Submitted by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World,

I come here today not to praise Trump but not to bury him either: the longer his vicious vanity campaign lasts, the more calamity Trump brings to the insular, reactionary Republican brand. Trump = mayhem. His meteoric rise, though apparent only in the poll-iverse, has gone where no celebrated agent provocateur has gone before: not Palin nor Cain, Carson, Gingrich, Sanctorum or Huckabee unify foes like |Trump.

Moments ago, the latest high profile media figure to boldly go into the rapidly spreading Trump "ban Muslims" scandal, was none other than Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who in a post on his social network, took the other side of Trump declaring that "Muslims are always welcome here" and that Facebook will "fight to protect your rights and create a peaceful and safe environment for you." It was not immediately clear if the "community" he was welcoming Muslims to is the United States or the online world of Facebook ad clickers. 

In the wake of last week’s massacre in San Bernardino, gun violence is once again the topic du jour in America. 

Gun control crusaders claim the problem is easy access to firearms while gun advocates say America would actually be safer if more responsible citizens obtained concealed carry permits. In between the two extremes are those who support tougher background checks and/or limits on what type of firearms citizens should legally be allowed to purchase. 

While Hillary Clinton may have had some entertaining problems when using her Blackberry (or was that iPad) as US Secretary of State, one thing she excelled at was nepotism.

According to the latest set of emails released by the State Department, and first reported by the Daily Caller, Hillary intervened in a request forwarded by her son-in-law, Marc Mezvisnky, on behalf of a deep-sea mining firm, Neptune Minerals, to meet with her or other State Department officials.