Nostalgia

From reddit Pics

Once common ... a steam engine in Colorado ...

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Headlines

Colorado governor defends move to reopen

Coronavirus live updates: NY to plan phased reopening after hospitalizations decline for two weeks

U.S. deaths 53, 983 ...

Birx: Trump knows disinfectant ‘not a treatment’

“It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle,’ Birx says on Trump’s disinfectant and light comments

Trump pulls punches and clings to his China trade deal after backlash against Beijing grows

Mnuchin: Bounce-back by election ...

Adam Schiff: 50,000 Americans dead because Trump wasn’t removed

Italy and Spain announce plans to ease coronavirus lockdowns further

More than 5,000 New York pharmacies to give coronavirus tests in bid to screen 40,000 people daily

With Kim Jong Un’s health uncertain, focus shifts to powerful sister Kim Yo ...

[Gov.] Whitmer: ‘Most important thing we can do is vote by mail’

Headlines

Soak the rich? Americans say go for it

Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders call for restrictions on corporate share buybacks

FLASH: Super Bowl ratings 10-year low ...

College caught using Photoshop to appear more 'diverse'

Dems hope to draw blood with potential Trump SCOTUS pick

Ocasio-Cortez and Warren's wealth tax plans are 'economically illiterate': Trump advisor

Hawaii considers ban on cigarette sales ...

Colorado Senate passes bill nixing Electoral College for popular vote

Poll: Democrats have reason to fret Schultz

Tesla to buy energy tech company Maxwell Technologies for $218 million

Man considers suing parents for giving birth 'without his consent' ...

Brady's 6th Super Bowl win infuriates Trump haters

Headlines

Supreme Court rules narrowly in favor of Colorado baker in same-sex marriage case

McDonald's to add self-order kiosks to 1,000 stores each quarter

Koch bros. to spend millions to oppose Trump's rariffs ...

Facebook gave personal data to 60 companies?

Democrat on Facebook report: 'Sure looks like Zukerberg lied to Congress'

JP Morgan upgrades US Stocks, downgrades Europe on Italy political turmoil

Nunes: Twitter is censoring Drudge

Report: U.S. considers expanded military operations in Yemen

Anti-immigration party wins Slovenian election

Trump: 'I have the absolute right to PARDON myself'

Guetemala volcano eruption kills 25, injures hundreds ...

Report: NKorea shakes up military leadership ahead of summit

Picture of the Day

From Powerline Blog

Capitalism

Yesterday at a block party, I was talking to the parents of a neighbor. They told me that they had just returned from a short trip to Colorado. In kidding, I asked them if they had "indulged" in a Rocky Mountain high while they were there? They relayed two interesting facts about Denver doobies ... 1) A single marijuana cigarette there costs $15 ... Wow! and, 2) When they were in the airport leaving Colorado ... by the check-in gate was a big trash bin with a sign saying, "Don't even think about it!"

I am encouraged ... apparently capitalism and the free market is still at work ...

Greasing the Skids

The Republican Party in Colorado has pulled a fast one ... disenfranchising the GOP voters there from having a say in selecting their delegates to the GOP presidential convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July. In a series of sly establishment moves, they have awarded all 36 Colorado delegates to this convention to Ted Cruz ... and Donald Trump is furious as a consequence ... see: Denver Post Story.

These types of delegate stealing tactics are being attempted across the country ... South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri ... to make Cruz delegate richer at the expense of Trump. This is the Republican establishment fighting back under the assumption that a Trump candidacy would cost it the White House and at least one house of Congress. Whether this is the case or not is disputable but is what rationale is being forwarded for these hard-ball actions on the part of the Republican National Committee.

And, while Cruz is basking in this current RNC attention ... thinking that it is greasing the skids for him, he might be surprised, come convention time, when he is jettisoned in favor of a more establishment candidate like Kasich or even a parachuted-in Paul Ryan.

Performing this way on the part of the GOP runs the risk of causing many of its voters to stay home in November ... which creates a possible lose-lose situation if Donal Trump is denied the nomination. But would I vote for Cruz? Yes, if for no other reason than whom he would appoint to the Supreme Court. Would I vote for Kasich? Yes, he might even return us to fiscal sanity. Yes, Trump for his immigration stands. I would even hold my nose and vote for Ryan if it comes down to that. Anyone but Hellery.

Afterthought: The Republicans are Boy Scouts in the nomination process for their candidate when compared to the Democrats.

Cheaters

Whenever society attempts to accommodate its disadvantaged and infirmed, there are elements in that society that try to take advantage of these accommodations. We have too often seen these cheaters among us ... handicapped parkers who aren't really handicapped ... pets that are passed off as "service animals." Now Colorado is fighting back. It is considering making the faking of service animals a crime ... see: Denver Post Story. Yes, abusing handicapped parking is theoretically punished, but every day we see such cheaters that are ignored (see the above picture). And just imagine the authorities in Colorado trying to tell a dowager that her little "Muffie" doesn't qualify as a service animal.

Afterward: See: Hollywood Reporter Story.

reddit Gallery XIV -- Waterfalls

Another excursion into the world of reddit pictures.  See reddit Pics for sources.  Click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Colorado

Grand Canyon

Norway

Great Smokey Mountains

Zion National Park

Culture Warrior

Apparently the race for the Republican Presidential nomination has shifted away from fixing our economic malaise and reining-in our national deficits toward the remedying of traditional right-wing cultural issues ... abortion, gay marriage and sterilization services.  The evidence for this is Rick Santorum's three primary/caucus victories in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri on Tuesday.  Some of the precipitating events for these upsets occurring, I think, may be the better-than-expected unemployment statistics that were recently released by the Obama administration ... coupled with the recent HHS's Sebelius's abortion/sterilization health-care-coverage edict that has roiled the Catholic Church ... and the recent overturning of the gay-marriage ban in California by the 9th Circuit of Appeals.

My take on this political sea change is that it is a huge mistake on the part of American conservatives.  To paraphrase James Carville ... "it was, is and will be the economy stupid."  I honestly believe that we have not yet even begun to reverse our forced march toward national penury.