This is how a socialist views changes in voting trends, with Trump and the world.

[Dmitri Veans]

We deride chances of Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump at our peril

I have a nightmare vision for the year 2017: President Trump, President Le Pen, President Putin.

Like most nightmares, this one probably won’t come true. But the very fact that Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen are running strongly for the American and French presidencies says something disturbing about the health of liberal democracy in the west. In confusing and scary times, voters seem tempted to turn to “strong” nationalistic leaders — western versions of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

 

 

In Washington recently, I found most mainstream political analysts dismissing the idea that Mr Trump could win the Republican nomination, let alone the presidency. This struck me as complacent. If Mr Trump were a normal candidate he would be regarded as favourite for the nomination. He is ahead in the crucial early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Outrageous remarks about Mexicans, Muslims, the disabled and women have not dented his popularity.

Many Democrats chortle that if the Republicans are mad enough to nominate Mr Trump, he would certainly be trounced by Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. But even that cannot be assumed. The most recent national poll on a Trump v Clinton contest had Mr Trump winning by five points.

Some of Mr Trump’s statements are so openly racist that they make Ms Le Pen look like a moderate. The leader of the French far right has been carefully softening her image in preparation for a run at the presidency in 2017. Even before the terrorist attacks in Paris, almost all surveys showed her reaching the final round of the election. This month her National Front may make a significant breakthrough by winning regional elections, making it look more like a potential party of government.

The rise of the political extremes is not confined to the US and France. Ultra-nationalist parties are in power in Hungary and Poland, both members of the EU. Nationalist parties are on the rise in Scotland and Catalonia, threatening the survival of the UK and Spain as nation states.

A sense of crisis is growing in Germany with the expected arrival of more than 1m refugees this year, leading to a backlash against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. With recessions and debt crises in southern Europe, “fringe” parties have moved into government in Greece and Portugal.

So what is going on in western politics? The overarching development is a loss of faith in traditional political elites and a search for radical alternatives. Behind that, it seems to me, there are four broad trends: an increase in economic insecurity, a backlash against immigration, a fear of terrorism and the decline of traditional media.

 

The US has now experienced several decades of declining or stagnant real wages for the majority of Americans. In many European countries, including France, double-digit rates of unemployment have become the norm. The financial crisis of 2008 has resulted in an enduring loss of trust in the competence of elites and the fairness and stability of western economic systems.

Economic insecurity has been supplemented by a sense of social instability, linked to rising immigration. The influx of Hispanics into the US and of Muslims into western Europe has allowed the Trumps and Le Pens to argue that feckless elites have allowed fundamental social changes to take place without consulting ordinary people. Mr Trump has called for the deportation of 11m illegal immigrants from the US and Ms Le Pen once compared Muslims praying in the streets of France to the Nazi occupation.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, who is likely to run against Ms Le Pen in 2017, has joined in the assault on “multiculturalism”. This kind of rhetoric about Muslim immigration and elite betrayal is also now commonplace in Germany.

 

In the wake of the Paris attacks, fear of terrorism is merging with hostility to immigration. The shockwave from the French capital was felt across the Atlantic — where Mr Trump, along with most of the Republican field, has been quick to claim that admitting refugees would increase the risk of a terrorist attack.

 

For populists, nationalists and extremists across the western world, a common theme is that the mainstream media are suppressing debate and are controlled by an untrustworthy elite. Republican candidates have learnt that chastising reporters is an easy way to win applause. In France and Germany the argument that the politically correct “lying media” have suppressed debate about immigration is increasingly popular. Meanwhile, the rise of social media has allowed alternative narratives to flourish. Those Americans who want to believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim find like-minded souls online or in the echo chamber of talk radio. Conspiratorial talk is flourishing on social media in Europe.

The late senator Daniel Moynihan said: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” In the age of social media, that is no longer true. For the likes of Mr Trump, Ms Le Pen and Mr Putin, anything can be labelled “true”. In this climate, against a backdrop of economic, social and physical insecurity, extremism flourishes.

 

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e7b61eae-974d-11e5-9228-87e603d47bdc.html#axzz3szixX5hj

 

 

 

[Dmitri Veans]

It is always funny how you see these social elite types presume they know what is best for the people, they don't want to serve them they want to control their lives. They cant be successful in business so they become philosophers that know it all. Well at least that's what they think anyway. 

[Virginia Foulk]

Unfortunately, they have the Media's eye, nose, ear, and throat to back them.

[Dmitri Veans]

Woman to Hillary: You Say Rape Accusers Should Be Believed, What About Your Husband’s?

 

 

 

During a campaign event in New Hampshire today,Hillary Clinton was asked about the women who accused her husband of rape and sexual assault.

The woman pointed out how Clinton recently said all rape victims should be believed, and then asked, “Would you say that about Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and/or Paula Jones?”

For those unfamiliar, Jones sued Clinton for sexual harassment, Willey accused him of sexual assault while he was president, and Broaddrick accused him of raping her.

 

 

Clinton responded by saying, “I would say that everybody should be believed at first until they are disbelieved based on evidence.”

 

http://www.mediaite.com/online/nh-woman-to-hillary-you-say-rape-acc...

[DE]

You nailed it with this post DV....Good for you....

[Dmitri Veans]

The Obama administration announced on Monday some significant changes to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program., which allow people from 38 different countries to travel to the United States without a visa. These Countries are included Somalia, Mali, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Colombia and Venezuela, according to the State Department, ” USA Today reports

 

 

Well all these have radical Muslim issues, how can this president suggest he cares about the safety of Americans when even Cher said this needs to stop on her twitter acct. As to the response it was liberal as they told her to take it back and how disappointed they where she spoke out on the issue.

[Dmitri Veans]

On December 3–the day after Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik carried out California jihad in San Bernardino–Senator 

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 

 said “sensible gun control works,” and she cited the example of California to prove it.

Townhall’s Guy Benson reported Boxer’s assertion in a tweet, quoting her as saying, “Sensible gun laws work. We've proven it in California.”

This quote comes one day after other Democrats–President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Martin O’Malley–also seized on the San Benardino attack to push gun control and, in the case of O’Malley, bash the NRA. In fact, Clinton and O’Malley both tweeted for more gun control before the gunman and gunwomen had even been identified.

Clinton tweeted: “I refuse to accept this as normal. We must take action to stop gun 

 

 

O’Malley tweeted: “Horrifying news out of San Bernardino. Enough is enough: it’s time to stand up to the NRA and enact meaningful gun safety laws.”

 

Breitbart News reported that California already has expanded background checks, which is the “gun safety” law Democrats have been demanding at the federal level for years. But the law was ineffectual in preventing the attack by Farook and Malik.

 

 

http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/12/03/senator-boxer-sensib...

[Dmitri Veans]

The Smug Radicalization of the Left

 by © Jae C. Hong/AP/Corbis

The Democratic Party is in crisis, although few of its members seem to recognize it. If a Democrat did not occupy the White House, political media would be consumed with worry over the fact that members of this formerly dominant political faction now occupy fewer elected offices than at any point in almost a century. Relegated as it is now to coastal enclaves and urban centers, this is a rump bloc. The contraction the Democratic Party has experienced over the course of Barack Obama’s presidency has coincided with the purging of its moderates. Only the most far-left districts and liberal states elevate like-minded politicians to high office and the elements that would restrain the party’s most partisan impulses are gone. For all the criticism of Republican disorganization, theirs is a good problem to have. Unruliness is a feature of an ideologically diverse coalition of competing interests. The conversation inside the left’s closed circle is a self-reinforcing one; dissent is hard to come by and is punished by the movement’s most dogmatic enforcers when discovered. There is no better example of this phenomenon than the humiliating display in which Democrats engaged amid – not following – the attack on civilians that occurred on Wednesday in San Bernardino, California.

 

To continue reading:

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/liberals-democrat...

[Dmitri Veans]

My Christmas song to Democrats:

On the twelfth day of Christmases Obama sent to me

Twelve Lies about healthcare

Eleven lies about the IRS.  

Ten lies about Benghazi.

Nine lies about NSA spying.

Eight lies about weapons to Mexican cartels

Six lie's about terror.

Five Lie's about Muslims

Four lies about a plan to take out ISIS

Three lies about a safe refuge settlement program

Two lies about the California attack

and crappy policy from Obamacare.

[Virginia Foulk]

I just couldn't resist - math used to be my favorite.  

So on the twelfth day of Christmas, he told 12 lies about healthcare, 11 lies about the IRS and so on. When put all together we have a total of 364 lies , including 12 crappy policies including Obamacare. I know someone will check this out but I did have fun with it. And 364 lies sounds about right for this pretend President,  Oh, I added 7 lies of telling us he would protect our country, for day seven. Otherwise my calculations would not have worked.

  And for those who haven't seen this smile, it's called a cheesy smile on Stop This Insanity. And since I'm from Wisconsin, why not a cheesy smile. LOL

[Dmitri Veans]

OOPS on missing the seventh 

Thanks for the heads up.

[DE]

Virginia having fun while we post is delightful....;)

[DE]

Love it! love it !!!   DV............