tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-129720372024-03-07T21:45:03.966-08:00MUCKRAKER<b><u>NOTE</u></b>: DEDICATED TO REFERENCING THE PECCADILLOES AS WELL AS THE BENEFITS VIS-A-VIS THE ENTERPRISES OF PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, THE MEDIA, RELIGIONISTS, AND GOVERNMENT, RECOGNIZING THAT MY FEET, TOO, ARE MADE OF CLAY AND PREPARED FOR THE ACCUSATION THAT MY HEAD IS FILLED WITH IT, BUT REVELING IN THE FACT THAT IN THE U.S. FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS GUARANTEED EVEN TO THE “LEAST OF THESE,” MEANING ME. Check out new collection: "AVENGED & Other Poems."
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.comBlogger1171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-51505714974358522082018-09-22T05:24:00.000-07:002018-09-22T05:24:36.135-07:00Three Musketeers?Nine years ago, Qaddafi, once ruler of Libya until then-President Obama sicced the USAF on him and his country, destroying both in seven months, visited New York City (camped-out) and made that long, rambling speech at the UN, otherwise known as the UHaUS (United Hate against United States. Here's a tongue-in-cheek sketch:
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<b>Mahmoud, Moammar & Hugo
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It’s just past midnight in a spacious tent in a small village just north of New York City. Three men, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Moammar Qaddafi, and Hugo Chavez sit around a small fire. Hereinafter, they are referenced as A, Q, and C, respectively, but not respectfully. </b>
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*A: I thought that after the PanAm thing...Allah be praised, Momie...you don’t mind being called that, do you? Moammar is so...well... Sunni-sounding...that you would not be welcome... <br>
*Q: Sunni-sounding, you north-end of a southbound camel, Mahmoud...Allah curse this fool before I give <b>him</b> the PanAm treatment...what do you mean...<b>welcome</b>...in this hole where there is not sand or even dates...and you say “Momie” one more time and the Libyan scimitar will... <br>
*C (laughing): So, Moammar, you are not welcome. I saw the signs and...by the way, sneaking in here in the trunk of a cab driven by a kook from Pakistan was just a bit... <br>
*A: The Pakistanis are all kooks...Sunni-kooks, that is. The Shiites will a-a-r-r-g-g-h-h-A-A-R-R-G-G-H-H-<b>a-a-r-r-g-g-h-h-A-A-R-R-G-G-H-H...A-A-R-R-G-G-H-H On to Wisconsin...</b><br>
*C (diving under a rug): Moammar, what’s with Mahmoud and this awful scream, worse than a muezzin with a herniated larynx at the evening prayer in your country? <br>
*Q: Bah...Mahmoud has spent too much time in this miserable New York. He learned that scream from Osama’s lackey...that miserable al-Zawahiri, who learned it from watching the Howard Dean on American TV and uses it when he’s frustrated with his four or so wives...who’s counting anyway? Mahmoud uses it when the students burn cars in Tehran or when he thinks of Sunnis, whichever comes first. Anyway, the only thing Sunnis and Shiites love more than killing Americans is...oh, ha, ha...killing each other...Allah be praised for Shiite blood in the streets! <br>
*C: These are strange customs, Moammar. In Venezuela, the Catholics and Protestants don’t kill each other...they’re too busy starving and working in the oil-fields the stupid Americans have drilled. And now I have my very own lackey in the U.S....Osama Obama, I call him...a very nice ring to that. He apologized in my very own kingd...make that my own country for the very existence of the United States. To show my appreciation, I did not call him Satan in my speech at the UN, as I did the cowboy Bush...right in front of the whole world. <br>
*A: Shiite blood in the streets! Allah curse you for that, Moammar! When I bring in the Twelfth Mahdi I will sit upon his right side when he rules forever and sign the papers so that you will be dispatched to Paradise without benefit of a martyr’s death...meaning not even one virgin for you, not to mention seventy-two...whew...just the thought... <br>
*Q: Bah! Let’s get down to business. I’m paying someone called “The Donald” one million big ones per hour for this wretched piece of real estate with no room service. I told him it would be a privilege to have my tent on his ground...make it sacred...and he told me I could...bleep, bleep, bleep... <br>
*C: Oh hoo-hah...did he say that? I bet he demanded the rent up front! <br>
*Q: Yes. I had to contact my best American friend, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, and use his credit card. He owed me anyway...that payback thing for the billion I gave his Nation of Islam in the 90s, under the table, of course, since the N of I is tax-exempt...oh, hoo-hah, a tax exempt organization...the Americans are stupid. That billion was not for picnics at the mosque. <br>
*C: I’ve heard that Farrakhan visited you 25 years ago. Is that true? <br>
*A: Is that true, you ask...is that true...(wild laughter)? Guess who made that trip with the one they call “Calypso Louie” to see Moammar? <br>
*C: His wives, of course. <br>
*A: His wives...oh, ha, ha! Take his wives into the land of the houris, the land of the dancing sirens without burkas (wild laughter)! He took the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s spiritual adviser...for religious reasons, of course...a sort of mini-hajj to Tripoli instead of Mecca! That was the solicitation for a billion big ones and, I’ve heard, where Wright learned that God should damn America because white people put the HIV on the blacks to waste them. <br>
*C: Is that where Farrakhan found out about the levees, too? <br>
*Q: Of course it was. I told him 25 years ago that the army engineers fixed the levees to dissolve and let Lake Pontchartrain flood New Orleans to get rid of black folks whenever an eligible hurricane arrived. All he knew was how to play the fiddle and do assassinations, but I knew all about the evil Americans. <br>
*A: I thought you said we needed to get down to business, Moammar. I need to get back to Tehran as soon as possible to witness the cutting off of hands of the rioters who claimed that I stole the election a few weeks ago. Actually – a little secret here – we’re going to cut off some heads, too, but that part’s only for invited guests...at 100 million rials apiece...little campaign fundraising to pay for vo...for expenses. I learned about that angle in America. <br>
*Q: I need to get back to Tripoli, too, so here’s the business. <br>
*C: Oh, ha, ha. So you’re going to give us the business...like I gave it to Bush. <br>
*Q: Well, not exactly, Hugo, my friend. Mahmoud and I figure that you can give us half your oil and thus drive up the prices everywhere. You’ll still make a profit and we’ll get something to help make our people happy. <br>
*C: And just how do I make any profit on a deal like that? <br>
*Q & A: Have you ever heard of an Islamic fatwa? <br>
*C: But I have a whole well-fed army, you vultures. My oil...never! It’s building up my personal bank accounts all over the world. <br>
*Q: You DO remember PanAm 103, don’t you, Hugo...all those women and children? <br>
*C (agitated): Well...maybe we <b>CAN</b> do business.
<p>
And so it goes. <br>
Jim Clark
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-35589404533325954642018-07-04T07:11:00.003-07:002018-07-04T07:11:53.192-07:00Lest We ForgetThe recent attempts by Islamic fanatics to kill innocent people in order to make some kind of point is just the latest example that tyranny is the weapon of choice by the religious cowardly in its effort to control the world. The penultimate example in this country was experienced on 9/11. By contrast, when the colonists fought tyranny in order to gain independence, they fought against an army, not against innocent and unarmed women and children. That's the difference between civilized people and animals, notwithstanding any allusions to "Allah." Hopefully, those with illusions that the Islamic cutthroats can be neutralized in any other way than military defeat will not ascend to high office in this country, since tyranny is a perennial threat to every generation and must be defeated in every generation. The “evil empires” will always be a collection of nations/dictatorships that prey upon civilized nations, the latest bound by a religious fanaticism called Islam.
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<p>
The muffled sound of drum and fife<br>
And musketry in mortal strife<br>
And voices raised in anger, pain, <br>
Or mourning those among the slain<br>
Are sensed when contemplating still<br>
The carnage of a Bunker Hill, <br>
When only battles - bloody, fierce -<br>
The wall of tyranny could pierce.
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Then comes to mind the gory scenes<br>
From Queenston Heights to New Orleans<br>
When tyranny again was banned<br>
Upon the sea, upon the land; <br>
And one can sense again the sound<br>
When roaring cannons shook the ground<br>
And mortal men...to make men free... <br>
Would enter immortality.
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On Shiloh’s bloody ground that day<br>
They died with valor in full sway, <br>
Or Gettysburg...Chancellorsville, <br>
Where brothers each might brother kill; <br>
One hears the massive, tragic groan<br>
As tens of thousands would atone<br>
- With blood - for hated slavery... <br>
The vilest form of tyranny.
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When jaded beasts oppress the poor<br>
And close to them sweet freedom’s door, <br>
It falls upon the free...the strong<br>
Throughout the world to right this wrong; <br>
At Santiago, brave men fell, <br>
And San Juan Hill became a hell, <br>
But men who found eternity<br>
Gained entry scourging tyranny.
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Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, <br>
Where thousands died, but others stood<br>
Their ground with blood and sweat and fears, <br>
And buried comrades through their tears; <br>
And one can sense the frightful sounds<br>
Of tanks and planes emitting rounds<br>
From lethal, modern weaponry<br>
To end the threat of tyranny.
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To end the threat of tyranny? -<br>
Ah...no...remember Normandy, <br>
Or Iwo Jima, Anzio, <br>
Where once again the blood must flow; <br>
And one may close the eyes and see<br>
And hear the mighty guns at sea<br>
And wonder why it all must be... <br>
But knows deep down...end tyranny.
<p>
So listen!...hear the muffled roar<br>
Of new jet planes now bound for war, <br>
Of new invasions from the sea, <br>
The dying fighting tyranny; <br>
And names like Inchon, Pork Chop Hill, <br>
And Bloody Ridge - remembered still -<br>
Assault the mind, yet augur peace, <br>
In hope that tyranny will cease.
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But hope, though strong, has little worth<br>
As long as despots roam the earth, <br>
As long as beasts whose prime resource<br>
Is tyranny...forge brutal force; <br>
So listen...as the jungle screams, <br>
And those who die are shorn of dreams<br>
At Pleiku, Khe Sanh, and Da Nang, <br>
Where flags from coffins daily hang.
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No…evil tyranny survives, <br>
Each generation robbed of lives<br>
Attempting to wipe out its curse, <br>
Each war the next one to rehearse; <br>
Recall the battle in the sand -<br>
Exploding missiles as they land<br>
On Persian Gulf, Kuwait, Iraq, <br>
Mad tyranny again to block.
<p>
As in most centuries before, <br>
The twenty-first begins with war<br>
When evil men in Allah’s name<br>
Torch innocents in jet-fuel flame; <br>
Their leaders learn that they will pay<br>
In Afghan mountains day by day, <br>
Or in Iraqi towns and sand<br>
An awesome price when good men stand.
<p>
************
<p>
In tranquil fields throughout the world, <br>
Our dead are marked by flags unfurled, <br>
Or marked by nature’s restless waves, <br>
Beneath the seas in timeless graves; <br>
Yes, thus it is, and thus will be... <br>
Until God’s final, terse decree... <br>
But until then, now strong and free, <br>
The decent must kill tyranny.
</center>
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-53156107072305350392018-06-04T08:04:00.000-07:002018-06-04T08:04:36.404-07:00Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, POTUS, & RahmFor old-time's sake, a piece from Muckraker June 2010 during Obama's tenure:
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<I>It’s just past one a.m. in the little room off the Oval Office and Dr. Jekyll and his alter ego Mr. Hyde are meeting with President Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, hereinafter referenced as J, H, O, and E, respectively, if not necessarily respectfully</I>.
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*J: I say, Barry, we met in this tiny closet last August to discuss the healthcare bill and I said then that you insulted us with such an arrangement, and here we are again giving up valuable time in the aristocracy to be demeaned by the hoi polloi in this…this…and these Styrofoam cups for tea…we’ve a mind to bug out, eh, Edward…just go back to… <br>
*H: To civilization, of course…I’ve never felt comfortable in the colonies, but tell me, Rahm – you seem the type to enjoy it – how many old codgers have the death panels dispatched using the healthcare protocol…and how did they go, willingly or (drooling) maybe on the gallows…oh what fun that must have…(wild laughter) <br>
*J: Stop it, Edward. Actually, he’s simply identifying with the profound morality of saving the taxpayers’ money by not extending costly infirmities of the old goats. But, what’s the subject this time, Barry…you said this time you wanted to be called <I>commander-in-chief</I> and we’ve observed on the BBC newscasts that you never let the peasants forget it but that’s so formal and <I>Mr. President</I> is so-o-o-o snobbish…just call us Henry and Edward and we’ll use Barry and Rahm, such a quaint name…Rahm…<br>
*H: Sounds rather like one of those Buddhist mantras…R-a-a-h-h-m-m (hums)…then it’s off with some poor Christian’s head…egad, what a mantra…R-a-a-h-h-m-m…(closes eyes) <br>
*O: (glaring) It’s like this, Henry, I’m gathering the best brains in the world to give me the proper gravitas to disrupt the proper derrieres in order to solve the oil-spill problem and…<br>
*H: Oh you mean the jolly good arses to kick…is that it, Barry? I love the thought…I can see it now, the commander-in-chief lining up the proper czars and kicking their arses back to…oh, why not just kick in their heads, too, what I call the old <I>Sir Danvers Carew Treatment</I>…ah…I remember it well as I bashed in the old man’s head right there in the lane, although I ruined that perfectly good cane with the heavy knob…egad…I hated to lose that cane. <br>
*E: (whispering) Henry, is Edward…you know…is he…<br>
*J: No…he isn’t from Chicago. Actually, he simply dispatched an old man who should have had the decency, a la your healthcare plan, to forget fading away with old generals and just <I>up and die</I>, as they say in your mountain-William state of Kentucky. <br>
*O: Mountain-William? Rahm, is there something I don’t know about…<br>
*E: That’s Brit-talk for hillbilly, Commander-In-Chief. Wow…they must not know their geography out there in Hawaii. I thought everybody knew…<br>
*H: Hillbilly…whoopee…(singing) Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts…and she plugged him with her old forty-four…rooty, toot, toot….R-a-a-h-h-m-m…plugged him with…<br>
*J: Stop it, Edward…you’re off-key anyway. He’s simply singing about mountain-William justice, Rahm, something you should appreciate, being from Chicago, where even dead people have the right to vote. <br>
*O: Please…back to the subject. You guys are here because you represent knowledge of the physical and mental conditions that qualify people for ass-kicking. Except for anybody in the administration – all of them geniuses – can you think of anybody’s ass I should kick? <br>
*J: I say, Edward…did he mean us with that “guys” appellation…us…the epitome of refinement? <br>
*E: What kind of pit? How could you have a pit of you? Commander-in-chief, do you sense a leg-pulling here or what? <br>
*O: The only leg problem I’ve heard about belongs to that MSNBC guy, Chris Matthews. He says his leg tingles when I speak and he even forgot I was black while his leg was tingling when I made the State-of-the-union speech in…<br>
*J: We may not be royalty but we certainly are not <I>guys</I>, Barry, and I expect an apology. <br>
*O: Sorry about that, Henry…er, slip of the tongue. I’m accustomed to teleprompters that guarantee no such slips of the tongue. I even use one at the dinner table to make sure I don’t make Michelle mad. Everybody knows you’re <I>mateys</I>!<br>
*H: <I>MATEYS</I>! Now, I believe he actually said he’d campaigned in 57 states and had only two more to go. Oh…hahahahahahaha…now he’s confused us Brits with Australians. (sings) Waltzing Matilda…waltzing Matilda…God save the queen…waltzing Matilda…<br>
*E: Knock it off Edward. This is serious business. We absolutely must have by six this morning the names of asses to kick or Spike Lee will say Commander-in-chief here is too unemotional and needs to shout and scream and froth at the mouth and kick asses. <br>
*O: Not to put too fine a point on it, gentlemen, the people I’ve tried to buy off and told not to run in the primaries have run anyway…and won, so I need to express the proper outrage at British Petroleum and the kick-ass scoundrels in Washington or I might lose part of Congress in November. <br>
*J: You heard that, didn’t you, Edward? Now he’s blaming BP and threatening our whole pension system in England that’s pinned to BP stock. (toss of the head) And…<I>gentlemen</I> will do nicely, Barry. <br>
*H: Oh yes, I heard, Henry. (sings) She plugged him with that .44…(reaches in his pocket) <br>
*E: Hey…wait a minute…we’re not blaming BP for anything. The whole Gulf explosion was set up by Bush and Cheney…just like the WTC…Katrina…Freddie and Fannie…GM…<br>
*H: Calm down, R-a-a-h-h-m-m (hums), I’m just checking the time. <br>
*J: I say, Edward, do you think he should deploy Paul McCartney’s derriere to his navel area for implying that Barry’s predecessor was an idiot, especially in light of the current lunacy in this colony? <br>
*O: I take that personally, Henry. McCartney was just calling attention to the current superior…<br>
*E: Yeah…everyone – even Blago – knows that Bush had an eleventh-floor elevator in a twelve-story house. <br>
*H: Eleventh-story elevator in a…oh, that’s a good one, R-a-a-h-h-m-m (hums)…and the poor souls who step through the doors at the top…oh…what a glorious, bloody mess, better than cracking the old boy’s skull…twelve stories and then…SPLAT…WHOOPEE! <br>
*J: Pay no attention. Edward’s just pointing out the necessity of prudence when entering an elevator. I say, Edward, do we need a moment for a conference (H nods)…yes…excuse us, gentlemen. (J & H step outside for a minute, then return) We’ve reached decisions about the ass-kicking. <br>
*O: Good…I’m dying for a smoke and Rahm has to mail a coupla dead fish. I’ve already kicked Mine/Minerals Chief Birnbaum under the bus, so she’s not in the picture. Maybe Jesse Jackson would qualify. He once said he wanted to cut off part of my anatomy and I haven’t forgotten that. <br>
*H: Gentlemen, Henry and I have decided that you two should cast lots…roll the dice…draw straws…whatever ignorant colonists do these days to see who goes first, then take turns assuming the proper position and kicking each other until the respective derrieres are in roughly the area of the adenoids…oh hahahahahahaha…entrails trailing everywhere…blood in the Monica room…
<p>
And so it goes. <br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-82833720283550376402018-03-26T13:15:00.000-07:002018-03-26T13:15:21.720-07:00MeToo...Nanny State?<i>The MeToo movement is all the rage today, introduced by actress Ashley Judd in her famous “Nasty Woman” speech on the Saturday after the 2017 inauguration...written by a high-school student. The target of the women's angst/hysteria is men, the devils. Here is a piece on the subject written in March 2010:</i>
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<b>The “Nanny” State in Spades!</b>
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It’s been sad in recent years to watch individual non-society-threatening freedom being eroded in this country, both individually and collectively. People have to buckle up in their cars whether they want to or not. Owners of establishments who don’t wish to disallow smoking therein must do so anyhow. Or…they must hire and fire not on the basis of job-requirements but on the basis of quotas, never mind the extra expense involved, usually passed on to the consumer.
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This isn’t to say there shouldn’t be laws to protect citizens from other citizens, such as those relating to speed restrictions on roads or to the requirement that drivers be sober and not distracted. Without laws governing societal conduct, there would be anarchy, so this isn’t about extreme libertarianism.
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The third example above is a case in point with reference to freedom. Wal-Mart has a distribution facility in London, Kentucky, in which there are about 900 employees plus another one hundred contracted truck-drivers. In this huge warehousing operation, employees must be able to do heavy lifting. Anyone who has ever lifted a hundred-pound bag of spuds knows what this means. Since this is the case, Wal-Mart attempted to hire people it felt could do this job, the ultimate decision apparently being to employ mostly men for the quite obvious reason that, collectively, men are considerably physically stronger than women.
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In some areas, women are mentally stronger than men, but at this facility the premium was placed on physical strength. A while back, a lady charged discrimination when she applied for a job at this facility and was turned down, she said, just because she was a woman. Well, yes…that might have been the case, not hard to believe. It’s perfectly obvious that if two employees instead of one are needed to heft a hundred pounds of spuds when one man can do it alone, the cost to the company for labor goes up to be passed on to the consumer while also thereby degrading the company’s competitive position in the marketplace, not to mention its responsibility to its shareholders.
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So…the lady sued Wal-Mart nearly 10 years ago and the settlement just came down but only after it had become a class-action suit just ripe for any woman who could make a similar charge, real or imagined, to get in on the action. Wal-Mart settled for $11.7 million to be divvied up among all these ladies and any others who can still get in on the windfall, along with $250,000 in “administration costs.” One can only guess at what the real winners received – the lawyers – but they probably got a third of the stash, at least.
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In other words, Wal-Mart could not conduct its business in the most efficient way possible but had to do business according to the way the government decides is “fair,” recognizing diversity as paramount in hiring, not the satisfying of qualifications for employment, in this case, physical strength. The next step in the process could be that inevitable “back injury” for which the company insurance must be responsible or – much better – a woman’s lawsuit in the interest of collecting a gazillion bucks for the ruination of her ability to make a living, also real or imagined.
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Suppose a man applies for a job in Wal-Mart’s office but can neither type nor use a calculator. Will he be hired? Of course not, even though virtually no physical strength is required! He simply lacks the proper qualifications. Does anybody care about that? Of course not, since nobody gives a fig and men don’t cry! They just go looking somewhere else.
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There’s a beautiful irony in all of this. Wal-Mart employs about 1.4 million workers, of whom 63% are women, even though they make up only 50.7% of the population. According to diversity-think, men are entitled to 49.3% of the jobs but hold only 37% of them. Why is that? Men are walking the streets these days looking for work at the same time Wal-Mart is discriminating against them…actually owing them 690,200 jobs but giving them only 518,000. Now…is that fair?
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Living in a “nanny state” is no fun, but the progressives are determined to make this country into one so profoundly and correctly diversified that government will regulate everything and every service. People will become robots, except for those at the top, of course. Just ask Wal-Mart. In the meantime, all you men walking the streets…FILE THAT LAWSUIT! Some 172,000 of you are <b>ENTITLED!</b>
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And so it goes...again!<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-53004178480099294412018-03-16T18:23:00.000-07:002018-03-16T18:23:59.390-07:00NostalgiaA bit of nostalgia crops up occasionally, one such just now. Perhaps memories will be prodded by this blog of March 2010, written in the second March of Obama's first term to be compared to the second March of Trump's current (first?) term.
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<b>DNC Memorandum #10</b>
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<b><u>From the office of Governor Tim Kaine, convener</u></b>, 01 March 2010
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***First, a word of apology for not advancing the regular monthly memorandum for February, though I had it scheduled for Feb. 29 but was advised that the day did not exist (little joke there). Recent days have been frantic, what with advising the president on his state-of-the-union address, explaining how those thoughtless interlopers crashed the first state dinner and beat their gums with the president, and later working with the president on teleprompter protocols that would guard against the use of terms such as <I>corpse-man</I>, <I>Marine Corpse</I>, and <I>Peace Corpse</I>. For those who have just graduated an Ivy League school, the word is <I>corps</I>, pronounced as the middle of an apple is. The rumor that the president said he mispronounced the word twice just to see if people were awake is not true and Rahm Emanuel said he would not do it again. A diversity-aware red/yellow/black/white paper will be issued soon to explain why the White House social secretary who staged the state dinner was disallowed to testify in Congress account executive privilege even though Attorney General Holder and Congressional democrats are still trying to drag in Bush colleagues Rove and Miers, also given executive privilege a while back.
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***The latest rumor that Green-peace, Nader’s Raiders, NOW, Smokers Anonymous, and the nasty Congressional republican caucus have joined in exploring impeachment possibilities account the president’s continuing to smoke is untrue. Nader, speaking for the entire cabal that never was and never is and never will be, flatly denies any such effort and has insisted that these groups will not meet again. The president has explained that trying times call for extreme measures and that cigarette smoke clears not only his sinuses (especially the menthols) but also clears his head, citing as an example his smoking a complete carton the day before his Berlin speech in 2008 and winning over all of Europe to the concept that community-organizing is the very best preparation for being president. Pressperson Robert Glibs (okay…Gibbs, still a small joke there) has also explained that the president is not a threat to health-care-related expenses since he will die before getting so old that he will cost millions per month surviving into senility and actually is doing the country a favor by saving money. <u>Caution</u>: The DNC official position is that only idiots smoke for any reason other than head-clearing and that, even then, only geniuses qualify.
<p>
***Please be advised that in answer to questions about the president’s high-normal cholesterol condition you are to change the subject if possible; however, if the matter is beaten to death, simply say that Bush had good cholesterol, a condition that made him a poor president, and that President Obama is therefore risking his life (artery plaque-buildup, for recent college graduates) in order to be a good president. The rumor that Senator Kerry has offered one of his Purple Hearts to the president in honor of this sacrifice (if he can find one, that is…still looking along the fence over which he threw it in 1970) is untrue. Anyone finding a medal will be given a week’s vacation in Juarez but will have to furnish his/her own bodyguard.
<p>
***The health-care conference on 25 February was a huge success and staffers are reminded to use this lie in all contacts. Be careful in visual presentations not to use pictures/comments of Speaker Pelosi or Majority Leader Reid, who, sitting near the president, may or may not have been affected by the smell of Marlboro Menthols on the president’s clothes…allergies and all that. Senator Reid appeared as whining and Speaker Pelosi appeared as not being all-there at all. In sum, they didn’t help the cause and even furnished proof that the health-care panels enacted already in the legislation might have to rule adversely someday in any question as to spending money on their survival. In any case, do not – repeat – <b>DO NOT</b> use the term “trillion” in your presentations, since that scares the little people who don’t understand the vice president’s thesis concerning the proper way to use more and more spending in order to avoid bankruptcy. Rather, use some form of “billions” or, better, “thousands,” not that it actually matters much to the great unwashed, “Joe the Plumber” types.
<p>
***The president has begun his campaign for 2012 and White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina will be campaign manager. At least, this is the latest poop, not the usual kind but the propaganda kind, although it’s all pretty much the same. The campaign will be run out of Chicago and not the Capital for obvious reasons. It’s well-known that John F. Kennedy won the presidency in 1960 on the back of the Chicago vote in which even more dead people than were enumerated in the cemetery records voted. In fact, former president Chester A. Arthur voted in Chicago even though he was born in Vermont, lived in New York, died in November 1886, and was a republican.
<p>
***Homeland Security Chief Napolitano has informed the DNC that she’s heard staffers using the terms <I>terrorism</I> and <I>kill</I> with reference to the Ft. Hood massacre perpetrated by Major Hasan. This has offended some Muslims, especially those close to the Rt. Rev. Dr. Honorable Imam Louis Farrakhan, whose help in the Chicago campaign is absolutely vital since living humans (and a multitude of cats and dogs) also vote in Chicago, so the massacre is to be described now as people <I>breath-challenged by a man-caused disaster</I>. Anyone violating this directive will be sent for attitude-adjustments to Senator Durbin’s indoctrination facility, though it is not to be called the <b>Durbin Gulag and Killing-Field Center</b>, as some around the bottled-water keg and non-trans-fat, non-hamburger (eating grease okay if Senator Biden does), non-hotdog, non-dairy-product-of-any-kind, non-chocolate, non-smoking (smoking okay if Obama lights up), veggie-fortified, yogurt-enhanced snack-bar and body-mass-chart, carbon-cap-graph, endangered-species-obituary-wall-chart, blue/red-state-map, and Bush-dart-board have been heard to do. Senator Durbin has explained that he meant only the American GIs in Iraq and Guantanamo (called Bush cowboys) are like Nazi Storm Troopers and Stalin’s “whoopee killers,” not the GIs President Obama has sent to Afghanistan (called peace-keepers). Napolitano is demanding a kinder and gentler FEMA, beginning with the proper verbiage.
<p>
***Until further notice, Congressman Rangel is not only not in prison but is still chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In view of the tax practices (or non-practices) of Treasury Secretary Geithner, the Ethics Committee is viewing Rangel’s mistake of a few hundred thousand dollars (who’s counting these days anyway?) as a mere slip of a pen by his chief clerk, who doesn’t understand Spanish real-estate contracts (or even English ones) and has accepted blame for all non-payments and lies, alleged, of course. Also, no money has been found in Rangel’s deep-freeze among the chicken wings, which proves that he’s far more ethical than former congressman Jefferson, who, at last report, was eating KFC smuggled into the Big House, where he’ll be living for a few more years.
<p>
And so it goes. <br>
Jim Clark
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-13730194612158988712018-02-19T08:27:00.000-08:002018-02-19T08:27:52.364-08:00WORD to the Wise?<i>When considering all the brouhaha these days concerning the (gasp) white-male mistreatment of women, especially in the workplace by saying offensive things (like the women do in their workplaces), one remembers back to February of 2010, Obama's second February of his presidency. Trump can take heart perhaps in this piece written during that time:</i>
<p>
Dear President Obama:
<p>
I’m taking the liberty of contacting you with respect to your recent mispronunciation of the term “corpsman” in your state-of-the-union address, preferring instead to use the perfectly justifiable, phonetic “corpse-man” version, as any well-educated third-grader would also prefer. I’m sure you knew what you were doing and had a purpose for that particular pronunciation (English can be bothersome at times!), but on the very slight chance you simply goofed I’m offering you the services of the <b>Institute for Modifying All Government Entities</b>, known around Washington as simply <b>IMAGE</b>, of which I’m the CEO.
<p>
IMAGE has a record of serving elected officials for many years in many ways, helping them to reconfigure their various personae into ones that are more attractive and, more importantly, more believable. Former president Bush was offered IMAGE’s services when he mispronounced the term “nuclear” on a regular basis, but he declined, simply explaining that he did so on purpose because it made the pundits on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC (collective propaganda arm of the Democrat Party) froth at the mouth on camera when commenting on his speeches, to which they rarely listened, actually. He performed his “Texas swagger” for the same reason, though he regretted that Vladimir Putin threw his hip out of joint trying to imitate it, although to his knowledge neither his speech nor swagger ever made MSNBC’s Chris Matthews’ leg tingle.
<p>
The IMAGE bureau that would help you is named the <b>Conference On Reconfiguring Presidential Semantic Errors</b>, or <b>CORPSE</b>, for short. CORPSE would fashion for you a perfectly valid reason for your phonetic approach to speech, noting the history behind the nation’s halcyon days of top-flight education, when phonetics was important in teaching grade-schoolers how to both read and speak. A product of a later time, you could simply say that you made a sacrifice word-wise so that school pooh-bahs would get the message. Or, you could say that in your grade-school days in Indonesia you were not required to understand navy verbiage, and that in your high school days in Hawaii the term “corpse” was used on signs at beaches to warn surfers about the sharks; consequently, you felt the need to repeat that warning as a public service…maybe even referring to those nasty, insensitive republicans (little joke there).
<p>
Since your use of the term “corpse-man” involved one basic part of speech – the noun – the arm of IMAGE known as the <b>Management of Adjectives and Nouns</b>, obviously known simply as <b>MAN</b>, could help you or perhaps your speech-writers, since you used the noun “corpse” as an adjective to modify another noun, “man.” This is a no-no, as any fourth-grader would tell you. Applying MAN to the overall program would give you the tandem of <b>CORPSE-MAN</b>, in other words a feature to help you reconfigure your use of adjectives and nouns so that those vultures at <I>Fox News</I> would stop lampooning your teleprompters, not to mention most fourth-graders.
<p>
I’m sure you understand that the term “corpse-man” was gender-discriminatory, most likely because the ladies at the National Organization of Women have probably already been on your case. The rumor is that the NOW head honcho actually sent Rahm Emanuel a dead fish, blaming him for your teleprompter’s miscue, though she had to apologize to PETA and SPCA for such an insensitive fish-treatment.
<p>
One of our latest clients is Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, who also called attention to this rather obvious but just as obviously avoidable gaff by Emanuel or whoever handles the teleprompter operation, maybe Robert Gibbs, whom IMAGE has taught the proper use of the term “uh,” which I’m sure you notice he uses often. Ms. Napolitano reminded me that she introduced the term “man-caused disaster” to be used instead of terrorism, thus shifting all blame for mankind’s ills onto men, where it belongs.
<p>
As a result, IMAGE has put into operation a new department known as the <b>Watchdog Overseeing Masculine Authority Nullification</b>, or <b>WOMAN</b>, by its acronym. WOMAN will help you to avoid all references in your speeches that smack of gender-insensitivity or anti-diversity or homophobia or lack of appreciation for multiculturalism and cat-lovers. It would have prevented you last year, for instance, from characterizing Boston policemen as acting stupidly and being forced to bring that white cop down for a beer out in the garden. SCOTUS associate justice Sotomayor tried the same deal as Napolitano when she ruled that black firefighters should be promoted because of who they are, not what they know. That backfired in the SCOTUS, of course, so we have to be careful as to how far we can go with male nullification (little disclaimer there).
<p>
In any case, you can see how IMAGE can help you through the use of both <b>CORPSE-MAN</b> and <b>CORPSE-WOMAN</b>. It will help your teleprompter crew (phonetic pronunciations also available) or even yourself, assuming you may write your own remarks at times, to avoid the pitfalls associated with public comments. I hope to hear from you soon.
<p>
Warmest regards, <br>
I.M. Otherself, CEO <br>
<b>IMAGE</b>
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-43677323342938027592018-01-19T11:45:00.000-08:002018-01-19T11:45:08.589-08:00Prexy PhysicalThe prexy had his physical, <br>
Important, thus an annual,<br>
And so the medic Admiral<br>
Spoke to the press – unusual<br>
At least in one-hour conference<br>
Explaining that the evidence<br>
Showed health intact,<br>
In fact, quite good...collective fact.
<p>
The mainstream media fought back<br>
With questions, comments – full attack<br>
To make the case that prexy lacked<br>
The stamina...and was half-cracked,<br>
Such circumstances ruling out<br>
His tenure, and of that no doubt,<br>
But, truth to tell, they hated him<br>
And meant to make his future dim.
<p>
The admiral had all the facts<br>
And furnished numerous extracts<br>
Like readings per cholesterol –<br>
The L-D-L, H-D-L call,<br>
Blood pressure and things glandular,<br>
A heart quite strong, correct pulsar,<br>
Cognition rated excellent,<br>
Thus causing news-gang resentment.
<p>
The newsies were all primed to claim<br>
The prexy crazy – brain of maim,<br>
Since cognition was never part <br>
Of physicals right from the start,<br>
But prexy was a step ahead,<br>
Requested testing of his head<br>
On which he made a perfect score,<br>
Thus in the press-room moan of roar.
<p>
A network turned over a rock<br>
And found beneath its kind of doc<br>
Who claimed the prexy's heart disease,<br>
Of which was none, but would appease<br>
Network, which likely crossed his palm<br>
With gobs of greenbacks – soothing balm –<br>
In case his conscience rubbed him raw<br>
Or he was charged with breaking law.
<p>
One newsie ranted when apprised<br>
That prexy never exercised<br>
And all displayed aggravation<br>
Since prexy ignored nutrition...<br>
And so it was consensual<br>
That prexy via physical<br>
Was lucky just to be alive,<br>
But doomed right soon his White House jive.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-3594646032040499572017-12-26T07:32:00.000-08:002017-12-26T07:32:21.247-08:00Facing DeathThe current rash of terrorist-killings has upset the world, it seems, especially the U.S. There seems to be in the current generation the feeling that death is so unusual, when death is just the last act/episode of LIFE. This was written here in April 2007:
<p>
<b>The Facing of Death</b>
<p>
One wonders why today’s generation has such a problem with death, especially death of one considered “too young” or “too good” or “too anything.” The recent deaths at Virginia Tech bring the subject front and center again as similar instances of massacres in the past are replayed in the media, with the same exasperation regarding the necessity to bring about “closure,” usually by finding someone or some institution to blame.
<p>
This is not to disparage the grief expressed by a whole nation’s citizens in the VT matter, not to mention those directly affected such as parents and other relatives of the dead, but to remark that the notion that death and unhappiness seem unacceptable to the “now” generation. This is graphically seen every night in the newscasts as the media keeps count of the ones who have fallen in the war on terror and talk-show hosts such as John McLaughlin present a morbid accounting every Friday night, complete with humongous fatality-estimates regarding Iraqi civilians, the intention apparently being to account this nation as one big murderer.
<p>
A young man – probably deranged, though no one will ever know – took the lives of 32 people for no reason, since no reason for what he did is possible. He did it because he decided to do it. That explanation doesn’t bring comfort to parents, just as parents are not comforted when a drunk driver – for no reason – kills their child. Those killed happened to be in a killing field, whether at a university or on a highway, through no fault of their own. Some years ago, a drunk in northern Kentucky driving the wrong way on a four-lane highway slammed head-on into a church bus returning youngsters from a day at an amusement park and managed to kill 27 people and horribly burn others, while he was hardly affected. They happened to be in a killing field that night…no reason to die…but they did.
<p>
In 1982, there were 26,173 people killed in traffic deaths caused by drunk-drivers. That was 72 per day or well over twice the number killed at VT. In 2005, the traffic-deaths caused by drunks totaled 16,885, or 46 per day. Strangely, there was no outpouring of grief over drunks-induced traffic deaths on any day, and John McLaughlin did not bother to keep score, though they were caused by insensitive people with absolutely no reason to kill, the same as the circumstance at VT. Yet, there is an ongoing reaction in Blacksburg, Virginia, that will go on for weeks and then be revisited for years, just as the Columbine killings a few years ago.
<p>
The religious fundamentalist will say that death occurs just the way and at just the time God decided before he created the world, yet cautions people against doing bad things that could lead to their deaths. That’s his way of not taking any responsibility for anything that happens, without understanding the obvious contradiction. The atheist says, “no God, no reason, no reality, no nothing,” but rails against Christians for believing something, as if that should make a difference to them since it changes nothing. Others, whether religious or not, state the obvious, namely, that mankind has free will and has a lot to say about death, taxes, and everything else. These people mourn with a reason, but realize that answers will not be found to the killing fields anywhere this side of death itself, assuming another opportunity on the other side to discover the answers.
<p>
None of this is to say that there shouldn’t be grief when a loved one dies, or that there will ever be “closure” in the sense of understanding the mystical, the unknowable. During the1,642 actual days of combat in World Wars I and II (4.5 years), an average of 320 Americans died every day…10 times the number at VT on just one day out of decades in Blacksburg. Back home, people understood as well as they could. The deaths resulted from actions taken by German leaders who were unbelievably wicked or crazy or both…no reason for the killing fields, just as at Blacksburg, assuming the young killer was mad, seemingly the case as proven posthumously by his own account, or just plain evil.
<p>
During the Korean Conflict in 1950-53, an average of 35 Americans died every day for 1,095 days. In the long nightmare of Vietnam (7.5 years), 21 GIs died every day…2,737 days. Think of the Civil War – 340 dead per day for 1,460 days. The deaths happened to people from all over the country and were the results of madness and evil, but there was no racking, continuing vigil or ceremony in the capital, Washington, D.C., on those days…just the facing of the fact.
<p>
The counselors descended on VT in Blacksburg, as they do in any town at a high school when a student has been killed in a car wreck, an accident. This didn’t used to happen. The notion seems operative that young people or all people just have to have help in “getting through it,” as if death isn’t as much a part of life as life itself – an absolute even more certain than life. Surely this generation is not so fragile that its members cannot accept death – no matter the horrific circumstances and lack of reason – as a matter of course and, without a lot of folks weeping, hugging, and encouraging them to be upset, just dry their tears, attend or tend to the rites, and get on with their lives.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim Clark
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-60672717110612237042017-10-12T08:44:00.000-07:002017-10-12T08:44:21.712-07:00October 2009It's interesting occasionally to look back at what was happening in the previous administration at about the same time as that of the present one. With the ladies taking over the court system these days, problems with appropriate bathroom-use, girls joining the Boy Scouts (along with homosexuals and transgenders [whatever they actually are]) and the no-surprise perfidies of Hollywood, a look at the below, offered in October 2009, might provoke thought.
<p>
<b>Obama & Rampant Sexism!</b>
<p>
In the midst of all the current turmoil regarding the recession, Afghanistan, Iraq, nukes in Iran and North Korea, health-care, unemployment, cap-and-trade, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and whether or not the president smokes or the vice president knows the current meaning of “fluffernutter,” an even greater issue has reared its ugly head, namely, the insensitivity of the president with regard to the blatant discrimination/sexism exhibited in his all-male White House basketball games.
<p>
The dear leader made matters even worse in an interview with a lady reporter by labeling the resulting and entirely predictable outcry from the women’s groups as <b>BUNK</b>. Oh, dear Gertrude! That sexist remark was the straw that absolutely broke the camel’s back, an actual metaphorical camel, not the cigarette variety, and, of course, a metaphorical MALE camel.
<p>
One wonders if the nation can trust a president who is so shallow and gender-indifferent that he doesn’t recognize that no basketball game can be considered politically correct with regard to DIVERSITY without women participants. And to think...it was largely the women’s vote that put the rascal in the catbird’s seat, in the first place! The ingrate! The majority of men went for septuagenarian McCain (admittedly not a hunk, like the Big O), who, in referencing Lady Hillary’s million-dollar earmark for a “Woodstock Museum,” reckoned that he was otherwise occupied in 1969. It’s a sure bet that there were no women in the Hanoi Hilton.
<p>
So...what was a president on the run from the lady voters to do about this matter, earth-shaking in its political – yea, even its governmental – implications? He responded immediately (the very next day?) by doing a round of golf with a female employed in his administration...yeah, a dame...er...lady. One can only wonder at the thrill of it all, although making golf-course whoopee (defined as any hole played in less than five over par) might not look too good...that family thing, doncha know? But Ms. Obama will just have to understand.
<p>
The president erred, of course, by not inviting the lady to a basketball game. That would have been the only way to actually set matters right. The ladies didn’t complain because of a golf goof...they were <b>“mad as hell and we won’t take it anymore”</b> over a <i>basketball</i> game. After all, that’s “where the boys are,” not a mere twosome or foursome, as in golf. The gals have made it plain, especially since the game was between a gaggle of congressmen and the president’s men, that sexist shady deals were the real reason for the supposed sport, not just one-on-one grandstanding, like in the NBA.
<p>
One wonders what the outcry would have led to if the boys of October had decided on football instead of basketball and actually invited the ladies to an event in which Rahm Emanuel, known for his bloodthirsty spirit, might have bitten off a lady-finger. Or...what would the ladies have complained about if the guys had decided on a wrestling match? Hey...that would have been a show, better than the one put on by Senator Harry Reid the other day during a press conference, when he put his arm around Speaker Pelosi. Whew...just thinking about it!!!!
<p>
One thinks back to 2002, when the ladies rose up in arms because the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia – known internationally for the premier <b>Masters Golf Tournament</b> – didn’t have any female members and, what’s more, didn’t intend to have any and still doesn’t have any. The gals screamed bloody murder (and sexism, of course) and contrived to drive Augusta out of the international circuit. Indeed, the tournaments of 2003 and 2004 had no TV sponsors, but the Augusta guys thumbed their collective noses and bankrolled the thing anyway. The golfers (even those with wives, daughters and sisters) paid the whole thing no mind. Nobody who was eligible was about to miss the most honored golf event in this country.
<p>
If the president had a clue, he would have paid this thing no mind, just as he would pay no mind to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, instead of singling them out for his disdain. He should have taken a page from Augusta, where wimps need not apply. Okay, so Augusta is private while the White House is public. Not necessarily! When the president uses it as his residence for a basketball game, for example, it is not public, but private, notwithstanding the venue for “shady deals.” If that were not the case, all the White House bathrooms would be open to the public.
<p>
Tempest in a teapot? Well, of course! The president trivialized his office by paying attention to something belonging only to those who scream “sexism” about nearly everything. There are nearly 100 women in the Congress. They can have a basketball game any old day in the congressional gymnasium and it’s a lead-pipe cinch that neither the prez nor any of the legislators would be caught dead near it, that is, with their bodies joining their brains these days.
<p>
And so it goes. <br>
Jim Clark
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-39352623435344558342017-08-22T07:40:00.000-07:002017-08-22T07:44:49.505-07:00PROTESTERHis line of work is protesting <br>
No matter what the cause may be,<br>
He has the tools for anything<br>
Protester-boss happens to see<br>
As slowing down the protest-plan<br>
Like mean policeman with his tase<br>
Who quickly springs it rather than<br>
Just dodge warm spit—protester-craze!
<p>
To qualify for protest-job<br>
One has to have morality<br>
With relativity its throb<br>
So even a fatality<br>
Is, ipso facto, right or wrong<br>
Depending upon who is dead<br>
Or who is weak and who is strong –<br>
Demands a conscience also dead.
<p>
Protesting-training is a must –<br>
Just how to march, carry a sign<br>
Or learn how someone's head to bust<br>
Then run and find the retreat line,<br>
Thus then return with street-smart hires,<br>
Disrupting meeting in process<br>
By vandalizing stores, set fires<br>
And make of cops a bloody mess.
<p>
The college students are the best<br>
At protesting than all the rest,<br>
Indoctrinated in protest <br>
At professorial behest,<br>
Reflecting academia<br>
Now governed by the hippie-creed...<br>
Just bash and smash...brains gone to seed.
<p>
Protesting-wage is not that bad,<br>
Cool billionaire's cough up the cash,<br>
No longer is protest a fad,<br>
A good protester builds a stash;<br>
Protesters travel everywhere<br>
But rarely for republicans,<br>
The democrats no cost will spare<br>
To have them hound republicans.
<p>
Simplistic is protest-credo –<br>
Disrupt no matter how contrived –<br>
Yelling, screaming, body-blows,<br>
Gassing, burning, all connived<br>
To break up peaceful, legal crowd,<br>
Belabor cops and burn their cars,<br>
No limit to what is allowed...<br>
Stop speech-freedom and leave some scars.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim Clark
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-21326366471706011092017-07-27T07:10:00.000-07:002017-07-27T07:10:00.805-07:00Transgender GIThe liberal nose is out of joint now because Trump reckons that the military would profit by not getting stuck with sex-changes for its members, who in process might have hormonal relapses or gone-wrong surgeries (maybe infections installing vaginas in men who would rather be women) requiring their absence from the wars here and there. Recruiting nightmare...folks joining up for free sex-changes. Egad!
<p>
<b>Transgender GI</b>
<p>
The prexy ruled transgenders be <br>
Recruited militarily<br>
Because correct diversity<br>
Means even monkeys must be free<br>
From stigma whether he or she<br>
As per one's sex-reality<br>
And not to what apparently<br>
Was Nature's way...mistakenly?
<p>
And so a he who is a she<br>
Reports to boot-camp grudgingly<br>
And finds her clothes are dungaree<br>
As if she is another he;<br>
She gives her name as Mary Lee<br>
And finds her skivvies not panty<br>
But boxer-shorts unwittingly<br>
Thrown in her arms in great, good glee.
<p>
Then off to barracks—hup-two-three—<br>
And to the restroom speedily<br>
Only to find disgustingly<br>
Those urinals...oh my, oh me,<br>
And grown men standing easily<br>
Before them, maybe two or three,<br>
Exposed...oh yes...genitally...<br>
Oh dear! Such trauma to a she.
<p>
The drill sergeant, no wit had he,<br>
Had not seen femininity<br>
And had not seen her purse to be<br>
A sign that she was not a he;<br>
Thus later off to Barracks B,<br>
Where female GIs all would be<br>
Exposed to her, a fellow she,<br>
And giggle...yeah...in great, good glee.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-31830797334790906132017-07-01T14:26:00.001-07:002017-07-01T14:26:45.301-07:00DNC Memorandum #3<u><b>From the office of the chairMAN</b></u> 30 June 2017
<p>
***Please note the emphasis on the above, made to comport with the style of my predecessor, therefore equalizing the genders while I am chair, which, by definition, she had tilted the level playing field, something the former Great Leader mandated must never happen. Even though she and now I have made the male/female distinction equal, remember that the chair can be transgender or even no gender (maybe a Q—little joke there) or bisexual. This will assure the LGBTQ community that the Democrat Party is politically correct and that, unlike the uncivilized republicans, they are not only welcome in the big tent but may aspire to leadership. <b>DO NOT MENTION</b>, however, that the head honchos in the Army, Navy and Air Force are against recruitment of transgenders and have asked that none be recruited. The reason(s) is obvious.
<p>
***Motion Picture Mogul Michael Moore, a new DNC consultant, is planning a new movie based on how the Trump people colluded with the Russians to fix the last election in Trump's favor with a sub-plot concerning an affair of two Green Party staffers, unhappily-married man/man-marriage adulterers suffering the disastrous effects of PTESD (Post-Traumatic-Election-Stress-Disorder) that eventuated in a death-suicide attempt (gun unloaded, however), but I will not give away the surprise ending here. Please do NOT be offended by the directive on the cork-board now located by the <u>condom- & salt-sugar-lactose-peanut-caffeine-chocolate-free</u> candy/drink-machine that all weeping in this building still precipitated by the election-disaster is to stop. It's time to move on and face this hard life, especially after slithering merrily along during the previous administration. WE WON is now in the other column.
<p>
***Everyone should be encouraged by the hassles/hearings concerning the FBI, CIA, NSA, congressional committees, special counsel, and by Senator McCain (sometimes by Senator Graham, too). All are aimed squarely at bringing down the president, thus sparing the nation of what could be a bloody COUP attempt, especially since Majority Leader Schumer as the natural coup-commander has had no military experience (little joke there in case a staffer thinks I'm serious). The recent repub-wins in Georgia and South Carolina House districts must be played down as actual losses when compared to Trump's numbers in those districts last year. Don't ever mention that the winning Georgia-repub is a woman, but if asked, just explain that Trump would not have supported her if he'd known.
<p>
***The fight among the republicans over the healthcare issue furnishes a perfect tool for explaining the meanness of the GOP toward everyone not in the wealthy class. <b>NOTE</b>: Do not mention that 20 million citizens still have no healthcare under the ACA (Obamacare, for recent Harvard grads on staff), just hammer on the fact that 28 million will enjoy that circumstance some years down the road. Also, interview Senator Collins at every opportunity – if you have plenty of time – to get the “meanness” issue into the proper focus since she is death and destruction on preexisting conditions, including but not limited to the common hangnail.
<p>
***<b>NEVER MENTION FAKE NEWS OR CNN</b>! The reasons are obvious. Also, never mention MSNBC since the consensus is that mostly wing-nuts operate there. Example: Rachel Maddow. Never mention her orchestrated performance concerning her “scoop” on Trump's 2005 tax returns, and especially don't mention that they showed he coughed up $28 million in taxes. By the way, the wag who wondered aloud at the water fountain as to whether Chris Matthews' leg still vibrates when he hears Obama speak will soon be assigned to the Durbin Rehabilitation facility to receive sensitivity-training. Durbin himself will give a seminar on How American GIs in Iraq replicated Stalin's Gulag, Pol Pot's killing fields, and Mao's great leap forward butchery, as well as Hitler's concentration/death/camp massacres.
<p>
***This is <u><b>not</b></u> TONGUE-IN-CHEEK! The DNC has an official APB out regarding Barack Obama, latest civilized president, but who cannot be found, not even on golf courses lately. He's the leader of the party but may not know it so he must be found and encouraged to play his new role—leading in front. Likely places are Hollywood and Wall Street or anywhere else, especially resorts like Trump's golf courses, where people with money can be found and just mildly encouraged to book him for speeches to various groups but at no less than $300,000 a pop, though teleprompters and transportation must be provided at client's expense. The first staffer to contribute news of his whereabouts will be given a day off but without pay. The DNC is not a welfare agency.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-82298216452537496552017-06-06T07:30:00.000-07:002017-06-06T07:30:43.084-07:00NFL's Latest Obscenity<center><b>“Twerking” Now Acceptable</b></center>
<p>
Football will soon take over the sports-scene. Assuming that the NFL hierarchy actually does endorse more celebrating after the end of nearly every down played and enhanced exponentially after a score, as currently reported on the NFL web-site, one concludes that desperation has set-in vis-à-vis getting the fans’ minds off the constantly increasing carnage connected to the game, magnified in especially recent years with the intensive reporting concerning brain concussions as well as other injuries.
<p>
This is in addition to the testimonies of players, current as well as former, who have described in print and on TV the effects and recovery-durations of these injuries, especially the concussions, which are indisputably connected by the medical community to such things as behavior and ailments such as Alzheimers. Concussions are okay for prizefighters since the objective of the actually-non-sport boxer is to kill the other guy by bashing out his brains, notwithstanding the high-flown rhetoric otherwise. If this were not the case, boxers would wear headgear, not that such would be of significant help.
<p>
The latest celebration craze is something called “twerking,” described in the Urban Dictionary as “the rhythmic gyrating of the lower fleshy extremities in a lascivious manner with the intent to elicit sexual arousal or laughter in one's intended audience.” The first time I noticed it being performed was courtesy of Carolina quarterback Cam Newton after he had scored a touchdown. He just leaned back, spread his knees, and rotated his crotch to everyone next to the end-zone and, more importantly, watching via TV. In man-circles (like the military), twerking is exhibited by simulating masturbation.
<p>
Twerking has different levels, “three-pump-twerking” (use your imagination) being a no-no but fewer “pumps” seem okay. The NBA features celebrations, also, a practice introduced by black players as they have taken over much of the sports-world, though I haven't noticed twerking in basketball, but then I don't watch the NBA—terribly boring. In the NFL, celebrations happen after nearly every play, especially if a player is knocked into the middle of next week and struggles to arise if at all. After making a tackle, the perpetrator is likely to do a “crotch-hop” (use your imagination) or run ten yards toward the opposite goal so everyone won't mistake his act of heroism.
<p>
Taunting the opponent is also big, especially if he has been reasonably discombobulated from reality or, better, has to be carried off the field on a stretcher, conscious or not. Taunting is more noticeable in basketball since it can be heard by the spectators, much nearer the action, which now is characterized mainly by physical assault on the “enemy,” a good elbow-to-the-nose shot, for instance, in a game with no protective gear and supposed to exhibit skill and finesse but now is more like kick-and-box. Players, many if not most of whom can reach the rim have only 24 seconds to get off a shot so the fans will not get bored actually watching some finesse rather than knock-down-drag-out and slam-dunk.
<p>
NFL Head Honcho Goodell explained that the players wanted to have more fun after a big play, as if having a big play was not satisfying enough to millionaire players, who if they manage their wages after a normal tenure in the game should not have to work again. Baloney! It was just his way of affirming that football is no longer a sport primarily but a rather sanguinary form of entertainment. Remember the “bounty-hunter-affair” of a few seasons ago when New Orleans players were paid bonuses to inflict appropriate injuries upon opponents, especially quarterbacks, in the interest of removing them from the Sunday afternoon carnage.
<p>
But the white folks love the entertainment, too, just as multitudes of youngsters have adopted sleazy-lyrics “rap” as the music of the day, some guy mouthing obscenities to the accompaniment of African bongos or other pulsating gadgets. For comparison, check out baseball, where celebrations (fun stuff) are done in the out-of-sight dugout and consist mostly of high-fives. The crowd might as well be in Lower Slobbovia. Latinos are slowly taking over the game and make the “sign of the cross” after just hitting a single, much less a home run, which NFL-wise would be at least a hernia-risking two-pump-twerk at home-plate.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-58599513883814628962017-05-26T11:56:00.000-07:002017-05-26T11:56:11.670-07:00DNC Memorandum #2<u>From the office of the chairperson</u>, 26 May 2017
<p
***<b>IMPORTANT NOTICE</b>: Senator Durbin has been cadging TV-time in the capitol again (almost as much as republican charlatan Senators McCain and Graham), thus suggesting attention to his effort, with the collusion of former POTUS Obama and Senator Reid (perhaps suffering mid-life crises—little joke there), to lock Senator Burris, appointed to Obama's vacated Senate seat in 2009, out of his office (some claim even the restroom, too) and out of the Senate Chamber. Though well-documented, all three have denied this and said they would never do anything like that again. <b>DO NOT</b>—repeat...<u>DO NOT</u> mention these three names in any red/yellow/black/white-papers prepared for any senate staffer or lobbyist, no matter his/her degree of ignorance, account bad PR for the party. Also, feel free to trip any of them if you see them chasing TV-newsies and camera-people or photographers to stage free interviews. The DNC will cover any injuries to them but not you, so be careful. <br>
***While campaigning with Senator Sanders recently somewhere in California (Governor Moonbeam's state—little joke there), I was informed by a DNC whistle-blower (name not given for obvious reasons) that there has been grumbling around the <b>Bush Dart-Board</b>, now located by the <u>condom- & salt-sugar-lactose-peanut-caffeine-chocolate-free</u> candy/drink-machine, that my effort with Bernie is heretical if not sinful since he admits to being a socialist, not a democrat. Regardless of Hillary's similar status, this is not true and a staffer will be handsomely rewarded for writing a red/yellow/black/white-paper proving why it isn't. For suggestions, contact Donna Brazile or Congressperson Wasserman-Schultz, recognized for their mental acuity, notwithstanding the events connected to the 2016 convention/CNN-debate.<br>
***Be careful not to make too much of General Flynn possibly taking the Fifth since Hillary's computer partners-in-crime did the same, not to mention the IRS lady. <u>Remember</u>: POTUS is not Obama and Lynch is not AG so the fix is not in for heavy criticism. Also, use no pictures in visuals showing Trump shaking hands with the Saudi gang recently instead of bowing before them like POTUS Obama did in 2009. This is not even to mention the possibility of both Lynch and Hillary being forced to do the same (the Fifth cop-out) when the big hearings start and the rubber hits the road. Attorney General Sessions might have stupidly (as it turns out) recused himself from the Russian Roulette circus but that does not deter any action concerning Hillary, whom former FBI Director Comey declared under oath to have committed perjury, obviously premeditatively lying under oath.<br>
***It’s okay to slam Trump for his meeting with the Pope since the two can’t stand each other over things like walls against immigrants, which the Pope said are un-Christian making Trump a hypocrite, and climate change, although be careful not to indicate that the Pope, being infallible and keeper of the truth, nevertheless does not actually claim that he can change the weather, much less the climate. Also, don’t mention the priesthood over which the Pope rules since pedophilia is a no-no in most civilized societies, as well as homosexuality, which the Pope seems about to embrace as normal. Remember that the Romans have the largest denomination in the U.S. and it’s largely made up of democrats. Never mention transgenders and it’s not okay to inveigh against abortion since maybe the majority of Catholic women, like most women, stand for the woman’s right to protect her body, code for ridding it of an inconvenient adjunct like a bad appendix or tonsil or fetus.<br>
***Be careful about mentioning the collusion between the Trump-gang and the Russians to get Trump elected, at least for now since all election officials have insisted ad nauseam that the balloting in November was simon-pure and not affected by any outside influences. A raise will be awarded to anyone submitting a red/white/black/yellow-paper explaining how the Russians managed to hack into the voting machines/booths/ballot-boxes to defeat Hillary; however, do not mention that Putin was actually trying to get Hillary elected as payback for her well-publicized interference in his presidential election a while back and was even considering a tarmac tete-a-tete between Medvedev and U.S. AG Lynch, with Bubba thrown in for good measure, somewhere in the Crimea.<br>
***In light of the Manchester-suicide-bombing, do not mention immigration in any town-hall meeting even though the bomber was home-grown, not some émigré from the Libyan al Qaeda. POTUS Trump has been right on this subject but try to call that tragedy a man-caused disaster, not terrorism (especially NOT Islamic terrorism), with a view toward enticing Obama, who made that important distinction, into the organizing trenches he knows so well. It’s already late to start the 2018 campaigns in the hope of turning the House so Trump can be impeached. Also, any sighting of Obama will be appreciated.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-77423426849948788492017-05-22T08:00:00.002-07:002017-05-22T08:00:31.575-07:00Tenuous TenureAfter taking office, Trump should have settled down to governing though a certain number of executive orders were necessary but without the accompanying fanfare. Instead, the president has turned his tenure thus far into a circus; consequently, respected members of even his own party are justifiably disgusted even though the antics of some have matched Trump’s for inanity and political harm.
<p>Trump’s Campaign tweeting was necessary for getting out his message and combating a mostly hostile media, print and electronic. Now, it’s reprehensible and childish, indicative of a playground mentality and obvious waste of time. Matching tweet for tweet is like answering stupidity with stupidity.
<p>An effective bombast mattered in the campaign, especially since Clinton’s success had been consensually accepted and needed to be neutralized by sheer numbers. Clinton was mean-spirited to trot out the “gold-star-father,” actually a lawyer with connections to the Clintons, to berate Trump for a war she, not Trump, supported while in the Senate, thus trying to con the average citizens by insulting their intelligence. Her mention of the basketful of deplorables (Trump supporters) was sickening, thus she was successfully ridiculed in the massive Trump rallies as insensative and out-of-touch.
<p>Bombast-time is past and hopefully there will be no more rallies. Trump’s braggadocio might have been marginally effective in campaigning. Now, it’s boorish and often demeaning to both him and others. Big crowds create neither jobs nor reasonable presidential decisions. Using costly Air Force One for publicity stunts wore out its welcome with Obama.
<p>There’s a fine line between an inferiority- and superiority-complex. Each can drive a sufferer into paroxysms of attention-demanding behavior. Trump seems afflicted with at least the latter and hasn’t learned that others have far more knowledge and experience than he. He made good choices for his cabinet (surprisingly) but needs to let the secretaries function without carping criticism.
<p>His choices of a billionaire CEO for State and military generals for Homeland Security, Defense and the NSC were good in that these people are disciplined and have been inordinately successful; however, they’re as strong-willed as he—and as smart or smarter—so he should not bicker with or about them. They, like Trump, are accustomed to making decisions and giving orders and should not be expected to change. Dragging his family into places of prominence was a tragic mistake. Nepotism is okay in private enterprise but ugly in government.
<p>In short, if Trump had done a 180 from campaign methods to governing, he would be sailing now. Instead, he, like Obama before him, is still in campaign mode. The most effective tool would have been shutting his mouth almost completely and growing another layer of skin. He’s done neither.
<p>Other prominent republicans have helped Trump to suffer. For instance, high-profile Senators McCain, Rubio and Graham seem to have staffers searching congressional halls for the nearest TV “reporter/commentator/network-apparatchik” in order to appear nationwide throughout both day and night.
<p>Each tries to conduct foreign policy, with McCain and Graham having insisted that Obama invade Libya and Syria, efforts both wrong-headed, foolish. McCain even had photo-ops with his choice of insurrectionists in both places (though Syria was doubtful, probably Lebanon) as recipients of U.S. weapons. All three waged unsuccessful presidential or veep campaigns, thus might suffer bouts of jealousy.
<p>Other republican leaders have joined virtually the entire democrat contingent in Congress in going after Trump for the “Flynn affair,” Russian collusion (already investigated to exhaustion with no charges), the Comey-firing and anything else that might elicit simply being fed-up with Trump’s buffoonery but matching it themselves. Vengeance is a politician’s stock-in-trade, and party/individual-loyalty is often not observed when elections are more important than legislating.
<p>Like Obama before him, Trump’s main problems have been self-inflicted, the result of a super-inflated ego with tongue in gear before brain engaged. The one redeeming feature: Hillary Clinton is not president, and the Russians had nothing to do with that.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-30441360362093730142017-05-16T13:41:00.000-07:002017-05-16T13:41:09.991-07:00DNC Memorandum #1<u>From the office of the chairperson</u>, 15 May 2017
<p>
***Listen up! There are no apologies offered for the absence of memos since my taking over the DNC, which I consider a great honor and applaud the efforts of former chair<b>WOMAN</b> Wasserman-Schultz. This has been a terribly busy time for the chairperson account having to further deal with the IRS scandals when I was an assistant attorney general, the Benghazi slaughter, Fast-and-Furious, Syria, ISIS, Ferguson, torture, Gruber, open borders, executive orders revising Obamacare/Immigration laws and the election in November, which at best was a Pyrrhic Victory for the republicans since they now have to fix the mess caused mostly by Pelosi and Reid (little joke[rs] there). Pursuant to the “Gruber Hearing” of the tenth, a new DNC agency labeled the Section for Consulting Healthcare Underwriters Managing Erratic Results (or <b>SCHUMER</b> for short) is being organized and its mission/contents pinned soon to the <b>Bush Dart-Board</b>, now located by <u>the condom- & salt-sugar-lactose-peanut-caffeine-chocolate-free</u> candy-machine, speaking of which everyone is urged to try the new yogurt-spinach-bar that features ingestion, injection or snorting, with a mortar and pestle and/or saline solution provided for the latter two. BTW, the rumor that Wasserman-Schultz, Brazile and Clinton fixed that CNN debate is untrue and all three have promised never to do that again, presumably in 2020, 2024 and 2028 if Hillary says so.
<p>
***Staffers are directed to NOT—repeat—<b>NOT</b> mention the former State Secretary unless it is unavoidable such as in the currently hostile press conferences. If the subject arises, the official line is that Kerry is suffering from <b>PTSDDD</b> (post traumatic stress defense department disorder, for recent Yale graduates on staff). Also, no interviews are to be scheduled with anyone connected to FOX News regarding any subject, especially with the lady-anchors, whose bare shoulders and thighs and outrageous cleavage-displays are designed for the huge republican-voting men's audience, which has the same degree of reverse hostility toward Obama as the New Black Panthers have for Georgia-crackers and Obama/Holder have for policemen.
<p>
***The Gruber brouhaha has attracted unattractive worldwide attention (called <i>L'Affaire Gruber-Mal</i> in France, for instance). MIT prof Gruber appeared recently before a congressional committee attempting to explain why he earned $400,000 writing Obamacare so nobody could understand it. This has made it necessary to properly vet all individuals who are in any way connected to government or the DNC. The former president, as well as Al Sharpton, his then and maybe current aide-de-camp, did not trust the FBI, CIA, DEA, EPA, FEMA, the DCI or even OSHA to do the job so another DNC executive order is being structured currently for requiring that every operative submit to the Mandatory Intelligence Testing agency (<b>MIT</b>, for short) before taking a job, with the exception of anyone responsible for the former president's teleprompters for obvious reasons. In this regard, the wag who clandestinely left in the lounge that poster of the former president saying that <i>POLICE ACT STUPIDLY</i> will be sent to the <b>Durbin Re-indoctrination Center & Gulag</b> when apprehended, regarding which Durbin will offer an end-of-spring seminar on the similarity of American GIs to keepers of Stalin's gulags, Pol Pot's killing fields, and Hitler's Storm Troopers, a reprise of his statements during the Iraq War, which he visited occasionally or at least stopped by at the safest airport and once, with 10 body-guards and a wine-taster, even stepped from the plane for a minute.
<p>
***The recently-retired chair<b>WOMAN</b> has been rumored to have said in a speech to the Girl Scouts of Florida that women are justifiably and gradually taking over the government. This rumor is unfounded and the former chairWOMAN has promised not to say that again. However, she still resents the complaints accruing to the Helen Reddy version of <i>I Am Woman</i> not being played over the sound-system throughout the building on the hour. Women are now acting as observers of SEAL-training in preparation for their joining the SEALS in the near future. The president requested a year ago a DNC red/yellow/black/white paper to explain why this is both necessary and useful. Only one paper has been submitted and this is unacceptable, so be forewarned...heads will roll if someone doesn't think of at least one valid reason other than “looks cute in uniform.”
<p>
***The evil Fox News perpetrators of perverse propaganda cited the former president's 20-minute speech on the night of the Ferguson Grand Jury decision as a declaration of war against the police and his next-day travel to Chicago (aka the Illinois killing-fields) as his first campaign stop at the time to promote it (the war), especially as an answer to white racism in general and police racism in particular. The DNC was tasked to spin this Fox egregiousness into the former POTUS's love for the uniforms, but not to mention—<b>NOT MENTION</b>—his race in connection to the last two presidential elections. This is called “grubering,” perfectly acceptable in civil discourse since everyone knows the voters, or at least republican voters, are stupid and haven't noticed. As far as Hillary is concerned, say nothing lest AG Sessions consider a Grand Jury for her.
<p>
***As mentioned earlier, the DNC is still considering instituting a Department of Gender and has requested another yellow/black/white/red paper on how to do this while still awaiting word from the LBGTQ group as to how many genders there are. National Geographic recently suggested 14, give or take a couple too puzzling to figure. This hasn’t been settled yet mainly because the American Conference of Transitioning and Ultimate Personhood (known for short as <b>ACT-UP</b>) still threatens to sue something or somebody if not included in the gender-count, but certainly not in the Q group. Also, a complaint from something called the Platonic Education Department Of Pleasing Habituations in Loving Eroticism (<b>PEDOPHILE</b>, for short) has been lodged with AG Sessions, claiming gender-status discrimination and threatening action from some Catholic priests account violation of First Amendment rights/nights. The DNC is preparing a summary of Plato's <i>Symposium</i> for all staffers in readiness for any sign that the former POTUS and now head of the party has evolved on this matter as he did regarding same-sex marriage. BTW, anyone sighting the former POTUS is to inform the chairman of his whereabouts. Congress<b>WOMAN</b> Pelosi is threatening to become party-spokesperson if assured her face won't break.
<p>
***Be thinking seriously about 2018. Hillary at last report is receiving treatment for CLD (Compulsive Lying Disorder) and should be campaign-tuned for next year's early start. Elizabeth Warren's half-breed (with a little pilgrim thrown in) image is a great crowd-pleaser and she has promised to know the state capitals by April. The thought that another male of any color might be elected is simply too much.
<p>
***Have a great summer but remember that any mention of July 4—if found out—means a pink slip. The current administration’s emphasis on patriotism is discriminatory, racist, gender-insulting and offends Bernie Sanders, with whom the chairperson is now campaigning in the interest of inclusiveness. The chairperson will also travel with a democrat if one is willing to run.
<p>
And so it goes. <br>
Jim MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-17430993879073766372017-04-22T10:52:00.001-07:002017-04-22T10:52:19.180-07:00O'Reilly the LoserThe big news Internet-wise is the canning of Bill O’Reilly by Fox News, the most watched cable-network, with O’Reilly’s “show” by far the most watched and profitable. The cancellation by scores of advertisers that made his “show” the most watched, most profitable enterprise forced this action. News/commentary is not the primary interest in the Fox-owned empire of Rupert Murdoch but profits are. <p>
Accompanying this surprising affair is a tumultuous shakeup in the Fox News prime-time schedule, with long-time commentators doing the musical changing-chairs game, obviously an effort to maintain the audience by keeping the familiar faces in view, though it’s doubtful that any new/old face (in this case, Tucker Carlson for O’Reilly) will have the “O’Reilly impact,” often rude but informative as well. <p>
I have not been an O’Reilly fan except for catching the first few minutes of his “show,” the monologue about world/domestic subjects, always biting but always fair and square. O’Reilly was not a good interviewer because he inevitably wound up arguing with his guests, often simply talking over their remarks, sometimes obviously losing his temper, especially if his opposition-presenter was highly intelligent and articulate, someone like Charles Krauthammer or Karl Rove. He seemed disposed toward competing rather than discussing and when “out-talked” was not a graceful loser. <p>
O’Reilly sort of followed in the footsteps of former Fox News head honcho Roger Ailes, who was canned last year account allegations of sexual harassment made by several women in the Fox lineup, who, whether ordered to or not, showed as much of their natural assets as possible for the cameras—much cleavage, thigh, and upper body—bare shoulders, etc., sort of “ladies of the night” style. <p>
This obvious cheesecake feature diminished the seriousness of anything they had to say. The men, contrarily, dress to the nines, Adams-apple to the feet. I will be accused of some kind of bigotry or gender-hate for saying this but it’s true and applies to other networks as well. <p>
Fox had paid out enough in dollars and reputation for the alleged improprieties of Ailes and O’Reilly but seems to have a dress-code that invites the leer and the gawking. I refer to these talking-head programs as “shows” rather than information-centers because of this approach, actually demeaning to women since it indicates that wit is less important than sexy attention-getters. By far the best of the “shows” in this venue is CNN’s Smerconish, who never overbooks and lets people actually talk. <p>
Regarding politics, Fox is the lone TV-outfit making the case for the conservatives (republicans), though it’s fair to say it lives up to its claim of being fair and balanced. The other biggies—MSNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS—are unabashedly “progressive” (used to be “liberal”) and were/are virtual PR outlets for the democrats, demonstrated most recently in the handling of the presidential campaigns. CNN even furnished Clinton a list of the questions she would be asked in its “debate” fiasco, becoming an object of ridicule in the process. <p>
The CNN apparatchik in this affair was Donna Brazile, who surprisingly but unavoidably was fired and immediately installed—unsurprisingly—by the DNC as its chairperson, which office she doesn’t now hold. The talking-head “shows” on all the networks are entirely predictable, a couple or three interviews conducted by some overpaid anchor with a government official, followed by panels of the self-appointed experts to explain what was said and why. <p>
Both Ailes and O’Reilly (golden parachutes of $40,000 and $25,000, respectively) deserved to be canned if they were actually guilty of harassment. Showmen/newsmen in the public eye have a responsibility to invoke trust due to decency, a vital attribute to being credible in any other way. <p>
And so it goes. <br>
Jim Clark
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-22824737393684863902017-01-25T07:18:00.001-08:002017-01-25T07:18:20.876-08:00March to Nowhere<center><b>Ladies' Day Out, Bigtime</b></center>
<p>
The big news of the weekend, besides the inauguration, was the women’s march on Washington on Saturday, the 21st. There were similar marches throughout the country and reportedly throughout the world, according to media, although that’s a bit of a stretch. The U.S. march was led by some foul-mouthed female entertainers, who have been anything but oppressed as they’ve basked in their millions, some mostly just by being naughty and nude. Actress Ashley Judd performed hysterically.
<p>
I surfed to it for maybe a total of ten minutes or less and caught Gloria Steinmen, the arch-feminist, do her screech. Some ladies of the Congress participated, no doubt to show how they’ve been mistreated by the voters by landing them in Congress, where, despite their participation in this silly “girls day out,” will still be treated as serious.
<p>
I suspect the verbiage was all about equal pay, equal rights…the usual stuff about the glass ceiling, but the only issue that mattered had to do with abortion. The girls are desperately afraid that the right of abortion-on-demand will slip away somehow even though it’s that proverbial “settled law.” The irony is sorta cruel, protesting to save the “right” that allows for the murder of vulnerable infants before they’re born.
<p>
In some nations women have a legitimate reason for protesting (any Muslim country, for instance), but not in the U.S., where there are 27 female CEOs listed in the S&P 500 companies. That's only 5.4% of the total but it represents the fact that women can compete successfully with the evil men, who besides not denying women the opportunity simply are more successful at working all the angles for the big-money jobs.
<p>
The CEO of General Motors is a woman, Mary Barra. Unsuccessful presidential candidate Carly Fiorina was CEO of massive Hewlett-Packard and even joined male CEOs in being fired, with a great golden parachute ($40 million), but the protesting gals' goals are that these positions should be handed to women just because they're women.
<p>
Before leaving office, Obama made sure women are eligible now for combat roles in the military, even allowing that they should become Navy SEALS. People with common sense know this is nutty, something not earned but awarded anyway, thus endangering the actual SEALs, who must perform at physical and emotional levels far beyond those of women but whose main concern would be protecting women-colleagues instead of accomplishing their missions, which are designed to break things and kill or rescue people.
<p>
In the U.S., women are gradually taking over the court systems, enrolling in colleges and universities in numbers greater than men, and achieving parity in enrollments in both medical and law schools. They are anything but deprived in the matter of heading for the big-green.
<p>
So...the issue of the protest, besides ginning up support for Hillary's next foray into politics after not shattering the prized presidential glass-ceiling, is abortion, pure and simple. They call it privacy rights and the SCOTUS adhered to that privacy, whether or not in the Constitution, in Roe/Wade in 1973.
<p>
According to U.S. Data & Trends, there have been 58,586,256 U.S. abortions since 1973. Over the 40+ years since then, the earlier murdered fetuses would have had children and grandchildren, so the actual effect on population could be close to minus-75,000,000...but who knows? Murdered fetuses create no birth records.
<p>
The whole nine yards resulted from the election of Trump, and the ladies, as well as the mainstream and mostly discredited media, have as a main goal somehow squeezing Trump out of office but lacking the power of impeachment, much less charging criminal activity. The ladies have latched on parasitically to other victim-movements such as “black lives matter” to prove their point even though they form more than half the populace but consider themselves a protected minority, which automatically admits to denigrating themselves, the most poignant observation concerning the grand march to nowhere.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-74068213191816718102017-01-17T13:37:00.000-08:002017-01-17T13:37:13.012-08:00Congressman Lewis & Inaugurations
Congressman John Lewis announced the other day that for the first time he would not attend the inauguration because he considered Trump an illegitimate president. He lied. He also skipped the Bush-43 Inauguration in 2001 because...yep...he considered Bush illegitimately elected. Both Bush and Trump were elected according to the requirements of the U.S. Constitution. He has been joined in his attention-grab by some 35 or so House colleagues, all of whom have become big news in the mainstream media...that 15-minutes-of-fame thing, or maybe they just didn't want to fight the cold weather. Who knows?
<p>
Lewis, along with Senator Booker (black democrat, NJ) and House black caucus leader Cedric Richmond, were given the privilege of addressing the Senate hearing after the official hearing was concluded in order to express their opposition to Jeff Sessions, the AG nominee, something the media said was unprecedented. They heaped humongous vitriol upon Sessions, not that it mattered for anything but exposing them for the racists-in-reverse that they are. Only whites are actual racists, of course.
<p>
Their performance was by way of piling more guilt-trip upon white citizens account slavery, as if any white person living now or for generations past had anything to do with it. Lewis, as usual, brought up Selma, where he was unjustifiably beaten in 1965 but Sessions was just a 19-year-old college kid then, so the connection is nonexistent, except that Sessions is white and therefore fair game for racists-in-reverse.
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I resent this constant victimization approach of Jackson and Sharpton not least because my great-grandfather and two great-uncles fought in the Union Army and, perhaps miraculously, survived though great-grandfather was wounded once and nearly died of disease once. No Lewis bio I’ve seen indicates that he ever served in the military, though he was draft-age during the Vietnam era as well as in the late 1950s. Notwithstanding that, the navy will name a ship (construction to be started in 2018) for Lewis. Perhaps he was 4-F or had deferments of some sort, the same as Trump.
<p>
Predictably, the media has gone ape over the fact that Trump has tweeted a not-too-complimentary response to Lewis’s charge of illegitimacy, which actually meant that Trump is a fraud. Categorizing Lewis as an “icon,” the liberal gurus (nearly all of the media) have castigated Trump for having the audacity to challenge the insult to himself or lack-of-worship of such an icon, but do not mention that Lewis began the whole affair with a public temper-tantrum, a profound insult vis-à-vis the voters, whom he implied as dumber than the Russians…the deplorables like me.
<p>
Lewis represents the culmination of the Obama terms, to wit, deepening the chasms among different racial groups, all in the name of diversity. This represents the penultimate oxymoron, making the nation a one-people thing by constantly remarking how they are different, the definition of diversity. Obama has approached everything within the context of race, even to the point of having his attorney general expend tremendous resources and manpower in a futile attempt to crucify an innocent policeman in Missouri.
<p>
Perhaps the saddest thing in the whole “Lewis matter” is the exposure of the degree of hatred the liberal establishment had/has not only for Trump but for the “ignorant deplorables” who voted their consciences, just as the liberals insist they did. A sad thing, also, is the fact that the first black to be elected by a vast majority of whites has wallowed in a sort of mediocrity when he could actually have made a difference. He has presided over the Divided States of America, whether through intent or incompetence.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim Clark
MUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-61656341952808040992017-01-12T12:48:00.003-08:002017-01-12T12:48:45.056-08:00Intel FlapI watched Senator McCain’s Intel hearing the other day involving the top honchos connected to the DNI. McCain considers the Russian hacking (assuming it took place) as an act of war, never mind that such an act could be answered with military means, not just counter-cyber activity.
<p>
DNI Director Clapper made it clear that he considers the hacking (if it took place) as an act of espionage and mentioned that it’s dangerous to throw rocks if one lives in a glass house, i.e., that the U.S does the same thing regarding hacking into anything it can worldwide. The point was made, apparently more or less consensually, that any hacking had nothing to do with the election.
<p>
The hacking that took place, whether from Russia or anywhere else, affected the DNC in exposing its corruption, which, of course, had to do with stacking the deck against Bernie Sanders in favor of guaranteeing that Hillary would crack the glass ceiling. Just the possibility of that happening is chilling if not scary.
<p>
Clapper, a former general, also indicated that it would be well for the U.S. and Russia to find “mutual interests,” another way of saying he agrees with Trump in establishing a friendship with Russia, opposite a strictly adversarial arrangement, which has been the Obama/Clinton position even to the extent of Hillary meddling in the Russian election involving Putin’s presidency. This is not to say that governments must not meddle in the elections in other countries when their own interests are involved. This world is not Camelot and all governments do not play by the same rules, meaning that taking the the low road (if that can be defined internationally) is always a possibility.
<p>
McCain’s position is hypocritical, of course, in that he, along with Senators Graham and Lieberman, fomented the unprovoked U.S. unilateral attack (NATO not a significant factor) against Libya, totally unauthorized either legally or Constitutionally. It was a monstrous war-crime that cost thousands of lives over a seven-month period. McCain and Graham also tried to get Obama to attack Syria, which he almost did, though he provided weaponry against both of those sovereign nations, meddling in their civil wars.
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Putin saved Obama's bacon (those silly red lines) when he took over the affairs of the Middle East, essentially telling Obama to bug out, which he did, and wisely so. So, when McCain complains about the actual espionage as an act of war, he condemns himself and his position by his own actions, which, as opposed to espionage, actually did involve acts of war.
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A large segment of the current issue of TIME magazine is devoted to this subject, probably because of all the ballyhoo generated by democrats to make a big deal out of nothing. Supposedly, WikiLeaks guru Julian Assange received hacker-info from the Russians and made it public, thus somehow hurting Clinton's campaign, which she deep-sixed herself account just opening her mouth and posturing, especially as a woman whose time had come. Assange disavows any Russian connection and folks may believe him or not.
<p>
On page 26 of TIME is a description of this country's efforts to ferret out the private actors linked to the Russian hacking, in which is this phrase: “...which the U.S. spies believed was the main organization behind the influence operation.” The obvious inference is that the CIA and perhaps the NSA participate in clandestine cyber-activity all the time, not just the Russians. One hopes this is true and that U.S. intel agencies know even more about Russian secrets than the Russkies know about those of the U.S.
<p>
In the Senate hearing on 11 January of Rex Tillerson as the next State Secretary, the democrats came out with fangs bared, some especially concerned about the Russian hacking, particularly relative to Putin’s authorization of it, as if Tillerson knows more than anyone else or could do much about what the current administration as well as Clinton’s private server-operators were not able to do, though the president said in a recent press conference that he told Putin to “cut it out.”
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-75713129424803026432016-12-29T17:59:00.001-08:002016-12-29T18:11:03.881-08:00Professor Introduces Fourth Reich<center><b>Hitler Reincarnated as Trump</b></center>
<p>
The far-left-fringe of the Democrat Party remains in meltdown following the election, the latest op-ed in the Herald-Leader by retired Berea College professor Mike Rivage-Seul using the customary resort to condemn somebody or something unquestionably bad, i.e., equating same with Hitler and the Third Reich. In his screed of 26 December, he uses Trump EPA-head nominee Scott Pruitt as the fomenter of an American “revolution” account his threatening to destroy the nation (actually the world) by changing the climate.
<p>
Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general, believes in states-rights, taking issue with Obama, who declared that he would shut down the electricity-furnishing companies and make every user’s costs “skyrocket,” besides saving the planet in the process. He's largely succeeded with the former, not the latter. Rivage-Seul repeats the totally false claim that virtually all scientists believe man is making the world intolerably hotter by emitting most of the carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere.
<p>
Predictably, Rivage-Seul noted that Clinton got a plurality of the vote but didn't mention that the differential just in California (some 4.3 million votes) was more than the national differential-figure. This is why the founders instituted the electoral college guaranteeing that no one state could so domineer an election that it could by itself virtually choose the president.
<p>
The professor quoted Jefferson regarding the “unalienable right to life,” claiming Pruitt (actually Trump) will be guilty of something like monarchic power since his making the earth hotter would destroy life (“genocide far worse than Adolf Hitler's,” his exact wording), ergo, the responsibility of the people to rise up against a government not guaranteeing that life-right.
<p>
More to the point is the arrogance of the alarmists, who, despite no significant success in connecting CO2, man-made or otherwise, to climate change, are determined to force the U.S. into even more regulations. Their ability to make measurements, charts and demonstrably proven inaccurate computer models does not deter them.
<p>
The far saner reasons for climate-change are the variance in numbers of sun-spots (holes) in the sun's surface in given eras and the overwhelming influence of the oceans covering 74% of the earth's surface. These oceans sequester CO2 gained from land foliage and runoff, for instance, then release or withhold it automatically as a natural phenomenon to stabilize temperature. Man's pitifully small contribution means little.
<p>
The fact that climate has changed sometimes radically throughout history under diverse conditions (industrialization or not, for instance), means that outside forces, not men’s forces, change earth’s fundamental conditions. This is why the sunspot/ocean theory is eminently superior to the man-made stuff regarding the climate.
<p>
The earth is part of the cosmos, mysteriously designed/inculcated with incomprehensible relationships among the suns/planets/stars, and no one can explain how that fact affects earth's climate. The experts claim that the Ohio River was gouged out by a withdrawing glacier during one of the ice-ages, for instance, without any help from man.
<p>
Man can deal with local atmosphere, ridding it of acid rain, for instance, or fossil-fuel emissions. The diameter of the earth is 7,926 miles at the equator (40 less pole to pole), but the deepest hole ever drilled (Kola Peninsula—Russia) went down 7.6 miles, a distance so miniscule by comparison that man has no idea what the earth-interior comprises, whether tectonic plates or anything else, much less can conjecture how this (earth's inner temps/configuration) affects climate.
<p>
The accidental self-exposed hoax (emails by UN scientists who cooked the books in 2009) proved the political aspect of this matter – cap-and-trade. Men of science are lucky to accurately predict weather four days in advance, much less presume to decipher the grand design, however they deem its origination. For people of faith, God created the cosmos according to his design, which indicates that God and not man controls the sun’s locus and sphere of influence, including the earth, the clearer implication being that God, not man, controls the cosmos and the earth, including its climate.
<p>
So...the sky is not falling nor has the global temperature warmed in the last 20 years or so, thus threatening that unalienable right.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-3297661360448283712016-12-20T05:41:00.000-08:002016-12-20T05:41:09.729-08:00Professor Excoriates Trump<center><b>Exemplifies Safe-Space College Campuses</b></center>
<p>
The regularly featured words of wisdom delivered in the Lexington Herald-Leader from the halls of academia spewed forth on 18 December from Benjamin Knoll, a professor at Centre College, who began his op-ed thusly: “Not kidding around,” as if one, after reading his piece, might accidentally dissolve into laughter. Actually, I did.
<p>
The professor then points out seven areas in which, “Donald Trump is actively threatening to weaken American democracy.” One wonders at the difference between <i>actively</i> threatening and just plain threatening, but why torture the semantics? One suspects the professor actually meant <i>maliciously</i> threatening, but didn’t want to be accused of micro-aggression, currently academia’s boogie-bear, a definite no-no, almost as sacrosanct as not raping drunk/doped coeds at frat parties they attend to become drunk or doped or both.
<p>
Knoll accused Trump of attempting to foreclose free speech by <i>threatening</i> the revocation of citizenship account flag-burning, apparently not understanding that legislation/referendums amend the Constitution, not individuals. He accused Trump of <i>attempting</i> to interfere with non-violent protests planned for inauguration weekend in D.C., though I suspect the D.C. police are gearing up for the non-violence, especially since the protesters that need watching will be the usual professionals that burned up Ferguson, Missouri, twice and Baltimore once.
<p>
The puzzler: Knoll cited the Trump campaign for promising to impose a ban on Muslim-immigration in violation of “First Amendment guarantees of freedom of religion,” apparently not realizing that the amendment applies only to U.S. citizens, not to Muslims from the desert or anyone else. In any case, Trump only reflected the thinking of Hillary Clinton's “basket of deplorables,” the great unwashed “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” folks, and irredeemably so…hopeless cases like me.
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Inviting potential/actual suicide/homicide bombers into the country seems rather dim-witted but warm-fuzzy, hugs-all-around elitist academics see the larger perspective, the protection of these non-citizen-butchers' right to practice their murderous religion in the U.S. They practiced that right in Cairo the other day, wasting 25 in a Catholic Church bombing. Or...remember gay Paree – that theater as well as Charlie Hebdo, Nice and now Berlin (trucks as weapons), Boston, etc. Awarding this “religious right” is like inviting cancer into one's body...stupid.
<p>
Knoll accused Trump of defiling the press by “bullying and criticizing news reporters,” notwithstanding that all the top media except Fox News openly and unashamedly promoted Clinton, a basket-case herself as far as making sense is concerned. The professor then accused Trump of trying to silence critics through intimidation on <i><u>Twitter</u></i> but doesn't mention that he tweets, too, one of his latest being <b>“I suppose it's possible that a war with China will help make America great again. I'll admit I'm befuddled, though. Can anyone help clarify?”</b> Egad! One hopes Knoll forgot and was just “kidding around.”
<p>
Knoll accused Trump of falsely claiming widespread voter-fraud. Just the current attempts of Clinton-worshipers to defame the Constitutional electoral college provision is all that's needed to prove Trump's point.
<p>
Knoll continued the ninth-grade civics lesson by accusing Trump of <b>“attempting to weaken American institutions by siding with a foreign government over the U.S. intelligence community about Russian interference with our electoral process.”</b> Okay...the Russkies (definitely not Trump) are accused of hacking into the Democratic National Committee, where they discovered that then-head honcho Wasserman Schultz, Podesta and their partners in crime blew off democrat Hillary-challenger Bernie Sanders, and Donna Brazile (currently rewarded as Schultz's replacement) fed debate info to Hillary's apparatchiks, though it didn't help the empty pants-suit.
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Knoll didn't explain how this affected the election unless he wondered WWPD (what would Putin do) as the deciding factor while voting. Unbelievably (well...okay...academia-speak excused), Knoll finished with this gem: “Now is the time for the American people to show that they deserve the democracy they have inherited...”. Absolutely not! They do not deserve the democracy they have inherited from Obama/Clinton. They deserve much better than that and hopefully Trump will help deliver it. If not, God help us!
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-82905899841281326862016-12-12T14:44:00.002-08:002016-12-12T14:44:47.458-08:00Trump & the CIA/FBICNN talk-radio host Smerconish is my favorite not because I agree with him most of the time—I don’t—but because he allows his interviewees sufficient time to state their opinions and seldom interrupts no matter how profoundly he may disagree with them…he doesn’t lose his cool. He almost lost it, though, in his 10 December segment involving Trump communications director, Sean Spicer, and came out looking so bad he admitted he forgot his place in the programming.
<p>
Smerconish tried to make the point that Trump doesn’t trust his own CIA with respect to whether or not the agency is right in accusing the Russians of hacking into the U.S. election in some way or other, noting that some entity DID hack into the DNC apparatus during the campaign and that it has been alleged that the Russians hacked into the RNC outfit, as well, with the resulting information concerning only the DNC being made public…supposedly unfair in favor of Trump. The info (allegedly via WickiLeaks) did culminate in the firing of then-DNC head honcho Wasserman just as she was to initiate the July convention.
<p>
Much was also made of the fact that Trump does not indulge in the daily briefings that allegedly Obama receives. It’s doubtful that anyone knows how diligently or seriously Obama takes the briefings, either. As to Trump’s possible distrust of the CIA (anathema to Smerconish), Spicer ate Smerconish’s lunch in a lengthy back-and-forth in which Spicer had his ducks in a row and Smerconish did not. The upshot was/is that no one actually knows what if anything the Russians did but Spicer made it very clear that the electoral college victory depended not at all on whatever hacking did or did not take place.
<p>
Trump, if he does not trust the CIA, possibly remembers that the CIA reported allegedly false info (WMD in Iraq) that resulted in that wasteful and ineffective war. I disagree because the intel agencies of a number of developed nations made the same claim, and I believe that Saddam moved the WMD probably to his neighbor Syria probably at night between September 2002 and March 2003. This is the subject of my novel The Biggest Con.
<p>
It is politically incorrect to say it but the truth is that the head of the CIA, John Brennan, is alleged to be a Muslim, as is Obama’s top aide, Valerie Jarrette, but not because of whatever religion may be involved for them. I believe Islam is a cult, not a religion, and therefore distrust the Islamic movement (caliphate) centered on ruling the world and killing “infidels” (especially Christians/Americans) and Jews. Trump could feel the same way. The “Cairo Massacre” in Cairo, Egypt, on 12 December is instructive. The homicide/suicide bomber blew up a Catholic church and killed at least 25.
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It doesn’t help that FBI Director Comey and Attorney General Lynch, after Comey outlined an airtight case against Hillary Clinton, while She was State Secretary, on the bases of flagrant negligence allowing any hacker to access the nation’s secrets and indisputable perjury concerning same, brought no charges of any kind against her. Under oath himself, Comey indicated her perjury in a Congressional hearing.
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So…it’s not surprising that Trump might view any of Obama-controlled agencies as objects of suspicion and even distrust, especially those that involve national security and law-enforcement, Smerconish’s insistence otherwise notwithstanding. When he takes office, the taint of Obama, Jarrette, Lynch, Brennan and perhaps Comey will be gone. Trump has already picked a CIA chief, national security adviser, defense secretary and attorney general and will then have confidence in what he hears. National Security Adviser Susan Rice (remember the lies she told five networks regarding the Benghazi Massacre) will also be gone, thus ridding the nation of incompetence and outright corruption in the highest offices.
<p>
The vote has displeased the progressives (Hillary's term, not just democrats anymore) so the effort is now to somehow invalidate an election Constitutionally conducted by claiming its outcome was determined not by Americans but by Putin, though there is absolutely no proof offered to that effect. Weird but true!
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Ironically, even if some electors betrayed their trust on 19 December when the votes of the electors are counted, the election would be decided in the House, which is by a substantial margin republican.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-27393116780472172302016-12-06T12:19:00.001-08:002016-12-06T12:19:27.364-08:00Flawed Election ExplanationIn an op-ed in the Lexington, Ky., Herald-Leader of 27 November, former newspaperman Al Smith attempted to explain why democrat Representative Martha Jane King of Logan County was defeated in the recent election, citing the usual things like being outspent (those evil Koch brothers and their Pacs) and spurious advertising showing her pictured with Hillary Clinton and blaming her for favoring most anything like abortion and same-sex marriages, things that rile a lot of folks and not just in Logan County.
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I don’t know how King feels about those or other subjects but I also don’t believe that sort of opposition ended her incumbency. Courthouses in Kentucky and most state officials are still democrat, but the legislature and governorship have changed drastically, especially the House, which was not just overturned but turned upside-down (64-36, veto-proof) and made republican-run for the first time in nearly a hundred years. The Senate has been republican for a long time.
<p>
King became the victim of “Trumpism,” and it didn’t help her chances that Clinton’s abundantly transparent CQ (corruption-quota), with Trump using the term “Crooked Hillary” to good advantage, was divulged gradually all through the campaign. Democrats were thrown out of state legislatures nationwide. Guilt by association is a killer. Nationally, Clinton had avowed to continue Obama's tortured management, so the vote was also a referendum on the president.
<p>
King lost her seat by a two-to-one margin, a landslide, just as Clinton lost the electoral college by a landslide 306-232. Apparently, only one county out of 120 Kentucky counties (Jefferson) voted for Clinton. In national elections, Kentucky has voted republican for years, at least tolerating the often-crooked democrat courthouse corruption, but trusting national issues only to republicans. Just one Kentucky member of Congress (from Jefferson County) is a democrat. Nationally, only four states between the west coast democrat-cabal and the Northeast coast-cabal voted Trump, i.e., “flyover country,” where most of Hillary’s “deplorables” live. The entire Southeast went for Trump.
<p>
While Smith’s explanation for King’s defeat was flawed, he shed some light on the tolerated corruption of Kentucky politics, reminiscing about the days when “Doc” Beauchamp ran the state. He might have mentioned that highway contractors sort of did, also. Indeed, in recent memory, one can testify to the shenanigans and investigations/surveillances of former democrat governors and their administrations, as well as the legislatures.
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Reaching back to the 70s, Governor (later Senator) Wendell Ford was indicted by a Grand Jury concerning an insurance scheme. His successor, Julian Carroll, was investigated by a Grand Jury in an insurance scam, after which his protege, Sonny Hunt, also a legislator as well as state democrat party chairman was convicted and did serious time. Carroll was under yet another federal investigation when he left office in 1979.
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Carroll's successor, John Y. Brown, was investigated by a federal Grand Jury concerning a $1.3 million withdrawal from a bank (to pay gambling debts...maybe?) and was under surveillance concerning drug-trafficking, a cocaine-drug-smuggling ring operating in Lexington at the time. Governor Martha Layne Collins ran into a conflict of interest brouhaha over the gift of a $35,000 piano, whilst hubby Bill was convicted of extorting $1.1 million accruing to contributions from state contractors.
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Her successor, Wallace Wilkinson, was investigated over numerous charges (remember the book sales) and a $418 million bankruptcy case. His successor, Brerton Jones, received illegally large contributions to his campaign from National Guard officers, who were later promoted or given government appointments, while the adjutant-general went to jail for 18 months or so. Jones's successor, Paul Patton, suffered a sexual harassment lawsuit by a woman with whom he had an affair and experienced both FBI and Ethics Commission probes.
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More than a dozen legislators were convicted in the early 90s via an FBI sting (selling votes...remember BOPTROT-HUMANA) and the longest-serving House Speaker up to then, Don Blandford, was given 64 months in the Pen.
<p>
Yeah, politics are the damnedest in Kentucky. Al Smith knows and covered it.
<p>
And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972037.post-33735253243105088542016-11-18T08:24:00.001-08:002016-11-18T08:24:20.893-08:00Protesting ParanoiacsOne can only wonder what it would have been like in 2008 and 2012 if disappointed people vis-à-vis Obama’s election had taken to the streets like those disappointed about Trump’s election are doing in a few cities across the country. What’s happening with these people furnishes a window into what the socialist-oriented think about this country.
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This is different from 2000, when the Supreme Court of Florida attempted to steal the election from George W. Bush. That was an official, albeit illegal, action by a government, settled quickly by the Supreme Court of the U.S. What’s happening now is a protest meaning nothing since it’s not an official undertaking by any group. Hopefully, it will not eventuate in criminal activity but that possibility is real.
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If there had been a protest movement in 2000, the protesters would probably, as now, be largely black, teens and twenty-somethings. This means disaffected ethnics and public school and university/college students in the main, another way of saying immature and ill-informed, especially in the universities, in most of which the faculties are far-left (progressivists) and prone to indoctrinate young minds with their socialist agendas.
<p>
With the blessings of the current establishment figures in both federal and large-city governments, protesters have understandably been encouraged to make disruption of the freedoms of others as a tool to effect their agendas, the devil take the hindmost. This was graphically illustrated by Obama’s DOJ (AG Holder) when it went after an innocent policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, a while back to try to wreck his life. It was illustrated later when the Baltimore mayor indicated that protesters should have their “space” to do their thing such as attacking people and burning other people’s properties and/or destroying their businesses/livelihoods.
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This involves a third- or fourth-world mentality, to wit, that matters are settled in the streets and not at the ballot box. It has been encouraged by Obama since it involves displacing one dictator with another, i.e., rule by a monarch. Obama has repeatedly tried to govern by executive order, as a monarch would, disregarding the legislature and the courts despite the mandates of the U.S. Constitution.
<p>
This is the socialistic approach favored by both Obama and Hillary Clinton, elitists who would hand the government over to a small band of oligarchs to work their will, gaining power and immense wealth, all at the expense of the little people. Theirs is the something for nothing propaganda—the mythic level playing field—on which the government makes every decision, whether personal or institutional.
<p>
The best example: Obamacare. This act was designed to fail at best or through ignorance at worst. Based on payments by insurance companies, which exist to make profits and not necessarily for public benefit, the pattern was to eventuate in single-payer mode, notwithstanding that Medicare couldn't even be managed by government and had to be turned over to insurance companies for its administration.
<p>
MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, paid at least $400,000 for Obamacare-design, apologized before Congress for referencing the public as stupid, the notion being that the great unwashed would never catch-on to actual provisions, and he was right. In fact the democrats, who passed the legislation (no republican in House or Senate voted for it), didn't bother to read it but probably couldn't have understood it anyway.
<p>
This may explain the plight of the protesters, who may actually believe the result of the election can somehow be overturned. This is tin-horn-dictator stuff. In Venezuela, street protests might work (or not) if they become violent enough, as has been seen in Muslim countries like Libya, Egypt, and Syria recently. In fact, Obama joined the protesters in Libya by siccing the U.S. Air Force on Qaddafi.
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And so it goes.<br>
Jim ClarkMUCKRAKERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15227270014197029424noreply@blogger.com0