Thursday, July 27, 2017

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

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

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 

Monday, July 24, 2017

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.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

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:

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

Monday, July 17, 2017

Russia isn't our biggest problem

Via Twitter:

Thought worth contemplating

"The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything." - author unknown

Friday, July 14, 2017

More buzz, but too many holes

NBC News claims to have yet another blockbuster story relating to Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with the Russian lawyer. NBC breathlessly reports a former Soviet  counter-intelligence officer was in on the meeting.

The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.

But dig deeper down in the story.

The guy NBC seeks to raise suspicions over is now a U.S. citizen. We tend not to grant American citizenship to persons suspected of being foreign spies.

And why is NBC withholding the individual's name? Is there a legal reason, or is the intent to create a deeper sense of mystery and intrigue? NBC also identifies the guy as a lobbyist, but doesn't tell us who he lobbies for. Knowing something about the lobbyist's clients might tell us more about the present status of this individual.

Sorry, the NBC story has too many holes. Is it that NBC didn't bother getting the facts to fill them in, or were the facts intentionally left out to make the story seem more intriguing.

Once upon a time under the old rules of journalism, a story written like this would never have gotten past an editor.

Update: Soon after posting this, I saw an AP story filled in one gap, while also reporting a denial to part of NBC's story.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Stuck on stupid

Nancy Pelosi again refers to the sitting president as "President Bush." She even pauses before she makes the blunder as if she's double checking herself.


Bush has been gone more than eight years.

Maybe these are Freudian slips showing Pelosi too knows she should have bowed out of office years ago. She's long past her prime, seemingly past lucidity. It's time for her to go.

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Is "protest" an accurate description

Media reports the G20 conference in Hamburg, Germany was targeted with protests.

Yes, there were likely legit protests taking place. But the rioting, looting, and willful destruction of property (both private and public) in Hamburg look more akin to acts of war than what a sane and reasonable person would tag with the more docile sounding term protest.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Understanding MSM mindset

"Media companies, and the journalists they employ, have one overriding responsibility: to catch the big story. But when it came to Trump being elected president, they missed the story. And, oddly enough, instead of this error making them more humble, it’s only made some of them more arrogant and less willing to admit they were wrong. They’ve chosen instead to try to destroy the Trump presidency and thus erase any evidence of their mistake. And in their exuberance, some of them are being sloppy and cutting corners." - Ruben Navarrette

Giving in to Islam

In Sweden, another sign Islam is winning.

Islam favors segregation by sexes. 


Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Max speaks

SNL had an exceptional skit last March, though I didn't see it for the first time until today.

Pretty darn accurate assessment how many on the Left view Trump supporters.

Your patience may be needed, however. SNL/YouTube may make you sit through a commercial before the skit plays).


From bad to worse for CNN

CNN keeps stepping in it, adding fuel to a fire, failing to think outside the bubble.

Things might have gone better if CNN hadn't been so easily baited, become so totally consumed by a gag video retweeted Sunday by President Trump. As things stand, whether it played out this way or not, CNN  appears it may have coerced an apology from the video originator in exchange for withholding his name.

The silly GIF would likely have been forgotten by now had CNNers not gone nuts about being threatened with "violence."

But look at some of the headlines greeting them this Wednesday morning:

CNN’s ‘#CNNBlackMail’ hashtag of shame

CNN is under fire for threatening to identify the creator of the Trump wrestling video

Conservative blogs have also taken up the story, some perhaps stretching facts more than others.

But it's more than just right-leaning media taking note.

This is from the BBC:

CNN accused of 'blackmailing' Trump gif maker


Progressive Chicago holiday tally

Sixty people shot, eight of them dead (as of Tuesday afternoon, final count may be higher) over the July 4th holiday weekend, despite weeks of police effort intended to make the weekend a less violent one.

When government promises to keep you safe, it can't always deliver.

Unknown at this time: If the guns stolen along with an FBI agent's car were used in any of the long weekend's shootings.

Update (9:48 pm 07/05/2017): Appears Chicago's four day shooting tally topped 100 before all was said and done.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Trump upset the media again this weekend

So what?

"Now, we’re watching a president of the United States tweet things at 2 in the morning that make him sound like a 14-year-old girl. But guess what? Nobody who voted for him cares. And all you coifed, made-up, well-spoken talking heads in the media are just gonna have to suck it up and deal with it for the next three and half years. Because all the people you thought were ignorant and devoid of public policy knowledge, just going to ball games and politely raising their kids and going to church on Sundays and being the salt of the earth, have been insulted by you for so many years, they’ve turned into those zombies you thought you knew …who are now coming to eat you (not literally. No one is coming to physically eat anyone. This is called a metaphor)." - Regie Hamm

The FBI arms another criminal in Chicago

Four guns reportedly go missing after a sloppy and stupid FBI agent leaves his Bureau vehicle running at a gas station.

 Three pistols and an M-4 were inside, says Second City Cop.

Sunday, July 2, 2017

The irony of Trump's latest shock tweet

CNN plays the role of being shocked by President Donald Trump's wrestling video tweet.



CNN was quick to respond:
"It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters."
The clip, before having a CNN superimposed, has some history.

NPR reported last year:
Trump's stint in the pro wrestling world dates back to 2007 when NBC wanted to cross-promote Trump's show, The Apprentice, on its other properties. He appeared on Wrestlemania XXIII in what was billed as the Hair vs. Hair match and the Battle of the Billionaires against Vince McMahon, the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.
Who was running NBC-Universal in 2007?

Jeff Zucker, the guy who now runs CNN. I wonder if CNN PR realized this when it was so quick to blast Trump's show of  "violence."

2007's silly (presumably Zucker approved) NBC-Universal cross promotion stunt is the root of today's angst by CNN and others in MSM that they're being targeted with violence.

Gimme a break.