Just like the Holiday Inn

Turns out that South Carolina is not like Pennsylvania or Arizona. Truckloads of ballots did not arrive in the middle of the night to enable Nikki Haley to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. [Did you make that up? Ed.]

The lickspittle media raced to be the first to declare a result, with ABC the winner, calling Trump the winner at approximately 7:00:09 EST. Here are the final numbers.

President Trump: 451,905 votes (59.8%), winning all 44 delegates to the GOP convention

Nikki Haley: 298,681 (39.5%), winning NO delegates

Ron DeSantis: 2951 votes (0.4%)

Vivek Ramaswamy: 728 votes (<0.1%). 

Walt's percentage of correct predictions (see yesterday's post): .990.

So... no surprises, then. Just like the Holiday Inn. Walt notes two things.

First... the Republican Party belongs to President Trump, whether the RINOs and never-Trumpers (Hello, David Frum) like it or not. Whatever demographic or regional divisions may have existed in the past have been largely swept away. As proof of this, I offer the prospect of Senator Tim Scott being offered the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket.

Second... the Dumbocrats must now be seriiously considering showing President Brandon the exit door, while there is still time [about a minute and a half. Ed.] to find another candidate for the presidensity.

Some Dems are putting on a brave face, saying Demented Joe is the only one who could beat the Orange Man, but the operative word there is "could"... not "will". If you're an independent voter and have to choose between two old white guys with health and legal issues, which one would you trust to pilot the ship of state through the stormy seas that lie ahead. [That's enough metaphors. Ed.]

That brings us back to "Waiting in the wings... or maybe just outside the window?", WWW 22/1/24. Mrs Barrack Hussein Obama would be a plausible candidate, but my guess is that she would only throw her do-rag in the ring once Brandon is tail-lights, and if Deep State has everything rigged so that she couldn't possibly lose.

Ms Haley vows to go on to Michigan and Super Tuesday. Whether or not she is able to find the support -- especially financial support -- necessary to do so doesn't matter. She was effectively cooked -- fried -- last night. After Super Tuesday is when the Democratic long knives will come out. Stay tuned.

To that point: "Democrats would have this election in the bag, if not for Joe Biden", by Colby Cosh, in the National Post, 25/1/24.

Walt congratulates Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the House

Dontcha love it? Dontcha just love it? Walt does! Just waiting for the other members of the Squad to declare Mr Johnson "completely unacceptable"!

VIDEO: Michael Matt reacts to the attack on the Capitol

We received an e-mail today from Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, asking us to share his latest video, restricted by YouTube but available on RemnantTV, their new online channel. In this special report on the impeachment of Still-President Trump, Mr Matt takes a hard look at the disastrous attack on the US Capitol building -- an event which will surely live on in infamy.

    

Mr Matt explains why the Dumbocrats are trying once again to impeach Donald Trump. As Patrick Buchanan argues, it's because "a conviction would strip Republicans of the right to re-elect the man who got the largest number of votes in their party's history." 

In this video -- I'm writing this in case you haven't you haven't yet opened it -- you'll see President Trump's statement of January 13th, blacked out by the lickspittle controlled media, in which he again condemns the breach of the Capitol, calls for the prosecution of those responsible and explains in no uncertain terms how it was diametrically opposed to everything the he stands for. 

Mr Trump has condemned their actions three times now, and patriots all across America have denounced it as the new Reichstag fire (see WWW, 15/1/21) -- a massive blunder being used by the Left to try to crush Mr Trump and his populist movement once and for all. This is no longer about the 2020 election. The impeachment is about making sure there will never be another MAGA rally in this country again.

But wait, there's more. Mr Matt includes a clip from one of Walt's Top Ten Movies of All Time, A Man for All Seasons, in which Paul Scofield, playing Saint Thomas More, shows why and how we must not consider ourselves above the law. No matter what happens to the children of light, they can never behave like the children of darkness.

Who pulled Cesar Sayoc's strings?

A churlish reader has suggested that the arrest of Cesar Sayoc, a self-identified Republican now facing five federal charges in connection with more than a dozen -- I've lost count -- intercepted suspicious packages, disproves my theory that the "pipe bomb" affair is a hoax concocted for to give the Democrats a much-needed boost in the run-up to the mid-term elections. See "More on the moronic pipe bombs", WWW 25/10/18.

I call BS on those calling BS on my theory! If anything, what we've learned in the last 24 hours about Mr Sayoc reinforces my skepticism.

Mr Sayoc was born in New York. Eventually he drifted to Florida, which (along with California) is a magnet for America's loners, losers and nutbars. [Didn't you live there at one time? Ed.] Court records show that his conviction in the 1990s in Broward County on charges of grand theft and stolen property. In 2004, he was convicted on a felony charge of fraud and a misdemeanour of tampering with physical evidence.

In between, he was sentenced in Dade County in August 2002 for threatening to "throw, place, project or discharge any destructive device" during a conversation with a representative of a Florida utility. He served a year's probation after a judge signed a discharge certificate in November 2002. In 2015, he reported to police that his van was broken into outside of a gym in Oakland Park FL. He claimed that more than $40,000 worth of items were stolen, including $7150 worth of Donald Trump-brand suits.

Cesar Sayoc is a registered Republican. He has worked, off and on, as a stripper, promoter of "entertainment events" and, most recently, a pizza delivery man. Event promoter Tony Valentine said he hired Mr Sayoc in the 90s to strip on multiple occasions in Ohio, and that he (Sayoc) travelled the country for similar appearances. "He really couldn't find his niche in life, and I guess he found it now," Mr Valentine told the Washington Examiner. "Back in the 90s, he was running around from Minnesota to the Carolinas to Florida. He was like a gypsy."

His cousin, Lenny Altieri, was less charitable in his characterization. "He has been a loner," Mr Altieri told AP. "I know the guy is a lunatic."

We pause now for a brief lesson from the pages of history. For those who didn't catch my reference to the Reichstag Fire (in "Who's behind the pipe bombs?", WWW 24/10/18), the fire that destroyed the German parliament building in Berlin on 27 February 1933, was blamed by Hitler's government on Martinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist. The "intellectually challenged" Dutchman was found near the building and attributed the fire to communist agitators in general, although he claimed he acted alone.

Historians disagree as to whether Mr van der Lubbe acted alone, as he said, to protest the condition of the German working class. The Nazis accused the Comintern of the act. The Communists claimed that the arson was planned and ordered by the Nazis as a false flag operation. The court which tried Mr van der Lubbe ruled that indeed he acted alone. No-one else was involved. Of course.

Now back to my theory... Suppose you were a strategist for the Democratic Party, faced with the task of preventing the Trump Republicans from prevailing in next month's mid-term elections. You've got the lamestream media and (((Barbra Streisand))) and all of Hollywood on your side, and plenty of money to spend, thanks to (((George Soros))). But the migrant caravan approaching the southern border has heightened Americans' fears of the impending invasion, which the Democrats seem inclined to encourage rather than stop. What do you do?

What is needed (you say to yourself) is some kind of physical attack on the leaders of our party. Not an actual assassination of course, and nothing so lame as a burglary at Democratic headquarters. How about something dangerous sent through the mail? Poison, perhaps... or how about a bomb?! Great idea!! But who (you are still talking to yourself) could we get to build a bomb (or twelve bombs) and put them in the mail? Hey, how about someone who lives (yes, lives!) in a van like this?

We return now to Cesar Sayoc's conviction in 2002. Ron Lowy, the attorney who represented Mr Sayoc in the past and now represents his family, told the Clinton News Network's Anderson Cooper that he recalls someone with a "lesser IQ" and "substantial" emotional problems. Lowy said Sayoc has refused medical help for years, despite urging from his family. "He's become indignant, angry, someone who doesn't want to look at his problems."

Mr Lowy said that his former client "never seemed sophisticated enough" to put together a complicated mail bomb scheme and he wouldn't be surprised if Sayoc had someone who "helped prod or encourage him to do this."

But who? Here are a few innocent questions:
* From whom would Mr Sayoc have obtained the addresses -- home addresses -- of people like (((George Soros))) and the Prez? You can't just search the phone book to find them.
* How long would it have taken a semi-skilled person like Mr Sayoc to build not one, not two, but 12 or 14 (and counting) "bombs", and package them together with sachets of milk powder (or whatever it was) and pack them neatly in padded envelopes? A one-man job? Don't think so!
* Did Mr Sayoc actually take not one, not two, but 12 or 14 (and counting) packages to the post office, buy enough stamps to put six on each one and then hand them over the counter without anyone asking him what he was mailing?
* Suspending disbelief, if that's what happened at the post office, how come there are no postmarks on any of the packages... at least not the ones of which photos have been published?
* How did "the authorities" know where and when to look to intercept the suspicious packages before they could be delivered?
[That's enough innocent questions! Ed.]

OK, OK! But you get my point. IMHO, the whole thing reeks of publicity stunt, engineered to get Democrats out to vote in sympathy and anger! I am waiting with bated breath to hear what Mr Sayoc has to say about whether or not he acted alone. Let's just hope that he is brought to trial quickly. Wouldn't want any evil to befall him before he has a chance to speak. Of course that would never happen in America. Oh... Wait... Lee Harvey Oswald... ... ...

"Mexico has got to help us at the border!" tweets POTUS

Earlier this morning, in my report on the findings of a French public opinion poll strongly supporting deportation of Islamic extremists, I opined that the only leader of the so-called Western democracies likely to listen to the people who elected him (or her) is President Donald J. Trump. Now I see by the mojo wire that POTUS is up and on the job, calling on Congress to use the "Nuclear Option if necessary" to keep undesirable migrants out of the USA. Here's what he tweeted while Walt was still asleep.

The President has previously called for the "nuclear option" -- changing Senate rules to end the filibuster -- but establishment Republicans have rejected that option. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Republicans will welcome the filibuster when they return to being the Senate minority, something that (IMHO) seems sure to happen if the anti-Trumpers in the GOP persist in their obstructionism.

Mr Trump began tweeting about immigration this past weekend, threatening to pull out of NAFTA unless Mexico does more to stop people from crossing into the United States. Mexico must "stop the big drug and people flows," he said, "or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!"

With a caravan of 1500 potential wetbacks heading north even as I write, strong action to close the border by whatever means would seem to be exactly what the American people want. And President Trump doesn't need a public opinion poll to tell him so!

Americans! It's YOUR call!

I'm going to keep this short and simple, just like my own goodself.

The United States of America cannot afford another four years of Democratic liberal secular humanism. It's time to end the rule of the corrupt "progressive" elites. If you don't do it now, you may never get another chance.

You have only this one day to save the USA from the Clintons. Vote for Donald J. Trump!

If you just can't vote for Trump, at least vote for the Republican candidates for Senate and the House of Representatives in your state and district. A Republican Congress will be America's only defence against a Clinton dictatorship.

Americans! Do not fail your country! Go to the polls and vote to make America great again!

Worth reading (even if you've already voted): "The rise and fall of Hillary Clinton, exemplar of the U.S. ruling class culture of entitlement", commentary by Father Raymond J. de Souza, in the National Post, 8/11/16. Key quote: "She will win the election, but her presidency is already lost."

Can America ever be united again?

The Glorious War of the Secession (aka the War Between the States or the Civil War) ended 151 years ago, at which time America was proclaimed once again to be the United States. Now, in the twilight of the Obama presidency, which was supposed to bring all Americans together at last, regardless of race, colour, etc etc, the people of America (if not the states) find themselves more disunited than at any time in the last century-and-a-half.

That is the theme of Rick Perlstein's Nixonland, recommended here on Sunday. Mr. Perlstein dates the present polarization American culture and politics from the hippy-dippy 60s, which saw the disintegration of the liberal consensus of the Kennedy-Johnson years and the division of the "United" States into two mutually antagonistic nations -- the Red Nation and the Blue Nation. That division is not just geographic. There are plenty of "Reds" (not the Communist variety) to be found in Massachusetts and California, and "Blues" in Kansas and -- dare I say it -- Texas.

Hellery Clinton claims that she is the one and only candidate for POTUS who can bring the country together again, and make the American states and people united. This is laughable. About the only thing that unites the Reds (and large numbers of Blues) is the belief that Ms Clinton is a phony and a crook. Even if Hellery were sincere and (God forbid) elected, the task of uniting the country is beyond the power of any more mortal. Here's what Mr. Perlstein says in the closing paragraphs of his book:

What Richard Nixon left behind was the very terms of our national self-image: a notion that there are two kinds of Americans. On the one side, that "Silent Majority", the "nonshouters". The middle-class, middle American, suburban, exurban, and rural coalition who call themselves, now, "values voters", "people of faith", "patriots", or even, simply, "Republicans" -- and who feel themselves condescended to by snobby opinion-making elites, and who rage about un-Americans, anti-Christians, amoralists, aliens.

On the other side are the "liberals", the "cosmopolitans", the "intellectuals", the "professionals" -- "Democrats". Who say they see shouting in opposition to injustice as a higher form of patriotism. Or say "live and let live." Who believe that to have "values" has more to do with a willingness to extend aid to the downtrodden than where, or if, you happen to worship -- but who look down on the first category as unwitting dupes of feckless elites who exploit sentimental pieties to aggrandize their wealth, start wars, ruin lives.

Both populations -- to speak in ideal types -- are equally, essentially, tragically American. And both have learned to consider the other not quite American at all. The argument over Richard Nixon, pro and con, gave us the language for this war.

Do Americans not hate each other enough to fantasize about killing one another, in cold blood, over political and cultural disagreements? It would be hard to argue that they do not. How did Nixonland end? It has not ended yet.

A reader has objected that Rick Perlstein wrote those words in 2008, before the election of Barack Hussein Obama, the first black (or African-American, whatever) President, the one who has healed America and brought all Americans together. Has the Prez himself not said that race relations in the USA are better now than at any time in history? Well yes, that's what he said, but the claim that the war of which Mr. Perlstein writes ended somewhere between 2008 and 2016 is nonsense. If anything, the cracks in the American body politic have widened, and the war has intensified.

The 2015 American Values Survey, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, is titled "Anxiety, Nostalgia, and Mistrust". It found that about three-quarters of Republicans believe that the federal government looks out for the interests of blacks, Hispanics, gays and women. But not quite half of Republicans think that the government looks out for Christians or middle-class people. Democrats, on the other hand, overwhelmingly think that the federal government looks out for the rich and big business.

Writing in the Economist this week, "Lexington" asserts that the distrust between groups exposed in the survey means that "it is not useful to say that most Americans support policy X or Y. The real question fo ask voters is: Do you think this policy helps or hurts 'people like you'? The query reliably exposes deep gulfs between different races, generations and parties." Which is just what Mr. Perlstein said, eight years ago.

Footnote and caveat: When I recommended Nixonland, I should have included a warning that Mr. Perlstein is badly in need of an editor/proofreader. [Does anyone, anywhere, employ proofreaders any more? What's wrong with Spiel-Chequer? Ed.] His book runs to 748 pages of fairly dense type, and that's not counting the endnotes. And where, I wonder, does the author get words like "inspirit" (for "inspire", I guess)? If you want to finish Nixonland before you vote, start now.

VIDEO: Scott "Dilbert" Adams explains why Trump is winning

Hey, Republicans! Who ya gonna vote for? The bully or the zealot?! A look at the result of Super Saturday suggests that's what it's going to come down to.

Yes, Marco Rubio won the Commonpoverty of Puerto Rico, but so what. He'll be finished by the end of this month (lifetime pct .985) and the GOP Establishment will decide that it hates TrusTED Cruz marginally less than Donald Trump. But the betting now is that the Donald will will the convention, and quite possibly the nation.

Who sez? Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, that's who. Check out this clip from Fox & Friends yesterday morning.



This was the first time I saw Scott Adams on TV. I thought Dilbert was based on his own persona, but he really doesn't look anything like the eponymous engineer, does he.

Further reading: Click here to read Mr. Adams' explanation of Mr. Trump's clever and persuasive "strategic ambiguity".

Only one surprise out of New Hampshire

I wasn't surprised that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders won.
I wasn't surprised John Kasich finished second in the Republican race. I think that's as close as he's going to come to winning any of the remaining primaries. (Lifetime pct .983.)
I wasn't surprised that Marco Rubio finished fifth. Hey, I saw the debate.
What surprised me was that Jeb! managed to finish in a statistical tie with Ted Cruz. Did a memo go out from the Republican Establishment that Mr. Rubio isn't ready yet? (Nice hair though!)

So where are we now? There wasn't as much "winnowing" last night as the pundits predicted. Chris Christie is out, but he wasn't going anywhere anyway. Carly Fiorina and the black guy -- what was his name, again? -- have yet to announce the "suspension" of their campaigns, but so what. The Republicans are left with The Donald and Ted Cruz who have to slug it out to see who can be more of an "outsider", leaving the possibility that The Shrub may come up the middle and emerge as the candidate. The mind boggles.

On the Democratic side, it's hard to see Colonel Sanders winning states like South Carolina. A betting man would still have to take Hellery Clinton. Do it now while you can still get decent odds.

Oh, there was one more surprise. Who would have thought that Bernie could ramble on for so long, and reiterate the same point so often, in what should have been a short and gracious thank-you speech. I'm guessing that every minute he spoke, after the first ten, caused another million dollars or so to pour into the candidates' war chests -- not just the Republican war chests, but Mrs Clinton's too!

Walt explains why Americans like The Donald

Walt loves watching the liberal lamestream meeja explain to Americans why they're all wrong in supporting Donald Trump's bid for the presidensity. One of the more ridiculous analyses I've seen was that of the CBC's Neil Macdonald, who opines that Americans "don't take people like Donald Trump seriously" and are enjoying the spectacle purely for the entertainment value. Wrong, Neil! Wrong!!!

A better view is taken by Lexington, the Economist's observer of things American. In "El Donald", he (or she) says "What is clear is that he will not win the Republican presidential nomination.... America’s two-party system offers him a bleaker choice: to stay on and heckle in the primaries or to play wrecker as a third-party candidate. Yet the Trump slump, when it happens, will not spell the end of the forces that have propelled him so far. Anti-politics rage is buffeting rich democracies across the world, and America is not immune to it." [Walt's emphasis.]

IMHO, Lexington has put his (or her) finger on the root of Mr. Trump's popularity. While the likes of Mr. Macdonald are already writing obituaries for his "The America We Deserve" campaign, a CNN/ORD national survey (conducted after The Donald's nasty remarks about John McCain) showed Mr. Trump leading the GOP pack, with the support of 18% of Republicans. "Jeb" Noname had 15% and Scott Walker 10%.

Mr. Trump's star is rising, and shows no signs of falling before next month's debate of the top ten contenders. Why is this?

Part of it is The Donald's reputation for business acumen. "I'm a smart guy," he tells us. "I went to Wharton Business School." The second statement is true. As for the first, Mr. Trump has had some spectacular business successes. He's had a few colossal failures too, but anyone who can boast that he could finance his own multimillion-dollar campaign if he wanted to is clearly no slouch at managing the elusive sponduliks. And, according to the same CNN poll, 44% of Republicans think healing the economy is the ballot issue for the next election.

Then there's the celebrity factor. For decades now, Mr. Trump has been plastering his name on everything he touches, from New York towers to California golf courses to airplane tailfins. Walt even flew on the Trump Shuttle, back in the day. Leatherette seats in coach - for decades. He was the star of his own "reality" television show, and his catchphrase -- "you're fired" -- is a commonplace of American dialogue. [You're fired! Ed.]

Mr. Trump has name and face (read: hair) recognition up the yingyang. A recent Gallup poll puts his name ID among Republicans at 92%. But who's John Kasich? Who's Bobby Jindal? Who's... that other guy?
The Trump name demands media coverage (even if it's just in the Entertainment section), which boosts his poll numbers and leads to more media coverage.

We turn now to the Top Two Reasons for Donald Trump's lead in the polls.

His stance on illegal immigrants resonates with the majority of Republicans and, dare we say it, the majority of Americans. Lots of people who were born in the USA, or followed the rules to come in legally, are sick, sore and tire of being branded as racists and extremists. They see no reason to give the queue-jumpers a fast track to resident alien status, or amnesty of any kind. What they want, according to that CNN/ORC survey, is for them to be deported -- immediately if not sooner.

In "Revenge of the Radical Middle", Matthew Continetti, neocon editor of The Washington Free Beacon, writes: "It is immigration -— its universally celebrated benefits and its barely acknowledged costs -— that is the third rail of U.S. politics.... Trump didn’t step on the third rail; he embraced it, he won’t let go of it, and in so doing he’s become electric. Republicans, Democrats, journalists, corporations all want to define themselves against him, and their flaunting of their moral superiority only feeds the media monster, only makes Trump more attractive to the dispossessed, alienated, radical middle."

Which brings us to the undeniable fact that The Donald has become the spokesman for the silent majority. Mr. Continetti calls Trump supporters the "radical middle", who in years past embraced Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich. Mr. Trump, you see, is not a conservative, or even a mainstream Republican. He is a populist, more akin to Ross Perot (another wealthy businessman who ranted about the Mexican threat) or George Wallace than to Messrs Gingrich and Reagan.

The voters to whom Mr. Trump appeals (continues Mr. Continetti) "don’t give a whit [Ed., please check spelling] about corporate tax reform or TPP or the capital gains rate or the fate of Uber, they make a distinction between deserved benefits like Social Security and Medicare and undeserved ones like welfare and food stamps, their patriotism is real and nationalistic and skeptical of foreign entanglement, they wept on 9/11, they want America to be strong, dominant, confident, the America of their youth, their young adulthood, the America of 40 or 30 or even 20 years ago.

"They do not speak in the cadences or dialect of New York or Washington, their thoughts can be garbled, easily dismissed, or impugned, they are not members of a designated victim group and thus lack moral standing in the eyes of the media, but still they deserve as much attention and sympathy as any of our fellow citizens, still they vote."

Speaking last week in South Carolina, Mr. Trump said, "There's a silent majority out there. We're tired of being pushed around, kicked around, and acting and being led by stupid people." To which Walt can only say, "Ain't it the truth!"

Emperor tells illegal immigrants to "come out of the shadows"

The American system of government [Is dis a system? Ed.] is one of checks and balances. To prevent any one person -- a dictator, a king, a prime minister -- from being able to exert too much power, the executive (of which the President is Chief) is supposed to work with the legislature (Congress), with both branches under the careful watch of the judiciary. The current proprietor of the Excited States, Barack Hussein Obama, once promised that he would never abuse his power as CEO. "I am not an emperor," he said.

Walt guesses the Prez had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said that. Speaking on the idiot's lantern last night, President Obarmy unveiled expansive and unprecedented executive actions to spare from deportation nearly five million (5,000,000) people who are in the country illegally. He does so "by the powers vested in me", in the face of furious opposition from Congress and contrary to the wishes (as understood from public opinion surveys) of millions of people who are in the USA legally.

What Mr. Obama is not doing is granting an amnesty to illegal immigrants. In America, even an emperor can't do that. He is merely "suspending" the enforcement of the existing immigration laws against 5 million of the 11 million -- mostly parents and young people -- for as long as he is Emperor [President, surely! Ed.], that is until the end of 2016 at which time things revert to the status quo ante.

Mr. Obarmy's excuse for ruling by decree is that the US immigration system is broken -- hard to argue with that -- and what he really wants is for Republican solons to focus their energy not on blocking his actions, but on approving long-stalled legislation to reform the system.

The Prez said that "tracking down, rounding up and deporting millions of people isn’t realistic." No arguing with that either, since the authorities gave up trying long ago, frustrated by decisions of liberal judges who have ruled, for instance, that it's wrong (and doubtless racist) to stop people and ask them for identification. You'll find examples in Mark Steyn's After America, recommended by Walt recently.

The vehement reactions of Republicans, who will have control of both houses of Congress come January, made clear that if the Emperor wants a fight, they'll give it to him! House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner (rhymes with "gainer", not "loner") who has refused to have his Republican members vote on broad immigration legislation passed by the Senate last year, said Mr. Obama's decision to go it alone "cemented his legacy of lawlessness and squandered what little credibility he had left."

Walt urges all illegal immigrants to take advantage of the six weeks or so of the de facto amnesty, and "come out of the shadows". Run -- don't walk, run! -- to the nearest immigration office or police station and identify yourselves. That way the government will know where to find you... when the time comes...

Further reading: "How Barack Obama's presidency has come undone". In this piece, written before last night's imperial decree, the CBC's Neil Macdonald analyzes how the Prez held out hope and promise, only to fail to fulfill almost all of his promises.