HALF-FULL REPORT 01/31/14

Whoa… the response to The TTP Portugal Retreat has been so strong that Rebel and I were compelled to schedule a second one!  And now that’s just about filled as well. 

There might be a space or two left on the first one – March 20-25 with a 3-day extension – and a few on the second – April 24-29 with a 3-day extension.  Carpe diem to not miss out coming to sunny, beautiful, historical Portugal with Rebel and me. 

In between these now-two Portugal Retreats, there’s The Land of the Dragon’s Blood Tree.  This was announced last Monday the 27^th – and by today, only five days later, that’s almost filled too!  I am truly excited about this.  There is absolutely no place on earth like Socotra.  It is "completely unique on a global scale," as the National Geographic says.

Look at the pictures and see for yourself.  Please don’t miss the opportunity to experience one of the most extraordinary places on our planet.

************

I considered for an entire femtosecond watching Zero’s SOTU Tuesday night (1/28), but decided there were far more productive things to do, such as reorganizing my sock drawer.  As Jack Kelly described, it was pointless, plodding, perfunctory, and, oh yes, picayune, which is a fun word meaning not worth a plug nickel.

There was, however, one hilarious moment during this soporific soliloquy, when Zero claimed, "But the debate is settled.  Climate change is a fact."  The Dem clowns on the left side of the chamber roared in applause, drowning out the Pub sniggers and guffaws on the right.   

The Dems were applauding their Dear Leader’s assertion that their fascist rationale for power – which is what Warmism is and nothing more – trumps reality.  The Pubs were laughing their heads off at the reality of record cold outside and the "settled" claim by faux-scientists who can’t predict the weather next month much less decades from now.

************

If only the Pubs could laugh at their own leadership’s lunacy. 

It was a proverb of the Ancient Greeks that "those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make insane."  All of their great playwrights such as Sophocles and Euripides knew that madness precedes destruction – and that the essence of madness is the refusal to see it, to see the doom that comes with it, and to ridicule those who do see.

As the one who sees it most clearly, the Voice of Sanity in the Senate – Ted Cruz – points out, this is not simply masochistic madness about Amnesty.  It’s Sell-Out City across the board:

"Right now, Republican leadership in both chambers is aggressively urging members to stand down on virtually every front: on the continuing resolution, on the budget, on the farm bill, on the debt ceiling."

Ted, however, is mystified particularly by Boehner & Co’s sell-out on Amnesty.  In response to Boehner’s one page memo issued yesterday (1/30), he responded:

"Their (stand down) argument is that we should focus exclusively on Obamacare and on jobs. In that context, why on earth would the House dive into immigration right now? It makes no sense, unless you’re Harry Reid… Anyone pushing an amnesty bill right now should go ahead and put a ‘Harry Reid for Majority Leader’ bumper sticker on their car."

The best that can possibly be said – the worst being that Boehner and the House leadership has simply been bribed by the Chamber of Commerce – is that they are the naïve gullible Stupid Party people again while thinking they are too cute by half.

Here is how the con is set up, as exampled by the lefties at Salon.  It disingenuously calls the Boehner plan a "devious immigration trick" by offering illegals "permanent immigration status" but not citizenship.  The lefties want Boehner to believe that if he passes this, the Dems will reject it, thus getting the blame for immigration reform failure, not the Pubs.

No matter what either of them do, the Enemedia will blame the Pubs for any failure and praise the Dems for any success.  And of course, if the Dems do pass Boehner’s bill, then instantly they will demand – and soon get – permanent status changed to citizenship.  It’s unbelievable – but never underestimate the cupidity of Vichy Republicans.

************

Adding to the Why Amnesty Now mystery is that the odds of the Pubs expanding their House majority and regaining the Senate keep growing.  This week, one of the most evil little fascist putzes ever to infest Capitol Hill – Henry Waxman – announced his retirement.  I can hardly wait for Skye to provide just a few of the countless examples of his corruption and perfidy.  Good riddance to rotten garbage.

Earlier this month, Congress’ biggest bully – he compulsively threatened to physically punch out anyone who disagreed with him – Jim Moran (VA) said he’s quitting.  That’s along with Carolyn McCarthy (NY), George Miller (CA), Jim Matheson (UT), Mike McIntyre (NC), and Bill Owens (NY) – so far.  There will be several more, and that’s just in the House.

In the Senate, 21 Dem seats are up and only 15 Pubs.  5 of those Dem seats are open as the incumbent is quitting: May Baucus (MT), Tom Harkin (IA), Carl Levin (MI), Tim Johnson (SD), and Jay Rockefeller (WV).   3 Pubs are: Saxby Chambliss (GA), Mike Johanns (NE), and tragically because he has cancer, Tom Coburn (OK).

The Senate is now 55D-45R.  A flip of 6 seats makes a R majority.  Right now, there are at least 7.  Look for these Pubs to win: 

Alaska:  Joe Miller to beat Sen. Mark Begich
Arkansas: Rep. Tom Cotton to beat Sen. Mark Pryor
Louisiana:  Rep. Bill Cassidy to beat Sen. Mary Landrieu
Montana: Rep. Steve Daines (open seat)
North Carolina: Thom Tillis or Greg Bannon to beat Sen. Kay Hagan
South Dakota: Former Gov. Mike Rounds (open seat)
West Virginia: WV Shelley Moore Capito (open seat)

That would give the Pubs a tiny two-seat majority – providing they don’t lose any of their 15, a Big If.  Nonetheless, kicking Dirty Harry Reid out of the Majority Leader’s Office in the Hart Senate Building would be a true blessing, even at the price of Mitch McConnell taking over.

Then again, maybe Tea Partyer Matt Bevin will beat Mitch in the primary.  Bevin is very smart but a political newbie, while McConnell is as canny as they come.  The instant Mitch sees being pro-amnesty however disguised as "immigration reform" is suicide for him personally, he’ll oppose it like it was Communism.  If you want a bellwether for how 2014 will turn out, watch for how the Kentucky Primary turns out on May 20.

************

Stop the Presses!!  I just got off the phone with a Congressman who returned to his office from the Pub Retreat.  He joked, "That’s what we do, Jack – we meet, eat, and retreat…"  What he told me was intensely interesting.  Look carefully at that one page memo linked above.  There are six items proposed for Immigration Reform.  I was told that few had a problem with the first four.

But… at least 80% of the Members objected to the last two – essentially Dream Act amnesty and permanent legal status.  And objected big time, saying no way could they support or vote for this.  80% No means that the odds of Republican Suicide just went down a bit.  Let’s hope they stay down.

************ 

Hey, here’s an idea on Im-Reform that the Pubs could adopt.  The Brits are proposing that all immigrants – legal and illegal – put up a £2000 ($3300) "advance" payment before they can get any welfare benefits. Cool.

************

OK, this is a hard one.  Which should be our choice for the HFR Hero of the Week?  A world famous movie star whom Esquire Magazine last year dubbed the "Sexiest Woman Alive"…

  
Or an old guy…

                                                                           
I’m sure you recognize Scarlett Johansson.  If not, and you’re a guy, you may have a problem.  She’s embroiled in a double controversy this week regarding her being celebrity endorser of an Israeli company, SodaStream.  She made this 30-second commercial for the Super Bowl, which Fox, that’s broadcasting it, banned.  Watch it and see if you get why.

 
Believe it or not, it’s those last four words, "Sorry, Coke and Pepsi."  Coke, you see, also has SB ads while Pepsi is sponsoring the half-time show.  They complained and Fox caved.  Now it’s huge news like this story in USA Today.

Johansson is also a spokeslady or "Global Ambassador" for a Brit charity called Oxfam dedicated to fighting "poverty and injustice" around the world.  Oxfam’s directors, being Brit libtards, got incensed when she became an endorser of SodaStream this month, because it has a factory in the so-called "West Bank" of Israel and Oxfam is "opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements."

So Oxfam demanded that Johansson cancel her contract with and support of SodaStream – and she promptly told them to stick it, and resigned from Oxfam instead!  Yesterday (1/30), Oxfam accepted her resignation.

How simply awesome.  She tells  one of the world’s most elite charities and leaders of the Hate-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to go to hell and sides with a small decent Israeli start-up business instead.

Hero of the Week for sure, right?

Then there’s old Tom Perkins.  He’s arguably the most prominent founding pioneer venture capitalist of Silicon Valley, the Perkins in the Valley’s most famous VC firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.  He has a self-made net worth of $8 billion.

One week ago (1/25), he wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal.  It was entitled Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?  Its 186 words set off a firestorm of Enemedia outrage.  Here is Tom’s letter entire:

Regarding your editorial "Censors on Campus" (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."

From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent.

There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these "techno geeks" can pay. We have, for example, libelous and cruel attacks in the Chronicle on our number-one celebrity, the author Danielle Steel, alleging that she is a "snob" despite the millions she has spent on our city’s homeless and mentally ill over the past decades. 

This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking.  Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930.  Is its descendant, "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?

Bang! Bullseye!  Perkins nailed the connection between Nazism and Marxism (which liberals call Progressivism):  Envy.  Envious murderous hatred of the successful.  He made it even more explicit when he followed up by commenting that the only difference between Nazis and Progressives is that the former base their hatred on race while the latter base it on class.

This is exactly what needs to be said, exactly what needs to be shoved in the face of the Left.  All their pretenses of "compassion" for "the poor" and demands for "social justice" need to rammed right up their noses, and exposed for what they are:  ideologies of envious murderous hate.

On Wednesday (1/29), the WSJ ran an editorial commenting on all the outrage, entitled Perkinsnacht.  After noting that Perkins’ letter may have been "the most-read letter to the editor in the history of the Wall Street Journal," it proclaimed him right.  The deluge of unhinged vituperation towards him made Perkins’ point about liberal intolerance.

So let’s conclude that both Old Tom Perkins and gorgeous Scarlett Johansson are HFR Heroes of the Week.  You have our gratitude and thanks for your courage.

************  

Oh, wait.  There’s a third contender!  And not just for the HFR HOTW – but for being the coolest, bitchinest, gutsiest leader of any country in Western Civilization. 

We talked about the plight Australia has with hordes of refugees trying to sneak in to sponge off the taxpayers claiming to be "asylum seekers" in The Land of Oz (November 2013).  It turns out that many of them – I’m sure you’ll be oh so surprised at this – behave not with gratitude but with incredibly obnoxious behavior.

So obnoxious that Oz’s new Prime Minister, unlike his wimp-out predecessors, isn’t going to stand for it, and is instituting a code of behavior for "asylum seekers" that will deport them for "irritating people, disturbing someone or spitting or swearing in public."

Well, Halleluja!  Isn’t it about time some leader of a Western Christian country had the cojones to stand up for decency?  That leader is Tony Abbott.  Note, however, how the Libtard Press portrays him as having been "accused of abusing his power."  Accused?? He should be applauded.

Australia should be down on its knees thanking Providence for blessing it with Tony Abbott.  The Aussies should appreciate how impossibly lucky they are, while we suffer under the Curse of Zero.  Then again, they also have the right to laugh at us.  They had the brains to elect Abbott, while we had the total lack of anything between our ears to elect Zero – twice!!

There are 46 different brews on tap at the Sail & Anchor Pub in Freemantle.  I can see my friends there now enjoying a pint, and hear them telling me with a hearty laugh, "Better luck in 2016, mate!"  I wish I were there.