Friday Musical Interlude - More Christmas Songs

Thursday Hillary Bash - "Repugnant lie"

This needs no additional commentary:

Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire: Hillary Clinton still insists she didn’t tell the grieving families of the Benghazi victims that an anti-Islam video was to blame.

Yet family members say she said just that, three days after the attack, at the Sept. 14, 2012, ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base.

George Stephanopoulos asked her Sunday if she’d told the victims it was about the film. Clinton gave a flat “no.”

She added: “I said very clearly there had been a terrorist group, uh, that had taken responsibility on Facebook, um . . .”

At least four family members disagree.

Tyrone Woods’ father said he hugged Clinton and shook her hand. Then “she said we are going to have the filmmaker arrested who was responsible for the death of my son . . . She said ‘the filmmaker who was responsible for the death of your son.’ ”

Dictator Watch - Venezuela post-Chavez

Venezuela is in dire straits and in the wake of the death of socialist strongman Hugo Chavez, his successor socialist, facing electoral defeat may go even further than Chavez to retain power.  Where Chavez wanted to re-write the Venezuelan Constitution to remain in power, it sound like Nicolas "who, now?" Maduro sounds practically ready to roll out the troops.

A defiant President Nicolas Maduro said he would give no quarter to the Venezuelan opposition in spite of his own party’s crushing defeat in last weekend’s mid-term parliamentary elections.

Mr Maduro vowed to block “the counter-revolutionary right” from taking over the country. “We won’t let it,” he said.

The outburst came as electoral authorities gave final confirmation that the coalition of opposition parties had not only pushed the ruling party into the minority in the national assembly for the first time since 1999 but had, after final results came in, secured a two-thirds majority that, in theory, will allow it to pass laws without the President’s support, replace his ministers and potentially move to replace him.

 Tough talk, but right now he holds all the guns.

Trump's case on immigration, done more eloquently

Donald Trump is once again being vilified for his comments on immigration, both on the left and the establishment right.  Once again those comments are being misrepresented during that vilification.  At this point, one has to wonder if those who attack him for what they proclaim would be absurd policy are cementing his base of support, and not effectively

Certainly establishment conservatives appear to be willing to accept that they are creating fodder for Hillary Clinton if they cannot take down Trump.  That in itself is as much a red flag as the idea that Donald Trump might be a sleeper Democrat who will either lose to Hillary on purpose or enact liberal policies should he decide to win. Why? Because it would seem elite Republicans would rather have four more years of progressivism than any chance of populism gaining root in the GOP. That's both short-sighted and not conservative.

In any case, here's what Donald Trump said, followed by a more eloquent rendition by (conservative) blogger extraordinaire, John Hawkins.  To be clear Trump does not want to ban Muslim immigration.  He wants Congress to get it's act together and come up with a better method for handling immigration.  That includes halting operations for Muslims until a smarter approach is enacted. Racist? Even if it is, and that's specious at best, self-preservation must always come first.

This video headlines the negative, though in it's defense it does give the fuller context of Trump's comments:

Here's John Hawkin's view on a temporary halt to immigration.

Immigration is not good for America. At least, not anymore. Immigration has benefitted our nation a great deal and it certainly can do so again, but as long as our current rules are in place, immigration can only hurt our country.

Whether your ancestors came over on the Mayflower or you became a citizen yesterday, an American is an American is an American.

However, even though that’s true, the presumption of our immigration laws seems to be that any person, from any culture, of any educational status, from any country is just as likely to come to America, fit in and become a productive citizen.

That idea is ridiculous on its face.

The whole idea that it doesn’t matter whether we bring in large numbers of uneducated people from socialistic countries with backward cultures where they don’t speak English or large numbers of highly educated people from capitalistic countries with Western cultures that speak English makes no sense. Yes, there are always exceptions to the rule, but unquestionably members of one group are much more likely to fit in, assimilate and add to the tax base than the other group.

The article is worth the read, unlike so many commentaries that have set up a straw man Trump argument on Muslim immigration and then responded to and attacked that.

Sunday Verse

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

~Psalm 4:8

Saturday Learning Series - Short Bio Rousseau

A short bio of Jean Jacques Rousseau.