Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement to NBC News that “President-elect Trump was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it — particularly to and among terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes. He has also emphasized the need to improve and modernize our deterrent capability as a vital way to pursue peace through strength.”

Perhaps, Mr. Miller is reading a different tweet. Mr. Trump used the word “expand.” That means only one thing; it means more nuclear warheads. Even if newly appointed White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway was correct when she explained that he meant America needed to be more prepared, that is not how the tweet will be viewed in Moscow, Beijing, or Pyongyang.

Some have charitably noted that Mr. Trump’s tweet could have been in response to a statement Russian President Vladimir Putin made a few hours sooner. As reported in the British newspaper The Independent, he said, “We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defence systems. We must carefully monitor any changes in the balance of power and in the political-military situation in the world, especially along Russian borders, and quickly adapt plans for neutralising threats to our country. We can say with certainty – we are stronger now than any potential aggressor. Anyone!”

Mr. Trump about an hour ago was asked to clarify what he meant in his tweet. His response was, “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all,” MSNBC reported. Messrs. Putin and Trump have made it clear. They are willing, anxious even, to start building more nuclear weapons, reverse decades of common policy.

There are approximately 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world, 95% of which belong to the US and USSR, in rough parity — more than 7,000 each. If just 1,000 Russian nukes were dropped on the 1,000 largest American cities, there would be no urban settlement in the US with more than 39,000 people. The other 6,000 can be used to wipe out Europe, Asia and there will be plenty left over. In economic vocabulary, the marginal value of extra nuclear weapons at this point is zero. More bombs will not make the world safer.

However, if the US and Russia decide to go down that path, it will not occur in a vacuum. China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea will all be tempted to increase their arsenals. Non-nuclear powers (e.g., Japan, South Korea) may be tempted to develop fission and fusion weapons of their own.

The world has been fortunate that cool heads have prevailed in matters nuclear — so far. However, more nations with nukes means more world leaders with nukes. When the balance of terror meant just America and Russia, few people needed to make the right choice. As the number of nuclear nations expands, more people have to get it right. One mistake can kill millions.

And that doesn’t begin to address the threat of a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of a non-state (i.e., terrorist) actor. More nukes, more nations with nukes, means less secure nuclear weapons. If Mr. Trump believes this creates some advantage for America, he is wrong and dangerous. If he simply is ignorant of these and related matters, then he is dangerous and ill-informed. Either way, what he did yesterday makes the entire world less safe.

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He accuses the people supporting Donald Trump of being racists and that media promotes the message for ratings. When called out on it by one of the commentators, he back tracked a bit and said it was some of the people and not all.  Reiner conveniently overlooked the fact that Hillary Clinton has called young black people “super-predators” and that she, just a few days ago, said that Donald Trump “fell off the reservation”.  She recently  laughed along with NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio’s racist joke about being late because he was on “colored people time”. He was quick enough to talk about people in the KKK allegedly supporting Trump but he conveniently forgot how she was a good friend of Senator Robert Byrd, a leader in the KKK, who was eulogized at his funeral by none other than President Barack Obama himself.

Do Democrats like Reiner even know the history of the Democrat Party? That during the Civil War, every Democrat state sided with the South. That the Democrats created the KKK. That  Democrats voted to repeal the 1st Amendment and they voted against the 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments? That they were against the Civil Rights acts in the 1960s and that they were behind the Jim Crow laws; yet Democrat political activist Rob “Meathead” Reiner could not recall any of that. He could only remember that some guy showed up at a Trump rally with a tattoo bearing a swastika. He did not have a picture nor a clip of that man in his allegation.

Rob Reiner’s father is Carl Reiner. Carl Reiner was one of the biggest names in television for decades. As an actor/writer/director/producer he found success on television like “The Dick Van Dyke” show and  in comedy films such as “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” and  the Steve Martin vehicle “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid”. If it wasn’t for ratings his father would not have had a job nor the $ucce$$ he had. Rob Reiner followed in his dad’s footsteps, becoming an actor, a writer, a director, and a  producer. His films include the hits, “Stand By Me”, “When Harry Met Sally”, “A Few Good Men”, “Misery”, “The Princess Bride”, and “This is Spinal Tap”. Prior to these films, he himself was on a huge hit show for years called “All in The Family”.

On “All in The Family” he played Michael Stivic, the liberal son-in-law of  Carroll O’Connor’s bigoted yet lovable curmudgeon Archie Bunker, the lead character of the show who went on to have his own show called “Archie’s Place”. The irony of Rob Reiner’s accusation is that for years he was on a show that would not be on the air today because of its controversial episodes and dialogue. The show would be deemed racist today because it explored racism, used the “N” word often, and brought attention to other social, political, and economic issues. That’s what being politically incorrect does. It brings attention to issues and it creates dialogue to address these issues. Shutting people up with political correctness and shaming them with guilt that they are not guilty of is not the way to solve things. By the way, it was a high rated that won a lot of Emmys and spawned spin-offs like the aforementioned “Archie’s Place”, “Maude” and “The Jeffersons” (another hit show that was just as funny as its parent show and just as politically incorrect).

From 1971-1981 Rob Reiner was married to Penny Marshall, sister of another big name in television Garry Marshall . In that time period, Garry Marshall  was the show-runner of such shows as “The Odd Couple”, “Happy Days”, and a few spin-offs from “Happy Days” like “Laverne & Shirley”, “Joanie Loves Chachi” and “Mork & Mindy”. Ms. Marshall portrayed sportswriter Oscar Madison’s secretary on “The Odd Couple” and in one episode, Rob Reiner played her boyfriend. She played Laverne DeFazio on “Happy Days” and played her again in “Laverne & Shirley”. Most of these shows explored social issues and would probably be accused of political incorrectness today. All of these shows were hit shows (except for “Joanie Loves Chachi”). Ratings made them hits, ratings made a lot of people money, from the people on the show to the television networks and the advertisers.

Ratings do that. That’s how revenue is generated. No ratings? No show! No audience? No show. No show? NO MONEY. Even the news stations know that, which is why news programs around the world sensationalize news items and the people viewing it fall for it, hook, line, and sinker.

Last month was the first time in 14 years that CNN beat FOX overall. Why; because Donald Trump refused to go on Fox after the way some of its employees (i.e. Megyn Kelly) treated him. Trump boycotted Fox and went on CNN. CNN even did a special on him recently that aired prior to the Republican Debate that same night. Why? RATING$. Although CNN finally beat FOX (again, because of Trump) Fox Business News was the highest rated, beating MSNBC and other channels. People turn in when Trump is on more so than when Hillary Clinton is on or when President Obama is on. Hillary doesn’t get that attention THE Donald does. The media knows it.  He gets the views. FOX has learned its lesson. They are negotiating with the Trump camp to have Megyn Kelly interview the eventual Republican candidate for president in a FOX special. Donald Trump sells out arenas, where Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters show up to cause trouble. None of Reiner’s alleged “Trump racist supporters” have done that at a Hillary or a Sanders rally. Hillary Clinton barely gets people to show up for her at airports as it is.

 
So yes MEATHEAD–it’s all about the ratings!

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Mr. Sanders did close the delegate gap yesterday, and that is a positive from his perspective. He won the day 68 delegates to Mrs. Clinton’s 59, an improvement of 9 for him. The problem is that the gap is still immense. Politico.com, which counts superdelegates (unelected party hacks) who have declared a preference as well as elected delegates in its totals, has Mrs. Clinton ahead 1,681 to 937 with 2,147 remaining and 2,383 needed to secure the nomination.

For Mr. Sanders to take the nomination, he needs to win more than 67% (1440) of the delegates remaining. Yesterday, he took just over 53.5% of the delegates. Even if there were winner-take-all contests where he was the favorite, that would be a huge mountain to climb. Given the proportional nature of the delegate allocation formulae of the Democrats, he needs somewhere between 65-70% of the votes from here on out. Between now and the end of April, 1,039 more delegates are at stake. If Mr. Sanders doesn’t win at least 650 of them, his task becomes even more unlikely. Because only 276 delegates are awarded for contests in May, one doesn’t expect Mrs. Clinton to wrap up the nomination before June 7, but on that date, California’s 546 delegates and New Jersey’s 142 should be carved up in such a way that she wins on the first ballot at the convention.

On the Republican side, the scenario this journal laid out on March 9 did take a small knock when Mr. Cruz took all of Utah’s delegates. One expected Mr. Trump to lose the state but also to do well enough to garner about 12 delegates from the total of 40. That didn’t happen. However, he exceeded expectations in last week’s contests, so he is still within 500 votes of the nomination on the first ballot (CNN has him 498 shy, and this journal belives he’s a bit closer, not significantly, however).

Ted Cruz has emerged as the non-Trump candidate owing to the failure of John Kasich to pick up a single delegate yesterday. He may very well stay in the race all the way to the convention in the hope that it is an open one, but others in the establishment see the writing on the walls. Jeb Bush endorsed Mr. Cruz today. The problems for the anyone-but-Trump crowd are the gap between the Trump delegate total and the Cruz total and the demographics of the states that have yet to vote. In April, there are contests in Wisconsin (42 delegates), Colorado (37), New York (95), Pennsylvania (71), Connecticut (28), Rhode Island (19), Delaware (16, winner take all), and Maryland (38, winner take all). None of these has much of an evangelical Christian vote, making it hard to see how Mr. Cruz could win even one of them save perhaps Wisconsin.

This journal expects Mr. Trump to pick up around 175 delegates in April, just over 100 in May, and that puts him around 200-225 short of the nomination. On June 7, he should carry the winner take all states of Montana (27), New Jersey (51) and South Dakota (29). New Jersey’s 51 and California’s 172 are awarded by congressional district with a bonus for winning the state. This journal believes, with or without Mr. Kasich in the race to the end, Mr. Trump is going to reach the convention with 1,275 to 1,300 delegates and win the nomination on the first ballot.

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Should Young People Vote

By Phebe Horschel

I recently ran into this news article from the Huffington Post and it states that Young People shouldn’t vote because they are uninformed.  I wondered how much truth there is to this statement because college age were the deciding factor in Obama’s victory.  To find out for myself I hit the streets in Times Square.  After asking as many as would talk to me I concluded that the majority of college age were uninformed.  I believe that everyone should have the right to vote especially if the can be drafted and are required to be adults, but people please!  Get informed!  If you can’t watch the presidential debates then at least youtube them!

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