As the last few weeks have played out in politics, it has forced me to do a complete re-assessment of how I’ve looked at the world for my entire adult life. To be sure, this reconsideration has been ongoing for about a decade, or maybe a little more, but it has really crystalized out recently. It is time for a complete, clean break with what went before and to chart a new path forward.
What Hunter Biden did is nothing new; it isn’t in the least remarkable. He was merely the recipient of what people in his position routinely receive: a special deal which allows him to be very rich for little or no effort. This way his life can be devoted to what really matters: hanging around with other rich people, attending conferences and galas and generally having a swell time. And if he decided to follow in Daddy’s political footsteps, the way would be cleared for him in some safe seat. If you start looking into it – as Matt and I did in our 2007 book, Caucus of Corruption – you just see that it is everywhere. In that book, for political reasons, we concentrated on the Democrat side of the aisle (given that our goal was to show the absurdity of the Democrats 2006 campaign against a so-called “GOP culture of corruption”), but we could easily have written it about politics, in general.
What it really shows is that people who go into politics – with a few very rare exceptions – are in it for themselves. They want power and money and attention and fame and praise and so they go into politics – and almost invariably, if they are even modestly successful at winning office, wind up richer than they did when they started. And it has been going on for a long time, folks; throughout the Western democracies. Just a small quote from Chesterton about 1910 will suffice to show it:
There are, I believe, some who still deny that England is governed by an oligarchy. It is quite enough for me to know that a man might have gone to sleep some thirty years ago over the day’s newspaper and woke up last week over the later newspaper, and fancied he was reading about the same people. In one paper he would have found a Lord Robert Cecil, a Mr. Gladstone, a Mr. Lyttleton, a Churchill, a Chamberlain, a Trevelyan, an Acland. In the other paper he would find a Lord Robert Cecil, a Mr. Gladstone, a Mr. Lyttleton, a Churchill, a Chamberlain, a Trevelyan, an Acland. If this is not being governed by families I cannot imagine what it is. I suppose it is being governed by extraordinary democratic coincidences.
Funny, huh? How people from the same family can keep winding up on top. Either they are families of geniuses, or someone is making things happen. What are the odds that the son of an American Senator would be just the person an oil company needs to pay $50,000.00 a month to? That the daughter of a President would be just right for that $600,000.00 news gig? Or that another daughter of a different President would prove to be perfect to host the fourth hour of the Today show?
You know that is all bullsh**. I know it is, too. They know it as well. But, it just keeps happening and happening because, well, that’s just the way it is. And it wouldn’t be so bad if they were at least any good at being an oligarchy! Back in Chesterton’s day, there was the cold, hard reality that Winston Churchill was at least as talented as his father, Randolph. There was something there – there was, that is, a justification for Winston getting a leg up (and he did) to enter politics based on his father’s previous efforts. These days, you get to benefit even if the previous person in line was a complete, rotten failure. And rotten failure is all we’ve gotten – and I’m getting very ecumenical in that, by the way. I’m not excusing anyone on partisan grounds any longer.
To be sure, the Republicans I voted for in the past were at least better than the Democrats I voted against (with the exception of McCain: knowing that I’m the co-author of Worst President, please understand that I believe McCain would have been even worse than Obama proved to be). But they were only better in degree, not in kind. I mean, let’s face some cold, hard facts here: President Bush the Younger was re-elected with 51% of the vote in 2004 and came into his second term with high approval ratings and a Republican Congress. With all this, he couldn’t even manage to de-fund Planned Parenthood or NPR! It could have been done, easily, in a budget reconciliation between House and Senate and there would have been nothing the Democrats could have done about it. This was “better” than a President Kerry who probably would have increased PP funding, but not really better in that the taxes of pro-life Americans were still going to fund something they consider abhorrent…and which Bush and the entire GOP campaigned on getting rid of.
I know some will say that this is just our GOPe screwing it’s base and that the Democrats don’t do that. But, they do. Obama was elected in 2008 with 53% of the vote and came into office with a Democrat Congress and a filibuster-proof Senate majority…and he couldn’t even get the single payer health system Democrats say they want. It would have been easy. The GOP could have done nothing to stop it. Enact a 10% payroll tax to fund it and just start passing out the cash to people who need health care. That you and I know it would have been a disaster is neither here nor there – our side had lost the election and the Democrats won all the power they could possibly need to make all Democrat dreams come true…and they couldn’t do something like that. They instead wound up with the abomination known as Obamacare which even if it had worked as planned would still have left millions out in the cold and cost like the devil – but they couldn’t even write something that worked! Meanwhile, not only did Obama not end the wars they campaigned against in 2008, he started new one’s…droning the living sh** out of every poor, brown skinned person they could target (well, those they weren’t letting in as unvetted refugees, that is). A public works bonanza that didn’t create any public works. A slew of new spending which improved nothing. This is what the Democrat voters get for investing their time and effort? Yep – in other words, nothing: but lots and lots for whomever is the crony. Democrat cronies made out like bandits. But your average purple-haired Democrat wanting more safe spaces? Not much.
And as far as the social disintegration we’ve seen over the past 60 years – we’ve been blinded by the Democrats pushing the disintegration that we haven’t noticed the Republicans letting them do it. And when they have power to roll it back, doing nothing of the sort. And now we see in the Epstein case the reason why it might have all been allowed to happen: Lord only knows how many of the high and mighty are caught in that web…but what better way to get out from under that rock than by making the rock legal? By making you, a normal person, the bad guy if you point out some of the disgusting actions?
Illegal immigration to provide votes for Democrats and cheap labor for Republicans. Wars which don’t end in victory or defeat. Enforcing immorality against popular wishes. Providing government sinecures to anyone who will toe the line – and who won’t be got rid of no matter how corrupt or stupid they prove. Accepting money from foreign entities who want the United States destroyed. Both sides, all the time – and on top of being this stupidly destructive, raking it in for themselves, their families and their friends. It is time to bring an end to all that. By peaceful means if possible but, ultimately, by any means necessary. Our peaceful means are President Trump.
Trump isn’t part of the system, you see. Dimwits look at his billions and go, “he must be one of them”. But, the bottom line is that he’s not. He’ll hang out with them. Be friends with them. But he never was of them. He made his own way and got his pile of money…and then looked around and saw, from the 1980’s, what was happening to his country and started to wonder why, and if there were anything he could do about it? He essentially first let Bill Clinton have his chance. Then Bush the Younger. Then even Obama. But he found out something – it didn’t matter who was in charge, they were all in on it, together. That is, regardless of stated political philosophy, the primary goal of nearly everyone in politics was personal enrichment and making sure no outsider pushed his or her way in. Trump decided to push his way in.
And now he’s there – and outside of a precious few (Cruz, Paul…and, oddly, McConnell), he’s nearly alone fighting for one thing: us. The United States of America. We, the people. And everyone inside is furious and terrified and so are lashing back as much as they can hoping that something, anything will turn up to get rid of Trump. And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
I’ve mostly stopped arguing with liberals these days – first off, it is pointless but, secondly, I’m starting to pity them; nearly as much as I pity that shrinking number on the right who still stand aloof from Trump: they simply can’t shake free from the line they’ve been fed. And none of us can get high and mighty about that: to one degree or another, all of us were suckered at one time or another. All of us believed in some aspect of the con being used to keep us confused, frightened and divided while the Ruling Class stays fat and happy. But for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60 years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past. We can see what happened; we can see what needs to be done – we can’t trip ourselves up (nor allow our opponents to slow us down) by fussing over what views we might have expressed previously. Our desire is a Constitutional Republic of free people – our means of getting there must be “whatever works”, not adherence to a dogma which might, upon review, only have been a means whereby the con artists kept us in line in the past. I, for one, will only defend what I find defensible and will attack whatever I see as wrong.
We still have a magnificent window to win this thing and fix our nation – naturally, the first requirement is protecting President Trump. But the next step is just as important: a complete review of everything and asking the question, “Is this good?”. We’ve already learned that so-called “Free Trade” wasn’t what many of us thought it was – take that as your template and ask yourself, “is this thing I’ve adhered to really in the interests of a free people? Or is it something which only serves the well-connected?”. As Lincoln once said, it is time to think anew and act anew: not to create something different (nothing can be more magnificent than the United States, as far as human effort allows), but to recreate what we had, but even better than before. And if that mission requires us to knock a few off their pedestals, then that’s just what will have to happen.
Blogs For Victory 
Here you go, Mark—the frame for this great article.
You said maybe some day I would like something you say well enough to frame it and put it on my wall. And so you have.
Kudos
https://stock.adobe.com/images/rectangle-decorative-golden-picture-frame/100968992
Thanks! Much appreciate it, especially from you.
Amazona, you beat me to it. I’ve been reading and commenting on this blog and B4B before it since early 2004, and this is one of, if not your best post ever, Mark. I couldn’t find a single word that I disagreed with.
Very well said, Mark!
Trump’s daughter works at the WH, her husband works at the WH, Rudy’s son works at the WH, Barr’s son-in-law works at the WH, Barr’s daughter works at Treasury, Trumps’ sons do foreign business while his daughter is receiving Chinese patents and Saudi grants. But let’s conveniently ignore all that and focus exclusively talk on Biden.
Ivanka Trump may be a White House advisor, but she’s not getting paid. Her husband, Jared Kuchner also receives no pay for working at the White House. Andrew Giuliani’s White House annual salary is $90,700, about 15% of what Hunter Biden was paid by Barisma Holdings for sitting on their board. William Barr’s daughter, Mary Daly worked in the Deputy Attorney General’s office before Barr was appointed AG, and recently transferred to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the Treasury Dept. Trump’s sons as well as Ivanka were all engaged in international business long before Trump even ran for President.
Nice try.
Oh, so the personal enrichment doesn’t count because they agreed only volunteers?
Let’s not forget Jared’s $1.4BN Qatari bailout after the convenient Saudi blockade, Eric & Don’s new Scottish expansion and
Ivanka’s Chinese trademarks & tariff
exemptions. But that’s ok because they’re “volunteers”.
The volunteer loophole needs to drastically redefined .
Wealthy, connected people are likely to get weathier — that was kind of the point of Mark’s whole post, but I don’t see much of a parallel between what you’ve noted and the extortion on an international scale that the Bidens pulled off.
Quote of the day:
Great post Mark. I agree 100%
Our desire is a Constitutional Republic of free people – our means of getting there must be “whatever works”, not adherence to a dogma which might, upon review, only have been a means whereby the con artists kept us in line in the past.
And we will never defer to the desires of the UN.
The hysteria on the Left is escalating this morning and it may very well lead to confrontation. The rhetoric I am hearing this morning is more ramped up than I have ever heard before. They are lying thru their teeth and not backing down one inch so I don’t know where this leads right now, but we had all better be ready to defend this President and ourselves. They have proven themselves to be dishonorable so when people show you who they are …. believe them. And many “Republicans” are currently showing us who they are.
Simon has also shown us that he is a useful tool for the apparatchik. We should be looking into everything simon including Ivanka, Jared, and the Trump boys but I noticed you didn’t mention any interest in Biden, Clinton, or how about Harry Reid? He and his boys became fabulously wealthy before he retired abruptly hoping to avoid the spotlight. This is a lose lose for you sport.
This is a battle against career corrupt politicians of either party who are a cancer on our political body and the media members who protect them and curry favor from them. It’s all out war and if we don’t win this battle now, we will have lost our Republic.
“Tool”, yes.
“Useful”? I don’t see how. An occasional mumbling and grumbling, just parroting something someone else said, hardly makes him useful—except as noise, though with simoneeeeek it is more like whimpering than anything serious. Or that annoying whine of the mosquito that got into the house.
I think this is the line in the transcript from the President of Ukraine that has the media and Democrats in a panic:
I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly.. That I can assure you.
It’s time to unload on these people. Durham needs to finish his report and release it, and Barr needs to release everything he has discovered at this point. The media and Democrats are throwing our a lot of crap so let’s make sure it sticks to them.
So the “whistle blower” aka spy, is reportedly under protection “fearing for his life”
He should be. They should all be fearing for their life.
“‘If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal’,” Trump tweeted.
He is correct. If the Democrats and media stop with their attacks and their obsession for power, we can all move forward peacefully as one nation. If the Republicans stop with their defense, we will all be rolled over and compelled to submit.
THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE.
And one thing I am noticing today is that many “conservatives” are getting weak kneed including some of the pajama boys at FOX and even Drudge. President Trump has the people behind him but we had better be ready to mobilize and defend.
HOLY SHIT
“We write to demand that in service to the facts, you no longer book Rudy Giuliani,” Biden senior official Anita Dunn and deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield wrote, suggesting that the Trump surrogate has “demonstrated that he will knowingly and willingly lie in order to advance his own narrative.” Barring that, the Biden campaign wants “an equivalent amount of time” to be provided “to a surrogate for the Biden campaign.”
How is this ok????? We need to shut these people down.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2019/09/30/team-biden-demands-rudy-ban-tv-media-writers-skip-major-angle
This is the battle we confront:
As the Democrats drive an impeachment inquiry toward a potential vote by the end of the year, President Donald Trump’s allies are struggling over how he should manage the starkest threat to his presidency. The jockeying broke into the open Sunday on the talk show circuit, with a parade of Republicans erupting into a surge of second-guessing.
Establishment type, “pseudo allies” are week in the knees when confronted with the all out media and Democrat assault and that is what they hope for. We need to punch them back harder than they ever been hit before and if not now …. then when?
Bingo ….
….. many of the allegations shared with me by more than a half-dozen senior Ukrainian officials are supported by evidence that emerged in recent U.S. court filings and intelligence reports. The Ukrainians told me their evidence includes:
Sworn statements from two Ukrainian officials admitting that their agency tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of Hillary Clinton. The effort included leaking an alleged ledger showing payments to then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort;
Contacts between Democratic figures in Washington and Ukrainian officials that involved passing along dirt on Donald Trump;
Financial records showing a Ukrainian natural gas company routed more than $3 million to American accounts tied to Hunter Biden, younger son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, who managed U.S.-Ukraine relations for the Obama administration. Biden’s son served on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings;
Records that Vice President Biden pressured Ukrainian officials in March 2016 to fire the prosecutor who oversaw an investigation of Burisma Holdings and who planned to interview Hunter Biden about the financial transfers;
Correspondence showing members of the State Department and U.S. Embassy in Kiev interfered or applied pressure in criminal cases on Ukrainian soil;
Disbursements of as much as $7 billion in Ukrainian funds that prosecutors believe may have been misappropriated or taken out of the country, including to the United States.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/437719-ukrainian-to-us-prosecutors-why-dont-you-want-our-evidence-on-democrats?fbclid=IwAR2uEb5zj7F-MFg3inE8UeTPZoAf8knVA2NRa0QtEfVUBStkXS3vl7o0SfA
From Soloman’s article:
“It’s like no one at DOJ is listening. There is some compelling evidence that should at least be looked at, evaluated, but the door seems shut at both State and Justice,” said an American who has been contacted for help and briefed on the evidence.
Kind of makes you wonder about the AG’s and SOS’s underlying loyalties, doesn’t it? I guess time will tell.
Yes it does … the establishment runs DEEP
Pelosi says even if they lose the House as a result impeachment is the right thing to do. Rush asked a great question: why would doing the right thing cause Democrats to lose the House?
Oh please, she is so full of sh*t. She’s merely trying to claim the moral high ground here and mind you, she HAS NOT embarked on impeachment. Until she brings it to the House floor for a vote, everything is just talk …. and bullsh*t
Rush is on fire today .. and yes I have made time to listen today. He is as fired up as I am
Republican Pajama Boy Jeff Flake:
“My fellow Republicans, it is time to risk your careers in favor of your principles. Whether you believe the president deserves impeachment, you know he does not deserve reelection,” Flake said in a Washington Post op-ed on Monday.”Trust me when I say that you can go elsewhere for a job. But you cannot go elsewhere for a soul.”
Wow. What scum
Sounds like his soul got lost somewhere along the way.
So Giulani is being called in to testify …. FANTASTIC
Note to Schiff … be careful what you ask for. I am buying tickets to this one
The spies are still at it ….
WASHINGTON — President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.
I guess if Presidential phone calls are open game, I sure would like to see the transcripts of Obama phone calls particularly those calls to Iran and Russia following his comment to Medvedved that he would have “more flexibility” after the election. But why digress when there is so much flotsam and jetsom in the water now?
What is wrong with asking assistance from anyone to uncover corruption? If it was ok for Biden to withhold tax payer money and demand that a foreign prosecutor be fired, why is not ok to simply ask for the assistance from another head of State?
I am disappointed that Drudge would have this as the main headline. I think we are in a bigger battle than all of us realize.
The fight for Hong Kong continues and I just saw protestors waving the United States flag symbolizing the freedom they desire. Sadly if we give in to this current Democrat party, we will cease being known as that beacon of liberty.
Just as now the only Americans fighting for the dreams of Dr. King are white people, it’s looking like the only people trying to keep the American Dream alive are people who are not Americans.
Well one thing about Trump … he has a unique ability to expose the true character of a lot of people. Today, the insider of all insiders, Ralph Peters, who I use to have some respect for:
“One word, sedition,” said Peters. “Trump is inciting violence against the legitimate government of the United States and the constitutional order. And, Anderson, that is a grave crime. You can argue about the meaning of treason, what constitutes it, what doesn’t. Sedition is very clear cut, and you can ask your lawyers. To me this is as bald and plain as it can be.”
Notice how he says “the legitimate government of the United States” … that line should frighten everyone. And notice there was no pushback from Cooper … any “journalist” would have asked “well since Trump is the current President, he is charged with running the government, so Mr. Peters in your opinion what exactly is the “legitimate government of the United States”
Ralph Peters is just another con man who masqueraded as a conservative for many years and he also just revealed the Deep State attitude that Trump is trying to root out.
https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/30/ralph-peters-donald-trump-sedition/
I’m not sure there are words to describe just how corrupt and slimy the swamp really is. And every day we get a deeper and deeper look into it.
I also used to respect and admire Ralph Peters. We were brothers in arms, so to speak, both military spooks, although he was on the intel analysis end while I was on the intelligence collection end. I can’t wrap my head around someone who took the same oath I did buying into what he is buying into.
Because unlike you, Peters never left the Deep State so he and his cohorts cushy bureaucratic positions are being threatened. I think Peters sincerely believes that the intelligence communities and the Pentagon are the entities that run this government and I think this attitude is pervasive. People like Peters see the President’s role as simply a figure head and they don’t like their authority questioned or challenged.
“Trump is inciting violence against the legitimate government of the United States and the constitutional order is a statement that I believe could be used as the basis for a clinical diagnosis of insanity.
Trump represents the execution of the Constitutional framework for electing a president, and he has been executing the duties of the presidency in strict accordance with Constitutional law. The Left has been trying not just to delegitimize his presidency but topple him from his position by the use of propaganda and abuse of federal powers, and it is Leftists legislators in both houses of Congress, along with Leftist media figures, openly agitating for violence against Republicans, and/or just Trump supporters.
It’s getting more and more difficult to keep up with the spread of disinformation, and I suspect that is by design. Rush reported yesterday (I think — maybe day before yesterday) that tweets by reporters at the NYT and CNN that the whistleblower had received death threats and was in protective custody were debunked within an hour. Last night talking heads were saying that, if harm comes to the whistleblower, the blood is on Trump’s hands, the implication being that involuntary manslaughter would certainly be an impeachable offense. YCMTSU!!
The media has refined the create-narrative-with no-basis-in fact-and-then-bolster-it-with-more-reporting to an art form. I’m not sure how Conservatives counter that when the Left controls 90% of the mainstream media.
Yesterday I heard part of an interview with Barney Frank, the “Banking Queen” of Rush’s parody of “Dancing Queen” explaining that Trump is already either guilty of murder or an accessory to murder because Ukrainians DIED—DIED !!! I TELL YOU!!! because Ukraine didn't have the weapons it needed during the period the funding was delayed.
All of the conservative talk shows in Denver have been moved to one radio station, and yesterday its "news" segment explained that the impeachment effort is spurred by Trump's efforts to get another nation to "uncover dirt on Joe Biden". And this was on what one might expect to be a CONSERVATIVE-leaning station!
The disinformation is now not exclusive to the Democrat party. That shows you how much of an obstructionist Trump is. He is blowing up the establishment and exposing the underbelly of world wide, coordinated corruption and God Bless him for it.
This can’t end well.
I keep coming back the question so many of us are starting to ask—if the case against Trump is so good, why do they have to keep lying about it?
Female Trump supporter calling in to Rush”
“Rush, every day they (Left and anti-Trumpers) come after Trump it feels like they’re coming after me.”
BINGO!!!!!
She sounds like a snowflake.
Your concept of “snowflake” is 180 degrees out of phase.
fielding, you need to stop that cultural appropriation. Find your own term. And try, just for grins, to find one that is appropriate.
But then, as a Lefty you are just another lemming using words the wrong way.
Am I the only one that finds this funny
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign announced on Tuesday that it had raised $25.3 million in the third quarter of 2019 with an average donation of $18.07.
The massive haul beats out his prior fundraising totals during his second bid for the presidency in which he brought in around $18 million and is, at the moment, the largest single quarter reported of any 2020 candidates throughout the year.
Is Bernie really this stupid? Or is he just running for President to sell more books? What on earth would drive someone back into the arms of a party that secretly rigged the nomination against you? I think Bernie is suffering from battered wife syndrome ….. hoping that today is the day they will love him.
Bernie has ZERO chance of winning the nomination.
OK, this post reminds me of something I have been thinking about.
Rewind to the plot line of the old movie “The Producers” — a grifter learns that if a Broadway producer raises a lot of money from backers to put on a show and the production is a failure, the producer doesn’t have to give back any of the money to the backers. So the grift us that they put together a play so awful in every way that it is doomed to fail, hopefully on opening night, so the bad guys can take off with most of the money. (The hilariously bad production was a musical called “Springtime for Hitler” which, if memory serves me, includes a musical scene with Hitler on ice skates…)
Every time I hear of someone who can’t possibly believe that he or she has the slightest chance of any degree of success raising millions of dollars in donations I remember this movie and wonder “what happens to all that money when the “candidate” drops out”? Because most of the Dem hopefuls seem to be on a par, quality-wise, with “Springtime for Hitler”–but not as funny,
All I can say is, Hooray for Bernie! Go, Bernie, Go!
Well for once, Larry is right:
“The whistles are not going to stop in the Trump administration. Every Trump enabler should fear the sound of the next whistle.” – Lawrence O’Donnell
The whistles won’t stop because the Deep State is panicked. Their corruption is being exposed and their hold on our government is being challenged. Just exactly what we all voted for.
We have discussed this before but never forget that ALL of these DC people, including media go to the same churches and stores, live in the same neighborhoods, send their children to the same schools, and go to the same cocktail parties every weekend. They are all in bed with each other (literally) and Trump is a HUGE threat to their way of life. That’s why the alarm bells are going off.
Every person attempting to destroy Trump should fear a lot more than “the sound of the next whistle.”
“Every person attempting to destroy Trump should fear a lot more than “the sound of the next whistle.””
And I think they are. I would classify Larry’s comment as “whistling past the graveyard”.
But, as I just posted my last comment, it struck me how funny it would be to have the entire Republican contingent march into Congress whistling that march from the movie. And maybe have some different whistles on cell phones that could be anonymously set off at random during testimony. Wolf whistle. Cab whistle. Train whistle.
At least if it is coming from a Dem we know it isn’t “Whistle While You Work”.
I’m not sure what Larry means. The first part sounds like the “whistles” are coming from the Trump administration, as if they are whistles of alarm and fear. Then he implies that the whistles/whistlers are from people coming after people who support Trump, and that sounds like a cheerful mob—maybe whistling “The Colonel Bogey March” from “Bridge Over The River Kwai”.
Or is he bragging that the Trump administration is infested with spies? Gee, thanks, Larry, for reinforcing the wisdom of putting confidential and classified conversations on servers where they can’t get to them.
The only whistling I have heard was Barney Frank the other day. Gack! I kept wondering who let someone who is obviously mentally defective on the show, as I tuned in late and thought it was a caller, and then realized who it was. Not that that changed the “mentally defective” impression, just explained it. I have no idea what his speech defect is, but it is getting worse.
As for Larry, he always looks like something is pinching his hemorrhoids.