It's Sunday: Let's talk about Donald Trump, Click Bait, and some nifty products...

because no one else is - particularly when it comes to The Donald.

After hitting the major news sites like Drudge, Townhall, Bad Blue, et al, as I do most mornings,  I headed off to Feedly.  My feed is in "title only" mode so I can scroll through hundreds of article titles quickly.  I've winnowed my feed down to 251, which is still a substantial amount.

I was curious about how many people would remark about the speech on illegal immigration Trump gave in Phoenix yesterday.  It was pretty much crickets.

Yesterday, I saw someone say, "Let's face it, Trump is a buffoon."

Ah, no, I wouldn't call someone who has made billions of dollars a "buffoon", unless, of course, he did it by engaging in the career of buffoonery - sort of like the average reality star or Hollywood actor.  Nope.  He did it by being smarter than the person sitting in his mother's basement banging out a blog. 

I watched his speech live.  Now, like him or hate him, he makes sense, and he says the things the other candidates will not say.  He spoke, wait for it; the truth, something in very short supply in this world.

Mark Steyn  gets it:

[...]But here's the funny and consequential thing. Trump is supposed to be the narcissist blowhard celebrity candidate: He's a guy famous for erecting aesthetically revolting buildings with his "brand" plastered all over them, for arm-candy brides, for beauty contests and reality shows. The other fellows are sober, serious senators and governors.

And yet Trump is the only one who's introduced an issue into this otherwise torpid campaign - and the most important issue of all, I would argue, in that ultimately it's one of national survival. And so the same media that dismisses Trump as an empty reality-show vanity candidate are now denouncing him for bringing up the only real policy question in the race so far.

What he said may or may not be offensive, but it happens to be true: America has more Mexicans than anybody needs, and then some. It certainly has more unskilled Mexicans than any country needs, including countries whose names begin with "Mex-" and end in "-ico". And it has far more criminal Mexicans than anybody needs, which is why they make up 71 per cent of the foreign inmates in federal jails. Just to underline that last point, a young American woman was murdered for kicks in a supposed "sanctuary city" on the eve of the holiday weekend by an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He had flouted US immigration law for years - or, to be more precise about it, local, state and federal officials had colluded with him in the flouting of US immigration law, to the point where San Francisco's sheriff actively demanded the return of this criminal to his "sanctuary city", thereby facilitating the homicide of an actual citizen, taxpayer and net contributor to American society. read the rest

And Amy Miller, over at Legal Insurrection gets it:

When Trump announced his candidacy last month, I said that I was interested to see how the campaign would introduce Trump the Man (as opposed to Trump the Mogul or Trump the Reality Star) to the American people. If this is their play, it might just be working. Conservative primary voters are currently at each other’s throats over whether or not Trump is worth their attention, worth their vote, or worth nothing more than a passing glance on the way to a Cruz or Rubio rally.

These types of stories are media bait, and Trump is taking full advantage of the opportunity; but he’s also exposing some nasty realities about the effects of illegal immigration.

Perhaps if other Republicans took illegal immigration more seriously, Trump’s numbers would not be rising as they are. read the rest

Click Bait

A very good article on click bait, over at Sleuth Journal, caught my eye this morning.  I have been disturbed to see so many conservative sites starting to use this gambit to increase their hits.  It wastes my time, and hurts their credibility.  I avoid clicking through from Feedly and tend to avoid those sites.

 How To Seek The Truth And Avoid Clickbait

More than once I have shared my angst about the sensationalist format of many websites.  These sites use catchy photos that have nothing to do with the article, pop-up reminders that come right back after clicking them closed, and/or fear-mongering headlines that use scare tactics to persuade you to purchase an overpriced, marginally useful video course or 30-page eBook.

Why do they do this?  The more traffic they generate, the more likely that unsuspecting readers will click on a network ad and generate income for the website owner.

Many of these sites steal content from legitimate, hardworking authors and, when challenged, set up hate mail campaigns to spam comments and Facebook feeds.  It is a real problem for many of us and something bloggers have to deal with day in and day out. read the rest

Nifty Products:

Last week over dinner, hubby said, "I've been smelling Spike in my mind.  We should see if you can still get it."

Spike was a seasoning product introduced by Gaylord Hauser over 60 years ago. I was unable to track down an exact date, so 60 years is an approximation.

From Wiki:

Dr. Benjamin Gayelord Hauser (1895–1984), popularly known as Gayelord Hauser, was an American nutritionist and self-help author, who promoted the 'natural way of eating' during the mid-20th century. He promoted foods rich in vitamin B and discouraged consumption of sugar and white flour. Hauser was a best-selling author, popular on the lecture and social circuits, and was nutritional advisor to many celebrities.

We were big fans of Gayelord Hauser when I was a kid, and I consider him to have been way ahead of his time with his nutritional advice.

It didn't take long for me to ascertain that, yes, Spike was still available.  While hubby was at one of our local grocery stores, he snagged a bottle of Vegit, another great Hauser product, but we really wanted Spike.

At our other local grocery store (yes, we only have two grocery stores in Post Falls - nearby Coeur d' Alene has a gazillion), we not only found Spike, it was on sale - words that make my frugal little heart twang with happiness, and made me break out in a happy dance in the spice aisle.

There's been a years long debate about Spike claiming to not have added MSG.  People say it does have yeast extract and hydrolyzed yeast extract which is just a code name for glutamate. 

I don't get into all these MSG arguments - for or against.  MSG is a naturally occurring amino acid found in many foods.  Controlled studies have been unable to ascertain whether it causes headaches or other maladies. 

We love Spike and will continue to use it.

Ask your local grocery store to stock it or you can buy it at Amazon.

You can view other Hauser products at:  Modern Products