Jive Talk

Black Jive Matters ... see Al Sharpton comments on the NFL anthem protests:  Breitbart Video.

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

Trump review leans toward proposing mini-nuke

Eric Bolling's son found dead

AMAZONGOOGLEAPPLE in line of fire as EU moves to tax tech ...

Floods kill at least six as storms thrash Italy

Trump calls S. Korean leader a 'beggar' in call to Japan PM

AL Sharpton's daughter arrested for brawling with cab driver

[Trump] Approval pops to 46% ...

Elon Musk's mother fashion's new 'It' model at 69 years-old

NATO chief: North Korean crisis requires a global response

George Clooney rants about 'failed screenwriter' Steve Bannon

Vast intelligence haul funds next phase in fight against ISIS ...

Firemen abandon house blaze after attack in Swedish 'no-go' zone

Headlines

All found on Internet news sites. Guess which ones come from Political?

As Trump steams, Senate Republicans consider new repeal effort

Wasserman Schultz seemingly planned to pay suspect [Awan] even after he went to Pakistan

Trump threatens to cancel health care benefits for Congress ...

DHS: 2.6 million H-1B workers approved to enter the US in last decade

Trump slams China: 'They do NOTHING for us with North Korea'

ICE: Man who raped Oregon woman was released despite detention request

Amazon under investigation over Iran-linked sales ...

Ferrari owner totals $288,000 car hour after purchasing it

Congress advised it has authority to undo any transgender ban

Al  Sharpton is protesting Trump over anti-Irish racial slur

Obama staffer: Michelle was boss ... if mad, big trouble ...

Buchanan warns: Scaramucci possible 'early causality'

Pilgrim's Progress

Progressivism has been a proud, aggressive and often successful political movement since the time of President Teddy Roosevelt and Wisconsin's Senator Bob LaFollett. However, one of the flaws of progressivism is, at least in the arena of social justice, eventually the progress being made gets more and more rarefied. Yes, progressives have swept away many of the discriminatory laws and mores in the United States, but their follow-on targets represent smaller and smaller slices of our population (e.g., gender fluid rights) and, thus, the political payoffs get more problematic.

After all how many voters want to marry animals? But, this doesn't seem to slow progressives down. Soon it will be more bizarre rights being advocated ... man-boy love, human rights for simians and group marriages. Don't doubt me. To progressives, the social equality agenda seems never to run out.

Yet Progressives often keep their prejudices quite private while championing exactly the opposite in public. The Kennedys, the Clintons and many in the black movements (Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton) come immediately to mind. Somehow, the general public chooses to ignore these inconsistencies.

Progressives are also often drawn into conundrums ... like embracing people who often violently oppose many of their other basic public tenets. For instance, many fundamental Muslims lethally oppose free love, homosexuality and religious tolerance ... yet are supported by progressives in a stunning display of hypocrisy. Even worse, progressives will not tolerate fundamental Christians with far less onerous strictures. I scratch my head over these inconsistent progressive notions.

Will progressives run out of paved road? Will they have fewer social equity causes to champion in the future? Or will the notion of more social justice ... or injustice ... as utilized by progressives begin to peter out? I hope so ... but I don't expect so.

Fake News

Conservative news organizations are being castigated by many traditional media organizations for promoting "fake news" stories for political advantage ... one such example being the recent pizza parlor child-trafficking conspiracy theory ... see: New York Times Story ... which caused a mentally-ill man to fire an AR-15 rifle into the ceiling there in protest. However such fake news stories pale in comparison to some whoppers that the main stream media have propagated over the years. Here is a story on this twisted meme ... see: The Hill Story.

Besides these The Hill references to the Iran nuclear deal and Obamacare fake news stories, there are literally hundreds more memes that those mainstream news outlets, which we used to rely on, spoon fed us over the years ... all of which turned out to be phony. Here are just a sampling: Al Sharpton/Tawanda Brawley, vanishing polar bears,  Benghazi attack based on an Internet video, the Religion of Peace, Rathergate, no WMDs in Iraq, "hands up don't shoot", Ted Kennedy's 1965 immigration amnesty "fix", carbon dioxide as a pollutant, etc., etc., etc.

Do I make my point?

You Might be a Liberal ...

If you have attended Burning Man more than twice

If you think Al Sharpton is a real Reverend

If you believe that "women's reproductive health" means women's reproductive health

If you majored in Gender Studies at MIT

If you donated your SSI check to Black Lives Matter

If you can use "diversity" and "inclusion" in the same sentence

If you still display your college Che poster in your retirement home

If you have a Bernie bumper sticker on your Prius

If you have more than five EBT cards

If you passed out doobies during Occupy Wall Street

If you wore Birkenstocks to your 25th high school reunion

If you never mouth the words to our National Anthem

If you call 22-caliber rifles "weapons of war"

If you make fun of rednecks

10 More Self-evident Truths

Last summer I posted a list of 10 self-evident truths .. see: 10 Self-evident Truths. Recently there has been a spate of references to this older post, therefore I think it may be time to update this list with 10 new ones:

- The Clinton Foundation mainly just holds belly-rubbing meetings

- Political pundits are almost always wrong

- Organic food is often just more expensive

- Gluten-free is popular because it gets rid of most farting

- The NFL is an extremely profitable non-profit entity

- Iran is secretly building atomic weaponry

- Al Sharpton won't pay his millions in back taxes

- The EPA is trying to bankrupt the American coal industry

- Most vitamin supplements are pissed away

- ICE does not "enforce" immigration laws

Love Is All You Need

In a previous blog post I had expressed concerns about the possible dire consequences of the Charleston church shootings ... see: Snapped. Although President Obama's angry remarks were not specifically inciting, he did try to make political hay against the Second Amendment. And, so far, Al Sharpton has been pretty taciturn over this incident  Dylann Storm Roof, the white shooter, however has been caught and already plead guilty to trying to start a race war with his killing of nine black parishioners.

And how have the people of Charleston reacted to this act of terrorism? They have, for the most part, exhibited their Christian faith with love and forgiveness ... hear: CNN Audio ... in stark contrast to those in Ferguson and Baltimore. In a way this is a minor miracle ... one which may go a long way toward healing the racial divides that have been festering in this country after the election of our first black president. If this trend of gentle forgiveness in the face of evil continues, then there is still hope for an eventual reconciliation of our races.

Snapped

A white man in his early twenties clearly snapped yesterday ... going into a black church in Charleston, South Carolina last night and shooting and killing at least nine worshipers ... see: Washington Post Article. The suspect, as of this posting, is still at large, therefore the exact motivation for these murders is not clear ... although one must surmise that there is a large racial component to them.

Is this tragedy a tipping point in the seven-year deterioration of race relations in the United States? I surely hope not ... but I can clearly foresee the coming storm of protesters and pundits trying their very best to make it so ...  to include Al Sharpton and maybe even President Obama (if he behaves true to form). In contrast, the national media did very little to inflame people after the Fort Hood massacre ... with a larger number of victims. They know well how to perform their craft.

There must be a lesson to be learned here ... which I seriously doubt will be heeded. And that is that racing baiting for whatever purpose is evil ... and likely to cause great societal dislocation. The radical Muslims can stir the pot enough to get Major Nidal Hasan to attack innocent soldiers at Fort Hood ... just like a backlash to the incidents in Ferguson and Baltimore probably caused a clearly deranged man to kill innocent worshipers in Charleston.

I passionately decry what just occurred in Charleston and my heart bleeds for the victims ... but I also condemn those wild-eyed crazies who would take this tragedy as an opportunity to incite violence as an appropriate response ... and believe me I expect a large parcel of such miscreants.

A New Broom

A grand jury, under the new Attorney General (AG) Loretta Lynch, has just indicted Denny Hastert, the former Republican Speaker of the House on the strange charge of violating banking laws to pay hush money to some unnamed person ... see: Washington Post Story. This coupled with the previous indictment of that rogue New Jersey Democrat Senator Robert Manendez on corruption charges ... see: Washington Post Story ... suggests that the Obama administration may be using its Justice Department as a political hammer.

Since, to me, it is clear that Washington is chock-a-block full of crooks of all stripes, the real test for our new AG will be how many more of these miscreants she brings before the docks. How about Representative Charlie Rangel on tax evasion? How about Senator Harry Reid on misusing the IRS? How about Representative Nancy Pelosi on corruption? How about that presidential confidant Al Sharpton on tax evasion? How about Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation on RICO charges? How about our president himself for flaunting his oath of office and numerous crony-capitalism payoffs?

If Loretta Lynch has brought a new broom with her into her new job, I would love to see her begin to sweep clean that snake pit of our nation's capital. How about it, AG?

Cops' Lives Matter

The four very recent cop killings in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (see: Daily Mail Article), New York City and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho tell me that the Department of Justice's narrative about police being out of control seems a little lopsided ... see: Officer Down Memorial Page. Will Al Sharpton pay a visit to Hattiesburg (after all one of the slain cops was black)?

Perhaps President Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch have a hidden agenda after all?

(I do realize that the title of this blog is a dog whistle ...)

Afterward: As evidence of this hidden agenda: Breitbart Article.

Cops

"Whatcha goina do when they come for you?"

In the past, I have watched many episodes of "Cops" on reality television and realize the stress and dangers faced by our police every day. Just so far this year at least 36 cops have died in the line of duty ... see: Officer Down Memorial Page.

The police are like any other segment of society ... full of heroes and knaves. Obviously that North Charleston cop is a knave and deserves the full weight of the his punishment. That Ferguson cop was characterized as a knave by a bunch of knaves. And I'm a little conflicted by those Staten Island constabularies. They clearly used far too much force for such a petty crime. However, I suspect that Eric Garner was also probably too fragile health-wise to be in such a tussle.

The obvious lesson to be drawn from all this cop-baiting rhetoric is that, if a law-enforcement officer asks you to comply with an order ... even if he is wrong ... do it. If you chose not to comply, you really are playing with fire. There are numerous remedies to be invoked later on if your rights have been abused.

Just call Al Sharpton, Bill de Blasio or Eric Holder.

Hands Up

Two white police officers were shot late last night in Ferguson, Missouri and are in very serious condition. They, with a number of other officers, were standing outside the police headquarters during a night of celebratory protests after the police chief of Ferguson had resigned earlier in the day. Three shots then rang out from across the street clearly targeting these police officers ... see: Reuters Story.

Many reliable witnesses swore that these policemen had their hands in the air.

Al Sharpton's is traveling to Ferguson to assess the situation for reverse racism ... as is Attorney General Holder ... on the advice of Mayor Bll de Blasio of New York City..

Stupid Statistics

With great fanfare and a slavishly uncritical media, outgoing Attorney General, Eric Holder, tried to make up for his department's lack of prosecuting that Ferguson, Missouri police officer, Darren Wilson, by making the case that the whole Ferguson police department was a bunch of racists. One particular he stated was that although Ferguson is 63% black, 86% of all traffic stops there were of black people ... ergo the police force is singling out blacks ... exhibiting their inherent racism ... see: New York Times Story. This kind of statistic proves absolutely nothing ... other than it might be that blacks disproportionally break Ferguson's traffic laws. Conveniently, A.G. Holder does not look into this possibility.

If Holder had instead stated that 39% of all Ferguson residents were under the age of 30, yet 56% of all traffic stops were people in this age group ... would this mean that the police there were discriminating against young people? Of course not ... so why are we subjected to his racist statistical extrapolation? Clearly the American public has had the drum-beat of these type of racist accusations for many years without any serious rebuttal ... and thus, we now accept such media tripe as gospel.

Yes, Holder's quoting of some racists e-mails does indicate that there are some bad apples in the Ferguson police department ... but the entire organization? I am more than certain that there is an undercurrent of anti-white police officer rhetoric circulating among Ferguson's young black community. Does this make the entire black community there racists? Of course not ... as was proven during the grand jury testimony when many blacks came forward with testimony which went against the "Hands up, don't shoot" perpetuated myth.

Also the Ferguson police department is faulted for not having proportional representation of the town's races. If this type of statistical syllogism has any merit, then why cannot one say that since 78% of NBA players are black whereas blacks represent only 12.3% of the U.S. population ... that this basketball association is exhibiting reverse racism? Can it not be that black players just tend to be better at this sport?

Why don't we look at such statistical misdirection in the face and conclude that Al Sharpton, Eric Holder and much of the media are also exhibiting as much or more racist tendencies than the Ferguson police department?

One might also read Paul Mirengoff's analysis of this statistical silliness in Powerline Part I . Watch for Part II.

Beanbag

I think it was the former and deceased Congressman from Massachusetts, Tip O'Neill, who famously said "Politics ain't beanbag." Now Democrat Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey is relearning this same lesson as he is apparently going to be indicted on criminal corruption charges as one of the last acts by our outgoing Attorney General, Eric Holder ... see: Reuters Story.

This clearly is a bit of political payback ... not that Senator Menedez is above reproach. He clearly is about as slimy as any Democrat politician (and a few Republicans) ... including his three possible junkets to the Dominican Republic to enjoy some hanky-panky with underage prostitutes ... all on the cuff of his friend and possible Medicare overcharger, Dr. Salomon Melgen ... see: Irony of Ironies...

However, Cuban-American Menendez's biggest mistake was vocally opposing the Obama administration on its Cuban and Iran policies. So Menedez is the one Democrat who is singled out for punishment ... not Charles Rangel, not Nancy Pelosi, not Al Sharpton, not Harry Reid, not Lois Lerner, not Hillary Clinton, etc. The only conclusion one can draw from this Menendez indictment ... it's OK today to be a reprobate as long as you toe the Democrat party line.

I guess we all knew this ... it is just depressing to see it unfold once again.

Tribute

“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute” -- Thomas Jefferson (his response to the Barbary pirates demand for money to keep them from attacking U.S. shipping.)

Tribute is nothing more than ransom paid to keep some entity from harming you. There are many instances of this practice … from the Mafia demanding a percentage of the profits of businesses as “protection money” to Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and other race baiters shaking down American businesses so that they are not accused of “racism” … see: ABC News Story.

Now the Muslims are getting into the payoff racket with demands for “Halal certification” which is a statement that a food purveyor has met the standards of the Islam faith. In exchange for paying a fee schedule, these purveyors are “allowed” to sell their products or services to the Muslim community … see the Australian schedule of demands: Q Society Story and in Malaysia: Malaysian Halal Rate Schedule. Unfortunately, many suspect that this certification money finds its way into funding much Muslim terrorism around the world.

In fact the recent jihad attack by a Muslim radical from Iran on a Sydney, Australia coffee shop seems somehow connected with this shop’s refusal to pay Halal tribute … see: Atlas Shrugged Story. Unfortunately, the number of businesses who do pay this Halal bribe seems to be large and growing.

What did Lenin say, “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them?” But, in this case, we seem to be giving them the rope.

Afterward: For validation of Sharpton's sleezeball style see: NY Post Story. Also my wife had an interesting comment, "Aren't taxes a form of protection money?"

More Things I Don't Get

I have previously posted a list of things that just go over my head ... see: Perloined Powerline. For the New Year, to show what a curmudgeon I really am,  I thought I would update this list of things that genuinely perplex me:

- The Uber® car service

- Monster truck shows

- Earned-income tax credits

- Bob Dylan's singing

- Social networking

- Pop Tarts®

- Starbucks® (baristas, etc..)

- Infinity pools

- Al Sharpton's religious credentials

- Cabo (Mexico)

- Bitcoins

- Pet reptiles

- Mayor Bill de Blasio

- Mojitos

- Renoir paintings

When Pigs Fly

I suppose that New York City’s Mayor Bill DeBlasio thought that no one would follow through with the taunts that were chanted at these past weeks’ protest marches, “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we what them? Now!” Stupid, stupid mayor! Now, two police officers are dead, one Hispanic and one Asian murdered in cold blood by an African-American in Brooklyn who boasted on Instagram that “I’m putting wings on pigs today.”  And these assassinations were primarily because the man-boy mayor clearly sympathized with the chanting protesters. And luckily two more police officers escaped this same fate in the Bronx when the gun of their would-be assassin jammed. Read the appalling details here … see: New York Daily News Story 

It is difficult to express how irresponsible the mayor of New York and his race-baiting cronies like Al Sharpton and, to a lesser extent, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, have behaved following the controversial deaths of two black men by the police in these last months. But clearly their hand ringing and two-faced rhetoric has contributed to this outcome … see: Open Wound. The street demonstrations around the country have caused numerous other incidents of violence against police officers … with the strong likelihood of more to follow. It would take a pretty naive (or stupid) politician to not expect these events to occur as a result of their tacit encouragements.

Here is not the place for a reprise of the grand jury’s decisions on the deaths of blacks in Ferguson and Staten Island, but it is the place to decry how many leaders have handled these decisions … and it is shameful. These reactions remind me of entertainers who hold up one hand to stop an audience's raucous reaction ... while lower-down using the other hand in the “come-along ... more” inward wave. Suddenly all cops are guilty of racism and all grand juries are tainted in the sub rosa text of these guttersnipes.

This is a perfect example of the old Biblical expression … “What ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

Afterward: For Powerline Blog's John Hinderacker's reaction to President Obama's reaction to these events see: Powerline Blog.

High Dudgeon

This nation’s media and our black leadership have their panties twisted in a bunch about the racists comments of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy (see:The Guardian Story.) and Donald Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers basketball team (see: Forbes Story.) Such naive and inappropriate utterances do deserve condemnation, but, for once, I would love to see the same media treatment of the equally offensive comments made by the likes of Louis Farrakhan, Jessie, Jackson, Bill Clinton, Al Sharpton, Harry Reid, Eric Holder, Jay-Z and Jeremiah Wright. I’m sure with a little thought or Goggling dear reader you can recall of what I write.

Such a narrative has always seemed to me to be strangely disproportionate when prominent blacks say offensive things. The media subtext usually reduces itself to “boys will be boys” and, with a wink and a nod, their mild discomfort never lasts more than one news cycle. And, even weirder, very often those actually condemning such hypocrisy receive the brunt of the media’s tsk-tsking. (And I am reasonably certain that many of you have already classified me as a racist for pointing out this gross disparity.) 

Very strange and diabolical indeed!

I Scratch My Head ...

I’ve often been curious as to why that race-baiter and supposed Reverend, Al Sharpton, has lived such a charmed life.  In the late 1980’s he defamed a police officer and a prosecuting attorney with the Tawana Brawley rape accusation, eventually losing a few hundred thousand lawsuit to the prosecuting attorney (later paid by others). He also instigated a riot in Harlem in 1995 which ended in the Jewish-owned store, Freddie’s Fashion Mart, being torched … causing the death of seven innocent people. The list of Sharpton’s scum-bag actions and utterances goes on and on … see: His Wikipedia Entry ... yet nothing seems to bring him down.  In fact his life keeps getting better. But now we possibly know why. Not only has he been an FBI informant against the mafia but he also appears to be a bosom-buddy to our President, Barack Obama … read all the details of their close relationship here: The Smoking Gun Story

Another of our President's close friends and frequent White House visitor, the rapper Jay Z (Beyonce's main squeeze) is also causing a ripple in the media with his apparent support of an organization called the Five Percent Nation which openly suggests that all white people are devils. Read how the media downplays this affiliation here: Huffington Post Entry or how it doesn't here: Washington Times Story ... interesting contrast.

I guess I am, once again, behind the times … and it’s now all right for our President to be so chummy with so many people who are clearly bigoted against white “folks” (remember Obama’s long-time pastor, Jeremiah Wright?)  This, to me, bizarre phenomenon eventually will be analyzed and put into perspective by historians.  But, till then, we clearly are living in interesting times when such obvious circumstantial evidence of presidential prejudice is repeatedly broomed under the rug by our liberal media. I scratch my head …