News round-up: Obama's EU suck-up, $20 for Harriet Tubman, Cruz identifies problem with transgender logic, and goodbye to a tax fighter

Looks like feathers were ruffled when London mayor Boris Johnson opined that the "part-Kenyan president" of the United States should not be meddling in affairs concerning Brexit—that is, the upcoming June referendum in which British citizens (which includes me, just so we're clear) will vote on whether or not to leave the European Union. The Leave campaign is furious at Obama's intervention in the battle over Brexit and I don't blame them.
Forget for the moment the no-brainer involved in voting to exit this politically correct, power-hungry bloc with its unelected leaders. Why does everyone think that Obama has the right to interfere as he likes? Would George W. Bush have been given this kind of slack? Would there be anger if Reagan got told off by the Brits for lecturing them on an issue that is for her own people to decide? I think we know the answers to those questions.
Yet when Johnson tries to put this egomaniac in his place, it's so disrespectful to the "Leader of the (Not-so) Free World".
Presidents can of course give opinions on the policies of other nations, but Obama, as always, stepped over the line. Just as his administration previously tried to sway the vote against Bibi Netanhayu in Israel, President Barry has gone so far as to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron in helping to prop up the "Stronger in Europe" campaign.
We all know that Cameron has no balls and is the typical politician, so it's no wonder he hasn't told the President to butt out. Really, David? You get shunted aside at last month's global nuclear conference and you're welcoming this big-eared joke to 10 Downing Street to perform a minstrel dance—yeah, I said it, dear reader!—in favor of European bureaucrats? You really don't have a spine, do you? No wonder Michael Savage calls you "Ca-moron".
The only thing Obama ever got right is when he said that Scotland should stay with the U.K., with respect to the September 2014 Scottish independence referendum. There were very good reasons for Scotland to remain part of the U.K., and I'm glad it has. Obama, however, is all about limiting freedoms to people, so it doesn't take much guesswork to know the angle from which he approached the issue.
Menzies Campbell, the leader of the Liberal Democrats—who are in the "Stronger in Europe" camp—said that the comments made by Johnson that Obama's position on Brexit is "paradoxical, inconsistent, incoherent" and that Barry himself symbolizes an "ancestral dislike of the British Empire," constitutes a "loaded attack on President Obama's sincerity."
Obama and sincerity are two words that do not go together, unless it's about attempts to turn the United States of America into a third-world hellhole.
Hillary Clinton has decided she wants the U.K. to remain in the EU as well. Is there anything this criminal fraudster, this disgusting harridan, won't agree with Obama about?
I'm with Boris Johnson and UKIP leader Nigel Farage on this one. Mr. President, I say with all due respect, of which there is none: Keep your imposing ass out of our referendum. This is for us Brits to decide, not you! Is that clear enough for you?

Tubman is no Jackson

As much as I appreciate Harriet Tubman's contribution to the Union during the Civil War, I do not think she deserves to be on the $20 bill. I am an American citizen as well as British, and I dearly wish the Community Disorganizer in Chief would stop dicking around with American traditions. I know that's like wishing the moon really was made of cheese, but hey.
Andrew Jackson led an incredible life and he shall always be among the most prominent Americans in the nation's history. Not that the Dear Leader gives a stuff about any of that. I am sure that, in Barry O.'s eyes, Jackson was a typical white person with racism in his DNA.
An interesting fact about Jackson is that his struggle against John Quincy Adams reflects the acrimony between the Trump and Cruz campaigns. Jackson blamed Adams and his supporters for his wife's death during the 1824 presidential race as they had referred to Rachel Jackson as a "bigamist." Jackson was convinced that this insult had contributed to her fatally poor health. And you think Teddy Boy and the Donald have problems!
I can go into this in detail, but I won't. Suffice to say that Obama has—golly gee willikers—shown himself as a hypocrite. Yes, Tubman may have been black and a female, to boot. She was also quite bold in her embrace of firearms with which to dispense with members of the Confederacy.
I wonder if this will ever get pointed out by the anti-gun fanatics in the media or other so-called intelligentsia? Probably not. Because as we have seen by now, if this supposed President needs his ass cleaned, a plethora of drooling tongues are at the ready.

Stark raving nuts, the "new normal" of bathroom etiquette

Quoteth Ted Cruz:

Donald on television this morning said gosh he thought men should be able to go into the girls bathroom if they want to. Now let me ask you: have we gone stark raving nuts? It is simply crazy and the idea that grown men would be allowed alone in a bathroom with little girls—you don't need to be a behavioral psychologist to realize bad things can happen and any prudent person wouldn't allow that, and it is only the lunacy of political correctness.

Now, Donald Trump:

North Carolina did something. It was very strong. And they're paying a big price. And there's a lot of problems. North Carolina, what they're going through with all the business that is leaving and strife—and it's on both sides—you leave it the way it is. There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate, there has been so little trouble.

Cruz, to give credit where it's due, is completely correct. How does Trump know that there has been "so little trouble" with regard to transgender restroom legislation? Now then, if he is referring to biologically born men who have had the operation and can suitably pass as women, perhaps not. If, however, we're talking about dudes like Caitlyn Jenner who live as women but still possess their meat-and-two-potatoes, yeah, there's bound to be trouble.
It is worrying how little thought all the "good" people, like Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Zuckerberg, et al., have put into what allowing any man who claims to feel more like Jane than John into women's restrooms will do to the psyches of little girls or rape or other sexual assault victims of any age.

The LGBT lobby, as is its forte, thinks only about what lunacy it demands and screw anyone else, and we've got cowards everywhere who back it up. Courageous positions, my ass. Ask Curt Schilling about true courage. He's got a pink slip from ESPN to demonstrate where genuine courage, and the dissemination of common sense on your own social media page, will end up getting you.
I guess this is the "new normal" about which we hear so much.
Where's CAIR on this issue, when they could actually be of some good to the nation? A boy brings a clock that looks like a bomb to school and, when he is arrested, it's the beginning of an anti-Muslim Gestapo force in the U.S. CAIR screams and hollers when states like North Carolina, Tennesse or Iowa consider legislation barring Sharia law. You know, because every Muslim living in the U.S. is just so eager to experience a seventh-century lifestyle. Yet, American Muslim citizens will, if transgender activists get their way—and they will, you just know it—have to deal with biologically male persons in the same bathroom as their women who are so pure they have to cover up. This should ring alarm bells all over the offices of CAIR. Yet it does not. On this they are silent.
Honestly, if you're Muslim and you believe in CAIR to stand up for you on issues that will actually affect your life, then you've been duped.

Barbara Anderson, R.I.P.

Another person of noteworthiness that 2016 has taken away from us is Barbara Anderson. Who is Barbara Anderson, you ask? She was the head of the non-profit Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT) organization.
She was a taxpayer advocate for the state of Massachusetts for 40 years, first coming to prominence on Jerry Williams's WRKO talk-show in 1981 where she and veteran reporter (and current talk-show host) Howie Carr would discuss fiscal policy on the Friday segment of Williams's show called "The Governors". She lost her battle with leukemia on April 8 at the age of 73.
Anderson helped craft Proposition 2½ which was passed by voters in 1981, while Michael Dukakis was governor, which, to this day, keeps a wary eye on property tax increases. Twenty-year CLT veteran Chip Ford said that Anderson was a libertarian and "stumbled" into the leadership position of the group. Ford says from that point on, she never looked back.
According to Shira Shoenberg's article on MassLive.com, "Anderson led Citizens for Limited Taxation for years, working to preserve property tax relief, reduce the state income tax and oppose a graduated income tax structure."
Godspeed, Barbara Anderson.

Stream-of-consciousness nitpickings ...

I am seriously squeezed for time, but I have to get an entry out. So, this one, dear reader, will be a rather off-the-wall, stream-of-consciousness product. Sort of like one of my news mash-ups, but not as structured.
Here we go:
Happy Earth Day, everyone. Now take all your recycling, toss it all in a big plastic trash bag and place it on the curb. That's how you celebrate.
I jest, of course. It makes sense to re-use what we can, but I just wonder how many resources, including water, we use up in so doing. It's great that so many former landfills are now parks or nature reserves and that formerly polluted waterways have been cleaned up. The environmentalists of the 1950s and 1960s shook us out of our bad habits and we're much the better for it.
Unfortunately, those who've followed in their footsteps have told us that we can't burn rubbish, even though the electricity it would generate would be helpful, because of toxic ash. We can't deal with ash?
They've also told us that the planet is constantly cooling/warming and experiencing bewildering changes in climate and that it's all our fault.
I wonder if we'll ever have an Earth Day that doesn't come with so much political baggage. 

* * * 

Ted Cruz—how can a dude who plays the the liberty-embracing purist conservative role boast so happily about voterless wins? Good for him, he played by the rules, but those rules change constantly, at the slightest whims of the GOP Establishment.
Cruz, if he really believes so fervently in the Constitution, should not disavow his delegates, but state for the record that he would rather have had voters deciding the contests in Colorado and Wyoming. Instead, he declared, "This is how elections are won in America." Ker-plunk!
Kim Jong-un also believes elections are won this way. Saddam Hussein was a big fan of the voter-free process.
As Michael Savage stated during his April 11 show, "We spent trillions of dollars to make sure the Iraqis could get some purple ink on their fingers and vote, and here in America we don't have a strike-force coming in from Zurich to make sure the Republican Party officials in Colorado are arrested immediately for rigging an election?" 

* * *

Russian war planes flying in low past a U.S. Navy warship in the Baltic Sea? That's Putin keeping us on our toes, that's all. If the current administration had even one ounce worth of common sense and geopolitical street smarts, we'd be allies.
As a regular caller to The Kuhner Report put it, "If anything, it [the simulated attack passes] showed the American navy how they defeated ISIS and protected the strong-man Assad, which we should have done. So, in other words, they're telling us: This is how you do it."
During the Cold War, Russia—as the U.S.S.R.—buzzed our ships, and we buzzed theirs, on a regular basis. It should not be like this anymore. These commitments we've made through NATO understandably grate on Russian nerves. America is poking the Russian bear in his own backyard.
I've long since grown tired of Cold War redux and these putrid neo-cons who wish us to believe that Putin's Russia is such a threat. Putin respects power. If a President who: (1) cared about the job and (2) had balls was in charge, Mr. Putin would not have done this.
Instead, Putin revels in goading Obama, showing him up for the irresponsible, feckless, cowardly disgrace to the Presidency that he is, and to be honest, I don't blame him one bit.

* * *

Back during punk rock's ascendancy in the late '70s, a Conservative member of the Greater London Council, Bernard Brook-Partridge, raged: "Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. I would like to see somebody dig a very, very large, exceedingly deep hole and drop the whole bloody lot down it."
Man alive, just how many other entities on the face of this globe could we say that about?

* * *

Marks and Spencer, a British department store, has been criticized for launching a "burkini," a swimsuit for Muslim women. French minister Laurence Rossignol opined that it gives assent to the idea of women's bodies "being locked up," and that women who approve of it are akin to "negroes who supported slavery".
Former Yves Saint Laurence partner Pierre Bergé said that Marks and Spencer's burkini, and the trend of other designers such as Dolce and Gabbana who've tapped into Islamic fashion, represents a "total absence of morality".
Bergé said, "Designers should not get in this market, which is the denial of fashion. I find the behavior of these brands shameful. We must teach [Muslim] women to revolt, to take their clothes off, to learn to live like most of the women in the rest of the world."
Now then, I think designers have gone overboard in encouraging women to take their clothes off. There is something very good to be said for modesty which the hyper-sexual ways of the Western world have pretty much killed off. But Rossignol and Bergé are correct in noting that embracing the restrictive clothing of a religion that does not encourage independent thought and seeks to cover women up because its hierarchy is afraid of feminine sexuality is going too far.
A letter-writer to the Metro nailed it by noting, "It's sadly indicative of society today that people accuse the French women's rights minister of racism when she attempts to stop the sale of a product designed to support a culture that views women as second-class citizens."
Exactly. Feminists, you want to combat a war on women? Well, there it is, have at it. Funny, though, you're strangely silent on this. It just does not compute in your robotic brains if the object of your distaste is not white, straight and Christian. You know, "bitter clingers."
Europe is not Saudi Arabia nor Iran. It's time people found their voices and holler "enough is enough" at the ever-encroaching mores of Islam dictating our lives.

* * *

You have to hand it to the French, they have stepped up the fight against the very encroachment of Islamic mores in their society that I referenced.
Air France, hungry for the moolah that the foolish ending of sanctions against Iran have provided opportunities for, has resumed flights to Tehran. Stewardesses for the airline revolted at the diktat that they had to don headscarves upon arrival in the Islamic Republic. Air France relented by announcing that female flight attendants could opt out of working on the Tehran route, though it would have been better if the business had shown some testicular fortitude in defending them completely rather than providing a half-measure.
However, gay male stewards have raised a stink over flying to a nation where homosexuality is punishable by death. The French flight and cabin crews union representative, Jean Marc Quattrochi, responded that the matter of "sexual inclination" is different because whereas women cannot hide their gender, gays can choose not to display their sexuality.
"The fact for a woman is that we surely know she's a woman, it's written on her passport," says Quattrochi. "When she arrives in Tehran, she will be forced to wear the scarf. For a gay person, nobody knows that he is gay."
While this is true, it ignores the spirit behind the gay flight attendants' request. It's not a matter of hiding their sexual preference, but of boycotting the land that would kill them for their choice of mate.
I'm with the gays on this one. Air France, do the right thing. You cannot have your precious Tehran route at the expense of the values of the nation you represent.

* * *

Had enough of celebrating diversity yet? A 34-year-old "Bristol" man, Ali Abdullahi, has argued that "cultural differences" should be considered in a case in which he is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old female at a train station.
The Somalian, having previously committed other sexual assaults, approached the girl at the station in Torquay where she was waiting for the service to Bristol. The court heard that Abdullahi "behaved completely inappropriately."
The judge at Exeter Crown Court told Abdullahi, "The sex offending was not of the most serious kind, but would have been extremely frightening to both girls."
Yet, Abdullahi denied any misbehavior. The mitigation declared that Abdullahi "comes from a conservative culture in Somalia and misunderstands the extent to which ordinary polite engagement and interaction should or should not be seen as a precursor towards seeking to be physically close to someone in the way this case reveals."
In the end, Abdullahi was given a community order and told to attend a sex offender course designed to improve his conduct with young women. Yep. And I'm sure both will work wonders too.

* * *

Give it up for these rock-and-rollers, folks. They won't turn down the big bucks that performing in Japan, which does not recognize LGBT rights, or Dubai, where homosexuality is forbidden, brings in. But they can brush off North Carolina.
Bryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett, Ringo Starr, Pearl Jam and Boston have all cancelled gigs in the state to protest the "bathroom bill" that Governor Pat McCrory signed into law. The officially titled "Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act" allows for transgendered people who have had the "corrective" operation to use the relevant restroom. But for those who haven't, they must continue to use the restroom assigned to the sex as declared on their birth certificates.
In other words, the bathroom bill states, "The sky is blue. Not purple, not red, not whatever you'd want it to be. The sky is blue."
This, according to hysterical liberals (are there any other kind?), is akin to "Jim Crow" policies. States and cities across the country have instituted travel bans on North Carolina, companies such as PayPal and Deutsch Bank have threatened to leave the state, cancelling their previous expansion projects, and the New York Times and Washington Post have written their editorial screeds in opposition.
No-one in the media dares bring up the obvious: What happens when a sex predator who declares himself to be female enters a women's restroom on that pretense? Who will address that? Not Donald Trump. Looks like "New York values" got the better of him.
We're going to need police officers on "bathroom duty" to ward off the perverts and child-molesters because of the transgender agenda and the mindless support it has generated among the sheeple who say, "But I want to be good!"
These rock performers though. Is there anyone other than Springsteen who is still relevant? None of them thought for a moment about their North Carolinian fans. The assumption is, "oh, they'll be with us."
I'd be pissed. What kind of artist does that? Opine against the law on-stage if you like, free speech and all, but don't shut your fans out. In the case of Adams, Pearl Jam and Boston, they need all they can get. Say "Bryan Adams" to most people these days and they're likely to respond, "Did you mean Ryan Adams?"
Well, I'm pretty sure North Carolina will still continue to get Toby Keith, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock. So all's not completely lost.

* * *

Speaking of rock stars ... Really now, 2016? David Bowie wasn't enough for you? You had to take Prince as well?
Merle Haggard, Victoria Wood, Ronnie Corbett, Garry Shandling, Keith Emerson, Nancy Reagan, George Martin, Paul Kantner, Alan Rickman and Glenn Frey. Hell, even Rob Ford. They've all stopped coming down for breakfast at some point since New Year's Day.
And it's only April.

* * *

Oh yeah, Happy Earth Day. I think I said that already.

More campaign news, more nonsense ...

Congratulations to Ted Cruz for his double-digit figure win in Wisconsin. If Trump had won that contest, things would pretty much have been locked up for him. Cruz's win has ensured that the Republican race for the nomination remains competitive and interesting. Not that I want "competitive" or "interesting". If I want competitive, I'll watch sports. If I want interesting, I'll people-watch in the park. Turns out, I'm not interested in either. I want a nominee and I want one now. The novelty of this campaign wore off long ago.
Trump, very much not to his credit, has said that he does not see the need to focus on Hillary until he's knocked Cruz out. Wisconsin has come and gone—and he hasn't come any closer to doing that.
Perhaps I was a bit mean-spirited in calling Mr. Cruz a phony in my last entry. I'm angry because there are elements to Cruz's past that I am not impressed with. Why did he not support more conservative challengers to Mitch McConnell in 2014? Cruz supposedly has such monumental right-wing purist credentials, but when Matt Bevin could have used this maverick's help, well ... Cruz wasn't such a maverick or "outsider" back then. That bothers me, and it bothers me immensely.
Cruz supported granting Obama fast-track authority with regard to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), known as Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), with his May 2015 vote in the Senate. In early June, he claimed TPA did not "give the President more authority" with regard to negotiating trade deals. Later that month, when the issue came up for a second round of voting in the Senate, after the House rejected TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance), Cruz said that he suspected that "Republican leadership had promised supporters of the Export-Import Bank a vote to reauthorize the bank" before it expired and therefore voted against the measure. I appreciate this vote and his stance, but can I—or anyone—be confident that this wasn't a ploy concocted to allow Cruz a platform on which to distinguish himself for a Presidential run?
"Hey, look, people, I called Fishface a liar on the Senate floor," Cruz could tell us. But will he ever tell us about the subsequent praise for Cruz's acting performance, expressed through a pantload of pats on the back, by McConnell behind closed doors? Don't tell me that this is not how politics works. You know damn well that it does.
Trump has been dirty and is all too keen for gutter brawls, I won't deny this for one second. It exasperates me. He is 70 years old and so often acts like he's 17. I do appreciate his off-the-cuff remarks, it definitely separates him from the so-called "professional" politicians. But it has also gotten him into trouble, as with the abortion issue brought up during a recent interview with Chris Matthews. Trump said in the instance of Roe vs. Wade being overturned, in any state in which abortion could then be declared illegal, there would have to be "some kind of punishment" for women who get them—which is as low as low can get. I don't care if you're pro-life or pro-choice, that is one nasty-ass thing to say. You won't stop abortion even when it's illegal. Before 1973, women were getting abortions, in back alleys and often dying from botched operations. They, obviously, are not to blame.
Trump then more accurately pointed out that it's the doctors who would have to face punishment. But it was too late. The damage was done. It's not so easy to tiptoe backwards from this kind of bomb once the fuse has been lit. Chris Matthews may be a puke, but he'd boxed Trump into a corner and it was almost effortless on his part, because Trump keeps ad-hoc'ing his positions.
Mr. Trump, before you sink your campaign, please start listening to advisers. If you don't have any advisers, then get them. You can no longer wing it. Think of it like a video game. Perhaps you can fudge your way through the first few levels and kick butt. But then actual skills are going to be needed for the upcoming levels or you'll either fall behind or get a "game over".
Time to learn some debating skills, Donald. It's no wonder Cruz is saying you're afraid to debate him one-on-one. When it comes to verbal sparring, Cruz is an expert. But Cruz, debate champion that he is, has not exactly taken the high ground either throughout all this. Every time Trump tweaks him, Cruz engages.
Come on, Cruz-bots, if your man is as pure as the driven snow, then how come he does not simply dismiss Trump as a bore and focus on the real issues of substance? Is that not what Reagan did? We don't have one idiot dragging down the Republican nomination process, we've got two.
I declared my support for one of these idiots because I do believe that once the smoke has cleared from this exasperating campaign, Trump will be the leader his supporters believe him to be. Cruz would too, except for this, dear reader: Cruz, like every other Presidential contender before him, is not self-funding. He had to take a bank loan to fund his US Senate bid to represent Texas, so how has he gone this far? Well, thanks to the aforementioned Fishface, for one thing. And, for another, donors. So this man will have to pay the pipers—the donor class with all of its BS—once he's in office.
There you have it. This is exactly what Trump supporters like me are tired of.
Before I let you go, dear reader, I want to address this complete nonsense, as if we haven't had enough of that already, regarding the female Breitbart reporter at Trump's rally in Jupiter, Florida. I won't address her by her real name, because she's had more than enough attention and she's obviously a whore for exactly that sort of thing. It's Nightdragon policy to not mention terrorists or psychotics by name. So, I'll just call her Ms. Cantakeat (for "Can't take the heat).
Cantakeat is a known troublemaker. She previously called out police at an Occupy Wall Street event in New York City for pushing her to the ground when she was, in fact, in the way of their attempt to arrest some of the bums there. I do not exactly feel sorry for morons who get in the way of the police. Now she is calling out Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski for doing the same thing.
Lewandowski never even came close to doing such. He grabbed her arm to keep her from further approaching Trump, who she'd already accosted. Trump said, "She was actually—if you look at her—she's grabbing at me and he's acting as an intermediary and trying to block her from doing that."
That is exactly what the video shows. Trump is walking up the aisle and Cantakeat is right there, touching him, in an attempt to get an answer to some lame question she'd posed. Lewandowski steps forward, grabs her arm and leads—not pulls—her out of the way. Ms. Cantakeat doesn't even stumble, never mind tumble to the ground. She may have experienced a very slight misstep upon Lewandowski grabbing her. That's it.
Yet Cantakeat filed charges with the Jupiter police who arrested Lewandowski with a charge of battery. Trump replied that he would not ruin a man's life over much ado about nothing by firing him and said that, in fact, he ought to consider filing battery charges against Cantakeat. I wish you would, Donald, and teach that brat a lesson.
Political reporting, indeed, any kind of reporting, is a rough business. You get grabbed, you get pushed, you get intercepted. It's rarely personal, but getting the news very often involves rugby scrums. If Lewandowski had grabbed a male reporter, we wouldn't have known about this. Most women reporters would have been mature enough to understand why Lewandowski acted as he did.
Ms. Cantakeat, either learn to take the heat or get out of this business. No-one wants to hear your accusations of misogyny in the field except Hillary supporters. If you want to play with the big boys, then learn how to deal. You have absolutely earned the wrath of Diamond and Silk. Give it to her good, ladies!
 

Cantakeat should team up with Roger Ailes's bint, the one Michael Savage calls "Martha Washington", and start their own FOX chat show. Two pretend conservative chicks clucking about how terrible it is for women in the media. The Establishment would embrace that in a New York minute.