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Amateur analysis of US backing of The Islamic StateThere is certainly some truth on this.

Why Trump? Why him? Why now? As is ever the case with a phenomenon that defies conventional wisdom, analysts have sought to explain his rise by asserting he has risen to prove exactly the point they have been making for years but nobody was listening.

...he will reap the benefits on March 1. Almost one-quarter of the available delegates are up for grabs that day, mostly in primaries in the Deep South. That already favors Cruz, not least because his home state of Texas offers the most delegates, but Rubio's slide will help him even more. In all of those Southern states but one, candidates must reach either 15 or 20 percent of the vote to receive any delegates at all, as we noted last week. Rubio was already only pulling about 10 percent several of those states. With his standing weakened and the so-called...

Donald Trump says he won’t appear at the upcoming debate on FOX if Megyn Kelly is a moderator, and as of this writing, it appears she will be. Some of you asked me how this move by Trump could possibly be a smart thing. On the 2D playing field, Trump appears petulant and whiney. Maybe narcissistic, fascist, and a little bit of Hitler too. And as FOX cleverly pointed out, negotiating with foreign leaders won’t be easier than Megyn Kelly’s questions. So Trump loses badly in the second dimension. Let’s shift to the third dimension and see if the view...

Watch FOX News talking head Greg Jarrett giving his expert analysis (NOT) regarding the AR-15 style rifles used in the San Bernardino terrorist attack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJGB80cSOGE

Disclaimer: Your opinion on the debate performances are far more valid than mine. My perspective is skewed because I’m looking through a filter of how Wall Street RNC/GOPe and DNC interests will view and perceive the debate performances. Baseline – Going into the debate all the candidates, other than Trump, had something to gain and little to lose. Donald Trump had everything to lose and little to gain. With that in mind:

UVA associate dean Nicole Eramo is suing Rolling Stone and writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely for statements in Rolling Stone’s now-retracted “A Rape on Campus” story. How will courts likely deal with this lawsuit? Here are a few early and tentative thoughts, though of course much depends on facts that are not yet known. 1. Federal vs. state court: Eramo sued in Virginia state court, but it seems likely that Rolling Stone and Erdely will want the case removed to federal court: The conventional wisdom is that libel defendants are procedurally better off in federal court, where it’s easier to get...

TEHRAN — Wearing business suits set off with sneakers, the American executives trailed a young guide along the narrow sidewalks of the capital of Iran, once branded by the United States as part of the “Axis of Evil.” Their destination was one of Tehran’s most luxurious restaurants, where Iranian officials and business consultants greeted the visitors with open arms and the Pharrell Williams song “Happy” blasted from the sound system. “Everybody loves us here,” said Ned Lamont, a digital services entrepreneur and former politician, holding a glass of carrot juice offered by one of his hosts.

Around 10 a.m. this morning, Representative John Fleming (R., Md.) received a phone call from a colleague asking him to vote against Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) on the House floor today. Fleming has a longstanding alliance with Representative Steve King (R., Iowa), Representative Jim Bridenstine (R., Okla.), and other ringleaders of the unsuccessful effort to oust Boehner from the speaker’s chair, which makes it surprising that this was the first time anyone had contacted him about the issue. “To ask me to vote against the speaker on the last day like this, without having an alternative to vote for,...

At some point on Thursday evening, just after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 blew apart over some wheat field in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin had a chance to take stock of his options. There were essentially two....

epublican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer slapped down the right wing of her own party, vetoing a bill pushed by social conservatives that would have allowed people with sincerely held religious beliefs to refuse to serve gays....

We’ve been discussing here at the Hayride for a whole year now a concept we first saw forming in a speech given by James Piereson at the American Enterprise Institute last fall, developing in a lot of the videos put out by Bill Whittle after the 2012 election and approached from a slightly different direction by Kevin Williamson in his book The End Is Near And It’s Going To Be Awesome earlier this year. Namely, that American society is evolving beyond that which can be governed by the Industrial Age bureaucratic state the Democrat Party is so committed to, and...

Years ago, someone said that according to the laws of aerodynamics, bumblebees cannot fly. But the bumblebees, not knowing the laws of aerodynamics, go ahead and fly anyway. Something like that happens among people. There have been many ponderous academic writings and dour editorials in the mainstream media lamenting that most people born poor cannot rise in American society anymore. Meanwhile, many poor immigrants arrive here from various parts of Asia, and rise on up the ladder anyway.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From Saudi Arabia to Israel, traditional U.S. allies in the Middle East are beginning to ask: Is America turning its back on us? President Barack Obama's diplomatic overtures to old foe Iran and his last-minute refusal to attack Syria have officials in Israel, the Gulf countries and Turkey wondering if Washington is deliberately neglecting them to avoid being dragged into a Middle East facing deeper sectarian strife and concerns that Tehran may be seeking a nuclear bomb. Media reports that the U.S. National Security Agency may have spied on the leaders of Germany, Mexico and Brazil have...

The College Football Czar: Week 1 If you're reading the College Football Czar’s week one picks, that must mean that yet another long summer of terrible TV is about to come to a merciful end. So – if you’ve become so starved for anything remotely sportslike that you’ve resorted to watching ESPN’s Nine for IX series, and pretended to like it ... If you’ve actually found yourself engaged in discussions about whether it’s fair for Wigan Athletic to be relegated after winning the FA Cup ... If you not only managed to sit through the entire Tennessee Orange-White Game, but...

One time I was doing post-op rounds, dressed in regular / street clothes but with my hospital ID around my neck. One of the women I was visiting spoke only Spanish and was in the midst of sharing a very painful, personal story with me when a medical team of some kind walked in, also on rounds. I was sitting at eye-level with my patient, speaking Spanish to her in a low voice when the group walked in: an elderly male physician in a long white coat; a younger woman, also in a white coat; and a young man, probably...

The key 'R' word is Republican, not Romney With all the efforts to understand the recent election defeat, a lot of the focus has been on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his campaign. That is exactly the wrong way to begin analyzing the outcome of the 2012 campaign. The focus on Romney as a candidate is profoundly misleading for those who want to prepare for future Republican victories. Any analysis of recent Republican presidential results will reveal a systemic failure which can’t be ascribed to Romney. The last clear Republican presidential victory was in 1988 when Vice President George...

The College Football Czar Week 14 Week thirteen in review: Notre Dame did what it had to do, by defeating another diminished opponent to finish the regular season at 12-0. The Fighting Irish defense stuffed the USC ground game on a late goal-line stand, and harassed freshman QB Max Wittek into two interceptions in a 22-13 victory. That presumably advances them to the BCS championship game in Miami, where they will face the winner of the SEC title game. Alabama and Georgia both dominated their rivalry games, which eliminated all other contending teams from the chase. The college football czar...

The Leftists are angry about Glenn Beck's popular art work titled "Obama in Pee Pee". Suddenly they have revived their platitudes about "respecting the office of the presidency"... (video)

The College Football Czar Week 13 Week twelve in review: The top two teams in the BCS ratings were upset, which, according to the media template, has thrown the championship picture into “chaos.” Top-ranked Kansas State should now be out of the running altogether, after getting the phlegm beaten out of them by ninth-place Baylor, 52-24. Oregon, having lost to Stanford 17-14 in overtime, still has a chance, although they need help from a couple conference rivals. Not only did Oregon lose a much better game to a much better opponent than K-State did, but the human polls are bound...