Headlines

Exclusive: Trump's FEMA administrator under investigation for use of official cars

GM  recalls over 1 million pickups, SUVs for power steering problems

Eyewall down, Florence weakens, winds 105 mph

Dalai Lama: 'Europe belongs to Europeans,' refugees should rebuild homelands

Trump accuses Democrats of inflating Puerto Rico [hurricane] death toll

Alphabet's Larry Page has reportedly checked out, spending more time on his private island

Michael Moore accused of stiffing, smearing vendors ...

Turkey's Erdogan in the Wall Street Journal: 'The world must stop Assad'

GOP Senators: No Sessions replacement could get confirmed

Kaepernick buzz may be fading, Nike online sales return to levels before the ad

Monopoly busting case against Google, Amazon, Uber, Facebook ...

Food stamp usage declines for eight straight month ...

Headlines

'Tosay is a bad day for world trade": Trump slaps U.S. allies with tariffs

Trump reportedly said he wants to stop imports of German luxury cars in the US

NK official  expected at White House on Friday ...

Elizabeth Warren: Trump is 'willfully blind' to racism

White House stonewalling government watchdog, agency says

Market will shrug off trade tussle with Europe because NAFTA and China are what really matter

Savings rate back near record low, Americans spend more than make ...

Rubio: Congress will have supermajority to block Trump's deal on ZTE

Trump says he'll pardon conservative filmmaker, Dinesh D'Souza

Goldman [Sachs] banker charged with insider trading

Assad warns US troops to leave Syria as he raises prospect of clash ...

Trey Gowdy saus America  people 'want' FBI informant in campaign

Headlines

Risks loom for Comey's book blitz

Michael Cohen disputes story that claims Mueller has evidence of Prague trip

Rissia floods Net with more bots ...

James Comey hints at another Loretta Lynch scandal ...

Cohen ordered to release client list by Monday

Laura Ingraham holds on to timeslot lead in return to cable news

Erdogan welcome [U.S.] move against Assad ...

'Violent explosion' rocks Aleppo base, claims of Iranian casualties

Trump was right to hit Syria, but he should stop there

Arrests, injuries as French protesters challenge Macron

Rushed AMAZON warehouse staff forced to pee into bottles ...

Report: Trump's immigration policies raising restaurant wages

Headlines

Schumer struggles to contain Warren-led rebellion

Britain cracks down on Russian spies: GET OUT!

Report: Kudlow joining White House ...

Poll/ 70% of GOP voters favor Trump tariffs

Rand Paul opposes Pompeo's nomination to lead State Department

Texas anti-sanctuary city law upheld in federal court

Elderly in USA to outnumber children for first time ...

Top U.S. commander: Bashar Al-Assad haswon in Syrian civil war

Gowdy breaks with GOP committee, says Russia worked to undermine Clinton

Ryan: Pennsylvaia is 'not something you are going to see repeated'

Stephen Hawking dead at 76 ...

Report: Trump to unveil massive 'package of teriffs' against China

Headlines

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

Busted: West Point cadet convicted of drug dealing ...

Trump's $1T[rillion] infrastructure plan could wind up in a ditch

US Special Forces take out entire ISIS team, assaulting Syrian base that trains rebels

Trump: USA ready to solve N. Korea problem without China

Chinese firm halves employment costs by hiring army of robots ...

Fitton: Documents confirm Obama IRS targeted conservatives

Washington Post's Trump coverage among Pulitzer winners

Judge rules Texas voter law is discriminatory

Slavery returns to Africa: Migrants sold on open marker in Libya ...

Trump vexed by Assad's motivation for chemical attack

Tillerson: Russia must chose between Assad and the U.S.

Report: Foreigners now account for 61% of federal arrests

Headlines

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

Update: Trump NKorea options include nukes in South, Kim assassination ...

Trump tweets: 'Time will tell' on trade with China ...

Woodrow Wilson airbrushed from Princeton Club

Bannon and Kushner hold sit down in attempt to bury the hatchet

MSNBC's O'Donnell: Putin masterminded chemical attack to make Trump look good

Catholic leaders criticize Trump attack on Assad: Christians will suffer

Google employees could buy 5 houses for the price of 1 if they left Silicon Valley

British Foreign Secretary cancels Moscow trip over Syria

Susan Rice bragged about how Obama Admin got Assad to hand over all chemical weapons

Goldman-Sachs: Asteroid mining is coming

Going grey early increases heart attack risk ...

Sweden identifies truck attack suspect as Uzbek native, 39

Headlines

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

Duerte orders Philippine troops to South China Sea reefs ...

Tillerson: 'It would seem that Assad should no longer lead Syria'

Obama to launch big foundation speaking career

Ron Paul: 'Zero chance' Assad behind chemical attack

Mitt Romney exploring Senate run ...

U.S. woman stabbed to death by migrant who recently arrived in France

Breaking: Truck in Sweden reported ramming crowd, several reported dead

Civil war rages throughout the Trump administration

Trump kept up pageantry as Syrian strikes unfolded

Pentagon plans major missile intercept test ...

Trump's troll army isn't ready for war in Syria

Kremlin says support for Assad 'not unconditional' ...

Headlines

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

Democrats aim to take out Cruz in 2018

SpaceX pulls off first reused rocket launch ... in triumph for Musk ...

Two Senate Dems will back Gorsuch ...

Child molestation, homicide not enough to keep these two guys off VA payroll

Rand Paul: 75% chance for repeal of Obamacare

Pakistan allows citizen to register as a Jew for first time since 1980s

Venezuela one man rule ... court dissolves legislature ...

Schiff: Did White House seek to launder evidence through Nunes?

Haley: U.S. no longer focused on removing Assad from power

Biden: 9 Republican senators told me they knew opposing Garland was wrong

Congress mulls illegal immigration tax to pay for border wall

Huge section of I-85 in Atlanta collapses after fire

Headlines

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

Tennessee sues over refugee resettlement constitutionality ...

Trump signals 'big fat beautiful negotiations' on healthcare bill

Facebook bans giving out private user data for government surveillance

Democrats paralyzed as Gorsuch skates

[Syria's] Assad complains Trump is not talking to him

Spicer: Trump 'doesn't really think' that Obama personally wiretapped him

GOP scrambles after scorching health bill appraisal

DOJ asks for more time to address Trump's wiretapping claim

Sanders: Thousands of Americans will die becaus of GOP Obamamcare reform

White House seeks to cut billions in funding for United Nations

Minnesota city bans sale of dogs, cats at pet store ...

CBO: 24 million fewer insured under GOP Obamacare repeal

A Loose Cannon

Hellery Clinton is now calling Donald Trump "a loose cannon." I suspect that anyone who has been awake for the last ten months would agree with this micro-aggression ... however quite a few do not hold it against him. Matter of fact, some, like myself, think that such an artillery piece rolling around in the White House would keep many of the United States's antagonists up at night ... not knowing what President Trump might do next.

Yes, some of the other loose cannons in the world might try to out-Trump Trump ... setting up possible dangerous confrontations. But Iran's Khamenei, Syria's Assad, North Korea's Kim Jong-un, and Russia's Putin have been saber-rattling enough as it is. I suspect that a lot of their bluster is because of the shrinking violet that we currently have ensconced at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But much as Obummer has tried to emasculate the United States, we are still a formidable military might ... and I doubt if any of these martinets would be willing to truly test us.

That leaves China. A great deal of China's economic future is dependent on its chief customer's continued buying spree ... and that chief customer is us. In a very obvious way, if China were to start hostilities with the United States, it would be cutting off its fire-breathing snout to spite its dragon face. So I suspect that China may cross the street to avoid any real confrontation with Trump ... at least for his tenure.

So ... like so many of Hellery's campaign bombasts ... this latest fusillade has likely misfired.

Forgotten Fact

Here is a bit of embarrassing President Obummer (and Hellery Clinton) "stupid shit" detritus.that has been swept under the media rug ... and it is that the United States enthusiastically restored full diplomatic relations with Assad's Syria in 2009 ... see: World Tribune Article. It took me a while to find even this secondary reference to this event ... which begs the question -- is Google scrubbing its data-set history for political purpose? See: The Intercept Story.

And has Hellery been asked a single question about her involvement in this embarrassing State Department decision during any of the media-sponsored Democrat debates? No? Strange ...

The Ship of State

Old Ironsides

The United States must really have some special resilience going for it to have survived the last five years ... maybe even longer ... of domestic and international screw-ups.  Whether this mismanagement is purposeful or as a result of incompetence is almost beside the point.  Our country has been buffeted by a series of fiscal, operational, and diplomatic tidal waves that would have sunk even the sturdiest of ships … yet we sail on … a little slower and shakier than would be nice … but we are thankfully still afloat.

I hope I need not detail these tsunamis … which should be quite obvious to those seamen even traveling in steerage.  Can I just tweak a few reminders …  the IRS, huge deficit spending, Benghazi, Iran, NSA, Obamacare, the Muslim Brotherhood, Fast and Furious, North Korea, the stimulus, amnesty, Solendra, illegal immigrants, Assad, the fiscal cliff, EBT cards, unemployment, Afghanistan, global warming, Edward Snowden, SDI, increased tax rates, the debt ceiling, Excel pipeline, etc.?  We have placed a tyro at the helm of our ship of state who appears somehow oblivious to these buffetings … just as long as he can play some golf, have his White House soirees, and pick his March Madness brackets.

Our man-o-war surely must be rock-ribbed.

What's the Point?

I happen to believe that the world and, yes, the United States should punish Assad for his chemical attacks on his people ... as opposed to the opinion of the vast majority of the American people.  And I have just witnessed the President's press conference in St. Petersburg wherein it seems clear that, even if Congress does not endorse our bombing of Syria, Obama is inclined (at least rhetorically) to go ahead anyway (see: Mediaite Story).

The question then presents itself ... if I were a member of the U.S. legislature, why would I then go against the will of my constituents and back Obama when it may not make one iota of difference in what eventually happens?  What's the purpose of all this legislative theater anyway?  Is it just to delay things?  Is it to provide Obama some rationalisation for his past inaction ... and justification for his previously ill-chosen words?  Maybe it is just to change the subject from the myriad of Obama's domestic problems?

What is Obama's real rationale?  What is the point?

Tennis Anyone?

Our reluctant warrior, President Obama, last Friday interrupted his golf game long enough to lob the Syrian war-making judgment back into Congress’s court … not so much, I believe, out of respect for the Constitution or the War Powers Act, but rather as a way of postponing the actual start of belligerencies for another two weeks.  If Congress then deliberates and confirms his dubious decision to try to take out some of Assad’s chemical-weapon delivery mechanisms, then he, once again, might be able to off-load any serious political repercussions if things go poorly.  Ad in.

But I say “dubious decision” because, like the Israelis, I also doubt that, even if Congress gives him the go-ahead, he will actually serve the ball … see: Powerline Comments.  If however Congress, like the British Parliament and Germany, says “no,” then Obama can slink away from this confrontation with a very small shred of his dignity preserved.  He will then, once again, have spoken loudly but carried a small stick … independent of Vice President Joe Biden’s crass innuendo.

As to my “reluctant warrior” comment …we now know that President Obama played cards during much of the Abbottabad raid on the Osama bin Laden compound and concluded his Friday’s challenge to Congress over Syria’s use of chemical weapons by going off to play another round of golf.  Either our President has nerves of steel or a spine of spaghetti.  I think history will tilt toward the pasta.

The Escalator

The United States, after an exhaustive study, has reluctantly concluded that Syria leaders have used chemical weapons against their own people … crossing Obama’s “red line.”  Thus the U.S. will now send small arms and ammunition to the rebels there … “satisfying” Presidents Obama’s pronouncement that such actions on Syria’s part would incur “enormous consequences.”  Not to be outdone in this pissing contest, Russia’s Premier Putin has warned Obama not to take such an action.  Meanwhile Saudi Arabia is also providing the Syrian rebels with MANPAD anti-aircraft missiles (however unfortunate the name) … see: France24 Story.

Again upping the ante, Iran is sending 4,000 Revolutionary Guard soldiers to aid Assad in his counter-revolutionary struggle … see: Daily Mail Story …  and Hezbollah has also entered the fray on the side of Assad … see: Huffington Post Story.

This Syrian struggle has clearly now become another proxy war between the East and the West … like so many of the other bloody conflicts over the last seventy years. And it is also another brutal cage match between the various Muslim sects. Moreover, it is rapidly escalating … to a point where things might easily get out of hand.  Clearly, the American public has not the stomach for more involvement in such mayhem and Israel is secretly relishing the possible neutralization of one of its primary enemies … at least for the nonce.

This weekend I drove past a group of about a dozen postered protesters against war … standing in a local church yard.  I somehow doubt that Assad or Putin or Senator John McCain were listening.  Maybe President Obama heard their visual whispers.  Then again, maybe not ... there is this thing called "saving face.".

Dubious Achievements

Since former President, Bill Clinton, has just been named “Father of the Year” by the National Father’s Day Council … see: USA Today Story, a dubious achievement if there ever was one, I thought I might also assemble a number of other recent winners of equally dubious honors.  They are:

Tim Tebow – “The Bronzed Bench” from the New York Jets

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – American Jewish Congress’s “Best Friend of Israel” Sash

Nancy Pelosi – the Plastic Surgeons’ Patient of the Year Award (the “Golden Scalpel”)

Harry Reid – Four gold-framed U.S. Budgets from the previous four fiscal years
Rush Limbaugh – Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year”

Elizabeth Warren -- Honorary Membership in the Cherokee Nation

Bashar al-Assad – UNESCO’s “Greatest Love of One’s Countrymen” Gold Medal

Joe Biden – Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University

Anthony Weiner – Cosmo Magazine’s “Sexiest Centerfold” Award

Maya Angelou – the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Hillary Clinton – “Most Underrated Politician” Loving Cup from the U.S. House
Mohamed Morsi – the Muslim Brotherhood’s blood-framed “Sacred Oath”

Barney Frank – “Handsomest Couple of the Year” Award from Bride’s Magazine

Justin Bieber – People Magazine’s “Most Metrosexual” Honor

Mayor Tom Menino of Boston – the Demosthenes Award for Outstanding Diction

Barack Obama – the Nobel Peace Prize

Terms of Endearment

The following is a test of your perspicacity and political savvy.   You are herein asked (as a comment to this blog) to attach one or more of these terms of endearment to one or more of the following people: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar al-Assad, Joe Biden, Justin Bieber, John Boehner, George W. Bush, Dick Chaney, Hugo Chavez, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barney Frank, Lady Gaga, Rush Limbaugh, Madonna, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Mitt Romney, Mohamed Morsi, Bibi Netanyahu, Nancy Pelosi, Vladamir Putin, Tim Tebow  (NO PROFANITIES PLEASE!)

Ankle Pecker
Ass Wipe
Babinzo
Badonkadonk

Blaggard

Blatherskite

Boob
Bubblehead
Bumpkin

Charlatan
Chawbacon
Chowderhead
Clown
Cockalorum
Cockroach

Coxcomb
Creep

Curmudgeon
Despot
Diaper Licker
Dolt
Doofus
Drip

Dunderhead
Dweeb
Fliptwiddle

Fop
Fruitloop
Guttersnipe

Harridan
Hick
Honeyfugler
Horndog
Horse's Petute
Ignoramus
Imp

Jackanape

Jamoke
Knave
Kook
Leech
Lickspittle
Lout
Lowlife
Meathead

Misanthrope

Miscreant
Moonbat
Mooncalf

Mountebank

Mugwump
Muttonhead

Namby Pamby

Nebbish

Nimrod
Ninnyhammer

Noddy

Nudnik
Oinker
Peck's bad boy

Pecksniffian

Pettifogger
Pillack
Pipsqueek

Poltroon
Pond Scum

Popinjay
Puddin Head
Puke
Puzzlewit

Quidnunc
Quisling

Rapscallion

Rascal
Reprobate

Rogue
Rotter
Rumpswab
Scallywag
Scamp
Scapegrace

Schlemiel

Schmozzle
Schmuck

Schlub
Scoundrel

Shlump

Shmegegi

Shrew

Skellum

Slattern
Sleezeball
Snake Oil Salesman

Snollygoster

Sop

Troglodyte
Twerp
Twit

Varlet
Wack-a-doodle
Wisenheimer
Wingnut
Wise Ass
Wowser
Yahoo

Yenta

Yokel