Thanks to “Superdelegates,” Hillary Might Be Assured of Nomination

 Infowars

"Question: with Hillary Clinton’s win in Nevada, 53-47, but only squeaking by Bernie Sanders in Iowa and getting spanked by him in New Hampshire, how is it that Clinton has a seven-to-one delegate advantage (502-to-70) over Sanders?

"Answer: Because one-sixth of the approximately 4,763 delegates who will be headed to Philadelphia in July to pick the Democratic Party’s nominee are “superdelegates," beholden to no one, least of all the voters. Seven hundred and twelve of those delegates are “unpledged” and include

20 party leaders (current and former presidents, vice-presidents, congressional leaders and chairs of the DNC (Democratic National Committee);

20 Democratic governors including territorial governors and the mayor of Washington, D.C.;

47 Democratic members of the U.S. Senate, including the “shadow” senator from Washington, D.C.;

193 Democrat members of the U.S. House of Representatives; and

432 elected members of the DNC.

"Five hundred and two of them have already said they would vote for Clinton — although it should be noted that superdelegates can change their pledges at any time, especially if Hillary is indicted or if Sanders wins more popular votes." . . .Entire article here.

The future of originalism after Scalia

Volokh Conspiracy  . . . "First, it is premature to conclude that the death of Scalia portends a major decline in interest in originalism among Supreme Court justices. It is quite possible that Senate Republicans will succeed in blocking President Obama’s nominee from replacing Scalia. If so, and a Republican candidate (at least one other than Donald Trump) wins the election, Scalia might well be replaced by a like-minded originalist. Originalism is now the dominant constitutional theory on the political right, and a GOP president would feel some pressure to replace Scalia with an adherent of the same worldview.

"Even if Obama is able to replace Scalia with a nonoriginalist liberal, originalism might still rebound from that setback in the near future. There are three other relatively elderly justices who might well leave the Court in the next few years, all of them nonoriginalists: Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Anthony Kennedy. Depending on who wins the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, it is quite possible that some or even all of these justices might be replaced by successors more sympathetic to originalism. " . . .

'Harmless Curiosity': Media Downplay Muslim Women Casing Florida Synagogues

"If you see something say something." Or not.

Truth Revolt via South Florida Jewish Community News:

"If you see something, say something" - then have your legitimate concerns trivialized and dismissed outright by authorities and local media alike.

That is precisely what is happening right now in the Miami metro area where a pair of Muslim women (we are unclear if it is the same pair or different pairs) -- donning hijabs and carrying a Quran -- have been casing multiple synagogues -- at least three to date -- asking suspicious questions about when large crowds gather for different kinds of services.

Below is how the incident was first reported by the local CBS affiliate on February 17: 

Hat tip to Weasel Zippers

Obama says Trump's tv reality shows declare him not to be a serious candidate

This man declares Trump to be non-serious, and certainly not as presidential as he himself pictures that he is.

Newsweek’s Thomas: ‘Slightly Creepy Cult of Personality’ Around Obama

. . . "ROSE: Watching him last night -- that speech when he’s out there alone, and watching him in Denver, same thing -- when he's making a speech. He -- he knows the power of his ability to speak, and there is at the end, when he finishes it -- you know, with certain speakers, there's a kind -- they're overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the moment.
MEACHAM: Right, right.
ROSE: You know? And that they're walking from -- and his is a much more -- he finishes, and he sort of -- it’s almost like he then ascends to look at the circumstance --
MEACHAM: He watches us watching him.
ROSE: Exactly. He does --
MEACHAM: It's amazing." . . .

From way back in 2009 this was spotted: Obama's reality-show presidency   . . . "This is the first administration, however, to fuse iterative, real-time lifestyle coverage with the star power of a true celebrity politician. The White House is deftly serving the huge public and media interest in President Barack Obama, not only as a leader and celebrity but also as a character in a fascinating story far beyond politics . . ."

Win one for Nino

Charles Krauthammer

Let’s understand something about the fight to fill the Supreme Court seat ofAntonin (“Nino”) Scalia. This is about nothing but raw power. Any appeal you hear to high principle is phony — brazenly, embarrassingly so.

"In Year Seven of the George W. Bush administration, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) publicly opposed filling any Supreme Court vacancy until Bush left office. (“Except in extraordinary circumstances.” None such arose. Surprise!) Today he piously denounces Republicans for doing exactly the same for a vacancy created in Year Eight of Barack Obama."

. . . 

"As I said, this is all about raw power. When the Democrats had it, they used it. The Republicans are today wholly justified in saying they will not allow this outgoing president to overturn the balance of the Supreme Court. The matter should be decided by the coming election. Does anyone doubt that Democrats would be saying exactly that if the circumstances were reversed?

"Which makes this Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Ky.) moment. He and his cohorts have taken a lot of abuse from “anti-establishment” candidates and media for not using their congressional majorities to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, block executive orders, etc." . . .

Jeb! couldn't fix it. Inside Jeb Bush's $150 Million Failure

"His closest aides failed to predict Trump and never changed course, guiding a flawed candidate into a corner he couldn’t escape."

Politico "His closest aides failed to predict Trump and never changed course, guiding a flawed candidate into a corner he couldn’t escape,” by Politico’s Eli Stokols, on the Jeb beat from the beginning, with Glenn Thrush and Alex Isenstadt: “Interviews with more than two dozen Bush insiders, donors and staff illuminate the plight of an earnest and smart candidate who was tragicomically mismatched to the electorate of his own party and an unforgiving, mean media environment that broadcast his flaws. The entire premise of Bush’s candidacy ... was an epic misread of a GOP base hostile to any establishment candidate, especially one with his baggage-weighted last name. ..."

” ... @MarcACaputo: “Jeb Bush exits the race for president the way he (usually) campaigned -- in a totally classy way” ... 

From Hot Air:  . . . "The conservative base was already fed up before Trump came along and Jeb Bush was never the prescription to scratch that itch. We were waiting for somebody to come along with a blowtorch and Jeb Bush was offering a candle."
More to come on this...

Trump-mentum  . . . "Newt Gingrich, past winner of the South Carolina primary, weighed in with open eyes, unclouded by the DC establishment fog, recommending that the GOP, “Start taking Donald Trump seriously.”

"What’s the chance that a GOP frontrunner can lose the first four primaries and stay in the race, much less win the nomination? It’s never happened. Then again, a Donald Trump phenomenon has never happened either, so maybe there is slim hope for Rubio. Yet he finished third in Iowa, fourth in New Hampshire, second (barely) in South Carolina, and trails by over 20 points in Nevada."

Weasel Of The Week!! – 02/18/16

Noisy Room  "Yes, once again, it’s time to present this week’s statuette of shame, The Golden Weasel!!

"Every Tuesday, the Council nominates some of the slimiest, most despicable characters in public life for some deed of evil, cowardice or corruption they’ve performed. Then we vote to single out one particular Weasel for special mention, to whom we award the statuette of shame, our special, 100% plastic Golden Weasel. This week’s nominees were particularly slimy and despicable, but the votes are in and we have our winner… the envelope please…"

BuzzFeed Editor Rachel Zarrow!!

"My nomination for Weasel of the Week goes to BuzzFeed editor Rachel Zarrell this time around. She posted a couple of tweets rejoicing at the news of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and then tried to cover it up. She then quickly deleted them. She also retweeted a GQ writer who wrote, “Boy is my Twitter feed not sad.” Her initial tweet consisted of a party popper emoji. Then she followed up with a tweet mocking the statement put out by Sen. Ted Cruz on the news of Scalia’s death."

Following the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, she also let her personal thoughts be known, tweeting a profanity-laced message for county clerks who didn’t wish to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The woman is an unmitigated liberal troll and an opportunistic weasel. BuzzFeed has a written policy against pulling these kind of stunts. She should be fired for this. But she’ll keep on hatin’ and for that she should get the Golden Weasel.

Clinton Reaches Out to An Iranian Front Group for Campaign Donations

independentsentinel.com.

"When you see who Hillary takes money from, you have to wonder what she will do in return. She is already a known threat to our national security.

"Hillary Clinton is being outspent by Bernie Sanders 3 to 1 and keeps going back to the same donors who have for the most part given the maximum donations, but don’t worry, she’s found some new donors.

"A pro-Iran lobby group that is working against US interests and is actively trying to kill new antiterrorism laws will be at a fundraising event with her this weekend.

"This Sunday, Clinton will attend a fundraiser hosted by Twitter executive Omid Kordestani and his wife Gisel Hiscock along with National Iranian American Council (NIAC)  board member Lily Sarafan and Noosheen Hashemi, who serves on the pro-Iran advocacy group Ploughshares, a major funder of the pro-Iran agenda.

"NIAC advocates against the pro-Israel community and on Iran’s behalf, they pushed against sanctions, have close ties to Barack Obama, pressured the US to abandon sanctions, and they spread propaganda the same way Press TV does. In 2013, they put out the lie that President Rouhani was a moderate and US papers lapped it up.

"Ploughshares partners with NIAC and with the White House to pressure the Jewish community and others to back the Iran nuclear deal.

"Iranian state-run media have referred to the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) since at least 2006 as “Iran’s lobby” in the U.S." . . .

Open thread: South Carolina and Nevada finally speak up

Jazz Shaw
"Immediate Update: It’s official, or as close to it as possible. Out in Nevada Hillary Clinton has squeaked out a victory in the Nevada caucus. A roughly five point margin is nothing to sneeze at, but Bernie definitely ate into the massive lead she held only last month. Going by the exit polls, Hillary had the elderly vote by a country mile while Sanders captured the younger vote by a similar margin. Clinton got the black vote by a landslide, but Bernie was taking a small margin in the Hispanic vote, 53-45. In terms of delegates, Hillary *should* take either a 12-11 or 13-10 split of the committed delegates, but that’s never a sure thing. Nevada’s caucus isn’t a direct representation process. What they did today was select the delegates to the county conventions, who will then go on to the state convention where they will eventually cut a deck of cards or something and determine how many delegates to assign to her for national convention. (Not affecting all of her Superdelegates, of course.)

. . . "But now it’s about over. One Democrat and as many as three Republicans will be happy when they go to bed tonight. Some in the latter category may be going home and declaring that it just wasn’t their year. On the Democrats’ side, Bernie and Hillary will both pack up their teams and head to South Carolina." . . .

I'll post this cartoon after which Sanders will drop out, then Hillary will beat Trump in the general, unless he becomes her running mate. One thing in my favor: pessimists are usually pleasantly surprised. 
Hey, I'm 76 years old, so others will live with the results, not me. The Tunnel Dweller.

Hillary Clinton did not say that she would shut down the NRA and ban handguns if she were elected President.

Snopes

CLAIM: Hillary Clinton said that she would shut down the NRA and ban handguns if she were elected President.

  FALSE

"ORIGINS: On 25 October 2015, a Tumblr page dedicated to fake Hillary Clinton quotes posted a meme of the Democratic presidential candidate that included a quote supposedly uttered by her during an interview with the Des Moines Register on 8 August 2015:

"The "Shocking Hillary Clinton Quotes ..." Tumblr page claims that all of their quotes are 100% sourced and even provides links to make it appear as if the quotes have been verified:

This Tumblr page is just another fake quote generator created in the same vein as Facebook group "Stop The World, The Teabaggers Want Off." 
"Claim:   Sarah Palin told Sean Hannity Alaska has "all sorts of Eskimos and other foreigners.' " 

Hat tip to Karen Joy Roth

The Return of Socialism

Just a few years ago, the idea that Bernie Sanders, former member of the Socialist Party of America, would be contending seriously for the Democratic nomination for president would have been ludicrous. When did it become acceptable for Americans to back an avowed socialist? What changed in America, and why did it change?

Ben Domenech

Sanders holds massive events populated by kids who think what he is preaching is very cool. 

"It is the failure of Barack Obama’s domestic-policy program generally that we have to thank for socialism’s rise in 2016. Republicans since John McCain in 2008 have been describing President Obama’s domestic program as socialist, and it appears that in so doing, they have made the term seem more palatable and less extreme merely by repetition. The takeaway for today’s younger voters seems to be: If everything Obama is trying to do is socialism, and Republicans are just blocking it time and again, then perhaps we need to go full socialist to actually get things done. By applying an unpopular label to a relatively popular agenda, Republicans may have unintentionally aided the work of a thousand left-wing professors in a thousand state colleges." . . .

Cartoons added by the Tunnel Dweller.

Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think

TOP DOCUMENTARY FILMS  "Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world’s first major opinion poll, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization.

"Gallup researchers began by asking the questions on every American’s mind. Why is there so much anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists and how do Muslims feel about them? What do Muslims like and dislike about the West? What do Muslim women really want?

"Crucial policy decisions hang on these questions. They continue to generate passionate disagreements in the public square. Yet for all the heat and controversy, the actual views of the world’s Muslims have been conspicuously missing from this debate.

"Now, we have the missing answers and statistics, gathered, parsed, and analyzed not by pundits but by professional researchers.

"As part of this groundbreaking six-year project, Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents in 35 predominantly Muslim nations, as well as smaller populations in Europe and the USA. The broad extent of the polling has delivered findings for the world's 1.4 billion Muslims with a plus or minus accuracy of 3%.

"Focused on the issues of Gender Justice, Terrorism, and Democracy – Inside Islam presents this remarkable data deftly, showing how it challenges the popular notion that Muslims and the West are on a collision course. Like the research, the film highlights a shared relationship that is based on facts – not fear." . . .