History for May 1

History for May 1 - On-This-Day.com:
Benjamin Henry Latrobe 1764 - Architect known for his design of the United States Capitol and the Baltimore Basilica, Kate Smith 1909 - Singer, Glen Ford 1916 - Actor ("Gilda", "The Courtship of Eddie's Father")


Jack Paar 1918 - Radio and television comedian, talk show host ("The Tonight Show"), Joseph Heller 1923 - Novelist, short story writer, playwright, Scott Carpenter 1925 - One of NASA's original seven astronauts


1707 - England, Wales and Scotland were united to form Great Britain.


1898 - The U.S. Navy under Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines.


1937 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of World War II.

1948 - The People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed.


1952 - Production of Mr. Potato Head began.


1960 - Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Powers was taken prisoner.


1961 - Fidel Castro announced there would be no more elections in Cuba.


1992 - On the third day of the Los Angeles riots resulting from the Rodney King beating trial. King appeared in public to appeal for calm, he asked, "Can we all get along?"

2nd Russian fighter jet engages in barrel roll over US spy plane, official says | Fox News

2nd Russian fighter jet engages in barrel roll over US spy plane, official says | Fox News:

"For the second time in less than a month, a Russian fighter jet conducted a barrel roll over a U.S. spy plane in the Baltic Sea Friday, flying within just 100 feet of the aircraft, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News.

The Russian Su-27 zipped past the U.S. RC-135 surveillance plane in international airspace, the official said."

Beer Becomes the Latest Scarcity in a Venezuela Crippled by Shortages

Beer Becomes the Latest Scarcity in a Venezuela Crippled by Shortages - WSJ: "CARACAS, Venezuela—The largest private Venezuelan company and producer of 80% of the beer consumed here began to shut down its last beer plant on Friday, the latest deprivation in a country crippled by shortages.
After Empresas Polar SA closed its three other beer plants over the past several days, the shutting of the San Joaquin plant, near Valencia, will leave just a week’s supply of beer, the company said.
Like many other firms here, Polar blames the government, which hasn’t allocated the dollars the company needs to pay for imported raw materials such as malted barley.
President Nicolás Maduro’s government controls access to dollars, doling them out via a stringent currency exchange in which many companies find it hard to pay suppliers abroad.
There are far fewer dollars these days.
Foreign reserves have fallen to just a third of what they were in 2009, and Venezuela will struggle to pay billions in bond payments due later this year, according to Caracas-based consultancy Econometrica.
Triple-digit inflation here is the world’s highest.
The International Monetary Fund says the economy will contract 8% this year.
The country’s 30 million people have withstood shortages of food and medicine, their daily life punctuated by rolling power blackouts. 
Now, beer is disappearing from store shelves."...

Symbolism Instead of History

Symbolism Instead of History | Frontpage Mag:
Replacing Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the twenty-dollar bill is likely to be Barack Obama’s only lasting achievement.
He certainly won’t be remembered for tangible benefits he has brought to black people. 
But like most progressives, useful political symbolism trumps reality.
In fact, Obama has done little for black people.
Larry Elder lays out the cold hard facts:

• “The net worth of all non-white families has fallen almost 20 percent since Obama took office. 
• For blacks, it’s even worse. 
• The so-called black/white wealth gap is at a 25-year high––with black income down, homeownership down and equity down. 
• From 2007 to 2010, blacks’ net worth declined 13.5 percent. 
• But over the next three years––from 2010 through 2013––it plummeted another 34 percent.” 
• And the black unemployment rate is 9.2 percent, twice that of whites. 

Black pundits, professors, and race-baiters have cleaned up on white guilt and vote-trolling Democrats, but blacks most in need have been abandoned.
Having done little for a majority of blacks, Obama instead has peddled the symbolic racial politics of outfits like Black Lives Matter, which claims that there is an epidemic of policemen wantonly gunning down innocent black men in the streets.
Once again, fact is irrelevant to a movement whose goal is to leverage social and political power from the misery of black social dysfunctions.
...Of those 965 killed, only 90 were unarmed, and the majority of those were white.”
Meanwhile, about 5,000 blacks a year are murdered, the vast majority by other blacks.
All we get in response from Obama are crickets and tumbleweeds.
Once again, symbols are more useful than reality..."

‘It Is Not Acceptable’: Cruz Calls Out ‘Leftist Agitators’ for ‘Trying to Silence’ Trump | Video | TheBlaze.com

‘It Is Not Acceptable’: Cruz Calls Out ‘Leftist Agitators’ for ‘Trying to Silence’ Trump | Video | TheBlaze.com:

“The First Amendment protects everyone’s right to speak, but you don’t have a right to threaten violence, you don’t have a right to shout down others, and these protesters appear to be trying to use violence and threats,” Cruz said. “These are the strategies of MoveOn.org, of the leftist agitators who try to silence a voice they don’t like.”

Emma Thompson and sister break a court injunction to film a Great British Bake Off parody

Emma Thompson and sister break a court injunction to film a Great British Bake Off parody | Daily Mail Online:
Get off my fracking land! 
Furious farmer sprays MANURE at Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson after she breaks a court injunction to protest on his field 

• Actress Emma Thompson and her sister Sophie baked cakes on Lancashire land earmarked for gas exploration
• Sisters breached High Court injunction prohibiting entry to site and Lancashire Police called but no arrests made
• The irate landowner then turned up and sprayed raw sewage at the pair before driving away in his tractor 
• Emma and Sophie - who won celebrity Masterchef - filmed Great British Bake Off parody, 'Frack Free Bake Off' 

Make America Grow Again

Make America Grow Again - WSJ:
"When did Americans decide that 1% or 2% economic growth is acceptable, that puny wage increases are inevitable, and that we should all merely shrug and get used to the country’s diminished expectations?
Those questions come to mind watching the desultory reactions to Thursday’s report that the U.S. economy grew by a meager 0.5% in the first quarter of 2016.
..President Obama didn’t comment on the first quarter, but the New York Times rolled out an interview with him Thursday, part of a larger apologia for his economic record, in which he offered this beauty: “I actually compare our economic performance to how, historically, countries that have wrenching financial crises perform. By that measure, we probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history.”
Mr. Obama has already compared himself favorably to every President except Lyndon Johnson, FDR and Lincoln, so why fake humility in his home stretch?
The reality is that the first quarter is further evidence of what has been the weakest economic expansion in the postwar era. 
...The American economy hasn’t grown by more than 3% since 2005 (3.3%), the longest such stretch of malaise that we can find in the Bureau of Economic analysis tables going back to 1930. 
Even the Great Depression saw a snap back to rapid growth from 1934-1936..."

Lunch video-----Accidental take-off of Victor----Bob Prothero explains what happened.

Noon-toon

After Islamic State Attacks From Brussels to Paris, U.S. Sends Delta Force and Navy SEALs to Hunt Terrorists — You Can Guess What Happened | TheBlaze.com

After Islamic State Attacks From Brussels to Paris, U.S. Sends Delta Force and Navy SEALs to Hunt Terrorists — You Can Guess What Happened | TheBlaze.com:

"After Islamic State terrorists carried out deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels, Paris, Egypt and other parts of Africa, the U.S. reportedly sent U.S. special operations forces after those believed to be responsible for planning the acts of terror.

And they were up for the challenge."

CNN #1 IN CABLE NEWS IN PRIME TIME; BEATS FOX NEWS FOR 5 OF THE PAST 8 MONTHS

CNN #1 IN CABLE NEWS IN PRIME TIME; BEATS FOX NEWS FOR 5 OF THE PAST 8 MONTHS – CNN Press Room - CNN.com Blogs:
"CNN ranked #1 in cable news in prime time in April.
CNN beat Fox News for the fifth time in the last eight months in M-Su prime time (four of the past eight in M-F prime) among adults 25-54. 
The last time CNN had this many prime time wins in an eight-month period versus Fox News was over 14 years ago (Nov. 2001).

ONCE AGAIN, THE ONION PLAYS CATCH-UP WITH REAL LIFE: College Encourages Lively Exchange Of Idea:

ONCE AGAIN, THE ONION PLAYS CATCH-UP WITH REAL LIFE 
"College Encourages Lively Exchange Of Idea: Students, Faculty Invited To Freely Express Single Viewpoint.
Saying that such a dialogue was essential to the college’s academic mission, Trescott University president Kevin Abrams confirmed Monday that the school encourages a lively exchange of one idea. 
“As an institution of higher learning, we recognize that it’s inevitable that certain contentious topics will come up from time to time, and when they do, we want to create an atmosphere where both students and faculty feel comfortable voicing a single homogeneous opinion,” said Abrams, adding that no matter the subject, anyone on campus is always welcome to add their support to the accepted consensus.

Is it news, or is it The Onion? 
Who can tell anymore?"

Group of girls fighting to join California Boy Scout troop

Group of girls fighting to join California Boy Scout troop | abc13.com:
"SANTA ROSA, CA -- The Boy Scouts of America recently changed its policy on gay troop leaders, now that organization faces another controversy, a ban on girls.
A group of girls in Santa Rosa wants to formally join the local troop, and say they will fight on to be one of the boys.
Allie Westover is a fit and active young lady who loves the outdoors.
Until recently, she was part of a Boy Scout's program in Santa Rosa called learning for life which allowed the girls to do the same things as the boys in the troop.
"Just recently they said we couldn't participate," Westover said.
That, after a parent complained.
"Oh my gosh, the girls doing Cub Scouts and Boy scouts activities, so with that they complained to the national," said Danelle Jacobs, a parent.
The girls and their parents are expected to protest on Friday by handing in their applications to the local Boys Scouts Council..."

ICE under fire for releasing thousands of illegal immigrants with rap sheets | Fox News

ICE under fire for releasing thousands of illegal immigrants with rap sheets | Fox News:

"According to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2015 “freed 19,723 criminal aliens, who had a total of 64,197 convictions among them.”
This included “8,234 violent convictions and 208 homicide convictions.”

ICE Director Sarah Saldana defended her agency, even characterizing the statistics as an improvement while claiming they were being politically manipulated."

World’s largest aircraft “weeks” away from first UK test flight

World’s largest aircraft “weeks” away from first UK test flight | Ars Technica
Airlander 10, the world's largest and longest aircraft, is preparing to gently glide out of its gargantuan shed—which is incidentally the largest hangar in the UK—at Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire.
Earlier this month, Airlander 10, which is being built by Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), was officially named Martha Gwyn by the duke of Kent. HAV is now in the "final stages of testing" before it can exit the hangar, which will be a "matter of weeks" rather than months.
The Martha Gwyn is an odd beast.
At its most basic, it's a 92-metre (302ft) blimp filled with 38,000 cubic metres of helium..."

AM Fruitcake

History for April 30

History for April 30 - On-This-Day.com:
Cornelius Vanderbilt 1898, Robert Shaw 1916, John (Johnny) Horton 1925


Cloris Leachman 1926 - Actress ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Phyllis"), Willie Nelson 1933 - Musician, this day is cited on his birth certificate, his family says it is April 29, Kirsten Dunst 1982 - Actress ("Spider-Man")


0030 - Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.


1789 - George Washington took office as first elected U.S. president.


1803 - The U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million.


1938 - Happy Rabbit appeared in the cartoon "Porky's Hare Hunt." This rabbit would later evolve into Bugs Bunny.


1939 - Lou Gehrig played his last game with the New York Yankees.


1943 - The British submarine HMS Seraph dropped 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.


1945 - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. They had been married for one day. One week later Germany surrendered unconditionally.


1947 - The name of Boulder Dam, in Nevada, was changed back to Hoover Dam.

Insider Reveals TRUTH Behind Obama's Transgender Push... And It's SCARY

Insider Reveals TRUTH Behind Obama's Transgender Push... And It's SCARY:

"DOE Assistant Secretary for the Office of Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon made the assurance during her keynote address at an LGBT summit co-sponsored by the White House and Equality Michigan, a liberal activist group.

Officials from seven different federal agencies attended the event, according to the Equality Michigan website.

Equality Michigan has been pushing for Michigan schoolchildren to be able to choose their name, gender and bathroom, all without parental knowledge or input."

Hillary Clinton Is Queen of the Sharing Economy

Hillary Clinton Is Queen of the Sharing Economy | Economics21:
"Listening to Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail may lead one to assume she is against the sharing economy, or what she calls the “gig economy.”
As she promised in her first major economic address at the New School in New York City, the gig economy is “raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future… I’ll crack down on bosses who exploit employees by misclassifying them as contractors or even steal their wages.”
But when it comes to her personal life, Hillary Clinton does not detest the gig economy—she loves it. The Clintons’ tax returns show that Hillary and her husband Bill are practically gig economy royalty. After leaving the White House, the Clintons earned just one percent of their labor income from employer paychecks. 
The rest ($198 million) came from a variety of independent contractor gigs.
Since 2000, the Clintons earned about $200 million from working (as opposed to real estate or other investments).
Of that $208 million, $167 million of it (83 percent) came from work that is part of the gig economy, such as giving speeches and private consulting.
If one includes income from other non-employee work (such as book promotions and sales) this number shoots up to $198 million, or 99 percent.
People sometimes mistakenly assume that the sharing economy is nothing more than a few new business platforms such as Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, and TaskRabbit.
But this view severely understates the scale and scope of the sharing economy.
The sharing economy is, above all, about allowing workers to more easily market and provide their productive capital, which includes skills (such as writing or giving speeches) and physical resources (such as cars or living spaces).
This core concept—that of providing brains, brawn, or useful equipment on a per-job basis—is not novel, but technological progress has made individualized, entrepreneurial work much cheaper and more efficient. 
This has opened countless possibilities for mutually beneficial exchange that were unimaginable just a decade or two ago.
But instead of celebrating the growth of these alternative earnings opportunities, Clinton criticizes the sharing economy for not being subject to the same workplace restrictions and protections that apply to formal employers and employees...."

Ripping us apart-----Over 100 colleges to host 'lavender graduations'

Over 100 colleges to host 'lavender graduations':
"Over 100 colleges and universities will be hosting a separate graduation ceremony for LGBTQ and ally students this spring.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the “Lavender Graduation” (a reference to the pink triangles Nazis forced gay men to wear) will take place on at least 124 college campuses in the United States in the coming weeks.
The graduations are intended to “provide a sense of community for minority students who often experience tremendous culture shock at their impersonalized institutions.”
The HRC also says that the Lavender Graduation is often “the payoff for staying in school, and friends and families find the smaller, more ethnic ceremonies both meaningful and personal.”
The ceremony is a “cultural celebration” to recognize LGBTQ students of all races and ethnicities, and aims to encourage them to mentor their younger peers, as well as to recognize their contribution to their various universities..."

Exclusive: Senior Cruz Campaign Official Outlines the ‘Why’ Behind Decision to Tap Fiorina as VP | TheBlaze.com

Exclusive: Senior Cruz Campaign Official Outlines the ‘Why’ Behind Decision to Tap Fiorina as VP | TheBlaze.com:

"The combination of Cruz and Fiorina is enough to best Clinton in November, the official told TheBlaze — something they don’t believe businessman and front-runner Donald Trump will be able to do.

The timing of the announcement is highly unusual as no presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1976 has named a running mate before officially earning their party’s nomination."

The Left's hatred of Jews chills me to the bone

The Left's hatred of Jews chills me to the bone:
"As a young boy, I used to think my grandma very strange.
In her bedroom she kept a suitcase, packed and ready for use at a moment’s notice.
“Just in case,” she’d tell me when I asked where it was that she was always waiting to go to.
“You never know when they’ll turn on the Jews.”
Her house in Northwood was epitome of suburban comfort, and I couldn’t understand what on earth she meant.
Until, that is, I learned some history – including the history of the Jews.
Which is, in short, that pretty much everywhere, they have turned on the Jews.
...the "Red/Green Alliance"; the phenomenon by which a swathe of the Left has linked up with radical Islam, leading to the bizarre spectacle of Leftist feminists supporting Islamists who would cut off the hands of women who read books.
With "anti-Western-imperialism" as part of the glue binding the alliance, everything else falls into place.
So Hamas and Hezbollah might have as their defining goal the elimination of an entire people from the face of the earth, but that unfortunate consequence for Jews is by the by, because Hamas and Hezbollah are freedom fighters.
...And because Israel is part of the Western imperium, as well as a key target for Islamists, it is also enemy number one for progressives. 
So an obsessive preoccupation with the Jewish state becomes the default position of the Left.
China, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia – pah! 
The focus must be on Israel and Israel alone.
From that springs an entire worldview that encompasses "Zionist" control of the media, of business, of everything.
And we can’t be accused of targeting Jews because we don’t use the word.
We say Zionist, not Jew..."

Is the White House Getting Too Friendly with Google?

Is the White House Getting Too Friendly with Google? | Intellectual Takeout:
"If you’ve ever been bombarded with web ads on a topic shortly after Googling or sending an email on the same topic, you’ve probably had an uneasy feeling that Google knows more about you than you’d like to think.
Unfortunately, that uneasy feeling may be destined to grow worse given new information released by the Campaign for Accountability.
Billing itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, the Campaign for Accountability recently took an in-depth look at Google’s relationship with the government.
During Obama’s tenure in office, representatives from Google or Google-related companies have had a total of 427 meetings with the White House. 
Over 100 of these meetings have been with Google lobbyist Johanna Shelton.

According to the Campaign for Accountability, this high number of meetings is concerning because:
“Top lobbyists' activities serve as a bellweather for their employers' level of influence in Government. 
Visitor access records for these 50 political influencers make clear that Google's access to the White House is unique among corporations and industry associations.”
Furthermore, the Campaign for Accountability notes that in the last several years, Google and Government have acted like a revolving door of job opportunities, with 61 important Google employees going to work in top Government positions and nearly 200 Government employees heading the other way. (Click here for the interactive version of the below chart.)..."

Lunch video-----Steven Crowder Delivers Most Epic Smackdown of Leftist Protestors Ever

Steven Crowder Delivers Most Epic Smackdown of Leftist Protestors Ever » Louder With Crowder: "Our own Steven Crowder headed to the University of Massachusetts (UMass) yesterday to co-panel an event called “The Triggering” with Christina Hoff Sommers and Milo Yiannopoulos.
Steven had hopes of telling a few jokes.
You know, those words that form sentences with punchlines at the end?
Well as bad luck would have it, a leftist protester, or social justice warrior (SJW) was having none of that. Crowder put him through the figurative meat grinder. 
Yeah, the bad luck wasn’t for Crowder so much of the formerly standing SJW who’s now vacuumed sealed.
Buy him at your local deli.
Language warning…"

Noon-toon

New Documents Give More Insight into What Clinton Knew the Night of the Benghazi Attacks | TheBlaze.com

New Documents Give More Insight into What Clinton Knew the Night of the Benghazi Attacks | TheBlaze.com:

"On the night the Benghazi compound was attacked a call sheet was sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stating “armed extremists” were behind the attack, according to documents released Monday by the ethics group Judicial Watch.

Clinton also met with then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice days before Rice went on Sunday morning news program claiming the attack resulted from a spontaneous demonstration, according to the documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit."

More Evidence that America’s Education System is Getting Worse

More Evidence that America’s Education System is Getting Worse | Intellectual Takeout
The 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law set the bar high. 
It’s goal was for 100% of American students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014.

When the class of 2015 entered kindergarten, the implementation of NCLB was just beginning. Because NCLB largely focused on subjects such as math and reading, it seems reasonable that 2015 graduates should be ahead of the pack in these areas, right?

Au contraire, say the latest results from The Nation’s Report Card.

The 2015 version of The Nation’s Report Card focused on 12th grade reading and math. 

As the charts below show, only 1 in 4 high school seniors achieved proficiency in math, while 37% achieved proficiency in reading. 
According to The Nation’s Report Card, these results show a slight, short-term decline in math, and a larger, long-term decline of five points in reading.

Read on see more proof of government's consistent failure to achieve even the most modest goals.