monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

A conservative Kansas lawmaker is suggesting that problems facing public schools aren’t a matter of money but a shift away from God in recent decades.

How can anybody be this stupid?

Iowa soy and pork farmers have a lot to lose in a high-stakes trade war with China.
Farmers, including one who voted for President Trump and another who hosted Chinese President Xi on his farm years before he became president, are already feeling the pain from a trade war that isn't fully underway.

Soybean farmer Grant Kimberly of Maxwell, a town of less than 1,000 people 20 miles from Des Moines, exports one third of his soy crop to China.
"We need food," Kimberly told Martin Savidge of CNN. "Everybody needs food. So let's not get this caught up in a trade dispute."
China announced $50 billion worth of tariffs on US goods earlier this week. The move by Beijing came in response to President Trump's plan to impose $50 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods for what he says are China's unfair trade practices and its theft of intellectual property.

Some of you will know that among the GOP biggies that initially honed their political chops in the College Republicans were Jack Abramoff, Karl Rove and Ralph Reed. Rove and Abramoff, for example, grabbed power in the body through a concerted push towards more extreme right wing positions and electoral techniques. This wasn't just Rovian dirty tricks (although it was certainly that in part) but a strategy of advancing one's own power and ideology by purposefully getting rid of moderates.

Politico has a piece up now (longish but very good) on a rising star of the same sort in the conservative movement operating on campuses and running on donations (multi-millions now) much from the rogue's gallery we're familiar with.

The propaganda line being pushed is the tried and true, "lefty liberal professors are brainwashing America's youth". The over-arching thesis is that one can choose either capitalism and liberty or one can become a commie. And when these people use "socialist" presently, they imply all or most of the past negative associations of communism. But since the collapse of the USSR, that existential enemy could no longer be wielded effectively as the big boogie man. A replacement was required. It is no coincidence that Gorbachev left office in 1991 with Russia changed forever and that the '92 campaign of Pat Buchanan featured a portrayal of the new greatest existential threat to America - liberalism.

"Liberalism" as boogieman works for the well-primed GOP base which is why it is the central target of Limbaugh or Coulter or Hannity or a near-endless list of modern conservative voices. But it has had limited traction with non-conservatives, mostly because they lead liberal-style lives as a matter of preference. But "socialism" has the propaganda value in how it acts as a bridge between the conservative concepts of liberal and communist.

And what's being pushed is a false dilemma - socialism or liberty, you get only one or you get the other. It's the big lie at the center.

On the contrary they inhabit largely raw capitalist enclaves protected from the poor & unwashed by economic and subtly constructed social & legal barriers created by themselves. Indeed the increasingly obvious hypocrisy of contemporary liberals who wish to direct how the rest of us live, and do so in the face of their increasingly obvious hypocrisy is arguably one of the chief elements behind the Trump political phenomenon.

in the face of their increasingly obvious hypocrisy is arguably one of the chief elements behind the Trump political phenomenon.

I cannot believe that the TRUMP PHENOMENON has any continuing respect from Americans.

I cannot believe that the TRUMP PHENOMENON has any continuing respect from Americans.

Trapper’s Quote Of The Week

Whenever the Communists (better defined as Democrats) scream that something won’t work… you can bet the bank it will.

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Russia and Iran over a suspected chemical attack, saying there will be a "big price to pay".

Medical sources say dozens of people were killed in an attack on the rebel-held town of Douma on Saturday.

The UN Security Council may debate the attack on Monday after nine of its 15 members called for an urgent meeting.

Both Syria and Russia deny a chemical attack took place.

The European Union has called for an "immediate response by the international community".

At the Vatican, Pope Francis said: "Nothing, nothing can justify the use of such devices of extermination against defenceless people and populations."

Mr Trump described President Assad as an "animal" in a series of tweets.

The European Union has called for an "immediate response by the international community".

. I can't say that I am surprised

Socialism, even in the moderate forms found in Europe, has proven to the a generally enervating economic system that yields few benefits for the loss of freedom and social/economic creativity it involves.

The people in all the original EU countries are living about two years longer than we do, some three years longer. And life expectancy is considered a fair measure of standard of living.

Ive always expected more from us.

Where do you ffinl idiocy like Thai.

hes out only for himself and for stuffing his fragile ego.

1he ha NO sense of self depricating humor

President Trump joked about his hair at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, delighting the crowd of conservatives as he went off script for a self-deprecating joke.[/quote
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/375258-trump-jokes-about-bald-spot-at-cpac

He cannot take advice from those of suprior knowledge

5 His knowledge of foreign affairs is built about no real understanding but he wont take negative comments