Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Don't buy the Democrats' spin on taxes - all Americans will benefit, and here are 5 reasons why


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"The polls sponsored or cited by news organizations indicate that only between one-third and half of all Americans support the tax cuts signed into law Friday by President Trump. But the first thing to remember about these polls is that they were conducted by the same pollsters who told us Hillary Clinton would be elected president last year.

"However, there may be some truth to the finding in the polls that many Americans have an astounding ignorance of economic history. This needs to be addressed.
"The economic concepts involved in the justification of the new tax cuts are not difficult to understand. However, the interpretation given by Democrats to justify their opposition to the tax reductions is being accepted much more widely than the Republican rationale in favor of tax cuts. 
"Ever since Democrat Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency in 1932 by blaming the Depression on the perfidy of large corporations, Democrats have preached that government is the answer to all our troubles and that high tax rates are required to pay for government. If you accept this premise, you wind up concluding that corporations are bad and government is good.
"The middle class will see its main benefits from the expansion of the economy – higher wages, more price competition, more new businesses and more money floating around.
"As Rush Limbaugh has pointed out, Democrats have never accepted the fact that President Reagan’s tax cuts in 1984 and 1986 brought about 20 years of prosperity in America. The result is that the Democrats have rewritten history: Reagan’s tax policies were bad and Obama’s tax policies were good, they claim.
"Here are five simple facts:" . . .    By Lawrence Fedewa

Political Cartoons by Steve Kelley

CDN
Merry Historic Christmas - A.F. Branco political cartoon
CDN

Obama: Worse than Chamberlain?

Neville Chamberlain at least had an epiphany leading to his contempt for Hitler and a declaration of war on him. No sign of anything approaching that with Obama. TD

Israel Rising



“ 'Iran will become a nuclear power. The only mystery over how that will happen is whether Obama was inept or whether he deliberately sought to make the theocracy…strategic power.”- Victor Davis Hanson
"In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States…Meanwhile, Hezbollah — in league with Iran — continues to undermine U.S. interests in Iraq, Syria and throughout wide swaths of Latin America and Africa, including providing weapons and training to anti-American Shiite militias – Josh Meyer, The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook, Politico, Dec. 18, 2017.
"It is becoming clear that the liberal President Obama…in complete contradiction of his saintly statements, effectively gave a green light to an entire web of ongoing crimes, based on his perception – ridiculous in itself – that it was in America’s national interest to do soProf. Abraham Ben-Zvi,  No moral backbone Dec. 19, 2019,
"The really chilling aspect of the Obama incumbency is that it is genuinely difficult to diagnose whether the abysmal results we see represent a crushing failure of his policies or a calculated success; whether they are the product of chronic ineptitude or purposeful foresight; whether they reflect myopic misunderstanding, moronic incompetence or malicious intent. – Into the Fray: Will the West Withstand The Obama Presidency?, Nov. 28, 2013.
"Earlier this week, a scorching piece of investigative journalism in the widely-read political publication, Politico, catapulted the ill-conceived 2015 Iran nuclear deal, mendaciously railroaded through by the Obama administration, back into the center of media attention.
"Well, sort of.
"No record in “The paper of record”?" . . .
All emphases in the original. TD

Why You Will Enjoy Watching This 1945 Christmas Comedy. "Despite the Comedy, This Is a Thoughtful Movie"

‘Christmas in Connecticut’ has not just fun and beauty to recommend it, but also a great range and serious insights into American society.
One caveat: you must pay to watch it now.

The Federalist  "It’s hard to tell a Christmas story that’s not a fairy tale. “Christmas in Connecticut,” a small gem from 1945 starring Barbara Stanwyck and the great fat man of noir movies, Sidney Greenstreet (“The Maltese Falcon,” “Casablanca,” etc.), manages just that by daring to turn Christmas into a screwball comedy.

"We don’t have screwball comedies anymore, because we’re more rational than they were in the 1930s and ‘40s. Audiences might be embarrassed rather than amused, so Hollywood doesn’t even try. But back then, directors and writers used expertly plotted crazy accidents, rather than sentimental dialogue and beautiful settings, to reveal the essence of love and happiness and bring attractive characters to that happy estate of marriage.

“ 'Christmas in Connecticut” has not just fun and beauty to recommend it, in case you want to stream it on Amazon Prime, but also a great range and serious insights into American society. Coming right at the end of World War II, the movie starts with Navy veterans recovering in a hospital on Staten Island. They may not know it, but they have to learn about the life of peace—they have to be part of America again. A comedy aimed at getting the noble, self-sacrificing Jefferson Jones hitched is just the thing.

"What We Think We Want Versus What We Really Do" . . .

Trump administration set to unveil $1 trillion infrastructure proposal in 2018

Washington Examiner

The White House is working to release a roughly 70-page infrastructure proposal sometime in January. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

"The Trump administration is expected to unveil an infrastructure package in the new year, after putting the issue on the sidelines amid other GOP priorities in 2017.
"The White House is working to release a roughly 70-page infrastructure proposal sometime in January for members of Congress to use as a cornerstone for drafting the legislation in 2018.
"In December, President Trump met with senior administration officials and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., to discuss the proposal.
“ 'The meeting with the president was encouraging and very productive,” Shuster said in a statement. “He’s a builder — he gets the importance of infrastructure and why it matters for jobs and the economy. Addressing our nation’s infrastructure in a bipartisan manner is going to take strong presidential leadership, and I believe we have a president who can provide the necessary leadership and who wants to rebuild our infrastructure to strengthen our economy.”
"During the 2016 campaign, Trump first promised to deliver a $1 trillion infrastructure plan to improve the condition of U.S. roads, bridges, airports, and other public works.
"Although the administration is working to address the nation’s infrastructure, several major question marks hang over the plan, such as funding.
“ 'The cost is going to be an issue, that’s going to be a large topic of debate,” a senior committee aide told the Washington Examiner." . . .

'Darkest Hour' Warns Viewers About Dangers Of Churchill's Secondhand Cigar Smoke

Prepare to be lectured again...

Daily Wire
Historians and biographers have ridiculed the public health warning. Royal biographer Hugo Vickers quipped that the filmmakers should have also included a line in the credits stating, “Sir Winston Churchill lived to be 90.”
Today's generation should be aware Churchill's gesture did not mean "peace and love" .
 It was "V for victory"
"He warned Britain and the United States about the rise of Adolf Hitler.
"He fought the Nazi war machine alone until Russia and the United States joined him.
"And he is a public health menace.
"Winston Churchill, it seems, is rarely pictured without a cigar in tow.
"And the new Churchill biographical film, "Darkest Hour," wants you to know that “there are serious health risks associated with smoking and with secondhand smoke.”
"That line is included in the film’s credits, which also say that “the depictions of tobacco smoking contained in this film are based solely on artistic consideration and are not intended to promote tobacco consumption.”
"Not surprisingly, the warning did not distinguish between cigarette smoke, which is inhaled, and cigar smoke, which is not.
"Gary Oldman, who delivered what many critics say is an Oscar-worthy performance of Winston Churchill, has a cigar between his lips in nearly every scene of the film. It’s often not even lit — true to history, as Churchill often simply chewed on a cigar before smoking it.
"At one point in the film, Churchill smokes a cigar while riding the London Underground and chatting with delighted passengers. He continues puffing away as he leans in to greet a mother and her five-month old baby.
"Historians and biographers have ridiculed the public health warning. Royal biographer Hugo Vickers quipped that the filmmakers should have also included a line in the credits stating, “Sir Winston Churchill lived to be 90.' ”

University Professors: Trump Uses Christmas To Promote White Nationalism

Daily Caller

US President Donald Trump (L) and First lady Melania Trump walk on the stage during the 95th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at the Ellipse in President's Park near the White House in Washington, DC on November 30, 2017.
"A Newsweek article posted on Christmas Eve featured three university professors alleging that President Donald Trump is using Christmas to advance white nationalism, much like the Nazis did in 1930s Germany.

"According to the “experts” interviewed by Newsweek’s Cristina Maza, Trump vowing to end the “war on Christmas” and promising his supporters they can say “Merry Christmas” again is just a “dog whistle” for white identity politics.

“ 'I see such invocations of Christmas as a kind of cypher, what some would call a dog whistle,” Richard King, a Washington State University professor told Newsweek. “It does not appear to be intolerant or extreme, but to attentive audiences it speaks volumes about identity and belonging—who and what are fully American.”

"One professor, Joe Perry, claims that Trump is employing tactics used by the Nazis to encourage anti-Semitism. The Nazis rewrote Christmas carols and politicized the holiday to promote exclusion and fascism." . . .

Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Hate Tracker’ Picks Up #Christmas as Trending Hashtag

Kristina Wong
"The Southern Poverty Law Center is tracking the hashtags #Christmas, #MerryChristmas, #Jesus, and #ChristmasEve, as part of “trends in a community of far-right Twitter users.”
Dorothy Haymer of Yazoo City, at podium, Indigo Williams, left and Precious Hughes, right. both of Jackson, explains the reasons as African-American mothers of children in public elementary schools, they are plaintiffs in a Mississippi education lawsuit filed on her behalf, by the Southern Poverty Law Center, SPLC, Tuesday, May 23, 2017, in Jackson, Miss. Mississippi is denying good schools to African American students and violating the federal law that enabled the state to rejoin the union after the Civil War, the Southern Poverty Law Center alleged Tuesday in a lawsuit trying to strengthen constitutional protections for education. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

"According to the SPLC, its “hate tracker” tracks accounts that represent a “range of extremists,” from “conspiratorial fringes of mainstream conservatism to outright white supremacists.”
"The hate tracker notes that #Christmas is the second highest trending hashtag it tracked on Christmas Eve, with @whitehouse and @potus being among the four top Twitter handles mentioned with the hashtag.
"For #MerryChristmas, the U.S. Marine Corps’ band at @marineband was one of the top mentioned, according to the hate tracker on Christmas Eve. One of the SPLC’s “top image” associated with #MerryChristmas is a photoshopped picture of marines hoisting a Christmas tree, instead of a flag, as depicted in the famous Iwo Jima picture.
"The SPLC includes disclaimers, however, such as that the accounts “are not necessarily part of the far-right population of accounts we monitor.” It also claims these “extremists” also participate in many “conversations and topics that are popular among more ‘mainstream’ communities.' ” . . .
One comment to this post read:
The other day our mailman left seemingly everyone else’s mail in our box. One neighbor received SPLCs Monthly newsletter. It was dedicated to ‘teaching tolerance’ by hating it seems any who disagreed with their world view.
Alas I simply delivered all my neighbors mail back to them. The question is... would the favor be returned if my NRA newsletter came to them??
I’d like to think so but the SPLC types are simply unapproachable in dialogue... I don’t know how that translates in other activities. Still, I’ll always be a civil neighbor, until I’m tread upon that is.

Hat tip to Weasel Zippers

Embattled FBI admits it can’t verify dossier claims of Russia, Trump campaign collusion

Driven by Chairman Devin Nunes, California Republican, the committee is examining the following:
• Who funded the dossier and how its information was spread by paymaster Fusion GPS and then used by the FBI.
• The Obama administration’s “unmasking” of the identities of private citizens caught up in surveillance of foreigners.
• Recent misconduct inside the Department of Justice and the FBI.
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Rich Terrell


Washington Times  "The FBI is declining to repudiate the Russia dossier on which it partially relied to start an investigation into the Trump campaign, but it concedes the document’s major core charges of election collusion remain unsubstantiated.


"Sources familiar with House and Senate investigations say this is the FBI’s dossier talking point 17 months after agents were first briefed in July 2016 as Donald Trump battled Hillary Clinton for the White House.
"The most recent FBI witness was Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who spent nearly eight hours last week in a closed session before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
"Republicans believe they have unearthed a scandal inside the bureau’s top echelons over its determination to target Trump associates based on flimsy evidence and improper Justice Department contacts.
"Republican committee members pressed Mr. McCabe about a dossier that was financed by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign based on gossip-tinged information from paid, unidentified Kremlin operatives.
"Mr. McCabe declined to criticize the dossier’s 35 pages of salacious and criminal charges against Donald Trump and his aides, but he said it remains largely unverified, according to a source familiar with ongoing congressional inquiries." . . .
Popcorn Worthy – President Trump Has Rejected McCabe’s Terms…


. . . "Put another way, Andrew McCabe, is going to be in FULL SUNLIGHT on or around January 15th, 2018, for any misconduct.
"That explains the transparent reason for McCabe offering terms.  However, the content of that year-long investigation is also the transparent reason for President Trump refusing McCabe’s terms.
"In addition to McCabe, and depending on how well they have covered their political tracks, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, and all of the top officials -lawyers mostly- within the FBI and DOJ will be part of that investigative release." . . .