PRESIDENT NOBAMA

Victor Davis Hanson in his National Review column published on January 16th perfectly describes the amazingly terrific job that President Trump is doing.  I don't know if I agree with every word, but it's close. 

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President Nobama

by VICTOR DAVIS HANSON January 16, 2018 4:00 AM @VDHANSON 

Trump is commonsensically undoing, piece by piece, the main components of Obama’s legacy. Donald Trump continues to baffle. Never Trump Republicans still struggle to square the circle of quietly agreeing so far with most of his policies, as they loudly insist that his record is already nullified by its supposedly odious author. Or surely it soon will be discredited by the next Trumpian outrage. Or his successes belong to congressional and Cabinet members, while his failures are all his own. Rarely do they seriously reflect on what otherwise over the last year might have been the trajectory of a Clinton administration. Contrary to popular supposition, the Left loathes Trump not just for what he has done. (It is often too consumed with fury to calibrate carefully the particulars of the Trump agenda.) Rather, it despises him mostly for what he superficially represents.

To many progressives and indeed elites of all persuasions, Trump is also the Prince of Anti-culture: mindlessly naïve American boosterism; conspicuous, 1950s-style unapologetic consumption; repetitive and limited vocabulary; fast-food culinary tastes; Queens accent; herky-jerky mannerisms; ostentatious dress; bulging appearance; poorly disguised facial expressions; embracing rather than sneering at middle-class appetites; a lack of subtlety, nuance, and ambiguity. In short Trump’s very essence wars with everything that long ago was proven to be noble, just, and correct by Vanity Fair, NPR, The New Yorker, Google, the Upper West Side, and The Daily Show. There is not even a smidgeon of a concession that some of Trump’s policies might offer tens of thousands of forgotten inner-city youth good jobs or revitalize a dead and written-off town in the Midwest, or make the petroleum of the war-torn Persian Gulf strategically irrelevant to an oil-rich United States. Yet one way of understanding Trump — particularly the momentum of his first year — is through recollection of the last eight years of the Obama administration. In reductionist terms, Trump is the un-Obama. Surprisingly, that is saying quite a lot more than simple reductive negativism. Republicans have not seriously attempted to roll back the administrative state since Reagan. On key issues of climate change, entitlements, illegal immigration, government spending, and globalization, it was sometimes hard to distinguish a Bush initiative from a Clinton policy or a McCain bill from a Biden proposal. There was often a reluctant acceptance of the seemingly inevitable march to the European-style socialist administrative state. Of course, there were sometimes differences between the two parties, such as the George W. Bush’s tax cuts or the Republicans’ opposition to Obamacare. Yet for the most part, since 1989, we’ve had lots of rhetoric but otherwise no serious effort to prune back the autonomous bureaucracy that grew ever larger. Few Republicans in the executive branch sought to reduce government employment, deregulate, sanction radical expansion of fossil-fuel production, question the economic effects of globalization on Americans between the coasts, address deindustrialization, recalibrate the tax code, rein in the EPA, secure the border, reduce illegal immigration, or question transnational organizations. To do all that would require a president to be largely hated by the Left, demonized by the media, and caricatured in popular culture — and few were willing to endure the commensurate ostracism.

Trump has done all that in a manner perhaps more Reaganesque than Reagan himself. In part, he has been able to make such moves because of the Republican majority (though thin) in Congress and also Even his critics sometimes concede that his economic and foreign-policy agendas are bringing dividends. In some sense, it is not so much because of innovative policy, but rather that he is simply bullying his way back to basics we’ve forgotten over the past decades. The wonder was never how to grow the economy at 3 percent (all presidents prior to 2009 had at one time or another done just that), but rather, contrary to “expert” economic opinion, how to discover ways to prevent that organic occurrence. Obama was the first modern president who apparently figured out how. It took the efforts of a 24/7 redistributionist agenda of tax increases, federalizing health care, massive new debt, layers of more regulation, zero-interest rates, neo-socialist regulatory appointments, expansionary eligibility for entitlements, and constant anti-free-market jawboning that created a psychological atmosphere conducive to real retrenchment, mental holding patterns, and legitimate fears over discernable success. Obama weaponized federal agencies including the IRS, DOJ, and EPA in such a manner as to worry anyone successful, prominent, and conservative enough to come under the federal radar of a vindictive Lois Lerner, Eric Holder, or a FISA court. Trump has sought to undo all that, point by point. The initial result so far is not rocket science, but rather a natural expression of what happens when millions of Americans believe they have greater freedom and safety to profit and innovate, and trust they will not be punished, materially or psychologically, for the ensuing successful results. The radical upsurge in business and consumer confidence is not revolutionary but almost natural. The Left and Never Trump Right claim that Trump is Stalin, Hitler, or Mussolini. In fact, for the first time in eight years, it is highly unlikely that the FBI, IRS, CIA, DOJ, and other alphabet-soup agencies see their tasks as going after the president’s perceived opponents. The same about-face is true on the foreign-policy front, as the ancient practice of deterrence replaced the modern therapeutic mindset. Obama blurred, deliberately so, the lines between allies and hostiles. America experienced the worst of both worlds: We were rarely respected by our friends, even more rarely feared by our enemies; loud rhetorical muscularity was backed up only by “strategic patience” and “leading from behind.” On the supposedly friendly side, Europe assumed that the United States would fawn after the virtue-signaling Paris Climate Accord. The Palestinians concluded that there was no shelf life on victimhood and that America simply would not, could not, dare not move its embassy to Jerusalem as the Congress had chronically showboated it would. NATO just knew that endless subsidies were its birthright and prior commitments were debatable. The West apparently lapped up Obama’s Cairo speech: But when even the European Renaissance and Enlightenment were seen as derivatives of Islam, there is not much left to boast about. On the unfriendly side, China sensed there was little danger in turning the Spratley Islands into an armed valve of the South China Sea. Russia understood that America was obsequiously “flexible” and ready to push a red plastic reset button in times of crisis. ISIS assumed that American lawyers were vetoing air-strike targets. Iran guessed rightly that the Obama administration would concede a lot to strike a legacy deal on nonproliferation. It was unsure only about whether the Obama administration’s eagerness to dissimulate about the disadvantageous details were due to a sincere desire to empower revolutionary, Shiite Iran as an antipode to Israel and the Sunni oil monarchies, or arising from a reckless need to leave some sort of foreign-policy signature. Kim Jung-un concluded that the eight years of the Obama administration provided a rare golden moment to vastly expand its nuclear and missile capability — and then announce it as an irrevocable fait accompli after Obama left office. Again, the common denominator was that the Obama administration, in quite radical fashion, had sought a therapeutic inversion of foreign policy — in a way few other major nations had previously envisioned. Trump’s appointees almost immediately began undoing all that. There were no more effective avatars of old-style deterrence than James Mattis and H. R. McMaster. Neither was political. Both long ago embraced a realist appraisal of human nature, predicated on two ancient ideas: We all are more likely to behave when we accept that the alternative is far more dangerous to ourselves, and the world is better off when everyone knows the laws in the arena. Just as Obama’s pseudo–red lines in Syria signaled to the Iranians or North Koreans that there were few lines of any sort anywhere; so too the destruction of ISIS suggested to others that there might be far fewer restrictions on an American secretary of defense anywhere. On the cultural side, the Trump team figuratively paused, examined its inheritance from the prior administration, and apparently concluded something like “this is unhinged.” Then it proceeded, to the degree possible, to undo it. Open borders, illegal immigration, and sanctuary cities are the norms of very few sovereign states. They are aberrations that are unsustainable whether the practitioner is Canada, Mexico, or the United States. Calling a small pond or large puddle on a farm’s low spot an “inland waterway” subject to federal regulation is deranged; undoing that was not radical, but commonsensical. Trump sought to revive the cultural atmosphere prior to Obama’s assertion that he would fundamentally transform what had already been a great country. In 2008, it would have been inconceivable that NFL multimillionaires would refuse to stand for the National Anthem — much less in suicidal fashion insult their paying fans by insinuating that they deserved such a snub because they were racists and xenophobes. It was Byzantine that a country would enter an iconoclastic frenzy in the dead of night, smashing and defacing statues without legislative or popular democratic sanction. One would have thought that all Republican presidents and presidential candidates would be something like the antitheses to progressivism. In truth, few really were. The Un-Obama agenda was not simply reflexive or easy — given that Obama was the apotheosis of a decades-long progressive dream. After all, in year one, Trump has been demonized in a manner unprecedented in post-war America, given the astonishing statistic that 90 percent of all media coverage of his person and policies has been negative. Obama was a representation of a progressive view of the Constitution that about a quarter of the population holds, but in Obama, that view found a rare megaphone for an otherwise hard sell. One would have thought that all Republican presidents and presidential candidates would be something like the antitheses to progressivism. In truth, few really were. So given the lateness of the national hour, a President Nobama could prove to be quite a change.

Your Food Diary For:

Friday, January 19, 2018

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple, 6 packet	960	192	12	24	1,560	72
	960	192	12	24	1,560	72
L U N C H
Culvers Butterburger (2)"the Original"	720	78	32	40	1,020	12
Culver's - Fries	360	53	14	6	443	0
Add Food Quick Tools	1,080	131	46	46	1,463	12
D I N N E R
Sandwich - Peanut Butter and Jelly	700	55	31	17	286	31
	700	55	31	17	286	31
S N A C K S
Met Rx Big 100 Chocolate Cookie Dough	400	58	6	31	167	28
	400	58	6	31	167	28
Totals	3,140	436	95	118	3,476	143
Your Daily Goal	1,995	249	66	100	2,300	74
Remaining	-1,145	-187	-29	-18	-1,176	-69
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 65 extra calories from exercise today

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SATURDAY WEIGHT     249.8 LBS

REALLY SMART, VERY STABLE GENIUS

I must admit, there is something a bit 'off' about our President tweeting that he is "like, really smart" and a "very stable genius."  Honestly, it's ridiculous. But in all fairness, Donald Trump has been barraged by accusations that he is neither smart nor stable. The accusations have come from the left (naturally) and they have also come from the right (inexplicably).

Let me say this, no matter how smart or 'unsmart' he is, he will never be as stupid as the 44th President. That moron sent billions of dollars to the world's greatest terrorist state, Iran, for compensation for a promise that they would cease their nuclear ambitions. That kind of stupid is off the charts. And all the sycophants at The New York Times who laud that genius, are as dumb and dangerous as he was. 

Here is my take: Donald Trump is really smart. Donald Trump is a Genius. And most importantly Donald Trump is governing as a conservative and he is the greatest President that this country has seen since Reagan.  As the print media, and the TV media and the Hollywood dopes try to attack him, the more real Americans are coming around to loving the guy. This man will certainly serve two terms. 

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Your Food Diary For:

Sunday, January 7, 2018

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Grits - Instant - Original	600	132	0	12	1,860	0
Bacon	200	0	15	15	875	0
	800	132	15	27	2,735	0
L U N C H
Brioche Rolls New, 2 roll	440	82	5	16	740	16
Sliced Gouda Cheese	280	0	24	20	480	0
Sliced Boneless Ham	360	0	12	66	3,120	0
	1,080	82	41	102	4,340	16
D I N N E R
Chipotle chicken soup	290	39	12	7	1,340	3
Chicken Salad Sandwich	400	53	11	28	1,120	23
Garden Salad	100	6	0	4	400	4
	790	98	23	39	2,860	30
Totals	2,670	312	79	168	9,935	46
Your Daily Goal	2,009	251	67	101	2,300	75
Remaining	-661	-61	-12	-67	-7,635	29
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 79 extra calories from exercise today

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FAKE NEWS - NOT A NEW PHENOMENON

I am glad that I am blogging again. First, I absolutely need to blog in order to keep myself honest about what I am eating.  My blog replaces the need to go to something like a weight-watchers meeting. I suppose that a weight-watchers meeting is effective because people must face their peers each week. I have to face the truth each day.  And every week, on Saturday, I will weigh myself and announce to the world just how effective or ineffective I was in the previous week. Another reason I enjoyed blogging so much, is that I get to espouse some of my feelings about current events and particularly politics. Today I have nuclear weapons on my mind.

Clear thinking people never believed that an agreement regarding North Korea's nuclear weapons program would end the resolve of the North Korean government to seek these weapons. To believe this, one would have to live in the make-believe world of 'the left.'  The Clinton Administration claimed this agreement as one of their major accomplishments. This was fake. It was fake when it was announced. And it seems a bit more fake now as the North Koreans have have detonated a hydrogen bomb in a recent test this past weekend.  Want some more fake news? This was brought to us by the Obama Administration when they announced an agreement with IRAN to end their nuclear program. Is there anyone with an functioning brainstem that believes that this recent agreement with IRAN has caused that country of fine gentlemen to give up their nuclear ambitions?  Seriously, do you or anyone you know believe this? 

When The New York Times reported that the United States and North Korea signed an agreement to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions it was REAL NEWS. It was REAL NEWS about a FAKE AGREEMENT. In my mind, REAL NEWS ABOUT SOMETHING FAKE is still FAKE NEWS.


Let's take a trip in the 'wayback machine' all the way back to October 22, 1994. 

U.S. and North Korea Sign Pact to End Nuclear Dispute
By ALAN RIDING, Published: October 22, 1994 

GENEVA, Oct. 21— After almost four months of difficult negotiations, the United States and North Korea signed an agreement today to end their dispute over North Korea's nuclear program but kept secret many details of how the accord will be put into effect.

The chief American negotiator, Robert L. Gallucci, said the two sides had signed a separate confidential document that is more specific than the four-page "agreed framework" that was made public after its signing at the North Korean mission to the United Nations here.

He insisted that the secret document was consistent with the main agreement and would be made available on a confidential basis to senior members of Congress. "Documents of this sort are not unusual in international agreements," he added.

Mr. Gallucci implied but would not say North Korea had asked that parts of the agreement not be divulged. "We agreed to respect the confidentiality of this document," he said.

The document is believed to address some of the questions raised by the public agreement, notably the issue of when North Korea will ship abroad some 8,000 fuel rods that are now being kept in a cooling pond and could in theory be processed into weapons-grade plutonium.

Under the broad agreement concluded here late Monday, North Korea will freeze its nuclear activities, renounce any ambition to become a nuclear power and open up two secret military sites to inspection by international experts so they can determine whether Pyongyang already has nuclear capability.

In exchange, an international consortium will replace North Korea's current graphite nuclear reactors with new light-water reactors, which are considered less dangerous because they produce little weapons-grade plutonium. The United States also agreed to low-level diplomatic ties with North Korea.

After the signing today, North Korea's chief negotiator, Kang Sok Ju, described it as "a very important milestone document of historic significance" that would resolve his country's nuclear dispute with the United States "once and for all."

He said the agreement, once put into effect, would resolve "all questions of the so-called nuclear weapons development by North Korea" that have raised "such unfounded concerns and suspicions."

"We have neither the intention nor the plan to develop nuclear weapons," Mr. Kang said.

At a news conference in Washington, President Clinton said the treaty was "a good deal for the United States."

"The United States and international inspectors will carefully monitor North Korea to make sure it keeps its commitments," he said. "Only as it does so will North Korea fully join the community of nations."

Washington's long concerns about North Korea's nuclear intentions surged into crisis last spring after North Korea removed fuel rods from a nuclear reactor without permitting monitoring by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

After the Clinton Administration threatened to seek United Nations sanctions against North Korea, former President Jimmy Carter held talks in Pyongyang with North Korea's dictator, Kim Il Sung, that defused the crisis and led to new negotiations with the United States.

These talks were interrupted after one day by the death of President Kim on July 8. But new talks started five weeks later. Although Mr. Kim's son, Kim Jong Il, has not yet been named his successor, Mr. Clinton addressed a so-called "letter of assurance" to him Thursday confirming Washington's commitment to the accord.

The agreement confirms that North Korea will be supplied with two new light-water reactors with a generating capacity of around 2,000 megawatts by "a target date of 2003." Contracts to provide the reactors should be signed within six months, it said. Mr. Gallucci added that South Korea would play "a central role" in financing and supplying the reactors, which are expected to cost about $4 billion.

To compensate North Korea for not refueling a small 5-megawatt reactor and not completing construction of 50-megawatt and 200-megawatt reactors, the United States said it would arrange for North Korea to be supplied with heavy oil -- some 500,000 metric tons annually by 1996 -- for heating and electricity production until the new reactors are operational.

The agreement commits North Korea to freeze all its nuclear activities within one month. It also provides that it dismantle its reactors and related operations and store its spent fuel rods while the light-water reactors are under construction. It will then "dispose of the fuel in a safe manner that does not involve reprocessing" in North Korea.

On the key question of when North Korea's secret sites will be opened for international inspection, the agreement said this would occur when "a significant portion" of the light-water reactor project was completed, "but before delivery of key nuclear components."

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Most of my steps yesterday were from walking throughout the Walworth County Fair in Elkhorn, Wisconsin where we spent the afternoon before seeing Blue Öyster Cult in the evening.

My lunch and dinner choices were made at the Walworth County Fair. I think I did a good job considering all the deep fried higher calorie choices that were available.
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Your Food Diary For:

Sunday, September 3, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Egg - Poached Eggs	300	2	20	25	629	1
Biscuit Ham Slices, 4 slices	60	0	3	9	680	0
	360	2	23	34	1,309	1
L U N C H
BBQ Turkey Leg	600	12	25	74	718	10
	600	12	25	74	718	10
D I N N E R
Hamburger	500	48	25	23	1,189	6
	500	48	25	23	1,189	6
S N A C K S
Red Delicious Apple, 3	285	75	1	2	5	57
	285	75	1	2	5	57
Totals	1,745	137	74	133	3,221	74
Your Daily Goal	2,220	277	74	112	2,300	83
Remaining	475	140	0	-21	-921	9
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 290 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 238.9 lbs in 5 weeks

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M/M Jacobs before the Blue Öyster Cult Concert

ASPIRATIONAL COMMENT

CHICAGO -- In his first public appearance since leaving the White House in January, President Barack Obama told young leaders here Monday that "special interests dominate the debates in Washington" and that he had failed to realize his "aspirational" goal of uniting Americans in red and blue states.

"That was an aspirational comment," the former president said of his famous 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, prompting laughter from the audience at the University of Chicago. He added that when talking to individual Americans from different political backgrounds, you learn that "there’s a lot more that people have in common" than it would appear. "But, obviously, it’s not true when it comes to our politics and our civic life."

aspirational [as-puh-rey-shuh-nl] 

relating to or characterized by aspiration or a strong desire for something

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back in 2013, our former President was telling us that how he had prevented Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Obama Says Deal Is 'Best Means' For Preventing Iranian Nuclear Weapons

Back when Obama was defending the deal with Iran that he said would prevent Iran from continuing to develop nuclear weapons - most people with a functioning brain realized that this 'deal' was no deal at all and virtually assured that Iran would simply continue their nuclear weapons program. At the time, I thought that Obama was simply lying. NOW I KNOW DIFFERENTLY.  It was simply an 'aspirational' comment. Obama had a strong desire to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. He never meant that that had been actually accomplished. Ok, I am glad that this has been cleared up.

Your Food Diary For:

Monday, April 24, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Safeway Kitchens - Apples & Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal	780	162	9	18	1,020	72
	780	162	9	18	1,020	72
L U N C H
Fresh Market Cafe - California Sushi Roll	700	124	11	22	3,389	18
	700	124	11	22	3,389	18
D I N N E R
Wonton soup	200	16	8	16	850	1
Chinese Food - Shrimp and Broccoli	750	39	17	56	2,904	14
	950	55	25	72	3,754	15
S N A C K S
Smartfood Popcorn - White Cheddar	120	10	7	3	180	1
	120	10	7	3	180	1
Totals	2,550	351	52	115	8,343	106
Your Daily Goal	2,041	255	68	103	2,300	76
Remaining	-509	-96	16	-12	-6,043	-30
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g

WHY LEFTISTS ARE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

Do you wonder why I have such a strong intolerance for liberal lefties and those that vote for them?

It is because they use the same technique that I use to enjoy a James Bond movie, that is the willing suspension of disbelief.

from wikipedia

The term suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of disbelief has been defined as a willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment. The term was coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative. Suspension of disbelief often applies to fictional works of the action, comedy, fantasy, and horror genres.

These days, the suspension of disbelief applies to anyone who enjoys reading The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, or watching CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and just about any other channel. The suspension of disbelief belongs at the cinema, not during a news broadcast on television.

In order to believe that the Obama administration 'disarmed' Assad's chemical weapons through diplomacy one had to apply the willing suspension of disbelief.  And it was these same, people who have assured us that IRAN has been neutralized with regards to their attempt to build a nuclear weapons. This stupidity is dangerous. Only a dangerous fool would believe that. If you are a dangerous fool, I assume that you take no joy in reading this. I take no joy in writing it.

Why did Obama pursue a nuclear deal with Iran if the problem was solved in 1994?

Finally, President Obama has been caught red-handed - telling the truth.

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Fifty-nine tomahawk missiles fired into Syria on Thursday will start to instill in people that America is no longer going to sit back and watch the thugs run the world. People always ask why does America have to be the world's police force. Why? Because no one else is qualified and/or willing and able to do this very thankless job. Still, we cannot be everywhere, but we can't be nowhere.

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"It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it"  Rabbi Tarfon.

Your Food Diary For:

Friday, April 7, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon	200	0	15	15	875	0
Apples & Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal	600	125	7	14	785	55
	800	125	22	29	1,660	55
L U N C H
Peanut Butter	300	13	25	11	221	5
Butternut - Large Enriched White Bread	280	52	4	8	520	8
Jelly - Concord Grape Jelly	100	24	0	0	10	16
A	680	89	29	19	751	29
D I N N E R
Shrimp - Cooked, breaded and fried	400	19	20	35	568	0
Shephards Pie	400	22	23	36	252	5
Mariano's - Meatballs	300	6	23	17	414	0
	1,100	47	66	88	1,234	5
Totals	2,580	261	117	136	3,645	89
Your Daily Goal	2,961	370	98	149	2,300	111
Remaining	381	109	-19	13	-1,345	22
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g

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Saturday weight 248.0 lbs.
America is back.
It's time for me to be back.

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