Miscellaneous

While Trump’s signature issue is immigration, his real strength as a candidate is his promise to “Make America Great Again.”  That is, he is an unreconstructed and unapologetic American nationalist.

Proposing a ban on all Muslim entry has an appeal because it is based on unalloyed, in your face, self interest.  To hell with world opinion, the U. N., our allies, the Pope, or anybody else.  This is what’s best for the USA, and you can all go stuff it.  It’s precisely the sort of thing Vladimir Putin would do.

It works so exceedingly well because it is in such stark contrast to Obama.  He does not pursue the best interests of the United States.  He does what he thinks best for humanity.  If our national interest coincides, great.  If not, tough.  America is too big, too strong, and too pushy to begin with.  If its interests have to be sacrificed for the betterment of the world, so be it.  It’s only payback for two hundred years of racism and capitalist exploitation.

If you want to pick up support from the tribe of Trump, try working on your American nationalism.

I believe both the Cubans are full bore American nationalists, and aren’t afraid to show it.  They need to start talking the talk.  I was surprised when Cruz came out against TPP, the Asian trade deal.  Right wing intellectuals like him are for free trade, philosophically, as am I.  I’m not going to try and figure out if his opposition is justified.  I’m not an economist.  The fact that it was negotiated by the Obama crowd certainly gives me pause.  Any Republican would get a better deal, so let’s put it off  (Which will happen, regardless.  It’s not up until 2017).

But regardless of the merits, opposing TPP lets Cruz draft right along behind Trump in the lead car.*  All in all, Trump’s presence in the race so far has been a positive.  It might have happened without him, but once Trump got in the race it was clear that the Republican nomination would only be won by a true immigration hawk, someone who can convince the Republican primary electorate that he will seal the border, and totally overhaul our broken immigration system.  Bush mush wasn’t going to cut it.

With his call of closing our borders to Muslims, he has done us another favor.  Hidden in all the outrage which greeted Trump’s proposal, Cruz was able to put out his own, drastic but reasonable plan without being condemned as an extremist.  If Cruz had not been drafting behind the Donald, he’d have taken some heat.  Thanks, D.

Because Cruz’s plan, besides being good on the merits, is political gold.  As details of the sleeper cell which erupted in San Bernadino come out, the idea of bringing more of these people into our country is going to start to seem suicidal.  How can this be in our national interest?  This is a big issue, and it’s going to get bigger.  Cruz has hit the sweet spot, and will reap the reward.

When I was getting ready to start my freshman year at Cal in 1962 I ordered a Goldwater sweatshirt from National Review so I’d have something to wear.  There was this guy teaching ECON 101, a socialist named Andreas Papandreou.  600 kids in an auditorium, so I’d get there a little early so I could sit in the front row and stare at him.  What a dumb bastard.  He became Prime Minster of Greece in 1981, and began laying the foundation for the collapse of the Greek economy.  I don’t think he knew who Goldwater was.

Because I wanted to be a politician I took a class in Speech.  I thought it would have to do something with speaking, which I figured I was pretty good at.  Not so.  I can’t remember what the hell it was about.  But the Professor knew who Goldwater was, and made plain he didn’t care for him.  Finally one day, as a class exercise in “Speech”, he said, he started off a discussion about politicians, and what we really know about them.  He says, “What do we really know about Barry Goldwater?  What do we know for sure?  Well, we know that he’s the senior Senator from  Arizona  — ”  at which point I interrupt, and explain that Goldwater is the junior Senator.

I got a C in ECON and a D in Speech.  I took off my Goldwater sweatshirt, quit college and got a job.

I wasn’t cut out for academia.

 

 

Hat tip, Dr. Krauthammer.

Antonin Scalia better not show his face in New Haven. The kids there are sensitive little flowers, and at the slightest provocation  — they call it a micro aggression  — they lose the will to live.  They can’t study, they can’t sleep, they just can’t function.  A call for tolerance in Halloween costumes gives them such a case of vapors that they needed to take time off from school to recover their nerve.

In oral argument yesterday Scalia referred to academic research showing mismatched affirmative action students do poorly in schools to which they are not qualified for admission.  Studies show they’re much better off at less rigorous academic settings. For this, he is pilloried.

I have to admit I just can’t get inside the head of these people.  Yale is a tough place to get into.  You need super grades, very high test scores, and God knows what else.  Kids who get in on their merits are high achievers with natural mental ability.  It’s a hard thing to admit, but the kids at Hackensack State just aren’t as bright and probably not as highly motivated.  So what would you expect if you took some kids from Hackenstack State and put them in Yale instead?  A few would do fine, but most would have a tough time.  Many would get discouraged and drop out, whereas if they’d stayed at State they’d have done fine.

Is that line of thinking controversial?  Are you kidding?  In Canada they can throw you in jail for hate speech for saying something like that.  According to one report, there were gasps of disbelief in the audience when Scalia uttered  his hate thought.

My God, my God.  As I saw  for myself at UCLA Law, Class of ’74, the black kids who get in on affirmative action have a very difficult time.  At UCLA Law, once you were admitted you were pretty much guaranteed to graduate.  They didn’t want people dropping out.  So all these guys got their J.D., and then 90% couldn’t pass the bar exam.  They’re not lawyers, the just have a law degree.  Whoop de do.  Was that worth three of the best years of your life?

But oh the faculty and administration were so proud of themselves.  They were so enlightened.  They were the good people.

So it gets down to Justice Kennedy.  What a weasel.  The last time the case was up he wanted it remanded so the trial court could give him some rationale for upholding affirmative action.  Kennedy, also, is enlightened, and a good person.  So now it’s back before them and they’ve got nothing for him.  He wanted the University to give him some cover, and they came up empty.  So for the first hour or so (I’m going off news accounts) he wonders aloud if maybe they should send it back again.  He doesn’t want to rule against the University, but he needs some help, some factual basis for his opinion.  Finally at the end of argument he gives up.  Sending it back wouldn’t do any good.  He’s stuck with the facts he’s got, and will be forced to rule against the University.  But he won’t strike down affirmative action.  It will be a narrowly tailored opinion.  Because Kennedy is a kind and caring person with great moral vision.

Where was Texas Gov. Perry when all this was going on?  Didn’t he control appointments to the Board of Regents, which devised these policies?

Public universities are subject to public control through the political process.  It’s time people start demanding their elected representatives stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law.

Reagan did it.

National Review is reporting that Sen. Sessions is all in on cutting Syrian refugee money from the coming omnibus, and willing to dare a shutdown over the issue.  There may be 70 House R’s ready to go with him.   Where’s Texas Ted?

Meanwhile Ryan is slow walking the negotiations with the D’s.  This leads Politico to think he feels a little delay right now works to his advantage.

One reason he’s right is the continuing saga of the San Bernadino jihadi’s visa.  We’re told Syrian refugees will be thoroughly vetted.  Nobody believes that, and the evidence coming in on San Bernadino confirms the skepticism.  Let this drip, drip continue.

I think a shutdown over refugees is much different than previous such efforts.  In ’95 it was over budget cuts  — abstract, ephemeral, nothing you can use as a call to arms.  In 2013 it was the implementation of Obamacare  — again a failure.  Congress and the President had passed the law, why don’t the Republicans give it a chance?  What are they afraid of?  Likewise, Planned Parenthood funding doesn’t cut it for a shutdown.  Most people don’t feel that strongly about it.

After San Bernadino, things have changed.  People are worried.  Something could happen to them and their families, and the government seems blase about it all.

This is the time, and refugees are the issue, to make this thing work.  You’ve already got a veto proof majority in the House.  The Democratic Senators up in 2016 don’t want blood on their hands.

If Obama is fool enough to shut down the government because he wants Syrian refugees, and he wants them now, he’ll lose.  I hope Limbaugh, Levin, et al jump on this today.  This is a fight we can win.

Take your time, Ryan.  Your Speakership is on the line.  If you cave, and let Pelosi get away with funding the Syrian refugees, you’re going to look like Boehner without the tan.  This is a big one.  Get it right.

Has watching Trump taught you nothing?

At Nate Silver’s 538.com they describe the Republican electorate as a five-ring circus, composed of Libertarian, Tea Party, Evangelical, Establishment and Moderate voters.  A candidate who can bring three of the rings together will be the winner.  Ted Cruz is the one who’s doing it.

With his pastor/father Rafael leading the way, Cruz has taken the lead among Iowa religious voters away from Ben Carson.  Their affection for the fervently Christian Carson is not enough to overcome his obvious weakness as a Commander in Chief.  Santorum and Huckabee are his other competitors in this ring, and neither has Cruz’s money or organization.  They’re going nowhere, and evangelicals like to go with a winner just like everyone else.  Cruz now has this bloc firmly in his grasp, and he’s not letting go.

Marco Rubio is Cruz’s main competition for the Tea Party ring, but he’s not putting in the time schmoozing with them that Iowans believe they’re entitled to.  Cruz has a far superior organization in a state that greatly rewards it.  While Rubio seeks to bridge the establishment/Tea Party divide, Cruz revels in denunciations of the Republican power elites.  He’s Tea Party born and bred, and it’s paying off.

Cruz’s third ring, the one that puts him over the top, is libertarian, where he competes with Rand Paul, a disappointingly tepid campaigner who seems a little lost.  He’s going nowhere in a hurry, and has to start thinking about winning reelection to the Senate.  It’s entirely possible he may drop out and throw his support to Cruz, who largely shares his ideology.

Part of that ideology is an aversion to foreign adventures, crusades, and immersion in the endless civil wars of the Middle East.  When Cruz continues to insist he will not put an American army into the middle of this hell hole, he appeals to a very important bloc of Iowa voters.  As Michael Barone, who knows these things, states in The Almanac of American Politics, Iowa is “. . . one of the most dovish, isolationist-prone states . . ” in the Union.

For the rest, here’s the link to American Thinker.

 

 

A couple hundred years ago soldiers were told not to shoot until they saw the whites of the eyes of the advancing enemy.  Not everyone has the discipline and self confidence required in such situations.  I’m talking about Republicans panicking over Trump’s popularity.

Polls at the moment show him far more popular than his rivals, and nervous Nellies worry that he could win the nomination.  This is as far fetched as it’s ever been.  There is a large majority within the Republican Party that opposes his nomination, and until that changes he can’t win.

The danger is a third party run.  It’s unlikely, but he’s an unpredictable man.  The longer he stays in the Republican nomination contest, the less likely, and feasible, that option becomes for him.  We want Donald in the race at least until Super Tuesday, March 1st.  After that a third party run would be impossible to win, and Donald Trump is not a spoiler.  By definition, a spoiler is a loser.  He will have lost his campaign for the Republican nomination.   He won’t want to go down in history as a two time sore loser.

The nominee will want his support and his followers.  He could lose without them.  They can’t be given the raw meat the Donald throws, but they can be convinced that the border will be sealed, illegal immigrants are not automatically made citizens, and that legal immigration will be reduced, and Muslim immigration paused.  If they believe the Republican will deliver on those, they’ll vote for him.  It’s up to the nominee to figure this out.  Cruz has, and I believe Rubio has, as well.

Meanwhile, sit back and enjoy the left go absolutely bat shit crazy over Trump’s outrageous, in your face, f… you attitude.  You’ve got to admire a guy that can dish it out like Trump.

But I don’t think he can take it.  But I don’t want the Cuban, whichever it is, to be the one to put him down.  Very bad idea.  Someone else has to do it.  Media, third party of some kind — anybody but the nominee.  This is basic. I assume the Cubans are smart enough to figure this out.

On January 21st, 2012, Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary with 40% of the vote.  He had just been endorsed by Sarah Palin and Gov. Rick Perry, who was dropping out.

I remember people thinking Gingrich was going to be the nominee, just like they think Trump can be the nominee.  Except Gingrich had actually won an election, instead of leading in popularity polls.

I had never met Gingrich, but I’d been watching him closely for years.  I attended some event in D.C. in the 90’s that he was supposed to speak to, but had to cancel.  So they play his canned speech on the big screen.  I had an instant, visceral dislike of this man.  He was arrogant, patronizing, and a man, deep down, who was unsure of himself.

So after South Carolina I wasn’t worried about Gingrich winning at all.  A guy with such obvious off putting character defects can’t win a Presidential election  in the television age.  He wouldn’t hold up.  And he didn’t.

Trump’s no Gingrich.  Gingrich was the architect of the ’94 Revolution and House Speaker.  Trump, on the other hand, has mastered the art of television.  He’s a media candidate, and a good one.  His faults are different than Gingrich’s, and far more disqualifying.  Three months is a very long time in a modern nomination contest.  More than enough time for his weaknesses to be fully revealed.

People who are heavily involved in politics, such as myself, sometimes forget that this fight has just begun.  After Christmas, things will really get serious.

I’ve gone, personally, from supporting  Rand Paul, to John Kasich, to Marco Rubio, and now, finally to Cruz.  I’ve got nowhere else to go.  This is going to be fun.