Fractured Definition

Polliwog — a parrot that has been black-listed

Headlines

McConnell backs short-term spending bill to avert shutdown

Google faces a new antitrust probe by 50 attorneys general

Todd Palin files for divorce from Sarah Palin ...

U.S. government asks Apple, Google to hand over info on gun owners

Border chief: Mexico must step up immigration enforcement

Real US debt levels could be 2,000% of economy, a Wall Street report suggests

SCARAMUCCI: Trump ‘a fat blob, looks disgusting’ ...

Poll: Warren edges out Biden in early primary states

Mnuchin: Currency will be a focus of the next round of China talks

Jeffery Epstein got a meeting with Bill Gates after an aggressive lobbying campaign

Germany considers ‘shadow budget’ to circumvent national debt rules ...

Cuba: Police arrest over 100 dissidents attempting to venerate Virgin Mary

Teapot Tempest

There is a recent story I have refused to include in the Headlines posts here. And that concerns Trump’s assertion that hurricane Dorian once may have been threatening Alabama. This Trump Tweet was based on early cone path projections of this storm crossing over Florida and into the Golf of Mexico. Of course, if this happened, Alabama could be in its eventual path ... see: NBC News Story.

The media bias quickly kicked in and Trump was pilloried for this possible off-base prognostication ... which then spawned a firestorm of debate inside and outside of government ... mostly non-stories. I paid no attention because this fake news was, to me, fake news. It was one more attempt to paint Trump with some more slime. Does the media not see how obvious they are with all this silliness. A tempest in a teapot does not adequately describe the magnification of this puny issue into many headline grabbers ... all of which I have rightfully ignored.

I think this non-story deserves an even-better analogy ... how about ‘a fart in Dorian’s eye-wall.’

Siblings

From daily timewaster blog

Nine is fine ...

Obvious Truth

In a homogenized society, the cream no longer rises to the top. — Anon.

Tulsi

Tulsi Gabbard

Might be one test for our presidential candidates ...

Headlines

Trump’s plan to stem border crossings gets results

JP Morgan is close to winning a lead role in history’s biggest IPO: Saudi Aramco

Trump cancels secret Taliban meeting at Camp David ...

Mechanic accused of sabotaging flight came to U.S. from Iraq

Klobacher blasts Trump’s Taliban strategy: ‘This isn’t a game show’

China’s exports to the US are falling sharply as Trump escalates the trade war

Joe Walsh says George Conway advising him ...

Alveda King: Bernie Sander’s population control will target black communities

French minister: European Union won’t grant UK a Brexit delay as things stand

Mark Sanford will mount Republican primary challenge against Trump

Warren-Clinton team up ...

Winning: 6.2 million off food stamps under Trump

And as an an extra added headline (from Powerline blog)

Just Us

The back and forth in the courts surrounding Trump’s immigration policies and wall funding makes it blatantly clear that our court system has become so politicized that justice is now almost totally relative and not based upon legislative intent. Mostly liberal judges ... and even some Supreme Court justices ... feel that they can make executive decisions on how immigrants are housed, processed and transported ... independent of the clear text of our laws.

Just recently a Ninth Circuit judge has enjoined the White House from enforcing previous immigration law that explicitly states that asylum-seeking  migrants must apply for asylum in the first country they enter after leaving their “oppressive” homelands. Trump has decided to follow this law and deny asylum to any Central Amman migrants who first didn’t apply for refuge in Mexico. That is what the law says ... but, to a liberal judge, this makes no difference ... and Trump has been so enjoined ... see: Politico Article.

Like many other Ninth Circus decisions, this one will likely be overturned in the appeal process. But these judges apparently don’t really care for their legal legacy. Because they have once again thwarted Trump and delayed his agenda ... and that is what is important. Just us in San Francisco!

Fractured Definition

Apropos — a non-amateur athlete who is a “piece of fecal matter”

Tete-a-Tete

From reddit Pics

“And then we’ll have some tea and cookies ...”

Headlines

Air Force crew made an odd stop on a a routine trip: Trump’s Scottish resort

Trump’s recession toolkit could include tax cuts and infrastructure spending

[Mick] Jagger blasts Trump for bad manners, lies ...

Joe Biden promises environmentalist: ‘Were hoping to end fossil fuels’

Boris Johnson warned he could be jailed if he refuses to delay Brexit

Top MIT official resigns over financial connections to Jeffery Epstein

NC: They survived Dorian but wonder how many more hurricanes they can withstand ...

Europe will not accept U.S. ruling on Boeing 737 Max safety

Iran now using advanced centrifuges, violating nuclear deal

Bill Gates is funding chemical clouds to help stop global warming

Texas Republicans sound alarm about rapidly-evolving state ...

Progress: Kamala agrees with voter who sez Trump ‘retarded’ ... ‘Well said’

Uncle Remus

Silly accusations of racism has driven one of the most charming movies of all times underground ... (now not available in the US) “The Song of theSouth” from the Walt Disney Studios ... before it became an ultra-PC bunch of wimps. Play the above vignette to get a taste of how beguiling this film really was ... with Uncle Remus and Br’er Rabbit ... and how it championed black culture and clearly did not derided it.

All we are allowed to taste of the black experience today is the hard edge of Gangsta Rap, Colin Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter. How very sad.

Quite Cheeky

To stay with my look-back to previous comic greats, I today offer a classic risqué ski from Benny Hill ... not something that the BBC would cotton to today. But back then it was quite cheeky.

Bad Sushi

When a sushi chef from Zimbabwe

Served some bad fish to Mugabe

On top of this strife

He then lost his life

And was eaten instead with wasabi

Fractured Definition

Bamboozled — a toboggan made from a giant woody grass that grows in the tropics

One of Life’s Mysteries

How come potential Earth-shattering world news can go unreported while some US celeb’s dalliances can make front-page headlines across the land?

Headlines

Can the F-Bomb save Beto?

The disappointing jobs report would have been much worse without newly-hired Census workers

Record 157:878,000 employed ...

Biden struggles to explain plan for tackling China on climate change

Dems demand info on Trump allegedly steering government spending to his resorts

Trump’s move to put military money toward border wall could hurt GOP senators

Black unemployment lowest level recorded ...

Major League Soccer declares Betsy Ross flag a ‘symbol of hate’

Facebook joins Google as target of states’ antitrust probes

Hurricane Dorian caused $1.5 billion to $3 billion worth of damage in the Caribbean

FALL PREVIEW: Pressure grows on Biden to release health records ...

U.S. jobs report: 130,000 jobs created in August, wages up 3.2%

Fractured Definition

Graham-cracker — an evangelist who had benefitted from white privileged

Things Disappear

There are a number of things that are disappearing from our social landscape ... some good, some bad:

- Cash transactions

- Truant officers (*)

- Land-line phones

- Christianity (*)

- Personal privacy (*)

- Aptitude tests (*)

- Civility (*)

- Nuclear power plants (*)

- TV sitcoms

- Big families (*)

- Cigarette smoking

- Logical thinking (*)

- Many chronic diseases

- Smog and other air pollutants

However, it would be nice if a few of these negatives (*) were reversed or replaced with positives ...

A Suggestion

If, as the liberal drums are beating, we are to get rid of our Electoral College in national elections, why don’t we also then eliminate all early-state primaries and caucuses in selecting each political parity’s presidential candidate? Oh hell, even better, let California by itself select the candidates ... and then the eventual winners?

Virtue Signaling

Our Constitution was a dike against tyranny

See: USA Today Article.

Is it only a matter of time before vegans force Walmart and other woke companies from selling meat? Or fundamental Christians forcing Amazon and other book sellers from offering the Koran? Or Hollywood liberals to blacklist Trump voters?

Where is our Hans Brinker?

Powerline Pic

Scary!

Headlines

Schumer says addressing gun violence will be top Dem priority this fall

Reliable China insiders hint that this round of trade talks could lead to a breakthrough

Bernie: Population control to save climate

Pete Buttigieg admits no combat ribbon from Afghanistan

Democrats seize on climate as 2020 priority weapon

Cramer: US economic strength empowers Trump to continue to play hardball on China trade

Survey: USA 47th best place to live in the world ...

Winning: ADP and Moody’s estimate jobs blowout

Greg Craig found not guilty in Ukraine lobbying case

Private payroll growth well above Wall Street estimates despite recession fears

Feds line up another quarter point cut ...

Boris Johnson’s brother quits Parliament, gov’t

Which Is Worse?

San Francisco Poop Map

A few million  plastic straws in a dirt-covered San Bruno landfill or a ton of human feces and used hypodermic needles littering the streets of San Francisco?

Save Us!

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio

Politicians’ ability to talk a good game is too often inversely proportional to their performance in office. A case in point:

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City went on Tucker Carlson’s show last night to try to resurrect his presidential campaign by warning of how so many people will be thrown out of work by the growth of automation. Like a typical politician, de Blasio had only tepid suggestions on how to counteract this trope. And he had no real answer when Tucker asked, if so many jobs are soon going to disappear, why we are letting so many low-skilled workers enter our country illegally every year?

Now, calling de Blasio an idiot is easy, but somehow experience tells us that this constructed panic over robots taking our jobs is not the lesson we should be taking from history. Robots have been around for 65 years, yet despite this, we have foolishly exported millions of jobs to Mexico and China. Still, the United States unemployment is near the lowest in history ... 3.7%. And this low rate would be even lower if Trump could persuade US manufacturers to return home.

Precisely what will occur to take up the possible employment slack due to automation I can’t exactly predict. But I am fairly certain that accommodations will occur — work week changes, work day duration reductions, more people working from home, service expectation changes. e.g.s, package delivery services, Uber, better healthcare services, leisure-time services, Grubhub, etc,) ... all of which improve our quality of life ... while providing jobs.

So, Mayor de Blasio, I  doubt that your hail-Mary pass will save your campaign and your attempt to ruin the United States like you are ruining the Big Apple.

reddit Pic

The beautiful Budapest Parliament building on a calm Danube morning. (The inside is equally impressive.)

Headlines

Unlike U.S., Canada plans coordinated attack on foreign election interference

Alan Greenspan says it’s ‘only a matter of time’ until negative rates spread to the US ...

Social credit score to determine who can buy guns?

Obama, Biden briefed on private Trump meeting fed to FBI by Comey

Google’s YouTube hit with $120m fine over children’s privacy

Trump rolls back regulations on energy-saving light bulbs ...

Marianne Williamson: ‘I didn’t think the left was so mean’ ...

Iran offers to honor nuclear deal in return for $15 billion

Hong Kong formally withdraws controversial bill after weeks of unrest

‘Hundreds of other people could be implicated’ in Jeffery Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell court documents

[Bahamas] Island 70% underwater ...

Swedish king concerned over spate of explosions and shootings

Fractured Definition

Adulteration — a MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) for a mature military member

A View

From daily timewaster blog

Of a lifetime ...

How Dems Can Win

Uncle Joe Biden has explained why he wants to be president — so Trump isn’t ... hardly a winning strategy. The other Democrats are falling all over each other to give away taxpayer money by the boatload ... which would sink us far further into debt ...  from which we likely could not possibly recover ... doubling down on globalism, open borders, free college, free healthcare ... even for illegal aliens, a wealth tax, capitulation to China and the EU on trade, $1,000 per month to everyone, and on and on. None of these generous voter bribes ultimately are winning strategies.

But I think I do know what might work to defeat Trump at the polls. To win, one personable Democrat need only do the following:

- Forget all the giveaways. Agree to carry on with every policy and action that Trump has taken so far ... on trade, on tax cuts, on rebuilding our military, on regulation reductions, on avoiding foreign entanglements, on Israel, on asking our allies to step up to their responsibilities, on North Korea, on immigration reform, on global warming, on restoring US manufacturing, on Iran, etc. ... on everything Trump stands for.

- Sand off most of Trump’s annoying rough edges ... his insults, his womanizing, much of his Tweeting, his braggadocios, his exaggerations (aka,”lies”), his combative personality ... but keep his patriotism. And then better communicate to the American people ... like a statesman and not a TV reality-show personality.

Do all this, male or female Dem candidate, and and you can’t lose ... in fact, you might win all 50 states.

Fever-Ridden?

We’re not warming folks ... we’re actually slightly cooling. When the effects of urban “heat islands” has been removed from NOAA’s measurements, the new data show that, since 2005, the United States-has actually gotten slightly cooler ... see: Commentary Magazine Comments.

If one accepts the fact that CO2 is the bogeyman, then this may be because of our continuing conversion from coal-powered electricity production to natural gas instead ... or maybe even due to some of the wind and solar stuff. But, for whatever reason, do not believe all those banner headlines ... they’re just scare-mongering.

The best data available now says that, at least here in America, we do not “have a fever.”

Obvious Truth

When governments think they know better and meddle with free (and not dishonest) markets, their citizenry almost always suffer ... sometimes catastrophically. Too bad that Socialist boneheads such as AOC, Bernie Sanders and many Democrat candidates have not learned this obvious truth.

Headlines

It’s now Biden, Warren, Sanders — and everyone else

Hurricane Dorian weakens to a Category 2 as it heads toward Florida coast

Paglia argues students socially undeveloped, know little about Western history ...

Pope Francis calls for ‘drastic measures’ to combat climate emergency

Walmart to stop selling handgun ammunition

Former Defense Secretary Mattis says he’ll ‘speak out’ about Trump policies when time’s right

Overseas investors unloading U.S. real estate ...

At least 41 shot, 7 fatally over Labor Day weekend in Chicago

Joe Manchin skips run for [WV] governor

Auto union workers overwhelmingly vote to authorize strikes at GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler

How secret Dutch mole aided Stuxnet cyberattack [in Iran] ...

Hyperhype China: Musk gets tax break from Beijing

Name Game

Ever since Bill Clinton won the presidency over George H.W. Bush, the candidates with the fewer letters in their last name generally have won at the polls — Bush over Gore (tie), Bush over Kerry, Obama over McCain, Obama over Romney and, finally, Trump over Clinton.

Before that ... there were a few modern exceptions to this rule ... Carter over Ford, Eisenhower over Stevenson, Kennedy over Nixon and Raegan over Carter ... all of which can be explained away due to extenuating circumstances.

If this loopy trend holds, the only Democrat who has a chance against a Trump second term is (promising $1,000 per month per US resident) Yang ... while Biden ties. All the other possible Dem opponents ... Warren, Buttigieg, Harris, Sanders, Booker, Klobuchar, O’Rourke and Castro would suck wind.

Quotable Quote

Spending one’s money foolishly is either a symptom of immaturity or of over-ripening. — Anon.

Obvious Truth

The American people have a certain tolerance for hanky-panky and misfeasance in our politicians ... just as long as such politicians first love our country and strive to do their very best for us.

Headlines

Iran admits its rocket blew up

Hurricane Dorian ‘nearly stationary’ as it pounds northern Bahamas

DeSantis: [Dorian] ‘perilously close’ to FL ...

Exclusive — Devin Nunes: ‘Evidence is there’ for U.S. Attorney to file criminal conspiracy charges against James Comey

Boris Johnson says he won’t ask for a Brexit extension

China lodges a tariff case against the US at the WTO

Texas killer called police before mass shooting began ... Was fired from job ...

Devin Nunes warns Americans against ‘tech oligarhs’ censorship

London mayor mocks Trump for dealing with the hurricane ‘out on the golf course’

Britain prepares for showdown as opposition lawmakers try to stop no-deal Brexit

Trump Labor Day Rasmussen [poll]: 45% ...

Comey: Trump too narcissistic to focus on mass shootings, hurricanes

Quotable Quote

At some point growing old means beginning to forget all the wisdom one had acquired with aging. — Anon.

Lipstick

When, back in the 1940s, a young woman was asked why she always wore lipstick to bed; she replied, “Because I might dream of Clark Gable.”

Obvious Truth

Only grifters, gangsters and governments can spend money that they don’t  have. — Anon.

Ilhan Omar

From daily timewaster blog

The religion of piece ...

Headlines

Hurricane pounds Bahamas with record fury

President Trump ordered US firms to ditch China, but many already have and more are on the way

Mandatory evacuations ordered for Palm Beach, including Mar-a-Largo ...

GOP Sen, Scott criticizes Trump’s Puerto Rico tweets

German far right surges in eastern elections

Death toll rises to 7 in West Texas shooting rampage

Hezbollah fires anti-tank missiles toward northern Israel ...

Report: Terminated alleged West Wing leaker trashed Ivanka, Tiffany

Hong Kong burns during another weekend of violence

Trump says trade talks still planned for September after China tariffs take effect

Bernie plans to cancel all medical debt!

Study: No single ‘gay gene’

reddit Pic

Ironic, no?

Poll Dancer

A men’s club in Nantes, France is featuring a robot poll dancer ... see: Daily Mail Article for story and a brief video.

The question then poses itself: What do these female bots take off? A circuit board? Some wiring? And do entering patrons get a complementary screw driver and a wrench? And how do they entice these automatons into sexier moves? With some Bitcoins?

Fractured Definition

Cockatoo — what a younger rooster crows as an echo to an older rooster’s welcoming the dawn

Headlines

Hong Kong burns during another weekend of violence

At least 5 dead and 21 injured in shootings near Odessa, Midland, Texas — suspect killed

JACKED: Twitter founder account ‘compromised’ ...

DNC embraces ‘religiously unaffiliated,’ belittles Americans of faith

Protesters take to streets in U.K. over parliament suspension

Trump’s tariffs on $112 billion of Chinese imports hit at midnight

Trump 2020 danger if Dem scores upset in NCarolina special election

Many Sanders supporters not enthralled by ‘angry Bernie’

North Korea berates Pompeo, says hopes for talks fading

Hurricane Dorian threatens Georgia, Carolinas; Florida still on alert

Iran taunts Trump with selfie over rocket explosion tweet ...

Report: Campaigns ramping up opposition research on Elizabeth Warren

reddit Pic

Ride ‘im cowboy! 

Just Rewards

From Powerline blog

The second time she was really proud of her country ...

The Solution

The latest mass shooting in Midland and Odessa, Texas pulls the fresh scab off of the issue of guns and what needs to be done to stop such insanity. There are many sure-fie solutions (intended pun) that are proposed: complete background checks, limiting ammunition clips, banning “assault” rifles, restricting violent computer games, “red flag” laws, social media screenings, more “open carry” laws, compulsory gun buybacks, even repealing the Second Amendment ...some of these suggestions having already been tried and failed ... or been politically unpalatable. Most every politician has a “simple solution.”

But there is only one possible simple solution to this social scourge — and that is there is no simple solution. Unfortunately, like many manias of past times, this one will likely only go away with time. At some point ... possibly years hence ... we will look back and realize that these mass shootings have gone away. Why this has happened we will only learn by understanding how our society had evolved in the interim. I will not suggest what this will be ... because I do not know what it will be ... nor do you.

My only hope is that this solution is a change in our society and not an infringement of our freedoms.

Oops!

I’ve told my wife that, before they put me in the oven, to hold a mirror up to my nose and mouth ...

Headlines

Google to pay up to $200 million to settle FTC YouTube investigation

Companies may be terrified of tariff, but consumers clearly aren’t

GOOGLE says hackers have put monitoring implants in iPhones!

Joe Biden on migrant detention centers: ‘Close them down!’

Prosecutors call for Flynn’s sentencing amid impasse with defense attorneys

‘Absolute monster’: Hurricane Dorian gains strength as Florida braces for direct hit

Consumer sentiment lowest of Trump presidency ...

Sen. Pat Toomey: Odds of passing gun control better than ever

Trump’s executive assistant resigns from White House

ACLU asks Supreme Court to ease precedent that establishes ‘second class’ status for Puerto Rico

WEEKEND: Hong Kong police warn of more arrests  after sweep of activists ...

Canada Fmr PM: ‘Rooting’ for Dorian to hit Mar-a-Largo