Acute Distress

On Thursday, March 3, the day of the final (perhaps*) Republican debate before voters go to the polls on March 15, former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, dropped trou and mooned every citizen who voted for and/or supports Donald Trump. Governor Romney's speech was designed to soften up Mr. Trump so that the Fox News moderators could administer the coup d'grace before it's too late.

Whether this unholy alliance achieved the desired result remains to be seen, but if they failed, there is always the possibility of establishment Republicans joining forces with establishment Democrats to deliver the White House to Hillary Clinton.

The people who have given Mr. Trump their votes don't know what they're doing, intoned Governor Romney, the same failed candidate who savaged Newt Gingrich in the 2012 Republican primaries but who refused to utter a negative comment against President Barack Obama during the presidential campaign.

That Governor Romney would attack the front runner of his own party and not be disavowed by the RNC doesn't make sense unless one looks at the political situation as if it were a less sanguine Game of Thrones. For twenty-eight years, control of the Iron Throne White House has passed back and forth between House Democrat and House Republican: Bush-Clinton-Bush-ClintonObama. Twenty sixteen was supposed to be a return to normal, another Bush - Clinton duel. But as Robert Burns so keenly observed, the best laid schemes of mice and men (and establishment politicians) gang aft a-gley. Donald Trump unexpectedly showed up just as had Barack Obama in 2008. Once again, the old order was in disarray. Barack Obama turned out not to upset the established order of things, but Donald Trump is a total outsider, so cannot be counted on to go along to get along.

By those lights, Governor Romney's whine (sic) wasn't made from the sour grapes of a failed candidate, but rather a failed candidate being sent out to destroy a candidate who threatens to upset the status quo that has been in place for nearly three decades, a status quo of borders open to third world immigrants who keep wages artificially low, a status quo of trade deals which advantage the emerging markets which return a higher rate of investment to the rentiers, a status quo of a country rapidly becoming bilingual, a status quo of perpetual war in the Middle East which benefits the military-industrial complex, a status quo of a declining middle class and expanding income inequality where students leave college with debt they cannot ever hope to repay, a status quo where mothers and fathers are terrified that an illness will bankrupt them, a status quo where people under 30 do not understand Socialism does not work but do understand that neither does Crony Capitalism.

The current strategy is to try to deny Mr. Trump the crucial number of delegates for an outright win so that the king makers can broker the Republican convention and bestow the nomination on a candidate who can be bought. They might well succeed, but what might actually be going on is a political party in acute distress, a political party that were it a patient in an ICU would be said to be in the throes of Cheyne-Stokes Respiration** and just about ready to take its final agonal breath.***

Like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Governor Romney and Fox News marched out on March 3rd to take down the Donald J. Trump windmill, but they just well might have taken down the Republican Party in the process.

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*In an effort to deprive Donald Trump of the nomination, the RNC is adding debates like people add salt to popcorn, so if Fox didn't accomplish what it set out to do, who knows whether another four or five debates won't be added?

** An abnormal breathing pattern which ranges from very shallow breaths to alternating periods of apnea and deep, rapid breathing.

***Agonal respiration is an abnormal pattern of breathing characterized by gasping, labored breaths accompanied by strange vocalizations and spasmodic muscular jerks. Jerks as used here should not to be confused with a term which best applies to Governor Romney in this instance.

De Bait

This week’s debate/Trump bash will take place tonight in Detroit, Michigan. In an effort to be fair and balanced and allow more people access to the debate, Fox has assigned Donald Trump a spot on the corner of Trumbull and Lincoln Streets. (See the twenty-five most dangerous neighborhoods in America (1).)

The other three candidates and the moderators will be at the Fox Theatre at 2211 Woodward Avenue, but good luck with getting tickets. The Republican Party has received 21,000 requests, but only 50 tickets will be available to the public (2).

Mr. Trump’s supporters are urged to join him at the corner of Trumball and Lincoln.

Rather than wait until tomorrow, Growltiger will save her dear readers the agony of watching yet another Republican slugfest, so going by what has gone before, here is her premature report on tonight's debate.

According to Fox's political pundits, Marco Rubio won, just as he has won all the debates except the one in New Hampshire where no amount of time in the spin cycle could dry him off.

John Kasich came in second, Ted Cruz third.

Donald Trump was terrible. He shouldn’t be allowed to participate because:

• He runs with scissors.
• He has small hands. (One of Marco Rubio’s brilliant jokes).
• He isn’t a conservative. 
• He donated money to Democrats in the past.
• He may have done business with the Mafia in New York, something no businessman in New York ever does or has done. 
• He didn't personally check out every person with whom he did business down to his/her third cousin once removed.
• He doesn’t properly vet the people attending his rallies and white supremacists might sneak in.
• He doesn’t have enough African-Americans at his rallies. Diamond and Silk don’t count. (3)
• David Duke did not endorse him but that doesn’t matter because Trump has not disavowed David Duke in every sentence he speaks.
• Thirty-five years ago a sub-contractor on the Trump Tower hired illegal (Polish) immigrants.
• He won’t release his tax returns. Being under IRS audit is no excuse.
• He might not be as rich as he says. 
• He's too rich.
• He will build a wall which will make Mexico mad and cut down on illegal immigration.
• He won’t build a wall; he’s lying about that.
• He’s been married three times.
• He said Planned Parenthood does good things for impoverished women. Being against abortion isn’t good enough.
• He’d be neutral in negotiating a peace deal between Israel and Palestine which means he doesn’t like Jews even though his daughter is one. 

Dr. Ben Carson wasn’t there. Dr. Ben paused his campaign. Not that it matters. In the previous 35 debates, the moderators didn’t ask him any questions anyway. Especially not about health care.

Speaking of the moderators. Fox News couldn’t get the Pope, Hillary Clinton or El Chapo, so they settled for Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace.

The Fox fox and her two cohorts worked all week with Fox News’s vice president of News and Washington managing editor, Bill Sammons, to come up with questions to help the political establishment, king-makers, big donors, conservative pundits destroy Donald Trump help voters decide. That Mr. Sammons’s daughter, Brooke Sammons, is Marco Rubio’s press secretary has nothing to do with Fox News’s neutrality. Only the most cynical of readers will wonder whether Senator Rubio had any inkling of the questions that would be asked beforehand.

After all, as Mark Twain says, "If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it."

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(1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/02/most-dangerous-neighborhoods-america-detroit_n_3187931.html

(2)Tickets

(3) http://www.diamondandsilkinc.com/

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Your curious cat stumbled onto an interesting interview which at an hour and a half long is probably too long for most of her followers.

The host and author Diana West discuss the hysterical rage the conservative and Republican establishment is directing not only at Donald Trump but at those who support him. The degree of toxicity directed at Mr. Trump and his supporters has forced many Trump supporters into what Ms. West refers to as “The Trump Closet”. An example is a friend who lives and works in Washington, DC who is a closet Trump supporter but keeps silent for fear if s/he came out, s/he would lose his/her job. (Ms. West is paranoid enough about her friend that she refuses to divulge the friend's gender).

Ms. West and the host observed the sheer, unbridled terror the Trump candidacy has had on establishment Republicans, "conservative" pundits and consultants, K Street lobbyists, the donor class who contribute to the political campaigns of he Republican establishment and most especially the neocons who demand that candidates be pro unfettered immigration, free trade even at the expense of America's workers and pro-internationalism. They see the unabashedly pro-American and anti-illegal immigration Trump as an existential threat to their carefully constructed “new world order”. They believe government power as a way to remake humanity, to remake the globe, and in so doing according to Ms. West allow the immigration equivalent of a new Los Angeles every three years.

Republican politicians like Benjamin Strasse of Nebraska are campaigning openly to "Stop Trump". Anyone with a functioning neuron has to wonder why. They claim Mr. Trump at the top of the Republican ticket will cause the GOP to lose their majorities. They claim Mr. Trump will drive away Hispanics and Independents. What they don't say is that Romney won the Independent vote, that Hispanics prefer big government 3:1 and that Romney could have gotten 73% of  the Hispanic vote, and still would have lost.

Mr. Trump, who once belonged to the donor class, has crashed the Establishment Party, and that is where the rage and invective from the right is coming from. She predicts it will only get worse, and posits that even if Mr. Trump loses the nomination, he will never be forgiven for ripping off the masks of pundits and politicians who have deceived and are deceiving the American people. One of the more interesting quotes that came out of the interview was on the subject of whether Europe is "committing suicide". No, the host observed, "governments (of Europe) are murdering their own countries." The fear is that the same thing is happening in America.

Below are a few excerpts from the dictionary Ms. West has compiled of quotes directed at Donald Trump (2) by "conservatives" demeaning Mr. Trump for being a crude vulgarian. Growltiger wonders how many of her readers have formed their opinion based upon the reports of these pundits.

• GOP strategist, Rick Wilson, in a quote directed at Ann Coulter which is too vulgar for Growltiger to include in her blog.

• A quote from Jonah Goldberg which is the particularly crude word for a bodily function that children refer to as Number 1. 

• A quote from one of Scott Walker’s strategists which doesn’t use Mr. Goldberg’s word, but uses a word usually descriptive of men one does not like that is not acceptable in polite society and begins with a p.

Below are some that can be printed.

• Trump is "a reality-television grotesque with his plastic-surgery-disaster wife." National Review's Kevin Williamson . Bonus: Williamson deplores Trump for "ungallant behavior". 

• "Witless Ape Rides Escalator" -- This is the headline for National Review's very first report by Kevin Williamson on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential run. 

• "Turning to Donald Trump to solve the problems in Washington is like turning to an ape to fix a broken refrigerator." -- Stephen Hayes, Fox News & Weekly Standard, August 8, 2015 

• "If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling."  Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 31, 2015 

• The donor class "are still going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump. And that’s a fact.” -- Republican consultant Rick Wilson on MSNBC 

• "The clown site of the Internet beclowns itself yet again." Commentary editor John Podhoretz tweeting @ Breitbart News report on Trump rapping critic George Will for failing to disclose his Will's wife worked for then-presidential candidate Scott Walker.  

• "Fact-checking Donald Trump is like picking up after a dog with diarrhea."  Stephen Hayes, Weekly Standard, on Fox News . (At least Mr. Hayes used the word diarrhea. Perhaps it was because he was on television. In a written article, Mr. Hayes used the same word Mr. Goldberg used above which Growltiger, while certainly no prude, shows her own snobbishness by consigning anyone who uses it to incredibly low social status.)

• "Trump’s Immigration Plan Is Hardcore Porn For Nativists," August 19, 2015 -- headline over article by David Harsanyi at The Federalist. It opens: Donald Trump is porn for nativists. Now, a person can derive much political self-gratification from wishful thinking, but remember porn isn’t real. So enjoy daydreaming about mass deportations and visualizing the repeal of birthright citizenship, but don’t let yourself get desensitized to reality....

• Trump "is soiling the robe of conservatism and dragging it through the dust."  Bill Kristol, editor, Weekly Standard, on why he "loathes" Donald Trump.

• "The gross thing is, you can kind of imagine a Trump sex tape." -- Kevin Williamson, National Review correspondent, director of the William F. Buckley fellowship program in political journalism, New Criterion theatre critic.

• "Trump’s fans—not all, but enough—aren’t turned on by softcore white papers authored by Jeff Sessions, they want the hard stuff. " David Harsanyi, The Federalist   

• Trump's policies are "a parade of semi-sophisticated policies that act as bathroom deodorizer to mask the stench of this candidacy."  Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal 

• "Finally, this thing [Trump's candidacy] cannot be cut off at the head. An insurgency needs its supply lines cut." -- Noah Rothman, Commentary assistant online editor, referring, it would seem, to free press/free citizens not sufficiently hostile enough to Trump. 

• "By the way, I knew Andrew Breitbart. Andrew Breitbart was a friend of mine. He would vomit over what you've done to his name."  Commentary editor John Podhoretz, tweeting @ Breibart report on Trump rapping Trump critic Will not disclosing wife's ties to Walker campaign.

And these are the "classy" folks who call out Donald Trump for being crude. Growltiger's readers can decide for themselves whether crudeness lies more in an unacceptable word like damn or hell or whether it lies in descriptions like those above applied to human beings or whether it's downright creepy for so many sexual allusions to be included in writing about a political candidate.

For those who wish to read the entire dictionary, it can be found at:

The Big Conservative Dictionary of Donald Trump

Those who have the time to listen to the entire interview can find it at:

Interview with Diana West

In Moderation

Growltiger did not watch the Democrats' last debate. Since she won't be voting in the Democrat primary, she doesn't need to evaluate the candidates. But she does have an opinion. Right or wrong, Senator Sanders believes what he's saying. Right or wrong, Secretary Clinton says what she needs to say to get elected. And like Donald Trump's candidacy, Senator Sanders's candidacy is the clarion call of an electorate fed up with the professional political establishment that has developed into a ruling political class which the people believe rightly or wrongly represent only the interests of Wall Street and Washington.

The same questions were asked that have been asked in all the other debates and will be asked in all the future debates. The difference was in what happened before the debate as outlined below and the professionalism of the moderators which stood out in stark contrast to the moderators of previous debates with the exception of Fox Business. 

David Muir and Martha Radditz were professional and courteous while at the same time kept control, asked difficult questions and corrected the record when necessary. (When Senator Cruz blamed CNN misreporting Ben Carson's dropping out for his campaign having deceived Iowa caucus goers, Ms. Radditz quietly interjected that CNN corrected its false report within one minute.) As an added bonus, Ms. Radditz was dressed in proper business attire and did not look like she was going to a cocktail party.  

The classiest moment of the debate occurred before the first question was asked, when the applause for Governor Christie drowned out the announcers calling out Dr. Carson's name. Not having heard his name, the retired neurosurgeon stood in the wings and looked confused when the announcer called for Senator Cruz. (Perhaps he thought the Cruz campaign had convinced ABC he had dropped out).  

Senator Cruz looked surprised, but pushed around Dr. Carson and took the stage. The announcer, still not realizing Dr. Carson had not taken the stage then called Mr. Trump's name. Unlike Senator Cruz who was taken unawares, Mr. Trump had forewarning. Instead of taking the stage, he walked over to Dr. Carson and stood beside him. They had a brief, unrecorded, conversation which one supposes Mr. Trump explained what had happened. The announcer, still unaware of the mix-up called for Senator Rubio and Governors Bush and Kasich. Rather than pausing and remaining with Mr. Trump and Dr. Carson, the Senator and Governors Bush and Kasich took their places. 

When the announcer finally realized Dr. Carson and Mr. Trump were not on the stage, he called their names. Mr. Trump paused, allowing Dr. Carson to take his place with the applause he deserved. 

To Growltiger, this small kindness to a fellow competitor showed more class and told more about Donald Trump's character than any answer to any question he might ever give.  

As in other debates, Mr. Trump neither helped nor harmed his candidacy. Those who dislike him will continue to dislike him; those who support him will continue to support him. He is not a professional politician, so does not give canned answers nor does he recite a list of his achievements in government. He is, however, an executive, so has more in common with the governors than the senators. His biggest vulnerability is on eminent domain, and in that instance, he would do well to have a canned answer.  Eminent domain is a complicated issue, and most people, including the cool cat, equate eminent domain to the Kelo decision and not the Keystone pipeline which also involves the private taking of property.

Governor Christie demolished Senator Rubio by pointing out that the first term senator gives a canned, rehearsed statement with which he responds to any question he's asked at which point Senator Rubio repeated the same canned, rehearsed statement at least four times. If the presidency were not in contention, this would have made excellent farce. At one point, Senator Rubio was gleaming with perspiration, not a good visual for a presidential candidate. 

Governor Bush looks presidential and is quite handsome until he opens his mouth. His delivery is halting and he comes across as a bit dim. Governor Kasich had an excellent debate, and had he not come unhinged in two of the previous debates, would be the establishment favorite. Ms. Fiorina was not allowed to participate due to her poll numbers which the tiger cat believes is a mistake and will be used against the eventual Republican nominee should Hillary Clinton win the Democrat nomination.

The one fault Growltiger had with the moderators was that they seemed to forget Dr. Carson was there. Dr. Carson is a good, honest, honorable (and probably the smartest and best educated) of the candidates, but he is too gentle to be president. In his one opportunity to show grit, he failed. When asked about Senator Cruz's campaign's shady political tricks in Iowa, Dr. Carson was accepting of Cruz's apology which brought to mind a letter in the Wall Street Journal letters section when Mitt Romney was running against President Obama. "If he won't fight for himself," the writer asked, "why should we believe he'd fight for us?" 

Pundits on both sides of the political spectrum realize there is a great the divide in the country, but few seem to realize the divide is not between the right and the left but rather between the globalists of the established political class and the American people, between the Washington politicians and the people they govern, and that explains the candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders and why on trade at least, they have more in common with each other than they do with their respective establishments.





  



  

Taking the Bait

Last Thursday night's debate wasn't on the schedule of debates until Donald Trump continued to lead in the Iowa polls. If Mr. Trump were to win Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina it would bode badly for the Washington Establishment Party.

Mr. Trump is famously politically incorrect. He wants the borders closed, says he will build a wall, won't grant amnesty to people who are living in the country illegally, disapproves of America's getting the short end of the stick on trade and would close the USA to Muslim immigration until we can figure out "what the hell is going on." All these are contrary to the Washington Party's platform. The Democratic wing of the Party needs illegals and Muslims to keep them in office, the Washington wing of the Party needs illegals to keep American wages low. Both sides need free trade, one to make billions the other to rail against.

So Fox and the RNC fused craniums and came up with a plan: Another debate. On Fox. A repeat of the first debate with the same three moderators who were supposed to finish off Trump, but didn't.

No one, including this cool cat, can explain why Fox failed in that first debate to take out Trump. He is a businessman, not a politician. The moderators knew what to do. The first question Bret Baier asked was if any of the candidates would not pledge to support the eventual nominee and not run as an independent. He knew before he asked only one hand would go up. Trump already had said he might run as an independent, so if he didn't raise his hand, he could be accused of pandering, and if he did raise his hand, not being loyal. The classic "have you stopped beating your wife?" kind of question. Trump raised his hand.

Note: Since that night, Jeb Bush and numbers of other Republican Establishmentarians have said they would not support Donald Trump if he is the nominee, but Mr. Baier didn't ask for a show of hands Thursday night. Following Mr. Baier's salvo, Ms. Kelly hit Trump with the war on women broadside. This began the Kelly-Trump war of words.

Following the first debate, Fox's pundits proudly proclaimed that somebody other than Trump had won (as they have in every post-debate since. Thursday night's "winner" was Marco Rubio).

To the Media-Establishment's chagrin, Mr. Trump has continued to lead in popularity and the polls, hence the nuclear option: Another debate, on Fox, featuring the same triumvirate, four days before the Iowa Caucus. The three amigos, foxy Megyn, sober Chris and sweet Bret came loaded for Baier (pun intended).  They'd foraged around and scrounged up a Sanders supporting Muslim who didn't want to blow up anybody at the moment (1)  and an illegal immigrant who had made good (2) and invited them to ask questions.

Trump being Trump had to see what Fox and the RNC were up to. His difficulty was how to avoid the trap. He got his opportunity when a desperate National Review published a hit piece on Trump and Megyn Kelly invited the editor of National Review onto her show (along with Michael Moore) to take another whack at Trump. Note: National Review published a similar hit piece on Newt Gingrich when he posed a threat to the Washington Party candidate, Mitt Romney, in 2012 (3).

A confident Ms. Kelly tweeted out to @Chris Stirewalt "on 2016 race:  This race will look totally different, I promise, on Friday than it does today." #KellyFile #GOP Debate.

Note: Growltiger is befuddled by social media where people blurt out stuff they shouldn't, then are surprised that its public.

Mr. Trump suggested Ms. Kelly wasn't objective so perhaps her bias against him might disqualify her from moderating the debate. Fox denied that Ms. Kelly was biased and stood by her, pointing out that candidates could not select the moderator. Mr. Trump floated the idea that he might skip the debate.

In an attempt to deliver the coup d'grace, Fox put out the following statement: “We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president — a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings." (4, 5).

Another "nefarious source" claims the statement came from Roger Ailes himself.

Trump announced he would not be debating on Thursday night.

On Wednesday evening, Bret Baier interviewed Donald Trump on Special Report, coming close to downright rudeness in his attempt to force Mr. Trump into agreeing to participate in the Inquisition debate. Mr. Trump refused to commit one way or the other.

All day Thursday, Trump controlled the news. Would he show up? Would he not show up? With Fox's ratings-hence sales revenue-on the line, Roger Ailes picked up the telephone and called Mrs. Trump and Trump's daughter, Ivanka (6).

In the pre-debate show, the three amigos admitted they'd prepared two sets of questions; one set to use if Mr. Trump showed up, another set if he didn't. This was most curious. Why two sets of questions?  If this was not an ambush, why not a single set of questions based upon the issues important to voters? The three amigos did not mention that Fox News's debate executive's daughter, Brooke Sammons, is Marco Rubio's press secretary (7).

The night of the debate, Donald Trump appeared a mile away and held a fund-raiser for veteran's. Six million dollars was contributed which will be distributed to various veteran's groups. The Washington-Media complex cartel claimed Fox did not suffer in the ratings. However, the 13 million who tuned in Thursday night reflects a -48% drop from the 25 million who tuned in to the first debate on September 16. The comparisons the Washington-Media complex give are comparing Fox News's 13 million viewership to Fox Business's 11 million viewership which is comparing pancakes to watermelons. Fox Business is on fewer channels and is not the powerhouse Fox News is. (8)

So who won the Fox News-Donald Trump debate wars? No one knows, and no one can or will know until Tuesday when the results of the Iowa caucus are released. Meanwhile, Growltiger leaves her dear readers with the following exchange between Judy Woodruff and Roger Ailes (9):

Judy Woodruff: So you're saying the notion of the candidate saying, "I want to run for President because I want to do something for this country," is crazy.

Roger Ailes: Suicide.

(1) Peaceful Sanders Supporter

(2) I got in so let me stay

(3) Eye of Newt

(4) Take That!

(5) And That!

(6) One ringy dingy

(7) Daddy's Little Girl

(8) Pancakes and Watermelons

(9) Suicide

The Party's Over

"It's time to wind up the masquerade
"Just make your mind up, the piper must be paid..."*

Some are questioning whether the Republican Party will survive the tumult of this primary season and end up like the Whigs in the 19th century. But Growltiger wonders whether there has been a Republican Party since the helicopter carrying Ronald Reagan vanished into the distance. In catspeak, that means America's two party system hasn't existed since President George H. W. Bush announced the arrival of the "New World Order" and abandoned the "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge he used to gin up the base in order to win the 1988 election. In short, there is a Democrat wing of the Party and a Republican wing of the Party and most of the time it makes no difference to the establishment in Washington which of the candidates prevails. Other than his problems with the ladies and a plethora of "gates", how differently did Bill Clinton govern than George H. W. Bush?

Like Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama has been a transformative president. Unlike President Reagan, he has done so with little push back. In 2015, with the House and Senate in Republican control, Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, delivered in the budget everything on President Obama's wish list. Even Minority Leader, Pelosi, couldn't believe the cornucopia of gifts the Republican wing of the Party gave away.

And that, dear reader, explains Donald Trump in a nutshell.  We the People finally caught on.

Currently, the Republican wing of the Party is in an uproar. Pundits like George Will, Steven Hayes and Charles Krauthammer weigh in nightly on Fox News to warn the viewers that nominating Mr. Trump would be a disaster for the country. (Running the risk of sounding too catty, Growltiger wonders how? Like crashing the economy? Like destroying America's health care system? Like invading Iraq? Like drawing red lines in the sand? Like taking out Libya? The list could go on, but it would be redundant.) Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, in a last ditch effort to derail the Trump locomotive collected a group of intellectuals to denounce Mr. Trump (published today). Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard has stated he would vote for the Democratic wing of the Party if Mr. Trump got the Republican nomination.

Lest her dear readers think Growltiger has gotten into the catnip again, below are quotes these same anti-Trump pundits made in 2008 about president-elect, Senator Barack Obama. Viewing the past seven years through the rectrospectoscope, the Growler especially likes what Dr. Krauthammer and Mr. Kudlow had to say.

Richard Lowry:“the only presidential candidate from either party about whom there is a palpable excitement”.

Charles Krauthammer: “Obama would be a president with the political intelligence of a Bill Clinton harnessed to the steely self-discipline of a Vladimir Putin”, who would “bestride the political stage as largely as did Reagan.”

Bill Kristol:“I look forward to Obama’s inauguration with a surprising degree of hope and good cheer.”

Larry Kudlow: “[Obama] loves to deal with both sides of the issue.” “He revels in the back and forth. And he wants to keep the dialogue going with conservatives.”

As Growltiger observed observed earlier in this essay, it's quite possible that the (Republican) Party is over, and has been for twenty-eight years. "So long, and thanks for all the fish." **

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*from the lyrics of "The Party's Over" from "Bells Are Ringing."

**From Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Our Christmas Carol

On October 17, 2013, our pal, Mystique, an eleven-year-old German Shepherd dog died. Our hearts were broken.

Two weeks later, unbeknownst to us at the time, Southeast German Shepherd Rescue found a six month old, mange-ridden, sick and starving female German Shepherd dog somewhere down in Mississippi. 

The lady who rescued the dog proclaimed her the second sickest dog she'd ever rescued. She wasn't sure the dog would live. Neither was the vet. But she did live. She was treated for mange, gained weight, and in January of 2014, was moved from Mississippi to North Carolina, a more centralized location for possible adoption. 

Her story touched the hearts of many who followed her journey on Facebook. Requests for a suitable name went out over Facebook, and she was named Holiday Hope.

Many families wanted to adopt Hope, but we were the lucky ones. In late January, 2014, we drove to North Carolina and brought Holiday Hope home with us. Given Hope's journey, one can only imagine what went through her mind as two strangers drove away with her.

But all is well that ends well. Next Friday will be Hope's second Christmas with us. Along with our son, his wife and our grandchildren, she is one of our greatest treasures. On paper, we rescued Hope, but in reality, she rescued us. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of Growltiger's readers.*


*If any of you want to play a tiny part in saving another dog like Holiday Hope, please consider giving to Southeast German Shepherd Rescue. (For those who wonder at the address in MN, suffice it to say -- she moved but continued being treasurer of the organization).


SGSR Treasurer
PO Box 416
Osakis, MN 56360  

Gaseous Giant: A Movie Review

Written and directed by the Wachowski siblings who used to be the Wachowski brothers until one of them became a girl, Jupiter Ascending ascended onto the Multiplexes on Friday just as the planet Jupiter reaches its closest approximation to Earth. One is a gas giant; the other is just gaseous.  

The story – hard to find a plot amidst the explosions and special effects – centers around Jupiter Jones (don’t ask) a young toilet cleaner (please don’t ask) who lives in Chicago. “Jupe” as she refers to herself once, is played by Mila Kunis, an actress who shows some comic flair in a couple of scenes, but mostly is a big-eyed, homely girl in a pony tail who is called upon to scream, fall through space and dress in outlandish costumes (one of which has her wearing what looks like a New Age Christmas tree atop her head). That's when she isn’t hanging onto Channing Tatum while he skateboards through the air in a pair of anti-gravity boots which leave silver streaks as a wake. 

When Jupe signs up for big bucks to have her eggs harvested at a fertility clinic, little does she realize the doctors and nurses are really creatures who look like they escaped from the Independence Day space ship. Or that they aren't there to harvest her eggs but rather to rub her out.  

Before the ETs can do in our heroine, hero, Channing Tatum, shows up and wipes them out instead. Channing is a “splice” a human with human and wolf genes as evidenced by pointy, elf ears, and a third, unidentified species. Channing’s character once had wings, but was de-winged (by whom and why is not clear) because he once lost control of himself and tore out someone's throat. Spoiler: Channing gets his wings back at the end and he and Jupe (who inherited his gravity defying boots) go flying, skate-boarding across the Chicago skyline. No word on whether NSA picked them up. Or NASA for that matter. 

The usually excellent Eddie Redmayne is one of three nefarious sibling villains whose deceased mother, like a distaff King Lear, divided up her kingdom (the universe) between cachectic Eddie, his sneaky but handsome brother and their 14,000 year old sister. Mama was 90,000 years old when she died. She might have lived longer had she not been murdered. (Spoiler: Eddie did it). In the only significant and/or memorable line in the two hour film (it felt more like four), a character explains time is the only wealth worth having. It turns out these ageless miscreants achieve eternal life by harvesting fresh DNA from the planets they "mine". Earth is Eddie's and he is not about to give it up.

After saving Jupe from the malignant ET's, Channing takes her to his friend, Stinger, played by Sean Bean, whereupon Stinger's bees identify Jupe as royalty. It turns out bees are genetically capable of identifying royals which is why Jupe has never been stung. Whether this applies to all bees or just Stinger's bees is not clear.

After a few more attacks and explosions and a trip to Jupiter (the planet, not the character) on a space ship that looks like a metal wasp, the totally confused audience learns that Jupiter (the character) is really Eddie Redmayne's mother. Yep, she's a "Recurrent" which means Mommy Dearest has been reincarnated, rejuvenated and now that she's back, Earth and the rest of the universe belongs to her again which leaves her three bratty kids out of luck.

Most of the dialogue, like the film itself, is silly and superficial, but like all good Hollywood propagandists, the Wachowskis manage to slip in The Liberal Tell. For those who don’t know what The Liberal Tell is, it is a phrase coined by John Nolte who points out that Hollywood somehow manages to slip leftist propaganda (The Liberal Tell) into most movies: Capitalism is bad, socialism is good, business is corrupt--as Yul Brynner's King would say "et cetera, et cetera, et cetera". Naturally, the nefarious trio in "Jupiter Ascending" are capitalists, who, unlike Hollywood's limousine liberals, are out only for a profit. 

An American Woman in the Middle East

Michelle Obama who sometimes is sartorially challenged made America proud when she accompanied the President on his trip to Saudi Arabia to condole with the Kingdom on the death of its King.

Mrs. Obama emerged from Air Force One conservatively and tastefully dressed in long pants and a flowing, long-sleeved jacket, but without the headscarf which made past first ladies like Laura Bush and politicians like Condoleeza Rich, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi look like sycophants to the Muslim Moonbats who seem to have something against women in general and women's hair in particular. America does not ask Muslim women remove their babuskas when in our country; therefore, it is only reasonable that American women wear our traditional dress when visiting or living in theirs. Of all the women mentioned above, only Michelle Obama has had the courage to be an American woman in the Middle East.

For those who don't keep up with Seventh Century news and fads, Saudi Arabia practices an especially severe form of Islam which in spite of beheadings, shootings, bombings and floggings, politicians as disparate as George Bush and Barack Obama refer to as the "Religion of Peace".

Democrats who berate Republicans for conducting a War on Women because the latter don't think companies who oppose abortion ought to be required to hand out abortion pills to employees, are silent about Saudi females being denied certain operations unless given permission by a male relative. Democrats who savaged Mitt Romney for asking for a binder of females who might be candidates for executive positions never seem to point out Saudi females cannot travel without a male relative's permission. That, friends, is a war on women!

President Obama harangues the United States about slavery which ended in 1865 and racial segregation which ended a hundred years after that apparently has no problem with the Religion of Peace segregating by gender which usually ends up with women being subservient to and dependent upon males. He and Attorney General Holder howl about American police stopping African-Americans for "driving while black", but don't remind Americans that females of any race or nationality cannot drive at all in Saudi Arabia.

So the First Lady's quiet, subtle, tasteful attire on her visit to Saudi Arabia showed a courage no American male or female of either party has shown before
No doubt she will reap criticism from America's Islam appeasers for not covering her hair, but this American is quite proud of her.

Giving Thanks

 By Holiday Hope

Last night, I had a couple of bites of steak, leftovers from Papa’s plate. I would have liked to have had the whole steak, but even a couple of bites for dessert after a big dinner is a long way from starving in Mississippi.

Last November, I was seven months old, weighed 28 pounds and had mange. I was so ugly when my photograph was sent to the Southeast German Shepherd Rescue coordinator, she wondered why anyone would send her a picture of a possum. But she accepted me into rescue anyway.

Southeast German Shepherd Rescue named me Holiday Hope and hoped I’d make it through the holidays. I survived, got my shots and had my mange treated. Gradually I regained my strength, my hair grew back, and I was able to go outside. Not that I was all that interested in going outside. Once a dog has been a stray, the great outdoors isn’t all that inviting.

Some good people whose names I do not know volunteered to drive me on various legs of a journey that took me from Mississippi to North Carolina where my foster mom lived. In late January, 2014, I was adopted into my forever home, and I moved to Virginia.

This coming Thursday is the day humans reserve for giving thanks, but such a wonderful idea should not be reserved for only those who walk upright. Dogs can be thankful, too. I know I am. I’m thankful for the good people of Southeast German Shepherd Rescue who saved me. For Pat who took care of me when I was sick. For the relay drivers who drove me from Mississippi to North Carolina. For Jan who fostered me. For a warm house, a soft bed, for nutritious food, a daily walk, trips to the dog park with my friend, Shiloh. But most of all, I’m thankful for the love my two humans lavish on me.  

There’s a lot wrong in the world today, but as my story proves, there’s a lot that’s right.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and thanks to Growltiger for letting me tell my story.

Four Horsemen Squared

The silent version of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is in the opinion of the cool cat the best anti-war film ever made. Anti-war films generally are too preachy, a sin a silent film cannot commit.

Based upon Ibanez's novel of the same name, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse shows  in the microcosm of a single family the devastation war wreaks on nations. Madariaga, the richest man in Argentina, has two daughters. One is married to a German national;; the other to Frenchman, Marcel Desnoyers. When Madariaga dies, he does not leave his estate and vast fortune to his favored grandson, Julio Desnoyers, as promised, but rather to his two daughters. The product of Madariaga's lifetime of work, is sold. Now incredibly wealthy, both families return to the respective countries of the daughters' husbands, the German and his wife and three sons to Germany; the Desnoyers to France. One wonders why Madariaga never realized his sons-in-law were not committed to Argentina.

When World War I erupts, the German cousins join the German Army. Julio, a libertine like his grandfather, remains neutral like Argentina. But soon Paris isn't so gay anymore and the horrors of war infringe. His lover's husband is blinded in the fighting and her conscience demands that she return to him to take care of him. Julio enlists in the French Army, and in the end, he and his German cousin kill each other in the trenches, his other two cousins having already predeceased them. Madariaga's family is devastated as are their respective nations.

The silent film made Rudolph Valentino a superstar, and after seeing the 1962 remake starring Glenn Ford, there is no question why. Casting is everything, and Valentino was perfectly cast as Julio Desnoyers. In the cabaret scenes, he looked like he definitely belonged there. Ford looked as out of place as a visiting preacher. He was too old for the part and never was quite believable as a playboy whose only goal in life was the pursuit of personal pleasure and sexual conquest.

The remake moved the time to the Second World War, and though it followed the general plot of the silent film, fell into the trap of making the Nazis the focus and not war itself. In the end, all of Madariaga's grandchildren are dead, but the tragedy is lost because the movie became an anti-Nazi film not an anti-war film. Even the four horsemen don't seem so bad when compared to  Hitler's Third Reich.

The modern film had the advantage of dialogue, filming on location, improved camera techniques and incredible special effects, but unlike the silent version, lacked soul and vision. And, of course, Rudolph Valentino.