So, it turns out that Obamacare’s failure in Oregon wasn’t just incompetence, but also a bit of graft. Color me shocked…

Rubio, Rubio! Where for art thou, Rubio? Getting ready to endorse Trump, that’s where he is. And there was much wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth among Rubio supporters. Grab a clue, folks – Rubio is a politician. Sure, he’s miles better than Trump and I’d be enthusiastically backing him had he won the nomination…but he’s still a politician. Rubio is just looking over the lay of the land and realizing that if he wants to jump into the 2016 Senate contest (which I’ll bet money he does) and if he wants to have a good shot at the GOP nomination in 2020 (if Trump loses) or 2024 (if Trump wins), then he’ll need Trumpster support in both cases. Politics – it sucks; but it is always going to be like that. Remember, even Lincoln allowed backroom deals to get the nomination and played the full game of politics to garner and retain political support. It happens. Grow up.

Rio is home to both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the Zika virus. I’m no virologist and I do know that mosquito-borne illness work in weird ways (some types of diseases can only be transmitted at certain times by certain species of mosquito, for instance – and even then only if they bite someone in a certain phase of the disease)…but the thought of sending 500,000 people to Rio and then sending them swiftly back home doesn’t appear a wise move. Others also have some doubts about it.

Charles Murray says “Clinton is worse” doesn’t cut it. But, in the end, it very well might.

For those feeling remorse over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I’d like to enter into the record Nanking and Manila. A little less “Banzai” from 1937 to 1941 would have resulted in a lot less atomic bombing in 1945.

Not sure if this is really true, but if it is true, it illustrates just how stupid our society has become – a pair of glasses left on a gallery floor is mistaken for art.

Virginia Governor – and Clinton toady – Terry McAuliffe is under FBI investigation for corruption. Appears to have at least some connection to the Clinton’s grifting con charity organization. If Hillary does manage to win, expect an endless series of corruption investigations…all to be spiked by whichever Clinton crony is installed as Attorney General.

Clinton has some policies to tackle the mythical “pay gap” – seems that implementation would likely make the problem worse (ie, create a problem where there wasn’t one before).

VA boss says we should think of VA wait times as we do waiting in line for a Disney ride. I don’t know of anyone who died waiting to get on Pirates of the Caribbean.

A Socialist apparatchik won election to the Presidency of Austria – 72% of working class voters went for the non-Socialist. Socialism was, is and always will be a mere conceit of upper class people who presume to speak for the poor and the workers when they know nothing of the lives of such people. The difference between now and 100 years ago is that working class people have caught on to the Socialist scam.

Shocking News! DOJ lawyers lied about Obama’s immigration policies. Actually shocking news! A judge called them out on it.

Charles C.W. Cooke asks our Progs: do you still like that old “pen and phone” thing now that there’s an outside chance The Donald will be the next President?

Upset with the Pope? Then here’s your tonic from Cardinal Robert Sarah:

Speaking in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Cardinal Robert Sarah enjoined Catholics to resist “ideological colonization” and the removal of God from society, in order to help the Church resist threats to the family and religious freedom around the world…

…Protecting the family is also linked to the preservation of religious freedom, Cardinal Sarah said as he urged the Americans to protect their history of religious freedom. While many Christians across the world are suffering from violence due to persecution from governments or groups like Islamic State, “ violence against Christians is not just physical, it is also political, ideological and cultural,” the cardinal said…

Of course, the good Cardinal was appointed to his post by Francis. Do keep in mind when you read stories about the Pope that he and pretty much everyone in charge of the Church these days was appointed by Pope St. John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.

Well, sub-prime revolving debt (credit card debt) is rocketing back up to levels not seen since before the crash. It appears that banks are aggressively lending to people with bad credit – for you non-bankers out there, this means they are lending money to people who can’t or won’t repay the debt. I’m sure this will work out just as splendidly as last time.

Will voters care about Trump’s behavior towards women? Perhaps – but any Clinton campaign will have to tread very carefully here.

Related: RCP average shows Clinton only up by 3.1 percentage points over Trump.

Scorching hot in India – but out here in southern Nevada, we’ve had the coolest and wettest Spring I’ve ever experienced. This is either Climate Change or Weather, depending how much Progressive propaganda you believe.

In case you were forgetting how savage ISIS is, they burned a Christian girl alive. True to her faith in Christ, she asked her mother to forgive them.

Related: French ban American performer who said the Bad Words about Islam.

Native Americans don’t seem too care about the Redskins team name.

Solar power plant catches fire. Yes, we on the right will laugh and laugh and laugh about this for quite a long time.

How a Conservative Revolution gets done – in this case, in Tennessee:

During the long years of Democratic rule, the Government Operations committees in the Legislature were boring exercises in routine housekeeping legislation. They were often stacked with some of the party’s less than stellar members, because you have to put them somewhere, and they rubber-stamped whatever the leadership wanted.

“Government Ops” under Republican rule has morphed into a very powerful operation, rivaling even the Rules Committee or Finance. The power to regulate state bureaucrats has always been there; it’s just not been exercised until now.

There has been a major revolution in the operation of state government that has occurred while everyone has been preoccupied with Bible bills, bathroom bills and other idiocy. State bureaucrats are no longer free to impose draconian regulations, increase fees or make rule changes without first getting a sign-off from the Legislature.

Take away the power of bureaucrats to make rules – take away money given to Progressive pressure groups – kick government unions out…this is how you do it. The tricky part is getting the power to do it – that takes winning elections, and winning them against people who simply lie and promise the Moon. But, it can be done – it has been done. First in Wisconsin, now in Tennessee. Duplicate it, again and again and again.

Don’t be upset over politicians who break their promise when we live in a society where every year great, big bunches of people are allowed – by law – to break their promise to stay married. A people who can’t keep their word should have no complaint about politicians who can’t keep theirs.

To get to a Conservative America has hardly anything to do with tax rates, economic systems, border control, who precisely marries whom…it has all to do with absolute right and absolute wrong and a diligent effort – in spite of routine failure – to live up to one’s word. Chew on that for a bit and understand just how daunting our task is – winning political power is only a small part of it. The crucial thing is the re-conversion of society back to honor. We need a St. Francis of Assisi far more than we need a Ronald Reagan.

People suffering from depression are being allowed “assisted suicide”…because nothing says “compassion” like helping the suicidal along, I guess.

Related: Going to Church can help you live longer.

Koch Brothers withdrawing from electoral politics? Good. I never trusted them, anyways…bloody albatross ’round the neck of Conservatism.

By the way, Socialism is still a complete failure – ruining lives for more than a century. Astonishing anyone still adheres to it.

Related: North Korea has a batch of rich, spoiled kids who blow what a worker makes in a month on coffee. Another thing about Socialism – not only does it fail, but it always ensures a well-off elite sucking the life blood out of the nation. Now, think about this: we’ve arrived at Socialist America and most of us are living on potato rations…think our SJW Progressive types would lose any sleep over it as long as they were still able to buy an expensive coffee in a hip locale?

So, Congress didn’t appropriate money for some Obamacare subsidies – naturally, Obama wasn’t going to allow that to stop him, so invoking the “because I wanna” clause of the Constitution, Obama provided the subsidies. Everything was cool until someone brought it before a judge who apparently glanced over the Constitution, only to discover that such a clause doesn’t exist. We’ve got to nip this right in the bud – before too long, we’ll have a bunch of Rule of Law nonsense going on, and then where will our Progressives be?

Hillary has it in the bag or Trump’s gonna win. Take your pick.

Rubio does best in FL Senate polling for November – but, there’s one small problem: he isn’t running. I suspect massive pressure will soon be on him to get into the race.

That terrorism thingy which Obama has completely solved? Iran is still a leading sponsor of terrorism. How is this possible? Rhodes told us that the Iranians were all moderately moderating!

Illegal immigration – it is a thing the rich and powerful like.

The murder rate is up – this part of our Fundamental Transformation?

Heroic Poem in Praise of Wine – Hilaire Belloc

To exalt, enthrone, establish and defend,
To welcome home mankind’s mysterious friend
Wine, true begetter of all arts that be;
Wine, privilege of the completely free;
Wine the recorder; wine the sagely strong;
Wine, bright avenger of sly-dealing wrong,
Awake, Ausonian Muse, and sing the vineyard song!

UPDATE: So, they want to use the polio virus to cure cancer? Does seem promising, but didn’t we see a movie about this?

I mean, nightlife will suck:

Let’s lighten it up a bit – things have been too depressing of late.

The Great Depression was not caused by some fundamental flaw in free markets. It wasn’t caused by taxes. It wasn’t caused by regulations. It was caused by a bit more than 20 million fit, healthy young people being ripped out of the global economy 10 years prior – and in the ripping of those people out, a century’s worth of stored wealth was shot out of a cannon. Economic Lesson of the Depression: don’t get into a major war, if you can avoid it…and if you must blow the world to pieces, try not to do it in sync with a global flu pandemic.

Had a couple things gone different in the 19th century, Cuba and the Dominican Republic would be part of the United States. Cuba because pre-Civil War Southern expansionists wanted it to counter balance the growing strength of the North; Dominican Republic because post-Civil War Grant wanted a means to punish Southerners over their KKK/Jim Crow nonsense…realizing that what it was really all about was a desire to retain a pool of cheap labor, Grant figured if he found an American place African-Americans could move to (thus depriving the South of the cheap labor), they’d wise up and stop treating African-Americans like dirt. Would it have worked? Probably, but we’ll never know – no one else picked up on the idea.

The United States, by itself, produced more military goods during World War Two than the entire Axis, combined. We didn’t need to be allied with anyone to beat them all.

For all the WWII buffs insisting that the Tiger and Panther tanks were superior to the lowly American Sherman tank, the fact of the matter is that the Sherman tank was whacking heck out of post-WWII tank designs as late as the Yom Kippur War.

There are, living today, Bourbon, Orleans and Bonaparte pretenders to the French throne. I figure we should have a cage match – whoever comes out, gets to the King (or Emperor – though my money would be on Louis XX; seems toughest of the bunch). As an aside, those squatters living in Buckingham Palace have no business being there – the proper King of England is this guy.

The Royal Navy’s first submarine is now on display as a museum piece – that isn’t remarkable. What is remarkable is that it was being towed to the wreckers in 1913 and sank on the way – when recovered many decades later, it was found that the electric batteries were still in good, working order. Clearly, however those batteries were made is how to make batteries, period…but I bet we don’t make them that way.

So, Trump has some interesting ideas on what to do with America’s debt. Seems to be, “borrow all we want, then tell our creditors they get 80 cents on the dollar”. Remember, we’ve got nuclear weapons and this would stick – would, however, make it temporarily harder for us to borrow more…on the other hand, the global economy is built on fake money and debt, so eventually we’d be able to squeeze the orange again. And why not YOLO our way through this? The People’s Republic of China considers itself the sole, legitimate government of China – ok, fine. We loaned the government of China $500,000,000.00 in 1942, and we never got repaid. That is $7,304,660,000.00 in 2016 dollars. With 5% interest, that is $270,151,970,000.00 – we announce to China that we’re subtracting that amount from what we owe them. What are they doing to do? Oh, and it appears that China issued a bucket of bonds from the early to mid 20th century purchased by American investors, and then defaulted on them…after all is said and done, China might owe us a neat trillion dollars.

Futurist says we’ll all start living forever by 2029 – which is (a) impossible and (b) not a good idea, even if it was possible. It isn’t possible because the universe doesn’t last forever and even if it were possible, it wouldn’t be a good idea to have human beings live on and on like that…we’re bad enough when we’ve got 80 years. Imagine what we’d be like by our 8,000th birthday? The arrogant, insolent pride of someone getting that along in years would be just terrible to behold. Actually, you will live forever anyway – you’re just choosing here in this life where you want to live. Hang desperately on to this life, and you’ll be making a choice for a not-ideal “forever”.

President Lightbringer, who’s whole Administration is a triumph of fictional Narratives, says the Presidency is not a reality show.

Tax the Ivy League to reduce college costs? Yeah, maybe – but, mostly tax them to punish them for being cesspits of Progressive fascism.

So, we gained 196,000 jobs, but if you look further into the report, we lost 316,000 jobs…welcome to the world of government statistics! Oh, and the labor force participation rate dropped…again.

Rumors that Rubio lobbied to be Trump’s VP…

Is Tuesday Doomsday for Cruz? Couple polls show him up in Indiana, most show him down. There are already stories about depression in Team Cruz over the prospects. We’ll have to see – and it is in the hands of Indiana. If Cruz wins there, he’s still got a chance…if he loses, then Trump is almost certain to be the nominee.

Did you know that per Israeli law, it is illegal for Jews to pray on the Temple Mount? I didn’t know that – and apparently the Israeli police are very strict about it – if they even see you mouthing a prayer, they’ll arrest you. To be sure, Muslims can pray there all the live, long day (and get quite violent if they think a Jew is praying). This just goes to show the extreme lengths the Israelis go to meet Muslim demands. As for me: let the Jews pray.

British commies march with banners of Stalin – naturally, Labour’s party leader is happy to be with them. Why is it ok to be communist? Why is Stalin considered something other than horrendously evil? Because of really, really good PR and the fact that the overall right in the West never got around to really crushing communism. We always accepted them as rational parts of the human scene, rather than treating as the anti-human people they were and are.

Related: Venezuela is proof that the left can kill a nation pretty quickly. Remember, Prog buddies, how happy you were when Venezuela’s late dictator insulted President Bush? How glad you were that we never managed to take action to overthrow Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship? Well, now the Venezuelans are looting stores for food.

Does Erdogan want his own Islamic State? Probably – but he’s willing to go slow, at times, to get it.

Related: and just my observation – I’m not too keen on the concept that our United States, via NATO, would have to defend Erdogan’s regime against foreign attack.

Will the military refuse to obey illegal orders? It would be a mixed bag – and the lower down the totem poll, the less likely will be disobedience to orders. Deeply ingrained in our military is respect for civilian control – so, the President orders it, then it is likely to be done, and while some senior officer might object, there will be a dozen willing to step in and carry out the order (never underestimate the desire on the part of some careerist officers to, well, advance their careers). This is not about a Presidential order to shoot civilians (ours or theirs). It is not really imaginable that an American President would give such an order – but orders to go rough on the enemy? To bomb something that maybe didn’t need to be bombed? To back a weapon system which is worthless? To make statements on defense matters which are in line with Presidential desires but not related to how things are? That sort of thing is entirely within the realm of possibility.

Prince is dead – and the government will now be taking more than half his stuff.

Because today I found some really amazing things about America, 2016.

Childless woman wants maternity leave – and if you don’t give it to her you’re just a sexist upholder of the patriarchy!

As for me, I did eventually give notice at my job and take a “meternity” of my own. I may not have been changing diapers, but I grappled with self-doubt for the year and a half that I spent away from the corporate world. And I grieved the loss of my dad, who had just died after a long illness. But a “meternity” done right should be challenging. It should be about digging into your whole life and emerging from it more confident in who you are.

Because women with babies never have to grapple with self-doubt, or something.

Anti-Trump protestors in the United States wave Mexican flags – because the sure-fire way to defuse the Trump movement is to wave foreign flags on American soil.

Fight the Man! In this case by stiffing your waitress for a tip.

Huma Abedin – once nearly burst into tears when she discovered that Her Majesty once carried her own bag. I don’t want to go all Godwin’s Law here, but once upon a time Martin Bormann overheard Hitler idly ask what was in a dish he was eating and a couple hours later Bormann got the recipe and recited it to Hitler. This isn’t being a servant – this is being a thrall. You wonder: what order of Hillary’s would Huma refuse to carry out?

Susan Sarandon – yes, that Susan Sarandon – is more worried about Hillary than Trump.

I discovered last night that the only rational position to have on Trump is rabid, foaming at the mouth hatred of him and his supporters. So hateful is Trump, that we are not to try to analyze why he arose, or what his supporters may be about. Shouting vulgar names at him and his supporters is the height of intellectual discernment. Anyone who does try to go beyond mere attack is actually a Trump stooge. This is actually the demand of Conservative critics of Trump. I haven’t got around to asking the Left what I’m supposed to do…but I suspect its pretty much the same.

Just thought you’d like to know – you know, in case you were planning on thinking about things.

First Quarter GDP came it at 0.5% because if it has come in negative, it would amount to an official recession and we can’t have that while President LightBringer is trying to drag Hillary over the finish line to preserve his legacy. I suspect we’ll get the official announcement that we dropped into recession about 4 or 5 months ago on November 9th.

So, Boehner and Gingrich are Trump buddies. Who knew? Glad Trump is able to secure these two completely radical outsiders. Of course, what this amounts to is something I suspected we’d see – the GOP leadership coalescing around Trump as an alternative to Cruz. To be sure, they’d rather have had Kasich or Jeb. In a pinch, they would have held their nose and gone with Rubio…but Cruz is just beyond the pale because he absolutely does not and will not play ball.

Millenials don’t like Capitalism, aren’t enthused about Socialism. All of you who have held that my Distributist views are wrong: nyah, nyah. It is the only way to go.

Looks like it’ll take a second woman to help drag the First Woman President across the finish line.

Progressives are becoming ever more anti-Semitic – what is a Prog to do about it? Weird that no matter what lunatic views are cooked up, eventually it gets around to blaming The Jews for everything.

Roger Simon, stalwart Trumpster, attended a Trump rally:

This is my third Trump event to witness in person (many more on TV) and it strikes me that they are becoming “happenings” for Middle America. They are unlike political events I have seen before. The most similar I have seen were rallies I attended for Bobby Kennedy years ago. RFK and Trump had and have a real charisma.

I guess he does have that – and that is another reason to oppose him. Charismatic people who lust after power are usually the exact last person it should be given to. On the other hand, dull-witted, uncharismatic crooks are also no great shakes, either.