Gaze into your Crystal Ball...

John William Waterhouse

Stratfor recently released their decade forecast with the following predictions.

1. Russia will collapse.

2. The US will need to secure Russia's nukes.

3. Germany is going to suffer economic reversals.

4. Poland's European political influence will increase.

5. Europe will balkanize into West, East, Scandinavia, and the British Isles.

6. Turkey and the US will move closer together.

7. China will suffer economic reversals and increased internal oppression.

8. Japan will become a major naval power.

9. The South China Sea will wane as a source of friction while Russia's diminished ability to exert naval influence will cause a new source as China and Japan spar in the vacuum.

10. 16 emergent economies will replace China as an economic powerhouse.

11. US power will decline as it voluntarily becomes less engaged on the world stage.

Accurate or not? What do you think will happen in the world 2015-2025?

MSN

Progressive State of America

The United States is not a Christian nation
Church attendance is at an all-time low, atheism, agnosticism, and non-monotheistic religions enjoy all-time highs.  What the hell makes you think Our Father in Heaven loves us any more than he does the poor Bangladeshis after the latest flood, up to their necks in sewage and floating down the streets of Dhaka on rafts made of refrigerator doors and styrofoam coolers?

We are not a socialist nation
The left has no thinkers of the caliber of Mussolini or Marx, the means of production--while heavily superintended by government apparatchiks--is still in private hands, and our private property hasn't been confiscated.

We are the Progressive State of America

We're not all progressives; not even half of us are, although some polls indicate the nation is turning left.  Progressives preponderate in academia, pop culture and the government, and that explains it all.  Those longing for the good old days will be longing for a long time.

Time to Face Unpleasant Facts

* The GOOP is practically indistinguishable from the DemonCrap Party
* Reagan ain't coming back
* We will never "Take America Back" -- America is moving on with or without you
* Gay marriage is here to stay
* Obamacare will never be overturned, even if we elect a GOOP president
* The Press is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the progressive DC establishment
* Our Government is owned by Goldman Sachs and international plutocrats
* You don't matter -- Not to Hillary, not to the GOOP, not to any politician
* Conservatism is a ramshackle jalopy running on four bald tires

We are not alone, but we are out of ammo and we're fighting the Civil War using Revolutionary War rhetoric, tactics and technology.

“We're surrounded. That simplifies the problem.”
-- Lewis "Chesty" Puller, Lt Gen, USMC

The Supremes have ruled...

Well, at a minimum you need to listen to the first twenty seconds :)

From a libertarian perspective I don't think government should be involved in marriage in the first place, we as a species are certainly beyond needing to incentivize procreation.  If churches want to perform same-sex marriage, or not, they should be permitted to do so regardless of the State, or state that they are located in.  If two or more parties wish to enter into a civil contract vis-à-vis group property allocation and distribution, medical decision making, powers of attorney, etc. they should be free to do so free from government interference or oversight.  Governments role in marriage should extend no further than enforcing the associated civil contract (a legitimate function in a free society) the terms of which should be none of the governments concern.

That said, with 37 states legalizing gay marriage:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

I don't think the court should have ruled otherwise, although they could have waited for 38... a majority sufficient to be considered a de facto majority for a constitutional amendment, but legally and technically I believe it to be the correct decision under the 14th amendment which the court has previously (and in my opinion incorrectly... which could be a blog post unto itself) recognized as the law of the land.

Section 1. ... nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.   

While I agree with Justice Scalia's assessment that:

The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic

And in deference to Justice Scalia esteemed legal opinion...

If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: “The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,” I would hide my head in a bag.  

The Unknown Comic

Old Joe Clark Like You've Never Heard it Before

So...  I went to a folk concert and a Led Zeppelin song broke out...

We are living through a Golden Age of music.  LA Moguls and radio station programmers no longer tell us what to listen to.

Musicians are freed from the corporate suits, and they bring us genre-shattering sincerity.

Bi-Poper?

Korean.net - Korea Culture and Information Services (Jeon Han)

The Pope condemns as hypocrites those who make weapons or profit from the industry and call themselves Christians.

'Why didn't they drop bombs?' Pope criticises the 'great powers' of the world for failing to stop the Nazis.

Okay, now I'm thoroughly confused.

Pope Condemns

Pope Criticizes

And it's not just the Daily Mail:

Pope Condemns (New York Mag)

Pope Criticizes (Time Mag)

Which is it? 

Billion Dollar Presidency

The 2016 presidential election could cost as much as $5 billion, according to top fundraisers and bundlers who are already predicting it will more than double the 2012 campaign’s price tag.

And then there’s Hillary Clinton...

In private conversations, allies to the former secretary of State are predicting that the campaign totals on their end alone might surpass $1.5 billion and go as high as $2 billion. (The Hill)

Pedo Bill's Clinton Crime Syndicate will be in overdrive once Hillary mounts the throne.  He'll probably have to cut down on his trips to Sex Slave Island on the Lolita Express in order to spend more time selling access and shaking down international donors.

Why would someone spend such an obscene amount of money for a $400,000/year job that requires you to sign your life away?

Why do rich donors climb all over one another to surrender their cash to those foolish and egotistical enough to want such a job?

But that brings us back to the Clinton Foundation, doesn't it?

Birthright Citizenship

The GOOP held hearings on ending birthright citizenship, and the leftwing loons in Congress and at the Huffer Post went batty.

Here is just one example of the many wildly irresponsible GOP statements that have them howling:

"The question of whether our forefathers meant for birthright citizenship in all circumstances to be the law of the land is far from settled," Goodlatte said at the hearing. "In any event, we must still determine if it is the right policy for America today." (Puffington Host)

Here is the relevant US law, excerpted from 8 U.S.C. § 1401 : US Code - Section 1401: Nationals and citizens of United States at birth:

The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth: (a) a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof; [...] (findlaw.com)

How dare the Neanderthals in the GOP seek to change that law! We should be more like the enlightened countries of Europe, and the other developed nations of the earth! Right?

Here are the developed nation that do not have birthright citizenship:

Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom

Yup.  Those enlightened and progressive Europeans do not have birthright citizenship.  But hey! We're right in there with Venezuela and Lesotho.

"Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) have both introduced bills this year to end birthright citizenship, but neither has gone for a vote." (NumbersUSA.com)

Not to worry. The DemonCrap-GOOP Congressional leadership will never let that vote come up. A repeal would anger their corporate masters and the money men who keep them in "campaign contributions," scotch and private jets.

Basketweaving, 14th Century French Lit...

Photo: Aurelian Guichard

You Can't Teach People to be Funny

Emerson College Boston is set to offer a Bachelor's degree in the Comedic Arts.  The degree will be grounded in the history and theory of comedy with practical learning and a focus on preparing students for careers in comedy performance, writing and production.

To borrow a British term... can you say "ON THE DOLE"? 

Unless you are the...

Ministry of Silly Walks 

 

Come on kids, can't your parents 

find a better use for $149,400?

Global Warming: Is it all bad?

The tomb of Juba II- Algeria

This article is in response to the headlines splashed around the world courtesy of Frank Fenner, the virologist who helped eliminate smallpox from our world and his predictions of an 8 degree Celsius extinction event.  While I have great respect for Frank as a virologist his predictions on a global climatological level are unfounded in scientific fact and are entirely conjecture, but the media treats his pronouncements as scientific fact.

This article is not intended to dispute climatological change, it is not going to address the current facts, let us set aside the question of whether or not AGW is occurring, take the models at face value and examine the potential results. We've all heard the predictions, mass starvation, Miami and NYC underwater, and the loss of the Polar Bears.  The first question is:

Can we live without them? The survival or extinction of the polar bear will have absolutely no impact on the survival of humanity outside of possibly a few select groups of Innuit, it's loss would indeed be tragic but in the big picture of things it's lost in the noise floor.

So New York and Miami have been added to the long list of great cities that once graced the surface of our planet but what is really the long term forecast?

1. More useable arable land.  Analysis of satellite data shows that between 1982 and 2011, 20.5 percent of the world’s vegetated area got greener, while just 3 percent grew browner; the most likely causes are higher temperature, higher levels of carbon dioxide, or both.

2. Longer growing seasons, more diverse crop selection.  Many areas that now only get one harvest a year may see two or three.  Those now limited to cool weather crops will see their planting choices increase as species ranges change with the warmer weather.

3. A Northwest Passage. The economic benefits may be almost unlimited as ships are no longer restricted by the capacity of the Panama canal and the resources of the Arctic become economically viable to access.

4.  Less energy required.  Face it, humanity has evolved for warmer weather, without the expenditure of energy for heat the most advanced areas of the world would quite frankly be uninhabitable.

5. Warmer weather is healthier.  Predictions of malarial doom and gloom set aside, cold weather diseases kill far more people than warm weather diseases. 

From 3900-9000 BC during the Holocene Wet Phase the region of the Sahara, desert today, was wetter, had a rich biodiversity, and supported a much larger human population.  Climate change drove us out of Africa. The rapid desertification occured due to a cooling event known as Bond event 4 5900 years ago, it may have been the spur that led to  the development of what we know as modern society, climate change, even catastrophic climate change, is most assuredly not going to be the cause of our demise.

Remember, this isn't about whether or not AGW is true.  Can you see any potential benefits to global warming?  Do or can they offset the negatives?  Are we doomed to die or will we adapt? 

National Review

Listosaur

NCPA

Queer Marriage

Pope Francis admonished single people living together to abandon their sinful ways and either live celibate lives or get married, and 20-someting Obama voters cheered...

The Pontiff also called abortion and homosexual acts sinful, and pop culture spilled over with praise for him...

OK, those things didn't happen, but the Pope did come out and give a gigantic ecumenical wet kiss to Reverend Al Gore's International Church of Gaia. Here is the document, Laudato si, and it is as humble and unassuming as the un-scientific lecturing loudmouths who peddle the global warming garbage to us. 

Remember when Leftists used to Criticize Vatican "Science?"

Julia Hartley-Brewer gives us a quick recap on the Vatican's record on science:

It did, after all, take until 1992 for the Roman Catholic Church to formally acknowledge that it was wrong to persecute Galileo for proving in the 17th century that the Earth moves around the Sun rather than the other way round.

And as recently as 2009, Pope Benedict XVI was busy telling Africans facing the deadly threat of AIDS that condoms would not protect them from HIV, despite all the clear medical evidence to the contrary.

Brewer sounds like a climate change denier, but she's actually a hostile Vatican critic, voicing her opposition to Catholic doctrine on "contraception, abortion, the right to die, divorce, gay marriage" and "women priests."

What Moral Authority?

Finally, she craps in the progressive party punchbowl by reminding us that the Vatican is still trying to clean up its horrible pedophilia scandal that involved not just homosexual priests preying on young boys, but church hierarchy covering it all up.

So, how much moral authority does the Pope have, and what is the scope of this posited moral authority?

Up next...

* How to rebuild a Holly 4-barrel carburetor by a New York dentist

* Bow Hunting for elk with Kim Kardashian

* Call your lawyer and ask him how to stop your roof from leaking

* Listen to Larry King advise us on how to stay married (seven times)

Only the loony left would ignore a holy man when he speaks on faith and morals, but treat his words as sacrosanct when he lectures out of school on climate and economics.

The left is full of shit, and I call bullshit on them. They hate the Catholic Church, it's teachings, and most of them are indifferent or downright hostile to Biblical Christianity.  They miscast Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as nothing more than an "it's all good" hippie guru who gives their sinful behavior a wink and a thumbs-up.

The left's reaction to this encyclical is shot through with dishonesty and sarcasm.  It is just one more volley in a never-ending tribal propaganda war, and reasonable people should say so at every turn.

Two logical fallacies scream out in bright red from this Kookville carnival. Can you spot them?

What other fallacious reasoning, specious argumentation and logical inconsistencies can you point out?

Related:
Pope Urges Revolution: Save the Earth, Fix the Perverse Economy
WaPo - 10 Key Excerpts from Encyclical on Environment

Sorry We're Closed

I found this interesting... the mayor of Belmar, NJ shut down traffic into the town on Sunday claiming that the town had reached its capacity.  He may have been right, the town which has a year round population of around 6,000 swells to about 60,000 during the summer. On Sunday, the final day of the 29th annual seafood festival combined with near perfect weather estimates placed the number of people in the town of upwards of 200,000.

According to reports, unless you had a driver's license with a Belmar address you weren't getting in.  Makes me wonder what people who have a second home there thought of the entrance criteria, if it was me I'd be P.O'd.  I grew up going to the Jersey shore, and have lived in resort areas on both Cape Cod and here in Colorado and can't ever recall a town closing before.  What do you think? 

And if you're wondering why this town may seem familiar, it was where Tony Soprano kept his boat in the HBO series.

NJ.COM

Philly Mag  

An Outdated Document?

I used to enjoy hearing knowledgeable people talk about the US Constitution, but now such talk angers and saddens me.  It's like listening to an old man go on and on about how a gallon of gasoline used to cost a quarter.  Those days are gone.

One thing conservatives and progressives (I refuse to call them liberals because it is a gross misnomer) can agree upon is that our government is pulling away from its constitutional moorings. Nowadays, it's Fealty as Lip Service Only, FALSO for short.

From that lib-con agreement on the constitution's demise, we part ways. Conservatives are alarmed and angry at the lawlessness; progressives cheer our federal government decoupling itself from a musty, outdated piece of parchment written by old white slaveowners.

Talk of a constitutional convention is out there, but it rarely rises above the noise floor.

Questions for You (and my opinion)


What parts of the constitution do you believe are being grossly violated or ignored?
I nominate the 4th (it's dead), 9th and 10th (barely breathing) Amendments

What other part do you see being endangered in the near future?
I believe both speech and religion rights in the First Amendment are in danger.

What would you change, add to or delete from that venerable document?
I would like to repeal the 17th Amendment and go back to state houses choosing senators.

What is the most abused part of the constitution?
Section 1 of the 14th Amendment has been the Devil's playground.

Finally, would you like to see a Constitutional convention?  Why?  What outcome would you expect?
No.  It would open a Pandora's Box of evils and spell the end of our already creaky Democratic Republic

Obama's Chickenhawks Coming Home to Roost

Click to Embiggen

Obama is rushing more troops to Iraq to shore up Iran's puppet government there, freeing Iran to rush troops to Syria to shore up the besieged Assad regime. Who do we want to win in this situation?

The Iranian Mullahs, who run the country where the "Death to America" chant has been #1 on the charts since 1979?

Or are Obama and his Warlord Girls Club sitting in the Situation Room rooting for ISIS?

"...this is an issue of Russia's image in the Middle East. The events that happen there affect Russia's security. Russia has always supported the government of Bashar Assad, so if Assad's government falls, God forbid, then it would be a defeat for Russia." (Pravda)

Do we refrain from adequately arming the Iraqi Kurds (the only group there with any affinity for the US) in order to not upset Turkey, a NATO ally who hates our guts?

"They do not fight with the Kurds, but invest in them to strengthen positions there, given the dependence of Iraqi Kurdistan on transit via Turkey. Today, Turkey is the third largest investor in the region, following the United States and Israel." (Pravda)

Whose side are we on in Syria?

While US weapons were provided to groups associated with the Free Syrian Army, they have fought alongside Nusra in the Army of Conquest.

In March, Nusra received injections of funds and guns – which found their way to IS. (Irish Times)

Nusra is an arm of Al Qaeda. Isn't our government against terrorism?

Does the US government really want to defeat ISIS?

What's our end-game in Iraq? Defeat ISIS so Iran can have another client state?

Where are the #Occupy Mom's Basement dope smokers and the Code Stinko Pinkos?

Is the United States of America still a Sovereign Nation?

I read the foreign press because you get news that goes unreported here in the US. Sometimes you get some strange stuff from places like Russian outlet RT.  Here's an article so incredible, I present it in its entirety:

San Francisco (AFP) - The head of the nonprofit group World Without Borders expressed confidence Thursday that Governance of the United States of America would be out of Washington DC's control by decade's end.

Darwin Ratalalla, speaking from Davos, said all the necessary components for a new stewardship scheme are accounted for and there will be "major legitimizing endorsements" from several countries, The United Nations, and the Soros Group in coming months.

Shazira Fadl, President Obama's Commerce Secretary, agrees.  "It is now up to the international community to wrap the United States up, put a nice bow on it, and deliver it to the world. The United States is a global treasure of universities, vast natural resources, and a beautiful diversity of peoples and cultures.  We speak and vote in over 100 languages here.  It's beautiful."

"The United states is too important to be left to the Americans," continued Fadl, a dedicated internationalist and the first non-US citizen cabinet member. Her pick stirred controversy at the time, but Boehner's GOP House and McConnell's GOP senate fast-tracked her nomination on a voice vote, reportedly in exchange for five cases of bourbon and a box of autographed golf balls from the White House.

US Senator Bernie Sanders was livid. "Who loves their country now? Folks like Ron Wyden, Martin O'Malley and I, or the booze-swilling gluttonous warthogs in the GOP who sold this nation to the rapacious international war pigs and their international corporate puppet masters?"

The Vermont Senator's angry outburst drew rare agreement from Ross Perot.

"Clinton brought us NAFTA, the government now spies on us through household appliances, and that sucking sound you hear is Barack Obama using the Trans-Pacific Partnership to sell off what's left."  The former GOP presidential candidate paused, squinted into the setting sun and continued.  "And the crouching weasels in the GOP leadership helped him do it."

The uproar comes a year after Obama Administration officials, global elites and members of the intelligentsia fleshed out the plan during plenary dialogues sponsored by the Aspen Institute. The aim is to "turn over governance" to what Ratalalla calls a "global multistakeholder community."

Noam Chomsky emerged from the White House and voiced support for the Obama Administration initiative.

"The United States is now a global nation; it belongs to the world. It used to be a melting pot, but that's outmoded. People no longer have to suppress who they are and bow to white privilege to live here. Ending the citizenship requirement for voting is a step forward, and the destiny of this nation is now beyond the white occupiers and the figureheads they elect."

Representative Bob Goodlatte said there had been "concerns routinely expressed by a wide array of stakeholders about the accountability, execution and transparency of non-Governmental Organizations like those who seek control of life in the US."

Cass Sunstein laughed at this and said the same charges could be leveled at congress, which he characterized as an "ossified body standing in the way of Progress."

"I feel the proposal will lead us to a global, independent, neutral, well-governed international nation," Sunstein added.

Some critics still argue that Washington is "giving away" the country, posing long-term threats to all Americans, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi swatted down that notion.

"Americans? What the hell does that mean?" Nancy Pelosi snapped back from her walled compound at an undisclosed location in Marin County. "We're all Americans now."

"...A Sickness of the Heart that only Gold can Cure"

Evil Mickey by Pettitfraise

With apologies to Pastor Martin Niemöller...

First they came to replace the nannys and gardeners...

...and we enjoyed paying below-market wages for babysitting, grass cutting, laundry, table-waiting and other jobs Americans just won't do.

Me? Dig ditches?

The cheap labor filled a void, since neighborhood kids no longer did that kind of work. They were too busy enjoying the game consoles, cars and other goodies given to them by their parents. Lazy kids! They will grow up selfish and greedy!

Next, the corporate poobahs and DC grandees brought in the poor and the oppressed to depress wages in the skilled trades...
...but I wasn't a skilled tradesman. The crazy woman next door with the tattered Ralph Nader bumper sticker on her old Volvo talked incessantly about our government committing human rights violations, oppressing workers, keeping them off-balance and disempowered, but we were living in a nice neighborhood. Why did she have to go out looking for misery?

I just got my kitchen redone by some guys who don't speak English, but they did it for half of what our hometown remodeling business wanted to charge.

Skilled trades...
Who wants to be a welder, carpenter, mechanic or HVAC technician anyway? Having a college degree is where it's at! Computers, engineering, IT!

How do Disney, Harley Davidson, Cargill and an increasing number of "American" corporations treat their IT staff? They "forced hundreds of them to train their own replacements—temporary foreign workers here on H-1B guestworker visas—before he laid them off."

Our Feral Government:  Beholden to global corporate slave traders

"Of course, this business model is paid for by destroying the livelihoods and dignity of tens of thousands of American workers. The costs are also borne by American taxpayers, through foregone tax revenue and the additional social services that need to be provided for those newly unemployed American workers."

Maybe we'll get some pushback when they start importing low-wage professors, reporters and lawyers...

Remember when we used to call bussed in workers scabs?

The median wage for imported skilled labor is "...$61,984, which is essentially the entry level wage for an information technology (IT) worker, and more importantly, a 25 percent discount on the median wage of $82,710 for Computer Systems Analysts in the United States."

"We may not like it but in the contemporary U.S. business environment, ten out of ten corporate executives will choose to replace Americans with cheaper guestworkers—it would be a dereliction of their fiduciary duty to shareholders if they failed to take advantage of this."

Think it’s bad now? Wait until the Demoncrap-Goopers in congress pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership...

Links:
Hernan Cortez Quotes

Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Lee who played every role from Frankenstein to Saruman, Francisco Scaramanga (the man with the golden gun) to Count Dooku passed away on the 7th of June at the age of 93.  He qualified as an Oppidan Scholar at Eton but his father was unable to pay the tuition and he wound up with scholarships in ancient Greek and Latin at Wellington College.  He was also fluent in English, Italian, French, Spanish, and German as well as proficient in Swedish, Russian, Greek, and Mandarin Chinese (He played Fu Manchu).  Considered by some a veritable polymath, he was also an award winning Heavy Metal artist.  You be the judge:

Bocopro's Case Against Hillary Rodham Clinton

A dispatch from the desk of the Boone Country Professor...

Year-and-a-half still to go, and already I'm sick and tired of hearing about HC.

Hillary Clinton has never run a town, city, county, or state during her “career” as Slick’s wife. She has 8 years’ experience in the White House, but so does the cook, the housekeepers, the Secret Service guys, and the people who answer the phones.

Her signature achievement as SecState was allowing a US ambassador to be murdered while she chanted the regime mantra that terrorism was on the run. Her own famous statement pretty well sums up her tenure at State: “What difference does it make?”

Lying, hypocrisy, selfishness, pandering, and controversy are the foundations of her entire adult life. The e-mail hypocrisy she established and hid behind was deliberately designed as a CYA strategy for precisely the sorts of scandals she’s gotten herself involved in, especially Benghazi-gate and the Clinton Foundation funding subterfuge.

Other than name recognition and gender, she has exactly zero qualifications for PotUS candidacy. Her only appeal is “It’s about time we had a female president.” Both her work and private history comprise enough baggage to fill every C-130 and C-5 the US military can muster up, but except for one or two obligatory remarks by the NYT, the mainstream media consider all her mistakes, shortcomings, and failures “old news” and refuse to cover them.

Right now, since she has no legitimate competition for the Dem nomination, she’s content to stall, stonewall, and simply avoid answering questions of import and substance. After her coronation as the nominee, though, she’ll have to begin prepping for genuine debates with whatever victim the RNC comes up with to run against her.

And in a debate, she comes armed with zilch. She couldn’t debate her way out of the simplest questions concerning real issues, such as national defense spending or same-sex marriage or immigration reform or debt reduction or anything that matters.

She is a deficient debater, an awful author, a soporific speaker, and a frumpy female. My prediction is that the Clinton Foundation has a team of researchers already digging into the lives of anyone who could possibly run against her as the Dem nominee as well as those likely to get the GOP nod.

And if they don’t find something scandalous or illegal, they’ll do exactly what Harry Reid did to Romney: generate a baseless rumor for their attack dogs to repeat so often in the alphabet networks that it takes on a life of its own and undercuts anyone with the temerity to challenge her right to the PotUSy.

Hillary is getting old. And she has old ideas, old tactics, old scandals, old baggage. Basically, she’s old news herself. What great fun it would be to have Congress hold her to the same standards that everyone outside of Boston would hold Tom Brady to. But waiting for that to happen is like waiting for Al Gore’s AGW to drown half the people on the planet with glacier melt.

Hillary Clinton is overrated. She’s overhyped. She’s overpromoted, overvalued, overconfident, overpriced, overbearing, overreaching, overpaid, over-age, and overweight.

For the good of the nation and probably the entire planet, I think she should be overlooked as a PotUS candidate, and if nominated, overruled. If elected, she should be overthrown.

-- Bocopro

TO SERVE AND PROTECT...???

All in the attempt to apprehend a shoplifter.  More like boys wanting to play with their toys. I'm just waiting for the video of the (literally) boys in blue hootin' and hollerin' it up as they destroy this man's home.

OBAMATRADE

BWAH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

Secret Trade Promotion Authority... 

Republican Congresswoman Mimi Walters who has been making the TV rounds pushing for TPA and the TPP (Transpacific Partnership) hasn't even read the bill.  Neither has Pete Sessions (R-TX) or Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Kevin McCarthy and John Boner both refuse to answer the question of whether they've read it or not.  Hmm, where did we hear that one before?

Secret trade bill Huh?  Folks, the definition of secret is "information whose release would cause serious damage to national security if made publicly available".  

Damaging to national security or damaging to political careers... you decide. 

The Importance of Computer Security

An ISIS terrorist takes a selfie in front of an ISIS HQ building in Syria, three days later it's struck by 3 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM).

Moron

This is why you should disable the GPS on your phone if you're posting photos (GPS position gets stored in the metadata of the photo) and be careful who you share online media with. 

Echos de Guantanamera

A Riff on a Riff on a Riff...

The post on Cuban music awhile back got me feeling nostalgic. I have a collection of around 200 CDs from all over Latin America, but I am far from an expert on the subject. Still, I thought I'd share one of my favorite versions of one of my favorite songs, Guantanamera.

As a bonus, I've included a famous song from Argentinian Luis Aguilé, composed in the same style as Guantanamera.

Guillermo Portabales - Guantanamera
There are about ten bajillion versions of this song, but I particularly love this one.  Instead of faithfully following the words of José Fernández, who wrote Guantanamera in the 1920's, Guillermo Portabales does his own lyrical riff, giving a nod to the nation of Colombia where he lived for many years. 

But that's OK,  Fernández based the song on a few quatrains of "Los Versos Sencillos" de Jose Marti and added a chorus about a campesino girl from Guantanamo he was in love with, hence the song title, Guantanamera.

Fernández composed Guantanamera as a traditional Cuban campesino guajira, which is a rustic style of Spanish-influenced music that, along with Son and drum rhythms from parts of Africa, forms the roots of subsequent Cuban music.

Guillermo Portabales, whose style is often described as languid and melancholy, was a soulful master of the guajira, and he is still beloved by millions of aficionados who enjoy his music.

Anyway, the tune to Guantanamera is a common one musicians will riff off of and have fun improvising.  The Mexican standard, La Bamba gets played around with in much the same way. Portabales was skilled guitarrista, and he is the one doing the complex guitar work in this song.







Luis Aguilé - Cuando Sali de Cuba
Argentinian Luis Aguilé's iconic song, Cuando Sali de Cuba (Translated:  When I left Cuba, I Left my Heart buried There) became the de facto anthem of Cuban exiles.  If you listen closely, you can hear echoes of Guantanamera.

Cubanita en Colorado wrote a touching dedication on Aguilé's death back in 2009.  She includes an English translation of the song and a video of Aguilé singing it back when he was a young man.

¡Que Desfruten el domingo!

The Underappreciated Banjo

Trans-Blendered Saturnalia

Pop Culture has made a Cult of the Psychological Disorder called Gender Dysphoria

Transgenderism in all its various flavors is a complex issue that popular discourse is grossly incapable of addressing rationally.
 



Discussions of this psychological phenomenon are no good outside the clinic, so let's hear from a psychological professional within the Clinic:

"When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London's Portman Clinic, 70%-80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings. Some 25% did have persisting feelings; what differentiates those individuals remains to be discerned." (Paul McHugh - WSJ)

Most of the surgically treated patients described themselves as "satisfied" by the results, but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn't have the surgery. And so at Hopkins we stopped doing sex-reassignment surgery, since producing a "satisfied" but still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs. (Paul McHugh - WSJ)

Child Psychologist Susan Bradley, who has worked with gender dysphoria children, holds a similar point of view.

If you don't believe there is a "monkey see, monkey do" component to this, you know nothing of human nature, and you are ignoring the increasing number of children seeking sex reassignment. As this blooms like spores in popular culture, it also seeps into the human consciousness and can't help but color our thoughts and feelings.

What evidence exists to suggest gender-reassigned children will enter into a happy, or even well-adjusted adulthood?

More likely, adolescents and adults who decide to do the Caitlyn Jenner will end up depressed because they didn't make the splash the famous pioneers did.

"The long-term study—up to 30 years—followed 324 people who had sex-reassignment surgery. The study revealed that beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable nontransgender population." (Paul McHugh - WSJ)

"Be Excellent to Each Other"

What we indeed must discuss is Tolerance, Diversity, and all those other freighted terms that leftwing progressives use to bash us over the head with. Can we just teach the Golden Rule, and hold one another to it?

Perhaps in such a Golden Rule environment where "otherness" was simply accepted instead of celebrated and smashed into our faces, the intolerant haters would be less inflamed, and maybe even go back to minding their own business.

And maybe, just maybe, those who suffer mental illnesses or who simply deviate from the norm could get on with their lives without feeling they have to take drastic and irreversible actions with their bodies and their lives.

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

Britain's Daily Mail has a nice splash explaining how the rich have bought boltholes with airstrips in New Zealand they can scurry away to when the whole damn financial house of cards they've built finally collapses.

Zero Hedge reports that the Disastrous Market Mania will end in Revolution, Taxes or War.



Some conservative have joined liberals these past few years in casting a critical eye on high finance, big biz, and corporations.  Progs and Cons may both perceive a problem, but we can't agree on a solution.

How do we get the corps to behave?

Government regulation fails because once the hoopla fades over draconian new laws, politicians and bureaucrats simply sell exemptions in exchange for campaign contributions and business as usual continues.

We could go all Fidel Castro on their greedy asses, but the old Soviet Union and Castro's own Communist Gulag Nation stand as warnings that such 'cures' are worse than the disease.

It's The Government, Stupid

Is it really corporate misbehavior when government encourages it?  Elon Musk is a corporate welfare queen because government put him on that throne.



Government also spends an inordinate amount of resources constructing and maintaining safety nets for crony crapitalists who would crap their pants if you let them and their money loose in a truly free market.

The US Government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, runs a deficit every year to cover the phony baloney promises of corrupt union grandees.  Our government assumes responsibility when corporate vampires crash a company and raid its pension fund.

It is government that throws open the gates to illegal immigrant labor (remember when Dems used to call such workers scabs?), while our cities suffer double-digit unemployment.  What do you think that does to wages?

It is government that sells slavery licenses (H1-B Visas) to the Silicon Valley bandits like Mark Suckerturd, because you can never be too rich or too unpatriotic.  

Government regulation serves to protect the big guys from little upstarts by making the price of entry into the marketplace prohibitively expensive.  Politicians like Hairy Reed, Dennis Hastert, Nancy Pelosi, The Clintons, and the Obamas cash in on their privilege and exalted position by selling government access.  They award government business to crony contractors. These dirty pols use the official Government Seal of Approval as their personal signet ring, steering government contracts, crafting legislation and subsidies that sluice profits to favored industries and companies.

So, whose fault it it?

Corporate behavior is inseparable from political corruption: DC is just one more fanged and ferocious face of a hydra-headed monster.  Here are my ideas to tame the beast:

* Prohibit politicians from taking so much as a ball point pen from anyone. No vacations, no free rides, no cash. Not from individual citizens, nor from organizations or corporations. This should remove the incentive to do special favors.

* Campaign contributions from individuals only, and only during a predetermined time period, a legal fundraising season. No self-financed campaigns. Campaigns may only be conducted using money raised from individual citizens eligible to vote in US elections.

* No more tax exemptions for political and advocacy groups. You can stand in the public arena and advocate for whatever issue or candidate that tickles your fancy, but there is no tax benefit or advantage to such activities or to organizations that conduct them.

* Simplify corporate and business taxes, end all government subsidies

* End corporate welfare--All of it.  Ex-Im Bank, subsidies for this or that, sugar, ethanol, petroleum, everything

* Remove the Wall Street and corporate safety nets.  The financial whizz kids crap their pants, they clean it up

* Make the leadership of companies and corporations personally liable for the actions of the organization they lead.  Vest them with pecuniary and fiduciary liability.   

* Oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership because of anti-worker, pro-oligarch provisions such as those that permit corporate grandees to move people from country to country like chattel to avoid paying workers a living wage.

I realize I am straying dangerously close to campaign finance reform territory, and blogger buddies like Fredd may fear I'm embracing Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, so could someone help me out?

National Crimewave

Fatal Police Shootings Approach 400 Nationwide

In an alley in Denver, police gunned down a 17-year-old girl joyriding in a stolen car. In the backwoods of North Carolina, police opened fire on a gun-wielding moonshiner. And in a high-rise apartment in Birmingham, Ala., police shot an elderly man after his son asked them to make sure he was okay.  

A man is lying in bed depressed and threatening suicide, his desperate girlfriend calls the police non-emergency number looking for help...

Another success story... the St Johns Police department prevent yet another tragic suicide by gunning the knife wielding man down in his bed.

TO PROTECT & SERVE

 

Dangerous When Wet

Useless Nations at it again.

Recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full  enjoyment of life and all human rights.

Declares the City of Detroit to be in violation... Again.

64,769 delinquent residential customers owe the city’s water department a combined $48.9 million.  The city started sending out shut-off warnings May 11.  The City of Detroit began shutting off water access to residents behind on payments Tuesday, with thousands at risk of losing access.

Last year U.N. officials Catarina de Albuquerque and Leilani Farha declared “Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,”

To paraphrase an old saying:

Your rights end where my wallet begins.

So by all means, get out your checkbook Catrina.