What A Swing In The Media

I just read the umpteenth article about how the Roy Moore story is resulting in an awakening on the left regarding sexual misconduct and abuse.  It's truly hysterical.  First we had lefty icon Harvey Weinstein unveiled as an alleged rapist, sexual abuser, and perpetually disgusting individual.  Then we got others like Mark Halperin, Louis CK and a whole host of others who were all from the left as well.  Hollywood pedophiles who forced themselves on young girls and boys came next; they too were essentially all Democrats or leftists.  Now we have two women accusing Roy Moore of improprieties.  Moore is a Republican candidate for the senate from Alabama.  What's hysterical is that after months of turmoil in the sexual abuse news about Democrats, the media is suddenly telling us that it is the Moore case that is awakening those on the left.  I guess we are to understand that the people on the left can't really care about this issue unless a Republican is involved.

We saw what happened in the past with Bill Clinton when those on the left protected him from continuing allegations of sexual misconduct.  Here we go again.

To be fair, there has been outrage about Weinstein and the others before Moore was involved.  The die hard left wing media, however, is still protecting them by trying to take a problem which has centered on Hollywood and the left and to refocus it all on one Alabama Republican. 

Consider What This Actually Means

Which US tax brings in 79% of its revenue from families making less than $50 thousand per year?  Which US tax brings in 37% of its revenue from families making less than $25 thousand per year?

Here's a hint:  it's a tax for which the Democrats strongly oppose the efforts by Republicans to repeal it. 

The answer is the individual mandate tax.  In other words, the tax that people without health insurance have to pay due to that failure to purchase that insurance.

Think about that.  Nearly all the revenue from this tax comes from people in the bottom half of the income levels in the USA.  More than a third comes from people in the bottom quarter of income.  And yet, despite that onerous burden on the poor, the Democrats are insistent on keeping that tax in place.  They are going to battle against Republicans who want to repeal the tax.  Why is that?

It Still Doesn't Make It Right

There's an article in The Atlantic in which the author details just a few of the instances of sexual abuse, rape and harassment of which Bill Clinton was accused in the 1990's.  The article asks whether it isn't time to revisit those accusations which are much more credible than most of the ones that are swirling around against many other men these days.  The article points out that it was feminists who saved Clinton in the 1990s and downplayed and disputed the claims against him.  The article even admits that the feminist movement of the time was an adjunct of the Democrat Party.

It's a strange article to read in of all places a far left leaning magazine like The Atlantic.  In truth, I'm not sure if the purpose of the piece is to try to get the Clintons to go away once and for all, or to actually consider Bill Clinton's deeds anew.  If it's just a hit piece by the far left on the Clintons, that's fine.  The whole nation needs to have a break from Clintons and Bushes and their politics.  America needs to have a new vision.  For the Democrats, a hit on the Clintons might prevent anyone from coalescing around Hillary once again in 2020.  Few prospects are likely as damaging to the country as Hillary running once again for office.  Most likely, the departure of Hillary from the scene would let the Democrats present a far left candidate whose goal is Socialism rather than just power and graft.  Such a candidate will likely fail, but at least the nation will have a real choice instead of a phony like Hillary who says many things but means none of them.

On the other hand, if this hit on Bill Clinton is somehow meant to atone for what the feminists did to save him in the 1990's, it is too little and far too late.  Had their really been a reckoning for Bill Clinton in the 1990's, one has to wonder if places like Hollywood might have cleaned up their act.  Would Harvey Weinstein and the other creeps been tolerated the way they were absent the Clinton example.  Indeed, Weinstein was one of Hillary's most prominent supporters, something that bolstered his Hollywood power that came from his studio.  Would the Lolita Express run by a billionaire perv been disclosed without ruin following those (like Bill Clinton) who rode to the Caribbean for sexual escapades with women decades their junior?  Would a Democrat like senator Menendez have been given a pass regarding the allegations of his visits with underage hookers in the Dominican Republic if Bill Clinton had not come first? 

The nation needs to find a happy medium for the issue of sexual harassment.  Men are still men and women are still women.  Sex is not something that can be suppressed; not should it be.  But there is a difference between rape and a compliment.  Society needs to draw a clear line as to what is and what is not acceptable.  Clearly, Bill Clinton was on the wrong side of that line, wherever it gets drawn.

Are We Moving Towards War With Iran?

During the Obama years, the policy of the USA was to appease Iran at all costs.  When Iranians manufactured IEDs and sent them into Iraq for use against US forces, America did nothing.  When Iran sent major weapons shipments to the Houthi rebels in Yemen and supported that uprising that overthrew the government, America did nothing.  When Iran sent troops and supplies to Syria to support Assad and his murderous thugs, the USA stood by and watched.  America under Obama even signed the JCPOA under which Iran is assured a nuclear weapon in a decade or so and nearly all the sanctions against Iran were ended.  This weakness in the face of Iranian moves has emboldened the Iranians to an amazing extent.  Iran has been diligently testing missiles despite UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit such work.  Iran has been attempting to secure a land route from Teheran to Damascus through areas that are heavily Sunni.  Iran has been supporting terrorists like Hezbollah and using such groups to take control of Lebanon.  Iran has been building military bases inside Syria close to the Israeli border.  And now, Iran has had its proxies in Yemen, the Houthis, fire an Iranian built missile at the Saudi capital of Riyadh.  The missile was shot down, but the point is clear:  Iran is taking aim at the Saudis in the hope of forcing that kingdom to back down and lose face.

If you put all this together, you see that Iran now believes itself to be secure in its position and the strongest power in the region.  As a result, we have the phenomenon of Iranian expansionism.  Iran seeks total hegemony in the Middle East.  Iran wants control of the region's oil.  Iran believes that America will do nothing to stop its efforts.  Decades ago, the Chinese derided the USA as a "paper tiger", a country that spoke strongly but acted meekly.  Iran calls America the "great Satan", but the rulers in Teheran have come to believe that America really is a paper tiger.  The Obama years taught them that truth.

This is an extremely dangerous situation.  Iran thinks that it can do as it pleases.  It has patrol boats that harass American naval vessels in the Persian Gulf.  The Iranians expect no response when they launch missile attacks on the Saudis.  Sooner, rather than later, there will be a direct confrontation between America or our allies and Iran.  If the Iranians have come to believe that the USA will back down, it could easily lead to war.

Much of America's politicians and media are particularly ignorant to this impending threat.  For example, not long ago, President Trump said that he could not certify Iranian compliance with the JCPOA.  This was not surprising since the Iranians refuse to allow inspectors onto military bases where nuclear arms production could be taking place.  The predominant response from Democrats and the media was to denounce President Trump rather than to examine the real issue which is Iranian obstructionism in connection with the JCPOA.  These people were more concerned with trying to undermine President Trump than in safeguarding the interests of the USA.  The Iranians are not oblivious to these events.  They understand that America is divided, even when it comes to Iranian aggression. 

War with Iran would not be a happy outcome for anyone.  America does not need another conflict.  Americans do not want another conflict.  Unless something changes soon, however, that seems to be what we will get.

You Have To Wonder

There's a new accuser for Roy Moore.  The embattled Alabama Republican senate candidate was accused by a woman at a New York press conference of allegedly attacking her when she was 16.  Moore says he doesn't know the woman and doesn't even know the place where the events supposedly happened.

There's a big problem with the woman's story.  She held her press conference sitting next to her lawyer Gloria Allred.  That fact alone makes me extremely suspicious about the new story.  Allred has repeatedly represented women who pile on with claims when some high profile man is accused of misconduct.  To say the least, many of Allred's clients have turned out not to be -- shall we say -- slaves to the truth. 

We do have to wonder why this second woman waited for nearly 40 years to tell her tale of attempted rape. 

 

Misleading News Once Again

There's a big headline on my news feed today about how the NFL boycott for Veterans' Day was a bust.  Attendance was up almost 1% over the season average.  But that misses the point.  The season average is already down due to fan discontent.  Further, we don't know how many fans were really there.  People with tickets who didn't show still get counted in the attendance figures.  More important, it's not the fans in the stands that matter, but the ones who watch the games on TV.  That's where the money comes from that supports the league.  That's also where the biggest drop off in support has taken place.

We will have to wait to see if the ratings stay down as they have been all season.

 

Clap Off

Remember the clapper?  It was a device that let you turn on or off a switch by clapping your hands.  The manufacturer had a truly annoying TV commercial that kept saying "clap on, clap off."  When I heard the latest quote from former DNI James Clapper, it made me think of the old commercial and how much I would like to see America clap off this guy.

Let's start with the obvious:  Clapper is a man who lies even under oath.  He sat in a congressional committee hearing and told America that the intelligence agencies do not "wittingly" collect information on millions of US citizens.  That, of course, was a false statement.  The NSA collected metadata in the form of billions of phone records on hundreds of millions of Americans.  Clapper clearly knew this and just lied to Congress under oath.

Second, Clapper is clearly a political hack.  He served under Obama and never complained about the manner in which the entire Russian "hacking" in connection with the 2016 election was handled.  He never complained that no government agency got to see the DNC computers that were supposedly hacked by the Russians; he just took the word of the DNC's contractor.  He never complained that Obama kept the whole matter under wraps during the election since disclosure might hurt the Democrats.  Suddenly, now that Trump is in office, Clapper is disappointed that the President says he's not sure about Russian involvement.  Remember, if the FBI, CIA and NSA (all of which reported in part to Clapper) had bothered to look at the actual computers that were hacked, we would have definitive evidence of who exactly hacked them.  So, there really is no conclusive evidence because Clapper and his charges fell down on the job.