If This Is Close To Real, It's A Game Changer

There's a Gravis poll out today on the senate race in New Jersey.  It shows that in the contest between Democrat incumbent Bob Menendez and Republican challenger Bob Hugin, Menendez is ahead 43% to 41% with 16% undecided.  This is HUGE.  We are only four months from the election, and the incumbent Democrat is only getting 43% of the vote.  That's a prescription for disaster for Menendez.  After all, he's running against a GOP candidate that most people in New Jersey don't really know.  That means that the people of New Jersey don't really like Menendez.  If Hugin can run a reasonably good campaign and show himself to be a decent human being that people like, he will win the seat.

Obviously, the problem for Menendez is that he was tried for corruption and only escaped prison when the trial ended with a hung jury.  This trial is influencing the voters by a rather large majority according to the poll.

There's some other items of interest in this poll.  For example, Menendez is losing among Hispanics.  Remember Menendez is the first Hispanic senator from New Jersey, but he's still behind.

Prior to this poll, the GOP looked to be in a somewhat good position to retain control of the Senate this year.  In fact, it looked most likely that there would be a GOP pickup of a few seats.  If the New Jersey seat is actually in play (as this poll indicates), there could be a much larger GOP success in November.  New Jersey is a very blue state which has been rated as a "likely" Democrat victory until today.

We will have to watch future polling in New Jersey to see if the Gravis poll was just a fluke or if Menendez is on his way out of office.

Meanwhile, Back In The Middle East

The focus of attention of the last week has been in Europe with the NATO meetings, President Trump's trip to the UK and today's summit with Putin in Helsinki.  Far away from that news, however, there was a lot of important events that unfolded in the Middle East.

One hot spot that deserves attention is the Israeli border with Gaza (and the Hamas terrorists).  For the last three months, Hamas has held weekly "protests" at the border.  The protesters tried to tear down the border fence and enter Israel to attack nearby inhabitants. The Hamas people threw grenades, Molotov cocktails and otherwise attacked the border fence while the "protesters" were used to provide cover for the attacks.  Israeli troops stopped the Hamas actions.  Although Hamas started using burning kites and balloons to try to set the fields of nearby Israeli farms on fire, the protests got smaller and smaller until lately no one is there except for Hamas troops dressed as civilians.  The kite fires, however, continued.

Early last week, Israel stopped allowing importation of gasoline and other fuel oil from Israel so that it would not be available for use on the kites.  This was a logical step, but it was still a big blow to Hamas.  The terrorists kite attacks had managed to cause new hardships for the Gaza residents.

The Hamas response came pretty quickly.  Over the weekend, Hamas launched over 200 missiles at Israeli territory and carried out more kite attacks.  There were injuries in Israel but no fatalities.  In response, the Israeli air force launched attacks on Hamas installations across Gaza.

There was a rapidly brokered cease fire agreement.  Hamas agreed there would be no more missile attacks, while Israel said it would stop the air attacks.  Within 12 hours, however, Hamas launched new missile attacks as well as additional kite attacks.

It seems that the best way to view Hamas is "once a terrorist, always a terrorist." 

Lack of Intelligence Running Intelligence

Former CIA Director under Obama, John Brennan, tweeted today that President Trump's press conference this morning with Vladimir Putin was "treasonous" and "rose to the level of an impeachable offense".

It's scary to think that someone that moronic used to run the CIA.  It doesn't matter if one loves or hates President Trump, there is no possible sane opinion that his answers to questions at a press conference were "an impeachable offense".  The Constitution says that impeachable offenses are "high crimes and misdemeanors".  When Bill Clinton committed perjury while testifying under oath about Monica Lewinsky, the Democrats argued that perjury, a felony, was no enough of a high crime to constitute an impeachable offense.  Of course, that was 20 years ago and Clinton was a Democrat.  Still, there is no possible argument that comments made to the media at a press conference can form the basis for impeachment.  It's just delusional.

Still, what we have here is a good example of the mass hysteria among Democrats.  They hate Trump so much that they don't care about reality; no matter what Trump does, the Dems tell us it's terrible.  That has led to things like Nancy Pelosi telling us that unemployment under 4% doesn't matter or that tax cuts are actually tax increases.  It's led to someone like my own moronic senator Richard Blumenthal spending a year talking constantly about the need for legislation to protect Robert Mueller from his imminent firing by Trump.  Of course, there is no legislation, but there is also not even a hint that Trump has any intention to fire Mueller.  Even so, today's tweet by Brennan reaches a new low point.  And it's obvious what his game plan was.  If Trump took a shot at Putin, Brennan would have tweeted that Trump was undiplomatic and a disgrace to his office.  When Trump treated Putin with the respect due to the head of state of Russia, Brennan instead claimed that even speaking civilly to Putin was "TREASON"!

Hopefully, the American people are taking in all of this.  There is no way that the Democrats can be trusted with any power in Washington.  Trump is working towards having better relationships with Russia.  The Democrats seem perfectly happy to see a war with the Russians if it would help them regain power.  I believe that the American people understand the better course.

So Is This Weak And Embarassing?

There's a big discussion in the media today about what President Trump and Vladimir Putin said in their press conference in Helsinki after their meeting.  Most of the media and essentially all of the Democrats denounce Trump for not taking on Putin for Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

Here's what the president said when asked about whether or not it made sense to publically denounce Putin for the Russian interference:

 "He denies it. So the idea that somehow public shaming is gonna be effective, I think doesn't read the thought process in Russia very well.”

Although I often disagree with the president, I agree here.

By the way, the president who said this was president Obama in late December of 2016 almost two months after the election.  The media thought that idea was fine at the time.  When Trump does the same thing, they go berserk.  The truth is that it really doesn't matter what Trump says or does, the media and the Democrats just go berserk each time.  It's really getting old.

Insanity on Parade

Here's a tweet today from Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives:

Every single day, I find myself asking: what do the Russians have on @realDonaldTrump personally, financially, & politically? The answer to that question is that only thing that explains his behavior & his refusal to stand up to Putin. #ABetterDeal

This is not a joke; it is the actual tweet that Pelosi wrote.  She's actually claiming that Russia is blackmailing the President.

This is so outrageous!  There's nothing Pelosi can cite to support her charge; she just throws it out there for effect.  It's an old Democrat tactic.  Remember Harry Reid as Democrat leader of the Senate who in 2012 said that the "word on the street" was that Mitt Romney hadn't paid taxes for ten years.  That too was a lie, but the media ran with the story anyway.

There's no excuse for Pelosi's lies.  If she thinks that Trump is being blackmailed, let's hear the proof.  If she thinks Trump is doing something that benefits Russia, let's hear the proof.  On this trip alone, Trump has arranged for NATO to increase military spending by $40 billion to confront Russia.  Trump has also tried to stop an agreement between Germany and Russia that would let the Russians sell hundreds of billions of dollars of natural gas to the Germans.  These are big problems for Putin and Russia, not benefits.  But Pelosi just lies about it anyway.  It's disgusting.

Fee. Fie, Faux,Foe

President Trump called the European Union a "foe" of the USA in an interview over the weekend.  Trump then went on to explain that the EU and the USA are adversaries on trade issues. Now, the mainstream media is going berserk because Trump called the EU an "enemy" of America.

No he didn't, but it doesn't seem to matter to the media.  The EU is an adversary of ours when it comes to trade.  That's indisputable.  Trump didn't call them an "enemy".  Sure, that's one of the definitions of "foe", but so also is "adversary".

Wouldn't it be better if the media actually asked the White House to clarify this subject?

"Get Rid Of the Iranians"

In one of the best developments in recent memory in the Middle East, there have been massive protests in southern Iraq against Iran and its influence in Iraq.  Think about that.  The Iraqi region around Basra is the heartland of Shiite Iraq.  Iran, of course, is predominantly Shiite as well, and Teheran has used the common religion to promote its influence inside Iraq.  One might expect the Sunni Arabs or the Kurds in other parts of the country to fight Iranian influence, but to have major protests by Shiites is a true surprise.

There's no way to know what will become of these protests.  Still, they present a major headache for the Iranians at the same time as Iran is being pressured in Syria by Israel, Russia and even the Assad regime and inside Iran itself by ongoing anti-government protests.  Hopefully, President Trump will add to the problems for the mullahs with additional US pressure.  Things may finally move in the right direction.