Barker's Newsbites: Monday, November 30, 2015

Mornin', kids!

OK... Thanksgiving is over... (one helping of leftovers to finish up for lunch later on...)

Back to yogurt now!

(*WINK*)

Enjoy the newsbites... (Comments Section!)

 

Screw the GOP Establishment!

A Hit Piece from The Hill

*  *  *

When asked who he would vote for if the presidential race comes down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the former mayor of Los Angeles and a longtime Republican establishment figure, Dick Riordan, says: "I would probably go find a deserted island."

* I'M FINE WITH THAT. HOW'BOUT THE REST OF YOU?

(*SHRUG*)

"I think Hillary is disgusting," said Riordan, a wealthy investor who has exceeded $500,000 in political donations throughout his career.

* SHE IS. I CAN SEE A LEFTIST SUPPORTING BERNIE SANDERS. I CAN'T SEE ANYONE WITH CHARACTER OR INTEGRITY SUPPORTING HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON.

"And I think Trump is crazy," Riordan added in a telephone interview Monday.

* HOW SO?

* BY THE WAY... WHY IS A SUPPOSED "NEWS" STORY REVOLVING AROUND WHAT DICK RIORDAN SAYS?

(*SMIRK*)

* THIS LOSER REPORTER WOULD DO BETTER INTERVIEWING ME; AT LEAST I'LL BACK UP MY SNARK!

Riordan is not alone.

* AGAIN... THIS IS A NEWS STORY... HOW?

In conversations over the past month, GOP establishment donors have confided to The Hill that for the first time in recent memory, they find themselves contemplating not supporting a Republican nominee for president.

* FRANKLY I'D RATHER THESE CLOWNS CONTEMPLATE - AND THEN COMMIT TO - SUICIDE. (DOUCHE BAGS!) 

Most, however, still believe that Trump will flame out before they have to face that decision.

* PERHAPS HE WILL. BUT IF HE DOESN'T... HE'LL HAVE MY ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORT.

The subject of Trump came up at a recent Beverly Hills lunch hosted by former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Rockwell Schnabel.

* FRANKLY I'M MORE A NORMAN ROCKWELL KINDA GUY...

(*GRIN*) 

Seated around the table in the private dining room of the Hotel Bel-Air...

* OH, YEAH... DEFINITELY THE KIND OF FOLKS WE NEED TO BE PAYING ATTENTION TO... NOT!

(*SNORT*)

...were several of the West Coast's most powerful Republican donors, including Ronald Spogli, the venture capitalist and former ambassador to Italy under President George W. Bush; his business partner Bradford Freeman; and Riordan.

* SERIOUSLY... SHOULDN'T THESE CLOWNS BE BUYING ADS INSTEAD OF GETTING FREE NEWS COVERAGE? 

A story that circulated after the lunch was that the donors engaged in a hypothetical question: "If it was Donald Trump running against Hillary Clinton, who would you vote for?" 

One version has it that most of the Republicans at the table put their hands up for Clinton.

* AND THESE ARE THE FOLKS WHO YOU'RE TELLING US REPRESENT THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT...

(*SMIRK*)

* AGAIN... FOLKS... THE GOP - AND THE COUNTRY - WOULD BE FAR BETTER OFF IF PEOPLE LIKE THIS BECAME ACTUAL DEMOCRATS INSTEAD OF ACTING AS A DEMOCRATIC SIXTH COLUMN WITHIN THE GOP.

Schnabel disputes that account and said in a telephone interview Tuesday that it was just banter among friends and that he is confident that all the Republicans at the table would support the final GOP nominee for president, whomever that turns out to be.

* AGAIN... WHY IS THIS A NEWS STORY...???

Schnabel called back later on Tuesday afternoon to clarify what he meant. "My only caveat would be that ... I assume that the Republican we'll nominate will be somebody that would make a great president," he said. "That's not a conversation we've had to have in the past, but obviously there are some we would be concerned about."

* PLEASE... SCHNABEL... KILL YOURSELF... I'M ASKING NICELY!

The four Republican donors sitting at that lunch table — Schnabel, Freeman, Spogli and Riordan — have between them contributed more than $2.7 million to candidates and political action committees over their careers.

* AND? SO?  

All have donated to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's presidential campaign, and Freeman and Spogli have given $1 million and $50,000, respectively, to the pro-Bush super-PAC Right to Rise.

* SO THEY REPRESENT THE DEMOCRAT WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY; WE GET IT!

The feeling among the GOP's business wing is not entirely negative toward Trump. The billionaire has found a couple of champions — including billionaire investor Carl Icahn — but outreach from campaign surrogates has not always found a receptive audience.  

Several months ago, Doug Manchester, a California developer and chairman of Manchester Financial Group, emailed a number of Republican donors plugging Trump for president.

"I met with Donald himself and was again very impressed with a Man [sic] who does not have to be doing what he is but believes as I do that we need to Make America great again and believe he can do it!!" Manchester wrote to his friends in an email seen by The Hill.

"As all of you know I was all in for Mitt but unfortunately he did not make it!!"

"I think Trump can win," added Manchester, known in donor circles as “Papa Doug.”

Asked about the email and his support for Trump, Manchester said in a recent telephone interview that the celebrity businessman wants nothing for his support and that he had given no money to Trump's campaign so far. He said that in his judgment, Trump is the "person who could turn this country around."

* AND I THINK THAT THIS IS TRUE.

* DOES TRUMP SHARE MY VIEWS ON EVERYTHING? NO. DOES HE REPRESENT "ENOUGH" OF WHAT I BELIEVE IN? DAMN STRAIGHT!

Several recipients on the email, however, disagreed with Manchester's appraisal of Trump's virtues.

* WHO... CARES...???

On one hand, Trump benefits from the distrust and insults that many establishment figures direct toward him. He says he does not want their money and, with a personal wealth of at least $3 billion, he does not need it. But from another angle, such resistance could also signal danger. The business wing still carries significant clout in the GOP and traditionally the nominee is approved by — or at least tolerated by — the party establishment.

* I... HATE... THE... PARTY... ESTABLISHMENT...!!!

* FOLKS; THE "PARTY ESTABLISHMENT" SHOULD LEAVE THE GOP IN MASS AND INSTEAD OF MOVING OUR PARTY TO THE LEFT, THEY COULD BE MOVING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO THE RIGHT!

The quiet deliberations about Trump among these circles — and the recent decision to use super-PAC money to attack Trump, most notably by Ohio Gov. John Kasich's supporters — may pose difficulties for the front-runner as the field narrows and electability becomes a higher priority than hot rhetoric.

* KASICH...

(*SNORT OF UTTER CONTEMPT*)

Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says he is not surprised that establishment GOP donors are sour on Trump. "The GOP establishment will do anything they can to stop Mr. Trump from being the GOP nominee," Lewandowski said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "Mr. Trump is the only one who is not controlled by the special interests. ... They want a puppet that they can control, and Donald Trump will never be that person."

* SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT TO ME!

While Trump flaunts the fact that he is uninterested in the support of elites, there have also been reports that he has privately wooed billionaires such as Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

* ADELSON BACKED GINGRICH LAST CYCLE. (AND GOOD FOR HIM!) 

Trump says he has turned down multiple offers of $5 million-plus from lobbyists who he says would have wanted favors from his administration if he took the money.

When The Washington Post broke a story about a pro-Trump super-PAC with closer-than-advertised connections to the Trump campaign, the billionaire front-runner and his aides pushed back forcefully. The super-PAC ultimately shut down, and Trump called on all super-PACs supporting him to return their donations.

* I... LIKE... READING... THIS...!!!

The most generous Republican donors appear to be taking note of Trump's hostility. When The Hill studied the donation patterns of 190 donors and their families connected with the powerful conservative network founded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, not a single contribution could be found to Trump's campaign.

* SO...???

But some opinions are changing, if ever so slightly, the longer Trump stays atop the polls. A number of Republican donors interviewed by The Hill, including Minnesota billionaire Stanley Hubbard — who is himself part of the Koch network — are making peace with the fact that there is some chance Trump could win the nomination.

When interviewed several months ago, Hubbard said he would "really have to think about" whether he could bring himself to support Trump.

* WANNA BET HE DOES IF TRUMP IS THE NOMINEE? BETCHA HE WOULD!

But in a more recent interview, Hubbard was adamant that he would support whomever the Republican nominee is because they would make a better president than Clinton.

* SO WHY PRINT THE INITIAL "SEVERAL MONTHS OLD" STATEMENT?

(*SMIRK*)

* FOLKS... THIS IS CALLED A "HIT PIECE." NOTHING MORE.

Other Republican donors are praying that the bombastic campaign-trail Trump would transform into a soberer President Trump. 

No fan of Trump, Riordan says he nonetheless believes that if elected president, the billionaire would change for the better.

"If he became president, he would be much more responsible and would surround himself with good people," Riordan said.

"I guess you become sane."

* FOLKS. RIORDAN IS A CRONY CAPITALIST GLOBALIST. HE'S A PIECE OF GARBAGE. NO ONE SHOULD CARE WHAT HE THINKS.

The Obama "Vetting" Process

When Ann Coulter is right... she's right!

*  *  *

Americans keep being hectored to take "refugees" from terrorist-producing countries because to do otherwise would be "a betrayal of our values," as President Obama said on Monday.

The rise of Donald Trump reminds us of the popularity of another, long-forgotten American value: protecting Americans.

Contrary to Obama's laughable reference to "the universal values" that "all of humanity" share, most of the world does not share our values, at all. They barely seem to share our DNA. As indignantly explained by the lawyer representing two Iraqis accused of child rape in Nebraska, America's views about women and children "put us in the minority position in the world."

Pederasty, child brides, honor killings, clitorectomies, stonings, wife beatings - when will America grow up and "join the 21st century?" (A lot sooner if Marco Rubio has his way!)

The New York Times boasts about how amazingly painstaking the "vetting" of Syrian refugees will be, but I notice the main point the paper keeps stressing is how long it will take. Twenty-four months!

"Waiting" is not "vetting." What is 24 months to people who can hold a grudge for a thousand years?

As we found out from Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the FBI, in congressional testimony last month, there are no Syrian computer databases for our investigators to use in their famed "vetting" of refugees.

* AND IF THERE WAS... IT WOULD BE RUN BY ASSAD'S SECRET POLICE!

(*SNORT*)

"You're talking about a country that is a failed state, that does not have any infrastructure," he said. "So all of the data sets - the police, the intel services - that normally you would go to seek information don't exist."

* AND IT WOULD BE ASSAD'S POLICE... ASSAD'S INTEL SERVICES...!!!

(*MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)

It seems that another value the rest of the world doesn't share with the West is our painstaking record-keeping. There's no Syrian FBI running the National Crime Information Center. Syria barely has a phonebook.

* AND IF THERE WAS A SYRIAN FBI... IT'S WOULD BE ASSAD'S SYRIAN FBI...!!!

Our investigators can take fingerprints all day long, but if there's nothing to check those fingerprints against, there's no "vetting."

* DUH...!!!

It's possible that during that agonizing 24 months of waiting, someone will warn our immigration officials about particular refugees. Then, our government will admit them anyway - as they did with Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

* YEP...!!!

Tamerlan's suspected co-conspirator in the murder of three Jews, Ibragim Todashev, was another beneficiary of America's generous humanitarian policies - humanitarian toward foreign criminals and terrorists, monstrous toward Americans.

(*NOD*)

Our crack investigators admitted Todashev after concluding he had a credible fear of persecution in Chechnya. Meanwhile, his own father said, "He has nothing to fear ... he would have faced no oppression."

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Good job, meticulous vetters! (Luckily, during an interrogation after the Boston Marathon bombing, Todashev attacked an FBI agent and got himself killed, saving the taxpayers 60 years of room and board.)

(*TWO THUMBS UP*)

American officials were also warned about the blind sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, not only by U.S. consular officials in Egypt - but by Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt himself.

* THAT'S THE GUY OBAMA HELPED TOPPLE...

(*SIGH*)

But the Blind Sheik was allowed to go about his business in America, plotting terrorist attacks with other widows and orphans, such as Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing - and American asylee.

Under our immigration policies, being a member of a noted terrorist group qualifies you to come to America; being a talented scientist from Switzerland does not.

(*SIGHING AS I NOD*)

Our aggressive refugee vetters couldn't even figure out which Iraqis were helping American troops during the war and which were trying to kill them. During the terrorism prosecution of Iraqi "refugees" Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, the FBI produced Alwan's fingerprints from IEDs that had been used against American troops in Iraq. Talk about a fine-toothed comb!

(*STILL SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Obama pulled every last American troop out of Iraq, then brought enemy troops to America, as refugees.

Incidentally, every one of these terrorists was a "legal" immigrant.

How many World Trade Centers, Boston Marathons and Fort Hoods do we need before Republicans drop the "Illegals, bad; Legals, good" shibboleth?

Some Republicans have called for admitting only Christian refugees - the main point of which is to allow Jeb and Rubio to talk tough on immigration, without alienating their imaginary Hispanic base.

(*SNORT*)

Fazliddin Kurbanov was admitted as a Christian refugee in 2009 from the booming world power of Uzbekistan. He claimed that he and his family were being persecuted in the majority Muslim country. Soon after arriving, Kurbanov realized: He was a Muslim, after all! He began communicating with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, telling them: "We are the closest ones to the infidels .... What would you say if with the help of God we implement a martyrdom act?"

(*SIGH*)

At trial, Kurbanov's defense was that he was just trying to get information on the terrorists in order "to capture them."

* UH-HUH...

The jury was unconvinced, perhaps swayed by the stores of ammonium nitrate, acetone, aluminum powder and Tannerite found in Kurbanov's apartment.

(Our immigration officials would have found Kurbanov's story as believable as his Christianity.)

* NO DOUBT!

After the last 50 years of mass immigration from the Third World, we're good on Islamic terrorists, Mexican rapists, Russian arms dealers, Asian human traffickers and Pakistani Medicare scammers. We're not running short on those anytime soon.

If our government were in the nation-destroying business, they'd be doing a fantastic job! But that's not what we're paying our government to do.

America is under no obligation to admit anyone, least of all perpetually aggrieved, welfare-dependent Muslims, some percentage of whom, we know to a certainty, will end up being terrorists.