Month: January 2019

A potential Ross Perot?

Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, is “seriously considering” running for president as an independent. But because he’s politically liberal, Democrats are freaking out and trying to get him not to run, as he might snag some of the Democratic vote and hand the election to Trump:

Democrats were out in full force on Sunday blasting the idea of an independent presidential bid by longtime Democrat and billionaire businessman Howard Schultz, who said he was “seriously thinking” of doing so.

Julián Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development secretary under President Barack Obama and a contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, urged the former Starbucks CEO to not pursue such a run.

“I have a concern that if he did run, that, essentially, it would provide Donald Trump with his best hope of getting re-elected,” Castro said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, went much further than Castro, tweeting that “Vanity projects that help destroy democracy are disgusting.”

“If he enters the race, I will start a Starbucks boycott because I’m not giving a penny that will end up in the election coffers of a guy who will help Trump win,” she said.

Although I wasn’t alive in 1992, to me this echoes Ross Perot’s independent presidential run that year. Both Schultz and Perot are wealthy businessmen concerned with fiscal issues over social issues. Schultz’s biggest issue is the $21 trillion national debt, he has ripped the idea of single-payer healthcare, and thinks Democrats have veered too far left in recent years. You also can’t ignore the fact that Perot undoubtedly took votes from people who otherwise would’ve voted for George H.W. Bush, ensuring a Bill Clinton victory. This is what the Democrats are fearing would happen to their nominee, thereby making Trump’s path to reelection easier.

Now I’m not saying Schultz and Perot are similar to a T. For one, the election hasn’t even begun. Moreover, I highly doubt Schultz could come close to receiving 18.9% of the vote, which is what Perot did in ’92, and neither do I think Schultz could convey an effective populist message that Perot was able to convey, especially since Trump himself rode the waves of populist resentment towards the political establishment a mere two-and-some-change years ago.

Speaking of Trump, here’s what he had to say about Schultz’s potential presidential bid:

If Schultz’s candidacy could cause just a couple percent of Democrats to vote for him instead of the Democratic nominee, then I think he should run. Trump could likely beat whomever the Democrats nominate without Schultz running as an independent, but a little help from the ex-Starbucks CEO should not be unwelcome.

Did the religion of peace strike again?

A Catholic cathedral was bombed during Mass in southern Philippines, leaving 20 people dead and 81 others wounded:

Photos showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past. Troops in armored carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles transported the dead and wounded to the hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

“We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy,” the office of President Rodrigo Duterte said in Manila.

Though no one has claimed responsibility yet, it is suspected that Islamic militants might have done it:

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. A Catholic bishop, Benjamin de Jesus, was gunned down by suspected militants outside the cathedral in 1997.

Those 20 people have surely received their heavenly reward.

Tweet of the day

I laughed out loud at this one:

The context behind this tweet is BuzzFeed, HuffPost, and Gannett recently laying off a combined 1,000 journalists. Now the media industry has changed significantly over the past few years and there are numerous reasons why they’re struggling, though I can’t help but notice that these layoffs come at a time when they’ve made several large missteps just twenty-six days into the New Year. Think about Robert Mueller’s office of the special council flat out denying the credibility of a BuzzFeed story which stated, without evidence from its “sources,” that Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie in his congressional testimony. Think about the media getting bent out of shape over Karen Pence’s new teaching job at a Christian school that, well, upholds traditional Christian doctrine on homosexuality, the two sexes, and sexual morality. And, of course, think about the reporting on Nathan Phillips and his brigade of indigenous peoples vs. the Covington Catholic boys, which is the most glaring example of the media’s hostility towards white, Christian, politically conservative people as well as its dwindling credibility.

I’ve heard it asserted that Trump has had a bad 2019 thus far. But it’s certainly not as bad as the lamestream media’s.

Clown World Link Dump

1. CBS News calls this dad the “best dad”: he dressed himself and his son up in dresses and danced to “Frozen” songs

2. Jewish couple plays the “anti-Semitic” card after passengers on their flight complained of bad body odor, even though supposedly no one knew what their religion was

3. “It’s Time to Make it Impossible for Racists to Live Public Lives: And, yeah, we can start with Nick Sandmann”

4. In Iowa, parents of children as young as 12 years old are by law denied access to their children’s medical records

On Trump’s deal-making skills

I’m seeing lots of people pointing out Donald Trump’s supposedly poor deal-making skills in the wake of yesterday’s Rose Garden announcement, mostly in a sarcastic manner. After all, how could the man who wrote The Art of the Deal so badly lose to the Democrats on border wall funding and the government shutdown?

Well first off, the fight is not over. Losing a battle doesn’t mean you’ll lose the war. Second, you can be the world’s greatest negotiator and deal-maker, yet if you’re trying to make a deal with people who aren’t all that interested in making a deal, you’re probably not going to make that deal, plain and simple. It’s tough to be reasonable with unreasonable people.

But hey, there might be some congressional Democrats who want to cut a deal that includes border wall funding before the government shuts down again in three weeks. We’ll see. This three-week period will speak volumes about both the Democrats as well as Trump himself.

On the Rose Garden announcement

President Trump made an announcement from the Rose Garden just a few minutes ago. He will sign a bill reopening the federal government for three weeks until February 15. He moreover continued to make his case for the wall, which makes it obvious that wall funding will not be included in this bill.

Sounds to me like three more weeks for Democrats and Republicans to talk past each other and fail to come up with a border security plan that includes wall funding. I don’t think Trump fully understands that Democrats don’t really want to strike a deal. So, it would not surprise me if the government were to shut down again three weeks from now, putting us right back at square one.

If that happens, Trump needs to declare a national emergency and build the wall. There’s no other option. He can’t keep announcing that he has this power in his back pocket without ever intending to use it. Many leftists and many on the nationalist right are already calling today’s Rose Garden announcement a capitulation to the Democrats. He cannot lose on this issue lest he lose in 2020, lest our country keep losing.

Random thoughts on Roger Stone’s arrest

I was in a rush this morning, hence my lack of a reaction on the FBI’s raid at Roger Stone’s home and his arrest. So now here are some random thoughts swirling around in my head:

  • There is still no evidence of collusion with Russia.
  • What’s the deal with the full-scale raid with assault rifles and body armor? A little much, don’t you think? Probably just a scare tactic.
  • Curiously enough, CNN filmed the raid. Gee, I wonder how they knew to be at Stone’s home before sunrise…

FBI arrests Roger Stone

Politico:

Roger Stone, a longtime aide and confidant of President Donald Trump, was arrested early Friday morning by the FBI after being indicted for allegations he lied to and obstructed the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The seven-count indictment alleges Stone misled lawmakers on the committee about his efforts to communicate with Wikileaks and his contacts with the Trump campaign. It also accuses Stone of attempting to intimidate another witness: radio host Randy Credico, who was in contact with Wikileaks head Julian Assange in 2016.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office said Stone will make an appearance at 11 a.m. Friday at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. A Washington D.C. grand jury approved the indictment Thursday.

…

Grant Smith, one of Stone attorney’s attorneys, told POLITICO that he expects his client to be released after his appearance in court Friday with an arraignment likely next week in Washington. There, Stone plans to enter a not guilty plea.

“Roger intends to fight these trumped up baseless charges that have nothing to do with the original intent of the special counsel’s investigation,” Smith said in a brief interview.

Stone has insisted he would not flip on Trump and in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month insisted on his innocence “because there is no crime.”

A 6:00am raid by FBI agents armed with assault rifles and clad in body armor. Pretty dramatic, eh? We’ll see what comes of this.

Clown World Link Dump

1. Dreamer activist wants to rewrite the Pledge of Allegiance because it’s “rooted in … white supremacy”

2. This is the most favorable piece I’ve read about a fringe fundamentalist religious group from any mainstream media outlet… and of course it’s about the Black Hebrew Israelites

3. Did BuzzFeed’s CEO pose as a prominent gun rights activist to spread anti-gun fake news?

4. One of the Indigenous Peoples March organizers makes it known that she wants to fight Catholicism

5. Male nurse arrested for allegedly impregnating incapacitated woman who then gave birth

New York’s despicable new legislation

Reuters:

New York state enacted one of the nation’s strongest protections for abortion rights Tuesday, a move that state leaders say was needed to safeguard those rights should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly passed the bill Tuesday, the 46th anniversary of the Roe decision. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo immediately signed it into law. At his side at a hastily arranged signing ceremony was Sarah Weddington, the Texas attorney who successfully argued Roe before the nation’s highest court.

“Thank you for what you’ve done for women,” she told Cuomo and the assembled lawmakers and advocates who worked for years to pass the bill.

Known as the Reproductive Health Act, the measure replaces a 1970 state abortion law that was passed three years before Roe legalized abortion nationwide. It codifies many abortion rights laid out in Roe and other court rulings, including a provision permitting late-term abortions when a woman’s health is endangered. The previous law, which was in conflict with Roe and other subsequent abortion rulings, only permitted abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy if a woman’s life was at risk.

The new law also authorizes physician assistants to perform some abortions and moves the section of state law dealing with abortion from the penal code to health statutes.

Governor Cuomo even had the audacity to light up the One World Trade Center pink following his signing of this baby-killing legislation.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14