Good or Bad for the Jews

"Good or Bad for the Jews"

Many years ago, and for many years, I would travel to Morocco to visit uncles, cousins, and my paternal grandmother. Some lived in Tangiers;...

Sunday, February 2, 2014

GOPsmacked! What are Republican Leaders Doing?

I profess no supercalifragilisticexpialidocious expertise when it comes to military or political strategy. A few basic principles, however, I think I do understand. One, for example, seems to avoid fighting on the opponent's turf and terms--the US military are superb, as they put it, "at shaping the battlefield" to make an opponent fight the kind of war the US military want. It would seem particularly important not to fight on the opponent's turf and terms when you have the numerically inferior force. The smaller force, I would imagine, should not want to go head-to-head, toe-to-toe with the bigger opponent; it certainly should not get into a civil war within its own ranks; and most assuredly not conduct recruitment for the other side. Sounds pretty basic to me. But, guess I have it wrong.

The GOP (Note for foreign readers: A term meaning Grand Old Party, used for the Republican Party since about the mid-1870s)  seems determined to lose every election it can by ensuring that it not only fights on the opponent's turf and terms, but engages in internal warfare, and avidly recruits new voters for the Democrats. Is the Republican Party, as GOP Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal once labelled it, "the stupid party"? Seems so. Nothing else can explain the insistence on playing the other guy's game, using his rules, his playground, and his referees. If this continues it will be the terminally stupid party.

A few examples should suffice.

We have in power the most incompetent, corrupt, anti-Western, anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-individual, anti-Constitution government in the nearly 240-year-history of the Republic. The rotten fruits of its policies are easy to see and smell. The "New American Normal" is a horrendous state of affairs, one we have never before seen. Perhaps over one-third of our workforce has dropped out of the labor market with little prospect of returning. Close to fifty percent of all "Americans"--I include illegal and legal aliens--receive some sort of government taxpayer support. Government spending and deficits are at levels never before seen, and unsustainable. The government has underway an expensive, destructive, and hugely wasteful bid, Obamacare, to take over our health care system and replace it with . . . well, nobody really knows with what except that it will make hospitals and doctors' offices look like the Department of Motor Vehicles. We have a government that in the name of bogus environmental and climate change "science" works to stifle domestic energy production, block imports of oil from Canada, and institute a byzantine regulatory structure that drives manufacturing and well-paying skilled jobs overseas.

In a criminal effort to deny Americans their second amendment right to bear arms, our government has deliberately and illegally exported arms to ruthless Mexican and Central American drug cartels, which have used them to kill hundreds of people including two US federal agents. That same government then sought to blame those weapon exports on law-abiding American gun stores and gun shows. Once neutral agencies of government, such as the IRS, the FBI, the EPA, and hordes of prosecutors target and suppress dissent and discredit opponents.

Wherever one looks in the world, our foreign policy and intelligence operations are in tatters. We have alienated life-long friends such as the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Israel, and have reduced the scope, reach and credibility of American power, e.g., note the disasters underway in Latin America, Libya, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. Our intelligence agencies are used more to spy on Americans than to counter the real threats we face from Muslim jihadis, and resurgent Chinese and Russian nationalisms. Our President lies about it all.

The political environment for the opposition is a target-rich one. The Republicans should be rejoicing at the prospect of a clean sweep in November's mid-term elections and the Presidential ones in 2016.  Instead GOP leaders engage in attacks on Tea Party activists--who have been consistently right on policy issues, by the way--and let the Democrats set the agenda and tell us what is and is not open for discussion. Bengahzi, IRS, EPA Solyndra, Fast and Furious, those are all phony scandals; what we must discuss is whether Governor Christie knew about, allowed, or ordered the closing of two lanes of traffic on the George Washington Bridge to punish a political opponent in Ft. Lee, New Jersey.

Even worse, we have prominent, once conservative and common sense politicians such as Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan going along with and promoting the Obama misadministration's push to undo what is left of our immigration system, reward lawbreakers, and spit in the face of the overwhelmingly majority of American citizens who reject yet another amnesty for illegal aliens. As I wrote before, the Democrats seek nothing less than to make US citizenship meaningless and, of course, bring in millions of new votes to the party from alien lawbreakers who will receive amnesty to go along with the public benefits many already enjoy. The plan is as it was in the UK: Labour deliberately sought to encourage huge immigration from poor countries to transform British society permanently and create a lock on power for Labour. It, in essence and without fear of hyperbole, means putting an end to the United States as we know it.

These are grim times.

47 comments:

  1. I agree 110% with your assessment of the GOP, but you ignore, just like everybody else, a huge problem that no one has guts enough to face, namely, voter fraud. As it now stands, the Democrats control who counts the ballots and have for a long time and the Republicans don't do anything about it.

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  2. This parallels our Australian experience with the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd Labor government. Wasteful spending, red herrings aplenty to divert the gullible public's attention.

    Fortunately we now have a strong. Conservative party in power with a strong leader. The illegal boats have stopped, taxpayer handouts to failing businesses have stopped, and social security fraud is being addressed.

    Down here, the adults are now in charge.

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    1. May the contagion spread! We need adults here . . .

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    2. The adults are there and they are here . Most are worn down by the eternal teenagers of the Left.

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    3. "Most are worn down by the eternal teenagers of the Left" The GOP has spent too many years thinking the teenagers are just "going through a maturing process" and will eventually grow out of it. They will not. This is who they are on the Left. Spend the nation's wealth, eat the future seed corn and destroy anyone who wants to make them stop. One way or another, they will be stopped because the laws of economics and math win.

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    4. "the eternal teenagers of the Left"... I am so going to borrow that phrase and use it over and over again!

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  3. Well said. Sadly. And given that USG employees are rewarded by the "more government" situation they have with the Democrats, it will be hard to unseat the incumbents. I despair, as you apparently do too. Sad. For our grandchildren, especially.

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    1. Not really. I've worked for the Federal Government since 1980, and would take Bush the Younger over Carter or Clinton...to say nothing of that incompetent skinflint, Obama.

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    2. Mike: There are a few in government like you (and me) who care more about the person in the WH than they do about the goodies he promises. I was particularly troubled by Carter, who changed policies so often it became a joke in our embassy. Alas, there are far more like Lois Lerner.

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    3. Add me to the list. I've got 20 years in and there's no way I'd vote for a Dem.

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  4. [BILLY]
    You're a boom,
    You're the dam at Boulder,
    You're the moon,
    Over Mae West's shoulder,
    I'm the nominee of the G.O.P.

    [RENO]
    Or GOP!

    [BILLY]
    But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
    You're the top!

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  5. The GOP leadership hasn't figured out that there's been an electoral shift. Big Business now supports the Democrats - party of crony capitalism. The Republicans are trying to woo them back, instead of moving into the middle-class voters the Democrats have completely abandoned.

    It doesn't help that DC is a corrosively liberal environment - and our elected officials live THERE, not in the districts they pretend to represent. Term limits are needed, but a requirement for members of Congress to sleep 183 nights per year in their home district would do far more.

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    1. I like the 183 night requirement. Of course, it would have to pass the Congress. . .

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    2. They have figured out that there's been a demographic shift. To "Hispanics." They know nobody votes for the party trying to deport Grandma.

      They apparently do not know that nobody votes for the party that *ever was* trying to deport Grandma; not (at the soonest) for many generations--and this way there are *lots* more somebodies.

      Like Charles Krauthammer not long ago--whom I mention because he is generally no dummy--they think they can effect an electoral revolution by waving this magic wand of "immigration reform".

      And they're right, in a way: "If Croesus goes to war, he will destroy an empire." They will effect an electoral revolution: no more Republican presidents ... ever.

      And soon, no more Constitutional Republic.


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  6. "What are Republican Leaders Doing?"

    Trying to pass “The Chamber of Commerce Serf Labor Expansion and American Middle Class Elimination Act”, aka Boehner/Ryan/Cantor House Care or McCain/Graham/Rubio/Flake Senate Care.

    "One, for example, seems to avoid fighting on the opponent's turf and terms--the US military are superb, as they put it, "at shaping the battlefield" to make an opponent fight the kind of war the US military want."

    Both Iraq and particularly Afcrapistan are examples of the exact opposite of any sane Shaping the Battlespace and in spades.

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  7. I agree with your analysis!
    It keeps nagging me that the establishment GOP in DC have made U-turn since 2010 by turning into almost progressives in their actions. Their hate towards the Tea-Party is troubling; the few in DC who standup for the conservative base are being demonized not only by the msm - which is not surprising - but by their own party.
    Focusing on immigration during a midterm election is suicide; I'm shaking my head in disbelief wondering what is really going on in DC. Is there something on these people held over their head by the NSA - since it's being used on all of us - but also against the congress critters? Blackmail?
    The establishments hate towards us is just pathetic; how are going to win if it is without our support?
    The voting process has been compromised; looking at the last election it sure is more important who counts the vote rather than who really votes and, even there many dead, illegal or non-citizens have voted - naturally for liberals.
    I'm hoping that 'Operation American Spring, 16 May 2016 will be a success. This march is lead by retired military commanders - never done before - and other military members. It is a call to 10 million americans of all stripes to participate and, bring about the resignation of Obama, golder, Kerry, reid, Pelosi, Boehner and McConnell. There will be no picket signs like in the past because it did not work. I would encourage everyone to check it out and, may support it in one way or another. What better way to have military leaders take 'real' actions and, lead.

    I came here as immigrant with the legal paperwork required to do so and, find that everyone should do the same. No other country in the world allows law breakers to invade a country, nor providing them with taxpayer funded free life style. It is ludicrous but, most of all - these people do not want to integrate into the American society as members.
    I am troubled by what I observe; it won't end well.
    The American people are a generous people and, I hope that you all defend this republic and the Constitution - the best ever written document to governing. It is worth it and, I do my part.
    On a side note: Karma catches up with everyone - Christie did his part to lose the election in 2012; he's not a conservative but a Rhino - and I am glad that he no longer is a shoe in to run in 2016. Rumor has it that they may run Jeb Bush - I hope that fails as well.
    We need a Cruz, Lee, Paul, Dr. Carson etc.....nobody else will do.

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    1. Since Christie was ordained the front runner until bridgegate, I wonder who if anybody is the ordained front runner now? If any candidate has a hint of Rino on him, he had better wash it off and wise up after watching the New Jersey debacle.

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    2. If Republicans insist on choosing someone like Paul, or Cruz.....
      Then prepare for 8 years of Hillary.

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    3. No other country in the world allows law breakers to invade a country, nor providing them with taxpayer funded free life style...

      Norway, Sweden, Italy (against its will), the UK, etc., certainly have done exactly that. Meanwhile, before any laws are decided the State Dept. in cahoots with Catholic Charities, Lutherans, and the Jewish Charities, have brought in huge numbers of 'legal' immigrants and dumped them on municipalities. The feds are supposed to support these ppl for three years, but like all federal promises, this one has been broken - broken on the backs of state tax-payers who have to pony up for the huge welfare costs...cf Tennessee.

      The GOOPs in Congress are worse than useless, they are a fifth column in debt to the crony capitalists who are ruining the concept of free markets & driving the ignorant to socialism.

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    4. @Anon

      If Republicans insist on choosing someone like Paul, or Cruz.....

      (And please, the "regulars" don't misinterpret me? Just my opinion.)
      Cruz likely would be a hard-sell to the Electoral College, the Popular Vote would be a bit less problematic. Only slightly though because as I see it, states such as Colorado are going "kinda haywire" for the purposes of assessing Likely/Maybe GOPers.

      Paul on the other hand hasn't, in my observations, taken obvious positions that would almost automatically, alienate the younger demographic. Extending Dip's metaphor, Senator Cruz has shaped the battlefield to his detriment while Senator Paul has thus far avoided sending out even, skirmishers.

      Many of us here worry about Paul's "Libertarian Leanings" but, I would submit - if a Paul were to become a POTUS - the first term would almost certainly be restricted in it's "freedom of maneuver" to recover ground on the domestic front. Foreign Policy/Strategic Policy would, in the near-term, have to be back-burnered, likely supervised and guided by senior (adult) staff in the kitchen.

      & for what its worth - I don't think Hillary is at all, "Inevitable." (Bill has had a lot of time through for instance, "The Clinton Initiative" to stick his fingers in any number of cookie jars - any one of which could very well upset the Whitewater Applecart.)

      Arkie

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  8. I will vote Republican probably for the last time in 2014.
    And THEN, only to keep the House out of the hands of the Marxist Democrats as long as Obama is in office.
    But 2016?
    After Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, Romney...NO MORE RINOs.
    I've had it.
    A good (NOT perfect!) candidate, or they don't get my vote.
    The GOP *still* has the "it's MY turn!" mentality (Jeb Bush...).

    And, YES, legalizing illegal aliens IS a deal breaker for me.
    WE NEED A NEW PARTY NOW!

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    1. Actually, there's a lot to be said for Jeb Bush; much more than for his brother or father.

      But he's disqualified because of his family. It is not obvious to me why this is better than being automatically a contender because of one's family--like Clinton, say, or a Kennedy.

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  9. No shit Sherlock. I am the result of legal immigrants from Sweden, (me, my mother 1947) and my dads family in the 1890's. (Germany) Remember Mom checking in every 30th of Jan. until finally being made citizen in 1968, after 20 years. She was so happy! WTf now?

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    1. I remember my parents having to check in every year also. Now it's a free-for-all.

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  10. "I don't think Hillary is at all, "Inevitable." I agree there. With the billionaires lining up behind her, that is bound to alienate the "Kristallnacht Left" who just might want to upset her plans and use Benghazi to do it. All is not groovy and peace on the Left.

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    1. Yep Whitewall, "we two" at least seem to be remembering the same thing leading into the stretch of 2008 ...

      Hillary is a shoo-in!

      And it was so - until it wasn't.

      (Incidentally, however Arkansas' Pryor/Cotton match-up turns out, I think the pundits are reading too much into it ... by that I mean, extending little bitty Arkansas too much "signal strength." ... We've [Arkansas] a mere two votes Elector Collegiality speaking-wise - and given our total population of eligible voters - Arkansas can only be realistically smelt as, a fart in a gale.)

      Ark

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    2. Nothing is "written", ever.

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    3. Right.

      Smote on a couple of rock tablets.

      Otherwise ...

      Ark

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    4. Speaking of tablets and smiting.....
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4TAtRCJIqnk

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    5. Dropping that one tablet was history's first recorded "oops"?

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    6. Yeah, but later he parleyed it into a stand up philosopher's gig at Caesar's Palace.

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  11. Related in re: Benghazi wonder what State insiders agree on this - payola?

    http://sofrep.com/31721/state-department-benghazi-charlene-lamb-promotion-rso-canada/

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  12. The way I read the tea leaves is that the Gramscian march through the institutions continues apace, and the institutions--education, law, government, business, etc.--are so much the worse for it.

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    1. It seems to me that the "progressives", meaning the Left, always march their way over and through everything, destroying as they go. Any institution they occupy for too long is eventually destroyed by the Left because of who and what they are. If the Left finds nothing else worth the effort to destroy, it will destroy its own gains...witness law schools that are no longer a bargain as well as public schools dumping their teachers unions, state governments fighting to become "right to work" while remaining "Blue". The Federal level will be the final nut to crack while states and localities begin cleaning themselves up from "progressivism".

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    2. As it sometimes happens Whitewall, something in some comment you've placed leads me to look at another particular website

      If the Left finds nothing else worth the effort to destroy, it will destroy its own gains ...

      Thus:

      http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2014/02/on-buying-a-homeless-man-a-sandwich.html

      Arkie

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    3. Arkie, I see what you mean. That writer is a smart fellow and has our government's style of "solution in need of a problem" method figured to a tee.

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  13. By accepting the opposition's turf and terms, the GOP Establishment shows plainly that it is not in fact in opposition, or in a fight, v. Democrats. Not at all. The Ruling Class knows that politics has always been bread and circus. Let the rest of us eat cake!

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    1. Witness the establishment class Republicans and their timid defense of Tea Party- conservative- grassroots. Nothing scares the governing class more than a large and effective grassroots movement that has this class in its sights and demands that it stand up and be counted for or against something.

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  14. Every time I open ANOTHER begging letter from RNC, I hear one special background music: Duncan and Brady. (... been on the job too long.)

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  15. I have to disagree about Romney. He was badly handled but suffered from the late GOP convention which left him unable to respond to all the "battlefield shaping" during the summer of 2012. Had he been elected, and it was closer than it looked, he might have been very effective as president, especially with a Republican Senate.

    He and Netanyahu, for example, are old friends from college days. If he had been governor of Utah instead of Massachusetts, he would have a very different image with conservatives.

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    1. ... about Romney. He was badly handled but suffered from the late GOP convention which left him unable to respond to all the "battlefield shaping" during the summer of 2012. ...

      Truer more in the Evangelical South that anyplace else.

      And the timing suggests [link] the Establishment GOP (began finally to) recognized that:

      http://christiannews.net/2012/11/18/franklin-graham-mormonism-will-never-be-labeled-a-cult-again/

      Arkie

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    2. I'm gonna add some text from that above link I just placed ... and some History. What I'm pointing to perhaps flies over a "bunch of stuff" (I'm figuring what I just placed from 'christiannews.net' on Dip's site is likely to get ... erased. Not from the 'PrtSc' key however.)
      ______________________________

      November 18, 2012

      "Earlier this year, Franklin Graham also was questioned on MSNBC’s Morning Joe about his beliefs regarding those of other faiths, specifically whether Mormons are of the “Judeo-Christian faith.”

      “Most Christians would not recognize Mormons as part of the Christian faith,” he stated, but did not reveal his personal beliefs on the matter. “I’m just saying that most Christians would not recognize Mormonism. Of course they believe in Jesus Christ. They believe in a lot of other things, too, that we don’t accept theologically.”
      __________________

      And then [the Southern] History:

      The date incidentally says much (which the Establishment Republicans I figure didn't take into account - but given the Establishment must, first of all, recognize it's base ...

      "On September 11, the party thought it had survived when the Mormons approached and made an offer: if the travelers would leave their belongings and weapons behind for the Indians, the Mormons would escort them safely back to Cedar City, Utah. The deal was not particularly favorable, but the settlers had little choice. The party started walking back to Cedar City, given only enough wagons to carry those injured in the attack. Before long, members of the party started to spread out and became isolated from one another. A little more than a mile into the journey, the Mormons turned on the party. They first killed the men, then the women and any children old enough to report the event; the children who were spared were brought to live in Mormon homes. ...

      http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=129

      Too too redolent of ... Jihad.
      __________________________

      When I first began "actually commenting" on Diplomad 2.0, this next link I'm pretty sure was the first I posted. I think it's perhaps more pertinent now than it was just after the latest reiteration of an Incumbent POTUS seeking re-election:

      http://www.fpri.org/articles/2012/12/crisis-american-conservatism-inherent-contradictions-and-end-road

      It's all well and good for us to spout off The Leftists are bad, and correct me if any of y'all regulars see me in error but, strategically - I'm afraid we're about to repeat our past history.

      Arkie




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    3. Arkie,

      I've enjoyed your comments for some time. Odd that I haven't commented on one before.

      Your friend Kurth says, more or less, it's all up to the ladies, who so far haven't been convinced to care about conserving a constitutional republic and its liberties. If so, we're in a bad way.

      Maybe it isn't the fault of the right--or libertarians, whom I don't think of as part of the right--for not convincing women, or blacks, or Hispanics, or whoever, of the value of liberty and limited government. Maybe they've done (very nearly) as well as could have been done.

      Quite a lot of people--you did not catch me glancing particularly at the fair sex--appear to be simply uninterested in hearing about liberty and the constitution and all that. Not that they won't share what Heinlein calls the "bad luck" when these things are gone--if they live.

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    4. Thanks a6z,

      Actually I'm not as chopfallen as that above might indicate. Though I don't much credit the right [the Establishment Right at any rate] or the libertarians for finally getting "their" attention.

      But I think perhaps continuing to label the Affordable Healthcare Act, "Obamacare" might be a tactical error. Continuing to do so lessens the impact on prospective (female and ...) voters.

      Sure it's an easy tagline but - Obama won't be running in '16 - might be better to call it what it actually is, the natural "progression" of Leftism.

      Sadly that doesn't roll off the tongue quite like "Obamacare" does.

      But here in the boonielands of America I'm beginning to see signs suggesting "youfs & especially the youfettes" (h/t David Duff) are beginning to recognize the bill of goods handed them ostensibly as "affordable" [ie "free" as in Obamaphones] is anything but.

      Sure the promises of subsidies for the purchase of health insurance sent shivers of tinglies up and down the legs of the intended audience - almost to the degree previously reserved for subsidized farmers who weren't gonna plant anything anyway.

      But somebody needs to come up with a "rolls off the tongue easily" replacement for the ACA that emphasizes just exactly "who" it was handed Obama 2000 pages of legislation needing his signature.

      And then "somebody" ought ensure next time the voters head to the polls, they have at the forefront of what passes for their minds, the costs of their deductibles.

      (James has called attention to my syntax - justifiably I reckon - and so I can only hope everybody [anybody] who happens upon this comment, gets my drift.)

      Arkie

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  16. I think anyone in the GOP probably thinks twice, even thrice, about coveting the Presidential laurel wreath. After the way Romney was treated (a man who practically had NO skeletons in his closet) and was as destroyed by the media as he could possibly be – well, who wouldn't be terrified about what could be dug up by a relentless media and and even less trustworthy government? (Harry Reid getting that information about Romney's back taxes didn't just materialize out of nothing. Can you say "IRS informant"?

    MrBill

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  17. Well, with Diplomad "enjoying" a well deserved vacation:

    http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/2016-presidential-ratings-update-nothing-but-questions-on-the-republican-side/

    Arkie

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