Dress right, winter's not such a beast

Twenty-five degrees on the mountain this morning. Forecasters say it should be around 13 this time tomorrow. 

Glad I've added to my winter clothing line the past couple years, especially since I'm spending more time where there's more than an outsider random risk of deep freezes, snow and ice over winter.

Here's a run down of some of the things I've come to depend on, or have recently bought to stay warm outside in wintertime (Not a complete rundown, but it should highlight most critical areas): 

Been wearing Henley style thermal long-sleeves under button-up shirts most days since fall's colder weather set in. And I'm not embarrassed to say I've grown accustomed to long-john style drawers as well for cold days.

I don't care much for the long-john bottoms found in most retail stores. Some are a cotton and poly mix, and I prefer to eliminate as much cotton as possible in deep cold, especially if there's any chance of getting wet. There's polyester base layer stuff for sale at some sporting goods stores, but those I found were a tad to clingy to be a favorite. Upon discovering military surplus drawers of the LWCWUS variety a couple years back, I became a fan. Not as cheap as two years ago, but often still a good buy can be found if you go looking online.

And I wear wool socks year round, they seem to keep my feet cooler in the summer, warm in the winter. They wick moisture. My feet are  happier.

My wife bought me a name-brand polyester-nylon coat last winter that's not much for warmth on its own, but with a couple layers underneath, it's pretty awesome down into the mid-20s. For really cold days, I drag out my M-65 Field Jacket  (bought at a thrift shop over a decade ago) with a fleece liner.

I picked up a polyester Ushanka style hat off Amazon, and it's doing a super job of keeping my head warm on really cold and wet days. Cost about 12 bucks. If it gets wet, I toss it in the dryer, and it's ready to go again in no time.  I also found what seem to be a nice set of insulated waterproof boots on big box closeout right before Christmas, but I've not had opportunity for any field testing yet. Gloves, for now, are Thinsulate lined leathers work gloves picked up at Walmart.

I've found winter's really not such a beast if you have the right attire. Even if the roads are closed by snow or ice and you have to walk off the mountain.

Charlie Daniels says...

Via Twitter:

Note to media
You guys really need to watch the tapes of your telecasts.
You’ve stopped sounding like news reporters, more closely resembling a petulant kindergarten class
You’re supposed to report the news, not make it up as you go.

— Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) December 30, 2017

Last Caturday of 2017...

Be careful out there.

Well, huh...

Just cuz this will drive Democrats and other Trump-haters up the wall:

Rasmussen Poll shows Trump at 46% APPROVE this morning, with 53% DISAPPROVE...

What about Obama at same exact date first year in presidency?? 46% APPROVE, 53% DISAPPROVE! pic.twitter.com/tKaruSdrpv

— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) December 28, 2017

Worth a read. What anti-Trumpers call "resistance" might also aptly be described as "civil war."

"The new civil war is being fought by lawyers in blue or gray suits not with bullets, but with bullet points... It’s still a paper civil war. For now." - Daniel Greenfield

They don't make TV shows like they used to

From the Annie Oakley series from 1956...

Streaming, eh?

 LA Times:

Even with 'Star Wars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and streaming

Is it ticket prices or streaming that's hurting movie box office more, or is it the off-screen push by Hollywood celebs advocating progressive politics?

Mueller's failing to impress

More than a third of Americans don't know who Robert Mueller is. Those seeing him favorably remains below 30 percent, says a WSJ/NBC poll.

Can you imagine being sheeple enough to not know who he is by now?

What's the end result of one-way tolerance?

We're constantly chided to be tolerant, but to what extent should we extend our tolerance to those who preach hatred and intolerance of us and our traditions?

Via Memri:

BIRMINGHAM-BASED (UK) ISLAMIC "EXORCIST" ABU IBRAHEEM HUSNAYN: WE MUST HATE CHRISTMAS, VALENTINE’S DAY, DIWALI, AND HANNUKAH

Yes, WORSE than Watergate...

Rand Paul's on to something here.

Time to investigate high ranking Obama government officials who might have colluded to prevent the election of @realDonaldTrump! This could be WORSE than Watergate!

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 21, 2017

Nixon used a small group of White House insiders for his attempts at dirty tricks. What happened last year appears to have used politically weaponized federal agencies (or at least powerful insiders willing to use their agencies as cover) in collusion with one campaign to target another.

Civil War

If the USA has another, what might it look like?

"Dangerous," he says

CNN talking head says Fox News sounds "dangerous." 

CNN feeling uncomfortable when a competitor expresses viewpoint counter to its own?

Guess what? First Amendment applies to Fox News as much as CNN. And it's my distinct impression that CNN has had to retract, correct, or clarify far more stories than Fox in recent months.

Something to think about as the week begins...

Yes, it's political.

And it comes from Twitter:

So, now we know that pre-Inauguration the Trump team was:
-unmasked & spied on
-targeted by lawyers who offered six-figure sums to make allegations against Trump
-the subject of an FBI/Strzok/Page/McCabe “insurance” plan
This is an affront to everything this country stands for.

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) December 15, 2017

Does he know something we don't?

Via Twitter:

ABSOLUTE RED LINE: the firing of Bob Mueller or crippling the special counsel’s office. If removed or meaningfully tampered with, there must be mass, popular, peaceful support of both. The American people must be seen and heard - they will ultimately be determinative.

— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) December 17, 2017

I'm not sure anyone in power wants to remove Mueller at present.

His team is inflicting the damage on itself, just let 'em continue until all credibility is gone.

The Trump-Russia collusion narrative is being unmasked for what it is

An excellent assessment of how we may have arrived at where we are today...

Via Twitter:

It’s all very simple.

McCabe & Ohr gave Fusion GPS an oppo project on behalf of Hillary with a wink and nod from Lynch & Obama, then weaponized FBI & DOJ to legitimize it.

Strzok’s orders came from McCabe.

Comey’s came from Lynch.

They never expected a Hillary loss.

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 12, 2017

Obama seems to change his tune...

Former President Barack Obama now appears to suggest a potential rise of facism in the U.S.

"Former President Barack Obama urged voters this week to stay engaged in democracy, warning that complacency was responsible for the rise of Nazi Germany," reports CNN. 

Same Obama, as president, told voters that government was too complex for their understanding.

Obama, as president, said voters shouldn't fret over government complexities, they should let "professional politicians" handle things.

Where'd this come from?

Last night's weather forecast said we'd get some mid to late morning snow showers.


No mention of anything overnight. No mention of accumulation.

And I wake up to this...

The only road up and down this mountain is narrow, steep, and has a tremendous drop off.

Looks like I'm staying put for the time being.

The Jerusalem shuffle

Democrats are especially quick to criticize President Trump's decision to move the U.S Emabassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Take note how senate Democrats voted when the move was approved as legislation in 1995:

S. 1322 (104th): Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995

December 7 remembered. And a photo from December 8, 1941...

Friday, December 7, 2012

One more Pearl Harbor remembrance photo

Never forget 2402 American lives were lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A Marine rifle squad fires a volley over the bodies of fifteen officers and men killed at Naval Air Station Kanoehe Bay during the Pearl Harbor raid. These burial ceremonies took place on 8 December 1941, the day after the attack. U.S. Navy photo via NHHC.

Tainted

At the very least, tainted in perception. Very likely tainted in actual undertakings. 

Glitchy game

Must've been a huge online audience for Saturday's SEC championship game. The CBS online stream we're forced to watch at the cabin (no access to cable, and trees preclude a dish) kept choking, freezing, and rebuffering.

We ended up listening on radio, and watching the defective delayed stream as snippets of after-the-fact highlights.

We enjoyed the Dawg's radio commentary more than that of CBS.

BTW, CBS stream quit glitching as soon as the game ended, so it appears it was an overloaded server, bandwidth, or some such problem during the game.

One more thought: If viewership of a football game can choke online television, what might happen in the event where a panicked audience piled on in a national emergency or some such thing?

Online TV is great, but it seems it's still got some bugs in it.

Record Black Friday gun sales

Don and I took a stab at some analysis on last Friday's program.

But the idea that Black Friday 2017 again delivered record gun sales took us both by surprise.


Among my thoughts: Where the heck are people putting all these guns they keep buying?

How many of the guns bought in the past few years have yet to be taken out of the box and fired?

Too true for too many

Saw this on Facebook... 

Add Pakistan...

...to the growing number of potential international flash points. 

Stark contrast

Contrasting the new normal, and what was once the norm.

The DC shuffle

Seen the headline?

House Republicans Pass Tax Reform Bill

I wish they'd quit trying to pass off what's being done in Washington as "tax reform." At best, it's a tax shuffling. You might call it a can-kick.

If it's reform, some of it goes the wrong direction. Fewer people will pay any tax at all. Fewer people paying anything at all means a larger pool of people who will vote for stuff knowing someone else will bear the burden of providing it.

They call it more progressive. Are those pushing this learned enough to know it was Karl Marx himself who pushed the idea of progressive income tax?

More questions raised than answered

It's reported Roy Moore hung out at the local shopping mall and high school football games. The allegation is he used such locales as pick-up zones. But these are exactly the kind of places a local aspiring politician would frequent to interact with voters, to have a "face" in the community.

It's also been alleged to be an open secret that Moore dated teenage "girls" in the late '70s, implying validity to the allegation he was a sexual predator. But are we really to believe "everyone" at the courthouse, and in the district attorneys office "knew" Moore was predator, but they said nothing for 40 years, waiting only until less than 30 days before an special U.S. senate election?

Also lost in the telling of the story is the difference in societal norms today versus 40 years ago. What might be deemed innocent flirting circa 1979 (or thereabouts) might be considered sexual harassment today. Also in the late '70s, teens were more mature. Eighteen was seen as being an adult. It was still in an era when many entered the work force right out of high school as opposed to going to college. And yes, many young women (and men) still married shortly after graduating high school. 

I have no personal knowledge of what transpired with Moore in Gadsden, Alabama 40 years ago, but the attacks so far are no slam dunk.

I'm also curious why both Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell were so quick to publicly profess they  believe the allegations are true. Is there some "dossier" being passed around among GOP establishment? If so, who wrote it, and who paid to have it produced?

Based on the timing, an orchestrated fabricated smear, like those apparently attempted against Donald Trump last year, seems plausible. A rush to judgment by political establishment in DC, with no obvious effort to vet the allegations, should raise more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, in Chicago...

While gun crime gets most the headlines, Chicago has other types of violent crime too.

Groups of high school girls tearing into each other, for instance. 

Government negligence. Government incompetence

"...in what is becoming a common theme in these mass shootings, no amount of background checking would have stopped the shooter in Sutherland Springs, Texas from purchasing his firearms, because the federal government failed to do it’s job properly. It’s not the first time. "

Add this log to the fire...

The military has long been aware of its crime reporting lapses.

How'd that revolution work out, comrades?

Via Twitter:

Nov 7, 1917 - Bolshevik newspaper Pravda promises "Bread! Peace! Land!" #100yearsago pic.twitter.com/D5rZnI3LrL

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) November 7, 2017

Clerical error

There are those to want to give government ever more control over our lives...

Yet government can't be trusted to handle the basic tasks that go with the control it's already exerted. 

Armed neighbor responded with a rifle

First armed person to engage Sunday's Texas church shooter was a neighbor,  not a police officer or deputy. The civilian intervention disarmed the shooter, may have killed him. 

Story here reads like it was all over by the time police or sheriff's deputies rolled up on the bad guy.

If it was the gunman's intention to strike a second target, it was foiled by alert, armed neighbors willing to put their own lives on the line. 

Zinger

Yes, it's Clinton-specific, but likely also has broader reflection of corruption in establishment politics.

It must suck to hijack your party, steal a nomination, turn the DNC into money laundromat,bury any evidence against you, finance fake dossier on opponent,swipe the debate questions, and promise free everything, and still lose to someone you call incompetent.

— Mark Young (@MarkYoungTruth) November 3, 2017

Abuses and consequences

I pretty much assumed something like this had taken place inside the Democratic Party: Obama hijacked it, ran off much of the party's base, left it broke. Then Hillary came along and doubled down on stripping it to a progressive shell.

Now, damn, along comes Donna Brazile who completely validates my outsider assumptions.

Yet Democrat sheeple were so star-struck by their wizards, they never dared to ponder what was happening behind the backstage curtain.

Republicans, too, have an establishment that runs their party for the establishment's interests, not those of the Republican voter.

This is why we now have a populist president. Voters are tired of selfish oligarchs who betray the people with grave regularity.

Thus far, the establishments with both party have shown no interest in reform, in returning to being entities that represent the will or true interests of the American people. They want a top-to-down government with power concentrated at the top.

The longer political establishment pushes against us, the uglier the reckoning will be when it finally comes.  The system can withstand only so much abuse or corruption before something eventually gives way.

I sometimes ponder the little things

I've love to see the pan used to bake the loaf of bread I bought today.

Sheeple are easily led to their own demise

George who?

Acts of cowardice and surrender continue across the nation. 

This is only a test...

From ARRL (the American Radio Relay League):

Elements of the US Department of Defense (DOD) will conduct a “communications interoperability” training exercise November 4-6, once again simulating a “very bad day” scenario. Amateur Radio and MARS organizations will take part. 

“This exercise will begin with a national massive coronal mass ejection event which will impact the national power grid as well as all forms of traditional communication, including landline telephone, cellphone, satellite, and Internet connectivity,” Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY, explained in an announcement.

If this is a drill to test preparedness for a natural disaster (coronal mass ejection), why's DOD running the show and not FEMA?

Point to ponder

"French casualties in France are worse than in Afghanistan. The French lost 70 people to Islamic terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. And 239 to Islamic terrorist attacks in France.  The French losses in Afghanistan were suffered in over a decade of deployment in one of the most dangerous Islamic areas in the world. The French losses in France were suffered in less than two years." - Daniel Greenfield at Sultan Knish

Six Seconds...

WSJ ran an excerpt from a 2010 John Kelly speech this week.

Body of the WSJ content is blocked by a firewall, but I found a prior story elsewhere pulled from the same Kelly address...

Kelly's words make for some powerful prose.

Story of the same two Marines, as told by CBS News in 2009:


We honor those on the front lines overseas who stand their ground.

But why do we continually make up excuses for those here at home, mostly in Washington, for failing to stand their ground in protecting the country and Constitution?

This is disconcerting

Headline from Politico:

George W. Bush slams Trumpism, without mentioning president by name

I'm not so much bothers by what George Bush said.

What's strikes me as important here is that Bush broke his steadfast rule not to criticize or attack a sitting president.

Strikes me, the political establishment must be plenty rattled if it drags Ol' Dubya out in an attempt to get a dig in on Trump.

Prepare for what's coming as you see fit. 

Morning view

Started my day above the clouds.

Had to stop and document it.

Just too much for some folks...

Snowflakes beware. Shakespeare's afoot.

Don't dare attack the cultural propagandists!

 I really don’t think that it’s appropriate to attack comedians. We’re on the right side of things,” said Joy Behar.

Gimme a break. Haven't we had enough of arrogant celebrities who think themselves so much smarter than us, they now actually say we shouldn't dare challenge their views or comments?

Washington Times also covered Behar's idiocy.

Congress plays a dangerous game

"A new gun control proposal in Congress that is being pitched as a bipartisan bump stock ban would actually ban all semi-automatic rifles in the United States, according to an analysis of the proposed bill." - Sean Davis, writing at The Federalist


Same and similar key points from another source in video form:

Cowardly Ryan update

Disingenuous bastard of a Republican Paul Ryan wants President Trump to act against the 2nd Amendment, open the door to more infringement.

iPhone hype

Why would I want an iPhone 8 when I probably use half, maybe a quarter, of the capabilities of an iPhone 5?

A bit of speculation

The people Paddock killed may not have been his primary target. He may have set his sights on something bigger: Destroying piece of our constitutional framework.

SMH

"CNN tried to explain a bump stock with an animation.The animation of the rifle features a suppressor, grenade launcher and no bump stock."

Rights are inherent

"Repeal the Second Amendment, and you're not telling gun owners that their right has been eliminated; you're telling them that the legal and political system under which they live is hostile to rights they take as inherent, and that they'll now have to be more vigilant than ever." - J.D. Tuccille, writing at Reason.

Columbus Day...

Best to note Columbus Day while we can. Hard to say how much longer it stays with us.

Via Twitter:

#Tucker: so the left has finally found the only immigrant in history who had no right to come to America. His name: Christopher Columbus. pic.twitter.com/oo3UU0BFw9

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 10, 2017

Redefining and reconstructing societal values

The media pushes in line with agenda... Via Twitter:

Congratulations to Freidrich Nietzsche on his new role as CNNs weekend push notification editor!! pic.twitter.com/0hXUSy9WZd

— Joe Bernstein (@Bernstein) October 8, 2017

I like my rights

I plan to keep them. 

Unwise to jump to conclusions, she says

NY Times correspondent Rukmini Callimachi says, via Twitter, that ISIS rarely makes false claims of responsibility following terror attacks. Not proof ISIS played a role in Vegas, and she's not convinced ISIS played part, but the reporter thinks it unwise to reject the ISIS claim out of hand.

There's a multi-point thread after her initial tweet:

1. After ISIS claimed Vegas, I was waiting for them to release Naba, their weekly newsletter, to see if anything new emerged. Naba is out: pic.twitter.com/yX8AN3OdSX

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) October 5, 2017

Commercially available "bump stocks" came to be when Obama was president

"Bump stocks" came to the open market after getting clearance from the ATF in 2010. Eric Holder was AG, Obama was president. 

Ignorant and damn proud of it

Gimme a break. Seriously?

From the FreeBeacon:

"Think about what was happening right before this massacre took place. We have a Congress here in Washington, D.C., that was moving in the exact opposite direction," (USA Today's Heidi) Przybyla said. "They were preparing to loosen gun regulations, to allow people to use these silencers, to make them more available." 

"Because the hunters, their ears were hurting," (MSNBC's Stephanie) Ruhle said mockingly, putting her hands over her ears. "Because those hunters, their ears were hurting."  

Przybyla repeated the talking point of "how much worse" the situation in Las Vegas would have been if the killer had used a silencer.

Just a couple of lefty media idiots who are so uninformed they don't have a clue how ignorant they are.

Putting the sound deadening on the barrel of a gun as opposed to directly over one's ears allows for greater awareness of surroundings when hunting or shooting, as well as protecting one's hearing. If someone wanders into your field of fire while hunting, you'll never hear 'em shout if you have buds in or muffs on. You just might hear 'em if your ears are open but the muzzle is is what's suppressed.

Additional thoughts of Vegas conspiracy theories

Okay, I'm tired of hearing two broken windows at the Mandalay Bay hotel translates to two shooters.

The guy had a suite, and by most accounts both these window are in the same suite.

Makes no sense to have a second shooter in close proximity to the first, it undoes any advantage a second shooter would give attacker(s).

Some people are prone to conspiracy theories when events stretch beyond their normalcy bias.

But there have been many mass murders in the past, even in recent years, where the death tolls have been even larger, and inflicted by a single perpetrator. I assess knee-jerk conspiracy theories in the case like this:

People, when confronted with the reality they're more vulnerable that they imagine, try to overly complicate acts of evil to make it seem they're less vulnerable than reality shows. I suppose it's more natural to acknowledge being at risk if you think there's a bunch of people out to get you. Things get scarier when you see one guy can carry out a massively evil act on his own without tipping his hand prior.

Observations post-Vegas

Advocates for gun control frequently point to the UK's gun ban and its alleged success in preventing mass murder. But in terms of mass murder victims in ratio to the overall population, it seems mass killers in the UK have been quite competitive with those in the US in 2017, if not out stripping the US in terms of victim to population ratio, and they haven't needed firearms to do so. Thus far in the UK in 2017, a bomb was used to kill 23 people and injure another 250, while two vehicle/knife attacks took another 14 lives and injured more than 90.

Other mass murders with death tolls vastly outstripping events in Vegas:

One guy with a small bottle of paint thinner killed nearly 200 people on a South Korean subway in 2003. One guy with a jar of gasoline killed 86 people at the Happy Land club in NYC in 1990. It's been speculated a disgruntled gambler set fire to the Winecoff Hotel in downtown Atlanta in December 1946. That fire killed 119.

Yes, we'll see conspiracy theories rising out of the Vegas shooting. Most will be rooted in people trying to preserve their normalcy bias that just one person couldn't commit such a horrific act.

But the fact is, yes, it is possible for one person to do something this horrific. And unless there's real evidence to the contrary that emerges later, the Vegas massacre appears to be a solo operation.

Democrats play politics with Puerto Rico

It would seem the transformation of San Juan's mayor into a radical Trump and FEMA basher didn't take place until after NY Governor (and presumable 2020 Democrat presidential aspirant) Andrew Cuomo visited the island.

Next thing you know, San Juan's mayor is on TV with CNN's New Day, where Chris Cuomo (Andrew's brother) is a host.

A teary-eyed account from a Puerto Rican born Illinois Democrat congressman ripping Trum have also made CNN's air.

San Juan's mayor compares the situation on the ground to genocide. Did she come up with that on her own, or did someone hand her some talking points? BTW, FEMA says the mayor has no idea what's going on concerning federal hurricane relief, because she's refused to participate in briefings.

It appears Democrats still play by Rahm's rule. Never let a crisis go to waste.

For those still keeping score at home...

Via Twitter:

Obamacare hasn't been repealed, taxes haven't been cut, the Wall isn't being built.

Congressional Republicans, you've let us down.

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 28, 2017

Jones Act false narrative

For days, media and left leaning politicians have hounded President Trump for not immediately waiving the Jones Act to help traffic hurricane relief aid into Puerto Rico ports.

But after Trump waived the Jones Act for Puerto Rico, media now reports that it's not the Jones Act that's delaying aid to the island. 

Today's media. Quick to emote. Slow, if not incapable, when it comes to applying analysis or reason.

NFL update...

Via Twitter:

Me too, but I'm an old white lady.
Denied, nonetheless!

— BayAreaFrau (@bayareahausfrau) September 26, 2017

Same ol' same ol'

The New York Times eagerly sugar coated Communism in the 1930s.

And appears to be still at it.

For all its flaws, the Communist revolution taught Chinese women to dream big https://t.co/Fci82iAPxM

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) September 26, 2017

"Just getting started"

"The ruling class and its Democratic Party had been practicing identity politics with increasing intensity for more than a generation. The elections’ outcome convinced them that they needed to engage in it just about exclusively, and in a warlike manner. Possessed of the modern administrative state’s manifold levers of power, they expect to win that war. That is unlikely, if only because its components’ notions of their respective identities’ demands are ever expanding. Hence they preclude imposing any extended peace among themselves, never mind with the rest of America. This impossibility of socio-political peace is the reason why the revolution in which we are living is just getting started." - Angelo Codevilla

A good night for the republic

"Moore crushes Strange in Alabama GOP primary."

This is what's needed. Grassroots uprisings against GOPe.

District by district, state by state.

Moore's victory gives energy to the necessary insurgency.

Media increasingly shows its truer nature

Sure, it's easy for media to target Trump. And media gets indignant when Trump fires back. What's not so clear is the media has games of its own, and some of those games have changed noticeably as it tangles with Trump and a populist uprising.

"They're turning themselves from "relatable" -- and therefore worth giving a fair hearing to -- to very unrelatable and weird in their single-minded obsessive political propagandizing," says Ace of Spades.

Puerto Rico, politics, and a new round of "blame games"

The Left is already hammering Trump's "lack of response" to the Puerto Rico hurricane disaster.

Seriously? Give me a break.

I saw one story slamming Trump for not having already visited Puerto Rico.

As if tying up airspace and limited airport resources, thereby delaying disaster relief flights, to accommodate Air Force One would be appropriate?

Comparing the response in Puerto Rico to FEMA's response in Texas post Harvey or Florida post Irma is disingenuous.

In Texas and Florida, governors there had plans in place prior to the storm, and took responsibility for early implementation until reinforcements arrived.

In Puerto Rico, being an island (actually islands), disaster response logistics are far more complicated. And Puerto Rico appears to have been far less ready to stand in the gap until help arrived than Texas or Florida.

Consider, for example, the Puerto Rican electric utility declared bankruptcy last July. It's probably safe to say, it's not nearly as well prepared to rebuild a massively damaged grid as its financially solvent state-side counterparts would be.

Trump says it may take a week or two to come up with a comprehensive plan for relief in recovery in Puerto Rico. Sounds like the feds are having to start from scratch. And it's hard to come up with a realistic or effective plan until assessments can be made of damage, and priorities set for what needs to be prioritized.

The lack of immediate action on a comprehensive recovery plan doesn't mean essential disaster relief supplies aren't being pumped into Puerto Rico as fast as possible.

But don't expect logic or reason to keep the political Left from trying to make the Puerto Rico crisis seem somehow to be "Trump's fault."

The Left tries to have it both ways.

Some folks are fed up with that.

Via Twitter:

Good guy with a gun

Several major media accounts of the Tennessee church shooting story leave out the detail that the already injured church usher retrieved his own firearm from a car before subduing the attacker.

The Chicago Tribune, to its credit, plays this important point in its headline. 

What was the potential for more death or injury had the usher not had access to a weapon. Would the situation had ended with less harm had the usher been armed from the git-go?

The NFL and a bunch of its players need a reality check

It appears NFL has grown into nothing more than another spoiled, elitist club for self indulging celebs. Much of the wealth in the NFL came by way of tax concessions and stadiums funded by government bonds or taxes. Many of the residents who now subsidize the NFL's opulence can no longer even afford to attend its games. And yet these NFL players dare to look down on the people, communities, and nation that made their lives so good.

I'll caution that DBD Cartoon is frequently NSFW.

But a friend sent me today's strip, and it should be okay unless your employer screens for mockery of Hillary Clinton:

Nobody wins here...

Bad enough a person apparently intent on suicide manipulated police into using deadly force, but now the deceased is being turned into a martyr.

Reports of rioting and a burned police car are emanating from the Georgia Tech campus.

Welcome to the "progressive" age, where spin and agenda trump reality or reason.

Dig a little deeper

What's scary about those who want to remove the statues is their real agenda seems to be to rewrite history, and then transform America into something more in line with their sense of mob rule rather than rule of law. Even scarier is that so many people seem willing to just shrug and let it happen.

Battery charger

I'm looking around for a 12 volt automotive type battery charger, and I'm sorely disappointed by most of what I see. I'm looking for something in the 6 to 10 amp charging range. Something that could be used off a simple generator for AC power if need be.

For the most part, chargers today are "automatic" and microprocessor controlled. And if you read online customer reviews, quite a few are units are apparently subject to fail.

To me, microprocessor means you have be careful about what kind of AC power you feed into the unit, or risk blowing a sensitive component. What I want is a charger that will still function reliably with an imperfect power source, an old-school (pre-inverter era) generator.

I'm also skeptical as I review certain "manual" charger options. Again, reviews are mixed, from what I've read. Many fail early, or have defects right out of the box.

Too many tools and devices today are engineered to operate only in a perfect environment.

Reality is, you often have these tools or devices to help cope with adverse or imperfect conditions when status quo "perfection" fails. Design engineers and bean counter manufacturers seem to have forgotten this.

Rethinking politics

Forget the often phony games of Left and Right.

How about thinking of today's Washington DC politics in terms of establishment, insurgencies, and counter insurgencies?

The government power grab that will not die

Via Reason.com;

Today, Bernie Sanders will release a proposal for single-payer health care, co-sponsored by 15 Democrats. To call it a plan is, in some sense, too generous: Although it envisions a sweeping and generous system that would make government the primary payer for nearly all health care in the United States and virtually wipe out employer health coverage in the space of just a few years, it is not really a plan. Instead, it is a legislative fantasy built on a combination of wild overconfidence in government and an almost comical refusal to grapple with costs or trade-offs.

Single payer was the goal all along. Obamacare seems to be the "intermediate step" Obama said would be necessary to get us there. I truly hope some of this madness can be reversed. But alas, we now know Republicans were lying when the promised to roll back Obamacare. Democrats still seem focused on putting all health care under a government umbrella. Nobody in DC really wants to fix anything. The DC health care game is about power, not health care.

Power's out

Irma, or at least what was left of it, came through our North Georgia mountains.

Didn't seem like much of a storm by the time it got here, but it took down power in a bunch of places anyway.

Cranked up the lil' generator just after 6:00 am. I have coffee. I have bacon. I should be good for a while.

Say again?

Some media report "undocumented" workers don't have the means to flee Irma... Anyone else see a touch of irony here?

Trump-free zones

"Rahm Emanuel creates ‘Trump-free zone’ for students at Chicago schools"

As long as he knows there are stupid people who buy this kind of B-S, guys like Rahm will continue to exploit. As cities lose upper and middle class residents, and increasingly cater to lower rungs of society (including illegal aliens needed to prop up population numbers), Rahm's kind of politics will escalate, and not just in Chicago.

Gonna be lots of folks on the road next few days

When his people refused to evacuate ahead of the storm, Toonces took the keys to the Dodge and began heading north on his own...


via GIPHY

Long lines for hurricane supplies

This is madness.

Potential hurricane strike less than a week away, and people swarm stores for stuff they should have had on hand anyway. At the very least, stuff they should have bought and stockpiled around the start of hurricane season.

An old Lefty sees things piling up fast

James Howard Kunstler runs down what he sees as near-term reasons to be very wary in the present times.

Updated Post-Harvey sit-rep

Nine oil refineries remain shut down, seven are in the process of re-start, four are operating at reduced levels. Colonial Pipeline didn't restart gasoline transport ops out of Houston area on Sunday as initially outlooked, Tuesday is the new target.

Rain the forecast for early this week may mean more flooding in Houston.

Here's a link to Sunday's DOE post-Harvey update.

If you want to follow daily updates, you'll find them here.

I don't mind so much that gasoline prices rise following a disaster that impacts production, but it's the potential for outages that concern me. I'm still not sure we won't see wider shortages or outages post-Harvey.

Another Chik-fil-A in action

"We had to get out of there so I called Chick-fil-A, now that sounds kind of funny," J.C. Spencer said in an interview on "Good Morning America" Wednesday. "I ordered two grilled chicken burritos with extra egg and a boat. And can you believe that one of the managers of Chick-fil-A, she sent her husband to pick us up and we are so grateful." - ABC News

Got gas?

If this Washington Post story from 2008 is accurate, it took about ten days for gasoline shortages to become a problem following that year's two major gulf coast hurricanes.

Is anyone seeing data to suggest similar shortages will or won't happen post-Harvey?

Lots of refinery capacity is presently down because of the storm, as are oil import operations in Houston.

Houston snapshots

Via Twitter:

Toxic masculinity and privilege. pic.twitter.com/EE9xVit4d4

— Renna (@RennaW) August 27, 2017

This guy and his boat  has also received plenty of press and social media face time.

BTW, I've yet to see a hooded Antifa rescue anyone.


One more from Twitter:

When the Governor warns everyone of flooding & to evacuate but the Mayor prefers you just rearrange your furniture🤔 Huh?#Harvey pic.twitter.com/fTjnEx35uI

— Lola💋 🇺🇸 (@DropThe_Mic) August 28, 2017

Changing history

The Left goes unhinged over a Trump remark.

Trump in Phoenix: "They are trying to take away our history and our heritage." We all know the code he's speaking. Disgraceful.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 23, 2017

Nobody saw it as code when Michelle Obama promised Barack would change America's history and traditions.

The Left is outraged the progressive remake of America seems to be hitting speed bumps, if not an outright firewall.

Here we go again

"Gohmert Calls for Investigation of VA Gov McAuliffe for ‘Facilitating’ Charlottesville Violence"

I'm tired of Republicans in Congress calling for investigations, and then, through their own ineptness, nothing much (if anything) comes of it except to be a pitch line in fundraising letters. Yes, McAuliffe and the major likely have very dirty hands here. But I have to ask, if this going to be another case where GOP, the party that promised to repeal Obamacare but won't, ends up blowing it again.

Okay. That's it. Time to move on.

We didn't get a total eclipse blackout in our part of the North Georgia mountains, but it got dark enough for the outdoor lights to kick in.

Nearby areas in the totality path didn't get the anticipated grid-lock crowds. Probably fewer visitors today than on a typical weekend in  fall's "leaf-looking season."  Lack of crowds likely made it a more enjoyable eclipse experience for those who did come.

We live in perilous times

As seen floating around on social media:

Seek Peace Through Violence

How a CNN headline describes Antifa:

Unmasking the leftist Antifa movement: Activists seek peace through violence

Even stalwarts of America's Leftist intellectual elites come under fire for daring to warn of the dangers of the Left's new Antifa darlings.

Many jump to embrace Antifa cuz Antifa says it's anti-fascist.

The rub comes when you see how wide and deep Antifa's definition of fascism goes.

Media's all in with the Alt-Left

Stopped by Twitter lately?

Here's a deputy editor from Esquire (a Hearst publication):

Editor in Chief of The Atlantic:

A CNN contributor, and former spokesman for Hillary Clinton:

It's been a while, but I've seen self-proclaimed anti-fascist rock and bottle throwers up close. It's sheer madness to dismiss or defend their actions.

And down-right defamatory to our heroes of World War II to make linkage between them and Antifa. These media elite morons can't see the differences between a World War and supposedly civil domestic protest?

Perhaps open war in our streets is what the Alt-Left cheering media is pushing for.

How'd that get there? Oh, it was put there in 1914...

Confederate monument vandalized in Knoxville, petition seeks removal.

Mayor's office responds saying it had no clue the monument existed. 

Can't make this stuff up.

Trading constitutional protections for mob rule

Screw rule of law, screw constitutional protections. Marco Rubio sides with vigilantism, and says white supremacists deserve whatever vengance a mob wants to unleash.

"They are adherents of an evil ideology which argues certain people are inferior because of race, ethnicity or nation of origin," Rubio added. "When entire movement built on anger & hatred towards people different than you, it justifies & ultimately leads to violence against them." 

If this story is accurate, it would seem Sen. Rubio fails to abide by his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Guys like Rubio seem pretty damn smug has they trade away the fabric that once made us the greatest nation on earth.

Democrats set the stage

"When you spend enough time accusing everyone who doesn’t share your politics or even your race of racism, you make the term meaningless. That’s what the left did over eight years of Obama. By the time the election rolled around, Hillary was defining all Trump voters as racists and sexists. When you spend enough time crying wolf, eventually a real wolf appears. A real wolf showed up in Charlottesville." - Daniel Greenfield

How'd we get here?

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 1:9.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."- George Santayana

Trump train cartoon triggers trauma for media

Via Twitter. Kyle Griffin is a producer at MSNBC

Over the past century and a half, media's dished out countless cartoons of presidents running over (or about to run over) this or that with a locomotive.

But let Trump retweet a cartoon with a Trump train and a CNN figure?

Media freaks.

Seriously?

Do those expressing shock, horror, or other condemnation not realize trains can't randomly target stuff? Trains can only hit what gets in their way.

The meme of a president running a locomotive toward obstructions or obstructionists is one of the oldest and most used in political cartoonery.

I seriously doubt anybody freaked when Grover Cleveland was shown barreling through legislators with one.

Get beyond the sanitized messaging

Understand how the radical Left portrays itself for internal consumption.

source

source 

Plenty more out there too. Most on this list seem legit.

Don't let the facts get in the way of story

The CNN story may predate the victim's mother's statement. But still, who vetted the guest, and why does CNN still have the story up on its website without correction or update (I checked).

Via Twitter:

Thoughts in the later hours of a Monday evening

I wish I had the school books my mom and uncles had in the 1930s. I read them as a teen spending summers on my grandma's farm in rural Kentucky.

What struck me most about them is how wrong the most learned scholars can be in interpreting current events or history in the short term. For instance, these text I read from the mid-1930s gave much praise to the fascists and communists of Europe for their progress in modernization of their countries.

Mussolini got the trains to run on time. Germany advanced public works, tamed hyper inflation. But less than a decade after those texts were written, the touted fascists had plunged the globe into world war.

I also read a set of encyclopedias from around 1911 pretty much from cover to cover. The idealism of America in the blossoming "progressive" age was fascinating. But the views, presented as current for the era, often conflicted or contrasted with the views of the era in which I read them, the late 1960s.

In reading such things, I formed opinions that have stayed with me. Among them: Societies that build on tradition, respect their past, and move forward in a measured direction tend to do well. Those that jump headlong into rapid change or that trust in revolutionary leaders who promote Utopian radical change often soon realize they've made deals with devils who take them down a destructive road.

More alike than different

Saw this. Grabbed it. Apparently the author is a Brit writer.

Capital of Resistance

Charlottesville's mayor wanted his city to be recognized as a "Capital of Resistance" to the Trump presidency. 

Did Mayor Signer, Gov. McAuliffe,  and perhaps other political higher ups let political ideology overrule any duty to provide public safety when they withheld police protection in Charlottesville on Saturday?

Via the Daily Caller:

Law enforcement was on hand at the dueling demonstrations on Saturday, decked out in riot gear and looking prepared for the worst. Except they weren’t allowed to do their job. Police on the scene were reported to have been ordered to “not intervene until given command to do so,” according to the ACLU. That kept them from suppressing the numerous scuffles that broke out. 

When police were ordered to disperse the alt-right rally, that act directed the white nationalists into the antifa demonstrators, leading to further street brawls. Police didn’t seem to try to get in between the two groups or suppress the fights. 

As ProPublica reported, state police and National Guardsmen mostly stood aside and watched as the violence grew worse. 

This appears to be a direct result of what appears to be a stand down order from higher-ups.

It is entirely plausible the political structure in Charlottesville, a city declared a "capital of resistance" to the Trump administration, wanted to cement its reputation with clashes in the streets. Political power structure also likely knew that media would dutifully report any violence that transpired could and would be blamed on "white nationalists."

When a mayor preaches doctrines of political extremism, no one should be surprised if opposing extremists eventually clash under his watch.

From earlier this year:

Mayor Mike Signer speaking outside City Hall earlier, where he declared Charlottesville a "capital of resistance" against Trump presidency pic.twitter.com/02RfBawAXH

— The Cavalier Daily (@cavalierdaily) January 31, 2017

Observations

Katie's a Brit columnist.

#Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/uQ9w7EEOec

— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) August 13, 2017

Coup by Christmas?

Things are plenty nutty this weekend.

Seems the Washington Post blames Trump for White Supremacists in Charlottesville this weekend.

Perspective: Trump lit the torches of white supremacy in Charlottesville. We must extinguish them. https://t.co/Xern1ts47F

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 13, 2017

Doesn't have to make sense. Little makes sense these days. MSM still seems unwilling to admit Antifa or BLM had a presence in Charlottesville.

Here's another gem: The New York Times claims women living under Soviet style socialism had more orgasms. Waiting in line for toilet paper is good for your sex life, ladies. Yes, the Times really does advance the claim.

This would be the same New York Times that, in the 1930s, looked the other way as Stalin carried out genocide by starvation in Ukraine.

America's  political Left is going full-blown unhinged. And it seems to get plenty of back-up from many a so-called Republican.

Is there any chance whatsoever the madness can be reversed? No one wants to roll it back. The political establishment assumes Trump gets the blame as things go from bad to worse.

Don't let yourself get caught with an empty pantry if things go to hell real quick.

Some history and some uncanny similarities.

Germany, 1932.

Some headlines from the New York Times:

REDS AND NAZIS CLASH.; One Killed, One Dying, Score Hurt, German Police Arrest 100.
100 arrested in police raids on Nazis and Reds
February 19, 1932  

TWO GERMANS DIE IN NAZI-RED CLASH; Shot Near Koenigsberg as the Police Intervene -- Fights in Essen and the Saar. NAZIS APPEAL FOR VOTES Headquarters Hails Hitler as the Reich's Savior -- Calls Socialists "Traitorous Knaves."
2 killed, many hurt in Communist attack on Natl Socialists (Nazis); latter issue election appeal
March 03, 1932 

THREE DIE IN REICH CLASHES; Policeman, Nazi and Republican Slain and Many Wounded.
3 dead, many hurt in Nazi-Communist clashes
July 11, 1932  

THREE DIE IN CLASHES; 20 HURT IN GERMANY; Communists Fight Nationalists and Police at Essen, Neurappin and Eschwege.
3 killed, many hurt in Nazi-Communist clashes
July 04, 1932 

Sounds pretty darn close to what happened in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday. Right down the numbers involved in the protests, the clashing ideologies, and the number of casualties.

Kaine the hypocrite

Damn if this isn't the same Sen. Kaine who previously cheered and promoted the idea of Democrats "fighting in the streets."

 

Trump best watch his back

More strange ramblings on CNN. This time it's a warning. The deep state wants Trump dead. 

Via The Hill: 

CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd warned that President Trump is agitating the government, saying during a Thursday afternoon interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper that the U.S. government "is going to kill this guy." 

Mudd, who served as deputy director to former FBI Director Robert Mueller, said Trump's defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin has compelled federal employees "at Langley, Foggy Bottom, CIA and State" to try to take Trump down. 

"Let me give you one bottom line as a former government official. Government is going to kill this guy," Mudd, a staunch critic of Trump, said on "The Lead."

Outing Hitler's socialist side

Via Twitter:

"We're socialists...enemies of today's capitalist system of exploitation & we're determined to destroy it"--Bernie, 2017? No, Hitler, 1927 pic.twitter.com/Civ1ZRAD1u

— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) August 11, 2017

Nuclear attack preps messaging then and now

One one hand, today's MSM seems to want to tell us a North Korean nuclear attack won't happen.

On the other hand, it seems willing to hype the potential to gain some ratings.

Anyone besides me remember the way old school American civil defense approached the idea of nuclear attack?

More establishment treachery

Guys like Kristol are as much a threat to the nation as the far left. They see DC as the domain of an exclusive inner circle.

While still calling himself a conservative, Kristol goes running to the NY Times to tout plans to thwart chances of a Trump second term.

Gunfight at the DC Corral

DBD is sometimes NSFW, but this particular one leans to some clean shootin' showdown.

What happens to you if government chokes?

Time may be fast approaching when basic skills may be necessary to navigate through extraordinary times.

Don and I last week talked about making this the theme of our next podcast.

Seems we're not alone in this line of thinking.

BTW, here's another data point showcasing what seems to be a rising appetite to embrace totalitarianism by the political Left.

More signs of soft coup antics

Increasingly, DC seems to embrace the idea elections don't count, it's bureaucracy that matters. 

Understand the nature of the establishment beast

"On the home front, Russia paranoia is at the center of Robert Mueller’s intensifying probe of Trump and his political associates as he calls a federal grand jury to hear testimony — which implies that he some lined up. This opens up all kinds of opportunities for prosecutorial mischief, for instance going after every business transaction Trump made as a private citizen before he ran for president, and coercing Trump intimates into immunization deals in exchange for testimony, real or cooked-up, to enable the establishment’s ultimate goal of shoving Trump out." - James Howard Kunstler, who is in no way a Trump fan.

Here's another voice, from the political right, who sees potential for abuse by/of the Mueller grand jury.

Two-fer from Twitter

I'm old enough to remember when calling a President "lazy" was racist. And if anyone had called Obama "boy," well . . . https://t.co/TBX0nbmYc5

— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) August 4, 2017

Wow. The new cover of @Newsweek. https://t.co/NNELbxiBzY pic.twitter.com/KOTlN2zkfq

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 4, 2017

Uncharted waters

If the political establishment indeed goes to the extreme of using tortured legal trappings as pretext to undo a constitutional election, there indeed will be hell to pay. Congress and others in DC would have done well to pay heed to the message voters sent last November, but DC seems so entrenched in its oligarchy and arrogance, it seems to be searching for off-the-scale ways to ignite full rebellion across the nation.


"So you've got a political establishment, mostly Democratic, but there are some Republicans, who would like to see him taken out of office. That would be a catastrophic mistake. It would cause a rupture in the country..." - Charles Krauthammer on Fox News

Update on self-defeating retailers

Number of retail stores closing this year tops 6,300, according to Business Insider. 

Online alternatives are hurting brick and mortar. But retailers are also hurting themselves by increasingly failing to carry in stores what people want or need.

A recent example: I went looking for gas grill last weekend to put on a new deck. Walmart was already in season close-out mode, with some  gas models in the dwindling inventory selling for half what they had when the spring season opened.

Does Walmart seriously think people stop grilling by the first of August, that no one would shop for a replacement grill as late as Labor Day?

If on-site retailers only keep "seasonal merchandise" in their stores for half the actual season, it's like telling customers their business isn't wanted, and it forces consumers to turn to online alternatives.

Senate isn't turning it's back on Trump, it never had his back in the first place

The Associated Press is trying to pull my leg with this one:

There wasn’t a dramatic public break or an exact moment it happened. But step by step, Senate Republicans are turning their backs on President Donald Trump.

I don't see a shift. I just see GOPe's phony facade of support crumbling. It never had his back.

People voted for Trump because they'ew fed up with Washington games, and most the Trump support (not all) came from the GOP voter  ranks.

So what do Senate Republicans expect to gain by turning their backs on Trump, and refusing to follow the agenda he (and many senate Republicans) promised?

It appears Republicans on Capitol Hill are so arrogant they can't see disaster ahead. Or maybe, they want disaster, figuring if they sacrifice some members in the midterms,  it means less work for those who survive being part of a perpetual minority Republican Party.

Classic coffee

Some coffee still comes in steel cans.

Ingles has Chase and Sanborn, 23 ounce size, on sale this week for less than six bucks.

And tasting it, it conjures up memories of what coffee tasted like when I was first introduced to coffee drinking.  Plus I get a nifty can to store stuff in.

Compared to a 12 ounce bag of Starbucks going for close to $10, it seems a no-brainer choice to me.

Proctor and Gamble's odd video

Proctor and Gamble sure has a strange way of trying to position its corporate image and products. 

Does P&G really believe traffic cops are the primary perpetrators of violence in the black community today?

Does P&G really believe it's whites, not those in the gangsta rap ghetto culture, who are today's primary users of the n-word? 

Proctor and Gamble's video, as shared on Twitter:

This powerful video shows the conversations Black parents give to kids navigating racism pic.twitter.com/cuCtPBSy7v

— Crystal Johnson (@Crystal1Johnson) July 27, 2017

The P&G video is so one sided, and steeped in perpetuating stereotypes, that I have to wonder if it's not the product of corporate blackmail or some other threatened action against the company if it didn't show itself to be on the side of so-called social justice. 

Fungus among us

Mushrooms as seen on my mountain walks. Or would these be toadstools?

Trump's Scout speech

The political Left tried attacking the president for portions of his address to the Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia.

Here's a take on of Mr. Trump's speech, and a portion of the address I've not heard in MSM:

My Daily Kona: President Trump speaks

Russian sanctions

The House of Representatives this week overwhelmingly passed a Russia sanctions bill this week.

U.S. allies in Europe are extremely critical of the jingoistic move.

Our Congress seems hell bent on reigniting full scale cold war, and maybe even kicking off a hot one.

I suspect U.S. relations with Russia could be quickly and easily improved, but the DC establishment doesn't want that.

DC's establishment works to make Russia seem a bigger and bigger villain, perhaps to distract from its own escalating malfeasance.

Improper spying on Americans

"The National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation violated specific civil liberty protections during the Obama years by improperly searching and disseminating raw intelligence on Americans or failing to promptly delete unauthorized intercepts, according to newly declassified memos that provide some of the richest detail to date on the spy agencies’ ability to obey their own rules." - as reported at TheHill.com 

Trying to spin obvious insanity

I can't read the Washington Post, it's stories are now secured behind a subscription firewall.

But a Post headline makes me chuckle.

Republicans Are In Full Control of Government - But Losing Control of Their Party

Does this really come as a surprise to the disingenuous Republicans in DC?

They've spent years making promises they never intended to keep. And yet they seem shell shocked to  see the party's voter base now seeks to hold them to the standards and policies they claimed to champion.

Voters will not continue to support serial liars.

Yet elected Republicans in Congress seem more inclined to lose power to the Democrats than they are in making amends with the GOP voter base by delivering what they've promised.

They needed a study to see this?

It appears some progressives have begun waking up to the notion that calling opponents "racist" only entrenches opposition. 

Retail's twisted calendar

Home Depot has what's left of its patio and outdoor furniture on close-out. And the one near me doesn't have much left. And it's not just Home Depot that's dumping or already dumped summer product lines.

With two months of summer like weather still to come across the south, and in resort areas like the North Georgia mountains, where people use their decks and outdoor areas year 'round, how much sense do these early close-outs seasonal closeouts make?

Seems to me, it's just another area were retailers are alienating customers... and yet the cookie-cutter MBAs running retail today can't seem to figure out why customers are abandoning their stores and moving to online alternatives.

Only in an idiocracy...

There are apparently Democrats pushing the idea of a Maxine Waters bid for the presidency.

Seriously.

Slate.com is among those floating an apparent trial balloon.

And there's this - this weekend in New Hampshire:

Our assignment desk is now being told no press allowed at the @SCDCNHDems picnic featuring @MaxineWaters #nhpolitics via @AdamSextonWMUR

— WMUR TV (@WMUR9) July 23, 2017

Surely Democrats know Waters is a nut-case. Maybe that's why they locked the media out this weekend.

Russia isn't our biggest problem

Via Twitter:

The news media in the West pose a far greater danger to Western civilization than Russia does.

— Dennis Prager (@DennisPrager) July 14, 2017