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L i k e U s ! ! !

WHERE THE SOVIET UNION STILL EXISTS

LeninLives
Tiraspol, Transnistria.  Lenin lives.  At least he still does here in the strangest country in Europe, as it insists on pretending it is a part of the Soviet Union.

We are in a landlocked and isolated sliver of Moldova that wanted no part of the breakup of the USSR in the wake of Berlin Wall falling in November 1989. 

Transnistria
This is where the Soviet Union still exists – and where the people consider themselves Soviet citizens. They idolize Putin – and thus idolize Trump for being Putin’s friend.

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AMERICA NEEDS A FOREIGN POLICY AS SERIOUS AS IRAN’S

IranMissileLet’s state it clearly:  Washington’s policy regarding state sponsors of terrorism is schizophrenic. As a result, our government is failing in its duty to protect Americans from terrorism.

It is not as if we need evidence of what nations are sponsoring terror attacks against us. Whether the attacks of 9-11, the Khobar Towers bombing, and the attacks on our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Iran was the prime culprit, in addition to the thousands of American soldiers maimed and killed by IED’s strewn all over Iraq and Afghanistan by Iranian agents.

If the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, Obama’s Iran nuclear deal)) was truly able to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, looking the other way while Iran builds ballistic missiles and supports terrorism might be considered unpalatable, but nonetheless necessary if that were the only choices before us.

But the JCPOA only delays Iran from reaching its goal of becoming a nuclear-armed state sponsor of terrorism—which all evidence suggests is happening rapidly. The effect on Middle East security is already devastating.

By our inaction, we are helping Iran create a Shia crescent from Iran to Iraq to Syria to Lebanon and to the Mediterranean Sea, an arc dominated by Iran and its terror proxies that jeopardizes the entire Middle East and especially the US allied oil producing states.

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CHINA’S DEAD MONEY TRAP

Xiaochuan
Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China

China is at mounting risk of a Japanese-style "liquidity trap" as monetary policy loses traction and the economy approaches credit exhaustion, forcing a shift towards Keynesian fiscal stimulus.

Officials at the Chinese People’s Bank (PBOC) have begun to call for a fundamental change in strategy, warning that interest rate cuts have become an increasingly blunt tool. They cannot easily stop companies hoarding cash or halt the slide in private investment.

Sheng Songcheng, the PBOC’s head of analysis, set off a storm last month by warning that the economy had “started to show some signs of being caught in a liquidity trap.”

Caixin magazine said last week (8/16) Chinese companies are hoarding record sums of “dead money” rather than spending it. The growth rate of private investment has dropped to 2.1% over the last seven months, the lowest since global financial crisis. 

The International Monetary Fund warned in June that China’s corporate debt has reached 145% of GDP. “Vulnerabilities are still rising on a dangerous trajectory. They must be addressed immediately,” it said.  China’s entire financial system is clearly out of kilter.

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DON’T JUST DO SOMETHING – STAND THERE!

A Spotless Sun

Climate change projects spend enormous sums with no effect.  They have not only been a waste of money, they have done real harm.

Some trillions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars have been spent to combat global warming over the last three decades. Has the expenditure of all of this money reduced global temperatures from where they would have otherwise been? No, at least not to a measurable degree.

The major governments of the world have undertaken a public policy which to date has cost far more than any benefits. The rebuttal by the advocates of all of this government spending is to say it is nothing more than a down payment on what needs to be done and the benefits will accrue to future generations.

British scientist Valentina Zharkova and her team at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom have produced a new model enabling unprecedentedly accurate predictions of the sun’s solar cycle.  She recently presented her findings in an address to the Royal Astronomical Society, Heartbeat of the Sun from Principal Component Analysis and prediction of solar activity on a millenium timescale.

The model predicts that a coming periodic reduction in the sun’s magnetic radiation will soon lead to major global cooling.

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22 RULES FOR A GOOD OLD AGE

These are rules to live a full and savored old age.  The last is the most important.  But you won’t fully appreciate it until you’ve read all the others first.

  1. It's time to use the money you saved up.  Use it and enjoy it.  Don't just keep it for those who may have no notion of the sacrifices you made to get it.  Remember there is nothing more dangerous than a son or daughter-in-law with big ideas for your hard earned capital.  Enjoy the present moment. The sand in the clock may run out at any moment.

  2. Stop worrying about the financial situation of your children and grandchildren. You've taken care of them for many years, and you've taught them what you could.  You gave them an education, food, shelter and support.  The responsibility is theirs to earn their way.

  3. Keep a healthy life with moderate exercise (like walking every day), eat well and get your sleep.  It's easy to become sick, and it gets harder to remain healthy.  Keep in touch with your doctor, get tested even when you're feeling well.   Stay informed.

  4. Always buy the best, most beautiful items for your significant other.  The key goal is to enjoy your money with your partner.  One day one of you will miss the other, and the money will not provide any comfort then.  Enjoy it together.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 08/19/16

He did it again!  Just last night! 

Yesterday (8/18) in Not Never Trump, I described three game-changing events this week providing positive reasons to be for a Trump Presidency rather than merely being against the nightmarish evil of a PIAPS Presidency.

Now there’s a fourth.  In Charlotte, North Carolina last night, Trump delivered what is being called his New American Future speech. (The link is to both the full text and full video.) 

It is no accident, comrades, that we are witnessing the transformation of Daffy Donald into Presidential Donald before our very eyes this week.  Who else but Kellyanne Conway could have effected this?

Meanwhile, our current Pathetic POTUS was playing golf with some comedian yesterday.  He interrupted his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to do a fundraiser for Hildebeast, but wouldn’t for the devastated people of Louisiana. 

So where will both Trump and Pence be today?  In Louisiana while Zero laughs through another 18 holes.  Even the Associated Press (see the link) couldn’t ignore the brilliant (for Trump) and ghastly (for Zero) optics.

And where is Hillary?  Not in Louisiana nor anywhere else public.  She’s, ah… resting.  Poor old gal runs out of gas easily these days. 

Evidently it’s much worse than “exhaustion” from the brutal pace of campaigning.  Her coughing fits, seizures, and bizarre behavior are now at a point where it’s legitimate to question her physical and mental fitness for office. 

On Wednesday (8/17) at Trump campaign headquarters in the Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, campaign policy director Steve Miller convened a round table of 16 folks to discuss how to defeat political and terrorist Islam.  I wasn’t there as I’m in Sofia, Bulgaria this week with my family.

Kellyanne was there, and let’s suppose – just suppose, for this is only a thought experiment – that she asks me to attend the next such meeting.  What would I say?

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NOT NEVER TRUMP

PureEvilAll TTPers know that I am not Donald Trump’s biggest fan.  That I think he’s a seriously flawed candidate and that primary voters had some kind of mental breakdown choosing him over Scott Walker or Ted Cruz.

Now it’s time for the other shoe to drop.  I am not a NeverTrumper.  The principal reason, at least so far, is this bottom line: whatever his flaws, Trump is not evil, and Hillary Clinton is.

Trump has no lengthy history of espousing conservative principles with which to govern so we don’t know what he’d do as president.  But we do know what Hillary would do – and that it would be vastly worse for America.  The odds are very substantial that whatever Trump would do, it would be vastly better than what she would do.

Which means that I have no choice but to want him to win in November.  My fear is that he won’t for three reasons:  his flaws as a candidate, the overwhelmingly massive bias of the Lying Swine Media against him, and equally massive Democrat voter fraud.  That’s a triple whammy which may prove impossible for him to overcome.

Nonetheless, we must soldier on and hope he wins, but I must admit such hope for me was – until this week – without enthusiasm.  That is, I want a candidate for whom I can be passionately for, like Ronald Reagan.  Rather, his opponent is someone I am passionately against, thus he’s the only alternative.

Suddenly that has changed.  Within the last 72 hours, three events occurred providing reason to be positively for a Trump Presidency.

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WILL DEMOCRATS STEAL THE PRESIDENCY IN 2016 LIKE THEY DID IN 1960?

illegalDemvotesDonald Trump has said publicly that he fears the next election will be rigged. Based both on technical capability and recent history, Trump’s concerns are not unfounded.

A recent study by Stanford University proved that Hillary Clinton’s campaign rigged the system to steal the nomination from Bernie Sanders.  What was done to Bernie Sanders in Wisconsin is stunning.

Why would the Clintons not cheat again? 

Democrat voter fraud has a long history.  The most prominent example is how it enabled John Kennedy to be President in 1960 instead of Richard Nixon.

Here’s how it happened back then with plain voter fraud.  It’s much easier now with rigged electronic voting machines.

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VOTER FRAUD AND MULTICULTURALISM

demVotesDonald Trump has been issuing warnings about Democrat voter fraud in America this November.  If it’s anything like what we Brits are experiencing, you Yanks should listen to him.

If ever you’ve worried that parts of Britain now resemble some hideously corrupt, Third World Islamic basket case hell hole then you’re going to love Sir Eric Pickles’s gloriously robust report on electoral fraud.

His target, it’s clear, isn’t just the Moslem communities in places like London’s Tower Hamlets (and Birmingham and many Northern towns) which have imported to Britain the kind of political skullduggery and malpractice routine on the Indian subcontinent.

More broadly what Pickles is attacking is the bankrupt philosophy of Multiculturalism and the entrenched, institutional political correctness that have made it all possible.

It’s morally bankrupting Britain and Trump is warning it could bankrupt America.

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FORGETTING ANCIENT CHINESE WISDOM

ChinesePhiloTo explain the present, the Communist Party of China (CPC) often turns to the past. One of its favorite pastimes is to deploy China’s decorated history and the wisdom of its ancients to explain its policies and bolster its authority.

For example, the CPC frequently offers the (largely nonviolent) 15th century maritime voyages of Zheng He, who projected Chinese power and carried Chinese treasure to destinations as far flung as the Middle East and Africa, to support the notion of its “peaceful rise” in the 21st century.

Mao was fond of quoting Sun Tzu, while today Xi Jinping keeps a rolodex of wise sayings from political philosophers at the ready.

Yet despite the homage paid to these leading lights, Beijing’s behavior is growing increasingly at odds with much of their counsel. That is to the detriment of China and the world.

Many of China’s most prominent ancient political philosophers, including Guan Zhong, Laozi, Confucius, Xunzi, and Mencius, held that governing with humane authority—“winning the hearts and minds of the people at home and abroad”—was the key to becoming a leading world power, as Yan Xuetong points out in his book Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power.

In terms of its foreign policy, China has been doing little of this lately.

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THE ANSWER TO CRITICS OF FREE TRADE

FreeTradeDo you support free trade? Many business people, politicians and workers say they are in favor of free trade “but with conditions” — because they can see and feel the job losses but not the job and income gains.

Consumers benefit from free trade — in terms of lower prices and more products of better quality. Think of the empty shelves and higher prices in Wal-Mart stores if there were no foreign-made goods.

Critics of free trade, however, point out that State-owned or subsidized firms in some countries are able to sell into the international market place at prices below costs — for long periods of time — which competing privately owned firms believe is unfair, causing them to incur losses or even go out of business.

Many blame the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs on free trade, but the real reason is something else.  Here’s the single most effective thing the United States can do to bring jobs back to the U.S.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 08/12/16

This is the Half-Full Report, and I mean to keep it half full. If you hate Donald Trump, consider what I’m saying anti-Clinton. If you love Donald Trump, consider it a relief.

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Jack Kelly makes a strong case for the anti side in this week’s “The Tragedy of Trump”, posted here yesterday. That’s the case for half-empty. It may be entirely right. I make no promises.

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So can Trump still win this? I think the question is silly. As all of us over the age of 3 have seen, a week in politics is an eternity. And Hillary becomes a riper target by the day.

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The week began with Julian Assange fingering the Hildebeast for the murder of 27 year old DNC data analyst Seth Rich. Assange strongly implied that Rich was Wikileaks’ source for the leak of 20,000 DNC emails that took down Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and exposed the DNC’s plotting against Bernie Sanders.

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Syrians are forcing Christians to hide their Bibles and hold worship services in secret amid Muslim death threats.

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this Saturday is the 495th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlan (today’s Mexico City) to Cortez. Dr. Jack tells the story of Cortez in Mexico in a perfectly wonderful historical novel, The Jade Steps. It’s an engaging read, but you’ll also learn a lot.

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Put down that TV remote, cuz here we go with this week's HFR!

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IT IS TIME TO FREE MICHELLE OBAMA’S SLAVES

At the DNC Convention, Michelle Obama put on her victimhood hat one more time and declared, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.”

BuiltBySlvsBut that’s too past tense. Michelle’s house continues to be built and maintained by slaves. Her lavish lifestyle of endless vacations, parties and public appearances is funded by millions and millions of slaves.

Michelle Obama lives a life that is vastly more lavish and luxurious than that of any plantation owner. She has 26 staffers that are part of a White House staff of thousands. That’s more than many crowned heads of state. Compare that to 12 servants for Thomas Jefferson.

Michelle’s house, her luxurious lifestyle, is built by taxpaying slaves who are forced to turn over their money to fund her pleasures. She spent more money on one night in Morocco than the average American family will see in five years.

The Obama lifestyle is just the tip of the iceberg. Tens of thousands of more modest government plantation owners cling to their skirts living off the stolen toil of the government’s slaves.

Government, like slavery, is an institution. Like slavery, it claims to civilize its dependents. In reality it exploits them. It promises them security in exchange for freedom. It takes away the products of their toil and then tells them that they didn’t build that. It claims a false moral authority to exploit them.

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WHY TRUMP IS BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT THAN HILLARY

A Donald Trump presidency would be way more beneficial to the environment than a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Trump really needs to mention this point at his rallies, not just for the trolling, but also because it happens to be true.

Consider just one example: the hundreds of thousands of rare birds and endangered bats slaughtered in the US every year by the wind farms that Hillary Clinton applauds (and will no doubt go on subsidizing) and that Donald Trump loathes (and will no doubt starve of subsidies and cause to become as extinct as the Dodo).

As the Daily Beast recently noted, Trump’s hatred of wind farms is probably the most consistent and long-standing of all his political convictions.

Trump1

Donald J. Trump Verified account ‏@realDonaldTrump "@noturbine: @realDonaldTrump Wind turbines kill up to 39 million birds a year, Industry hides evidence of kills http://www.cfact.org/2013/03/18/wind-turbines-kill-up-to-39-million-birds-a-year/ …"

Trump does have a point. If you care about flying wildlife, bat-chomping, bird-slicing eco-crucifixes really are about the most pointlessly destructive form of power generation there is – as a series of recent studies show.

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