April 30, 2019
Writing in Economic Collapse Michael Snyder discusses the invasion of homeless of ritzy West Coast neighborhoods and how the well to do are not at all pleased about it.
Snyder points out:
I don't know that I agree; the large number of homeless at a time when we are at full employment and businesses are struggling to find people to do the work Americans Just Won't Do suggests that these people are not unemployed but rather enjoying the bounty of free stuff offered by these West Coast philanthropists. In other words, it's so good to be homeless here that there is little reason to work. I don't think homelessness is going to increase when times get hard; in fact, these people may well actually decide to get a job.
We have a hammock rather than a safety net.
But his point is valid; the rich are most unhappy with the current state of affairs. Well...
Donald Trump decided to send illegal aliens to these Sanctuary Cities. Many of the homeless are aliens who don't belong here. It is delicious to think that these unhappy hippies out west are taking it on the chin for their own demands.
As ye sew, so shall ye reap. California has been openly defying America's laws with sanctuary cities and this is the end result. Illegal aliens depress wages, making it harder for the working poor to, well, keep working. They take up housing, driving the price up. They consume services. All of this makes it harder to stay off the streets for many. And with the generous banquet prepared by the taxpayers there is little incentive to get off the streets, especially in sunny, warm south California. It's a vagrant's paradise.
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Britain is GETTING SERIOUS about stopping kitchen crime and is cooking up knife control.
Yes, the philosopher kings of the British Isles are now going to ban that ubiquitous tool of the kitchen (since gun control worked so gosh-darned well) in an effort to stop people from stabbing each-other, and perhaps carving a Christmas goose. Good luck!
Question; how do you stop people from having knives when all it takes is a piece of metal or even a stone which is sharpened? Anyone can make a knife. Stone Age Man made knives - even during the Paleolithic.
It's not the tool, you fool; it's the intent of the gent..
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North Carolina joins nine other states in imposing a special surcharge on electric and hybrid vehicles.
According to the NC Observer:
"Right now, they don’t pay any gas tax from the purchase of electricity, and they’re using our roads,” Davis said. "This bill is intended to bring parity so that everybody is contributing their fair share to the gas tax revenue.”
North Carolina’s gas tax, of 36.2 cents a gallon, will generate about $2 billion for the N.C. Department of Transportation, or about 40 percent of its revenue this year.
Owners of electric vehicles have paid a special annual registration fee since 2013, and it was raised to $130 two years later. But this would be the first time hybrid vehicle owners would face such a fee. Under the bill, it would start at $87.50 a year in 2020 and rise to $112.50 the following year and $137.50 in 2022.
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According to this article 150 to 200 million pigs have died from African Swine Fever, decimating the pork industry in China, in particular, but also in South Africa, Vietnam, And Romania, among other places.
According to the article:
Production losses from African swine fever (ASF) have eclipsed initial estimates, Rabobank said on Thursday. In 2019, Rabobank expects Chinese pork production losses of 25% to 35%, creating new challenges and opportunities for animal protein exporters.
"African Swine Fever has spread to every province in mainland China and is now affecting an estimated 150-200 million pigs,” said Christine McCracken, RaboResearch animal protein analyst. "The expected 30% loss in pork production is unprecedented. These losses cannot easily be replaced by other proteins like chicken, duck and seafood, nor will larger pork imports be able to fully offset the loss.”
When I use the term "plague”, I am not using it lightly. I have never heard of a single disease wiping out this many farm animals before.
Have you?
We are potentially talking about an absolutely crippling blow to the global food supply.
[...]
So eventually I ended up over at PorkBusiness.com, and according to them African Swine Fever "is now affecting an estimated 150-200 million pigs” in China…
"African Swine Fever has spread to every province in mainland China and is now affecting an estimated 150-200 million pigs,” said Christine McCracken, RaboResearch animal protein analyst. "The expected 30% loss in pork production is unprecedented. These losses cannot easily be replaced by other proteins like chicken, duck and seafood, nor will larger pork imports be able to fully offset the loss.”
When I use the term "plague”, I am not using it lightly. I have never heard of a single disease wiping out this many farm animals before.
Have you?
We are potentially talking about an absolutely crippling blow to the global food supply.
This gets me to thinking about xenotransplantation, the practice of using animal organs for human transplant material. We've done it with pig heart valves, and are working toward transplanting whole pig hearts as well as kidneys. What happens to someone with swine organs in the case of exposure to this disease? It's not a human disease, but it is in a perfect environment to mutate into one. It is utterly lethal, it appears. What happens if this should break out into the general public? This could be a pandemic of Biblical proportions.
At the very least, loss of bacon and ham will simply RUIN breakfast and could well lead to violent and bloody revolution. At a bare minimum I would recommend selling off your Crackerbarrel or Bob Evans stocks before the crash...
Seriously, though, this is hitting China very hard, at a time when the Chinese economy is not doing so well and the Chinese government may find a need to rally the population, which is heavily dependent on swine for meat. Dictatorships like China usually pacify their populations by some sort of foreign adventurism. It is a cause for concern.
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America's favorite crispy cracker Beta "beatnik" O'Rourke has been running Facebook ads as part of his campaign - in Mexico.
According to the Free Beacon:
Facebook has for the past year allowed users to see, using the "info and ads" tab, where a group is targeting its sponsored posts. A screenshot of O'Rourke's page captured by the Washington Free Beacon last Friday revealed he was paying to have certain posts viewed by Facebook users in Mexico.
Among the posts O'Rourke paid to blast out to Mexican users was an invitation to his Tuesday campaign stop at the Jacobs Center in San Diego, Calif. The details are posted on the event page in both English and Spanish.
Gee; I wonder why? Considering that O'Rourke ran fairly close with Ted Cruz in what has been a traditionally Red state in the last election one must ask if this was not an attempt at vote fraud. Beatnik probably received a lot of the Mexican vote last time - and he plans on receiving a lot more of them in his Presidential bid.
Isn't there some sort of law against this?
Does anybody still believe the Democrats want secure borders, when they are running CAMPAIGN ADS in Mexico?
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April 29, 2019
The multi-colored placard in front of a $2-million home in North Center Chicago proudly proclaimed, "In this house we believe: No human is illegal”—and "Science is real” (plus a few other liberal mantras).
I knew right away where the owners stood on climate change, and other hot-button political issues. They would likely tolerate no dissension or debate on "settled” climate science or any of the other topics.
.But they have it exactly backward on the science issue. Real science is not belief—or consensus, 97% or otherwise. Real science constantly asks questions, expresses skepticism, reexamines hypotheses and evidence. If debate, skepticism and empirical evidence are prohibited—it’s pseudo-science, at best.
Real science—and real scientists—seek to understand natural phenomena and processes. They pose hypotheses that they think best explain what they have witnessed, then test them against actual evidence, observations and experimental data. If the hypotheses (and predictions based on them) are borne out by their subsequent findings, the hypotheses become theories, rules, laws of nature—at least until someone finds new evidence that pokes holes in their assessments, or devises better explanations.
more...
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#WalkAway Documentary Premieres in Harlem: Blacks Walk Away From Divisive Ideologies
From the article:
Standing with some real Patriots @DavidJHarrisJr & Brandon Straka @usminority in Harlem right before yesterday’s event!!! A picture can say a thousand words and God Bless America personally comes to mind for me when I see this ???????????????? #LadyLiberty #WalkAway pic.twitter.com/QyYTvZ3jIT
— Christopher Wright (@ConservInNY) March 28, 2019
"In 2016, I voted for Hilary Clinton … because as a gay man, I always believed the messages that I got from the liberal media,” said Brandon Straka, founder of the campaign. "And the liberal media loves to target minority groups in America … and what they do is they tell us time and time again that we are in danger, that we are hated by people on the right … and that no amount of hard work or motivational action will ever allow us to overcome that victimhood: well that’s a lie.”
The documentary consists of a montage of testimonies from black Americans who walked away from the liberal left. They one day understood the divisive, deceitful, and racial political strategies they were subjected to by the media and politicians. History told them the truth; and those facts were enough to realign their beliefs from left to right.
Misconceptions and Hidden History in Black America
A section of the documentary was devoted to the history of the Democratic Party and its affiliation with the Ku-Klux-Klan and its support of segregation. Also mentioned was its connection with "planned parenthood”—the creation of progressive socialist Margaret Sanger, initiator of "The Negro Project”: an effort to eliminate the poor and "inferior” blacks in the rural South.
Read the rest!
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At Ace of Spades the estimable Ace asks the question about the opioid panic.
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=381059
From the article:
Because most people aren't addicts.
Just like most gun owners aren't criminals. And most drinkers aren't drunk drivers. But as usual, America is on the insane arc of the pendulum and is over-regulating, using suspicious data and hysterical media manipulation.
Who Is Telling The Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths? DEA? CDC? Neither?
I share this distrust. The very same people promoting legalized marijuana are pushing this drive to stop the use of pain killers. What I don't understand is why.
A few theories were mentioned in the comments section. One of the more solid ideas advanced was that Fentynal is moving up from Mexico and that this is a left wing attempt to get ahead of the logical demand that we stop leaving the borders open. The Progressives will argue "it's not drugs from outside the U.S. but prescription painkillers causing the problem".
I don't know, but this was too well organized, too orchestrated, too much of a full court press for me to believe it was anything but a planned play. Something that grows out of need will dribble in for a while. This "opioid epidemic" just appeared out of nowhere, full grown. I find it difficult to believe in anything that shows up on our doorstep in this fashion.
And notice too this is an attack on private doctors. It can be used to argue for strict regulation i.e. socialized medicine and panels specifically for controlling opioid use. In other words, it's all about gaining further control of the medical community, taking it even more out of private hands. And of course the drug companies are going to take it on the chin, despite the fact the public has misused the product.We are now seeing ambulance chasers filing lawsuits against the drug manufacturers.
Look, there is nothing for pain like an oopium-based narcotic. The addictive nature of them is certainly cause for concern and that is why I eschew the darned things when in pain, but I know people need them when they need them and we shouldn't allow people to suffer out of fear they might get addicted. That isn't to say we should hand them out like candy, but what is the point of medication? To be used WHEN NEEDED!
I've been very suspicious of this whole thing for a while now.
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Here is a great idea from Italy. The city of Bergano is making making asylum seekers participate in a boot camp to enculturate them before letting them mix into the general public.
From the Al-Jazeera article:
The school whose name translates as Academy of Integration Thank you Bergamo, hosts 35 men aged 18 to 40, all of them, except one Pakistani, from African countries - Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Participants attend Italian-language classes, get internships at factories in the area and have to follow a strict routine.
They also have to do community service work for free.
If something is worth having it's worth working for,and if coming to Italy is worthwhile then young immigrants should be willing to put in a year of their lives for a much better life than they would have if they stayed in their home countries.
The article continues: more...
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Japanese Emperor Akihito is abdicating his throne. Long live the Emperor!
According to Al Jazeera:
He's the first emperor to abdicate in 200 years. The last abdication by a Japanese monarch was in 1817.
Naruhito will become emperor on Wednesday, but his formal enthronement will take place at a more elaborate ceremony in October.
So, why is the old boy packing it in? Poor health and his advanced age seem to be the reason. Japan has no law of succession; a new Emperor is chosen when the old one dies. The Japanese Diet, their parliament enacted a one-time law to accommodate the resignation.
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The wave of the future? Bicycle seats on airplanes?
https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2019/04/27/airlines-eye-crueler-ways-of-making-passengers-miserable/
Imagine a bicycle seat with a lightly padded, upright piece of plastic to lean against.
That's pretty much the Skyrider, which Aviointeriors is hoping will be the hot ticket for carriers looking to cram even more seats into economy-class cabins, particularly for shorter flights.
There is a special place in Hell for the creators of this evil.
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The I.G. report is expected to recomment indictments of Obama era people. In fact:
DEVELOPING: It is now looking as though there is more evidence that Obama had a heavier hand in interfering in the 2016 election than Putin
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) April 25, 2019
I doubt there will be indictments against any high level people, no matter how obvious is becomes that Obama had his mitts in this. There will be no appetite to prosecute the BHO. Be it fear of damaging people's confidence in the institution of the Presidency, or fear of race riots if the first black President is even accused, nobody is going to be willing to admit this publicly. In private it may be discussed among the "Brights" who have appointed themselves our guardians, but it will never be openly discussed. Do you expect Fox News to hae a segment on this? Not going to happen, folks.
Still, it would be nice if Obama would at least feel a little heat, and perhaps had to actually retire instead of hanging around causing trouble. That is the best we can hope for.
Hat tip; Frederick Barry
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April 28, 2019
Kim Foxx, top prosecutor in Chicago and accolyte of the radical leftist George Soros, is in an increasingly uncomfortable position over her decision to drop all charges against Jussie "the faker" Smollett over his false report of a hate crime.
The Belleville News Democrat gives us the 411:
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Sheila O'Brien also subpoenaed Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's top deputy and requested that Smollett appear at a hearing on her request.
Foxx was harshly criticized when her office announced it was dropping charges against Smollett that accused the black, gay actor of staging a racist and anti-gay attack on himself in downtown Chicago.
The gay black leftist actor cost the city of Chicago huge amounts of money and attempted to smear Donald Trump supporters as racist monsters.
Hopefully Foxx will have the book thrown at her along with the faker she tried to protect.
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Pope Francis, in his endless effort to stick it to the capitalist pigs of the Estados Unidos de America, is sending big bucks in aid to the invaders waiting in Mexico to violate our sovereignty.
From Vatican News:
US border closed
According to a statement from Peter’s Pence, "In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometres on foot and with makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Men and women, often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better future in the United States. However, the US border remains closed to them.”
Diminished aid and media coverage
In particular, the aid is intended to assist the more than 75,000 people who arrived in Mexico in 2018, in six migrant caravans. "All these people were stranded, unable to enter the United States, without a home or livelihood”, the statement reads. "The Catholic Church hosts thousands of them in hotels within the dioceses or religious congregations, providing basic necessities, from housing to clothing”.
So Francis is spending half a million dollars to feed and otherwise assist these lawbreaking aliens, rather than help them get back home or to some other safe haven. And here is the kicker:
So, thanks to the success of previous invading caravans more and more are coming, and getting less support from the Media. Apparently the Pontiff thinks we are to simply take them all. I ask a simple question; why doesn't he invite them into the Vatican? He is the ruler of that independent country; he can bring them to Rome and grant them asylum in his own palace. But he'd rather force them on the Gringos to the north of his fascistic Argentina than deal with the problem himself. Like all liberals, he is very happy to make them somebody else' problem.
I have often pointed out that, like a flock of birds, if you feed them, make them comfortable, and offer them a chance at the big jackpot, they will come in ever greater numbers. If you start feeding birds in a park you will soon be overrun by critters seeking a handout. Human beings aren't a whole lot different; they will come where they can get something for nothing. The more of these aliens who manage to come to America and get in the more of them who will try. It really is that simple. Meanwhile, their home countries have no reason to reform, to make themselves livable; they have dumped their problems on the U.S. and can continue to enjoy the fruits of power and corruption without making any real reform. It's a win/win for everyone, as the migrants send home money in remissions, take advantage of taxpayer-funded social services, and take jobs Americans JUST WON"T DO, at least not for the money the skin-flint companies want to pay. The only losers are the native American citizens and taxpayers. WE get stuck footing the bill and watching as our country is systematically taken away from us.
At some point we will kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Then all the benefits of America will evaporate overnight, and everyone will wonder what happened. It's like watching the fall of Rome, which also died as a result of unrestrained immigration, with the so-called "barbarian invasions" which were essentially Germanic tribesmen coming to Rome to do the job Romans Just Wouldn't Do.
Well, apparently actually helping these people is a job that Popes Just Won't Do either. Francis will send money to provide food and lodging, but not help them in any long term material way. But then, he has always held a grudge against private enterprise and is happy to see the United States brought down.
One last question; isn't financing an invasion an act of war?
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Sri Lankan Catholic leaders have cancelled Masses for today, asking the Faithful to celebrate Masses in private homes or do without for the forseable future.
From VOA::
The U.S. State Department on Friday raised the travel advisory level for Sri Lanka to three out of four, meaning visitors should reconsider traveling to the country. It said, "Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka,” and that terrorists could again target places of worship as well as other public areas, including shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, sporting events and parks.
The U.S. Embassy in Colombo, on its Twitter account, urged people to "remain vigilant and avoid large crowds.”
Sri Lankan authorities are reporting that additional attacks may occur targeting places of worship. Avoid these areas over the weekend, starting tomorrow, April 26th through Sunday, April 28th. Continue to remain vigilant and avoid large crowds. #srilanka pic.twitter.com/4kjd57Dcty
— U.S. Embassy Colombo (@USEmbSL) April 25, 2019
This is exactly what the terrorists want; they have won. By closing the churches the catholic heirarchy is telling the minority Muslims that they can get there way via terrorism, force Christians and others into seclusion. This sets a terrible precedent.
More security and an aggressive policy toward punishing the radicals is the answer - not hiding under your beds.
The article continues:
"Everyone is nervous," Abdullah Mohammed, 48, told The Associated Press before prayers. "Not just the Muslims. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus — everybody's nervous."
Security forces combed the country, tracking down what they say are dozens of local militants with links to the Islamic State terror group, which claimed responsibility for the Easter attacks. A military spokesman said a gunbattle erupted Friday in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province during a search operation.
Suicide bombers killed more than 250 people Sunday in the devastating attack on churches and hotels in Colombo. Officials had earlier set the death toll at more than 350 but revised the number on Thursday, saying some bodies might have been counted twice.
more...
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https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/04/at-the-noor-trial-16.php
From the article in Powerline:
See more https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/04/at-the-noor-trial-15.php
[ink=https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/04/at-the-noor-trial-17-noor-testifies.p]hphttps://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/04/at-the-noor-trial-17-noor-testifies.php
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April 27, 2019
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April 26, 2019
Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh destroys Bernie Sanders' illusions of holly jolly Commies at Canada Free Press.
From the article:
Few could afford to purchase or own cars. It wasn’t just coming up with the money to buy an overpriced domestic vehicle and being placed on the long waiting list for years. It also depended on how well you were scored or regarded by the local Communist Party and the local Economic Police which made sure that nobody owned anything in excess of what they needed in order to be more easily controlled.
Schools gave grades for students’ behavior each semester and parents were chastised publicly in front of other parents if their children behaved in any un-socialist/un-communist way that strayed from the communist party’s collectivist rules of brainwashing.
No matter how you try to repackage socialism, Bernie, or how the liberals controlling the web twist the definition of socialism in order to confuse the useful idiots, in Marxist theory socialism is a transition state between the overthrow of capitalism and the implementation of communism. Democrat socialism is the P.C. definition of a system that robs people of initiative, independence, their worth, their wealth, and their creativity.
Using Nordic countries as examples of successful models of socialism is dishonest if not a flat-out lie. The means of production are not owned by the government in these countries, as is the case under socialism, they are owned by private companies. The government is socialistic in nature as it hands out generous welfare to the masses, welfare derived from heavy taxation of private companies and citizens.
Read teh whole article; Dr. Paugh has first hand experience with what the Sand Man is selling.
Oh, btw; Sanders says he isn't for Soviet style communism. Funny; he went on his honeymoon in the Soviet Union, a place nobody went for pleasure. And he has openly praised the U.S.S.R. in the past. I think the man is lying through his dentures...
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The Daily Caller has a list of radic al] Democrat proposals that they will implement if they obtain power.
They include:
Packing the courts.
Lowering the voting age to 16
Forcing Schools To Let Male Athletes Compete On Girls’ Teams
Abolishing Electoral College
Killing Private Health Insurance
Terrorists And Mass Murderers Get to Vote In Federal Elections
Government Penalties For ‘Misinformation’
Free College
and last but not least, Wealth Confiscation
These are all quite radical and they sound awfully familiar. Where have I heard them before?
Several of these are straight out of the Communist Manifesto. For instance:
Government Penalties For ‘Misinformation’ is nearly identical to 6. "Centralization of the means of communications and transport in the hands of the state." , one of Marx's key proposals to establish Socialism.
We also can equate free college with 10. "Free education of all children in public schools. and 5. "Centralization of credit in the hands of the state . . . ." This also encompasses Forcing Schools To Let Male Athletes Compete On Girls’ Teams.
Killing private health insurance comes under the heading of 7. "Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state . . . ."
And Wealth confiscation meets 1. "Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes." and 3. "Abolition of all rights of inheritance." as well as 4. "Confiscation of the property of emigrants and rebels."and 7. "Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state . . . ." .
The rest of these planks are tools to achieve the ends of socialism. Extending the vote, packing the courts, promoting transgenderism, all are tools to promote their political power to accomplish their ends.
So, the Democrats have nine planks whereas Marx had ten. Well, he already has a few of them in the bank, like a heavy, progressive income tax, or the intermingling of agriculture with industry and the blurring of lines between city and country. Credit has been centralized already. We already have heavy taxation on inheritance. So this is just finishing the job. The only thing we don't have is public ownership of factories but it is coming soon. We DO have government ownership of land - lots and lots of it, as well as government control of rents, of mortgages, etc.
So, the Democrats are just mopping up at this point.
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