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| Photo by Albert Dros |
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Obvious Truth #43
Acting is socially condoned lying. The better the thespian, the more convincing the liar.
Headlines
Amazon ‘couldn’t handle the heat,’ NYC’s de Blasio says
Italy’s far-right group set to be the second biggest political party in the EU
Pelosi quietly deletes tweet [supporting Smollett] ...
Limbaugh: Immigration is an emergency, our ‘culture’ at risk
McCabe: ‘I was fired because I opened a case against the president’
Japan’s Abe nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — reportedly after the US asked him to
FACEBOOK labeled ‘digital gangsters’ in U.K. ...
Global warming: CA officials tell skiers to stay home, too much snow
Election board to decide fate of disputed North Carolina congressional race
China’s car sales fell 16 percent in January, making seven months of decline
Dems ready to challenge emergency declaration ... Texas-sized backlash from land owners ...
N.Y. Times: Trump’s border reforms working
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Trumpisms
Trump is evil. Absolutely everything he does as president is pulling this country down. He has accomplish nothing in his over two years in office. All he does is play golf and watch TV. Anything that is good today was accomplished by his Nobel-Prize winning predecessors. He is an absolute doofus and has orange hair to boot. Here are some of his braggadocios policy statements and self-puffing accomplishments. Agree or disagree?
Many NATO members should be paying up for what they had committed to — True False
North Korea needs to denuclearize or be vaporized — True False
Germany connecting to a Russian oil pipeline defeats the purpose of NATO — True False
We have destroyed the ISIS caliphate and should withdraw from Syria — True False
China’s trade practises with the US are very unfair and need fixing — True False
Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation is a witch hunt — True False
If a nation does not protect its borders, it is not a nation ... we need a wall — True False
Tax cuts and regulation reform will jump start the American economy — True False
We have long promised to move our embassy to Jerusalem. Now is the time — True False
After 18 years of war, it is time to get out of Afghanistan — True False
The Iranian nuclear deal is a complicit disaster and needs to be nullified — True False
Middle East nations should pay us for their defense — True False
The Iranian theocracy does not serve its people and needs to be reformed — True False
Our intelligence agencies don’t always get things right — True False
We need to make America energy independent — True False
We need a more thorough migrant vetting process in countries rife with terrorists — True False
Saudi Arabia is key to Middle East peace — True False
Visa lotteries do not produce the best migrants, should be stopped — True False
We need to bring manufacturing back to our country— True False
Chain migration is also insane and needs to be stopped — True False
We need to arm the Ukrainian government to push back against the Russians — True false
NAFTA has been a disaster for US manufacturing and needs renegotiating — True False
Why are we taking migrants from “shithole” countries — True False
The Paris Climate Accord was a gigantic wealth transfer mechanism and should die — True False
The United States will never be a socialist country — True False
Our military needs to refunded and revitalized — True False
And this is not the half of it. Romney said Trump was “a fake and a fraud.” And he is not getting anything done. Agree?
Monday, February 18, 2019
Headlines
Trump bets on North Korea to break his losing streak
Why California’s new solar mandate could cost new homeowners up to $10,000
The wolf who cried MAGA ... could get 3 years in prison for filing false report ...
Stephen Miller predicts ‘hundreds of miles’ of border wall by 2020
How does a straight white male Democrat run for president?
A big change in accounting will pit $3 trillion in liabilities on corporate balance sheets
Amazon pays no income takes ... $11 billion in profits ...$100 million rebate!
Networks refuse to cover ‘no Russian collusion’ report
Trump threatens to release ISIS prisoners if EU doesn’t take them
Anthony Weiner released from prison, now in federal reentry program
Senate panel to investigate meetings between Russians, Obama officials ...
[Iran] ...claims U.S. sabotaging Tehran space program
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Presidential Paradox
President Trump is rather unique in that he often brings out the worst in many of his fellow citizenry and allies ... but then can educe the best in some of our enemies. — Anon.
Headlines
California’s move to Super Tuesday hands Harris a big edge in 2020
As Trump ponders auto tariffs, free trade Republicans push back
Spending binge worse than under Obama, Bush
Washington Post: Democrats hid border security win from Trump
Dems prepare to force Trump to reveal private talks with Putin
Trade talks with the U.S. are ‘making a final sprint,’ Chinese state media claim
Kaepernick settles collusion case against NFL ... $60 - $80 million?
Trump decries catch and release as spending bill expands program
Vatican defrocks former Washington cardinal over sex abuse
Trump’s message is having an impact on NATO, secretary general says
Just 1 in 4 Americans pass US citizenship test ...
Lindsey Graham congratulates Trump on defeating ISIS caliphate
QED
Open-border advocates make the slippery claim that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. Yes, of course this must be true ... since there are 15 to 30 times more of the latter than the former. This oft-repeated mantra is meant to deceive and, unfortunately, it often does.
However, the proper comparison would be on a proportional basis. Illegal immigrants represent about 14 percent of our federal prison population (66% of 21% ... see: Center for Immigration Studies Stats) and less reliable reports have this same approximate proportion in many state prisons and local jails. And, depending on your source, illegal immigrants represent 3% (at 11 million) to 7% (at 23 million) of our nation’s total population (323 million). Sooo, illegal immigrants must proportionally commit from 2 to almost 5 times the crimes of our native-born population.
QED.
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Headlines
Legal war looms over Trump move to declare border emergency
China and US will continue high-stakes trade talks in Washington next week
ABC: ‘Empire’ actor staged attack? Hate or hoax
Beto: ‘The border has never been as safe and secure’
Amazon to New York; Drop dead
Trump will sign spending bill, declare national emergency and ‘other executive action’
Amazon to pay $0 in taxes — for second year in a row!
Dershowitz on McCabe’s 25th Amendment effort: ‘Clearly an attempted coup d’etat’
Court allows House Democrats to join Obamacare defense
Facebook uses its apps to track users it thinks could threaten employees and others
Networks: 2,202 minutes on Russian scandal, zero for ‘no collusion’ report ...
Border bill offers aid, buses, legal shields to migrants
Friday, February 15, 2019
Obvious Truth #42
There seems no limit to the pettiness, mendacity and self-serving behavior that most politicians and government bureaucrats can and often do display. President Trump’s biggest flaw is that he evokes this type of despicable behavior on the part of his political opponents ... instead of inspiring them to reach down for their better 1/10th.
Hell’s Hell
Politics is a very slimy business — two examples:
- It is beginning to appear that Mueller may not issue his long-expected report or that the report, if released, will be a wet fart ... see: NBC Article. This report was meant to show how extensively Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to win the presidency in 2016. No such evidence has been uncovered or manufactured in this two year witch hunt ... a witch’s hunt which increasingly appears to be meant to cover up for the widespread sleazy illegality in Obama’s DOJ, FBI and CIA.
- The rescue package that a joint committee of Congress put together to avert another government shutdown over the border wall is full of vindictive Pelosi “land mines” as Trump calls them. Not only is the wall funding offer a paltry $1.375 billion instead of the $5.7 billion requested ... but it also specifies that this border barrier can only be of an older (ineffective) design; all new wall building must be in the Rio Grande valley; localities can override any attempts to build a wall ... and it authorizes $12 billion to be given to the Central American triangle countries who supply most of the welfare “dreamers” who are flooding our open borders ... see: National Review Article. This is like curing a cold with a case of typhus.
Political operatives, when they die and they invariably end up on Hell, are quickly shuffled off to an even more odious punishment — Hell’s Hell — where they are greeted by many of their buddy journalists.
Headlines
Pelosi’s freshmen fracture amid GOP pressure
Fed Gov. Brainard: ‘Downside risks have definitely increased’ on the economy
McCabe: DOJ discussed removing Trump
Donald Trump watching for ‘landmines’ in compromise
Why is the Hispanic Caucus ignoring Julian Castro?
Broadcom co-founder charged with felony drug trafficking after Las Vegas hotel arrest
Feds collect record individual taxes ...
Poll: Media’s all-out assault on Trump only hurts trust in journalists
Political scandal threatens Trudeau’s second term
Trump demands California return $3.5 billion in funds after state’s ‘disaster’ bullet train project
Retail sales drop the most since ‘09 ...
Rand Paul: Trump won ‘big victory’ with border wall deal
Apolitical Science
It would seem to this observer that there are a number of reasonable and apolitical steps that should be taken by real scientists when investigating the future energy needs of our world:
- For hundreds of million years hydrocarbons (coal, oil, tar and natural gas) were created as a result of plants capturing the energy of the sun and then, through natural forces, storing it underground for our future use. We need to know what might be the sum total of BTUs that were created during this period (a truly huge number) and how much of this energy might be realistically recoverable given probable scientific advances. And what are the possible error boundaries of these estimates?
- How much of this hydrocarbon energy has already been expended since we stopped depending on wood, wind and whale oil ... and how many years, decades or centuries might this energy reservoir sustain the entire world given realistic demographic and per-person usage projections. And what are the possible error boundaries to these estimates?
- Given these estimates and their error boundaries, at what point will the world likely need significant new energy sources and what might these energy sources be? Hydroelectric? Nuclear? Fusion? Tidal? Geothermal? Wind? Solar? or the possible requirement for some new energy technology? What are the possible risks and error boundaries associated with each of these options?
- What are the realistic apolitical economic and social implications of each of these paths to supplying our longer-term energy needs and what are the error boundaries therein?
- What are the chances that this will occur?
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Headlines
Michael Bloomberg’s $500 million anti-Trump moonshot
Mortgage applications drop 3.7% as home buyers pull back
Lawyer: Mueller will say nothing! Will not issue report ...
GOP/Dem border deal, $1.3 billion for wall, less than 60 miles of new barrier
Howard Schultz: ‘I should be paying more taxes’
Growing number of Californians considering fleeing state and blame sky-high costs, survey finds
Explosive new book lifts lid on gay priests in Vatican ... Four in five homosexual?
National debt surpasses $22 trillion
Poll: Voters don’t want another shutdown, are split on border wall
China is going to need more foreign money as its trade surplus dries up, Morgan Stanley says
Senate uncovered no direct evidence of conspiracy between Trump campaign, Russia ...
1.4 million households drop off food stamps
Cuddly Pet Peeves
Anyhow, I am still miffed by many other new things ... maybe I’ll reveal them in some future blog post?
Headlines
Negotiators reach deal ‘in principle’ to avert shutdown
Investors take biggest cash position in decade despite market rally
Mexican flags flew at Beto [El Paso] gathering ...
Donald Trump trying to stop ICE from deporting illegals
Superstar freshman Dems replace Pelosi as GOP targets
Tesla is staking it’s future on China — here’s what it’s up against
$1.375 billion to build 55 miles of new border barriers ...
House Democrats plan vote to criminalize private gun sales this week
Theresa May keeps her advisers in the dark on Brexit
Kevin McCarthy: Pelosi and Democrats caved on Trump’s border barrier demand
Buchanan: Green New Deal is a Dem suicide note ...
China, Turkey war of words over Muslim internment camps
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