Why Liberals Don’t Care About Consequences

Spengler » Why Liberals Don’t Care About Consequences:
No amount of evidence will convince liberals that they were wrong. 
Evidence abounds, to be sure: 
Appeasement invites aggression. 
Handouts increase dependency. 
Coddling terror-states like Iran elicits megalomania. 
Big government stifles the economy. 
They don’t care. 
Really.

.....Why don’t liberals seem to notice the catastrophic consequences of their policies, and why to they imagine imminent horrors where none exist? 

If you corner a liberal and point to a disaster that followed upon his policy, at very most he will say–with a tear in the eye and a quivering upper lip–”We did the right thing.”

It’s all about having done the right thing according to the dogma of the ersatz liberal religion. Liberalism has nothing whatsoever to do with policy and its real-world consequences. 

Instead of finding one’s salvation on the path of traditional religions, liberals look for salvation in a set of right opinions–on race, the environment, income distribution, gender, or whatever. 

Proposal Would Empower Feds to Scour Internet, TV for Hate Speech

Proposal Would Empower Feds to Scour Internet, TV for Hate Speech | Fox News Insider:
"A new proposal would empower the feds to scour the Internet, TV and more for so-called hate speech.
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey is pushing a bill to have a federal agency monitor anything that it suspects may encourage hate crimes. 
He wants the agency to work in connection with the Department of Justice and U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, then file a report to Congress on what’s hateful and could lead to hate crimes.
So, who gets to decide what’s hateful and what will they then do about it?"

Berkeley. Pelosi. Lib students. Heh.....UC Berkeley students told to pay up for cost of graduation ceremony featuring Nancy Pelosi - Washington Times

UC Berkeley students told to pay up for cost of graduation ceremony featuring Nancy Pelosi - Washington Times:
"Students who graduate from the University of California-Berkeley can expect to spend roughly $120,000 for a four-year degree.
This year, they still must pay an extra $10 to attend their own graduation ceremony, where they will also listen to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Students who do not cough up the cash before Wednesday, April 30 for the campus-wide commencement ceremony have been told they will not be able to attend on May 17 at California Memorial Stadium."

Obama Responsible for the Year of the Lie | Wall Street Daily | the TRUTH behind the WORLD'S GREATEST MONEYMAKING MACHINE

Obama Responsible for the Year of the Lie | Wall Street Daily | the TRUTH behind the WORLD'S GREATEST MONEYMAKING MACHINE:
“The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.”
That’s what Barack Obama has declared, so I guess we’re supposed to agree.
The problem is that the president is either a liar or he’s completely out of touch with reality. In actuality, the Obamacare program is more unpopular with the public than ever, and rather than being finished, the debate is just beginning."

Here's A Chart You Won't See On CNBC

Here's A Chart You Won't See On CNBC | Zero Hedge:
""Record corporate cash"..."Record corporate cash"... "Record corporate cash"
That pretty much covers most of the conversation on prime time financial media and TV stations when discussing corporate balance sheets.
There is, however, one big problem with that mantra. 
As Zero Hedge first showed in January with "Corporations Have Record Cash:
They Also Have Record-er Debt, As Net Leverage Soars 15% Above Its 2008 Peak" companies indeed have tons of cash.
What isn't discussed is where that cash came from. 
The answer: debt. 
Because while companies have record cash, they have recorder-er debt."

History for May 1

History for May 1 - On-This-Day.com:

Happy Birthday! Judy Collins, Rita Coolidge, Tim McGraw

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

1863 - In Virginia, the Battle of Chancellorsville began. General Robert E. Lee's forces began fighting with Union troops under General Joseph Hooker. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own soldiers in this battle. (May 1-4) 


1867 - Reconstruction in the South began with black voter registration. 


1877 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction. 


1883 - William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) had his first Wild West Show. 


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


1927 - Adolf Hitler held his first Nazi meeting in Berlin. 





1931 - The Empire State Building in New York was dedicated and opened. It was 102 stories tall and was the tallest building in the world at the time. 


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





1944 - The Messerschmitt Me 262, the first combat jet, made its first flight. 


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

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. 






1971 - The National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak) went into service. It was established by the U.S. Congress to run the nation's intercity railroads.
 

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?" 


2001 - Chandra Levy was last seen in Washington, DC. Her remains were found in Rock Creek Park on May 22, 2002. Democrat California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy. 


2011 - U.S. President Barack Obama announced that U.S. soldiers had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Jay Carney’s Shocking Statement During Tense Exchange With Reporters: Newly Released White House Emails ‘Not About Benghazi’ | TheBlaze.com

Jay Carney’s Shocking Statement During Tense Exchange With Reporters: Newly Released White House Emails ‘Not About Benghazi’ | TheBlaze.com:
“The emails and the talking points were not about Benghazi,” Carney told reporters Wednesday. “They were about the general situation in the Muslim world where you saw, as you might recall, it was explicitly not about Benghazi, it was about the overall situation in the region, the Muslim world, where we saw protests outside of embassy facilities across the region.”

Quoting Winston Churchill Deemed Illegal In Britain

Quoting Winston Churchill Deemed Illegal In Britain:
"As the assault on free speech continues within the U.S., freedom-loving Americans can look at our forebears in England as a devastating harbinger of what rampant leftism can cause.
Paul Weston, a political candidate and chairman of Liberty GB Party, found out how limited speech has become in the country during an address he made last weekend in Hampshire."

New White House Emails Reveal Effort to Portray Benghazi Attack as Being ‘Rooted’ in an ‘Internet Video,’ Protect President’s Re-Election | TheBlaze.com

New White House Emails Reveal Effort to Portray Benghazi Attack as Being ‘Rooted’ in an ‘Internet Video,’ Protect President’s Re-Election | TheBlaze.com:
"Several top White House staffers, including political strategist David Plouffe and press secretary Jay Carney, were involved in these emails, some of which were circulated just a day before then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on television to blame the attacks on a YouTube video.
The “goal” going forward, one Rhodes email said, is “to underscore that these protests are rooted in [an] Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.”

The 41 new Benghazi-related State Department documents released Tuesday show that Rice received her talking points directly from the highest reaches of Obama’s inner circle."

This'll be fun to watch-----Drew Sharp: OK, so Donald Sterling is gone; now it's up to NBA to diversify its ownership

Drew Sharp: OK, so Donald Sterling is gone; now it's up to NBA to diversify its ownership | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
They nailed a racist.
Congratulations.
Big whoop!
You took down a fool old enough and rich enough not to care about applying a filter when voicing his toxic thoughts.
But this is hardly an impressive victory in the bigger battle.
This was appeasement, nothing more than throwing activists still trapped in the civil rights scrums of the 1960s crumbs to quietly pacify them and con them into believing that everyone’s engaged in the same fight.
The NBA didn’t address the legitimate concerns of institutional racism within league ownership. 

Report: Tech CEOs Hiring Fewer Blacks, Latinos, Women Amid Amnesty Push

Report: Tech CEOs Hiring Fewer Blacks, Latinos, Women Amid Amnesty Push:
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerburg has led the tech industry in aggressively pushing for amnesty legislation that the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of American workers, partly because the legislation would double or even triple the number of H1-B visas and other guest-worker permits. Doing so would make jobs that are already scarce for blacks, Latinos, and women in Silicon Valley even more so.

Kotkin cited a report in the San Jose Mercury News that found that the "unique diversity of Silicon Valley is not reflected in the region's tech workplaces—and the disparity is only growing worse," as blacks, Hispanics, and women employees are dwindling in the high-tech industry.

Prominent Anti-Gun Advocate Had a ‘Considerable Change in Demeanor’ When She Learned Who She Was Smiling Next to in This Picture | TheBlaze.com

Prominent Anti-Gun Advocate Had a ‘Considerable Change in Demeanor’ When She Learned Who She Was Smiling Next to in This Picture | TheBlaze.com:
"When prominent gun control advocate Shannon Watts was asked by a man to take a picture outside of the 2014 NRA convention in Indianapolis, she granted his request. What she clearly didn’t know was who the man really was.
Watts’ reportedly had a “considerable change in demeanor” after the picture was snapped and he revealed his identity. "

SEIU Membership Drops 80 Percent After Dues Skim Ends

SEIU Membership Drops 80 Percent After Dues Skim Ends [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
More than 44,000 home-based caregivers no longer are part of the SEIU Healthcare Michigan, according to federal reports filed by the union.

The workers previously were forced to pay dues or fees to the SEIU after the union orchestrated a scheme that took money from the Medicaid checks of the people the workers were caring for in homes across the state. The "dues skim" ended in 2013, but not before the SEIU took more than $34 million from the elderly and disabled across the state.

According to the union's LM-2 report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, 44,347 home-based caregivers have opted to stay out of the union.

That number represents virtually all of the long-term home-based caregivers affected by the dues skim. 
It also is more than 80 percent of the 55,265 members the union claimed to have at the end on 2012. 

Don't let GM and it's union thieves lie to you------Government loss on GM bailout deeper than first thought, report finds

Government loss on GM bailout deeper than first thought, report finds | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
The U.S. government posted a deeper loss than initially recorded on the General Motors bailout, according to a government report released today.
Taxpayers lost $11.2 billion on the GM bailout, up from $10.3 billion the Treasury Department estimated when it sold its last GM shares on Dec. 9.
A Treasury Department auditor said the government had written off an $826-million “administrative claim” tied to the GM bailout on March 20.

Senate dems let it happen-----$10.10 wage bill set to die

$10.10 wage bill set to die | TheHill
Thune cited a Bloomberg poll showing 57 percent of the public views the potential loss of 500,000 jobs, a figure projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), as an unacceptable tradeoff for raising the minimum wage to a $10.10 hourly rate.

The CBO dealt a huge blow to the legislation, the centerpiece of the Democrats’ 2014 agenda, when it warned in February of its impact on jobs.

Senate Democratic aides dismissed the projection, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has worked for weeks to rally his caucus around the $10.10 wage threshold. Initially, Obama backed a hike to $9, then embraced the higher figure after being prodded by congressional Democrats.

Reid initially said the Senate would consider the bill in early March. Instead, it languished while a coalition of labor unions and liberal groups intensely lobbied centrist Democratic and Republican senators.

The impact of the lobbying effort on Republicans has been hampered by Obama’s low approval ratings. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday showed the president’s approval rating has fallen to 41 percent, a 5-point drop compared to March.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), one of the chamber’s most vulnerable incumbents, has said he doesn’t back the bill.

Centrists, such as Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), questioned the details of the legislation, such as the $10.10 wage floor, the timing of its implementation and how it would affect workers who rely on tips. Other Democrats stopped short of embracing Harkin’s bill.

The Marijuana Debate: Time for Reefer Sanity

The Marijuana Debate: Time for Reefer Sanity

Don’t believe the hype: marijuana legalization poses too many risks to public health and public safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations, my new book “Reefer Sanity” discusses some widely held myths about marijuana:

Myth No. 1: “Marijuana is harmless and non-addictive”

No, marijuana is not as dangerous as cocaine or heroin, but calling it harmless or non-addictive denies very clear science embraced by every major medical association that has studied the issue. Scientists now know that the average strength of today’s marijuana is some 5–6 times what it was in the 1960s and 1970s, and some strains are upwards of 10–20 times stronger than in the past—especially if one extracts THC through a butane process. This increased potency has translated to more than 400,000 emergency room visits every year due to things like acute psychotic episodes and panic attacks.

Mental health researchers are also noting the significant marijuana connection with schizophrenia, and educators are seeing how persistent marijuana use can blunt academic motivation and significantly reduce IQ by up to eight points, according to a very large recent study in New Zealand. Add to these side-effects new research now finding that even casual marijuana use can result in observable differences in brain structure, specifically parts of the brain that regulate emotional processing, motivation and reward. Indeed, marijuana use hurts our ability to learn and compete in a competitive global workplace.

Additionally, marijuana users pose dangers on the road, despite popular myth. According to the British Medical Journal, marijuana intoxication doubles your risk of a car crash.

The Massive Amount of Weapons Meant for Libyan Rebels That Actually Ended Up in Terrorists’ Hands | TheBlaze.com

The Massive Amount of Weapons Meant for Libyan Rebels That Actually Ended Up in Terrorists’ Hands | TheBlaze.com:
"A U.S. businesswoman who had access to senior Libyan officials and provided information as a paid informant for the CIA and FBI, said she was asked to provide intelligence on various rebel leaders and their actions while she was conducting business in Libya. Speaking to TheBlaze TV’s For the Record and going only by the pseudonym Annie to protect her identity, she said the Obama administration was aware that $500 million of the $1 billion in weapons delivered in shipments from weapons dealers in the Persian Gulf were being taken by members of Al Qaeda.
Current and former U.S. officials intimately familiar with operations in Libya at the time confirmed Annie’s statement to TheBlaze.

Annie said one of the benefactors was Al Qaeda leader Ahmed Abu Khattalah, who is now wanted by the U.S. government."

In Lansing today, Orr to lawmakers: We're counting on $350M in state funding

In Lansing today, Orr to lawmakers: We're counting on $350M in state funding | Crain's Detroit Business: "Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr met with state lawmakers in Lansing Tuesday to urge approval of $350 million in state funds to help bring the city out of bankruptcy.

 Orr told reporters he felt the “grand bargain” — $816 million in pension contributions pledged by private foundations and the Detroit Institute of Arts, as well as the $350 million from the state — was in “very good condition,” and that he hopes a deal can be reached sooner rather than later, because the state funding is built into the plan of adjustment.

 “We’re counting on this,” Orr said."

How about a ‘renewed call’ for the White House to stop spreading false information about campus sexual assault?

How about a ‘renewed call’ for the White House to stop spreading false information about campus sexual assault? | AEIdeas:
"In a January 2014 report titled “Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action” (which led to the creation of the Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault headed by Biden), the White House Council on Women and Girls made the following two statements:
1. Sexual assault is a particular problem on college campuses:1 in 5 women has been sexually assaulted while in college.
2. Reporting rates for campus sexual assault are also very low: on average only 12% of student victims report the assault to law enforcement. But there’s a big problem here.

Taken together, those two claims above from the White House, if both are accurate, mean that nowhere near 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted while in college.

As I reported in January on CD after the release of the White House’s “renewed call to action” report:
The problem is that the two sets of numbers the White House uses don’t work together. 

If you look at virtually any university in America and take the number of reported sexual assaults, and use that number in conjunction with the White House’s under-reporting percentage, you don’t get one-in-five. Nowhere near.
Do the math yourself."

The West Prepares: These Are All NATO Aircraft Deployments In Response To The Ukraine Crisis

The West Prepares: These Are All NATO Aircraft Deployments In Response To The Ukraine Crisis | Zero Hedge: