Sunday News

++David Atkins at Washington Monthly writes about how delusional conservatives have gotten with this year's Unskewed polls showing the Donald winning. I actually received them from right-wing colleagues of mine. They show Trump preferred in California by 10pts.

++In this week's Atlantic, Peter Beinart writes about "Trump's Intellectuals". Yes, they exist and are neo-Straussians who make a distinction between dictatorship and Ceasarism.

++The Sunday New York Times is a veritable cornucopia of Trump items. Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman writes on "The Failing Inside Mission to Tame Trump's Tongue", which documents what a disaster Trump's campaign is using inside sources.

++Maureen Dowd has found the GOP's ideal candidate--Hillary Clinton. Maureen started her campaign against Hillary Clinton in the 1990s along with William Safire. In fact those two people are responsible for Hillary is a Liar motif all these years. Of all candidates running this year, Hillary rated the most truthful of all of them. 

++Ross Douthat writes this election if about two sexual revolutions--Hugh Hefner's and Gloria Steinem's--in "A Playboy for President". He lauds the religious right for putting up a fight against these cultural changes. This man is confused.

++Nicholas Kristof gets to the point in "Trump is Making America Meaner".

++Josh Marshall has an important reminder that in "Weakness Not Strength" about what all that Russian hacking means. Basically, Russia is still a basket case with nuclear weapons and that no the Russians aren't coming.

++Harry Etten tells us how Hillary Clinton can win without either Florida or Ohio. I missed the New Hampshire polls showing her in double digit leads.

The Week In Review.

++Be Aware--there really is a Republican debate this coming week.

++Joe Biden says Cruz' success should encouraged all kids that are hated in school. He said President Obama should nominate him to the court so he can have even more vacancies to fill.

++The New York Times has a long piece to day on the huge Bob Dylan archives which will be housed in Tulsa ,Oklahoma near Woody Guthrie's archives. Good read.

++The Sunday Review section is rich in Donald Trump.Maureen Dowd in "Chickens,Home To Roost, has fun watching the Donald,her friend, campaign and the reactions by the Mitt and those who got us into Iraq. A whole page contains reader's reaction to David Brooks reflections on the Donald. Nicholas Kristof writes about "Donald The Dangerous" and Ross Douthat on "The Elements of Trumpism". 

++The New York Times new section has an article on Donald contemplating a run for the state house in New York as a prelude to his run for the presidency.

++The Dailykos has a piece on Trump and the KKK. I would like to remind readers that the KKK was and is not solely a southern phenomenon as we saw this past week with the rally in Anaheim , California that ended in three deaths. 

++Larry Sabato wrote in his Crystal Ball that Donald has won all over the place. He mentioned Alabama and Massachusetts as if that showed a different appeal. But both states are steeped in racism. That's why I think Trump, not Kasich will win Michigan. I remember when people were shocked when George Wallace did so well there. Richard Nixon was petrified of Wallace because the GOP could dog whistle and control racism but people really knew the real deal. The same with Trump.

++Medgar Edgars' brother endorsed Donald Trump this week.

++We have a new strand of conservatism. Caitlyn Jenner endorsed Ted Cruz and wants to be an ambassador for Trans. Now we have Caitlyn Conservatives. Jenner has always been a conservative Republican before becoming a woman.

++The "Future of the Republican Party is supposed to win the Puerto Rican primary today. But the story there is that thousands of former prisoners will be voting in the Republican primary.

++It's Spring training. So that means I can be driven crazy by the Washington Post baseball writers. They got off to a good start by arguing the Nationals should rebuild--and I thought they were trying for a World Series.

++Der Spiegel calls Donald Trump "the most dangerous person in the world" and they should know. The overseas views of the Donald are equally disturbed. The far right party in Sweden even denounced the Donald.

++Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post writes that the rise of Le Pen in France and Trump here in the United States threatens to end NATO and the European Union. Cameron in the UK will hold a referendum on the UK leaving the European Union.

++Is the Republican Party really in crisis as papers have told us. I talked to Republicans I know this past week. I was curious about the lonely Kasich posters near my voting place. One woman I have worked with in the past and now works on the Hill said she was horrified about Donald and said that all her New York relatives,also Republicans,were voting for him. She dismissed Marco as "too wet behind the ears", running too early. She voted for Kasich because of his manner. She also said she was sick and tired of hearing the House members argue ideology and refer to Ronald Reagan. "I worked in Reagan's administration. They don't know Reagan. " 

++I made a joke to someone about a person who had worked in the W administration and that he would be Trump's Mideast envoy, his friend was horrified by the thought.

++But there was blowback from the rightwing security types who claim the Donald is winning because the Republicans didn't do anything against President Obama and what do they expect. These people actually think our military is weakened and that the recovery is fake and the unemployment numbers are cooked up. They resent the hell out of Mitt Romney criticizing Trump when he was supposed to win. It still is holy writ that Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama and that Benghazi should have convinced the American people Obama was a fraud. These people really would prefer Cruz but the Donald will do.

++But the atmosphere is very touchy around here with Republicans grimacing at the Donald's antics. When I suggest Romney might get in the race--""What a two time loser?"

++The splintering of the party is something we should watch. That doesn't mean they can't win.

Tomorrow

++Maureen Dowd stays on message with a column about how Poppy Bush slams Junior and his pals Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. 

++Gail Collins writes about how Hillary Clinton is the perfect transition figure for this country.

++Ross Douhat writes about the disappearance of whites.

++I re-read Moody Analytics analysis of the 2016 race. Having a 90% success record since 1980, it argues the race for the White House will go to the Democrats with a 270-268 electoral vote. It cites Virginia and Ohio as the basic swing states. It argues Florida goes Republican this time, Virginia and Ohio Democrat . But a slight switch would mean Ohio in the GOP column and they would win.  Basically it is another version of FiveThirtyEight's 50-50 election. 

++Reuters posted their analysis that the Republicans would win but with less substance. It didn't make the press except to be posted by Fox News on Facebook.

++Mother Jones has a piece about Ben Carson and how his stories jell with those evangelicals know and love about personal redemption. We forget Carson is much beloved in this community since way before he ran for President.

++Bill O'Reilly got into a shouting match with George Will over his new book about Killing Reagan. The dispute was over whether the Reagan White House ver contemplated removing the Gipper because he was "disoriented" and possibly non comps mentis. Will said no and that the memos quoted by O'Reilly were quickly discarded. Interesting question.

GOP Facing Iraq

++Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has had several days of posting about the Iraq statements by Jeb and Marco Rubio. Josh says the problem is that the GOP has never had a reckoning on Iraq like the Democrats did on Vietnam or even Iraq for that matter.

++The Donald has weighed in by telling Steve Doocy at Fox we should never have been there and that while Saddam was terrible ,ISIS is worse.

++Marc Theissen advises Jeb to ignore Iraq of 2003 and talk about Iraq now.

++Ms. Lindsey Graham says that if you think about joining ISIS, he'll drone you.

++Maureen Dowd this weekend actually wrote a good column about the Iraq War and Jeb's dilemma.

++Oh, and some two months after the Economist wrote about the Saudis seeking a Pakistan nuclear arm,the State Department warned that the Saudis were doing just that in fear of Iran.

++As W said,"As we stand down, the Iraqis will stand up" or "Run away" as the case may be. ISIS overran the Iraqi troops again in Ramadi so that the Iraqi government unleashed the Shiite militias to win the city back. 

Oh myy, says George Takei

++Maureen Dowd did a more malign take of Jeb's advisory board reminding us who backed Ahmed Chalabi, torture, wiretaps,and the whole Iraq War in its glory. The point many people have made is that you can't expect anything different from Jeb than the rest of them. I just pointed out how old they were and that none of them have any experience in areas of the world other than the Middle East and maybe parts of Central Europe.

++John McCain is ashamed for our country, and ashamed of President Obama and himself. So ashamed. He was talking, of course, about the Ukraine and the fight against ISIS.

++Trans Canada has a perfect idea. Build the Keystone XL Pipeline in reverse, sending American oil to Canada for use there. The pipeline would travel north through the Dakotas.

++If you like Jeb, then you might like the jobs-creating record of the Bushes put together. Then compare them to Democrats.

++Ms. Lindsey Graham says that the Senate must pass the Homeland Security funding or else the GOP will be blamed. Are you sure about that? Especially if Al Shabab bombs the Mall of America.

++I received an e-mail from a conservative saying that the real victim of the Obama presidency are community-organizers. Remember when that was the rap against Obama. Now the author says that Obama was charismatic and that was a fatal flaw in his character. Oh myy.

++The Obama Administration now has established strict criteria for drilling for oil in the Arctic. Late but good news, nonetheless.

++Bobby "Vishnu" Jindal says that America has to become more educated. So what does he do--but cut Louisiana's education budget drastically.

++I am refraining from commenting further on the case before the Supreme Court against Obamacare. The plaintiffs have no standing. The legal case against them is so overwhelming. There is the Chevron precedent,the indemnity issue for insurance, the seems of amicus curiae briefs about why the intention of the law was for everyone to receive subsidies. Affadavits from authors of the state exchanges about their intentions. And on and on.

++The Court should never have received the case. But Linda Greenhouse, the court reporter for the New York Times alerted us all to the political nature of this case of the judges involved. The non-profit behind the case is a libertarian think tank funded by the Koch Brothers. 

++I would say that all Americans should be urged to send all their medical bills to the Koch brothers. They have the wealth to pay for them all. 

++So on the legal side,I believe this case is a loser. But I am skittish because I do not have any trust in the Supreme Court. Even the plaintiffs lawyers do not believe this is constitutional.

Your Sunday Times

++Susan Jacoby writes about "The First Victims of the First Crusade",which chronicles how the crusaders went amok and killed Jews in the Rhineland. No wonder Israeli press hailed President Obama's mention of the crusades in his National Prayer Breakfast speech. Of course, by the Fourth Crusades the marauders forgot about Moslems and just looted Christian cities and called it quits.

++Frank Bruni writes that we have too much religion in our politics. Amen!

++Ross Douthat in "The Caligulan Thrill" tries to fathom the cultural significance of "Forty Shades of Grey". He can't quite figure out whether this is a form of feminism or a libertarian fantasy of a billionaire making women submit to patriarchy. It should be noted that the heroine doesn't reach orgasm, which seems to have defeated one of the premises of the novel about sexual satisfaction.

++Nicholas Kristof writes about the "Unpaid,Unarmed Lifesavers in Syria", namely the work of the White Helmets, who number more than 2,200 volunteers. Kristof rings my bell about the failure of President Obama's policy and his consideration of Syria as a military adventure. For every bombing run,the Administration should match its cost with humanitarian assistance. Kristof worries that the Syrians will become like the Palestinians scattered across the Middle East.

Maureen Dowd in "Call Off The Dogs" goes after the Clinton tendency to have attack dogs and discusses the recent flap over David Brock and Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The World Is No Longer Afraid of US

++That's the Economist's blast at President Obama's foreign policy. Interesting idea that you want the world to be afraid of the United States.

++This week has seen an orgy of attacks of President Obama's foreign policy from the Amazon Post (a name picked up by the Obama Administration's in last night's White House Correspondent's dinner) and the New York Times this Sunday.

++Interesting, Thomas Friedman, a big apologist for the Iraq War, came to the defense of Obama and admitted Iraq didn't turn out so well. Friedman's point was that we are in a situation of failed states and that the United States doesn't have the resources to put them together again. In other areas,we lack the leverage to get countries to move in our direction.

++Charles Krauthammer, who believes the latest Benghazi e-mails are worse than Nixon's tapes, won conservative's hearts and minds by his op-ed on the fickle nature of Obama's foreign policy. 

++Maureen Dowd began the week attacking President Obama for not hitting home-runs by only singles, which indicates a lack of leadership. By today, she has found her champion, Hillary Clinton, and said that Obama's Presidency is used up.

++Frank Bruni in todays Times wonders where the optimism in America has gone and worries that his children will not have the same standard of living as he does. He did rightly point out that Americans have answered the Right Direction--Wrong Direction in polls for the last ten years in the negative so all the fault in not Obama. 

++The Amazon Post ran an editorial on Iraq blaming President Obama for not getting the Force Agreement, which would allow the United States to remain and mitigate the current civil war. No one pointed out that both W and Obama didn't get the Force Agreement because the Iraqis would not agree to immunity for American forces, which makes sense because of their past behavior.

++I have not read an editorial anywhere about how Congress weakens American foreign policy. President Obama and John Kerry promise immediate aid to the Ukraine and so what do congressional Republicans do--filibuster it. The House Republicans have cut off aid to UNESCO and the OAS, an institution which has been a reliable ally in promoting democratic values. The Senate has not provided the IMF "fix" that the Administration has promised for several years.

++Now imagine you are living overseas and you see a Congress that closes down the government of a major world power as a tantrum against that country's citizens receiving health care. Imagine you see congressional leaders publicly argue that this major power can willfully default on its debt as a policy option without any repercussions for the world economy. You would have to conclude that country is not "exceptional" as they claim but exceptionally stupid.

++Also imagine you are Chinese, Japanese, or European. And you come to the United States and take the train. Or fly into our airports. You would have to laugh that this destination is a major country. Yet Congress first would not even entertain the Infrastructure Bill of the President nor the idea of John Kerry's to create an infrastructure bank with the private sector.

++You are a German company with an auto plant in the United States. Your company's model is to have worker councils to mitigate labor disputes and to ensure efficient production. The state you have a plant in campaigns against your employees having a labor union. You have to think that state is insane,

++And let's look at the President's critics. None of them have ever seen a war they didn't like. Whether it's the Washington Post or the New York Times. Only when the establishment tired of Vietnam did they go against that war. While millions took to the streets against Iraq, both papers defended it. They have not been against a war since the late 1980s when the United States embarked on an uninterrupted period of permanent war.

++Has President Obama made foreign policy mistakes? Sure. But even Thomas Friedman's lukewarm defense of the President misses the point on Libya. For a few billion dollars and only 4 killed in Bengazi,the United States managed to secure and destroy Qaddafhi's nuclear program that W missed. With regard to Krauthammer's complaint about Obama on Syria,Congress had the right to vote to go to war and didn't. Through diplomacy,Syria has eliminated about 86% of its chemical weapons. The advocates for war in Syria wanted the President to go it alone but refused to take responsibility.

++I have received all week e-mails from my conservative friends, who studiously avoided the jobs report or the Obamacare success, to focus on the issue of accountability. 

++Why wasn't Paul Wolfowitz held accountable for his estimates of the cost of the Iraq War? He was promoted to the World Bank. Where has been the accountability for America practising torture for the first time since the Spanish-American war? Where has been the accountability of the violation of America's doctrine of not waging a war of choice? 

++For my Republican and conservative friends, what's your foreign policy, since the last one lies in tatters. Where are your geopolitical thinkers? While President Obama went to the Pacific, what foreign policy ideas do you bring on that region? What are your foreign policy ideas on Africa? And to both Republicans and Democrats what is your foreign policy on Latin America?

++The United States has not had a geostrategic policy since the late 1980s. Consider this--we still hear from Zbig and occasionally Henry Kissinger. They are the last geopolitical thinkers left. Where in the new generation? Remember George Kennen was young when he had his greatest influence.The fact of the matter is that there are none and all the gibberish we read are the fragments of burned out ideologies.