Today's Quote

Always bending to change is not necessarily progressive. Most times traditional methods are tested and for the good and their scrapping can be catastrophic. -- Anon.

Butter Side Down

Just like movie stars, making millions of dollars for their realistic reciting of the creative works of others, eventually believe that they have become these make-believe heros and can behave accordingly ... a similar mania is sweeping the sports world. Now a number of mostly black football and basketball players believe that injecting politics into the sports arena is their God-given and constitutional right. They exhibit their displeasure with America and its supposed injustices by sitting or taking a knee during the playing of the Stars Spangled Banner at the begining of their contests.

Of course such disloyal demonstrations are their right ... but it is also the right of President Trump to call them out for disrespecting the country that has so lavishly rewarded them for their physical talents. Yes, they have supporters among our increasingly looney left. But there are also legions of citizens who view such antics as the equivalent of telling them to f-off ... that they are racists or jingoistic or whatever. The question then becomes -- are there enough of lefty snowflakes and conservative jock sniffers who will continue watching the performance talents of these children to justify their continued lofty salaries?

My guess is no. And that these anthem dissenters may eventually find that their toast has fallen on the floor butter side down.

Afterward: There are far more productive ways for athletes to protest perceived evil ... live moral lifes as examples to our youth, support blind justice, donate their time and money to the education and betterment of their race ... and finally, proudly display their love of country.

Makes Sense ...

From Powerline Blog

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

Trump, in Alabama, wades into interparty battle

Chuck Schumer coached Jimmy Kimmel behind the scenes on how to oppose Obamacare repeal

Apple fans not lining up for release of new IPhone?

U.S. Says NAFTA helps Chinese goods reach American market

Trump bashes McCain in early morning Tweets

Suspicious earthquake hits North Korean nuclear test site

Study: Fraternities lower GPA -- but raise future income ...

Trump approves 100K+ illegal aliens for DACA in last 3 months

Carson breaks with Trump, backs Moore for Alabama Senate seat

NYT writes nearly 1.500 words on Berkeley with zero mentions of ANTIFA

Glitch allows non-U.S. citizens in PA to vote ...

Iran unveils long-range missile capable of hitting Israel

A Cartoon Truth

From Powerline Blog

Biting the hand ...

Crocodile Coitus

When he was running for president, Donald Trump promised to "drain the swamp." Now that he is in the DC quagmire he has found it difficult not being intimate with some of its creatures. He has given the Secretary of Transportation job to Senator McConnell's wife, delayed building the promised Mexican wall, failed to deliver an Obamacare repeal, conceded to codify the DACA program and now endorsed an establishment Republican to replace Jeff Sessions in the Senate ... see: Breitbart Article.

This is not a total capitulation for the vast majority of his actions have been swamp-draining. But, being pragmatic after his first nine bloody months, Trump is slowly finding it easier to let some of the denizens in Washington have their way with him if he hopes to get his more significant agenda done. He better be careful however ... his voters are watching this X-rated movie.

Lilliput

"It's a small world after all."

The Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill met my requirement for passage -- the healthcare insurance companies didn't like it. This meant that they were hit in the pocketbook which then meant that, overall, healthcare costs might go down. So what happened in our country of small people, which I now call Lilliput? Why, a prominant Lilliputian, John McCain, said he was voting "no" (out of spite) which probably kills things.

The king of Lilliput, Donald Trump is calling that North Korean dough boy, Kim Jong Un, names. And this pastry midget is taunting Trump back.

It is difficult to find one world politician these days acting like a grownup ... including that woman who lost the last US presidential election. The entire Democrat party and most of the media are throwing spitballs at their president ... and staying awake nights inventing new insults for him. And he, of course, returns the favors on Twitter. Everything is petty and small. No one is acting the statesman. Even our next generation, the snowflakes, melt at the slightest dog-whistle insult.

We are a nation of little people ... a world of little people ... Lilliputians.

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which ones from Politico?

Trump aides begin looking for the exits

North Korea warns it may detonate an H-bomb in the Pacific

Bye bye summer ... snow month early ...

Graham: Healthcare bill will get 50 GOP votes, plus a couple of Democrats

Obamacare repeal has 'worst elements' of earlier efforts

Ellen: Trump 'too dangerous' to be on my show

Uber banned in London ...

Rouhani defends Iran nuke deal at U.N., calls Trump speech 'ignorant'

Trump announces new crackdown on North Korea trade

Nearly 30% of public school teachers 'chronically' skipping classes, study says

Weekend: Merkel takes on hard-right in final voter push ...

Coulter: They don't call it 'the great tweet of China'

Nam

After watching three out of four episodes of Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War" on PBS I am chagrined to confess that there was much about this war that I didn't know. But I have still drawn a few conclusions from what I have seen so far. I know not whether these conclusions are what Ken Burns had in mind for his audience, but I do feel that his treatment of this very contraversial subject seems, so far, to be even-handed. (But I haven't seen Jane Fonda on  the anti-aircraft gun yet.)

First, I must start by stating I was never in the armed forces nor, obviously, in Vietnam although I was of an eligible age. I have two metal rods holding my spine in shape as testament to why this is so. I had actually been called for my pre-induction physical in 1963 but was, to my lasting gratitude, rejected. So I spent those war years working on Wall Street, getting remarried and having another family. And, to my shame, I was barely aware of what was happening in Southeast Asia or why there was unrest at home. All this gnashing of teeth was like chirping  crickets to my busy life.

Anyway, to my few thoughts inspired by  this TV documentary special:

- Much of the angst coming out of this conflict was due, IMHO, to the gradualism exhibited by both JFK and then mostly Lyndon Johnson. I now strongly feel that getting into this quagmire was a mistake, but, once committed. I think someone very wise said, "if you go to war, go to war." Don't pussyfoot around like we have done so many times since WWII. Our painfully slow escalation of this conflict allowed the Viet Cong and North Viernam time to react to each incremental increase of commitment ... and America's youth to organize an effective domestic resistance ... the legacy of which we are experiencing even unto today.

- "A resolute army will almost always defeat a reluctant army." This is just another way of saying that, unless there is a real threat to one's homeland, your soldiers are not quite as motivated as the enemy. However bravely Americans fought in Nam, we were really not being pulled by patriotism, but rather pushed by fear and platitudes. ("Hell no, I won't go!) LBJ never really made the case that the "domino theory" was a big enough threat to Peoria. And history has shown that it wasn't. Matter of fact, I am astounded at the friendly reception American tourists recieve when they visit Vietnam (even the North) today ... given what this program showed us doing over there in the 1960s.

- And lastly, resistance to the war taught a generation of America's youth that it was OK to love one another but hate your country. This "hippie" culture was the genesis of much of our national divide today. It is a price that we will be paying for many years to come.

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

Trump hires campaign workers instead of farm experts at USDA

James Clapper says he was unaware of Manafort wiretap order

[Puerto Rico] Blown back to the dark ages

Sixth arrest made in UK subway bomb investigation -- made at 'refugee housing'

Poll: Trump sees slight uptick in approval rating

Report: Manafort offered to provide 'briefings' to Kremlin-connected oligarchs during campaign

Bono: Trump disrupted 'moral arc of universe' ...

Swedish journalist shot in no-go zone

North Korean minister calls Trump's threat 'sound of dog barking'

S&P cuts China's credit rating citing increasing economic, financial risks

Yoko No-No: Beatles widow sues drink maker for naming lemonade John Lemon ...

Obama: GOP wants to inflict 'human suffering'

Prerequisites

The California legislature is proposing that a prerequisite for getting on their presidential ballot in 2020 would be that candidates must release their federal tax returns ... see: The Hill Article. Now this stricture is obviously directed at Donald Trump and is likely unconstitutional. But when would this cause California moonbats to worry about this ancient piece of parchment created by dead white guys? But tying up a political process in the courts is a standard progressive cheap trick ... particularly since they have a lock on many of the lower-court judges.

However, this calculated loonyness does give me some ideas for what other states might require of their candidates for federal offices:

- A valid birth certificate (meeting an actual Constitutional requirement)

- College applications and transcripts for all schools attended

- For Senators: State tax returns from the state represented

- For Representatives: Local real-estate tax forms and utility bills in the district represented

- Full medical records including any STD diagnoses

- Full police records including all charges that have been broomed

- All local, state and federal voting records

- History of all Internet porn site references

- All kindergarten finger paintings and Play-Doh moldings

No?

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

Corker, Toomey reach deal on GOP tax cut package

Mexico hit by powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake, killing more than 225

Mueller probe goes back more than decade ...

Survey: 20% of college students support using violence to shut down speakers

Trump's U.N. speech was bad, but ler's not lose our heads

Elizabeth Warren urges Fed to step up and remove Wells Fargo board

Manafort calls for DOJ to release intercepts, investigate leaks ...

Climate alarmists finally admit being wrong about global warming

Glaciers growing in Montana?

RNC says it has spent over $400.000 on Trump family legal bills

Cellphone bomb found in passangers luggage at [India] airport ...

 Survey: Half of millennials would give up voting rights to pay off student debt

Quote for Today

Being a slave to fashion is nonetheless an oppressive servitude -- Anon.

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

Senate GOP tries one last time to repeal Obamacare

Toys R Us may file for bankruptcy as early as this week, sources say

Exclusive: U.S. government wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman [Manafort]

... Comey tried to discredit wiretapping claims that proved true

Jerry Brown compares Trump supporters to ignorant cave dwellers

Rolling Stone [mag] has fallen from grace, will be sold

Puerto Rico  rations supplies before superstorm [Maria]

Report: Trump staffers fear colleagues are wearing wires for Mueller

Trump's U.N. obsession collides with reality

Report: Obama making big bucks in speeches to Wall Street firms

Massive Arctic ice -- GAIN ...

Teaparty Patriots back Graham-Cassidy Obamacare repeal

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which ones from Politico?

Theresa May heads to Canada to seek trade deal

Hurricane Maria barrels toward battered Caribbean islands, Jose to lash the East Coast

White man arrested in Louisiana killing of black man ...

... Mexican guv denies cartel violence -- despite 32 executions in days

McMaster rejects report that U.S. will remain in Paris deal as 'false'

Merkel!s election victory looks assured -- but the real test comes after

U.S. may close Cuban embassy after 'attacks' on diplomats ...

Trump shares meme of him hitting Hillary with golf ball

Another prosecutor joins Trump-Russia probe

Japanese Prime Minister: 'Dialog with North Korea' is 'a dead end'

Macron wants to remind world France nuclear power too ...

Feinstein: Russian probe could rake another 'year-and-half'

Bugged!

CNN reports that the Obama administration DID wiretap the Trump campaign ... in particular its FBI under Comey bugged Paul Manafort, Trump's former (fired) campaign manager for many months ... including his conversations with Trump! See: Powerline Blog for a short and sour comment on this bombshell.

It would seem to this observer that, if true, this must have been known to the Special Counsel Robert Mueller for many months and, independent of any possible Manafort culpability, this revelation displays a level of Obama administration corruption that is stupefying ... using the power of government to retain power. The depth of this corruption will be inversely proportional to whatever is turned up on Trump and Co. Thus, the vigor of Mueller's witch hunt. And if Mueller sweeps this particular malfeasance aside in his slow-motion coup of Trump, then he is compounding such insideous corruption. Mueller's buddy or no buddy, Comey's actions throughout epitomize the systemic slime that oozes out when our spooks start playing politics.

Far, far worse than Watergate ...

Sage Advice

Never fully trust men who shave their heads ... or women for that matter.

(Although they don't get dandruff or lice, their brains do tend to overheat ...)

Exodus

The recent exodus from Florida before hurricane Irma was messy ... primarily from evacuation-routes' traffic jams, long lines for gasoline refills and gasoline shortages. This has got me musing about what an exodus would be like a number of years from now when all we have are autonomous and all-electric cars:

- How far can all-electric cars go then when they are stuck in traffic with their air conditioners going?

- How will autonomous cars handle long lines at charging stations?

- Cars running out of charge likely will be more numerous than cars now running out of gas (which might be carrying extra). Will this be a big enough difference to cause massive gridlock?

- Will charging stations have more plug-in sires than current gasoline pumps per location? What number will turn out to be economical for the charging station owners?

- Electric car charging stations won't run out of power in the same way that gas stations run out of petrol during such a surge in demand ... unless, of course, the electric power grid goes down ... which is likely to happen.

- Then what happens? Obviously (and ironically) gas-run generators won't be able to produce enough output to meet the huge potential demand.

- How will all-electric utility repair trucks keep doing their jobs if the electric grid is down? Once out of power, they will likely be stranded.

Will any of these issues be show-stoppers? I am not sanguine about such a dire scenario.

Headlines

All ftom Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

Trump takes on Bannon in Alabama Senate showdown

Weaponizing sound: Could sonic devices have injured [U.S.] diplomats in Cuba?

Iran claims to have 'Father of all Bombs' ....

Hungary builds wall, cuts illegal immigration by over 99%

The Left warns Pelosi, Schumer: Don't get too close to Trump

Pittsburgh's self-driving car boom means $200,000 pay packages for robotics grads

Montana snow 60 days early ...

Bill Maher: None of Trump's properties were damaged by Irma -- 'There is no God'

Cassidy says he is close to having the votes for passing Obamacare repeal

Suffolk Downs, Flower Exchange viewed as possible Amazon [Boston] HQ site

WSJ: Trump will NOT withdraw from Paris climate deal

Report: Former Wasserman Schultz staffer allegedly uploaded DNC data to private dropbox