Friday, June 30, 2017

NY Congressman Warns: Submit Or Be Attacked

His logic is that a crack down on invasion will lead to an attack. Unbelievable chizzputz

Press shows why Trump laughs at them. What a bunch of jerk offs.



This is the American Press. Talk about embarrassing America. All I hear is liberal cucks in the media talking about how Trump's tweets are embarrassing America. What a crock of shit.

Nothing is worse than the media. They must be destroyed.

We're running out of money again...


Via Instapundit:  The Treasury is set to run out of cash in October, which may lead to a default on debt obligations or payment delays for government programs, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.

On March 15, 2017, the suspension of the debt limit expired and since then the Treasury has been able to borrow additional funds without violating the debt ceiling.

"The Congressional Budget Office projects that if the debt limit remains unchanged, those measures will be exhausted and the Treasury will most likely run out of cash in early to mid-October," the report states. "The government would then be unable to pay its obligations fully, so it would have to delay making payments for its programs and activities, default on its debt obligations, or both."

(Link to more)

CNN Producer: Voters "Stupid as Sh*t"

Link to video

San Francisco to pay an ilegal $190K for sanctuary violation?

Via AP Twitter:   A man from El Salvador in the U.S. illegally who sued San Francisco after police turned him over to immigration authorities in violation of the city’s sanctuary law is set to be awarded $190,000, his attorney said Thursday.

Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, 33, reached the settlement agreement with the city attorney’s office, said Saira Hussain, a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus who represented Zarceno. The agreement must be approved by the Board of Supervisors.

“We have to insure that each and every local law enforcement official is following those sanctuary policies and we are seeing in Mr. Figueroa’s case that didn’t happen,” Hussain said.

Figueroa-Zarceno sued San Francisco in January for violating its sanctuary city law.

The construction worker said he went to police in December 2015 after getting a call from authorities that his stolen car had been found. Instead of helping him, he said, officers detained him and called immigration authorities.

He was taken into custody by federal authorities outside the police station and was in jail for two months. He has been fighting his deportation since his release.

“What happened to me was very unfair and it was an injustice,” Figueroa-Zerceno said. “I went into the police station to seek help and they didn’t tell me what was happening and they arrested me and treated me badly.”

(Link to more)

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Mika Brzezinski bleeding

What a great way to wake up to news. As you know, this was headlined on Drudge this morning, now moved down to the third row.

Click bait wording. And it worked very well. There is no relation between this and Megyn Kelly. 

The link goes to the Daily Beast. But that's not where I went. Instead, I went to Trump Twitter to see if and what he had to say about this himself. I was hoping he would. And he did. And nothing political could fill my heart with more glee. Because it's worse than I had imagined. 



Ouch. That hurts all the way over here. In Japan they're going, "Etai-yoooooo!" 

Well before being elected POTUS Trump let it known he regards all journalists as cockroaches and said so outright, and by his direct treatment, and here we see him smashing one with his shoe. Brzezinski really is a nutter and she really has been carrying on ridiculously. So I gather, having never watched their program all the way through. Their rantings are so unhinged they're brought to our attention even though we cut cable to rid of lives of them and their ilk. 

Cockroaches? Now really. See one of the best PJ Media articles ever written. Roger Simon's "Waiting for Donald." Simon's description of pre-POTUS Trump is depressing for journalists and uplifting for everyone else who doesn't already despise Trump. 

And yet these two Trump tweets actually bother quite a lot of old fashioned Republicans. The Ace of Spades write up this morning is discussed on Instapundit and seized upon by his commenters. They couldn't wait to express their displeasure and they have thousand reasons why it's not good. Possible one reason, they don't like Trump or anything that he does, and break that down to a thousand sub reasons as one speaking to their analyst about their ex-wife. 

I read so far as two anti Trump concern trollers in comments and called quits on the whole effort. Why bother? We already know everything they have to say. We all do. They're a broken record at this late point. Let them stew in their own misery. For I am nobody's analyst.

Incidentally, you know from following Trump's Twitter accounts yourselves these two soul-crushing wonderful to behold, and especially wonderful to wake up to tweets, are between more substantial tweets keeping his followers up on his work with national gravitas; Democrats misstating Medicaid figures, meeting American energy with key people, No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, sugar deal with Mexico, Kate's Law, Mathis remarks about Syrian chemical attacks. So insisting that a few aggressive counter attack tweets that crush an absurd unhinged woman that has an audience and that reveal Mika Brzezinski had a face lift and both she and Joe Scarborough went begging for position at Mar-a-Lago for three days prior to New Year take the air from the sails of more important matters of State are false on the face of it. That argument only works on other Never Trump types. MSNBC and other Left outlets' continuous caterwauling on everything Trump is as dangerous to America if not more so as any outside attack. 

I'm convinced again. This was the best election of my lifetime. I'll not see anything more jolting nor anyhing more properly realigning again. 

"pizza-making robots can have a hot pie at your door in 4 minutes"

Via Drudge:  While other pizzas — especially the bake-at-home kind you buy at the grocery store — are also made by machine, Zume is noteworthy because it makes fresh, customizable delivery pizza with high-quality ingredients, which it considers to be artisanal even though it is not made by hand. Zume co-founder Julia Collins already has Pepe and Giorgio, two robots, squirting pizza sauce onto the dough, and Marta, another robot, spreading the sauce. Bruno, a robotic arm, lifts the pizza into the oven. The dough is still made by humans. But now that Zume has the doughbot, as they’re calling it, it means that the only part of the pizza assembly process that requires a human touch is the toppings.

“Human beings are great at that step,” Collins said. “When we think of the end-of-arm tools that we would need to pick up a cherry tomato and then a nugget of sausage, it’s hard to find tools that manage that much variety. We don’t have any intention of limiting variety to serve the robots.”

With this technological upgrade, the company can now make and deliver 372 pizzas an hour. That efficiency comes from dramatically reimagining the way pizza can be delivered. Zume is the first company to reduce “dwell time” — a.k.a the 20 minutes your piping-hot pizza spends sliding around in the back of a Honda Accord. They have custom delivery trucks that can bake en route, so pizza will arrive fresh out of the oven. Through analyzing their customer data and using artificial intelligence, they’re also able to predict which pizzas will be popular in certain neighborhoods during certain times, so the truck can be preloaded and ready to serve.

“We’ve already guessed that you’ve wanted asparagus and ricotta pizza at 12:30,” Collins said.

Video: Dog walks out on stage and settles in during live orchestra performance

Via Reddit

Daily Beast: Liberal Impeachment Fantasies Have to Stop

Via Drudge:  In times of unexpected strife, the aggrieved seek comfort anywhere they can find it, like trees trying to grow on the side of cliffs. Since Donald Trump’s election, dejected liberals have sought catharsis in tears, in marches, in late-night comedy, in essays about reasons that marches occurred. But none of those things have changed the fact that Trump is the president.

We’re now entering a new phase in liberal self-soothing: the calming Nixon-expert-with-a-crystal-ball phase.

This week’s New York magazine cover story, written by Frank Rich, lays hard into the Trump-Nixon tie, offering history as balm. “The resistance” needn’t worry just yet. Just wait, Rich urges. “Watergate auto-da-fé wasn’t built in a day.”

Rich isn’t alone in his Trump-Watergate fantasy. It’s hard to avoid drawing some parallels between Tricky Dick and Teflon Don.

Like Trump, Richard Nixon’s Congress was stocked with allies. Nixon taped people (Trump, thus far, only lies about it). Nixon had Deep Throat, an aggrieved FBI guy, and Trump has James Comey, an aggrieved FBI guy. Nixon, like Trump, hated the press and loved his daughters and had a strange relationship with his wife.

The next part of the story, the fantasy goes, ends happily for the opposition. In Nixon’s case, journalists grabbed a thread and kept pulling. And within two years of his election, a president who had logged a record popular vote was quite literally peacing out of the White House.

Rich argues that Trump’s TBD-gate is unfolding at a comparable rate to Watergate. “You will find reason to hope that the 45th president’s path through scandal may wind up at the same destination as the 37th’s—a premature exit from the White House in disgrace—on a comparable timeline.”

Is it possible that Trump’s presidency will end in Nixonian disgrace? Sure. But there’s a much greater likelihood that it won’t, that Rich’s prediction will age about as well as Van Jones’ March 1 proclamation that Donald Trump “became president last night,” or Fareed Zakaria’s proclamation on April 7 that Donald Trump “became president last night.” If Trump somehow lurches through four or eight years, history will view the left’s starry-eyed Watergate dreams as in the same genre of smug as Clinton acolytes’ cockiness going into the final stretch of the 2016 presidential campaign. Litanies of Trump-Nixon comparisons amount to little more than fantasy, wastes of precious time that could have been better used on reality.

Donald Trump is not Richard Nixon, and 1973 is not 2017.

(Link to more)

"New Christopher Nolan WWII Movie ‘Dunkirk’ Portrays White People as White, Runs Afoul of Diversity Police"

Via InstapunditIt used to be that high-profile Hollywood World War II movies got called out for taking liberties with the facts. These days, they’re getting in trouble for being too historically accurate.

Take The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan’s new movie Dunkirk, which recreates the defense and evacuation of British and Allied forces from Northern France in May-June 1940 during the early stages of the World War II.

The blockbuster stars Jack Lowden, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy and, er, Harry Styles. It is set to be released July 21.

Plenty of people have taken to social media to express why they won’t be seeing it, and it’s all to do with the movie being “too white.” (Not sure if they’re aware, but the vast majority of British and Allied forces were white.)

(Link to more)

"Mein Kampf" with YouTube

Looking back at so many posts both here and at El Pollo Real, I'm struck by how often embedded videos become disabled over time making the posts nearly unitelligable. As I suggested long ago, YouTube, instead of killing creativity, should make copyrighted clips freely available at a nominal fee.

Here is an old post of mine -- one which still gets my eyes misty -- full restored:

Buried At Sea

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

You just want people to die!

Link to video via Instapundit

"California invested heavily in solar power. Now there’s so much that other states are sometimes paid to take it"


Well, actually better than free. California produced so much solar power on those days that it paid Arizona to take excess electricity its residents weren’t using to avoid overloading its own power lines.

It happened on eight days in January and nine in February as well. All told, those transactions helped save Arizona electricity customers millions of dollars this year, though grid operators declined to say exactly how much. And California also has paid other states to take power.

No single entity is in charge of energy policy in California. This has led to a two-track approach that has created an ever-increasing glut of power and is proving costly for electricity users. Rates have risen faster here than in the rest of the U.S., and Californians now pay about 50% more than the national average.

(Link to the whole thing)


What was the worst decision you saw someone else make?

Reddit top voted comments...

Some idiot I used to know was convinced pepper in the eye wasn't nearly as painful as people made it sound. We just watched him pour pepper in his open eyes and laughed when the screaming began

I witnessed my friend kick a skunk in order to get it away from him. Bad decision.

Saw someone else decide to cut off a bus as both were approaching a red light. I was on the bus. Driver said "Hold on, this guy's a fucking idiot." We slammed into the truck, truck slammed into the light post across the intersection.

When I was about 7 yrs old I was in the car with my parents, going across the bridge from Niagara Falls, Ontario to Niagara Falls, NY. The deadly Niagara River is right below. There was quite a wait due to traffic so we were pretty much stopped. A bunch of teenagers were goofing around. Hopping out of their car and play fighting, etc. One guy hopped up on the railing of the bridge and did a handstand. It was terrifying. His friends yelled at him and he hopped down. Then he did it again and fell over the railing to his death.

Was in Yosemite doing a hike up to the top of (I think) Vernal Falls.
Some kid from a large Church group decided to swim at the top in the (seemingly but not really) calm water at the top. I saw him get swept away and taken over the edge.
The water has been running over there for thousands of years so the rocks are smooth and there's no vegetation. There's literally nothing to grab a hold of if it happened to you. Was not in the mood to see a kid die that day. Read the signs and please stay the hell out of the water like you're told.

I had a friend ask another friend to shoot him with a blow dart. First the guy shot him in the leg, but my friend thought that was too easy (he was an overly confident marine reserve), so he asked him to shoot him in the side. The guy did and it punctured his lung, though he wouldn't admit it.

Then, trying to play it cool, he decided to "go home," when really he was "going to the hospital." We all followed him to his car trying to convince him to let one of us drive or call an ambulance, but he just kept saying nothing was wrong. He collapsed right as he unlocked his car and we had to call 911. He's fine, aside from his injured ego and dim wits.

A girl I know spent $50,000 on a wedding for a marriage that lasted 6 months.

"Student headed to prison for registering dead voters for Democrats"

Via Instapundit:  “In July 2016 Spieles’ job was to register as many voters as possible and reported to Democratic Campaign headquarters in Harrisonburg,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson said. “In August 2016, Spieles was directed to combine his registration numbers with those of another individual because their respective territories overlapped. After filling out a registration form for a voter, Spieles entered the information into a computer system used by the Virginia Democratic Party to track information such as name, age, address and political affiliation. Every Thursday an employee/volunteer hand-delivered the paper copies of the registration forms to the Registrar’s Office in Harrisonburg.”

Later that month, someone at the Registrar’s Office called police after another employee saw a name they recognized on a registration form.

The name was the deceased father of a Rockingham County Judge.

“The Registrar’s Office discovered multiple instances of similarly falsified forms when it reviewed additional registrations. Some were in the names of deceased individuals while others bore incorrect middle names, birth dates, and social security numbers,” the spokesperson continued. “The Registrar’s Office learned that the individuals named in these forms had not in fact submitted the new voter registrations. The assistant registrar’s personal knowledge of the names of some of the individuals named in the falsified documents facilitated the detection of the crime.

“Spieles later admitted that he prepared the false voter registration forms by obtaining the name, age, and address of individuals from “walk sheets” provided to him by the Virginia Democratic Party, fabricating a birth date based on the ages listed in the walk sheet, and fabricating the social security numbers. Spieles admitted that he created all 18 fraudulent forms himself and that no one else participated in the crime.”

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

"Chinese passenger chucks coins into plane's engine for luck"

Via RedditThe 80-year-old threw nine coins at an engine of China Southern Airlines flight CZ380 as she was boarding on the tarmac. Eight of the coins missed their target but one nestled inside an engine, airport police said, adding that a passenger spotted her and reported it to authorities.

The incident was soon trending on Weibo and police added in a statement: "After investigation the involved passenger surnamed Qiu said she threw the coins to pray for safety. According to Qiu's neighbour, Qiu believes in Buddhism.

"The plane is boarding again for takeoff."

Hundreds of thousands of Weibo users had a field day, with one commenting sarcastically: "Grandma, this is not a wish fountain with turtles.

"Who Pays on the First Date? No One Knows Anymore, and It’s Really Awkward"

Via Instapundit:  There was a time when Tinesha Zandamela would dig around for her wallet at a first date, anticipating that the guy would insist on paying.

That was before she went out with one who “forgot” his wallet, or the one who requested to split the check 50-50 after eating nearly all the food. Now when the bill arrives, she sits still, not even attempting what some call “the reach.”

“If you reach, you could end up with the entire bill,” said the 23-year-old in Provo, Utah. “No one is going to stop you.”

Love in the time of Tinder is upending an age-old tradition between men and women: that moment when the bill arrives and the woman feints for her wallet—but expects the guy will insist on paying.

(Link to more behind a pay wall)

Veritas video: "Trump is good for business right now"

Via Twitter:  Project Veritas has released a video of CNN Producer John Bonifield who was caught on hidden-camera admitting that there is no proof to CNN's Russia narrative.

"I mean, it's mostly bullshit right now," Bonifield says. "Like, we don't have any giant proof."

He confirms that the driving factor at CNN is ratings:
"It's a business, people are like the media has an ethical phssssss... All the nice cutesy little ethics that used to get talked about in journalism school you're just like, that's adorable. That's adorable. This is a business."
According to the CNN Producer, business is booming. "Trump is good for business right now," he concluded.

How Trump Beat Hillary


Hillary won the nationwide popular vote by some 2.8 million votes. But Hillary won California by over 4 million votes. If we factor out California votes from the national totals for both candidates, Trump had some 58 millions votes nation wide vs. Hillary's 57 million.

Show the math:

                   Trump            Hillary

Gross:        62,984,825    ✔65,853,516

CA Votes:  4,483,810     8,753,788
______________________________
Net:           58,501,015      57,099,728

Isolated vocals, Grace Slick -- White Rabbit

Let's see if this works. Earlier this site slapped a no-can-do error message and yet played on another blogger test site that nobody ever sees. If this fails please click over to YouTube HERE and have your mind blown. And who doesn't want that?


Monday, June 26, 2017

Walking while white in New Orleans



This happened in New Orleans this past Saturday. These two poor saps were attending a Church conference when they decided to walk down the street to their hotel.

If you listen to the news reports you can hear the usual story. "Nothing to see here. It is perfectly safe. Crime is actually down statistically. Don't be racist. When they go to rob you just give it up. Don't disrespect them by having your head turned when they are playing the knockout game. Give up your white privilege."

What Church in their right mind would have a conference in New Orleans? Oh. The Unitarians. Never mind.

President Trump listens to Uncle Saul

President Trump has it exactly right here. Make them live up to their own bullshit. They claim collusion and obstruction. While all the time Obama knew what the Russians were doing and did nothing. Most likely to cover up what he was doing. What they did was have an opposition research firm make a phony dossier that was used by the partisan FBI to get a FISA warrant to tape Candidate Trump and his associates. Then that information was illegally unmasked and spread out through the government in the expectation that it would be leaked. There are literally dozens of felonies in that chain of events. Of course Mueller is not going to follow up on that as he is only tasked at destroying Trump with his merry band of Democratic Donor Lawyers and left wing partisans. Trump needs to clean the swamp. Now.

Why does this guy have a press pass....or better yet why is he allowed to live?

CNN Reporter Complains About Being Blackballed After Spending Press Briefing Interrupting Spicer

Daily Caller by Alex Pfeiffer June 26, 2017

WASHINGTON — CNN’s senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta spent the White House press briefing Monday rudely interrupting White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
Acosta has been complaining about the White House’s increased use of off-camera briefings, and instead of waiting to be called on like other reporters Monday, he decided to shout out his questions. The Daily Caller counted a total of five interruptions during the briefing.
Spicer called on a reporter who had raised her hand and Acosta interjected himself and asked if President Trump believes the health care bill in the Senate is “mean.” Spicer replied, “There’s no camera on Jim.” Acosta then repeatedly asked, “Why don’t you turn the cameras on?” Spicer then apologized to the reporter Acosta was interrupting.

The views

Estes Park, Colorado

Seceda, Italy

"Trump-Russia ties may work against Dems"

Via InstapunditMonths of harping on President Trump’s purported ties to Russia may end up backfiring on Democrats as the White House turns the focus to former President Barack Obama’s failure to address Russian hacking, operatives from both sides said.

On ABC’s “This Week” yesterday, Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway cited a Washington Post report detailing Obama’s modest response and public silence about evidence of Russia’s intent to hack U.S. election systems, with an anonymous Obama official admitting “we sort of choked.”

“I have a hacking question for the Obama administration: Why did you, quote, ‘choke’ in the name of one of their senior administration officials? Why did you do nothing? Why didn’t you inform candidate Trump?” Conway told host George Stephanopoulos. “I know you thought Hillary would win, but how could you not reveal important information about Russia hacking? ... I think the previous administration has a lot of questions to answer given this Russian obsession by everyone.”

Trump tweeted mockingly yesterday, “Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic Party in order to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders. Is she allowed to so collude? Unfair to Bernie!”

"U.S. warship stayed on deadly collision course despite warning - container ship captain"

Via RedditA U.S. warship struck by a container vessel in Japanese waters failed to respond to warning signals or take evasive action before a collision that killed seven of its crew, according to a report of the incident by the Philippine cargo ship's captain.

Multiple U.S. and Japanese investigations are under way into how the guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald and the much larger ACX Crystal container ship collided in clear weather south of Tokyo Bay in the early hours of June 17.

In the first detailed account from one of those directly involved, the cargo ship's captain said the ACX Crystal had signaled with flashing lights after the Fitzgerald "suddenly" steamed on to a course to cross its path.

The container ship steered hard to starboard (right) to avoid the warship, but hit the Fitzgerald 10 minutes later at 1:30 a.m., according to a copy of Captain Ronald Advincula's report to Japanese ship owner Dainichi Investment Corporation that was seen by Reuters.

The U.S. Navy declined to comment and Reuters was not able to independently verify the account.

(Link to more)

How to find the One

It's a big deal, if true

Via Instapundit:  Trump declines to host Ramadan dinner, breaking 20-yr White House tradition

Top voted comments at Insta:
President Trump restores the 206 year old tradition of not celebrating the end of Ramadan dinner.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

heavenly pizza


You don't have to die for heavenly pizza.

"Europeans learn to live with _ and adapt to _ terror attacks"

Via Drudge:  The jihadis' targets in Europe are depressingly repetitive: the Brussels metro, the Champs-Elysees in Paris (twice), tourist-filled bridges in London (twice) and a U.K. rock concert. And that's just the past few months.

The steady stream of attacks on centers of daily life have drawn pledges from Europeans not to let terrorists change how they live, but in ways large and small they already have

There is a heightened awareness and quicker reactions, especially in the hardest-hit countries of France, Britain and Belgium, that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago....

Tensions are high enough in central Paris that on Thursday the quick-response police unit reacted to a witness' phone call about a man wearing a sidearm by tackling him on the street, only to learn that he was a ranking member of the anti-terrorism squad, according to French media....

After suicide bombers in 2005 struck trains and buses during a busy London morning rush-hour, scores of commuters started riding bicycles to work. That method of transport has its own problems in London — with the number of annual cyclist deaths a rising concern.

Three of the four recent attacks, however, have involved the use of a vehicle as a weapon — much like the deadly 2016 Nice attack in France that killed 87 people.

"I suppose I could try taking a boat to work, but before long I'm sure they would attack those too. So I'm just taking my chances," said Rohan Chansity, a 34-year-old finance worker in London.

Parents and teachers are talking to children more about being observant — a skill often lost on a gadget-obsessed generation.

A suicide bomber blew himself up last month at Manchester Arena, killing 22 people, mostly young concert-goers.

"We talk about being observant, looking for exits, making sure you're around a responsible crowd - but in the end, it's not like I'm going to keep her from going to concerts," said Moira Campbell, 45, who has a 15-year-old daughter.

"Bernie Sanders & Wife Under FBI Investigation For Bank Fraud"

"As we noted just over a year ago, Burlington College, a small Vermont private school once led by the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, said Monday it will close later this month, citing "the crushing weight" of debt incurred during the presidency of Jane Sanders who was in charge of the college until 2011." (Link to full ZeroHedge post)

According to WaPo, the college which enrolled 224 students as of fall 2014, said it faced financial troubles connected to its 2010 purchase of 32 acres of lakefront property from the Archdiocese of Burlington, according to the Burlington Free Press. The college said it had sold property to reduce its debt to a manageable level, but it was placed on probation in 2014 by its accrediting agency and it faced cash flow problems due to the imminent loss of a line of credit...
Jane Sanders stepped down in 2011 amid a dispute with the college’s board. After her husband launched his presidential campaign, news stories emerged that scrutinized her role in a loan application for the lakefront ­real-estate purchase. Jane Sanders has dismissed those stories as politically motivated and said the issue was not a factor in her departure from the college. 
A Burlington College news release issued this morning called these financial hurdles insurmountable at this time. 
And now, as Politico Magazine first reported the Sanders have hired lawyers to defend them in the probe. 
Sanders' top adviser Jeff Weaver told CBS News the couple has sought legal protection over federal agents' allegations from a January 2016 complaint accusing then-President of Burlington College, Ms. Sanders, of distorting donor levels in a 2010 loan application for $10 million from People's United Bank to purchase 33 acres of land for the institution
According to Politico, prosecutors might also be looking into allegations that Sen. Sanders' office inappropriately urged the bank to approve the loan.
Link to more...

Queen's hat

Queen Elizabeth II gave a speech a few days ago and while her hats do garner attention this time her audience saw in it a clear transmission of meaning. They're convinced the queen relayed an overt political message. Because everything is political, must be political, even hats. 


 

See, the blue is exactly the same blue and the stars are exactly the same shape and color and number, and the circular patterns are both exact circles.  So it must be. 

This obsession calls for ridicule. Irresistible to B3ta members. (In their world, rhymes with "Peter.") This week's challenge is to show the queen wearing hats that transmit political messages. Or else just be equally silly. Understand members are children. Even the very old members. British parody site B3ta has two pages of entries so far collected here. As usual, a few members miss the point of the challenge entirely. The challenge is still running. 

Flight Simulator X (Multiplayer)

Link via Reddit

Video publisher: "An untrained air traffic controller in FSX multiplayer tries to leave the tower while on-duty at the Boston Logan Int'l Airport, but not before he makes a snarky comment towards my piloting skills which causes me to return to the airport and show him what's up. Enjoy."

"Sketchy firm behind Trump dossier is stalling investigators"

"A secretive Washington firm that commissioned the dubious intelligence dossier on Donald Trump is stonewalling congressional investigators trying to learn more about its connections to the Democratic Party."
The Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month threatened to subpoena the firm, Fusion GPS, after it refused to answer questions and provide records to the panel identifying who financed the error-ridden dossier, which was circulated during the election and has sparked much of the Russia scandal now engulfing the White House. 
What is the company hiding? Fusion GPS describes itself as a “research and strategic intelligence firm” founded by “three former Wall Street Journal investigative reporters.” But congressional sources says it’s actually an opposition-research group for Democrats, and the founders, who are more political activists than journalists, have a pro-Hillary, anti-Trump agenda. (Link to more)
Via Instapundit...
The fact is that that firms creating opposition research are often staffed with former journalists, who use their connections in the editorial world to redistribute this sort of thing. (Naturally, there are “right-leaning” as well as “left-leaning” firms of this sort.) Work in a newsroom long enough and you’ll begin to recognize “oppo” when you see it. Sadly, a number of journalists who were laid off by big news outfits and can’t find work elsewhere have resorted to doing this kind of work. As news organizations cut back on reporting, it’s easier than ever to get “oppo” published as news without sufficient fact-checking. What’s the opposite of a virtuous circle?

"Research suggests sexual appeals in ads don’t sell brands, products"

Via Reddit:  “We found that people remember ads with sexual appeals more than those without, but that effect doesn’t extend to the brands or products that are featured in the ads,” says University of Illinois advertising professor John Wirtz, the lead author of the research.

Wirtz and his co-authors conducted a first-of-its-kind meta-analysis of 78 peer-reviewed studies looking at the effects of sexual appeals in advertising. Their findings were posted online this week by the International Journal of Advertising.

Their research found that not only were study participants no more likely to remember the brands featured in ads with sexual appeals, they were more likely to have a negative attitude toward those brands, Wirtz said.

“The strongest finding was probably the least surprising, which is that males, on average, like ads with sexual appeals, and females dislike them,” Wirtz said. “However, we were surprised at how negative female attitudes were toward these ads.”

(Link to more)

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Westword Music Showcase.

The whole place is saturated with young people. And the music is very loud around the entire neighborhood. The double windows cannot block it out. Completely shut out, the walls still vibrate with muffled sound. This shot is off my terrace. There is another similar stage set up one block beyond, and in the opposite direction across Broadway all of the music clubs in a row also have band lineups scheduled throughout the day and night with large crowds of people in front of them. How music enthusiasts decide which club to go or which outdoor stage to check out is beyond me. The band schedules are posted outside each place but visitors must walk around the whole area to know where their favorite bands are playing. I do not know where all these people get their information. Westword website is not that helpful. To me.

Westword itself is two blocks down the street.


They give us free tickets here for our whole building to compensate for the intrusion, and that really is worth something. But I did not partake them. I love the place crawling with young people. I do. Crawling is not a good word to use. They're all much faster than I am. On the sidewalk they all pass me right up. They pour around me actually. I'm in their way but they manage me as easy obstruction. But wherever they're stopped and we chat, to a person they're kind and considerate and respectful. Not at all what you read online about them. Not one bit.

"Coffee-seeking 81-year-old leads Denton police on low-speed chase"

Via Drudge:  The Denton police officer rapped on the elderly driver's Jeep, telling her to roll down the window and unlock the door. But Nancy Strader, who honest to God just wanted to get a cup of coffee, had other ideas.

"I just was out riding around," Strader would tell the news station later. "I thought, I'm going to go have me some coffee or a sandwich or something because I hadn't eaten all day."

But police stopped Strader after other drivers reported her driving around in circles and going the wrong direction on Elm Street.

I just want to make sure you're OK," the bodycam video showed one officer saying to her. "Unlock the car for me."

Instead, she began to pull away.

(Link to the rest of the story)

What's your favorite piece of useless trivia?

Reddit top voted comments...

The door opening noise from star trek was a piece of paper being taken out of an envelope.

The composer Richard Wagner blew most of his money on women's lingerie.

A second is called a second because it is the 2nd division of the hour by 60, the 1st division being a minute.

The country with the longest fence in the world is Australia.

Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis died on the same day, but nobody heard about it because it was also the day JFK was shot.

If you push a living sponge through a fine mesh screen, it will rearrange itself in a few hours.

Ketchup was sold as medicine in the 1830s

The whole of Australia could fit comfortably into the Sahara desert, with plenty of room to spare.

The release of the original Spider Man movie was delayed because of the 9/11 attacks. They spent the following months editing the twin towers out of every scene. But they missed one

"Why Democrats can't quit Nancy Pelosi"

Via Instapundit: Democrats would have massive gaps to fill if they were to oust Pelosi.

Chief among those is fundraising. Since 2002, Pelosi has hauled in $568 million for House Democratic campaigns — including $141 million during the 2016 campaign cycle.

Pelosi also has a long history of holding her party together through difficult votes — enabling former President Barack Obama to shepherd into law a series of Democratic-backed measures in 2009 and 2010 and later forcing Republicans to grapple with the politically damaging divisions within their own ranks.

No other Democrat possesses the stature to match those accomplishments.

That reality was the subtext for Pelosi’s taunting remarks Thursday in which she cast her Democratic critics as hungry for attention rather than serious about ousting her.

“When it comes to personal ambition and having fun on TV, have your fun,” Pelosi said. “I love the arena. I thrive on competition.”

Of the political impact of the Republican attacks: “I think I’m worth the trouble,” she said.

Revenge on a IRS Phone Scamming Company - Call Flooder


Update:  The individuals are being arrested, but evidently not all of them.
Indian police arrest alleged ringleader of IRS scam.
News of the scam broke last October when Indian police raided nine calls centers -- eight in Thane in Maharashtra -- and arrested more than 70 people on suspicion of posing as IRS agents to steal cash from U.S. citizens.

CNN sends sketch artist after Trump bans press briefing cameras 




KLEM FM

A better captain than Jack Sparrow for sure...


They were, in a sense, the best of Flint. 

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean


Via Wikipedia:  "Billie Jean" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson. It is the second single from the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. There are contradictory claims on the meaning of the song's lyrics. One suggests that they are derived from a real-life experience, in which a female fan claimed that Jackson (or one of his brothers) had fathered her twins. However, Michael Jackson stated that "Billie Jean" was based on groupies he had encountered. The song is well known for its distinctive bassline played by Louis Johnson, the standard drum beat heard in the beginning, the repetition of "Billie Jean is not my lover" towards the end of the song and Michael Jackson's vocal hiccups. The song was mixed 91 times by audio engineer Bruce Swedien before it was finalized, though he reportedly went with the second mix as the final product.

The song became a success; it was one of the best-selling singles of 1983 and is one of the best-selling singles worldwide. The song topped both the US and UK charts simultaneously. It also topped the charts of Switzerland and reached the top ten in Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. "Billie Jean" was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1989. Rolling Stone magazine placed the song in the 58th spot on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Michael Jackson Lived: Aug 29, 1958 - Jun 25, 2009 (age 50)

Friday, June 23, 2017

What is socially accepted when you are beautiful but not accepted when you are ugly?


Assuming people want to interact with you

Saying you're ugly. If you're actually ugly you just end up making everyone uncomfortable. If you're beautiful people tend to fall all over themselves trying to reassure you that you're beautiful.

Bothering people who are reading. After years of sitting in coffee shops reading, I realized I was curt with anyone who tried to engage me in conversation, unless they were an attractive girl.

Being a criminal sometimes!
I remember when that 'beautiful convict' guy was floating around the internet for a while.

Going on about how inner beauty is more important than outer beauty. If you're attractive and say this you're humble and empowering, but if you're ugly and say it, you're just seen as whining.

Flirting

Bad at your job.

This super hot girl farted once in my high school class. People thought it was hilarious and some of the football players hugged her and thought it was awesome. Later that year in English Class an overweight girl let a ripper go and was mocked and ridiculed and was told she was disgusting.

"They’re Wrong About Everything"

"More evidence the political class doesn't know what it's talking about"
The fact is that almost the entirety of what one reads in the paper or on the web is speculation. The writer isn't telling you what happened, he is offering an interpretation of what happened, or offering a projection of the future. The best scenario is that these theories are novel, compelling, informed, and based on reporting and research. But that is rarely the case. More often the interpretations of current events, and prophesies of future ones, are merely the products of groupthink or dogma or emotions or wish-casting, memos to friends written by 27-year-olds who, in the words of Ben Rhodes, "literally know nothing." There was a time when newspapers printed astrology columns. They no longer need to. The pseudoscience is on the front page.

Nor are the empty conjectures and worthless hypotheses limited to Donald Trump. Yes, pretty much the entire world, myself included, assumed he would lose to Hillary Clinton. Indeed, a not-insignificant segment of the political class, both Democrat and Republican, thought the Republicans would not only lose the presidency but also the House and Senate. Oops! I remember when, as the clock reached midnight on November 8 and it became clear Trump would be the forty-fifth president, a friend called. "Are we just wrong about everything?" he asked. Perhaps we were. But at least we had the capacity to admit our fallibility.

There are few who can. Conjectures and guesswork continue to dog Trump in the form of "the Russia thing," the belief that the president, his "satellites," or his campaign worked with the Russians to influence the election in his favor. Months after the FBI opened its investigation into whether such collusion occurred, no evidence has been found. The charge itself is based on an unverified and gossipy and over-the-top memo prepared by a former British spy for Democrats.
(Link to the whole thing)

Beijing wages war on ‘Chinglish’ to prevent translation gaffes

Via Drudge:  China has long been known as the land of the confused tourist, with instructions on public notices using phrases like: ‘Be careful to hit your head.'

But poorly translated English – or what is otherwise known as Chinglish – is set to become a thing of the past following the launch of a new national standard.

Chinglish is considered a national embarrassment in China, where youngsters are often given lessons in English from a very young age.

Authorities announced this week that the national standard would be rolled out in 13 public areas, including transportation, entertainment, medicine and financial services.

“English translations should prioritise correct grammar and a proper register, while rare expressions and vocabulary words should be avoided,” the standard said, according to the People’s Daily newspaper.

The new rules, which will be enforced in December, will ensure that translations do "not contain content that damages the images of China or other countries”, added the newspaper, which is the official mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party.

China has rapidly opened up to overseas visitors in recent years, and local authorities and attractions have erected ever more signs to attract free-spending foreigners.

However, many of the translations can be too literal, meaning that public notices are often the subject of ridicule, or are deemed offensive.

Among the more offensive translations were signs erected in Beijing’s Nationalities Park which referred to “Racist Park”.

China has previously targeted its badly translated signs, particularly in the run up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

California Bans Official Travel To Several States

"Texas, three more states on California’s banned travel list" (read story)
How about a little reciprocity from the other states towards California?  Goose, Gander

There are literally billions of reasons why every other state in the union should cast wary eyes on Sacramento shenanigans. Start here: There's a $368-billion reason why California depends on the federal government.

Starve the beast.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Sunset, June 22, 2017


The whole sky was filled with gray clouds and I thought the sun would slip down behind them without showing color. Then the whole room filled with orange and I wished I had set up the Patch Master for time lapse to show what I saw. Too late. 

I sure did like watching the show. 

I just now heard thunder. The sun is gone. That water up there has to go somewhere. Our sky cannot hold it. 

Not the Onion: Bill Cosby to Hold ‘Town Halls’ on Sexual Assault

Via Twitter:  Bill Cosby is planning a series of talks about sexual assault in the wake of his own sexual assault court case ending in a mistrial.

“Mr. Cosby wants to get back to work,” his spokesman Andrew Wyatt said on WBRC’s “Good Day Alabama” in Birmingham. “We’re now planning town halls and we’re going to be coming to this city sometime in July … to talk to young people because this is bigger than Bill Cosby.”

“This issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today, and they need to know what they’re facing when they’re hanging out and partying, when they’re doing certain things that they shouldn’t be doing,” he continued. “And it also affects married men.”

“Laws are changing. The statute of limitations for victims of sexual assault are being extended,” added spokeswoman Ebonee Benson. “So this is why people need to be educated. A brush against the shoulder, anything at this point, can be considered sexual assault and it’s a good thing to be educated about the laws.”

(Link to story)

What socially expected thing do you hate doing the most?

Reddit top voted comments...

This is probably only applicable to people who don't live alone, but having to entertain people who are not your friends when your family member/flatmate leaves the room to go to the toilet or make a drink or something. It's so painfully awkward. But less awkward than blanking them for a couple of minutes.

I don't know if this is a female thing but there's a pressure to be really enthusiastic around kids. I don't like or dislike children but I don't like being expected to behave like a kindergarten teacher every time I meet one. This whole over the top, bubbly annoying thing that most women do with kids just exhausts me. I know that it's genuine for some women but for many, it's a weird competition to see who can be the most motherly or nurturing. It can be pretty creepy sometimes.

Pretending that I want to advance in any job I have. No, I don't care about becoming a manager or whatnot. I took this job because it's what I wanted to do. I'm not interested in being paid to think about how other people should work harder

Ass-kissing to get a job. It feels disgusting.

Having to individually say 'goodbye' to everyone at a family/social gathering. I'm all about the Irish goodbye.

Excessive socializing. My family and friends have given me shit for going straight to my room after going out or hanging out with them all day. It's like, didn't you have enough of me? I definitely had enough of you.

Hugging people you don't want to hug

singing or being sung happy birthday