
not prevent any semblance whatsoever of a Great Depression 2.0.

What it did, instead, was inflate the mother of all financial bubbles.
Not only was the phony household wealth that had b een destroyed by
the last crisis entirely recovered, but it has been increased by
another $18 trillion to boot.

Needless to say, the above chart is the product of massive asset price
inflation, not increases in the ingredients of real societal wealth.
That is, gains in labor hours employed, productivity gains realized
and entrepreneurial energies unleashed.

In the case of labor hour growth, for example, there has been none.

That's right! Between the Q3 2007 pre-crisis peak and the most recent
quarter, household wealth as measured by the Fed soared by $18
trillion or 24%, but labor hours have risen less than one-half of one
percent.

Likewise, labor productivity has stalled dramatically. Since the
pre-crisis peak nonfarm business productivity has grown by only 1.1%
annually or at just half its historic 2.3% rate. Moreover, during the
last five years productivity has grown at just 0.4% per annum.

There is obviously no way to quantify entrepreneurial activity per se.
Indeed, the various facets of it—- creative destruction, business
innovation and disruptive technological change—-are crucial to
capitalist prosperity precisely because they can't be quantified in
recurring statistical series from the government's data mills.

Nevertheless, Gallup has long tracked the birth, death and net change
in US business firms, and that trend is unequivocal. It had been
heading south for many years, but took a step-change downward after
the financial crisis; and it still has not recovered.

Finally, it's just a plain fact of history that without gains in real
net investment there can be no gain in real wealth. Yet real net
investment in the US business economy today is 8% lower than at the
2007 peak and 17% below turn of the century levels.

So how do you grow household wealth by $18 trillion in the face of
these dismal real world trends?

In a word, with a printing press. But what happened today is that
Draghi showed he is out of tricks and Yellen confessed she is out of
excuses.

Yes, this sucker is going down. And this time all the misguided
economics professors turned central bankers in the world will be
powerless to reverse the plunge.

Why Liberal Media Hate Trump

Why Liberal Media Hate Trump

Pat Buchanan: 'His contempt for the norms of political correctness is
daily on display'


In the feudal era there were the "three estates" – the clergy, the
nobility and the commons. The first and second were eradicated in
Robespierre's Revolution.

But in the 18th and 19th century, Edmund Burke and Thomas Carlyle
identified what the latter called a "stupendous Fourth Estate."

Wrote William Thackeray: "Of the Corporation of the Goosequill – of
the Press … of the fourth estate. … There she is – the great engine –
she never sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the
world – her courtiers upon every road. Her officers march along with
armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets."

The fourth estate, the press, the disciples of Voltaire, had replaced
the clergy it had dethroned as the new arbiters of morality and
rectitude.

Today the press decides what words are permissible and what thoughts
are acceptable. The press conducts the inquisitions where heretics are
blacklisted and excommunicated from the company of decent men, while
others are forgiven if they recant their heresies.

With the rise of network television and its vast audience, the fourth
estate reached apogee in the 1960s and 1970s, playing lead roles in
elevating JFK and breaking Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

Yet before he went down, Nixon inflicted deep and enduring wounds upon
the fourth estate.

When the national press and its auxiliaries sought to break his
Vietnam War policy in 1969, Nixon called on the "great silent
majority" to stand by him and dispatched Vice President Spiro Agnew to
launch a counter-strike on network prejudice and power.

A huge majority rallied to Nixon and Agnew, exposing how far out of
touch with America our Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal had become.

Nixon, the man most hated by the elites in the postwar era, save Joe
McCarthy, who also detested and battled the press, then ran up a
49-state landslide against the candidate of the media and
counter-culture, George McGovern. Media bitterness knew no bounds.

And with Watergate, the press extracted its pound of flesh. By August
1974, it had reached a new apex of national prestige.

In "The Making of the President 1972," Teddy White described the power
the "adversary press" had acquired over America's public life.

"The power of the press in America is a primordial one. It sets the
agenda of public discussion, and this sweeping political power is
unrestrained by any law. It determines what people will talk and think
about – an authority that in other nations is reserved for tyrants,
priests, parties and mandarins."

Order Pat Buchanan's brilliant and prescient books at WND's Superstore.

Nixon and Agnew were attacked for not understanding the First
Amendment freedom of the press. But all they were doing was using
their First Amendment freedom of speech to raise doubts about the
objectivity, reliability and truthfulness of the adversary press.

Since those days, conservatives have attacked the mainstream media
attacking them. And four decades of this endless warfare has stripped
the press of its pious pretense to neutrality.

Millions now regard the media as ideologues who are masquerading as
journalists and use press privileges and power to pursue agendas not
dissimilar to those of the candidates and parties they oppose.

Even before Nixon and Agnew, conservatives believed this.

At the Goldwater convention at the Cow Palace in 1964 when
ex-President Eisenhower mentioned "sensation-seeking columnists and
commentators," to his amazement, the hall exploded.

Enter The Donald.

His popularity is traceable to the fact that he rejects the moral
authority of the media, breaks their commandments and mocks their
condemnations. His contempt for the norms of political correctness is
daily on display.

And that large slice of America that detests a media whose public
approval now rivals that of Congress relishes this defiance. The last
thing these folks want Trump to do is to apologize to the press.

And the media have played right into Trump's hand.

They constantly denounce him as grossly insensitive for what he has
said about women, Mexicans, Muslims, McCain and a reporter with a
disability. Such crimes against decency, says the press, disqualify
Trump as a candidate for president.

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WND.com, America's independent news network.

Yet, when they demand he apologize, Trump doubles down. And when they
demand that Republicans repudiate him, the GOP base replies:

"Who are you to tell us whom we may nominate? You are not friends. You
are not going to vote for us. And the names you call Trump – bigot,
racist, xenophobe, sexist – are the names you call us, nothing but
cuss words that a corrupt establishment uses on those it most
detests."

What the Trump campaign reveals is that, to populists and Republicans,
the political establishment and its media arm are looked upon the way
the commons and peasantry of 1789 looked upon the ancien regime and
the king's courtiers at Versailles.

Yet, now that the fourth estate is as discredited as the clergy in
1789, the larger problem is that there is no arbiter of truth,
morality and decency left whom we all respect. Like fourth-century
Romans, we barely agree on what those terms mean anymore.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/why-liberal-media-hate-trump/#gbEPBvbSxjVYMlip.99