Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Covfefe


Some time 'round midnight last night, President Trump tweeted out:

"Despite the constant negative press covfefe"

This tweet has the Internet atwitter trying to figure out what was meant by "covfefe" ... see: Complex Story.

My guess is that Trump fell asleep before he could finish typing this tweet and didn't delete it until he woke up later and realized his gaff. But what was he in the middle of saying about the media? To me it was obviously:

"Despite all the constant negative press coverage ..."

But what would have come next?

My guess: "I am getting many beautiful things done."

However, the media would prefer to extrapolate:

"They still haven't discovered my financial and political collusions with Russia."

No?

Headlines


These headlines have all been found on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Trump: Senate should use nuke option to pass health care and tax cuts

Report: 5K+ non-citizens registered to vote in Virginia

Google, Facebook very upset they may no longer sell your Internet data without permission

Putin: Don't invent imaginary Russian threats

Joy Behar: Trump doesn't care about his grandchildren

Krauthammer: 'The Russians are leaking' on Kushner

2020 vision: Hillary wears seizure glasses at parade ...

Laser weapons edge closer to battlefield use ...

Trump: Our relationship with Germany very bad for U.S.

Billionaire space mogul absolutely convince aliens on Earth

Chicago see 52 people shot in violent holiday weekend

NOT FUNNY: Kathy Griffin 'beheads' Trump [effegy]

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Headlines


All these headlines have been collected from Internetnews sites. Can you guess which ones came from Politico?

Trump in tweet: Portland attack 'unacceptable'

Leftist media outlet attacks Matines on Memorial Day for 'toxic masculinity'

Macron and Putin agree on restart of Ukraine talks

NYT: Talaban killing Islamic scholars to silence criticism

Goldman Sachs lowers forecast for oil prices in 2017

Silicon Valley elites continue to push for Universal Basic Income

Exclusive: Trump set to roll back Obama's Cuba policies

Trump's budget plan lands with a thud in Middle America

 McCain says Russia bigger threat than ISIS

Venezuelan opposition accuses Goldman Sachs of financing dictatorship

Memorial weekend [movie] boxoffice falls to lowest in 19 years ...

NOAA: Above normal Atlantic hurricane season is most likely this year

Calling Al Gore


Just looked on the Accuweather site ... here outside of Boston, we aren't projected to have any 80 degree F days until the very end of June (with mostly high 50's and low 60's nights). And no 90 degree F days expected at all through the end of August.

Which leads me to an important climate question, How the hell can anyone take the temperature of the entire planet Earth accurately at one moment in time ... without a huge and cumulative margin of measurement error? A margin of error likely much larger than any estimated warming or cooling change? Or is this statistic even a valid scientific construct? Like asking, how deep is the ocean?

Collusion Illusion


The Democrat party is colluding with a sympathetic national media to suggest that Donald Trump and his campaign operatives were somehow colluding with Russia to steal the presidential election last November ... or to some other unspecified nefarious end. One of these collisions ... the Democrat/media one or the Trump one ... is an illusion.

Can you guess which one?

Headlines


These headlines are real. They have been found on many Internet new sites. Guess which ones came from Politico.

Trump's obsession over Russia probe deepens

ISIS uses women to fight on front lines after suffering heavy losses

Shia vs. Sunni: The schism Western politicians don't understand and won't discuss

Maxine Waters: American public 'getting weary' Trump not impeached yet

FBI allegedly warned UK authorities about Manchester bomber

Graham: Comey should be 'held accountable'

Inside Obama's secret outreach to Russia

Rolling Thunder: Almost 1 million bikers in D.C. to honor POW, MIA

8th graders refuse to take picture with Paul Ryan ...

Booker: 'I'm not going to rush to impeachment'

Saudi journalist: Palestinian authorities need to stop blaming everyone and make peace with Israel

Hollywood has remade nearly every hit 80's movie

Monday, May 29, 2017

Suggestion Box



A few things that could make our screwed-up world a might sight better:

- All the ransoms that need to be paid to unlock Windows computers locked by ransomware should be paid by ... Bill Gates.

- To save the planet, soft drink makers should replace their CO2 bubbles with nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

- President Macron of France (39) should honor his 64 year-old wife as "Cougar of the Year".

- To get rid of her persistant cough, Hillary Clinton should stop drinking so much chardonnay.

- If the US can hack North Korea's missile launches, we should direct the next one back onto Kim Jong Un's viewing site.

- Celebrities who are famous for being famous should be boycotted by the media

- Trump should fess up about his Russia collusion: 'Yes, I was hoping to get them to help us in our war against jihadism ...'

- Julian Assange should be given the US Medal of Freedom ... then placed in front of a firing squad.

- Student tuition loans, in the US and Britain, should only be paid directly to the colleges and not to the students.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Nostalgia


Nostalgia -- An arcane word that is used to evoke one's salad days

Horn & Hardart -- An early attempt to automate the ordering process in the food service industry

Fletcher's Castoria -- A childhood laxative that tasted just like rootbeer

Answering machines -- "Please leave a message ... beep!"

Shoe x-ray -- A machine in front of most shoe stores where kids could see their toes inside their shoes

Cap guns and water pistols -- Gun toys, mostly for boys, that "killed" imaginary injuns and soaked pesky girls

Carnival sideshows -- Bearded ladies, geeks, hoochy koochy girls, human pincushions and sword swallowers

Steel roller skates -- Skate boards and in-line skates have generally supplanted old-fashioned steel roller skates

Dad's Old Fashioner Root Beer -- I seem to remember Mom's and ever Junior's versions too

Land-line telephones -- I still have one (non-cordless) for when the power goes out

3 cent postage stamp -- The cost of first-class postage for many years

Brooklyn Dodgers -- Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Carl Farillo, PeeWee Reese, Duke Snider, Don Newcombe

Gum-ball machines -- If your penny produced a speckled gum ball, you got a nickel

Sears Roebuck catalogue -- Toilet paper adorned with bra and girdle ads

Toonerville Trolley -- Bucolic wisdom offered up weekly in the Sunday "funny papers"

City chicken -- Ground veal formed around a Popsicle stick and fried to look like a chicken leg (back when veal was cheaper than chicken)

Lash LaRue -- An oater (western B-movie) hero who used a whip more often than his six-shooter

Single-gender restrooms -- Old fashioned modesty

Single Payer Healthcare


Ex-president (I love saying that) Obama's and most Democrat's stated objective with Obamacare was to push this country's healthcare system toward a single-payer one ... much like in the United Kingdom, Canada and the EU. Many Americans gut instinct is to resist this tilt toward Socialism. However, the sinister design of Obamacare makes reversing this track very difficult ... as we are now seeing. For the moment, let us suppose that the Bernie Sanders liberals get their way and America is forced into a single-payer system. What would likely be the consequences of such a development? Let me offer a few:

- The healthcare insurance industry will be devastated. However, it won't disappear. Most countries that have single-payer systems also have private insurance or concierge medical options for those who can afford it to supplement the government-run operations. This is to get faster and higher quality treatment for society's elite. So instead of being progressive, single-payer healthcare is often quite regressive.

- Single-payer healthcare means that the government not only pays for most healthcare ... but it also manages the means of delivery ... with the resulting decline in quality and the increase in treatment delays (witness the VA). Often bureaucrats are making treatment decisions instead of an interplay between doctors and patients. There is good reason why healthcare in the United States costs more than anywhere else. It is of much higher quality. And that is why many from around the world flock to our medical centers when their lives are on the line.

- Single-payer healthcare means that the government will negotiate down drug costs. This will, by definition, reduce the profitability of the pharmaceutical companies and put the squeeze on their research spending. This of course means fewer and slower drug innovations.

- It is quite likely that a single-payer system will make becoming a doctor, nurse, etc. a less lucrative profession ... meaning fewer of our best and brightest will pursue these jobs in the future ... and more existing ones will be retiring early. This is likely to cause stress in the provider community.

- Another reason for high healthcare costs in the United States is the insertion of the insurance company middlemen between the patient and the doctor. Single payer healthcare doesn't eliminate this middleman. It just substitutes the public sector for the private sector ... and when in history has this worked out to be more economically efficient?

- Single-payer healthcare will likely be the grease to propel the United States away from our tradition of individual energy and independence ... toward a more Venezuela-type Socialism. Not a happy consequence for our rosy future.

Can the Republicans in the Senate rescue our healthcare system from the sad fates outlined above? Only if patriotism overcomes politics ... and when was the last time that happened?


Headlines



All these headlines were found on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Report: Kushner tried to set up secret communication with Kremlin

Russian scandal casts a uncertainty over Kushner's future role

Flashback -- Report: Obama campaign opened back channel communication with Iran

Pentagon plans ICBM intercept test ...

Rex Tillerson declines to host Ramadan celebration at State Department

USAA yanks ads from Rachael Maddow show

Reports: At least three  anti-Trump leakers identified, expected to be fired soon

Mattis: Trump is 'wide open' on Paris climate deal

D.C. Sniper has life sentence overturned

Clinton launches new campaign against Trump

Trump tells confidant he's pulling out of Paris climate agreement

Not 3,000, but 23,000 jihadists in Britain

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Twitte Hashtag Recap



From the Powerline Blog ...

It Figures ...


How did the Manchester, England bomber, Salman Abedt, fund his bomb making and travels to Libya and Syria for jahadi training? Why, for one, by using British government student loans for classes he never attended. Easy peasy. In two years, this Muslim terrorist was lent over 14,000 pounds (about $18,000) from the British government for university studies with no follow-up as to whether he was actually attending class ... See: Powerline Blog. He also was apparently on the government welfare dole ... housing (he actually had three flats), food and all the other generous benefits offered to British deadbeats.

It figures ... How many other British (and American) children killers are also funding their mischief with government funds?

Headlines


These headlines have all been found on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico.

Visas to Muslim-majority countries down 20 percent

DNC hacker emailed Dem voter turnouts to COP consultant

POTUS: 'The Germans are bad, very bad on trade'

Ninth man arrested in connection to Manchester bombing

ICE cracks 'sanctuary' California: arrests nearly 200

Trump budget requires work for food stamps

Boehner: 'Tax reform just a bunch of happy talk" ...

Scarborough: 'Trump an ugly American'

Unions blast Harley Davidson for overseas production plans

DHS chief: You'd 'never leave house' with my terror info ...

Ramadan rage, day 1: 26 Coptic Christians massacred in Egypt

Michael Steele on Zuckerberg's universal income idea: 'Why doesn't he start it'

Friday, May 26, 2017

The 2% Solution


Yesterday, President Donald Trump chastised the many members of the NATO alliance for not living up to their commitment to spend 2% of their GNP n defense. Of NATO's 28 members only Great Britain, Estonia, Greece, Poland and the United States are meeting or exceeding this commitment. For decades the other 23 countries, including France and Germany, have shirked this commitment without recourse ... relying on the United States to pick up the slack. And when Trump reminded those slackers of their deficiencies, the representative from Luxembourg turned the Macron, the President of France, with a hand-covered snide remark and a snicker ... see: Fox News Video. To me, this is the height of sophomoric haughtiness. Perhaps Trump will find a way to remind this Euro-jerk of America's part in the history of  20th Century Europe.

And I have a prediction ... yes, some of these countries now in default (I'm thinking France and Germany) will find a way of meeting this NATO treaty obligation ... but do it with accounting tricks and not with genuine military buildups. Wait and see.

A Good Leaving Alone


In their zeal to keep alive the story about Trump-Russia "collusion", the national media has somehow overlooked a major security breach centered around the Democrats in Congress. It seems five members of the Awan family from Pakistan have been implicated in compromising sensitive information stored on Congressional computers and absconding with actual hardware. These Awans were all IT employees of Democrat Representatives (including Debbie Wasserman Schwartz) who were all earning around $150,000 per year for, as it turns out, part-time efforts ... while they also were running a car dealership. In February they were outed by the Capitol police for suspicious data security breaches and even theft ... and at least one has now fled back to the protection of the Pakistan authorities ... see: Daily Caller Article.

Have we seen or read about this serious security breach of sensitive legislative data in the major national media outlets? No? Instead, they have been giving this embarrassment a good leaving alone. I guess there has not been the space nor the time for such trivialities when the much more important story presents itself of how Donald Trump has been sexually servicing Vladimir Putin.

Headlines


These headlines have all been found on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Obama [from behind a wall] in Berlin: 'We can't hide behind a wall'

Friends, neighbors, relatives reported UK bomber 5X in 5 years ... no action [taken]

UK stops sharing intel about Manchester attack with US after leaks

Romney in serious run for Senate ...

Middle Eastern brothers in MN found with bomb-making materials ...

Iran builds third underground ballistic missile facility ...

Brit police stop sharing [Manchester] attack details with USA

GOP leaders play it safe as Trump scandals grow

CBO report: AHCA drops number of insured by 23 million by 2026

Major insurance carrier ditches Obamacare in Kansas City

[Gov. Jerry] Brown: Trump will come around on climate change

Drug counselors overdose at addiction facility

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Headlines


The following headlines have all been found on Internet news sites. Guess which ones have come from Politico.

Breaking news: Police have arrested three more in connection to Manchester bombing

Trump's hazy views confuse allies ahead of summit...

Former CIA chief testimony: Still no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion

If you bought $100 in Bitcoin 7 years ago, you'd be sitting on $75 million today

Poll: Voters back Russia special prosecutor

DeBlasio on Trump budget: 'Children will die'

White House is very pleased with testimony of [Obama's] intelligence officials

Trump's budget: Long on wishful thinking, short on shared sacrifice

Podesta: 'I see no sign' Trump will be impeached

Dem Sen: Trump's rhetoric could lead to U.S. attack like Manchester

Trump praises Duterte for 'unbelievable job' of stopping drugs in the Philippines

Big game hunter dies when elephant collapses on top of him

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Brennan: Russia may have successfully recruited Trump campaign aides

'El Chapo' case judge executed outside his home ...

Rubio: Trump's problems would deepen if he asked intel chiefs to deny Russian ties

Escalating probes rattle Trump and his aides

Democrats believe that they can take the House in 2018

Cost of universal health care in California -- bigger than state's budget

Google AI beats Chinese master at ancient game of GO ...

McCain: Trump's budget is dead on arrival

Christie: 'I warned Trump about Flynn'

Poll: Trump approval 46% ...

Nobel winner Robert Schiller: Stay in market because it 'could go up 50% from here'

CNN analyst proposes Manchester bombing was a 'false flag'

Where's the Beef?


The FBI has been investigating Russian hacking of the Democrats since last July and this story morphed into Trump-Russia "collusion" after Hillary lost her shoe-in election in November. Now there are at least three venues for investigating this trumped-up conspiracy theory that somehow the Trump organization has colluded with Russia to do something bad. Exactly what this bad thing is is not quite clear. But nevertheless Trump is covering up this investigation and obstructing justice which proves that he is clearly guilty of something. And Michael Flynn, Obama's former National Security Advisor, somehow ingratiated himself into this same post with Trump before being found to be of questionable moral standing ... and was booted out. But the media is sure that he was a dastardly Trump operative in the "Russian connection."

There is but one small problem with this narrative ... after all this time there has yet to surface one solid fact that supports this frenetic innuendo ... nothing. Nothing in writing. Nothing on tape. No incriminating wiretap intercepts. No testimony by Obama's former intelligence operatives that categorically state that Trump or his campaign staff was is any way "colluding" with Russia to do anything illegal or immoral. Nothing. Yet Trump has been covering up this nothingness. And he has been dismissing this nothingness as nothingness ... and this must mean he has something to hide. What it is we don't know. But all this scandalous behavior will be revealed after the Democrats have retaken the House in 2018 ... "we promise" ... Just be patient Americans. Where there is smoke, there will be lots more smoke.

Unfortunately for the reputation of the Democrats and the national media, at some point we, the unwashed, are going to ask, "Where's the beef?" And, if there is none, Trump's cover-up evaporates as just an expression of his frustration at these roadblocks to moving his legislative agenda ... the agenda he promised the American people. And the agenda that the Democrats and the national media would rather stifle with lots of Russian conspiracy theory distractions ... so far somewhat successfully.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Rethinking History


As an idealistic, dewy-eyed young man, I was appalled by the Watergate scandal. As a result, I wore an American flag pin upside down  on my lapel and felt vindicated when President Nixon gave that theatrical wave as he entered the helicopter leaving the White House after resigning. The good guys had won ... and the "idealistic" media had saved our nation from scum the likes of Tricky Dick.

With all that is happening now, I am beginning to rethink my condemnation of Richard Nixon ... and realize that the media are not always acting out of idealism. The Watergate "plumbers" were, after all, just trying to find in the DNC the source of all the leaks emanating from the Nixon White House. Yes, this was an illegal act ... but so was this Democrat leaking.  The Left and the main stream media have an appalling well-honed knack of making a sow's ear out of a silk purse ... and they're at it again.  ... trying to take down Donald Trump. Maybe this time the American people will understand what is really going on behind that newsprint curtain ...

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Leftists bemoan 'Islamohobia backlash'

Trump condemns Manchester terrorists as 'evil losers'

Trumps' budget hits his own voters hardest

Polish leader: Germany created migrant crisis and Germany should pay consequences

Goldman [Sachs] warns of oil glut amid optimism over OPEC cut extensions

Michael Flynn to invoke the Fifth [Amendment]

Frustrated Republicans try to rewrite Congress' rules

3,500 suspected terrorists in UK ...

Hugo Chavez's childhood home burned by [Venezuelan] protesters ...

Trump extends legal protections for 59,000 Haitians in the U..S.

President Trump seeks $3.6 trillion in spending cuts to reshape government ...

Turkey tests Trump's patience  protesters roughed up

Parity


As deliciously reported in the Washington Post recently, President Trump revealed some highly classified intelligence to Russian representatives last week at the White House ...  purportedly about a potential ISIS terrorist plot. It was later reported that this information had supposedly come from a now-compromised Israeli source. Now, for our current president to achieve top-secret-leakage parity with his former campaign rival, Hillary Clinton. he should need to duplicate this gaff about another 29,999 times.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

FBI agents in tears as news of Comey's firing spreads

Comey firing threatens Senate probe into Trump's Russia ties

Jim Comey started laughing when he saw that he'd been fired

Maddow tops cable news ...

LA declares public schools as 'sanctuaries' ...

Oregon on track to have no gender on drivers licenses ...

Mexico 2nd deadliest country, tops Afghan, Iraq ...

Kim plans 6th nuke test ...

Breaking: Grand Jury subpoenas served for associates of Michael Flynn

Comey made false claim about Huma at congressional hearing

Obama, Clapper misled public about extent of NSA unmasking

NGO: Cuba doubled political prisoners in one year

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Comey, I Shrunk the Fibs


FBI Director James Comey reopened Hillary Clinton's email investigation last October because of  "hundreds of thousands" of Hillary's emails that had just been found on her aide's Huma Abedin's husband, Anthony Weiner's computer, This staggering number of emails then needed to be viewed to determine if national secrets had been compromised. Next, within a matter of a few days, Comey disclosed that this Weiner email investigation had been completed and there was no reason to reverse his July conclusions that Hillary should not be indicted. Everyone scratched their heads ... wondering how this massive effort could have be completed so quickly.

Last week Comey testified under oath at the Senate Intelligence Committee and said that this number of emails on Weiner's computer was now "hundreds and thousands" -- a considerable drop from his previous number. And finally, yesterday, before his firing, Comey had sent a letter to this same Senate committee correcting his earlier testimony ... saying this number  was down to a "handful" of emails ... another precipitous drop ... see: Breitbart Article.

Now one would assume that Director Comey knows basic arithmetic and has a competent staff which could help him keep his numbers straight. But no, it took to the morning of the day of his firing by President Trump to get his fibs finally straight.

I wonder if this series of shrunk email estimates in such a critically important matter had anything to do with Comey losing his job?

Afterward: For all the gossip on the Comey firing see: NY Times Article.

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Tunnel collapses at WA nuclear [waste] site ...

Who has Trump's ear? Often rich, white Republican men.

U.N. attacks Poland for anti-abortion laws

Jerad Kushner, Justin Trudeau team up to save NAFTA

Ryan predicts Senate will pass Obamacare reform 'in a month or two'

Abbas says willing to meet with Israel PM as part of Trump peace effort

$3M for [Obama] speech [in Milan]

O[bama] warns world: meat consumption destroying climate

Erdogan urges Muslims to flood Jerusalem ...

Christie says he didn't see 'red flags' with Michael Flynn

Left wing Dems pressed for overwhelmingly white staffs

[MA] Judge throws out Aaron Hernandez murder conviction ...

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

The DMV Solution?


Oracles are in a quandary about the projected effect of automation on future employment levels. One dire prediction concludes that 50% of all current jobs will disappear. It has become an accepted theme that robots and AI are going to create massive unemployment around the world resulting in social dislocations and disruption. One obvious answer is what I will call the DMV solution. When you go to the Department of Motor Vehicles for a driver's license, you wait in one line to get a form, then in another to  submit it, then in another possibly for a photograph, then in another to take an eye test, then in another possibly to take a written test, and finally go to someone else to take a road test.

This means that it takes six (or more) DMV employees to serve just one function, getting your license ... and there are many other functions of this agency ... a formula for full employment at the DMV. Yes, the DMV is a government agency and government agencies are notorious for make-work jobs for the relatives of politicians. And as distasteful as this process is, it is a fact of life.

I suspect that, if robots and AI are going to deplete the number of current productive jobs, that the world will eventually move toward a DMV-like world. All kinds of new service jobs will pop up.... like today's personal trainers and dog walkers ... that will help compensate for the jobs lost to automation. I don't think we will turn off our A/Cs and have Nubian boys fanning us, but there will be lots of new job categories created to fill the voids. But, of course, the really good jobs will be the robot builders and repairers.

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

One third of French voters either spoiled ballots or abstained

NKorea detains another American citizen ... 'hostage diplomacy' ...

Chicagoland: 2 dead, 8 wounded in shooting  at memorial for previous slaying ...

McCain hammers Tillerson in NYT op-ed

Putin sends warships into NATO waters

Trump to Senators: Ask [Sally] Yates who leaked classified information

Harvard students to hold their own 'black-only' graduation ceremony

TV ads order smartphones to spy ...

Army Rangers kill Afghan ISIS head, 35 fighters -- but at a cost

Democrats launch blitz on Republicans who backed Obamacare repeal

San Francisco Chronicle admits some anti-Trump protesters are paid

Group [Judicial Watch] sues for Sally Yates Justice Department emails

20 More Questions


Why would any clear-thinking tourist travel to North Korea?

Do today's chefs' numerous tattoos make their food taste any better?

What were Barack Obama's SAT and LSAT scores?

What is the percentage of CO2 in our atmosphere?

Was the 2016 Russian hacking directed at the presidential election or rather to the Democrat party's nomination process?

How much was the United Airlines payoff to the screaming Kentucky doctor?

What has happened to Michelle Obama's White House vegetable garden?

Should a woman, who identifies as a man, have to pee into a urinal?

Will Elon Musk keep pulling off the impossible?

Does Planned Parenthood perform any mammograms in its many clinics?

How many dead children will result from the current remake of Obamacare?

Do Chicago black lives also matter?

In any alternative universe did Hillary win the presidency?

Why did the Obamaistas use the terms ISIL/Daesh instead of ISIS?

Will Keith Olbermann ever smile?

Where is John Kerry's wife, Theresa Heinz? Is she still alive and signing checks?

Will Venezuela's President Maduro win the next Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award?

What fast-food restaurant chain once used kangaroo meat in its hamburgers?

Should the comedy writers for SNL and Stephen Colbert still be getting paid?

Why do fools fall in love?

Monday, May 08, 2017

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Macron landslide, Youngest President ever

[Kentucky Derby] Roses for Always Dreaming

Kasich to House GOP: Replacement plan is 'inadiquate'

As oil slides, one technician has shocking prediction: Expect crude to hit $90

NYT columnist warns of intellectual hubris among climate scientists

Trumpcare blame: GOP to answer for problems with healthcare law

Activists urging Obamacare supporters to mail ashes of dead people to Congress

Bernie to California Dems: Please pass single-payer healthcare

85 year-old dies on Evetest in world record bid ...

Georgia special election smashes all-time spending record

Jonathan Gruber blames Obamacare failures on Donald Trump

Boko Haram terrorists release 82 Chibok girls

Sunday, May 07, 2017

reddit Gallery CDXVI

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Amethyst  Globe Geode

Cloud Guitar

Umbrella Street in Portugal

Just Perished on Everest

Cat Charmer

Saturday, May 06, 2017

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

FCC to investigate [Stephen] Colbert. ...

Obamacare repeal votes upends 2018 House races

Trump says 'no' to a global 'cap and trade' plan

Uber under investigation for law-enforcement evading software

Emory University to pay for 100% of undocumented student's financial aid

350 Islamic State fighters returning to UK pose terrorist threat

France bans extremely thin models ...

Report: Obama sought NSA intel on thousands of Americans, including Trump campaign

Court says new Benghazi emails must be released

Trump suggests that financing for historically black colleges may be unconstitional

House Oversight Panel to investigate Iran [nuclear] deal

20 year-old stabbed to death in 20th London stabbing in two weeks

Friday, May 05, 2017

Confusopolies


Scott Adams is right again ... nobody really understands all the ins and outs of Obamacare or Trumpcare ... "confusopolies" -- laws designed to confound voters with complexity ... see: Dilbert Blog. However, there are some Occam's razors that can cut through some of this complexity. Let me offer a few that I think clarifies things a mite:

- In 1980, healthcare costs consumed 10% of the US economy. Today, after over 36 years of "solutions" this sector has grown to almost 18% ... see:  Commonwealth Fund. So, none of these schemes, including Obamacare, has bent down the cost curve. And, it seems problematic that Trumpcare will succeed where other confusopolies have failed.

- One reason for such a large share of our GNP, that healthcare consumes, is the false notion that healthcare insurance (including Medicaid and Medicare) equals healthcare. For years every American, including immigrants ... legal and illegal ...have been guaranteed healthcare. When you insert a middleman between a patient and a doctor, you by definition increase costs. The bill of goods that liberals have sold to Americans is that everyone needs healthcare insurance (i.e., a middleman). Why? Since this is one major reason for our inflation in healthcare costs?

- Flash ... the liberals ultimate solution to this confusopoly, single-payer healthcare (i.e. socialized medicine), does not eliminate these insurance middlemen ... it just replaces them with government bureaucrats. When was the last time that government was more efficient and effective than private industry? Conservative Charles Krauthammer believes that, within 7 years years, we will be forced into having a single payer system ... the sotto voce goal of Obamacare. This will mean the ultimate distruction of what was once the world's  premier healthcare system.

- Another reason that U.S. healthcare costs are so high is that, because of the insertion of insurance companies between patients and doctors, free-market forces have disappeared. A patient who gets a knee replacement does not know (nor care) if it costs $2,000 or $20,000 ... and, in fact, seldom actually sees the ultimate bill? So, what do you think the cost turns out to be?

- To make matters even worse, liberals have sold Americans on the notion that, even without mandated healthcare insurance, people can wait until they are sick to buy such insurance ... or what has been known as "no denial for pre-existing conditions." This is like allowing you to buy home fire insurance just when the fire engines are on their way ... clearly fiscal insanity.

The real resolution for run-away healthcare costs, if the American people want a solution, would be disintermediation ... the elimination of the healthcare middlemen ... and the unleashing of free-market forces. Trumpcare takes baby steps in this direction. Will it, or its Senate remake, continue on this path? The 2018 midterm elections will be determinative. Let's hope Krauthammer is wrong for a change.

An easy way to tell whether the American consumer will be the winner when the Obamacare fix is finished ... watch to see if the stock prices of the healthcare insurers tank. If so, we win.

Headlines




These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Deep-pocketed health-care lobbies line up against Trump

Puerto Rico declares bankruptcy ...

Comey: Russia favored Trump because Putin 'hated' Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump: 'Not good' Susan Rice refuses to testify

Poll: Trump approval hits 49% ...

Hannity on Comey testimony: 'How stupid do they think we are?'

MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' hosts engaged

Colbert walks back 'crude' Trump-Putin joke

Trump to visit Israel, Vatican, Saudi Arabia on first foreign tripZ

Another man says Seattle mayor paid him for sex ...

Tillerson defends outreach to foreign leaders who deviate from American 'values'

Coulter: Swamp People: 47; Trump: 0

Thursday, May 04, 2017

Cough Sufferers


The social, cable and network media are all abuzz over Stephen Colbert's comment that President Trump's mouth was good as Putin's cock holster ... with many calling for Colbert's ouster for this "homophobic obscenity." First, I don't believe that this "joke" was homophobic. This argot is a well-known idiom in the gay community and was likely retrieved by one of his writers in a monologue creative session. Second, yes this line is obscene and, as such, the CBS network and Colbert's Late Show show producer should suffer any FCC financial repercussions for allowing this taped smut to go out on the air.

Obviously the Late Show is on late and doesn't have a large underage audience. But this comment became social-media viral and has since been seen by a great many little Johnnies and Janes. Therefore, some additional FCC wrist slapping might be in order ... maybe asking Colbert for a sincere social media apology ... if he could pull off eating such a big portion of crow. I kinda doubt it. I suspect that he would take it as an opportunity for even more mockery.

Instead, maybe Trump could counter in kind with a tweet suggesting that Colbert and his writers might be a little under the weather ... "cough sufferers" ... easier to get this "punny" passed our sleeping TV censors.

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Maddow: Trump 'wants to kill us'

Axelrod: We should 'move on', 'it takes a lot of work to lose to Trump'

Congress protesting wasteful spending wants $77 million more for itself ...

Trump punches back at Clinton: Comey was 'the best thing that happened to her'

EU raises 'Brexit bill' estimate to 100 billion euros

Palestinians for Trump: 'He might be the one'

Venezuela: Maduro seeks to rewrite constitution

Joy Behar: GOP 'enabling' Trump's 'mental illness'

DOJ Report: Nearly 46% of prisoners are foreign-born in Fed prisons

Al Franken wonders aloud if Steve Bannon inspires hate speech

Democrats have head start on South Carolina special election

Bardot urges her countrymen not to vote for Macron ...

Wednesday, May 03, 2017

Good News, Bad News


Good news: President Trump is no longer crazy! Bad news: He seems now to be suffering from dementia! This is the latest "thinking" by many in the fake-news media ... see: NewsMax Story ... as a way of explaining Trumps recent candid comments about North Korea's Kim Jong Un: "I would be honored to have him come to the White House". And also his take on the Civil War, "Why was there a Civil War? Why could that not have been worked out?" Both comments, to me, seem within one sigma of normal. But not to much of the media which now has him entering his dotage.

The liberal media is quite good at such innuendo. They have a bag of semantic tricks with which to smear or embarass their enemies on the Right. And their number one enemy is Donald Trump. They, being knee-jerk liberals, disliked him instinctively. But, when he started calling them out for their fake news stories, dislike turned to loathing. They are now so twisted in their attempts at revenge, that many have abandoned any attempt at objectivity.

It is getting so bad that much of the media is looking silly to anyone who is not an anti-Trump partisan. Can we label it "white spittle time" as this foam forms at the corners of their mouths when his name comes up ... and many of their subtle semantic slights are now abandoned in favor of brickbats like this calling him senile. "Crazy" was silly, but "senile" is obviously vindictive.

Is such rhetoric protected by the First Amendment and even our current libel laws? Sure, but with freedom comes responsibility. Perhaps, as Trump has suggested, our libel laws should at least be re-examined and brought more in line with England's ... because so much fake news today does seem to be motivated by "malice and reckless disregard for the truth" -- a good definition of libel.

Afterward: For a reasoned discussion of why Trump is unreasoned see: CNBC Editorial. All good points ... and a view held by many. However, it is not the view of a great many other Americans (like myself) who like what Trump has been doing but are ignoring much of what he has been saying ... often the same people who liked what Obama was saying but hated what he was doing.

Swamp Creatures


Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Gluten-free diet raises heart attack risk ...

Spending bill includes 2,500 more visas for Afghans ...

Clinton: 'I was on my way to winning' until Comey, Russia intervened

Axelrod: 'More introspection probably in order' for Hillary

Companies are holding $2.6 trillion pile of cash overseas that's still growing

Donald Trump, Vladamir Putin signal new effort to cooperate on Syria

Study: 2% of counties have 51% of U.S. murders

Outlook for Obamacare repeal turns bleak

Top immigration group  pulls Trump endorsement due to 'betrayal' on promises

Congress to airlines: Police yourselves before we have to

CNN: Refuses to run Trump ad because of 'fake news' graphic

Report: Kushner didn't disclose $1 biotin loan, investment ties to Goldman, Soros

Tweet Caroline


Bedecked Caroline Kennedy attends Met Opera gala ...

Tuesday, May 02, 2017

Headlines


These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

NKorea warns of nuclear test 'at any time' ...

Macron threatens to set Calais migrants loose on Britain

Trump starts dismantling his shadow cabinet

Trump on Obama surveillance claim: 'I don't stand by anything'

Trump: I'm 'looking into breaking up big banks'

Merkel to press Saudi Arabia to absorb Mideast refugees

Michael Moore thinks he can 'bring down' Trump from a Broadway stage

Puerto Rico to file largest public sector bankruptcy in history

President Trump is open to raising gas tax

Congress reaches agreement to fund gov't until Oct ...

Rebel Catholics ordain female priest ...

Technologist: AI will probably replace 50 percent of human jobs
AI, human jobs

Monday, May 01, 2017

Another Fix


I recently wrote about how President Trump might better connect with the American people ... by voice-overing his words into Obama's mouth ... see: The Fix. In response, one of this blog's readers pointed to another fix ... letting Trump say his own words, but doing them with a British accent. Doing the Google search suggested yielded the following construct: CNN Video.

(I haven't yet figured out how to embed a video ... sorry.)

Headlines




These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Trump savages media as Washington roasts him from afar

Foot of snow in Denver

Yale College Republicans host barbecue right next to hunger strike

New chief named at Justice Dept. unit probing Trump-Russia ties

US warship at Kim's doorstep

Pence: Trump tax could increase deficit 'maybe in the short term'

Epic: [Philippines] Duterte to visit White House

Audit: UC president Napolitano hid $175 million while raising tuition

Court delay hands Trump victory over Obama climate change [rules]

[AG] Sessions recuses himself from any Michael Flynn investigation

Agriculture Secretary says Trump won't focus on deporting illegal farm workers

Pelosi feels the Bern, faces pro-Sanders primary challenge ...