Headlines

Iran official says Israeli cities can be revenge targets

Iraqi parliament calls for US troops to be expelled — coalition suspends operations against ISIS

CARR: Trump ordered the strike, and came down to dinner cool, collected ...

Carlson: ‘Washington has wanted war with Iran for decades’

Flush with cash Yang wrestles with where to spend it

Trump threatens to hit 52 Iranian targets if Tehran retaliates over top general’s death

Patriots eliminated ...

Britain backs Trump on Iran, deploys Royal Navy to Persian Gulf

Britain orders navy to protect ships after Soleiman's killing

Graham wants to start Trump impeachment trial in days: ‘We need to take matters into our own hands’

Netanyahu, in apparent stumble, calls Israel ‘nuclear power’ ...

Iranian ex-pats in Canada celebrate [Soleimani’s] death ...

Powerline Pic

MFGA

Headlines

Even if you take the Nunes memo seriously, it makes no sense

Dow plunges 666 points, suffers worst week in 2 years

Trump approval pops to 49% ...

Poll: Only 16% of Americans rooting for Patriots to win ...

Russian probe lawyers think Mueller could indict Trump

Trump Nuclear Posture Review shows greater willingness to use nukes first, say critics

Pentagon ends Obama-era push to reduce nuke arsenal ...

WH shows 15 jihadis who got visas via lottery or chain migration

Nunes: Deputy AG Rosenstein will have a 'long career'

North Korea earned $200 million from banned exports, sends arms to Syria. Myranmar, UN report

Russia 'developing' undersea nuclear-armed torpedo ...

Trump to Democrats: Compromise on immigration now or get nothing after election

Term Limits

There is major problem with democracies ... at least in their current form. And most Americans agree. That is that politicians often enter office as poor reformers ... and leave office decades later filthy rich and in need of reforming. This is the opposite of what our founding fathers envisioned ... that of non-professional politicians who also had other jobs to which they would return after a few terms in office.

Term limits for politicians have been proposed as a solution, because those who once get elected have time-tested ways of convincing their voters that they really need to go back to Washington. Besides, term limits also wash out even the few good pols.  I think I may have a solution to this dilemma which I first proposed as a comment on Diplomad 2.0. That is that pols could accumulate retirement benefits for their first 6-10 years in office ... but then start losing them thereafter. If an elected official stayed in office for, say, 40 years, then all their retirement benefits would have been totally forfeited.

If this were the process, then only dedicated patriots would stay in office forever. Less motivated  and self-serving politicians would likely term-limit themselves out of office. Wouldn't that be nice?

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Roger Goodell was mercilessly booed off the field after Patriots Super Bowl win

Automation: Amazon plans to open store with only two employees ...

Trump is urged to put GPS trackers on refugees until travel ban decided ...

CA State Senate leader: 'Half my family' here illegally

Iran: Only seven minutes needed for missile to hit Tel Aviv ...

Iran-backed rebels launch missile at Saudi capital

Fail: Credit card ID theft rises since security chips ...

McConnell: No federal money for investigating voter fraud

CBS poll: Two-thirds of Democrats say Islam, Christianity equally violent

Drone worth $1.5 million goes missing at Arizona Army base

Kremlin breaks with Trump on Iran ...

Ivanka Trump and Jerad Kushner work to sink LGBT order

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Feds grant wavers to 872 refugees this week ...

Hill staffers secretly worked on Trump's immigration order

Dershowitz: Acting AG made a political decision, not a legal,one

Trump fires acting Attorney General

Establishment Republicans bash Trump's executive [immigration] order

New Mexico most snow in century ...

Wassermann Schlitz: Trump believes he was elected as dictator

Scarborough scalds 'self-rightous' Obama, says should keep his mouth shut

Layoffs at WSJ ...

Poll: Only 15% of Trump voters trust media ...

Poll: Only 27% of Americans want Patriots to win Super Bowl ...

Showdown: Bezos challenges Trump's ban ...

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

MLK's niece: I voted for Donald ...

MLK weekend sees 32 people shot in Chicago

Obama quietly transfers 10 Gitmo prisoners to Oman ...

Trump wants more press in Press Room ... bloggers may be included

Davos elites struggle for answers ...

Clinton Foundation shuts down Global Iniative ...

Mystery flashing lights speed past International Space Station ...

Germany fires back at Trump's threatened border tax: 'Build better cars'

At least 30 killed in Turkish Airlines crash in Kyrgyzstan ...

STEELERS coach caught calling the Patriots 'assholes' ...

FBI arrests wife of Orlando nightclub terrorist ...

Hundreds of U.S. Marines land in Norway ... irking Russia ...

Taking a Knee

Keeping to my pledge, I have yet to watch a single NFL game ... either on Sunday, Monday night or Thursday night ... and, you know what? ... I am beginning to know how to get along without this machismo palliative. I've gone cold turkey with my quixotic protest. Yes, I do Google the results of the Patriots' game after the fact ... but I no longer hang on Brady's passing performance (sorry Tom) or Gronk's receptions! And I have invested enough negative emotion so that I now intend to keep this up until Roger Goodell himself takes a knee and comes down hard on these anthem protesters. These highly-paid jocklets  need to realize from whence their pay checks come and learn that any gripes they have need to be settled in a more patriotic way.

If these crybabies insist on pissing on my flag, I, along with millions of other Americans, will piss on their hyper-inflated egos feed by their hyper-inflated pay checks. And, if they don't like our protests, then I suggest they volunteer for military service for a few years to understand what this meta-game is all about. The risk in this superior bowl involves their lives ... not just their ACLs.

2016 Predictions

Once again I post some of the more interesting predictions made at our traditional New Year's Eve festivities:

- Kasich is on Republican ticket with Ted Cruz
               
 - ISIS will be eliminated but darker force takes its place

- One of George’s blogs will be picked up by major newspaper

- Fitbit recalls millions of units – give false sense of higher activity

- Bill Cosby is NOT found guilty

- Merkel is out in Germany                          

- Saudi Arabia will be attacked by ISIS or al Qaeda

- Hillary wins – appoints Trump Secretary of State

- A terrorist strike in London and Berlin

- An illness takes Donald Trump out of presidential race                 

And here are a few of the right-on predictions from last year:

- ISIS creates chaos in France 

- De Blasio will take NYC back to the chaos under David Dinkins

- Obamacare will suffer serious setbacks

- Patriots win Super Bowl

- Malaysian Airlines flight 370 will finally be located

Groundhog Day

Watching the endless media repeating of the New England Patriot interception of the bizarre goal-line pass by the Seattle Seahawks in yesterday's Superbowl, I am feeling very much like Bill Murray in his cinematic looped experiences in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania ... reliving Groundhog Day over and over and over and over. And I am certain that the world will have these Patriot winning celebrations burned into our brains over the next weeks. The only politician who will be exempt from these eternal and infernal Groundhog Day festivities will be Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City, who dropped last year's groundhog ... sending it to its maker ... see: NY Daily News Story.

This mayor attempted to blame white police officers for this miscue, but even the liberal media wasn't buying this lamo excuse. But Al Sharpton's was.

Predictions for 2011

Every New Year's Eve a group of friends get together to feast, imbibe, tell stories, Yankee swap, and make predictions for the coming year.  Here are some of the more interesting predictions for 2011:

• Facebook takes second place to a glossier social networking site

• The Euro will decline by at least 20%

• Serious civil unrest in Venezuela

• North Korea will suffer an economic collapse

• Oprah decides to run for public office

• Kate Middleton will be 2 months pregnant at her royal wedding

• Gracie Mansion (NYC) will be held by terrorists for 12 hours: 5 killed, 7 wounded

• True Grit will win Best Movie Oscar

• Prominent Wall St. firm will collapse amidst political scandal

• Suze Orman will file for bankruptcy

• Patriots win League championship and then Superbowl by 14+

• Obama proves he was born in the U.S.A.

• Glenn Beck retires after scandals hound him

• Bottled water co. has massive recall -- contaminated by plastic bottles

• Supreme Court Justice is caught in illegal activities, steps down

• Two major religions talk merger

• A plot to disrupt the power gird is foiled, but only after 1/4 of the country goes dark

• Tiger Woods declares he is gay

• Randy Moss begs to come back to Patriots and is welcomed home

• Unemployment will fall below 8%

• Gold prices will stall but silver prices will go up by 20%+

• More global warming data found to be fudged

• Massive student-loan meltdown -- Uncle Sam foots the bill

• One state will declare bankruptcy

• Colin Firth wins Best Actor Oscar for The King’s Speech