I find it hard to believe President Trump would put up with MS-13.
The Boston Globe reports that last week more than 400 officers fanned out across Boston, charging 56 people in crimes related to the violent street gang, MS-13.
Law enforcement officials on Friday charged 56 people with running a vast criminal enterprise with the motto “kill, rape, and control’’ that allegedly sold drugs and carried out five murders in immigrant communities throughout Greater Boston.
I wrote here that despite President Obama’s dire warnings that guns cause crime, per capita concealed carry licenses in Massachusetts are highest outside of Boston, where the majority of crime happens in the state.
More on the dangers posed by MS-13 here, here and here.
The Times tells readers about Hillary Clinton, “Voters have the chance to choose one of the most broadly and deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history.” Qualified? I am not certain that lying to the American people on issues of national security, violating national security policy in terms of email activity, championing a distinctly Marxist brand of domestic policy and a thoroughly disgraced form of interventionist foreign policy can be associated with the word qualified.
Hillary Clinton is the right choice for the Democrats to present a vision for America that is radically different from the one that leading Republican candidates offer — a vision in which middle-class Americans have a real shot at prosperity, women’s rights are enhanced, undocumented immigrants are given a chance at legitimacy, international alliances are nurtured and the country is kept safe.
Prosperity? Enhanced Rights? Immigration Legitimacy? Nurtured Alliances? Marxism is hardly a path to prosperity. Undocumented is simply a smoke screen for illegal. There can be no chance at legitimacy. Nurtured Alliances? With whom? The criminal despots of the Middle East?
Former CIA bin Laden unit chief Michael Scheuer and veteran CIA operative Gary Bernsten (the CIA’s key commander coordinating the fight against the Taliban) offer a little different take on this NYT designated “deeply qualified presidential candidate.” Mike writes, there is a “prima facie justification for an immediate criminal investigation of Mrs. Clinton, as well as a damage assessment conducted by intelligence and law enforcement agencies that will inform the national government and the public of what damage Mrs. Clinton deliberately inflicted on national security by her arrogant refusal to use the government’s secure IT systems.”
How The New York Times has a single reader left must be a mystery to any American who has so much as a shred of historical perspective. Not only is Madame Clinton not qualified to hold any office in the U.S. government, she is, as Dr. Scheuer indicates, potentially worthy of indictment. Probably not an event that would enhance Clinton’s relentless march to the presidency. Qualified? Indeed not.
The WHO has just declared the Zika Virus a global public health emergency. Zika is a virus that causes microcephaly, a birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads. And no, Zika is not yet in the U.S., but it’s important to know that once it takes root, it can travel fast in the domestic mosquito population. The mosquitos that carry this are called Aedes (rhymes, fittingly, with Hades), which are common in the United States, especially in the Gulf region and other southern states. But don’t think you are safe just because you live north of the Mason/Dixon line. Once temps start reaching 60 degrees and above, Zika can rapidly spread.
Katy Talento is a Hill staffer and an infectious disease epidemiologist specializing in the control of mosquito-borne illnesses such as malaria and Dengue. Read Ms. Talento’s amusingly helpful 12 steps to help prepare for the Zika Virus. And pass along to friends and family her tips—like why city slickers will need to take more precautions when waiting for Uber than rednecks sitting in a deer stand with their favorite firearm.
The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher pinpoints some talking points from Iowa:
Hillary Clinton: “What an incredible humiliation for someone of her stature within the Democratic party”
Donald Trump: “He was always expected to do less well in Iowa, a caucus state that rewards ground organization (of which Trump had bupkis; if you think about it, it’s still something that he came in second). But he has lost the psychological advantage over his rivals that he’s held for months.”
Jeb Bush: “The Bush political dynasty died tonight on the Midwestern plains.”
Ted Cruz: “Did what he had to do to stay alive, but also, by winning outright, embarrassed Trump mightily.”
Marco Rubio: “The undisputed establishment candidate.”
You think Jackson, Mississippi Councilman Kenneth Stokes wants the City Council to take a stand against crime? No, against the police. You can’t make this stuff up: “Rocks, Bricks and Bottles!”
After a car chase crossing county lines ended with a crash in Jackson, Councilman Kenneth Stokes is calling for the City Council to take steps against what he calls a reoccurring problem. WJTV’s Lucy Dieckhaus spoke with him about what he plans to do next.
“You can replace a car but you can’t replace these babies lives,” said Stokes.
Councilman Kenneth stokes didn’t hold back any punches about that chase that ended in Jackson involving a deputy and five innocent people . He says law enforcement shouldn’t have chased the men over a car.
“Who is accountable for the car crash the property damage and for the innocent women and children involved,” said Stokes.
He’s pushing for the City Council to take steps against what he says is a reoccurring problem, and Stokes says he has a solution.
“What can be done to stop this. My position is meet with the black leadership and my suggestion is going to be rocks, bricks and bottles,” sais Stokes.
A friend asked me yesterday if I was excited by Ted Cruz’s shocking Iowa victory? Excited, well no, as my candidate, Rand Paul, long ago self-destructed. I am for a government that is based, as the American Conservative puts it, on principles of federalism, decentralized political power, fiscal responsibility, a foreign policy of prudence, and respect for traditional liberties and communities.
As to shocking, also no. Cruz had in place a big time ground game perfect for campaigning in a caucus state like Iowa. Trump had virtually no ground game (much like the Pats) and was at a huge disadvantage. And as the new year got under way, Cruz held a comfortable lead. As the month unfolded, however, Cruz lost his lead to the point that final polls projected a Trump victory. So the polls missed the Cruz win? Not exactly. The final Cruz/Trump spread was within the expected margin of error.
OK, but still a big win for Ted right? To hear the flap in the media, a casual observer might conclude so. But you need to ask the big question. What did Cruz actually win? Why he won a single digit 8 delegates out of a total of 30 Republican delegates. As for Donald Trump, “the loser”? Mr. Trump garnered 7 delegates out of the total of 2472 Republican delegates who will attend the national convention. What? That sounds like is a pee hole in a snow bank. Indeed, absolutely little of lasting significance was achieved in Iowa. There was plenty of spinning, but not much weaving.
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize our treasonous corporate tax rate is bad for business. The latest hit comes from Johnson Controls’ merger with Tyco International, with headquarters in Ireland. The other real kicker here is it that JC had plenty of your (taxpayer) help to stick around.
Johnson Controls Inc. was as patriotic as they come back in 2008, when the U.S. auto industry was teetering on bankruptcy and the Glendale-based maker of car parts knew it desperately needed help from U.S. taxpayers.
The company’s president at the time, Keith Wandell, didn’t hesitate to ask Congress to support the massive government bailout that ultimately rescued two major U.S. automakers, along with uncounted businesses that provide parts and services to them.
“It saved a whole lot of suppliers that would have gone out of business,” said Steve Roell, then Johnson Controls’ chief executive.
And the auto bailout wasn’t the only government handout to benefit Johnson Controls in the past decade. In 2010, for example, it received $299 million from the Energy Department to ramp up production of hybrid batteries. The state of Michigan awarded it millions of dollars for the same project.
Our friend, Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, writes in Fortune:
In the words of the late Yogi Berra, it’s déjà vu all over again. The merger of Johnson Controls JCI -1.90% and Tyco International has triggered a lot of whining and complaining in Washington because the combined company will be based in low-tax Ireland instead of high-tax America.
Not that anyone should be surprised. In almost all cases of high-profile, cross-border mergers, such as the Pfizer-Allergan deal last year and the Burger King- Tim Horton deal the previous year, the new company chooses to be domiciled where there’s better tax laws.
Some U.S. politicians respond to these mergers with demagoguery about “economic treason,” but that’s silly. These corporate unions are basically the business version of a couple in a long-distance relationship that decides to live where the economic outlook is brighter after getting married.
The bottom line is that U.S.-domiciled firms are being forced to compete while burdened with a tax code that is uniquely destructive.
So instead of blaming the victims, the folks in Washington should do what’s right for the country by trying to deal with the warts that make America’s tax system so unappealing for multinational firms.
There are two main problems. The first is that the United States now has the world’s highest corporate tax rate. With a 35% levy from Washington, augmented by smaller state corporate taxes, the combined burden is more than 39%.
In 1980 our government issued dietary guidelines promoting a low-fat diet to then 220 million Americans, “even though the science supporting such guidelines was known to be weak at best and plenty of evidence was available even at that time to suggest that the recommendations were unsound,” writes Francis Menton in his blog, Manhattan Contrarian. A systematic review published last year in the cardiology journal Open Heart states: “It seems incomprehensible that dietary advice was introduced for 220 million Americans given the contrary results.”
“So how did a counter-productive diet get foisted on the American people in the face of such adverse evidence?” asks Mr. Menton. Easy, he explains. “A small group of avid promoters of the high-fat-diet/heart disease hypothesis had managed to get control of the principal government funding institutes, and of the peer review process at the key journals. Dissenters got cut off from funding and from publication.”
Dick and I are big fans of Nina Teicholz’s The Big Fat Surprise. We are not at all fans of the government guidelines. In August 2014, I wrote Butter Is Better:
In the late 1940s, Procter & Gamble, the maker of Crisco oil, helped transform the American Heart Association from a small, underfunded organization into the powerhouse it is today. Americans, on the advice of the AHA, began in 1961 to eat less saturated fat and switch to vegetable oils for “heart health.” Read Nina Teicholz here explaining the worrisome track record of vegetable oils and the consequences of giving up butter and lard in the American diet, especially for woman over 50.
Francis Menton reviews The Big Fat Surprise on his blog. He also has one heck of an idea: the government should entirely get out of the business of meddling in the diet of the American people.” Read more from Mr. Menton, who warns that next round of recommendations to come out of the government is very likely to be just as wrong as the last round.
P.S. The artwork for the banner headline on Mr. Menton’s site is by Joe Forte. Dick and I haven’t seen Joe, who usually spends winters in Key West, in several years. We’re not sure that he lived in his old Chevy van, but it was often parked on the street in front of our house, which is how we got to know Joe. A sweet man.
An embarrassing number of Americans continue noshing at the pig trough. And a large number of pseudo intellectuals beaver away at shoving freebies into that trough. As such, Dr. Paul’s audience, in terms of domestic policy, was limited from the start. And on the foreign policy side, his group of sympathizers was even smaller.
The foreign policy discussion, unfortunately, continues to be dominated by the neocons (nation builders, and interventionists), rather than by those calling for a foreign policy based on prudence and defending against core threats to American security.
Now we have a shortened roster of perhaps three viable Republican presidential candidates. Marco Rubio is but a neocon parrot of the thoroughly discredited interventionist camp, led by reactionaries John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and cheerleader Bill Kristol. If Rubio unfortunately becomes the Republican candidate, I will vote for Rubio to help keep the compulsive liar, Marxist, shop-worn Hillary Clinton out of the White House. My vote will be under duress. It is Rubio who the War Dogs, the elites of the Republican and Northeastern military industrial complex establishment, will coalesce around. Mr. Rubio might benefit by giving a look to Article I Section 8 of the Constitution: “To raise and support armies.” The Constitution does not provide for a standing army.
In order to prove he is a viable candidate, Donald Trump will have to come forward with some specifics on how he plans to extinguish the radical Muslim threat, keep America out of foreign adventures, kill off the progressive tax code and Obamacare, defend the 2nd Amendment, and prevent illegals from gaining a path to citizenship. If Trump is not up to speed on specifics, the very bright and retentive Ted Cruz will take Trump apart. Donald Trump will also need to function on a constitutional front by memorizing Article II Section 2 of the Constitution, where the specific duties of the President are enumerated. Section 2 runs only 225 words or so. It is mostly about shaking hands and kissing babies. You know, Granting Reprieves and Pardons and makingTreaties. It most certainly is not about BIG anything.
Ted Cruz, for his part, needs to prove that he is about Realism (Kennan & Scowcroft) in foreign policy. He also needs to convey that he understands the pitfalls defined by the original Defense Planning Guide (Wolfowitz, Libby, Khalilzad). The DPG underscores a policy of global hegemony. In The Power Problem, the Cato Institute’s Chris Preble writes, “If Americans were allowed to decide, they would shed the burdens of being the world’s policeman, reframe our foreign policies in ways that advance U.S. security, and redirect our nation’s resources commensurate with this new strategy.” Cruz, or for that matter Donald Trump would make a shrewd move making Dr. Preble a foreign policy advisor.
I need not point Senator Cruz to any specific Article or Section of the Constitution, as it is my understanding that Ted, as a teenager, memorized the U.S. Constitution.
More great reading from Rand’s father, former Congressman Ron Paul:
Former CIA bin Laden unit chief Michael Scheuer and veteran CIA operative 
“So how did a counter-productive diet get foisted on the American people in the face of such adverse evidence?” asks Mr. Menton. Easy, he explains. “A small group of avid promoters of the high-fat-diet/heart disease hypothesis had managed to get control of the principal government funding institutes, and of the peer review process at the key journals. Dissenters got cut off from funding and from publication.”
In order to prove he is a viable candidate, Donald Trump will have to come forward with some specifics on how he plans to extinguish the radical Muslim threat, keep America out of foreign adventures, kill off the progressive tax code and Obamacare, defend the 2nd Amendment, and prevent illegals from gaining a path to citizenship. If Trump is not up to speed on specifics, the very bright and retentive Ted Cruz will take Trump apart. Donald Trump will also need to function on a constitutional front by memorizing Article II Section 2 of the Constitution, where the specific duties of the President are enumerated. Section 2 runs only 225 words or so. It is mostly about shaking hands and kissing babies. You know, Granting Reprieves and Pardons and making
Treaties. It most certainly is not about BIG anything.
Ted Cruz, for his part, needs to prove that he is about Realism (Kennan & Scowcroft) in foreign policy. He also needs to convey that he understands the pitfalls defined by the original Defense Planning Guide (Wolfowitz, Libby, Khalilzad). The DPG underscores a policy of global hegemony. In 
