Interesting Items 05/29

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –

In this issue:

1. Filibuster
2. Perth
3. Punch
4. CBO
5. 4^th Circus
6. NSA
7. FBI
8. Burrito

1. Filibuster. Sometimes we have to treat politicians like we used to tread adolescents – boxing them in so they have no other choice but to do the right thing.  One way parents do this is by systematically taking away all their excuses.  When O’Bama was elected in 2008, the excuse was that Republicans controlled no parts of the government.  Two years later, we gave them a House majority.  We tried to give them the presidency in 2012, but the Smart Guys chose a guy in Mitt Romney who took the biggest issue for that election cycle – repeal of O’BamaCare – off the table.  Two years later, we gave them an unexpected majority in the Senate.  Still not good enough, as they wanted a Republican president.  We gave them one of those last year.  Now they claim they can’t act on O’BamaCare, tax reform, or the rest of the Trump agenda because they don’t have 60 senators and are stopped by democrat filibuster.  Needless to say, all of this is highly frustrating, as they can most certainly get things done if it suits them like they did with confirmation of Justice Gorsuch and repeal of a bunch of last minute rules and regulations out of the O’Bama regime.  How do we remove that excuse?  One way would be to revise the current rules on filibusters, returning it to the rules of engagement prior to the 1975 change which put the current rules in place.  Today, a filibuster is not a real, physical thing.  It, like voting by mail, is clean, painless, and most importantly hidden from voters.  From 1917 – 1975, cloture required a 2/3 vote of senators present.  Senators had to talk continuously; had to have enough people available to keep talking; and had to have enough people on the floor of the senate to keep it going.  It was not often used because it was moderately painful to do.  The huge democrat majority elected to the Senate following Nixon’s resignation and Watergate changed those rules so that a filibuster only required 3/5 of senators sworn.  The requirement of presence on the floor was jettisoned like so much old garbage.  Since then, a senator at home can vote to continue a filibuster and no talking is required.  Time to change this rule and reintroduce pain into obstruction.  https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/04/how-the-modern-faux-filibuster-came-to-be/255374/

 

2. Perth. From Jo Nova’s blog, last week was a report on sea level rise in Oz.  Only it turns out that the sea level around Oz isn’t really rising.  Rather, portions near the sea are sinking.  While this may be a distinction without a difference, as you end up below water regardless, determining the actual cause is important scientifically (yeah, I know that science no longer has anything to do with what today passes for climate science but please humor me on this one).  An investigation into the impending inundation of Perth finds that the sea is not rising at all.  Proof from this comes from the tide gauge records from Freemantle, the second longest continuous record of tidal change in the southern hemisphere.  Freemantle starts before 1900 and continues to current date.  That record documents around a 20 cm rise in a century (average of 2 mm/year).  The scaremongers predict yet another hockey stick event, a whopping two meters of additional sea level rise by the end of the century.  So, what is actually happening in Perth?  Fresh water is extracted for drinking and other uses from wells.  This extraction is causing land to subside into the sea at a rate of 20 – 40 cm/century (2 – 4 mm/year).  Interestingly enough, this effect is indeed manmade, caused by pumping fresh water from underground.  And it has absolutely nothing to do with CO2 emissions, manmade global warming, or anything else climate or emissions related.  http://joannenova.com.au/2017/05/sea-level-rise-hysteria-can-be-cured-by-looking-at-tide-gauge-data/

 

3. Punch. Republican Congressional candidate Greg Gianforte body slammed a reporter the night before the special election in Montana took place.  The special election was to replace Ryan Zinke, who President Trump selected for Secretary of the Interior.  Democrats dumped a lot of money into the race in an effort to give Trump a black eye and change the national narrative a bit.  It didn’t work.  The reporter worked for The Guardian, and apparently had some sort of history with Gianforte.  He pushed his way into a closed briefing, and shoved a smart phone into the candidate’s face.  Hilarity ensued.  The reporter, Ben Jacobs, claimed Gianforte body slammed him, broke his glasses.  He then started taking names of witnesses and made a police report just to make sure everyone was thoroughly spun up.  In normal times, this would have killed a campaign.  But these are not normal times, as those of us on the political right are sick to the teeth of this sort of garbage out of the left.  They have written new rules, where political violence is not only tolerated but celebrated, especially when it comes from the left.  And it happens Every. Single. Time.  The right is starting to fire back.  And when they do against a highly partisan, political player like the media, it works a lot like extramarital affairs works for democrats, it enhances their political credentials and reputation.  Following the attack, Gianforte’s fundraising took off, with an additional $100,000 in donations.  While the final results were closer than the Republicans would have liked, it was a comfortable win.  The other thing that was going on was early voting, which had been going on for weeks before the actual election.  I am not a fan of early voting, as I believe it lends itself to democrat voting fraud (redundant).  Kurt Schlichter wrote about the election, noting that we on the right were starting to play by the same political rules as the left have been playing, and this is not a good thing.  It is however, predictable, and perhaps too long in coming.  https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/05/29/liberals-are-shocked-to-find-were-starting-to-hate-them-right-back-n2332712

 

4. CBO. The Congressional Budget Office finally got around to releasing their analysis of the House-passed O’BamaCare repeal AHCA.  The analysis found that a whopping 23 million Americans would no longer be covered by medical insurance.  It would also reduce the deficit by up to a third of a trillion over the next decade.  What they don’t tell you is that the 23 million are already not covered.  They are people who cannot afford the O’BamaCare premiums and are opting to pay the IRS penalty.  They are people who choose not to purchase a product and as they are no longer being forced to purchase it.  This is hardly people being chased out of health care coverage.  Ran across an article late in the week that noted the House return to some modicum of federalism made it impossible for the CBO to score the legislation.  When you return power to the many states from the central government, it is no longer possible for federal budget analysts to come up with any reasonable prediction of what it costs and what it does not.  And that is not a bad thing.  https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/2017/05/24/cbo-number-of-new-uninsured-in-revised-gop-healthcare-bill-goes-from-24m-to-23m/

 

5. 4th Circus. The O’Bama-appointee heavy Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals handed out a 10 – 3 opinion blasting President Trump’s travel ban last week.  Essentially, the political hacks masquerading as impartial jurists, adopted the notion that the EO would have been constitutional if any other president had written it.  The Chief Justice writing for the majority accused the EO of “… drip(ping) with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”  The 67-page opinion then goes into a litany of Trump campaign quotes as proof the EO is indeed racist.  In the end, the black-robed political hacks decided the travel ban was not intended to keep Americans safe from terrorism.  Instead, it was mere pretext for discriminating against Muslims, who enjoy blowing up innocents who are not Muslims themselves.  In the eyes of this court, the Constitution is indeed a suicide pact.  The court then gets into the national security business, citing former national security officials claims that the EO serves “… no legitimate national security purpose” and “… there is no evidence of any new security risks emanating from these countries.”  The dissenting judges went after the majority for looking outside the actual text of the EO for evidence suggesting bad faith.  These guys keep this up, and what little respect for the black-robed politicians with lifetime appointments to the federal bench will go the way of respect for the formerly mainstream media.  http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/25/travel-ban-blocked-again-possible-supreme-court-showdown/

 

6. NSA. Bombshell out of Circa News last week, completely buried by the media, documents illegal surveillance of Americans by the NSA over the O’Bama years.  The story comes out of a closed-door hearing at the FISA Court on Oct. 26, 2016.  The court censured administration officials on the extent of violations, improper searches and “… an institutional lack of candor.”  The illegal surveillance by the O’Bama NSA amounted to a massive violation of the 4^th Amendment.  The NSA routinely abused the use of their internet surveillance tools.  This is the fundamental source for all leaks out of the intelligence community aimed at the Trump administration.  Time for a house cleaning and perhaps a few public hangings.  Democrats better be careful this gets completely buried, for if the general public figures out what they have been doing for nearly a decade, they are going to be some pitchforks to dodge.  And it couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.  https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/05/25/shock-complete-msm-news-blackout-on-nsa-illegal-spying-bombshell/

 

7. FBI. James Comey’s former buds in the FBI are having a grand old time with congress and the media.  He really ran a tight ship at the FBI.  Apparently not.  Instead, he or his people were real insider players with multiple and serial leaks to media on all manner of anti-Trump stuff.  The favored technique seems to be to call a reporter and read something to him or her over the phone.  Comey’s memo to self following his pre-firing dinner with Trump is one such example.  The leak prompted a request from the House Government Oversight Committee for all of Comey’s memos to himself.  But when you are a democrat scofflaw (once again, redundant), the normal rules do not apply to you or your peeps.  The FBI sent a letter back to Rep. Chaffetz saying they would not be turning over the memos until it consults with Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the subject.  Like the rest of the intelligence community, the FBI has been thoroughly corrupted by O’Bama appointees and hires.  They are in the political business rather than the investigation business.  http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/25/rep-chaffetz-responds-fbi-letter-refusing-turn-comey-memos-oversight-committee/

 

8. Burrito. A pair of enterprising young entrepreneurs in Portland shut down their burrito stand after weathering an endless assault by local Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) claiming they were culturally appropriating Mexican food and jobs.  They visited Mexico, were fascinated by the food and flour tortillas, and decided to become experts in their preparation.  Initially business grew smartly right until the point where a local newspaper ran a profile of the duo.  Enter the easily offended, a food blog in the Portland Mercury which accused the women of preying on the women they met in Mexico, stealing their expertise and ideas.  Things went from bad to worse as the SJW’s spun themselves into expected levels of faux outrage closely followed by demands the burrito ladies close their business.  The arguments were all racial in nature, accusing the business of racism.  After the business closed, they continued to pile on, kicking them while they were down just for good measure.  The problem is that this is all garbage, for all cultures, all communities, borrow, appropriate, or even steal things from one another, especially if it works.  It is how we humans improve our condition.  Mexican food is an amalgam of foods and cooking styles created by indigenous Mexican tribal members, Spanish imports during the time of the Conquistadors, and French imports (flour tortillas) during multiple invasions.  All cultures grab things that work for them, mix them up with what is currently there and use them.  It is part of what makes us human.  It is what we do.  It is what makes us interesting.  It is what the SJWs don’t understand or care about.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4538398/Burrito-shop-shuts-accused-stealing-culture.html

More later –

– AG