Mr. McCain Goes to Washington

John Fund at National Review

"He chose to operate like the standard-issue politicians he likes to rail against."

 "In 2008, presidential candidate John McCain bravely proposed a health-care reform that Fortune magazine said was a giant step toward “laissez faire liberty” in health care. He wanted to empower consumers to find the best health care and even end the tax break for employer-sponsored plans. 

"In 2015, McCain joined all but one other GOP senator in voting to repeal Obamacare. The next year he ran an ad in his primary campaign against a Tea Party Republican claiming he was “leading the fight to stop Obamacare.” That ad helped him win 51 percent of the primary vote. 

"Just this year, McCain introduced a bill to “fully” repeal Obamacare and replace it with a “free-market approach that strengthens the quality and accessibility of care.” 

"Then, last Friday, McCain faced a choice on the Senate floor. He could vote with all but two of his GOP colleagues for “a skinny repeal” bill and get to a conference committee, where negotiators from the House and Senate could devise a bill that might pass both chambers. Or he could effectively leave Obamacare in place, dooming any realistic effort at curbing it given the uniform Democratic opposition to any real reform." . . .

Here's Why McCain Voted Against 'Skinny' Obamacare Repeal Bill

“We must now return to the correct way of legislating and send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides of aisle, heed the recommendations of nation’s governors, and produce a bill that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people.”

Report: Fans rising up against possible Kaepernick signing in Baltimore

 Yahoo Sports "If recent comments by Ravens coach John Harbaugh regarding the potential signing of quarterback Colin Kaepernick were meant to be a trial balloon, it apparently is made of lead.

"Mike Silver of NFL Media reports that the Ravens “have heard from numerous fans regarding Kaepernick in the last couple of days, many staunchly opposed to his signing.”

"It’s hardly a surprise, given that Giants co-owner John Mara already has provided all anti-Kaepernick fans with the blueprint for shouting down a potential Kaepernick signing.

“ 'All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue,” Mara said in May. “If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game. It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, moreso than any other issue I’ve run into.”

"It’s impossible to know whether the fans from whom the Ravens have heard are only Ravens fans, or whether they are fans of other teams who simply want to see Kaepernick remain unemployed. Regardless, it’s no surprise that those who don’t want to see Kaepernick on an NFL team are trying to block it from happening at a time when it appears that it could." . . .

Dangerous leak in the White House: Donald Trump Will Attack Weapons Site In North Korea ‘Within The Next Year’

Remember Obama leaking intel on an Israeli attack on the still-budding Iran nuclear program?

Weasel Zippers

"So here’s a question. Whoever is leaking this is most definitely leaking classified highly sensitive information. Either this is disinformation or it’s real and someone should go to jail and could undermine our potential actions.

"Via Daily Mail:

Donald Trump is poised to order a military strike against North Korea ‘within the next year’ after the communist state said it had successfully fired a ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

Senior military sources in Washington DC told The Mail on Sunday that Pentagon officials have laid out plans to obliterate a nuclear weapons facility operating deep within a mountain in the rogue state.

The move, which could spark retaliation attacks from dictator Kim Jong-Un, would be a major step towards all-out war to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. It comes after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 6,500 miles on Friday night.

The Pentagon said the missile flew about 2,300 miles almost straight up before plunging into the sea off Japan about 620 miles from its launch site.

Keep reading…

The Obama Administration Repeatedly Leaked Intel To Spite Israel

"In March 2012, four unnamed intelligence officials revealed details about Israel’s access to air bases in Azerbaijan in an effort to protect Iran from a potential Israeli strike. By doing so, the Obama administration prioritized its relationship with Iran, the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, over Israel — a longtime ally to the United States with a stable, democratic government in a region that’s otherwise plagued with volatility."

The spiteful, vindictive, petulant Obama on display for the left to admire.

The Federalist

. . . "In 2013, the Department of Defense quietly declassified an intelligence report revealing details about Israel’s secret nuclear program. The timing is significant, as it occurred around the same time tensions between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rapidly escalated, suggesting this may have been a swipe at Israel.

"The decision to declassify the report was a startling change in diplomatic protocol, as the United States had kept quiet about Israel’s development of nuclear arms for decades. Israel itself has never publicly acknowledged its nuclear program, for fear that it could escalate tensions in the region.

"Several months later, an Obama administration official told the press that Israel had carried out a strike on a Syrian military base, CNN reported. Israel did not take credit for the attack, and Israeli officials were “furious” about this leak, which reportedly came directly from the White House." . . .

It may be time for an "apology tour" to America's allies by President Trump.

Check your 'cognitive privilege,' all you smart people!

"One of my favorite expressions is "There's no fool like an educated fool," and I appreciate it from abundant personal experience.  Merit is under attack on both the left and the right, in part because it is so often confused with education and privilege."

Thomas Lifson  "Progressives, crazed with identifying new forms of oppression attached to the currently fashionable catchword "privilege," have finally embraced the stupid as a victim class.  Hey, let's celebrate stupidity!  Just ponder for a moment all the potential grand marshals for the inevitable Stupidity Day Parade in New York City once the stupid are organized into a grievance-powered pressure group. 

"And where else but at a university, a temple of higher learning? "

"In this case, one funded by taxpayers.  The following is from a genuine column in the student newspaper of the University of Iowa.  A student suddenly has discovered that being smart is just like being white: an unfair privilege. " . . .





In a related column, this student speaks of "micro moments" to support "white privilege".

John McCain: the hair in the GOP soup

"John McCain flew to Washington with brain cancer Tuesday to cast the deciding vote to put the GOP health care bill to a vote, then on Thursday he cast the deciding vote to kill the bill. Democrats hated him one day then loved him the next. He faces censure now for doing Comey’s act."   Comedian Argus Hamilton

McCain to Begin Cancer Treatment Monday   . . . "He will undergo what is described as a "standard" regimen of radiation and chemotherapy. " . . .

I imagine the doctor telling McCain to not make any major decisions for the foreseeable future.

comicallyincorrect.com

ObamaCare Fines Nailed The Working Class In 2017 And Other Unpopular Truths

Investors Business Daily  "Preliminary data from the 2017 tax season are in, and they're shocking. Not only does it look like the working class bore the brunt of ObamaCare individual mandate penalties this year, but people with relatively modest incomes apparently paid a lot more than the Congressional Budget Office anticipated.

"The data underscore a reality that Democrats would prefer not to talk about: While ObamaCare has been a big help to the near-poor and those with major medical needs, it gives a bad deal to nearly everyone else. Even among working-class households earning 150% to 250% of the poverty level, supposedly among the law's biggest beneficiaries, just 1 in 3 people who lack insurance from other sources are getting silver coverage that will protect them from financial disaster. Most of the other two-thirds are uninsured, either because they or a spouse work full time and don't qualify for exchange subsidies, or else they've spurned subsidized bronze plans that carry $6,000-$7,000 deductibles — despite the threat of an individual-mandate penalty.

"The much-despised individual mandate was the central target of Republicans' chaotic, desperate effort this week to kill or wound the ACA in any way possible. Yet simply getting rid of the individual mandate, without addressing the ACA's underlying problems, would be a destructive act that would only increase premiums, which is the opposite of what Republicans say they want." . . .

Who actually DID sabotage health care?

 "Senate Republicans dodged a bullet Friday by failing to repeal Obamacare, when you consider the GOP won the House, the Senate, and the White House by opposing Obamacare. Why would they want to repeal it? By opposing Obamacare for one more election, they can win control of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and Buckingham Palace."

"The GOP health care bill failed to get to a House and Senate conference for final writing last Thursday. A poll of GOP voters favored paying for government-provided sex change operations for government workers. They wanted to install testicles on all male Republican members of Congress."  Comedian Argus Hamilton

Who sabotaged health care?  . . . "*Obama, Bernie, and many Democrats' goal for a long time has been to get to a single-payer government-run system.  They knew they couldn't sneak that through, so they did what they do best: they passed a bill that would destroy the private health insurance system under the guise that they were helping people.  The compliant media supported them every step of the way, as they stacked the bill with massive mandates that would obviously increase costs substantially, while they continually lied that costs would go down to intentionally mislead the public and members of Congress who, according to Pelosi, had to pass the bill to see what was in it." . . .

Why do the media willingly spread the garbage that Trump sabotaged Obamacare after six months in office, when it has been intentionally collapsing for seven years?  Are they that stupid or just willing puppets?  The media say Trump has done nothing his first six months in office, but somehow they credit him with ruining Obama's biggest domestic achievement.

*All well qualified to be governor of California, I might add.

Here comes that word "sabotage" again  . . . "While the GOP came up one vote short of repealing the individual mandate early Friday morning, the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service thinks that the new data from the 2017 tax season suggest that President Trump's effort to undermine the mandate might be working." . . . 

SNOPES TAKEN HOSTAGE: Left-Wing “Fact-Checker” Reveals It Has Lost Control Of Its Website

Noisy Room  "At one point in the distant past of the Interwebs, Snopes.com was taken seriously as a leading de-bunker of urban myths.

As the years went by, its founders — a once-married couple named David and Barbara Mikkelson — decided to drift into political commentary. As their site grew, they hired an openly partisan, left-wing blogger named Kim Lacapria.

"Lacapria had earlier declared herself “openly left-leaning” and very liberal. She has tarred conservatives as “teahadists” who “fear female agency”.

"After joining Snopes, Lacapria quickly found herself and the site embroiled in controversy as her various posts read like Democrat op-eds and not any sort of fact-checking.

"The Mikkelsons themselves are an interesting pair. They divorced in 2014, but appear to be engaged in a vicious battle over their assets. One court document accuses David of “raiding the corporate business Bardav bank account for his personal use… [which] he expended upon himself and the prostitutes he hired.” . . .

…"Snopes “is now in danger of closing its doors” and has been forced to hold a fundraising campaign (link intentionally omitted).

"In the letter David Mikkelson wrote describing the reason for the campaign, he admits that the company has lost control of its own website and says it’s being held “hostage” by a vendor it outsourced various services to.

"That’s a big deal. In fact, Mikkelson implies that the vendor could create, alter and delete any site contents it wants to. Thus far, he claims that hasn’t happened." . . .

Bob Vander Plaats to Trump: Wash Out Scaramucci's Mouth and Fire Him

NewsMax

(L-R) Bob Vander Plaat, former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR),
Minute Man project founder Jim Gilchrist and former Arkansas
governor Mike Huckabee. 

"President Donald Trump must show leadership by "washing out" Anthony Scaramucci's mouth "with a bar of soap" and escorting him "personally off the White House grounds," Family Leader CEO Bob Vander Plaats said.

" 'I suggest you lead by first washing out Mr. Scaramucci’s mouth with a bar of soap," the Iowa evangelical leader said Friday on the organization's website. "After a thorough rinsing, strip his credentials and escort him personally off the White House grounds.

" 'President Trump must take quick and decisive action to preserve the legacy of our great republic," he said.

"Vander Plaats' column followed a tweet he posted Friday calling for Scaramucci's firing after he slammed outgoing White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and senior strategist Steve Bannon in a profane tirade with The New Yorker:

 Follow

Bob Vander Plaats @bobvanderplaats

"Silence equals assent." @POTUS must model and demand a higher standard. @Scarramuci should be fired immediately. https://twitter.com/stevedeaceshow/status/890922603719872516 …

 

Gorka defends Trump’s transgender ban: Military ‘there to kill people and blow stuff up’

Joe Newby  "During a recent appearance on BBC Radio 4, White House aide Dr. Sebastian Gorka defended President Trup’s transgender ban in the military, saying that while the administration wants transgendered people to live happy lives, the military is there to perform a specific task and not to be a platform for social engineering.

“ 'The military is not a microcosm of civilian society,” he said. “They are not there to reflect America. They are there to kill people and blow stuff up. They are not there to be socially engineered. We want people who are transgender to live happy lives, but we want unit cohesion and we want combat effectiveness.”

"Here’s audio of his comments as posted by the BBC Radio 4’s Twitter account:"
. . . 

"A post at the Washington Examiner further noted:

The U.S. military has one goal: Protect and defend. Or as Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution reads, “to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”

The goal of the military is not a social experiment; it’s not even to see who is the most patriotic. (I’m a patriot but I couldn’t physically do what’s required of many of our service people.) Its job is not to see if men and women can both do the same amount of push-ups, or if a woman can hold up in a unit of mostly men without interrupting the männerbund, or if a woman who identifies as a man can drag a 170-pound male away from heavy gun fire.

Its job is not to pay for people to have elective surgeries so they feel more like a woman or a man.

While trans activists, including Caitlyn Jenner, are understandably upset about the ban, many members of the military who have seen active combat both support transgenders and agree with Trump’s decision, not because they are mean, old-fashioned bigots but because they view the active recognition of transgenders in the military as more of a petri dish of social experiments, wrapped in a progressive agenda.

Despicable: WaPo tracks down, doxxes Pickle, a nine-year-old Trump supporter

Joe Newby  "As part of the apparent effort to foment hate and violence against those who support President Trump, the Washington Post actually tracked down and identified a nine-year-old supporter of the president whose letter to the White House was read by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Naturally, the Trump-hating propagandists at the Post didn’t believe that such a fan of the president could exist — naturally, because ALL liberals hate Trump, therefore, in their alleged “mind,” everyone MUST hate Trump except for Nazis and bigots.

Photo added.

But it turns out the youngster, nicknamed “Pickle,” exists.  So naturally, the Post decided to identify him.

The Post hid their article behind a paywall, but Mediaite reported:

Thanks to some intrepid reporting by Monica Hesse of the Washington Post, we can now say that Pickle, the human, is not a figment of anyone’s imagination.
"He’s a real boy. . . .

More here.
Intrepid? Please.  Keep in mind this is the same Democrat-media complex that sees Russians behind every blade of grass, and thinks you’re a neo-Nazi if you have a short haircut.  They have yet to find any proof of their Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, but hey, they can find a nine-year-old boy who loves the president.

"According to Mediaite, the letter shocked reporters so much they actually became “Pickle-truthers” and refused to believe he exists." . . .