Hello all, I flew to Brussels and drove through Germany for a meeting In Czech. I stayed in a little town called Pilzen and had lunch next to a town where the original Budweiser ( The locals say the Real Budweiser) was brewed:
This guy sat down for a drink about 115 years ago and never left.
The local beer and food is great. A perfect lunch:
You think the Elephant Bar can be rough. This place has gun slits in their outside walls.
No time for much of anything else. Hold the fort.
ReplyDeleteISIS Is Facing a Cash Crunch in the Caliphate
ReplyDeleteA series of unforeseen events, including the fall in the price of oil and the intensification of U.S.-led airstrikes on oil facilities and fighters, has squeezed the group's revenues and led it to rely increasingly on heavily taxing the estimated 8 million people living in the caliphate, say experts and people living under ISIS's control. The steady departure of professionals and the group's restrictive laws on women in the workplace have also hobbled the ISIS-run economy. These factors have caused the income gap to widen between ISIS fighters and regular people in the lands the group controls. As inequality has grown, so too has the public's resentment.
...
As winter approaches, the millions of people living in ISIS-controlled territory face rising food and fuel prices and frequent power cuts. "Before ISIS came, 1 liter of fuel was 30 cents; now it is $2," says Saeed. "A container of cooking gas was $5; now it's $25." In accordance with Islamic teachings, ISIS has implemented zakat, a charitable tax of 2.5 percent of income that all Muslims are obliged to pay. Contrary to its promises, ISIS does not distribute that money to the needy, Saeed says. In Raqqa, ISIS also appears to be uninterested in looking after the poor. "The only relief kitchen is run by locals," says Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi, a former medical student and now founder of the activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently. Like Ahmed, he uses a pseudonym. Speaking to Newsweek via Skype from Raqqa, he says of the kitchen, "Every day there's a line round the block. They give out one meal a day to the starving."
...
"I can see there are two different lives in Raqqa," says al-Raqqawi. "The [foreign fighters] have become the residents, and the residents have become the foreigners." Ordinary people, he adds, cannot afford to use the city's fast-food joints, its restaurants or its Internet cafés. These places are almost exclusively used by ISIS fighters, who are not taxed on their salaries, according to al-Raqqawi.
"The foreign ISIS members are living in a luxurious Western lifestyle," says Ahmed, describing the situation in Mosul. "They're staying in the five-star Nineveh International Hotel or the villas of wealthy citizens who have fled. They are also supplied with free medical services and unlimited electricity while other citizens get electricity for two hours a day only."
...
http://europe.newsweek.com/isis-are-facing-cash-crunch-caliphate-333422
There are other signs ISIS may not have a particularly firm hand on its economy. On August 29, the group released an hour-long video announcing the launch of its own currency. Titled The Rise of the Khilafah: The Return of the Gold Dinar, the video promised a currency based on the market value of precious metals that would "break the U.S. capitalist financial system of enslavement."
DeleteA month later, the group was still paying its salaries in U.S. dollars throughout the caliphate.
The United States of America is standing tall in the Caliphate, there has been no loss of respect for US.
The US dollar still rules that roost.
The old boy there might well be Rufus if he had stumbled into the place 50 years ago.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, his name might well be Rufus, who knows ?
Niece called today from Dresden, so I know it is raining there.
I doubt all of Germany is as big as Idaho, and the Czech Republic you could probably fit into Idaho County.
She says the Dresdeners are rude and crude compared to the Germans in Frankfort and Hamburg.
She is correct. We drove from Czech via Austria and as we crossed into Germany the weather changed. It was wet and raining most of the day and much cooler.
DeleteToday, I am meeting with the two scientists from the TNO at the Delft in Holland that I first met six months ago. We are visiting a huge glass factory in Luxembourg to discuss some important new energy savings glass innovations.
Driving through Germany I could not help being struck by an amazing contradiction. When I was stationed in Germany, many years ago, BMW’s and Mercedes were the autobahn meisters. There was no speed limit and the drivers followed a very disciplined protocol of yielding to faster drivers. That is still the case today with two important changes.
The new masters of the autobahn are Audis and Volkswagens and these are not your grandfather’s VW Beatle. The second change is that the verges along the highway are field upon field of photovoltaic solar panels and massive amounts of wind turbines with three props, each 30 meters long. They are truly an awesome sight. They must have cost the German taxpayers a fortune but were necessary as Germany discontinues use of coal and nuclear. While traveling at 100mph being passed by VWs I was thinking about the VWs undoing the benefits of the solar and wind with their cheated emission systems.
You must be very happy being in a place that is so Jew free...
DeleteJust think of the hundreds of thousands murdered by your host's grandparents..
Must make you smile.
Debbie is a little nuts -
ReplyDeleteDNC: Marco Rubio has a Hitler problem, or something
posted at 4:01 pm on September 23, 2015 by Matt Vespa
Does Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have a ‘Hitler problem’? Apparently, Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) thinks so because the 2016 Republican candidate had a fundraiser at the home of Harlan Crow, who happens to own some Nazi memorabilia, which is a small part of his vast historical collection. Crow houses his collection in a library on his property. The fundraiser was held on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, which sparked this non-controversy. Nevertheless, here’s the statement by Schultz:
In this Republican field, the sad truth is often stranger than the wildest fiction.
Today, as the sun is setting for Yom Kippur – the Jewish Day of Atonement and the most holy day on the Jewish calendar – Senator Marco Rubio will hold a fundraiser in a home that features two paintings by Adolf Hitler, a signed copy of Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf, and a cabinet full of place settings and linens used by the Nazi leader.
You really can’t make this stuff up.
“An event at a home with items like these is appalling at any time of the year. Adding insult to injury, Rubio is holding this event on the eve of the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. Holding an event in a house featuring the artwork and signed autobiography of a man who dedicated his life to extinguishing the Jewish people is the height of insensitivity and indifference. There’s really no excuse for such a gross act of disrespect. Mr. Rubio, who by the way, represents a sizable Jewish population in our home state of Florida, should cancel this tasteless fundraiser. It is astounding that the presence of these items that represent horror for millions of Jews the world over, would not stop Mr. Rubio or anyone on his team in their tracks when planning this event.” – DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
In April, the Dallas Morning News reported that Crow would be building an underground garage to accommodate visitors to his library. At the time, the only fear was that Crow would rezone his property and turn his private library into a museum, much to the chagrin of his neighbors who were not keen on the increased traffic in the area. Crow gave assurances that no such plans were being considered. Here’s what’s in his library [emphasis mine]:
DeleteOver the past 40 years, Crow has collected thousands of documents, manuscripts and works of art that span centuries. “Many people have their own hobbies and have vocations,” he said. “American history is mine.”
Among his favorites, Crow counts an Abraham Lincoln syllogism about the evils of slavery, a copy of Poor Richard’s Almanac and a letter written in 1493 by Christopher Columbus, after his first trip to the New World. The collection has paintings by Renoir and Monet and by Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
A sculpture garden includes likenesses of Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, the late British prime minister.
It also has busts of dictators, including Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito. Crow has said the collection is not intended as a celebration of repressive regimes but to preserve a part of world history.
Crow said invited guests visit the library about once a week. They range from single visitors to groups of 50 or 60 people. The library drew one of its largest crowds last year, when several hundred people attended a Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society tour.
To make the DNC look even more ridiculous, the folks over at the Free Beacon reported that Crow’s mother survived a Nazi submarine attack. Now, I’m not a seasoned detective, but I’m pretty sure, like 100 percent sure– that Crow isn’t a fan of der Führer, nor is he a follower of national socialism.
The Republican National Committee responded in kind.
“Rather than manufacture a false controversy over a collection of historic memorabilia that includes a statue of Margaret Thatcher and effects belonging to Abraham Lincoln, Debbie Wasserman Schultz should have opposed the weak Clinton-Obama Iran deal that puts Israel’s safety in jeopardy,” said RNC National Press Secretary Allison Moore........
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/09/23/dnc-marco-rubio-has-a-hitler-problem-or-something/
Ahh, thanks for the pikturs, Deuce. It's not as good as being there, but it helps. :)
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteCan America Compete with China’s Great Military Leap Forward?
America's 'Third Offset Strategy' vs. China's 'A2/AD' (anti-access/area denial strategies)
Is the technological arms race offered by the 'third offset strategy' desirable or even winnable?
The most basic assumption underlying the third offset strategy is that the economic, industrial, and technological strengths of the United States can and should be harnessed to overcome the advantages of potential adversaries and the inherent difficulties associated with projecting military power to the far reaches of the globe. Some advocate that the United States adopt competitive strategies, which self-consciously impose costs on adversaries and potential adversaries by re-setting the pace with innovative military technologies.
Yet the United States might not be able to sustain a high-technology strategy and, in the long run, China may be better positioned in a long-term race. Despite recent setbacks to its economy, China is still able and willing to invest major resources into military modernization. Numerous accounts document how the Chinese defense industry has increased its capacities, at least in part, by using cyber espionage to steal American and Western technologies and reverse engineering weapons and systems. Many Americans, on the other hand, remains uncertain about the economic future, tired of the post-9/11 increase in national security spending, and, by some accounts, supportive of domestic infrastructure investment to ensure long-term prosperity. In short, pursuing a strategy that depends on out-innovating and outspending rivals, presents political risks for American leaders.
The United States has also failed multiple times to reform its defense acquisition system in order to reduce costs, respond more quickly to the needs of warfighters, and field advanced systems more rapidly. The relationship between defense officials, the military services, the U.S. Congress, and the largely private defense industry is famously convoluted. While the traditional defense industry remains able to meet the nation’s defense procurement needs, the current focus on improving the nation’s cyber capabilities operations and protecting the highly networked military systems may require a hybrid cyber–military–industrial sector. Yet this hybrid appears far in the future, despite the Obama administration’s focus on cyber security and the relative growth of “cyber” as a component of recent defense budgets.
Minding the Gap
Another challenge for the third offset strategy is that American allies and coalition partners will find it difficult to keep pace with American military innovations...
.
.
DeleteWhat types of capabilities and technologies are suitable for a third offset strategy?
.
.
ReplyDeleteThe F-35's Biggest Threat
Here I invoke the words of the immortal Norman Augustine: ‘The last 10 percent of performance generates one third of the cost and two thirds of the problems.’ In the F-35, it’s likely that we’re paying a huge premium for the capability edge we’re hoping for. It’s not clear how good a return on investment we can expect. The F-35 is so expensive, it’ll have to last until 2045 to be anywhere near as cost efficient as previous platforms. And there’s a big gamble in assuming that the strategic landscape of 2045 will even remotely resemble that of today...
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/09/23/the_f-35s_biggest_threat_108500.html
.
China sent their best car over here for testing a couple of years ago; it received 0 Stars. Yep Zero.
ReplyDeleteXi signed a deal with Boeing, today, to buy 300 planes (they don't build jet liners.)
We shoot down ICBMs, and are on our 2nd Generation of Stealth Bombers, and Fighters.
I wouldn't get too agitated over China's military prowess for awhile, yet.
.
DeleteThanks, that's comforting.
.
.
DeleteThe Chinese may be new at making cars but as I recall they have been making fireworks for around 1400 years.
Even in the prototype stage, the PL-15 is already an international star. Speaking at the 2015 Air Force Association conference the same week as the test, USAF Air Combatant Commander General Hawk Carlisle cited the PL-15 as the reason for Congress to fund a new missile to replace the American AMRAAM. His reasons for concern is the PL-15's range. By incorporating a ramjet engine, its range could reach 150-200km, was well as its terminal maneuverability. That would out-range existing American air-to-air missiles, making the PL-15 not just a threat to fighters like the F-35, but also to US bombers and aerial tankers critical to American air operations across the vast Pacific. General Carlisle called "out-sticking" the PL-15 a high priority for the USAF...
http://www.popsci.com/chinese-air-to-air-missile-hits-targets-spooks-usaf-general
.
.
DeleteStealthier Stealth? Seventh Upgraded Chinese Stealth Fighter Prototype Aims to take Flight
.
.
ReplyDeleteAmerican F-22s and B-2 Bombers vs. Russia's S-300 in Syria: Who Wins?
This is all hypothetical in the event that something goes horribly wrong. It’s important to note, however, that U.S. forces in the Middle East are not trying to confront Russian forces—nobody wants a third world war. But the presence of Russian and American forces in such close proximity inside a war zone is bad news to say the least.
.
...only if one of the sides is supporting ISIS.
ReplyDeleteI will be back in Belgium tonight after the factory business. I will have some free time on Saturday before returning to the States on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI commented above about VW on the autobahns with the wind and solar farms on both sides.
ReplyDeleteFROM THE GUARDIAN
Volkswagen’s Deception May Have Caused Almost a Million Tons of Extra Pollution Every Year
Posted on Sep 23, 2015
Volkswagen’s rigging of emissions tests for 11 million cars may be responsible for up to nearly a million tons of air pollution a year worldwide, according to a Guardian analysis.
Amid news of the resignation of Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen’s executive board plans to meet Wednesday to discuss the scandal and to agree on the agenda of a full board meeting scheduled for Friday.
The Guardian explains:
The carmaker has recalled 482,000 VW and Audi brand cars in the U.S. after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found models with Type EA 189 engines had been fitted with a device designed to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) under testing conditions.
A Guardian analysis found those U.S. vehicles would have spewed between 10,392 and 41,571 tonnes of toxic gas into the air each year, if they had covered the average annual U.S. mileage. If they had complied with EPA standards, they would have emitted just 1,039 tonnes of NOx each year in total.
The company admitted the device may have been fitted to 11m of its vehicles worldwide. If that proves correct, VW’s defective vehicles could be responsible for between 237,161 and 948,691 tonnes of NOx emissions each year, 10 to 40 times the pollution standard for new models in the US. Western Europe’s biggest power station, Drax in the UK, emits 39,000 tonnes of NOx each year.
New York and other state attorney generals are forming a group to investigate the scandal, New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman said, adding to a series of investigations in the US, Europe and Asia that threaten to sap Volkswagen’s resources and impose large penalties.
In the U.S., just 3% of passenger cars are diesel compared with almost half in the EU. Prof Martin Williams of King’s College London said the U.S.’s low percentage of diesel cars meant higher diesel emissions in some cars would have a “limited effect” on air quality there.
“[In the U.S. it would be] nowhere near the effect it would have in [the U.K] and in the rest of Europe for that matter,” he said. In the U.K., Williams added, emissions from diesel cars cause roughly 5,800 premature deaths each year. “If you were to make the cars emit at the legal limit you could reduce those deaths by at least a factor of two and maybe more. Maybe a factor of five.”
more over at TRUTH DIG:
Deletehttp://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/volkswagen_scandal_created_nearly_a_million_tons_of_extra_pollution_2015092
.
DeleteI saw another story that might be surfacing that some of the fixes VW has installed in the past never really fixed the problem they were supposed to and that VW knew it and said nothing.
.
ONE FINAL THOUGHT
ReplyDeleteRemember not that many weeks ago about the German indignation over the Greeks providing dodgy financial reports to the EU over the true state of Greek financial affairs?
: )
I sent some pictures and some jewelry to my Niece.
ReplyDeleteGot ripped off by the German customs in Dresden......
Bad habit holdover from the Soviet days I imagine....former Stasi agent probably...
I did have the stuff insured....
Jewelry hand crafted by local artisans.....bought at the local Saturday Farmer's Market.....nothing fancy but nice looking....
DeleteSet of ear rings modeled to look like Ganesha --
Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify.[6] Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles,[7] the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom.[8] As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions.[9][10] Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha
It is a mistake to think of Hinduism as polytheistic. It is not.
Plenty of gods hanging around though, as in Greece or Rome.....projections of human characteristics....
.
ReplyDeleteIsrael attempts to redefine terrorism, but is its definition too broad?
A troubling anti-terrorism law to replace the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations passed its first reading in the Israeli Knesset by an overwhelming 45-14 vote on Sept. 2. The 100-page piece of legislation had been opposed by the left-wing Meretz Party and the predominantly Arab Joint List, but appears to have the support of the two major Israeli parties, the Likud and the Zionist Camp.
Some observers are concerned that a draft Israeli law's wide-ranging definition of what constitutes terrorism could outlaw opposition to the occupation and suppress political opposition in Israel.
Author Daoud Kuttab Posted September 23, 2015
For a time, the mandate-era British regulations continued to be used by Israel as the legal basis for collective punishment, such as deportations, home demolitions and administrative detention in the occupied Palestinian territories. In 1999, however, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to “start reducing the number of laws and ordinances that depend on the state of emergency.” An attempt to rewrite the regulations as original Israeli law was made during Tzipi Livni's tenure as justice minister (2013-14), but the Association for Civil Rights in Israel strongly opposed it. The effort remained mired in the Knesset's legislative process.
The current draft legislation is so extensive and repressive that Yael Berda, a leading Israeli lawyer and professor of law at Hebrew University, called it “scary and undemocratic” and a “regime change” in an interview with Al-Monitor. In a Sept. 18 Times of Israel article, reporter Marisa Newman outlined eight changes in the law in regard to the Israeli government's approach to the issue of terrorism. They include an expansion of the definition of terror, a lack of distinction between attacks on civilians versus soldiers and the designation as a terror organization of any nongovernmental organizations, including humanitarian groups, “that assist terror organizations in any way.”
Sympathy with a group deemed a terror organization is severely punishable. Newman wrote, “If done publicly — whether waving a sign at a rally, posting on social media or wearing a T-shirt — the individual will be eligible to serve three years in prison.” The legislation also enshrines administrative detention into Israeli law and gives Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence agency, wide-ranging powers to hack into private citizens’ computers.
According to the bill, the punishment for threatening to perform a terrorist act would be equivalent to having performed the act. The bill also doubles the maximum punishment for terror-related activities to up to 30 years in prison. Anyone over the age of 12 can be prosecuted for terrorist involvement, and a broad range of activities — including, for instance, wearing a shirt with a designated terror organization’s name on it — constitutes such involvement.
Leah Tzemel, one of Israel's best-known lawyers and who has defended Palestinian detainees for decades, told Al-Monitor that she was disturbed by the wide-ranging powers in the new law. “It is not a law about terrorism. It is a law removing restrictions from everything to do with opposition to occupation,” she said. Tzemel also expressed concern about the prevailing right-wing atmosphere, which aims to criminalize anyone who dares speak out against the occupation. She asserted, “When it comes to the occupation, there is no rule of law.”
{...}
**In 1999, however, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to “start reducing the number of laws and ordinances that depend on the state of emergency.”**
DeleteI'll with hold judgement until the Fat Lady sings....
Watts Up With That?
ReplyDeleteThe world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change
How reliable are the climate models?
Guest Blogger / 7 days ago September 17, 2015
Guest essay by Mike Jonas
michaels-102-ipcc-models-vs-reality
There are dozens of climate models. They have been run many times. The great majority of model runs, from the high-profile UK Met Office’s Barbecue Summer to Roy Spencer’s Epic Fail analysis of the tropical troposphere, have produced global temperature forecasts that later turned out to be too high. Why?
The answer is, mathematically speaking, very simple.
The fourth IPCC report [para 9.1.3] says : “Results from forward calculations are used for formal detection and attribution analyses. In such studies, a climate model is used to calculate response patterns (‘fingerprints’) for individual forcings or sets of forcings, which are then combined linearly to provide the best fit to the observations.”
To a mathematician that is a massive warning bell. You simply cannot do that. [To be more precise, because obviously they did actually do it, you cannot do that and retain any credibility]. Let me explain :
The process was basically as follows
(1) All known (ie. well-understood) factors were built into the climate models, and estimates were included for the unknowns (The IPCC calls them parametrizations – in UK English : parameterisations).
(2) Model results were then compared with actual observations and were found to produce only about a third of the observed warming in the 20th century.
(3) Parameters controlling the unknowns in the models were then fiddled with (as in the above IPCC report quote) until they got a match.
(4) So necessarily, about two-thirds of the models’ predicted future warming comes from factors that are not understood.
Now you can see why I said “You simply cannot do that”: When you get a discrepancy between a model and reality, you obviously can’t change the model’s known factors – they are what they are known to be. If you want to fiddle the model to match reality then you have to fiddle the unknowns. If your model started off a long way from reality then inevitably the end result is that a large part of your model’s findings come from unknowns, ie, from factors that are not understood. To put it simply, you are guessing, and therefore your model is unreliable.
OK, that’s the general theory. Now let’s look at the climate models and see how it works in a bit more detail.....................
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/09/17/how-reliable-are-the-climate-models/
Summary
DeleteThe following table summarises all of the above:
Factor Understood? Contribution to models’ predicted future warming
ENSO No 0%
Ocean Oscillations No 0%
Ocean Currents No 0%
Volcanoes No 0%
Wind No 0%
Water Cycle Partly (built into Water Vapour, below)
The Sun No 0%
Galactic Cosmic Rays (and aerosols) No 0%
Milankovich cycles No 0%
Carbon Dioxide Yes 37%
Water Vapour Partly 22% but suspect
Clouds No 41%, all highly suspect
Other (in case I have missed anything) 0%
The not-understood factors (water vapour, clouds) that were chosen to fiddle the models to match 20th-century temperatures were both portrayed as being in reaction to rising temperature – the IPCC calls them “feedbacks” – and the only known factor in the models that caused a future temperature increase was CO2. So those not-understood factors could be and were portrayed as being caused by CO2.
And that is how the models have come to predict a high level of future warming, and how they claim that it is all caused by CO2. The reality of course is that two-thirds of the predicted future warming is from guesswork and they don’t even know if the sign of the guesswork is correct. ie, they don’t even know whether the guessed factors actually warm the planet at all. They might even cool it (see Footnote 3).
One thing, though, is absolutely certain. The climate models’ predictions are very unreliable.
************************************************
In short, the global warming alarmists don't know what the F they are talking about......
QUIRK WAS RIGHT !!
So we have the new Pope running around blabbing about stuff he knows nothing of, the President agreeing, and half the country snookered by a lot of hysteria......
DeleteOnly here at The Bar is a little light of sanity brought to the subject, by one, or even two occasionally......
People just don't realize what a gift from the gods this place really is.....
(One forms a sneaking suspicion that VW is being punished for no good reason whatsoever....)
Delete(For the sake of Sweet Lady Justice, one must mention that Rufus Two too was onto the fraud with his It's the weather, stupid !)
Deletefrom Best To Be Far From The Maddening Crowd files -
ReplyDeleteStampede kills more than 700 at Hajj pilgrimage near Mecca...
Crushed while 'stoning devil'...............Drudge
The Debil takes revenge.....
Pope Francis was, for a short while, in his youth, a bouncer in a bar.
ReplyDeleteSource:wife
Secondary source: The Savage Nation
from The Aroma of Roasted Toasted Hillary Files -
ReplyDeleteSeptember 24, 2015
New Quinnipiac poll: Hillary loses in head-to-head matchups with GOP contenders
By Thomas Lifson
Hillary Clinton is damaged goods. Despite universal name recognition and turmoil on the GOP side, she losing in head-to-head matchups against leading GOP contenders (with one exception), according to a new Quinnipiac poll just released this morning.
Clinton 43 – Fiorina 44
Clinton 42 – Carson 49
Clinton 42 – Bush 44
Clinton 45 – Trump 43
Democrat donors are no doubt paying attention to this:
Biden 46 – Fiorina 43
Biden 46 – Bush 41
Biden 51 – Trump 40
Biden 45 – Carson 45
Numerous caveats are in order:
The margin of error is 2.5 points, so many of the matchups are deadlocked.
Early polling is not determinative.
National polling is not as significant as state-by-state polling.
Nonetheless, this poll is terrible news for Hillary and seems to show Trump with problems, too.
Hat tip: Ed Lasky
Hey, look at Dr. Ben Carson !
Huma hums -
ReplyDeleteSeptember 24, 2015
Huma Abedin and the web of influence-peddling revealed in newly released emails
By Thomas Lifson
The slow-motion exposure of emails related to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of State is revealing the way things get done at the upper reaches of government and society, and it is a very ugly picture, indeed. Most Americans (75%) now believe that corruption is widespread in government, and they don’t know the half of it. Newly released emails obtained by Politico reveal how correct they are, and as the old saying goes, the scandal isn’t so much the laws that may have been broken, but what is legal and perfectly normal these days among the power elite.
Rachel Bade of Politico traces the web of influence-peddling centered on “consulting” firm Teneo, which eventually employed Hillary’s very close aide, Huma Adedin (aka Mrs. Anthony Weiner, aka Señora Carlos Danger), while she was still on the public payroll, in a highly questionable arrangement. The object of the emails was to obtain an unsalaried presidential appointment for a client of the firm. What makes this all the more revealing is that the client was the head of a big-money nonprofit, Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. This taxpayer-subsidized, purportedly public-spirited organization paid Teneo 5.7 million dollars in 2012 alone! That’s an awful lot of “public relations work.” Why is money being diverted from medical research or whatever to an influence-peddler, in order to burnish the résumé of the president of the foundation? Oh, and one more thing: the Rockefeller Foundation is a “huge” donor to the Clinton Foundation.
The emails tell quite a story:
In the April 10, 2012, exchange, Teneo President Doug Band — a close confidant of Bill Clinton — asked Abedin to help him get Rodin nominated to the President’s Global Development Council, an unpaid post.
The Rockefeller Foundation at the time was both a Teneo client and a Clinton Foundation donor — and Band made that point in his email to Abedin.
The email subject line read: “She is expecting us to help her get appointed to this.”
“Judy rodin,” he wrote to Abedin in the shorthand email. “Huge foundation/cgi supporter and close pal of wjc[.] Teneo reps her as well[.] Can you help?”
“Wjc” is often used as shorthand for Bill Clinton. And “foundation,” likely means Clinton Foundation. (snip)
In the message to Abedin, Band forwarded along the full conversation, whereby multiple Teneo employees openly discussed who in power they could contact to help get their client Rodin assigned to the new post.
Delete“Could someone from [Sen. Chuck] Schumer’s office place a call to the WH?” Orson Porter, senior vice president of Teneo, asked Tom Shea, the managing director.
“Doug is willing to push with Valerie or HRC, but I can’t find out who the decision maker is,” Shea replied, perhaps referring to Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
Eventually, Porter sent the email up the chain to Band.
“Hey brother — it’s been a lift in the [W]hite [H]ouse,” he wrote to Band. “She is not on anyone’s friend list — VJ’s office promised to send it up the flag pole, but they will need to hear from someone outside of us — I keep pushing Tom to have a congressional office send a note. Do you think Bruce Reed would be helpful?”
Reed was Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff.
Porter, in a separate message a few minutes later, told Band “a [H]uma call to USAID would be helpful.”
Band forwarded that to Abedin with his short note.
More than a month later, Teneo checked up on their request. Forwarding the entire conversation again to Band, Orson wrote on May 22: “DB, I haven’t heard anything from the WH on this appointment (Judy R_. Did you have any luck with the State Department?”
Band again forwarded that to Abedin, who two days later sent the message to her Clinton email. (snip)
Ken Miller, who would go on to become a senior adviser or with Teneo Holdings, reached out to Abedin to arrange “a time to discuss Doug Band and Teneo” sometime in early July 2012. It appears he was considering an opportunity with the company and wanted her take.
“I am considering doing something with them and would value your perspective,” Miller, then president of Ken Miller Capital, wrote July 2, 2012.
As Politico notes, it is still unclear when Huma began her work for Teneo. But whether or not she was in an active conflict of interest at this point, these emails establish conclusively that millions of nonprofit dollars were changing hands as influence was attempted to be exercised to win a favor and prestige for a foundation executive. The picture is one of people operating at the pinnacle of institutional prestige in order to enhance their position in the power elite, and using vast resources donated as “charity.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/huma_abedin_and_the_web_of_influence_peddling_revealed_in_newly_released_emails.html
The Democratic Party is run by out and out criminals.
And it has been revealed today that Hillary was scrubbing her emails eight months earlier than originally thought......they should all be in prison.
"Deutchland Wird Aburdistan...Frau Merkel, das schaffen Sie" - sign held by protester -
ReplyDeleteSeptember 24, 2015
Angry Germans torch 'migrant' housing
By Thomas Lifson
Angry Germans with torches in the streets is about as unpleasant a memory as can be (for those who have memories of the last century’s history). But we are seeing them once again, as Europeans expected to quietly pay their taxes and host a never-ending wave of Muslims moving in among them complete with generous welfare payments are revolting.
An article from German news agency MDR, translated by Google Translate (apologies for the awkward English) and posted by Overpasses for America, tells a story the American media does not want you to know about:
In the district of Rostock and in Baden-Württemberg Wertheim houses were set on fire, soon should move refugees into. In Saxony Freital there was an attack on a refugee housing and cars in Brandenburg an Flüchtlingsinitiative were lighted. But one was injured.
In a planned emergency shelter for refugees in the Baden-Württemberg Wertheim an arson attack has been perpetrated apparently. This was announced by a spokeswoman for the city on Sunday morning.
The pictures are clearer than the auto-translated words: pics of burning buildings.....
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/angry_germans_torch_migrant_housing.html
My Niece is becoming very uneasy -she mentions all the uproar a lot - and is thinking of heading for friendlier climes ...USA, or Canada....
The latest Quinnipiac Poll queried
ReplyDelete737 Republicans
and
587 Democrats.
Quinnipiac Poll
That's because so few people are willing to admit they are Democrats these days.
DeleteI end on this note -
ReplyDeleteHome News
In Brief
23 September 2015
The lies we tell are more convincing when we need to pee
OVERCOOKED your CV? Drink a large coffee before going into the job interview: people seem to lie more convincingly when they are suppressing the urge to urinate.
Iris Blandón-Gitlin of California State University in Fullerton and her colleagues asked students to complete a questionnaire on controversial issues. They were then interviewed by a panel, but instructed to lie about their opinions on two issues.
Before the interviews began, half the students drank 700 millilitres of water. The other half drank 50 ml.
The interviewers detected lies less frequently among those with a full bladder (Consciousness and Cognition, doi.org/7rx).
The findings build on earlier work suggesting that different activities requiring self-control share common mechanisms in the brain, and engaging in one type of control enhances another.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Bladder control helps you tell lies”
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730402-000-the-lies-we-tell-are-more-convincing-when-we-need-to-pee/
Which explains a hitherto mysterious saying of Quirk from his advertising days -
"Never make a sales pitch until you are about to piss your pants, Bobbo"
Berra-isms (colloquial expressions that lack logic) are now countless, and many of them are just attributed to Berra, even if he never actually said them. As he so perfectly put it: “I never said most of the things I said.” Here are 50 of our favorites.
Delete1. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
2. You can observe a lot by just watching.
3. It ain’t over till it’s over.
4. It’s like déjà vu all over again.
5. No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.
6. Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.
7. A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.
8. Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.
9. We made too many wrong mistakes.
10. Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.
11. You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
12. You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.
13. I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.
14. Never answer an anonymous letter.
15. Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.
16. How can you think and hit at the same time?
17. The future ain’t what it used to be.
18. I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose. Just don’t fight about it. Just try to get better.
19. It gets late early out here.
20. If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.
21. We have deep depth.
22. Pair up in threes.
23. Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel.
24. You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.
25. All pitchers are liars or crybabies.
USA TODAY Sports
USA TODAY Sports
26. Even Napoleon had his Watergate.
27. Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.
28. He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.
29. It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.
30. I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won twenty-five games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five.
31. I don’t know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads.
32. I’m a lucky guy and I’m happy to be with the Yankees. And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary.
33. I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.
34. In baseball, you don’t know nothing.
35. I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?
36. I never said most of the things I said.
37. It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.
38. If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.
39. I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I’d never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field.
40. So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.
41. Take it with a grin of salt.
42. (On the 1973 Mets) We were overwhelming underdogs.
43. The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.
44. Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.
45. Mickey Mantle was a very good golfer, but we weren’t allowed to play golf during the season; only at spring training.
46. You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it’ll go.
47. I’m lucky. Usually you’re dead to get your own museum, but I’m still alive to see mine.
48. If I didn’t make it in baseball, I won’t have made it workin’. I didn’t like to work.
49. If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
50. A lot of guys go, ‘Hey, Yog, say a Yogi-ism.’ I tell ’em, ‘I don’t know any.’ They want me to make one up. I don’t make ’em up. I don’t even know when I say it. They’re the truth. And it is the truth. I don’t know.
Everything you ever thought you knew about The American Revolutionary War is all wrong -
ReplyDelete5 Myths About the Revolutionary War Everyone Believes
By J. Wisniewski March 16, 2013
http://www.cracked.com/article_20306_5-myths-about-revolutionary-war-everyone-believes.html
Since fictional superheroes usually get cool origin stories, it makes sense that an actual global superpower needs to have one. Luckily for the United States, the Revolutionary War was precisely such a tale. Bloody, heroic, and seasoned with all kinds of awesome, the entire eight-year period was dripping with fantastic stories and scrappy underdog moments.
Or was it?
#5. The War Was Between the Colonists and the British
Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images
The Myth
Myth? It's the goddamn American Revolution. Sure, the French stepped in late in the game, but by the time they bothered to put down their baguettes and wine, the colonists had already proven they were a solid bet. Even after the Americans won at Saratoga, French assistance was, well, French: underwhelming and plagued by indecision.
Via Wikipedia
"Don't mind us. We're just here to critique your fashion."
The Reality
In the centuries since the Revolutionary War, French contributions have been criminally downplayed. Somewhere between the real Yorktown and Mel Gibson's rather less accurate version, The Patriot, the monumental French war effort during the birth of America got forgotten, buried in the sand, and pissed on.
The truth is, the 13 colonies would never have earned their freedom without French intervention -- the whole battle for American independence was essentially a proxy war between Britain and France. To the French, America was nothing but another theater in their grand blood feud against Britain. They were all about making the Englishmen eat every last available dick, and since they noticed they could use the colonists' struggle for independence as a handy feeding pen, that's exactly what they did.
France began providing arms and ammunition as early as 1776 (the war started in 1775). In early 1777, months before Saratoga, the French sent American colonists 25,000 uniforms and pairs of boots, hundreds of cannons, and thousands of muskets -- all stuff that the colonists would've had a hard time surviving without, and all stuff they had no access to on their own. And that was just the tip of the iceberg: From supplies to advice to military reinforcements, France exercised all the fiscal restraint of a drunk businessman at a strip club when it came to funding the American war.
France provided a whopping 90 percent of the rebels' gunpowder. Let that sink in for a second. Without France, the entire American Revolution would have devolved into a bunch of dudes swinging their muskets as clubs within weeks.
Still, the most important French contribution to the revolution (or, if you're British, their ultimate dick move) was the least visible to Americans. As mentioned, the reason France pampered the Patriots was always selfish. They were out to weaken the British forces -- particularly their naval strength -- in order to take the fight to them, perhaps even conquer them. That's why, for much of the Revolutionary War, the British ships tasked with kicking America's ass had to survive 12 rounds with the French navy before they could even think of crossing the Atlantic. France gleefully fought the British, eventually teaming up with Spain, declaring a war, attacking from all sides, and even setting up an invasion force. In those battles, America's independence was a fart in the desert.
So, when the Colonial army was fighting for dear freedom, history books tend to conveniently forget that they did so with French money, equipment, and backup forces, while France and its other allies were busy pummeling the empire from every other side...................
The success of daily airstrikes, experts say, can give the illusion of progress, particularly for Centcom commanders who are judged in Washington on their ability to carry out a successful mission. Iraq analysts, officials said, are less optimistic.
ReplyDeleteContinue reading the main story
Obama's Evolution on ISIS
Some of President Obama’s statements about the American strategy to confront ISIS and its effectiveness.
“You can get pulled into watching the laser dot on a target and watching it blow up,” said Kevin Benson, a retired Army colonel who teaches intelligence analysis to officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. “After that, it can be hard to hear that you’re not making progress, because you saw it.”
Analysts like Mr. Hooker and his team are supposed to be immune from such pressure because they are employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency. In practice, though, the analysts are reviewed by officials at Centcom.
Although critics have suggested that the bombing campaign’s stalemate proves the need for more troops in Iraq, colleagues say Mr. Hooker’s team is not advocating that approach. “I don’t know anyone outside of a political commercial who thinks we need to send large numbers of troops into Iraq,” said one intelligence official who has worked closely with the Centcom analysts.
Instead, analysts say the dispute centers on whether the military is being honest about the political and religious situation in Iraq and whether a bombing campaign can change it.
“What are the strategic objectives here? There are none. This is just perpetual war,” said David Faulkner, the former targeting director at Centcom who worked alongside the Iraq analysts. “People say: ‘Oh, you’re military. You like that.’ No, we don’t.”
Middle East
Military Analyst Again Raises Red Flags on Progress in Iraq
By MARK MAZZETTI and MATT APUZZOSEPT. 23, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/world/military-analyst-again-raises-red-flags-on-progress-in-iraq.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
Pope Faux Francis visits New York City -
ReplyDeletehttp://newyork.cbslocal.com/photo-galleries/2015/09/24/nyc-counts-down-to-pope-francis-visit/
Pic of Pope looking a little waxy...but nice smile and friendly wave....
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Nope, that wasn’t him.
Onlookers got an eyeful of a faux Pope being driven around in an open vehicle in Times Square and near Central Park Thursday morning.
Folks snapped pictures and took selfies with the wax figure as though it were the real thing.
READ: Full Text Of Pope’s Address To Congress |PHOTOS: Pope At US Capitol | PAPAL VISIT:Complete Coverage | Road Closures |Guide | Twitter |Share Your Thoughts On Facebook
It was all part of a promotion for Madame Tussauds, which said the figure had never been seen before.
You can see footage of the faux-pope above, courtesy of Getty Images for Madame Tussauds New York.
Apparently the NYPD was not in on the joke, however.
Sources told CBS2 the fake popemobile was causing traffic delays and safety issues.
Madam Tussauds has apologized to the NYPD for the resulting inconvenience, sources said.
.
ReplyDeleteRufus probably remembers the old days back at Larry Kudlow's blog when he was still allowing comments. About half those comments were about what a doofus Larry was. He hasn't changed since then.
I saw him today on CNBC attacking Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Advisory Board. They had some other chick on the panel who gave Larry a big 'ditto' and suggested he run for the senate. Those were her only comments since Barney Frank was also on the panel and when he got a chance to speak it turned into mano o' mano, Frank and Kudlow. Whereas, Kudlow usually browbeats everyone he is on CNBC with, Frank shut him down, told him he was a hypocrite, and that he was against all regulation. Larry sputtered and smiled, seemed a little uncomfortable.
A fun 5 minutes.
.