COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

The Obama just keep getting better and better, y’all. How do we know?

Michelle And Barack Obama Are Living Their Best Lives As Tourists In Italy

Nailed it, per usual.

Michelle Obama’s vacation style just keeps getting better and better. 
The former first lady looked effortlessly casual and cool while walking around Montalcino, Italy over the weekend. 
Obama chose a $397 one-shoulder pink-and-white striped top from Teija with frayed white jeans that cut off at the ankle and white sandals. She accessorized with hoop earrings, black sunglasses, bracelets and a white cross-body purse. 



Toscana Photos/BACKGRID USA
Michelle Obama pictured exploring in Montalcino, Italy 

She’s truly living her best life: 


Former president Barack Obama gave a talk on climate change earlier this month and it appears the Obamas made the work trip into a vacation. The two are reportedly staying at the incredible Borgo Finocchieto villa in the Tuscan countryside.

Barack Obama is clearly loving his time in Italy, as he’s transformed into a rock star and played a few rounds of golf:  





Pier Marco Tacca via Getty Images
Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the Seeds & Chips Global Food Innovation Summit on May 9 in Milan, Italy.

After Obama left office in January, the couple has traveled all around the globe. They’ve made stops in Palm Springs, the British Virgin Islands, an island in the South Pacific and even enjoyed a little yachting with their famous friends. 
While many people have lamented the Obamas’ absence during this turbulent time, Michelle promised the two would be back soon during a recent appearance in Washington, D.C. 

“We’re not gone, we’re just breathing, y’all. Let us breathe,” Obama said, per People magazine. “We’ve got to get our new lives set up.” 

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214 comments:

  1. “We’re not gone, we’re just breathing, y’all. Let us breathe,” the lovely, always lovely Michelle Obama

    ReplyDelete
  2. Appeasement is sometimes considered a feminine trait. His comment is about the 'reaction' to the violence.
    Reply
    Share
    6 Likes
    Blue Quill Red Tag
    1h
    Not really. Most women lean leftist liberal and vote that way, so they are doing it to themselves.
    Reply
    Share
    5 Likes
    Gold Bucket Blue Quill
    1h
    There is definitely some truth in what you say... unfortunately. I have gay friend that defend muslims; imagine that!! Liberals, wake up! It's okay no to support your enemy.

    https://heatst.com/tech/manchester-attack-brings-out-the-worst-of-social-media-david-leavitt-onision-clara-jeffery-and-more/

    ReplyDelete
  3. I designed her white cross-body purse.

    Sorry, losers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. If we all lived like the Obamas, Global Warming would be solved.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A woman who hates herself almost as much as she hates her country.

    But, hey, ole Barry got the I-RAN thing done, Y'all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's pretty obvious by now that John Kerry wouldn't make a pimple on Rex Tillerson's ass.
      Ole Lurch, bless his heart, couldn't sell pussy on a troop train.

      Delete
  6. Flynn takes the 5th, 22 killed at a tween's concert, Trump doing his first foreign trip to the ME of all places and you guys are concerned about the Obama's trip to Italy and what Michelle is wearing...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one is obsessing over Michelle, Ash.

      It's a good thing to check in once and awhile and see how the O'bozo's are doing fighting global warming.

      It looks to me that they are putting about the same effort into it that they did to everything else.

      The GREAT news is USA students are starting to eat something at school lunch time again now Michelle is retired from their lives.

      Do you realize how much food will be saved by this ?

      The school dumpsters will no longer be overflowing from rejected food !

      Delete
  7. The O'bama's ought to retire to Kenya.

    It's Bozo's birthplace after all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's right Ash.
    It's a smorgasbord of news and we pick & choose what to comment on.
    So what would you be having us concerned about today?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Trump hand holding incident is about your speed doug, why don't you pontificate on that gem and, since you've read the Koran, you can inform us of how the Muslims view such public displays.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Sorry, not today. Heading to work in a few minutes.
      Since you haven't read the Quran, why don't you bring yourself up to speed on it.

      Have a nice day!

      Delete
  9. If you didn't think Flynn would take the fifth, your demonically stupid. I think the reason Michael, I mean Michelle, is a topic here is because all the liberal tags you read everyday are fawning all over her. Where should Trump be? What does your beloved Globe and Mail tell us? Copy and paste something for us, please.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Republican Representative Trey Gowdy asked Brennan: “Did you see evidence of collusion, coordination and conspiracy between Donald Trump and Russian state actors?”

      “I saw information and intelligence that was worthy of investigation by the bureau (FBI) to determine whether or not such cooperation or collusion was taking place,” Brennan replied.

      “I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign,” he added."

      https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-politics/cia-john-brennan-russia-election/article35082775/

      Tell me Whit, errr, MOME, would you like to see a regional war break out in the ME between Iran/Syria/Russia and the Saudis/Israel/US? You posting seem to suggest that you think it would be a good thing.

      Delete
    2. Your stupidity is reaching new levels, Ash. You post just like the rag you love to quote using words and phrases like: would, could, maybe, suggests, seems like, etc. worthy of investigation? I encountered information? No one encounters information dear boy.

      Why don't you answer the question you have been avoiding? Where should Trump visit? Syria, Iran, and Russia?

      So far, every move on this trip, IMO,has been the right one.

      Allow me to use your Alinsky style of writing: your posting seems to suggest that we should be afraid, very afraid of Iran, Syria, and Russia, and that we could be, some have suggested, maybe, word on the street is, provoking them by visiting Saudi and Israel? The Vatican is next. Who might that provoke? The Hindus?

      Delete
    3. By the way, calling me Whit was a nice compliment. Thank you.

      Delete
    4. A trump visit to Syria? No! Iran and Russia, sure.

      More importantly than visiting is what 'deals' are done. So far it seems an arms sale to the Saudis was about the only 'deal' done.

      Which brings up trade and trade battles. Boeing started a complaint about Bombardier dumping planes. The Canadian Federal Government threatened to cancel their order for Boeing Super Hornets. Maybe Canada should take the money spent on defense (which Trump wants them to spend more) and spend it only with Canadian manufactures...

      Delete
    5. Calling you Whit wasn't meant as an insult - simply an observation on what I believe is true.

      Delete
    6. He didn't say it was an insult, moron, he said it was a compliment.

      See self improvement steps available to you below:

      Delete
    7. I know whit and deuce are laughing.....somewhere.

      Delete
    8. they could be. Hard to tell who's who around here sometimes is deuce really deuce or did trish step in to take the reins ;) It's just that you seem to have a knowledge of the long history of the goings on here yet you've only been posting for a short while. Did you really simply lurk all those years? It seems.... ;)

      Delete
    9. it seems I got something in my eye ;)

      Delete
  10. If Ash has been calling MOMO Whit then Ash needs Prevagen. Available at Wal-Mart.

    Prolly one of the varieties of early on-set dementia is the problem.

    Ash should fight it with all his might.

    Start with Prevegan but also go to a doc fast.

    An American doc, not one of the incompetents up there in Canada, or, Ash, you might find yourself early set on the Reject-O list.

    Quirk's MD, LLC has lots of herbal remedies for memory loss too. You might give Quirk's MD a look.



    ReplyDelete
  11. More importantly than visiting is what 'deals' are done. So far it seems an arms sale to the Saudis was about the only 'deal' done. So far it seems...see? you don't know, your just posting fake news. By the way, check out your girl, Pelosi:
    "To have a president say, if he did, to the director of the FBI, or the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence, or the NRA person that—um, uh, that they should not go forward, it raises questions that need to be answered in a facts and law way, and not hearsay," Pelosi said. She uses the same bull shit phrases as you "if he did". We won't even mention the fact she thinks the NRA is part of the intelligence community. That's your girl, Ash!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Forgive the jumbling of paragraphs. On the road.

      Delete
    2. I don't have any particular like for Pelosi and I'm not clear where you are going with the hearsay business. I usually use "it seems" when it is my impression and I'm not sure of the facts. Trump did sign an arms deal with the Saudis. A big one. Were there any other deals signed by Trump on this trip or is he just doing a meet and greet?

      Delete
    3. That's just it, Ash. I don't know. Your liberal news media chooses only to report on things they feel will fire up the base, people like you.

      Delete
    4. The Globe and Mail is generally considered to be a 'conservative' paper. My Liberal media, what's that?? There is lots of media out there representing many views and the only deal I've seen mentioned is the Arms deal with the Saudis. Has the Trump team announced anything else? The Israel/Palestinian stop seemed to consists only of the Trump Family seeing the sights. Do you think Trump was busy talking to those that matter, one on one, and coming up with a solution to the conflict between those two - making a deal? What art of the deal do you think Trump will work on the Pope?

      Naw, it's 'The Trump Family on tour'.

      Delete
    5. .

      Offering an opinion seems to be anathema to Mome, Ash, though he seems reluctant to say why.

      I can speculate (damn, there I go again) its because Trumpkins like strong definitive statements without any wishy-washy conditionals; speculation and opinion are verboten; just toss them on out there dam the torpedoes, whether true or just pulled out of their ass.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      And don't get into the argument there are plenty of conservative papers and blogs (read any that disagree with anything they say) out there; it's a non-starter or as Doug likes to say, ad nauseum, 'fake news'.

      .

      Delete
    7. it's like this ole elephant bar doesn't even exist in their world. oh, wait, Deuce IS the liberal media.

      Delete
    8. .

      I have to laugh. The same guys who scream about the snowflakes' attempts to shut down free speech on the college campuses whine and protest when someone offers an alternate opinion, as opposed to their alternate facts, here.

      I suppose we are lucky there is no such thing as virtual bats and stones, or in Bob's case virtual pitchforks, yet.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
    9. .

      So far, every move on this trip, IMO,has been the right one.


      :o)

      Sometimes, you've just got to laugh.


      .

      Delete
  12. DEMOCRAT PARTY FUNDRAISING CRASHES AND BURNS

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/05/democratic_party_fundraising_crashes_and_burns.html

    Time to haul out the wallet, Ash.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Is this the true crisis of the trip ? -

    Melania Again Refuses President Trump’s Extended Hand

    VIDEO shows the First Lady apparently rebuffing his efforts for second day in a row.

    Politics RealClearLife Staff
    2 hours ago

    First Lady Melania Trump has rejected her husband’s outstretched hand for the second time in as many days, video appears to show, just moments after the couple touched down in Rome on Tuesday.

    It’s being interpreted on social media as a sign of national crisis—or at least a marital crisis.

    Footage of Melania’s “swat,” in which she appeared to flick away her husband’s attempt at reaching out for her hand after the couple landed in Israel on Monday, has gone viral since it was posted to Twitter.

    This second video appears to show that Melania still would prefer to keep her hands to herself.

    http://www.realclearlife.com/politics/melania-refuses-president-trumps-extended-hand/

    Has The Donald been humping Kellyanne Conway in the 'secure room' of Air Force One ?

    Or does Melania simply know more about protocol than The Donals ?

    Too late to listen to Michael Savage today so can't give you a full answer.

    Mr. Banned From Britain Savage did opine yesterday that Melania was simply trying to follow the best protocol, about which she knew much more than the apish uncouth The Donald.

    I hope this issue doesn't drive friends apart here at the Bar, where there is no protocol whatsoever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Donals = The Donald

      s and d are so close they can kiss

      Delete
  14. I would like to post this again, in case those that retire early may have missed it, as I think it is very good -

    Huge Arms Sale to Saudis Makes Trump-Russia Collusion Ridiculous

    BY ROGER L SIMON MAY 21, 2017

    It won't, but if anything should put paid forever to the tedious Trump-Russia collusion meme that dominates our media as nothing since Monica Lewinsky, it should be the billion-dollar arms deal just brokered by our president with Saudi Arabia.

    Nothing could be worse for Russia. Indeed it's disastrous for them, but you won't hear word one to that effect from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, etc. They have bet their diminishing houses that Trump or one or two of his people said something equivocal on a phone call to a Russky or got paid too much for a speech. In their unresolved anger cum geriatric liberal orthodoxy, they live in an alternative universe divorced from reality.

    Why? It should be obvious but I'll state it anyway. Not very long ago Ronald Reagan built up U.S. armaments not to go to war with the Soviet Union, but to bankrupt it out of existence. It worked. The same thing is going on here, as anyone with the proverbial pulse should notice. Selling three hundred and fifty billion in advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia is not just aimed at the obvious target -- Iran. It is also aimed at Iran's big brother Russia. And there is no way that relatively impoverished oligarchy can possibly keep up, not in the long run anyway. They don't have the rubles.


    Trump is an enemy of Russia in a way that Obama and Clinton never dreamed of being. He has also countered the Iran deal and its unconscionable financial bailout to the mullahs that has enabled them to support -- via cash, arms or their own troops -- Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen, Assad, and who knows who else.

    Nevertheless, much of the media was taking the opportunity to point out that Iran had just elected a "moderate" leader. Not surprisingly, they were willfully blind to the anti-democratic rules of Iranian elections -- only those approved by the mullahs' Assembly of Experts can run -- and to the fact that the supposedly moderate Rouhani had jailed (and hanged) more political opponents than Ahmadinejad and has a worse human rights record than his hardline predecessor, according even to the UN.

    But that's our media -- live by the meme, die by the meme. Or shall we say -- the ends justify the meme?


    Turning to the positive: Trump's well-written and delivered speech in Riyadh was a truly stirring moment. Whether it was a turning point, no one knows, but it was the first serious attempt by a free-world leader to do something of this significance, gathering together Islamic world leaders to oppose Islamic terrorism. Obama, educated in his childhood as a Muslim, never tried anything remotely similar. It's almost impossible to imagine Hillary Clinton having done it -- and not just because she is a woman. It took someone as unlikely as Trump to pull it off.

    https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2017/05/21/huge-arms-sale-to-saudis-makes-trump-russia-collusion-ridiculous/

    Collude that, Ash.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You too, Quirk.

      You know enough about collusion to understand what Mr Simon is saying.

      Delete
    2. .

      What bullshit.

      In the end, even the 'Donals' bows to the will of the MIC.

      To do otherwise, is like trying to fight the Illuminati.

      .

      Delete
    3. The article was about collusion with the Russkies.

      You, per your usual, have gone off on some other tangent.

      As a past pro on colluding you should easily see the point put forth by Mr. Simon, I added.

      I'm certain you agree with that.

      Delete
    4. 10,9,8,7,6.....how long till the expected 'nitwit' or 'moron' reply....

      Delete
    5. .

      The arms sale has little top do with the Russians. It has much more to do with big bucks for the MIC, Trump's real constituency, Boeing, Lockheed, General dynamics and all the other defense companies scattered around in most of the regions and states of this country.

      .

      Delete
  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it's set in stone now....the military seemingly having made its choice -

      May 23, 2017
      Venezuela's civil war gets closer as mobs burn Hugo Chavez's childhood home
      By Monica Showalter

      Following the toppling of at least five statues of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, angry mobs startled the ruling regime by burning down Chavez's childhood home, set up as a shrine to his socialist revolution by his supporters.

      It surely takes the anger and bitterness in the streets to another level. We no longer hear much in the way of restraining voices for non-violence in that socialist hellhole much. The mob has taken over and the monuments are beginning to topple.


      It's a sign of a growing civil war, in fact, and like most of such events it could be very bloody. In the midst of the largely non-violent Velvet Revolutions of Eastern Europe in 1989, the sorry end of the region's worst dictator, Nicolae Ceaucescu, was the exception - dragged from his palace hideaway to some wall by angry rebel troops and summarily shot as crowds cheered.

      The other Nicholas, Nicolas Maduro, seems to be headed for the same fate, given the efforts to take down the relics of the illegitimate regime.

      Still, as Eric Farnsworth noted in the Associated Press piece linked above, it is still is symbolism. The protests are symbolism, the monument topplings are symbolism. They aren't actually acts of war. Only the Venezuelan government is moving on with a war footing. It is now deploying snipers to shoot into crowds - which isn't a symbolic gesture at all, or as the monument toppling is, it's a real one.

      Nevertheless, it may point to worse for the Chavistas. The growing attacks on the symbols of the Chavista regime may well extend to attacks on the rulers of the Chavista regime. It's the direction it's headed, and by their actions, the Chavistas show that they know it.

      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/05/venezuelas_civil_war_gets_closer_as_mobs_burn_hugo_chavezs_childhood_home.html

      A civil war, for a writer, is the best war, the most complete

      Ernest Hemingway, on the Spanish Civil War

      Delete
  16. We should bankrupt the Canucks by sending them F-35s instead of Hornets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      We are already doing that, well, at least were. The way they were roped into it buying the plane as well as the process used by the Conservative government there to make sure it got done has been the subject of a couple of investigative documentaries.

      I had heard Trudeau got elected partially because of his promise to dump the F-35 in favor of cheaper planes.

      Ash can probably fill us in on the actual status.

      .

      .

      Delete
    2. Actual status??? I wish. Like all things F35 related no one actually knows the actual status - if for no other reason "it's classified"

      Delete
  17. Love those stupid fake torn jeans on fat ass Michelle.

    What style !

    *********

    CONCERT SUICIDE BOMBER IDENTIFIED AS SALMAN ABEDI, 23...
    Parents Libyan Refugees....DRUDGE


    The second generation of moslem immigrants is worse than the first, the studies of such things have shown.

    END MOSLEM IMMIGRATION TO USA NOW !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      The second generation of moslem immigrants is worse than the first, the studies of such things have shown.

      And yet, way better than the rest of the US population. The studies of such things have shown.

      Seems a little like your usual cut and paste for effect, old timer.

      .

      Delete
    2. XENOPHOBE!

      Define "worse," smartypants.

      Delete
    3. Turns out he's a BRIT!

      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/world/europe/manchester-arena-attack-ariana-grande.html

      Delete
    4. British Man, 22, Is Suspect in Bombing

      Delete
    5. How the Manchester Bombing Compares With Recent Deadly Attacks in Western Europe

      https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/23/world/europe/europe-terror-attacks.html

      Delete
  18. QuirkHead, I was speaking of muzzie immigrants.

    Wetbacks aren't know for suicide bombings.

    Bringing in drugs, yes, but not blowing up the kiddies Concert.

    If it comes down to a Mexican, or a muzzie, always chose the Mexican.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Another way of looking at it, Quirk, is that you Catholics don't have their own sharia tradition which commands you to subject all others to your ways, at least not in these latter days.

      The islamoids do, and always will, based on the evidence of the past 1,400 years.

      First we'll show the Poles then everybody else

      An ooops it just came out statement made by a newly elected muzz city councilman on the now majority muzz council in Hamtramck, Michigan.

      Poles ? Hey that's YOU Quirk !

      I can't think of a single Mexican immigrant, legal or illegal, that has made a statement like that.

      Time for you to go 'concealed carry' Quirkaroo.

      Or come to Idaho....still welcome, just barely....

      Delete
    2. If you keep your nose clean during the week I'll give you the weekend off to go to Sun Meadow.

      Now that's an incentive !

      Delete
    3. .

      Please, Bob, spare us you chauvinistic and nativist claptrap. You pick and choose 'evidence' and narrow it down to insignificance. You narrow down your comments on immigrants to not all immigrants but just specific immigrants or, ad nauseum, one comment by one immigrant in a small city positioned in the middle of the city of Detroit.

      You talk about the bloody history of one people; yet, ignore the bloody history of all others. You talk of Muslim slaughter in India; yet, you ignore the 100 million killed by white European colonizing powers in Africa and Asia, the 70-80 million killed by Mao (45 million in a 4 year period during the 'Great Leap Forward'), the 23 million under Stalin, the 17 million under Hitler, the Armenian genocide, 1 million here, 2 million there, 5 million over there in Tibet, the Congo, Japan (during WWII), Cambodia, North Korea, Ethiopia, Biafra (Nigeria), Rwanda, and going further back, slaughter in Canaan under the Israelis, whole cities and peoples wiped out by the Romans, the Greeks to punish or merely to fit the whim of some general, Ghengis Khan the father of slaughter, Mexico and Central and South under the Spanish and Portuguese, native populations decimated in the US and Canada by whites, religious and sectarian violence by the natives themselves, tens of thousands murdered in a single day of sacrifice by Mayas, Aztecs and on and on...

      The world is a shit place in at least one sense and you have to be cautious and observant but the deaths by terrorists since 2001 are a drop in the bucket compared to what we've seen in the past. Yet, you concentrate solely on the actions within a small percentage of one religion brushing over, nay actually trying to minimize and justify the death and destruction the US has spread around the world in the same period, the exact point Deuce was trying to make yesterdays.

      Spare me your bullshit. Your words define you.

      .

      .

      Delete
  19. Fear the Hindu. The Vatican is next.

    Says Whit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I knew Whit, MOME. You ain't no Whit.

      Delete
    2. I think I'll have a glass of Chateau Liversan Haut-Medoc on that one.

      Delete
  20. Only the man that wrote Quirketiquette, or How To Properly Treat A Qurikette can gives us the true skinny on this dramatic question:

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/23/rush-melania-didnt-slap-trumps-hand-away-gave-modified-fist-bump/

    ReplyDelete
  21. "studies of such things have shown."

    Perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I think Obama must be the FIRST EX PRESIDENT to be accompanied overseas by SEVEN military jets.

    Glad to have paid less than my fair share of that ride.

    Cooling will commence 7 times faster than had he explored the World alone.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Quirk thinks that because the murder rate in Chicago is higher than it is among second generation Islamoids, Islamoids should be welcomed into America.
    ...and Britain, France, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Makes sense to me.

      Especially when combined with them "studies."

      Delete
    2. .

      "studies."

      I know it's hard to read the faux farmer, but try going back and see who first used the phrase...

      ...the studies of such things have shown.

      I wouldn't have used such a clumsy phraseology except to mock him.

      And now you.

      .

      Try reading.

      Delete
    3. .

      Quirk thinks that because the murder rate in Chicago is higher than it is among second generation Islamoids, Islamoids should be welcomed into America.
      ...and Britain, France, etc.


      Once, more the Trumpkin offers up his own 'fake news'.

      I have commented on what America should do with regard to immigration but it had zip to do with the murder rate in Chicago. I have never suggested anything for other countries. WRT Europe I have in fact criticized them at length for their immigration and border policies.

      Do you ever think before your write or do you just pull it out of your ass and throw it against the wall to see what sticks with the other Trumpkins here?

      .

      Delete
    4. Damned plagiarist.

      How many times must I put up with it ?

      I'd sue your ass, but how does one get liquid out of an empty bottle, money out of closed out checking accounts ?

      Delete
    5. It sticks with me. You have it in for The Donald. I have expressed my opinion as to what is going on with you in this regard.

      If The Donald's immigration policy, such as it is, is all wrong, what's yours ?

      It's true I may have fallen asleep and missed it, but what is your A,B,C of immigration policy ?

      You know mine, I'm uncertain of yours.

      Care to share ? (again)

      Focus on

      The Wall
      Muzzies
      Mexicans

      please

      Delete
    6. Ciao for now. Must go get some chow.

      Cheers !

      Delete
    7. Well, Quirk sure cleared that up with facts and links.

      Delete
    8. Hey Bob:

      Can you tell us what Quirk was talking about, since he didn't?

      Delete
    9. Sorry, I am awaiting 'clarification' by The Q Man.

      Delete
    10. .

      You know mine, I'm uncertain of yours.

      That's because you have a major problem remembering things. You seem to have a primitive brain made up of little more than a retrograde brain stem supporting and oversized hypothalamus. I have stated my views here regarding immigration (including The Wall, Muzzies, Mexicans) numerous times.

      If you are interested, go look them up. Maybe the exercise will do you some good. They say you have to exercise your brain if you don't want to lose it. If I told you my views again today, you'd be asking me for them again tomorrow.

      You should get your condition checked out. It's too late for early detection but still...

      .

      Delete
    11. .

      Can you tell us what Quirk was talking about, since he didn't?


      Perhaps, you and Bob can get group rates from the gerontologist. You seem to share the same pathologies.

      QuirkTue May 23, 07:44:00 PM EDT

      [Doug: "Quirk thinks that because the murder rate in Chicago is higher than it is among second generation Islamoids, Islamoids should be welcomed into America.
      ...and Britain, France, etc."]

      Once, more the Trumpkin offers up his own 'fake news'.

      I have commented on what America should do with regard to immigration but it had zip to do with the murder rate in Chicago. I have never suggested anything for other countries. WRT Europe I have in fact criticized them at length for their immigration and border policies.

      Do you ever think before your write or do you just pull it out of your ass and throw it against the wall to see what sticks with the other Trumpkins here?


      .

      Translation for Doug and other older, mentally challenged haoles...

      You are a lying little shit!

      I know there are two word in there with two syllables each. I'm sorry. It is a short simple sentence but if you can't understand it, let me know.

      By the way, at the end of the last stream I ripped your other lie about my comments about Ivanka being 'libel'. I put in plenty of quotes for you from Trump himself to prove my point. No doubt, you will now pull a Mome and complain about the cutting and pasting. You guys are a trip.

      Oh, by the way, the post was rather long and it was written in English so I can see where you might have a problem with it. If it's too complicated for you, let me know. Maybe I can come up with some type of comic book version with simple words and thoughts displayed in balloons.

      .

      Delete
  24. How common is religious extremism in prisons?

    - 58% Not too common

    How often does religious extremism among inmates pose a security threat?

    - 76% Not too often

    Pew Survey

    ReplyDelete
  25. An uplifting Video

    http://memoryrepairprotocol.com/index.php?l=n&aff_id=79244&subid=w5BKIVN4NIVSN0J5HN6QCE9K&subid2=OBMemw5BKIVN4NIVSN0J5HN6QCE9K

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That Doc gets the bedside manner of the year award.

      Delete
    2. You Marathoners can tell me how it ends.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. Here's the text version:

      http://memoryrepairprotocol.com/textpage.php?p=&afl=

      Delete
  26. Yo, Doug, B00bie, how's Hillary's Parkinsons disease progressing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Don't know, SMIRKY SHIT.

      Now she's out of the news it's hard to tell.

      No one really cares these days whether the old withered hag lives, or dies.

      The last I heard of Hillary was via news on Weiner. 30,000 or some such of her e-mails ended up on his computer.

      Fancy that.

      Weiner is off to an 8' x 8' for at least a couple years for sexting juveniles.

      He should ask for solitary.

      Hillary's wonderful first hand gal, Huma, has filed for divorce against Weiner.

      Real true upright American citizens, everyone, don't you think, SMIRKER ?

      Delete
    3. .

      No one really cares these days whether the old withered hag lives, or dies.


      Nonsense.

      Deuce just put up a stream a day or two ago suggesting Trump turn the DOJ loss on her.

      No doubt that memory problem I mentioned above.

      Don't worry, old timer, we all sympathize with you and your problem.

      #sad,so sad

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      ...turn the DOJ loose on her.

      .

      Delete
  27. Donald Trump is now in Rome on the latest part of his first foreign trip as US president, having left the Middle East.

    It is a trip that has not passed without incident - many of them bizarre, and plenty of them worthy of further analysis.

    ...

    We had to start with The Orb. How could we not?

    It was a surreal sight - President Trump and his Saudi and Egyptian counterparts placing their hands on a glowing globe (they were inaugurating a centre in Riyadh aimed at combating extremist ideology).

    ...

    A White House press statement about Mr Trump's visit to Israel said he would be looking to "promote the possibility of a lasting peach".

    Given that he went on to give a speech speaking about peace in the region, we're guessing the White House statement should have referred to "peace" rather than the shelf life of a particular fruit.


    Trip Moments

    ReplyDelete

  28. Classified documents show Obama illegally spied on Americans for years....DRUDGE

    http://circa.com/politics/barack-obamas-team-secretly-disclosed-years-of-illegal-nsa-searches-spying-on-americans

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Throw his ass in the same cell as Weiner.

      Delete
    2. It doesn't seem to bother Ash and Quirk.

      More important to focus on Trump not colluding with the Ruskies.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. .

      The Haole Whiner Endures

      Once again, Doug offers up a shitload of lies and 'fake news'.

      Is this all you do all day, haole? Did you take one too many pina coladas again? Is it the memory problems I speculated on above? Or, are you simply the lying little shit I called you above?

      If you were around at the time of the Snowden leak, you would now that I was the biggest critic here of the Obama administration including every friggin intelligence chief that appeared before Congress regarding the many intelligence and secret surveillance programs including 702 that encroach on the privacy rights of Americans.

      But let's not add hypocrisy to your offenses against reality. You know you could give a shit about these programs except as some way to blast the Dems and those here who argue you don't know shit. And come on, do you seriously believe these programs have been scaled back any under Trump and his team? Surely, you're not that stupid.

      As for Trump and the Ruskies, I have never accused Trump of colluding with the Russians. I have accused him of being a dumb ass and that through his ill-advised words and actions and tweets he invites further investigation into the possibility that he did collude with the Ruskies, not to mention, raising questions about obstruction of justice.

      With regard to collusion between members of his team and Russia, I've never accused them of that either. Although, I have also speculated on some of the dumb moves they've made. If I made any comments on them, with the exception of Flynn, it was regarding their own comments on the matter or possibly some conditional statements (if I actually made any) that would have been prefaced with the conditional 'if true'. Unlike the Trumpkins, I'm willing to wait. The wheels of justice grind slowly but exceedingly fine. It will probably be at least a year before Mueller has anything to offer to DOJ on anyone.

      Quit with the lies, Doug. You make yourself look the fool.

      .

      Delete
  29. Tardy McDonnell's employees almost become Krispy Critters.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn26Cf1AQ14

    ReplyDelete
  30. Here's Sky News:

    http://www.zahipedia.net/2009/07/03/wacth-sky-news-live-online/

    The Police just arrested someone they thought connected to the concert bombing, also blew a door down gaining entrance to an apartment.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They don't speak good English over there.

      Delete
    2. And none of them have any emotion.

      Might as well have robots read the news.

      Delete
    3. ...or Quirk.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d2JGdg_N9U#t=50.161668

      "...a truck was damaged near McDonnell's this morning..."

      Delete
  31. BRITAIN is bracing for another terror attack, with the country’s threat level rising from “severe” to “critical” in the wake of yesterday’s Manchester Arena bombing.

    ...

    The Manchester attack comes four years to the day that British Army soldier Lee Rigby was rammed with a car and brutally hacked to death in London.

    ...

    Meanwhile ASIO and the Australian Federal Police have been ordered to reassess the terror threat in the wake of yesterday’s devastating attack, The Australian reported.

    ReplyDelete
  32. A non-event being more important than an administration practicing widespread illegal spying on Americans.

    ...because the MSM says so.

    Quirk says: "Sieg Heil" !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      See

      QuirkTue May 23, 10:42:00 PM EDT


      And quit with the fake news.

      .

      Delete
  33. Former CIA Director John Brennan told a U.S. House committee Tuesday that Russia was “brazen” in its attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election in the United States, and while he was unable to determine whether there was “collusion” between the Russians and members of the Trump presidential campaign, he was “aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign.”

    ...

    It was a columnist for the Guardian of London who, in 2014, detailed Brennan’s lie about the claims that the CIA was spying on U.S. Senate staffers.

    “John Brennan blatantly lied to the American public. Again,” wrote columnist Trevor Timm.

    ...

    Earlier this year, George Neumayr in the American Spectator suggested there was collusion between Russia and an American campaign – Clinton’s.

    “One side did collude with foreign powers to tip the election – Hillary’s,” he wrote. “Seeking to retain his position as CIA director under Hillary, Brennan teamed up with British spies and Estonian spies to cripple Trump’s candidacy.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hey, Bob!

    Let me know via a link when you've found Quirk's priceless, non-repeatable views on immigration.

    Please.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny that they're invaluable, yet he doesn't care to disclose them more than once.

      Almost virgin, they will remain.

      Delete
    2. .

      It's time for you and Bob to seek help with your memory problems, Doug.

      Next time you have a question about something that's been put up here numerous time before, put a competent adult on the keyboard. Talking to you guys is a waste of time.

      I have some sympathy for your condition, but damn...

      #sosad

      .

      Delete
    3. My difficulty is I can't bear to read most of what you write, but I will try to do better.

      Delete
  35. She was a virgin when he raped her, impregnated her, and then beat her. She miscarried.

    A devout Catholic, she mourned her own pain less than that lost life. No amount of com-fort from the priest made her tears stop flowing, but she resolved that it wouldn’t happen again.

    She went to the police, and they shrugged their shoulders, because they couldn’t fight back against the 18th Street Gang. Some of them were probably secret members of that brotherhood of criminality.


    2nd Chance at Life

    ReplyDelete
  36. .

    Fake News?

    Fox Retracts, Hannity Retreats

    Fox News retracted their 'fake news' story about the murder of Seth Rich a staff member at the DNC. Hannity indicated he would no longer talk about the story on air. He had been pushing the conspiracy theory for some time. He hinted that he might have received 'guidance' from above, by that I mean Fox Management not...well, you know.

    Even though the FOX story was debunked within a day, it took on a life of its own as it was pushed by Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Alex Jones, various blogs, and even one of our own purveyors of 'fake news' who shall remain nameless out of sympathy for his deteriorating mental condition.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is a little odd that nothing, according to the Police, was stolen, and he was shot in the back.

      I guess that's just big city life for ya these days.

      Or maybe he was shot for being white.

      Delete
    2. So far no one has disproven that it was a 'Hillary Hit'.

      So, Quirk ought to shut his pie hole, cause he hasn't a clue as to what actually happened, and neither do I.

      Delete
    3. I've shutting my pie hole on this damned diet and am dying for about 12 Maple Bars.

      Delete
    4. .

      So far no one has disproven that it was a 'Hillary Hit'.

      This is the way you geniuses think. Make up some shit about someone and then demand they prove they didn't do it.

      That's not the way it used to work in the US.

      .

      Delete
    5. The issue is confirmation bias, not anonymous sources

      Posted May 22, 2017 09:24 AM by Steve Deace


      I’d like to begin with some hypothetical questions.

      Suppose Seth Rich were still alive and not a former staffer for the Democratic National Committee whose tragic murder remains unsolved.

      Then suppose he were actively online, sharing his liberal views on the issues and criticizing President Trump and obsessing about his alleged Russian ties — like just about every other Democrat is nowadays.

      How many of you who are convinced he was murdered because he supposedly leaked disparaging stuff to WikiLeaks, and “everyone surrounding the Clintons dies,” would care about him? Would you disparage him in your tweets and Facebook posts because of those views? Would he be a “partisan hack”? Would you tell him “you lost, so get over it, millennial snowflake”? Would he be just another “hate America globalist liberal”?

      Furthermore, suppose everything about the circumstances surrounding Rich’s murder were still there, but he was a murdered former Republican Party staffer instead. How many of you now behaving as if you care about Rich even more than his own family does would give a damn?

      How many of you would be demanding the Democrats now making conspiratorial claims about his murder (which they undoubtedly would), move on and respect a grieving family’s wishes to do so? Would whole shows on Fox News be devoted to “getting to the truth” of his murder? Would whole shows on CNN/MSNBC now be devoted to doing so instead?

      How many of those who believe all the anonymous sources leaking President Trump to death can’t be trusted also believe the anonymous sources claiming Rich was murdered for leaking Hillary/Podesta/DNC to death can be trusted?

      How many of those who tried to make the president a woman who turned her foundation into a pay-for-play scheme for foreign nationals, and may have exposed our secrets to our enemies via her unsecured private email server, are now breathless in their hysteria that President Trump is a Russian mole to help them infiltrate America?

      See, the issue here isn’t anonymous sources. Anonymous sources broke Watergate wide open, exposed the Monica Lewinsky affair, and first told us about the IRS bullying and Associated Press surveillance scandals of the Obama years. Thus, if you think anonymous sources are a corruption unto themselves, please understand our politics would be far more corrupt without them.

      Are all anonymous sources correct? Of course not. For example, Jayson Blair, anyone? But when the use of anonymous sources has been abused, it’s not because someone afraid of coming forward for fear of retribution can’t be trusted; it’s because the journalistic vehicle using them is broken and therefore can’t be trusted. That often occurs when we make up or abuse anonymous sources, because they tell us what we want to hear.

      This is called confirmation bias. And this is our problem at the moment — not anonymous sources.

      As a culture, we have our lost our anchor. Truth is no longer king, so everyone thinks and says what is wise in their own eyes.

      The Democrats don’t want to believe they blew an election they never should’ve lost to a bloviating narcissist. Or because they nominated a woman who should probably be in prison. So “the Russians did it!”

      Delete
    6. Because Vladimir Putin is so effective he literally had spray-on toilets and to rubber-band the beds together in his hotels when he hosted the Sochi Olympics a few years ago. Not to mention the average Russian makes less than the average Romanian. Putin can’t even run his own country, let alone also running ours. Russia is basically North Korea for white people, but with mafias that make the trains run on time.

      However, rejection of personal accountability is inherent to progressivism, which exalts victimology instead. Therefore, this is an easy leap for the average leftist, who doesn’t believe in taking responsibility for one’s own failures as it is.

      Meanwhile, since conservatism has become clickservatism, and nothing baits more clicks than reminders that too much of the media carry water for Democrats, we retreat behind the "media bias" Maginot Line no matter what the charge or evidence for it. Even when Trump himself stupidly admits on camera, in an interview he requested, that he fired the former FBI director specifically because he was tired of hearing about alleged Russian collusion.

      All the while, many claiming to be on the side which supposedly favors personal responsibility and accountability consistently seek to absolve Trump from it. And if you criticize the president as a means of urging him to do better rather than blow this opportunity, you’re “not supporting our duly elected president,” I was just told on Facebook recently (by a person who would never think to say such a thing to me if Trump were a Democrat, I’m guessing).

      The masochistic irony of all this partisan idolatry, manifesting itself as confirmation bias, is that it comes at a time when we know these two parties have failed us.

      A whopping 67 percent of Americans say the Democratic Party “is out of touch.” That means only 33 percent percent say Democrats are in touch with their needs/views, which isn’t that far off from Trump’s paltry 39 percent approval rating at Real Clear Politics. Congress’ approval rating is even worse, at just 18 percent.

      So why do we shame ourselves for those we readily acknowledge at the same time are systemically failing us?

      Here’s my theory on that:

      We are a culture founded on the laws of nature and nature’s God. We have turned away from that founding. And rather than admitting that each of us are like sheep, and have gone astray, it is easier for us to seek out scapegoats instead of the Lamb of God.

      Hence, we’d rather believe the other guy is the reason the country is going to hell in a hand basket, rather than remembering the words G.K. Chesterton once wrote in response to what’s wrong with the world: “I am.”

      Steve Deace is broadcast nationally each weeknight on CRTV. He is the author of the book “A Nefarious Plot.”

      https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/the-issue-is-confirmation-bias-not-anonymous-sources

      Delete
    7. Poke the above in your pie hole, Quirk.

      Delete
    8. Poke this in too -

      BobWed May 24, 12:27:00 AM EDT
      So far no one has disproven that it was a 'Hillary Hit'.

      So, Quirk ought to shut his pie hole, cause he hasn't a clue as to what actually happened, and neither do I.


      Delete
    9. So, Quirk ought to shut his pie hole, cause he hasn't a clue as to what actually happened, and neither do I.

      Comprende, amigo ?

      Delete
  37. By the way, that weird alien star is dimming again
    POSTED AT 8:41 PM ON MAY 23, 2017 BY JAZZ SHAW


    That peculiar light in the night sky known as Tabby’s Star is at it again. After causing an uproar in the science community on several occasions as space geeks tried to figure out why it regularly grew brighter and dimmer (by as much as 20%) it mostly stabilized out for the last couple of years. But now, as Science Magazine reports, it’s gone into another dip in brightness and telescopes around the world are turning to give it a fresh look and see if they can solve the mystery.

    Astronomers and alien life enthusiasts alike are buzzing over the sudden dimming of an otherwise unremarkable star 1300 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. KIC 8462852 or “Tabby’s star” has dimmed like this several times before, prompting some researchers to suggest that the megastructures of an advanced alien civilization might be blocking its light. And now—based on new data from numerous telescopes—it’s doing it again.

    “This is the first clear dip we have seen since [2013], and the first we have ever caught in real time,” says Jason Wright, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University in State College. If they can rope in more telescopes, astronomers hope to gather enough data to finally figure out what’s going on. “This could be the first of several dips about to come,” says astronomer David Kipping of Columbia University. “Many observers will be closely watching.”

    They’re hoping that everyone possible, even the amateurs with pretty good gear, will keep watch on Tabby’s Star and gather all the data they can. Why? Because they’re desperately trying to come up with a viable explanation as to what’s causing this and the “establishment science media” does not want to admit that it might be aliens. Paul Seaburn at Mysterious Universe goes over a few of the possibilities which have been considered.

    Penn State astronomer Jason Wright issued this alert from UC Berkeley SETI’s Breakthrough Listen Lab. You may remember that Wright proposed that the fluctuations in Tabby’ Star may be caused by an artificial alien megastructure known as a Dyson swarm, which is a Dyson sphere made of Dyson rings. Wright is hoping to get as-it’s-happening data from telescopes at Berkeley and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory radio telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, in addition to what any other astronomers might see…

    While the Dyson sphere or swarm idea has been eliminated, others are still under consideration. There’s the ‘swarm of asteroids blocking its light’ theory. Then there’s the ‘Tabby (the star) ate a big planet and it’s digesting it’ theory. Or it could be something else.

    If the star “ate a big planet” it must have been an awesomely large one. I was watching a special about this on the Science Channel and one of their resident astrophysicists was of the opinion that our own star could swallow Jupiter and it wouldn’t produce anywhere near that much of a fluctuation. And I don’t want to let the air out of the tires of any alien enthusiasts, but an artificial structure like a Dyson sphere that was big enough to do this would apparently require the ability to build something many times the size of a planet.

    Here’s another thought which I always like to toss out when the TV geeks start lecturing us about dark matter and every other theory of the day. Maybe we’re not quite as smart as we think we are yet and don’t know how everything works. Heck.. we still don’t really know how gravity works if you’re being honest about it. Perhaps some really rare stars just do this on their own at some stage in their lives and we’re about to learn something new and really cool. Would that work for you?

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/23/way-weird-alien-star-dimming/

    ReplyDelete
  38. Replies
    1. I wonder what The Pope has tweeted about Venezuela....I'd bet he's tweeted something or other....probably mostly platitudes and bull shit.

      Delete
  39. The Media (and it's local organ, Quirk) Spreads Fake News About Ivanka Trump

    This weekend, the Wall Street Journal‘s Carole Lee wrote a perfectly accurate story about Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates pledging to donate $100 million to a World Bank fund for women entrepreneurs. The article noted that the fund was Ivanka Trump’s idea and that she was at the event where the pledge was announced.

    When Wall Street Journal reporter Rebecca Ballhaus tweeted out a link to her colleague’s story, she spun it in such a way as to add inaccuracies.
    First she reclassified a World Bank fund as a fund belonging to Ivanka Trump.

    Then she claimed that the donation from the two countries were therefore akin to what Trump pilloried Hillary Clinton for...


    https://thefederalist.com/2017/05/22/the-media-spreads-fake-news-about-ivanka-trump/

    CNN reporter Jim Sciutto who, even for a former Obama political appointee, stands out for his partisanship, made the false claim that a donation to a World Bank fund was “virtually identical” to the ethical problems raised by the Clintons.

    A Wall Street Journal writer noted the false news being promulgated by the tweet:

    CNN contributor Ana Navarro’s tweet falsely suggesting an Ivanka charity was receiving Saudi money was shared tens of thousands of times:

    Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on media, politics, and public policy last week reported its research showing that 93 percent of all Trump news from CNN was negative. Ninety-three percent. It is perhaps worth noting that CNN managed to completely botch its report on the Shorenstein study this weekend.

    ===

    (This 2008 New York Times story shows a bit about how the Clintons greased skids to secure deals in ways that some found questionable.)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Quirk

      "Hillary gets blasted for accepting $25 millions from the Saudis in the name of her foundation.

      On the other hand, Ivanka got the Saudis/UAE to pledge $100 million to the foundation she fronts and we hear nothing
      ."

      https://2164th.blogspot.com/2017/05/its-time-for-trump-to-give-democrats.html

      Delete
    2. Clinton was criticized by Trump and others for issues surrounding the billions of dollars her charity raised, and the millions of dollars taken in by Clinton family members for speeches. The Clinton Foundation received money from countries at the same time they had business before Secretary of State Clinton.

      Clinton’s husband Bill received huge sums of cash for speeches given to groups that also had business before the U.S. government.

      Delete
    3. Just more pussy envy on the part of The Quirkster.

      Ivanka's money will probably actually help someone.

      Hillary's money.....well we know from the accountants how much of The Clinton Foundation money actually got out there helping someone....less than 10%

      Catholic Charities and Lutheran World Relief have an independently monitored contest each year to see which side actually gets the highest percent out to the folks.....it's usually around 95-96 %, sometimes the Lutherans win sometimes the Catholics....all very friendly contest....

      Delete
    4. Sometimes I think Quirk's noggin has slipped a load or two of noodles.

      Delete
    5. I feel for him of course but it is great entertainment.

      Delete
    6. .

      The post I put up was about hypocrisy.

      Trump railed against Clinton for taking money from Saudi Arabia because the country discriminates against women and gays. Ivanka solicits 4 times as much money from the same country and Trump says nothing.

      The money the Clinton Foundation got from S.A. came before she was Secretary of State. The money Ivanka will get from S.A. for the Women Empowerment Fund comes at the same time she is acting as a key advisor to the President of U.S. Trump says nothing.

      Ivanka's push will help her brand and potentially her book sales, a book purportedly about empowerment of women. Trump says nothing.

      Most people would see the hypocrisy. The Trumpkins cry 'fake news'.

      .

      Delete
    7. .

      I would bring up the issue of influence peddling which Trump also railed against with Clinton but why keep piling onto Ivanka.

      The hypocrisy rests with Trump.

      He's only put out disclosures on about half of the 180 senior political appointees in the administration; yet, among them are over 40 former lobbyists in the White House or other agencies. These are the guys who will have responsibility for writing the rules and regulations affecting the very companies they just came from.

      Drain the swamp. Hell, Trump is stocking it.

      For the Trumpkins...

      Hypocrisy

      noun, plural hypocrisies.
      1.
      a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.
      2.
      a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.
      3.
      an act or instance of hypocrisy.


      I know there are some big words in there, boys. Try reading the definition out loud slowly.
      But don't work too hard at it. History indicates you will have forgotten it by tomorrow (or sooner) anyway.

      .

      Delete
  40. Always the same -

    Jihad in the Philippines: Muslims bomb Christian city, 14 dead, 50 wounded
    By Pamela Geller - on May 23, 2017


    The majority Catholic nation has been under siege by Muslims waging jihad. Bloody terror.

    The Philippines has made extraordinary concessions to the violent Muslim uprising. But as we know, that only leads to more violence and more demands for an even bigger Islamic state. Islamic terror rages on in the Philippines. Worse, these supremacist savages are rewarded. The modern-day manifestation of the caliphate, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), had “observer status” in the “talks” between the Philippine government and the jihadist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Muslim terrorists slaughter and the OIC “mediates.”

    It would be comical if it weren’t so deadly. The Philippines (a former American protectorate and 95% Catholic country) has had to give up territory and “share wealth” with these jihadi rebels.

    PHILIPPINES: BLASTS KILL 14
    Daily Mail, May 23, 2017:

    Two explosions rocked a largely Christian city in the southern Philippines today, killing 14 people and wounding about 50, in what police said could be attacks by Muslim extremists.

    The bombings in General Santos city – some 215 miles from where US forces were holding counter terrorism exercises with their Filipino counterparts – were the bloodiest in the mainly Christian country since suspected Muslim extremists killed 14 and wounded over 100 in a wave of bombings in the capital Manila in December 2000.

    “We have leads and suspects. Within a few hours or days we will get them,” regional police chief Colonel Bartolome Baluyot told Reuters by phone.



    He refused to name the suspects but said they were from the same group blamed for two bomb attacks in General Santos last year, which killed four people.

    Police had blamed last year’s attacks on Muslim guerrillas fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the country.

    In Sunday’s attacks, a home-made bomb left in a parked pedicab exploded as shoppers waited for rides home outside a shopping mall.

    Ten minutes later, another bomb thrown by unidentified attackers exploded near a residential compound.

    Police said they suspected the bomb-throwers had also planted the first bomb.

    The victims were shoppers, public transport drivers and street hawkers gathered outside the mall, as well as children.

    “I think there may be more dead because many of the injured are in serious condition,” Baluyot said. More than half of the injured were in serious condition in hospitals, he added.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After the explosions, a man who said he represented the Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group, which operates in the country’s south and is linked by the United States to Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, called local RMN radio and claimed responsibility for the blasts.

      The man, who identified himself as Abu Muslim al Ghazi, called the RMN radio and said “we did it,” station manager Elmer Ubaldo told Reuters. He said the man had in the past called the station saying he was head of a special operations unit of the Abu Sayyaf.

      Baluyot said he did not know how credible the call was, but investigators were looking into the possible involvement of Muslim radicals.

      “We are looking into that. That is one possibility,” he said.

      Prior to the explosions, General Santos had been swamped with rumours, circulated through text messages on mobile phones, that extremist groups had planted 18 bombs across the city that were due to be exploded on Sunday.

      The explosions occurred just three days after a Philippine court sentenced Fathur Roman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian national with alleged links to al Qaeda, to a jail term of up to 12 years for alleged possession of explosives.

      Al-Ghozzi has admitted to prosecutors he is a member of the clandestine Jemaah Islamiah group, which is alleged to have links with al Qaeda, but denied knowing Osama bin Laden.

      General Santos lies 1,000 km (600 miles) south of Manila and 350 km (about 215 miles) east of Basilan island, where US special forces are training Filipino troops in counter terrorism to help them defeat Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas holding a US missionary couple hostage for almost 11 months.

      The United States has listed the Abu Sayyaf as a supporter of al Qaeda, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

      General Santos, a city of 800,000 people on the main southern island of Mindanao, was the same city where police arrested three Filipinos suspected of links with the al Qaeda network and confiscated a tonne of explosives from them in January.

      The bulk of the nation’s five million Muslim minority lives in southern Philippines.

      Police around the country have been on heightened alert since last month when 23 home-made bombs were found by police in public places in several Philippine cities. None of the bombs exploded.

      A previously unknown group calling itself the Indigenous People’s Federal Army, demanding federal states for Muslims and other ethnic groups, claimed that it planted most of the bombs.

      Besides the Abu Sayyaf, the government is fighting other Muslim groups demanding an Islamic state in the south.

      http://pamelageller.com/2017/05/jihad-philippines-muslims-bomb-christian-city-14-dead-50-wounded.html/

      Delete
    2. Hardly a day passes without some outrageous slaughter of innocents somewhere by moslems.

      Delete
  41. GOOD FOR THE DONALD !

    Trump switched “Islamist terror” to “Islamic terror” on purpose to defy State Department

    MAY 23, 2017 2:58 PM BY BRIAN THOMAS

    I’m now completely certain that Donald Trump defied his own State Department and probably the Department of Defense while giving his speech in Riyadh. Trump switched out the deceptive word “Islamist” and switched in “Islamic” while reading his prepared speech from the teleprompter. Watch that struggle for yourself with the edited “remarks as prepared” on the screen:



    In advance of the speech, NSA McMaster had been sent out to calm fears:

    McMaster: Jihadis are “not religious people,” suggests Trump won’t say “radical Islamic terrorism” in Saudi speech

    Guess Trump is in control of what comes out of his mouth after all, not McMaster or the State Department.

    That’s not to say the rest of the speech was terrible, or perfect. Robert’s analysis at PJ Media is a good rundown, and I made some similar points yesterday at Israellycool. I’ll highlight one word of interest to me:

    Religious leaders must make this absolutely clear: Barbarism will deliver you no glory – piety to evil will bring you no dignity. If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and YOUR SOUL WILL BE FULLY CONDEMNED.

    “Piety” is the word the Islamic world uses to signify increased observance of Islamic laws. They don’t say “conservative,” and indeed, the Western media’s use of the word “conservative” to denote Muslims following the life of Muhammad closely is devious and deceitful, and I believe intended to cast a slur on both political and religious conservatives in the US and the West.

    This is Article 1(b) of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (which the UN shamefully allows Islamic nations to use instead of the UNIVERSAL Declaration of Human Rights):

    (b) All human beings are God’s subjects, and the most loved by him are those who are most useful to the rest of His subjects, and no one has superiority over another except on the basis of piety and good deeds.

    Notice how (via the trick of a double negative) it specifically grants “superiority” to those based on their “piety and good deeds.” The entire document is subject to interpretation through Islamic Sharia, which makes clear that “piety and good deeds” are those that the Qur’an says are pious and good.

    But back to the Islamic/Islamist substitution; what did the media do?

    This Fox News discussion played the clip, but then completely ignored what they must have heard with their own ears, instead speaking about the “Remarks as prepared for delivery,” which the White House put up. To my knowledge, there’s been no release of an actual transcript of what he said. Qanta Ahmed then presents the usual talking points.



    Another review of the speech, this time with Quilliam’s Maajid Nawaz, chose to hear that Trump did say “Islamic extremism” and “Islamic terror,” but Maajid passes this off as a “slip-up.”



    I can’t take any of these opinions seriously. To me, it’s clear Trump is unwilling to bend to the State Department or the Defense Department’s old Obama holdovers. He is absolutely unwilling to use a deceptive term such as “Islamism.”

    Are the presidency and Trump powerful enough to change these longstanding and dangerous ways of thought in the government? We don’t know yet.

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/05/trump-switched-islamist-terror-to-islamic-terror-on-purpose-to-defy-state-department

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He wants to cut the State Dept budget more than any other but EPA.

      30%, I think.

      Never happen, but still.

      Delete
  42. ABC worries that Manchester jihad massacre “likely to inflame anti-Islamic sentiment”

    MAY 23, 2017 10:47 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

    As always, when Muslims murder non-Muslims in the name of Islam and in accord with its teachings, the establishment media acts as if Muslims are the victims.



    “ABC News Worried About Potential ‘Anti-Islamic Backlash’ After Manchester Terror Attack,” by Andrew Kugle, Washington Free Beacon, May 23, 2017:

    Two ABC News reporters were worried about a potential ‘anti-Islamic backlash’ on Tuesday morning, hours after the Manchester terrorist attack.

    A suicide bomb attack killed at least 22 people and injured more than 50 others after an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Several of the victims were children, including eight-year-old Saffie Roussos.

    The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault.

    ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos told network correspondent Martha Raddatz hours after the attack on “Good Morning America” that it would most likely spark anti-Islamic sentiment across the United Kingdom and Europe.

    “This is also likely to inflame anti-Islamic sentiment across Britain, across Europe,” Stephanopoulos said.

    Raddatz agreed and described how the attack would create a backlash against Muslims.

    “It sure could, George. Manchester itself is a very multicultural city. There’s a large Muslim population with many there for generations,” Raddatz said. “So headscarfs attract little attention there. And notably, Manchester did not vote in favor of Brexit. But an attack like this, as you said, is much bigger than Manchester itself and will likely create backlash, depending on the details of this attack.”

    ABC was not the only network to express concern about the potential for anti-Muslim backlash. On NBC’s “Today” show, counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke alluded to President Trump’s rhetoric on terrorism and Islam during the campaign, calling it “counterproductive.”

    “That’s why the talk against Muslims in the last year in the campaign and since has been very counterproductive,” Clarke said. “The only way to solve this problem is to have everyone think they’re on the same side."

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/05/abc-worries-that-manchester-jihad-massacre-likely-to-inflame-anti-islamic-sentiment

    ReplyDelete
  43. Fake News ? True News ?

    What will Quirk say ?


    BOOM!! Kim Dot.Com DROPS BOMBSHELL! — SETH RICH LEAKED DNC EMAILS TO WIKILEAKS

    Jim Hoft May 23rd, 2017 12:01 pm

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/breaking-internet-hacker-kim-dot-com-releases-documents-seth-rich-leaked-podesta-wikileaks-emails/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Panda?

      Do you lack the ability to be embarrassed?

      .

      Delete
  44. Trump Colluding With The Russkies ?

    You Got To Be Joking


    May 24, 2017
    Farewell to OPEC
    By Daniel John Sobieski

    Maybe the fly on the wall knows, because nothing was leaked to the New York Times or Washington Post, but one of the topics that may have come up in meetings between American and Saudi officials during President Trump’s historic visit is the energy revolution unleashed by President Trump that is sure to make the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries an energy relic.

    Through regulation repeal and executive orders and the changing of the guard at the Environmental Protection Energy, Trump has made fossil fuels great again with expanded shale oil and natural gas production for both domestic consumption and export leading the way. And thanks to the completion of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, North American energy independence is soon to become reality.


    As Investor’s Business Daily editorialized in 2013, the Saudis, among other OPEC members, have been freaking out about fracking, warning that it spelled doom for the Arab oil cartel:

    Indicative of the panic rippling through the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries over the U.S.-led fracking boom, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says his Gulf Arab kingdom needs to reduce its reliance on crude oil and diversify its revenues, lest the era of gold-plated toilets come to an end.

    In an open letter to his country's oil minister Ali al-Naimi and other government heads, published on Sunday via his Twitter account, Prince Alwaleed said demand for oil from OPEC member states was "in continuous decline" as a result of the technology that has unleashed vast deposits of oil and natural gas worldwide.

    So concerned were OPEC ministers that they financed a Hollywood flick, Promised Land starring Matt Damon, which incorporated every falsehood about the safety of fracking and was intended to fuel its death by regulation:

    The anti-fracking film is based on a not-true story about well contamination in a small Pennsylvania town with a healthy dose of junk science.

    As documentary filmmaker Phelim McAleer, who is working on his own documentary, "FrackNation", has pointed out, the inspiration for the film was a spate of news reports about alleged ground water contamination from fracking wells in Dimock, Pa. "Promised Land" is set in rural Pennsylvania…

    The only problem, notes McAleer, is the claims were debunked by both the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Protection Agency, both of which found no evidence of contamination. But why spoil a good story with the facts? …

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It should not surprise that major funding for the film, according to the Heritage Foundation's Lachlan Markey, comes from Image Media Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media.

      "A spokesperson with DDA Public Relations, which runs PR for Participant Media, the company that developed the film fund backing "Promised Land", confirmed that AD Media is a financier. The company is wholly owned by the government of the UAE," Mackey writes.

      The film depends on junk science for its story line. The mixture used to fracture shale is in fact a benign blend of 90% water, 9.5% sand and 0.5% chemicals such as the sodium chloride of table salt and the citric acid of the orange juice you had for breakfast.

      Shale formations in which fracking is employed are thousands of feet deep. Drinking water aquifers are generally only 100 feet deep. There is a lot of solid rock between them.

      OPEC’s greatest fears are being realized as fears about fracking vanish under the glare of reality. As the Energy Information Administration reports, OPEC is being hit hard as American shale production helps dry up OPEC’s coffers:

      Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) earned about $433 billion in net oil export revenues in 2016, the lowest since 2004. In real dollar terms, the 2016 revenue represents a 15% decline from the $509 billion earned in 2015, mainly because of the fall in average annual crude oil prices and, to a lesser extent, because of decreases in OPEC net oil exports.

      is putting downward pressure on oil prices, reducing the revenues of both OPEC and Russia. Trump is clearly not colluding with Russia on oil prices, a nation which Sen. John McCain once described as “a gas station masquerading as a country.” As the American Interest notes:

      That 15 percent year-on-year decline is a dramatic example of the fiscal pain these petrostate regimes are enduring as a result of the collapse in crude prices. Those low prices come to us courtesy of American shale producers, whose output contributed to a global glut that brought prices from their $100+ per barrel levels down to the $50 range they occupy today.

      Those lost export revenues are why OPEC, along with a group of 11 other petrostate producers (including Russia), have agreed at last to reduce their collective output in an attempt to rebalance the market.

      American shale is now the elephant in the room. The Saudis may have concluded a massive arms deal with the United States to counter the Iranian threat, but thanks to U.S. energy resurgence they will have to dig deeper to pay for it.

      Daniel John Sobieski is a free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

      http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/05/farewell_to_opec.html

      Delete
    2. Rufus is such a dear but he's never right about anything

      Trish

      Delete
  45. May 24, 2017
    They want to kill us all
    By Silvio Canto, Jr.

    What more do we need to know about these people? Can their intentions be more clear? What else do they have to do? Blow up teen girls at a pop concert?

    As Roger Simon wrote:


    If you think what happened in Blighty can't happen here -- 19 killed, 59 injured -- you'll have to excuse me if I say "You're out of your bloomin' mind." Did you already forget 9/11/2001? Or the Boston Marathon? Or San Bernardino? Or the Orlando gay bar attack less than a year ago that killed 49?

    Oh, yeah. Seems so long ago, doesn't it, even that last one? The "new normal." We put these things out of our minds the week after to deal with the next trivial Washington scandal or go about our petty lives.

    Our culture lives in a self-destructive willful blindness, refusing to see the obvious even though it happens again and again across the globe.

    Radical Islam, Islamism, or whatever you want to call it has been at war with us since the Twin Towers came down and even well before. And they have no intention whatsoever of stopping.

    Nevertheless we respond in the most perfunctory manner, nattering on about how Islam is a"religion of peace," criticizing ourselves and others for "Islamophbia," or dismissing it all as a police matter.

    My guess is that we will react decisively in the US. We've had a much more realistic view of terrorism over here. As a last resort, we believe in self defense and allow some citizens to carry guns and serve as a line of protection.

    However, I'm not very optimistic about Europe. For example, Salman Abedi, the alleged terrorist, was known to British authorities prior to the attack. Wonder how that makes any parent feel about the next concert that their teens want to go to? Or the next time that there is a big soccer event? In other words, would you attend a concert in the UK any time soon knowing that people under the eye of the police will join you for the proceedings?

    Most of all, it makes President Trump's realism about terrorism and uncontrolled immigration really stand out.

    P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk), (YouTube), and follow me on Twitter.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/05/they_want_to_kill_us_all.html

    ReplyDelete
  46. BRENNAN TESTIMONY UNDERCUTS LEFT’S COLLUSION NARRATIVE

    Still no hard evidence revealed to support conspiracy allegations against Trump campaign.

    May 24, 2017 Joseph Klein

    Like Ahab, the obsessive sea captain who sought revenge on the great white whale Moby Dick, the left and their cohorts in the mainstream media continue their obsessive quest for “evidence” to bring down their nemesis, President Trump. Unfortunately for the destroy-Trump crowd, their Russia conspiracy narrative has been undercut by none other than the anti-Trump former CIA Director, John Brennan. Mr. Brennan has just delivered his first public remarks on the alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign since he left office last January.

    Mr. Brennan admitted, during his congressional testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, that he could not say whether there was any evidence pointing to alleged “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. In fact, Brennan was very careful in the way he phrased what had been uncovered while he was the CIA director – “information intelligence about interactions and contacts between U.S. persons and the Russians.” (Emphasis added) Although “interactions” and contacts” do not amount to collusion, and Brennan conceded that contacts between foreign governments and a presidential campaign are not inherently suspicious, Brennan still thought they warranted a full-scale intelligence investigation in Trump’s case.

    Not satisfied with Brennan’s attempt to dance around the issue of whether he knew of any evidence of actual collusion, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said to Brennan, “I asked you about collusion, coordination, and conspiracy, and you used the word ‘contact'. Contact could be benign or not benign. So was it contact you saw…what was the nature of what you saw?”

    Stating that he focused on intelligence, not on analyzing evidence of potential criminal wrong-doing, Brennan replied, “I saw interaction. But I don’t know. I don’t have sufficient information to make a determination whether or not there was cooperation or complicity or collusion.”


    Neither does anyone else who has been searching for proof of alleged collusion, as far as we know.

    In a complete state of denial, a writer for the left wing ThinkProgress claimed that Congressman Gowdy’s questioning “backfired.” In truth, Gowdy’s questioning was right on the mark.



    Brennan also testified that he was not aware of any inappropriate requests from President Trump to the intelligence community for help in dealing with the “Russian collusion” or Flynn investigations. More specifically, when asked by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) whether he was aware of any efforts the president had made to enlist the support of the intelligence community personnel to push back on a narrative involving alleged collusion, Brennan replied that he was “unaware of that.” Brennan also said that he was “unaware” of any attempts by President Trump to enlist the help of members of the intelligence community to drop the Flynn investigation.

    Again, the left wing writer for ThinkProgress got it all wrong.....

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266794/brennan-testimony-undercuts-lefts-collusion-joseph-klein

    ReplyDelete
  47. The English have really lost their minds -

    MANCHESTER’S ISLAMIST APPEASING POLICE AND POLITICIANS HAVE BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

    Muslim sex grooming paved the way for the Manchester Arena attack.

    May 24, 2017 Daniel Greenfield

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266793/manchesters-islamist-appeasing-police-and-daniel-greenfield

    ReplyDelete
  48. “Crusader master” it is, then -

    May 24, 2017
    Trump Triumphs over Terrorists in Battle of Brands
    By Thomas Lifson

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/05/trump_triumphs_over_terrorists_in_battle_of_brands.html

    ReplyDelete
  49. .

    Poke this in too -

    BobWed May 24, 12:27:00 AM EDT
    So far no one has disproven that it was a 'Hillary Hit'.

    So, Quirk ought to shut his pie hole, cause he hasn't a clue as to what actually happened, and neither do I.


    Well, it's true I don't know anymore about Seth Rich's murder than the police do at this point.

    But then I am not the one asking a dead man to disprove a negative, that he didn't leak info from the DNC to WikiLeaks. I am not the one accusing Hillary Clinton of having a low level staffer at the DNC, who family and friends say had no particular animus towards the DNC and was anxious for Hillary to win, killed for the unproved assertion that he leaked rather tame documents from the DNC that were bad news for people like Wassweman-Shultz but didn't affect Hillary in any significant way.

    I am not the one promoting the conspiracy theory, a conspiracy theory...

    - That Snopes rated False

    - That Politifact rated Pants on Fire

    - That WaPo gave Four Pinocchios

    - That WikiLeaks went on Twitter to deny by stating that anything Assange said should not be taken as an indication that Seth Rich leaked the DNC documents or had any connection to WikiLeaks.

    - That Fox news retracted their story on a couple days after it was first put out citing the fact that the story didn't meet expected standards for research and accuracy.

    - That Fox management ordered their resident conspiracy theorist, Sean Hannity, to drop and shut his pie hole.

    - That Wheeler, the lawyer investigating the murder for the family, recanted the story he gave on Fox the next day on CNN indicating that it was Fox that was really feeding him the story.

    - That the unnamed FBI source Fox mentioned who corroborated Wheeler's story about what was in Rich's computer became problematic when Wheeler said he had never seen Rich's computer.

    To offset these, the faux farmer, a man who previously brought us Pizzagate, cites some nut in New Zealand who is willing to confirm the conspiracy theory about some guy named Panda who he is sure was Rich, and all he needs in return is to have his round trip air fare and expenses paid for.

    Bob, you have stooped to the level were you are willing to accuse someone of murder based on zero information at all. No proof simply a wild conspiracy theory.

    You are one sick man.

    Seek help.

    .


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WHO have I accused of murder ?

      I just put up an article.

      What the hell, old timer, is it about this:

      BobWed May 24, 01:23:00 AM EDT
      So, Quirk ought to shut his pie hole, cause he hasn't a clue as to what actually happened, and neither do I.

      Comprende, amigo ?


      that you cannot comprehend ?

      Bad night for sleeping last night ?

      I'm fine, and I was up most of the night.

      I'll think your condition over and see if I can recommend something.

      Delete
    2. 1) Jellyfish oil/Prevagen

      2) A bullet

      Your choice.

      Take the Prevagen FIRST, old timer, THEN think it over, not the other way round.

      My recommendation ?

      #1

      But, it's certainly all up to you.

      ;)

      Delete
    3. You'll be done with me soon, Quirk-O.

      I am waiting for the mail, then the rest of my day is spoken for....

      Delete
    4. .

      Comprende, amigo ?

      that you cannot comprehend ?



      Ah, now I get it. You were an English major in the "English as a second language" class offered by the Idaho branch of Illiterates R Us or (IRU).

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      WHO have I accused of murder ?

      You were the one who first posted the conspiracy story here when it initially came out last summer, a story that Rich was just the latest victim bumped off by the Clintons. You giggled about it at the time which would have been bad enough given the pain these stories bring to the families involved, but now you try to defend the story and in doing so make yourself look like a fool.

      You and your buddy are the biggest purveyors of fake news on this site.

      Wise up.

      .

      Delete
  50. How do you like the handle Crusader Master for The Donald, Quirk ?

    This was bestowed on The Donald by Al Qaeda: “The hateful Crusader master of the White House.”

    Pretty good, huh ?

    ReplyDelete
  51. Count on a Fed rate hike in June.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Ah, it's here.

    Ciao

    Have a great day !

    Not a cloud in the sky here....

    ReplyDelete
  53. .

    Babes in Trumpland - The Faux Budget from the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight


    The dumb accounting error at the heart of Trump's budget

    “The same money cannot be used twice” — unless it can.

    Not only does the Trump administration’s budget proposal rely on economic growth assumptions that are wildly more optimistic than those produced by any private sector forecaster, it turns out that embedded within those assumptions is a completely ridiculous accounting error.

    Here’s how it works. The budget is counting on economic growth — and a lot of it — to overcome what otherwise would be a projected $1.3 trillion deficit in 2027, and instead achieve balance. A big part of that growth comes from a deficit-neutral tax proposal whose details aren’t spelled out in the budget document.

    That’s a little bit odd, because the administration has already sketched out the broad contours of its tax policy. That proposal would, on a conventional account, lead to a massive increase in the deficit. The administration says that’s okay, though, because the extra growth unleashed by the tax cuts will offset the loss in revenue.

    See the problem? Trump is not only counting on supply-side magic growth to make his numbers work, he’s using the same magic bean twice. First the tax cuts provide enough extra growth to make the tax reform deficit neutral. Then the deficit neutral tax reform provides enough extra growth to make the overall budget balanced. It’s ridiculous. Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary and National Economic Council director, calls it “a logical error of the kind that would justify failing a student in an introductory economics course...”


    ============================

    [Using even aggressive supply side assumptions on the 10 year budget]

    Now rather than a balanced budget you have a $5 to 7 trillion deficit — and that’s under very aggressive supply-side assumptions...

    =========================

    Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney offered a baffling defense of this accounting strategy at his Monday briefing with reporters.

    He explained that the budget assumes tax reform will be deficit neutral because “it was in all honesty the most efficient way to look at it.” How so? Well, he explained, “if we said it’s going to add to the deficit then we have to go into more detail than what’s in the summary right now, [and] if we say it’s going to reduce the deficit, we have to go into more detail than what’s in it right now. And we simply are not in a position to do that.”

    In other words, he assumed the tax plan would be deficit neutral because that made his life easier — not because there is any reason to believe it. And because no analytics went into justifying that assumption, officials didn’t notice that they were double-counting the growth...


    ===========================

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. {...}

      The underlying issue here, beyond Trump’s habit of overpromising and general disregard for the truth, is the slapdash process through which his tax plan was released. According to Politico’s Shane Goldmacher, Trump’s economic team was busy working on the difficult problem of designing a revenue-neutral tax plan when someone showed him a New York Times op-ed by Steve Forbes, Larry Kudlow, Arthur Laffer, and Stephen Moore that argued Trump should forget about deficit-neutrality and endorse a big deficit-increasing tax cut like he did on the campaign trail.

      “Trump summoned staff to talk about” the op-ed, according to Goldmacher. “His message: Make this the tax plan.”


      Then two days later, on a Friday, Trump told the press that his tax plan would be ready by next week even though his staff didn’t have a plan...


      ============================

      In a concrete sense, this doesn’t really matter. Presidential budget proposals are aspirational documents, not things that become law, and the congressional budget process is governed by the Congressional Budget Office’s scores anyway, not by whatever OMB cooks up.

      But budgets are important as statements of values. One clear headline value of the Trump budget is an overwhelming preference for cutting taxes on high-income families over providing food, medical care, housing assistance, and other support to low-income families.

      The growth accounting mess shows a parallel value — or, rather, lack of value — placed on the idea of governing with integrity.



      When you start basing your economics on the drooling voodoo economics of Larry Kudlow and Art Laffer you know you have passed through the looking glass.

      Since the numbers are so completely unrealistic, all we can use Trump's budget for is to judge his priorities and what we see is telling. It's evident that Trump with his reverse Robin Hood budget proposal is willing to gut health, safety, and environmental initiatives and social welfare programs for the poor and middle class in order to grant a tax break for the wealthy that will be the biggest tax related giveaway in history.

      No doubt, Trump will brag that the tax cut is huuuuuge, the greatest effort.

      The little guys who he promised he would 'make America great again' for will once again take it in the ass.

      .

      Delete
  54. Do all of you just sit at your computers all night? Wow, can't imagine.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Regarding Quirks post above, sometimes you just have to laugh. More BS from the alt left.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Are you actually defending the numbers and the assumptions in Trump's budget, Mome?

      The priorities?

      The quotes by Mulvaney?

      The intelligence of Kudlow and Laffer?

      My comments on the growth number or the winners and losers?

      Or, is this just another of your mindless posts where you are big on criticism but offer no intelligent rebuttal.

      Try being specific some time, old boy. You might like it.

      .

      Delete
  56. I prefer not to, mainly because I know how aggravating it is to you, and I enjoying reading your unhinged complaints when I don't. Much more enjoyable than me trying to prove my point by posting someone else's comments who agree with me, which by the way, is the majority!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Right, Mome, just another drive by comment. Got it.

      .

      Delete
  57. Did I read that you leased a car? Just curious as to why leasing instead of buying. Everyone has a different reason, and wondered what yours is? I actually prefer stealing, but it is getting harder to start them once you break in them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No problemo.

      Quirk has all sorts of gadgets to start any kind of car you wish in the twinkle of an eye.

      After all, he lives in the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan.

      Just contact Quirk, and ask.

      Expect a little "info fee" to be included in the advice, though.

      Ask for his special Starters Package, too.

      Delete
    2. Quirk used to hang out with Eddie Murphy too, back in the day.

      Delete
  58. .

    My niece was having a hard time so she moved in with us for a couple days a year ago. Her car died so I gave her one of my old ones.

    I needed another car.

    Used to have the executive lease car when I was working and it was a sweet deal. This is the first time I have ever actually leased a car from a dealer. I've always owned them because it was cheaper and I'm not that excited about cars anyway.

    Checked with my kids and some of the relatives and they all said it was a good way to go.

    I figure with the warranty's I won't have to worry about repairs.

    Most of all, I'm getting older and this seemed like a painless, low maintenance way to go. I'm at the age where I only buy ripe bananas.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      If you buy a new car, you need to keep it for a while to get your money's worth out of it, usually beyond the warranty period.

      With all the electronics these days, back-up systems, various warning systems, Sync systems, moon roof, etc. it can get real expensive real quick if things start going wrong.

      At least, that was my thinking in going with the lease. We shall see.

      [I'd ask what you guys think but it's too late now. I've got it for 3 years.]

      .

      Delete
  59. Doug Wed May 24, 01:35:00 AM EDT

    Clinton was criticized by Trump and others for issues surrounding the billions of dollars her charity raised, and the millions of dollars taken in by Clinton family members for speeches. The Clinton Foundation received money from countries at the same time they had business before Secretary of State Clinton.

    Clinton’s husband Bill received huge sums of cash for speeches given to groups that also had business before the U.S. government.

    ===

    Quirk Wed May 24, 08:03:00 AM EDT

    The money the Clinton Foundation got from S.A. came before she was Secretary of State. The money Ivanka will get from S.A. for the Women Empowerment Fund comes at the same time she is acting as a key advisor to the President of U.S. Trump says nothing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      You're right, sad. So sad.

      It’s now possible to look up donation amounts on the Clinton Foundation’s website. Using Trump’s Saudi Arabia example, Saudi Arabia shows up as having given between $10 million and $25 million since the foundation started. When it began in 1997, the foundation’s main goal was to build the Clinton presidential library, although it left open the option to "engage in any and all other charitable, educational and scientific activities" that nonprofits are allowed to do under federal law.

      The Washington Post reported that Saudi Arabia gave about $10 million to build the library. (According to the Post, the Saudis gave a similar amount to the George H.W. Bush library.)  After the library donation, the Saudis gave very little and stopped giving entirely during the time Clinton was secretary of state. She stepped down in early February 2013.

      Saudi Arabia gave again in 2014, but it was a small fraction of what the Gulf State kingdom had given before. These details come from news reports, and when we brought the numbers to the foundation staff, they said they were accurate...


      http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/jul/07/fact-checking-donations-clinton-foundation/

      .

      Delete
  60. Quirk Wed May 24, 08:03:00 AM EDT

    The post I put up was about hypocrisy.

    ===

    The posts I put up are about what a biased, self-righteous Dick you are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      If you mean biased against assholes, you're probably right.

      .

      Delete
    2. Biased as in defending the Criminal Hillary with false analogies.

      Delete
    3. .

      I wasn't defending Hillary. I was calling out Trump for a friggin hypocrite.

      You've got a binary mind that often makes you look like a fool.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      Hillary went into my rear view mirror on November 9.

      .

      Delete
    5. Except when you paint her as cleaner than she is to contrast with the Trumps.

      Delete
    6. .

      I didn't paint her as anything. I put down the facts.

      Clinton and Ivanka where peripheral elements in my post which was centered on Trump's hypocrisy. Call them collateral damage if you like.

      .

      Delete
    7. I give up.

      Full of shit in total denial.

      Delete
    8. The one-sided "Truthometer" on display.

      Again

      Delete
    9. .

      I give up.

      Full of shit in total denial.



      Now, now, don't be too hard on yourself.

      .

      Delete
  61. Resting Pope Face

    He's such a bundle of joy.

    http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Trump-Pope-memes-Francis-Vatican-City-sad-looking-11170033.php#photo-12962147

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/61/34/45/12962150/3/1024x1024.jpg

      Delete
    2. Quoting the always reliable Washington Post.

      Delete
    3. Leaving out Bill.

      ...although he is related.

      Like Jared and Ivanka.

      Delete
    4. "Clinton and Ivanka where peripheral elements..."

      :-)

      You should run for office.

      Delete
  62. I'm at the age where I only buy ripe bananas.

    Quirk the Elder

    he he

    That's pretty good, ol' Quirk. I don't think I've ever heard that particular turn of phrase before, but then my hearing started going down hill about 30 years ago, and, I've heard enough already, particularly from you. But I got a chuckle, thanks.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  63. Lengthy conversation with a guy I know at the Casino:

    Bob: How ya doin', Bill ?

    Bill: Still vertical.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Montana Special Election Updates - Vote Is Tomorrow -

    Republicans: Montana special election 'closer than it should be'
    It's the latest example of a tight race in a traditional GOP stronghold.By ELENA SCHNEIDER and GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI 05/24/2017 05:17 AM EDT

    BOZEMAN, MT - MAY 21: Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate Rob Quist (L) and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) greet supporters during a campaign rally on May 21, 2017 in Bozeman, Montana. Rob Quist is campaigning with Sanders ahead of a May 25 special election to fill Montana's single congressional seat. Quist is in a tight race against republican Greg Gianforte. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    Democratic congressional candidate Rob Quist and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders greet supporters at a campaign rally May 21 in Bozeman, Mont. | Getty


    GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Republican Greg Gianforte’s closing motivational speech to voters ahead of Thursday’s special House election in Montana is the same thing GOP strategists are whispering in private: “This race is closer than it should be.”

    It’s a recurring nightmare of a pattern for Republicans around the country, as traditional GOP strongholds prove more difficult and expensive for the party to hold than it ever anticipated when President Donald Trump plucked House members like Ryan Zinke, the former Montana Republican now running the Interior Department, for his Cabinet. Gianforte is still favored to keep the seat red, but a state Trump carried by 20 percentage points last year became a battleground in the past few months.


    Democrat Rob Quist, a folk singer and first-time candidate, has raised more than $6 million for his campaign, including $1 million in the past week alone as energized Democratic donors pour online cash into political causes this year. Quist hopes that enthusiasm also contributes to an outsize turnout — as it did in special elections in Kansas and Georgia earlier this year — for the oddly scheduled Thursday election, happening just before a holiday weekend.

    "I remember talking to people when it first started who said this was a slam dunk, Gianforte’s it. And it’s not there anymore,” said Jim Larson, the Montana Democratic Party chairman. “It is a lot closer than people ever thought it would be.”

    Gianforte, a technology executive, has led consistently in polls for the special election, but Quist has narrowed that lead to single digits in recent weeks, according to private surveys. “Gianforte has an edge, but it’s not going to be a slam dunk,” said one national GOP strategist....

    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/24/montana-special-election-quist-gianforte-238746


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dems Target Trumpcare in Uphill Montana House Race
      By Caitlin Huey-Burns
      RCP Staff
      May 24, 2017

      The steady stream of revelations about the U.S. intelligence community’s Russia investigation and the White House provides ample political fodder for the loyal opposition. The appointment of a special counsel slightly more than 100 days into the new administration and President Trump's loose lips figure to help stock the arsenal. But Democrats aiming to rebuild their party see health care and other Trump policies as more potent and accessible issues for voters.

      The day after a new report that Trump allegedly asked top intelligence officials to push back against the FBI probe, Democrats seized on the president's newly released budget proposal, which would make cuts to programs that have benefitted constituencies that voted for him. On Wednesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is slated to release its analysis of the House Republicans' already unpopular health care replacement bill, which will likely create more fuel for opponents. And while a group of Democratic lawmakers is calling for Trump's impeachment, congressional leaders have tried to tamp down those cries.


      That's not to say Democrats' don't see political advantages in Trump's controversies. The president's approval rating dropped below 40 percent last week, and some polling found him losing ground with key support groups. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added 20 new Trump districts to its 2018 target list this week. But even with chances to criticize Trump so abundant, some Democrats are concerned about repeating their 2016 mistakes by not reaching voters on issues that impact them.

      “It always comes back to kitchen table issues," said Democratic strategist Lynda Tran. "I don't think the current reality we're in has changed that all that much ... you cannot allow your candidacy or campaign to be sidetracked by the daily chaos coming out of the Trump White House."

      The potency of both health care policy and the political climate surrounding the president comes to a head in a special election in Montana on Thursday to fill an at-large House seat vacated by Republican Ryan Zinke, who is now secretary of the interior in the Trump administration. Republicans have held the seat for two decades, and Trump won the state by more than 20 points. But Montana voters have an independent streak. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester has represented Montana for two terms, as has Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, who defeated Republican businessman Greg Gianforte last year by four points....

      http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/05/24/dems_target_trumpcare_in_uphill_montana_house_race.html

      Delete

  65. Quirk Wed May 24, 05:37:00 PM EDT
    .

    I didn't paint her as anything. I put down the facts.

    ===

    Leaving out Bill after I pointed out the FACT that he repeatedly got paid off while she was in office.

    You make post after post as if it never happened.

    ...because it suits your "fact based" argument.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quirk's a fool that's got a binary mind that often makes him look like a fool.

      Delete
    2. A binary minded summer fool....

      Delete
    3. One look, and one can tell immediately, yup, that man's a fool....

      Delete
    4. “No. The two kinds of fools we have in Russia," Karkov grinned and began. "First there is the winter fool. The winter fool comes to the door of your house and he knocks loudly. You go to the door and you see him there and you have never seen him before. He is an impressive sight. He is a very big man and he has on high boots and a fur coat and a fur hat and he is all covered with snow. First he stamps his boots and snow falls from them. Then he takes off his fur coat and shakes it and more snow falls from them, Then he takes off his fur hat and knocks it against the door. More snow falls from his fur hat. Then he stamps his boots again and advances into the room. Then you look at him and you see he is a fool. That is the winter fool."

      "Now in the summer you see a fool going down the street and he is waving his arms and jerking his head from side to side and everybody from two hundred yards away can tell he is a fool. that is a summer fool. This economist is a winter fool.”


      ― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

      http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/468258-no-the-two-kinds-of-fools-we-have-in-russia

      Delete
  66. Conversations between the officials targeted Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman for Trump at the time and Michael Flynn, the retired general who was advising Trump during the campaign. American spies collected the information last summer, according to the Times.

    ...

    Some of the Russian officials involved in the communications bragged about how well they knew Flynn while others discussed utilizing ties between Viktor F. Yanukovych, the deposed Ukranian president living in exile in Russia, and Manafort, according to the report.

    Both Manafort and Yanukovych previously worked closely together.

    ReplyDelete