Saturday, April 1, 2017

Venezuela, The Ultimate April Fool. No Wait! It’s Not Them, It’s Us!

shakespeare fool  William Shakespeare

Currently Venezuela, like Obamacare, is in an accelerating death spiral due to Hugo Chávez’ Andean socialism experiment, 1999-2013, the year of his demise. He managed to destroy an otherwise robust  economy in 13 short years. When Nicolás Maduro  took over he had little to work with but instead of reversing the policies that led to the collapse of the Venezuelan bolivar and the entire economy he doubled down. As his people make do without basic necessities - like food and toilet paper – he continues to consolidate power and control.  According to Bloomberg Venezuela is sliding “closer toward dictatorship after the country’s Supreme Court gutted the only opposition-run institution -- the Congress.” How?

  • The High Court declared the opposition-led Congress to be illegal

  • Court will therefore execute legislative powers

In other words, the High Court of the Land just declared the elected legislative process null and void and gave themselves the power to legislate from the bench. Just like here, in the good old USA! Where theoretically “the Judicial Branch of our Constitutional government has no more lawmaking power than a referee in a football game has power to make up new rules for the game;” Regardless of that fact we somehow allow them to continue to legislate from the bench. And now they’ve gone one step further than even Venezuela; they’ve nullified and declared the Executive branch illegal as well:

“We’ve allowed unlawful court opinions to go into effect, which stop lawful presidential orders, and worse, challenging and appealing them in a higher court as if they have authority to do so” – Capital Hill Outsider

Which, I’m sorry to say, makes the US the April Fool this year.

Many legal scholars have clearly explained how the judicial rulings against the order are not based on law or the Constitution. What is lacking is an effort by the administration and Congress to remove or restrict the power of tyrannical judges who present their own personal opinions as expressions of the facts and the law.

one-of-these-days-the-9th-circuit-court-of-appeals-14126212And they have gotten worse, in the past 14 years

Dear President Trump: Don’t let Deep-State Socialism take over lawful governance. That’s why we elected you. Please drain the swamp.

Congress should impeach federal judges who make outrageous rulings that have no basis in the Constitution…

9th circuit

President and all his administration should begin immediate implementation of Trump’s LEGAL Executive Order, while citing its Constitutionality.

Otherwise, Venezuela, here we come! As Gerard pointed out on American Digest, when the choice is between “Socialism or Death” you often get both:

Turns out “participating” when you’re told, where you’re told, how you’re told really isn’t participation at all. Its enslavement with energy; servitude with verve. - Joel D. Hirst 

We’ve got plenty of verve.

boningo fools for sanders

Ignore these bodacious fools; they’re dangerous all year round.

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Friday, March 31, 2017

Two Has-Beens: Who Wore It Better?

And you thought it was bad when the media tried to tell us Michelle Obama was a fashion icon, never dreaming that it could get worse.

The former First Lady and Secretary of State swapped her signature pantsuit for a badass black leather blazer during her first major post-election speech on Tuesday.

Social media swooned over Clinton’s sudden sartorial shift at the Professional Business Women of California conference, where she came out swinging against Republicans.

clinton stink“Badass” Hillary Clinton still has skin in the game; showing who’s the boss.

Also keeping skin in the “badass” game, Barack-my-wide-belt-on-my-non-mom-skinny-jeans-matches-my-badass-leather-bomber-jacket Obama:

Former President Barack Obama has been building his own fashion fan club since leaving the political limelight, especially with a slim brown leather jacket that he sported on his return trip from the Virgin Islands earlier this month.

obama brown bomber…and they both match my perfectly polished shoes. Handbag optional.

Clinton and Obama are making a statement in sporting these skins. “Both of them are rocking this new, confident style.”…Now that neither political figure is embodying the role of president or presidential candidate, they are each free “to express their real personalities with how they dress.” - Money-ish

One wonders if that’s wise – expressing their “real personalities” – especially in Hillary’s case. When even old British rockers like Roger Daltrey think you’re dead meat, it might be over:

British singer Roger Daltrey says 'a dead dog' would have beaten Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election.

The Who's legendary front man tells the British music news website NME that President Donald Trump 'really didn't win because Democrats threw it away by putting (Hillary Clinton) up. A dead dog would have won it against (her), look at that.' Daily Mail

Clinton San Francisco“Who you calling a dog?”

The truth of course is that Hilz was the dead dog in the race -

Hillary-Clinton-Helped-Up-Steps being dragged –unsuccessfully- across the finish line.

 

I guess we should have known, I mean, it’s not like she didn’t send out some distress signals:

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Thursday, March 30, 2017

I’m From the Media and I’m Here to Help You

19303bb63b24ffa715053012b00bfe33

File this under “Media – We Don’t Just Shape the News, We Make the News:”

Russian-Pickle-in-a-Banana--127383No, no; it’s a banana. Really, look again.

From The Hill:

Regardless of how the government collected on Flynn, the leak was a felony and a violation of his civil rights.  But it was also a severe breach of the public trust. When I worked as an NSC staffer in the White House, 2005-2007, I read dozens of NSA surveillance reports every day. On the basis of my familiarity with this system, I strongly suspect that someone in the Obama White House blew a hole in the thin wall that prevents the government from using information collected from surveillance to destroy the lives of the citizens whose privacy it is pledged to protect. 

The leaking of Flynn’s name was part of what can only be described as a White House campaign to hype the Russian threat and, at the same time, to depict Trump as Vladimir Putin’s Manchurian candidate.  On Dec. 29, Obama announced sanctions against Russia as retribution for its hacking activities.  From that date until Trump’s inauguration, the White House aggressively pumped into the media two streams of information: one about Russian hacking; the other about Trump’s Russia connection. In the hands of sympathetic reporters, the two streams blended into one.  - for more see  How the Obama White House Weaponized the Media Against Trump

So that’s all we’ve got for you right now:

RussiaRussiaRussia

We’ll get back to you as soon as we have more news guaranteed to knock you over.

little russian girl falls over

You may now return to your regular programming:

sorry-the-revolution-will-not-be-televised

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

You’re Only A Child Once

Well this explains a lot: Millennials Don’t Consider Themselves Adults Until 30. This, despite the fact that in most states you’re considered and adult at age 18 for all purposes other than drinking and that by age 21 you’re considered an adult in all sates, for all purposes.

The median age of millennials is 30, Poltrack says — meaning that half are older and half are younger. And 30 happens to be the age at which millennials tend to self-identify as adults.

lamb sheep2I’m just a little sheep, why should I have to grow up to be mutton?

While previous generations considered themselves adults by age 18 (the Greatest Generation) or 21 (Boomers, Gen-X)) for some reason Millennials (born 1979-95) don’t consider themselves adults until sometime into their 4th decade, which is when they begin doing “adult” things, like moving out of their parents home, getting a job and paying their own bills.  Why so long?

Why are millennials taking so long to grow up and move out? Some of it is their fault, some of it is their parents’ fault, and much of it is everyone’s fault.

shaun-the-sheep-trail-bristol-1420823561-1431957362We didn’t grow up but we are diverse!

“Much of it is everyone’s fault?” What did I do?

boomers faultOh wait! I didn’t do that. Someone else made that happen.

For starters, the December 2007-June 2009 recession made finding employment harder — especially for recent college grads, many of whom happened to (be) saddled with a ton student loan debt. High housing costs, meanwhile, reduced any stigma connected to living at home.

I didn’t cause the recession, and I’m betting you didn’t either. Nor was I the one who authorized colleges to hire thousands of overpaid professors to offer degrees in various “studies” that study nothing. Nor did I insist they build elaborate new dorms, athletic facilities and libraries that required such astronomical increases in tuition that students invested the equivalent of a starter home to get a degree in gender studies that prepares you for pretty much nothing. So how is this my fault?

school-loansYou’ve got a college degree, figure it out Einstein.

“More controversial is the whole idea that their baby boomer parents have really coddled them,” Poltrack told TheWrap. “They’ve made it too good for them. Why would you leave?”

To this all I can say is that if you are one of the baby boomer parents who really coddled your kids then yes, a good part of this mindset is your fault.

00-holding-millennials-survey“Time to put your little toys away now honey and have some babies; I need grandchildren.”

The only other thing I can say is that this situation highlights the foresight and wisdom of our Founding Fathers: Age and Citizenship requirements - US Constitution, Article II, Section 1:

  • …neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years…

They wanted to make sure that we always had an adult at the helm.

Obama_ManChild_ToysAs they say, the best laid plans…

But I guess 30-ish is a good time to start being a grown up. Till then I’m sure Mommy and Daddy won’t mind footing the bill and taking care of everything for you. After all you’re only a child once. Make the most of it.

millennials

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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

She’s Come Undone

Be careful out there: It’s ‘splodey head Tuesday.

calvin tantrum

Hot on the heels of Attorney General Sessions’ announcement yesterday that Sanctuary Cities would indeed lose billions in Federal Funding, President Trump is going to the EPA headquarters today to meet with Secretary Pruitt and sign an executive order that begins to roll back the unlawful and overreaching regulations  enacted by the Obama administration. Do not expect a warm welcome:

Trump’s entry in the building will likely trigger renewed sadness for some agency bureaucrats who were reportedly in tears after Trump won the election.  - Breitbart

Meanwhile in other climate news, “Ozone Hole Has Shrunk by More Than Four Million Square Kilometers;”

During the 1980s and into the 1990s, news of a massive hole in the ozone layer caused worldwide panic, stoked by everything from rumors of sheep being blinded by increased atmospheric radiation to the fear of a skin cancer pandemic and even comparisons to “AIDS from the sky.” Now scientists at MIT along with others have found that since 2000 the ozone hole has actually shrunk by an area half the size of the contiguous United States.

Fortunately, such good news is offset by this newest research finding: ‘human fingerprint’ found on global extreme weather.

mammatus cloudsWarning! Stormy weather ahead! (note: it’s Spring)

Granted, the earf scientists had to clutch at straws to come up with this one, but then - that’s what they’ve been doing all along, it’s just becoming more apparent:

The new work analysed a type of extreme weather event known to be caused by changes in “planetary waves” – such as California’s ongoing record drought, and recent heatwaves in the US and Russia, as well as severe floods in Pakistan in 2010.

Planetary waves are a pattern of winds, of which the jet stream is a part, that encircle the northern hemisphere in lines that undulate from the tropics to the poles. Normally, the whole wave moves eastwards but, under certain temperature conditions, the wave can halt its movement. This leaves whole regions under the same weather for extended periods, which can turn hot spells into heatwaves and wet weather into floods.

This type of extreme weather event is known to have increased in recent decades. But the new research used observations and climate models to show that the chances of the conditions needed to halt the planetary waves occurring are significantly more likely as a result of global warming.

Ha, ha, ha! “Observations” and “climate models!” Like in the hockey stick chart? I’ve got a computer so I can make “observations” and build “climate models” too; want to see my predictions? Which one would you like?

fire ice earthfire ice

So I dedicate this song to all the ‘splodey heads out there at EPA Central. I hope they take it to heart. (The Guess Who, original, live, 1973. It was a very good year.)

She wanted truth
But all she got was lies
Came the time to realize
And it was too late

She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
Mama, it was too late

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Monday, March 27, 2017

Guaranteed 100% Gender-Fluid

Did anybody else not pay any attention to what happened over the weekend? I found myself uninterested in March Madness, couldn’t summon the energy required to watch the Sunday Showboats spout off on why RyanCare was a disaster for whoever they were opposed to, not in the mood for Donald J.Trump’s tweets and couldn’t even manage to get appropriately agitated about the black-hooded New World Order Obots who showed up at the Trump rally to pepper spray the attendees.

But this caught my attention, possibly because it inadvertently provides insight and commentary on everything else that has run amok in this country over the past few decades:

An Oregon judge who last year ruled that a transgender person can legally change their sex to "non-binary" has given the OK for a Portland resident to be genderless.

Multnomah County Judge Amy Holmes Hehn on March 10 granted a petition allowing Patrick Abbatiello to go from male to "agender" and switch to the single name Patch…

The judge told NBC in an email her decisions were supported by facts and the law. OregonLive

We’ve become inured to Federal judges who have assumed they are the ultimate arbiters of Constitutional law, but County judges who assume they are God seems a bit of an overreach even for liberals.

And I fear that “genderless” further complicates Title IX school sports programs; will we now have to form separate “genderless” teams?  At least transgenders can choose to play on the team that they “identify” with rather than the team their chromosomes “identify” with.

Fallon-Fox male by birth female by choiceTransgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox: born male but fundamentally transformed with makeup and hormones

Biological males are joining women’s teams, smashing records and dominating in sports such as weightlifting, softball, cycling, track, wrestling, football, volleyball, dodgeball, handball, cricket, golf, basketball and mixed martial arts.

The movement for “equality” has apparently inspired transgender athletes to join teams of their preferred gender. And that often means biological males are competing against biological females on women’s teams. But in the world of sports, critics argue, equality between the sexes simply doesn’t exist. Physiologically speaking, there’s a gender gap between men and women that cannot be erased. - WND

It’s fairly obvious that transgenders will have the edge in women’s sports, given the physical strength advantage a person born with both an X and Y chromosome enjoys.

“If men can claim to be women and invade a sport that only women are allowed to compete in, then it’s a safe bet men will win,” writes the Federalist’s Brandon Morse. “All the accolades, rewards, and recognition will be taken from the women who rightfully deserve them and given to a man who essentially cheated by putting on makeup, injecting himself with hormones, and saying he’s a woman.”

Hey – be whoever you think you are, I don’t really give a crap; but don’t expect me to believe a man impersonating a woman is the same as as a woman born with two X chromosomes.

Allowing biological males to compete against women is not only unfair and dangerous to women, it’s worse than that, according to David Kupelian, WND managing editor and author of “The Snapping of the American Mind.”

“The insanity of this affects not just the transgendered individual and the women athletes thus victimized,” he said. “It also contributes to a sort of mass delusion infecting our whole society in which, thanks to the influence of the powerful LGBT movement, everybody now has to either affirm the absurd and crazy – that a man who is essentially a female impersonator can fairly compete against women – or they have to suffer abuse and persecution as bigots just for speaking the truth.” - WND

But back to “Patch” – which is now officially both a (non)gender lifeform and a pronoun:

The student has become the first American to gain legal designation as “genderless”, following a ruling by a Multnomah County judge.

The 27-year-old formerly known as Patrick Abbatiello, now legally designated agender, also got legal approval to change names, now going only by “Patch,” no surname. That name also serves as a pronoun, Patch explained to the local NBC affiliate this week.

“Even gender-neutral pronouns don’t feel as if they fit me,” Patch said. “I feel no identity or closeness with any pronouns I’ve come across. What describes me is my name.” – Heatstreet

So now it’s no longer adequate that you be allowed to officially be whatever established sex or race you “identify” with. If you identify with “none of the above” you can invent your own sex, race, pronoun, or non-carbon life form

pooh_bear_and_obama-12688“I’m Barack, and I identify as a Pooh.”

…and the rest of us will just have to adapt or be guilty of discrimination.

I’ve invented a new product that I think will prove to be invaluable in the New World Order of Gender-Fluid Society. Let me know if you’re interested in becoming an early investor. I think the market will be very strong.

gender correction fluid-eco copy_thumb[2]The All New Gender Fluid Formula! Works on all chromosomes!

The original racist, non-eco version is also available in an economical 12 pack in case you need to change the gender of your entire team:

gender correction fluid box copy_thumb[2] - Copy 

I think I’ll contact Patch, I’ll bet he could be a great marketing rep.

Patch's Facebook page says Patch studies creative writing and is co-coordinator of the Queer Resource Center at a branch campus of Portland Community College.

Linked By: American Digest, and Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Oh Damn, I Missed “Earth Hour”

It was last night, at 8:30 PM local time, so there would be no math involved.

earth hour 2017 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. - John 1:5

With all due respect to “Earth Hour” advocates let’s harness the power of electricity and use it to hear instead from Ross McKitrick, Professor of Economics, University of Guelph, Canada:

Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it becomes an hour devoted to anti-humanism. It encourages the sanctimonious gesture of turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in deference to some ill-defined abstraction called “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of continuous, reliable electricity.

People who see virtue in doing without electricity should shut off their fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off there too.

I don’t want to go back to nature. Travel to a zone hit by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes to see what it’s like to go back to nature. For humans, living in “nature” meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work for the end of poverty and relief from disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on. (Read the whole essay at Watts Up With That)

Virtue-signaling at its most arrogant uselessness. As pointed out on WUWT, North Korea is on track to win again this year as they have every year since its inception in 2003:

North_Korea_at_night

Professor Aiguo Dai, a professor in the department of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University of Albany, concedes that this is nothing more than a symbolic gesture, but it’s a symbolic gesture that says you care about the earf:

“If all of us can find ways to save energy and reduce consumption of fossil fuel, then it will significantly reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, and that could slow down global warming," he said. "If that still won't be enough, we need to develop new sources of green energy and move away from fossil fuel." USA Today

Some suggestions from the World Wildlife Fund on how to spend your hour in the dark:

• Burn calories by doing a candlelight workout with friends. [And hope you don’t set your yoga pants on fire]

• Spot the landmarks around you that participate in Earth Hour. [Wouldn’t it be easier to spot those not participating?]

earth hour

• Make art in the dark with your friends and share a good laugh when the lights turn back on revealing the masterpiece. [And be careful or you may note the irony of celebrating how lame your efforts are without benefit of light]

• Host a candlelight dinner party with family and friends. [That was prepared at every step along the way of the food chain with the benefit of fossil fuels]

• Look at the stars. [because many of them, too, will be virtue signaling in the dark]

maroon 5 earth hour

“I got a tattoo butt I didn’t know how to spell ‘Maroon’.” h/t Rush Limbaugh

• Commit to reducing your carbon footprint. [Alternatively, turn on all the lights and hope for a better idea]

idea on a light bulb

So keep up the good fight, earth warriors; all that virtue signaling should really help.

candle 2

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