Former Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu Praises Donald Trump

Presented without comment.




Apparently the Louisiana Flood Victims disagree with their governor. 

Should Kevin Cash Be Fired?

Yeah, I know that outside the long suffering Rays fans in the I4 corridor and Southwest Florida nobody would give a damn. But I like to post an occasional article that is outside the field of politics and besides politics nothing starts an argument like baseball. 

Considers these facts:

• The Rays rank fifth in the major leagues in home runs yet close to the bottom in runs scored. 

• Evan Longoria is having a career year, yet was not an all-star because the Rays are ranked dead last in the AL East with a record (as of this writing) of 46-69.

• The vaunted star pitching rotation disappeared this year with a team ERA of 4.19.

What has led to this awful performance? In a word, cash. Kevin Cash to be exact. 

The first factoid indicates that Cash can’t put together a lineup. He has the requisite number of power hitters to average 5 runs a game.

The second factoid indicates a tremendous waste of Longoria’s talents and is related to the first factoid.  Cash can’t seem to put a batter in front of Longoria who can a) get on base and/or b) stop hitting into double plays.  Too often Longoria is the lead-off batter or is up with the bases empty so any extra-base hit he gets is of limited value. 

Cash also eschews the bunt, hit and run, and/or any small-ball plays the get runners on base. Electing instead to play conservative station to station baseball.  It’s almost like he’s the anti-Madden. This is not a particularly good idea when you play half your game in cavernous (and I mean literally cavernous) Tropicana Field.

Finally, that brings us to the third factoid, Cash cannot handle a pitching staff.  His decisions have been arbitrary and illogical. His philosophy seems to be to get the strike-out every time instead of pitching to contact. (Again at the Trop Fly Balls go to die.) This elevates a starter’s pitch count, which in turn shortens his outing, which in turn stresses the bullpen, which in turn – well you know the rest. 

This one can’t be blamed on the front office folks. Cash got the tools he needed to field a comparative team, and like last year he failed miserably. Cash could be forgiven for his rookie year as a manager but he hasn’t learned a damn thing.
With September call ups just around the corner, the rest of the Rays season is about the future. Do we really want Kevin Cash handling that future? I vote no. 

How Crying Wolf made Trump Possible

How Paul Krugman Made Donald Trump Possible

His convention was called “one of the worst ever.” Chris Matthews deemed him “dangerous” and “scary,” Ellen DeGeneres said “If you’re a woman, you should be very, very scared.” His opponent ran an ad against him portraying him as uniquely dangerous for women. “I’ve never felt this way before, but it’s a scary time to be a woman,” said a woman in the ad.

He was frequently called a “bully,” “anti-immigrant,” “racist,” “stupid,” and “unfit” to be president.

I’m referring, obviously, to the terrifying Mitt Romney.

This article chronicles the numerous times the liberal media has demonized Republican candidates and makes the point that outside of the liberal echo chamber (represent aptly here by Roger Amick), nobody really is paying attention to them about Trump

In fact they are more concern about Clinton's record of incompetence and deception at the state department simply because, coming from the FBI director, it rings true. 

The media of course will double their effort to demonize Trump. However, I have a feeling that the more they do, the more they are going to be tuned out by the public. 

On the other hand, negative stories about Hillary Clinton will tend to be magnified simply because the will be at best underreported and at worst covered up by the media.   

 

Is the Bradley Effect Skewing the Polls?

Consider these numbers:

53% of people Gallup polled disapprove of Obama’s handling on the economy.

57% disapprove of Obama’s foreign policy.

70% of the people polled say we are on the wrong track.

Yet Obama’s job approval is 51%.

So what is going on here? One possible answer is the “Bradley effect”.  The Bradley effect was named after Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, and African-American or lost the election for governor of California after being ahead in the polls going into the election. [1]  

It is a social phenomenon where respondents to a poll give the answer they think the caller wants to hear rather than their actual feelings.  In this case, if the caller had a female African-American accent the respondent would more likely give a positive approval rating to Obama then would usually be the case. 

This is not necessarily a racial problem. Its root is the human’s innate desire to please other people. This is a natural trait that is important to the formation of social groups.  

It occurs when a perceive social stigma is attached to one of the answers.  In Barack Obama’s case that stigma is racism (or race betrayal if you are black).  In Hillary Clinton's case, that stigma is misogamy (or gender betrayal if you’re a women).

In addition, the media has so demonized Donald Trump as a racist, xenophobic, misogamist, insane man that there is a stigma to telling a poster that you will vote for him.   


So the question is how much is it shewing the polls?  We can interpolate from Obama job approval ratings. The effect looks like about 5 to 10%.

1. Wikipedia

Benghazi Mother: I was treated like dirt.

Indeed she was. By the very same people who were outraged by Trump's treatment of the Khans. 

Hypocrisy ------- Bedrock ---------- Liberalism  

Kudos to CNN for presenting the other side of the story. 

Which bring is to Hillary's public remarks when the remains of Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith and the other heros of Benghazi came home:


Exit Question: If Hillary Clinton publicly said the attacks were due to an internet video, why would she tell the families anything differently? 

Donald, Quit Digging

Khizr and Ghazala Khan are gold star parents who were cynically paraded out by the Democrats to criticize Donald Trump during the convention. 

If I had a chance to speak to Mr. Khan, I would point out that if his son was still alive, he wouldn't get in invitation to speak.

And if he did, he would be booed off the stage like Medal of Honor recipient Florent Groberg.

Donald Trump had a golden opportunity to thank Mr. Khan's son for his service, gently point out that his immigration policy is constitutional and renew his criticism of US foreign that was a factor in Captain Khan's death.

Instead, he directly engages Mr. Kahn in the most cringe-worthy narcissistic manner possible. Tump gave his numerous enemies in the media fodder for days of stories about his insensitivity.  

One of the axions of politics is that you never win an argument with gold-star mothers and fathers. You just thank them for their son's sacrifice and don't engage them. 

Being an experienced politician, Hillary Clinton knew that. She refused to engage Patricia Smith. She smoothy sidestep the question and moved on. 

That being said however, she had a disastrous interview with Chris Wallace sunday. And if it wasn't for Trump's inartful, ill advised attack on Mr. Khan, that would have been the story this weekend. 

So my advice to Donald Trump is quit digging and move on. This is a lose-lose situation and you can't afford many more mistakes.