...Paradoxically, Trump may emerge as the most honest and forthright American president on the issue of multilateralism. He has made public his disdain for multilateral rules and institutions. He has denounced the Trans-Pacific Partnership and threatened to walk away from commitments that the United States had made on climate change. At a White House briefing earlier this year, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said, “As to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward: We’re not spending money on that anymore.” Multilateral China
Such rhetoric should have been music to Beijing’s ears. As a rising power poised to become the world’s largest economy within a decade or so, it would be in China’s interest, one might argue, to see international institutions such as the United Nations weakened and marginalized. This is, after all, exactly what the United States has done for decades.
But China chose a different tack. Its decision to take the opposite course of strengthening rather than weakening multilateral institutions should be seen as a surprising, even shocking, decision. Why is China not following the footsteps of the prevailing number one power? One possible reason why China is not emulating America in undermining multilateralism is that the two countries have very different conceptions of their respective roles in the world. The United States sees itself as an “exceptional” country, hence it believes that it has a global responsibility to transform the world. It refuses to be constrained by multilateral rules when it interferes in the internal affairs of other countries. It has promoted many so-called color revolutions, including the 2005 Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan and the 2011 Arab Spring revolution in Egypt. No other country shares this messianic impulse of the United States.
By contrast, China is only interested in improving the livelihoods of its 1.4 billion citizens (or one-fifth of the world’s population). After a century and a half of “hell” -- from the First Opium War in 1839 through to the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 -- China experienced “heaven” and enjoyed the world’s fastest economic growth, especially after joining the global multilateral order that the West gifted to the world after the Second World War. No country has benefitted more from the WTO than China has. This is why China is now the world’s number one trading power.
Having enjoyed many remarkable benefits by walking away from Mao’s isolationist policies and toward Deng’s integrationist policies, China knows from first-hand experience that integration into a rules-based multilateral order has served China well. In another remarkable reversal, the values and benefits of free trade have been documented and explained by American, not Chinese, thinkers. Yet today, it is politically toxic in the United States to defend free trade agreements like NAFTA or TPP. By contrast, China is enthusiastically signing more and more free trade pacts. Since it joined the WTO in 2001, it has signed 14 FTAs with countries as diverse as Australia, South Korea, and Peru, and in 2002 it agreed to a broader free trade area with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations...
Globe editorial: Donald Trump’s first 100 days, summed up in one interview
The Globe and Mail Published Monday, Apr. 24, 2017 5:01PM EDT
American President Donald Trump is not an idiot. To say otherwise would be intemperate and incorrect, and beneath the standards of rational discourse.
You, however, might think yourself an idiot if you did any of the following things, all of which occurred in an interview Mr. Trump gave the Associated Press on Friday:
Loudly proclaim that a major institution with which you will be obliged to work is “obsolete,” thereby upsetting indispensable allies. Then, a few months later, explain that, when you said this vital organization was “obsolete,” you actually didn’t know much about NATO – sorry, the unnamed body in question – and, now that you know more, you don’t think NATO (whoops) is obsolete.
Loudly and repeatedly accuse an economic competitor of rigging its prices and make it a top priority to immediately put a stop to it when you, you know, get elected or something. And then when, let’s just say you were elected President of the United States, you meet with the leader of this economic competitor, and you discover that calling Mr. X (not his real name) a currency manipulator is counterproductive because you really need him to be an ally in order to stop Mr. K (not his real name) from launching a nuclear Armageddon (its real name), for instance. So now you have to say that this unnamed place named China is not a currency manipulator, after saying over and over that it is.
Write a list of mission-critical tasks that need to be accomplished at your new place of work, and choose an arbitrary time frame – your first 100 days on the job, for argument’s sake – for their completion. And then accomplish almost none of the tasks on the list and argue that whoever chose that time frame (you) was crazy to do so, and wonder why people keep bringing it up.
Tell someone that you never watch CNN two minutes after telling them you watch CNN.
Be asked about virtually any subject at all and provide an answer that somehow involves Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Electoral College system.
Mr. Trump is no idiot. But he is not very good at being President. This week, he will have to prevent the fiscal shutdown of the government he leads. Funding will run out on Friday. His 100th day in office is on Saturday."
Call it what you like. Inexperienced, incompetent, hasty, overreaching, a target, picked on by the media, the Dems, the judiciary, parts of the GOP, well, just about everybody. It doesn't matter. A few things are very clear...
1. Trump's failures (or delays if you like) are mostly his own fault. First, in some stupid effort to impress, he has demanded key legislation be rushed through without prep or trying to build a consensus. Second, almost 100 days after he took office all he has in place is a shallow team with no bench. The only people he has to develop and move his legislation through congress are the cabinet heads. Most of the second tier plays haven't even been nominated yet.
2. Much of what Trump has tried to do is certainly not what he promised the American people he would do.
3. On what we might call 'temporary setbacks' (an euphemism meant to assuage the tender sensibilities of some of the Trumpettes), while the media might consider some of these things failures, and Trump and his sycophants might say are delays, the American people should call them 'good things' in that even if they don't make things better they at least haven't made things worse. Yet.
Yeah, I called his bluff once before and he never came through. I thunk he was puzzled that he couldn't do moly arrange a discount ticket somewhere online. I doubt all Idaho farmers are that naive but Bob sure is wet behind the ears.
The Donald may have two....even more....appointments to make to the Supreme Court which will put an end to this horse shitty by Judges in San Francisco.
Ann Coulter is now trying to stir up trouble herself and gain publicity -
UC-Berkeley readies police as Ann Coulter plans to speak in public plaza on campus By Susan Svrluga and William Wan April 25 at 6:29 PM
In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, police from University of California at Berkeley guard the building where Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was to speak that day. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
The University of California at Berkeley is bracing for massive protests in a public plaza on campus after learning that conservative commentator Ann Coulter plans to give a speech there Thursday afternoon.
Sproul Plaza, site of the iconic Free Speech Movement protests in the 1960s, is both symbolic and logistically challenging for the university. On an open campus, anyone can flock to the plaza.
“If somebody brings weapons, there’s no way to block off the site – or to screen them,” Nicholas Dirks, UC-Berkeley’s chancellor, said Tuesday. For an event inside, the university would have metal detectors and other ways to search for weapons. Officials know that some of the demonstrators, such as those known as Black Bloc, know how to penetrate the crowd and use it as a shield, Dirks said. “In an open space you have almost no control over that,” he said. “The challenges are immense.”....
"In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, police from University of California at Berkeley guard the building where Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was to speak that day. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)"
===
The police didn't do shit. The Administration didn't do shit. Janet Napalitano didn't do shit.
YAF Officially Files Charges Against UC Berkeley and Janet Napolitano Over ANN COULTER Campus Speech
On Monday, April 24, 2017, Young America’s Foundation (YAF) fulfilled its promise to file a lawsuit, in federal court, against the University of California, Berkeley for the University’s unconstitutional suppression of free speech on campus. Last week, YAF warned officials at the state university that if administrators did not stop violating the rights of conservative students, then YAF would be left with no choice but to seek legal action in order to restore students’ rights.
Young America’s Foundation, in coordination with the Berkeley College Republicans and BridgeCal, invited 12-time New York Times best seller, Ann Coulter, to speak to students at Berkeley on the topic of immigration. The lecture was planned for April 27, 2017, until the University abruptly cancelled it.
The University cites, as its reason for canceling the lecture, its “high-profile speakers” policy. In recent weeks, administrators have used this unwritten policy to cancel events featuring two conservative speakers for YAF—Ms. Coulter and David Horowitz. During the same time period, administrators permitted events featuring leftists Vicente Fox Quesada, former President of Mexico, and Maria Echaveste, former advisor and White House Deputy Chief of Staff to President Clinton, to proceed without interference.
This discrepancy is alarming.
Students at Berkeley have the right to hear diverse viewpoints.
Immigration is a topic of great interest to students at Berkeley. The reason students invited Ms. Coulter to speak was to provide balance to the campus-wide discussion on immigration following Ms. Echaveste’s presentation earlier this month.
Too many colleges have tarnished itself. They will never recover. It is what it is....bad places to go. I think colleges in the Caribbean are beginning to look a lot more better and safer nowadays.
Less expensive, too, with no left wing indoctrination and chaos.
Can't even attend Harvard....it's tarnished. Ruined.
Net assets of the Harvard Corporation, (in effect the University’s net worth), increased $1.4 billion, or 3 percent, from $43.2 billion to $44.6 billion. That growth was mainly driven by The Harvard Campaign gifts and pledges.
Expenditures increased 4 percent over the last fiscal year, with 50 percent of costs related to salary and wages, including benefits. Salary and wages increased 5 percent, and benefits increased 4 percent, with health care costs increasing 6 percent.
Revenue from federal and non-federal sponsored sources increased by 1percent, but federal funding – which accounted for 72 percent of the total sponsored revenue – actually declined by 2 percent.
Trump Request Equals 0.035% of Federal Spending...
(CNSNews.com) - President Donald Trump’s request that Congress include $1.4 billion to fund the beginning of his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border equals approximately 0.035 percent of what the federal government will spend in total this year, according to the latest estimate of fiscal year 2017 federal spending made by the Congressional Budget Office.
It also equals less than the Department of Health and Human Services spends in just twelve hours and less than the Treasury collects in taxes in four hours.
That is assuming that HHS spends money 24 hours a day and the Treasury collects it 24 hours a day.
They are supposed to keep areas for bunnies and doggies pressurized!
(although more and more doggies log in for free as "service animals" and leave their QuirkOLogs in the aisle for the passengers and crew to deal with.)
Shoulda put up with a few rabbit pellets and saved the giant.
Ann Coulter in Berkeley Is Today’s ‘Little Rock 9’ Story – Courageous Patriot Facing Violent Democrats
The ‘Little Rock Nine’ was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The local Democrats did not want them to attend the school and resorted to violence and abuse to make their point. Eventually Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in the National Guard to protect them.
On Thursday best selling conservative author Ann Coulter will speak at a public plaza at the University of California at Berkeley.
This comes after recent violence at the campus against conservative groups.
Last week liberal professor Eric Canton beat Trump supporters WITH A BIKE LOCK at the Berkeley Pro-Trump rally at Berkeley.
UC kept secret $175 million reserve as it raised tuition, state audit finds
The University of California’s central administration has systematically overcharged campuses to fund its operations, spent excessively on employee compensation and hidden $175 million in secret reserves in recent years.
Those were the conclusions of a blistering state audit released Tuesday that slammed UC’s Office of the President for misleading budgeting practices – and for interfering in auditors’ efforts to determine whether its expansive duties and nearly 1,700 employees could be slimmed down.
State Auditor Elaine Howle said that her report calls into question the university’s recent decision to raise tuition this fall for the first time in six years when it has additional financial resources available, more than one-half of which is sitting in a discretionary fund.
“Why did we need to increase tuition if the Office of the President has $175 million in reserve that nobody knew about?” Howle said.
She added that UC “inhibited” her office from completing a key component of the audit: to assess what functions are completed by the Office of the President and whether campuses find value in them.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article146660529.html#storylink=cpy
She added that UC “inhibited” her office from completing a key component of the audit: to assess what functions are completed by the Office of the President and whether campuses find value in them.
Heh
I can tell you the President of the U of Idaho doesn't do a goddamn.
Which is a good thing, because three Presidents or so ago we had one that was gung-ho to do lots of stuff, like opening a new unneeded campus in Boise, and he nearly bankrupted the system, and was 'let go' in disgrace.
Some empty buildings still stand down that way.
His last name was Hoover, IIRC. There was 'regular time', then there was 'Hoover time' - time to get needless stuff done triple fast - then Hoover was out of time.
Talking about the turning of the fucking merry-go-round -
Russia is Now Apparently Arming the Taliban by Matthew Balan | 9:50 am, April 25th, 2017
2017-02-11-YouTube-VOA-John_Nicholson
The top general in charge of U.S. forces in Afghanistan indicated, Monday that Russia was supplying the Taliban with military equipment.
The Washington Post spotlighted General John Nicholson‘s comments in a Monday write-up. The U.S. army general appeared with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at a press conference, and was asked about the alleged Russian arming of the Islamist group.
CNN_04-25-2017_21.24.00 “We continue to get reports of this assistance. We support anyone who wants to help us advance the reconciliation process, but anyone who arms belligerents…is not the best way forward to a peaceful reconciliation,” Nicholson said.
Mattis also underlined that, “any weapons being funneled here from a foreign country would be a violation of international law unless they were coming to the government of Afghanistan.”....
...one of my earliest memories after moving to Maui was walking into Radioshack and seeing a Soviet Helicopter being shot down by the Muzzies with one of our MANPADS.
UC Berkeley riots: Violence looms as mayor questioned over ties to extremist group By Christopher Wallace Published April 25, 2017 Fox News
The University of California, Berkeley is likely to once again be the site of brutal protests on Thursday as questions arise about whether the city’s mayor has ties to an extremist group sparking violence.
Ann Coulter has vowed to move ahead with a planned appearance at the university, despite Berkeley trying to reschedule her speech over security concerns. Law enforcement sources told Fox News that regardless of whether the conservative firebrand shows up, there is a “99 percent” chance that the college will erupt in violence.
The sources are helping the Berkeley Police Department prepare for what is now seen as an inevitable showdown over First Amendment rights to free speech.
BERKELEY FLIP-FLOP: ARE UNIVERSITIES COMPLICIT IN MUZZLING FREE SPEECH?
Charles “Sid” Heal, a retired commander from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department who met with Berkeley police on Monday, said that authorities are preparing for the worst because extremist groups from across the spectrum are heading to Berkeley, and because the past three protests that devolved into violence were met by a “lackluster” response from local police.
“We’ve been told they’re going to come no matter whether Ann Coulter comes or not, and the next riot is not a standalone in isolation but a natural consequence of the lackluster approach of the past,” Heal said, adding that because protesters felt police didn’t protect them at the last riot many are pledging to defend themselves. “People are becoming vigilantes.”
Heal and others said there is deep discord between the Berkeley Police Department and the city government, led by Jesse Arreguin, the 32-year-old newly elected mayor facing his first major test in running a large city. Arreguin has been accused of supporting left-wing violence because he is a member of the Facebook group of By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, an anarchist group that has incited violent protests across the country.
UC BERKELEY STUDENTS THREATEN TO SUE OVER ANN COULTER VISIT
Yvette Felarca, a BAMN national organizer, was unapologetic last June after her group shut down a Neo-Nazi protest in Sacramento that sent 10 people to the hospital.
"We will do it again,” she said. “The Nazis had to run and hide behind the police.”
In a statement to Fox News, Arreguin distanced himself from Felarca and BAMN.
"On social media, following a particular account does not mean you support that group or individual,” he said. “I was following this particular group so I could stay up to date on what they are up to. I condemn their violent actions in the strongest terms.”
But a source close to Berkeley city government accused Arreguin of bolstering leftist groups by secretly aligning himself with them.
“Mayor Arreguin is not representing all of Berkeley right now,” the source who wished to remain anonymous told Fox News, “he’s coming from a deep leftist position. We have some very radical elements on the police review commission. Jesse is emboldening them because he has a majority on the commission.”
The mayor was criticized for basically handcuffing police officers who patrolled the April 15th tax day riot that resulted in 11 injuries, including a stabbing. Critics said he restricted police officers so much they could not do their job.
“If the police went in more aggressively, more people could’ve gotten hurt,” Arreguin was quoted as saying. “We have to balance how we respond with the goal of trying to keep as many [people] safe as possible.”
Arreguin said all protesters who commit violence will be arrested in Berkeley – no matter what side they are on the political spectrum.
“Unfortunately, extremists from both sides have come to Berkeley in recent weeks to engage in provocation,” he said.
But Heal would like to see a more proactive approach on Thursday, rather than a reactive one.
“There’s a disconnect from a realistic approach on how to deal with violent protests,” he said. “…The politicians need to understand they are representing the majority of the community, and their personal agendas may not meet the overall community.”
A city official told Fox News that she is receiving emails from concerned citizens fearing that police officers are not doing enough to protect them.
There have been at least three UC Berkeley free speech protests that have devolved into violence since February 1st – leading to 34 arrests, 39 injuries and property damage totaling at least $100,000.
There have been calls on Coulter to cancel her appearance to avoid further bloodshed. But Arreguin and Heal say they support her for standing up for her First Amendment rights.
"I fundamentally disagree with everything someone like Ann Coulter stands for,” Arreguin said. “But in an open society, she has a right to speak and students and community members have a right to peacefully protest her.”
Besides, Heal said, protesters will still show up if she cancels her speech.
It’s not going to make any difference if she cancels at this point,” Heal said. “The extremists are going to come here. It’s terrifying.”
"The mayor was criticized for basically handcuffing police officers who patrolled the April 15th tax day riot that resulted in 11 injuries, including a stabbing. Critics said he restricted police officers so much they could not do their job.
===
“There’s a disconnect from a realistic approach on how to deal with violent protests,” he said. “…The politicians need to understand they are representing the majority of the community, and their personal agendas may not meet the overall community.”
A city official told Fox News that she is receiving emails from concerned citizens fearing that police officers are not doing enough to protect them."
Jesse Arreguin, the 32-year-old newly elected mayor facing his first major test in running a large city.
Arreguin has been accused of supporting left-wing violence because he is a member of the Facebook group of By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, an anarchist group that has incited violent protests across the country.
Brilliant pick.
...but he's just following the Saints for the heck of it.
The left is devoutly convinced that this snickering can save America. That it’s better than the news.
The Peabody awards celebrated the Daily Show as “a trusted source of news for citizens united in their disappointment and disgust with politics and cable news”. But the media was the first in line to anoint the politics of contempt, ridicule and disgust as the future of journalism. Now the future is here.
===
But they can't see the disconnect of the snickering never being directed at the left.
Denver's first marriage was to Anne Martell of St. Peter, Minnesota. She was the subject of his hit "Annie's Song," which he composed in only ten minutes as he sat on a Colorado ski lift after the couple had an argument.
Denver said that career demands drove them apart; Anne said that they were too young and immature to deal with John's sudden mega-success. The ensuing property settlement caused Denver to become so enraged, he nearly choked Martell, then used a chainsaw to cut their marital bed in half.[12][25][26][32] Martell continues to live in Aspen.
Denver married Australian actress Cassandra Delaney[33] in 1988, after a two-year courtship. Settling at Denver's home in Aspen, the couple had a daughter, Jesse Belle. Denver and Delaney separated in 1991 and divorced in 1993.
Of his second marriage, Denver would later recall that "before our short-lived marriage ended in divorce, she managed to make a fool of me from one end of the valley to the other".
April 26, 2017 New sheriff won't allow Norks to rain fire By Russ Vaughn
....Moreover, almost every article referencing this "Sea of Fire" explains that term to readers by pointing out that Seoul, South Korea's largest city, lies so close to the border between the two nations that it will likely be destroyed in the opening artillery salvos from the North should the balloon go up. This, they point out, is almost certainly due to the fact that North Korea has positioned countless thousands of artillery pieces and rocket launchers along its side of the demilitarized zone for just that purpose. They usually quote some military expert that any American attack on North Korea unavoidably will sign Seoul's doom.
This old soldier ain't buyin' it. For one thing, if Seoul is 30 to 35 miles from the closest Nork artillery placements, a quick examination of the map shows that from that narrow southernmost point, the North Korean border swings back north, both east and west from that closest point, so that there could only be but a few hundred artillery pieces and rocket launchers, not the thousands quoted by Western media pundits, that are actually that close. More importantly, there are damned few artillery pieces in the Nork army that have a range of 30-plus miles. And for those that do, American and South Korean defensive artillery forces have counter-battery radars in place that are so advanced that they not only can direct effective defensive fire to destroy incoming rounds, but also pinpoint the precise firing location of the offending artillery pieces so quickly that our own artillery fire and airstrikes can be directed on them within seconds. As Saddam's Iraqi forces learned quickly, to fire your artillery at the Americans was to invite your own violent, concussive death mere moments later. And those American radar detection systems and the counter-battery tactics have just kept getting more sophisticated and deadly since we used them in Iraq....
The irony is that the only ones who will be able to afford to buy them are the snowflakes who have no plans for doing physical labor a day in their life.
The Senate has confirmed 26 of President Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other top posts, but he has advanced just 37 nominees for 530 other senior-level jobs. Cabinet secretaries say the vacancies are hobbling efforts to oversee operations and promote Trump’s agenda...
French intelligence says Assad forces carried out sarin attack
FILE PHOTO: A man breathes through an oxygen mask as another one receives treatments, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib, Syria April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo By John Irish | PARIS
French intelligence has concluded that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on April 4 in northern Syria and that Assad or members of his inner circle ordered the strike, a declassified report showed.
The chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun killed scores of people, according to a war monitor, Syrian opposition groups and Western countries. It prompted the United States to launch a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base, its first deliberate assault on the Assad government in the six-year-old conflict.
Assad has said in two media interviews since April 4 that the evidence of a poison gas attack was false and denied his government had ever used chemical weapons.
The six-page French document - drawn up by France's military and foreign intelligence services and seen by said it reached its conclusion based on samples they had obtained from the impact strike on the ground and a blood sample from a victim.
"We know, from a certain source, that the process of fabrication of the samples taken is typical of the method developed in Syrian laboratories," Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters after presenting the findings to the cabinet.
"This method is the signature of the regime and it is what enables us to establish the responsibility of the attack. We know because we kept samples from previous attacks that we were able to use for comparison."
Among the elements found in the samples were hexamine, a hallmark of sarin produced by the Syrian government, according to the report.
It said the findings matched the results of samples obtained by French intelligence, including an unexploded grenade, from an attack in Saraqib on April 29, 2013, which Western powers have accused the Assad government of carrying out.
"This production process is developed by Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) for the regime," the report said.
The United States on Monday blacklisted 271 employees belonging to the agency.
Syria agreed in September 2013 to destroy its entire chemical weapons program under a deal negotiated with the United States and Russia after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack in the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
The report said that based on its assessments, there were "serious doubts on the accuracy, completeness and sincerity of the dismantlement of Syria's chemical arsenal."
SIX WARPLANE STRIKES
The report, which lists some 140 suspected chemical attacks in Syria since 2012, also said intelligence services were aware of a Syrian government Sukhoi 22 warplane that had struck six times on Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 and that samples taken from the ground were consistent with an airborne projectile that had munitions loaded with sarin.
"The French intelligence services consider that only Bashar al-Assad and some of his most influential entourage can give the order to use chemical weapons," the report said....
2. Much of what Trump has tried to do is certainly not what he promised the American people he would do.
3. On what we might call 'temporary setbacks' (an euphemism meant to assuage the tender sensibilities of some of the Trumpettes), while the media might consider some of these things failures, and Trump and his sycophants might say are delays, the American people should call them 'good things' in that even if they don't make things better they at least haven't made things worse. Yet.
A new amendment to the House Republicans' ObamaCare replacement bill exempts members of Congress and their staff from its effects.
The new changes to the bill would allow states to apply for waivers for certain ObamaCare provisions, such as a ban on insurers charging premiums based on a customer's health and the requirement that insurers' basic health plans cover certain services, like prescription drugs and mental health. The GOP amendment exempts members of Congress and their staffs to ensure that they will still be protected by those ObamaCare provisions.
The exemption was flagged by health law professor Tim Jost.
Democrats quickly jumped on the development, arguing that Republicans are willing to take away protections for the general public, but not themselves...
One More Dick Move by the GOP - They Just Keep Coming
This afternoon, the administration will outline 1/2 of their tax plan. The half we will hear about is a massive tax cut plan. The half we won't hear about is how we will pay for it. Tax cuts good. Deduction or program cuts bad. Going into the final lap of Trump's first 100 days, don't expect to hear anything but 'good' coming from Trump spokesmen.
Terms to watch for:
Dynamic scoring. (Translation: Bullshit and bubblegum, fairy dust obvious to all but the most credulous)
Supply Side Economics. (Translation: A simple normal curve drawn on a napkin over a 3 martini lunch)
Things we can be assured of with this being a Trump/GOP plan:
- The GOP will use dynamic scoring to hide the fact that they are simply giving huge tax cuts to the rich and have no way of paying for it.
- The GOP will once again indulge in the supply side economics which G.H.W. Bush called voodoo economics, an apt description for a process that has shown no long term benefits and has in fact resulted in the $20 trillion debt we have today.
- Count on the deficit rising substantially under Trump.
- The little guy will once again take it in the ass relative to corporations and the rich escalating the divide between rich and poor.
- We can be absolutely certain (and I would bet on this one) that real estate developers will benefit huuuugely from this plan.
If only we could figure a way to tap in monetarily to Quirk's dynamic propaganda we'd all benefit huuuugely, we'd all be rich, the gap between the rich and poor would vanish.
From what I've seen, I believe I would make out great under Trump's new plan. That doesn't change the fact that it is based on fairy dust and trinkets for the natives. The projected growth rates don't make sense given historical trends (see link below). Supply side economics have been tried a number of times over the past 60 years and they just don't provide any long term growth.
Mnuchin says this plan will be revenue neutral simply based on the GDP growth that will accrue do to tax cuts for corporations. That assumption is at best questionable.
From the chart in the link, you can run a trend line and see that growth has been slowing in the US for the last 60 years. Steve Moore, Laffer, Kudlow, all the supply side idiots who are pushing this plan cite the Reagan tax cuts and the growth they produced. The Reagan cuts came in 1986 as the economy was sinking and it took a while for them to take effect. When they did, growth only lasted for a couple of years before we hit another recession. That's the story of all of these supply-side cuts. They give a short-term boost but offer zip in boosting long-term growth.
While supply side economics hasn't provided long term growth it has increased the deficit. The same Reagan the supply-siders praise was the guy who also increased the national debt by 186 percent second only to FDR in the percentage increase.
It's appropriate that Cohn and Mnuchin gave today's presentation. Two Goldman Sachs Execs talking about how great this plan will be for the little guy. You have to ask who plans these things.
This plan will be a massive gift to corporations, hedge fund managers, banks, real estate developers, you name it. The people left out will be the little guy. From the sounds of it, the fat cats will be looking at about a 60% tax gut (though admittedly few of the big corporations pay more than 15% now). The little guy might get a 12% cut less whatever he will lose in deductions.
They will try to sell this as a jobs bill but there is a lot of history that argues this is a specious argument also. Other proposals, a one time tax reduction to bring profits back to the US and the elimination of the death tax fall into the same category.
It's likely negotiations on this legislation will continue into next year. Plenty of time to criticize it.
Trump, a developer, is currently paying the 39% on his personal income. Under this deal, he has the option of paying 15%.
On the other hand one of the deductions Trump is planning on eliminating is the middle class deduction for employer paid insurance, which would be a big hit.
As the details come out, you are going to see this (like the Obamacare repeal and the elimination of health and safety regulations) is simply another way for Trump and the GOP to stick it to the little guy.
Berkeley, local police preparing for massive riot, I mean “protest,” tomorrow at Coulter speech; Update: Coulter likely to cancel; Update: Canceled Apr 26, 2017 11:21 AM by Allahpundit
Controversial study claims humans reached Americas 100,000 years earlier than thought Broken mastodon bones hint that Homo sapiens wasn’t the first hominin to get to the New World.
Berkeley has become a meeting ground for what the city’s chief of police, Andrew Greenwood, has described as politically motivated groups “armed and prepared to fight.”
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“Intervention requires a major commitment of resources, a significant use of force, and carries with it the strong likelihood of harming those who are not committing a crime,” Greenwood wrote in a memo to the City Council last week.
BART’s silence after robbery by teen mob raises questions http://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/BART-s-decision-not-to-publicize-takeover-11098643.php?t=702113609b
Takeover robbery: 40 to 60 teens swarm train http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-takeover-robbery-50-to-60-teens-swarm-11094745.php
BART: 'Our hearts go out' to victims of teen swarm robbery http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-says-our-hearts-go-out-to-victims-of-teen-11095915.php
A train leaves the Coliseum BART station on Tuesday, April 25, 2017, in Oakland, Calif. BART seeks warrants after ID'ing some teens in robbery3:59 PM http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-seeking-arrest-warrants-after-identifying-11101023.php
Guidance of an ICBM is based not only on the direction the missile is travelling, but the precise instant that thrust is cut off. Too much thrust and the warhead will overshoot its target, too little and it will fall short. Solids are normally very hard to predict in terms of burning time and their instantaneous thrust during the burn, which made them questionable for the sort of accuracy required to hit a target at intercontinental range. This appeared at first to be an insurmountable problem, but in the end was solved in almost trivial fashion. A series of ports were added inside the rocket nozzle that were opened when the guidance systems called for engine cut-off. The reduction in pressure was so abrupt that the last burning fuel ejected itself and the flame was snuffed out.
President Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order to pull the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, senior administration officials said on Wednesday, although the timing of the action is uncertain.
The move, which one source said might come as soon as Trump's 100th day in office on Saturday, could unravel one of the world's biggest trading blocs. News of the potential presidential action drove the Mexican and Canadian currencies lower.
Trump had threatened to renegotiate the NAFTA pact during the election campaign as he said it had destroyed American jobs, although he has backed off tough action in trade since taking office in January.
“There is some discussion,” said another source with direct knowledge of the discussions. “There are some who are pushing for things sooner rather than later but that’s the same on every issue.”
Mexico's peso and Canada's dollar fell against the U.S. dollar, with the peso shedding about 1.5 percent in just over an hour, while Canada’s “loonie” lost about 0.45 percent. Stocks in both U.S. neighbors also weakened, with Mexico’s benchmark IPC index .MXX falling more than 1 percent in 15 minutes.
A disruption in trade between the three NAFTA partners could wreak havoc in the auto sector and other industries, hitting profits at companies that have benefited from zero-level tariffs and Mexico's relatively low labor costs. It would also hit U.S. agricultural exports hard.
"To totally abandon that agreement means that those gains are lost," said Paul Ferley, an economist at Royal Bank of Canada.
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures CN7 fell 5 cents a bushel, reflecting concerns that the pact was under real threat.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to pull out from the 23-year-old trade pact if he is unable to renegotiate it with better terms for America. He has long accused Mexico of destroying U.S. jobs. The United States went from running a small trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63 billion deficit in 2016.
Trump has stopped short of a formal threat to kill NAFTA so far, but legal experts say he likely has the authority as president to give a 60-day notice that America is exiting the pact. It was under an executive order signed by Trump on Jan. 23 that the United States pulled out of the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Details about the draft order on NAFTA were not immediately available.
Video: How Russia and Syria lied about the chemical weapons attack POSTED AT 10:11 PM ON APRIL 26, 2017 BY JOHN SEXTON
The day after the chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, I wrote a post titled “Surprise! Russia is lying about Syrian chemical weapon attack.” My reaction at the time was mostly based on Russia’s previous behavior, i.e. lying about an airstrike on a relief convoy last year, lying about its involvement in Ukraine, etc. That coupled with the fact that Syria had used chemical weapons several times previous to the attack this month led me to believe Russia was once again lying to protect the Assad regime.
Later, we learned that the U.S. military had information showing the jets used in the chemical attack had been launched from the Al Shayrat airfield in Syria, an airbase where Syrians and Russians were working together. That information was what led the Trump administration to a) bomb the airfield with Tomahawk missiles and b) accuse Russia of having knowledge of the chemical attack.
Today the New York Times published a video which goes into detail about what Syria and Russia claimed happened during the attack compared to what satellite photos and video of the area show. What they found: Russia (and Syria) lied about the attack. This clip is about 7 minutes long but it’s worth watching if you have any remaining doubts about what happened in Khan Sheikhoun.
VIDEO
And if you still have some doubt, yesterday France announced further evidence that the sarin used in the attack was identical to the mixture used previously by the Syrian military. From CNN:
The French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that samples taken from the attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun matched those from a previous incident.
“We have definite sources that the procedure used to make the Sarin sampled is typical of the methods developed in Syrian laboratories,” he said. “This method bears the signature of the regime, and that is what has allowed us to establish its responsibility in this attack.”
Maybe you never had any doubt that Syria and Russia were lying about responsibility for this attack, but for those who did, this should go a long way to clearing it up.
Polanski gains an unexpected ally in his bid to escape justice POSTED AT 3:01 PM ON APRIL 26, 2017 BY JAZZ SHAW
Some stories are like a bad case of herpes… they just keep coming back over and over again. Such is the case with convicted child rapist and pedophile Roman Polanski. As we’ve discussed recently, this degenerate’s attorneys have been waging a fruitless battle in California’s courts to allow him to return to the Hollywood party circuit without doing any time in jail for the horrific crimes he confessed to decades ago. I had thought after the last judge to hear the request unceremoniously tossed the case out on its ear that this travesty might be over. But Polanski apparently has virtually limitless resources to keep fighting this legal battle and now he has gained the support of a very unexpected individual… his rape victim. (Deadline)
The woman who Roman Polanski raped when she was 13-years old back in 1977 today stepped into the disgraced and self-exiled Oscar winning director’s latest attempt to return to the U.S. but not face more jail time.
Samantha Gailey wants “the Gunson transcript made available to Mr. Polanski and be made public,” said Deputy Los Angeles District Attorney Michele Hanisee in a hearing Tuesday in LA Superior Court. While not identifying Gailey by name, the Deputy from LA DA Jackie Lacey’s office told Judge Scott Gordon’s courtroom that her office had recently received correspondence from the “victim” in the long litigated matter. The correspondence from Gailey came via an email from her lawyer, Deadline was informed.
The “Gunson transcript” being discussed is the same one we covered during the last hearing (linked above). He’s seeking the public release of sealed testimony given by the prosecutor from the original case back in 2010. Roger Gunson supposedly made statements which would corroborate Polanski’s claim that a plea deal for time served had been offered back during the original trial. This, of course, ignores the fact that an offer of a plea deal doesn’t mean a thing until a judge accepts it and and passes down the sentence.
More curious is the fact that it was Samantha Gailey who is supposedly supporting the bid. We’re able to use her name since she has gone public many times over the years and given permission to do so, even though her name still doesn’t appear in these court documents. As you will recall, Gailey was the 13 year old child who Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized. He later admitted to his monstrous crimes but fled the country when he suspected that the judge in the case might hand down an actual sentence commensurate with his deeds.
As I’ve said here in the past, I take no issue with Gailey’s attitude in all of this and even find it commendable. She has taken the extraordinarily difficult and very Christian path of finding it in her heart to forgive her attacker. This is actually not all that uncommon. We even saw the families of Dylann Roof’s victims forgiving him prior to his conviction. But for Gailey to take the remarkable step of going even further and seemingly offering to assist in Polanski’s legal battle is well beyond any graceful measure of forgiveness. I honestly don’t know what motivates her to do this but I’m not going to criticize her for it.
Still, being forgiven by your victim does not in any way, shape or form mean that you are forgiven by the criminal justice system or the rest of the world. Polanski deserves to be locked in a dark cell and left there for the rest of his unnatural life. The man is a monster who has flaunted his freedom in the face of the world for decades on end and that would be only a tiny sliver of the justice he has coming if you ask me.
The story is true, the video, probably not. In reality the mob looks too obviously multi-multi, where i reality, I would expect, more Mau Mau.
ReplyDeleteSouth Philadelphia flash mobs.
ReplyDeleteSame tune, different coast.
.
ReplyDeleteWhile the US rejects international organizations and agreements, China embraces them.
...Paradoxically, Trump may emerge as the most honest and forthright American president on the issue of multilateralism. He has made public his disdain for multilateral rules and institutions. He has denounced the Trans-Pacific Partnership and threatened to walk away from commitments that the United States had made on climate change. At a White House briefing earlier this year, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said, “As to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward: We’re not spending money on that anymore.”
Multilateral China
Such rhetoric should have been music to Beijing’s ears. As a rising power poised to become the world’s largest economy within a decade or so, it would be in China’s interest, one might argue, to see international institutions such as the United Nations weakened and marginalized. This is, after all, exactly what the United States has done for decades.
But China chose a different tack. Its decision to take the opposite course of strengthening rather than weakening multilateral institutions should be seen as a surprising, even shocking, decision. Why is China not following the footsteps of the prevailing number one power? One possible reason why China is not emulating America in undermining multilateralism is that the two countries have very different conceptions of their respective roles in the world. The United States sees itself as an “exceptional” country, hence it believes that it has a global responsibility to transform the world. It refuses to be constrained by multilateral rules when it interferes in the internal affairs of other countries. It has promoted many so-called color revolutions, including the 2005 Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan and the 2011 Arab Spring revolution in Egypt. No other country shares this messianic impulse of the United States.
By contrast, China is only interested in improving the livelihoods of its 1.4 billion citizens (or one-fifth of the world’s population). After a century and a half of “hell” -- from the First Opium War in 1839 through to the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 -- China experienced “heaven” and enjoyed the world’s fastest economic growth, especially after joining the global multilateral order that the West gifted to the world after the Second World War. No country has benefitted more from the WTO than China has. This is why China is now the world’s number one trading power.
Having enjoyed many remarkable benefits by walking away from Mao’s isolationist policies and toward Deng’s integrationist policies, China knows from first-hand experience that integration into a rules-based multilateral order has served China well. In another remarkable reversal, the values and benefits of free trade have been documented and explained by American, not Chinese, thinkers. Yet today, it is politically toxic in the United States to defend free trade agreements like NAFTA or TPP. By contrast, China is enthusiastically signing more and more free trade pacts. Since it joined the WTO in 2001, it has signed 14 FTAs with countries as diverse as Australia, South Korea, and Peru, and in 2002 it agreed to a broader free trade area with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations...
.
The Chinese are the BORG, they have finished with internal debate, now they are going out to take over the world.
DeleteResistance is futile.
The only glimmer of hope? China's internal breakup...
That might be where we should be encouraging change.
The Opium war teaches us a valuable lesson.
DeletePay and arm lil Kim to Nuke them.
DeleteHow else are they going to get their money? /sarc.
ReplyDeleteApril 25, 2017
ReplyDeleteReporters Sleep as 60 Black People Rob a BART Train in Oakland
By Colin Flaherty
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/04/reporters_sleep_as_60_black_people_rob_a_bart_train_in_oakland.html
Watch for a big hullabullu when Ann Coulter speaks at Bezerkeley.
ReplyDeleteA rare copy of the Declaration of Independence has been found in England.
ReplyDeleteSame kind of parchment, different signature order.
Big deal in antiquities, if you can call it antiquities.
Quirk has a couple copies too, that he is trying to sell on-line.
Ciao !
Globe editorial: Donald Trump’s first 100 days, summed up in one interview
ReplyDeleteThe Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Apr. 24, 2017 5:01PM EDT
American President Donald Trump is not an idiot. To say otherwise would be intemperate and incorrect, and beneath the standards of rational discourse.
You, however, might think yourself an idiot if you did any of the following things, all of which occurred in an interview Mr. Trump gave the Associated Press on Friday:
Loudly proclaim that a major institution with which you will be obliged to work is “obsolete,” thereby upsetting indispensable allies. Then, a few months later, explain that, when you said this vital organization was “obsolete,” you actually didn’t know much about NATO – sorry, the unnamed body in question – and, now that you know more, you don’t think NATO (whoops) is obsolete.
Loudly and repeatedly accuse an economic competitor of rigging its prices and make it a top priority to immediately put a stop to it when you, you know, get elected or something. And then when, let’s just say you were elected President of the United States, you meet with the leader of this economic competitor, and you discover that calling Mr. X (not his real name) a currency manipulator is counterproductive because you really need him to be an ally in order to stop Mr. K (not his real name) from launching a nuclear Armageddon (its real name), for instance. So now you have to say that this unnamed place named China is not a currency manipulator, after saying over and over that it is.
Write a list of mission-critical tasks that need to be accomplished at your new place of work, and choose an arbitrary time frame – your first 100 days on the job, for argument’s sake – for their completion. And then accomplish almost none of the tasks on the list and argue that whoever chose that time frame (you) was crazy to do so, and wonder why people keep bringing it up.
Tell someone that you never watch CNN two minutes after telling them you watch CNN.
Be asked about virtually any subject at all and provide an answer that somehow involves Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Electoral College system.
Mr. Trump is no idiot. But he is not very good at being President. This week, he will have to prevent the fiscal shutdown of the government he leads. Funding will run out on Friday. His 100th day in office is on Saturday."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/globe-editorial-donald-trumps-first-100-days-summed-up-in-one-interview/article34799476/
Ash, your critical thinking skills are turning to mush.
DeleteNot very good? I take issue.
DeleteWhat specifically has he actually FAILED at? And don't site temporary set backs like the 9th circuit court rulings....
Go on, site specific failures. And don't site a failed attempt, as that is not a failure, just an opportunity to try again...
lol - now there is one fine display of critical thinking!
DeleteI notice you choose not to answer...
DeleteAsh, I am really glad you made your way out of our nation...
DeleteCanada is a good starting point for you...
Might I suggest Gaza? It would fit your nation much better.
Quirk's answers, long and tedious,
DeleteAsh: For all intents, nonexistent.
heh, you guys are a laugh. Of course there is no failure in your world if you view it as:
Delete"Go on, site specific failures. And don't site a failed attempt, as that is not a failure, just an opportunity to try again..."
Trump is magnificent, extra-ordinary, he simply can't fail!
.
DeleteCall it what you like. Inexperienced, incompetent, hasty, overreaching, a target, picked on by the media, the Dems, the judiciary, parts of the GOP, well, just about everybody. It doesn't matter. A few things are very clear...
1. Trump's failures (or delays if you like) are mostly his own fault. First, in some stupid effort to impress, he has demanded key legislation be rushed through without prep or trying to build a consensus. Second, almost 100 days after he took office all he has in place is a shallow team with no bench. The only people he has to develop and move his legislation through congress are the cabinet heads. Most of the second tier plays haven't even been nominated yet.
2. Much of what Trump has tried to do is certainly not what he promised the American people he would do.
3. On what we might call 'temporary setbacks' (an euphemism meant to assuage the tender sensibilities of some of the Trumpettes), while the media might consider some of these things failures, and Trump and his sycophants might say are delays, the American people should call them 'good things' in that even if they don't make things better they at least haven't made things worse. Yet.
Free one way ticket to Gaza, Ash....
Delete.
DeleteYea, Ash, you can save it until Gaza gets an airport.
===========================================
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.
The 9th circuit is a joke, but now that there is a restored Supreme Court? Look for more fun successes of the trump administration.
DeleteTrump will continue to undo Obama's 8 years with a variety of measures.
Look at the world and see what Obama has left us... Watch how Trump deals with it, report back oh Quirkie, in 12 months..
Yeah, I called his bluff once before and he never came through. I thunk he was puzzled that he couldn't do moly arrange a discount ticket somewhere online. I doubt all Idaho farmers are that naive but Bob sure is wet behind the ears.
DeleteAsh, your day is over. Jihadists and terrorists are now being enjoined and will be defeated.
DeleteSo sorry Ash, you might have to flee.
I ordered tickets to Gaza for you Ash through soil-r-us.travel.com long ago.
DeleteAll I got was a stinking ballpoint pen.
This time around I'll arrange to send you in the cargo section of United Airlines.
(See saga of world's biggest bunny below)
JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP SANCTUARY CITY FUNDING ORDER
ReplyDeletehttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SANCTUARY_CITIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-25-16-15-56
THE TYRANNY OF THE JUDICIARY
ReplyDeleteIs a done deal.
Help is on the way.
DeleteThe Donald may have two....even more....appointments to make to the Supreme Court which will put an end to this horse shitty by Judges in San Francisco.
.
ReplyDeleteA new secret weapon in the war against terrorism. Clean. Swift. Efficient. No collateral damage.
Wild boars overrun Islamic State position, kill 3 militants
.
Wild Boar Robots.
DeleteFlying Wild Boar Drones.
DougTue Apr 25, 04:38:00 PM EDT
ReplyDeleteQuirk's answers, long and tedious,
Ash: For all intents, nonexistent.
While agreeing about Ash, I must demur concerning The Quirk.
He has stated: "The Donald doesn't know shit"
But when asked, repeatedly, what then he would do about:
1) N. Korea
2) ISIS and sundry
3) Iran
so far his answer is no answer at all....zero, zip, nada.... as they say.
People are becoming highly suspicious that The Quirk actually doesn't know shit himself.
We notice The Donald calling the entire Senate to the White House for a private briefing....and the UN Security Council too, I read, separately....
DeleteWhile The Quirk keeps his shit, if he has any, to himself....
It's Stinky Poo.
DeleteLeave well enough alone.
These disgusting crimes streamed live on Facebook should be shut down immediately.
ReplyDeleteThese disgusting crimes streamed live on Facebook....should be shut down immediately, or, Facebook should be shut down by Legislation.
HORROR: Man murders child, kills himself on FACEBOOK Live...
Court jails three men for streamed rape....DRUDGE
What the hell is wrong with our society for tolerating this ?
It is a society that holds the 1st Amendment of the Constitution with more reference than you do, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
DeleteThe content is not streamed on "public" airways.
The Federals have no role in censoring the INet, "Draft Dodger"
Ann Coulter is now trying to stir up trouble herself and gain publicity -
ReplyDeleteUC-Berkeley readies police as Ann Coulter plans to speak in public plaza on campus
By Susan Svrluga and William Wan April 25 at 6:29 PM
In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, police from University of California at Berkeley guard the building where Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was to speak that day. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
The University of California at Berkeley is bracing for massive protests in a public plaza on campus after learning that conservative commentator Ann Coulter plans to give a speech there Thursday afternoon.
Sproul Plaza, site of the iconic Free Speech Movement protests in the 1960s, is both symbolic and logistically challenging for the university. On an open campus, anyone can flock to the plaza.
“If somebody brings weapons, there’s no way to block off the site – or to screen them,” Nicholas Dirks, UC-Berkeley’s chancellor, said Tuesday. For an event inside, the university would have metal detectors and other ways to search for weapons. Officials know that some of the demonstrators, such as those known as Black Bloc, know how to penetrate the crowd and use it as a shield, Dirks said. “In an open space you have almost no control over that,” he said. “The challenges are immense.”....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/04/25/uc-berkeley-readies-police-as-ann-coulter-plans-to-speak-in-public-plaza-on-campus/?utm_term=.f3f91a1e918e
She has her rights of course but....it has the aroma of a publicity stunt.
"She has her rights of course but....it has the aroma of a publicity stunt."
DeletePlaying with Quirk's Stinky Poo has infected your brain with the MSM genetically modified insaneovirus.
MSM's
DeleteIt's all Quirk's fault.
DeleteTruth
Delete"In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, police from University of California at Berkeley guard the building where Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was to speak that day. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)"
ReplyDelete===
The police didn't do shit.
The Administration didn't do shit.
Janet Napalitano didn't do shit.
They should ALL be run out on a rail.
I worship Ann and Milo for defending free speech.
DeleteYAF Officially Files Charges Against UC Berkeley and Janet Napolitano Over ANN COULTER Campus Speech
DeleteOn Monday, April 24, 2017, Young America’s Foundation (YAF) fulfilled its promise to file a lawsuit, in federal court, against the University of California, Berkeley for the University’s unconstitutional suppression of free speech on campus. Last week, YAF warned officials at the state university that if administrators did not stop violating the rights of conservative students, then YAF would be left with no choice but to seek legal action in order to restore students’ rights.
Young America’s Foundation, in coordination with the Berkeley College Republicans and BridgeCal, invited 12-time New York Times best seller, Ann Coulter, to speak to students at Berkeley on the topic of immigration. The lecture was planned for April 27, 2017, until the University abruptly cancelled it.
The University cites, as its reason for canceling the lecture, its “high-profile speakers” policy. In recent weeks, administrators have used this unwritten policy to cancel events featuring two conservative speakers for YAF—Ms. Coulter and David Horowitz. During the same time period, administrators permitted events featuring leftists Vicente Fox Quesada, former President of Mexico, and Maria Echaveste, former advisor and White House Deputy Chief of Staff to President Clinton, to proceed without interference.
This discrepancy is alarming.
Students at Berkeley have the right to hear diverse viewpoints.
Immigration is a topic of great interest to students at Berkeley. The reason students invited Ms. Coulter to speak was to provide balance to the campus-wide discussion on immigration following Ms. Echaveste’s presentation earlier this month.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/04/yaf-officially-files-charges-uc-berkeley-janet-napolitano-ann-coulter-campus-speech/
OK, you're right.
DeleteI concede.
:-)
DeleteIt takes a man with large hands.
I didn't know Fox was a Quesadilla !
Deletehttps://www.google.com/search?q=Quesadea&rlz=1CAACAO_enUS720US720&oq=Quesadea&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=Quesadilla
DeleteThere is nothing liberal about modern leftists.
DeleteBerkeley tarnished itself.
What a mess.
Too many colleges have tarnished itself. They will never recover. It is what it is....bad places to go.
I think colleges in the Caribbean are beginning to look a lot more better and safer nowadays.
Less expensive, too, with no left wing indoctrination and chaos.
Can't even attend Harvard....it's tarnished. Ruined.
Avatar
Sylvia Hackett
Obamination.
DeleteNet assets of the Harvard Corporation, (in effect the University’s net worth), increased $1.4 billion, or 3 percent, from $43.2 billion to $44.6 billion. That growth was mainly driven by The Harvard Campaign gifts and pledges.
Expenditures increased 4 percent over the last fiscal year, with 50 percent of costs related to salary and wages, including benefits. Salary and wages increased 5 percent, and benefits increased 4 percent, with health care costs increasing 6 percent.
Revenue from federal and non-federal sponsored sources increased by 1percent, but federal funding – which accounted for 72 percent of the total sponsored revenue – actually declined by 2 percent.
http://www.harvard.edu/media-relations/harvard-issues-annual-financial-report
SHUTUP, SLAVES !
Delete.
DeleteI worship Ann and Milo for defending free speech.
Free speech, and overpriced at half the price.
.
Trump Request Equals 0.035% of Federal Spending...
ReplyDelete(CNSNews.com) - President Donald Trump’s request that Congress include $1.4 billion to fund the beginning of his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border equals approximately 0.035 percent of what the federal government will spend in total this year, according to the latest estimate of fiscal year 2017 federal spending made by the Congressional Budget Office.
It also equals less than the Department of Health and Human Services spends in just twelve hours and less than the Treasury collects in taxes in four hours.
That is assuming that HHS spends money 24 hours a day and the Treasury collects it 24 hours a day.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/trumps-border-wall-request-equals-0035-federal-spending
The "cost" of the Border Wall could only be an issue in the Nirvana of MSM/Democrat ruled Amerika.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI used to fly United:
Who gives a shit about Dr. David Dao?
Now they've killed the WORLD'S LARGEST RABBIT!
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3414045/brit-bunny-riddle-as-rabbit-destined-to-be-worlds-biggest-dies-on-united-airlines-jet-to-us/
The cargo section ?!
DeleteWTF ?
How's bunny supposed to breathe back there at 25,000 ft ?
They are supposed to keep areas for bunnies and doggies pressurized!
Delete(although more and more doggies log in for free as "service animals" and leave their QuirkOLogs in the aisle for the passengers and crew to deal with.)
Shoulda put up with a few rabbit pellets and saved the giant.
Today's Gateway Pundit filled with amazing, sad, stories:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
ReplyDeleteAnn Coulter in Berkeley Is Today’s ‘Little Rock 9’ Story – Courageous Patriot Facing Violent Democrats
The ‘Little Rock Nine’ was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The local Democrats did not want them to attend the school and resorted to violence and abuse to make their point. Eventually Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in the National Guard to protect them.
On Thursday best selling conservative author Ann Coulter will speak at a public plaza at the University of California at Berkeley.
This comes after recent violence at the campus against conservative groups.
Last week liberal professor Eric Canton beat Trump supporters WITH A BIKE LOCK at the Berkeley Pro-Trump rally at Berkeley.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/04/courageous-ann-coulter-berkeley-todays-little-rock-9-story-brave-patriot-facing-violent-democrats/
UC kept secret $175 million reserve as it raised tuition, state audit finds
ReplyDeleteThe University of California’s central administration has systematically overcharged campuses to fund its operations, spent excessively on employee compensation and hidden $175 million in secret reserves in recent years.
Those were the conclusions of a blistering state audit released Tuesday that slammed UC’s Office of the President for misleading budgeting practices – and for interfering in auditors’ efforts to determine whether its expansive duties and nearly 1,700 employees could be slimmed down.
State Auditor Elaine Howle said that her report calls into question the university’s recent decision to raise tuition this fall for the first time in six years when it has additional financial resources available, more than one-half of which is sitting in a discretionary fund.
“Why did we need to increase tuition if the Office of the President has $175 million in reserve that nobody knew about?” Howle said.
She added that UC “inhibited” her office from completing a key component of the audit: to assess what functions are completed by the Office of the President and whether campuses find value in them.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article146660529.html#storylink=cpy
She added that UC “inhibited” her office from completing a key component of the audit: to assess what functions are completed by the Office of the President and whether campuses find value in them.
DeleteHeh
I can tell you the President of the U of Idaho doesn't do a goddamn.
Which is a good thing, because three Presidents or so ago we had one that was gung-ho to do lots of stuff, like opening a new unneeded campus in Boise, and he nearly bankrupted the system, and was 'let go' in disgrace.
DeleteSome empty buildings still stand down that way.
His last name was Hoover, IIRC. There was 'regular time', then there was 'Hoover time' - time to get needless stuff done triple fast - then Hoover was out of time.
And we were out of money.
DeleteNo time, no money.
Nothin'
HOOVER TIME
DeleteHoover announces resignation from University of Idaho
Posted on Apr 21, 2003 by Archive in News
UI President Bob Hoover announced Wednesday he will be resigning
effective June 30 in a university-wide announcement sent to
students and faculty.
Hoover said his decision was prompted by the current budget
problems facing the university and the controversy surrounding
loans he authorized without the knowledge of the State Board of
Education.
“The university is facing significant financial
challenges, which are made worse by difficulties surrounding the
financing of the University Place project in Boise,” Hoover
said.
Following through with an earlier statement, Hoover said he
would take full responsibility for any inconsistencies found in the
management of the loans.
“It is clear that I did not pursue my oversight of this
project aggressively enough,” Hoover said.
The university and UI Foundation released a financial review of
the loans the day Hoover issued his resignation.
“It would have been very awkward for him to resign and two
or three days later release the report,” Acting President
Brian Pitcher said, according the Idaho Statesman.
The audit was carried out by the office of Presnell Gage, an
accounting firm based in Lewiston.
“While it focuses primarily on the agency account, the
report also provides some insight into flaws in the overall project
management,” Pitcher said.
The audit attributes the problems surrounding the University
Place project to conflicts of interest, inadequate planning and
poor communication.
“The project didn’t follow university
procedure,” Pitcher said.
A conflict of interest was found in the audit regarding the
position played by Jerry Wallace, who served as both UI Bursar and
UI Foundation Treasurer at the time the loans were made.
The audit also attributed problems to the fast pace officials
within the project were trying to maintain.
The firm said that while carrying out the review, several
officials referred to the project as being on “Hoover
Time,” implying an accelerated pace....
https://arbiteronline.com/2003/04/21/hoover-announces-resignation-from-university-of-idaho/
We are still recovering.
And I'm still paying my property taxes and State income taxes on time, the ivory of this dead elephant.
DeleteTalking about the turning of the fucking merry-go-round -
ReplyDeleteRussia is Now Apparently Arming the Taliban
by Matthew Balan | 9:50 am, April 25th, 2017
2017-02-11-YouTube-VOA-John_Nicholson
The top general in charge of U.S. forces in Afghanistan indicated, Monday that Russia was supplying the Taliban with military equipment.
The Washington Post spotlighted General John Nicholson‘s comments in a Monday write-up. The U.S. army general appeared with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at a press conference, and was asked about the alleged Russian arming of the Islamist group.
CNN_04-25-2017_21.24.00
“We continue to get reports of this assistance. We support anyone who wants to help us advance the reconciliation process, but anyone who arms belligerents…is not the best way forward to a peaceful reconciliation,” Nicholson said.
Mattis also underlined that, “any weapons being funneled here from a foreign country would be a violation of international law unless they were coming to the government of Afghanistan.”....
http://www.mediaite.com/online/russia-is-now-apparently-arming-the-taliban/
It's nuts, isn't it. Totally fucking nuts.
All of it. It drives one to depression.
...one of my earliest memories after moving to Maui was walking into Radioshack and seeing a Soviet Helicopter being shot down by the Muzzies with one of our MANPADS.
Delete
DeleteAnd now we may be shot at by the Muzzies with Russian MANPADS....
I know what to do.
DeleteLet's ask Quirk.
He will know what to do.
If he will tell us.
Debbie goes Trans:
ReplyDeletehttp://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u274/failtefailte/Funnny%20Stuff/schlusselhairy-1.jpg
UC Berkeley riots: Violence looms as mayor questioned over ties to extremist group
ReplyDeleteBy Christopher Wallace Published April 25, 2017 Fox News
The University of California, Berkeley is likely to once again be the site of brutal protests on Thursday as questions arise about whether the city’s mayor has ties to an extremist group sparking violence.
Ann Coulter has vowed to move ahead with a planned appearance at the university, despite Berkeley trying to reschedule her speech over security concerns. Law enforcement sources told Fox News that regardless of whether the conservative firebrand shows up, there is a “99 percent” chance that the college will erupt in violence.
The sources are helping the Berkeley Police Department prepare for what is now seen as an inevitable showdown over First Amendment rights to free speech.
BERKELEY FLIP-FLOP: ARE UNIVERSITIES COMPLICIT IN MUZZLING FREE SPEECH?
Charles “Sid” Heal, a retired commander from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department who met with Berkeley police on Monday, said that authorities are preparing for the worst because extremist groups from across the spectrum are heading to Berkeley, and because the past three protests that devolved into violence were met by a “lackluster” response from local police.
“We’ve been told they’re going to come no matter whether Ann Coulter comes or not, and the next riot is not a standalone in isolation but a natural consequence of the lackluster approach of the past,” Heal said, adding that because protesters felt police didn’t protect them at the last riot many are pledging to defend themselves. “People are becoming vigilantes.”
Heal and others said there is deep discord between the Berkeley Police Department and the city government, led by Jesse Arreguin, the 32-year-old newly elected mayor facing his first major test in running a large city. Arreguin has been accused of supporting left-wing violence because he is a member of the Facebook group of By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, an anarchist group that has incited violent protests across the country.
UC BERKELEY STUDENTS THREATEN TO SUE OVER ANN COULTER VISIT
Yvette Felarca, a BAMN national organizer, was unapologetic last June after her group shut down a Neo-Nazi protest in Sacramento that sent 10 people to the hospital.
"We will do it again,” she said. “The Nazis had to run and hide behind the police.”
In a statement to Fox News, Arreguin distanced himself from Felarca and BAMN.
"On social media, following a particular account does not mean you support that group or individual,” he said. “I was following this particular group so I could stay up to date on what they are up to. I condemn their violent actions in the strongest terms.”
But a source close to Berkeley city government accused Arreguin of bolstering leftist groups by secretly aligning himself with them.
“Mayor Arreguin is not representing all of Berkeley right now,” the source who wished to remain anonymous told Fox News, “he’s coming from a deep leftist position. We have some very radical elements on the police review commission. Jesse is emboldening them because he has a majority on the commission.”
The mayor was criticized for basically handcuffing police officers who patrolled the April 15th tax day riot that resulted in 11 injuries, including a stabbing. Critics said he restricted police officers so much they could not do their job.
Delete“If the police went in more aggressively, more people could’ve gotten hurt,” Arreguin was quoted as saying. “We have to balance how we respond with the goal of trying to keep as many [people] safe as possible.”
Arreguin said all protesters who commit violence will be arrested in Berkeley – no matter what side they are on the political spectrum.
“Unfortunately, extremists from both sides have come to Berkeley in recent weeks to engage in provocation,” he said.
But Heal would like to see a more proactive approach on Thursday, rather than a reactive one.
“There’s a disconnect from a realistic approach on how to deal with violent protests,” he said. “…The politicians need to understand they are representing the majority of the community, and their personal agendas may not meet the overall community.”
A city official told Fox News that she is receiving emails from concerned citizens fearing that police officers are not doing enough to protect them.
There have been at least three UC Berkeley free speech protests that have devolved into violence since February 1st – leading to 34 arrests, 39 injuries and property damage totaling at least $100,000.
There have been calls on Coulter to cancel her appearance to avoid further bloodshed. But Arreguin and Heal say they support her for standing up for her First Amendment rights.
"I fundamentally disagree with everything someone like Ann Coulter stands for,” Arreguin said. “But in an open society, she has a right to speak and students and community members have a right to peacefully protest her.”
Besides, Heal said, protesters will still show up if she cancels her speech.
It’s not going to make any difference if she cancels at this point,” Heal said. “The extremists are going to come here. It’s terrifying.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/25/uc-berkeley-riots-violence-looms-as-mayor-questioned-over-ties-to-extremist-group.html
"The mayor was criticized for basically handcuffing police officers who patrolled the April 15th tax day riot that resulted in 11 injuries, including a stabbing. Critics said he restricted police officers so much they could not do their job.
ReplyDelete===
“There’s a disconnect from a realistic approach on how to deal with violent protests,” he said. “…The politicians need to understand they are representing the majority of the community, and their personal agendas may not meet the overall community.”
A city official told Fox News that she is receiving emails from concerned citizens fearing that police officers are not doing enough to protect them."
Amen
DeleteEverything else is BULLSHIT.
Big storm comin'
DeleteJesse Arreguin, the 32-year-old newly elected mayor facing his first major test in running a large city.
DeleteArreguin has been accused of supporting left-wing violence because he is a member of the Facebook group of By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, an anarchist group that has incited violent protests across the country.
Brilliant pick.
...but he's just following the Saints for the heck of it.
They're all a bunch of assholes down there.
DeleteI say take their gasoline supplies away from them.
Save The Earth !
Delete
ReplyDeleteTHE LEFT’S CULTURE OF CONTEMPT
Saving America by hating everyone.
April 26, 2017 Daniel Greenfield
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266481/lefts-culture-contempt-daniel-greenfield
The left is devoutly convinced that this snickering can save America. That it’s better than the news.
DeleteThe Peabody awards celebrated the Daily Show as “a trusted source of news for citizens united in their disappointment and disgust with politics and cable news”.
But the media was the first in line to anoint the politics of contempt, ridicule and disgust as the future of journalism. Now the future is here.
===
But they can't see the disconnect of the snickering never being directed at the left.
See no evil.
I call it smirking.
DeleteI married a pilot.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.instagram.com/dutchpilotgirl/
A Pilot without a license: (too many DUI's)
DeleteColorado Rocky Mountain Bliss:
Denver's first marriage was to Anne Martell of St. Peter, Minnesota. She was the subject of his hit "Annie's Song," which he composed in only ten minutes as he sat on a Colorado ski lift after the couple had an argument.
Denver said that career demands drove them apart; Anne said that they were too young and immature to deal with John's sudden mega-success. The ensuing property settlement caused Denver to become so enraged, he nearly choked Martell, then used a chainsaw to cut their marital bed in half.[12][25][26][32] Martell continues to live in Aspen.
Denver married Australian actress Cassandra Delaney[33] in 1988, after a two-year courtship. Settling at Denver's home in Aspen, the couple had a daughter, Jesse Belle. Denver and Delaney separated in 1991 and divorced in 1993.
Of his second marriage, Denver would later recall that
"before our short-lived marriage ended in divorce, she managed to make a fool of me from one end of the valley to the other".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver#Personal_life
Then he bought a plane in which you couldn't see the fuel gauge, nor reach the fuel switch.
...and declined to fill up.
The chainsaw act was pretty cool.
DeleteApril 26, 2017
ReplyDeleteNew sheriff won't allow Norks to rain fire
By Russ Vaughn
....Moreover, almost every article referencing this "Sea of Fire" explains that term to readers by pointing out that Seoul, South Korea's largest city, lies so close to the border between the two nations that it will likely be destroyed in the opening artillery salvos from the North should the balloon go up. This, they point out, is almost certainly due to the fact that North Korea has positioned countless thousands of artillery pieces and rocket launchers along its side of the demilitarized zone for just that purpose. They usually quote some military expert that any American attack on North Korea unavoidably will sign Seoul's doom.
This old soldier ain't buyin' it. For one thing, if Seoul is 30 to 35 miles from the closest Nork artillery placements, a quick examination of the map shows that from that narrow southernmost point, the North Korean border swings back north, both east and west from that closest point, so that there could only be but a few hundred artillery pieces and rocket launchers, not the thousands quoted by Western media pundits, that are actually that close. More importantly, there are damned few artillery pieces in the Nork army that have a range of 30-plus miles. And for those that do, American and South Korean defensive artillery forces have counter-battery radars in place that are so advanced that they not only can direct effective defensive fire to destroy incoming rounds, but also pinpoint the precise firing location of the offending artillery pieces so quickly that our own artillery fire and airstrikes can be directed on them within seconds. As Saddam's Iraqi forces learned quickly, to fire your artillery at the Americans was to invite your own violent, concussive death mere moments later. And those American radar detection systems and the counter-battery tactics have just kept getting more sophisticated and deadly since we used them in Iraq....
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/04/new_sheriff_wont_allow_norks_to_rain_fire.html
.
ReplyDeleteBarack Obama to be paid $400,000 for speech at Cantor Fitzgerald event
One day, one speech, and Obama earns what he earned in a year as president.
.
.
ReplyDeleteNordtroms now selling jeans pre-covered in mud for $425 per.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/national/nordstrom-sells-jeans-with-fake-mud-on-them-for-425
The irony is that the only ones who will be able to afford to buy them are the snowflakes who have no plans for doing physical labor a day in their life.
.
.
ReplyDeleteThe Dems did it. Maybe the MSM.
Cabinet secretaries exasperated by unfilled posts
The Senate has confirmed 26 of President Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other top posts, but he has advanced just 37 nominees for 530 other senior-level jobs. Cabinet secretaries say the vacancies are hobbling efforts to oversee operations and promote Trump’s agenda...
.
Say it isn't so ...
DeleteMr Trump is so inept that he has yet to name 493 nominees to senior-level jobs in the Federal government?
How can he possibly advance the Trump "America First" agenda without senior staffers dedicated to that Agenda?
French intelligence says Assad forces carried out sarin attack
ReplyDeleteFILE PHOTO: A man breathes through an oxygen mask as another one receives treatments, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib, Syria April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
By John Irish | PARIS
French intelligence has concluded that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on April 4 in northern Syria and that Assad or members of his inner circle ordered the strike, a declassified report showed.
The chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun killed scores of people, according to a war monitor, Syrian opposition groups and Western countries. It prompted the United States to launch a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base, its first deliberate assault on the Assad government in the six-year-old conflict.
Assad has said in two media interviews since April 4 that the evidence of a poison gas attack was false and denied his government had ever used chemical weapons.
The six-page French document - drawn up by France's military and foreign intelligence services and seen by said it reached its conclusion based on samples they had obtained from the impact strike on the ground and a blood sample from a victim.
"We know, from a certain source, that the process of fabrication of the samples taken is typical of the method developed in Syrian laboratories," Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters after presenting the findings to the cabinet.
"This method is the signature of the regime and it is what enables us to establish the responsibility of the attack. We know because we kept samples from previous attacks that we were able to use for comparison."
Among the elements found in the samples were hexamine, a hallmark of sarin produced by the Syrian government, according to the report.
It said the findings matched the results of samples obtained by French intelligence, including an unexploded grenade, from an attack in Saraqib on April 29, 2013, which Western powers have accused the Assad government of carrying out.
"This production process is developed by Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) for the regime," the report said.
The United States on Monday blacklisted 271 employees belonging to the agency.
Syria agreed in September 2013 to destroy its entire chemical weapons program under a deal negotiated with the United States and Russia after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack in the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
The report said that based on its assessments, there were "serious doubts on the accuracy, completeness and sincerity of the dismantlement of Syria's chemical arsenal."
SIX WARPLANE STRIKES
The report, which lists some 140 suspected chemical attacks in Syria since 2012, also said intelligence services were aware of a Syrian government Sukhoi 22 warplane that had struck six times on Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 and that samples taken from the ground were consistent with an airborne projectile that had munitions loaded with sarin.
"The French intelligence services consider that only Bashar al-Assad and some of his most influential entourage can give the order to use chemical weapons," the report said....
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-intelligence-idUSKBN17S0RY
So much for Dr. Postol.
DeleteFrench intelligence services have never been wrong.
:O)
Delete.
ReplyDeleteQuirkTue Apr 25, 05:31:00 PM EDT
Call it what you like...
2. Much of what Trump has tried to do is certainly not what he promised the American people he would do.
3. On what we might call 'temporary setbacks' (an euphemism meant to assuage the tender sensibilities of some of the Trumpettes), while the media might consider some of these things failures, and Trump and his sycophants might say are delays, the American people should call them 'good things' in that even if they don't make things better they at least haven't made things worse. Yet.
=================================================
One More Dick Move by the House GOP
Congress Protects Itself From Itself On Healthcare
A new amendment to the House Republicans' ObamaCare replacement bill exempts members of Congress and their staff from its effects.
The new changes to the bill would allow states to apply for waivers for certain ObamaCare provisions, such as a ban on insurers charging premiums based on a customer's health and the requirement that insurers' basic health plans cover certain services, like prescription drugs and mental health.
The GOP amendment exempts members of Congress and their staffs to ensure that they will still be protected by those ObamaCare provisions.
The exemption was flagged by health law professor Tim Jost.
Democrats quickly jumped on the development, arguing that Republicans are willing to take away protections for the general public, but not themselves...
======================================================
One More Dick Move by the GOP - They Just Keep Coming
This afternoon, the administration will outline 1/2 of their tax plan. The half we will hear about is a massive tax cut plan. The half we won't hear about is how we will pay for it. Tax cuts good. Deduction or program cuts bad. Going into the final lap of Trump's first 100 days, don't expect to hear anything but 'good' coming from Trump spokesmen.
Terms to watch for:
Dynamic scoring. (Translation: Bullshit and bubblegum, fairy dust obvious to all but the most credulous)
Supply Side Economics. (Translation: A simple normal curve drawn on a napkin over a 3 martini lunch)
Things we can be assured of with this being a Trump/GOP plan:
- The GOP will use dynamic scoring to hide the fact that they are simply giving huge tax cuts to the rich and have no way of paying for it.
- The GOP will once again indulge in the supply side economics which G.H.W. Bush called voodoo economics, an apt description for a process that has shown no long term benefits and has in fact resulted in the $20 trillion debt we have today.
- Count on the deficit rising substantially under Trump.
- The little guy will once again take it in the ass relative to corporations and the rich escalating the divide between rich and poor.
- We can be absolutely certain (and I would bet on this one) that real estate developers will benefit huuuugely from this plan.
.
If you want to benefit from the corporate tax rate cut, Quirk, buy some stock in some corporation.
DeleteThen you too can count yourself among the rich.
the corporate rich
Delete- We can be absolutely certain (and I would bet on this one) that real estate developers will benefit huuuugely from this plan.
DeleteDamned developers.
We should all be against new places for people to live, new business buildings, etc !
"dynamic scoring"
DeleteIf only we could figure a way to tap in monetarily to Quirk's dynamic propaganda we'd all benefit huuuugely, we'd all be rich, the gap between the rich and poor would vanish.
.
DeleteFrom what I've seen, I believe I would make out great under Trump's new plan. That doesn't change the fact that it is based on fairy dust and trinkets for the natives. The projected growth rates don't make sense given historical trends (see link below). Supply side economics have been tried a number of times over the past 60 years and they just don't provide any long term growth.
Historical GDP Growth
Mnuchin says this plan will be revenue neutral simply based on the GDP growth that will accrue do to tax cuts for corporations. That assumption is at best questionable.
From the chart in the link, you can run a trend line and see that growth has been slowing in the US for the last 60 years. Steve Moore, Laffer, Kudlow, all the supply side idiots who are pushing this plan cite the Reagan tax cuts and the growth they produced. The Reagan cuts came in 1986 as the economy was sinking and it took a while for them to take effect. When they did, growth only lasted for a couple of years before we hit another recession. That's the story of all of these supply-side cuts. They give a short-term boost but offer zip in boosting long-term growth.
While supply side economics hasn't provided long term growth it has increased the deficit. The same Reagan the supply-siders praise was the guy who also increased the national debt by 186 percent second only to FDR in the percentage increase.
It's appropriate that Cohn and Mnuchin gave today's presentation. Two Goldman Sachs Execs talking about how great this plan will be for the little guy. You have to ask who plans these things.
This plan will be a massive gift to corporations, hedge fund managers, banks, real estate developers, you name it. The people left out will be the little guy. From the sounds of it, the fat cats will be looking at about a 60% tax gut (though admittedly few of the big corporations pay more than 15% now). The little guy might get a 12% cut less whatever he will lose in deductions.
They will try to sell this as a jobs bill but there is a lot of history that argues this is a specious argument also. Other proposals, a one time tax reduction to bring profits back to the US and the elimination of the death tax fall into the same category.
It's likely negotiations on this legislation will continue into next year. Plenty of time to criticize it.
.
.
Delete...due to tax cuts for corporations.
.
dust and trinkets for the natives
DeleteSee what I mean ?
The guy is a grand master at suggestive and manipulative propaganda.
Gotta be impressed with true skill, no matter how displayed.
.
Delete...tax cuts...
.
fairy dust and trinkets for the natives !!
DeleteIt's good.
.
DeleteSee what I mean ?
Sure do.
No comments on the points made simply comments on colorful language. You are like a small cat chasing a moving light.
.
I want tax cut for developers.
DeleteYou are like a small cat chasing a moving light.
DeleteI'm fascinated.
You've got me just where you want me.
.
DeleteTrump, a developer, is currently paying the 39% on his personal income. Under this deal, he has the option of paying 15%.
On the other hand one of the deductions Trump is planning on eliminating is the middle class deduction for employer paid insurance, which would be a big hit.
As the details come out, you are going to see this (like the Obamacare repeal and the elimination of health and safety regulations) is simply another way for Trump and the GOP to stick it to the little guy.
.
If there are tax cuts for developers I might be able to buy my longed for American made 4x4 pickup truck with a camper, with potty and shower.....
Delete....thereby contributing to the economy in so many ways too long to list....
You need to focus more on 'the big picture', Quirk.
DeleteYou are like a small cat chasing a moving light.
Minus the agility.
Delete...or like that rare ill-tempered Labrador.
DeleteSome Freedom Caucus Republicans now in favor of new health care bill.
ReplyDeleteIt might pass the House now.
My guy Raul Labrador is in this group.
Freedom Caucus endorses revised Obamacare repeal bill....DRUDGE
DeleteFreedom Caucus endorses revised ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill
BY CRISTINA MARCOS - 04/26/17 01:02 PM EDT
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/330681-freedom-caucus-endorses-revised-obamacare-repeal-bill
Outgoing, Intelligent, Agile, Gentle, Trusting, Even Tempered, Kind.
DeleteBerkeley, local police preparing for massive riot, I mean “protest,” tomorrow at Coulter speech; Update: Coulter likely to cancel; Update: Canceled
ReplyDeleteApr 26, 2017 11:21 AM by Allahpundit
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/04/26/berkeley-local-police-preparing-massive-riot-mean-protest-tomorrow-coulter-speech/
Senators arriving right now at White House for secret briefing on N. Korea....."Mad Dog" Mattis is there....
ReplyDeleteControversial study claims humans reached Americas 100,000 years earlier than thought
ReplyDeleteBroken mastodon bones hint that Homo sapiens wasn’t the first hominin to get to the New World.
Ewen Callaway
http://www.nature.com/news/controversial-study-claims-humans-reached-americas-100-000-years-earlier-than-thought-1.21886
Fancy Anti-Wall Propaganda ?
ReplyDeleteThe Fears That Fueled an Ancient Border Wall
When Hadrian built a mighty wall in his most remote territory, he got more than he bargained for
Hadrian’s Wall
By Carly Silver
smithsonian.com
April 26, 2017 8:00AM
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fears-fueled-ancient-border-wall-180963025/#rkLjXYJTq62hdGOt.99
Israel's wall has worked wonders.
Very few explosions in pizza parlors or on buses there now.
Two Good Ideas
ReplyDelete'El Chapo Act' proposes seized drug money to pay for wall...
Trump looking at breaking up 9th Circuit....DRUDGE
Another -
DeleteQuirk Quiescence Act Proposed....GRUDGE
You have to admit, Doug, this has all the merits of great legislation.
DeleteIf Seoul gets wiped out, I'll blame Drudge.
ReplyDeleteSee my....
DeleteBob Wed Apr 26, 04:44:00 AM EDT
....above, Doug.
The situation might not be as dire as expected, except for the minor matter of the nuke threat....
Didn't know that, even though I was in Gimpo on 4 occasions!
Deletehttps://www.google.com/maps/place/Seoul,+South+Korea/@36.574642,127.6748754,7.7z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x357ca28b61c565cd:0x858aedb4e4ea83eb!8m2!3d37.566535!4d126.9779692?hl=en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimpo_International_Airport
6 times, maybe.
Delete
DeleteThe "Draft Dodger"< Robert Peterson finds one oddball in the bunch, and tells US that we can all rest easy.
When I was in Korea, Seoul was in NorK artillery range, nothing has changed, except NorK artillery has been improved in the past thirty years.
SENATORS TOLD NUKE THREAT URGENT....Drudge
ReplyDeleteBuy your gold and silver through Rosland Capital now.
Berkeley has become a meeting ground for what the city’s chief of police, Andrew Greenwood, has described as politically motivated groups “armed and prepared to fight.”
ReplyDelete===
“Intervention requires a major commitment of resources, a significant use of force, and carries with it the strong likelihood of harming those who are not committing a crime,” Greenwood wrote in a memo to the City Council last week.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/article146887584.html
Give Greenwood a job as a preschool teacher, and hire a Dick with Balls.
DeleteDisdain for Koreans seems to literally seep out of many Japanese here.
ReplyDeleteHow is Kim Jong Un Hung?
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna try to take my bike ride at the moment of detonation.
ReplyDelete...maybe some radiation hardened security cam will catch my profile against the fireball, and I'll be famous forever.
Stay in the lava tube, dammit.
DeleteYou're already famous forever....at least around here, which is all that counts.
Good point.
DeleteMaybe Quirk will explain to me this is the one thing Trump has right.
ReplyDelete...at that time, I'll order my fallout shelter.
...I'll donate it to some poor schmuck without a tube.
DeleteQuirk fits your description....give it to him.
DeleteHe may need it sometime even without the Norks attacking.
Would make a good hideout.
BART’s silence after robbery by teen mob raises questions
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/BART-s-decision-not-to-publicize-takeover-11098643.php?t=702113609b
Takeover robbery: 40 to 60 teens swarm train
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-takeover-robbery-50-to-60-teens-swarm-11094745.php
BART: 'Our hearts go out' to victims of teen swarm robbery
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-says-our-hearts-go-out-to-victims-of-teen-11095915.php
A train leaves the Coliseum BART station on Tuesday, April 25, 2017, in Oakland, Calif.
BART seeks warrants after ID'ing some teens in robbery3:59 PM
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-seeking-arrest-warrants-after-identifying-11101023.php
500 sqare feet for $650 k.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Mill-Valley-real-estate-tiny-house-5-Mesa-Ave-11100726.php
"The Minuteman system has been in service for 60 years."
ReplyDeleteWe are fucking OLD!
Does anyone here other than Quirk not think this Judicial Tyranny is a big deal?
ReplyDelete(Ash doesn't count.)
DeleteGuidance of an ICBM is based not only on the direction the missile is travelling, but the precise instant that thrust is cut off. Too much thrust and the warhead will overshoot its target, too little and it will fall short. Solids are normally very hard to predict in terms of burning time and their instantaneous thrust during the burn, which made them questionable for the sort of accuracy required to hit a target at intercontinental range. This appeared at first to be an insurmountable problem, but in the end was solved in almost trivial fashion. A series of ports were added inside the rocket nozzle that were opened when the guidance systems called for engine cut-off. The reduction in pressure was so abrupt that the last burning fuel ejected itself and the flame was snuffed out.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-30_Minuteman#History
Weird
Steve Holland | WASHINGTON
ReplyDeletePresident Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order to pull the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, senior administration officials said on Wednesday, although the timing of the action is uncertain.
The move, which one source said might come as soon as Trump's 100th day in office on Saturday, could unravel one of the world's biggest trading blocs. News of the potential presidential action drove the Mexican and Canadian currencies lower.
Trump had threatened to renegotiate the NAFTA pact during the election campaign as he said it had destroyed American jobs, although he has backed off tough action in trade since taking office in January.
“There is some discussion,” said another source with direct knowledge of the discussions. “There are some who are pushing for things sooner rather than later but that’s the same on every issue.”
Mexico's peso and Canada's dollar fell against the U.S. dollar, with the peso shedding about 1.5 percent in just over an hour, while Canada’s “loonie” lost about 0.45 percent. Stocks in both U.S. neighbors also weakened, with Mexico’s benchmark IPC index .MXX falling more than 1 percent in 15 minutes.
A disruption in trade between the three NAFTA partners could wreak havoc in the auto sector and other industries, hitting profits at companies that have benefited from zero-level tariffs and Mexico's relatively low labor costs. It would also hit U.S. agricultural exports hard.
"To totally abandon that agreement means that those gains are lost," said Paul Ferley, an economist at Royal Bank of Canada.
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures CN7 fell 5 cents a bushel, reflecting concerns that the pact was under real threat.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to pull out from the 23-year-old trade pact if he is unable to renegotiate it with better terms for America. He has long accused Mexico of destroying U.S. jobs. The United States went from running a small trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63 billion deficit in 2016.
Trump has stopped short of a formal threat to kill NAFTA so far, but legal experts say he likely has the authority as president to give a 60-day notice that America is exiting the pact. It was under an executive order signed by Trump on Jan. 23 that the United States pulled out of the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Details about the draft order on NAFTA were not immediately available.
Alright, what the hell can I eat and drink then ??
ReplyDeletePeople think juice is good for them. They’re wrong.
Step away from the juice bar.
By Heather Ferris, Elvira Isganaitis and Florence Brown April 26 at 6:00 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/04/26/people-think-juice-is-good-for-them-theyre-wrong/?utm_term=.f5e4ea680996
Nearly everything I read these days pisses me off.
I'm gonna go buy some crab, and mayonnaise and ketchup.
DeleteFrance: Analysis shows Syrian government behind sarin attack
ReplyDeletehttp://bakersfieldnow.com/news/nation-world/france-analysis-shows-syrian-government-behind-sarin-attack
Video: How Russia and Syria lied about the chemical weapons attack
DeletePOSTED AT 10:11 PM ON APRIL 26, 2017 BY JOHN SEXTON
The day after the chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, I wrote a post titled “Surprise! Russia is lying about Syrian chemical weapon attack.” My reaction at the time was mostly based on Russia’s previous behavior, i.e. lying about an airstrike on a relief convoy last year, lying about its involvement in Ukraine, etc. That coupled with the fact that Syria had used chemical weapons several times previous to the attack this month led me to believe Russia was once again lying to protect the Assad regime.
Later, we learned that the U.S. military had information showing the jets used in the chemical attack had been launched from the Al Shayrat airfield in Syria, an airbase where Syrians and Russians were working together. That information was what led the Trump administration to a) bomb the airfield with Tomahawk missiles and b) accuse Russia of having knowledge of the chemical attack.
Today the New York Times published a video which goes into detail about what Syria and Russia claimed happened during the attack compared to what satellite photos and video of the area show. What they found: Russia (and Syria) lied about the attack. This clip is about 7 minutes long but it’s worth watching if you have any remaining doubts about what happened in Khan Sheikhoun.
VIDEO
And if you still have some doubt, yesterday France announced further evidence that the sarin used in the attack was identical to the mixture used previously by the Syrian military. From CNN:
The French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that samples taken from the attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun matched those from a previous incident.
“We have definite sources that the procedure used to make the Sarin sampled is typical of the methods developed in Syrian laboratories,” he said. “This method bears the signature of the regime, and that is what has allowed us to establish its responsibility in this attack.”
Maybe you never had any doubt that Syria and Russia were lying about responsibility for this attack, but for those who did, this should go a long way to clearing it up.
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/04/26/video-russia-syria-lied-chemical-weapons-attack/
Polanski gains an unexpected ally in his bid to escape justice
ReplyDeletePOSTED AT 3:01 PM ON APRIL 26, 2017 BY JAZZ SHAW
Some stories are like a bad case of herpes… they just keep coming back over and over again. Such is the case with convicted child rapist and pedophile Roman Polanski. As we’ve discussed recently, this degenerate’s attorneys have been waging a fruitless battle in California’s courts to allow him to return to the Hollywood party circuit without doing any time in jail for the horrific crimes he confessed to decades ago. I had thought after the last judge to hear the request unceremoniously tossed the case out on its ear that this travesty might be over. But Polanski apparently has virtually limitless resources to keep fighting this legal battle and now he has gained the support of a very unexpected individual… his rape victim. (Deadline)
The woman who Roman Polanski raped when she was 13-years old back in 1977 today stepped into the disgraced and self-exiled Oscar winning director’s latest attempt to return to the U.S. but not face more jail time.
Samantha Gailey wants “the Gunson transcript made available to Mr. Polanski and be made public,” said Deputy Los Angeles District Attorney Michele Hanisee in a hearing Tuesday in LA Superior Court. While not identifying Gailey by name, the Deputy from LA DA Jackie Lacey’s office told Judge Scott Gordon’s courtroom that her office had recently received correspondence from the “victim” in the long litigated matter. The correspondence from Gailey came via an email from her lawyer, Deadline was informed.
The “Gunson transcript” being discussed is the same one we covered during the last hearing (linked above). He’s seeking the public release of sealed testimony given by the prosecutor from the original case back in 2010. Roger Gunson supposedly made statements which would corroborate Polanski’s claim that a plea deal for time served had been offered back during the original trial. This, of course, ignores the fact that an offer of a plea deal doesn’t mean a thing until a judge accepts it and and passes down the sentence.
More curious is the fact that it was Samantha Gailey who is supposedly supporting the bid. We’re able to use her name since she has gone public many times over the years and given permission to do so, even though her name still doesn’t appear in these court documents. As you will recall, Gailey was the 13 year old child who Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized. He later admitted to his monstrous crimes but fled the country when he suspected that the judge in the case might hand down an actual sentence commensurate with his deeds.
As I’ve said here in the past, I take no issue with Gailey’s attitude in all of this and even find it commendable. She has taken the extraordinarily difficult and very Christian path of finding it in her heart to forgive her attacker. This is actually not all that uncommon. We even saw the families of Dylann Roof’s victims forgiving him prior to his conviction. But for Gailey to take the remarkable step of going even further and seemingly offering to assist in Polanski’s legal battle is well beyond any graceful measure of forgiveness. I honestly don’t know what motivates her to do this but I’m not going to criticize her for it.
Still, being forgiven by your victim does not in any way, shape or form mean that you are forgiven by the criminal justice system or the rest of the world. Polanski deserves to be locked in a dark cell and left there for the rest of his unnatural life. The man is a monster who has flaunted his freedom in the face of the world for decades on end and that would be only a tiny sliver of the justice he has coming if you ask me.
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/04/26/polanski-gains-unexpected-ally-bid-escape-justice/
Polanski's Romeo and Juliet was simply wonderful, the very best.