Venezuela reaches the final stage of socialism: no toilet paper

Venezuela reaches the final stage of socialism: no toilet paper | AgainstCronyCapitalism.org:
Whether a state has a more corporatist flavor or a more “socialist” flavor (crony systems typically have both) it is the denial of prices, the denial of reality, which leads ultimately to disaster.
If the pricing mechanism isn’t allowed to work, distortions in the economy arise. 

Distortions make the system wobbly, and sooner or later the system is off the rails.

And out of toilet paper.

(From The Business Insider)

Venezuela’s product shortages have become so severe that some hotels in that country are asking guests to bring their own toilet paper and soap, a local tourism industry spokesman said on Wednesday….

“It’s an extreme situation,” says Xinia Camacho, owner of a 20-room boutique hotel in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada national park. “For over a year we haven’t had toilet paper, soap, any kind of milk, coffee or sugar. So we have to tell our guests to come prepared.”…

Audio Recording Exonerates Uber Driver Falsely Accused Of Rape

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO LIE ABOUT RAPE: Audio Recording Exonerates Uber Driver Falsely Accused Of Rape. …:
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO LIE ABOUT RAPE: Audio Recording Exonerates Uber Driver Falsely Accused Of Rape.

A Chicago Uber driver’s instinct to record his conversation with a woman he picked up for a ride in November has saved him from spending years behind bars.

Maxime Fohounhedo, a 30-year-old native of Benin, was released from a Cook County jail on Monday after spending the past four months there.

Fohounhedo was arrested in December after a 22-year-old woman accused him of sexually assaulting her at his apartment on Nov. 16. The woman claimed that she was passed out during her ride in Fouhounhedo’s car, but his secret recording provides evidence that she was awake and carrying on a conversation. After prosecutors verified the audio they consulted with the accuser, and she decided to drop charges.

“He had a gut feeling he needed to protect himself,” Shady Yassin, Fohounhedo’s attorney, told CBS Chicago of his client’s decision to record his fare.

"She was a predator. He should sue her for costing him four months in jail, and her name should be public now. She’s not a victim of sexual violence, she’s a perpetrator."

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6.9 million multiple voters in 28 states, report finds

6.9 million multiple voters in 28 states, report finds - Watchdog.org
Some 6.9 million Americans are registered to vote in two or more states, according to a report obtained by Watchdog.org.
“Our nation’s voter rolls are a mess,” says Catherine Engelbrecht, president of the election-watch group True The Vote.
“Sensible approaches to roll maintenance are fought tooth and nail by radical special interests who can use the duplicity in the system to their advantage,” she said.
The latest interstate voter cross check tallied 6,951,484 overlapping voter registrations, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
The cross-check program involves only 28 states and does not include the three largest: California, Texas and Florida.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal NAILS it! Christians Now Need Legal Protection for their Beliefs [VIDEO] | John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal NAILS it! Christians Now Need Legal Protection for their Beliefs [VIDEO] | John Hawkins' Right Wing News:

"We are seeing it nearly every day, lately–Christians in our own country being attacked by radicals. And Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is exactly right when he says that Christians now need legal protection for their religious expression."

What’s in a name? ‘Hillary’ by any other name would still be controversial

WASHINGTON: What’s in a name? ‘Hillary’ by any other name would still be controversial | Elections | McClatchy DC:
"WASHINGTON — There’s Beyoncé and Madonna, Cher and Prince.
And now Hillary.
It may not be exactly the same as the long list of celebrities known by their first names.
But Hillary Clinton has become known simply as Hillary in bumper stickers and headlines, on Twitter and Facebook, around water coolers and in coffee shops.
Yet some Americans, mostly women, don’t think the former secretary of state, U.S. senator from New York and first lady should be called by just her first name.
“I think it’s pretty unjust,” said Monica Warek, 23, on a recent visit to Washington from New York City.
“I think it shows the level of inequality that still exists in the workforce and just in general in society.”"

History for April 8 - On-This-Day.com

History for April 8 - On-This-Day.com:
Guatama Buddha 563 BC - 'The Enlightened One' in the Buddhist faith, Edgar Yipsel "Yip" Harburg 1896 - Song lyricist ("Over the Rainbow," all of the songs in The Wizard of Oz), Sonja Henie 1912 - Ice skater 


Elizabeth "Betty" Ford (Bloomer) 1918 - Wife of 38th U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, founder of the Betty Ford Clinic, Peggy Lennon 1941 - Singer (Lennon Sisters), Darlene Gillespie 1941 - TV personality ("The Mickey Mouse Club") 


1873 - Alfred Paraf patented the first successful oleomargarine. 


1911 - The first squash tournament was played at the Harvard Club in New York City. 


1913 - The Seventeenth amendment was ratified, requiring direct election of senators. 


1952 - U.S. President Truman seized steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike. 


1962 - Bay of Pigs invaders got thirty years imprisonment in Cuba. 


1974 - Hank Aaron hits 715th home run breaking Babe Ruth's record. 


1986 - Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, CA. 


2001 - Microsoft Corp. released Internet Explorer 6.0. 

Top US General: Obama Has Caused Military Readiness to Fall to Historic Levels | John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Top US General: Obama Has Caused Military Readiness to Fall to Historic Levels | John Hawkins' Right Wing News:

"Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno is warning that our nation is vulnerable in this age of Obama.

The Army is “only generating enough readiness for immediate consumption” while grappling with cuts that have left only a third of the service’s brigades ready, the chief of staff said Wednesday.

“It’s incumbent on all of us to understand that further reductions simply will put us into a place we simply cannot go,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said at the AUSA Institute of Land Warfare Global Force Symposium and Exposition here."

Our "educators" have destroyed our own honorable legacy------College students clueless about Holocaust, FDR, D-Day

VIDEO: College students clueless about Holocaust, FDR, D-Day | The American Mirror:
"Years ago, I got the idea for a novel about the last living survivor of the Holocaust. He would be a child survivor, born in 1939 as a hidden child in a Jewish ghetto, and would live there until his family went to Auschwitz.
...One publisher said he had to “suspend disbelief” with my premise that a generation down the road, people would know so little about the Holocaust, which prompted me to do a video on the subject.
Last fall, just before Nov. 11, I interviewed university students in Toronto, asking them about the Holocaust and World War II.
What they didn’t know would, literally, fill a book.
...Most students I spoke to that afternoon in Toronto had no idea what happened at the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
They didn’t know who FDR and Churchill were.
Hardly any could identify the Allies; one thought the Allies were Germany and Russia.
The only student who knew how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust was Jewish himself. Another said, “I’ve heard of the Holocaust but I can’t explain it....”

Two Days After Sharing This ‘Open Letter’ to Obama on Facebook, Veteran Coach Was Handing in His Resignation | TheBlaze.com

Two Days After Sharing This ‘Open Letter’ to Obama on Facebook, Veteran Coach Was Handing in His Resignation | TheBlaze.com:

"The author eventually suggests that Muslims do not do “anything that contributes positively to the American way of life.”

“I thought it was an interesting letter to President Obama and his current administration who are not paying attention to Israel and focusing on Iran,” Lees told the Conway Daily Sun.

Read the entire open letter, seemingly written in response to Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo, below:

Dear Mr. Obama:"

Chicago Cubs decided to save on toilets?-------"An Absolute Shit Show": Tales From The Wrigley Field Bathroom Lines

"An Absolute Shit Show": Tales From The Wrigley Field Bathroom Lines
Despite the Cubs’ increasingly emphatic insistence otherwise, Wrigley Field was not ready for opening day.
Even beyond the expected absence of bleachers, the stadium’s infrastructure was apparently overwhelmed by the gameday crowd, with bathroom lines stretching through the concourse and back out into the stands.

There were, according to USA Today, only two working bathrooms in the whole of the main concourse—that’s the sort of disaster that leads to fans peeing into plastic cups. 
We asked readers who were at the game to tell us what it like; below are their emails.

Jeffrey: 

Saw that very corner with pee cups. As a practicing doctor, I know piss when I see it.

Obama is proud of this?-----We Need to Talk About the White House Easter Photo

We Need to Talk About the White House Easter Photo | The American Spectator:

The Iran 'Agreement' Charade - Thomas Sowell

The Iran 'Agreement' Charade - Thomas Sowell - Page full:
"By abandoning virtually all its demands for serious restrictions on Iran's nuclear bomb program, the Obama administration has apparently achieved the semblance of a preliminary introduction to the beginning of a tentative framework for a possible hope of an eventual agreement with Iran.
But even this hazy "achievement" may vanish like a mirage.
It takes two to agree -- and Iran has already publicly disputed and even mocked what President Obama says is the nature of that framework.
Had Iran wholeheartedly agreed with everything the Obama administration said, that agreement would still have been worthless, since Iran has already blocked international inspectors from its nuclear facilities at unpredictable times.
The appearance of international control is more dangerous than a frank admission that we don't really know what they are doing.
Why then all these negotiations?
Because these charades protect Barack Obama politically, no matter how much danger they create for America and the world.
The latest public opinion polls show Obama's approval rating rising. 
In political terms -- the only terms that matter to him -- his foreign policy has been a success.
If you look back through history, you will be hard pressed to find a leader of any democratic nation so universally popular -- hailed enthusiastically by opposition parties as well as his own -- as was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain when he returned from Munich in 1938, waving an agreement with Hitler's signature on it, and proclaiming "Peace for our time.""
...Back in 1938, Winston Churchill was one of the very few critics who tried to warn Chamberlain and the British public.
Churchill said: "The idea that safety can be purchased by throwing a small State to the wolves is a fatal delusion."
After the ruinous agreement was made with Hitler, he said:
"You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war." 
Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" lasted just under a year.
Comparing Obama to Chamberlain is unfair -- to Chamberlain. 
There is no question that the British prime minister loved his country and pursued its best interests as he saw it.
He was not a "citizen of the world," or worse.
Chamberlain was building up his country's military forces, not tearing them down, as Barack Obama has been doing with American military forces...

‘Completely Awesome’ Cardboard Fort Is the Hit of the Neighborhood. But City Code Enforcement Isn’t in the Mood to Play. | Video | TheBlaze.com

‘Completely Awesome’ Cardboard Fort Is the Hit of the Neighborhood. But City Code Enforcement Isn’t in the Mood to Play. | Video | TheBlaze.com:

“I just thought it was an awesome way to use boxes and my kids’ imagination,” Jeremy Trentelman told the Standard Examiner.

But after just one day in existence, the makeshift fort attracted the City of Ogden’s attention — specifically code enforcement.

The notice left on the Trentelmans’ door indicated the fort violates city code related to “waste materials or junk” and have 15 days to get rid of it or get socked with a $125 fine."

See what happens when you think outside of the box.  Big brother doesn't like it.

The big-education liars are simply greedy liars------There Was Never a $470 Per Pupil Education Funding Cut in Michigan

There Was Never a $470 Per Pupil Education Funding Cut in Michigan [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"This year, the Huron Valley School district in Oakland County will get $7,126 per student under the state of Michigan’s “foundation allowance” funding formula.
Foundation allowance money is the main revenue stream flowing into Michigan public schools each year, but by no means is it the only one.
For example, Huron Valley will get another $12.4 million from the state, or $1,293 per student, in so-called “categorical” funding. 
This money covers things like employee pension benefits, special education, school lunch subsidies and even a program to teach students how to build a robot in six weeks.
These “categoricals” add an additional 18 percent to the district’s annual budget.
Michigan school aid funding history.

Yet those who advocate for higher spending rarely include the categorical grants when describing school funding, often leaving the impression that the foundation allowance is all the money districts get...."

I disagree with this, but the otherwise credible David Stockman has an interesting point of view---All Praise To The Iranian Nuclear Framework—–It Finally Exposes The War Party’s Big Lie

All Praise To The Iranian Nuclear Framework—–It Finally Exposes The War Party’s Big Lie | David Stockman's Contra Corner:
The Iranian framework agreement is an astonishingly good deal, and has the potential to become a historic game-changer. As Robert Parry astutely observed, its about much more than sheaving the threat that Iran will get the bomb:

The April 2 framework agreement with Iran represents more than just a diplomatic deal to prevent nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. It marks a crossroad that offers a possible path for the American Republic to regain its footing and turn away from endless war.

The saliency of that observation lies in the fact that there is virtually nothing in the substance of the deal for the War Party to attack.
So what they are doing is desperately hurtling the Iranian axis-of-evil narrative at the agreement, claiming that the regime is so untrustworthy, diabolical and existentially dangerous that no product of mere diplomacy is valid. 
The Iranians are by axiom hell-bent on evil and no mere “scrap of paper” will stop them.

But therein dwells the game-changing opportunity.

To defeat the deal, the War Party will have to defend its three-decade long campaign of exaggerations, distortions and bellicose animosity toward the Iranian state.

...As will be demonstrated below, the evil Iran narrative rests on repetition and political bombast, not historical fact. 
Iran was turned into a pariah state not owing to its own deeds and actions, but because it served the domestic political needs of the War Party. 

That is, Bibi Netanyahu’s Israeli branch used it to win elections by mobilizing the right-wing and religious extremists against a purported external peril; and Washington’s neo-cons used it to rescue the Pentagon’s war machine and the military industrial complex after the cold war ended its reason for being...

Read on.

Fond memories----NCAA March Madness 2000 One Shining Moment

The EMP Threat: All It Would Take Is A Couple Of Explosions To Send America Back To The 1800s

The EMP Threat: All It Would Take Is A Couple Of Explosions To Send America Back To The 1800s
Our entire way of life can be ended in a single day. 
And it wouldn’t even take a nuclear war to do it. 
All it would take for a rogue nation or terror organization to bring us to our knees is the explosion of a couple well-placed nuclear devices high up in our atmosphere.
The resulting electromagnetic pulses would fry electronics from coast to coast.
Of course this could also be accomplished without any attack. 
Scientists tell us that massive solar storms have hit our planet before, and that it is inevitable that there will be more in the future. 
As you will read about below, the most recent example of this was “the Carrington Event” in 1859.
If a similar burst from the sun hit us today, experts tell us that life in America could suddenly resemble life in the 1800s, and the economic damage caused could potentially be in the trillions of dollars.
 This is one of the greatest potential threats that we are facing as a nation, and yet Barack Obama has essentially done nothing to get us prepared.
The technology necessary to conduct such an electromagnetic pulse attack against the United States has become much more accessible in recent years. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, even rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran either already have or will soon have the capability to hurt us in this way…

Rogue nations such as North Korea (and possibly Iran) will soon match Russia and China and have the primary ingredients for an EMP attack: simple ballistic missiles such as Scuds that could be launched from a freighter near our shores; space-launch vehicles able to loft low-earth-orbit satellites; and simple low-yield nuclear weapons that can generate gamma rays and fireballs.

Brings a tear---One Shining Moment 2015 NCAA National Championship

Why Aren't the Media Going After Muslim Bakeries?

Why Aren't the Media Going After Muslim Bakeries?:

"Crowder noted that the media were “deliberately trying to set the narrative of mean, hateful Christians vs. poor, innocent gay people who are having their rights completely trampled.” Meanwhile, he said, gay people were being killed in “virtually every Muslim country” around the world.

But the media were too busy reporting on the possibility of anti-gay discrimination by Christians to notice they were promoting discrimination and hate against Christians with biased reporting."

Gov Jerry Brown: Californians to Be Heavily Fined for Long Showers

Gov Jerry Brown: Californians to Be Heavily Fined for Long Showers - Breitbart:
"Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA)  said Californians will face heavy fines for taking long showers.
Brown said, “This executive order is done under emergency power.
It has the force of law. 
Very unusual. 
It’s requiring action and changes in behavior from the Oregon border all the way to the Mexican border. 
It affects lawns. 
It affects people’s — how long they stay in the shower. 
How businesses use water.”