Saturday, December 30, 2017

Yahoo and HuffPo call this "normal" winter weather: It's not

Here. But hot summer temperatures evoke global warming headlines. 

The mean monthly lowest minimum temperature in Grand Rapids, Michigan in Decembers is +4 F. With today and tomorrow to go, we're already at - 12 F, the third coldest on record.

Average temperature in December 2017 so far ranks 32nd coldest out of 126 Decembers, the 75th percentile. Normal would be the 50th percentile. So it's definitely colder than normal, while not absolutely record setting.

Climate shmimate. These idiots can't predict bupkis three days out let alone from month to month and century to century. All year long average temperature has been running warm, until December ruined their little global warming narrative.

Bwaaaaaaahahahahaha.

In 2016 1.8 million immigrant invaders, highest ever: Where's The Wall Mr. Trump? Where's the tracking of visa holders?


Donald Trump, president of the Jews

Video here.

Let this be a sign unto you: The era of libertarian looting ushered in by Reagan now reaching apogee will be followed by another FDR-like "progressive" era of welfare statism

Bernie tapped into the amorphous socialism clamored for by today's young people who face dim job prospects while saddled by large college debts for degrees incommensurate with what's available in the job marketplace. This is the direct result of the takeover of public education from bottom to top by the left. It never delivers what it promises, except for hope.

As "millennials" replace the Baby Boom at the polls, their vote will transform America, and already has. Obama and Bernie were signs of this. Expect a return to high taxation of the rich, even larger federal government, and the transformation of existing welfare state programs into universal systems.

Like it or not, that's the future. Patriotism will take the form of socialism for Americans instead of for the world.

Now that Republicanism has thoroughly committed itself to globalism, libertarians are advised to take the money and run. 

Friday, December 29, 2017

Little Marco admits Republican tax bill went too far helping corporations

Story here.

Great. But he still voted for it. 

No Profile in Courage Award for you, mister.

Michael Savage, crackpot: Emphasizes "wildlife and the earth" at dinner with President Trump

Recounted here.

Trump got elected on the issue of illegal immigration. There has been no progress on the wall in a year, and Savage decides to use his valuable meeting time with Trump to talk about . . . environmentalism. As if environmentalism will be important politically in the midterms.

What a nitwit.

We're being overrun and Savage decides to get all wet.

We're doomed I tell you.

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Alt-right critic Amanda Marcotte says white supremacists are harder to see at the end of 2017

Everyone's harder to see right now. They're all inside because it's like - 11 degrees F outside.


White supremacists may be harder to see at the end of 2017, but the problem they represent is not going away any time soon.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Uh oh: A North Korean soldier who defected to South Korea this year has anthrax antibodies

UPI reports here:

South Korean authorities did not identify the soldier, who was either exposed to or vaccinated for anthrax, but did confirm he had developed immunity to the deadly disease before he defected, local news network Channel A reported Tuesday.

Rich guys Charles Barkley and Shaq are just going to pocket their big tax cuts from Trump


Reagan era tax "reform" killed the golden dividend goose: Monthly yield hasn't been 4% or better since 1985


Monday, December 25, 2017

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas commandeers woman's first class seat on United flight

Then claims racism when the woman complains.

Story here, where Yahoo doesn't name the congresswoman in the headline. In fact Yahoo doesn't name her until paragraph ten. But it does provide photos of the obese black idiot.

Over three months after Hurricane Maria, electricity won't be restored to all of Puerto Rico until May 2018

Way to go, Brownie!

Story here.

Read it and weep, suckers: Trump tells his rich friends at Mar-a-Lago that they just got a lot richer


'The president himself on Sept. 13 -- long before the bill was finalized -- said the wealthy would not benefit from the GOP tax overhaul.

'"The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. We are looking for the middle class and we are looking for jobs -- jobs being the economy," Mr. Trump said.'

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Laugh of the Day: What's the difference between Tiger Woods and Santa?

Santa was smart enough to stop at three hos.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Trump is scrambling to deal with a not physically fit Navy he inherited from Obama

From the story here:

The Navy will grant a clean slate to nearly 50,000 sailors with fitness failures in their records, part of new shakeup for fleet-wide fitness rules announced Thursday.

A new Navy-wide message instructs commands to immediately stop discharging sailors for fitness failures and to cancel any pending discharges for sailors slated to be kicked out after March 31. The change applies to both enlisted and officers.

The message also unveils a new set of rules for the Physical Fitness Assessment, bringing to an end the rules forcing sailors to leave the Navy if they failed two fitness assessment tests in a three-year period. ...

The new Physical Fitness Assessment rules are part of a broader effort to keep more sailors in uniform at a time when the Navy is trying to increase end strength by over 4,100 by the end of the current fiscal year in September 2018. ...

As of July 2017, the end of the last official PFA cycle, more than 43,000 sailors have at least one failure in the past three years; another 5,477 have at least two failures on the books, according to the chief of naval personnel.


The McLaughlin Group is coming back in 2018, with Tom Rogan as moderator

The old show worked because of the tag team of John McLaughlin and his longtime pal Pat Buchanan from the Nixon White House days. Both were excellent communicators with skills honed over many years, playing off the opinions of the assorted others.

Rogan brings nothing similar to the show, only affection.

Count me out.

Story here.

Friday, December 22, 2017

Tax Policy Center expects charitable giving to drop by $13 to $20 billion annually because of Republican tax reform

Way to go, Brownie!

Discussed here.

More betrayal from Trump: Commutes sentence of the poster boy for employing illegal aliens

Trump on Wednesday commuted the sentence of kosher meat producer Sholom Rubashkin, serving 27 years on 86 counts of bank fraud and money laundering.

From the story here:

President Trump issued his first prison commutation Wednesday to a man whose business was caught employing 389 illegal immigrants in a single shift, dismaying anti-illegal immigration advocates and a former prosecutor on the case. ...

Prosecutors said at sentencing that Rubashkin was found to have "cheated a bank and others out of a staggering amount of money — more than $26 million." His conviction on 86 federal counts was upheld on appeal.

David Frum is not a conservative


Ideas are not artifacts, especially the kind of collective ideas we know as ideologies. Conservatives in 1964 opposed civil-rights laws. Conservatives in 1974 opposed tax cuts unless paid for by spending cuts. Conservatives in 1984 opposed same-sex marriage. Conservatives in 1994 opposed trade protectionism. Conservatives in 2004 opposed people who equated the FBI and Soviet Union’s KGB. All those statements of conservative ideology have gone by the boards, and one could easily write a similar list of amended views for liberals.

Conservatism is what conservatives think, say, and do. As conservatives change—as much through the harsh fact of death and birth as by the fluctuations of opinion—so does what it means to be a conservative.

On the contray, conservatives believe in a transcendent moral order populated by eternal truths to which they seek to conform human affairs. Jews, for example, recognize these in the Decalogue, Platonists in the Ideas and Hindus in dharma. Infractions committed against the eternal truths do not change the truths, the infractions change us, sometimes for the better but more often for the worse.

Like the sophists, David Frum has chosen the worse, peddling his opinions in a world composed of mere opinion, as changeable as a pair of pants.

That's not conservatism.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

HaHaHa, HaHaHaHaHa: I got your "booming economy" right here, fella

The Reagan bull ended in August 2000 with final average nominal per annum return of 18.99%, real 15.28%

When terrorism gives you lemons, make lemonade

It's not exactly affection shown for the terrorists, but hey, what do you expect from thorough-going materialism?



GDP actually DROPPED in the report out today for 3Q2017

Today's GDP report was the third and final estimate for 3Q2017.

A month ago, current dollar GDP was estimated at $19.509 trillion.

Today, it's $8.4 billion less: $19.5006 trillion.

Yeah, I know, big whoop, but don't expect anyone in Conservatism Inc. to point it out, because, you know, "the economy is booming". 

Read it and weep: "The move to a territorial system opens the barn doors wide to corporate offshoring"

Read all about the new giant sucking sound, here.

Bubbles bubbles everywhere, including in politics

Joe Curl at The Washington Times is a lonely voice on the right speaking out against the Republican tax "reform"

Here in "Middle class gets trickled on again in tax-cut bill".

Or, as Fletcher might have put it, don't piss down my back and tell me it's rainin'.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Once again in the dead of night Senate Republicans pass tax reform for multinational corporations

The New York Times, here:

The Senate approved the bill early Wednesday morning.

The Senate voted 51 to 48, with no Republican defections and no Democratic support.

Under the final tax bill, the corporate tax rate would fall to 21 percent, from the current 35 percent, a move that Republicans are betting will increase economic growth, create jobs and raise wages. Individuals would also see tax cuts, including a top rate of 37 percent, down from 39.6 percent. The size of inheritances shielded from estate taxation would double, to $22 million for married couples, and owners of pass-through businesses, whose profits are taxed through the individual code, would be able to deduct 20 percent of their business income.

But the individual tax cuts would expire after 2025, a step that Republicans took to comply with budget rules, which do not allow the package to add to the deficit after a decade.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Republican tax reform for multinational corporations passes US House 227-203-2

The New York Times has the roll call, here.

Just 12 Republicans voted "No", most from states hurt by the $10,000 cap for deductibility of state, local and property taxes:


CA-48
Dana Rohrabacher
N

CA-49
Darrell Issa
N

NC-3
Walter B. Jones
N

NJ-2
Frank A. LoBiondo
N

NJ-4
Christopher H. Smith
N

NJ-7
Leonard Lance
N

NJ-11
Rodney Frelinghuysen
N

NY-1
Lee Zeldin
N

NY-2
Peter T. King
N

NY-11
Dan Donovan
N

NY-19
John J. Faso
N

NY-21
Elise Stefanik
N

Taxes are about precise numbers, which means Rush Limbaugh will make you cringe

He just said Ronald Reagan lowered the top marginal rate from 90% in the 1981 tax reform.

He didn't. John F. Kennedy lowered the top rate from 90% to 70%.

Reagan lowered the top rate from 70% to 50%.

Just about everything Rush says about taxes is imprecise, and wrong, including about what he has no excuse for not knowing, namely taxes under his hero Reagan.

But hey, he can't even get the old chestnut "whose ox is gored" correct. Today it's the goose getting gored, or something.

Take another pill, Rush. Just one more hour to go before you're off for two weeks.

Update: My bad. Rush will be back tomorrow, to celebrate the tax bill passing.

Alimony paid will no longer be deductible, and alimony received will no longer be taxable

War on Men!

Expect a big decrease in amicable divorces! Women will have a YUGE incentive to stick it to the man.

So expect even fewer men proposing marriage in the first place.

And you thought the Republicans were the pro-family party.

Not any more it isn't.

Reported here:

In the new bill, however, these payments are no longer deductible for the payor. Nor are the payments included in the recipient's gross income. Instead, the money used for alimony will be taxed at the payor's rates.

This provision is effective for divorce and separation agreements signed after December 31, 2018.

Republican tax "reform" will make it harder for you to move, eliminating the relocation deduction

Reported here:

Are you thinking of moving across the country for a new career opportunity? If so, the tax bill won't let you deduct the cost of your move.

HELOC interest deduction goes away under Republican tax "reform": Expect loan consolidation

You know the one, the one you take to help buy a car, fund tuition, or actually fix up the house.

When the credit card interest deduction went away under Ronald Reagan, consumers opened up Home Equity Lines of Credit in response, the interest on which was deductible. Now that HELOC interest deductibility is going away, expect those HELOCs to be refinanced under new first mortgages to recapture that.

Also expect this to impact consumer spending, negatively.

Reported here:

Individuals who take out home equity loans will no longer be able to deduct that interest under the new bill.

Tax bill includes an incentive for US companies to invest in foreign manufacturing

Justice: Muslim who beheaded Oklahoma woman sentenced to death by lethal injection

We would have preferred the rope, say two years ago.

From the story here:

Alton Nolen, 33, was convicted of first degree murder in late September for beheading his coworker Colleen Hufford inside Vaughan Foods in September 2014. Following a two-phase trial beginning in mid-September, jurors recommended Nolen be sentenced to death in October. ... In court Friday morning, Judge Lori Walkley accepted the recommendation of the jury, sentencing Nolen to death by lethal injection for beheading Hufford.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

In unfree China, if you disrespect the mass murdering terrorist Genghis Khan you go to jail

Offenses against social stability will not be tolerated!

From the story here:

A Chinese man was sentenced to one year in jail after a video of him stamping on a portrait of Genghis Khan went viral, mainland media reported on Friday. He was charged with affecting social stability by prosecutors in Ordos, a city in Inner Mongolia, news website Thepaper.cn reported. ... Police in Inner Mongolia told the news site that they received complaints from residents in the province and deemed the video had caused disruption to society.

Friday, December 15, 2017

Sometimes Ann Coulter is an idiot, for instance when dissing federal encouragement of having children

You'd think someone who wants America for Americans would want to encourage anything which promotes Americans having more children instead of importing them, but you would be wrong.

Rubio's insistence on a larger child tax credit stops some of the damage being done by Republicans to people with families larger than four.

Abolishing the personal exemption meant parents lost those exemptions for all their children, and the increased standard deduction didn't go far enough to replace them, meaning they'd pay more in taxes just because they have more kids.

Coulter's indignation appears to be purely personal, an ugly intrusion of the irrational into her otherwise often rational positions.

She doesn't realize how libertarian she sounds (she hates them by the way). Americans who have children are making it possible that something like America survives into the future, which is a more sure and lasting contribution than any law which might be passed.

Some of the founders recognized that laws are a mere parchment barrier. When the pirates are attacking, you need a navy, which means sailors, not a bill of rights.



1986 was the last year domestic investment exceeded investment abroad, which is why everything REALLY SUCKS here now

NAFTA began with Canada in 1989, was expanded in 1994, China became a WTO member in 2001, but the 1986 tax reform really started the final leg down

There's been a definite slow down in the growth rate of full-time jobs since 2015, about 25%


As a percentage of population, the broadest measure of unemployment is lower now than in 2006


Thursday, December 14, 2017

Good dog: Battle Beagle has been thinking about Aristotle

The excerpt comes from Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance by Guillaume Faye (Arktos, 2011).

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Judge Roy Moore loses US Senate bid in Alabama by 20,715 votes, 1.5 points

Judge Roy Moore joins the Todd Akin club.

Republicans got the man they really wanted, Democrat Jones, who will give them the convenient excuse they need for not passing the Trump agenda without having to vote against it.

I sincerely hope more Republicans get what they want in future. They deserve it for not delivering on The Wall, an immigration pause, and tax reform which benefits individuals instead of corporations.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Kirsten Gillibrand's Trump attacks are transparently political, given the company she has happily kept with Democrat sexual creeps


If the economy is on the mend under Trump, why did the number on food stamps go up nearly 800,000 in September?

We're also witnessing a slow down in road travel, in addition to the odd up-tick in the food stamp numbers.

In October 2015 road travel was up 2.2% year over year, in October 2016 2.5%, but in October 2017 just 1.4%.

The climbdown in the rate of growth has been evident all year.

Not good.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Conservative heroine Phyllis Schlafly opposed the territorial tax system the Republicans are about to shove down our throats

Here in November 2011:

Although the Perry plan's most striking feature is its anti-marriage bias, his proposal for corporate income is equally pernicious. Perry would shift businesses to a "territorial" tax system, which means that corporations would be taxed only on the profits they earn inside the United States.

We should do exactly the opposite. We should reduce or eliminate taxes on businesses that employ Americans producing goods and services inside our own country, while increasing taxes on the profits that corporations earn by outsourcing or manufacturing overseas.

Above all, we should eliminate the foreign tax credit, a self-destructive provision that allows corporations to pay China, Venezuela or Saudi Arabia the money they would otherwise owe the U.S. government. Let's also cut out the deductions that U.S. corporations take for hiring foreigners to do work that Americans can do.

Those who support a territorial business tax argue that it will encourage multinational corporations to bring home the profits they earn overseas, but that's unlikely so long as it remains more profitable for them to invest in cheap-labor countries. Of Republican presidential candidates, only Herman Cain and Rick Santorum understand that what corporations need is lower taxes on their operations inside the United States rather than on the profits they earn in other countries.