Category: Politics

OK, so Donald Trump is not a conservative. At least not as defined by the self-proclaimed pristine conservatives of the never Trump bunch. I get it. But, neither are they except for purposes of pontification. Answer some questions for me. What have those prima donnas – those annoying people with inflated views of their own talent or importance – done for me lately? What have they done for Americans lately other than look down their noses at the unwashed masses – us voters? During the past seven years, which conservative principle did they collectively stand on? For which ones were they ready to pay more than lip-service? Any? These boys and girls who swore they would fix things if we just put them in charge, learned to roll over quicker than you could chuck them a doggie treat or a bale of cash. Then they wonder aloud why any thinking American would be attracted to a non-politician who promises to secure our borders and right our sinking ship of trade allowing for some of those 94 million who are not in the workforce to possibly have work. Is that a foreign concept to the snoots? People wanting to work? Is it odd that Americans across the landscape of ideologies might be drawn to a man who is offering Americans a shot at restoration rather than fundamental transformation?

They did a few things for me I guess. They have caused me to refine the list of radio people to whom I will no longer listen – the self-absorbed bat crap crazy ones bordering mental illness or total implosion. Maybe they should just have one song in their bumper rotation, The Eve of Destruction.

The world is coming to an end so go to my sponsors and by a year’s worth of survival food, a solar generator and a freeze drying machine. The economy will never recover so go to my other sponsor and buy gold. Yes! Get it now before it is too late. They helped me identify the faces and voices that cause me to hit the mute button or switch the television channel. They have helped me to know the publications to avoid unless I need flooring for the bird cage. They have clearly pointed out for me (and anyone else whose paying attention) the Washington politicians who are wholly owned and answering not to the American people.

Trump is not a liberal either. Nor do I think you can call him a moderate. I do not think you can hang upon him a political ideology. He is a nationalist maybe or he is just a straight talking person that gives the snobocracy the vapors. And if I may ask, what is exactly wrong about putting American first? Unless of course you are an anti-American with a head full of progressive communist drivel. Or, you do not want a man in the Whitehouse who knows where the bodies are buried and how businesses in this country have to grease the right political palms. One who just might slow the flow of the money spigot?

The Speaker of the House will not endorse the presumptive nominee of his own party. He wants to buck the will of the majority of the Republican voters. That is quite interesting. I wonder how much his cash flow has been during his tour as our public servant and from whose reservoir. Now they are huddling in the dark corners around Sodom on the Potomac to discuss a third party run to keep Trump from winning the presidency. The Department of Justice is probably not going to indict Mrs. Clinton since they are very busy trying to force the state of North Carolina to allow grown men who think they are women to use the bathroom with little girls. So, she will be the nominee. A third party bid generated by the snobocracy will ensure a Clinton presidency, which to them means business as usual. Theirs not ours. Then those pure and pristine conservatives will have provided her the hammer with which she can drive home the last nails into the coffin of freedom. History and Americans will assign the correct level of responsibility.

The fight is on and I do not think it is a choice of the lesser of evils. The choice is between resuscitating our country or unplugging it from life support.

© 2016 J. D. Pendry All Rights Reserved.

Those of you decreeing disaster for the Republican Party in November, Breitbart has compiled some interesting data from the Indiana primary that you may want to ponder before continuing your tirade against Trump. Various sources have been reporting that overall Democrat turnout is down this year, and of that reduced turnout, a significant portion belongs to Bernie Sanders, as it did in Indiana this past Tuesday. Conversely, the Trump movement has been ginning up voter turnout numbers since the primary season started. Tuesday’s numbers bear that out.

According to Breitbart’s authoritative sources*, Democrat primary turnout in Indiana in 2016 was 628,433, dropping 50.84% from the 2008 turnout, when Hillary last ran there, of 1,278,355. Hillary’s share of that was a 2016 figure of 296,988, down a huge 54.05% from 2008, when she captured 646,282 votes.

Now compare those dramatic declines in the Democrat vote with the Republican primary history from Indiana. In 2016, the overall Republican turnout in Indiana’s primary was up a whopping 73.35% from 2012, with 1,101,777 votes cast this year as opposed to 635,589 in the earlier primary. Back in 2012, frontrunner Mitt Romney garnered 410,635 votes compared to the total of 587,273 for Donald Trump this year, an increase of 43.02%.

Looking back at state primaries from earlier this year, this 2016 Republican surge vs. a Democrat decline appears to be a trend that defies the proclamations from pouting pundits and partisan pollsters that Donald can’t do it in November.

*Breitbart News compiled this data analysis from information purchased from Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. That data, available at USElectionAtlas.org, is widely used by academics and media organizations including the New York Times, The Economist, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, and many more reputable organizations.

The 2016 totals were based on the latest numbers put forward by the New York Times at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday May 4, the day after the primary, so they will change slightly as final totals shift into place.

Crossposted at American Thinker

First read this story from Daily Caller about Putin’s response to Obama’s intention to return an armored brigade to Europe in the face of new Russian geopolitical threats. It seems the Russian despot is once again upstaging our bicycle-helmeted commander-in-chief to the tune of more than two divisions, once again playing tournament chess while Obama plays kindergarten checkers.

Then read this little jewel of information regarding the soldiering status of what is supposedly our most stalwart ally in Europe in standing up to any threats from the Russian Bear.

I hope this juxtaposition of news doesn’t make any of you gag on your Wheaties.

In a comment to a piece I wrote about New York state regulators nixing two badly needed natural gas pipelines, the writer noted a phenomenon that in my opinion should be brought to a quick and permanent halt. That many New Yorkers, like denizens of other northern states, like to retire in warmer climes is not news, and it is completely understandable. However, there is unique twist on this retirement gambit that most of us have probably not considered.

New York governments at all levels offer a fertile environment for public employee unions and, as a consequence, highly paid public servants whose union negotiators and colluding Democrat politicians have secured for them lucrative pension plans. Not only that, but these public servants can retire at relatively early ages after relatively short periods of service so that they have many years of life remaining to enjoy these taxpayer-funded perquisites.

It’s that term taxpayer-funded that is the sore spot for the commenter, and not for the reason you might think – that his taxes fund generous retirements for public servants that most taxpayers can’t afford. Nope, that’s one of those “death and taxes” certainties it does no good to gripe about. No, the issue that has him ticked off is how so many of these public employee retirees take their lucrative pensions and move to Florida, where they have to pay no state income taxes. This further reduces the tax base in the state paying their tax-funded retirements, thus increasing the tax burden on still working New Yorkers who already pay more taxes than any other state.

Your first inclination might be to dismiss this complaint as just more taxpayer grousing, until you discover that government just happens to be the single largest employer in New York, meaning that this is a double-whammy problem that is only going to grow until that government wakes up and realizes it has a growing revenue problem. Huge numbers of huge pensions paid from tax coffers, but untaxed as income so as to return any of that income to those coffers, is going to hurt badly at some future point. Consider as well that when these public servants head south, it’s not just their state pensions that go untaxed, but also their top-dollar Social Security checks, which, based on their other income, would surely be fully taxable. Also, how many will hang onto their New York homes? What about the possible loss to the state in property taxes? Consider as well that all the sales taxes generated by those very generous retirement incomes from sales of booze, boats, and beauty treatments are going to be collected in Florida, not in the state writing the checks.

Are you starting to get the picture here? A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. And the state writing the checks gets zip.

Factor also into the equation the reality that many of these public servant retirement incomes are greater than those of many working New Yorkers, and you can better understand how this tax-ducking situation might grate as being a grossly unfair example of biting the hand that feeds you. However, despite the sting of ingratitude, it is unlikely that any blue state in thrall to the collective greed of public service unions, like New York, will take any steps to close this tax drain. The situation certainly serves to illustrate to ordinary citizens that public service nowadays is all about the bucks and not about any higher sense of loyalty to the state and the citizens who are paying your very generous retirement.

Liberals are truly talented when it comes to devising new means of taxing the working stiffs. Perhaps the New York liberals responsible for all these budget-busting pension programs and their counterparts in other blue states facing a similar situation should enact a non-resident pension tax on all these tax-paid tax avoiders to be withheld from their fat retirement checks.

Call it the Flight to Florida Surtax…

Crossposted at American Thinker

Kinda stumbled across this. In honor of our host:

Not quite sure how an old swabbie might elaborate? Oh yeah.. replace skirts at random during the video??? Thanks to Col Brown and FB.

According to the USAToday, Ching Ning Guey, a former Taiwanese citizen, was a manager for the Tennessee Valley Authority and he’s been selling our nuclear secrets to the Chinese government through Szuhsiung “Allen” Ho and his firm, Energy Technology International; and China General Nuclear Power since the early 1990s. Lucky for Guey, the feds want Ho more than they want his ass;

Prosecutors allege that Ho conspired to lure nuclear experts in the U.S. into providing information that would allow China to produce nuclear material based on American technology but under the radar of the U.S. government. The indictment consists of one count of conspiracy to illegally engage and participate in the production and development of special nuclear material outside the U.S. and one count of conspiracy to act in the U.S. as an agent of a foreign government.

Six unidentified American co-conspirators were listed in the indictment. Guey was among them although not identified by name.

Guey reached a plea deal with the feds for aiding them in their case against Ho. Guey will plead guilty to a charge of development of special nuclear material outside the U.S. and the feds will look the other way on the espionage charges and the fact that the Chinese government paid him for the classified information they gleaned from him.

[I]n November 2013, Guey was invited to travel to China at the request of a nuclear power company owned by the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese government financed the trip, and the Chinese government paid Guey for three key Electric Power Research Institute reports that the country was barred from accessing, Atchley wrote.

All three reports provided key information about light and heavy nuclear water reactors and are regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Nonproliferation and International Security.

I suppose it’s good work if you can find it.