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I hesitate even to comment on this story because it strikes me as yet another anti-Trump attack by the New York Times that falls apart even as you read it.

The “shocking revelation” this time: that during the campaign, Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties who claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr’s response: The woman requested a meeting, which she started by making vague and nonsensical claims of having damaging info on Hillary that they quickly surmised weren’t true. Then she started lobbying them on an unrelated issue, about overturning an Obama-era law denying visas to Russians suspected of human rights violations. Trump said they wrapped up the meeting in 20 minutes, and no action was taken.

That’s it? That’s the big scandal? First of all, as Prof. Alan Dershowitz might note, there’s nothing illegal about that. Secondly, as Michael Walsh of the New York Post asks, does anyone believe that if the woman the Times wanted to make President got an offer of damaging information on Trump, she would have refused to hear it? Her supporters leaned on Tom Arnold to release alleged embarrassing outtakes from “The Apprentice,” and reportedly financed that notorious “Russian dossier” on Trump that was filled with bogus scandal stories. On top of that: News flash, New York Times, the election was eight months ago. Trump won. Most Americans are getting awfully weary of your endless attempts to undo the results. I don’t know about you, but the rest of us have lives, and we’d really like to get on with them.

This story isn’t even big enough to be a nothing burger. It’s more like a nothing slider.

One thing that made it harder for a while to buy a used car was Obama’s “Cash For Clunkers” program. That was the recession-era attempt to jump-start the economy, shore up the auto industry and help the environment by giving Americans taxpayer money to trade in their older cars on newer, cleaner models. It was the ultimate example of the Keynesian economics beloved by liberals: using government money to stimulate the economy.

Now, a detailed study of the results has been released by researchers at MIT and Texas A&M. It found that “Cash For Clunkers” was a clunker itself, failing on every level. It didn’t stimulate the economy, it was a costly and inefficient way to reduce carbon emissions, and it had no impact on auto sales in the short term and a negative impact longterm. This isn't mentioned, but the older cars were destroyed, which also depleted the inventory of used cars usually purchased by poorer people. So it cost a lot, made matters worse and hurt the people it was supposed to help. It truly was the ultimate liberal government program!

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Today, President Trump will finally speak with Vladimir Putin. Perhaps Putin will explain to him (and the rest of us) why he allegedly preferred to help elect a US President who wanted to rebuild the US military and American international leadership, defend Ukraine from Russia and bury Russia’s vital energy industry, instead of the woman who’d already sold him a fifth of our uranium supply. Enquiring minds want to know!

In case you missed Trump’s speech in Poland, you should definitely watch it online. It might be the best speech he ever gave, a ringing defense of national sovereignty and the values and worth of Western culture. And as Charles Krauthammer pointed out, it was the toughest attack on Russia since Reagan, one that blew the whole media-concocted “Russian collusion” hoax to smithereens.

WATCH IT HERE

Progressive Sharia?!?

July 7, 2017

If you don’t know Linda Sarsour, she’s a major name in the “progressive” movement, and at the forefront of the strange bedfellow alliance of hard leftists and Islamists. She’s the former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York and a hijab-wearing, Palestinian-supporting Muslim activist as well as a Bernie Sanders-supporting co-chair of both the Women’s March and the Day Without A Woman protest. She’s been accused of supporting Hamas and bringing Sharia law to the US, although she denies those accusations. She and her supporters claim that rightwing sources misrepresented her by circulating “fake news” to make her look bad.

Okay, I did the disclaimer. Now, here’s what Linda Sarsour just said, quoted directly in her own words. If this is someone whom the “progressive” movement is willing to embrace as a leader and spokesperson, then decide for yourself whether these are people who should be entrusted within a thousand yards of the levers of US government power.

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This has been a heartening week for those who despair of the future and younger generations. First came a story noting that the current youngest generation is, in many ways, more conservative than their parents. And now this: a study by a University of Utah researcher found that younger Americans are less likely to cheat on their spouses than older Americans are.

Despite living in a relentlessly sexualized atmosphere filled with amoral messages from the media, the number of Americans who admit to having extramarital affairs has held steady at around 16% for many years. But starting around 2004, the number over 55 (those who lived through the so-called “Sexual Revolution”) who admit cheating on their spouses began rising, while the number of adulterers below 55 began falling. In addition, the rate of teenage sex has dropped significantly since 1990. Despite all the talk of open marriages and multiple partners, the researcher predicts that “we should anticipate a future of more monogamous marriage.”


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The reason isn’t clear, but one theory is that young people have been watching their elders and concluding that sex without limits isn’t making people happier. Maybe that will go down as the best legacy of the ‘60s hippie, "free love" generation: that it served as a very effective bad example to America’s youth.

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Happy Independence Day! That’s the official name of the Fourth of July holiday, although you don’t hear it too often in these days of people wishing for more dependence on government. Today is when we celebrate America, hold picnics and watch fireworks. But most importantly, it’s a day when Americans celebrate our freedoms.

Sadly, too many today think it’s smart and sophisticated to give up freedom in exchange for government promises of security. As the great philosopher Joni Mitchell once said, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone.” That’s why the Founding Fathers took such care to lock our most important rights safely within the First Amendment to the Constitution. There are more freedoms guaranteed in that one short sentence than people in most nations can even dream of. That’s why for centuries now, so many people around the world have risked their lives to come to America. The Founders understood that freedom really is that precious.

When the framers of the Constitution first met in 1787, many were afraid that if they created a strong federal government, it would soon be trampling the rights of the people, just like the British king they’d recently fought to break free of. So to make sure the people’s rights would always be protected, they added 10 amendments …although George Mason thought they were so important, they should come first, as the preface to the Constitution. And now, in case, you’ve never heard it, or maybe just forgotten, here is the First Amendment in its entirety:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

And that’s it. This was back before government needed 2,000 pages just to screw up health care. Just 45 simple words protect your freedom to speak freely without fear of government retribution. Your freedom to publish those words so that other Americans can read and debate them (even on college campuses). Your freedom to band together with like-thinking Americans, and protest peacefully without fear of arrest. Your freedom to petition your leaders to complain about their policies, and your right to be free from having an official state religion forced on you, but also from government interference with the expression of your personal religious beliefs. A lot of people celebrate the first half of that last right and pretend the second half doesn’t exist.

The First Amendment is almost like a gift bag crammed full of rights that together make up the foundation of what it means to be an American. The Founders thought those rights were all so important that they found a way to list every single one of them first.

And then, they made sure the right to bear arms was listed second, just in case anyone ever tried to steal the First Amendment.

Voter Fraud cover-up?

July 1, 2017

Three of the most liberal state leaders in America (from California, New York and Virginia) are refusing to turn over all “publicly-available voter roll data” to President Trump’s bipartisan Election Integrity Commission. They claim they will not help perpetuate the “myth” of widespread voter fraud by showing the commission the records that, if they are correct, would disprove that there’s widespread voter fraud. Ooooookay. Sounds about as convincing as buying a used car from a particular dealer because he calls himself “Honest John.”

More details at the link on why people who care about honest elections should be outraged that anyone wants to see the voter records to verify that.

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With Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg making high-blown pronouncements on his expanded mission of helping us all find purpose and meaning in our lives and his desire to “rewrite the social contract” between us and our government, this is a good time to check out a great satirical film called THE CIRCLE.

It came and went from theaters pretty fast earlier this year, with curiously little promotion --- especially since it starred Tom Hanks and Emma Watson --- but should not be missed. Stream it.


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The story is told from the perspective of a young woman who takes a job with a corporation that could be Google or Facebook, run by a CEO (Tom Hanks) who aspires to link us all into a global community, connect us socially, destroy our privacy and any desire for such, ensure conformity, monitor our existence (for our own convenience, of course!), and generally shape society to his own ends. In other words, it’s a horror movie.

Social media does serve valuable functions –- it keeps us in touch with actual friends and helps us find lost loved ones, among other things --- but this movie should serve as a cautionary tale about where we’re being taken. It’s no exaggeration to say we’re heading into an Orwellian world in which cameras can be on us virtually 24/7 and our every keystroke and turn of the steering wheel adds to our personal permanent record. We’re expected to check our phones every 30 seconds or so. Of course, many of us are now so addicted that we live on them, anyway. We measure our popularity by the number of followers and “likes” we have. Is that how Mark Zuckerberg suggests we find meaning in our lives?


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Anyway, see the movie. And remember it whenever some revolutionary, “progressive” but, hey, downright practical idea for bettering ourselves comes out of Silicon Valley.

PLEASE LEAVE LAURA A COMMENT BELOW.  SHE READS THEM!


Laura Ainsworth is a fantastic retro jazz singer and comedy writer whose always-tasteful parody songs were heard on “The Mike Huckabee Show.” This summer, she’s releasing her third CD “New Vintage” and a best-of vinyl LP and making her NYC debut Aug. 24th at the Metropolitan Room.  For tickets and more, visit https://www.facebook.com/lauraainsworthsings

We laugh today at the story of naked images on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel being modestly covered by order of the Catholic Church. (Yes, this actually happened, and many of the glorious figures in Michelangelo’s masterpiece were draped with little painted-on panties a year after the artist’s death.) Ha ha, how prudish and provincial they were in those times! Didn’t they know great art? It seems ridiculous now that this was a problem for anyone.

But today, on Facebook, a short film by a Christian production company about that very work cannot be advertised because an image in the ad supposedly violates their policy on nudity. The film contains an animated version of “The Creation Of Adam” that, of course, features Adam in the altogether. The gatekeepers at Facebook got their panties in a bunch over it. This is a figure that even the Pope didn’t bother to have covered in 1565.

Ironically, in 2017 it’s the Christian group that is facing censorship over nudity from the very secular Facebook. That seems more ridiculous than ever.


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The way the Democrats instantly reverted to violent anti-Republican rhetoric over the GOP health care bill while Rep. Steve Scalise is still in the hospital (ranting that it’s a “death bill” and millions of Americas will DIE if it’s passed), you’d think that if the Republicans don’t pass it, Obamacare will stay in place and everything will be wonderful. They never bring up the fact that the entire reason we need a replacement bill is that the health care bill they gave us is going into a death spiral all by itself.

Just as a reality check/wake-up call, Western Journalism put together an investigation into the history and current state of Obamacare. It reminds us of what we were promised, what was actually delivered (they just threw lots of money at the problem, with the same effect as throwing $25 million at Jon Ossoff’s Congressional bid, so that government now controls 80% or more of our health care dollars) and what’s happened since (the average nationwide premium increase since 2013 has been 99% percent for individuals and 140% for families; and 70% of counties now have only one or two insurers still in the exchanges). It also takes a look at some suggested alternatives that would be cheaper and more efficient.

In other words, don’t listen to those who’d have you believe that any attempt to replace Obamacare is killing a system that’s working great and any alternative will make people die. They’d like you to think this is a choice between a mean, evil Republican plan or Heaven. It’s actually a choice between grabbing a life preserver or drowning.

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Bill Dana RIP

June 22, 2017

We’ve lost another of those familiar TV faces that baby boomers grew up with: Bill Dana passed away last week at his Nashville home at 92. Dana was both a familiar comic character actor and a writer who helped create some of the most beloved comedy bits of the past half-century-plus. He’s best known for a character that became a phenomenon in the ‘60s but could never exist in today’s PC age: Jose Jimenez.

Jose was a nervous Mexican immigrant with a humorously tenuous grasp of English who started every bit by declaring, “My name Jose Jimenez!” While Jose might be considered a dialect humor stereotype now, at the time, Latino groups honored Dana for creating a positive portrayal of a patriotic Mexican immigrant, and he was careful not to do any jokes he thought would seem offensive.

Beginning with his first appearance on the classic Steve Allen show (where Dana was head writer), his catchphrase swept the country. The Mercury 7 astronauts played his records so much that the first words spoken to an American in space came in 1961 when Deke Slayton told Alan Shepherd on blast-off, “Okay, Jose, you’re on your way!” Dana became friends with the astronauts, made a comedy record called “Jose the Astronaut” that was later included in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and the Astronaut Hall of Fame, and he was named the first “honorary astronaut.”

But while Jose Jimenez was his most famous creation, it was only a tiny part of Bill Dana’s career. He played many roles, such as Sophia’s brother Angelo on “Golden Girls,” but stage fright made him prefer writing. He created many classic jokes for “Get Smart” star Don Adams (the “Would you believe?... bit was Dana’s) and wrote the most famous episode ever of “All in the Family,” where Archie Bunker meets Sammy Davis Jr. Surprisingly for someone who made millions laugh for over seven decades, Dana suffered from severe depression, and he wrote a book about the curative powers of laughter.

All this is only scratching the surface of his astonishing career. If you’d like to see an obituary that reads like a crash course in comedy history over the second half of the 20th century, click the link. I guarantee that if you don’t know Bill Dana, after you read about his life and see his face, you’ll say, “Oh, THAT guy! I loved him!”

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CBC Update

June 22, 2017

As a candidate, President Trump passionately denounced the way minorities in inner cities are forced to attend substandard public schools, deal with high crime and be denied good job opportunities. He promised to make it a priority to fix that. So he met with the Congressional Black Caucus in March, and he just extended an invitation to the entire CBC to meet with him again at the White House. And they rejected the invitation.

The CBC is reportedly angry that Trump hasn’t acted on their policy requests from March yet (odd, since there’s certainly been nothing to distract him from getting important work done in the past few months), and they’re afraid he might use the meeting for a photo op to boost his standing with black voters.


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It seems to me that if they really cared about helping the people who sent them to Congress, they’d go find out what the President wants to talk to them about. I highly doubt that he invited them to meet with him just to boost his standing with black voters, but the CBC’s refusal even to accept the invitation should definitely lower their standing with black voters.

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The Profiling Project, an independent investigation into the death last July of DNC staffer Seth Rich, has been released. The investigators, largely volunteer graduate students and professors from George Washington University, believe it’s unlikely that Rich was the victim of a random attempted robbery.

Raging political seas inevitably threaten to splinter and swallow up this story, so I thought it might be a good idea to pass along a link to the complete report, unfiltered through Newsweek or any other alleged news organization. We’ll talk later about it and get into the details, to be sure. And a year after Seth Rich’s death, we should thank the Profiling Project for keeping this cold case warm, when there are others who’d prefer it be kept on ice.

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The Comey Testimony

June 9, 2017

In case you had more important things to do on Thursday than watch the James Comey Senate testimony (say, if unlike practically everyone in Washington, you actually had a job to go to), here’s the full video and transcript. It’s good to see or read the whole thing, because both sides are cherry-picking the parts that make them look good and the other side look bad.

I’d point out, though, that you can sense a difference even in the carefully-edited excerpts some people are citing. The anti-Trump crowd is pulling out Comey’s negative comments about Trump – that he found what he said about the Flynn investigation inappropriate; that he accused Trump of lying about FBI staffers having lost confidence in him; etc. – but notice that they tend to be Comey’s personal feelings or interpretations of what Trump said or intended. And even Comey admitted that none of them are incriminating or amount to obstruction of justice.

But the things Trump supporters are pulling out – that Comey hid behind a professor friend to leak a private conversation with the President to the New York Times; that he did tell Trump on three occasions that he was not the target of an investigation, just as Trump claimed; that many news stories based on anonymous sources were wrong, like a Times story claiming that Trump’s campaign aides “had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence;” that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch interfered in the Hillary Clinton investigation (telling him to call it a “matter,” not an investigation, which it plainly was); that Trump didn’t try to kill the Russia investigation but just wanted it finished up soon because it’s distracting him from doing what Americans elected him to do, etc. – all are revelations of fact, not personal opinions.

Also worth noting is that Comey’s own testimony cast doubt on his veracity on several occasions. For instance, his defenders would have us believe that his note to himself about what Trump said in their private meeting is somehow believable because he claims to have written it down right away. But it’s still just “he said/he said” hearsay. I could write down the lyrics of “Sweet Home Alabama” and claim it’s a transcript of a conversation I had with Chuck Schumer. That doesn’t magically turn it into proof. And considering Comey admitted he did it so that he could secretly leak it to the media via a third party and force the appointment of a special prosecutor is manipulation piled on top of dishonesty. Frankly, it taints all his testimony. It does prove one thing, though: Donald Trump’s instincts about whom to fire are still right on the money.

Finally, my favorite comment on the whole liberal narrative implosion came not from a pundit or politician but from an anonymous poster on an Internet comment board, who asked this: So Comey could tell that Hillary wasn’t trying to obstruct justice when she used hammers and Bleach Bit software to scrub her email server, but he couldn’t tell that Trump wasn't trying to obstruct justice when he used the word “hope" to express that he was just hoping for something?