Headlines

Impeachment threat is helping GOP recruit candidates

Joe Biden calls for Trump’s impeachment for the first time

Hillary’s joking right? ‘I can beat him again!’

Ronan Farrow claims Hillary pressured him to kill Weinstein story

Top labor leader says USMCA will be defeated if quick vote is held

US-China trade talks are about to start — a cut-down deal could lift some tariffs by year-end

Trump: Take your probe and shove it! Poll: Impeached and re-elected?

More evidence Elizabeth Warren lied about being fired for being pregnant

Turkey launches incursion into northern Syria

Fox terminates Trey Gowdy amid reports he joined Trump’s legal team

Kurds vow to use human shields against Turkish troops  ...

Genocide: China bulldozing Ulghur cemeteries to make them more ‘civilized’ ...

reddit Pic

Lenticular clouds above Mt. Fuji ...

Yawn!

Why would our national media ignore this win for theTrump administration? See: daily timewaster blog entry. The second largest container port in the US, Long Beach, is now back under our nation’s control. Who ceded this national asset to Chinese Communist control not so long ago? One guess!

The Dilemma

The war is on! Many American companies are now faced with a fundamental dilemma ... cave to China’s censorship and restrictions on fundamental human freedoms or ... lose commercial access to China’s 1.4 billion customer. Unfortunately, many of these companies have chosen to kowtow to Xi and abandon these freedoms for pelf. I suppose that profit is so fundamental to corporate success that such decisions are understandable but not admirable.

As an example, the NBA has 25 million fan in the US, but 40 million viewers in China. What does the NBA do when the Houston Rockets GM tweets support for the Hong Kong protesters? They cave and grovel to the Chinese. Understandable but unfortunate. This defines the dilemma.

May I make a suggestion? The NBA has obviously chosen where it’s future lies ... and so its answer should be the same as any corporation so dependent on China ... which is not involved in our national security.

Move operations to China! And kiss your US customers goodbye!

Fractured Definition

Belladonna —  a very strange marriage between Mr. Lagosi and Miss Shalala ... with dilated eyes

Headlines

Lindsey Graham invites Giuliani to testify in front of Senate Judiciary panel

Powell says the Fed will start expanding its balance sheet ‘soon’ in response to funding issues

Turkey rejects Trump’s threats amid conflicting signals over Syrian offensive ... Erdogan coming to Washington?

More clues Elizabeth Warren lied about being fired for pregnancy

Border apprehensions drop for fourth straight month, CBP chief says

China ‘strongly urges’ US to remove sanctions and stop accusing it of human rights violations

Shock poll: 3 in 10 Republicans support impeachment push ...

Donal Trump announces deal with Turkey to withdraw troops

China rejects Trump’s call to investigate Biden and son

The father of the yield-curve indicator says now is the time to prepare for a recession

China punishes NBA ... Suspends broadcasts ... Will LeBron speak up, or end up sellout?

Democrats in Red States struggling to defend impeachment back home

Fractured Definition

Ruthless — the Boston Red Sox after January, 1920

Reality Show

What is real? The dichotomy between world views has never been greater in my estimation. President Donald Trump has pulled the pin on this media grenade and the explosion is rocking vast swathes of peoples’ perception of reality. It seems clear to this observer that our natural national unity is being torn apart by current events. Is Adam Schiff lying? And, if so, does he know he is lying? What about President Trump?

Is it possible to have two diametrically different views of the world that are both true? Or both false?

This is a battle of the Titans. On one side we have the Deep State once led by Obama's intelligence agencies ... and backed by much of the media ... including even pieces of FoxNews and theDrudge Report. And on the other side is Donald Trump with his meager band of Republican supporters. Kind of a gigantic mismatch ... yet he is holding his ground by not playing the game the way he is supposed to play it. He punches back. Unfair!

The media and those who want the media’s blessing are supreme. And crossing the intelligence agencies is sure suicide. Didn’t Chuck Schumer say that the spooks have a hundred ways from Sunday to get back at you? And the Orange Man is learning this lesson.

I often used the term “spittle flecked” to describe Trump’s rabid opposition ... and I can’t help to wonder if their opposition to Trump derives from noble or ignoble motivations. Obviously, I think the latter ... but what do these opponents think? Can they be so evil that they would try to destroy someone who seems to be trying to restore America to it’s previous glory? Or are Trump’s motivations also sinister? Are these motivations as self-serving as his enemies?

Tune in next week, same time, same station to find out ...

Relativity

From reddit Pics

Problems are always relative ...

Advice

Not that President Trump or his people read this blog... but I nevertheless have some advice for them anyway. If China trade negotiators arrive this week proposing an interim trade agreement that does not address the major issues — theft of intellectual property and forced technology transfer ... otherwise known as a trade-deal light — I think Trump should decline this deal and insist on the terms that were being hammered out last Spring.

If China demurs, then Trump should cut off western capital flows into China. The easiest way to do this would be to then insist that all Chinese companies listed on American stock exchanges comply with generally accepted accounting principles and undergo an annual audit by a reputable accounting firm ... China being the only country granted these exemptions ... and forcing their compliance is quite a rational request. That could and should take the wind out of the Chinese ambitions to dominate world commerce by 2025.

Headlines

Republicans unload on Trump for Syrian shift when he needs em most

Senators pile on the NBA for yielding to China over Rockets GM pro-Hong Kong tweet

Supreme Court begins without ill Clarence Thomas ...

Republicans, Independents supporting POTUS ‘in ways that they were not doing before’

Harris proposes six months of government-paid family leave

Oil slips as US-China trade talks loom

Two earthquakes rattle Charlotte area ...

Mitt Romney: Trump’s Syria withdrawal a ‘betrayal’ of Kurds

‘POTUS went rogue’: Trump’s Syria move blindsides national security leaders

The 50-year low in unemployment isn’t helping workers paychecks

Minneapolis police union selling ‘Cops for Trump’ shirts ahead of rally

Elizabeth Warren calls to ‘reclaim the court’ and impeach Kavanaugh

Fractured Definition

Balderdash — a short race restricted to men who are more hirsute deficient

Obvious Truth

Elizabeth Warren has but a distant and tenuous acquaintance with the actual facts. — Anon.

Animus

I found our previous president to be seriously unqualified for his job ... even with his extensive posse. As proof of this conclusion, I can only point to all the corrective actions that Trump has had to take since assuming office. Ergo, I clearly disliked Obama ... not because of his race, personality or sexual preferences ... but because of his backward and naive politics. But I didn’t HATE him.

Fast forward three years. Now, there is a substantial group inside the government (the Deep State) and the media who clearly HATE Trump ... no, not just hate, they despise him. This white-hot hate is mostly directed at our president because of his sand-paper personality. Many of his policies are often reluctantly and silently agreed to by the Left. But, this doesn’t bank the fire. (General Patton was not liked by many ... but he was a very effective warrior.)

Most of Trump’s domestic decisions have be winners ... even his immigration policies are beginning to bite ... even with severe push-back from Democrats. Certainly the Trump economy is on track despite the penalty being paid by his trade war. His foreign policy is still a work-in-progress ... hamstrung by the Democrats winning the House in 2018. Clearly the Democrat insurrection there has caused foreign leaders like Xi and Kim to try to wait Trump out ... hoping that more favorable opponents will be occupying the White House in 2021.

Such extreme hate is corrosive. It destroys the hater much more than the object of this hate. In fact, one could argue that this extreme resistance is motivating Trump. He seems to enjoy tweaking the haters which only makes them hate him more. Never in my life time have I witnessed more disloyalty on the part of those inside a president’s administration. Even people that I admire, like General Mattis, believe that their world view is superior to DJT’s ... even though this cuts across the tenets of his military training.

Next time you hear a left-wing diatribe singling out Trump, listen carefully to the motivation of this hatred ... invariably it will include at least one ad hominem ... proof that logic has disappeared  into the jaws of animus personified.

Afterward: I just realized that I forgot to use the term “spittle flecked.”

Fractured Definition

Transaction — what most cisgenders are NOT seeking

Headlines

Jim Jordan: Trump not serious in calls for China to investigate Biden

UAW says GM labor talks ‘have taken a turn for the worse’

IMPEACHMENT 2019: ‘Never Trump coalition’ decides he’s fine ...

Exclusive — Kevin McCarthy: Pelosi must sideline Schiff

Macron: We’ll know soon on Brexit deal

There is now a second whistleblower in the Trump Ukraine case

4 killed, 5 injured in Kansas City bar shooting ... Hunt for killer ...

‘Depressed’ Willie Brown: Only Hillary Clinton can beat Donald Trump

Boris Johnson: ‘We’re packing our bag and walking out’ in 25 days

US small businesses fight an uphill battle against counterfeiters in China: ‘Its a wack-a-mole’

Pope opens debate on celibacy requirement for Catholic priests ...

Canada: Mass migration drives pop[ulation] growth

reddit Pic

Frozen bird call ...

Smoking Gun

James Clapper, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence (a misnomer if there was ever was one), has admitted on national TV that his then Commander in Chief, the Chosen One, personally directed Peter Strzok to open operation Crossfire Hurricane, the Russian collusion investigation against Trump BEFORE HE WAS ELECTED! See: Real Clear Politics.

If this is not a smoking gun, I don’t know what is ...

Tough One (Updated)

I generally agree with Trump’s policies ... however, his recent decision to abandon the Kurds in northern Syria by pulling out our trip-wire troops has me scratching my head. If this scenario plays out, Turkey will invade Syria and try to massacre our Kurdish allies and likely also release the thousands of IsIS prisoners (including many Europeans) that the Kurds are now guarding. See: BBC Story.

I realize that Trump has vowed to reduce America’s foreign involvements ... a good thing, but this recent decision seems ill-timed and probably ill-advised. I hope I’m wrong ... and Trump is not folding to that tyrant Erdogan. If Trump has reasons for this decision beyond what has been revealed, I think he needs to communicate this rational to the American people post haste.

Afterward: President Trump claims that a primary reason for pulling our troops out is that those countries from which these 10,000 ISIS prisoners cam from won’t take them back and jail them. Perhaps we should just transport them back to their countries unannounced and let the devil take the hindquarters. And then warn Turkey to keep its hands off the Kurds ... or else!

Lip Syncing

The video above, found on the Diogenes’ Middle Finger blog, is a lip syncing of Hillary saying something completely different from her actual comments. I post this not so much to make fun of Hillary, but to show how remarkable this technology is. Watch and wonder. (Although the ridicule does help my motivation.)

Fractured Definition

Glockenspiel — a sales pitch for a handgun

Headlines

North Korea says nuclear talks broke down, U.S. disagrees

Trump slams Romney as ‘pompous ass’ for critique of Ukraine call

Most illegal crossings in 12 years: Border Patrol took 851,000 into custody ...

Joe Biden: Time to sue gun manufactures

U.s. strikes in Afghanistan have increased on Trump’s orders, Esper says

Pompeo says State Department will hand over documents to Congress

Woodward: Impeachment almost certain ...

Trump supporters greet Pelosi in South Carolina: ‘Impeach Pelosi’

Bernie Sanders discloses heart attack after three days

California’s new privacy law could cost companies a total of $55 billion to get in compliance

Four homeless men beaten to death in NYC ...

Iraq protests: Death toll nears 100, unrest enters fifth day

Nine Lives

From Powerline blog

#3

Sour Pickle

If it is an impeachable offense for Trump to prompt an investigation of a possible opposition candidate for president during this candidate’s campaign, what then was the Russian collusion probe  ... with all its Obama intelligence agency intrigue ... when Trump was in the final months of his candidacy? This truly is a sour pickle to chew on.

Kangaroo Court

Interesting news nuance: If Nancy Pelosi does not cause a full House of Representatives vote on the Trump impeachment inquiry, then, of course, she protects all those Democrats who have been recently elected from districts that Trump won in 2016. But there are two other more important reasons for this sham. Without a full House vote, the Republicans have no subpoena powers nor can witnesses have White House counsel present in this possibleTV spectacle. Thus, Republicans cannot call any witnesses or influence the agenda of this kangaroo court. As a consequence, the Trump administration has refused to honor any of Pencil Neck’s subpoenas until a full house vote is held ... which refusal obviously will also be trumpeted as more obstruction by the president.

Now, dear reader, you know the rest of the story ...

Fractured Definition

Pigment — what Porky was trying to communicate to Petunia

Headlines

Romney calls Trump’s push for foreign dirt ‘wrong and appalling’

September unemployment fell to 3.5%, a 50-year low, as payrolls rise by 136,000

POLL: 45% support impeachment; 17% of Republicans ...

Schiff gets four Pinocchios for ‘flat-out false’ claim on ‘whistleblower’

New York prosecutors say DOJ trying to shield Trump in tax-returns case

Tesla under investigation on claim it throttled batteries to hide fire risk

Record 158,269,000 working ...

Joe Biden pivots to gun control in wake of Ukraine scandal

Zuckerberg insists Facebook will be impartial toward Warren

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam invokes emergency powers, announces face masks ban amid protests

Iranian hackers said to target presidential campaign ...

Fox’s Chris Wallace: Not the presidents place to demand investigations

Tit for Tat

If Trump is impeached for turning the spotlight on possible criminal activity by Biden, a potential opposition presidential candidate, why then wouldn’t this very same Joe Biden and much of the Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton and possibly Bathhouse Barry himself, be equally culpable for concocting and pursuing criminal and even traitorous charges against their actual opposition candidate, Donald Trump, in 2016? 

And there is even a bigger irony — the charges against Trump were bogus ... and implicated foreign governments (as we learned in the Mueller Report and may find out in the Barr-Durham investigation) ... whereas the charges against Biden are clearly credible ... if only by his own braggadocios words.

Can we consequentially also impeach Biden, Hillary and Obama ... even after they are out of office? I might even take this tit for tat ...

Powerline Pic

Fractured Definition

Mr. Shifty

Buffoon — a California Congressman whose head is full of helium

A Little Math

Five hundred climate scientists have signed a letter to the UN stating that the world is NOT in a climate emergency ... see: Washington Times Article. Assuming that these signers were all of those who were not part of that oft-quoted 97% of climate scientists who have taken the opposite stance, this would mean that there are almost 17,000 legitimate climate scientists in the world ... obviously not very likely.

Thus that oft-quoted 97% of climate scientists supporting a global-warming emergency was ... again ... a whole lot of liberal hokum.

Headlines

Trump baselessly accuses drug industry of fueling impeachment push

Adam Schiff : Trump asking China to probe Biden is ‘a fundamental breach’ of his oath of office

FEC chair subtweets Trump with reminder that accepting foreign help in an election is illegal

Odd markings, ellipses fuel doubts about ‘rough transcript’ of Ukrainian call ...

Pentagon ordered to set aside all documents on Ukraine aid freeze

No defense officials were on Ukrainian call at center of Trump impeachment probe, Pentagon says

Nancy Pelosi falsely insists Schiff didn’t fake Trump dialogue

Hong Kong to announce new law banning masks during protests

AG Barr may throw a wrench into Facebook’s plan to merge messaging products

Twitter removes meme posted by president ...

Schiff knew of ‘whistleblower’ complaint days before it was filed

Vladamir Putin: Greta Thunberg is a ‘poorly informed teenager’

More Ramirez

America’s  youths need to learn a lesson from their counterparts in Hong Kong ... a courageous thirst for freedom in the face of almost certain defeat.

Eat the Babies

This woman is a classic Chicken Little and clearly needs to run for Congress.

Extra! Extra!

Read all about it!

The White House has taken the logical position (to me) that it does not have to respond to Adam Schiff subpoenas unless and until Nancy Pelosi holds an impeachment inquiry vote in the full House ... see: CNBC Article. This of course should evoke a three-alarm fire in the hair of Democrats and the media. Watch for it.

So far, Pelosi has tried to have her cake and eat it too ... by holding off on a full House vote to save those Democrats in swing districts from having to jump on the impeachment train. Now, she either must hold a impeachment inquiry vote in the House, or litigate this Trump decision and try to maintain momentum as this controversy moves through the courts.

Unless, of course, Representative Adam Schiff (or Nadler) can manufacture another media-supported hoax. Wait for it.

Limerick

aka Sinead O’Connor

There was a Muslim from Limerick

Who never would wear any lipstick.

She shaved her head bald.

Her family was appalled.

She revelled in playing the misfit.

Headlines

Pelosi fiercely defends impeachment inquiry as Trump blows up

Dow plunges more than 500 points as big tech shares lead the decline

What happened to Trump’s boast of 4%, 5% or even 6% economic growth?

Nancy Pelosi: Democrats launched ‘inquiry’ not ‘outright impeachment’

Trump set to hit EU with tariffs on $7.5B of goods after Airbus ruling

Bernie Sanders undergoes procedure for artery blockage, cancels events until further notice

Americans spend more on taxes than food, clothing, health-care — combined!

Poll: Trump re-election support unmoved by impeachment inquiry

Support for impeaching Trump hits new high

At half of US colleges most students go on to earn less than $28,000 a year

Greece struggles to survive as migrant arrivals soar ...

Private payrolls beat expectations with 135:000 jobs in September

Obvious Truth

The very best way to inoculate yourself from any possible criminal suspicion or prosecution is to be a Democrat and run for President of the United States.

reddit Pic

Rainy night ...

Are We Nuts? (Updated)

From daily timewaster blog

The vast majority of plastic straw disposal in the U.S. is in landfills ...

Afterward: Using these numbers, this works out to be the entire US putting about 16 pounds of plastic straws into the ocean every year ... maybe one straw for every hundred thousand Americans. 

Quotable Quote

Adam Schiff couldn’t carry Pompeo’s [blank]strap — President Trump

Gorilla Dust

When gorillas want to intimidate, they pound their chest, hoot and throw up dust. So too the Democrats. For example ... the Ukraine whistleblower kerfuffle, smearing AG William Barr, (improper) opening of an impeachment inquiry, Adam Schiff reading a false transcript of aTrump phone call ... and on and on. This is all gorilla dust being thrown around by Dems to obfuscate things and cover deep staters ahead of the Justice Dept.’s IG report on the FISA court warrants and John Durham’s investigating the origins of the the Mueller probe.

Perhaps this Democrat buffoonery bluff will work ... but I give Americans more credit than to fall for this dust up.

Headlines

White House ordered top-secret system upgraded to prevent leaks

Silicon Valley donors starting to back Elizabeth Warren despite her pledge to break up Big Tech

GRASSLEY: Whistleblower followed law and should be heard ...

Poll: 8 percent of college Democrats ‘very proud’ to be American

Judge sides with Harvard in case challenging use of race in admissions

Trump, RNC blows away Dems with $125 million raised in the third quarter

Colbert audience chants ‘lock him up’ ...

China rolls out ICBM portrayed as defense against ‘nuclear blackmail’

Giuliani hires Watergate prosecutor to represent him

Trump targets ‘pathetic’ Federal Reserve after worst manufacturing data in a decade

Iran sentences U.S. spies to death ...

Ukraine mystery: Adam Schiff staffer made August visit

Obsession

An obsession can either lead to grandeur or to ruin ... all depending on whether such obsession is aspirational or vindictive — Anon.

Take heed Democrats ...

Headline Grabbers

In assembling the daily headlines for this blog, I have noticed something — more and more people will do or say outrageous things just to have their name in these headlines ... the bigger the type face the better. Thus shocking things are meant to keep their names in the news for this brings speaking-fee pelf, cable-news gigs and ego gratification. Matters not whether these headline grabbers make any sense ... as long as they are magnifying angst. Profanity helps this cause ... and, of course, so does some pronouncement about Trump’s denouement.

In times past one had to wait for the early editions for these grandstanders to get their jollies. Now social media and internet news sites have provided almost instant gratification to them ... perhaps the reason for their proliferation in numbers and outrage. So, kind readers, say goodbye forever to that sleepy pace of communication we once enjoyed. From now on life will be one big media Schiff storm.

Taxonomy

All living things have been organized rather loosely into a 7-entry taxonomy according to, in many cases, just appearance:

5 kingdoms — How they obtain their food

36 phylums (pjyla)  — Similar physical characteristics ... suggest similar ancestry

About 87 classes — Even more similar physical characteristics

Large number of orders —  Still more similar physical characteristics ... may have common ancestry

Very large number of families — Large number of physical characteristics ... have certain adaptive traits and may not have a common ancestry

Even larger number of genuses (geni) — The generic name for an organism ... always first used term. Each genus has only a few members

Varying number of species within geni — Determined by the ability to breed within species

See: Soft Schools Writeup for more on each of these categories.

Since we have now substantial DNA evidence on all organisms, I hope sometime soon that this taxonomy is recast along more solid scientific lines. I am actually surprised it hasn’t happened already.

Money

Money is most often an ephemeral storehouse of repute and, sometimes, unfortunately ill repute. — Anon.

Headlines

Judge throws out states’ challenge to [Trump’s] tax deduction cap

Federal retirement savings should not fund China’s Communist party

Russia: Our approval needed to punish Putin calls ...

Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spotted dining together

Democrats see impeachment as landmine for Republican Senate

McConnell dismisses idea of delisting Chinese companies in the US

[Stephen] Miller: President is the whistleblower...

Donald Trump demands meeting with ‘whistleblower’

Bolton undercuts Trump and says North Korea has no desire to give up its nukes

California Governor signs law allowing college athletes to get paid, upending amateur sports

Beijing quietly doubles [Hong Kong] troop levels ...

British referees quitting with more transgenders joining women’s soccer

Fall Colors

Can’t you lay off climate change for one minute and just enjoy the fall colors?

Cartoon printed in the New Yorker magazine no less ...

Fractured Definition

Downer — a morose person whose job is stuffing feather pillows

All In

Now that Nancy Pelosi has been buffaloed by Pencil Neck Schiff into opening an impeachment inquiry, the Democrats have pushed all their chips into the center of the table ... betting that they can either impeach and convict Trump ... or so damage him that he will lose in 2020. Pelosi has even indicated that it would  be worth losing the House of Representatives if this means Trump is no longer in the White House. Not a good idea ...

Now, in mathematics, there have been extensive studies on how to win such games ... centering around which strategy offers the best payoff. I won’t take you kind readers into the technical weeds here, but suffice it to say that, by far, the best decision rule is “minimax” meaning minimizing your potential maximum loss ... which is exactly the opposite of what the Dems are now doing.

Yes, it is possible that this all-in bet on the Trump impeachment might just fool the American people and Trump might be deposed. But, if this next sure-fire tactic, the Ukrainian Connection, fails like the Russian Collusion, the Stormy Daniels Payoff, the Government Shutdown, the Emoluments Violation, etc., etc., then the Democrats may well suffer what Pelosi most worries about.

If this Ukrainian balloon deflates ... as it most probably will ... then the Botox lady’s dire prediction may well be prescient ... and the Democrats will spend the next twenty years in the wilderness ... repenting their evil ways and wishing that they had some chips left.

Headlines

Lindsey Graham decries whistle blower complaint as ‘all hearsay’

Elon Musk outlines SpaceX’s Starship plans, aiming to reach orbit in six months and then fly people

LEAK: White House restricted access to Trump calls with Putin, Saudi crown prince ...

Adam Schiff: Trump is ‘issuing threats’ against the whistle blower

New Democratic polls: Tight race in Nevada, but Biden still strong in South Carolina

Tesla’s Musk says solar panels on cars makes no sense, but that’s not stopping Toyota, Hyundai

OPRAH: Iger for president ...

Susan Rice claims Trump tried to ‘bury’ Ukraine  phone call

More violence grips Hong Kong ahead of China’s National Day

Chinese delegation to travel to U.S. for trade talks in two weeks

Saudi state media say king’s bodyguard shot in ‘dispute’ ...

Nancy Pelosi: ‘Doesn’t matter’ if impeachment costs Democrats the House