Saturday, March 24, 2018

Driverless Cars: The Pinnacle of Soul-Sucking Anti-American Wussification

Could there be anything less American than driverless cars?  I suppose sexbots might quality but certainly driverless cars are right up there.

289YWhy would you NOT want to drive this?

Seriously, driverless cars have no place in the land that practically invented the open road, hit-the-road-Jack-never-come-back motif. And Michael Walsh agrees:

…these vehicles are emasculating, imprisoning, anti-American, and inhuman. And now, in the wake of the first fatal accident involving an “autonomous vehicle,” they’re deadly as well.

Whence comes this rush to robot cars? Did the public demand it? Or have our betters in the tech industry and in the bowels of the bureaucracy taken it upon themselves to correct our lamentable human failings and, in the name of “safety,” shove these vehicles down our throats?

He also touches on how the fear of terrorism has led to the trashing of the Fourth Amendment. Citing how we’re all subject to government overreach, unreasonable search and seizure at airports and “legal” snooping via your computer, phone (and bank records) he wonders “why would you climb into a robocar and take yourself hostage on purpose?” And notes that convenience “is no reason to voluntarily surrender your personal autonomy to something that will, by definition, be subject to close governmental scrutiny and control.”

All of which seems self-evident to anyone of a certain age. Not so for Millennials – many of whom didn’t even want to learn how to drive – who have been conditioned by propaganda to embrace mass transportation, Ubers and Zipcars. Not only do they feel they are saving the planet by not owning their means of transportation, it allows them to forego yet another right of passage to adulthood: the assumption of responsibility for owning and operating a set of wheels to get them from where they are to where they think they want to go. They’ll never appreciate that joie de vivre kindled simply by listening to a “road song” written to celebrate freedom and mobility  – both euphemistically and literally. Pity, really.

58 impalaThe 1958 Impala, built to let you see the USA in your Chevrolet

Here’s just a partial list of my best ‘Hit the Road’ songs, feel free to add your own:

The Beach Boys — ‘Little Deuce Coupe’

Ronnie and the Daytonas – Little GTO – aka the “The Wah Wah song”

The Stills-Young Band — ‘Long May You Run’

Janis Joplin — ‘Mercedes Benz’ 

Wilson Pickett — ‘Mustang Sally’ 

Willie Nelson — ‘On The Road Again’ 

The Doors – Riders on the Storm

Prince — ‘Little Red Corvette’

Tracy Chapman — ‘Fast Car’

Don Henley — ‘Boys of Summer’ 

And of course the ultimate Motown car song, Aretha Franklin’s Freeway of Love (in her Pink Cadillac)

Mr. Walsh concludes his analysis of driverless cars with this:

But that’s what the land of the free is rapidly becoming: a nation of passengers, without even enough gumption to be backseat drivers. Enjoy the ride.

They once said “as GM goes, so goes the nation.” I say “no” to gray, soul-less, driverless cars. I say let’s make Motown great again and see how it works out for the rest of the country.

make gm great again

So let’s hit the road, Jack (and Jackie).

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Friday, March 23, 2018

#FLOTUSFriday

POTUS: The Senate finally passed a spending bill.

FLOTUS: That’s nice Dear, how much was it?

POTUS: $1.3 trillion….whoops! Careful!

FLOTUS: Thanks, I’m good. But $1.3 trillion? That seems extraordinary for a Republican Senate.

POTUS: Almost all the Democrats voted for it.

FLOTUS: I smell a lot of pork flying around.

POTUS:  As God is my witness, I did not think pigs could fly.

pigs in trees

FLOTUS: Remind me again, why are we here?

UPDATE:  h/t Claire Garcia:

veto

Our VSGPDT does so enjoy playing these suckers at their own game.

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Thursday, March 22, 2018

#ThrowbackThursday: Trade School Edition

Blowback from the Education Bubble: University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, has proposed dropping 13 majors in the humanities and social sciences — including English, philosophy, history, sociology and political science — while adding programs with “clear career pathways” such as chemical engineering, graphic design, and fire science as a way to address declining enrollment and a multimillion-dollar deficit.

I’m all in favor of eliminating curriculums such as “social studies” – or any degree that includes the word “studies” for that matter: women’s studies, gender studies, black studies, race studies, ethnicity studies etc.

fijiisleGender Studies Majors

If that’s your area of interest save yourself and the university system a ton of dough and just spend your spare time cruising the internet for articles that support your view that these victim groups deserve special treatment. You will never run out of educational material.

There was a time when I would have argued that English and History degrees were worthwhile but given that these majors in most colleges have transmogrified to little more than a postmodern examination of how everything wrong with the world can be traced back to the white man’s imperialism, patriarchy, colonialism and wars I would support their demise. If you’re a serious student of English or History you’ll likely get a much better education at your local, old fashioned library.

To be clear, what is being proposed by the UofW - Stevens Point Board of Regents is an old, throwback concept: trade school.

shop class33

Except today instead of getting such training in high school (at no additional cost to the student) you will have to attend college for a minimum of four years (at great cost) in order to be qualified to look for an entry level job in your chosen field.

Apprenticeship

Our egalitarian model of college for everyone was never practical but that didn’t stop public universities from using the notion to greatly expand their facilities, administration and faculties on the backs of the tax payer and students who were paying the freight. What could possibly go wrong?

Home-and-education-bubble-burst

Some things never change, like good intentions and the law of unintended consequences. And blaming the inevitable demise on conservatives:

The plan to cut the liberal arts and humanities majors (see full list below) is in line with a failed attempt by Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2015 to secretly change the mission of the respected university system — known as the Wisconsin Idea and embedded in the state code  — by removing words that commanded the university to “search for truth” and “improve the human condition” and replacing them with “meet the state’s workforce needs.”

The push away from liberal arts and toward workplace skills is championed by conservatives who see many four-year colleges and universities as politically correct institutions that graduate too many students without practical job skills — but with liberal political views. – WaPo

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Wednesday, March 21, 2018

#OpenWhineWednesday: Fake News

As far as I can tell Fox is the only cable running wall-to-wall Austin Bomber Blows Himself Up coverage, possibly because they sent both the Deuce and Geraldo on-site to report. CNN and MSNBC are both continuing their non-stop trash talk Trump coverage, today’s emphasis seems to be – in addition to the Stormy Daniels Passes Lie Detector Test! exclusive – Trump having the audacity to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his win. They are in good company, saint-in-waiting John McCain was throwing the same bomb:

mccain2

But back in 2012, when John wasn’t feeling quite as close to earning his angel wings and before he became such an anti-Trump Russia zealot, he had nothing to say about Barry Hussein doing precisely the same thing.

Obama congratulates Putin for election "win" - Foreign Policy

The Russian people and international observers may not see last Sunday’s presidential election in Russia as legitimate, but President Barack Obama has now officially endorsed the return of Russian past and future President Vladimir Putin.

"President Obama called Russian President-elect and Prime Minister Putin to congratulate him on his recent victory in the Russian Presidential election," the White House said in a late Friday afternoon statement (read: news dump) about the Friday morning phone call between the two leaders…

Obama told Putin he looked forward to Putin’s May visit to Camp David for the G-8 summit and the two talked about how they could benefit economically from Russia’s joining the WTO, the statement explained.

Which of course is different from Trump saying he intends to meet with Putin in the near future to discuss the escalating arms race. Not because nuclear armaments don’t pose a threat, but because everybody knows Trump is a madman and if unchecked he will probably end life on earth as we know it.

North-Korea-Nuclear-Weapons-Donald-Trump-Twitter-Kim-Jong-un-New-York-Never-Attack-DPRK-622159Remind me again: who is the mad man?

So after flipping to CNN for all the up-to-date coverage of Stormy Daniels and Trump’s Russian ties I switched to MsNBC’s Morning Joe (who seems to be absent today) only to catch their senior gravitas reporter and plagiarizer Mike Barnicle droning on in that cadence of his that is as annoying as Ben Stein’s economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I’m not even sure what his topic was but I’m certain it was one of President Trump’s affronts to progressive sensibilities.  I then switched to the local weather report to determine appropriate dress for the day before shutting the TV off.

America really does need an alternative news network but until then I guess we’ll just have to rely on Q  who, according to the Daily Dot, is equally unreliable but vastly more entertaining.

q

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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

#TransformationTuesday - In Which We Learn About Transmogrification

transmogrifier boxFirst Generation Transmogrifier

Question: How do you transform an absolutely brilliant political strategy into a venous scheme of astronomical proportion?

Answer: Allow it to fall into the wrong hands.

Case in point: Remember when Obama and his frat boy campaign squad were lauded as “brilliant” for their “innovative” use of data mining? Of course you do, everybody was talking about it( here, here, here, here, here, here and here – I could go on but you get the point). Even Congressional brain trust Maxine Waters got in on the crowing, despite not having a clue what she was talking about:

"The President has put in place an organization with the kind of database that no one has ever seen before in life. "That's going to be very, very powerful.That database will have information about everything on every individual on ways that it's never been done before and whoever runs for President on the Democratic ticket has to deal with that. They're going to go down with that database and the concerns of those people because they can't get around it. And he's [President Obama] been very smart. It's very powerful what he's leaving in place." – Maxine Waters, 2013

Fast forward to the next presidential election and allow that sort of data usage to fall into the hands of the opposition, in this case the hated Trump Train Team, and the transformation begins. All that remains to complete the transmogrification is a whistle blower looking for his 15 minutes. Enter Christopher Wylie.

wylieHow about a gay Canadian vegan with pink hair? That should work.

Wylie oversaw what may have been the first critical breach. Aged 24, while studying for a PhD in fashion trend forecasting, he came up with a plan to harvest the Facebook profiles of millions of people in the US, and to use their private and personal information to create sophisticated psychological and political profiles. And then target them with political ads designed to work on their particular psychological makeup.

An aside: how is it that a PhD in fashion trend forecasting is even a thing? But back on point:

(The) former Cambridge Analytica employee accused the data analytics firm of mishandling the personal information of more than 50 million Facebook users in an effort to help Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The MSM all pretended they have never heard of such venal tactics in politics! They were shocked, shocked I tell you! to discover there was data mining going on around here! With one exception:

A former Obama campaign official is claiming that Facebook knowingly allowed them to mine massive amounts of Facebook data — more than they would’ve allowed someone else to do — because they were supportive of the campaign.

In a Sunday tweet thread, Carol Davidsen, former director of integration and media analytics for Obama for America, said the 2012 campaign led Facebook to “suck out the whole social graph” and target potential voters. They would then use that data to do things like append their email lists.

But never mind the man (woman) behind the curtain, Wylie wants you to be horrified at this unprecedented use of your data:

Wylie accused the firm of “weaponizing the internet” and utilizing Facebook data to build psychological profiles of potential voters.

And there you have it: from “brilliantly innovative” to venal, illegal, immoral and fattening in the mere blink of an eye. Life in the 21st century is simply exhilarating.

calvins transmogrifier gunSecond Generation Transmogrifier

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Monday, March 19, 2018

Monday Moanin’ - Gotta’ Nuke Something!

I understand that some Congressmen (by that I mean men and women, I’m unaware of any other “genders” currently serving but if there are, it includes them too) are offering jobs to Andrew McCabe in order to allow him to earn his federal pension. Would have been nice if they’d been similarly concerned about ordinary Americans who lost their jobs, and pensions, during the 8 year Obama occupation.

I wish they’d just get back to tending to Global Warming, so the Rothschilds don’t end up running the worldand the weather.

Who-Runs-The-World-Solid-Proof-That-A-Core-Group-Of-Wealthy-Elitists-Are-Pulling-The-Strings-294x300

But what’s really not what’s bothering me today; number one on my list for now is Washington’s sudden concern with the opioid crisis. No matter how bad it is, I just know they can make it worse.

Look, I don’t know who is to blame for the opioid crisis – which is sort of a repeat of the crack crisis of the ‘80s – but I’m pretty sure it isn’t legal pharmaceuticals. I might start by looking at porous borders (thank you Obama) making both heroin and opioids more available on the street, and the lax prosecution of drug offenses due to disparate impact on peoples of color (thank you Obama).

And then was also this report, produced by the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which provides convincing evidence that ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion is at least partly to blame for the recent opioid epidemic:

The Senate report notes that those with a Medicaid card can get prescriptions for opioids, such as oxycodone, for as little as $1 for up to 240 pills. Those pills, however, can be sold on the street for up to $4,000. That has created a powerful incentive for millions to get prescriptions and end up either getting addicted themselves or selling the pills on the black market. By vastly expanding Medicaid, ObamaCare contributed significantly to this problem, the Senate report found. – Investors Daily

But I will tell you who I DON’T think is responsible for the opioid crisis: the pharmaceutical companies. Keep in mind that effective pain relievers that could be easily administered were developed by the pharmas in response to the medical community’s position way back in the 90’s that patients healed faster, better and safer when their pain was controlled. Now that drug addiction and overdoses has become a public nightmare  the AMA would like to disavow knowledge of that position.

disavow knowledge

Now their position is to advise doctors about the over-use of pain relievers and warn against the over-prescription of pain relievers, leaving a lot of people with chronic, intractable pain unable to get adequate relief anymore.

268094e2d2de24cccb532ea7781ce164--addiction-lawYes

Now governmental entities are suing pharmaceutical companies for their drug problems and the “irresponsible” distribution of opioids. Others are thinking of suing doctors, a move intended to address the drug mill doctors but will more likely make all doctors less likely to prescribe opioid pain relief to those patients legitimately in need of it. It won’t address the real opioid problem but it will deny pain relief to thousands of sufferers. Why? Because that’s how government solves problems: blame someone, wash their hands, move on to the next crisis. Because if you’re in charge, you’ve gotta’ nuke something!

 

Regretfully.

NewYorkTimes_1968_destroy to save

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Sunday, March 18, 2018

Sanctimonious Sunday

Survival tips for a world in which it seems only the sanctimonious survive:

1. When you’re caught and fired for Lying and Leaking, first throw your own hissy fit.

2.  Have your friends and possible co-conspirators join in your indignation by upping the amperage to full-throated distemper:

Screen Capture #120

samantha power

Just don’t be surprised if people make fun of you:

Brennan quote

overwrought teenage girls tweet

I thought it odd that nowhere in McCabe’s very wordy screed of how he’s just a victim of the Trump Train did he bother to deny the allegations. Instead he just deflects them by claiming victimhood and shifting responsibility to his former boss, James Comey - who clearly doesn’t think he’s culpable for anything either.

comey

Key word in his tweet: “story.”

But take heart, Roger Simon predicts that before this is over not only will Watergate fade into the dustbin of history by comparison but that this will come to be known as the "Gate of Gates."

From the FBI and across the intelligence agencies an astonishing number of people are going to find themselves accused, one can safely predict at this point, of some atrocious behavior in a free republic. And it will not just be the small change of Peter Strzok (the dimwitted director of counter-intelligence) and his gal pal Lisa Page. It will include—on one level or another—James Comey, Loretta Lynch, John Brennan, James Clapper, Susan Rice and, almost inevitably, Barack Obama, not to mention others known and unknown.

All these people’s reputations will be damaged forever for the pathetic purpose of getting Hillary Clinton elected president and later for their determination to manipulate the FBI and intelligence agencies to wound as severely as possible Trump’s presidency. That they didn’t stop to think that they might be wounding America at the same time is extraordinarily selfish and nauseating.

Further, that a Russia collusion investigation was employed by these people for their nefarious purposes is darkly ironic because their technique itself reeks of Stalin’s NKVD.

So let the deep-state cabal keep up the drama-queening, it’s great theatre. Meanwhile we’ll pray that the wheels of justice continue to roll.

trumptrain.0

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