Good on ya: NFL TV viewership down nearly 19% from 2015

Reported here.

Campaign Legal Center files complaint with Federal Election Commission over Clinton/DNC hidden dossier payments

From the story here:

The complaint from the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center said the Democrats effectively hid the payments from public scrutiny, contrary to the requirements of federal law. By law, campaign and party committees must disclose the reason money is spent and its recipient.

A. Barton Hinkle shows once again that libertarianism is of the left, not the right

Here:

[B]oth parties have grown more extreme in recent years. Congressional Republicans certainly have. Congressional Democrats tend to be more moderate, relatively speaking.

The perception that the Democrats haven't shifted radically left in recent years is due to libertarianism agreeing with what that shift represents more than disagreeing with it. And frankly, the evidence A. Barton Hinkle cites shows how the whole country has indeed shifted left. Not completely, obviously, but shift left it has, and that libertarians can't see that tells you more about libertarianism than libertarianism tells you about libertarianism.

It's not that Republicans have become more extreme. It's that the country's shift to the left has isolated them. And Democrat positions are only "moderate" in the sense that they are now more widely shared. It's the growing isolation of Republican conservatism in the face of these which only makes it seem extreme. It would be more accurate to say that Republican positions have become anachronistic, not extreme.

Hence much of the recent evidence cited by Hinkle which demonstrates where Americans are united today is of the "shift-left" variety, including:

62% now believe in gay marriage when for generations the vast majority of Americans did not, and for millennia human beings did not, and anti-sodomy laws still dotted the land up to 2003;

73% now favor utopian pipe dreams of "alternative energy" when it was coal, oil and nuclear which made America the industrial powerhouse of the world;

73% now unsurprisingly favor euthanasia just 44 years after the Supreme Court made it legal to murder unborn children;

83% favor "medical marijuana" despite the evidence of its risks for human health and well-being;

85% want to let the Dreamers stay;

90% favor universal background checks for weapons purchases;

83% disavow "extremist bigotry" under the influence of multiculturalist indoctrination in American public schools.

And libertarians are pretty much on board with these things, along with most Democrats. That's why all the action is in the Republican Party. The war for its soul continues to animate the present time. The Democrat soul already belongs to the devil.  

Mark Levin did a great job eviscerating Republican hypocrite Bob Corker in the show's first hour tonight

As Levin says, we have Bob Corker's defiance of the constitution to thank for Obama's Iran deal.

The Washington Times had a nice summary of Corker's malfeasance from Jed Babbin, here:

He sponsored a measure that required the president to submit the agreement to the Senate but turned the Constitution upside down. Under Article 2, Section 2 the president must get a two-thirds vote in favor of any treaty to make it a part of the law of the land. Instead, Mr. Corker’s provision required opponents of the deal to muster a two-thirds vote — 66 senators — to vote against it. It was a pretense to conceal another Republican cave-in to Mr. Obama. Mr. Corker’s provision passed the Senate by a vote of 98-1, Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, being the only negative vote. In an entirely predictable result, when the time came for a disapproval vote, Republicans couldn’t even overcome the Democrats’ filibuster to get a final vote on disapproval. After that, it was a small matter for the president to take the Iran deal to the U.N. Security Council, which eagerly approved it. What Mr. Corker had done was to enable Mr. Obama to claim Senate approval of his deal even though the Senate hadn’t done anything of the sort.

Like Jeff Flake, Corker won't be standing next year for reelection to the Senate.

WaPo story detailing Hillary/DNC funding of Trump dossier isn't news at CNBC tonight

NYT's Maggie Haberman: Democrats sanctimoniously lied about funding Trump dossier for a year

WaPo: Hillary and DNC also paid for infamous Trump-Russia dossier, retaining Fusion GPS which hired Brit Chris Steele

"Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier" :

Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research.

After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, retained the firm in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by a still unknown Republican client during the GOP primary. ...

The Clinton campaign paid Perkins Coie $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016, according to campaign finance records, and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in “legal and compliance consulting’’ since Nov. 2015 — though it’s impossible to tell from the filings how much of that work was for other legal matters and how much of it related to Fusion GPS.

Arizona's Jeff Flake announces he won't run for reelection in 2018

Good.

The rich are taxed heavily in America because they're a small minority even though protecting minorities is supposed to be the whole point

Class Definitions: Lower = < $30K, lower middle = < $55K, middle = < $85K, upper middle = < $125K, upper = > $125K 

I almost didn't post this because of its spelling incompetence, but then I changed my mnid

America's three middle classes accounted for 56.5% of total 2016 net compensation of $7.627 trillion

The lower classes accounted for only 13.6% of the total net compensation in 2016 and the upper classes for 29.9%.

The three middle classes are composed of almost 74 million individual wage earners in 2016, representing 45.1% of the total 163.5 million receiving W-2s in 2016. There are about 40 million individual wage earners in the lower middle class, about 22 million in the middle middle class, and about 11 million in the upper middle class.

Just over 80 million individual wage earners, about 49.3% of the total, made less than middle class incomes in 2016, that is, less than $30,000 annually.

Just over 9 million individuals made upper class incomes, that is, above $125,000 annually.

The upper class is just 5.6% of the total work force but makes almost $2.3 trillion of the net compensation.

The tax farmers eye the middle income classes because that's where the bulk of the money is to be harvested, about $4.3 trillion in 2016.

The lower classes, again almost half of the wage earners, account for only just over $1 trillion of the net compensation in 2016.

W-2 data isn't the whole story of income in the United States but is probably the most accurate snapshot indicating what's what and who's who for the "Why me, Lord?" question those who struggle for the legal tender ask themselves every April 15 or thereabouts.

Good news for pension plans: Reduced life expectancy means obligations could fall by up to 1 percent!

Every cloud has its silver lining.

From the story here:

The U.S. age-adjusted mortality rate—a measure of the number of deaths per year—rose 1.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the Society of Actuaries. That’s the first year-over-year increase since 2005, and only the second rise greater than 1 percent since 1980. ... Declining health and life expectancy are good news for one constituency: Pension plans, which must send a monthly check to retirees for as long as they live.

According to the latest figures from the Society of Actuaries, life expectancy for pension participants has dropped since its last calculation by 0.2 years. A 65-year-old man can expect to live to 85.6 years, and a woman can expect to make it to 87.6. As a result, the group calculates a typical pension plan’s obligations could fall by 0.7 percent to 1 percent.

Hoorah for CNBC's Jake Novak, who says the real issue in need of reform is spending

Here:

Whether the Republicans pass a tax-reform bill this year, next year, or ever, the real issue in need of reform is spending. Washington has been spending more than it's taking from the taxpayers for so long that it can only think of new ways to take it away. The result is a spending regime that many economists believe is actually a drag on economic growth because it crowds out so much private sector investment and job creation. At some point, government spending ceases to be stimulative and just gets in the way.

Poverty Guidelines for 2017

Percentage of GDP spent by government at all levels in the US 1898-2016

Since 1979 through 2016, outlays at all levels have doubled on average every 12.3 years, similar to the period 1898 through 1932 when they doubled on average every 11.3 years.

Outlays in the US in between those periods, from 1932 to 1979, at all levels doubled every 7.8 years on average.

The slowdown in outlay doubling times from the end of the Carter administration is no doubt connected to increased Republican governance, but outlays now divert from productive purposes 4.6 times what they did in 1898, the highest ever except for WWII but still higher than during WWI.

Why? Are we at war today?

Greedy for revenue lost to their business tax cuts, Republicans want to cap 401(k) contributions at $2,400 (they're $18,000 now)

That's right. Republicans want to penalize savers in order to reward business, but they call it stimulating the economy. The owners of business will surely prosper under their plan, but workers will not.

From the story here:

The proposals under discussion would potentially cap the annual amount workers can set aside to as low as $2,400 for 401(k) accounts, several lobbyists and consultants said on Friday. Workers may currently put up to $18,000 a year in 401(k) accounts without paying taxes upfront on that money; that figure rises to $24,000 for workers over 50. When workers retire and begin to draw income from those accounts, they pay taxes on the benefits.

Rumors have circulated for months that negotiators were debating including a cap as a way to help offset the revenue loss from a reduction in business tax rates that Republicans have put at the center of their plan. Reducing contribution limits would be, in effect, an accounting maneuver that would create space for tax cuts by collecting tax revenue now instead of in the future.

This is what you get when you choose to live by the rules of budget reconciliation, rules designed to get around the Senate's 60-vote rule. Under them any tax cut must by definition be temporary and cannot increase deficits over the next ten years. In other words, there is no tax cut. 

Once again it's the Senate's filibuster rule which stands in the way of true reform of anything in this country, along with the ubiquitous discriminatory attitude of government toward money in the case of taxes, some of which (business') is more equal than other (yours).

It's long past the time in this country when the people revolted against this system and demanded a smaller government which spends less. That's where true tax cuts can come from. Anything else is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. 

Virginia's Dave Brat caves to Conservatism Inc, will vote for tax cuts without spending cuts

Federal spending already is north of 21% of GDP, and government spending at all levels north of 36%. This is taxpayer money diverted from productive purposes, then skimmed to pay the useless intermediaries of The Swamp, and finally distributed for purposes formerly deemed to be the province of individuals but now the responsibility of  The State.

And they wonder why GDP is so low.

Oh please, Allah, send the asteroid Ceres to destroy DC. Our countrymen never will.

Andrew Mellon, we hardly knew thee.

From the story here:

“I will vote for the Senate budget and while I applaud the work that Chairman Black did in our budget committee to begin the process of mandatory spending reforms, at this point, achieving economic growth is the first priority and so I want to keep that train moving,” said Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. ... Earlier this year, House Freedom Caucus members had been willing to delay committee passage of the House budget on demands that it include instructions to cut more mandatory spending. Now they are signaling acquiescence to the smaller Senate figures. ... Twenty-two conservative economic organizations under the banner of the National Taxpayers Union sent a letter to House members urging that they adopt the Senate budget.

Everyone's an American these days, including Taki

Here, from the guy born in Greece who spends most of his time in London, Gstaad and the Med:

As a European who is an American citizen and spends half the year over here, I am surprised at how different we Europeans and we Americans really are. We Europeans mostly loathe each other, snub each other, and feel united only in our envy for the Big Bully, poor old Uncle Sam. Whereas we Americans hear and read all day how disunited we are, how oppressed our womenfolk are, what racists and sexists we are, yet our stadiums are filled to the brim every weekend with mostly white men and women cheering their lungs out for mostly black athletes. Go figure, as they don’t say in Brussels.

Citizen of the world is more like it. It would be nice if those charged with nativism actually lived it, like most Americans who love their country, live and work in it year in and year out, and have no need of passports.

The stock market's been great, right, and that ain't no bull

Job creation in 2016 is the closest we've come to "robust" since the year 2000

The W-2 data clearly show that the vast majority of the job losses during the crisis occurred under Obama, not Bush

Street girls vs. Harvey's girls

President Lincoln would have to have written over 200 letters a day for four years straight to comfort the families of the Union dead

Mark Dice tells the Horrible Minister Louis Farrakhan where to go

Illegal alien (?) Jesus Fabian Gonzales arrested in Sonoma county on suspicion of arson in wild fires

From the story here:

The arson suspect is Jesus Fabian Gonzales, 29, Sgt. Spencer Crum, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office told CNBC. Crum described him as "a transient out of Sonoma" and said the suspect was "arrested for setting a small fire in a park in Sonoma on Sunday."

Speaking at the Tuesday afternoon press conference, Giordano said the arson suspect was seen "walking away from a small fire" and stopped by deputies. Also, the suspect allegedly had "a fire extinguisher and a lighter with him," said the sheriff.

Giordano said the suspect was asked whether he started the fire and responded that "he started the fire to warm himself up — something to that effect."

Dr. Doom, Marc Faber, dumped from CNBC for saying "Thank God white people populated America, and not the blacks"

From the race realist here:

"And thank God white people populated America, and not the blacks. Otherwise, the US would look like Zimbabwe, which it might look like one day anyway, but at least America enjoyed 200 years in the economic and political sun under a white majority. ... I am not a racist, but the reality — no matter how politically incorrect — needs to be spelled out. ... If stating some historical facts makes me a racist, then I suppose that I am a racist. For years, Japanese were condemned because they denied the Nanking massacre".

Half-baked spurious conservative

FBI and DOJ had evidence of wrongdoing going back to 2009 before Uranium One deal approved in 2010

From the story here:

The Obama administration and the Clintons defended their actions at the time, insisting there was no evidence that any Russians or donors engaged in wrongdoing and there was no national security reason for any member of the committee to oppose the Uranium One deal.

But FBI, Energy Department and court documents reviewed by The Hill show the FBI in fact had gathered substantial evidence well before the committee’s decision that Vadim Mikerin — the main Russian overseeing Putin’s nuclear expansion inside the United States — was engaged in wrongdoing starting in 2009.

Then-Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered.

Spokesmen for Holder and Clinton did not return calls seeking comment. The Justice Department also didn’t comment.

Hillary falls down, again

Breaks toe this time.

In September 2016 she would have fallen down at the 911 remembrance but for handlers to prop her up.

And of course she fell and hit her head after being summoned to testify before Congress in 2012.

And they mocked Gerald Ford for being a klutz.

Story here.

Kurds and Arabs backed by US retake ISIS' strongholds in Raqqa

Story here.

ISIS' control of Mosul ended in July.

So Trump has defeated in 10 months what Obama let develop into a grotesque scourge for three years by unwisely withdrawing US troops from Iraq. Obama has many senseless deaths on his hands as a consequence, notably many Christians with direct links to the original Christianity of the Middle East, not to mention the destruction of priceless antiquities at Palmyra and other places in the region.

You don't think this liberation would have happened under Hillary, do you?

25 "conservatives" worth following I already avoided long before Rush Limbaugh told me to

Hell, I've never even heard of some of 'em. The list includes people like David Frum and Jennifer Rubin. You know, them.

Recommended here by Salon.

Just a reminder that if God had meant this to be your position, your feet would be attached directly to your knees, and your hands to your shoulders

il papa assuming the position

Trump action against Obamacare is angering the correct people

"Trump’s Executive Order on Health Care Is Flat-Out Disgusting"

Jonathan Turley: Trump's order ending healthcare subsidies overturns Obama's original unconstitutional order

Read about it and watch here.

Real winning, but how vulnerable the constitution has been to the executive.

These are not General Lee's soldiers

The Jewish American social psychologist found that when confronted with a choice between hurting others and complying with authority, some 65% choose to comply with authority.

The New York Times blames France for white nationalism

Here:

France, more than any other country, has been the source of these ideas. ...

A few months later, I met the leaders of a local anti-immigration group called Retake Calais. When I asked if they wanted to see the migrants leave town, they lamented that closing the camp — which has since been bulldozed — wouldn’t help. “They’re sending them to all the little villages in France,” one of them told me. “In two years the villages will be dead.”

“It’s the great replacement,” his friend added, echoing the title of a 2010 book by the French writer Renaud Camus, which paints a dark picture of demographic conquest in the West. “They want to replace us.”

And you thought Ingsoc was merely something from a dystopian fantasy

Here.

More good news: Trump ends effective immediately $7 billion in funding for out-of-pocket medical expenses for low income insured under Obamacare

From the story here:

The cost-sharing funds, estimated at roughly $7 billion for this year, pays for low-income consumers' out-of-pocket medical expenses. Under Obamacare, insurers are required to offer lower costs for these services, for which the government then reimburses them. If they do not receive the funding, they must still offer discounts, and without an action from Congress they would be likely to sue for the money.

Good news: Trump does end run around Obamacare, expands ability of more associations to offer plans using Executive Order

From the story here:

The president signed an executive order "to promote healthcare choice and competition" Thursday morning at the White House. 

It is said to expand access to "association health plans" – group plans written by trade associations, small businesses, and other groups. Such large group plans do not have to abide by all the requirements of individual plans under 'Obamacare.' The order also tasks administration officials to develop policies to increase competition in the health insurance industry.

Richard Spencer's alt-right flash mob couldn't take over a decent-sized Walgreens let alone DC

They look more like some young Rotarians preparing to march in a street parade than a good imitation even of Roderick Spodes' blackshorts, except their suits are cheap, the shoes don't match and the white shirts signal nothing so much as surrender.  The commie bullhorn at the speaking event was a nice complement to the fascist haircuts, letting everyone know that the inspiration is an anachronism. Get married and have some kids if you want to keep America white. Bunch of larpers.

Video here, self-important, completely out-of-touch-with-reality and ridiculous story here. 

Laugh of the Day: After six days Hillary is finally appalled, Obama disgusted, by Democrat bundler Harvey Weinstein

Story here.

Harvey wises up, gets out of Dodge like Polanski

"HARVEY WEINSTEIN Flying to Europe Tonight FOR SEX ADDICTION REHAB"

Here's a screenshot of g***le dot com's observance of Columbus Day

Red diaper doper baby arrested in Chicago for vandalizing Columbus statue

The poor benighted soul operates under the odd conviction that ole Christopher is still alive and inhabits his statue.

From the story here:

While he was defacing the statue, Miskell shouted obscenities, including "F--- Columbus," "F--- the USA," and "Die Columbus!"... Miskell was found with a can of red spray paint. He also was wearing rubber gloves, a ski mask, a bandana and black socks over his sneakers.

Here we go again: "City man" charged with sexual assault isn't from the city, but is rather an illegal alien charged in a previous case

"Man broke into home, sexually assaulted 6-year-old girl, cops say"

TRENTON -- A city man was charged with sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl after her father discovered a stranger in bed with her in the middle of the night, police said. ... Trenton police said they charged [Edgar] Mendoza last year for peeping into a home, but the status of that case was unclear Wednesday.

Laugh of the Day: Harvey Weinstein's so stupid he forgot HE'S supposed to watch the ACTRESS shower

Don't look now but full-time job growth has slowed by 29% since 2015

(all data not-seasonally-adjusted)

In September 2017, full-time jobs grew barely by 2% year over year. The only other month in 2017 at 2% or higher was in April, at 2.3%, the dreaded spring of the year when the BLS' Birth/Death model adds phantom jobs to the economic data out of thin air based on business formation assumptions. All other months in 2017 so far have seen full-time jobs grow year over year by less than 2%, yielding the average shown of 1.7%. By contrast, 2016 had only three months out of the first nine below 2% growth year over year, and 2015 had none. Welcome to the slowdown, and maybe a . . ..

Illegal Treasury Dept. financial spying on Americans began under Obama and Jack Lew

From the story here:

Sources said the spying had been going on under President Barack Obama . . .. In October of 2016, Rep. Sean Duffy, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter to then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew asking for OIA’s legal authority to collect and retain domestic information.

Nearly one year later, the Congressman has yet to receive an answer, according to a committee staffer.

Britain voted for Brexit but the Tories can't deliver it because too many of them are against it

From the story here:

But it was not at all clear that a change of leadership could help resolve the arguments over Brexit, as the withdrawal is known, that are tearing apart the Conservatives, or that it would leave the government any more prepared to negotiate with the European Union. ... The cabinet is divided between those who want a clean break with the European Union — so-called hard Brexit — and those who hope for a softer departure to cushion the economy. When a consensus started to emerge from the cabinet, ahead of a speech last month by Mrs. May in Florence, Mr. Johnson, the foreign secretary, undermined it by outlining his own, more hard-line and upbeat vision of Brexit in a 4,000-word article.

Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement targets statues nationwide for Columbus Day on Monday

Let's see how many monuments are protected on Monday, seeing that authorities have had over two weeks to prepare for this.

From the story here:

The NYC-based antifa group Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (RAM) made the announcement on Thursday, September 21, calling on antifa groups nationwide to “decorate” their neighborhoods.

According to Far Left Watch, RAM is "an extremely militant group that advocates for the violent redistribution of property" and for "the abolition of gender."

Camille Paglia has come a long way, but still transgresses with her own utopian good old days

From her remarks here:

We have to return to the authentic 1960s vision, which is about identity coming from consciousness, which transcends gender, which transcends all these divisions of race. Consciousness itself! Okay? In the 60s, we had this idea that there was a human sensibility that transcended individual and nation, and there was this cosmic consciousness. This sense of the universe as a whole. To see the human being in relationship to great eternal principles of life and death, mortality, and so on.

She doesn't get that the 1960s liberal vision was the unique and irreproducible product of late Christian civilization.

Asinine is right: Marketwatch story blames James Madison for bloated tax code

There wasn't an income tax until 1913, for crying out loud, and never was intended to be.

James Madison, of all people, believed in neither an income tax nor a feckless giving to the voters whatever it is they may want. In fact, Madison feared the tyranny of the legislative the most, because the constitution gives it direct access to the pocketbooks of the people.

The story at Marketwatch here is beneath the dignity of any thinking person. It is a laughable farce of a story.

Caroline Baum should be ashamed of it.

How to prevent mass shootings

Don't mass in the first place.

Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend feared wired money to Philippines was his way of breaking up with her

From the story here:

“I was grateful, but honestly I was worried that first, the unexpected trip home and then the money, was a way of breaking up with me".

Las Vegas shooter shot at jet fuel tanks, explaining why he broke two windows at Mandalay Bay Hotel

So reports The Las Vegas Review-Journal here.

If more debt doesn't really matter, then why bother collecting any more taxes?

From "Debt Keeps Rising and Nothing Bad Happens":

Like so many things in macroeconomics, there is no reliable, well-confirmed theory that tells us the effect of government deficits or debt.

A rare contribution to National Review suggests that the Congress is an idea whose time has passed

From the story by Jay Cost here:

To put it bluntly, Congress is not well suited for national economic planning, which is basically what pro-growth tax policies boil down to. As a matter of fact, Congress outsources a lot of economic planning — like environmental regulation — to the bureaucracy, because it knows it is not capable of handling such matters for itself. It keeps tax policy within the legislature primarily because that doubles as a way to distribute political benefits to key constituencies.

The problem is an institutional one. It is really not accurate to say that Congress is a “national legislature,” for there is no member in either chamber who is elected by the nation at large. Instead, it is the meeting place of representatives of discrete geographical constituencies. This inclines the legislature to parochial concerns rather than national ones — a tendency that is exacerbated by the fact that senators are apportioned equally among the states, regardless of population. Moreover, our campaign-finance system, whereby those who contribute most to political campaigns are those with pressing business before the Congress, gives each member of Congress yet another incentive to view policy problems from the perspective of a very small slice of the nation. ...

In the Report on Manufactures, submitted in 1791, Alexander Hamilton argued that Congress’s power to “lay and collect taxes . . . to provide for the common defense and general Welfare of the United States” validated his ambitious plan of national development. However, his political opponents thought he was grossly misreading what was originally intended to be an anodyne statement.

But the statement quoted from the Constitution is not anodyne.

It simply points out that the founders thought the national government's main job was to provide for the common defense. The founders never imagined the managerial and welfare state, which represents today over 80% of the budget. Direct taxes were sufficient to fund the small state they did imagine, along with tariffs and excises. The contemporary megastate is only imaginable with direct access to the citizens' pocketbooks, which the income tax has provided only since 1913.

The way forward is the way back. Ideally we should aim to abolish all the federal departments except for the original five (State, Treasury, Attorney General, Defense, Post Office Communications), and tax accordingly (imagine a tax cut of 80%), along with the income tax.

And perhaps we should think about abolishing the Congress too, since we now have well developed state governments which can be tasked with the things the US House and the US Senate cannot seem to cope with effectively any longer.

The greatest fear of the founders was a tyranny of the legislative, but what we've got is more akin to a farce of the legislative. We should think about ending it and let free-market capitalism do its work.  

The nut didn't fall far from the tree: Vegas shooter's dad was a serial felon and psychopath

From The New York Post here:

The father of Las Vegas madman Stephen Paddock was a “psychopath” himself — a bank robber who escaped federal prison in the late 1960s and landed on the FBI’s most-wanted list, according to reports.

Another mass murder malapropism: Save your best wishes for Christmas and New Year please

Trump orders the flag at half staff to honor Vegas victims, you know the flag, THE ONE DISHONORED BY THE NFL

Trump keeps giving Norm Crosby, the Master of Malaprop, a run for his money

Representation as performance art: 49% of political campaign expenditures in 2016 went to media

12.1% went to fundraising, 11.2% to salaries, 9.4% to administrative costs, 6.7% to campaign expenses and 5.2% to strategy and research. $375 million of spending was uncategorizable.

A total of $5.9147 billion was spent.

Data here.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, climate update for September 2017

Max Temp: Actual 96, Mean 89

Min Temp: Actual 41, Mean 37

Av Temp:   Actual 66.5, Mean 62.7, YTD Actual 53.9, YTD Mean 51.1

Precip:       Actual 0.66, Mean 3.55, YTD Actual 24.98, YTD Mean 26.28

CDD:         Actual 136, Mean 75, YTD Actual 708, YTD Mean 685

In short year to date we are slightly warmer and dryer than the mean.

Average temperature is running 5.5% ahead of mean and cooling degree days about 3.4% ahead of mean. The rain deficit is running about 4.9% behind the mean. For average temperature year to date, compare some of the hotter years 2012 at 56.4, 1931 at 54.2 and 1921 also at 56.4, the average of which is 55.7. We are still 3.2% cooler than that in 2017.

Last season's average ONI value was -0.266, the lingering effects of the five month long Weak La Nina, indicating a very slightly cool ocean in the tropical Pacific over the last year. The preliminary read of the first value in the new season is -0.1.

Despite the heat wave we experienced in September, I still used 8% fewer kWh this September than last and stayed comfortably cool.

Chicago's resident spokesman for Big Brother, Eric Zorn, proclaims anti-Americanism is the true patriotism

In The Chicago Tribune here:

I resent that Trump has chosen to use what was a minor controversy about a few kneeling football players into a major wedge issue.

Not just because it flagrantly insults the concept of liberty that true patriotism embraces, but also because his focus threatens to turn standing for the national anthem into a partisan act. It’s the same bit of branding judo he’s trying to perform on the expression “Merry Christmas.”

Average candidate cost to win a Senate race in 2016 was $10.4 million, $1.3 million to win a House race

At least according to the story here.

The figure nearly doubles when factoring in outside money for winning Senate seats. Apparently outside money doesn't matter much for House seats:

Outside groups are a relatively unimportant factor in most House races, unlike in the Senate.

NYT: 110 million Americans have an STD, nearly 34% of the population

Story here:

The incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis is increasing, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 110 million Americans now are infected with a sexually transmitted disease.

Complaints about Senate gridlock aren't new, it's just the Republicans' turn

Over 200 bills are stalled awaiting action in the Republican-controlled Senate, according to a story at The Hill.

That's nothing compared to 2010 when the Democrats ran the whole show. Over 400 bills languished then unactioned in the Senate.

The problem isn't a bug, it's a feature.

The Senate is designed to slow things down. But the Senate sets its own rules, and could speed things along by changing them without doing any offense to anything except the tradition of doing as little as possible. And generally speaking, the less they do the better, since what they produce sucks most of the time.

Ruth Buzzi Ginsburg says Hillary lost in 2016 because of sexism, doesn't mention why Hillary lost in 2008

Black sexism, the hate that dare not speak its name.

Here:

CBS’s Charlie Rose asked Ginsburg at an event Tuesday night if she thought sexism contributed to Hillary Clinton’s loss to President Trump in 2016. “I have no doubt that it did,” she replied. Ginsburg said that while there were many elements that led to Clinton’s loss, sexism “was a major, major factor.”

It was all Revenge Porn: Hugh Hefner, the original cuck, is dead at 91

From the story here:

"I had literally saved myself for my wife, but after we had sex she told me that she'd had an affair. That was the most devastating moment in my life."

Remember the Tim Tebow controversy from 2011, kneeling in prayer on the field?

People criticized Tebow at the time for ostentatiously injecting religion into football.

Now blacks protesting during the National Anthem by kneeling are committing not just an act of Tebow cultural appropriation, they're turning it upside down, turning it into an act of defiance.

While Tim Tebow merely defied censoriousness, blacks in the NFL are defying us. 

Black football players rape white girls on US college campuses, but in England Somalis do it in the streets

Roy Moore clobbers Trump's chosen candidate Luther Strange, giving the lie to the "cult of Trump"

Disgraceful bitch Hillary: "Hopefully Trump hasn't ordered the killing of journalists"

Quoted here:

ROSE: He’s an authoritarian?

CLINTON: He has tendencies toward authoritarianism.

ROSE: So, he’s no different than Putin?

CLINTON: Well, hopefully he hasn’t ordered the killing of people and journalists and the like.

New record number of new cases of sexually transmitted diseases set in US in 2016: 2.098 million

1.600 million chlamydia

0.470 million gonorrhea

0.028 million syphilis

Story here.

But once again these are new cases. Existing cases of chronic infection are not discussed. Those number in the many tens of millions.

We're doomed: Only 64% say stand for the National Anthem

But that 64% is treated as good news here.

It's not. 36% support for this depth of disrespect for the very symbol of the country at such a high level of the culture, if one may be forgiven for characterizing football that way, is an ominous sign of impending breakdown.

This is the consequence of unfettered immigration combined with leftward political and social drift.

Told ya: Trump to raise lowest tax bracket from 10% to 12%

Story here:

Top White House and GOP leaders have agreed to raise the lowest individual tax rate from 10 to 12 percent, paired with doubling the standard deduction, 5 senior Republicans tell us.

The standard deduction becomes the football in this scheme. If the doubling survives intact, which is hardly certain, down the line someone can say it must be reduced, without advocating a change in the bracket percentage and voila, you've got a nice little tax increase on the poorest members of society without directly raising taxes.

This ridiculous tinkering with rates and deductions just continues ad infinitum since 1913.

As with the Obamacare repeal efforts, there are no guiding principles informing the tax reform debate.

Mandating health coverage at the federal level is tyrannical, and so is the income tax, quite apart from its deliberate inequalities.

Trump kept insisting on a replacement for Obamacare as well as a system of progressive taxation during his speechifying.

There's no there there. 

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee joins the Kneegrow Football League

The Negro Football League is even dumber than you thought

In America we don't need a cleric to tell us what we already know

The top 10 refugee-sending countries according to Amnesty International

Amnesty International, here:

Syria

Afghanistan

Somalia

Sudan

South Sudan

Democratic Republic of Congo

Myanmar

Central African Republic

Iraq

Eritrea

Average country IQ:

83

84

68

71

71

78

87

71

87

85

___________

Average: 78.5

US Average IQ: 98
Germany Av.: 99

German AfD comes in a strong third, Social Democrats crash, Merkel forced to form coalition with FDP and Greens

The UK Telegraph reports here:

The SPD’s decision to return to opposition has limited her options, with a three-way coalition with the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens the only obvious option.

However, the FDP is unlikely to countenance the EU reform objectives of France's Macron, and the Greens want to shut down the coal plants Merkel relies on after she shut down the nuclear plants in the wake of Fukushima, which the FDP opposes, making life very difficult indeed for Frau Merkel.

Meanwhile the anti-Islamist AfD is set to take seats in the parliament, the first time the right has been represented there since 1961.

Laugh of the Day: Trump's chief of staff patrols White House perimeter to keep Trump IN

Jack Lew, who presided over an 87% increase in the national debt as Treasury Secretary, is suddenly worried about the debt implications of tax reform

From the election of Obama in 2008 until the election of Trump in 2016, $9.2 trillion were added to the total public debt. We've gone from $10.6 trillion in the hole to $19.8 trillion over the period.

Yet now we hear from Jack Lew in The New York Times here that

"digging a deep hole of debt by cutting taxes will make it harder to pay for other priorities. And when that debt makes deficits skyrocket in the future, policy makers would have to choose between raising taxes and cutting investments and vital benefits. ... Some Republican policy makers suggest they may reject mainstream approaches and assume positive economic effects that go far beyond those normally projected by the budget office and the tax committee. ... Such a reckless move would almost surely produce an explosion of debt."

Actually, the Obama Administration dug a deep hole of debt right off the bat by spending money it didn't have, tacking on $600 billion of spending to Bush's last fiscal year, and then regularizing the increase by avoiding the budget process in favor of continuing resolutions, the Congress' new bipartisan method of fleecing the American people. Deficits skyrocketed contemporaneously, and then Democrat policy makers recklessly passed Obamacare with its spendthrift Medicaid expansion. They didn't have to choose between anything.

The only people more full of horseshit than the Republicans are the Democrat engineers of the Obama economic catastrophe.

Back on the 10th or so we were being told Trump was brillantly clearing the deck for tax reform

Unfortunately the empty deck got filled right back up by DACA blowback and the Graham-Cassidy Senate healthcare reform bill which is now already in trouble.

Raising the debt ceiling and signing a continuing spending resolution were mistakes. You only get just so many opportunities in four years to shape affairs as president.

Trump still doesn't understand how this works.

Come on Germany, do the right thing

Real earnings of men are still lower than in 1973: Was feminism worth it, darling, seeing that you are up ten grand but spend it on daycare?

The average cost of daycare is $11,666.

Progress: Obama's enthusiasm for community organizing is flagging

Here:

And it’s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents.

International Howler of the Day: Britain voted for Brexit yet Theresa May criticizes those who fail to respect international agreements

Having it every which way to Sunday she was.

From the story here:

Leaders who fail to respect international agreements risk jeopardising faith in institutions, she warned. Delivering a thinly-veiled rebuke to the US President, she said climate change “is depleting and degrading the planet we leave to our children”. And the PM hit out at countries which try to stifle global trade, after Mr Trump's “America first” inauguration speech in January. She warned against moves which “undermine support for the forces of liberalism and free trade that have done so much to propel global growth”. ... But Mrs May threatened to split cash from UN programmes that fail to produce results.

Laugh of the Day: Ann Coulter don't need no more stinkin' vowels

Ann Coulter: The GOP's new official motto is "NEXT TIME!"

Since Luther Strange supports DACA, ya'll in Alabama know you need to vote for Judge Moore

Two kinds of Trump supporters