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Tuesday, June 20. 2017

Photo stolen from Ace

WaPo: When it comes to saying grace, Americans are still united

Tears — and questions — on the ramming of USS Fitzgerald

Why men and women cheat

Men have trouble resisting the temptation of hot females. Women want more attention.

Charles Murray: Violent Middlebury Protesters Should Be Suspended or Expelled

A no-brainer

As Vaping Exploded Among Teenagers, Smoking Fell by Half - Defying its own data, the CDC continues to obscure the enormous harm-reducing potential of e-cigarettes.

McArdle: Beware of Blaming Government for London Tower Fire

Airbrushing Stalin and Mao’s Horrific Crimes

Everyone Can Fight ‘Climate Change’ After Paris Exit Or Something

Just recycle. It will change the weather

Brits on vacation: Spanish Party Town Publishes 64 Rules to Stop Hedonism of Drunk Tourists

In Baltimore, nobody wants to fix the problems

Nobody knows how, other than eliminating welfare - which will never happen. Perhaps, in a welfare state, people just have to accept a permanent dysfunctional and dependent underclass.

In Major Free Speech Victory, SCOTUS Rules for 'The Slants' and Strikes Down Federal Trademark Restriction - "Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend."

The Sexual Ambiguity of James Comey

Republican health reform: First, do no harm

Donald Trump Is Spending His First Weekend at Camp David

Not his kind of place, but it's my kind of place. Link has a video tour

MSNBC's Joy Reid: Yeah He Just Got Shot, But Lets Not Forget Steve Scalise Is a Racist

Of course. All Republicans are racists

Uncle Joe Biden Launches PAC to Focus on Fooling Middle Class That Democrats Care …*Wink-Wink*

McInnes: They want us dead

When I got to the stage, I did the first half of my talk as a sexist pig who loved Sharia law. I said women are terrible drivers and with Sharia, you don’t have to worry about broads driving ever again. I said it’s awesome because you get to punish your wife if she doesn’t want to blow you. You make her sleep on the couch and if she still refuses, you get to beat the shit out of her. I also said Sharia is cool because you don’t have to hear women bitching about rape all the time. She has to get tons of witnesses and even then her testimony is worth only half what a man’s is. Finally, I said I get too horny walking down the street and can’t concentrate, but if we could cover up these chicks we could focus on just hanging out with the guys.

CNN Tries To Conduct Online Trump-Hater Poll, But Turns Out To Be Landslide Of Support For President

VDH: Trump might be our Claudius

VDH again: Trump’s Way Out of the Progressive Labyrinth

Why the unhinged furor?

Trump was elected to serve roughly 48 months. His progressive enemies are increasingly desperate. Despite an historic five-month assault that has demonized his person and ossified his legislative agenda, Trump is still systematically undoing the Obama agenda through appointments and Obama “pen-and-phone”-like executive orders.

In terms of losing state legislatures and governorships, the Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidency, the Obama progressive project has all but ruined the Democratic Party. And with such catastrophic losses of political power, the left grows less introspective and only more venomous—as if invective can do what appeals to voters have not.

But can Trump survive the incessant onslaught, as the street, the progressive party and the media ratchet up their collective subversions month by month? Is there any way out of the progressive labyrinth?

Wins for President Trump underreported by American Press

The real answer to the democracy-killing ‘administrative state’:

In an era before the goo-goo’s civil-service reform, Jackson fired 10 percent of the federal workforce and replaced it with people loyal to him. Was that so bad? Arthur M. Schlelsinger Jr. said it was a reform measure that helped restore the people’s faith in government, at a time when the bureaucrats had become a self-serving and unaccountable branch of government.

If that’s what job tenure for bureaucrats has given us today, maybe it’s time to take another look at it.

From Goldman:

A considerable portion of America’s permanent bureaucracy, including elements of its intelligence community, is engaged in an illegal and unconstitutional mutiny against the elected commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump.

Cuba Says It Will Not Send Fugitives Back To the U.S.

Trump Revives Failed U.S. Theory That Cubans Will Be Best Helped by Harming Americans (and Cubans)

Cuba is about Florida politics, nothing more. Same way Iowa is about Ethanol fuel.

ELLIOTT ABRAMS: LEAKS AGAINST TRUMP ARE HURTING ISRAEL

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:31 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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"In Baltimore no one wants to fix the problem".

Baltimore's problem is complacency and crime in a large percentage of the population. To fix the problem you must be elected to local and/or federal office. But to get elected to local and/or federal office you must bribe 51% of the voters with free stuff. But it is generally agreed that free stuff is toxic to humans and breeds complacency and crime.

The only reasonable solution is for the silent majority of Americans to vote and elect responsible congressmen who will reduce taxes, stop the transfer of wealth (welfare) and reduce the bureaucratic barriers to jobs and businesses so that the large complacent and violent class in the inner cites have no other choice but to work 40 hours a week to support themselves and their families. Until and unless we break that cycle of voters voting for free stuff and politicians legislating for more free stuff it will continue and get worse.

#1 GoneWithTheWind on 2017-06-20 10:31 (Reply)

As Jordan Peterson says, if you keep acting like a slave you'll never get anything but tyrants for your leaders.

#1.1 Texan99 on 2017-06-20 13:39 (Reply)

"Trump Revives Failed U.S. Theory That Cubans Will Be Best Helped by Harming Americans (and Cubans)"

Deep State is rife with Cuban agents so rolling back the easing of Cuban sanctions will make their job harder.

See Ana Montes, DIA, "the Cuba expert in US intelligence at the time of her arrest"

Kendall Myers

QUOTE:

Walter Kendall Myers is a former U.S. State Department Officer who, with his wife, Gwendolyn, was arrested and indicted on June 4, 2009, on charges of spying for Cuba for nearly 30 years. He was convicted of spying and sentenced to life imprisonment by a U.S. federal court in July 2010.

Just an observation, Montes was arrested in 2001 after a long career as a Cuban agent in US intelligence. Meyers also had a long career when arrested in 2009. Then Obama was elected, suddenly, no more Cuban agents but a concerted effort to alter US policy toward Cuba?

#2 JK Brown on 2017-06-20 11:35 (Reply)

Why should Trump do ANYTHING that would help Raul? How can we help the Cuban people without supporting Raul and his communistic government?

#2.1 Sam L. on 2017-06-20 12:15 (Reply)

I would have thought the blindingly obvious fact about the US-Cuba relationship is that Cuba needs the US but the US doesn't need Cuba.

And you are exactly right: why should the US prop up a communist Cuba? [i]Cui bono[i/]?

Let the Cuban government take the leap of faith here by making a clear and demonstrable effort to democratize.

#2.1.1 JJM on 2017-06-20 13:49 (Reply)

What would help Cuba is lessening the stranglehold that the Castro mafia has on the Cuban people. In general, in negotiations between the US and the Castro mafia, anytime the US wants a quid pro quo with some lessening of Cuban government control, the Castro mafia replies that is not negotiable.

For those who maintain that the "embargo" has harmed Cuba, one reply is that before 1959, the Castro bros informed us that it was US involvement in the Cuban economy that harmed Cuba. For the last half century, the Castro bros and the PSF inform us that LACK of US involvement in the Cuban economy has harmed Cuba.

Another reply to the "embargo harmed Cuba's economy" mantra:compare Cuban agricultural production to Latin America's.
FAO: % increase milk production, 1961 to 2014
Cuba 68%
Latin America 346%

I very much doubt that the CIA was shooting Cuban milk cows. As a further example of the pathetic performance of Cuban agriculture under the thumb of the Castro mafia, consider sugar production. In 2014, sugar production was 32.2% of what it was in 2014- a decline of over two-thirds. When Cuba had the guaranteed market from the Soviet Union, sugar production was high, but with the loss of the guaranteed market, Cuban sugar could not compete on the international market.

That fall in sugar production has unsurprisingly led to less land used in sugar production. From 1961 to 2014, land used in sugar production fell about 800,000 hectares ( ~2 million acres) from 1,260,782 to 450,200 hectares.
Most of the land taken out of sugar production has remained fallow. From 1961 to 2014, using crops for which the FAO has data for both years, land in production fell from 2,036,322 hectares to 1,447,0100 hectares a fall of 589,312 hectares - 29%.

If you take away raw sugar cane, Cuba imported around 20-25% of its domestic food supply in 2013. High food imports with a lot of fallow land- that is not good stewardship on the part of the Castro mafia.

FAO Stat

#2.1.2 Gringo on 2017-06-20 17:15 (Reply)

>paying the speeding ticket because you don’t want to stop speeding
That is a good line!

Fighting Climate Change and joining the Paris Climate Agreement are not the same thing.

The media always leaves out the massive transfer of funds connected to this program that has little to do with CO2 reduction.

Those Americans who object to the U.S. can still send a cheque for 1000.00 or so to the UN Climate Green Fund.
Not doing so would make you a hypocrite.

If everyone in the U.S. who objects to Trump’s decision did so, that would be a great deal of money.
Also, if the world’s climate is in such dire straits, then the 195 participant countries can pay the U.S. to dramatically reduce their carbon footprint. If this seems absurd, then why is it not absurd the other way around. The reduction of CO2 will be resolved through technology.
I only wish that the billion dollars the U.S. already paid were instead invested in finding a reliable alternative to the combustible engine.

Even James Hansen and other major Climate Alarmists did not support the Paris Climate Agreement. Claiming it would do little to solve the problem and was more focussed on wealth redistribution.
That is why the new Chairman of the IPCC is Hoesung Lee whose background is in “The Economics of Climate Change.” They wanted an expert to help divvy up the funds!

#3 Phil Taylor (Link) on 2017-06-20 12:42 (Reply)

You need to make a correction to your statement about why men cheat. Not about looks at ALL, only about easy sex. PERIOD.

If a woman will have sex with a married man, a man will go for it. She does not need to be attractive at all.

#4 MissT on 2017-06-20 12:59 (Reply)

Some men will go for it. As a younger guy, I was always tempted, but have never cheated. I didn't want to hurt my wife. But even more than that, I didn't want to hurt my children. In a prior life I was on the receiving end, so I know exactly how painful it is when you find out someone has been deceiving and unfaithful to you. Your whole world falls apart.

#4.1 Jim on 2017-06-20 13:53 (Reply)

I should've been clearer b/c my statement implied all men would cheat. That is not what I meant. I meant, cheating men are not tempted by hot chicks, they are tempted by easy sex. And if they are going to cheat, they will sleep with the easiest, closest woman around...no matter her looks.

#4.1.1 MissT on 2017-06-20 14:16 (Reply)

I disagree. Most men choose a women based on looks/physical attraction. Just as in the movie Shallow Hal attempted to illustrate but at the same time denigrate. But here is the other side of that; most men will stop dating or leave a woman (or cheat on her) if the sex is not good. So I think you have the two things reversed. Easy mistake to make.

#4.1.1.1 IdahoBob on 2017-06-20 16:02 (Reply)

Tears — and questions — on the ramming of USS Fitzgerald

I suspect the investigation will uncover a kind of command paralysis on the bridge ("this can't be happening"), aggravated by junior officers waiting to be told what to do ("my boss will fix it"). An analogy to the collision between the British battleships Camperdown and Victoria gives an insight to this kind of deer-in-the-headlights stupor.

#5 Hugh Evan-Thomas on 2017-06-20 13:06 (Reply)

As likely the captain had created a command culture where he undermined the authority of his junior officers, in the name of preventing their "mistakes" reflecting on his record, and thus nobody on the bridge thought he had the authority to order a change in course or other evasive maneuver without checking with the old man.

#5.1 Another guy named Dan on 2017-06-20 14:51 (Reply)

I can't predict what the official investigation will report. But I can tell you that it is almost impossible for a ship large or small to sneak up on or ram a navy destroyer IF the crew and equipment are functioning. While large cargo ships do in fact tend to be less careful on the high seas you can be assured that a navy warship knows about every ship around them and what those ships are. This was not a case of them knowing about the risk and not acting for some reason. Someone, which in this case really means multiple crew members were asleep, either actually asleep or so distracted they might as well have been asleep.

#5.1.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2017-06-20 15:48 (Reply)

Unlike our previous Monarch, who could make the clouds roll by, the oceans calm, the sun rise and knew more than anyone in his self-selected political hound dogs (administration) not to mention proven brainiacs from around the world…

President Trump has an endless parade of experts at the WH conferring with his highly-experienced, career-based administration to pare back years of useless efforts and replace them with simpler, yet effective steps to make America a better, more responsive place to live and raise a family.

Odd, isn't it, that cities and states and territories run by progressives, Democrats or socialists are all on the edge of bankruptcy? Not really, such policies are remarkably inflexible as they focus on feeding the den of inequities despite of historical proof such governance fails every time. It's just a matter of when.

#6 jma on 2017-06-20 14:21 (Reply)

After the Middlebury students are suspended or expelled, they should be arrested and tried for anything they did that constitutes a criminal act. College campuses are not sanctuaries, nor are they "safe spaces" for criminality.

#7 RonF on 2017-06-20 15:54 (Reply)

TOURISM and the CUBAN MILITARY

Obama opened up travel to Cuba for US citizens and enabled the communist Cuban military to ramp up its money making machine. In order to prevent political backlash for aiding and abetting the communists, Obama said that US citizens would only be permitted to travel to Cuba for reasons such as professional meeting, religious activities etc. Tourism was strictly forbidden (wink, wink) - because Obama's anti-communists opponents recognized that the Cuban military owns most of the businesses that benefit from tourism.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-military-idUSKBN1962VK

But here's what really happens. One of the permitted categories of travel under the Obama regs is "people-to-people" exchanges. The BS explanation of this category is to allow Americans to meet Cuban people and to exchange, talk about life in the United States and to learn about life in Cuba. Sound hokey? It is. What really happens is that tour companies arrange brief, meaningless meetings with paid Cubans or hire a Cuban travel guide (who is typically a member of the communist party) to satisfy the US rules. But the entire focus of the trip is visiting tourist sites and doing tourist activities. The result is millions of dollars going to the Cuban military.

THE "EMBARGO"

People claim that the embargo didn't work.

The problem is that there was never really an embargo.

Cuban refugees living in the US sent BILLIONS of dollars back to Cuba to help their families. Most of this money ended up - directly or indirectly - in the hands of the Castros. At one point, money sent from Cuban refugees in the US made up the bulk of the Cuban GDP. Cuban refugees living in the US were unwilling to see their relatives suffer TEMPORARILY in order to attain PERMANENT freedom form the communists. So they bailed out the Cuban government.

The Castros duped their people into believing that their poverty and lack of food and other goods was caused by the US. What really happened is that the Castros were taking the money and using it to buy themselves and their buddies luxury goods via a Panamanian corporation they had established using fictitious names.

In order to rid Cuba of the communists, either an outside force must invade Cuba and extirpate the vermin OR the Cuban people must revolt. In order for the latter to occur, the Cuban people must face a degree of suffering sufficient to make them willing to lose lives in an overthrow of the Communists. As long as their well meaning relatives in the US are feeding them table scraps or tourists are enabling the Cuban government to feed then scraps, they will keep treading water and the Communists will stay in power.

#8 mike m on 2017-06-20 16:10 (Reply)

mike, are you as eager as I am to see what the Gang of Z has to say about JUST HOW WRONG YOU ARE? The Zs must be slacking off today.

#8.1 Sam L. on 2017-06-20 18:04 (Reply)

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Tuesday, June 20. 2017

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