July 24, 2019
The FBI has cleared Michael Flynn of Russian collusion.
So why is the poor sob still in jail?
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:15 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 26 words, total size 1 kb.
The former Eastern Block knows that Communism and Fascism are one and the same. They are just differences of approach, not goals.
The Ukrainians believe so.
From the article:
In the July 16 ruling published on its website, the court said the "communist and Nazi regimes" used similar methods of "implementing repressive state policies."
"The communist regime, like the Nazi regime, inflicted irreparable damages to human rights because during its existence, it had total control over society and politically motivated persecutions and repressions, violated its international obligations, and its own constitutions and laws," it said.
They lived under both (at least for a short time under the Nazis.) Who would know better?
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:09 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 152 words, total size 1 kb.
Recently I've been discussing crypto-currency quite a bit, largely because Facebook announced it was going to star it's own version.
See here for more. This got me to thinking; what exactly is the difference between a transnational corporation at a government? There used to be a huge gulf between corporations and governments in what they can do, how they have to behave, and the like. But at what point does a company become a government?
Well, how did it happen in the Middle Ages? The Middle Ages started because the Roman Empire "fell" but what does that mean? Rome didn't just fall; it wasn't there one day and gone the next. Rome died of a series of bad decisions and sclerosis. Most of those bad decisions and sclerosis are quite similar to the bad decisions and sclerotic thinking we are experiencing today. The Romans had an egalitarian movement similar to ours today. As Rome absorbed more and more people into her empire they began putting those people into greater and greater positions of authortty. But often those people were not Latinized, and did not hold with the ancient virtues of Rome. When push came to shove too few Roman citizens actually believed the Empire worth fighting for.
This dovetails with the "barbarian Invasions" which were a peaceful immigration (largely peaceful) of tribes from outside the Empire. Mostly Germanic, these invaders came in because Rome was a good place to be; it was peaceful, prosperous, and "dreams of a better life" could be had. Sound familiar? It was no different than than what we are hearing about illegal aliens today. And the sympathies for them, thanks to a decrease in the old Roman virtues, were with the invaders to a large degree. These massive numbers of people never encurlturated fully, choosing to remain German while living in the Empire.
I fleshed some of this out in my essay Barbarian Invasions at Amerkcan Thinker. See also Charles Scaliger's piece at The New American. more...
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:26 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1630 words, total size 11 kb.
July 23, 2019
I think John has hit the nail squarely on the head, but then, he usually does. The entire article is here: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/07/climate-change-democracy-deniers-strike-again.phpThis week Foreign Policy offers the straightforward headline: "Democracy Is the Planet’s Greatest Enemy.†Nice to have freedom and self-government so openly attacked. From the article:
If electoral democracy is inadequate to the task of addressing climate change, and the task is the most urgent one humanity faces, then other kinds of politics are urgently needed. The most radical alternative of all would be to consider moving beyond democracy altogether. The authoritarian Chinese system has some advantages when it comes to addressing climate change: One-party rule means freedom from electoral cycles and less need for public consultation. Technocratic solutions that put power in the hands of unelected experts could take key decisions out of the hands of voters.
I’d almost think this was a parody if I didn’t know better. Check Woodrow Wilson’s grave to see if his ghost has escaped.
The next paragraphs of the article try to draw back from this absurdity, in favor of changing democracy by lowering the voting age and allowing for more "participatory†forms of democracy, which is simply code for "change the rules until we win.†But I think we can see what the Climate Commissars really think.
JOHN adds: The idea that democracy and free enterprise are enemies of the environment is absurd. Experience shows that it is democracies that have cleaned up the environment, and socialist dictatorships that created by far the worst environmental conditions on Earth. And citing autocratic China in a positive way is puzzling. China is currently constructing hundreds of coal-fired power plants. China emits more CO2 than any other nation. While our CO2 emissions have declined significantly, China’s have only risen.
I never believe Western pundits who claim that they like autocratic rule for what it can accomplish. (History tells us such accomplishments will be scarce.) Rather, I think they like autocratic government because they imagine they will be the autocrats. Here again, history suggests that they are mistaken.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
01:32 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 384 words, total size 3 kb.
Who punches a horse? Well, Mongo from Blazing Saddles...
Horse punched, 4 deputies injured after drunken fight breaks out at California county fair, sheriff's office says
From the article:
As the brawl escalated, one man was knocked over by one of the sheriff's horses.
"This subject got back up and was upset his beer had spilled. He proceeded to punch Maximus, the horse, in the rear end," the sheriff's office said. "He was subsequently arrested."
Maximus, a horse with the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, was punched Sunday during a brawl at the Stanislaus County Fair, according to officials.
I suppose the police should have sent a candygram for this guy!
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
11:06 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 152 words, total size 1 kb.
Stephen Moore pens an enthusiastic piece on crypto-currency and why ehe believes we should support the rise of private money.
From the Washington Tlimes article:
There has always been crypto-currencies; we call them counterfeits. It used to be illegal. In fact, the Federal government is granted the sole authority to mint money (although the individual states are allowed to coin it since they are - or were -using precious metals with intrinsic value.)
Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution g:ants Congress the powr to
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:51 AM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1692 words, total size 12 kb.
July 22, 2019
Looks like the Republicans in Congress plan to bust the bank again - and give Nancy Pelosi all the leverage. What is wrong with these people? Sadly, Trump appears ready to go for it too.
Ace of Spades observes:
[...]
'Indistinguishable from Democrats': Daniel Horowitz tells Mark Levin what's behind Republicans' debt-exploding budget deal
Horowitz explained that the current spending levels are the result of the budget deals that congressional Republicans cut during the last session of Congress, "and now they’re looking for a repeat performance†in the current spending debate. They appear ready to hand Speaker Nancy Pelosi a debt-exploding deal that suspends the debt limit, busts spending caps, and "give away the president’s leverage on the border.â€
Trump ought to remember that fiscal prudence was the genesis of the Tea Party. And that the Republicans lost their majority in mo small part because they spent, well, not like drunken sailors, as that would insult drunken sailors everywhere. No, they spent like Democrats.
Mitch McConnell is the architect of this scheme, btw.
I don't know why Republicans can't grasp the fact that excessive spending always helps the Democrats. In the end THEY benefit from it, not the GOP.
Question; why so much spending now? Could perhaps our political class sense in their guts that the end is coming soon to this country and they want to feather their nests as much as possible before the party ends?
Here is the Conservative Review article.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
11:19 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 382 words, total size 3 kb.
The guy who started Storm Area 51 says it was all a joke, only huge numbers of people didn't figure that out.
https://fox2now.com/2019/07/18/meet-the-guy-behind-the-area-51-page-hes-terrified-of-what-hes-created/?fbclid=IwAR37G77ZOLiPVpWDBmQ7pJpmSdNBMIIk2_bSytJoOTq-KKVMv3cGTbyFDVM
From the article:
Most, but not all, knew the desert congregation scheduled for September 20 was in jest, as the page included instructions such as "If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let’s see them aliens.†(For the uninitiated, "naruto run†is a reference to a type of running in a popular anime show.)
This poor schlub has largely been in hiding in the basement (where most of his followers apparently reside), fearing an FBI raid ever since.
Americans can no longer tell the difference between satire and reality. Is it any wonder we are being overrun by people who, for all their faults, at least understand that reality is, uh, real...
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:13 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 186 words, total size 2 kb.
Found this on Facebook. By David courtesy of Alvin:
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:29 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.
This is in reference to the article about depressed gorillas.
My little eight-pound papillon Bijou, who wants to be the only dog in the world and who really freaks out when he encounters a significantly larger dog, had to coexist with Hunter, a golden retriever, from last Tuesday afternoon till Friday morning. Hunter is, I'm certain, part Shetland pony, and weighs more than I do, and could also do TV commercials for dog Valium; he's the most laid-back dog in the world, and is certainly Martha's and my next-favorite dog in the whole wide world. Bijou quickly realized that he was not going to get a rise out of Hunter, or even "ride" him, so he decided to calm down and accept the situation. He also did a good job of handling it when Charlie, a genial cocker spaniel from next door, stopped over to join the fun (as we were told he often does). This surprised me greatly. (Bear with me, folks, there's a reason for this narrative.)
However, upon awakening the next day and finding that Hunter was still there, he started to get a tad fussy, and by the third day he was starting to get positively snippy about the whole thing. "Why are you still here?" Hunter, ready as always to be friends, ignored the increasingly hostile attitude, but Bijou was glad to leave on Friday (we weren't -- we were enjoying sitting on our friends' deck for Happy Hour, having supper on the deck and letting the breeze from off the lake temper the 80-degree temperatures).
I can only ascribe my dog's behavior to Global Warming -- or maybe to unpleasant experiences with other dogs in his early life before we got him. Or maybe it's because he's an "only dog" and gets pampered? He's the same way if other animals come into our house -- he can be induced to play nicely for a bit, but pretty soon the growling starts.
Nope, must be Global Warming.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:10 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 343 words, total size 2 kb.
July 21, 2019
Bernie screws his staff out of union-contracted pay, they go to the press to complain, and he's upset. One wonders why. Gee, it's an unjust world! Bernie, why don't you just drop this presidential campaign, climb up into the balcony with Statler and Waldorf and just heckel Fozzy Bear?Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced this weekend he will cut staffers' hours so that they can effectively be paid a $15-an-hour minimum wage, prompting mockery from critics who say the move is more evidence that Sanders' plan to raise the national minimum wage is hypocritical and would only lead to less work and more unemployment.
The Washington Post first reported last Thursday that Sanders' field staffers were upset that Sanders championed a $15 minimum wage on the campaign trail, and made headlines for railing against major corporations who pay "starvation wages" -- even as his own employees made "poverty wages."
In response, Sanders told The Des Moines Register he was "very proud" to lead the first major presidential campaign with unionized workers, but also "bothered" that news of the internal strife had spilled into the media.
The self-described socialist candidate said junior field organizers earn roughly $36,000 per year in salary, with employer-paid health care and sick leave. But he acknowledged that their salary can effectively dip below $15 per hour if staffers work much more than 40 hours per week, which is common on presidential campaigns.
The solution is to "limit the number of hours staffers work to 42 or 43 each week to ensure they’re making the equivalent of $15 an hour," he told the Register's Brianne Pfannenstiel.
[...]
"It does bother me that people are going outside of the process and going to the media," Sanders added. "That is really not acceptable. It is really not what labor negotiations are about, and it's improper."
He went on to say that the union contract "not only provides pay of at least $15 an hour, it also provides, I think, the best health care benefits that any employer can provide for our field organizers."
Reaction from commentators and lawmakers was unsparing.
"For the first time in his life, socialist Bernie Sanders practices economics and, buddy, the results are hilarious," wrote columnist and humorist Stephen Miller. He added: "Why won’t millionaire Bernie Sanders, who owns 3 homes, instead of cutting hours, pay his staff a living wage? People are starving."
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:21 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 479 words, total size 5 kb.
Yes, they are actually saying this:
Anxious gorillas, thirsty koalas and lame cows - how climate change is making animals miserable
I suppose the gorillas need some valium.
You know how they did the study? They went looking for Gorilla poop. Does it ever occur to them that poking around their poop might make these animals anxious\\?
It's official; they've blamed everything on global warming now.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:48 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 74 words, total size 1 kb.
Wipeout: Now Leftists are Coming for Your Toilet Paper
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:46 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 21 words, total size 1 kb.
We elected Trump to end this kind of stupidity. Now he's gone and given a radical Imam a medal!
President Trump Awards InternationalReligious Freedom medal to Muslim Imam
I thought we were going to stop kowtowing the Sharia and Muslims. Trump is starting to become a huge disappointment; he stopped fighting and learned to love surrender!
Hat tip; Tim McNabb
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:29 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.
Take a look here.
Yes, Facebook just patented a sysstem to allow automatic shadow banning. Look ma; no hands!
From the article:
On its face, the patent claim seems banal — an automated system to weed through user content, so humans don’t have to. However, what makes it interesting is Facebook’s description of the system’s methods of moderation in the abstract.
"The social networking system may receive a list of proscribed content and block comments containing the proscribed content by reducing the distribution of those comments to other viewing users. However, the social networking system may display the blocked content to the commenting user such that the commenting user is not made aware that his or her comment was blocked, thereby providing fewer incentives to the commenting user to spam the page or attempt to circumvent the social networking system filters.â€
As specifically portrayed by the patent document, what Facebook has been working on is a system to automatically shadow ban specific (proscribed) content. Proscribed is a legal term that means prohibited, usually by law. In this case, since speech cannot be prohibited by law, it means content banned by Facebook.
Not content with doing things manually, Zuckerberg and his radical cohorts have found a way to shut the mouths of people with whom they disagree.
Here is the abstract from the patents
Hat tip; Warner Todd Houston.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:19 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 406 words, total size 3 kb.
Hat tip: Selwyn Duke
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:05 AM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.
D\ear Friend,
In February, the Trump Administration finalized the Protect Life Rule to ensure the taxpayer-funded
Predictably, Planned Parenthood sued, and a court injunction blocked the Protect Life Rule from going into effect. The good news is the Ninth Circuit just overruled the injunction allowing the Trump Administration to proceed with requiring compliance while the courts continue to determine its ultimate fate. Family planning clinics who get Title X grant money will no longer provide abortion referrals and must be financially separate from any abortion procedures.
This is a day to celebrate life-affirming policies and the rule of law. For way too long, abortion advocates have relied on activist judges to carry out their bidding, despite the many situations when the letter of the law clearly expressed the American people’s desire to promote the intrinsic value and respect of every human life. They tried that in this case again and delayed the implementation of these common-sense rules through misplaced and overreaching nationwide injunctions that prevented HHS from doing its job. But they have failed. And failed even in one of the most liberal courts in the land, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
We know this rule is aligned with the letter of the law, and so does Planned Parenthood; that’s why they are panicking. Just yesterday, the board of Planned Parenthood fired their CEO Leana Wen after only eight months on the job.
Title X has been Planned Parenthood’s second largest government funding stream, after Medicaid reimbursement. If they refuse to comply with President Trump’s new rules that align with the intent of the Title X program, Planned Parenthood will no longer receive $40-$60 million in taxpayer funding. HHS is now finally free to carry out the will of the people who overwhelmingly support a clear separation between taxpayer dollars and abortion advocacy.
President Donald J. Trump’s unwavering commitment to the protection of human life and his focus on confirming constitutional judges who follow the law, instead of promoting personal policy preferences through judicial opinions, shines brightly as we contemplate this victory.
As you can see, both the confirmation of judges and the rulemaking process yields real results! We will have more opportunities for you to have a say in the rulemaking process soon. Make sure to check out our weekly update this Saturday to learn about a new rule that President Trump has issued that needs your help.
Penny Nance
CEO and President
Concerned Women for America
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:03 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 462 words, total size 3 kb.
I had an interesting and a bit contentious argument on Facebook between myself and a friend an a big liberal. I thought I'd reproduce the thread here; it's interesting.
First, my friend John says:
It’s not all sunshine & rainbows for AOC in Queens. She will have challengers in the next election...
Jim (the liberal) says the following
She’s 1 of 5 republicans running in that race in a district where democrats traditionally win by 30%. I don’t think AOC will get much heat,
This from John
Jim Yes it is a Dem district but she will also get a challenge from the Dems. She got the district because the incumbent thought it was a slam dunk and no one got out & voted for him.
Jim says:
That’s a theory. Another is she organized a massive volunteer canvas that outworked the 10 time incumbent. But I’ll bet you a Woofie’s Hot Dog lunch she wins again and continues to trigger conservatives! Speaking of lunch, it’s been too long. Next time you’re in the area and have time, ring me up and I’ll treat you to a Village Bar burger. We need to catch up!
John says:
Trust me, she’s triggering Dems worse because behind the scenes, Reps in the House would love to strangle her. The further left she goes, the more people are going to vote for Trump!
Yes, we need to catch up
I ansswered:
She also received a lot of outside the district money from Progressives. But she's a burr under Nancy Pelosi's saddle, and it may wind up the House Leadership pulls the rug out from under her come the Primaries. Trump has been playing it smart, severing AOC and the other Horsewomen from the Dem leadership.
John said:
more...
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
06:46 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1797 words, total size 11 kb.
July 20, 2019
It's a long article, and a must-read! https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/07/20/ret-general-robert-spalding-moon-landing-couldnt-happen-todays-deindustrialized-america-weve-lost-all-china/Lessons learned from the Apollo 11 moon landing — particularly the need for nationalized industrial policy involving investments in research and development and protective policies for vital industries — are being lost, said Retired Gen. Robert Spalding, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, in a Friday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Rick Manning.
Spalding began by noting China’s usurpation of America’s prior dominance in the realm of telecommunication technology manufacturing and development since the Space Race era.
"Let’s just look at the state of our telecommunications,†Spalding said. "There was such a large industrial effort for the Space Race. Back then, we were spending two percent of GDP on research and development. We had the industrial base that was the envy of the world. AT&T, at the time, was a monopoly, and with Bell Labs, was the standard for telecommunications.â€
Spalding continued, "When you look at America today, we have no telecommunication equipment manufacturers left that are American companies. When China entered the WTO in 2001, from that time period to 2017, we lost 78,000 factories. We unemployed 3.4 million manufacturing jobs. In the same time, we spent trillions in the Middle East.â€
Opportunities for nation-building at home are being squandered by misappropriation of funds abroad, assessed Spalding. He said American investment in education, particularly in STEM fields, is falling behind Chinese competitors.
"We have, today, 152,000 Chinese kids in STEM education,†said Spalding, "where in one year [of spending] in Afghanistan, we could afford to put 200,000 kids through four years of STEM education here in the United States. Back then, for that Space Race, we educated the scientists that built the technologies that grew this economy to be the number one economy in the world.â€
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
05:19 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 334 words, total size 3 kb.
Turns out the coral reef in Florida isn't being killed by Global Warming - it's regular old pollution.
According to Science Alerts:
For years, agricultural run-off and improperly treated sewage have flowed into Florida's ocean waters from the northern Everglades, elevating the sanctuary's nitrogen levels and lowering the reef's temperature threshold for bleaching, researchers say.
As a result of this deadly combination, coral cover in the region has declined from nearly 33 percent in 1984 to less than 6 percent in 2008.
In their analysis, the authors found that three mass bleaching events that occurred during these years only happened after heavy rainfall and increased land-based runoffs. In other words, if we can reduce the amount of local pollution that makes its way into our oceans, we might be able to reduce the worst of the damage.
Naturally the researchers - and the writers of the article - try to blame Global Warming as a prime cause of reef failure, but we can take that with a grain of salt. These articles ALWAYS kowtow to AGW alarmism, and researchers know what side their bread is buttered on.
Also from the article:
But that doesn't change the fact that these researchers found a powerful new influence. Oh, and the planet isn't warming, nor or the oceans. Argo probes show that.
Just another nail in the coffin of hysterical warmist rhetoric.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
12:25 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 309 words, total size 3 kb.
40 queries taking 0.4543 seconds, 208 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
