Interesting! Week July 29

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Yea, right. We know establishment bashing is in fashion in certain quarters, but one can exaggerate..

Paul Nehlen, Rep. Paul Ryan’s primary opponent claimed Wednesday that the Speaker of the House is “no different than Hillary Clinton.” Appearing on CNN’s “At This Hour With Berman and Bolduan,” host John Berman confronted Nehlen about his claim that what “Paul Ryan has said about Donald Trump is morally disqualifying.” According to Nehlen, Ryan “came out on the wrong side of this Khan thing. Paul Ryan did not need to weigh in to that. Paul Ryan could have spent that time debating me instead of taking shots at our party’s nominee.” 

Nehlen: No Difference Between Paul Ryan And Hillary Clinton | The Daily Caller

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"Paying ransom to kidnappers puts Americans even more at risk," said Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk. 

"We paid $400 million for the hostages," Trump said. "Such a bad precedent was set by Obama. We have two more hostages there right? What's are we going to pay for them? What we're doing is insane."

US sent plane with $400 million in cash to Iran - CNNPolitics.com

We're under no illusion that this conspiracy theory will be put to rest. However:

President Barack Obama said Thursday the U.S. does not pay ransom for hostages. Obama said a $1.7 billion claim settlement he approved with Iran wasn't a secret when it was finalized in January. "This wasn't some nefarious deal," he said. Obama was responding to the revelation, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, that $400 million of the settlement was delivered by plane to Iran in cash. The payment occurred around the time Iran released four American prisoners. Obama said the timing of the deal was dictated by the assessment of American lawyers, who said waiting could end up costing American taxpayers billions of dollars. He said the payment was cash because the U.S. has no banking relationship with Iran.

The $400 million was Iran's to start with, placed into a US-based trust fund to support American military equipment purchases in the 1970s. When the Shah was ousted by a 1979 popular uprising that led to the creation of the Islamic Republic, the US froze the trust fund. Iran has been fighting for a return of the funds through international courts since 1981.

Obama on Iran payment: It was announced months ago, wasn't some 'nefarious deal'

By the way, it's their own money, and it was cutting Iran out of international payment settlement systems that brought them to the negotiating table

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The right-wingers are starting to turn on themselves..

Sean Hannity turned to Twitter late Thursday night to unload on conservative journalists critical of Republican nominee Donald Trump. Hannity, a Fox News host and one of the most influential conservative pundits in the country, initially trained his fire on Bret Stephens, the deputy editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal. Earlier in the day, Stephens had called Hannity the “dumbest anchor” on Fox News, linking to a story about how the popular host said he was a “little sick and tired” of the Republican establishment criticizing Trump.

Sean Hannity rips GOP critics of Trump - Business Insider

Some of his tweets:

• Wsj genius. Where were u when Boehner punted on the power of the purse a added nearly 5 trillion in new debt?
  
• Where were you when R party refused to use the power of the purse to defund Obamacare 
  
• It's arrogant, elitist, enablers like you that never hold R's accountable that created the opening for Trump!!
  

Sean Hannity rips GOP critics of Trump - Business Insider

These are hilarious. 

That $5T in debt
The debt has risen because the financial crisis crashed the economy, which hugely increased public spending to bail the financial system out and greatly reduced tax receipts as income, profits and sales plunged, and the Bush era tax cuts and Irak war:



Then, under Obama we had the fastest reduction of the deficit on record:



By the way, Hannity could be reminded of what Trump's plans would amount to:

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Try to reconcile the following (good luck!)

Friday on Fox New Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign chief Paul Manafort said the Republican Party is “united,” and “you will see a coming together of both Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump in the course of this campaign.”

Manafort: 'You Will See A Coming Together' of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump - Breitbart

With this:

Paul Ryan on Friday ripped the "alt-right" platform, on which he accused his primary opponent of running, after his challenger questioned why the US has "Muslims in the country." The House speaker told Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes that the comments about Muslims made by his opponent, Wisconsin businessman Paul Nehlen, were "dark, grim," and "indefensible." Ryan later said the alt-right, a group that has provided some of the most fervent support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, "isn't even conservatism." "Look, I hate to even give such comments currency by even talking about them," Ryan said. "This is not the US Constitution. This is not the US Bill of Rights. Let's just be really clear about this." "I think they call it alt-conservatism," he added, before Sykes jumped in and referred to it as the alt-right. "This is not Wisconsin conservatism ... That kind of dark, grim, indefensible comments are going to be clearly rejected and repudiated on Tuesday. I have a hard time seeing the thinking behind this. Unfortunately, we see some of it these days."

Paul Ryan rips Trump-backing 'alt-right' - Business Insider

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The contrast with Trump and Reagan/Bush is, well, rather stark. Watch the video..

Today's immigration debate is as heated as it's ever been. Back in 1980, however, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan debated the topic, and their talking points are in stark contrast with the things we hear today.

This 1980 debate between Bush and Reagan sounds much different than today - Business Insider