Sunday, October 29, 2017

You ought to know!

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Washington, Lee memorials to be removed from church sanctuary in effort to be 'welcoming' to all - Washington Times

Washington, Lee memorials to be removed from church sanctuary in effort to be 'welcoming' to all - Washington Times:

Image result for flickr commons images George Washington"An historic Episcopal parish where George Washington frequently worshiped has decided to remove a memorial plaque honoring the nation’s first president, saying the decision was out of a desire to provide a “welcoming” worship space for all visitors. The church will also remove a similar memorial plague honoring Robert E. Lee, the commander of Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
The vestry of Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, announced its unanimous decision in an Oct. 26 letter, The Republican Standard website reported Thursday. The letter suggests that while initially the concern was over honoring the Confederate military leader, Washington’s slave ownership was a factor in the decision to remove his plaque as well."



The Whitefish Contract Is a Natural Consequence of FEMA's Mismanagement - Hit & Run : Reason.com

The Whitefish Contract Is a Natural Consequence of FEMA's Mismanagement - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
"Congress approved some $36.5 billion in appropriations to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for disaster relief efforts.
Taxpayers should hold out little hope this money will be well spent.
Image result for government wasteTake, for instance, the $300 million no-bid electrical grid repair contract Puerto Rico's power utility PREPO handed to the inadequate, but well-connected Whitefish contracting firm. PREPO reportedly is paying Whitefish's electrical workers $332.41 a day for accommodations alone.
The Whitefish contract expressly forbids FEMA (which is responsible for bankrolling the contract) from auditing Whitefish's performance, as Reason's Eric Boehm reported earlier today.
It's an insane provision, but probably an unnecessary one, given how little audits of FEMA's past spending have done to improve agency performance.
The latest audit of FEMA's 2015 disaster relief spending found nearly a third of it "questionable costs, such as duplicate payments, unsupported costs, improper contract costs, and unauthorized expenditures."
From 2009 to 2015, FEMA misspent or wasted more than $10 billion, or 37 percent of the funds examined in the audit. 
Despite the damning results, FEMA has failed to act on nearly 90 percent of the improvements recommended by the auditors..."

AM Fruitcake

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History for October 29

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History for October 29 - On-This-Day.com
Fanny Brice 1891, Bill Mauldin 1921, Melba Moore 1945
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Richard Dreyfuss 1947, Kate Jackson 1948, Winona Ryder 1971
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1618 - Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded under a sentence that had been brought against him 15 years earlier for conspiracy against King James I.
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1652 - The Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed itself to be an independent commonwealth.
Image result for 1652 - The Massachusetts Bay Colony

1863 - The International Committee of the Red Cross was founded.
Image result for International Committee of the Red Cross was founded.

1901 - Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President McKinley, was electrocuted.
Image result for Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President McKinley, was electrocuted

1923 - Turkey formally became a republic after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The first president was Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Ataturk.
Image result for 1923 - Turkey formally became a republic

1945 - The first ballpoint pens to be made commercially went on sale at Gimbels Department Store in New York at the price of $12.50 each.
Image result for first ballpoint pens to be made commercially went on sale at Gimbels Department Store

1960 - Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) won his first professional fight.
Image result for Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) won his first professional fight.

1974 - U.S. President Gerald Ford signed a new law forbidding discrimination in credit applications on the basis of sex or marital status
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Saturday, October 28, 2017

James Comey's 'coordination' testimony sheds new context on Clinton campaign's dossier funding - Washington Times

James Comey's 'coordination' testimony sheds new context on Clinton campaign's dossier funding - Washington Times:

Image result for flickr commons images james comey"When then-FBI Director James B. Comey explained to Congress last March the scope of his investigation into Donald Trump aides and Russia, his words would also fit the Hillary Clinton campaign today.
Mr. Comey told the House Intelligence Committed that his agents were investigating “whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”
That definition — “coordination” — would seem to make the Democrats ripe for special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate, ex-Trump aides say.
What is known now that was not known in March: The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for an opposition research operation against candidate Trump that relied almost exclusively on paid Kremlin sources and Russian spies during the 2016 election."



Clinton Emails, Trump Dossier, Uranium One Deal: All Point To Corruption In Obama's Justice Department | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD

Clinton Emails, Trump Dossier, Uranium One Deal: All Point To Corruption In Obama's Justice Department | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD:

Image result for flickr commons images obama"It was just 10 months ago that Barack Obama was bragging about how scandal-free his administration was. And many believed it, until now. Revelations are coming fast and furious pointing to political corruption at the Justice Department while he was in the White House.

In the span of just the past few weeks, four major stories broke that implicate either the Justice Department or the FBI using their authority to help Democrats.

Exonerating Clinton before the facts were in. First was the fact that former FBI director James Comey had, contrary to what he told Congress, drafted what amounted to an acquittal letter for Hillary Clinton months before he'd even interviewed her regarding her unsecured private email server."



The way we were-----Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law(1966)

Boob-tube-----Top 10 Decade Defining TV Shows: 1980s

Halloween (and Everything Else) Is Too Scary for the Fragile Generation - Hit & Run : Reason.com

Halloween (and Everything Else) Is Too Scary for the Fragile Generation - Hit & Run : Reason.com
"If you're sending your kid out to trick or treat for Halloween this year, the list of suggested safety measures is probably not quite as long as what to do when locking the nuclear device onto the submarine, but it's close. 
Image result for Boy Pajama ObamacareHere's my favorite tip from a suburban paper this year: "Before bobbing for apples—a favorite Halloween game—reduce the risk of bacteria by thoroughly rinsing the apples under cool running water. As an added precaution, use a produce brush to remove surface dirt."
That's right. 
Wash the apple in water, scrub it within an inch of becoming applesauce, and then place it in yet more water. 
But that's how we approach childhood today: nothing is safe enough.
As New York University Stern School of Business Professor Jonathan Haidt and I argue in "The Fragile Generation," our cover story for the December 2017 issue of Reason magazine:
Beginning in the 1980s, American childhood changed. For a variety of reasons—including shifts in parenting norms, new academic expectations, increased regulation, technological advances, and especially a heightened fear of abduction (missing kids on milk cartons made it feel as if this exceedingly rare crime was rampant)—children largely lost the experience of having large swaths of unsupervised time to play, explore, and resolve conflicts on their own. This has left them more fragile, more easily offended, and more reliant on others. They have been taught to seek authority figures to solve their problems and shield them from discomfort, a condition sociologists call "moral dependency."
Read on! 

Yes. It's OK to hate this moron. But the comments are hilarious.-----I Bought a Tiny "Parisian" Fridge and I Totally Regret It | Kitchn

I Bought a Tiny "Parisian" Fridge and I Totally Regret It | Kitchn:
"Everything is better in Paris. 
I know that. 
Attempting to make my American home my own version of a Parisian apartment was destined to be a disappointment.
I live on the wrong continent with a different way of life.
But I couldn't resist.
I should have resisted.
I spent nine days at the most adorable Airbnb ever a couple of years ago.
The Yellow Flat in the Canal St. Martin area of Paris was everything you dream of when you dream of Paris.
And I lived the perfect Parisian life there for one glorious week-plus.
That included popping out to boulangeries, patisseries, markets, and even La Grande Epicerie to stock the flat with all things delicious.
Anything to be chilled went into the darling, minuscule, oh-so-Parisian refrigerator.
How nice it was to have such a minimalist fridge.
How magical to store some rosé, a bit of charcuterie, a little fruit, some macarons, those delicious French yogurts, some water (even the water tastes better there!), and to have just a little bit of space still available.
Opening that tiny fridge made me happy, just as every little activity of daily living makes me happy while I'm in Paris.
So when my husband and I came home and abruptly decided to buy a massive Victorian to fix up, the correspondingly massive fridge in the horrific kitchen had to go..."

Comments from a FB site:

    Image result for Ooo la la wanna be
  • She needs to tell her husband to take a mistress for the full Parisian experience she's otherwise missing out on.
  • Also, have someone light their car on fire during the night.
  • This lady forgot the essential rule of American fetishization of EuroWeenie countries: Enjoy from the comfort of your Capitalist Free Market home.
  • Our garage beer fridge died a few weeks ago, and we bought a small one because we're cheap. Hadn't occurred to me it was Parisian.
  • I'm surprised she went to a big box store to buy the thing. She doesn't strike me as the big box type. Because France.
  • Because nothing says Paris like a fridge.......
  • OK, wait. The author, after spending "nine days at the most adorable Airbnb ever" in Paris, "came home and abruptly decided to buy a massive Victorian to fix up". Then, trying to replicate the life of "popping out to boulangeries, patisseries, markets" she had an issue with the "tiny Pariasian" fridge (which, honestly, is a normal size for people who aren't shopping for an army or who live in an apartment) she installed in her massive Victorian-size kitchen?
  • Am I missing something about the hypocrisy of two people living in a "massive Victorian" but wanting to feel like they're living in a tiny flat on an endless Parisian vacation?
  • Hey, if someone wants to buy and live in a massive Victorian fixer upper I'm all for it. I've done it. But going to an appliance store just to torture the salespeople by saying "Show me a smaller one. Don't you have anything slimmer?" because she was "determined to buy the smallest fridge we could find" is just plain snotty. It's "Ooo la la, we just came back from 'one glorious week' in Paris and now we are ever so Continental." And it stinks like that "grocery-store sushi". Silly. Just plain silly.
  • Don’t be fooled by this silly woman. Most apartment fridges in the US for poor people/families are that size. Not to mention it’s the size our parents and grandparents had. She’s just being a silly petit bourgeoisie

DNC Chairman Tom Perez: 'The Electoral College is not a creation of the Constitution'

Image result for No SpeakingDNC Chairman Tom Perez: 'The Electoral College is not a creation of the Constitution':

"Contrary to Perez's claim, the U.S. Constitution establishes the Electoral College in Article II, and the 12th Amendment details the process by which electors will meet and vote for president and vice president."

Where do we get such men?----Six seconds to live | Power Line

Six seconds to live | Power Line
"Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal published a Notable & Quotable item excerpting a November 13, 2010, speech by then-Lieutenant General John Kelly to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis, describing a 2008 suicide bombing in Iraq that killed Marines Corporal Jonathan Yale, 22, and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 20. 
The Journal published the excerpt under the heading “Six seconds to live” and also posted the item online with a link to the complete text of General Kelly’s speech. 
The Journal notes that General Kelly’s son, Second Lieutenant Robert Kelly, 29, had been killed in action in Afghanistan on November 9, 2010, only four days before he gave the speech. 
I want to draw attention to this without further comment for readers disgusted by the deeply disgusting news of the day as something to stay our minds on and be staid:

"What we didn’t know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. 
It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated.Image result for Marines Corporal Jonathan Yale, 22, and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter,
You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before: “let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass.” The two Marines had about five seconds left to live.
It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was halfway through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were—some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.
For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines’ weapons firing nonstop, the truck’s windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the son-of-a-bitch who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers—American and Iraqi—bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe, because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.
The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty—into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight—for you."
Image result for Marines Corporal Jonathan Yale, 22, and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter,

Fusion GPS bank records will blow the lid off Russian scandal

Fusion GPS bank records will blow the lid off Russian scandal
"Kimberly Strassel in the Wall Street Journal (via Investor Villagegives us a preview of what the Fusion GPS bank records might reveal, as well as FBI documents on the Trump dossier that have finally been wrested from the bureau.
The Fusion GPS saga isn’t over. The Clinton-DNC funding is but a first glimpse into the shady election doings concealed within that oppo-research firm’s walls. We now know where Fusion got some of its cash, but the next question is how the firm used it. With whom did it work beyond former British spy Christopher Steele ? Whom did it pay? Who else was paying it?
The answers are in Fusion’s bank records. Fusion has doggedly refused to divulge the names of its clients for months now, despite extraordinary pressure. So why did the firm suddenly insist that middleman law firm Perkins Coie release Fusion from confidentiality agreements, and spill the beans on who hired it?
Because there’s something Fusion cares about keeping secret even more than the Clinton-DNC news—and that something is in those bank records. The release of the client names was a last-ditch effort to appease the House Intelligence Committee, which issued subpoenas to Fusion’s bank and was close to obtaining records until Fusion filed suit last week. The release was also likely aimed at currying favor with the court, given Fusion’s otherwise weak legal case. The judge could rule as early as Friday morning.
If the House wins, don’t be surprised if those records include money connected to Russians. In the past Fusion has worked with Russians, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who happened to show up last year in Donald Trump Jr.’s office.
What's should be of interest is how the Democrats will be able to continue the "Russia collusion" narrative if it turns out that the Russians assisted in developing a dossier that was solely designed to bring the Trump campaign down. 
If "every US intelligence agency" believes in Russian interference in the election to help Donald Trump win, how can they square that with Russian efforts to destroy his candidacy?
Any documents relating to the FBI's belief that the Trump dossier was so credible that it could help them in their Russian collusion investigation will also be eye opening. 
Speaker Ryan announced yesterday that the bureau had finally relented and would turn over their dossier files next week..."
Read on!

Lunch video-----What Is the Alt-Right?

Noon-toon


DNC Chairman Tom Perez: 'The Electoral College is not a creation of the Constitution'

Image result for flickr commons images u.s. constitutionDNC Chairman Tom Perez: 'The Electoral College is not a creation of the Constitution':

"Contrary to Perez's claim, the U.S. Constitution establishes the Electoral College in Article II, and the 12th Amendment details the process by which electors will meet and vote for president and vice president."


OMB: Top 20% pay 95% of taxes, middle class 'single digits'

OMB: Top 20% pay 95% of taxes, middle class 'single digits':
"Any tax cut for middle income earners will also provide a benefit for those further up the income scale, including the top 20 percent who pay 95 percent of all income taxes, according to the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
...When the two turned to the taxes the rich pay, Mulvaney declared, "The top 20 percent of folks who file a tax return, the top 20 percent, pay 95 percent of the taxes..."
Read on!

#1 This week 1961-----1961 Dion-Runaround Sue

Out these crooks! Would this be NEWS!! if these crooks were democrats? Minority democrats?-----The $300 Million Contract Awarded to the Interior Secretary's Friend's Company Is Exempt from Government Audits - Hit & Run : Reason.com

The $300 Million Contract Awarded to the Interior Secretary's Friend's Company Is Exempt from Government Audits - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
"The federal government has awarded a tiny Montana company a $300 million no-bid contract to repair Puerto Rico's hurricane-wrecked electrical grid.
The company, Whitefish Energy, has close ties to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
A copy of that contract leaked last night, and it seems to prohibit the federal government from auditing Whitefish's work and to shield other details of the company's efforts from being disclosed via open records laws.
"In no event," the contract says, will the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Comptroller General of the United States, "or any of their authorized representatives have the right to audit or review the cost and profit elements" of the deal.
The contract was posted online by Ken Klippenstein, a contributor to The Daily Beast, the first publication to report on the connections between the company and the secretary of the interior.
...Prior to landing the contract for repair work in Puerto Rico, Whitefish's largest project had been a $1.3 million deal to rebuild less than 5 miles of electrical lines in Arizona, The Washington Post reported this week.
By comparison, there are more than 2,400 miles of transmission lines and 30,000 of distribution electrical lines in Puerto Rico..."
Read it all!

You ought to know!


University of Wisconsin-Madison Students Protest Abraham Lincoln Statue Because ‘He Owned Slaves’

University of Wisconsin-Madison Students Protest Abraham Lincoln Statue Because ‘He Owned Slaves’:

Image result for flickr commons images Abraham Lincoln"There’s a common quote, frequently attributed to G.K. Chesterton: “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.”

In our modern context, this should be rephrased a bit: “Don’t try to pull down a statue if you have no idea who or what the statue was really about.”

During a 2016 Columbus Day protest conducted by Wunk Sheek, a Native American student organization, activists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus hosted a “die-in” at Bascom Hall, near a statue of President Abraham Lincoln. "


Spain PM Fires Catalan Government, Calls Snap Elections In Retaliation For Independence Vote | Zero Hedge

Spain PM Fires Catalan Government, Calls Snap Elections In Retaliation For Independence Vote | Zero Hedge:
Image result for you say you want a revolution"Update 4: In a live TV address to the nation, Spain's PM Rajoy just announced that it is a "sad day" in which Catalans showed "contempt" for democracy, and ignored the general interest; that the Catalan declaration is unacceptable to majority of Catalans, and that, as a result and as expected, he is firing Catalan president Carles Puigdment, the Catalan police chief, and the entire Catalan government as "prudence" and "serenity" are now needed: "we never wanted to reach this situation".
Ministries in the central government will assume powers of the Catalan administration.
The Prime Minister also announced he has dissolved the Catalan Parliament and called for snap elections to be held on December 21 which will be "free, legal and clean".
As The Spain Report adds, the central government also ordered all of Catalonia's "embassies" abroad closed, along with the region's publicly funded Diplocat diplomacy service, and sacked the director general of the Catalan Police (Mossos), Pere Soler.
Rajoy also said Spain has enough resources to "recover normality" in Catalonia within the law and thanked the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and Ciudadanos for their support..."

AM Fruitcake


History for October 28

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History for October 28 - On-This-Day.com
Georges Auguste Escoffier 1846 - French chef, Jonas Salk 1914 - Medical researcher, Charlie Daniels 1936 - Singer (Charlie Daniels Band)
Image result for Escoffier QuotesImage result for Jonas Salk Polio VaccineImage result for Charlie Daniels

Marcian E. "Ted" Hoff, Jr. 1937 - An inventor of the microprocessor, Bruce Jenner 1949 - Track and field athlete, actor ("CHiPs"), Bill H. Gates 1955- Inventor, computer programmer, co-founder of Microsoft
Image result for Hoffs Marcian MicorprosserImage result for Bruce Jenner WomanImage result for Bill H. Gates

1636 - Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts. The original name was Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was the first school of higher education in America.
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1776 - The Battle of White Plains took place during the American Revolutionary War.
Image result for 1776 - The Battle of White Plains

1793 - Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin.
Image result for Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin.

1886 - The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor by U.S. President Cleveland. The statue weighs 225 tons and is 152 feet tall. It was originally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World."
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1919 - The U.S. Congress enacted the Volstead Act, also known as the National Prohibition Act. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the passing of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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1922 - Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian government and introduced fascism to Italy.
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1958 - Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was elected Pope. He took the name John XXIII.
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1962 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
Image result for Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

Friday, October 27, 2017

WATCH: Hillary Drastically Changes Her Tone On Trump After Revelation Of Dossier Funding | Daily Wire

WATCH: Hillary Drastically Changes Her Tone On Trump After Revelation Of Dossier Funding | Daily Wire:
Image result for flickr commons images hillary clinton
"Clinton, who normally is brimming with anger when speaking about Trump, appeared much more subdued than normal.
"I also said that I thought we should give … a chance, we had to give an open mind … to the new President," Clinton said. "And I meant it.""