Chopping down the Benghazi Cherry Tree.

Guess who.

I cannot tell a iie.
I chopped down the Benghazi Cherry Tree.
But, gotta brag, did we ever cherry pick some great anti-Hillary
low hanging fruit from that hummer ...

The guy shouts, "Timber," starting at about 4:02 of this YouTube video.

UPDATE: McCarthy made "an absolutely inappropriate statement." This link. Which means ---

He told the truth. And should be rebuked, and told to apologize. Another Republican tells him that. Really. For being truthful. "Inappropriately," truthful.

Here, with a quote:

"I'm very supportive of Kevin McCarthy, but those statements are just absolutely inappropriate, they should be withdrawn, Mr. McCarthy should apologize. I just, I think it was absolutely wrong," Chaffetz told MSNBC's Chris Matthews in an interview on "Andrea Mitchell Reports."

McCarthy, who is a favorite to succeed John Boehner as speaker of the House, said during an appearance on Fox News Tuesday: "Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable."

Chaffetz was quick to rebuke the remarks, saying it undermines the Benghazi Select Committee's investigation of the 2012 attack that killed four Americans in Libya.

Yes. Dancing on dead men is the GOP fiction of the GOP day. Our little thing. Horrendously so. These Republican guys do not live in reality. They are in a fantasy world, where telling the truth dispels the transparent falsehood, that which we must not speak. We can't do that. Not in our programmed hard-wired OS code.

Unreal. So who should McCarthy "apologize" to?

Besides Hillary Clinton?

FURTHER UPDATE: Expect a Planned Parenthood special committee. These dudes never learn. Deceits and stupidity about them, as in who do they think they are fooling besides each other, are things programmed into their very DNA.

FURTHER UPDATE: An inevitable Democrat gasp and "Oh my," enhanced with a claim reported Oct. 1 by Reuters of an ethics breach - or not:

Pelosi said political efforts by the Benghazi committee could violate ethics laws that ban using taxpayers' dollars for political purposes.

"The question is, is this an ethics violation of the rules of the House?" she said. "I think he (McCarthy) clearly, gleefully claimed that this had a political purpose and had a political success."

McCarthy told Fox News on Thursday he "did not intend to imply in any way" that the committee's work was political.

Asked if he had apologized to the panel's chairman, Representative Trey Gowdy, McCarthy said: "I talked to Trey and I told him I regret that this has ever taken place ... and Trey goes: 'I know it's not your intention.'"

Boehner, a Republican, said the committee would continue its work. "This investigation has never been about former Secretary of State Clinton and never will be," he said in a statement that did not mention McCarthy.

McCarthy's words were widely considered a major gaffe.

"Major gaffe?" No. They were an act of honesty and courage to admit an ax-job, intended against Clinton.

More of the same. Back home again in Indiana.

Posted online September 29, 2015, here - did they ever meet a leveraged deal they didn't like:

Housing developers and the Sisters of Providence are working to renovate and convert Owens Hall into affordable senior apartments, with developers seeking federal tax credits required to give the project a green light for construction.

The $9 million project would be developed by Flaherty & Collins Properties, an Indianapolis-based development firm. The firm would convert the former residence hall into 20 single-bedroom apartments and 20 two-bedroom apartments on the first two floors of the three-story brick building. The third floor of the building would be converted into market-share-priced apartments.

The Sisters of Providence of St. Mary- of-the-Woods Inc. and Vision Communities Inc. would own the proposed senior housing, according to a project notification filed with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA). Vision Communities’ president is Jerry Collins, co-owner of Flaherty & Collins, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office.

Duane Miller, vice president of community and asset management for Flaherty & Collins Properties, said Tuesday the company is seeking federal tax credits from the IHCDA. Those tax credits, at $640,000 over 10 years, would cover $6.4 million of the cost of the project, Miller said. The tax credits would be sold, like shares of stock, to fund the project.

Miller said Flaherty & Collins would then likely “find a gap source” of other state funds and historic tax credits for the remaining funds. “This is a project that can have an impact for the next 20 plus years. It is not just putting a Band-Aid on this historic building, it will preserve it,” Miller said.

IHCDA is empowered to act as the housing credit agency for the state to administer, operate and manage the allocation of the Internal Revenue Service Section 42 low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program, which is also known as the Rental Housing Tax Credits (RHTC).

Jason Lewis, GOP in CD2?

This Brodkorb-Strib link.

Excited about the prospect. The money will pour in from those captivated by the prospect.

Among Presidential Candidates: Bernie alone is saying income disparity is a major issue at the same time the Trump tax plan gains OMG media attention. Trump goes exactly opposite to Bernie saying balance the playing field. FOUR PINOCHIOS for Trump saying his tax plan "would cost me a fortune." Trump flat out lies.

Trump tax plan coverage: Tax Foundation forecasts a $12 trillion revenue shortfall over next ten years; CNN says "big price tag;" LA Times says could cost trillions; Newsmax headlines, "Trump's Tax Plan Borrows From Republicans Who've Gone Before Him;" US News headlines, "Donald Trump's Tax Plan 'Out-Bushes Bush';" BostonGlobe headlines, "... cuts for the rich;" and WaPo states and then rates:

Fact Checker
Trump’s tax plan and his claim that ‘it’s going to cost me a fortune’

“It’s going to cost me a fortune.”

—Businessman Donald J. Trump, speaking about his tax plan, Sept. 28, 2015

[...] Trump pitched the plan as being tough on the wealthy, highlighting a proposal to eliminate a tax preference that has allowed hedge-fund managers to claim relatively low tax rates.

“It reduces or eliminates most of the deductions and loopholes available to special interests and to the very rich,” Trump declared. “In other words, it’s going to cost me a fortune — which is actually true — while preserving charitable giving and mortgage interest deductions, very importantly.”

Given what we know about the plan, is this claim even in the realm of possibility?

[...] Trump has not disclosed his tax returns but his financial disclosures indicate that he earns at least $250 million a year. That’s obviously a substantial sum of money, but there’s no precise breakdown of the percentage from dividends or capital gains, which are taxed at lower rates than ordinary income.

[...] Still, just on the face of it, Trump’s proposal to slash the top tax rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent would result in a huge tax cut. On [Trump's claimed annual income of] $250 million, that’s a savings of more than $37 million. But it’s not quite so simple.

Annual income of at least $250 million would easily place Trump on the list of the top 400 taxpayers in the United States. For 2012, the last year available, the Internal Revenue Service said adjusted gross income of $139 million was needed to be included. (The average income in this rarefied group was $336 million.) So for the purposes of this fact check, let’s assume Trump’s income and tax profile is reflective of the average of these super-wealthy taxpayers.

A big chunk of the earnings in this group — more than 70 percent — comes from dividends and capital gains. If the income comes from assets held for more than a year, it is taxed at 20 percent if the tax payer is in a 35 percent tax bracket or higher. Trump would keep this 20-percent rate for people in the 25 percent bracket (which would start at $300,000 for married filers), so one could expect little change in his tax liability for dividends and capital gains.

Only about 15 percent of the income among the top 400 is taxed at regular income tax rates, which is a key reason why the average tax rate for the top 400 tax filers was just 16.72 percent in 2012. But if that percentage were applied to Trump’s presumed income of $250 million, for income of $38 million taxed at regular rates, that’s still a savings of at least $5 million in taxes.

Trump is mostly silent on what deductions he would eliminate for the wealthy, but he says he would keep the deduction for charitable gifts. It turns out that among the top 400 taxpayers, charitable deductions amount to an average of 65 percent of all deductions. So even if all other deductions were eliminated, which is unlikely, the changes would not make enough of a dent to make up for the savings from the sharp cut in income tax rates.

Moreover, Trump says he would help business owners by creating a special 15-percent tax rate. (Corporations would also get a 15 percent tax rate, down from a current high of 35 percent.) One could easily see how the wealthy — including hedge fund managers and Trump himself — could quickly take advantage of the new rules to reduce their tax liability.

Finally, Trump says he would eliminate the estate tax, saying “a lot of families go through hell over the death tax.” As we demonstrated, that’s not correct. Congress in recent years has significantly boosted the exemption from taxation, to nearly $11 million for couples, so now only about one out of every 800 deaths triggers an estate tax liability. Indeed, there were fewer than 5,000 estate tax returns filed in 2013, compared to 139,000 in 1977.

But it’s virtually certain that Trump’s heirs would be subject to the estate tax under the current rules. So that tax change would be a substantial windfall for the Trump family.

[...] No matter how we slice it, we do not see how Trump can justify his claim that his tax plan would cost him “a fortune.” On the contrary, it appears it would significantly reduce his taxes — and the taxes of his heirs.

If more information becomes available — such as the release of Trump’s tax returns or more details on his tax plan — we will of course update, and if necessary adjust this ruling. But for now it’s a Four Pinocchio statement.

Per WaPo's ratings, lies max out at Four Pinocchios, meaning:

[...] Three Pinocchios
Significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions. This gets into the realm of “mostly false.” But it could include statements which are technically correct (such as based on official government data) but are so taken out of context as to be very misleading. The line between Two and Three can be bit fuzzy and we do not award half-Pinocchios. So we strive to explain the factors that tipped us toward a Three.

Four Pinocchios
Whoppers.

So -- Only true woodenheadeds among us would identify Four Pinocchios with proximity to truth. Per WaPo.

The Newsmax report, mid-item, notes:

"This is something, and I've been watching it for a long time, everybody agrees to," Trump said about repatriation holiday, adding that he plan would create "an amazing code."

Like his rivals, Trump also leans on projected growth to pay for the tax cuts. Bush's cuts would cost an estimated $3.4 trillion over a decade, with a net revenue loss of $1.2 trillion after projected economic growth. Rubio's plan to slash taxes on investments, wages, and business income would reduce collections by $1.7 trillion during the same time, while, like Bush, largely favoring the top 1 percent of Americans over the middle class.

Trump claimed his plan would be "fully paid for," but didn't provide his projections. During an interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump said his plan relied on economic growth to avoid adding to the nation's $18 trillion debt. On Monday, Trump said his plan would be paid for if the country makes "much better deals."

"I'm not a populist," Trump told reporters on Monday. "I'm a man of great common sense."

A trickle-down liar actually is not a populist, so that one Trump "not a populist" claim rings true. Trickle down never has worked and it always has been the standard-issued gold-plated lie of the wealthy proposing cutting their own and their cronies' taxes, at the expense of - go figure.


Last of the excerpting, the US News item, source of the image, reports in part:

I am spoon feeding you bullshit.

"It is a fraud – a total fraud," Al Hunt, columnist and commentator at Bloomberg, said in response to the tax proposal on Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect" Monday. "He's going to massively increase defense spending, and then he's going to have a huge revenue-losing tax plan. Guess what? There's a lot of debt there."

The primary criticism: Despite Trump's claims that the plan is "revenue neutral," few see how that could be a realistic possibility given the extent of the tax cuts.

"He said he would eliminate deductions, but there aren't enough deductions around to reduce the rates that low without making a huge increase in the deficit," John Harwood, chief Washington correspondent for CNBC and a writer for The New York Times, said in an interview Monday on CNBC. "No one can look at this tax plan and think that it would be revenue neutral."

[...] "Trump claims the plan will be revenue neutral, but he has made bombastic exaggerations before, and this time is no different. In fact, there is no possibility that this plan would not be a gigantic tax cut for the rich and a gigantic revenue loser for the government," Robert McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, said in a statement Monday. "The most widely promoted tax hike in Trump's plan, closing the carried interest loophole, would barely amount to a slap on the wrist for hedge fund millionaires Trump says should pay more."

Trump in the past has vowed to take on the national deficit, which he has said is comparable to "Greece on steroids." [...]

The Donald is not without allies. Grover Norquist, founder of the Americans for Tax Reform nonprofit, called the plan "Republican orthodoxy, with a little twist here and there." Conservative radio host Mark Levin called it a "hell of a plan." Fox television personality Eric Bolling, whose employer has had a less than amicable relationship with Trump in recent weeks, gave the plan "an A-plus."

[...] Trump's plan isn't so different from the one touted by GOP rival Jeb Bush, despite the apparent animosity that exists between the two presidential hopefuls. Both reduce the number of tax brackets in the U.S. Both involve tax breaks for the country's top earners. Both specifically target loopholes that allow the well-connected and savvy to navigate around paying their full share of taxes.

So, Trump and the Bush family's candidate both say, "Trust me."

Bless you if you do.

Trump syncophant, Carl Ichan, says: danger ahead. -- The YouTube - Ichan video says so. So the question is there really danger ahead? Or just the partially disguised "Support Trump" message, with danger to that? The video curiously hitting the web when, lo, the Donald of the United States floats a "tax plan." Watch the video, decide how to regard it. A few links to it.

This YouTube link.

Links: Reuters, CNN Money, USA Today, Business Insider, even Infowars.com.

Trust it? You decide. But a 15% repatriation holiday? Is that good for the nation at all, or only good for the corporations wanting to move money around the globe, including back into the US?

UPDATE: Two more links; Bloomberg, Zero Hedge (embedding the full video).

FURTHER: Trump's Syrian policy per most recent Trump reporting, Reuters and Zero Hedge.

Religious sense and sensibilities, and the secular. ... lest ye be judged?

Reuters, here, here and here.

With the next GOP debate set for October 28, do you think there may be intervening candidate withdrawals, or will the pack of single digit polling hopefuls stay?

The headline question is offered as a thought experiment, unless any reader feels compelled to submit a comment.

The content of this post; beyond that headline, debate schedule links:

All debates, presently scheduled; this link.

Repbulican primary debate info, this link.

Both of those links are from the site:

http://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/

Wikipedia, on Republican 2016 Presidential debates; here.

For what might arguably be a change of pace, this link. (Will Trump be there? Will crowds be there? Will expectations be fulfilled?)

A thought experiment. What if the Republicans were to go with a Fiorina - Rubio ticket?

Rubio on second spot would balance the ticket geographically, each coast represented, and he is Hispanic with that being a voting bloc the GOP seeks to reach to. That, in light of unfortunate Dem likelihoods would assure the nation its first woman President, with a question being whether the First Husband's named Bill or Frank.

Fiorina gravitas on the web: here, here, here, here, here, here and true to the end, here.

Would Fiorina be representative of Republican women who have reached power positions outside of politics before entering the political arena? Is it hard to argue otherwise?

Or do you agree with Trump?

Boehner legacy analysis.

Here. As good as his cohorts.

Trump tax plan in two links. Neither of which were studied, but: (1) How is it any different than the Bush family's floated 2016 upper bracket tax cut "plan?" (2) What detail is there about repatriating money held in foreign tax havens or other nations having lower tax rates than the US - as to individuals [Trump], closely held firms [Trump], and regular publicly traded large multinational firms [e.g. Apple]??

Two links; here and here.

Each link is a websearch. Each mirrors the other. For those slow to see or agree on mirroring, a third link.

The headline questions are left open, readers who care can websearch for answers. Readers who do not care can go to YouTube to listen to Trump stump speeches, and to Carly Fiorina.

Bush family's plan, this link.

Apple.

Something that can sour you quickly on established and DFL establishment politicians and their worse traits. [UPDATED]

UPDATE: "Bernie Sanders opens 16-point lead in New Hampshire," this link. Even up in Iowa, but trending for Bernie, this link. The people speak. They choose and they speak. Oppose a cramdown.

It makes me rebuke. It makes me puke. (photo from here)

Any questions?

GOP presidential next-exit guesses; the not with a bang but a whimper polls. Reports online offer three GOP barely-contender names. Follow the links, find these names named.

Trump is winnowing the field by staying up in polling, plus steady on TV broadcasting time. Bush is remaining for when Trump says something too absurd to continue. When he ... is the question, not will he.

International Business Times and Politico, here and here respectively, tell the nearly identical story, including Rand Paul needing to attend to reelection to the Senate.

Swagger rules, except Bush will outlast Trump, so swagger only goes so far. Then negative - ugly negative - campaiening will happen with Bush shrugging, saying, "I wonder who is doing that." Karl Rove will be some place unreachable, but at work. Rove in his place and all's right with their world.

UPDATE: Only partly related, an "and the Pope is Catholic" item.

What is this REAL ID garbage? It is excessive and unneeded. We have gotten from the time of Columbus onward without it, so who wants/needs it? It offends.

Homeland Security Gothic

Strib, here. Homeland Security seems run by a band of paranoids. Their budget is too big, their job security less important than citizen rights, their reach beyond reasonableness.

Orwellian asses have overstepped, and we should all wish to push back.

Repeal should be an election year issue, this early, so why isn't it?

Undo stupidity, it is not an inevitable process of the twentyfirst century.

Stupidity run amok is despotism. The voter ID amendment got a big coverage time in the sunshine. But how did this REAL ID get fobbed off on us, no referendum, no sunshine, all dark, all murky? Where was our DFL, vocal on the voter ID stupidity?

UPDATE: Do your own websearch, or start here.

FURTHER: Specific ACLU past items, here and, earlier, here.

RAMSEY - A Mark Knopfler ballad online, as a reminder of Darren's Town Center tenure and "accomplishments" AND as a wha's happening memory refresh for present officials.

This link.

And isn't that newest shared-wall housing, north side of Hwy 116 between Rhinestone and Armstrong, special? Credit for that, it's Darren, unless I am mistaken.

Shared wall stuff went up Boom Like That.

Did anyone ever think there would be a favorable Crabgrass link to a Katherine Kersten online item?

You never know. Even a blind pig can sometimes sniff out a truffle.

So Darren's sidekick, his Tonto during his yesterday Ramsey days, Heidi Nelson who moved to town administrator elsewhere -- What to expect there? RIGHT: At a guess, upscale from what the pair left in Ramsey before leaving Ramsey. " ... on the northern shore of Lake Minnetonka ... priced from about $350 to $400 per square foot. Some of the larger units are expected to have 2,800 to 3,000 square feet ..."

If any reader has information whether Landform has gotten any recent business in Wayzeta, please leave a comment. At a guess, Tonto got to know Lone Ranger ...

UPDATE: Do any readers in Ramsey miss the citizen-input Comp Plan meetings that used to be?

This town website link. Also, here and here. For those liking compare/contrast maps; here and here.

Neat Colors. click to enlarge

The City should post an uncolored map, for town children liking coloring books.

Or try this.

Click to enlarge. Save it. Color it.

FURTHER: This link. Perhaps misinformed, but believing there is a 2040 Comp Plan being planned, would a reader help me in locating that set of materials on the City's website? The 2030 plan is there, but even, which consultant is the 2040 plan Chosen One? Transparency? It's so transparent I cannot see it. Is anything there?

Try this one yourself. I may have erred.

FURTHER: The Kersten item is headlined well, but Kersten being herself, it is ill-reasoned when it wholly ignores the nation's jobs have been and are continuing to be shipped overseas by the giant corporations she and other corporatists favor, believing they should pay little to no taxes so the miracle of trickle down may happen; and it has benefited China. Kersten is hard on those not fortunate to have retained high-paying good jobs, but has a blind eye why that pool of people is not larger and why too many people find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Wall Street greed has inflated and then conflated a housing bubble and foreclosing banks are rationing properties back into the buying market - rationing supply to maximize their return in a supply-demand situation where they hold a extraordinary share of supply. Where they can artificially boost prices by rationing from their forclosure portfolios. So, because of Kersten's base blind eye Republicanism, she ignores obvious facts a fifth grader can spot.

If the jobs go to China, they are not here, regardless of what people would want for their families and are willing to work hard to attain. To Kersten, they are sufferers of government and only that because she declines entirely to focus on those who are the beneficaries of lobbyists and the best elected officials money can buy. Instead, blame the little guy, for being little, once the option of blaming the big guy for being too greedily big is taken off the Kersten intellectual table. Government is problematic, but hardly in the way Kersten sees things. And billionaire Trump will fix that. And pigs WILL fly. Just be patient, to wait and see them airborne before your eyes. Sometime. In the future.

Kersten comprehends Met Council as flawed, properly so, but she will not face the giant problem behind that problem, because of her biased world and national view.

Right wing Channel 5 has online item about Anoka County Board tax increase.

Yes, in being prudent even this board, with the saddening majority it has, does what is needed if needed.

Item, here, headlined: Anoka Co. Board Approves Tax Levy Increase for 2016, Updated: 09/25/2015 12:02 PM -- Created: 09/25/2015 11:23 AM KSTP.com -- By: Jennie Lissarrague

An interesting riff:

The 2016 preliminary tax levy was set at about $122.4 million, which is compared to last year’s tax levy of $119.4 million.

County officials say the increase will be used to cover the cost of new legislation along with the transfer of costs from the state to the county for mandated services for children, vulnerable adults and people with mental illness.

[italics added] Usually career politician Matt Look is eager to give a quote for attribution. Taxes get raised, and "county officials" speak to the press. Also, where's Rhonda?

___________UPDATE___________
In fairness to the Republican-dominated county board, the bit about " ... cover the cost of new legislation ... " has a true ring to it, but which party is it, really, in the legislature bent on the trick of fobbing off state responsibility onto local government? So the story from "county officials" is we must deal with the tricksterism of our own Republican party in the legislature hacking out a budget in concert with crypto-Republican Tom Bakk.

For those unaware of situation normal, leopards always having spots, and our planet always turning on its axis, there is ...

... this HuffPo Bachmann-related item.

"End Times" host Jan Markell.

Situation normal. Every spot still on the leopard, but did you expect anything different?


UPDATE: Before reader comment that

http://theoswatch.com/

is a satire website, do consider that possibility. However remote ...

That stuff cannot be real. Or can it?

Their: About us? The suggestion from that is that satire is afoot; but then you read again that HuffPo item, ... Michele makes it so-o-o-o-o-o hard to say ...

Wanting evidence? Properly so? There is this.

Scary, RightWingWatch takes the Markell situation seriously, and they are not the most easily hoodwinked. Speaking of hoodwinking ... or hoodless ...

This. Srength in numbers? True or not, it certainly seems to be a story that grew legs.

FURTHER UPDATE: News is Trump claims The Bible is his favorite book but declines to share publicly his favorite verse. That's then open season, my guess being Matthew 19:24.

FURTHER UPDATE: Without leaving the subject of spoof and satire, if I were to be more skilled at lengthy writing and fresh from a refresher course in use of Microsoft Excel, and intending to spoof early election polling, I would read an MSM web item or two, whether current or stale (so that the spoof would not look too preposterously out of line), and then author a bogus thing with made up results which could look exactly like this. That is I would do that on a couple "ifs." If I were more skilled, and paid handsomly by the word, by the number, by the chart, or by the page.

FURTHER: This AUDIO link. From the "LATEST BROADCAST: PLAY - Peace and Safety or Sudden Destruction?" from this (could it too be satire? yes? hope so?) web link. Not only that latest/greatest; there are earlier broadcasts you can download and listen to as a consenting adult in the privacy of your own home. Really.

FURTHER: Faulting FOX, link the audio from here, move to around minute 23:30. Markell is batshit crazy as are her band of guests (e.g., Bachmann - but not on this segment), while FOX is nothing less than ratings-based opportunistic. Markell and guests now seeming to say, FOX is opportunistic to a fault. Same item; minute 29:00 and on at least to 32:00; this is actual fundie-especially-dumb/numb broadcasting brought to you in Minnesota from Minnesotans.

FURTHER: It is not worth the time of further combing through the muck of the Markell stable to try to locate a Pope Francis statement as headlined, so close down the muckraking with this bullet-point excerpt from here:

Have you noted recent major stories and how they confirm the words of those of us saying that things aren't falling apart, they are falling in place. Stories like . . .

- Russia and Iran co-operating and conspiring (Ezekiel 38-39).
- Gog is stirring. Russia has been relatively quiet for decades, but now Vladimir Putin is on the move.
- With ISIS marching towards Damascus, Syria is begging Israel to fulfill Isaiah 17.
- The United Nations, Barack Obama, the Pope, and many more, are clamoring for global government (Revelation 13). All of these men may have interesting assignments in the kingdom of Antichrist.
- Because of the increase of wickedness, love is growing cold. (Matthew 24:12) Can you say Planned Parenthood? Have we returned to those predicted "days of Noah" where such evil as this was rampant? (Matthew 24:37)

- edit correction, found it, here 'tis -

What It Is? Any questions?

FURTHER: For anyone saying or thinking, Michele Bachmann's gotten crazier than usual, that it's her being back drinking Minnesota water, this from 2013, this from 2011. Same leopard, same spots. Same crazy.

FURTHER: Is there a way to top the craziness of those saying the Pope may not be the Antichrist, but instead the False Prophet of Revelations? Yes. That can be topped: The Pope is a Mason. There. Two powerful semi-secret societies honked off if you say that, which you understand if you know your history.

Seven predictions - national politics.

1. The worse of the Republican silly season will be over by July 21. 2016.

2. Bernie will have been done in and derailed one way or another by July 28, 2016.

3 After July 28 national presidential campaigning will shift to incessant shrill nastier-than-ever-before mudslinging ads televised during football TV broadcasts, during late night TV, and during early and mid-morning TV; with Karl Rove inexorably involved and irremovable from the worse of worse of the mudslinging but with several cutouts between Rove and the Bush son's campaign staff.

4. Before midnight November 8, 2016 there will be TV news reports suggesting possible election irregularities in urban parts of Florida causing that state's election outcome to be uncertain, the election hinging on Florida's outcome.

5. There will be added to national jurisprudence a singular case, (but not without precedent); Clinton v. Bush; decided 5 - 4 by a divided Court.

6. Sometime between No.5 and New Years's day, 2024, likely in September, probably starting the 13th, the national and globalized "domino" economy will both have tanked precipitously and without chance of recovery so that those thereafter owning long and handguns will have a survival advantage.

7. The only reprieve from the apocalyptic outcome of No. 6, would be if No. 2 does not happen followed by No. 4 and No. 5 not happening (number 3 being inevitable); with Bernie becoming a full two term President without mishap, where the rich end up finally being fairly taxed their just share without loopholes and cheating opportunity; and with birds singing sweetly and the sun shining brightly from Bernie's first day in office onward; and upon the No. 7 outcome we may rest.

Yet another bum of the month?

This link.

Is this related?

And the two of them, Beltway insiders each, wonder why non-Beltway insiders are popular.

Doing the K Street cash in?

This link. Unlike the casino, where the house cashes in your chips, he'll take his chips with him, from the House.

There have been two televised 2015 GOP debate/extravaganzas and there is an online transcript for each.

First, in Cleveland, CBSNews, online here.

Second, at Gipperland, Time, online here.

So, wow, you can word search "deal" to see much of Trump's activity; or follow all Bush has said to see generic platitudes with little exposure to major content that later could be used against him - while Trump talked a lot.

The Bush low-energy approach has been noted by some; but while Perry withdrew and then Walker, we will not have the pleasure of seeing any such Bush activity, pre-convention.

You can search "Iran" or search "Rosie O'Donnell" - perhaps just "Rosie" to not worry about correct last name spelling.

This WaPo link is needed if you care to wordsearch/follow all Rick Perry said, or to get the full Fiorina.

Whether future events will yield online transcripts is not knowable.


You can even search the entire transcript package to see if Ted Cruz had a kind word for anyone.


UPDATE: Another thing, for example, you could cut/paste every Fiorina utterance into a plaintext document, and word search it for "secretary." Or "father," "Judge," "Dean," "Duke," where the latter arguably noteworthy words might gain no transcript hits.

In the same spirit, a websearch = fiorina father judge dean duke secretary -- might be an interesting investment of time (where one search link is given and readers can try the same search with another search engine, or separately search = fiorina golden parachute disaster HP millions layoff outsourcing).

FURTHER UPDATE: While having a bad transcript link (unlike above in the opening paragraphs), some tracking of Fiorina utterances are explored, in an excellent Naked Capatilism post, with much clarity (although fisking "the" and "and" are left only to item headlining). [Do follow the links]

FURTHER: The last update item notes Fiorina corporate-speak; a theme echoed here.

Do not think only of publicly traded corporations. There are some closely held ventures, known to be or likely so, that are big.

Cargill is our Minnesota poster child of the big closely held firm.

Trump likely has multiple closely held limited liability subunits, so that when he says he has never had a bankruptcy, and has put firms when opportune into Chapter proceedings of one kind or another, he is truthful in distinguishing the personal from the interlocking business structures.

Or am I wrong? Does Trump have publicly traded firms, having to file SEC disclosure reports? If so, it would be a major surprise. It seems he and his three children by the first marriage run the worldwide Trump branded empire. It appears each Trump adventure is started from scratch, i.e., without any foreign corporation Inversion merger mischief. Yet at a guess moving wealth around the globe as he and his three children collectively view best, daddy with the deciding vote, with maximum (ideally unfettered) liquidity and minimal tax consequences would be beneficial to his global machinations, whatever they may be, over time; i.e., his closely held operations in terms of regulatory/taxing structures of nations might likely not differ from other firms. But we do not know because of close holding obviating regulatory disclosure requirements imposed on publicly traded poster child firms.

Medtronic merger mania. Explained equivalently to a thousand words.

Well Mr. Taxpayer, as part of this Inversion I'm going to Ireland.

SD 35 Senator Branden Petersen moves forward his exit from the legislature by intending a early resignaion, triggering a special election.

Strib local coverage is online, here.

Coverage is thorough and readers are encourged to access and read the item. Briefly, it states in part:

Petersen earlier this summer announced he would not seek re-election next year, and a handful of candidates have already filed to run for his seat. They include former state Rep. Jim Abeler and GOP activists Andy Aplikowski and Donald Huizenga.

[...] The 29-year-old Republican was first elected to the House in 2010 and to the Senate in 2012. His support for same-sex marriage in 2013 angered Republicans in his district who said at the time that they felt blindsided by his decision.

Petersen said his decision to step down would ensure his constituents are well-served. "The constituents are better served when someone is there and not focused on the next thing," he said.

Petersen earned a reputatation [sic] in the Senate for his libertarian bent, at times breaking with his caucus on issues.

Presumably a special election will yield a seniority advantage to the elected individual, over others who may be first term Senators via the 2016 general election.

We all should wish Petersen and family well as they move into other life considerations.

Veterans and traumatic brain injury.

The current KARE 11 story triggered this post.

It speaks for itself, but it was encouraging to see Walz and Hegseth both mentioned, the hope being they could work together, but aside from that showing the worry is a bipartisan concern.

National Geographic has published a lengthy item on explosion related TBI, including a graphic of brain movement from nearby explosions and noting how explosion related TBI differs from sports or accident concussion truma. See also, same online source, an interview of the report author, and a parallel story on concussion injury. [UPDATE: At the end of the first linked item, there is a link over to here. The images are compelling.]

CDC on traumatic brain injury, here.

While unaware of any conclusive medical literature about differences, it appears that differences are recognized within the applicable medical specialties, and that emphasizes the need in the VA to assure that the proper specialists do TBI examinations.

Another uncertainty for general readers, who may need to do extended web search, is the distance/severity effect, and the trauma repetition worry, given repeated deployments in areas where improvised explosive devices are used against US troops.

Does sitting at a desk in a noncombat task with outside incoming mortar rounds nearby, not a direct hit but nearby, require worry to a veteran family, and should everyone experiencing such a situation, even once, be evaluated? Caution seems to dictate that conservative approach, but how does that square with the demand on VA resources, and triage that way?

Ditto, for convoy vehicle occupants at differing distances from a triggered IED.

Many questions.

Worth looking at, for the cartoon alone.

Plus, it is a very tightly written CD2 analysis - catalog of the current declared candidacies, GOP and DFL. With more detailed examination promised in future items.

With enough spin, it does not tip over, no matter the "gravity" of the situation.

It is like an inverted stability, enough spin, it stands tall, no fall.

Do you need to learn more about inversions?

Rolling Stone. A pair of pdf docs, here and here.

For more, do a websearch.

And that nice Mr. Bush, that nice Ms. Fiorina, Mr. Trump, they will look at inversions, with your best interests in mind. Ask any one of them. They will tell you don't worry.

Be happy. The fight against Planned Parenthood is going on.

Over there. Quick, quick. Look, look. Yes, yes, yes!

With, what else, a big onstage flag. Flags mean sincerity.

And - what low life would --- steal a flag?

Ad hoc, ad loc, ipso facto, quid pro quo. So little time. So much to know. (More than you can stand.)

UPDATE: Old friends, new places. Well, 2007, not so new - but have you heard of it before reading of it here? Is there any message to that? So much to know.

UPDATE: Worth a repeat. Be happy. Others might be. Americans are meant to be happy "reflective of Bush’s overall plan to dramatically cut taxes across the board in the hopes that Americans would use their newfound pocket change to buy more goods and grow the economy."

Dubai - a voice and face some may recognize. [UPDATED - initial link error corrected; two new Dubai video links at end, for your viewing pleasure]

This YouTube video. Another, after you view the first.

A page. Then, golfing pleasure.

An image, from here:

click image to enlarge and read

Now, a civic minded person of impecable credentials, wanting to make America great again for you, that is something nobody would want to crassly ask, "What's in it for him?"

However, there is this, this, this, this and if the field gets winnowed by bluster, this. For the last link, try a word search, "repatriation." Or, search this Economist link, "repatriated." Minds can run in parallel channels; an unconscious but almost magical parallelism. One mind channeling another when good things are feasible. Landslides can start a particle at a time, and next, and next, and then natural forces reach an inevitable end.

Not that anyone's motives in seeking public service opportunity should be questioned. That would be callous and rude. And you would not see it here. No half-baked conspiracy theories of greed and lust for change, if only change might prove beneficial.

For us.

__________UPDATE__________
An interview, and a saga. Together they help show us who candidate Trump is and the range of people he envisions helping.

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
We can envision the manner of child of privilege and economic good fortune who could seamlessly mingle in Trump Dubai circles.

The honest man. And then, who besides Ted Cruz hoping to get into double figure campaign recognition numbers, wants to push to defund Planned Parenthood? Ted Cruz is dangerous. He is grotesque.

The honest man? Al.

On the Senate floor earlier this week, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., called out the minority of Republicans who are pushing for an ultimatum on Planned Parenthood funding.

“This is an extreme proposal and it unfortunately represents the latest salvo in an unending campaign to make safe and legal abortion virtually impossible to access,” he said.

And calling it out for what it is, an unpopular minority, with an inhospitable and restrictive heavy-government-hand desire, in one place where government intrusion clearly is wrong, must be done. Cruz has to be recognized as a clear and present threat to the nation and in no way by any measure, Presidential. He is a thug.

The quote, Strib, this link.

Cruz should be told he is a thug and should stop.

Mitch McConnell, having to try to sidetrack the idiot, deserves recognition as well motivated. Cruz is being an ass. An in-the-minority ass. A troublemaker.

In no way Presidential.

_____________UPDATE_____________
Is there one person with the most to lose by what Cruz is up to?

I suggest the answer is yes, and the person is Marco Rubio.

Fiorina and Bush are outside of having to vote on disabling the government. They can quietly watch.

Cruz doing this has zero chance in a general election and the GOP money people have to realize that.

So Cruz is putting Rubio in the position of not merely mouthing a line to the choice haters. He will have to vote. He will be compromised. By Cruz.

Bush likely will not cry over that happening to Rubio. He can just stay hidden in the weeds, smiling smirking.

The image is from here, which notes:

"The stakes for America's future are about as great as they come," Bush said as he launched his campaign in Miami under the simple campaign logo of "Jeb!" that makes no mention of the last name he shares with the country's 41st president (his father, George H.W. Bush) and 43rd (older brother George W.).

The question I wonder over, and obviously cannot answer; in this Planned Parenthood assault, are Fiorina and Cruz walking point, for Bush?

A rerun. Any takers this time? Identify one or more of the people in the image and win a cupie doll (as long as it's awarded and paid for by somebody else).

Comments are welcome, such as,
"Why should I care?"
Should you?

Ouch.

Story online here; source of image (text not in original image).

UPDATE: More ouch. With the zinger in the final paragraph? And ouch, in the fact checked version of family-impacting layoffs and a parallel grubbing of money hand over fist.

Toast? What else?

What would Rodney Dangerfield say? ""There's no sense that just because she's a woman we should take her more seriously," said another Clinton-aligned Democrat. Plus, they say, the playbook against her — perfected by Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Clinton ally who beat Fiorina in a 2010 Senate race — is so obvious that even if she did break to the top of polls, she would be easy to dispatch. “When people find out she ran her company into the ground and jumped out of the plane with a golden parachute, they’ll run,” said California Democratic strategist Ace Smith, who worked on Boxer’s campaign and played Fiorina in the senator’s 2010 debate prep. Or, in the words of the D.C. Democrat close to the campaign: “The playbook on her is just devastating. It makes the stuff against Mitt Romney look like child’s play." "

Politico, here, the above headline being from mid-item, consolidating a number of short paragraphs in the original.

But as an attack dog ... all you need there are sharp steel-capped teeth.

_________UPDATE_________
The above was posted without actually finishing the entire article.

As to each side's game playing, playing with fire, playing chicken, and as to attack dog; from the same item:

One of the breakout moments for Fiorina at last week’s debate was her impassioned [sounding] riff against Planned Parenthood — "If we do not stand up and force President Obama to veto [funding], shame on us," she said – and Clinton allies see that answer, particularly coming from the only woman in the GOP field, as major ammunition against her party.

After the debate, Clinton’s camp focused on Republicans’ plan to turn the Planned Parenthood funding squabble into a government shutdown fight, and Fiorina’s comments were front and center.

“Those 25 seconds where she made that emotional plea for a shutdown moved the whole debate over,” explained the strategist close to the Clinton camp. “The likelihood of a shutdown and the pressure on Republican candidates to endorse a shutdown is a very good thing for Democrats in general, for the Clinton campaign, for everybody.”

Still, while the campaign itself has not attacked Fiorina, two of her allies – Planned Parenthood and EMILY’s List – have both started going after her more intensely.[...] not because they see her as a dangerous candidate in her own right.

While Fiorina is unlikely to be the nominee, many Democrats expect her to eventually reprise her summertime role as Clinton’s main antagonist when she becomes an attack dog for the eventual Republican standard-bearer — so there’s value in getting ready to rough her up.

“She can still play an effective role as a surrogate in the general,” said one Washington Democrat who predicts the party’s machinery will eventually ramp up against her.

“At some point Fiorina was going to feel the heat. This just happens to be her moment in the sun.”

Fiorina's campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Nary a woof from the Fiorina camp? Oh, my.

Worse thing, all that shutdown posturing, brinkmanship, whatever you call it; real people can get hurt in the course of politics as it has become usual.

A whole bunch of people need to grow up, fast.

Why is there dissatisfaction with beltway insiders and the games they play, ignoring pain to others?

This Politico link, this opening extended excerpt:

Senate starts shutdown scramble with Cruz vote

Mitch McConnell fires the first volley as GOP leaders try to avert a federal closure.

By Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim - 09/22/15, 11:31 AM EDT - Updated 09/22/15, 05:01 PM EDT

If the government shuts down, Mitch McConnell wants to make sure the Senate isn’t to blame.

After trying to keep his strategy under wraps for days, the Senate majority leader made his first moves on Tuesday to avoid a lapse in federal funding on Oct. 1. But it’s a legislative strategy that still has risks for Republicans and could confront the House GOP with a do-or-die vote right at the deadline to keep the government open.

McConnell set up a Thursday vote that would fund the government through Dec. 11 while gutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood and boosting defense spending by $13 billion — an approach favored by conservatives on the right.

That legislation will fail due to Democratic opposition, allowing McConnell to argue that Senate Republicans tried the hard-line tactic proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), but it couldn’t pass. McConnell could then turn to a “clean” funding bill that Democrats have promised to support.

“There’s going to be votes to defund Planned Parenthood. But I think, given the president’s opposition and Democrats’ opposition, at some point, I anticipate there will be a clean (continuing resolution),” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters. “But, that’s not the end of the fight over late-term abortions and over Planned Parenthood.”

But first, McConnell agreed to test Cruz’s approach, touting the benefits of a bill that is at bipartisan spending levels and “would defund Planned Parenthood and protect women’s health by funding community health clinics.” And consistent with the GOP leader’s tight-lipped nature, McConnell refused to confirm that he will then turn to a clean CR when the attack on Planned Parenthood fails later this week.

Let's all chant, "Mitch, Mitch, Son of a ..."

No.

That is too easy.

Make it, "Cruz, Cruz, Son of a ..." Although not rhyming as with Mitch, there's so much truth to such a chant, in light of that blackguard's ways and means and overriding smarminess.

Rubio, his struggle.

This link.

UPDATE: Links lead to links. See if you can reach Clarence Thomas. As the Crow flies.

CD2 Republican side, a second entrant. One claiming willingness to "spend upwards of $500,000 of his own money to win the race." Republicans can choose the rich man, or the whacko (apparently with no vast wealth), and go from there absent other late entrants. [Please see IMPORTANT UPDATE]

A friend emailed this MPR link. Read it for names of the current two GOP contenders, and detail.

At the end:

[Republican political consultant and former legislator Mike] Osskopp also said the Republican field is far from inspiring at this point. He said many of the top-tier candidates looked at the time demands, the travel and the low approval rating of Congress and decided against it.

"It's unfortunate that being a member of Congress has just lost its luster," he said. "It's no longer something that quality people aspire to."

Former state Sen. Ted Daley, former state Rep. Pam Myrha, state Rep. Tony Albright and Savage-based businessman Chris Andryski are other Republicans thinking about jumping into the race.

Would the field become "inspiring" if those, or any one of them, in the final paragraph were to declare?

The Kline legacy. Nobody to speak of, in his party, wants to follow that act.

__________UPDATE (edited)_________
To be clear, Gerson IS a Republican, and has been one over the years, having contested against Kline in caucusing battles of the past. The MPR item seems dismissive of him because he is not a mainstream business Republican. But then Gerson also appears to not be a tool of bogus "colleges" either, which would be a refreshing thing for CD2 GOP affairs.

Where is this Property Ownership, Howe Properties, LLC new entrant on the question of bogus post-secondary schools and a blind eye to their student-debt fraud aspects, a singular Kline legacy; will he be more of the same or defining a new and better view on that issue, not unlike Gerson that way?

__________FURTHER UPDATE____________
At a guess, Howe, if getting the GOP endorsement and if winning the general election, would not be a Kline clone. An upgrade instead, (could there really be worse), although clearly party-grade on many litmus tests.

Links of interest: litmus, here, here and two online pdf items, here and here. He has a Wikipedia page, and a LinkedIn page. The LinkedIn page identifies current connection with "NCEL" and attempted google-based disambiguation of that acronym suggests it is most likely this.

The litmus page MPR offers is not encouraging of Howe being a breakthrough Republican of a new sort, but he's not John Kline either. Whether he is a coal-fired power company advocate or not is unclear, on cursory investigation. He might be

But he was concerned about frac sand mining back when NoDak oil was in its boom phase, before the per barrel price erosion. Reader help on fleshing out the candidacy would be appreciated.

___________FURTHER UPDATE (edited)___________
Howe's brother, Jeff, is in the legislature, currently, from a different part of the State. Both brothers attended St. Cloud State, and Jeff has a military background, per MPR reporting. Jeff Howe's Wikipedia page is brief and not too informative. If there is a family stance on war and military size and spending, touching the Iran question, it needs fleshing out. Those are quite legitimate questions for anyone wanting to take a handoff from Col. Kline. Whether Gerson and Howe distinguish different positions on such interventionist questions might prove interesting. TPP and trade in general is also an area where Gerson might be an expected big-government opponent, and where Howe, as an apparent business Republican, would have to define a position. Bill sponsorship in the legislature suggests Howe might be an improvement over Kline's outlook on consumer/business credit fairness issues.

___________FURTHER UPDATE__________
BIG TIME QUESTION: The Howe-NCEL tie should be a focus of attention. The NCEL "Who We Are" page seems unduly vague on whether they are a pro-coal climate change denial front operation, or something better and fair toward renewable energy current and future options. And that very vagueness suggests cause for great caution about who they are and what they might stand for. If a Koch front, or the substantial equivalent, the Howe candidacy might look different than if NCEL is a more balanced or even innovative association. Reader help on that question would be appreciated.

Equally vague, this NCEL page, where specificity might be expected. Great River Energy is on the NCEL board, "Rick Lancaster, Vice President - Generation, Great River Energy," and they have massive coal-fired NoDak genco plants. Very suspect, unless proven innocent.

Environmentalist readers, please help out. Per NCEL: Koch fingerprints; coal fingerprints; all over or in part; or mainly agnostic about coal vs other genco options?

Howe did sponsor this bill, one arguably an impediment to wind energy development.

Howe has to honestly and thoroughly define where he is on climate change and clean energy issues, for credibility.

___________IMPORTANT UPDATE____________
Here is a big time problem. The John Howe candidacy makes the LinkedIn page important.

Enlarge the image see that NCEL bit. WTF is it? Why in the world would a seasoned politician not give a name instead of an ambiguous acronym?

Not being a LinkedIn user, I cannot access the "Full Profile." People like that do exist and might want to know more from the opening public-access page, John.

I need help and tried through the still online election page

http://howeforsenate.com/contact.php

to get a clarification (not finding the courtesy of a current email address there or elsewhere) but with script blocking I hope the try got through and somebody sees it

----------------------
BOTTOM LINE: Which NCEL did the gentleman affiliate himself with?

https://www.ncel.org/page.aspx

http://www.ncel.net/index.cgim

Dear John: There is a difference.

*.com or *.net

That LinkedIn ambiguity is giving me a KING-SIZED HEADACHE where an ounce of greater care on the LinkedIn page - giving a full organizational name, would have helped.

WHICH IS HE? *.com or *.org

LOOKING HERE, IF JOHN HOWE IS "WHITE HAT" THAT WAY THEN BLESS HIM. IT MATTERS. ANY READER HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Making me believe the "white hat" might apply, not pro-coal (if that is NCEL.com positioning), this from a project vote smart page:

That reads more "white hat" than "coal black" but it is still wait and see.

What is the value if Walker declines to name names?

MSM on the Walker withdrawal; CNN and WaPo. Quoting from the CNN coverage:

"Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately," Walker said at a news conference in Madison, Wisconsin.

He encouraged other trailing Republican candidates to follow his path.

"I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner," said Walker, referencing businessman Donald Trump. "This is fundamentally important to the future of our party, and, more important, the future of the country."

[italics added] Precisely who is he saying should get out of whose way? That kind of indirection likely is a factor in his slipping from contender to one taking up space on a stage.

Sore over Trump stealing thunder, okay, but who should also fall on a sword, again, for whose sake? Rubio should step aside for Mr. Bush, in honor of the Bush family and what they've done?

Fiorina should soften her ambitions and go back to consulting?

He is unclear, as if saying by implication, "You guys know who I mean," but the ineffectiveness problem is voters really do not know who he means. Lindsey Graham, okay that one is easy, but who else?

Not favoring either of the Floridians, it nonetheless seems to me it would be best for the party's chances if Mr. Bush were to step aside for Mr. Rubio; but I doubt that is what Mr. Walker has in mind.

Also, Rubio comes across as more genuine than Fiorina, so Carly, please give it up. Or is that not what Mr. Walker meant?

Name names, Scotty.

Also Scotty, what is wrong with the frontrunner besides he rained on your parade? Your exit statements do not go there. Shouldn't they? If the statements are to be taken seriously?

I bet Santorum believes he should stay. Others may not agree with Santorum on Santorum staying, but Scotty, was it Rick you had in mind, and if so, what about Huckabee?

Or Cruz?

____________UPDATE___________
May we hope that Kurt Daudt, Walker's man in Minnesota, might now help us by naming names. It would be refreshing for a politician such as Daudt to do precisely that. And wow, he might even tell us things wrong with Mr. Trump; if he and Walker agree that it is more than Trump popularity raining on the Walker run. For now, it looks to only be that. Stolen thunder.

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Less superficial than the WaPo and CNN items, more reflective and analytical, given distance, Guardian, source of the image:

conservative message

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
I had written earlier - a few days ago - but decided not to post about Carly Fiorina, in the context of an online item about Scott Walker, because I did not want it to appear to be obsessing over the lady's candidacy. However, with Walker saying some should step aside with those who should going unnamed, that earlier item about Walker might be helpful in explaining his days-later exit comments.

Start this UPDATE segment with a headline and excerpt from a few days ago, before the Walker exit, saying what he did without his naming names. It apparently adds a context suggesting that perhaps problematic to Walker besides a tourist billionaire "front-runner" presence, he might also have concerns on exiting about a driven multimillionaire's intent, will, hubris, and media recognition; see, here:

Walker: Media would have declared Fiorina winner 'no matter what'
By Al Weaver (@alweaver22) • 9/17/15 7:23 PM

During an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck Thursday, the Wisconsin governor panned the media for pushing a "narrative" that the former Hewlett-Packard CEO was going to have a big night "no matter what." Indeed, Fiorina and Florida senator [sic, item omitted: Marco Rubio] received high marks for their performance at the Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif.

"I think going in, we knew the narrative no matter what was going to happen was that they were going to say Carly had a big night, no matter what, and obviously they said that," Walker, who fell to 10th in the latest Washington Examiner power rankings, argued.

"I think the other impression was — the feedback I got from folks, not just the press but from across the country we talked to, was a frustration that there wasn't more talk … about issues," he told the host.

With that assessment, which seems to have captured the mainstream media's post-event mood, consider a Salon contrarian opinion well worth the time it takes to read.

If Trump is going to get the bum of the month treatment Romney got with his string of opponents, Ben Carson might have been first with pundits saying he "underperformed" at the second "debate" and then he did that Muslim-President thing; while Fiorina got the collective MSM tout for the Trump-her-face / no-her-persona interchange nonsense.

My take on the Fiorina persona - 
Davos, not main street. Those she enjoys mixing with are the Davos crowd, movers and shakers where she believes she gets validation. The rest is purposed acting.

She was, 2004 and 2005, the lone panel woman in a pair of Davos presentations, one a year before the Fiorina sacking as CEO at HP, and the other right around the time of her 2005 HP departure - being at Davos instead of on the job.

In those Davos panels she acquitted herself well enough, and showed she clearly is less an ideologue or anti-abortion demagogue -&- Planned Parenthood hater then as currently posed.

Indeed, at Davos she sat and talked at length while clearly seeming a wholly reasonable secular humanist - corporatist; as well as a really-want-to-rub-elbows-with-central-bankers type A ambition-driven personality.

See it, for yourselves:

Davos 2004 video:  Not the time or place for any "secretary to CEO" schmaltz; starts first at about minute 10,  again at minute 26, and scan the remainder of that panel presentation video for a context and flavor. (More Carly does Davos; 2004 another panel, at about min 11 or so for context.)

Davos 2005 video:  Preening within weeks or months away from the HP board making a management management change felt to be in the best interest of the firm; at, e.g., about minute 15 and again at minute 27, then at minute 54, then minute 1:10

The woman dresses well too.

Compare that secular shining persona, in her element at Davos, with the arguably over-played mix-with-hicks - I can channel Micnele Bachmann anti-Planned Parenthood Iowa video also online - here - showing actress Fiorina playing a role and seemingly less than the genuine one; blue jeans, folksy and all; the Planned Parenthood dump at about minute 18 followed by, really, a "Lady Liberty" and "Lady Justice" wrap-up.

Iowa in jeans would not have played at Davos; and, gee, notice that it was absent there.

What do you make of that? Play to the audience, not to the heart?

Of the two Carleys, which do you trust? If either.

Which of the two Carleys might be the persona Trump found galling - the Davos Carley, i.e., the secular humanist par excellence among peers; or per this red-meat to the base video (staged with a comfortable array of props)?

That is the Carly that has me scratching the blackboard. Davos Carly, who is not as studied an offensive poseur, focused on different stuff, that real persona is not that bad.

But that last video --- Does it (as Trump said), give you a headache after listening to it a bit?

NOW - Bonus video time: Carly doing the CPAC shuffle. Davos, so far, far away.

Older CPAC, a 2013 panel, paying dues, ticket punching at minute 30. Bonus online analysis, Miami Herald, (Jeb-land; Marco-land) here.

__________FURTHER UPDATE____________
What's wrap-up time without a fitting wrap-up?

Carly Fiorina calls herself pro-life because, she says, she has a long ingrained respect for living human beings subject to trauma at the hands of other insensitive persons.

See, e.g., the website

http://carlyfiorina.org/


__________FURTHER UPDATE____________
From this Politico item dated July 27. 2015, perhaps the "serious" names to remain, in Walker's view, might be Bush. Cruz and Rubio (per the headline, "Koch brothers summon Bush, Cruz, Walker, Rubio to SoCal confab"), and possibly Fiorina (per the item's second paragraph which also notes a Rand Paul exclusion from Koch blessings). Big money - buyers and sellers mingling per that Politico item - excludes Trump, as Walker's exit statements did, and Trump is the one consistently saying he is not for sale.

Indeed, Trump seems intent to draw the distinction at every turn that he does not need money from the Koch clan or affiliates, and that lobbyist money carries with it obligations that would not impede him. It is one of his better points of argument.

Last, per this update, Politico is not in anyone's view a left-wing media/web outlet, so weigh that in guessing at who Walker is implying should leave the contest to allow "real" players to contest things. Perhaps only the name "Bush" makes Walker's short list. We do not know.

_____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Yeah. Another. This TPM item, hat tip to Eric Ferguson's posting the link. It fits with the Politico item, mentioned above.

Still, Scottie, who should step aside for the benefit of who; or should we just bypass you and directly ask the Koch brothers? What have they against Trump? That he is not owned and really can't be bought?

That seems an unintended blowback endorsement.

Of Trump. Not any of the others.


NOW -

ADDED NOTE: That Politico item did not mention Rick Perry as a Koch invitee, and lo, he's gone.