History for December 31

History for December 31 - On-This-Day.com
Henri Matisse 1869, George Marshall 1880, Simon Wiesenthal 1908


John Denver 1943, Ben Kingsley 1943, Donna Summer 1948


1695 - The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up.


1929 - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year's Eve song for the first time.

Trump personally intervened to pay Coast Guard in shutdown

Trump personally intervened to pay Coast Guard in shutdown:

At his urging, the Office of Management and Budget, DHS and the Coast Guard determined that the rules governing pay to Coast Guard forces requires it be made through the end of the year. To make it, the lawyers said that unused funding could be tapped for pay. The service had a bit more than the needed $75 million left over from its past continuing resolution appropriation, enough to make this month’s last payroll check.

The way we were-----Too Late To Turn Back Now Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose {Stereo}

Boob-tube-----1950's & 60's TV Commercials

Thanks, Schumer! Get ready for a newer and bigger Central American migrant caravan

Thanks, Schumer! Get ready for a newer and bigger Central American migrant caravan
"...Here's the news:

Another migrant caravan – with estimates of as many as 15,000 participants – is preparing to leave Honduras on January 15, according to migrant rights advocates and Spanish-language media.

"They say they are even bigger and stronger than the last caravan," said Irma Garrido, a member of the migrant advocacy group Reactiva Tijuana Foundation.

There's also this:

Using social media sites such as WhatsApp and Facebook, people are spreading the word about another, bigger caravan planning to leave Honduras on Jan. 15, larger than the October caravan that stalled out in Tijuana in the hopes of reaching the U.S...

Word is getting out that all you have to do is come here, and either await your zero-cost asylum application as the Mexicans house, feed, and medically treat you or else cross over illegally, sometimes with the aid of a Democratic congressperson, for instant customer service, turning yourself in to the Border Patrol, and then soon become free to walk around the country..."
Read all.

Solutions?… | The Last Refuge

Solutions?… | The Last Refuge
"...The institutions of the DOJ and FBI are corrupted; not just a few people within it, but rather the entire apparatus has been weaponized, over time, by participating political members who have politicized every function within the institution.
Every level of the Department of Justice (Main Justice); every national administrative office inside the FBI; and every state office of the U.S. Attorney and field office of the FBI; is being run through the prism of politics.  
...When an institution is failing top-to-bottom successful change is only viable when it is forced from a position external to the current corrupt enterprise.  
...In essence, the corrupt system has to be overwhelmed; shocked into a reset status.
The behavior of former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe are symptomatic examples within the FBI.   
They didn’t gain their political skills to weaponize the agency overnight.  
Those skills were taught to them as they advanced within the system.  
The weaponization process was pre-existing.
...until we see widespread acceptance of the politicization of the institutions, it’s unlikely we will see a discussion happen that might eventually find the solution.
Right now, the vast majority are still in denial…"

Nancy Pelosi Is Spending Shutdown at Hawaii Resort

Nancy Pelosi Is Spending Shutdown at Hawaii Resort:

Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi is spending the government shutdown at a luxury resort in Hawaii, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Trump Digs Up Old Obama Quote To Mercilessly Troll Democrats

Trump Digs Up Old Obama Quote To Mercilessly Troll Democrats
"...Well, this tweet from former President Obama on the occasion of his 2011 State of the Union address.
...Obama said during the speech.

“And I am prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats to protect our borders, enforce our laws and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows.
“I know that debate will be difficult,” he said. 
“I know it will take time. 
But tonight, let’s agree to make that effort. 
And let’s stop expelling talented, responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business, who could be further enriching this nation.”
...Well, Trump had three words for that on Thursday:

Unfortunately, they were indeed just words on the part of Obama.
He didn’t want to protect our borders and enforce our laws..."

This explains much!-----Progressives have always been collectivists (i.e. socialists, Marxists and communists).

Progressives have always been collectivists (i.e. socialists, Marxists and communists).

"Progressives have always been collectivists (i.e. socialists, Marxists and communists).
Until the fall of the USSR, collectivists generally followed the Stalinist/Orwellian model , the central premise of which is that the government is God, whatever it says goes without question and you will be forced to act as if it is true - even if it isn't - because to do what the government needs to do, 5 must be the answer.
2+2=5 because we say it is, comrade.
But inherent in Stalinist/Orwellian collectivism is the epidemic of cognitive dissonance it creates. Cognitive dissonance is a serious, debilitating mental illness in which mental discomfort (psychological stress) is experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.
In short, no matter how many times a government tells you that the answer is 5, you can hold up your fingers and prove that is false.
Then came the Frankfurt School, postmodernism and the invention of cultural Marxism - and out of that was born postmodernist progressivism..."
Read all!

Lunch video-----Why GM’s mistaken bet led to major layoffs

Noon-toon-----A.F. Branco Cartoon - Jet Setters - Comically Incorrect

A.F. Branco Cartoon - Jet Setters - Comically Incorrect

Five Dumb Arguments Against ‘the Wall’The American Spectator

Five Dumb Arguments Against ‘the Wall’The American Spectator:

So, Trump’s proposed border wall isn’t remotely analogous to anything done by the Nazis. And only someone illiterate concerning history would compare it to the Berlin Wall or Hadrian’s Wall. Likewise, it is impossible to make a legitimate environmental case against it, and anyone familiar with arithmetic can see that the cost of the wall will be dwarfed by the amount it will save the taxpayers. Nonetheless, these are just a few of the many absurd arguments made by the Democrats and the media against the wall. The true reason for their opposition is obvious, however. They need fraudulent votes from illegals to save their party.

Pure, sick politics!-----Don Surber: Trump vindicated, media is silent

Don Surber: Trump vindicated, media is silent
Two months ago, Jamal Khashoggi was the thing. 
He died in Saudi Arabia's embassy in Istanbul apparently painfully and slowly. 
The Washington Establishment went whacko and demanded President Trump break relations with Saudi Arabia for the death of Khashoggi, whom the elitists described as a journalist for the Washington Post. 
He wrote 20 columns for the paper.
The media portrayed him as a journalist and portrayed Our President as a murderer of journalists by proxy.
Now we know the rest of the story. 
Khashoggi was a propagandist for Qatar, the one gulf state that sides with Syria and Iran.
...This admission vindicated President Trump's reluctance to break relations with an 80-year ally.
The Post should never have run the columns.
...Khashoggi's death has been illuminating. 
The press blindly took up his cause, elevating him to the status of Time Magazine Thing Of The Year.
David Reaboi, a security expert, wrote five days ago, "Once President Trump released a robust statement supporting the US-Saudi alliance, intense political pressure was felt from anti-Trump forces in the American media, which pushed Democrats toward Qatar and Iran, and away from Saudi Arabia. 
Suddenly, the alliance had become a partisan issue; prominent Democrats in Congress began calling for a reevaluation of American policy toward the country..."

Important read!-----The Elephant at the Southern Border

The Elephant at the Southern Border
"Why do the public discussions of immigration overwhelmingly focus on our Southern border while the influx of almost equal numbers of Asians, Europeans, and Indians goes unnoticed? 
Why fixate on Hispanics?
...The elephant in the room is the low I.Q. of these would-be future Americans. 
Specifically, the average I.Q. in central American countries – Honduras 81, El Salvador 81, Guatemala 79, for example – would assign these migrants and their offspring to the "educable" or mildly retarded category in schools, unable to master all but the basics 
(Mexico might be a small exception with an average I.Q. of 88).
...Put into context, the average I.Q. of black Americans is 85, so these Central Americans would be at the very bottom of America's educational achievement hierarchy.
...The influx of millions of low-I.Q. people will likely transform America (politics included) and conceivably even edge us closer to nations like Brazil and even Venezuela.  
...First, this will be a population plagued by innumeracy in a society requiring at least some ability to comprehend numbers. 
How many low-I.Q. people understand what a million or billion is, let alone trillions, all commonplace terms in deliberations over the national debt and trade deficits? 
Keep in mind that many of those with low I.Q.s love the lottery, where one-in-a million odds seem "reasonable." 
These are also people who as jurors can award damages in the hundreds of millions thanks to junk science. 
Imagine a judicial system where a handful of juries regularly dictates hundred-million-dollar judgments that bankrupt corporations while creating extensive unemployment and destroying pensions..."
Read all!!!

#1 this day 1991-----Michael Jackson - Black Or White (Shortened Version)

California faces a pension showdown

California faces a pension showdown
"Governor Jerry Brown as he leaves office is warning that California and its public agencies are on the road to "fiscal oblivion" if pension benefits can't be adjusted down.
...California drastically increased public employee pension benefits in the fall of 2003, when the state allowed employees to purchase "airtime."  
Prior to the pension spike, a 50-year-old fireman making $89,000 a year could retire at age 50 after 30 years of service and collect an $80,100-a-year pension with life expectancy of 76.3 years.
But under "airtime," the fireman could purchase extra years of seniority at a cost per of $0.18022 per year for every $1 of salary. 
For $80,197.90, the fireman could increase his pension by $13,350 to $93,450.  
Such an investment in "airtime" would return a spectacular income stream of $351,105 over the next 26.3 years of life expectancy.
...With an estimated unfunded pension liability of $464.4 billion in 2015, Stanford researchers estimated that the average unfunded liability per California household jumped from $9,127 in 2008; jumped to $21,491 in 2015; and would be over $40,000 in 2030..."
Read all.

You ought to know!

Censorship rules Facebook uses are revealed - WND

Censorship rules Facebook uses are revealed - WND:

It reported the “closely held rules are extensive, and they make the company a far more powerful arbiter of global speech than has been publicly recognized or acknowledged by the company itself, The New York Times has found.”
It said the Times got the copies from a worker who “said he feared that the company was exercising too much power, with too little oversight – and making too many mistakes.”
MSN found “an examination of the files revealed numerous gaps, biases and outright errors. As Facebook employees grope for the right answers, they have allowed extremist language to flourish in some countries while censoring mainstream speech in others.”

Trudeau’s carbon tax on gas won’t motivate Canadians to switch to fuel-efficient transportation: Ipsos poll | Watts Up With That?

Trudeau’s carbon tax on gas won’t motivate Canadians to switch to fuel-efficient transportation: Ipsos poll | Watts Up With That?
"Most Canadians agree that more needs to be done to fight climate change, but it’s going to take a whole lot more than the federal government’s carbon tax to get them to ditch gas-guzzling vehicles.

That’s one of the key findings of an Ipsos poll of 2,001 Canadians, conducted between Dec. 7 and Dec. 12, that suggested a disconnect between Canadians’ acceptance of climate change as a problem and their willingness to potentially incur financial loss to help the government tackle it..."

AM Fruitcake

History for December 30

History for December 30 - On-This-Day.com
Rudyard Kipling 1865 - Short-story writer, Jack Lord (John Joseph Patrick Ryan) 1920 - Actor ("Hawaii Five-O"), Del Shannon 1939


Michael Nesmith 1942 - Singer, musician (The Monkees), Davy Jones 1945 - Singer, musician (The Monkees), Sean Hannity 1961 - TV host, radio show host, Tiger Woods 1975 - Golfer
 

1853 - The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.


1978 - Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl. Bauman had intercepted an Ohio pass.

It's worse today.-----Assessing the Compensation of Public-School Teachers | The Heritage Foundation

Assessing the Compensation of Public-School Teachers | The Heritage Foundation: Executive "Summary--The teaching profession is crucial to America’s society and economy, but public-school teachers should receive compensation that is neither higher nor lower than market rates. 
Do teachers currently receive the proper level of compensation? 
Standard analytical approaches to this question compare teacher salaries to the salaries of similarly educated and experienced private-sector workers, and then add the value of employer contributions toward fringe benefits. 
...The wage gap between teachers and non-teachers disappears when both groups are matched on an objective measure of cognitive ability rather than on years of education.
...Workers who switch from non-teaching jobs to teaching jobs receive a wage increase of roughly 9 percent. 
Teachers who change to non-teaching jobs, on the other hand, see their wages decrease by roughly 3 percent. 
This is the opposite of what one would expect if teachers were underpaid.
Second, several of the most generous fringe benefits for public-school teachers often go unrecognized:

• Pension programs for public-school teachers are significantly more generous than the typical private-sector retirement plan, but this generosity is hidden by public-sector accounting practices that allow lower employer contributions than a private-sector plan promising the same retirement benefits.
• Most teachers accrue generous retiree health benefits as they work, but retiree health care is excluded from Bureau of Labor Statistics benefits data and thus frequently overlooked. While rarely offered in the private sector, retiree health coverage for teachers is worth roughly an additional 10 percent of wages.
• Job security for teachers is considerably greater than in comparable professions. Using a model to calculate the welfare value of job security, we find that job security for typical teachers is worth about an extra 1 percent of wages, rising to 8.6 percent when considering that extra job security protects a premium paid in terms of salaries and benefits.

Read all.

Trump says he'll close southern border if wall isn't funded

Trump says he'll close southern border if wall isn't funded:

As the partial government shut down continues, President Donald Trump has issued a new threat to close the southern border if the Senate does not approve border wall funding.
“We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!” Trump tweeted early Friday morning.

The way we were-----Beach Baby

Boob-tube-----Ding Dong School Wheaties Commercial

We Need Trump’s Border Wall Plus Other Measures to Reduce Illegal Immigration | The Heritage Foundation

We Need Trump’s Border Wall Plus Other Measures to Reduce Illegal Immigration | The Heritage Foundation
"Congressional Democrats have made it clear that they will oppose President Trump’s commonsense request for $5 billion to expand fencing and begin work on a wall along our southern border.
But the fight over the wall is just a small skirmish in a war to decide the future of our country and whether we can control our own borders.
...It was not Trump or the Democrats who flooded Europe with over 1 million refugees and dispersed them – without vetting – throughout the continent.
But European officials who opened their borders to the migrants now find themselves beset by an intense political backlash, severe security challenges, and widespread social and economic unrest.
Europe today stands as a case study in the problems caused by uncontrolled migration..."

Media hysterical because Trump signed military MAGA hats during Christmas visit

Live Blog | December 28, 2018 07:05:02 | PJ Media
"Media hysterical because Trump signed military MAGA hats during Christmas visit
It's not hard to understand why the media is hated and viewed as untrustworthy. 
There is an unprecedented amount of media labor directed at assaulting the president regarding any trivial issue. 
President Trump's recent trip to visit Iraq really triggered the crazy to come out. 
Maybe it was because the media enjoyed wagging their finger at the president because he hadn't visited the troops? 
Whoops.

In particular, there was concern that Trump signing MAGA hats for the troops during his visit was some kind of Hatch Act violation or he was tricking the dummies in the military into being part of his political campaign? 
This is really, really reaching, don't you think?

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

CNN & others within the Fake News Universe were going wild about my signing MAGA hats for our military in Iraq and Germany. If these brave young people ask me to sign their hat, I will sign. Can you imagine my saying NO? We brought or gave NO hats as the Fake News first reported!

6:23 PM - Dec 27, 2018Twitter Ads info and privacy

CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr suggested Wednesday that Trump's signing of the hats may have violated Defense Department policy that prevents active duty members from participating in partisan political activities..."

Read on. 

The Government Lost Billions More Bailing Out GM Than the $5.7 Billion Request for Wall Funding

The Government Lost Billions More Bailing Out GM Than the $5.7 Billion Request for Wall Funding:

Senate Democrats have shown their willingness to shut down the government in lieu of spending nearly $6 billion on a border wall, but compare that price tag to some of the other expenditures the government funds.
House Republicans passed a stopgap funding bill on Thursday that included $5.7 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to kill any funding measure appropriating for a wall’s construction.
Schumer has referred to the wall as “expensive and ineffective,” but just how expensive is it relative to recent expenditures?

Furious transgender woman rages at store clerk after he calls her 'sir' instead of 'ma'am' | Daily Mail Online

Furious transgender woman rages at store clerk after he calls her 'sir' instead of 'ma'am' | Daily Mail Online
'Take it outside if you want to call me sir again!' Furious transgender woman rages at store clerk after he calls her 'sir' instead of 'ma'am'

• Furious exchange between transgender woman and male store clerk erupts
• Shop attendant called her 'sir' instead of 'ma'am' at GameShop in Albuquerque
• She claims shop worker misgendered her twice before storming out of store
• As she left she kicked over a stand of toys and argued with a female shopper

After screaming and booting over a stand of toys as she stormed out, the woman then walked back towards to counter to continue the tirade...."

Kurt Schlichter--The War On Trump Is All About Keeping Liberals And Their Lackeys In Power

The War On Trump Is All About Keeping Liberals And Their Lackeys In Power
"...They have abandoned all the principles they once claimed to support - democracy, civil rights, due process, and equality.
None of those principles help them to keep or regain power anymore, so they are expendable.
As are you.
...Liberals consider themselves the anointed, divinely entitled to rule over us lesser folk, and they aren’t going to let anything get in the way of retaking the throne.
And this time, they mean never to give it up again.
Civil rights?
Those are an obstacle to liberal power.
Understand that they want and expect and demand free speech for themselves and their allies, confident that such free speech will absolutely conform to their dogma. 
But free speech for you?
Forget it.
You have bad and wrong thoughts, and those thoughts are dangerous. 
Why, speech is violence!
You must be silenced..."
Read all.

Lunch video-----The Tragedy of Cultural Relativism

Noon-toon

Border Patrol union president: 'I'm working for free' to secure the border - Conservative Review

Border Patrol union president: 'I'm working for free' to secure the border - Conservative Review:

Entering day five of a partial government shutdown, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd says he “100 percent supports” President Donald Trump’s demands for a border wall, even though Judd is working without pay.

Rape gangs are still ravaging Britain and "it's worse now than ever before"

Rape gangs are still ravaging Britain and "it's worse now than ever before"

• There’s a world outside your window and it’s a world of dread and fear. 
• The only thing that is growing is the bitter rape of young vulnerable British girls, as you read those words this festive season, thank god it’s them, instead of you.

Rape Gangs right now, as you read this are still blighting Britain and destroying the lives of thousands of girls across the UK

The 1985 charity-hit for the starving people of Africa ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ called for us to spare a thought of starving Africans, but this Christmas – it’s time to start our charity at home and shine a light on our own horrors here in the UK, and think of the victims of the vile Rape Gangs that steal the childhood of thousands of young girls – and quite possibly boys, the #1400 campaign is trying to do that – despite a ‘Media Blackout.’

...Rape Gangs right now, as you read this are STILL blighting Britain and destroying the lives of thousands of girls across the UK. 

“Paedophiles don’t retire,” said Shazia Hobbs, and she says that it’s “worse now than ever before.”

Althouse: I'm surprised by the readers of The Washington Post — they're so Trumpian on illegal immigration.

Althouse: I'm surprised by the readers of The Washington Post — they're so Trumpian on illegal immigration.
"I'm reading "Father whose son died in custody knew bringing him would ease entry into U.S." in The Washington Post.

Agustin Gomez Perez was 47 and in debt, and that path would only deepen his obligations.... He and his wife chose 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo for the journey because he was one of three sons, and the couple had only one daughter together....
...Smugglers often charge less than half the price if a child goes along, knowing that migrants can turn themselves in to border agents and will soon be released....

I've excerpted the parts of the article that might make a reader want to blame the father. 
Was the boy exploited? 
Was he regarded as expendable? 
There's plenty else in the article that might make you want to blame the U.S. government (mainly for not giving quicker medical treatments). 
I would also think many readers would mostly feel sad that a boy died and bemoan poverty generally. 
So I was surprised at how harsh the comments were against the father. 
I didn't expect this at The Washington Post. 
This is the most liked comment:

This child's siblings in Guatemala are alive and well. The child was dragged to the US using money that could have paid the father's overdue electric bill, which is not a reason to grant asylum.

...The second most well liked comment is:

This is human trafficking with children being used as pawns. Our charity is being abused. We're being scammed.

...Reading these comments, I believe the American culture has changed radically since the fall of 2016, when Trump was painted as a racist for saying the situation at the border had to change..."
Read all!

#1 This day 1982-----Daryl Hall & John Oates - Maneater

Good question!

You ought to know!

Oh Noes! Obama Signed Stuff for Troops, Too

Oh Noes! Obama Signed Stuff for Troops, Too:

And no, U.S. troops didn't violate any rules by asking President Trump, or Obama, for a signature.