Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Trump Trope


D - defanging progress with ISIS, North Korea and Iran

O - opioid crisis pushback

N - NATO shaming (to pay their fair share)

A - anti-fake news

L - legal system leveling (with conservative judges)

D - developing America's infrastructure


J - Jerusalem embassy to be


T - tax cuts and trade (free but fair)

R - rigorous military

U - un-opening of our borders

M - manufacturing Renaissance

P - patriotism

More Perplaxing Questions


Why did Rep. Guiterez flee the SOTU when the croud started chanting, "USA, USA"?

- Will former.FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe still get his pension while in prison?

- Will the House Intel Committee's minority "memo" be leaked before it' is voted to be released?

- Why did far fewer than one-half of eligible Dreamers choose to register under Obama's DACA program?

- If refugees are such an asset to the U.S., why are they then such a liability to their homelands if they are asked to return?

- Why should the parents of Dreamers, who had brought them to America, then be rewarded under the DACA amnesty program for their previous illegal actions?

- Why is Elon Musk making and selling a flamethrower ... of all things?

Advice for Democrats


Stop digging ...

Headlines


McCabe out as FBI's No. 2

Ranking Senate Inter Democrat: 'Amazing so little' of the dossier has been 'proven'

House votes to release FISA memo

Hyperhyper: Musk peddles flamethrower pre-orders

Oops: House issues tickets for the 'State of the Uniom'

Bernie Sanders cancels interview because he didn't get to choose the questions

Exxon to invest $50 billion in USA, citing tax reform ...

[Cleveland] Indians remove Chief Wahoo logo from uniforms

Trump: No more negotiating with Taliban after series of deadly attacks

A key Tesla engineer who helped design batteries has left the company

Historic black colleges struggle with rock-bottom graduation rates ...

USA to lift ban on refugees from 11 countries

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Last Monty Python Classic


Mr. Death (from "The Meaning of Life" ... to stay with my recent theme)
Best line: "Hey, I didn't eat the mousse..."

Lookin' Foreward

From Mostly Cajin blog

Healthcare Cost Fix


"If you think healthcare is expensive now,wait until it's free" -- P.J. O'Rourke

In my lifetime healthcare costs have gone up dramatically ... and pundits have proffered multiple solutions for this problem. To this observer, the reason for this inflation seems obvious -- the insertion of intermediaries in the providing of medical care.

In my youth, when you were sick, you went to the doctor and paid his/her bill when you left. Then insurance companies stepped into the middle of this process and, as a result, a new set of administrative overheads and profits were required on top of the doctors'. Next came the HMOs which also heeded at least to pay for their high-powered administrators. Lately, even groups of HMOs are adding even more administrative costs to this process .... in order to "save money."

Finally, the Obama administration had an inspiration in its attempt to "bend down the healthcare cost cutie" -- add yet another layer, Obamacare!! And now Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan want also to get into this Conga line to solve our spiraling costs of healthcare ... see: Yahoo Finance Story. Sure! Is this not just another set of palms to be greased?

The result of all this intermediation? An enormous crowd of non-doctors standing between the actual doctors and their patients ... all with their hands out. And we wonder why healthcare costs keep going  up?

Cummon people! The answer to spiraling healthcare costs is disintermediation. Get rid of all these non-medical middle-persons. But there is a problem with this solution -- it is almost impossible to do. All these middle-persons would be lobbying their politicians to keep things as they are  ... and probably will win.

Quotable Quote


Death is Nature's way of telling you to slow down -- restroom graffiti

Afterthought: Death is the period at the end of life's sentence.

Headlines


Can Joe Kennedy beat the State of the Union curse?

Justice Ginsberg skipping Trump's State of the Union to give her own remarks

Only one woman wins a main [Grammy] award ...

Poll: Black Americans the most supportive of dramatically reducing legal immigration levels

Donald Trump adores Emmanuel Macron

Nikki Haley blasts the Grammys after [Hillary's] 'Fire and Fury' reading

Report: Facebook traffic plunge ...

Gowdy: Leave Mueller 'the hell alone'

Kochs find areas of agreement with Trump

Trump administration is thinking about nationalizing 5G mobil nerwork

Kabul on high alert after ambulance bomb toll tops 100 ...

Italian populist leader promises to deport 500,000 immigrants

Monday, January 29, 2018

Headlines


Millions of Americans believe God made Trump president

Democrat congresswoman calls ICE the 'gestapo of America'

Flu from Hell   Schools closed   Getting worse

Trump to Piers Morgan: 'No, I wouldn't say I'm a feminist'

Defiant Republicans ready to send secret Russian memo to Trump

Steve Wynn resigns as RNC finance chair amid [sexual] misconduct charges

DOJ withholds majority of FBI texts ...

Soros at Davos: World must accept North Korea as nuclear power ...

Trump calls report he ordered Mueller fired 'fake news'

Hacked Japanese cryptocurrency exchange to repay users $425 million

[Prince] Alwaleed freed ... Saudi move elites to prison, $100 billion wrested ...

Czech elections: Amti-migration president defeats leftist, academic

Sexual Tension

Diane and Sam
Recently, the battle of the sexes has again taken center stage with the #MeToo  tsunami and the second March of the (anti-Trump) Pussy Hats. It does appear that women have the tempo advantage in this convoluted eternal conflict ... except for the Grammys where only one woman won a major  little gramophone statue.

But now women are worried that these wins are costing them in that men are increasingly unlikely to go to dinner or on a business trip with a female associate. Feminist are perplexed that they might be losing because they are winning. It is still a boy's club world and, until women can change their anatomy, they never will be fully satisfied with the score board tally.

Like the sexual tension in  that TV classic "Cheers" both genders are flawed to the point of humor. But the battle goes on to some ultimate winner. Which might that be? My money is on the females ... particularly since men's role in procreation will no longer be necessary ... not too far off. (This is when Sam will start drinking again.)

Sunday, January 28, 2018

64 Bitcoin Question


For you Never-Trumpers. I know you are clearly turned off by Trump's style. So now, if Trump's policies were presented with Obama's silken style ... maybe even by an Afro-American version of Trump, would you feel any differently about him? (Imagine he is transgender too, if this helps. )

 Or, if you really want to have night sweats, imagine Obama with Trump's policies ...

Further Monty Python Classic


Ministry of Silly Walks

Counterpoint


Nancy Pelosi: Trump's immigration proposal is part of 'a plan to make make America white again.'

Counterpoint: Does this then imply that Pelosi and her fellow Democrats' base purpose is 'to make America non-white?' Humm ... very revealing  ...

The Cloak of Fame


The cloak of fame is woven from smarts, sinew and serendipity. It can last for many years or fall to tatters in a trice. It can be a glorious raiment or a gaudy schmatta ... so wearers should shoulder it with humanity and humility. -- Anon.

Quotable Quote


'[You] can't charge person with murder when [he] only got parking ticket' -- Sharon Stone, commenting on how all sexual harassment is now treated the same.

Headlines


It's now likely Mueller thinks Trump obstructed justice

Evergreen State College lecture: Free speech helps White Supremency

Dow sets another record ... stocks +44% since election ...

Sean Hannity's Twitter account disappears

An affair with Trump? Nikki Haley rebuts 'disgusting' rumors

SHOCKER: Hillary doesn't deny she shielded top aid against sexual harassment claims

Dozens recall sex misconduct by [casino] mogul Steve Wynn ...

... Schumer: I agreed to fund the wall because it's next to impossible to build

Schumer rejects Trump's immigration proposal

Wall Stret could be facing a #MeToo tsunami

FEDEX announces wage increases, bonuses amid tax reform ...

Pelosi slams compromise amnesty plan ... 'A campaign to make America white again'

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Another Monty Python Classis


Mr. Creosote ... from "The Meaning of Life"  (Warning: Don't watch before a meal!)

Looney Tunes Liberalism


According to a spokesman from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS.org), this really happened:

When a certain class of immigrants come to this country (I think under chain migration), someone has to sign a guarantee that, if said immigrant goes on the public dole, this guarantor is libel for these funds.

In New York City, during the latter days of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration, this provision was acted upon and letters were sent out to those guarantors so affected with the amounts owed. To their eternal surprise, a good number of these letter recipients actually sent in the moneys due.

After Bill deBlasio was elected mayor .... drum roll please ... he ordered all these moneys sent back ...

Liberalism really is a mental disease ...

Next Monty Python Classic


The Dead Parrot

Pic Pick

From Powerline blog

Get it?

Headlines


Trump proposes path to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants

Grassley releases Strzok-Page texts showing FBI was deliberately 'pulling punchs' in Clinton probe

Well water levels change in Florida -- after Alaska quake?

Erdogan: Kurds are 'collaborators in a postmodern crusade'

Rubio rejects bipartisan immigration gang

Weinstein sued again, this time furor allegedly making his assistant clean up his s semen

NKorea to hold military parade day before Olympics ...

Food stamp participation in Florida soars by 2.5 million in one month

Trump: I would be up for reentering TPP under better terms

Tesla employees detail problems with Model 3 battery production and quality control

NYT: Trump ordered Mueller fired, but backed off

John Kerry: I might challenge Trump in 2020

Friday, January 26, 2018

Monty Python Classic


The Cheese Shop

Quotable Quote


Be yourself, everyone else is already taken. -- Oscar Wilde

Evil Roman Colonialism


A kind reader referenced this Monty Python "Life of Brian" skit a while ago. I finally got around to looking it up. It is a backhanded paean to colonialism and even better than I remember. Enjoy!

Media Matterss


The majority of the American media has long believed that it was the doctor and our political system was the patient. Its diagnosis was infallible. Its treatment plan was not to be questioned ... even if the patient died. This is a very powerful position to be in ... a position likely was not imagined by our Constitution's framers ... since they could not have foreseen the multi-faceted monster that the simple broadsheets of their era would become.

No, dear reader I am not attacking the First Amendment ... it is the most fundamental freedom ...  that is why it is first. However, both the ensuing media technological advancements and court decisions have given our media an extremely powerful voice in defining what is fact ... even if it isn't.  So today, there is ... or should I say, has been ... no balancing force to keep much of the media real. In particular, a series of court interpretations of libel standards makes it almost impossible to seek redress for even outrageous news stories designed to damage the reputation of someone or something. Clearly malicious news is brewed today for political ends and has had no counterbalance until Donald Trump invented "fake news." I believe this term caught on because the public has sensed the unchecked power of the media and welcomed some push back.

No, Trump and others now using this term are not attacking the First Amendment. They are preserving it unless or until our courts strengthen our libel laws. A media ... either liberal or conservative ... that becomes the sole arbiters of truth can lose their way. I believe that we have better reporting today because of Trump despite all the media's squealing. They are squealing not because they have lost their freedom to report ... but because they now have to work a little harder to get it right.

Headlines


Judge tosses 7 of 18 counts against Menedez, Melden

Cecile Richards leaves behind a brutal legacy as she steps down from Planned Parenthood

Report: Missing [50,000] FBI text messages contain threats of violence against Trump

Pompeo: NKorea 'months' away from threatening U.S. with nukes

Breaking tradition: Trump team unleashes verbal assault against the dollar [at Davos]

Judicial Watch sues for Strzok-Page text messages, travel records

Monkeys cloned; humans next?

'Dreamers' storm Schumer's New York City home, demand amnesty 'now'

White House: Trump to host Macron at first State Dinner

ANTIFA-linked Prof.'s resignation demanded by Stanford students

El Chapo promises not to kill jurors ...

Fake News: Feinstein, Schiff claim 'Russian bots' behind #Releasethememo

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Headlines


Schumer withdraws offer for Trump's wall

125,000 Disney employees to receive $1,000 cash bonus due to tax reform

Godwin: Evidence suggests massive scandal brewing at FBI ...

140 former gymnasts emotionally confront doctor in abuse trial

House GOP won't show secret Russian memo to Justice Dept.

Supreme Court launches DACA appeal into lightspeed

Mystery: 5 months of missing [FBI] messages

Senate confirms Jerome Powell for Fed Chairman, 85 - 12

Trump calls the missing [FBI] texts 'one of the biggest stories in a long time'

[Sen.] Manchin: If candidates like me can't get elected, Democrats will be in the minority for life

Collusion course: Congress tightens noose on [Mueller] investigation

Trump administration cedes 'legitimate' Turkish concerns as invasion of Syria continues

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Win-Win


Hundreds, possibly thousands of companies are paying bonuses (usually $1.000) to their employees as a result of the GOP tax reform package. Clearly, these actions are bringing kudos to these firms both from the Trump administration and the public at large. However, there is another win here ... and that is that this additional expense is a one-time charge for these companies. It seems unlikely that all will give out such largess next year like they would have if they had increased employee salaries.

One real test of the effectiveness of our new tax law will be how employee compensation finally grows over the next few reporting periods ... the biggest potential win. Watch for it ...

Colonialism


The unforgivable sin of colonialism was not exploiting third-world countries. It was then abandoning them and  not carrying them through to self-sufficiency.

Headlines


Is this the year Georgia turns blue?

FBI agents allegedly texted about 'secret society' the day after Trump's election

Trump approves tariffs on some imports ... Mexico slams ...

Report: Ivanka headhunting for new chief of staff to replace Kelly

Liberals livid after deal to end shutdown

Report: [Current] FBI director threatened to resign over pressure to fire McCabe

Billionaire keeps pushing Trump impeachment. Dems rattles ...

Amazon opens first automated grocery store without cashiers

Puerto Rico's governor plans to privatize electric utility

Conservative group threatens to sue Texas over thousands of no citizen voters

Pats vs. Jags: highest rated TV program in year ...

Cringe-worthy: 'Morning Joe' airs Women's March anthem

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Fecal Facts


A kind reader has sent me the following blunt description of life in Senegal (one of Trump's shithole countries?) It is sympathetic yet honest as to what unlimited immigration from fecal African klyptocracies would mean to our American culture. Read it and see if you can still condemn Trump's Durbin-leaked comments:
What I Learned in the Peace Corp”
By Karin McQuillan
Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town.  Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health.  That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peace Corps doctor, "a fecalized environment."
In plain English: s--- is everywhere.  People defecate on the open ground, and the feces is blown with the dust – onto you, your clothes, your food, the water.  He warned us the first day of training: do not even touch water.  Human feces carries parasites that bore through your skin and cause organ failure.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that a few decades later, liberals would be pushing the lie that Western civilization is no better than a third-world country.  Or would teach two generations of our kids that loving your own culture and wanting to preserve it are racism.
 Last time I was in Paris, I saw a beautiful African woman in a grand boubou have her child defecate on the sidewalk next to Notre Dame Cathedral.  The French police officer, ten steps from her, turned his head not to see.
I have seen.  I am not turning my head and pretending unpleasant things are not true.
Senegal was not a hellhole.  Very poor people can lead happy, meaningful lives in their own cultures' terms.  But they are not our terms.  The excrement is the least of it.  Our basic ideas of human relations, right and wrong, are incompatible.
 As a twenty-one-year-old starting out in the Peace Corps, I loved Senegal.  In fact, I was euphoric.  I quickly made friends and had an adopted family.  I relished the feeling of the brotherhood of man.  People were open, willing to share their lives and, after they knew you, their innermost thoughts.
The longer I lived there, the more I understood: it became blindingly obvious that the Senegalese are not the same as us.  The truths we hold to be self-evident are not evident to the Senegalese.  How could they be?  Their reality is totally different.  You can't understand anything in Senegal using American terms.
Take something as basic as family.  Family was a few hundred people, extending out to second and third cousins.  All the men in one generation were called "father."  Senegalese are Muslim, with up to four wives.  Girls had their clitorises cut off at puberty.  (I witnessed this, at what I thought was going to be a nice coming-of-age ceremony, like a bat mitzvah or confirmation.)  Sex, I was told, did not include kissing.  Love and friendship in marriage were Western ideas.  Fidelity was not a thing.  Married women would have sex for a few cents to have cash for the market.
What I did witness every day was that women were worked half to death.  Wives raised the food and fed their own children, did the heavy labor of walking miles to gather wood for the fire, drew water from the well or public faucet, pounded grain with heavy hand-held pestles, lived in their own huts, and had conjugal visits from their husbands on a rotating basis with their co-wives.  Their husbands lazed in the shade of the trees.
Yet family was crucial to people there in a way Americans cannot comprehend.
The Ten Commandments were not disobeyed – they were unknown.  The value system was the exact opposite.  You were supposed to steal everything you can to give to your own relatives.  There are some Westernized Africans who try to rebel against the system.  They fail.
 We hear a lot about the kleptocratic elites of Africa.  The kleptocracy extends through the whole society.  My town had a medical clinic donated by international agencies.  The medicine was stolen by the medical workers and sold to the local store.  If you were sick and didn't have money, drop dead.  That was normal.
So here in the States, when we discovered that my 98-year-old father's Muslim health aide from Nigeria had stolen his clothes and wasn't bathing him, I wasn't surprised.  It was familiar.
In Senegal, corruption ruled, from top to bottom.  Go to the post office, and the clerk would name an outrageous price for a stamp.  After paying the bribe, you still didn't know it if it would be mailed or thrown out.  That was normal.
One of my most vivid memories was from the clinic.  One day, as the wait grew hotter in the 110-degree heat, an old woman two feet from the medical aides – who were chatting in the shade of a mango tree instead of working – collapsed to the ground.  They turned their heads so as not to see her and kept talking.  She lay there in the dirt.  Callousness to the sick was normal.
Americans think it is a universal human instinct to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  It's not.  It seems natural to us because we live in a Bible-based Judeo-Christian culture.
We think the Protestant work ethic is universal.  It's not.  My town was full of young men doing nothing.  They were waiting for a government job.  There was no private enterprise.  Private business was not illegal, just impossible, given the nightmare of a third-world bureaucratic kleptocracy.  It is also incompatible with Senegalese insistence on taking care of relatives.
All the little stores in Senegal were owned by Mauritanians.  If a Senegalese wanted to run a little store, he'd go to another country.  The reason?  Your friends and relatives would ask you for stuff for free, and you would have to say yes.  End of your business.  You are not allowed to be a selfish individual and say no to relatives.  The result: Everyone has nothing.
The more I worked there and visited government officials doing absolutely nothing, the more I realized that no one in Senegal had the idea that a job means work.  A job is something given to you by a relative.  It provides the place where you steal everything to give back to your family.
I couldn't wait to get home.  So why would I want to bring Africa here?  Non-Westerners do not magically become American by arriving on our shores with a visa.
For the rest of my life, I enjoyed the greatest gift of the Peace Corps: I love and treasure America more than ever.  I take seriously my responsibility to defend our culture and our country and pass on the American heritage to the next generation.
African problems are made worse by our aid efforts.  Senegal is full of smart, capable people.  They will eventually solve their own country's problems.  They will do it on their terms, not ours.  The solution is not to bring Africans here.
We are lectured by Democrats that we must privilege third-world immigration by the hundred million with chain migration.  They tell us we must end America as a white, Western, Judeo-Christian, capitalist nation – to prove we are not racist.  I don't need to prove a thing.  Leftists want open borders because they resent whites, resent Western achievements, and hate America.  They want to destroy America as we know it.
As President Trump asked, why would we do that?
 We have the right to choose what kind of country to live in.  I was happy to donate a year of my life as a young woman to help the poor Senegalese.  I am not willing to donate my country.

Open Borders


"A nation that cannot control its borders, is not a nation." -- Ronald Reagan

A devoted reader, who happens to agree with us that global warming is a scam, however does believe that the United States needs to open our boarders to anyone and everyone who wants to settle here. Now, I can understand and even admire that someone whose ancestors have benefited from past liberal immigration policies, might want to extend such a benefit today to the less fortunate of the world (a number in the billions). However, the U.S. is filling up. We now have hundreds of millions more people than during past immigration surges. And today we also have an incentive almost as powerful as the past immigrant draw, freedom ... lots of free stuff ... free stuff that liberal states love to provide illegally to these newcomers ... whether here legally or not. The impetus to provide this largess too often comes with a quid pro quo -- give us your (often illegal) votes.

We lock the front doors of our homes for a good reason ... because, if we don't, bad actors will likely invade our homes and take what is our family's ... or worse. And since we all want the fruits of our labors to go to our own and we like our charity to be voluntary, not forced, we don't want our neighbors to force us to open our houses to possible mischief or even mayhem. I strongly suspect those advocating for open borders also lock their own home doors. They may want me to leave my portals open, but I chose to ignore them unless they leave their doors open too ... at which point I will be forced to question their sanity ... and mine.

When we do invite people into our homes, I think at a minimum we have to know that:

- this is voluntary and not compulsory
- our guests would not harm us
- they would not steal from us
- they would not be exposing us to disease
- if they are staying, that we have the necessary space and accommodations
- if they are staying, that they would eventually leave if we asked
- if they are staying, that they would be contributing to the commonweal
- if they were staying, they could not invite in others
- and finally, they could not take possession of our home

Cannot we ask the same of immigrants to our country?


Headlines


Senator: FBI missing months of text between officials involved in Trump-Clinton probes

World's richest 1% get 82% of the wealth, Oxfam says

McConnell: Immigration, border security next month ...

Austria announces border protection unit to manage migration

Trump tells GOP Senate to go nuclear [get rid of filibuster]

Trump reportedly thinks Wilbur Ross has done a bad job as Commerce Secretary

Republicans bounce back in 2018 polls after tax cuts ...

State [CA] to register illegal aliens to vote -- automatically?

Gaza family kills own son after Hamas says he aided Israel

[Sen.] Graham tees off on Stephen Muller over immigration

Trump's [stock] market cheerleading tweets could end up fueling a bubble

Mulvaney: Schumer offered to 'authorize' wall funding, not actually spend money


Monday, January 22, 2018

Blink?


See: Did Schumer Blink on Shutdown?

Don't forget, dear readers, that when the DACA Amnesty bill likely passes, the president can still veto it unless it includes the Mexican wall and a rollback of the visa lottery and chain migration. (Congress could never override this veto.) Hope so ...

Some More Questions

Stormy Daniels

What will Al Franken do next ... back to stand-up?

How tall is Trump ... and how much does he really weigh?

Why do politicians always make political decisions?

How will women in Men's restrooms use the urinals?

Why the odd $130,000 price tag for the Stormy Daniels/Donald Trump 2006  tryst?

If Bitcoin is the currency of the underworld, why is it allowed?

When will the Tesla company crash and burn?

Aren't Uber and Lyft really taxi services?

Will North Korea have a curling team at this Winter Olympics?

Who wrote the Book of Love?

Headlines


Trump wants a kinder, gentler shutdown

NYT, AP, Bloomberg, legacy media blame Dems for gov't shutdown

CNN: Shutdown risks undetected asteroid strike ...

Another Cartel killing field discovered in Mexican border state

White House: No immigration deal until shutdown ends

Revealed: Google's secret confidentiality agreements with its speech police

Texas shatters record for winter electricity use ...

... Shutdown forces suspension of E-verify program ...

Turkey invades Syria ... tanks, soldiers cross border ...

Because of the shutdown Trump might not go to Davos, after all

Update: Quake swarm in Reno has lasted 7 days straight ...

85 percent of LA Times employees vote to unionize

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Headlines


McConnell and Schumer hit rock bottom

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: White House blames Democrats, won't negotiate on DACA

Neighbor charged with assault on [Sen.] Rand Paul ...

... CNN poll: Amnesty advocates big loser in shutdown ...

House Republicans clash [with Democrats] over release of secret [FISA-Fusion GPS] memo

69 Republicans lawmakers call for immediate release of FISA memo

Border wall prototypes thwart commandos in tests ...

Facebook announces plan to seize control of Newsfeed from users ...

Shutdown threatens Trump's economic winning streak

Google has an actual secret speech police

Italians on track to be minority in own nation ...

DOJ files Notice of Intent to re-try Sen. Menendez

Saturday, January 20, 2018

DACA


Deferred

Action for

Childhood

Arrivals

------------------------

Democrats

Against

Congressional

Agreement

------------------------

Dreamers

Associated with

Continued

Amnesty

------------------------

Donald

Arguing for

Contributing

Aliens

------------------------

Drugs?

ANTIFA?

Crime?

Anarchy?

Hawaii Punch

From Poweline blog


Core Values

From Powerline blog


Headlines


DOJ asks Supreme Court to rule on Trump's right to end DACA

US could topple Russia and Saudi Arabia as world's largest oil producer this year, IEA says

Stock market 31% gain during Trump -- best since FDR!

... 'Entire Mueller investigation is a lie, built on a foundation of corruption' ...

Hungary has arrest warrant out for ex-Trump aide Gorka

Trump's approval is the lowest for any president one year into his term, WSJ/NBC poll says

3.6 million 'DREAMERS' in USA ...

Report: Schumer won't negotiate immigration unless Tom Cotton is excluded ...

Trump contradicts Kelly, says border wall stance 'never changed'

Donald Trump is the only person in Washington who doesn't seem worried about a shutdown

Paper: Sexual harassment, assault rifle at UN ...

Poll: 64% agree with work requirement for Medicaid ...

Friday, January 19, 2018

Beating Around the Bush


President Trump spoke live and eloquently to "The Right to Life" annual demonstrators in Washington today ... a first ... bringing this thought to mind:

There is a word that is is just as verboten today as the N-word ... the A-word. Feminists are frankly fanatical in their reluctance to use the word "abortion." They say "a woman's right to chose" ... neglecting to include exactly what she is supposed to chose (hint: the A-word). Or they insist on the euphemism "women's reproductive health," combining demands for free contraceptives, free morning-after-pills and free abortions into one semantic slight-of-the-tongue. Have you ever seen pink-hatted crowds of women carrying "Pro Abortion" signs augmented with dead-baby graphics? No? Why is this so? Can these women not admit what they are advocating? Their counter demonstrators sport "Pro Life" placards. To be truthful and courageous, shouldn't the other side be carrying "Pro Death" signs?

These feminists' language gymnastics should be embarrassing to these abortion advocates. Hiding behind misleading words and phrases is not very noble ... but then, taking a human life may be practical and convenient ... but it certainly is not noble.

Aesop Updated


Too many drones will take down a beehive ...

The Biggest Enigma


Will mankind unravel the mysteries of our vast universe before our span of existence in it is extinguished?

Shorthand: Will we understand our existence before we cease to exist?

Headlines


[Sen.] Flake rankles fellow Republicans with Trump takedowns

Few large US companies say they will use tax savings to boost wages, CNBC survey funds

CNN predicts president heart attack ...

Trump threatens big fine against China for intellectual property theft

Trump: 'I've lost all trust in Durbin'

As Americans wake up to being lied to, support for Trump's tax plan soars

Koreas agree to form first joint Olympic team, march together in opening ceremony ...

Winning: Apple announces $350 billion investment in U.S. economy, 20,000 new jobs

Trump: 'Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea'

CNN wins big time in Trump's Fake News Awards

Movie theater attendance hits 24-year low ...

McConnell: Senate will consider immigration bill 'as soon as we figure out' what Trump supports


Thursday, January 18, 2018

Grace


Grace is the sublime serenity that comes from devoting one's life to the strict tenets of a benign orthodoxy.

Headlines


Trump's revenge on California: The census

White House doctor: Trump in 'excellent health',' has no cognitive problems, but should lose weight

DHS preparing to arrest leaders of sanctuary cities ...

Rubio: 'I believe we have to build a wall"

DNC overhaul struggles as Clinton-Sanders rivalries persist

Mueller's subpoena could give Bannon some cover, legal experts say

Growing number of actors renouncing Woody Allen ...

DHS, DOJ: Mote tan 70% of terror-related convicts in U.S. are foreign born

Trump's first-year report card: Voters say he's no genius

Homeowners sitting on trillions in 'tappable' equity

 United  States withholds $65 million from Palestinians

Paris Metro drivers refuse to stop at certain stations, citing passenger safety

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Fishing for Votes

From Mostly Cajun blog



As a Horse


Our president is as healthy as a horse. For almost an hour yesterday his examining doctor took questions from the MSM about Trump's latest exam. His conclusions: Trump has slightly elevated cholesterol, he should lose 10 to 15 pounds, scored 30 out of 30 on his cognitive tests and has great genes ... see: Vox Story. If you want to see the whole press conference go to Google and watch the U.S. "free" press embarrass themselves.

Trump doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs ... never has. On the other hand, Obama has done all three but the MSM could have cared less about B.O.'s health or mental acuity. Why the difference?

Got Gas?


Our natural gas bill to heat our house normally runs in the mid-$200 range in January. Just got our latest heating bill yesterday -- $471 -- WOW! And I know, I know that weather is not climate ... but something is going on here. Can I ask Al Gore for a donation toward this "anomalous" gas bill?

Gender Politics


Reading the Mostly Cajun blog yesterday, the comparison was made between the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Barry the Pussy. This slight got me to thinking about how our national psyche has quickly flipped from female-oriented to male-oriented. Whatever he is, Donald Trump is not a wuss. In contrast, mot only did Obama seem reluctant to wear the pants in his family, but he constantly played the apologists for America's past assertiveness. Argue with this conclusion if you will, but Barack's sexuality often seemed more feminine than masculine. This was uncomfortable for many of our citizens.

Obama's movements often seemed dainty. His policies were frequently reserved instead of assertive. His instincts were often emotional instead of logical. These are typically thought of as feminine traits. And his end-of-term tilt toward transsexuals (bathrooms, Chelsea Manning commutation, allowing them in the Army, etc.) reinforced this perception among many voters. And Hillary's promise that she would continue to tilt the country further toward the X-X gender didn't help her electability IMHO.

Perhaps Trump won the nomination because he was the most masculine of the primary contestants ... and, although the gender-identification differential was not as great, the same could be said for the general election. In other words, bottom line, Hillary may have lost BECAUSE she was a she. To me, it seemed Americans wanted a more assertive administration and has certainly gotten it. Now, the "resistance" mania by the pussy-hatted females, metrosexuals and the #Metoo crowd reinforces this theme that it is a lot  about gender politics. It is crying out, "It was our turn, dammit!" ... not realizing that they had just had their  turm.

Headlines


Trump's 'Fake News Awards'' could violate ethics rules

New report shows Trump embroiled in 'unprecidented conflicts of interest'

California leads nation in poverty ...

Immigration system to add 100M foreign-born people to U.S. population in next 50 years

Trump spends Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the golf course

Americans are adopting voice-activated speakers at a faster pace than smartphones

Obama Library drama intensifies ... mounting opposition from environmentalists, historians ...

Iran tortures two protesters to death, raising death toll to 25

Trump: 'Senator Dicky Durbin' lying about DACA meeting

San Francisco is a literal shithole, public defecation map reveals

Dozen arrested for feeding homeless in San Diego ...

Sen. Paul: Trump financed medical mission trip to Haiti

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Phantasmagoria


I don't know what the Bitcoin mining process is specifically, nor do I care. Let's imagine that it is calculating the next hundred digits of pi. But I do know that, to receive a new Bitcoin, it takes specialized Chinese-made computer chips and megawatts of electricity to solve this mathematical puzzle. But to what end? Does getting the next hundred pi digits really add any societal value for all the energy and dollars expended? It's as though one spent huge resources digging in a gold mine for a picture of gold. Yes, phantasmagorical value is created by the issuance of the next Bitcoin ... but in exchange for what? Countries which issue money, back it with their "good faith and credit." What is the value of this phrase from a boiler-room Bitcoin issuer?

Your instincts are right. Cryptocurrencies will be but a quizzical chapter in the future's"History of Money."

Wisdom


Wisdom is not only knowing when to talk and when to listen, but, when talking, saying as little as possible. -- Anon.