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.

Trump’s got it in the bag.

Trump hasn’t got much of a chance.

Take your pick. I tend to go with Trende’s analysis because he’s a really sharp observer of American politics and what he says agrees with my hopes. Oh, like the rest of you are never guilty of wish-casting…

Geezers will be an increasingly large segment of the population. That is in the nature of things these days – less risks in life, better medical care. One thing I’ve never got is those who seem to want to live forever…don’t smoke, don’t drink, spend hours exercising. I mean, I understand a wise desire to stay healthy…but, you know, eat right, exercise, die anyway. I’d rather, when the time comes, look back on the people and things I’ve enjoyed in life rather than having a long list of desperate efforts I made in the name of health. To each his own, of course, and you’re mileage may vary.

Jackson is to be off the $20 – and Harriet Tubman to replace him. Fine by me that we replace one of the founders of the Democrat party with a gun-toting, Christian Republican. I do wonder if our Progs know those details about Tubman?

Let’s Get it Over With: Hillary, ’16.

Related: Virginia Governor ok’s 200,000 felons voting – Hillary needs all the voters she can get, ya know?

Plusgood words prevent crimethink – How Democrats use words to control the terms of debate.

Obama does what Obama does best – threaten our allies. In this case, warning the Brits that if they dare to leave the EU, the USA won’t be in a hurry to conclude a trade deal with Britain.

New Independence Day trailer – looks pretty cool. Naturally, they’ve got a female President doing her best Hillary Clinton voice impersonation.

Muslim member of Sweden’s Green Party quits politics over the prospect of having to shake a woman’s hand. Have fun with this one, Progs.

Some facts about Earth Day:

Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22nd, which, coincidentally, is Russian dictator V.I. Lenin’s birthday. Although Lenin was too busy being dead to directly participate in the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, visitors to his tomb that day swear they heard chuckling.

Chelsea Clinton – whom we can’t criticize because she’s A Child – babbles on about how her mother will get rid of guns by appointing a kook leftist to the Supreme Court. Methinks Bernie must still have a shot at it or Team Clinton wouldn’t be taking this line this late in the campaign season.

Hillary Clinton has no regrets about Libya. No, you’re not shocked, at all. In fact, you’re not even angry about it – this is just the way the Clintons are, all the time.

Today is the big New York vote. If Trump sweeps it, then he’s got a path to a first ballot majority. If he falls short, then his chances of getting that first ballot majority nearly vanish. Let’s hope the people of New York are wise enough to see that Trump is a disaster in the making.

Brazil, proving itself a wiser nation than the United States, is set to impeach their ultra-Progressive President.

Related: Politico wonders if Trump will be impeached shortly after taking office. I’m with Allahpundit on this – I’m already past that and wondering if we’ll be able to work up a decent primary challenge to President Trump in 2020.

A bit of loan chicanery on the part of Mrs. Sanders?

Related: Whatever you do, don’t buy the “Bernie is My Comrade” T Shirt…his lawyers don’t like it one bit.

A lot of the far left just doesn’t like Hillary. This is the joker in the deck for 2016 and no one is really talking about it. To be sure, against Trump one has to give all advantage to Hillary – but against either Cruz or Trump, we simply don’t know how many people Hillary can drag to the polls in November. Sure, there are still slightly more Democrats than Republicans in the country…but not that much more and the disparity continues to decrease. Beating Hillary might turn out to be just a matter of better GOTV…and in that, I think Cruz has a distinct advantage.

Lots of ISIS fighters come from the West. But, you already knew that.

Republican strategist sues Trump.

Trump wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal – at least, I hope he wrote it because if he paid someone to write it for him, then he was robbed. It is mostly just a whine about that mean, dirty, rotten Cruz and how (billionaire insider) Donald Trump will give Power to the People. I’ve had a lot to say about Trump, but now he’s just irritating me.

Related: Trump under 50% in New York?

Additional related: Trump protest in Colorado fizzles.

The lawsuit against gun makers in relation to the Sandy Hook massacre can go forward…as I said, the left will just keep going and going and going with this. Eventually they’ll find a jury to award billions to someone and then gun manufacturers will be out of business. So, do we pass a law immunizing gun makers? We already did. In 2005. But we don’t really have laws anymore – we just have whatever a judge says.

Obamacare continues its complete financial crash. It is a bad law which was stupidly written and bears no relation to reality. Democrats will go to their graves defending it.

Jonah Goldberg notes a bit of liberal silliness on the abortion issue:

The White House is asking for a lot of money to fight the Zika virus. “I think Democrats and Republicans in Congress are interested in making sure that pregnant women and unbor children in this country can be properly protected,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in February. Unborn children? Yes, both parties want to protect unborn children from disease-carrying mosquitoes. But that bipartisanship falls apart when it comes to Planned Parenthood.

I can’t see how a Democrat can justify a single penny being spent to help an unborn child and then turning around and demanding money be spent to kill an unborn child. Either the unborn child is human – and thus can’t be killed – or it isn’t, in which case no one would give a darn what happens to it. Pick one, liberals.

Related: Liberals are thinking a bill which would prevent sex-selection abortions is racist. Don’t try to follow the logic folks, there isn’t any…its just a general liberal demand that abortion never be restricted in any way, shape or form…

When the United States built the Panama Canal more than 100 years ago – back in the days when we would actually build things, you know? – one of the main things which made our effort a success where the French failed was in eradicating Yellow Fever (along with many other diseases) from Panama. Certainly, 100 years later, Yellow Fever is just gone, right? Wrong. As I wrote some years back – to the complete lack of understanding of liberals – the Age of Science is dead. We are now benighted savages and worship our Earth Mother and must propitiate our goddess with the sacrifice of our Evil Science…you know, like banning DDT and stuff. I do think that some time in the next 20 years tens of millions of people will be wiped out by what should have been an easily containable disease…and they’ll die because we simply refused to apply science to the problem.

Sanders supporters – people who want free stuff, don’t want to pay for it.

Saudi Arabia says it won’t limit oil production unless Iran does. If this goes forward, expect a rapid drop in oil prices soon.

Ostensible Trump supporter Ben Carson is either a lot dumber than we thought, or he’s sticking the shiv in Trump with surgical skill.

Jay Cost – who knows more about American politics than 99.9% of us – says no one should fear a brokered GOP Convention.

King Abdullah II of Jordan proves conclusively that Christians and Muslims can be friends.

Obama is still the best gun salesman in human history.

Make people work as part of the welfare requirement and this happens:

In the first three months after Maine’s work policy went into effect, its caseload of able-bodied adults without dependents plummeted by 80 percent, falling from 13,332 recipients in Dec. 2014 to 2,678 in March 2015.

And that, my friends, is why Big Government liberals are opposed to welfare reform…and it’s not just that people will move off the rolls and become independent, but the additional horror that we’d need fewer bureaucrats…and that, in the end, means lower donations to the Democrat party.

Glenn Reynolds suggests a bit of punishment for Attorney Generals who try to criminalize dissent.

Ok, so a third or so of Wisconsin GOPers won’t vote GOP if Trump is the nominee…that is understandable…but about the same number won’t vote GOP if Cruz is the nominee. That makes no sense even in 100 parallel universes. I get it that Cruz has likeability issues. I get that he’s a bit far right for some even in the GOP. But this concept that “well, I’ll stay home or vote third party which ensures that Hillary is President if Cruz is the nominee” is just, well, absurd. Part of it is, I think, just passion-of-the-moment thing. There are still plenty of Rubio voters who feel betrayed their guy lost, and plenty of Kasich voters who are just officially sticking with their man to the bitter end. The balance would be made up of Trumpsters who simply won’t vote GOP, at all, if Trump isn’t the nominee. Most of the #NeverCruz people will, I think, come home in November.

Cruz does have a very high hurdle to jump – first getting the nomination; then uniting the party; then facing off against Hillary and figuring out a way to poach enough Rare Voters and disaffected blue collar Democrats. I figure his chances of beating Hillary are significantly less than 50/50…but he will have one magnificent asset in the quest: Hillary. She’s just terrible.

Related: Democrats shouldn’t underestimate Cruz.

So, a Dominican priest walked across a college campus – and the kiddies went into a panic thinking his white Dominican robe was a KKK outfit. College – it just doesn’t make any sense.

The Panama Papers scandal continues to cause a stir. If you ever wonder why rich and powerful people act like the laws don’t apply to them there is a simple reason for this: generally, the laws don’t apply to them. Certainly not like they apply to a poor or middle class person. If you’ve got enough money and enough pull, you can avoid prosecution; get sweet heart deals if prosecution is unavoidable; tie up the law in endless appeals if you can’t get a sweet heart deal; provide donations in return for an executive pardon if all else fails. But, mostly, you don’t even have to worry about that – Hillary isn’t the only easily indictable person out there walking around free, after all. The love of money is the root of all evil and power corrupts…people with lots of money tend to love money (otherwise, in almost all cases, they wouldn’t have made quite so much of it – and by “lots” I mean once you start getting into the billions of dollars of net wealth); people in power are always at risk of being corrupted by it and the longer a person has power, the more chance they’ll be corrupted. I have my solution for these problems – a wealth tax and term limits. Yeah, maybe not the best…but let’s hear yours.

The natural response to a $15 minimum wage. Spoiler alert: those making a minimum wage won’t like it.

State writes a confusing medical marijuana law. Small business owners decide to set up a marijuana dispensary which they believe has obeyed the law. Police disagree. Raid the place. Take everything they own. Charges get dropped. Small business owners still rather out in the cold. The biggest issue here is the asset forfeiture law – Michigan’s appears to be one of the worst, but all around the nation this sort of thing goes on…and one can’t help but feel that some of the incentive for the police to get a bit over-aggressive is the fact that many asset forfeiture laws allow law enforcement to keep the goods even if no conviction ever results. My solution: no seizure of assets until after conviction. And rather, period, end of story. Yep, this does mean some real criminals will be able to hide some of their ill-gotten gains, but that risk is worth it to me in order to ensure that innocent people don’t have their property seized.

Related: Juries should curb out of control prosecutors.

Merle Haggard, RIP