Trump Shooting, Hillary Top Secret, DC Snow Measurement

Washington, D.C., snowfall total called into question after improper measurement - The Washington Post:

I've been moving around a bit -- IA over the weekend, up to Eau Claire to day to see my Dad in the hospital, so not a lot of "news depth".

I did see that Trump made a claim that he could shoot someone on 5th ave and that would not affect his support with his "core supporters".

Do we not know that to be completely true? Have the Clintons not proven then phenomenon over the past 25 years to everyone's complete satisfaction? Certainly her "core supporters" could care less about e-mail servers, top secret documents or Benghazi. It is not clear if they believe that any charges against her are due to a "right wing conspiracy", or more likely, they simply believe that she is the leader of their Tribe/team and they will simply listen to her. No matter what.

If we DON'T know that to be true, consider that a significant majority are ready to accept the word of a government that Global Warming is the "greatest challenge facing our generation", yet that same government is not competent enough to measure snow depth correctly!

It has become apparent this afternoon and evening, through multiple conversations with the weather observers at Reagan National Airport, that the snowfall totals submitted to the National Weather Service for that location have not been measured properly.

I want to believe that my Dad will come out of this OK, Trump supporters are angry and want a LEADER, Hilary supporters similarly have decided to trust her, and the Global Warming industry has a monetary agenda, while most of the believers simply don't want to be ridiculed as "deniers'.

We all have quite a lot that we desperately want to believe -- that we will get up in the morning, that our loved ones will be safe, that our future will not be some hell ... the list is long.

Belief is fine -- the issue of sanity used to be how do our beliefs "measure up" to reality? It seems many of us no longer subscribe to that standard.



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Free Stuff, With Amorality, and Mandatory Political Correctness For All

A YUGE number of conservatives just shredded Donald Trump in the National Review - The Washington Post:

The WaPo link at the top is their spin on the NRO Issue "Against Trump", the NRO excellent concluding paragraph:

Some conservatives have made it their business to make excuses for Trump and duly get pats on the head from him. Count us out. Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot in behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the Donald himself.

The entire NRO lead editorial is well worth reading, loaded with excellent points. The largest point that I would add is that the time for excessive Trump bashing is past. I would have MUCH preferred if Trump had flamed out MUCH earlier, but the current reality "is what it is" -- he may well yet be defeated, but there is at least an equal chance he will be the nominee of the Republican party. The fact that the Republican National Committee (RNC) has dropped NRO from being a debate sponsor, apparently for the anti-Trump issue, even though the  RNC response to the BO SOTU speech included a swipe at the Donald, their own frontrunner, shows how lost the RNC and really anyone who thinks themselves "conservative" is!

My observation is that for at least the last three years, we are a lost set of humanity with no shared principles, ethnicity, goals, vision, laws, religion, tradition, or culture living in the area once controlled by a great nation based on ideas asserted to be timeless, but now largely unknown to a disjoint and corrupted population and feckless leadership. For the tragic group of refugees from meaning and purpose stranded in this area of N America, there are no "self evident truths", nor "endowments by a creator", and for the small percentage of the population that even understands the concepts of freedom, equality of opportunity, rule of law, etc, we are faced to try to communicate with masses that have no "truth" and certainly not a "creator" upon which to base anything.

We have strongly declared ourselves to NOT be a "Christian Nation", to not be a "Nation of Law rather than men", and certainly not "the home of the brave". We are not a "nation" in anything save a largely unknown and heavily misappropriated "history". Strangely, there DOES seem to be an "evolving" (brewing?) consensus developing to replace "One Nation, Under God, With Liberty and Justice for All". I'd proffer "Random Godless People, With Free Stuff , Amorality and Political Correctness for ALL (meaning anyone that can schlep in over open borders).

The WaPo article is fairly forgettable, but I did like this view:

So far in this presidential election cycle, the front-running Trump has proven remarkably impervious to media criticism; if anything, he has been strengthened by negative press. His backers — a coalition of the disgruntled — seem to interpret every suggestion that electing or even nominating Trump is terrible idea as proof that it's actually a great one, kind of like the way my 1-year-old thinks everything I tell her not to put in her mouth must, in fact, be a delicious treat of which I am trying to deprive her. 

Do you see what I did there? I insulted Trump supporters by likening them to a small child. But I did that for a reason. This, I think, is the great flaw in most Trump critiques: They're patronizing, and the people who have fallen in love with this billionaire's cavalier campaign can sniff out condescension like ... well, maybe it's best not to try another analogy.

Ah, "condescension". If BO was forced to remove the condescending "Straw Man" argument from his speeches, he would be left with only self glorification to open his yap for! Trump is a clear product of BO (condescension, raw partisanship, lawless, etc), the culture of celebrity, the loss of any shared national ethos, and the lack of any real Republican opposition to the BO disaster. The minority of people that wanted what was "America" to continue ("the bitter clingers") are of course sad, angry, disappointed, disaffected, and basically the equivalent of spiritual refugees living in the territory they once thought they were a part of in spirit as well as flesh.

Lest any fall prey to the now commonly held view that such a sentiment is a sign of "racism" or worse (if such exists), I include this, which I happened to read in a Jefferson Biography just yesterday ... the following is from Alexander Hamilton after some time of Jefferson's presidency, "What can I do better than withdraw from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American world was not meant for me".  (John Meacham, "The Art of Power", p 367)

The nation has gone through many painful changes -- but I would argue that the last seven years have seen the greatest loss of especially spiritual and cultural capital. America was an idea, but the idea is dead to a large majority of the people that occupy this spiritually desolate territory.

The ideals that I and at least what I have read of the NRO so far, believe in, no longer hold sway with an significant portion of the electorate. The NRC does not represent any coherent set of values or policy save holding the sliver of "power" they already do -- their morals are the same as "The Party" (D), with just different marketing for their corrupt lust for power. The R party is the party of "hold things to the current level of corrupt meaninglessness", TP is "stop all opposition and seize TOTAL power over all!!!". Neither believes in individual liberty, rule of law, limited government .. let alone pride in those ideals.

As I've said before, Trump is the anti-BO -- lawless, no experience in government, narcissistic, no agenda save winning and himself, race pandering (BO-black, Trump-white), "might as right" ... and onward. As the NRO seems to point out, as have I, nothing "conservative" about Trump whatsoever.

However, this is political season makes us one sure promise, as bad as Trump is, if he ends up as the nominee, he will be INFINITELY better than the TP alternatives -- a known  criminal and an avowed socialist.

These days, that is what counts as a "sliver lining" I guess!


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Trump? Cruz? Squeal Like A Pig!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-establishment-donald-trump-ted-cruz_us_56a058e0e4b0404eb8f04d0a?utm_hp_ref=dc&ir=DC&section=dc

It's HuffPo, but I recommend it. It's rather infuriating if you even had wisps of tenuous hope that we had some shreds of a country left!

"Cruz has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way in D.C., whereas Trump hasn't, and Trump up until this year was pretty much a player," said Craig Shirley, a longtime GOP strategist and charter member of the establishment. "Ultimately, the Washington establishment deep down -- although they find Trump tacky or distasteful -- they think that they ultimately can work with him. Deep down, a lot of people think it is an act."

Are we electing someone to the Glee Club? Cruz "rubbed people the wrong way in DC"?  Good God, I'm starting to think we would be better off carpet bombing DC than ISIS!

TRUMP is "tacky and distasteful"? What the hell did/do they think about the Arkansas HillyBilly's? Have they listened to the witch cackle about "all women should be believed"? Has either Trump or Ted raped anyone?

Who do you really want to deal with ISIS or the VAST stack of nasty problems now rotting and festering after the reign of stench?

Burt, or Ned Beatty?

Personally, I believe there are a few folks that would really be improved by  broadhead ventilation through the thorax! 

Yes, everyone assumes that Hillary is going to skate on her scandals, and everyone INCLUDING the Republican "establishment" is fine with Trump if it comes to that -- or even Hillary. How about Bernie? The MSM and the Democrats have assumed that Trump is beatable -- and even it if he isn't, he is "one of them", and "it's all an act".

There is ample reason for Republican insiders to feel more affinity to the real estate mogul than to the brash Texas tea party senator. As Shirley noted, Washington has spent decades doing business with Trump, if not personally begging him for checks.

The inside the beltway corruption is beyond what I had even imagined! We've got very very little but corruption left! (anything?) They are looking for "someone we can do business with"! The business of being many 10's of Trillions in debt and $120 T unfunded liability while transferring massive amounts of money from the productive to the non-productive or politically connected.

"I'm rooting for Hillary," said one half-joking somebody in the GOP establishment. "She can't win a mandate, so we hold the House and don't get slaughtered in the Senate. We will have a great midterm in 2018 running against her," he said, requesting anonymity for obvious reasons. "We are a great opposition party."

It is really looking like it is TIME for Rome (DC) to burn!  ISIS makes some inbred gay hillbillies look like gender confused schoolgirls -- and DC wants somebody "the can do business with" and "doesn't rub them that wrong way". What are they, cats?

Well? Who is it that owns this shit-hole? It is WAY past time to get serious!

WaPo Cruzin

What makes Ted Cruz truly dangerous - The Washington Post:

Things are a heating up, and the elite media are getting a little worried. Based on how this article, and some of the others I've seen from the left look, they still feel more comfortable with Trump winning the nomination -- at least he "wants to be liked". They understand that -- plus Trump has given money to Democrats, always been Pro-Abortion before, he is a New Yorker ... Trump makes sense to them.

Besides, they are still sure that either Bernie or Hillary beats him, so it really doesn't matter. Just win baby win!

But Cruz ...

"I knew before seeing Cruz on the stump that he is smart — dangerously so from my ideological perspective. I knew from watching him operate in Washington that he is ruthlessly ambitious. Seeing him in action, it’s clear he’s adept at retail politics as well."

That guy might actually have a shot, AND even the Republican establishment hates him and is worried about him.

The guy isn't willing to pander to IA farmers on ethanol! Holy Crap!

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Palin, Trump, Hillary

Defending Sarah Palin's Endorsement of Donald Trump:



Not very long and worth reading if you ever liked Palin at all.



If it was Palin vs Hillary today, I wouldn't even blink an eye voting for Sarah. She isn't being investigated by the FBI, she has a human personality, she actually was a Governor, her marriage is like "Love Story" in comparison to Hildebeast's, and she knows how to shoot. AFAIK, her husband hasn't raped anyone, and of things that you can be metaphysically certain of, I think we can of that! If they could even find a girl from Jr High that said he "he kissed her too hard" we WOULD have heard about it -- IN DETAIL!!!



Yes, Palin has tried to make some money from her fame and we are supposed to be angry about that -- and completely unconcerned by the Clinton's greater than $100M acquired after they were "flat broke" leaving the White House.



Yes, Sarah has said some incoherent things in speeches and once said that "she could see Russia from her house" -- but Hillary stated she is named after Sir Edmund Hillary who was unknown when she was born, and she has assured us that there was "nothing classified on her private server", even though we now know that was massively either an "error" or a "lie".



The MSM did all they could to turn Sarah Palin into a laughing stock, just as each day they do all they can to cover for Hillary. The MSM hates Palin and loves Hillary -- that is enough for me to at least have significant respect for Palin.



Does her endorsement of Trump affect me? No. But neither am I going to see it as some sort of new reason to jeer and cat-call at her. There is no shortage of negative media attention to Sarah even though she is largely irrelevant at this point --  for the vast percentage of the public, the MSM accomplished their task with her.



We could use just a wisp of MSM concern for the Hildebeast -- for they are certainly intent to "accomplish their task" with her as well, and see her in the White House!



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Al Sharpton's $4.5 Million Tax Debt

Eric Holder Defends Al Sharpton's Ties To White House, Despite Tax Debts - Forbes:

I was questioned in a discussion last night if Al Sharpton REALLY owed $4.5 M in back taxes ... and that if he did, "it was old news". This is Forbes, Feb of 2015

With about $4.5 million in tax liens, most taxpayers know they would be pushed and prodded to pay. Mr. Sharpton, however, seems graced by a kind of Teflon liturgical outfit.

The latest I could find online was something from Snopes last Sept ATTEMPTING to debunk a rumor that BO had forgiven the Sharpton tax bill ... they said "it is likely Sharpton is working with the IRS".

The bottom line here is that he has at least had MILLIONS of back taxes on the books for a LONG time, and it involves a lot of questionable things like "my tax records burned in a fire".

We have seen a goodly number of Democrats pop up from time to time with many 10's, 100's of thousands and millions of dollars of back taxes, but they are still walking around, where most of us know somebody that has owed a few thousand and ended up with their wages garnished, heavy fines, etc

It APPEARS that we have a situation where the IRS is now an arm of "The Party" (D), where people of the "wrong" political persuasion (eg. Tea Party, Lois Lerner) can get in trouble, while "members in good standing" can walk around with millions of taxes outstanding.

That DOES tend to be how things work when one party takes over the entire government as TP has all the bureaucracy of our Federal government -- with 99% of them both D and Union!

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Sowell Against Trump

What Are Elections For? | The American Spectator:

Well, my "soul" is against Trump as well. I guess I'm a Cuz guy, but this is REALLY getting nasty!

As you know, there are few people I respect more than Sowell. I will likely vote in the MN caucuses, but they probably won't matter anyway, so this is a horserace that I pretty much just watch.

Worth reading, but the last paragraph tells the story ...

Is that the emotional release that Republican voters will be seeking when they begin voting in the primaries? If so, Donald Trump will be their man. But if the sobering realities of life and the need for mature and wise leadership in dangerous times is uppermost in their minds, they will have to look elsewhere.

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Iowa, Ethanol, Cruz

Iowa governor Terry Branstad wants Ted Cruz defeated - CNNPolitics.com:

It really doesn't take any courage to be for bigger government in America today, but it takes A LOT to be for smaller government!

The uneasy alliance between Republicans and Gasohol subsidies has been questionable for a long time -- and no doubt, the fact that Iowa has the caucuses has played a big part in calculations related to that.

Well, Ted Cruz has come out and said NO to Gasohol subsidies! Trump is all for them ... as are the other Republican candidates, and no surprise, Hillary and Bernie. Let's be honest, bigger government has been significantly bi-partisan for a long time -- sure, Democrats want MORE, but Republicans have definitely been pandering away with a "more as well".

Gasohol never made environmental or oil supply sense -- it takes about 1.3 gal of oil in fertilizer, diesel, electricity, etc to produce a gallon of ethanol.

What it DID make HUGE sense for was to help the price of corn go up and to build a lot of ethanol plants in MN, IA, IL, etc.  It DID help the farm economy.

However, the farmers adjusted. The price of corn went up, so they planted more -- MUCH MORE, so the price has now fallen and the as with other "farm programs", removing this one now is going to be PAINFUL, just like the Reagan removal of some of the programs back in the '80s.

I love farming. I have loved ones farming. I love BIG TRACTORS! ... but the ethanol government program is just like all the other farm programs in the past. It is a lie. Gasohol isn't saving anybody anything, but it no doubt IS propping up the price of corn somewhat even at this low price level.

Government programs are like drugs or alcohol ... they may give a "boost" in SOME situations, but EVENTUALLY they ALWAYS cause despair. For some of them ... like FICA, that may take many decades, or even a century, but we can certainly see the end from here on that as well.

With a heavy heart, I support the Cruz position. It may well kill him in IA, but having the government create the winners and losers in the market simply doesn't work -- for anyone! It builds overcapacity and ends up causing oversupply, and then the government eventually decides or is forced by economic pressure to remove or modify the program anyway.

Politics SUCKS! ... that is why we need SMALLER GOVERNMENT!

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Berning Through $28T

Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan Would Increase Federal Spending By At Least $28 Trillion - Forbes:

I look at something like this and the fact we are still here and at least assured by BO and the MSM that we are  "doing  OK" after seven years of BO disaster makes me realize we may drop off this cliff as well. $14T in new taxes and or deficit spending, and these are the ROSY projections -- that include cuts in pay for everyone in medicine and "some rationing".

Sure our workforce participation is at historic lows, sure we are most likely actually in a recession but we have fudged the numbers, high school educated middle-aged white Americans are dying in droves and the general view forward for Americans is dismal, but really, who cares? Oh yes, I could go on a lot longer litany, but does it really matter?  It isn't like the vast majority of Americans have any thoughts about doing anything but pulling more dollars out os someone else's pockets for some "free stuff".

We used to hear about "debt and deficit" all the time. Gone. Military deaths -- even those of the 12 missing Marines after the loss of the helicopter in Hawaii would have caused some soul searching about "sacrifice, loss, and the incompetence of the W military" 8 years ago. That kind of reporting would actually be REFRESHING now!

The IA governor wanting to defeat Ted Cruz, Glenn Frey dying, and Dolly Parton's 70th B-day are on top of CNN right now.

Yes, there is a really angry set of people dedicated to Trump, but as I look around, it looks to me like we have settled in to the concept that "there is PLENTY of money around"! We can print it, borrow it, take if from the "1%" or certainly SOMEBODY.

Can you REALLY see anybody that doesn't have a "D" next to their name winning this next election? The nation has "gone for the stuff" twice now, but thrown R's in the Congress and a lot of state seats in hopes that they can find SOME way to at least pay for a little of it and pass it all out with some tiny level of competence.

We have killed any idea of consistency or reason. Liberty and Equality OF RESULT are TOTALLY INCOMPATIBLE!!!! Is that not obvious to all?

The idea was EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW -- as in you could not have a "progressive" income tax because it treated people differently! **LAW** was to be applied equally. There was NO CONCEPT of "equality of result". What the hell would "equality of result" even BE? We all make the same amount of money? We all live in the same cinder block USSR style flat? We all drive the same socialist "Dumb Car"?

Out nation was NOT a nation of ethnicity nor territory, it was a nation of IDEAS.

We don't even have a CLUE as to the ideas that created the once great nation  we see falling apart all around us!

BO, Can't Lower Prices By Drilling, He Lowered Prices by Drilling!

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/23/politics/obama-energy-speech/

A little stale BO from 2012 ... he was of course "deriding Republicans", he does at least do that well :

At the Republican debate in Arizona on Wednesday night, Gingrich introduced himself by saying he had "developed a program for American energy so no future president will ever bow to a Saudi king again and so every American can look forward to $2.50 a gallon gasoline." 

Without naming Gingrich, Obama appeared to target that remark Thursday, saying to cheers that "anyone who tells you we can drill our way out of this problem doesn't know what they're talking about -- or just isn't telling you the truth." 

"It's the easiest thing in the world to make phony election-year promises about lower gas prices," Obama said. "What's harder is to make a serious, sustained commitment to tackle a problem. And it won't be solved in one year, it won't be solved in one term, it may not be solved in one decade. But that's the kind of commitment we need right now."

The truth is never likely to get close enough to BO to bite him in the ass, but if it did, he sure wouldn't recognize it!  BO is the master at BOTH lying and "not knowing what he is talking about"!

But being loudly and arrogantly WRONG isn't enough for BO. No, he can BOTH call the other side names and then take CREDIT when what he called "not telling the truth" comes to pass!! Naturally the MSM is going to let him get away with it, and apparently the American electorate has a memory shorter than a late stage Alzheimer's patient! (from this link):

But virtually all of the increased oil and natural gas production has come from private and state lands, where Obama has no jurisdiction over approving drilling permits. Meanwhile, oil production on federal lands has floundered under Obama. From 2009 to 2013 oil production on federal lands fell by 11 percent and natural gas production fell by 28 percent.

He proudly held off the Keystone Pipeline and then cancelled it as well. BO has done all he could do to stop US and Canadian delivery of cheaper energy to Americans, but he shamelessly takes credit for it at the same time!

Our founders were right, we REALLY DO need an ADVERSARIAL MEDIA ... it is just too damned bad we don't have one when a D is in office! Just wait and see a completely insanely obnoxious completely adversarial media return if an R is ever elected president in BOistan!

Strib MinnesotaCare

MinnesotaCare was great, until the invoices dried up - StarTribune.com:

One can't expect a lefty leaning person to really learn from experience, but if a corporation provided service this bad the Star Trib would almost certainly be demanding lawsuits, government action, etc.

Of course MinnesoataCare **IS** the government, and "they are here to help" ... but you would never know it from the phone exchange below (there is more in the top linked article):

I called often but the result was always the same: “We’re experiencing a high rate of calls. Please call again later.” **Click**. 

I was foiled online as well, my MNsure account disabled by the usual cyberscape bouncer, System Administrator. On rare occasions I pierced the cones of silence that hung over their help desks. “Wait! I’m here!” I croaked. My throat dusty, forming words like a Bedouin straggling in from the Sahara. “I have copies of checks … Tax info …“They don’t match our records,” said the voice. 

“How can you have records if you don’t send us invoices?” 

“Mail in your payments anyway, without the invoice,” said the voice. 

“I tried that, you guys applied them to the wrong account.” 

“Mail them anyway.” 

“You want me to mail money blindly, with no paperwork, to an agency I can’t call or contact?” 

“Just put your ID number on the check,” said the voice. 

“You mean this one?” I read the number. 

“That’s not your number.” 

“That’s my ID number from the last invoice you sent me. It says right here: ID number.”

I've heard a full crowd of lefties on MPR try to sort out why we have MinnesotaCare + MNsure, and how that all relates to BOcare, and it was obvious they were very confused, some of THEM even wanted to get rid of MNsure ... but naturally, since they were all lefties, there were a couple that were CERTAIN that MinnesotaCare's many problems (that they all agreed it had) would be worked out "soon". I believe I heard that last spring.

Here is another article on the subject ... "Faulty Billing Costs State $44 million".

But who really cares? It is ONLY $44 Million, I mean it isn't like some CEO got that for a salary or the Koch brothers gave it to some campaign or something!

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Jail'n N Fail'n, Freud Attacks Hillary!

Blog: Hillary’s subconscious acts up in Dem debate, provides 6 words that will haunt her:

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. As the article said, she seems to lack a conscience, but apparently she has a subconscious!

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4th Q, Recession Deepens?

Weak U.S. data deluge points to sharply slower growth | Reuters:

"As a result of the weak data, JP Morgan slashed its fourth-quarter GDP growth estimates from a 1.0 percent annual rate to only a 0.1 percent pace. Goldman Sachs cut its forecast by three-tenths of a percentage point to a 1.1 percent rate. The economy grew at a 2 percent pace in the third quarter."

I know that in the age of BO, we are all supposed to listen in rapture while he pisses down our backs and tells us he made it rain, but I guess I just don't enjoy it that much!

DOES ANYONE IN THE US CARE ABOUT THE ECONOMY ANYMORE!!!!

 I had to go to REUTERS to even see this! I needed an article from the Guardian to even get a TINY amount of data on the US changing the way we measure GDP as of July 1!!! 

So if the economy "grew" at 2% in 3Q, that may actually be a 1% DECLINE under the old measure. 

Now 4Q is estimated to be a 2-3% DECLINE under the old measure. 

I reported on the first two quarters here -- they originally reported 1Q as -.2 and then bumped it up when they reported 2Q with 2.3% "growth" with the new measure. So, if we take THEIR "adjusted measures" and apply the "new GDP math", we get  +.6, -.7, -1, to a -1-2% 4Q! That 

That folks is supposed to be a "good economy" in the age of BO! 

Does ANYONE believe the inflation figures from the government anymore? Sure, gas is down, but food? medical? internet? TV? property taxes? any sort of "service" like car repair, tires, etc? anyone look at the price of a car lately??? 

I realize what a complete dupe I am holding some money in "inflation protected US Bonds" -- and WHO is it that I thought was going to calculate the inflation number? Talk about the Fox guarding the hen house! 

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Dancing With The Coach That Brung Ya

An aggressive Bruce Arians got his win and Mike McCarthy should learn from it - NFL:



The linked article makes a case that Mike McCarthy cost Aaron Rodgers yet another Lombardi last night. (I know, we only would have had to get by Carolina and then win the big one! Would have been NO PROBLEM! ) I especially liked this part of the argument ...

It's almost always better for the underdog to try to turn the game into a shorter contest. Taken to an extreme, if you're playing Steph Curry one-on-one and you start with the ball, it's better to play to one than 11, because you might fire off a jumper and get lucky, but you're not going to hit 11 shots over Steph without giving him the ball.

It's a good article on aggressive vs conservative coaching. McCarthy is pretty conservative coach at heart, and like everything, that has it's plusses and minuses.  Oh yes, and "Monday morning QB" is ALWAYS a great place to be smug! Football is however a GAME, so if there is enjoyment in 2nd guessing, why not? Besides, there IS some worth worth to a post-mortem, and given my head, I'll be thinking SOMETHING about the Pack headed to next season.



I was surprised they didn't roll the dice on going for two after the big Hail Mary. We had the momentum, the birds were stunned, I think it was our best shot and a good one ... I think even a better one than what the article leans toward.



The best news of last night was Jeff Janis and Jared Abbrederis ... we have been waiting to see more of both of them since the O went south even before the break, and last night they both looked good. I'm certainly hoping we return to being loaded with good receivers next year!

I found this one to be WAY easier to take than the over conservative 2nd half with the surrealistic final minutes at Seattle last year. I was thinking of that kick today as Carolina did successfully field the onside! 

I'm the kind of guy that likes to watch my  team methodically run up 3+ touchdown leads and then do long grinding drives to leave the margin at that level! Last years mid-season Pack was PERFECT! Note, I don't like that in general -- I like to see everyone else play CLOSE! I almost turned off the Carolina - Seattle game in the fist quarter. 

We're WAYYYYY DUE! Our season had huge issues, but we came back to life last week and ended up on the wrong side of one of the better playoff games one is likely to ever see. 

This year has taught me to throw expectations completely out the window when it comes to football. I ALWAYS firmly held that relative to injuries, but this year I learned that at least the O can just suddenly "go to pot" and nobody can put their finger solidly on why? 

Naturally, come September my hopes will be sky high again. I'm thinking Carolina beats the birds and goes to the big dance.

Hopefully more aggressively. GO PACK GO! 




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War On Carp and Sanity

Fervor in Oregon Compound and Fear Outside It - The New York Times:

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore"! As I've noted before, we also certainly aren't in anything that would have been called "America" or USA prior to 2008 anymore. WTFistan? It was "Changed", and it seems Hopeless ... but I think I could even take THAT a little better if I could even begin to understand how I might even imagine walking a few miles in the ruling elite's moccasins -- or perhaps wearing their tinfoil hats? What is going on????

In the linked article we find that a lot of strange people are running in and out of the remote wildlife refuge that has been "occupied", including somebody dressed like a Declaration of Independence Signer, some kids, reporters and ladies baking brownies. and a horse named "Hellboy".

Deeper inside, down an icy, tree-lined road, the group has seized about a dozen buildings, and the Bundy brothers have commandeered the cluttered office of Linda Sue Beck, a government biologist who had been leading a war on invasive carp before the occupiers took over. 

The heart of the protest, however, is a quarter-mile from the biologist’s office, at a bunkhouse with bedrooms and a large kitchen where women marinate chicken, grill salmon, bake brownies and organize a stockroom that swelling with donations from around the nation. To slip in, a reporter just has to ask.

I know I'm pretty concerned that the LEADER of the "war on invasive carp" has been sidetracked! Thank God we are still able to combat "Global Warming", the "challenge of our generation", as well as the other biggie "Income Inequality" ... I wasn't even aware we had declared war on carp.

So WTF? The NY Times clearly cares about this "occupation", although the federal government either completely doesn't care, is totally incompetent, or ??? I mean, 3rd grade snow fort occupation management 101 would be to RESTRICT ACCESS! In the event they have ANY future plans to take the government property back ... perhaps in a hurry because the carp have maybe captured a couple of our navy craft and we want our sailors back!

Or perhaps our leadership is looking to get a bunch of people in there so they can burn it up like Waco and make a bigger "statement"? Isn't there SOME limit on how much incompetence a sane person can buy into? I know that is "black helicopter stuff", but I simply can't figure out what the Feds are up to here at ALL, and I don't think the NY Times can either.

I WILL say however that watching Facebook, one sees how quickly the left goes to VIOLENT HATRED! There can be all manner of black riots, police killings, blacks blocking freeways, Islamic beheading, rapes, planes bombed, etc, and your average lefty is "keep calm, don't stereotype, be "proportional" etc.

Let a few cranks take over a remote wayside rest and the lefties want BLOOD and they want it NOW!!! TERRORIST is a word they are no shy about using at all in THIS case!

So on to the Iranians and the boats. We are expected to buy that our navy is SO incompetent that they "drifted into Iranian waters". This makes no sense.  The boats were stopped on the high seas for a great show of force over the US, especially the obviously false cover story plus BO and Kerry bowing and scraping.

Then we have the apology from the Navy Commander that is in direct violation of the code of conduct for our servicemen when captured! Huh?

I understand why Iran would like the show of force and slap in the face on the day of the SOTU and a couple days before sanctions are lifted, but why would BO and company play along? Even MORE surprising is that it seems that NOBODY is concerned at all about how completely off the wall this incident is. There are at least 10 sailors that know at least a lot of the story, and nearly certainly double, triple that or more on this side and who knows how many on the Iranian side. It would seem like the truth eventually will come out, but OTOH, the gigantic lack of curiosity is AMAZING!

Was the propaganda photo op something that Iran demanded to release the three hostages they have been holding forever?  I could see BO going for something like that for sure. Oddly, although the linked WaPo headline is ; "Plane with freed Americans leaves Iran; U.S. imposes new sanctions", the sanctions are not on Iran, but on the companies that helped them prepare their ballistic missiles that they have tested in violation of the agreement that the sanctions have been lifted as a result of them agreeing to ... and violating!

Again, What???? I have no idea what is going on -- the "ship of state" seems to just be completely drifting domestically and abroad, and it seems everyone is just watching the playoffs, TV and movies and surfing the net like cud chewing cattle.

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