The Best of All Possible Worlds

Campaign Finance Reform

The Presidential election campaigns are gearing up, and once again we're being subjected to all the same old arguments for each side limiting the other sides funding.

 Having recently viewed a discussion on Constitutional Insurgent's excellent blog which tangentially addressed the issue, a remark from one of his commenters wondering what a Libertarian take on the issue might be, prompted the following ideas.

 Now, I don't presume to speak for the Libertarian party in any official capacity, or even for Libertarians in general, but I've given some thought to the subject and offer this Libertarian's campaign spending reform program for your consideration.

 1. As it is no one's business but yours who or what you spend your money on, we should remove any and all restrictions on how much you can contribute to the candidate of your choice.

2. As it is none of your business who is running for office in the neighboring congressional district, or in a state 2000 miles away, your support should only be available to those candidates for whom you are legally entitled to cast a ballot, and only one of them. No hedging your bets.

This would tend to restrict your purchase of politicians in national elections  at any given time to at most one (1) Representative, one (1) Senator , and one (1) President. As should be readily apparent, the competition will be fierce, and market forces should easily ameliorate your influence with any particular office holder.

3. All contributions to every campaign should cease thirty (30) days before the election, allowing ample time for the respective organizations to collect and publish a list of all contributors over a given nominal amount at least 15 days prior to the polling date.

  If you're buying a politician your name ought to be clearly visible on the bill of sale, and the rest of us are entitled to know it.

While some candidates may claim this to be a hardship, if you can't operate on a budget, you probably shouldn't be running for national office in the first place.

4. As should be obvious from item #2, no money should come from any source other than the native constituencies of the various offices. That is to say that all party organizations, PAC's, corporations, unions, trade and professional organizations, etc. should be strictly prohibited from contributing to any candidate.

5.  "Issue" advertising would still be allowed by interested parties, but with a cut off well in advance of the polls, perhaps that same 30 day mark, leaving ample time for the electorate to weigh the questions and decide for themselves.

If nothing else, such a program would tend to restore the loyalties of politician to their proper focus, the people who actually put them in office. Our downfall has been the arrogation of interest in the affairs of all, by all and sundry.

  I'm sure our liberal friends chafe at being represented by office holders financed by others, as I do with a governor paid for by Emily's List.  As the saying goes; "All politics are local." and government would work far better for all of us if it was.

Police Tape

The right to take video of police encounters in public is clearly protected by the First Amendment but the trend is for police to detain people shooting video and then subsequently drop the charges.

"Exercising this right has consistently and uniformly been upheld by state and federal courts; they have made it abundantly clear that citizens have right to film police in public," he said. "What is alarming is the degree to which police are ignoring this clear precedent and continue to threaten citizens." Jonathan Turley GWU

ABC News

PoliceOne 

“As a basic principle, we can’t tell you to stop recording,” says Delroy Burton, chairman of D.C.’s metropolitan police union and a 21-year veteran on the force. “If you’re standing across the street videotaping, and I’m in a public place, carrying out my public functions, [then] I’m subject to recording, and there’s nothing legally the police officer can do to stop you from recording.”

Atlantic 

The trending police tactic is to detain the citizen, wipe the recording, and charge with obstruction, interference, disorderly conduct, and the like.  Wait... there's an App for that.

Police Tape is a program released by the ACLU-NJ.  The app is simple and allows you to use the Police Tape feature to record video and audio interaction with the police and then it backs up the video so that it can't be deleted if your phone is taken. 

iDigitalTimes

The Fate of the Left

We've heard from several commenters here that conservatism is dead, and that Libertarian views are a juvenile philosophy not worth defending. Really? I'd like to ask my friends on the left where their freedom derives from? Is it something licensed by the government? Or does government actually derive it's just powers by the consent of the governed?

  I would argue that if we are not perceived to be the origin of that authority, then we are not governed, but ruled. That the Federal government consistently flaunts the restraints put upon it by the Constitution is proof that they have adopted  the notion that we are naught but peons, and our wishes can and should be ignored in the interest of those in power. Perhaps like our British cousins we should term ourselves "subjects"?

Fortunately, having overextended themselves in building the rather shaky coalition that constitutes the left in America, by promising everything to everyone, without consideration of the impracticality, the cost, or who is stuck with the bill, their ideas are about due to hit the wall.

 Having reached the end of credibility for all the empty rhetoric, and even emptier promises, they are in imminent danger of running afoul of one of the cardinal rules of the universe.

What goes around, comes around, and there is no escape

 Ignore the message at your peril!

Joker gets the last Laugh

24 Counts of First Degree Murder, 140 Counts of attempted First Degree Murder, 1 Jackass on the Jury and he gets:

12 Life Sentences plus 3,318 years.

Just put a bullet in his head, or better yet, let that one juror pay for his incarceration since now it seems the rest of us Coloradans must foot the bill for one jackass. 

Colorado needs to repeal the requirement that death sentences be by a unanimous  jury.  One jackass shouldn't be permitted to hold the rest of the state hostage to his principles.  There is no doubt in this case, there is no chance that he is innocent. 12 good people will never again see the sunrise or the light of day, why should James Holmes?

12 Life Sentences and 3,318 years... it's a frigging joke.  Anything more than 1 Life Sentence should automatically be the death penalty.


 

California gets it Right?

California lawmakers approve measure restricting the use of drones over private property by a 43-11 vote.

State Bill 142 introduced by Sen Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) would make flying a drone less than 350 feet over private property a trespass violation.

A person wrongfully occupies real property and is liable for damages pursuant to Section 3334 if, without express permission of the person or entity with the legal authority to grant access or without legal authority, he or she operates an unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft system less than 350 feet above ground level within the airspace overlaying the real property.

The bill now heads to the California Senate.

 LA Times 

 Bill Text

Why Hillary's E-Mails Matter

Forget the clandestine server or her using personal devices and e-mails. Those things call her integrity and judgment into question, but they are not indictable.

The Senders of those Classified e-mails broke some Serious Federal Laws 

The senders of that information had to take it off of a Top Secret government information system that is completely isolated from the internet, remove the information from a secured Top Secret facility, and then transmit that information by unclassified e-mail over the common internet we all use.

That is three big crimes, and a bunch of slightly smaller ones.

Hillary's Crime was receiving Top Secret Information over an Unclassified Network and Not Reporting it.

Her team is trying to say the info wasn't classified at the time, and that may apply to a few, but no way can it to all of them, most especially those classified as SI/TK. That information comes from the source dissimenators classified and marked. If there was indeed such information on her e-mail server unmarked, then someone stripped off the markings, another crime.

The SI/TK material for sure (and probably most of the rest) were not "oopsies." Someone deliberately took the steps I described above, and that is a very serious string of crimes.

Why did they do it?

Espionage?

I doubt it.

Benghazi Cover-up?

I doubt that as well.  Stealing copies of damning classified information that still exist on government servers covers nothing up, and transmitting it over unsecured means is stupid.

It's Good to be the Queen

Here's my theory:  This is the tip of the iceberg of systemic disregard for federal law by Hillary's State Department team, from the communications folks to her personal coterie which includes Huma Abeden and Cheryl Mills.

The SecDef is big, and working anywhere near her is heady and important work.  She's out of pocket and needs to see this important piece of info, so somebody airgaps it and sends it to her private e-mail, reaping kudos in an environment where servicing the queen trumps gravely important national security laws.  Another Clinton culture of corruption where rules don't matter.

My Prediction:

The System Administrator(s) who approved/enabled USB or CD write capability on State Department Top Secret computers will go to jail.

IT technicians and communications operators who work in the State Department Comm Center where the information removal happened will go to jail.

Any non-technical staffer whose fingerprints turn up on any of this will face prosecution, and possibly jail. Their close proximity to the queen may insulate them, or it could end up being their ruin.  Recall Clinton bag man Sandy Burglar ran out of the national archives with secret papers in his underwear and got a slap on the wrist.

The FBI is squeezing people's onions right now, and putting the pressure on some people, so we'll see who cracks first and how much loyalty the inner circle truly has for Her Rotten Heinous.

Hillary could still skate.  The ultimate irony would be the Smartest Woman in the History of the World pleading ignorance.

Birthright Citizenship: Suicidal and not Guaranteed by the US Constitution

The latest leftwing dido is to throw a statement in your face about how the constitution guarantees birthright citizenship and that to end it, we must amend the constitution.

As in practically everything, those loony lefties are wrong

Here is the operative sentence in the 14th Amendment:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

Go here to read a short, useful article on this topic. It also explains the federal law that fleshes out the citizenship clause from the 14th Amendment.

Currently, Title 8 of the U.S. Code fills in the gaps left by the Constitution. Section 1401 defines the following as people who are "citizens of theUnited States at birth:"

• Anyone born inside the United States *

• Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person's status as a citizen of the tribe

• Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S.

• Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national

• Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year

• Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21

• Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)

• A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.

_{* There is an exception in the law — the person must be "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. This would exempt the child of a diplomat, for example, from this provision.}

"Subject to the jurisdiction thereof..."

That is the key to this.  Note that according to US Code, foreign diplomats and their families are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States.  Neither are illegal immigrants.

Here's the test:

- Some states are talking of automatically registering people to vote.  Can they register an illegal alien?

- Can government compel an illegal alien to show up for jury duty?

- Can the federal government draft an illegal immigrant into military service?

The answer to all three, of course is no.  Foreigners, although here and required to follow our laws, are not "subject to the jurisdiction of the United States."  They owe allegiance to their mother country, not the United States.  That is the legal meaning of that clause.

If Trump becomes President...

...and congress changed the law to no longer grant birthright citizenship, the case would end up being decided at the Supreme Court, so I'd say those in favor of birthright citizenship have nothing to worry about in the short term.

However, a President Trump, or any GOP President could simply change the policy by presidential decree.  If President Obama can unilaterally change immigration policy, so can any other president.

* - Always on Watch is also blogging on this topic today, so please visit her fine blog and join the conversation over there.

Related links that substantiate what I have said:

Rep Steven King - History of 14th Amendment

Andrew McCarthy:  14th Amendment does not require birthright citizenship

Daily Koz - 14th Amendment and American Indians

Conversation, With Verse

"As one of my great teacher taught me, the art of conversation is to keep the conversation going.  Did you know that?  It's not to stop the other man dead in his tracks with one-liners.  You're not Henny Youngman.  The object is not to shut the other man up.  The object is to open the other man up.  Not to shut him up; it's to open him up."
--Dr. Michael Savage

With or Without You

Most of you have probably heard this song before, it is With or Without You by U2.

I heard this version on Sirius Classical by a classically trained Croatian duo, Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser that go onstage as 2Cellos.  If you want to skip over the banter, the music starts at two minutes in.

What do you think?

If you're into geographical trivia, Arena Pula is an intact Roman amphitheater built between 27 BC and 69 AD.  The Croatian city of Pula was the Roman city of Iulia Pola or more accurately Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea.

Deal Breakers

On Tuesday we looked at presidential candidates and their standing with us, particularly in light of the political quiz at I Side With.  The quiz mainly illustrated where we stand with (or against) the candidates on certain issues, but quite often did not reflect who we like the most or intend to vote for.  The questions today are what issue positions are deal breakers for you with any particular candidate.  For example you could be aligned 90-95% with a particular candidate but there is one position that they hold that totally makes them a non-starter, e.g. Amnesty, Abortion, Common-Core, etc.

What for you are non-starters.

Obama 2016

The New York Times recounts a dinner party in the private quarters of the White House the president held...

"...with his wife, Michelle, and their 13 guests — among them the novelist Toni Morrison, the hedge fund manager Marc Lasry and the Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr — well past 2 a.m.

Mr. Obama “seemed incredibly relaxed,” said another guest, the writer Malcolm Gladwell. He recalled how the group, which also included the actress Eva Longoria and Vinod Khosla, a founder of Sun Microsystems, tossed out ideas about what Mr. Obama should do after he leaves the White House." 

The long-running dinner this past February is part of a methodical effort taking place inside and outside the White House as the president, first lady and a cadre of top aides map out a postpresidential infrastructure and endowment they estimate could cost as much as $1 billion. The president’s aides did not ask any of the guests for library contributions after the dinner, but a number of those at the table could be donors in the future.

The $1 billion — double what George W. Bush raised for his library and its various programs — would be used for what one adviser called a “digital-first” presidential library loaded with modern technologies, and to establish a foundation with a worldwide reach.   (NY Times)

President Obama will not become a Dictator

Many are speculating that President Obama will not relinquish power, but I think that is a ridiculous notion. I remember the same paranoia swirling as the Clinton years came to a close. There is too much money to be made on the outside, and after the president leaves office, the Obama's will cash in globally to the tune of billions.

Here are my Predictions...

$ The Obama Foundation's scope, impact and international money vacuuming will make the Clinton Foundation look like a taco truck with two flat tires and a cracked windshield.

$ Michelle will run for Senator from somewhere and build a path to the presidency as Obama circles the globe doing the shakedowns.

$ Barack Obama will engender great goodwill for himself worldwide by being the first anti-American ex-President.  His speeches and commentary as he travels the globe will make Noam Chomsky sound like the ghost of Ronald Reagan.  Domestically, he will sound like Reverend Wright.

The Obama's will replace the aging Clinton's as the Democrat Party power family and behind-the-scenes influence peddlers.

I Side With...

At least according to the online political quiz at I Side With

And yet... I don't.  The quiz seemed to nail it on my political spectrum affiliation "right-wing libertarian", yet while I would vote for Paul over Clinton in a general election, that's simply because there is no way in hell I'd vote for Clinton.  Heck, if given the choice between Clinton (31%) and Sanders (19%), I'd vote for Sanders simply because I feel he is the more genuine and honest candidate.

According to the quiz, I support in descending order from Rand Paul at 84%:  Rubio (80%), Cruz (78%), Perry (78%), Trump (74%), Bush (73%), Carson (71%), Walker (65%).  Frankly I'm not particularly supportive of any of them, if the primary were held today I'd probably vote for Trump, not out of support but as a wake-up call to the Republican machine.

The quiz has some entertainment and educational value but in the big picture fails to capture what I would term candidacy deal-breakers.  I also think that Paul and I agree on many issues but for different reasons, our alignment being a result of fiscal conservatism rather than libertarian philosophy.

If you want to take the poll be sure to answer the additional questions (expandable at the bottom of each section) and adjust the least important to most important buttons on the left.

What does the quiz say about you?  Or is the entire concept of it too stupid to even bother with?

Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead!

OK, the headline is a little premature...

Simple Question:  Will Hillary survive the e-mail scandal?

The FBI may be investigating... but they're not investigating her...  It's an investigation, but not a criminal investigation... They're investigating the server, but its been scrubbed...

Despite supposed Democrat Party uneasiness and rightwing giddiness at a forthcoming Hillary indictment, the investigation could simply fizzle out, and if so, she follows the Hellary Hospital arrow and walks right into the White House.  Imagine how much fun 'Ol Bill would have mentoring young interns...

Another Question:  What is really going on here?

Is this fuss over classified e-mails a political hit?  Is poor Hillary now caught in the pincers of a Vast Rightwing and Vast Leftwing conspiracy?

Obama pulls the strings, and no matter how reptilian and completely egomaniacal the Psychopath in Chief is, would he really bring down the Democrat Party's best candidate because of old political vendettas?

Or is Obama simply hanging the sword of Damocles over her head to keep her in line?

Will Hillary Survive?

I think so, and I hate to say that.  Nothing would be more entertaining than to see old retreads like Biden, Gore and Kerry jump into the race and mix it up with Socialist Sanders and the single-digit ankle-biters obscured by the shadow of the Clinton Dirigible.

Inoculation
If our corrupt political system is wired up like I think it is, this "investigation" is designed to put an end to the issue so the Clinton Steamroller can continue on to victory, crushing everything good in its path as it rolls on.

We now know there was classified information on that server, but Hellary could easily escape by pushing a few assistants under the bus when we learn that she never actually accessed the e-mail on her own, but had staffers do it for her.  Depends on what the word is, is, &cetera...

Neo-Barbarism

Maxfeld Deviant Art

"There is a new barbarism. This barbarism has embraced a new pagan mentality . . . not simply rejecting the legacy of the West, but embracing a new pagan mentality where there is no fixed truth."--  Carl F. H. Henry, Twilight of a Great Civilization

I stumbled upon a 1991 essay by  Kerby Anderson entitled, The Decline of a Nation.  He connects the decline of Western Civilization to the destruction of the family, and that makes sense to me.

Think of a human being as a pebble tossed in a pond.  One bad apple can poison an entire family, and those family members, now rankled and perturbed by one relative, carry their rancor out into the marketplace, work, school and other public forums and shared places, creating more ripples, roiling and embittering the neighborhood.  A few bad neighborhoods can spread their dysfunction and destroy an entire city, and so it goes, out into wider society, entire nations...

A Me-Centered Universe

Family Decline begins with turning from God (or any system of fixed morality and virtues) to idolatry, which leads to selfishness and neglect of family, ultimately destroying this fundamental building block of society.

Societal decline begins with selfishness that grows out of abundance.  Next come complacency, apathy, and then moral decay...

I detect the sneers and jeers from the more 'enlightened' readers who reject all the God talk, and here is my response...

You've chiseled religion off of governmental friezes, jackhammered the Ten Commandments, mocked Christianity and despised fundamental Judeo-Christian societal norms that go back thousands of years.  But the problem is, for all the talk of Secular Humanism; trendy Buddhist whatever; a vague, woolly 'Spirituality;' and bumper sticker philosophies involving Tolerance, Diversity and Keeping Mansplainers' Hands Off Your Ovaries, you have failed to build a replacement for what you have destroyed.

Women Lead Society

Women of every age and every society, despite outward second-class status, have always rocked the cradle and ruled the world. Women are not the weaker sex; they are the smarter, stronger sex. Way more dangerous than men, and men know it.  What do you think the Salem Witch Trials were really all about?

Women lack man's raw power, so they've traditionally wielded influence through other means, including an indomitable inner-strength, superior interpersonal skills, and parsimoniously leveraging feminine treasures that every man lusts after.  In a healthy person, family, society, the masculine brute force, thirst for action and foolhardiness must be tempered and guided by feminine wisdom, compassion and morality.

"Men with Boobs"

As women go, so goes society, and that spells trouble for us.
Mean-faced women indoctrinating college students and caring more about aborting babies than nurturing them; Bellicose women in government gleefully making war on other countries; women leaving their children to go fight wars when there is no shortage of male soldiers; harsh, crude, foul-mouthed Jezebels on manly rampages, getting drunk and getting their freak on just like a man, and then turning black widow when the guilt (that damned God-given guilt!) must be twisted into victim-hood and used to destroy men and their white male privilege.

A society can survive men gone wild, channeling their amped-up, testosterone-fueled aggression into conquering enemy nations and building great things; but a society cannot survive callous, selfish, and increasingly unhappy women hijacking the war wagon and turning the men into feminized males who cuddle.

Related:
Feminism Timeline

Armed Forces Radio: V-J Day

On December 7th 1941 this song was top of the charts and quite likely playing on the radio.

By the 23rd we were listening to music like this:

In 1942 we were telling ourselves We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again

In 1943 we were Coming In On A Wing and a Prayer

In 1944 we were longing for A Sentimental Journey

And in December 1945 Karl (Davis) and Harty (Taylor) released this number:

Justice

Unauthorized removal and retention of classified information

2 yrs probations, $100,000 fine.

What do you think she'll get? 

 

Environmental Pollution Agency

Investigating the Gold King Mine (Active 1890-1920) the EPA...

well the NY Times said it best "As workers used a backhoe to hack at loose material, a surprise deluge of orange water ripped through, spilling into Cement Creek and flowing into the Animas."

Initially reported as 1 million gallons, since upped to 3 million gallons the spill has elevated levels of arsenic, zinc, copper, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese and aluminum in the river.  Levels of lead in the Animas are 3500 times higher than they were before the spill, 100 times over the permissible level. Fifteen miles away the water content for six different metals are all above permissible levels.

Photo:EPA; Gold King Mine Entrance

More pictures Here  

LOOK OUT NEW MEXICO!

Going Dutch

Remember when that had a different meaning?

A bill currently pending in The Netherlands would allow the government to terminate the "social security" benefits of anyone leaving to join ISIS.  

Makes sense...

Except the same bill provides reinstatement of benefits for those who leave ISIS and return to The Netherlands, specifically student grant payments.

Brilliant!


Sometimes getting it half right is worse than doing nothing at all.

Liberty Agenda

Democrats are the pro-government party, and progressives use that position to hand out goodies, punish enemies and recruit voters to the cause.  But there are still some flickers of freedom out there:

The poll found that 20 percent of respondents ages 18-29 identify as libertarians. Another 42 percent were unsure whether they were libertarians, and 39 percent rejected the label outright. Libertarianism had its strongest showing among young people: only 17 percent of 30-44 year-olds, 15 percent of 45-64 year-olds, and 9 percent of the 65+ crowd self-identified as libertarians. (Reason)

I'm not urging paleo-cons to turn libertarian.

They associate libertarianism with dope smoking nudists, and that's just the way it is. What this poll shows is that young people are clamoring for a liberty agenda they just cannot find in the democrat party unless they want pot, free birth control or government-funded abortions.  If uptight GOOP politicians would stop railing about those issues, they could almost attain parity with Dems for the youth vote.

Here's the crux: 

Instead of being a weak, flailing and ultimately failing countervailing force against leftwing progressivism, conservatives should have staked out their ground in liberty and justice for all. Instead, they just became one more group of people wanting to hijack the government to enforce their values and tell everyone else what to do.

The Catholic Church is on a big tear about religious liberty, while actively combating personal liberty. 

Modern-day conservatism is rife with such contradictions, as is progressivism. It's wrong. 

Progressivism is only working right now because they are selling what's hot, flinging out free candy and doing all the easy stuff.

The Catholic Church, Evangelicals and other social conservatives picked poor ground to fight on and had horrible messengers, so they lost.

The right way to fight is to stake out ground firmly on the constitution. Claim the public square and preach from there the beauty of its freedoms. The same set of founding principles that recognizes gays also recognizes gun owners, dope smokers and Gospel preachers, and damn any government poobah who tries to squelch any of it.

It is probably too late for that now, though. The United States has devolved into twitter-powered, mob-rule popular democracy, and conservatives have lost.

Not even the morally upright like having morality preached at them by dubious political hucksters, but everybody loves freedom and the chance to become successful in a free and open marketplace.

That space is open, since neither political party is preaching it.

When Fat Pigs Fly (and bimbos, dogs and slobs)

The Megyn Kelly-El Donaldo brouhaha should not have surprised anyone

Trump says what's on his mind, no matter how curdled that thought may be, and Megyn Kelly, esq, banked on that and set her trap.

The #1 crime today is racism, and none of the dirt-diggers could find any evidence of that in Trump's background, so Fox's shiniest star went after the next biggest sin, sexism.  There are old stories of The Donald calling certain women he was feuding with names like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and bimbos.

Kelley took those sexist words and spent weeks patiently concocting a stink bait from hell.  She dangled it at the debate, and Trump didn't just nibble, he chomped down, swallowed, pulled the line out as far as he could go, skipping over the waves as he went, until he got himself tangled up in the mangroves at low tide.

"You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes," Trump told CNN's Don Lemon on Friday night. "Blood coming out of her wherever."

Megyn Kelly is a bully, and a typical one.  She throws her femininity out there, softens up the victim, then sticks the knife in.  When the victim hits back, she drops the Zena warrior shtick, pouts her lower lip out and puts on the little-girl-pushed-down-by-the-mean-bully act.  I'm not knocking her, it's an old passive-aggressive game played by all kinds of people, men and women, to torment their enemies.

Megyn 1, El Donaldo 0

Donald Trump may be a smart businessman, but Kelly bagged and tagged him and drove off with his testicles hanging from her rearview mirror.  He does not belong in the political arena.

Did he not see Katie Couric "attack" poor Sarah Palin?  Has he not seen all the other media "ambushes" of conservative politicians?  Doesn't he realize that the media is not there for him and the politicians on the stage, but that the news media, like Trump Inc,  is a business that must make a buck?

Megyn Kelly:  The Next Bill O'Reilly, only Prettier and Smarter

That debate wasn't about helping us sort through all those wonderful GOP candidates.  It was about Fox News making money, creating buzz and burnishing the their newest superstar and next Bill O'Reilly.  Good 'ol Bill won't be around forever.  His creaking demographic is trending up toward the mid 80's, and Hannity's teddy bear tough guy act is stale, so they need a fresh, smart, beautiful woman to get that younger, more female demographic.  The fact that she has a trophy case stuffed with man-trophies only makes her more attractive.

The press is what it is.  If you can't deal with it, don't waste everyone's time trying to get our votes.  Can't handle the press?  You're done.  Get off the stage, or as El Donaldo would say...

You're Fired!

Happy Birthday!!!

Finntann had a birthday earlier this week, ( no, we won't tell you which one )  and Silverfiddle and I would like to commemorate that with an  appropriate musical tribute. >:-)

It kind of suits you anyway. ;-)

You're never too old to rock and roll if you're too young to die !!!

All the best Finn !!!

Stop Calling me White... It's Racist.

For the Record, This is White:

The rest of us exhibit widely varying skin tone:

http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutorials/guest/skin_tone/skintone.html

Can you find your own color here in more than one race?

I tend to average: center Pallor-African, left Pallor-Asian, to center Tanned-Caucasian, I'm not nor have I ever been "White"

Flag of the Progressive State of America

The lone white star against a blue field represents unity. No more 50 states, 300 million individuals: One people, one government, one leader to lead us all into the progressive future.

We must be one, united in our thinking and our activist actions. Dissention tears at the social fabric and causes discord within the hive.

The white stripes have been removed since America is already too white and too racist, and the clash of the red and white was divisive, while reminding of the 13 original racist colonies, founded upon the backs of people of color.

The red background provides a large area where the president can order a logo to be affixed that symbolizes whatever the cause of the day is:

We're one step away from jackhammering the slaveholding founding fathers off the face of history, but despite all those campesinos he murdered, Che is still OK!

Here's a tribute to Islam's strong influence in the founding of this nation.  President Obama cautions us we are not a Christian nation, but he reminds us how islamic it is!

Round up those Climate Change deniers!  Jail them!  Send them to reeducation camps before their blasphemous obstinacy causes Mother Gaia's hair to catch fire!

Pedos, rapists, international fraudsters, torturers, self-important grandees...  The UN has it all.  Bill Clinton should be the next UN Ambassador to that International House of Corrupt Perverts.

One state.  The Progressive State of America.  It goes along well with our one-party political system.

Guilt

Photo:Psychopoesie

Yesterday's post got me thinking...

So, what do we all have to be guilty about?

Let's hear it, the litany of the sins of the white European man.

Also, what do we have to be proud of?  What offsets our heinous past, if anything?  Have we given the world more good than bad?

Go on, load those scales up!

Do you yourself feel responsible?  

Should the sins of the father be visited upon the son?

Or do you, like me, just want to tell them to stuff it?

The Humanity Project

"On the left is the first photograph ever taken in 1826; on the right is a photo a cat accidentally took of itself." (Swifty.com)

I paged through one of those click bait sites full of fun historical facts about the Great Pyramids, the Aztec Empire (and Oxford University, which predates that empire).  Here's my favorite little factoid:

"If Earth's Entire History Was Compressed Into A Single Year, Modern Humans Would Appear On December 31st At About 11:58 PM."

We've accomplished much despite arriving so late on the scene.  What do you consider humankind's most recent great accomplishment?

I believe it to be defeating fascism, then communism, and bringing peace and prosperity to the European continent.  The current period of relative peace starting in 1945 is right up there with Concert of Europe (1815-1915) that followed from the Treaty of Paris.  Some history buffs even compare it to Pax Romana, which despite the name, still saw local skirmishes breaking out on the empire's periphery.

Our American experiment, built upon European values, is a slightly-older great accomplishment.

What do you think humankind's greatest accomplishments are?

What do you see in our future?

Jericho Lives!

Nugent Weighs in on Cecil the Lion

Cecil's Brother Found Alive and Well

The twittersphere geared up for more fusillades of outrage when it was announced that Cecil's brother Jericho had also been capped by poachers.  But he was later found to have merely slipped his GPS collar and gone on a weekend "booze, broads, and wildebeest bender."  Game park officials found him lounging with eight young females in a shady grove next to a stripped-clean carcass.   

So, what will this week's Featured Outrage be?

Manhunt for perp who killed Memphis cop?  Naw...  Nor will it be babies murdered for their body parts, or cops and innocent citizens murdered by illegal immigrants and gang members...

Another Trump-related Five Minutes Hate?  Doubt it.  The target audience of the entertainment media has the attention span of a parakeet...

The Anti-Gay Marriage Billboards going up have my vote...

What do you think the pop culture Human Herding Device Formerly Known as News (HHDFKN) will confabulate for us this upcoming week?