We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
When I was working for Roger Ailes, he'd tell us stories about what it was like to be working with Nixon. One story he told was the advice he gave to Nixon when the Watergate story broke, which was (remember, it was his story and I'm telling it second-hand) "Tell the truth, you had nothing to do with this, it was overzealous campaign members going overboard. The American people have a great capacity for forgiveness."
That story was one I heard about 23 years ago, and I can't confirm it ever happened, but based on the (limited) interactions I had with Ailes it was probably fairly accurate. I was raised to believe most people have a great capacity for forgiveness if you're sincere, if you're honest, and you're willing to make amends.
I no longer think that's as true as it once was, and it certainly is not true with Progressives (unless, of course, you are a Progressive and they need to protect you). This is why Confederate statues are coming down, history is being rewritten to suit their feelings, people are castigated for views they had, behaviors they employed, and words they used which no longer are 'acceptable' in this overly PC environment today. This is why social media outlets like Facebook or Twitter are employing questionable means and methods to block speech.
Recently, my favorite hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers, removed Kate Smith's statue because it suddenly came to light that she sang a few song with racist lyrics in them. Kate's dead, and can't defend herself, let alone apologize. So what option do we have to deal with this? Expunge history. Make her disappear. She is a horrible person who is irredeemably terrible and nobody should know about her.
Kate played a large, if indirect, role in the Flyers' winning the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975. But today she's persona non grata for doing things which, in her time, were deemed perfectly acceptable. From my perspective, it's a learning moment. Keep her history alive, and do teaching sessions around who she was, what she did, and why she's still an important part of the team's history regardless of whether we find a few of her song off-putting.
Today's America is about forgetting our past - pushing it aside, and not allowing for any forgiveness whatsoever. That is, in what is Progressive America. You know, the urban elitists and academics who have a good portion of the political upper class in their sway. Naturally, if THEY do something wrong, they'll find a way to apologize, expunge or set aside the misbehavior - maybe even vote one of their own into power, despite having done something 'wrong'.
Lindsey Graham tells Trump to 'expect impeachment proceedings' - But the end result of the proceedings, he predicted, would be Mr Trump’s re-election in 2020
In light of Elizabeth's massive giveaway to the irresponsible and unaccountable, I thought this piece was particularly good.
As I see it, I get penalized for being a responsible parent, helping pay for my kids' college, and making sure they took on some of the financial responsibility (they have some loans they are paying off), but that they were prepared to enter the workforce and pay it off.
I do the right thing, I get bupkus. Make your kid irresponsible, unaccountable, and let him/her/it/whatever-is-popular-now study Transgendered Poets of the 18th Century from Madagascar, and you'll have $1 Trillion in debt accumulate, with an entire generation incapable of being able to pay it back or understand what they did wrong. All you'll hear is "It's NOT FAIR!!!"
Let's not forget the MSM is saying "It's good for the economy!" No, it's not. It's good for a few people who are lazy and shiftless. It would damage the economy severely.
The entire Democratic Party has gone full-on Leftist, and is more dangerous than ever. Once there was a time worth considering voting for a Democrat. That was probably not more than 20-30 years ago. There are no worthwhile people in the Democratic Party. Not saying I'm fond of the Republicans, either. At least they show a veneer of accountability.
Maggie's has been having fun with Boats, Trains, and Planes posts lately. Also, with Scott Adams who always has fresh, brainy, and provocative perspectives. Our website goes through phases, various enthusiasms. It's good that way. We can do whatever we want to do.
Fun ideas from Scott today:
- Gen 4 nuclear power is the only option for everything. Why are people anti-science?
- President Trump’s Tweet about impeachment when the OTHER SIDE committed the crimes, colluded with Russia, and attempted to overthrow the government
- We are living in the best time ever in human history. We have the best of everything right now. Only the media tries to bring us down to sell us their ads or, in the case of NPR, to sell us their frowns about everything.
- So, a cool idea for happiness: Go on a news diet. No newspapers, no tv news. Most news is wrong. Your life will be the same, or better because life is good these days.
- The desire for "fairness" in life is infantile kindergarten thinking. The most anybody can wish for is rules that apply to everybody. The whole point of competition is unfairness in ability. He likes trannies playing on girls' teams.
As I see it, grits are the Southern mashed potatoes. I love both. However, grits were not always just southern. The northern Indians made it and taught the colonists. After all, Indian Pudding is just molasses-flavored grits.
It’s been particularly heartening to see so many children joining our group. It’s never too early to start being politically active and, as we saw with the Youth Strike 4 Climate back in February, some young people are so committed to direct action they’re even prepared to miss school for it. After all, it’s their future that’s at stake.
- A Russian person sourced the Steele dossier, Kremlin connected? Narrative: Kremlin was trying to help Trump - Confusing Fact: Steele dossier was rabidly anti-Trump - Why are Clapper and Brennan not in jail? a coup was attempted on our President, are they innocent? They were in key positions of knowledge and power - Did Joe Biden collude with Russia? Joe was on the “team” that attempted the coup
Kim Strassel has a terrific column on the Mueller report in her weekly Wall Street Journal column this morning. Kim writes: “What the report shows is that he endured a special-counsel probe that was relentlessly, at times farcically, obsessed with taking him out. What stands out is just how diligently and creatively the special counsel’s legal minds worked to implicate someone in Trump World on something Russia- or obstruction-of-justice-related. And how—even with all its overweening power and aggressive tactics—it still struck out.”
Who brought us this abomination deriving from the biggest scandal in American political history? That question is left to another day.
William Barr observed at one point that ‘all Americans can and should be grateful to have [the president’s innocence] confirmed.’ And yet many people, far from being grateful, will be enraged. And that is a huge problem for the Republic.
Of course there was no Trump Russia collusion. It was a Clinton/Obama hoax to damage Trump, and it has done so with years of smears. Truly disgusting, even by low American political standards. All collusion with Russia was done by the Clinton team. (This was not investigated, of course.)
So, given no wrongdoing, they have moved on to obstruction. It's a fact that obstruction is wrongdoing, even when there is no underlying wrongdoing.
Problem is, Trump behaved like any angry and innocent victim of a nasty persecution. Donald "You're fired!" Trump fired off at all of this, frequently, and publicly, because he foresaw an endless assault on his presidency by political enemies.
Dems will try to keep this active for the next five years. It's not good for the country, but that's not the point. It's all they have.
One unfortunate effect of all of this bs is that it has made it difficult for the US to work with the Russians, a third-world country but oil rich with nuclear weapons. Trump has been too harsh with them because they are not enemies, just sneaky sleazes.
I think Mueller exhaustion has set in, except for NPR and MSNBC.
Williamson: I would like you to entertain, for a moment, an idea that might sound a little eccentric, or maybe as plain and obvious as a thing can be. It is this: The division of labor is the meaning of life.
- Fewer wars, more peace - Tiger won the Masters - Great economy, nobody without a job - Prison reform - A bit of sanity in the Dept of Education - Calm with North Korea, heading in good direction - Trade sanity with Mexico, and on the way with China - Terrorism on the wane - NATO nations headed towards paying their share - Energy and climate issues close to being solved with Gen 4
The only big unsolved issue is illegal immigration. What would Trump need to accomplish in a 2nd term? Medical care insurance reform of some sort? We'd all appreciate more choices in medical insurance. Well, national debt is not good either.
As I have been saying for a couple of years now, this is the biggest scandal in American history. It dwarfs Watergate. Indeed, it challenges the fundamental integrity of our democratic—i.e., accountable—institutions. It challenges, too, the sacrosanct ideal of the separation of powers. Finally, it challenges the presumption of basic fairness and open competition without which our republic could endure in name only.
...
Whatever nuggets of suspicious activity British or Estonian intelligence communicated to John Brennan, what are we to make of the machinery he helped set in motion? In my view, the Trump-Russia hoax (to use Nunes’s term) was primarily a political operation. The legal aspects were merely pretexts for the main event, which had two phases: preventing Donald Trump from becoming president, first of all, and then destroying his presidency. A long and tedious process has been set into motion by Devin Nunes and others, and Attorney General William Barr appears determined to see it out. But the scary bottom line is this: over the last couple of years, one political party, aided and abetted by a compliant media and a deep-state bureaucracy, conspired to void the results of a free, open, and democratic election because they disapproved of the people’s choice.
Italian Town to Cover Crosses at Cemeteries 
Dog-Walking 
The Threat to Notre Dame - 
“Lindsey Vonn, The Winningest Female Ski Racer in History, 
Several of the world's richest French billionaires