1Ki
12:20 KJV And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that
Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the
congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none
that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.
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The tribe of Judah had a better future.
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The best opening bid may well be: “4 no trump”, particularly when the
partnership holds a long solid suit of Cruz.
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The other party might well be regarded as the cultural sons of
strangers - Marx, Stalin, and Mao - with no place in the congregation
of the chosen.
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“The problem with political jokes is that too many of them get
elected.” - Will Rodgers
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Thomas Sowell is perhaps the top serious economic, political, and
cultural commentator of our times.
Thomas
Sowell - Do Emotions Trump Facts?
townhall.com
[/] http://j.mp/0TrumpBad or
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2016/01/22/do-emotions-trump-facts-n2108178/page/full
Those
of us who like to believe that human beings are rational can
sometimes have a hard time trying to explain what is going on in
politics. It is still a puzzle to me how millions of patriotic
Americans could have voted in 2008 for a man who for 20 years --
TWENTY YEARS -- was a follower of a preacher who poured out his
hatred for America in the most gross gutter terms.
Today's
big puzzle is how so many otherwise rational people have become
enamored of Donald Trump, projecting onto him virtues and principles
that he clearly does not have, and ignoring gross defects that are
all too blatant.
There
was a time when someone who publicly mocked a handicapped man would
have told us all we needed to know about his character, and his
political fling would have been over. But that was before we became a
society where common decency is optional.
Yet
there are even a few people with strong conservative principles who
have lined up with this man, whose history has demonstrated no
principles at all, other than an ability to make self-serving deals,
and who has shown what Thorstein Veblen once called "a
versatility of convictions."
With
the Iowa caucuses coming up, it is easy to understand why Iowa
governor Terry Branstad is slamming Trump's chief rival, Senator Ted
Cruz, who has opposed massive government subsidies to ethanol, which
have dumped tons of taxpayer money on Iowa for growing corn. Iowa's
Senator Charles Grassley has come right out and said that is why he
opposes Senator Cruz.
Former
Senator Bob Dole, an establishment Republican if ever there was one,
has joined the attacks on Ted Cruz, on grounds that Senator Cruz is
disliked by other politicians.
When
Senator Dole was active, he was liked by both Democrats and
Republicans. He joined the long list of likable Republican candidates
for president that the Republican establishment chose-- and that the
voters roundly rejected.
With
both establishment Republicans and anti-establishment Republicans now
taking sides with Donald Trump, it is hard to see what principle-- if
any-- is behind his support.
Some
may see Trump's success in business as a sign that he can manage the
economy. But the great economist David Ricardo, two centuries
ago, pointed out that business success did not mean that someone
understands economic issues facing a nation.
Trump
boasts that he can make deals, among his many other boasts. But is a
deal-maker what this country needs at this crucial time? Is not one
of the biggest criticisms of today's Congressional Republicans that
they have made all too many deals with Democrats, betraying the
principles on which they ran for office?
Bipartisan
deals -- so beloved by media pundits -- have produced some of the
great disasters in American history.
Contrary
to the widespread view that the Great Depression of the 1930s was
caused by the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment never reached
double digits in any of the 12 months that followed the stock market
crash in October, 1929.
Unemployment
was 6.3 percent in June 1930 when a Democratic Congress and a
Republican president made a bipartisan deal that produced the
Smoot-Hawley tariffs. Within 6 months, unemployment hit double digits
-- and stayed in double digits throughout the entire decade of the
1930s.
You
want deals? There was never a more politically successful deal than
that which Neville Chamberlain made in Munich in 1938. He was
hailed as a hero, not only by his own party but even by opposition
parties, when he returned with a deal that Chamberlain said meant
"peace for our time." But, just one year later, the
biggest, bloodiest and most ghastly war in history began.
If
deal-making is your standard, didn't Barack Obama just make a deal
with Iran -- one that may have bigger and worse consequences
than Chamberlain's deal?
What
kind of deals would Donald Trump make? He
has already praised the Supreme Court's decision in "Kelo v.
City of New London" which said that the government can seize
private property to turn it over to another private party.
That
kind of decision is good for an operator like Donald Trump. Doubtless
other decisions that he would make as president would also be good
for Donald Trump, even if for nobody else.[My
emphasis,]
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