AM Fruitcake

History for May 3

History for May 3 - On-This-Day.com:
Niccolo Machiavelli 1469 - Italian philosopher/writer, Golda Meir (Golda Mabovitch, Golda Meyerson) 1898 - Fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Pete Seeger 1919 - Folk singer


Sugar Ray Robinson (Walker Smith Jr.) 1921 - Boxer, James Brown (James Joseph Brown, Jr.) 1928 - Singer, Frankie Valli 1934 - Musician (The Four Seasons)


1802 - Washington, DC, was incorporated as a city.


1921 - West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.


1937 - Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer Prize for "Gone With The Wind."


1944 - Dr. Robert Woodward and Dr. William Doering produced the first synthetic quinine at Harvard University.


1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities were legally unenforceable.


1952 - The first airplane landed at the geographic North Pole.


1966 - The game "Twister" was featured on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.


1986 - In NASA's first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket lost power in its main engine shortly after liftoff. Safety officers destroyed it by remote control.

Berkeley students are worried that police presence might traumatize minorities – TheBlaze

Berkeley students are worried that police presence might traumatize minorities – TheBlaze:


"On the heels of the controversy surrounding the cancellation of Ann Coulter’s speech at University of California, Berkeley, a university student senator who originally branded Coulter’s speech a “violent conversation” told the school newspaper that police presence on campus is traumatizing to minorities."

Rogue journalist stuns White House reporters with surprise grilling

Rogue journalist stuns White House reporters with surprise grilling:

"As soon as Press Secretary Sean Spicer concluded his daily briefing and left the room, documentary filmmaker Mike Cernovich addressed reporters and loudly asked, “Why will nobody here cover the violence against Trump supporters?”

A confused hush fell over the room as reporters, unaccustomed to being on the receiving end of shouted questions, tried to figure out what was going on.

But Cernocivh immediately continued, “And why won’t you demand that leaders of the Democrats disavow the violence by Antifa the way you demanded Trump disavow violence from his supporters?”"

The way we were---Rodney Dangerfield Funniest Jokes Ever On The Johnny Carson Show 1983 on...

Trump will test Democrats' tax patriotism: Glenn Reynolds

Trump will test Democrats' tax patriotism: Glenn Reynolds: 
"Democrats have been saying for years that we need tax increases, and that paying taxes is one of the greatest forms of patriotism. 
Now it looks like President Trump is going to put their beliefs to the test.
Trump’s new tax plan would hit blue states hardest, by eliminating the federal deductibility of state income and property taxes. 
That’s going to make it harder for blue states to maintain the high tax rates they’ve traditionally levied.
Right now, if you pay state property or income taxes, you can deduct them against your federal income taxes. 
In effect, it means that if you’re in a high federal bracket, your state taxes may be offset by that federal deduction to the tune of 40% or more.
End the federal deduction, though, and high state taxes come straight out of taxpayers’ pockets with no offset.  
As economist Nicole Kaeding told The Hill, by allowing deductions for state taxes, “the federal government is essentially subsidizing high tax rates in states like California and New York...”

Remember the VICTIMS of Communism on May Day! | Trending

Remember the VICTIMS of Communism on May Day! | Trending
"...But May 1 is also suggested as a commemorative day for another, much darker, reason. 
Ilya Somin has been campaigning for years to have May 1 declared Victims of Communism Day.
Here's why it's important: 
Communism in the 20th century killed 100 million people, according to the Black Book of Communism. 
That included Jews, Kazakhs, Ukrainians in Russia, millions of Chinese under Mao, millions of Cambodians under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge; 
for most of that time, western media was at best indifferent and at worst directly misleading (like Walter Duranty and the Holodomor).
As Somin says:
Our comparative neglect of communist crimes has serious costs. 
Victims of Communism Day can serve the dual purpose of 

• appropriately commemorating the millions of victims, and 
• diminishing the likelihood that such atrocities will recur. 

Just as Holocaust Memorial Day and other similar events help sensitize us to the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism, and radical nationalism, so Victims of Communism Day can increase awareness of the dangers of left-wing forms of totalitarianism, and government control of the economy and civil society..."

Climate Change Rally in Colorado Postponed After Monster Snowstorm - Breitbart

Climate Change Rally in Colorado Postponed After Monster Snowstorm - Breitbart:

"A rally in Colorado Springs designed to warn people of the effects of climate change and global warming was postponed this weekend after a snowstorm made it too risky to proceed.
The event, organized by local environmentalist group 350 Colorado Springs, was also a protest against the Trump administration’s policies on climate change."

Rush on the terrible spending bill: "Why is anybody voting Republican, if this is what happens when we win?" - Hot Air Hot Air

Rush on the terrible spending bill: "Why is anybody voting Republican, if this is what happens when we win?" - Hot Air Hot Air:
"It’s a fair question.
I know the headline makes it sound like he’s criticizing Trump, but after a year and a half of Rush applauding him at every turn, you should know better than that by now. 
He sort of criticizes him. 
It’s the special interests who are responsible for this garbage spending bill, he insists, aided and abetted by the corrupt Republican establishment. 
All true enough, but how about the superhero whom America elected to impose his will on Washington and to drain the swamp? 
Does he bear any blame? 
Would Obama bear any blame on conservative talk radio if Democrats controlled Congress during his presidency and produced a bill like this?
Limbaugh concedes that Trump should be more proactive, writing his own legislation and sending it to the Hill. 
But what if, and bear with me here, what if Trump … just doesn’t care much about the details of legislation? 
That might explain why we ended up with a bizarrely anti-populist health-care bill and a series of surreal reversals on core campaign points like NATO’s obsolescence and China’s currency manipulation. 
What if his main concern is popularity, in the form of averting any shutdowns for which he might be blamed, instead of major policy gains?

But the dirty little secret is that there isn’t any evidence that anywhere in Washington is there any aspect of the Trump agenda on display. It doesn’t seem to be that in the House of Representatives that there is a desire to implement any of the Trump agenda. It doesn’t seem in the Senate that there is a desire to implement any of the Trump agenda. It does seem in the House that there is a lot of energy devoted to stopping a Trump agenda. Ditto in the Senate…

Buyer beware: Subsidy-driven solar industry a bubble waiting to burst | TheHill

Buyer beware: Subsidy-driven solar industry a bubble waiting to burst | TheHill
"Automotive research company Edmunds warned that the elimination of the $7,500 U.S. tax credit for electric vehicles (EV) is, “likely to kill the EV market” according to Bloomberg.
Think about this.  
TESLA, an electric car company that has yet to make a profit, has the largest market capitalization of any U.S. auto company recently surpassing both Ford and General Motors, and a leading auto company analyst predicts that absent federal government subsidies, the entire market for their product will collapse.
Talk about tulip bubble.
In a separate article, Bloomberg reports that GM expects to earn more than $9 billion this year and analysts predict Ford will generate adjusted profit of about $6.3 billion. 
On that basis, Tesla is expected to lose more than $950 million.
The largest auto company in the U.S. is valued on the U.S. stock market at approximately $60 billion, they don’t make a profit, and would be devastated if federal and state government subsidies were removed.  
As the old television show starring Fran Tarkenton used to say, “That’s Incredible!”
The owner of TESLA, Elon Musk is the primary beneficiary of this government subsidized valuation bubble, but this is not the first industry that Musk has been involved in which receives massive subsidization and is wrapped in controversy.  
Musk also owns solar panel company Solar City.
A recent report issued by Americans for Limited Government Foundation chronicled on-going consumer complaints and problems across America due to shady sales and marketing practices that run rampant throughout the highly subsidized solar panel industry.
...In Arizona, a spokesperson for the state attorney general reported that they have been “flooded” with complaint calls over the failure of a solar installation contractor to actually perform the work after accepting thousands of dollars in payments from more than a thousand customers. It must be noted that Arizona offers state solar tax credits up to 25 percent of total system costs not to exceed $1,000, subsidies which are used as sales tools to convince consumers that solar makes sense.
...Given the levels of government subsidies, commonsense transparency reforms need to be put in place at the state level to help consumers make an informed solar judgment. 
It is in the interest of both the solar industry and the consumer to ensure that the government subsidy they get doesn’t turn to fools gold for the consumers they entice. 
Read the full report here
And when it comes to TESLA stock, let the buyer beware."

Lunch video----Why Isn't Communism as Hated as Nazism?

Noon-toon

Fox News Contributor Points to Fresno Shooting As Obama's Legacy

Fox News Contributor Points to Fresno Shooting As Obama's Legacy:

"Broken politics and radical beliefs have consequences — and one of the consequences of former President Barack Obama’s eight years in office may be a lingering legacy of anger and hatred.

That view was recently expressed by Kevin Jackson, a conservative commentator and talk radio host. During an appearance on Fox News, Jackson pointed out how the Fresno mass shooting is connected to Obama’s past rhetoric.

“It’s a typical sort of narrative of the left to say, ‘pick one,’ right now they’re saying ‘pick one,’” Jackson began. “You can’t have terror and you can’t have race at the same time, when in fact, that’s exactly what it was.”"

It’s a crime this story was ignored – Da Tech Guy Blog

It’s a crime this story was ignored – Da Tech Guy Blog:
"“Crime by Migrants in Germany Increase.”
The headline on the story, buried deep within the Wall Street Journal, was so innocuous it might as well have said, “Nothing to See Here, Folks — Please Move Along.”
Despite the mild headline, however, the article by Ruth Brenner was filled with statistics that spun a tale of terror.
From 2015 to 2016, crimes committed by refugees and other migrants to Germany soared by 52.7%, a figure sure to attract attention.
Except it didn’t.
I saw a few references to the stats on conservative websites, but not even the crickets chirped in the mainstream media.
The pure numbers are just as startling: Migrants were charged with 114,238 crimes in 2015 and 174,438 last year.
Meanwhile, crimes committed by German citizens plummeted by 3.4% in the same period.
Despite the drop in misconduct by natives, the country’s overall crime rate was up by 0.7 percent..."

Study Wants To End Calling Breastfeeding 'Natural'

Study Wants To End Calling Breastfeeding 'Natural'
"Those aligned with the "party of science" have been, ironically, finding sillier and sillier ways to pretend that biology isn't science.

For example, nature -- not intellect -- created breastfeeding, so by definition breastfeeding is natural. 

However, a major medical journal has just published a study arguing that calling nature "natural" is "unethical," because truth is problematic or something:

It’s “ethically inappropriate” for government and medical organizations to describe breastfeeding as “natural” because the term enforces rigid notions about gender roles, claims a new study in Pediatrics.

“Coupling nature with motherhood… can inadvertently support biologically deterministic arguments about the roles of men and women in the family (for example, that women should be the primary caretaker,” the study says..."

Why You Should Buy the Dumbest Appliances You Can Find

Why You Should Buy the Dumbest Appliances You Can Find:

"...One afternoon, I attended a panel discussion about the rapidly approaching "connected home," referred to nowadays as the Internet of Things. 
The panelists promised that household devices of all kinds would soon be connected to one another and to the internet, thereby transforming the average American home into a futuristic fortress of hyperefficiency.

Many of the predictions sounded familiar, so while the panelists were talking I did a Google search on my phone and found this New York Times article: "Forget about waiting in your bathrobe for the tub to fill or padding around at night to lock the doors and turn off the lights. Think instead about calling up your appliances—the refrigerator, the hot tub, the alarms—from the car phone as you commute home from work. The refrigerator defrosts a pie and tells the oven to start the roast; the range signals the microwave oven to heat the soufflé, and 102-degree water fills the bathtub." 
That article is from 1988. 
...Most people's houses still don't have almost any of that stuff, and the fact that they don't suggests either that manufacturing truly smart gadgets is harder than anyone lets on, or that consumers aren't all that interested in leaving raw meat in a cold oven all day so that they can begin cooking it as they drive home from work. 
Or maybe it's a little of both.

...I hereby propose the Owen Test of appliance connectivity: Until I can operate my Samsung TV, Blu-Ray player, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Cisco cable box with a single remote control, the Internet of Things is a hoax.

...The appliances in my mother's kitchen weren't smart, but they lasted forever. If one of them broke, a repairman came to our house and fixed it. 

The last time a repairman came to my house, he told me that he'd had to get a full-time weekday job at Home Depot because nowadays, when appliances break, most people just buy new ones. 

And they do break. 

Now, the most vulnerable parts of modern appliances are usually the ones containing computer chips. 

My wife and I learned that when we fried the brains of a pair of expensive side-by-side convection ovens by self-cleaning them simultaneously. 

The repairman's advice, after pronouncing the circuit boards too costly to replace: 
Buy the dumbest appliances you can find..."

You ought to know!

Major state playing devious trick with ‘religious freedom’

Major state playing devious trick with ‘religious freedom’:

"“This bill has nothing to do with genuine religious freedom issues,” Robert Spencer, co-founder of Stop Islamization of America and the Freedom Defense Initiative told WND. “Instead, it is intended to hamper law enforcement by being a Shariah-compliant bill to hamper legitimate attempts to keep us safe.”

SB 31, labeled the California Religious Freedom Act, would appear to be in the same vein as bills passed by state legislatures in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. It passed the state Senate April 4 and now is in the hands of the Assembly."

Almost every speed limit is too low

Almost every speed limit is too low
"When lieutenant Gary Megge of the Michigan State Police attends a meeting, he sometimes asks, “How many of you broke the speed limit on your way here?”
Hearing his question, you might assume that lieutenant Megge is a particularly zealous police officer. The type of person who walks half a city block to avoid jaywalking on an empty street.
The model citizen who defers almost obnoxiously to the letter of the law.
But that is not the point of lieutenant Megge’s question at all.
“We all speed, yet months and months usually pass between us seeing a crash,” lieutenant Megge tells us when we call to discuss speed limits.
“That tells me that most of us are adequate, safe, reasonable drivers. 
Speeding and traffic safety have a small correlation.”
Over the past 12 years, lieutenant Megge has increased the speed limit on nearly 400 of Michigan’s roadways.
Each time, he or one of his officers hears from community groups who complain that people already drive too fast.
But as Megge and his colleagues explain, their intent is not to reduce congestion, bow to the reality that everyone drives too fast, or even strike a balance between safety concerns and drivers’ desire to arrive at their destinations faster.
Quite the opposite, lieutenant Megge advocates for raising speed limits because he believes it makes roads safer.
TRAFFIC ENGINEERING 101
Every year, traffic engineers review the speed limit on thousands of stretches of road and highway. Most are reviewed by a member of the state’s Department of Transportation, often along with a member of the state police, as is the case in Michigan.
In each case, the “survey team” has a clear approach: they want to set the speed limit so that 15% of drivers exceed it and 85% of drivers drive at or below the speed limit.
This “nationally recognized method” of setting the speed limit as the 85th percentile speed is essentially traffic engineering 101.
It’s also a bit perplexing to those unfamiliar with the concept.
Shouldn’t everyone drive at or below the speed limit?
And if a driver’s speed is dictated by the speed limit, how can you decide whether or not to change that limit based on the speed of traffic?
The answer lies in realizing that the speed limit really is just a number on a sign, and it has very little influence on how fast people drive..."

AM Fruitcake