SAR #16032

It generally comes down to settling for the least distasteful candidate.

Biggish Deal: As regards Iowa’s caucuses, we know one thing: they don’t mean jack. Past two winners: Mike Huckabee (2008) and Rick Santorum (2012).

Discoveries: While the media mistakenly lump Bernie Sanders' supporters with Donald Trump's partisans, reality is a bit more nuanced. The Republican Party has discovered that the Republican base they've been pretending to represent does not exist and probably never did. Their voters were mainly voting against government, any and all government. They were voting against immigrants and anyone who didn't eat mashed potatoes every night. They never gave a damn about conservative ideology and don't today. On the other hand the Democratic leadership is aghast to discover that its core supporters actually believe in what the Party has pretended to be in favor of for decades while trading those beliefs away for Wall Street's money. The young voters who support Bernie do not support nor believe in democracy – they did back in 2008, but have learned better since watching Congress and the White House play with the public for fun and profit. Then there are the Clintons...

Quotes: “It’s time for the United States to start thinking of Iraq as a business opportunity.” Hillary Clinton, who got $13 million from the health industry and learned that single-payer will “Never, ever come to pass.”

Cruzing: In Iowa, Ted Cruz has sent Hester Prynne and selected other voters an official looking notice, pretending to be from the State, that they have failing scores as voters, which can be remedied by voting for Ted. The notice, like Cruz, is a contemptible fraud.

Profits: Police agencies in Europe report that over 10,000 migrant children are missing and have most likely been forced into prostitution or the slave trade.

Fairness: With all of the headlines about Top Secret emails, bear in mind that these were emails sent to Ms. Clinton and that none of them carried any security coding. In the same ballpark, the Pentagon has decided that General Petraeus will remain a general even though while Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan and later as Director of the CIA he traded top secret information for sex.

But Who Is Spanking Cruz? Ted Cruz says the “if my daughter Catherine, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking.”

“Acquisition Malpractice:” The Pentagon is going to buy about 500 F-35 jet fighters, for several hundred billion dollars, before they finish assessing their ability to perform in combat. They also admit that the government may not be able to afford the necessary modifications to make them combat worthy.

How Can This Be About Religion? In Nigeria a bunch of jihadists from Boko Haram set fire to the huts in a village and burned children and parents to death. That massacre is wholly understandable in that their heroes in ISIS have executed 2,114 civilians in the last 19 months, many in ways that match Boko Haram in depravity.

Net Net: The “official” analyses of the economic effects of the TPP are based on the assumption “that there will be no net effect on the US economy from TPP.” They assume that exports will match imports, that any jobs lost will be replaced by new ones, and overall there will be no other costs to the country. Alrighty then.

Corrected: What species would will become dominant on Earth if when humans die out?

Two Or More Questions: “Will the 2016 primaries be electronically rigged?” Possibly, but we will never know. The only really believable elections consist of paper ballots publicly counted and publicly secured, then permanently retained. Better believability than speed.

Liberal Leftist Plot: Snow fell in Saudi Arabia for two days last week, and in Kuwait for the first time on record. Senator Inhofe blamed it on the Democrats.

The Parting Shot: