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HALF-FULL REPORT 05/20/16

Wednesday, The Donald released his short list for the Supreme Court. It’s a blockbuster: to quote John Yoo at National Review, “these names are a Federalist Society all-star list of conservative jurisprudence.” 

What we should think about this is already a matter of considerable debate.

A month ago, the conventional wisdom was that Hillary would slaughter Trump. As I predicted, that “wisdom” was ludicrously wrong. Rasmussen now has Trump +5, 42-37. And that's just for starters. Indeed, the Trump-loathing Wall Street Journal actually asked this week "Can Hillary Win? It's Hard to See How".

All this, plus the Democrat War on Women, Bill Clinton's rape problem, drafting women, and a hilarious new poll of Native Americans on the Washington Redskins. And of course, much much more.

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THE REAL ATLANTIS

Atlantis1Knossos, Crete.  Welcome to Atlantis.  This is what it looked like.  And this:

Atlantis2More nonsense has been invented about Plato’s myth of Atlantis – mentioned briefly in his Timaeus and Critias and nowhere else by anyone else in antiquity – than any other legend you care to name. 

Yet like many myths, it was constructed out of something that really existed.  Here’s the story and the lesson to be learned.

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THIS IS HOW FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA

[This essay by conservative scholar Bob Kagan states precisely why To The Point has so fervently opposed Trump’s candidacy and will continue to do so—JW]

The Republican Party’s attempt to treat Donald Trump as a normal political candidate would be laughable were it not so perilous to the republic. If only he would mouth the party’s “conservative” principles, all would be well.

But of course the entire Trump phenomenon has nothing to do with policy or ideology. It has nothing to do with the Republican Party, either, except in its historic role as incubator of this singular threat to our democracy. Trump has transcended the party that produced him.

His growing army of supporters no longer cares about the party. Because it did not immediately and fully embrace Trump, because a dwindling number of its political and intellectual leaders still resist him, the party is regarded with suspicion and even hostility by his followers. Their allegiance is to him and him alone.

And the source of allegiance?

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THE SUMMER OF SHOCKS

Global fund managers have almost no faith in the latest stock market rallies around the world and have begun to fear the worst from Brexit, putting aside near record sums of money in cash as they brace for a ‘summer of shocks.’

Investors have already lost confidence in China’s economic rebound this year and are shunning British equities like the plague, fearing a financial crunch if Britain votes to leave the EU.

Bank of America’s monthly survey of funds shows that 27% now think Brexit is the biggest ‘tail-risk’ for the global economy, overtaking neuralgic concerns about a devaluation by China or a wave of defaults by Chinese companies.

Longstanding fears that central banks are running out of policy ammunition or risk ‘quantitative failure’ have slipped to third place. The new worry is ‘stagflation’ in the US, a toxic mix of slowing growth and rising inflation at the same time.

What is puzzling is that this mood of deep alarm conflicts with clear evidence of accelerating monetary growth worldwide, usually a harbinger of better times ahead.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 05/13/16

Earlier this week, Jack published “The To The Point Rebel Alliance.” You should certainly read it if you haven’t. It starts with a clip of the Galactic Senate giving Palpatine thunderous applause as he declares himself emperor.

Across the Atlantic, two branches of a very real empire collided a couple of weeks ago. Barack Obama threatened Britain with draconian consequences should it vote to leave the European Union (or as it’s more fondly known, the EUSR). Boris Johnson’s rejoinder was an instant classic, demonstrating that he, not David Cameron, is Margaret Thatcher’s true heir.

Continuing to confound expectations of his certain doom, this week Donald Trump pulled ahead of or even with Hillary Clinton in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Quinnipiac has Trump 4 points ahead (43-39) in life-and-death Ohio, and just 1 point down (43-42) in the other two.

Hillary's mistakes just keep piling up, as virtually everything she does seems to reinforce the Trump brand. Indeed the campaign is so tone-deaf that everyone’s earlier worries about Trump being a ringer for Hillary increasingly look backward: if anything, it’s Hillary who’s working to elect Trump.

All this, plus Admiral Akbar, America’s own Emperor Palpatine, and the most encouraging Jimmy Kimmel segment you’ve ever seen, all in this week’s Half Full Report.

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THE TRUMP TAX RETURN TIME BOMB

TrumpsTaxesWhen Donald Trump sits down with Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today (5/12), there is a pressing issue that they should put before their party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

He told the Associated Press on Tuesday (5/10) that he has no plans to release his tax returns before the November election. “There’s nothing to learn from them,” he said. Previously, he had claimed he would love to release the returns as soon as an IRS audit is completed. 

This is Trump’s bait-and switch-style at its most dangerous. Some Trump delegates and their alternates should write him an open letter demanding his unredacted tax returns. If he declines, they should declare they will abstain on the first ballot of the convention, driving him below the number needed to nominate.

No political party has ever had quite such a political land mine on the verge of becoming its presidential nominee. If delegates are anxious about pressuring Trump, they should note that no delegate faces serious consequences for abstaining on the first ballot.

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THE LESSONS OF TRUMP

We all got it wrong.

Everybody who wrote Donald Trump off as a political charlatan destined to flame out; everybody who called Trump a clown who would return to his reality show and leave us all alone; everybody who suggested that this circus couldn't -- couldn't! -- continue...we were all wrong.

Now it's time to take away a few lessons.  Here are five.

First, failure to utilize ideological purity tests leads to the rise of leftist candidates within your own party.

Second, ignoring social issues means that the only way to appeal to disgruntled blue-collar voters is by moving left on economics.

Third, moral narrative is far more important than policy knowledge.

Fourth, when you believe there are no good guys, character doesn't matter.

Fifth, lack of institutional trust leads to the rise of protofascists, not to a general allegiance to liberty.

Let’s discuss each.

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THE EURO’S SUGAR RUSH IS ENDING

The eurozone’s short-lived recovery is already losing steam as stimulus fades and deep problems resurface, raising fears of yet another false dawn and a potential deflation trap if there is any external shock over coming months.

Since the end of November, the euro has steadily risen against the dollar from a low of 1.05 to 1.14 today (5/11).  But the sugar rush is coming to an end.

Industrial output fell in 1.3% Germany and 0.3% in France in March as manufacturing stalled, confounding expectations for robust expansion. The relapse in a string of countries suggests that flash estimates of 0.6% GDP growth in the first quarter were too optimistic and may have to be cut.

“The recovery is not gaining any traction. I am really quite worried about another spasm of the debt crisis over the summer,” said Lars Christensen from Markets and Money Advisory.

The eurozone has been basking in a sweet spot over the last year, with stimulus from cheap oil, a weaker euro, ECB bond purchases, and an end to fiscal austerity, all coming together in a "perfect positive storm". “If that can’t produce growth, nothing will,” says Nouriel Roubini from New York University.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 05/06/16

It’s hard to feel very “half full” in a week like this one, with conservative champion Ted Cruz vanquished by The Donald in an Indiana blow-out.

But let’s start with this. If at the beginning of the race anyone was more written off than Donald Trump, it was surely Ted Cruz, who was universally derided, indeed generally expected to tie the now-nominee for 17th out of 17. In reality, he came 2nd, and had he not withdrawn Tuesday there is still a good chance that at a contested convention, he might have ended up 1st.

That is remarkable for what it says about a Republican Party in which, just one year ago, Jeb Bush was not merely the prohibitive favorite but so thoroughly “inevitable” that even Mitt Romney chickened out of a race against him. GOP voters this year wiped out an entire generation of Republican leaders. Indeed, in the end, Ted lost in no small part because Trump successfully painted him as the last Establishment candidate, however nonsensical that was.

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A YOUNGER AMERICA

[This is the speech I would have liked to have seen Ted Cruz give]

I want to talk today to the young people of America – to Americans who are young in age, to Americans who are still young at heart, and to Americans who want to feel young again.

I want a younger America, not an infantilized America. 

An America young in spirit like it used to be and can be again, an America of opportunity and optimism – not an America old and tired in spirit, an America of opportunism and pessimism.

An infantilized America is what Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Socialists like Bernie Sanders, and Demagogues like Donald Trump want. All three preach the politics of subservience

Hillary and Bernie want you to be subservient to the state.  Donald wants you to be subservient to him.  He has no politics other than Himself, no policies other than whatever will get people to worship him like Juan Perón or any other Banana Republic Dictator.

So let me ask you – do you want to be subservient or do you want to be free?

Which is it?  If you want the former – well, be my guest, be a Clinton or Sanders or Trump acolyte.

If you want the latter, I ask your support in helping me getting rid of what I think is America’s Number One Problem.

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AT LAST – GREENIES AS MOVIE VILLAINS

The Green religion is dying. You can see the evidence of this in the latest Gallup survey showing the number of Americans who identify as “Environmentalist” down to 42 percent (from 78 percent in 1991).  But even more telling, I think, are the glimmers of anti-Green skepticism we’re now starting to see in movieland and on TV.

See, for example, Kingsman (2014) which cast Samuel L Jackson as an insane Malthusian bent on wiping out most of the human race for the good of the planet; and also Utopia (2013), the genius, black as your hat thriller about a similar “the Earth has a cancer; the cancer is man” type conspiracy.

Now there’s a Nordic Noir TV series I strongly recommend you watch – just out on DVD – called Follow The Money.

Anders Heinrichsen, Natalie Madueño, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Lars Simonsen og Waage Sandø. Foto: Christian Geisnæs

The Guardian hated it – which is a recommendation in itself. But what’s even better is the reason why I suspect the Guardian hated it: it couldn’t quite get its head around the fact that the bad guys aren’t in Big Oil or the Military Industrial Complex or some faceless corporation. Instead, the baddies work for a renewable energy company with the caring, sharing name Energreen.

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THE FARMER AND THE SNAKE

Coiled_SnakeA Farmer walked through his field one cold winter morning. On the ground lay a Snake, stiff and frozen with the cold. The Farmer knew how deadly the Snake could be, and yet he picked it up and put it in his bosom to warm it back to life.
 
The Snake soon revived, and when it had enough strength, bit the man who had been so kind to it. The bite was deadly and the Farmer felt that he must die. “Oh,” cried the Farmer with his last breath, “I am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel.”

The Greatest Kindness Will Not Bind the Ungrateful.

The moral of this Aesopian fable from a mere 2500 years ago is that doing good to evil will only lead to more evil. Aiding those who kill only brings more death, not life. It is human nature to think that people will return good for good and evil for evil. This kind of thinking perversely leads some to assume that if they are being assaulted, then they must have done something to deserve it. This logic is routinely used to argue that Islamic terrorists are simply paying us back in the same coin.

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HOW TO USE WRITING TO HELP TRAUMA AND TROUBLES

"When we're traumatized by something, there are things that we can do to be able to bounce back as best as we can. One of those things is writing.

When I say "bounce back," I don't mean "just pretend that everything's okay." There are experiences that are so horrible that we really never completely bounce back from them. But there are things we can do that will make our situation worse, and things we can do that can make them better.

Something that can make a trauma - or even just a troubling conflict or major life change - worse is to keep it a secret. It can be easy to keep it a secret if it is also something that we feel ashamed of. What I will show you is a good step to help you through that."

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