Clapback Against Anti-gun Types

First They Came for the Gun Owners: The Campaign to Disarm You and Take Away Your Freedoms – Mark W. Smith (Bombadier)

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” - Second Amendment - Constitution of United States of America 1789

“Hell yes we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK 47,” Robert Francis O’Rouke, then Democrat, Presidential candidate.

I for one am not sure what “Blowhole” O’Rouke (sorry I refuse to call this empty suit, dipshit Beto) doesn’t seem to grasp about “shall not be infringed.” It is from this brain-dead position, completely devoid of any scintilla of knowledge about guns and or gun owners, that the anti-gun gun types attack the rights of law-abiding gun owners. It is on that point that I find bestselling author Mark W. Smith writing so refreshing.

Smith writes with a clarity, depth of knowledge of not only guns but the Constitution, with a subject matter expertise that few, writing on the subject, can even remotely muster. Much of what he details in First They Came for the Gun Owners: The Campaign to Disarm You and Take Away Your Freedoms, falls into the slippery slope arguments that rips apart the seemingly “reasonable” packaging that anti-gunners wrap their arguments in.

After all who could possibly be against “universal background checks” and “closing the gun show loophole”? The problem is much of what is pawned off as “harmless” or innocent is based on a load of crap sold by liberals who lie and a complicit media who wouldn’t know a muzzle loader from a pea shooter.

Like seemingly all gun control proposals, they don’t really do anything to solve the gun ‘problems” they were supposed to fix. They will however, create problems for law abiding gun owners. Liberals can’t seem to grasp even the basic concept that bad guys don’t procure their guns through legal means or from licensed firearms dealers. Newsflash- bad guys either steal guns or obtain stolen guns.

Smith makes the cogent argument and urgent case, that this attack on gun rights can lead to a continuing erosion of individual liberties and freedoms that go beyond the right to bear arms.   

A Wake Up Call for the NBA

Trump Vs. China – Newt Gingrich – (Center Street)

Given the recent uneducated and often down right stupid comments from NBA players, coaches and league officials – what better way to explain China’s worldview than by using a sports analogy. China is the equivalent of the New England Patriots; they will lie, cheat, steal or doing pretty much anything to win or give themselves an unfair advantage.

For the clueless money grubbers in the NBA - this really isn’t that hard – it’s as simple as understanding the difference between a murderous, totalitarian dictatorship (China) and a system based on freedom and free markets (the U.S.) Simple enough that even dopey libs like Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich should be able to get it.

If that doesn’t quite get to the bottom-line then I suggest picking up former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich’s new book Trump Vs. China, in which he lays out in straight forward terms, why China is an existential threat to the future of our country. Gingrich, as always, brings his insider’s depth of knowledge to this examination and breaks down the multiple layers of the threat and offers a detailed plan for facing it down. He keeps it simple enough that even a shooting guard or LeBron James should be able to understand, if they had someone read it to them.

There is a simple difference between those who are willing to sacrifice principles (NBA) and intellectual property, in the pursuit of money and those who are willing to stand up and push back against the tyranny of Communist dictators. Gingrich makes it clear that this is a battle where one side will win, and one side will lose; a true battle of good vs. evil.

No greater example exhibits this better than the protestors in Hong Kong who fly the American flag and see the U.S. as a beacon of hope. Are we perfect? No, but who is? As president Ronald Reagan famously said, “America is a shinning city on a hill, whose beacon light guides freedom loving people everywhere.” Put that in your bong and smoke Mr. Popovich.

The Future of Justice

Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court - Mollie Hemingway, Carrie Severino (Regnery)

In 1987 Federal Judge Robert Bork famously described the process of his Supreme Court nomination, confirmation hearing as a “public campaign of distortion?” Four short years later, in 1991, well before Al Gore invention of the Internet spawned Facebook and Twitter, Clarence Thomas called the process “a high-tech lynching.”

Just imagine what the process would be like in the era of multiple 24-hour news channels, social media outlets, countless news and political ax grinding platforms. Well we don’t have to work our imagination very hard we have witnessed in the form of the confirmation hearing for Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at the Federalist and Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network, offer up an insider perspective of the highly combustible confirmation process.

While it’s not a new thing to see conservative Supreme Court nominees having their lives ripped to shreds – what was different was the nominee and the President’s willingness to stand up to the ridiculous liberal onslaught from a parade of hapless accusers, clueless democrat politicians and operatives and scumbag bottom feeders like the creepy porn lawyer, Michael Avanati.

Hemingway and Severino offer up countless interviews, coalescing in a behind the scenes look at the wrangling from both sides of the equation. While there were a number of true standouts that played roles in this drama, perhaps none was more steadfast, and strong than the nominee himself. Kavanaugh’s solid, direct response, while abhorred by easily outraged liberals, it was the right level of vitriol in the face of the ridiculous, unfounded claims brought forth by brought forth by Democrats.

Hemingway and Severino write with a clarity that points up not just the negative effects on this confirmation process, but those that will come in the future from Donald Trump and Presidents to come.

Arm Yourself

Duped: How the Anti-Gun Lobby Exploits the Parkland School Shooting – and How Gun Owners Can Fight Back – Mark W. Smith (Bombardier Books)

I have mentioned here before that I am a recovering radio talk show host. While my thirst for debate has slackened, it never really goes away. I am (still) always on the lookout for concise, direct and powerful tools that will help me win the war of words.

Mark W. Smith’s latest book Duped: How the Anti-Gun Lobby Exploits the Parkland School Shooting – and How Gun Owners Can Fight Back, certainly lives up to and exceeds those three descriptors. A practicing trial lawyer and vice president of the New York Federalist Society, Smith clearly has the necessary legal chops to lay out the case; taking the often hyperbolic anti-gunner claims and then methodically shredding them step by step, point by point.

Smith makes the case that the anti-gun drivel spewed by looney left has brainwashed the unfortunate victims/survivors of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting and turned them into useful idiots to further their agenda. He skillfully utilizes relatable stories to knock down anti-gun arguments from the likes of hypocritical liberal nitwits like Rosie O’Donnell and Alyssa Milano, who appeared at an anti-gun rally trailed by security guards armed to the teeth.

Then there is the do as I say not as I do ridiculousness of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, who wants to take away your guns, while spending $20,000 per day on armed personal security for himself and his family. What? You don’t have an extra $3.7 million per year laying around to protect your family 24/7?

I still remember when the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, named after President Reagan’s aide James Brady who was caught in the crossfire during the 1981 assassination attempt on the President, which I think was still called Hand Gun Control Inc at the time; brought their brainwashing road show to a local university. I had requested the opportunity to debate their rep and he flat out refused, telling the college’s PR flak that he would not debate, because they knew I was too well prepared.

My gun control debate has been boiled down to two simple questions:

    

     1. Anti-gun type love to claim (wrongly) that private gun ownership does nothing to prevent or reduce crime or make you safer. My first question is, would they be willing to place a small sign on their front door that proclaims, “No Guns on Premises”. These are similar to the gun free zone signs that are on the doors of most U. S. schools that make those inside the schools prime sitting targets.

     

     2. What specifically does an “effective” and “common sense” gun control bill look like, that will prevent school or other mass shootings? It’s likely you will get the standard load of hooey that includes something about “closing the gun show loophole” and “banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines.” None of these will do the first thing toward preventing a mass shooting

This is why arming yourself and arming yourself with the knowledge Smith imparts are the best way to protect your family and your right to choose.

Immigration Reality Check: Earn It

Dear America – Notes of an Undocumented Citizen – Jose Antonio Vargas (Dey Street)

“Yes I am lying, but I am going to earn this box.” The box in question is the one next to the line that reads “A citizen or national of the United States” on an employment application. With the flick of a pen Jose Antonio Vargas claims he committed his first lie about his citizen status at the age of 19. What he brushes over is the fact that in the process, he knowingly committed a crime.

In his new book Dear America – Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, Vargas, a native of the Philippines, details how he came to be in the United States and the struggles and quite frankly his triumphs during his time here. A respected and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Vargas claims that we are living in “the most anti-immigrant period in modern American history” which is complete and utter bullshit.

This is nothing more than the usual journalist’s hyperbole about immigration. While certainly there are pockets of virulent anti-immigrant folks, the vast majority of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum are not against immigration. However that vast majority is against illegal immigration; follow the rules and you won’t have a problem, it’s really that simple.

Vargas has already admitted to being a liar, so I guess I wasn’t surprised to read him spread the outright LIE that “everyday at least 34,000 immigrants are locked up, at enormous cost to American taxpayers.” First off, “immigrants” are not “locked up” any that are, are here illegally, yes they have broken the law. Second, liberals love to claim that there is a Congressional mandate that at least 34,000 illegal aliens be locked up in a daily quota. This is a flat out LIE. The mandate is for the number of beds that must be available to house the illegal immigrants on a daily basis. Just imagine the outcry from Mr. Vargas and his ilk if there was a shortage of beds for this purpose and an excess of people.  

Another bullshit stat that gets floated is that “immigrants” commit crime at about half the rate of the native-born population, 1.6% to 3.3%. This is a not so clever mixing of metaphors when you consider that fully 100% of illegal aliens commit a crime just by being here. Most compound that crime by committing fraud by lying on applications and claiming to be legal and/or identity theft when it comes to false social security records or fake identification.

Vargas details his 2014 visit to the Texas, Mexico border at McAllen, Texas to document the so-called “immigration crisis” and his detention by authorities. He claims this is the first time he was ever the recipient of legal documents from the U.S. Government. I find it amusing that for all of his teeth gnashing about President Trump and his illegal immigration policies, his arrest occurred during the Presidency of Barack Obama.

I must admit that I may have missed the part of the book where Vargas details how he has a gun held to his head forcing him to remain in the United States. If things are so hard for him here, why not accept the largess of the U.S. government in the form of a one way ticket home? He claims his life would be in danger from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte due to his crack down on journalists. Maybe life in the U.S. isn’t so bad. I would think that Mr. Vargas has the wherewithal to quickly pass through his native country and on to anywhere in the world he would like to plan his next steps.

Problems and Solutions   

Like so many problems/issues we face, liberals tend to think that the solution has to be BIG – as in big government. We really don’t need a massive immigration overhaul, to match say the EPIC FAIL of Obamacare. It’s time to look at the real issues and break them down piece by piece instead of throwing a massive blanket over it, why not try using a laser to pick away at the problem areas.

In healthcare it was pre-existing conditions; why not address that relatively small issue in the grand scheme of a multi-trillion dollar healthcare system and take care of that need instead of blowing up the whole system? The so-called Dreamers who were brought here illegally when they were kids; why not develop a system to identify these folks and get them legal, without the baggage of creating anchor families or the radical leftist thoughts of no borders. There clearly is a solution that can be developed without using a nuclear weapon.

The issue of Middle East refugees is different and separate from immigration and should be treated as such. One look at the utter mess in European countries that threw open the gates and who knows who is walking in and creating a national security nightmare. By controlling and limiting the number of folks is the only way possible to avoid a massive problem that we could live to regret down the road. See Germany and France. We need to work to develop a system to provide a closer screening process that keeps us safe. Is this a perfect or fool-proof system? NO! No system ever is, but it’s better than what currently exists and what Europe has in place. Will that delay or slow the process? YES, but isn’t a little inconvenience worth the risk involved if we don’t do it?

To Mr. Vargas, I like most United States Citizens would be more than happy to have you “earn the box.” Sorry if we are not willing to scrap our system just to help you or anyone else in your situation out. You have to EARN it.

The Best of Smerc

Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right – Michael Smerconish – (Temple University Press)

Before making the shift to morning drive, when I was doing an afternoon talk show, I would spend some time dialing in Michael Smerconish’s show based out of Philadelphia; WPHT had a big enough stick (radio lingo for powerful enough signal) to reach Erie. I always liked his show because he proved that you could talk politics, have an opinion, but still talk about a whole world of other things. Smerconish also proved that with his newspaper columns where he covered a full range of things in and out of politics.

I also admired Smerconish for his steadfast take on the case of Mumia Abu Jamal, the convicted murderer of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Falkner. Smerconish is out with a new book, Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right, which collects a diverse and interesting group of 100 of his columns. To pare down from a collection of more than 1000 columns over time had to be a difficult and daunting task, especially when most writers think of their words on paper as children.

Since I tend to like my talk show hosts/writers steeped in conservatism and hard to the core, I was puzzled by Smerconish’s flip flop to the mushy middle of things a few years back, because it seemed so self-serving, notably his endorsement of Barack Obama. I guess I can chalk it up to the knowledge that before law school and radio, Smerconish had his fingers in politics and actually ran the Philly portion of Arlen Specter’s 1987 re-election campaign, after all Specter was the ultimate self-server.

Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right is full of easily digestible, roughly 800 words each, columns that cover everything from politics, to family life and Smerconish’s oddly outsized obsession with the progressive rock band Yes. I give Smerconish big points for taking the author proceeds from this collection and donating them to the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, which serves children who are victims of trauma. This is not the first time Smerconish has donated the profits from his book sales to having donated his take from Murdered by Mumia to a charitable trust in Falkner’s name.

Dog Whistle or Dose of Reality

Messing With The Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News - Clint Watts (Harper)

Author Clint Watts serves up a dynamic book that is part autobiography, part call to arms, the makings of a high tech thriller and a bit of a political screed, in the form of Messing With The Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News. This is all based on his real world interactions with dirtbag terrorists, hackers and his meandering career path that has included stints in the U.S. Army, the FBI as an agent (twice) and as a cyber security guru/expert/blogger.

When he writes about playing high tech cyber-tag with terrorists as he tracks them around the wild frontier of the world wide web he offers up close insight into how the evil doers have transformed their game; transitioning their recruitment efforts from dodgy audio and video pronouncements to a steady diet of social media outposts and content. He paints a truly chilling portrait of this almost wholly un-policed realm.

While he clearly has first hand knowledge of the nefarious dealings that are ongoing in this online world and he paints a detailed if albeit scarry portrait of the new global jihad, it is when he shifts to politics that the book devolves into a bitter liberal screed, bashing Fox News, conservative media and the President.

He questions the level of expertise to be found in the current administration, which leads me to wonder what exactly so-called “expertise” of prior Washington leaders has gotten us? Never-ending wars on poverty and drugs that clearly aren’t working. Add to that terrible and expensive government healthcare (Medicare/Medicaid/VA), not to mention failing schools and infrastructure. So much for expertise.

Watts should stick to what he knows best; sound the warning bell on the negative impact of social media and offer up some insight into how to address the problem.

Peace Through Strength

War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence – Ronan Farrow (W. W. Norton)

President Ronald Reagan famously summed up his foreign policy doctrine by saying that America’s mission was to “nourish and defend freedom and democracy.” He, likely many strong leaders before him, dating back to Roman Emperor, Hadrian in the first century AD had a stated policy of “peace through strength.”  This policy of military might drove Reagan’s naysayers in the Democrat party and the media to the brink of their sanity as they often labeled him a cowboy or much worse. Yet the results speak for themselves with the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and around the globe attests.

Writing for the CATO Institute, Doug Bandow summed it up with the simple line “peace was the end and strength was the means.” Since Reagan, U.S. foreign policy has been a mishmash of failed policies that focused on trying to chit chat, or buy our way to influence around the globe with failings like the Clinton era of having former President Jimmy Carter negotiating a nuclear deal with North Korea, to Clinton’s failure to deal with international terrorists like Osama bin Laden; who famously dubbed the U.S. as a “paper tiger.” George W. Bush couldn't quite wrap his arms around whether or not he wanted to be a nation builder, and don’t even get me started on Barack Obama’s international apology tour and utter failure to deal with American’s held hostage around the globe, best summed up by his trading of five terrorists for an Army deserter. Then there is the debacle of the Iran Nuclear deal.

Apparently in the midst of him being thrust into the global spotlight for his investigative journalism on the sexual harassment/assault/#me too front, journalist Ronan Farrow found time to pull together his thoughts on the demise of American foreign policy in the Trump era in the form of War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence. Farrow tapped into his time working in various advisory roles in the Obama State Department and offers some interesting insight into the inner workings of the negotiations and process of working with globetrotting ambassador Richard Holbrooke.

I can’t help but think there is an almost childlike quality to liberal’s belief that you can somehow talk and buy your way to peace. While it may be a hard lesson for some, peace is not negotiated, it is won. So-called peace negotiations all too often boil down to battling over the size of the conference table for the peace negotiations (see Viet Nam War.)

For Farrow, much like Mark Twain’s death, the reports of the death of American foreign policy and influence are greatly exaggerated. While Farrow’s colleagues in the media will breathlessly speak of trade wars with China, in their eyes wrongheaded Presidential Tweets about “little rocket man” in North Korea and the utter folly of scrapping the awful Iran Nuclear deal and moving on without our European allies, the ends will be the return of a stronger United States on the international stage and the means will be through a position of strength, not kowtowing to thugs and dictators.

Welcome to the Swamp

Secret Empires: How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends – Peter Schweizer – (Harper)

Have you ever wondered how a hick from Searchlight, Nevada can go from the comfortable middle class to owning a multi-million dollar condo at the Washington, DC Ritz Carlton? (Harry Reid) Or how a guy from Delaware who never had a private sector job and was always in elective office could own a multi-million dollar house? (Joe Biden) Or how any number of the offspring from elected officials, who by and large are screwups, seem to magically land high paying, high profile jobs or become partners in big firms?

Welcome to the Swamp! Peter Schweizer, the president of the Government Accountability Institute, investigative journalist and bestselling author once again details the inner workings of just how corrupt Washington, DC politicians are in his new book, Secret Empires: How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends. Schweizer seems to possess the magical ability to track down the finite details of the sketchy dealings and connect the dots that flesh out the stories corruption, self-enrichment and seemingly free pass these folks get when it comes to acts that would find ordinary folks starring down law enforcement types from any number of Federal agencies.

Schweizer does an incredible job of stringing these stories together and he sets in sites on folks from both sides of the aisle, because neither Democrats nor Republicans have cornered the market on being virtuous. Unfortunately for taxpayers, this kind of nefarious activity is nothing new. Tales of scummy politicians steering business to family members, lobbying and legal firm that employ family members or guiding legislation to the benefit of family member’s business concerns is a time honored tradition. It does take much to find stories of dirtbags like the late Congressman John Murtha steering favorable defense contracts to the clients of his brother’s lobbying firm or Arlen Specter’s son benefitting from legal work at his Philadelphia firm.

Rather than just lamenting these shady deals, Schweizer suggests steps that can be taken to address, correct and eliminate this stuff outright. Here’s the problem; the actions to address the problem would take legislative action, and what’s the likelihood that the swamp would punch their own meal ticket?

An Establishment Tantrum

Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic – David Frum – (Harper)

The clues that lead to insight into author David Frum’s thinking about the Presidency of Donald J. Trump aren’t a few stray breadcrumbs spread occasionally along the path through the book; instead Frum lays out a full blown bakeries worth of crumbs that make it clear exactly where he bitterly stands as an establishment, Never Trumper.

This is about what you’d expect from a so-called “conservative” who naturally earns praise from liberals, not because they actually respect his position, but more so because he like they, is against pretty much everything the President has done or will potentially do while in office.

Frum tries, but fails to make the case that somehow Trump is a danger to the Republic. Here’s the problem with Frum’s establishment tantrum and liberals thoughts on Trump Presidency; Donald Trump had less to do with his election victory than Frum’s much vaunted, establishment approach to governing. In a very real sense it was Frum and his ilk that created the Donald Trump victory.

So while he jumps up and down waving his arms about the potential damage to the “system” being done by Trump, it is that “system” that pushed Americans to vote for Trump. Frum and friends seem to forget that the American people, the voters, know clearly the differences between right and wrong and when they saw Hillary Clinton and her band of cronies continue to screw the American people for their own self-enrichment, they got fed up with being dealt the short end of the stick, and Trump became their solution to the problem.

The Triggered States of Liberalism

How Democracies Die – Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (Crown Books)

I weep for the future of the United States…not because of the ridiculous, faulty case the authors of How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt try desperately to concoct, but more so because the pair are professors of government at Harvard University and charged with mold the minds of the snowflake generation.

Levitsky and Ziblatt seem to be clueless to the fact that they try to make the case in their introduction by citing examples of how global democratic nation states have been brought to their knees by liberal, socialist policies and try to equate that to the policies of Donald Trump.

Levitsky and Ziblatt fail miserably due to the simple fact that their argument on its face is based on a faulty premise. Liberals love to argue that we live in a democracy, but anyone with even a passing knowledge of the U.S. Constitution should know that we live in a Constitutional Republic. Pure democracies are mob rule. If we were a democracy, then Hillary Clinton would be President and California would have elected her, hence the need for the electoral college to level the playing field for all states.

Levitsky and Ziblatt are clearly suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, choosing to wallow in self-pity not pity for the nation, rather than enjoying the clear cut successes of Trump’s first year and more to come.

Strategic Collection

The Art of War: The Quintessential Collection of Military Strategy (Knickerbocker Classics) Sun Tzu, Nicolo Machiavelli, with An Introduction by Erik O. Ronningen - (Racepoint Publishing)

Over the course of time there have been shelves full of books written about strategic thinking and how to apply strategy to business. While many of these books have been touted as classics and have offered up nuggets of useful information most have not held up in the same fashion as the classic military strategy books that date back hundreds, if not thousands of years.

These military treatises have been interpreted and re-interpreted many times and have had variations that point to a way to utilize them in the world of business. Four of these truly classical takes on strategy are collected in a beautiful and extremely useful package dubbed, The Art of War: The Quintessential Collection of Military Strategy.

Housed in a sturdy slip cover, this well designed collection includes; Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Nicolo Machiavelli’s, The Prince, General Carl von Clausewitz’s, On War, and Fredrick the Great’s, Instructions to His Generals. Military veteran Erik O. Ronningen provides an introduction to the collection that not only informs, but adds historical context for each of the individual books.

While many renditions and interpretations of Sun Tzu have come before; I have muddle through any number of variations, the version included in this set tracks very well and is among the most relatible versions I have encountered. The von Clausewitz is a book that I have recommended many times after an instructor at West Point passed along his recommendation to me. There is something quintessential about each of these pieces that translates to even modern situations.

Perfect for fans of military history or business strategy, it has allowed me to jettison the individual, often dog eared copies of the four books. There is something substantial about the heft of this book/case that tells me it will stand the test of time, much like the texts it contains. While I have gifted my son with some of these books individually, I plan to purchase an additional copy to pass along to him this holiday season. 

Constitution 101

The U.S. Constitution: Explained for Every American – Ray Raphael – (Vintage)

Historian and Constitutional scholar Ray Raphael is out with a fresh update of his book The U.S. Constitution: Explained for Every American. Raphael does a pretty straight forward job of breaking down the clauses and amendments to the Constitution.

While should be pretty basic stuff to anyone who is paying attention to what is going on in the law and politics in our country, the more you watch the way people, including many of our leaders act, this may be the the perfect book to offer a clue to the clueless. In fact there are times when I think copies should be sent to all 535 members of Congress and to follow up with a test to see if they ever bothered to read the Constitution.

Waffles with your Constitution?

Don’t expect Raphael to pick sides when it comes to the thornier, oft-debated parts of the Constitution, like the Second Amendment’s seemingly never ending debate over guns. Raphael simply doles out both sides and lets the chips fall where they may, even in instances where case law supports the right to gun ownership.

In the end, I would have to say that by-in-large Raphael is fair and balanced in his explanations and that make this handy little book a good resource for beginning students and more experienced followers of politics to have on their bookshelf.

Inside Insight

All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump – Edward Klein (Regnery)

Bestselling investigative journalist Edward Klein has created a cottage industry out of gathering up sources that dole out insider insights from the most private of places within the Democrat party machine. That machine is comprised of vast array of folks from the realms of politics, the government, the entertainment industry, the media and big money donors.

In his latest outing All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump, Klein attempts to unravel the inner working of the seemingly ceaseless efforts to delegitimize the Presidency of Donald J. Trump. Klein makes compelling case that the gears of this concerted effort were well under way even before Trump was elected; dating back to the Obama administration and their efforts to try to derail and interfere with the Trump campaign and its supporters and team.

While the media continues to try to convince the American people that Trump and his campaign are guilty of “collusion”, which by the way does not exist in the U.S. Criminal Code, in reality the level of criminality and criminal behavior by Obama administration officials is staggering! Klein offers an insider’s take on any numbers of at the very least dubious behavior.

There are countless examples of how the media clearly knew that what they were reporting about Trump was either false or had been disproven, and yet they went ahead and reported it, only to later have it blow up in their face. Then they have the nerve to feign outrage over being labeled as FAKE news. The mainstream press has patently refused to understand that the game has changed and in an era of powerful tools in hands of citizen journalists they simply can’t get away with doling out bullshit and calling it news. The reaction to this load of hooey comes fast and furious to the point of giving them burns when they get called on the carpet.

Perhaps the most telling chapter is Klein’s run down of the establishment Republican’s who have gone out of their way to hinder so much of the Trump agenda. Sore loser clowns like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake and Mitch McConnell are almost worse than clueless asshat liberals like Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Ted Lieu.

Easily the most entertaining chapter involves the disengagement of Barack Obama. Since leaving office the Bamster seems more content to travel to high end vacation locales then he is interested in taking up the charge of leading the resistance to Trump. Perhaps in a throwback to his high school days leading the so-called “Choom Gang” a band of dope smoking teenagers Obama proudly led; Klein details Obama’s current favorite pastime of firing up a joint and playing video games in his man cave at the high end DC home in the Kalorama neighborhood that he purchased after finally(!) vacating the White House.   

More Proof…Liberals Are STUPID!

You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump (A So-Called Parody) – Alec Baldwin and Kurt Anderson (Penguin Press)

As a proud member, in good standing, of Middle America, you know those backwards bumpkins who have the nerve to live outside of New York City, Chicago or Los Angeles, I continue to marvel that the high brow, cosmopolitan types just can’t quite grasp the concept of how the anointed Hilary Clinton could possibly have lost the election, let alone to Donald J. Trump.

Trump absolutely drives these whack-a-mole liberals to the brink of their sanity and their reaction comes more often than not in the form of some high profile celebrity in full on meltdown mode. Probably no greater example exists than that of actor Alec Baldwin in the form of his portrayals of Trump on Saturday Night Live. Baldwin is convinced that the American people just love his smirky, posturing, over the top Trump. And therein lies the problem for liberals like Baldwin and so many other, who just can’t quite grasp the concept that Middle America is tired of their horseshit being jammed down our throats and that they actually contributed to Trump’s victory.

Now Baldwin is trying to capitalize on his Trump by teaming with writer Kurt Anderson to serve up the book, You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump (A So-Called Parody). You literally can’t make this stuff up; they included the line “A So-Called Parody,” in an attempt to be clever and somehow indicate that that this really isn’t a parody, that it is somehow a real accounting of the Trump Presidency. Parody is defined as a deliberate exaggeration for comic effect, the problem is there really is much of a parody here, or for that matter, much in the way of comedy.

What Baldwin and Anderson really end up doing is to run down a litany of misguided liberalism over the course of the long form. I can only guess that Baldwin and Anderson believe the polls that show Trump’s popularity numbers are sagging and that somehow they are hitting the right notes for the American people. If they don’t understand the negative consequences of believing polling, then maybe they need to have a chat with Hilary Clinton and her campaign team about how well buying into polls worked out for them.

For middle America it’s just more of the same from the elite liberals and I encourage them to keep on serving this stuff up because it will just help their folks to continue to lose election after election.

Or Maybe Not…

Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon and the US Government Conspired to Torture – Mark Fallon (Regan Arts)

16 years after the events of September 11, 2001 and 7 years after Navy SEAL raid that led the death of that events mastermind, Osama bin Laden seems like an odd time for the release of a book calling into question the enhanced interrogation techniques employed during the War on Terror. My only guess is the comment by President Donald Trump that he would bring back waterboarding and with some Trump-esque bravado, “and worse” is what spurred the publication of Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon and the US Government Conspired to Torture, from former NCIS investigator Mark Fallon.

Fallon, like so many others before him, makes the claim that the U.S. Government’s so-called enhanced interrogation techniques; sleep deprivation, stress positions, being forced to stand for long periods, exposed to extremes in temperature, isolation and waterboarding amount to torture. Fallon, again like so many before him, throws around things like the Geneva Convention’s prohibitions against torture and claims that so-called “torture” does not work, in producing actionable intelligence. Naturally, Fallon’s role as an insider in the war on terror, will have liberals falling all over themselves to foist “expert” status on him.

In the end, what Unjustifiable Means, amounts to is nothing more than one man’s opinion about whether or not the enhanced interrogation techniques amount to torture or not and if they produce the desired results. It’s easy to claim that they don’t work for any number of reasons, most notable is that our secret keepers can’t really lay specific claims to successes without revealing the instances where it clearly worked and the techniques that worked without broadcasting to the enemy the details of the process.

We do know with CERTAINTY, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the events of 9/11, was subjected to waterboarding among other approaches and in the process gave up the fact that bin Laden communicated from his Abbotabad hideout through a pair of couriers. That knowledge led to tracking those couriers back to bin Laden’s location, which in turn led to the Navy Seal raid that brought about his demise. Even the three major liberal networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, along with the Washington Post, Time and Newsweek among others concede this point.

As to torture and the Geneva Convention; I hardly think that even long periods of hot or cold conditions, sleep deprivation or being forced to stand for long periods, amounts to torture in the face of what journalists, military personnel or contractors have been subjected to by comparison. While I could never ask the question, I doubt if journalist Daniel Pearl would label that torture. The Geneva Convention claim is ridiculous on its face. Even Fallon himself concedes in the book, that this is a different kind of enemy and to think that terrorists could or would become signatories to an international treaty is absurd. I would bet that the folks who did sign that prohibition would strongly frown on beheading and burning prisoners alive.

While I do salute Mr. Fallon for his service, I am left to wonder when he claims that in his experience the most effective way to garner information and intel from a prisoner is to “develop a relationship” with them. He neglects to spell or give any detail on exactly what that process looks like and how it works. Faced with a life or death situation, I wonder how quickly that process would work and exactly how effective it is when the person you want to develop a relationship with would dearly like to cut your head off if given the chance.

Perception vs. Reality

Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment – Angela J. Davis – (Pantheon Books)

Angela J. Davis is a law professor at American University who has written, edited and contributed to numerous books and articles focused on the legal system, prosecutorial power and racial disparities. Her latest effort, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment, is a collection of essays in which she attempts to point out among many things the perception of undue focus on black men when it comes to policing, prosecution and imprisonment in the United States.

Professor Davis brings to the topics an inherent bias where she takes her pre-established beliefs and doesn’t attempt to prove those beliefs by backing them up with facts, but rather merely spells out what she believes to be the case. That loses her big points, because in some instances where actual disparities may exist, emphasis on MAY exist, she can’t overcome her own built in bias to make a proper case.

Much of what she writes about here comes off as simply checking the box to remain inside the pre-existing parameters of racial identity politics. Professor Davis is certainly welcome to have and state her own set of perceptions or feelings; the first amendment of the Constitution guarantees her that right, but she can’t have her own set of facts.

Often, the hard and fast facts simply don’t support some of the assertions Davis makes in the book. These aren’t mysterious or locked away numbers that counter her take on things; they an easy Google search away and come from places like the Washington Post and New York Times, so any bias complaints about sources go out the window.  

Bring It On!

This Fight is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class – Elizabeth Warren (Metropolitan Books)

“It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, referring to watching the 2016 Presidential election results. Now she knows what it was like for conservatives during the eight years of Obama.

When it comes to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) new book This Fight is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class, there is so much to work with that I almost don’t know where to start. For someone who is alleged to be an intelligent, respected researcher and professor before joining the Senate, Warren really doesn’t have a grasp on the basic concepts of how things work.

She claims to be a champion of the Middle Class and wants to offer up her prescription for “saving” that group of folks. But clearly she doesn’t have a basis for understanding the middle class. The Senator writes about the country coming out of World War II and how the middle class grew exponentially and she attempts to credit the government for that growth. Anyone with even a minimal grasp on history will know that the preponderance of manufacturing during the war was dedicated to supplying the military; consumer goods were practically unheard of. With the war over, growth and demand for those consumer goods would be off the charts and the economy couldn’t grow fast enough.

For someone who has been pegged as a rising star within her party and a potential 2020 Presidential candidate, This Fight is Our Fight, is a sorry recap of the same tired, class warfare politics that have been part and parcel of the Democrat agenda for decades.

Warren bemoans the pay gap but, neglects to mention it grew worse during the Obama years. She thinks that raising the minimum wage will help low skill workers, as if it a zero sum gain; companies will dole out the cash without raising prices, right? But that is the mindset of the Democrat party which thinks that they fixed healthcare with Obamacare, which gave us HIGH deductible plans and curbs access to care not eases it.

Warren complains about trade deals that make it cheaper for Nabisco to make Oreos in Mexico and ship them here, than making them in Chicago. Just as a reminder, who did that? Democrat President Bill Clinton! Perhaps Ms. Warren needs to take off her political blinders and take a look at what President Trump is saying about NAFTA and the need to renegotiate that flawed deal.

Like so many clueless Democrats, Warren snipes at Ronald Reagan, “dubious theory of trickle-down economics.” The hard facts for Warren and other liberals to swallow is that the revenues collected from federal income taxes during every year of the Reagan administration, were higher than the revenues collected from federal income taxes during any year of any previous administration.

Trump: How We Got Here, Where We Are Going

At this writing, the Trump Presidency is well into its first 100 days and is in full swing of knocking down things that are on his agenda. It is at this time that it makes sense to take a look at two new books, one that focuses on how we got here and one that offers us insight into where we are headed.

The Making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated A Revolution – Roger Stone (Skyhorse Publishing)

Journalist and historian Theodore White made his mark when he penned the classic look at John F Kennedy’s historic, successful White House run in 1960 with his book, The Making of the President 1960. White would later continue that tradition, penning tomes examining the Presidential runs in 1964 and 1968. Each of these books looked not only at the Presidential campaigns, but also marked the historic nature of the times.

While certainly not falling into the more scholarly vein of White’s works, longtime political strategist and campaign consultant Roger Stone takes a whack at writing about the Presidential campaign and an equally historic nature of the election in The Making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated A Revolution.

Ever the iconoclast, Stone made for the perfect choice to lead business mogul Donald Trump’s nascent Presidential campaign in its earliest days. Stone cut his political teeth during the election of Richard Nixon, played key roles in the elections of Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush; as well has parachuting into Florida to lead the recount the elected George W Bush in 2000.

Stones relationship with Trump dates back to the businessman’s first flirtation with Presidential politics under the banner of the Reform Party in 2000. That toe in the water effort, set much of the foundation of what would become Trump’s 2016 run; the ultimate outsider, running for an insider’s nomination. Stone offers interesting insider knowledge on the struggle that the Republican establishment had with the Trump candidacy and the fact that veteran Republicans truly underestimated strength of his campaign.

Stone lifts the tent flap and offers a glance inside many of the storylines that became part and parcel of the 2016 campaign. Stone offers up his thoughts on Wikileaks and Julian Assange, any connection between the leaked emails and the Russians, insiders knowledge of the Clinton cabal including characters, crackpots and criminals like Huma Abedin, Anthony “Carlos Danger” Weiner, Jeffrey Epstein and the heads of the criminal enterprise, Bill Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

Big Agenda – President Trump’s Plan to Save America – David Horowitz (Humanix Books)

Okay, so we won the battle (Republican primary) and then the War (general election) and to the victor go the spoils. Now what? That is the simple, direct question that conservative commentator and bestselling author David Horowitz attempts to tackle in his new book Big Agenda – President Trump’s Plan to Save America.

Anyone familiar with Horowitz’s background and story, moving from the far left, coming to the realization that liberalism is a lie and his transition to becoming a conservative icon; it is that back story that gives him the credibility and insight into what is at stake and what needs to be corrected. Horowitz rightly predicts that Trump will have to start out, focused on repairing the damage done to the country over the course of the past eight misguided years of Obama.

Horowitz not only outlines some of the issues Trump will have to address to right the ship of government he also delivers some common sense approaches to not only take the additional steps to move the country forward, but also to drive the proverbial wooden stake into the democrat vampires.

Based on the first moments of the Trump Presidency, it is obvious the Democrats game plan is to disparage Trump, question Trumps integrity, raise silly questions about things like Russians and taxes; you know the stupid things that their less then best and brightest followers will gravitate toward. Horowitz posits that Trump needs to club these clowns like the frothing, rabid dogs they are. And based on what we’ve seen up to this point they are rocked back on their heels, trying to figure out what’s next.