Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON OFFERS BEST MID-TERM ELECTION ANALYSIS TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE

This probing conversation offers a breadth and depth of perspective well worth one's time to listen to 

NOTES ON THE JAN. 6 2021 CAPITOL PROTEST

Below I offer some notes and references on the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Hill "Insurrection" which wasn't an insurrection.

-   Unanswered questions related to Jan. 6 

       - https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/03/one-year-later-more-lingering-questions-about-january-6/

 

-   Fact:  No Jan 6 protester has been charged with insurrection or sedition, only obstruction of an official proceeding.  (A post-Enron law). 

        - https://amgreatness.com/2021/12/16/democrats-promised-an-insurrection-but-all-they-got-was-a-lousy-obstruction-case/

 

-  Appalling prisoner treatment 

         - https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/heartbreaking-letter-jan-6-prisoner-solitary-confinement-dc-gitmo-violates-international-codes-torture/

         - https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/gut-wrenching-plea-help-january-6th-detainees-tell-letter-american-public-dc-gitmo-please-help-innocent-man/

         - https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/jan-6th-political-prisoner-chris-worrell-immediately-transferred-dc-gitmo-surprise-inspection-found-deplorable-conditions-denial-medical-treatment/

 

 For staying current:

        - https://americangulag.org/

        - Julie Kelly - major journalist covering Jan. 6     

                 - https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2

                 - https://muckrack.com/julie-kelly/articles

                 - Book pub'd 12/28/21 - January 6: How Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Lunch a War on Terror Against the Political Right.

Ben Shapiro - I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016. I am in 2020 — here's why. - YouTube

Sanity on display for those with ears to hear and rational faculties not yet rendered inoperative.  

 

CURRENT AFFAIRS

**  Is Attorney William Barr President Trump's lap dog?  No.   The accusation stems from the incessant anti-Trump propaganda campaign.   See:  "AG Barr does hand-to-hand combat with NPR"

**  Good News: AG Barr is investigating the domestic terrorists.

**  Bad news from China:   China Trying to "Rewrite the Biblc, Force Churches to Sing Communist Anthems.

** Hypocrisy!   Minneapolis city council members who voted to defund police are getting taxpayer-funded private security.

** Black Lives Matter leader:  "If America doesn't give us what we want we will burn down this system."

** "Teen Vogue Magazine Pushes Marxism on Its Young Readers"

**  Horrible News for Democrats:  After a Month of Leftist Rioting, Looting and Arson Trump's Approval with Black voters Remains at 28%

**  Black Lives Matter Rally with no black people.   A black Republican couple look on from a distance and laugh.  

PRESIDENT TRUMP HONORS RUSH LIMBAUGH WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM

President Donald J. Trump awarded Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his State of the Union message on February 4, 2020.  As a long-time listener to Rush Limbaugh, I completely agree with John Nolte's tribute essay, Rush Limbaugh is Irreplaceable.

Along with so many others, I am deeply saddened by Rush's disclosure on Monday (2/3/20) that he is now dealing with advanced lung cancer.   I pray the Lord will heal and restore Rush in answer to the prayers of millions, mine among them.

Update: 2/8/20 - Rush reveals the back story to his invitation to the State of the Union and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom (with video)

THE CHARLOTTESVILLE LIE

A few moments ago I wrote the following to some friends:

The Leftist media willfully and maliciously lie.   That the "Charlottesville lie" keeps getting repeated (again today by Joe Biden!) is utterly disgusting and unconscionable.  Dante has a well-deserved circle in hell for shameless perpetrators of falsehoods such as this.

From the video:  "The scandal of Charlottesville is not what President Trump said about neo-Nazis, it is what the media said President Trump said about neo-Nazis."

- See also Dennis Prager, "America is Drowning in the Left's Lies About Trump."

Excerpt:

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, never said there were "fine" Nazis or Ku Klux Klansmen.

This is one of the two great lies of our time — the other being that all Trump supporters are racists — and perhaps in all of American history. I cannot think of a lie of such significance that was held as truth by so many Americans, by every leading politician of one of the two major political parties and disseminated by virtually the entire media.

The major news media need to understand these are important reasons that half of America considers them frauds. And we get no pleasure from this fact. The reason we don't recoil when the president labels the mainstream media "fake news" is that we know the charge is true. Has one major media news outlet yet apologized to the American people for preoccupying them for nearly two years with the lie of "Trump collusion" with Russia? Has one Democrat? Of course not. Because with regard to the Trump-Russia collusion issue, the news media were never driven by a pursuit of truth; they were driven by a pursuit of Trump.   [more . . .]

TWO MINUTES ON THE MUELLER REPORT AND SOME PREDICTIONS

If your time is short, listen to the  2:52 - 4:32 segment of Joseph DiGenova's take on the Mueller report.

If you have a little more time, you will want to hear DiGenova boldly predict trouble ahead for the government conspirators against Trump.  I am sure a particular Trump-despising friend of mine will fume and fuss and maybe explode at the very thought that there could be trouble ahead, but that of course, would be to prejudge the future.   We must wait and see. 

Former CIA director John Brennan made numerous calamitous predictions that Trump would be found guilty of "Russian collusion" which kept the Left wing media excited, but which fizzled and bombed and thoroughly discredited Brennan as a commentator and prognosticator.  

Now former United States Attorney, District of Columbia, Joseph DiGenova has mounted the stage and has offered predictions of his own.  (Predictions begin around the 11:02 mark.)  Let's see what the future brings.  My bet is that his predictions concerning Brennan, Comey, Struck, and McCabe will turn out eerily accurate and come as a bombshell to the Leftist media.  And if it can be demonstrated, as DiGenova is convinced, that former President Barack Obama was in on the plot to discredit and remove Trump from the beginning, the Left wing media will need to crank up its spin machine to a level it has  never been cranked up to before.

Update 4/23/19:  I sent an email version of this blog post to a friend who replied affirmatively: 

Trump and his campaign WERE bugged by the FBI during the campaign. Based on standard procedures, this could not have been done without Obama’s knowledge. So it is fair to say that Obama was part of the plot, if not central to it. It was a concerted attempt by a sitting president and his justice department and FBI to prevent the election of Donald Trump and, after he was elected, to subvert and overthrow his presidency. That is the very definition of treason.

ON THE SUBJECT OF TRUMP'S LIES...

Sheryl Atkinson turns the tables on the media with her article, "50 Media Mistakes in the Trump Era: The Definitive List."   She writes:

We the media have “fact-checked” President Trump like we have fact-checked no other human being on the planet—and he’s certainly given us plenty to write about. That’s probably why it’s so easy to find lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and “lies.”

 

But as self-appointed arbiters of truth, we’ve largely excused our own unprecedented string of fact-challenged reporting. The truth is, formerly well-respected, top news organizations are making repeat, unforced errors in numbers that were unheard of just a couple of years ago.

 

Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump’s claims are “lies” when they are matters of opinion, or when the truth between conflicting sources is unknowable; taking Trump’s statements and events out of context; reporting secondhand accounts against Trump without attribution as if they’re established fact; relying on untruthful, conflicted sources; and presenting reporter opinions in news stories—without labeling them as opinions.

 

What’s worse, we defend ourselves by trying to convince the public that our mistakes are actually a virtue because we (sometimes) correct them. Or we blame Trump for why we’re getting so much wrong. It’s a little bit like a police officer taking someone to jail for DUI, then driving home drunk himself: he may be correct to arrest the suspect, but he should certainly know better than to commit the same violation.

 

So since nobody else has compiled an updated, extensive list of this kind, here are: 

 

50 Notable Mistakes and Missteps in Major Media Reporting on Donald Trump

1. Aug. 2016-Nov. 2016:

The New York Post published modeling photos of Trump’s wife Melania and reported they were taken in 1995. Various news outlets relied on that date to imply that Melania—an immigrant—had violated her visa status. But the media got the date wrong. Politico was among the news agencies that later issued a photo date correction.

 

 2. Oct. 1, 2016:

The New York Times and other media widely suggested or implied that Trump had not paid income taxes for 18 years. Later, tax return pages leaked to MSNBC ultimately showed that Trump actually paid a higher rate than Democrats Bernie Sanders and President Obama.    Keep reading . . . 

SOME NEWS ITEMS NOTED TODAY

Each of the following articles are well worth reading:

   -- Vice-President Mike Pence on Prayer in the White House

   -- Dr. Robert Epstein - Google has power to flip elections in a way that can't be traced

   -- Survey - 88% of Harvard Faculty say President Trump has done a very poor job in his first year and a quarter as President  

    -- Jamie Glazov suspended from Twitter for quoting  Islamic religious texts

   -- Islam in France: troubles Macron chooses to ignore 

Macron's Washington speech, as it happened, came only days after the release of the most comprehensive study yet of Islam in France. Co-sponsored by the Sorbonne, it concluded that the country's second- and third-generation Muslims, who make up seven or eight percent of its population, are increasingly Islamized. Most have no respect for French law and culture; most approve of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Researcher Olivier Galland said his results were, “to put it mildly, harrowing” – reflective of community values in stark contrast with those of "la belle Republique. "

BOLTON: TRUMP'S BOLD RECOGNITION OF JRUSALEM AS ISRAEL'S CAPITAL MARKS HIM AS A VERY DIFFERENT CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LEADER

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton declared President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was “exactly the right move to make.”  Following are quotes from an interview Bolton gave to Breitbart SeriusXM radio interviewer Raheem Kassam:  

“Israel is one of the very few, maybe the only country in the world where the American embassy is not in its capital city,” Bolton pointed out. “From the American point of view, let’s start with us, it only makes sense to put our embassy where the institutions of government are located, in the country to which our diplomats are accredited. If we found, for whatever reason we came across a European country we didn’t have an embassy in – a new country was created, for example – we wouldn’t put our embassy in a city 50 miles away from the capital.”

“Why Israel should be different than any other country in the world, no one has been able to explain. What Trump has done is not extraordinary. It simply conforms Israel to the other 190 or so countries that we have diplomatic relations with. It is, from an efficiency and an effectiveness point of view, good for the United States,” he said.

President Trump was very careful yesterday to say that that obviously the embassy is going to be in West Jerusalem, which nobody has ever claimed would go back to Palestinians under any conceivable settlement, so it doesn’t prejudice the final status of Jerusalem,” he noted.

 Bolton said recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel “breaks so many illusions that people have been holding.”  [bolding is mine]

CHRIS WALLACE INTERVIEWS TRUMP LAWYER JAY SEKULOW

Has Chris Wallace ever gotten more vigorous and effective push back than he received from Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice?  Watch:

 

THE FEDERALIST - JAMES COMEY HAS A LONG HISTORY OF QUESTIONABLE OBSTRUCTION CASES

This article by Mollie Hemingway, for whom I have great respect as an analyst and writer, digs into the history of James Comey's judgments
and comes to some reputation-shattering conclusions (at least to my mind).  Her work is never mean-spirited and always factually insistent -- a quality much lacking in journalism today.   See for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

THE CONTINUING TRUMP SAGA

   -  Byron York has proven himself a steady and clear-headed observer.  His latest post -- "Five notes on Trump's current predicament" -- clears away a lot of fog:   1.  It's not about collusion anymore  [It's about alleged obstruction of justice]  2.Trump failed to take the threat against him seriously [His enemies don't want to defeat him, they are determined to remove him from office]  3. The future is in Robert Mueller's hands  4.  More evidence?  Democrats don't need more evidence to impeach [What they need is 218 votes in the House of Representatives]  5.  2018 is everything.  [If Democrats have 218 votes, the president's life becomes much, much more difficult and fraught with danger.] 

           Update:  York asks 5 lawyers - "Should a prosecutor pursue a case in which the star witness is a close friend? And when the friend is not only a witness but also arguably a victim — of firing — by the target of the investigation? And when the prosecutor might also be called on to investigate some of his friend's actions? The case would be difficult enough even without the complicating friendship." -    It is unusual and problematic.

   - Andrew C. McCarthy wrote a piece on "Why Trump Fired Comey," that sounds plausible to me. McCarthy built a case for the following conclusion:  "I now believe President Donald Trump fired Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey because he believes Comey intentionally misled the public into believing Trump was under investigation by the FBI." 

PRAYER IN THE WHITE HOUSE FOR JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH SUPREME COURT NOMINATION

I hadn't seen this photo until a friend sent it to me earlier today.  This "moment of prayer photo" was tweeted out 2/1/17 after President Trump announced the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court.  

Among those pictured in the huddle are Trump; his sons Donald Jr. and Eric; Vice President Mike Pence; second lady Karen Pence; Chief of Staff Reince Priebus; Gorsuch and his wife Louise; and from the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's family, his widow Maureen Scalia and son Paul, a Catholic priest.

 

 

DINESH D'SOUZA ON "TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME"

D'Souza delivered a really terrific speech at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas on March 7, 2017.  He knows history as few others do, and tells facts about fascism, slavery, and the Democratic party that will astonish you.   Stay tuned for the Q&A.  Terrific.  Note: the video has a long lead-in.  The introduction doesn't begin until about the 19:30 minute mark.

 

 

DAVID HOROWITZ - "THE WAR AGAINST TRUMP"

David Horowitz  writes:

As I explained in my book Big Agenda: President Trump’s Plan to Save America, the source of this civil war mentality is a profound rejection of the American idea. This is the idea that we are equal citizens regardless of our origins, and that we are accountable as individuals for what we do. The left’s creed – identity politics – is an anti-American, racially charged determination to reject individual accountability and individual freedom, and to establish in their place group privileges, and racial/gender hierarchies. These hierarchies are based on the malicious premise that whites, heterosexuals and males are oppressors and - in the words of the Democratic platform - America is a society governed by “systemic racism,” which needs to be fundamentally transformed.

This collectivist, racial creed is the heart and soul of today’s Democratic Party and its allies in the mainstream media. It is the inspiration for the war Democrats have declared on the newly elected government of Donald Trump. In his inaugural address, Trump addressed the war in uncompromising but thoroughly American terms. “Through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other…. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice…. Whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag.” This is the American creed, and it is the voice of the American people who elected Trump in November 2016.

[Read the whole thing.  It's not long.]

MORNING WORSHIP SERVICE ON TRUMP INAUGURATION DAY JANUARY 20, 2017

Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association attended St John's Church in Washington, D.C. with about 200 others the morning of Donald J. Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States.  I found Wildmon's description of the service quite interesting; he provided information I had not read elsewhere.  Wildmon wrote:

As we entered the small sanctuary, I pointed out to Alison the front pews, where small cards on the first three rows read “Reserved for the Pence family, “Reserved for the Trump family” and “Reserved for Secret Service.” We found a seat about eight rows back, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Trump and Pence families.

At 8:30 Vice President-Elect Mike Pence walked down the aisle with his wife and family. At 8:35 President-Elect Donald Trump came down the aisle with his wife and the Trump family. It was really quite surreal.

The service included hymns, Scripture reading, and a short sermon by Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. Dr. Jeffress delivered a message from the book of Nehemiah. After he concluded, Dr. James Dobson came to the pulpit and asked Mr. Pence to stand. Dr. Dobson challenged him to live for God every day and then prayed over him.

Next, evangelist James Robison walked to the pulpit and asked Mr. Trump to stand. The evangelist then talked directly to Mr. Trump about the importance of honesty and integrity. Before praying for him, Robinson said he believes God is going to use Donald Trump for “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). The service lasted about 30 to 40 minutes and was one of the most remarkable spiritual events I have ever seen. I think everyone in the room was moved by the power of God.  [more . . .]

NINETH CIRCUIT JUDGES - A DANGER TO THE CONSTITUTION AND THE U.S.

The following analysis written by Matthew Vadum is one of the most comprehensive analyses available.  At the end I have offered additional links related to the Ninth Circuit's ruling.  Vadum writes:

Three unelected federal judges in San Francisco yesterday ordered the Trump administration to continue accepting visitors and would-be immigrants from seven dangerous countries that are incubators of Muslim terrorism.

When President Trump learned his temporary ban on the admission of aliens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen that was put on hold Feb. 3 by Seattle-based Judge James L. Robart would continue in abeyance, he got on Twitter immediately.

At 6:35 p.m. Eastern time he tweeted in all caps: “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”

The open-borders crowd doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on. That may be why at a press conference celebrating the outrageous ruling, a member of Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s (D) team deployed the phrase “social justice” to justify the decision. “Social justice” is a magical amulet that nullifies anything the Left doesn’t like, including the president’s executive order. Its very invocation is an admission that a cause is illegitimate and un-American.

The Ninth Circuit’s fairy dust-based decision is “an intellectually dishonest piece of work,” said retired Judge Andrew Napolitano.

OBAMA SCHEMES TO SABOTAGE TRUMP'S PRESIDENCY

If Paul Sperry (writing in today's New York Post) is right, the United States remains subject to the tentacles of a failed and discredited Obama who has put in motion an apparatus to torpedo Trump's vision of an "America First" presidency.  (HT: Drudge)  Quite maddening!  Other presidents don't fight their successors!  Sperry writes:

When former President Barack Obama said he was “heartened” by anti-Trump protests, he was sending a message of approval to his troops. Troops? Yes, Obama has an army of agitators — numbering more than 30,000 — who will fight his Republican successor at every turn of his historic presidency. And Obama will command them from a bunker less than two miles from the White House.

In what’s shaping up to be a highly unusual post-presidency, Obama isn’t just staying behind in Washington. He’s working behind the scenes to set up what will effectively be a shadow government to not only protect his threatened legacy, but to sabotage the incoming administration and its popular “America First” agenda.

NO MORAL EQUIVALENCY BETWEEN THE U.S. AND PUTIN'S REGIME

I agree with Trump on many things, but his stated moral equivalence between Russia and the United States must be regarded as profoundly twisted and disturbing.  David French properly takes Trump to task.  

I didn’t think I’d ever see the day when a Republican president equated America with Russia — and did so in a way that echoed the worst of fever-swamp radical leftism. There has already been enough commentary on Trump’s headline-grabbing initial response to Bill O’Reilly’s claim that Vladimir Putin is a “killer.” Trump said, “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?” I’d like to focus on the follow-up, when O’Reilly gave him an opportunity to amend his statement:

O’REILLY: I don’t know of any government leaders that are killers.

TRUMP: Well — take a look at what we’ve done, too. We made a lot of mistakes. I’ve been against the war in Iraq from the beginning.

O’REILLY: Yes, mistakes are different than –

TRUMP: We made a lot of mistakes, OK, but a lot of people were killed. So, a lot of killers around, believe me.

French continues: 

When I was a young man living for the first time in the heart of leftist America, I was stunned at the number of books and lectures that made the case that there was no moral difference between the United States and its enemies. Some even went so far as to declare that we were somehow worse than the Soviets — or on some kind of par with Imperial Japan for Nazi Germany because, after all, we dropped a nuclear weapon. We engaged in area bombing. They killed. We killed. What’s the difference?

THE LEFT'S WAR AGAINST TRUMP

This morning a friend sent me a link to a David Brooks' New York Times article expressing hysteria against Donald Trump.  Here is what I wrote my friend in reply:

Brooks has written insightful books, but as a political analyst his judgments are often faulty.  He predicted Obama would be an effective president because he was impressed with the crease in his pants!  He slurs and slanders the Trump administration by throwing around loaded terms such as "ethnic nationalist administration" and to accuse the administration of the "aroma of bigotry" is itself cross-eyed propaganda alien to facts.  Trump hasn't done anything he didn't say he would do and the countries identified for specific scrutiny are the ones singled out by the Obama administration.  One must understand that the left is determined to discredit this administration no matter what it does. It is at war.  (Cf. the delay in confirming cabinet choices).   Yes, Trump is a loose cannon in many ways, and the administration could have gone about things more wisely, but the issue goes beyond Trump's character and personality; the left simply cannot allow a "wrecking ball to political correctness" to succeed.  Political and philosophical commitments are at stake!  If Trump does endure, it certainly won't be with the help of the media.

Cf. Hannity's response  

Yuval Levin sees the problems and offers counsel to Trump's team

Andrew C. McCarthy on the constitutionality of excluding aliens from specific countries

 

To join hysteria without delving into facts and agendas makes for huge confusion.

TRUMP'S CABINET AS VIEWED BY "THE NEW YORK TIMES"

The New York Times offers its thumbnail sketches of Trump's new cabinet under the title "Outsiders Selected by Trump Aim to Unnerve Washington."

Seven men and one woman named by Mr. Trump to run vast government agencies share a common trait: once they are confirmed, their presence is meant to unnerve — and maybe even outright undermine — the bureaucracies they are about to lead.

Some of those chosen — 17 picks so far for federal agencies and five for the White House — are among the most radical selections in recent history. Other presidents’ nominees, even when controversial, were often veterans of the Washington bureaucracy and generally believed in it. But a number of Mr. Trump’s most important selections have no experience in federal government and a great drive to undo it.  [more...]

Let us hope so!  Government by the Administrative State - the bureaucracy - has led to tyranny.  It is time to roll the bureaucracy back to manageable levels where we the people, through our elected representatives, become responsible for the laws and regulations under which we choose to live. 

Here is the Times' reporting on Trump's selection of David Friedman to be the U.S. Ambassador to Israel:

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named David M. Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer aligned with the Israeli far right, as his nominee for ambassador to Israel, elevating a campaign adviser who has questioned the need for a two-state solution and has likened left-leaning Jews in America to the Jews who aided the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Mr. Friedman, whose outspoken views stand in stark contrast to decades of American policy toward Israel, did not wait long on Thursday to signal his intention to upend the American approach. In a statement from the Trump transition team announcing his nomination, he said he looked forward to doing the job “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”  [more. . .] 

Seems a really gutsy choice to me!

TRUMP CHRISTMAS PARODY - IT WILL DELIGHT TRUMP FANS, HILLARY FANS NOT SO MUCH

My thanks t0 Brian for passing this along to me.

 

SHOULD CONSERVATIVES BE PLEASED WITH TRUMP'S CABINET SELECTIONS SO FAR? YES!

I value Andrew C. McCarthy's views on any subject on which he opines.  He writes with great erudition, a respect for facts, and a willingness to form independent, well-researched judgments.  His books on Islam in America constitute essential reading --Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad (2008) and The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America. (2010).

 

Here he offers his judgment on Trump's cabinet picks so far:

 

. . . The incoming administration is still a work in progress, the president-elect is still tweeting the night away, and plenty could still go wrong. But those of us who worried aloud that there might not be much daylight between Trump and Clinton are thankfully being proved wrong.

 

If there had been a second Clinton administration, do you think we’d have gotten Pruitt [for EPA chief]? How about Jeff Sessions at Justice, or General James Mattis at Defense? Or Trump’s promised upgrade in immigration enforcement to be carried out by General John Kelly, the clear-eyed So-Com commander who has warned about radical Islam’s inroads in Central and South America (and a Gold Star dad whose son laid down his life in Afghanistan, fighting our jihadist enemies)? Do you figure Hillary would have tapped teachers-union scourge Betsy DeVos for the Education Department? Or a staunch Obamacare critic such as congressman (and doctor) Tom Price to run HHS?

DR. LANCE WALLNAU DELIVERS THE MOST ENGAGING SPEECH I CAN EVER REMEMBER HEARING

Prediction:  Lance Wallnau will become very well known in the years ahead.  Here he speaks to the Full Gospel Christian Business Men's Fellowship Convention in the fall of 2016.

From his website:

Dr. Lance Wallnau is a catalytic thought leader. An internationally recognized speaker and business consultant, he is one of the premiere speakers on the subject of cultural transformation and the seven mountains. He delivers his message of transformation with relevance, wit, and intensity.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Victor Davis Hanson:   (my bolding)

So we always return to the central truth of 2016: Trump is a symptom, not a catalyst. He was created by the hyperpartisan unconstitutional overreach of Barack Obama, and by the appeasement of much of the Republican establishment, who wished to be liked and admired for their restraint and Beltway moderation rather than feared for their insistence on adherence to the Constitution and the protection of the individual from an always growing and encroaching government.

TRUMP AND HILLARY: EQUALLY DISTASTEFUL

I agree with Jay Nordlinger's perspective:

 . . . I’m certainly not voting for Trump. I think he is spectacularly unfit for the presidency, in both mind and character (but especially the latter). I’m certainly not voting for Hillary. I think she is equally unfit. I have opposed her, politically, since she emerged on the scene in the early ’90s.

I believe the Republican party has disgraced itself, in nominating Trump. I believe it has disfigured itself, morally. (Philosophically too, but that is separate.) The Democrats, I gave up on a long time ago (c. 1982). . . 

Perhaps people think that Trump has some kind of claim on my vote, because I’m a conservative (and, until earlier this week, I was a Republican). I do not regard Trump as a conservative. I’m not even sure he’s a democrat. He strikes me as a big-government strongman, or would-be strongman: a prospective American Putin or Chávez. . . .

I simply do not have a preference between Trump and Hillary. They are equally distasteful to me, and I’m not going to vote for either one of them. Nor am I obligated.

I’ll vote for some third candidate — an honorable conservative, or at least someone who is not corrupt, dishonest, and dangerous. If there is no such candidate, I won’t vote for president. . . .

QUICK TAKES

     - Wintery Knight - What marriage-minded women need to learn about men from the movie "High Noon"  - Great post!  WK offers video segments from the movie, a partial transcript, and excellent commentary.  

     - Wintery Knight - "Is Trump a Christian?  Is Donald Trump a moral person?

     - David Harsanyi - Why aren't we having a conversation about Leftist violence?  Good question!!   

     - Steve Forbes, Stephen Moore and Art Laffer (all experts on tax policy) support Ted Cruz's flat tax proposal.  It will simplify the tax code and create jobs!

    - On Foreign Policy, Donald Trump sounds a lot like Obama.  Jim Talent offers valuable analysis.  

TRUMP ANSWERING QUESTIONS

Jonah Goldberg describes Trump's technique in answering questions:

If you listen to Trump’s answers to almost any question about how he will fix a problem, he uses up the first 95 percent of his time explaining, re-explaining and demagoguing about how bad the problem is. (That is, if he’s not talking about polls.) Then in the last few seconds, he says we’ll fix the problem by being really smart or by winning or by hiring the best people. In other words, he has no idea how to fix it.

Goldberg despairs over the anti-anti-Trump conservatives for whom he has had great esteem in the past (e.g. Newt Gingrich, Bill Bennett)  but who now make excuses for  Trump saying he may be okay after all.  (Read the whole piece)

Other links:

   **  The 202 People, Places and Things Donald Trump has insulted on Twitter: A Complete List

   ** Liberty University newspaper interviews Chancellor Falwell on his personal endorsement of Donald Trump.  (Falwell was wined and dined)

  ** Michael Signer - Here's what demagogues like Trump do to their countries when they take power:  "The Donald has all the traits of his political forebears, and he'll present all the same dangers."

   ** On evangelical support of Trump:

Stepen Prothero:  He [Trump] has not hypnotized evangelicals into forgetting the foundations of their faith. He is simply revealing the fact that their faith is now more political than theological. The white evangelicals who flock to his rallies like their parents once did to Billy Graham revivals know that he lives a life comically at odds with teachings of the Bible and the examples of the saints. But his political theology resonates powerfully with their narrative of decline and revival. Classically that narrative ran from sin in the Garden of Eden to redemption on the cross. Today it takes place in an America that has fallen from its founding glory yet will, by God’s grace and Trump’s hand, be made great again.

On days like Super Tuesday, it is hard to remember that there are still born-again Christians who take their marching orders from the Bible rather than from the Republican platform. . . 

MICHELLE MALKIN CALLS OUT DRUDGE FOR SMEARING TED CRUZ

Drudge backs Trump.  That's  no secret.  Drudge pushes live-streaming Trump events in red ink -- even ordinary campaign stops-- and he posts whatever he can that is negative about Ted Cruz.  For that he uses huge letters and headlines.  Michelle Malkin calls him out in the following video.  In it she accuses Drudge of a double standard.  He posts Ted Cruz being prayed over, but not Donald Trump (who also has been prayed over).

 

SURVEY: CHURCH-GOING EVANGELICALS PREFER OTHER CANDIDATES TO TRUMP

The narrative that "evangelicals support Trump in large numbers" needs closer analysis.   The Family Research Council offers the following perspective."  (Bolding is my own)

 Very few people have been able to wrap their heads around the "bizarre" relationship between Donald and evangelicals. Part of the reason for the unusual alliance, Peter Wehner speculates in yesterday's New York Times, "is that many evangelicals feel increasingly powerless, beaten down, aggrieved and under attack." But there may be a better explanation for Trump's popularity with this bloc, the Barna Group points out, which is that some of these "evangelicals" aren't evangelicals at all!

If you want to understand where true evangelicals stand, they argue, ask the churchgoers. "Most polls are based on self-identification," the Group has found, "instead of what people do or believe... Reuters and others have found that church attendance distinctly decreases evangelical support for Trump, who has the least-religious supporters among the GOP candidates."

Barna's definition of evangelical is more "rigorous." To qualify, voters have to meet nine key faith criteria ranging from a personal commitment to Jesus Christ to agreement on who God is. Using that filter, true evangelicals, the Group notes, "whose faith hinges on obedience to God's commands, are far more interested in the character of candidates than any other segment." Looking at the election through Barna's lens, the mirage of Trump's broad evangelical support begins to fall away.

"Overall, far more evangelicals view Trump as 'very unfavorable' than 'very favorable," the survey notes. "Researchers found a 38 percentage point difference between the extreme ends of Trump's favorability spectrum... When Barna asked its 869 survey respondents to choose their favorite candidate, evangelicals who identified as Republicans split between Cruz (38%) and Carson (35%), trailed by Rubio (14%) and Trump (11%). Practicing Christians also chose Cruz first (30%), followed by Carson (20%), Trump (18%), and Rubio (15%)."

The liberal media would love to perpetuate the story that evangelicals are abandoning their morals to vote for someone with questionable character. The liberal media would love to perpetuate the story that evangelicals are abandoning their morals.   And perhaps some are. But Barna's research makes it clear -- true evangelicals haven't lost faith in their core values.And perhaps so

TRUMP HAS ALWAYS BEEN A WANNABE MUSSOLINI

To anyone who cares about the future of America, Charles C.W. Cooke's facts as recorded here (and below) need to be reckoned with.  Cooke:

Jay — you note that Donald Trump praised the massacre at Tiananmen Square and suggested that the USSR was too weak:

GOP PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE DISGRACEFUL

Last night's debate went out of control.  Trump acted like a town drunk, the audience high schoolish, and the moderators like hapless parents unable to control unruly children.  As far as analysis goes, David French offered as good a summary as I have seen (below).   [Photo above is of a moment of silent prayer on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.  Does Trump ever bow his head?]  French:

I’m done. Until the fundamental dynamic of the GOP primary race changes, I’m done with parsing debate winners and losers. So long as Donald Trump dominates an overly-large field of ambitious, fratricidal competitors, we will continue to see absurdities like the following:

 

1. Trump — the Republican front-runner, no less — borrowing language from MoveOn.org and Daily Kos to advance the absurd “Bush lied, people died” Iraq War narrative, attacking his fellow Republicans with far more fury than even Hillary Clinton can muster.

 

2. Trump repeatedly and loudly holding George Bush responsible for 9/11 and the fall of the World Trade Center.

 

3. An extended GOP defense of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, courtesy of Ohio’s extraordinarily sanctimonious John Kasich. Using talking points that Democrats would envy, he cloaked his embrace of an inferior, third-class government insurance program in the language of compassion and fiscal responsibility. In an ordinary race, Kasich would be long gone — shoved aside by genuine conservatives and an afterthought even in moderate New Hampshire.

 

4. Trump (yes, him again) actually extolling the virtues of Planned Parenthood on a GOP debate stage. As a businessman who built a “world-class company,” surely he understands that injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into a business helps the entire enterprise stay afloat. That’s what taxpayer subsidies for Planned Parenthood do for the nation’s largest abortion provider, even if taxpayer dollars don’t “directly” subsidize abortion.

DONALD TRUMP ON GOD AND FORGIVENESS