Sunday, September 4, 2016

et ceteras

Friday doc dump
One of the most time-"honored" traditions in American politics is to elude bad publicity by releasing bad news on a Friday, when nobody is paying attention because everybody is entering the weekend and thinking about cookouts and sports and going out. This strategy works especially well during football season, because by the time Monday rolls around all that is being talked abut are the results of Saturday's college games and Sunday's NFL games.

Two days ago America's Democrat political class went back to that tradition by releasing the details of the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton, including the 302 report of its interview with Her, on a Friday which was: 1) the start of Labor Day Weekend and 2) the eve of college football's colossal opening Saturday.

Among the revelations were that Clinton started the process of purging her emails shortly after Her use of a private server was disclosed by the New York Times; that the purging was going on at the same time She claimed "I want the public to see my emails"; that the purging was done with software so sophisticated that the FBI was unable to recover thousands of said emails; that the purging was done after Clinton learned of several government investigations into Benghazi; that the purged server included emails related to Benghazi that Clinton did not turn over to the State Department, despite having claimed that She turned "all" of them over; that while She was Secretary of State, She used 13 different mobile devices whose whereabouts she cannot account for; and that She told the FBI She was ignorant about classification markings -- despite being an Original Classifcation Authority and America's top diplomat, and thus being tasked with handling classified information on a daily basis.

Yeah, true Lefties and lockstep Democrats, keep telling yourselves She's qualified to be President of the United States and putative Leader of the Free World. You are dead wrong and disastrously so.


The pivot!
For ages now (or so it seems) we've been hearing pundits and wishfully thinking lackeys speculate about an upcoming "pivot" by Donald Trump. By which they mean a moment when Trump will become less incontinent in his rhetoric and start showing knowledge and smarts when talking about issues and policies.

Well, a pivot took place on Wednesday but it's not quite the pivot those pundits and lackeys were thinking about. Trump basically reversed his entire stance on illegal immigration -- which, to be sure, was a step in the right direction -- but in so doing he proved that he has been conning the masses all along.

Illegal immigration, more than anything, was Trump's signature issue and the only one about which he had ever been clear when speaking. But his Wednesday speech removed him from his hawkish perch and placed him pretty much in the same spot where Obama is on the issue, which is presumably pretty much the same spot where his pal Hillary Clinton is on the issue.

So now, the GOP's presidential nominee is indistinguishable from run-of-the-mill Democrats when it comes to illegal immigration... indistinguishable from pork barrel Dems when it comes to increasing the deficit and expanding the nanny state... indistinguishable from disingenuous libs when it comes to abortion (he blandly says "I'm pro-life" while heaping praise on Planned Parenthood)... a complete ignoramus on foreign policy (he thinks Saddam Hussein was opposed to terrorism, thinks of Putin as a bosom buddy, and seems unaware that Russia has invaded Ukraine)... has yet to exhibit one single bit of evidence that he knows anything about the Constitution or separation of powers... and has yet to do a single thing to show that he has anything but contempt for free speech (given his penchant for using lawsuits to threaten/silence his critics) or for property rights (given his well-documented love of using eminent domain to steal others' homes).

Yeah, faux righties and lockstep Republicans, keep telling yourselves that he's qualified to be President of the United States and putative Leader of the Free World. You are dead wrong and disastrously so.


About illegal immigration...
...my stance is pretty straightforward:

As we encounter illegals, deport them automatically. No differentiation between whether they have committed crimes while here; how long they've been here; whether they have relatives here; or anything. Just send them back whence they came, and if they do have relatives here, go pick those relatives up and send them back too (if they too are illegal).

Eliminate any and all federal appropriations of funds and non-financial aid to any and all sanctuary cities in these United States, except for disaster relief.

However, a task force dedicated solely to locating and arresting illegals would be a foolish waste of resources, a foolish waste of law enforcement time and energy. Don't even consider it. The feds have bigger fish to fry.

We can talk about a wall, or about walls in specific areas. They would work. The one south of San Diego has worked extremely well. But I'm not sold that they are necessary and I know they're not foolproof (ever heard of tunnels?) and I don't believe that one across the entire border is warranted. 


And with that...
I'm done opining for now. Have a fun and safe Labor Day, my friends.

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