Enough Snow Already

OK, I am done with the snow removal du jour. So maybe now I'll hike into town and watch "The Revenant" to see what sort of hardships other real men endure? Naah. I'll be watching NFL Championship Football! And rooting hard for the Cardinals since I have an Ariens snowblower.

And speaking of my snowblower, I had a Donald Trump epiphany this morning. I bought the snowblower last winter, we had plenty of snow, and it is the Greatest Toy Ever, although I say that as a non-owner of a huge chainsaw. When I am out there with that thing roaring I am the King of Snow. Well, a guy running a giant plow down an Interstate at fifty MPH in a blinding storm is the King. Call me a prince. Hmm, but do I really outrank the guys with the riding snowblowers? OK, I am the Duke of Snow.

Moving on, this morning I could not get my Greatest Toy Ever started. It was gassed up and ready to go but... to start it one must adjust the choke to open (not closed), the electrical switch to on (not off) and the fuel line to open (not closed). Three binary settings, only eight possibilities, even an idiot could do this, right? Especially having done it many times only ten months ago.

Maybe! But I would like to blame my difficulties on an absence of idiots. The on/off switch, which when I was a kid would have been labelled (get ready) "On/Off", in fact included only a pictorial aid. One choice was indicated by an unlocked padlock and an upraised hand, palm forward. I took the hand to mean "Stop" and the padlock to mean "Unlocked". Mixed messages! The other possible setting was a locked padlock and a picture I still can't make out. And as a final hint, there was a larger graphic indicating that all the dials had two positions and to run the machine they all had to be turned to the correct position, although what that position might be was left unclear. Not helpful!

After fifteen dark moments during which my life, or at least a snow shovel, my lower back and a bottle of Advil, passed before my eyes, I figured out that "unlocked padlock" meant "Off". I mean, duh. The Greatest Toy Ever started up and away I went, the Duke of Snow unchained! Oh, I love the smell of engine exhaust in the morning. It smells like... Actually, I have no sense of smell. At all. Got sprayed by a skunk once and didn't even realize it, although when I got back to camp my friends were quick to give me the news. Kind of a digression.

But my Donald Trump epiphany was this. I get globalization and international marketing and a more globally oriented America. But seriously, are "On" and "Off" that hard for people to grasp, even non-English speakers? What is with these useless padlock graphics that make no sense? And how many snowblowers are we selling to Mexico or Venezuela anyway?

Let's make America great again by finding the ON button and labeling it sensibly. Yeah.

Comments

[TexasIsHeaven]

Daddy -loved Merkel in the Bunker. I can't help but compare her with the other women leaders like Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Prime Minister Golda Meir. Why couldn't she be like them? Does she just want to obliterate Germany and German culture? Merkel always puts me in mind of what Golda Meir said, "To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be." There isn't going to be any Germany left. Merkel has managed to accomplish what even Adolph Hilter could not - the destruction of Germany and her people.

[Miss Marple]

Local news has a lot of people freaking out:

http://www.wibc.com/news/local-news/apparent-suicide-midst-park-tudor-investigation

Park-Tudor is a very high-priced private school on the North side of Indianapolis.

There apparently was a sudden resignation of the basketball coach in December and apparently a child pornography investigation was ongoing. Then the suicide of the headmaster.

[NK]

daddy-- brilliant Merkel 'Downfall' stuff.

[Truthbetold]

Axelrod: Trump nearing a ‘hostile takeover’ of GOP

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/266861-axelrod-trump-nearing-a-hostile-takeover-of-gop

[sbw]

hostile takeover

Gosh, and I thought the GOP was trying to return to its roots from a previous hostile takeover.

[Porchlight]

Typical of Axelrod to believe that honest elections would be hostile takeovers. I guess he has no experience with honest elections, so there you go.

[Threadkiller]

OL, I'm gonna try it with the ")" now.

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/01/23/phyllis-schlafly-national-review-not-authority-conservatism/

[jimmyk]

Popular vote in last 6 elections went to: Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Bush, Obama, Obama

In what universe does Cruz win the election?

Presidential elections aren't decided on popular vote. The universe is one in which it is extremely rare for the country to elect someone new from the same party as an outgoing two-term president, especially an unpopular one. Bush 41 was arguably the first since Hoover.

[Old Lurker]

Seriously??? Anybody got a yardstick I can borrow?

Fox: "How much snow fell on Washington D.C. during this past weekend's massive snowstorm? Officially, 17.8 inches. But the actual answer may never be known.

The Washington Post reports that the snow-measuring device used by a team of weather observers at Washington's Reagan National Airport was buried in the blizzard, leaving them with no way to record the true amount of snow for hours on end.

The error promped the National Weather Service (NWS) to announce that it will be looking into the procedures used at Reagan National, where the official snow totals for the nation's capital are recorded."

[Threadkiller]

That didn't work.

[Porchlight]

Janet, here's another for you, which might be a Photoshop, but it's hilarious, so who cares:

https://m.facebook.com/ProducerPetersen/photos/a.309300609128926.72545.294291737296480/1027052134020433/

[Old Lurker]

Counting up those ) and those ( is tricky, TK.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Popular vote in last 6 elections went to: Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Bush, Obama, Obama

In what universe does Cruz win the election?--

Well with that reasoning how is any Rep gonna win?
Let's break it down;

1992; recession after 12 years of Rep rule.
Reps run old mushy guy who lied and raised taxes.
Perot runs too.

1996; economy growing and an incumbent. Reps run sarcastic old mushy guy.

2000; Who was elected, Gore or Bush? Economy stagnant after 8 years of Dem rule and Dems ran ghastly stiff.

2004; economy growing and an incumbent.
Dems run Herman Munster.

2008; economy cratered after 8 years of Rep rule.
Reps run John Maverick the unpleasant, idiot cousin of Brett and Bart.

2012; economy allegedly growing and an incumbent.
Reps run a very nice, buttoned down man who begs the incumbent's pardon if he might step aside and let someone else have a chance.

2016; economy at best stagnant, at worst crashing, after 8 years of Dem rule.
Dems hellbent on running some ambulatory, fossilized New Left reject of one kind or another.

Looked at historically, the Dems are facing a steep slippery slope and the Reps run any of the top four or five people, all of whom are smart, relatively young and pretty nimble, and win.

[Truthbetold]

Had Enough Trump? Part Deux.

http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2016/01/had-enough-trump-part-deux.html

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--The on/off switch, which when I was a kid would have been labelled (get ready) "On/Off", in fact included only a pictorial aid.--

That's better than Stihl [and probably other manufacturers]
Stihl's on/off switch consists of an O and an I which I presume is from the binary system of 1 and 0.
But after thirty years of using Stihl products I still can never remember which is which with any certainty.

And like TK said, even if you push "I", if you leave the choke open when it's cold you will get a lot of exercise but it won't be from blowing snow. It'll be from yanking on the stater and then kicking the machine, cursing and throwing things.

[Truthbetold]

Ted Cruz Receives a Big Endorsement From a Fellow Texan and Former Presidential Candidate

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y9YnzfdLfGA&ebc=ANyPxKoup2JwPZX7MxrEUYWSURLOxAV43mYcoM1b0_u3gN4XYPYsavvJH7NDKztfnn9mNTPUrVYiMLEoocRSP-5Ei1CsKHpUYA

[clarice]

That O I thing gets me, too, Glad I'm not the only one. We measured 21 inches of snow at the front of our house. A nice Hispanic man and his two sons came by and shoveled the walk in front of our house and later a retired cop with a plow will do our driveway. The main road outside our house has been sorta plowed. the street in front of our house leading to it, hasn't been. (Too bad Robert Johnson's (BET)wife divorced him and he was forced to sell the house at the bottom of that street to stay alive--he used to pay a service to clean the road.)

[Old Lurker]

Just to make those on-off thingies even more confusing, and tagging onto Clarice's complaint about making a TV system work, I see that on my new TV setup, some of the devices have a light that means that box is "on" but others have a similar light that indicates that that box is "off". And all the colors are different on all the lights. And most of the boxes do not have actual, you know, on-off switches rather the "universal" remote is supposed to make them all work.

Right....

And do not get me started on getting a snow blower up and running.

[Marlene]

Those icon thingies on a paper shredder make shredding idiot proof,except for idiots.
Hair,neckties,fingers and other random body parts icons,beware the paper shredder! Ha.

[matt]

Great stuff, daddy. You have the poise and grace of a seasoned athlete.

The Left have been doing their best to establish a permanent majority with their race baiting, pandering, and motor voter laws. The country has been fairly evenly divided but if they can tilt the playing field by a couple of degrees it would be much easier to jigger the whole system to their advantage.

This includes the judiciary and the massive federal bureaucracy that has been running out of control for the past 25 years. In the world of government, once a program is established it runs forever.

That Hillary hasn't been hauled in and booked yet is in itself criminal. Make that a campaign poster. The MSM are silent on Bernie's commie links. They really are all in for the Comintern.

And we're arguing about a blowhard huckster from Brooklyn? What else would one expect from Brooklyn? But Brooklyn has something Manhattan doesn't have; heart.

I don't think Trump is necessarily evil, but he is an ass. I could see him taking Brooklyn and maybe even Queens in a general election. Staten Island is a given.

That is what is freaking out the Manhattanites and the Establishment. All of those great unwashed that they can't control. The revenge of the mooks.

Cruz is toxic in political circles. Trump is a dealmaker and I believe, a patriot in his own way. Maybe Rubio but he is way too young and inexperienced. The rest really don't have a shot, it seems at this point.

Trump has said some pretty outrageous stuff, but it gets his name in the papers and the AA community has also responded positively. This is a topsy turvy race and is sort of getting exciting.

Buy popcorn and beer company stocks. Tell your broker you heard it off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush.

[clarice]

Instead of banning lightbulbs, Congress could make a lot of new friends by mandating a uniform remote which only required one device to work it and which was understandable. (I don't watch TV--my mother does and I spent many frustrating hours trying to figure out which remote(s) worked with which set and how,

[henry]

Matt, sounds good. One little problem... InBev is acquiring SAB, leaving us with only GovBeer in the beer company sector.

[Miss Marple]

Do not get me started. We have an LG TV which daughter has hooked up to a gaming set through which we watch Netflix. I have no idea how it's connected, and I have had to memorize the steps to watch something on Netflix: Turn TV on. Turn on game set. Press button on TV that moves the icon to HG14 (or something like that). Press button on Game set for Netflix. Press daughter's icon. THEN you get the screen where you can choose what you want to watch. Move left-right arrow indicator to show. Press A button and hope it works.

That's to watch one show. And you cannot do it from the remote.

[Marlene]

Just catching up on some news from Maine. A woman who climbed down the rocks at Pemaquid Point to get a better look at the high waves was surprised by a rogue wave which knocked her into the icy water. She is okay,and her husband wasn't arrested for pushing her off the rocks. Don't laugh,probably once a year a husband pushes his wife off the rocks into the water on the coast of Maine.

[Old Lurker]

Clarice, my winter project was to try to understand what my kids have been telling me about streaming video on smart TV's. That gave the kids something to give me for Christmas, so now I have Verizon FIOS and the old DVD which we had, plus now Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Prime all plugged into a TV which knows my WiFi password.

So that is six remotes and I fell into the rabbit hole of trying to program them all into one.

I swear I want to go back to my old B&W rabbit ear TV with no remote at all. I need the exercise.

[Marlene]

Ha,MM. Our rental house has two remotes and we've been watching Netflix. I usually can figure it out after a glass of wine. : )

[Beasts of England]

Maine sounds like a great state! :)

[clarice]

ditto,OL.

And then there's the passwords thingy. I shop a lot online and do a lot of business that way--with all the top secret stuff being hacked or sent over unsecured lines it is a wonder how to buy toilet paper requires more security than human intel,
My fav thing is that after you fill out an entire sheet of info Then they tell you that the password has to include symbols , letters, etc. And you need to start over. Is it too much to ask that they tell you upfront?

[Rick Ballard]

I O is relatively simple, belonging to the IEC rather than the ISO.

I wonder if kids have an easier time memorizing the hieroglyphs than adults do in trying to decipher them? It certainly goes back to RSE's comments regarding getting rid of phonetic reading as a means of reducing ability to solve problems.

Try and find an ISO primer with simple identification of hieroglyph and meaning.

[Thomas Collins]

Here's the solution to the complexity now of turning on a TV set. Go classic old school for entertainment.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR55hgeGzqn_I9XOdfEyXL16Rbt5g2upCrgGyHYd_DEQxcP7PzPw-PDRdc

[Threadkiller]

My dad used a pool cue to adjust our tv from his chair.

OL, have you looked into Harmony remotes?

[Truthbetold]

Welcome To The Party, Pal

http://rightwingnews.com/column-2/welcome-to-the-party-pal/

[Old Lurker]

There is a market for an expensive new box/service.

Even when I get one of those devices selected as the Source driving the TV, then, as MM says, navigated down through the menus to find something to watch is a nightmare, and often as not, you then have to activate an App with your account from another service.

Now that might be fine for young people on tight budgets, but all I want is to watch something and be able to skip the commercials.

I would pay a serious amount of money for a black box with 6 or 8 HDMI input jacks and one output jack to "screen", and a monthly fee so said black box would know all the schedules and "new arrivals" and "new episodes" etc etc...and how to make them play when one button is pushed. The box would have a strong enough PC to keep it all up to date and working.

Seriously. $1-2,000 for the box and say $25-50 per month and this slice of the market would be very happy.

[Threadkiller]

http://www.cnet.com/videos/logitech-harmony-elite-the-best-high-end-universal-touchscreen-remote-gets-better/

[Jeff Dobbs]

Buckeye:
They let me walk out the jetway right to the threshold of the plane but not board.

I was told they had a weight concern...Pilot was feverishly running the numbers and shaking his head.

Don't feel bad, we all put on a little weight over the holidays.

[DebinNC]

Thanks much Ig and jimmyk for your informative responses to my Cruz question. Wondering if the charge that everybody in the Senate hates Cruz is true, I checked to see which, if any, Republican senators are supporting Cruz - only 1, former NH Sen. Bob Smith, who went on to lose to John Sununu, moved to FL and ran for office, fared poorly-dropped out, then returned to NH, ran for office, and lost in the primary.

[Threadkiller]

Would you like me to help pitch it on Shark Tank with you, OL?

Just As Philo Farnsworth Intended

[Old Lurker]

Yes TK.

Rick, I had a strange icon appear in my BMW which I assure you could not be decoded no matter how hard you stared at it and from any angle. But at least cars still have, you know, Owner's manuals. But not so fast. My OM was a universal BMW manual so my car was but a subset within the 500 pages. Eventually I determined that something really really important like an LED inside a gas cap was out... Grrrr.

Almost had to resort to the "black tape over the light" fix from the old days.

[Miss Marple]

Nothing says "one of the elitists" (or wannabee's) than Tom Rose on the radio, tut-tutting and laughing with Andy McCarthy at an article by Robert Davi:

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/01/24/exclusive-davi-when-johnny-friendly-and-his-goons-took-over-national-review/

[narciso]

One would have thought cotton would, it really is like late republic Roman Senate in Harris's latest.

[jimmyk]

Deb, the number of senators endorsing a candidate seems inversely related to my preferences, Jeb and Kasich getting the most. I'll stipulate that Cruz is not well-liked by his colleagues. I just don't see that as a negative.

[Miss Marple]

HAHA! I have been blocked by Mike Murphy! I don't know that I ever tried to follow him before. Hilarious!

[Threadkiller]

Raiders fans would put pictures of their brutish girlfriends over the warning lights around here, OL.

[DebinNC]

I do, as it's a reflection of popular support nationally for Cruz imo. Only 7 of the 36 member Texas U.S. House delegation support Cruz.

[Miss Marple]

However, I am much-heartened to see there are a LOT of people giving Mike Murphy grief:

https://twitter.com/murphymike/status/691309759971008513

[Old Lurker]

While I am venting...

And maybe if I knew more this already is buried in Apple or Amazon somewhere...but.

Last week I reached out to you guys for book ideas and you came through big time for me and I wrote down all your suggestions.

Then of course my OCD took over and I decided to create a new database so I could keep track of what I have read and what I want to read. Since almost all of my reading for the last 4-5 years has been on iPads with books from iStore or Kindle, I went to those devices and listed all of the books I already have read. Many of them are by authors I like and/or series I like.

When I find a series I like, I tend to binge read them all until I am all caught up. But then I have to wait for that guy to release the next book in the series, just like normal people.

Since I have a bunch of authors/series I follow, when I finish a book I can usually find a new release to download and off I go.

Why oh why can't I just tell Apple or Amazon that as soon as the new Jack Reacher comes out, eg, just put it on my device and alert me by email that it is there waiting?

I mean how hard would THAT be?

[Threadkiller]

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/01/24/clint-eastwood-shuts-down-all-white-oscar-crybabies-with-just-one-sentence-298131

[jimmyk]

I do, as it's a reflection of popular support nationally for Cruz imo.

It seems to contradict polling, which has Cruz higher than Jeb and Kasich.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Popular vote in last 6 elections went to: Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Bush, Obama, Obama

In what universe does Cruz win the election?

There were no conservatives in those races. When given a conservative choice in 1980 and 1984, the voters gave landslide victories. Yes, Goldwater had a landslide loss in 1964 but he had a much worse campaign than Reagan and that was still the aftermath of JFK's assassination.

The large unknown to me is how good of a campaigner is Cruz. Miss Marple's comments make me somewhat apprehensive, but I believe they can be overcome.

[henry]

OL, they spend billions on AI's that read big data and suggest things you don't want. It's a Silicon Valley thing.

[Truthbetold]

The electability argument is a red herring

[Rick Ballard]

And beating Clinton, which Blowhard can't quite manage.

[Man Tran]

Just catching up and I can't believe you guys missed the hanging curveball (yeah, I know, off season) that fearless leader pitched. That lack of a sense of smell up to and including skunk perfectly explains his ability to delve into the stench eminating from herr doktor perfessor economush. Sheesh.

[Old Lurker]

Henry, your 12:16 seems to apply to all of my rants above. Every one of them.

There is a slice of the market that is not price-sensitive but is hassle-sensitive.

I suspect we are all of a certain age.

[Truthbetold]

In a nutshell, Rick

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Wretchard's latest; When Everything's For Sale.

[Buckeye]

"Don't feel bad, we all put on a little weight over the holidays."

The 2 guys they kicked off the plane were big boys, definitely discriminated against and were clearly unhappy and indignant.

Poor gal working the gate had to reach deep into her bag of diplomatic skills.

I was smart enough to be sure I was making her job easy as contrasted to the fat boys.

I knew there was only one flight left to Columbus:)

[Miss Marple]

Captain Hate,

Reagan was well-known as a movie star and television personality. People felt like they KNEW him, so a lot of the attacks just rolled off. He had an engaging personality, too, quick wit and charm.

I don't believe 75% of the people knew how conservative he really was. (and in the age of purity demands, I think he would have been given a demerit or two on some of his positions.)

The country is younger and more liberal than it was in 1980.

I just feel that Trump has a better chance of winning than Cruz, who is seen as strident, unbending, and arrogant.

It's not just my opinion. I am going with my sisters, my daughter, my grandson, and a couple of friends. They don't like him at all.

Things which play well with conservatives often do not play well amongst the wider Republican electorate, and certainly not in the general voting public.

Now, am I saying one should give in on principles? No. But how you present them has something to do with your success.

Trump has a reputation which precedes him. He is able to build on it, and a whole lot of voters like what they hear. Why? Because he has been on TV for 14 years. I do not underestimate that at all.

I just cannot understand why people don't realize that Trump's candidacy is a gift. He has loyal voters, many fans from TV, contacts with all sorts of people, and a fine family.

Instead of being relieved that someone has arrived to get people excited about the election and willing to vote GOP, a bunch of people on our side are determined to destroy him. This is stupidity on steroids, if you ask me.

Why didn't they simply stand by and let him rise or fall on his own merits? Really, a nice "We welcome him to the contest" statement would have been all that was needed, and then go back to campaigning.

But no. First they said it was a joke (insulting him), then they said he was a bigot (insulting him further..)

Then they brought out the big guns like Perry to insult him and call him a "cancer."

(Compared to that calling Jeb "low energy" seems pretty tame.)

Finally, they started insulting his supporters as stupid and ignoramuses who don't know what conservatism is.

Well, as far as I am concerned, they can sit down and shut up.

And if you ask me, these attacks started right away because they KNEW he could win.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--The country is younger and more liberal than it was in 1980.--

I'm not sure the latter is true but I'm even less sure about the former.

[Man Tran]

Re the (not so) Smart TVs: as we grind through the SAG offerings, my LG ginormous beast has decided that movies streamed through the web browser path doesn't actually have anything going on, so every 3 minutes, it turns on the screen saver.

Several one hour sessions later, the Indian help line has managed to 1) tell me several things that are clearly not true, 2) force a factory reset that loses all my careful tweaking of picture settings, 3) send me instructions to load new software via a thumb drive that doesn't work, and finally 4) admit they've removed the ability to turn off the screen saver.

Oh, and every time they promised to call me back when the Level 3 VIP guy was available. Yeah, right.

[Lucinda]

"And beating Clinton, which Blowhard can't quite manage."

MOE ties 10 months out. Thanks.

[Old Lurker]

Man Tran. It is those stupid SAG streaming things that got me started. I liked it better when my wife just got them all on DVD's.

[Miss Marple]

Jennifer Rubin weighs in, and thinks Bloomberg running is a good idea:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/01/25/michael-bloomberg-to-the-rescue/?postshare=6551453741131270&tid=ss_tw

[Truthbetold]

Trump The Hypocrite: Investing Overseas Fine For Him

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2015/08/17/trump-the-hypocrite-investing-overseas-fine-for-him/#769c1c08936b

[jimmyk]

If Bloomberg runs, I'd be shocked if he got as much as 5% of the vote, and most of that would be from very blue states. And he would pull more from Ds than from Rs (though mostly from abstainers or eccentrics) so "Run, Michael, run!"

[Old Lurker]

My Lib WallStreeter pretend RINO friends this weekend were all excited about Bloomberg. None of us even bothered to answer them.

[Rick Ballard]

"I'm not sure the latter is true but I'm even less sure about the former."

The general population in 1980 had a median age of 30, up from 28 in 1970. The median age today is 37. Aside from that, the population is much, much younger.

The percentage of white males with HS education has declined rather precipitously since 1980 as well.

[Buckeye]

Man Tran

The Level 3 VIP was hanging out of a train window on the way to the sweat shop. Fell out and has been turned into Soylent Green

But don't worry his replacement is on the next train;)

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Miss Marple, everything you said about Reagan is true but his polling numbers were in the toilet at this point in 1980 when he was still known as Archie Bunker's candidate. I think Cruz could amiably destroy Rodham, Bern or anybody else the donks choose out of their stable of broken down mares and geldings.

I wouldn't be pushing Cruz if I didn't believe he could win. If I get my way and he loses I'll STFU for a day or so...

[Thomas Collins]

Let's say a conservative has narrowed it down to Cruz and Trump, and was making his or her voting decision solely on electability. Cruz would be the clear choice.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/donald-trump-is-really-unpopular-with-general-election-voters/

That Trump is within range of The Hill now is not the key factor. The key factor is Trump has a hard ceiling with persuadables, which Cruz doesn't at the moment (although voting for Trump and keeping his candidacy going, thus giving him more chances to trash Cruz, may harden Cruz's ceiling).

Trump's candidacy gets substance from a "his policy is what I'm thinking" meme. Well, that's fine in a talk show host. But if one wants an electable conservative, perhaps looking at the favorable/unfavorable rating among independents is a better factor to consider (especially when the one with the hard ceiling is a bloviating wheeler-dealer Dem at heart).

As far as the insults to Trump's supporters go, I come from a blue collar family, and have had to put up all my life with snarkiness of both conservative and prog oligarchy types (prog oligarchs, however, are far better at insulting blue collar families than T Coddington Van Voorhes XXXXVII types). I chalk it up to insecurity. It doesn't bother me. It's certainly no reason to vote for Trump.

[Buckeye]

CH

I think Trump IS the Archie Bunker candidate.

Doubt if many kids know who Archie Bunker is.

I think Cruz could win unless the Repukes figure out a way to throw him under the bus.

Rubio, not so much. Once they start grilling him under the spotlight he will start sweating like a pig. Second coming of Nixon in the debate with JFK.

Like Nixon, don't think he would survive it.

[Truthbetold]

TC

Well said.

[Threadkiller]

The early voting and vote-by-mail delays stem from objections against Presidential Candidates Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton, Martin J. O'Malley, Bernie Sanders, Roque De La Fuente, and Larry Cohen.

http://www.wandtv.com/story/31049252/early-voting-vote-by-mail-for-2016-primary-election-delayed-due-to-ballot-challenges

I wonder what the two republicans have in common.

[NK]

we can go around as much as we'd like, but the simple truth is that whoever Trump's supporters are, they are predominantly NOT political conservatives: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/224850/

[Rick Ballard]

Norman Lear intended Archie Bunker as an archetype in order to denigrate blue collar whites. All in the Family debuted in '71 and the political intent was to drive the then anti-communist blue collars, who had made the '68 Dem convention such fun by beating pinkos into mush, figures of ridicule. Nixon capitalized on the slight error by the commie propagandists (who doubled down with McGovern) and managed a 55% victory.

The demographic is much, much smaller today than it was in '72 or '80 so counting on Nixon or Reagan type conversions has to be balanced by a reality checck.

The fastest growing age demographic is +65 and will remain so through 2030.

[Beasts of England]

Jennifer Rubin thinks Bloomberg would be a safe harbor for Republicans? Would that be the those darned gun-grabbing Republicans? Be right back. I'm gonna go hunt me one of them snipe...

[Miss Marple]

NK,

Quite true. My sisters and friends are not as conservative as I am. My drandson is very conservative for a college freshman, but he prefers Rubio.

Conservatives, however, are a minority within the general population. Unlike Captain Hate and Rush Limbaugh, I do NOT believe you can offer a clear contrast between conservatism and liberalism and win.

Are conservative policies better? Yes. Will the general public support them, after 8 years of food stamps, SS Disability, Obamaphones, and housing subsidies? I have my doubts.

On the other hand, Trump does have SOME conservative policies: controlling immigration, rebuilding the military, helping Vets, bringing manufacturing back to the US (which may not be strictly conservative but it is something I think important). Mostvoters agree with those policies until you tell them they are conservative.

So if Trump runs and can win, we will get SOME of what we want. With Hillary, or Bernie, we will get nothing.

This is how I feel based on my contacts and what I have observed. It isn't full of polls and statistics, and I am not any sort of political expert. So take it for what it's worth.

[Miss Marple]

Des Moines Register guy on looking like another Pajama Boy, with voice to match.

He's tap-dancing around Hillary's trust factor.

He also says about the caucuses:
Iowans wait until the last minute.
A lot of the voters can be persuaded to change their minds.
Iowans take this seriously.

They have endorsed Rubio on the GOP side because they think he works well with others, or at least that was the gist of it.

[jimmyk]

Norman Lear intended Archie Bunker as an archetype in order to denigrate blue collar whites.

Ironically the show survived only by making Archie into a much more sympathetic character and Meathead into a ridiculous hypocrite.

[Truthbetold]

MM

In a general election when the country has a choice between a real conservative and a liberal the conservative wins.

When the choice is between the so called electable phony conservative the liberal wins every time.

[Buckeye]

RB

I think Trump is going after a different slice.

He is getting traction with the working (and unemployed)poor who perceive that there is no upward mobility.

When they walk into Walmart and see that most of the cashiers are wearing a hijab....ready made audience.

[NK]

MissM-- as you know I disagree with your 1:15 because I have no confidence in WHAT Trump would actually do with the power. Speaking of Hilligula, it is absolutely outrageous what she did with TOP TOP Secret docs, it was worse than any rational assumption:https://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2016/01/25/hillary-clintons-email-scandal-appears-gravely-criminal/

[Buckeye]

Beasts

I'm locked and loaded. I'll come and join you.

[Beasts of England]

Idiot Mizzou professor Melissa Click - who called for 'muscle' against the journalist - charged with misdemeanor assault. A small victory for sanity.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Unlike Captain Hate and Rush Limbaugh, I do NOT believe you can offer a clear contrast between conservatism and liberalism and win.

The RNC is determined to not test that hypothesis.

[jimmyk]

I do NOT believe you can offer a clear contrast between conservatism and liberalism and win.

As Iggy's historical account at 11:00am indicates, the record suggests exactly the opposite: Only a clear contrast can win.

[Beasts of England]

I only went on one snipe hunt, Buckeye. With a paper bag. I must have waited out in the woods for an hour. I still haven't forgiven my brother for that. :)

[Threadkiller]

NK, it is my belief that Trump gets a significant amount of support from a group that believes in a more conservative reading of the Constitution.

I too don't wish to go round and round, so I won't. I will offer this quote from a caller to Rush:

CALLER:  Just one quick point.  Jeb Bush says he doesn't understand the intensity.  They all understand the intensity of the anger.  It's the breadth of the anger that is a shock to them.  If they didn't understand the intensity of the anger, they wouldn't be calling us kooks.  That's what the intensity's all about. It's how many people that are angry.  That's what they don't understand.

RUSH:  I think that's a pretty brilliant conclusion out there, Steve.  Not surprised you are in this audience.  I think that's exactly right.  See, it's impossible to miss this anger.  That's my whole point.  But I think you're right.  I think they have misunderstood how widespread and how deep it is, and by widespread, I mean, it's beyond the Republican base.  There's anger all over this country about a whole lot of things.  And they have been in denial about that.

Substitute "loon" for "kook" and add in the polls that then showed 1/3 of Republicans thought Obama was ineligible and the current poll that has 1/3 of Republicans doubtful of Cruz and you find a significant, yet somehow ignored or ridiculed, demographic.

I know we have a different view. Just politely offering mine.

[NK]

TK-- of course I disagree with the 1:34, but you knew that.

And I disagree with Jimmy's 1:33, a doctrinaire conservative will lose to a Lefty faux moderate, just as a doctrinaire Lefty will lose to a conservative faux moderate. The real question is will a true Righty beat a true Lefty. I am confident they would ,and in '16 we have a chance to get our answer. Every Repub except Trump, Christie and Kascich would test that premise.

[Beasts of England]

Really good point, TK. Even scarier for the bubble boys, is that the breadth and depth of the anger hasn't been fully excavated. I have my doubts that they'll ever come close to understanding it. Which is, of course, why the anger is there in the first place.

[danoso]

Kind of ironic with Hillary -- she set up this private server to have complete control over her electronic correspondence, and keep watchdog groups and Congress out of her stuff. But it's had the exact opposite effect. Since it's all she used, it's opened up everything she's done to the FBI, even stuff that (on the surface) might not have anything to do with business at State.

[JMHanes]

Miss Marple:

"Why didn't they simply stand by and let him rise or fall on his own merits?"

Because they are opinion writers with strong opinions who get paid to write opinion columns, not keep their opinions to themselves. And I wouldn't want to read them if they did. Some of those NRO columns are pretty despicable (Kevin Williamson springs to mind), but unlike the RNC, I don't think the writers have any obligation to remain neutral observers, especially when they clearly, passionately believe that a Trump presidency would be an unmitigated disaster, not a gift. You obviously disagree, but expecting them to politely twiddle their thumbs during election season is a bit much, don't you think? I thought the Democrats were the because-shut-up party.

[Old Lurker]

That was a good McCarthy link NK posted at 1:24.

[Rick Ballard]

Buckeye,

I agree about the target slice but the slice has to weighed against Obama's current 46% approval rating and the fact the slice has not been particularly faithful about showing up to vote.

I believe his strategy to be ad hoc ad lib and the performance before the New Jersey Gaming Commission as reported by the WaPo and the subsequent bankruptcy provide a reasonable example of where his "strategy" leads.

There are only a few personal accounts from those gulled by the fraudulent misrepresentation in the Trump University scam available as yet. We will be able to gauge the actual cost of buying Trump's line of patter as they appear.

[Miss Marple]

JMHanes,

I am talking about people like Perry, who came right out and called Trump a cancer. And Lindsey graham. And Rick Wilson, who is not an opinion writer but a political consultant.

Of course opinion writers will write. That isn't what I am talking about.

[Miss Marple]

I am off to mail packages and take some stuff to the auction house. Back later.

[Truthbetold]

MM

Isn't calling a spade a spade what you say you like about Trump.

[Thomas Collins]

Have any of Trumpster's opponents (whether candidates or journalists or other observers) speculated about what gushes from his orifices, as he did about Megyn Kelly? I have a hard time getting weepy about what folks say about Trumpster, even if I do think some what is said against him is over the top snarky.

I really have to laugh about the notion that Trumpster tells it like it is and is tough. Does anyone think Xi or Vlad or Kim or the rest of the world leaders are shaking in their socks because Trumpster calls Megyn Kelly a bimbo or talks about John McCain in a negative light or mentions shooting someone?

[narciso]

I recall that after Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, the Soviets saw he was a worthy opponent.

[Thomas Collins]

I doubt Trumpster firing folks on his reality show has the same impact on Vlad Putin, narciso.