Month: February 2018

Closing Thought–19Feb18

I have been called an apologist by some of my right wing brethren….still not sure why….but that aside anything I write about Fearless Leader and these same brethren make excuses for the actions of their bromance, Trump…..does that not make them the apologist?

Moving on…….

Pres. Trump has lied tooth and nail to his supporters and they take it without the lube to make it less painful…..

What am I talking about?

Lots like the companies that announced the big bonuses after the signing of the new tax cut bill…..AT&T, Comcast, et al fired workers just before Christmas….for one example…..

Others?  Certainly!

Trump is all about American workers right?

Trump’s hotels and resorts are not hiring Americans to fill their seasonal job vacancies, despite his rhetoric about “America first.” Since he was inaugurated, none of the seasonal jobs at his resorts have been filled by Americans.

Vox reports that in an analysis of filings that the Trump Organization made with the U.S. Department of Labor between 2016 to 2017, only one American worker was hired — in August 2016 — for the 144 open positions for servers, cooks, housekeepers, and bartenders.

The remaining 143 positions were taken by foreign guest workers who were granted H-2B visas.

Most of the jobs included in the survey were at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort where he has spent a majority of his weekends since he took office. Also included were the Trump National Golf Clubs in Briarcliff Manor, New York, and Jupiter, Florida.

Apparently putting American workers first does not apply to his properties.

There is more…..

The Trump 2019 budget craps on factory workers …remember them?

President Donald Trump has promised that dying American industries and factory towns will come “roaring back” under his presidency. But if his budget proposal for 2019 is any sign, his administration won’t do much to make that happen.

In the budget plan released Monday, the Trump White House proposed slashing more than $300 million in spending on some of the few federal programs meant to boost manufacturing in distressed communities — the same industrial towns in decline that turned out heavily for Trump. The White House had proposed the same thing last year, though Congress kept most of the funding in place for 2018.

Trump’s administration wants to end key economic development programs run by the Department of Commerce. The budget calls for the Commerce Department to completely eliminate the Economic Development Administration (EDA), which, among other things, provides grants to help American manufacturers compete with global competitors. The administration also wants to do away with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which helps funds manufacturing innovation centers in every state and Puerto Rico.

https://www.vox.com/2018/2/13/17004590/trump-budget-cuts-manufacturing-michigan-west-virginia

Just a couple of example of what a lying piece of fecal matter this president is…..I will leave it there and await the excuses from his supporters with the built in knee pads.

Time to go and wait for the attacks and insults….after all that is what this bromance does…..so I expect them to follow suit.

TTFN……chuq

It Is Not A Democracy

You know that there is always someone going to point out the US is not  democracy but rather a republic…..usually it is someone that is trying to make a point but have nothing to add to the conversation…..

It is true we are a republic…meaning that we cannot elect the president directly….instead it has to go through the whole electoral college thing.

Personally, I have stated many times that the EC has run its course and it is time to get rid of that dinosaur from our early days.

It will not be eliminated simple because our country can only support the 2 party system……according to some government would collapse if we ever rid ourselves of the EC….that the US would slide into anarchy.

I disagree.

The wealthy elite that are our founders did not want a democracy……..

I’ve already confessed my bad attitude about the Electoral College system. And I’ve listed 10 of the potentially serious ways it can screw up our choice of national leaders. The trouble with such a list is that it implies that we have somehow been saddled with the worst system possible. It needs to be said that no system for choosing a national leader would be perfect (although I do believe that considering the anachronistic elements of our system, we could definitely do better).

All this system-bashing could also begin to imply that I have no respect or appreciation for the Framers. That’s not so. Although I don’t seem to have the normal allotment of reverence for the Constitution or its authors, I see them as very smart guys, many of them heroes of the War for Independence, who came to Philadelphia in the summer 1787 hoping to — and trying hard to — make things better.

https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2012/10/why-constitution-s-framers-didn-t-want-us-directly-elect-president

One in a series of articles. You can read the whole series here.

It’s All About National Security

The release of the now infamous memo brings the thought of national security to the forefront…..got me to thinking about when our obsession with NatSec began…..

The beginning of the Cold War and Truman was worried about the expansion of the USSR……1947……

The National Security Act of 1947 mandated a major reorganization of the foreign policy and military establishments of the U.S. Government. The act created many of the institutions that Presidents found useful when formulating and implementing foreign policy, including the National Security Council (NSC).

The act also established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which grew out of World War II era Office of Strategic Services and small post-war intelligence organizations. The CIA served as the primary civilian intelligence-gathering organization in the government. Later, the Defense Intelligence Agency became the main military intelligence body. The 1947 law also caused far-reaching changes in the military establishment. The War Department and Navy Department merged into a single Department of Defense under the Secretary of Defense, who also directed the newly created Department of the Air Force. However, each of the three branches maintained their own service secretaries. In 1949 the act was amended to give the Secretary of Defense more power over the individual services and their secretaries.

You now have the back story of the beginning of our NatSec framework….while I agree that it was ma necessity back then I also think that it needs some reformation…..

The year 2017 marked the 70th anniversary of the National Security Act of 1947. To commemorate the landmark legislation that powerfully shaped the American national security enterprise, over 60 prominent scholars, practitioners, and national security experts gathered at the United States Military Academy over the course of two years to consider national security reform in the modern era. In April 2016, the group examined how the world has changed since the end of the Second World War and, building upon those discussions in April 2017, endeavored to develop specific, actionable recommendations for reforming our national security institutions and processes.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/02/02/national_security_reform_for_a_new_era_113001.html

It is a defense industry solution…..while I may not agree with every word I do believe that it needs to be upgraded for the 21st century.  More weapons will not guarantee more peace.

Gas ‘Em, Dan-o

Since the Civil War began in Syria there have been report after report of gas attacks by the Syrian forces……reports and accusations but not one of the alleged attacks could be verified…..but Hell that never stopped the propaganda machine from accusing…..

After over 7 years of warfare not much has changed….the gas attack reports just keep flying off the printed page……just the other day….

 U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said on Saturday that public reports showed Syria was using chemical weapons and added that it was time for the international community to hold the Syrian government to account.

“Public accounts and photos clearly show that Assad’s chemical weapons use is continuing,” McMaster said at the annual Munich Security Conference.

“It is time for all nations to hold the Syrian regime and its sponsors accountable for their actions and support the efforts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” he said, without specifying which public accounts or pictures he was referring to.

The US has repeatedly accused the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons in its long-running civil war. Earlier this month, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the Syrian government had repeatedly used chlorine gas, but stressed that the U.S. did not have evidence of sarin gas use.

So far they are accusations with no proof…..

There was another alleged gas attack but this time the accusation is leveled at Turkey……

 Multiple reports emerged on Friday claiming that Turkish troops used shells containing poisonous gas in their attacks in Afrin, hitting the town of Aranda with such shells, and hospitalizing six civilians with breathing problems.

Details are still scant, and there are no details on what chemical they were exposed to, but similar accounts have been made by the Kurdish YPG, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and the Syrian state media.

Such an incident is a potentially major deal, as Turkey isn’t known to have ever had chemical weapons in the first place, let alone to have any now. It’s possible, however, that certain chemicals they do have were deployed in a way inconsistent with international law.

Interesting not a word in the MSM about the Turkish accusation……we will ignore the possibility for they are an ally……

What makes Syrian newsworthy and Turkish not?

Easy answer…..propaganda.

Why Go To The Gym?

Speaking of 6 pack abs………

Another Sunday and Spring is creeping into the local weather patterns…..warm days, cool nights and fog….ergo Spring.

Cut the chit chat and get to the stuff…..

I read an article in a Russian source that I just had to share……

Are you a member of a gym?

You may be gay!

A Malaysian newspaper has published a gay-spotter’s checklist. It includes things like being a gym member or having a beard as signs of male homosexuality.

The helpful list of hints on how to spot members of the LGBT community has been published in the Malaysian daily newspaper Sinar Harian, alongside a piece featuring Islamic cleric Hanafiah Malik deploring the rise of homosexuality, which many Muslims consider sinful, in the south-east Asian country.

“[They] like going to the gym but not for exercising, but to ogle others,” reads one of the bullet points, adding that gay men have a penchant for beards and branded clothes and that their eyes light up when they see a handsome slice of beefcake

https://www.rt.com/news/418612-malaysia-gay-detector-list/

WELL?

With that I leave you to contemplate the possibility…….surely someone will take this report seriously…..but I am not one of them.

Last day of a restful weekend…..hope your was as restful as mine……be well, be safe…..chuq

Dark Side Of The Olympics

In case my reader is unaware…..the 23rd Olympics is in full swing (the  US is not doing so well)….one of the more popular events of the Olympics is figure skating (I had rather watch Curling)…..but this sport has a darker side (not the same as the darker side of gymnastics)…..eating disorders…..

Figure skating….all the beauty and grce hides some ugly side effects…..

The figure skating competition has grabbed headlines at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

However, two competitors who made huge impact four years ago are absent from the Games.

US skater Gracie Gold, 18 at the Sochi Olympics four years ago, seemed destined for bigger things after winning team bronze, while 15-year-old Russian skater Yulia Lipnitskaya dazzled the crowds with her flexibility, grace and technique on the way to gold.

But due to eating disorders, both have quit the sport permanently.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/eating-disorders-dark-side-figure-skating-180214121827556.html

Not something they want to hype for the games for it may dampen the enthusiasm for the games.  That is the ugliness……image is more important the sport.

Doping is not the worse thing that could happen to a competitor.

Body image is a real problem apparently….I even heard an announcer comment that one of the curlers had to lose 30 lbs if he wanted to be on the team….really?  You have to have 6 pack abs to slide a stone down the ice?

Poetic Justice

Back to my normal posting schedule for weekends……..

Saturday and the world is all right by me…..time for me to kick back and enjoy the time away from the silliness we can civilization……

We all have an idea of what karma is, right?

What about the thing called “poetic justice”?

I think I found the perfect example for my readers……

A man believed to be illegally hunting lions in South Africa ended up being the prey himself. Authorities found the remains of the man in a private game park near the renowned Kruger National Park, and a police spokesman provides the grisly details to AFP: “It seems the victim was poaching in the game park when he was attacked and killed by lions,” he says. “They ate his body, nearly all of it, and just left his head and some remains.” Police still haven’t identified the man, and the hunch that he was a poacher comes from the discovery of a rifle near the remains, reports the Sowetan.

The game park is in Limpopo province, where poaching has been on the increase in recent years. Body parts from lions and other big-game animals are in demand for use in traditional medicine in both Africa and Asia, reports the BBC. Last year, for example, multiple lions were found near a farm in Limpopo with their heads and paws cut off. (A rhino hunter in Namibia also learned the hard way about the dangers of his trade.)

Buy that lion a side of beef!  Just one less prick that murders animals for profit……

Time to take my leave…peace out my friends…..chuq

Foreign Attack On American Soil

I guess my days of posting on weekends things that were not necessarily “big news” stories are gone.

I can remember when Fridays were considered slow news days…..those days as well are gone……..

This is not about a physical attack on American soil but rather an information war from the Russians….indictments are handed down for these “terrorists”…..

Thirteen Russians and three Russian entities were charged Friday with an elaborate plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
The indictment, brought by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, alleges that Russians used bogus social media postings and advertisements fraudulently purchased in the name of Americans to sway political opinion during the race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, per the AP. The charges are the most direct allegation to date of illegal Russian meddling in the election. As for any links to the Trump campaign: Some of the suspects “interacted with Americans associated with the Trump campaign, but those Trump associates did not realize they were being manipulated,” per the Washington Post.

The Post adds that the charges are linked to a “notorious Russian troll farm” known as the Internet Research Agency. “From in or around 2014 to the present, defendants knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (and with persons known and unknown to the grand jury) to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016,’’ the indictment states. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein said the goal of those charged Friday was “spreading distrust” of 2016 candidates and the political system.

Before I go any further I need to state that NO Americans are named in this indictment……the president or otherwise.  But that did not stop the president to take this indictment and make it about him.

Following Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russian nationals for crimes related to interfering with the 2016 presidential election, President Trump claimed victory, the Hill reports. “Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President,” Trump tweeted Friday. “The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong – no collusion!” Sarah Huckabee Sanders added that Trump “is glad to see the special counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected.” But the White House’s celebration may be premature.

A “person with knowledge of the probe” tells Bloomberg that Mueller is still investigating possible collusion between Russia and Trump or his associates and that Friday’s indictments are only a small part of Mueller’s investigation, which may include obstruction of justice by Trump. And federal investigators haven’t actually concluded Russian interference didn’t impact the 2016 election. Furthermore, the indictments disprove Trump’s repeated claims that Russian election interference is “fake news,” the Daily Beast reports. In November, Trump said he believed Vladimir Putin when the Russian president said Russia didn’t meddle in the election. Elsewhere, the New York Times has a profile of one of the people indicted Friday. Yevgeny Prigozhin, one of Russia’s richest men, got his start running a hot-dog stand after prison before eventually running a Russian troll farm

This did not name any American nor did it clear any American of wrong doing to include the president.

This should have all Americans on the edge of their chairs…..regardless of who won some damn election this is an attack on our soil….on our election process and I cannot understand why more Americans are not up in arms over this.

For years the Russians were the bastards of the international stage and now they are just a group of guys going about screwing with our elections our society and Americans are okay with it.

What has happened to this country that we are willing to overlook this attack?

May I suggest before you make any statement that you read the indictment or you could just go to FOX and get the pile of crap…..be informed for a damn change!

https://www.scribd.com/document/371673753/Russian-Indictment

More Stupidity On The Shooting

Just when you thought it was safe to watch the news….the latest school shooting brings out all the morons….the latest moron is the idiot Floridians elected twice as governor, Rick Scott……

The Republican governor of Florida is calling for the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray in the wake of the FBI’s admission it ignored a warning about the man suspected of killing 17 people in Wednesdays’ school shooting in Parkland, CBS News reports. “Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn’t going to cut it,” Gov. Rick Scott says in a statement. “An apology will never bring these 17 Floridians back to life or comfort the families who are in pain.” Earlier Friday the FBI admitted “protocols were not followed” after a tip was called in to the FBI’s public access line last month but not passed along to the Miami field office. Scott says that’s “unacceptable” and the FBI has damaged the public’s belief in the effectiveness of “see something, say something.”

Scott isn’t the only one with harsh words for Wray. “The FBI apologized? Tell that to families,” a family friend of one of the victims tells Reuters. “People were seeing something and saying something and it still happened.” Meanwhile Republican Sen. Marco Rubio called for a congressional investigation into the FBI’s lack of action, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to “conduct an immediate review” of how the FBI and Justice Department handle violent threats. But Eric Levitz at New York states Wray isn’t the one to blame, as he doesn’t manage the FBI tip line or Miami field office. He says Scott is trying “to deflect attention away from the governor’s A+ NRA rating, or to abet the president’s efforts to ‘purge’ the FBI of ‘disloyal’ elements.”

This call is silly!

Okay the FBI was warned and apparently there was nothing that triggered their suspicion…they moved on and this twat with a gun went on his spree.

What  should the FBI done?  Lock this idiot up without probable cause?

Good one but according to the Constitution we are still a democracy with laws….at least for now.  But it is not looking good for the future.

So this call from the governor is just another coward playing politics with the shooting.

Just another asshole attacking the FBI to help the narrative set forth by the guy in silk PJs in DC.

Closing Thought–16Feb18

Dictators always get their due! (most times)

There is one thing, well there are many but in this case there is just one, about Trump and his seemingly admiration for authoritarian leaders like Putin, Erdogan and Duterte…..these types of leaders seem to always have a heavy hand when dealing with there population especially those in opposition…..and an American president seems to like their actions.

Duterte has even gone so far as to brag about personally killing people……his boasting may have got his cocky ass in hot water with the ICC……

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte welcomes a preliminary investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity now underway by the International Criminal Court, a spokesman said Thursday, marking an about-face for a man who once described the ICC as “bulls—.” Duterte is “sick and tired of being accused” and is prepared to defend himself in court, though the investigation is “a waste of the court’s time and resources,” spokesman Harry Roque said in announcing the inquiry that is to decide whether there’s evidence to build a case, report the New York Times and Guardian. Roque maintained the government crackdown that’s left an estimated 12,000 people dead under Duterte’s leadership—though police put the number at 4,000—is a “legitimate police operation” to weed out drugs.

Duterte swore to “kill” criminals when he took office in June 2016. He has since faced accusationsof mass murder while keeping up a “great relationship” with President Trump. It’s those allegations that launched the ICC probe, confirmed by a prosecutor, per the Guardian. In a complaint sent to the ICC last April, a Filipino lawyer representing two men who say they were assassins for Duterte called him a “mastermind” of killings spanning the three decades since he became mayor of Davao in 1988. “Hopefully a warrant of arrest will be issued by the ICC against Duterte and his cohorts,” 11 of whom are named in the complaint, the lawyer said, per the Times. Arguing the government is attempting a cover-up, Duterte political opponent Gary Alejano says ICC officials “are the only ones who can step in.”

To illustrate what a “swell” guy this toad Duterte truly is……

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told soldiers last week to shoot female rebels in their genitals, the latest of several violent, misogynistic remarks.

Addressing a group of former communist rebels on Wednesday, Duterte, who served as a mayor before becoming president, appeared to encourage the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to target women in conflict.

“Tell the soldiers. ‘There’s a new order coming from the mayor. We won’t kill you. We will just shoot your vagina,’ ” he said.

“If there is no vagina, it would be useless,” Duterte continued, according to local media reports, appearing to imply that women are useless without their genitals.

This is the little prick that Trump had glowing remarks about….

Personally I think all nations should be members of the ICC but some countries are afraid to be held up to international laws…..countries like the USA.