Rubio Repeats to ROBO-U

Chris Christie’s suicide mission may make this a good night for Trump and Kasich [With Comment by John] | Power Line:

When I heard about the Rubio programed response failing into repeat mode last night, I was reminded of the old 70's SciFi movie "Westworld"  that had the marvelous line "Nothing can go wrong ... go wrong ... go wrong ..."

If the Democrats were writing the script, I don't think any of them would be smart enough to come up with having the bright, good looking, current leading establishment candidate utter basically : “Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing, He knows exactly what he’s doing." MULTIPLE TIMES!

Yes, yes, I certainly get his point ... I in fact agree and have blogged on it a number of times. If you look at BO's past, his books, his associates and supporters, he **IS** accomplishing exactly what he has declared he wanted to do since before he wrote the "Dreams" book. Which is basically make CERTAIN the the US is NOT an "exceptional nation" by the time he leaves office.

In modern politics however, being "correct" often not very important, but looking stupid,  for a Republican it can easily be terminal!

He basically is the R equivalent of BO in some ways -- looks good, talks well as as long as it is read from a script, and it is very true, he has never run anything, or accomplished much of anything.

It is REALLY starting to look like the Republicans are going to screw this up -- it seems that Cruz can at least be made out to be "unlikeable, spooky, etc", Rubio is shallow and inexperienced, Trump is  ... well, Trump, we have talked a lot about him.

What could go wrong?






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Cruz, Rubio, TP Zeitgeist

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio Made History. Didn’t You Hear? - The New York Times:

Here we have the obvious being stated directly and openly by The New York Times:

With Senator Ted Cruz taking nearly 28 percent of the vote and Senator Marco Rubio getting 23 percent, each vastly surpassed the results for any other Latino candidate in any previous United States presidential contest. 

How is that not being celebrated as historic or at least worth a headline for a day or two? 

The answer is not that complicated: Neither Mr. Cruz nor Mr. Rubio meets conventional expectations of how Latino politicians are supposed to behave.

The phrase that flashes before brain is "the banality of evil" ... how natural it is for evil, in the form of oppressive groupthink, "just the way things are", "everyone thinks this way", or  "how else could it be"? Becomes as natural as the air we breathe.

"The Party" (TP-D) controls the definitions, the categories, the "zeitgeist"-- the spirit of the age, intellectual fashion, the school of thought.

Classical Liberalism -- the kind that valued independence of thought, rule of law, and economic freedom was the opposition of single party rule. The kind of rule that defines how people MUST think to even be identified as part of their own racial group.

Take Ben Carson -- one would be hard pressed to hear anything about his blackness, and indeed, like Cruz and Rubio, TP does not consider him to be black. Part of being black is voting TP and ascribing to the TP position on issues ... the zeitgeist. Bill Cosby lost his blackness when he dared comment that blacks needed to have some level of decent public behavior after riots like Ferguson. He was thus labeled an "Uncle Tom" and so lost the immunity that had allowed him to treat women like Bill Clinton has for decades with impunity.

TP decides! For the bulk of the population they decide much of "normal thought" every day  -- they ARE the "zeitgeist", so what they say and do on a daily basis is "just the way things are".

America was intended to be a country with freedom of speech and thought and diversity of IDEAS! As TP so calmly and "chillingly" (if you are not a sheep) points out, even the vaunted "diversity" today is ONLY "diversity as defined by TP"!

You think Rubio and Cruz are Hispanic and Cosby and Carson are Black? TP is in charge of that definition as they are of ALL definitions. TP defines what is black or white, good or evil, intelligent or backward, and the vast majority of your fellow citizens are VERY comfortable with that power being held by TP.

In fact, so are you and I unless we make CONSCIOUS effort to FORCE ourselves to look at reality outside the confines of the  TP controlled environment!

This is the way that freedom ends. All categories are subsumed to being only "Of the Party" or it's enemy! Racial, ethnic, geographical, religious, social, intellectual, family, gender and class distinctions become merely  "are they a member of THE PARTY, or are they not"? The party defines and administers all the old categories, which are only recognized and defined in relation to TP.

Are you "Hispanic"? TP decides. "Educated"? Whatever TP chooses is the answer. Is your group one that deserves special treatment in hiring, education or government largesse, or are you in a group that is "bitter, hateful, lagging, racist" or otherwise to be sanctioned, controlled and maligned in the daily news and scolded by BO?

The banality ... the "common feeling", the "resignation to what MUST be right because it is EVERYWHERE" ... this is where the Gulag and the Gas Chamber become a barely noticed element of "the way things are".

Evil always hides best in plain sight. True evil is always dressed up as "the good". It is in fact SO GOOD that any disagreement with it is by it's very nature "evil" -- don't worry. TP is happy to inform you of EVERYTHING ... your race, your religion, your intelligence and yes, most importantly, your MORALITY.

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Magic Spells and Tribute To Barbarians

Blog: DC government will pay criminals not to commit crimes:

Our nations capital has decided that some sort of a program that pays some people not to commit crime is a good thing to try. The linked article likens it to the ancient practice of paying off barbarians to not attack your city ... paying "protection money" to the Mob might be an even better example.

The part about things like this that always impresses me is the general liberal government idea that economic incentives are a sort of black magic spell that if the proper incantations are used, can accomplish anything you like.

Thus, raising taxes on cigarettes is a proven way to reduce consumption, where taxing corporations at the highest levels in the world is not supposed to act as an incentive for them to keep profits off-shore, or even move to a less onerous tax climate as many have done.

Providing all manner of subsidies for not working we are assured has no effect on anyone trying to get a job  -- raising taxes on working people has no disincentive effect. It is all in the incantation!

One can envision a DC social worker meeting with a "client"....

Social Worker: "Bob, thanks for coming in, we need to go over your yearly benefits package. I see here that you are an able 35 year old presently unemployed, is that still the case?"

Bob: "Yes, it is, but I'm looking real hard for a job!"

Social Worker: "I understand completely! We raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour, require all employers to provide two weeks paid vacation, 6 weeks of family leave, health benefits, free child care and provide a federally mandated and tracked worker advisory group that meets 1 hour a week on the clock to give employees a voice in the business, yet hiring has gone DOWN!" We are doing all we can do, and I understand you are as well! It is often difficult to understand the job market!

We will continue to provide your subsidized apartment, cell phone, internet and cable TV along with $400 a month in Food Stamps and $1,000 a month in federal support payment.

I see here you have a criminal record.

Bob: "I was framed".

Social Worker: "No doubt racially motivated! This year we have a new program where you can receive up to $9,000 a year for attending a couple of classes if you promise to not commit any violent offenses during the year."

Bob: "I dunno, my schedule is pretty busy ... how much class we talkin here, I never did like school much!

Social Worker: "Couple of hours, very flexible schedule,  ... no tests. We understand that you have a life, and that takes priority with us! "

Bob: "I guess I could maybe do that ... so, if I would be framed again, would I have to give the money back?"

Social Worker: "Not if you spend it directly -- not a good plan to build up any savings account or anything, I'm sure you are avoiding that."

Bob: "Yeah, I like to keep any extra funds stashed in weed, whiskey or bling if you catch my drift.!"

Social Worker: "Thanks for stopping by Bob. Be sure to call me if you have any problems ... oh, I almost forgot. This is an election year. If you would like to vote in November, we can pick you up, and there is normally a small token of appreciation for our clients, OR, if you would rather, you can sign your absentee form here today and we can handle it for you.

Bob: "Say, two years ago I got a couple bottles of Malt and a carton of smokes!".

Social Worker: "Bob, I'm sure that was a gift from an appreciative campaign worker on the bus! There is no reason that you can't sign your absentee here today and still help out with the fall vote -- there is no identification required at the polls, and I'm sure there will be appreciation from the campaigns again in the fall.

We do have a program where I can provide you a Hillary button that has a small sticker on the back which many of the liquor stores in the area are providing a VERY significant one time discount on if you catch my drift".

Bob: "Yeah, I'll sign it ... the rich guys have it all rigged, I'm glad to see that we are getting a little something for all the work we do! .... See ya round Dawwwg !

Social Worker: "Thanks again Bob"


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Time Reborn: From The Crisis In Physics to the Future of the Universe

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Reborn-Crisis-Physics-Universe/dp/0544245598

Perhaps one of the best cases I'll ever see of someone passionately trying to escape from shadow of God and going to ANY lengths in an attempt to create a "completely new way of thought" in order to imagine that he is free from any transcendent concepts.

I had to go back and review my blog on "Reason And Analysis", because in many ways this book was more "attempted philosophy" than physics.

Smolin tells us what is bothering him on page 11:

There is a cheapness at the core of any claim that our universe is ultimately explained by another more perfect world standing apart from everything we perceive. If we succumb to that claim, we render the boundary between science and mysticism porous.  

Our desire for transcendence is at root a religious aspiration. The yearning to be liberated from death and from the pain and limitations of our lives is the fuel of religions and mysticism. Does the seeking of mathematical knowledge make one a kind of a priest with special access to an extraordinary form of knowledge? Should we simply recognize mathematics for the religious activity it is? 

He wants to explain the universe ONLY in terms of itself, and does a good job of pointing out how the incredible correlation of mathematics to the observable world in Newtonian Physics, Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, and the fact that all those "models" are timeless -- in that the formulas work in any place and time and are even reversible in time, is a "cop out". WHY!!! Why do they work? Why THESE particular formulas and initial values? He must know WHY!

The standard model just assumes "it is" -- and this obviously smacks WAY too much of "god" to Smolin. So, he goes for the "other great idea" -- Darwin. "Natural" Selection -- we MUST have had a LOT of universes, so therefore, each black hole is creating yet another universe, and the fact that we see a lot of black holes in our universe "must mean" that there is "natural selection" of universes and the fact that we have a "large number" of black holes "must mean" that we are in an "adaptive universe".

Evolution (of universes) requires time ... "real time", not "relative time", so he especially hates the ideas of relative space-time, "the block universe" and the multiverse. I go into those here a bit if you have not been suitably exposed

A lot of his thinking is based Leibniz's "Principle of Sufficient Reason" ... Everything must have a reason (cause).  Smolin wants to go farther, and make the "cause" be randomness -- as in Darwin, "lots and lots of random tries" and EVENTUALLY you get ANYTHING, including in this case, the laws of physics and the initial conditions of the universe. Although Smolin no longer finds the "laws" to be "laws", but rather "precedents" that may well be "evolving" from our "current approximations".

My nasty brain wonders if the Principle of Sufficient Reason would be required to have a reason? Smolin apparently chooses to be nicer to himself than that.

He is not however so kind to non-believers in Global Warming, religious people, etc. He finds that:

"If our civilization is to thrive, it would be helpful to base our decision making on a coherent view of the world, in which to, to begin with, there is consilience between the natural and social sciences. The  reality of time can be the foundation of this new consilience, in which the future is open and novelty is possible on every scale from the fundamental laws of physics to the organization of economics and ecologies. " 

Oh, "consilience" ... all the knowledge of the universe fitting together and us understanding the implications for "ultimate meaning" ... whole book on it covered here. "Coherence" is a great idea, but while you are in the process of throwing out the standard model of physics for a new evolutionary "precedence model", it seems possible that there may be a "slight delay" in achieving such a "coherent / consilient" view!

I looked up Smolin on the web ... he is 60, so I'm thinking he is having a midlife crisis. In the epilog you get insightful quotes like "The problem of consciousness is an aspect of what the world really is. We don't know what a rock really is, or an atom, or an electron ..." ... so therefore, understanding MUST be "about relationships" ... oh, and "Consciousness, whatever it is, is an aspect of the intrinsic essence of brains". Hmmmm

He sums it up with "the only certainty is that we will know more in the future".

Well, assuming that we survive the scourge of Global Warming, there aren't any monster natural disasters, rogue gravity waves, epidemics, etc, we will LIKELY have "more data", but is that really "knowledge"? I'd argue that prior to Einstein and certainly prior to Quantum Mechanics, many people at least THOUGHT they "knew more".  Is consciousness being an intrinsic essence of brains somehow supposed to guide us to "a better world"? Oh, and what would "better" be? (hint ... science has no ideas)

I enjoyed his descriptions of the standard model of Physics. I think they were in some ways better because he was trying to be critical of  rather than just explaining. Ultimately though, it comes down to one of two basic beliefs as covered in the "Reason and Analysis" link:

1). "Something" (God) created what we see with order, timeless and laws DISCOVERABLE BY US -- and that "something" is the "root" ... the causeless cause.

2). OR, the "root" is chaos -- there "just was" a lot of "chaotic stuff", for "no reason". The "wind of time" kept blowing over that junkyard of "stuff" and EVENTUALLY, it just "happened" to arrive at  the 747 universe where I'm typing this.

What Smolin (and some others) add to #2 is that EVERYTHING is RANDOM -- including the laws of physics, the relation of matter / energy, the speed of light, "the wind of time", EVERYTHING!!!

On top of that entirely random EVERYTHING -- including "pre-universe", he adds the faith statement that (due to randomness we assume) that "everything MUST have a REASON" (oh, and randomly developed consciousnesses of unknown character is able to discern those reasons! Tidy!)

But, hey, people that believe in God, math, laws of physics, etc are "cheap mystical priests".

Some guys handle their midlife crisis by buying a convertible and chasing a younger women I'm told ... in a completely random universe, perhaps ????

Minnesota Vice -- Enemy Combatant, Criminal, or Aspiring War Criminal?

Alleged ISIL recruits from Twin Cities argue for 'combatant immunity' - StarTribune.com:

We have heard since the early 2000's that "Terrorism" as in "War On" were non-sense terms, and that these matters ought be handled has simple criminal proceedings.

Definitions are always a giant problem for the left, and strangely enough the Star Trib seems to have joined with BO in reviving the ancient term "Levant" as in "ISIL", ceding at least linguistically the entire Eastern Mediterranean to Islamic State ... covered here.

W was of course all wrong to indicate that we are at war with those that want to establish a Caliphate intended to expand to control the entire planet. Strangely though, the people that are fighting US are VERY clear what they are and what it is they want to accomplish!

Five Twin Cities men accused of plotting to go to fight alongside ISIL in Syria are asking a federal judge to drop murder conspiracy charges on grounds that they have “combatant immunity” under both common and international law. 

They say combatants are immune from criminal prosecutions for acts of war, including murder, against military targets.

Huh? THEY claim that they are "combatants" in a war, and as such have "combatant immunity"! No doubt BO will help us all out and tell us they are NOT "Islamic, combatants, etc" ... when it comes to gender, all are free to declare their own at whatever point they desire, however when it comes to someone declaring what religion they are or what type of violent activity they are engaged in, we must wait for the proper emanation from BO! I thought the prosecutor said it best ...

“They are, if they must be categorized within the international law of armed conflict, best categorized as aspiring war criminals,” the prosecution said.

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Clive the Cat, Found Fat and Happy

Clive the Cat, Missing for a Year, Found Fat and Happy — in Pet Food Warehouse - NBC News:

Some nice pics of Clive on the link ... Norwegian Forrest Cat. We are pretty sure that our Cabbage, noted philosopher cat, has some Norwegian Forrest in his blood lines.

The nice thing about cats is that I suspect Clive wasn't all that lonely either.

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Jimmy Carter Backs Trump

Famous left-winger Jimmy Carter backs Donald Trump in the Republican race for President - Mirror Online:

Well sort of ... he likes Trump better because he believe that Trump doesn't stand for anything, but Cruz does.

Gotta love the liberal mind -- people that stand for something just scare them to pieces!

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Obama, Defender of the Faith

Obama defends the faith | Power Line:

Good column.

If we judge by actions and words, we know that Islam is the faith that Obama feels it is important to defend both at home and abroad. One often wonders if he isn't the worlds foremost authority on what is and isn't "Islamic".

Today he went to a Mosque from which  at least one known terrorist was convicted, identified as a breeding ground for terror and watched. The Mosque was led for 15 years by a radical cleric that worked with a federally designated al Qaeda front group.

Apparently THAT particular Mosque IS "Islamic", yet it clearly supports terror. One can only assume where BO stands on the issue!



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Groundhog Day, Again

Groundhog Day -- A Movie for All Time

We started a new tradition tonight I hope. Watching "Ground Hog Day" on Ground Hog Day. This is always my favorite scene ... "Don't Drive Angry!".

NRO has a tradition of running the same Jonah Goldberg column every Ground Hog Day, and I think it is an excellent tradition.

I was raised Baptist, but one of the things now dear to me in the Lutheran Church is the Church Year and the various elements of the liturgy. The Bible says to not use "meaningless repetition" and somehow the Baptists applied that to the liturgy, but fortunately not to Christmas or Easter (they do those every year!).

Matt 6:7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words."

As an Elder, I will be taking Communion to a dear shut-in woman with Alzheimers in February, and one of the lovely things is that she still remembers the Communion prayers and creeds -- not perfectly, but significantly. She tends to always say "I like that the whole church says and does these things ... I don't know why, it just feels right ..." The definition of "meaningless" doesn't include Christ instructing us on how to pray -- but we never did the Lord's Prayer in church when I grew up.

My cynical summary of Baptist theology was "If the Catholics do it, we don't".

BTW, I am NOT "anti-baptist, or even anti-dentite" ... like all human religion, Baptists have flaws, Lutherans have flaws, and mooses are the sum of all flaws!

You may not think of  the movie "Ground Hog Day" as a religious or philosophical movie, but I agree with Goldberg, it definitely is. Read the review, and if you get a chance, watch it ... again.

Perhaps when we "get it", then this life is taken from us -- and loving that it goes is part of loving it.

“The curse is lifted when Bill Murray blesses the day he has just lived. And his reward is that the day is taken from him. Loving life includes loving the fact that it goes.”

I hope you bless this Ground Hog Day!

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Air France 747, Goodbye To An Icon!

Stunning! This Is How You Say Goodbye To An Icon | All Things Aero:

A video that I enjoyed watching on the link. I used to watch the contrails from the farm as a kid, and on the rare occasions that I got to see a big city airport I always dreamed of getting on a 747.

It wasn't until my first over the pond business trip to England in late '80s that I rode one of the iconic double deckers from Minneapolis to Gatwick outside of London. The "ship of the skies" ... a slow and stately takeoff roll, a pretty level deck angle on climb. DC-10's of the era flexed and shook, with typically one or more overhead bins popping open. The 747 was solid, quiet and calm.

Sometime in the early '90s I read "Wide-body: The Triumph of the 747" a superb book. Remember, they built this beast prior to much in the way of computing power being available, and it was a REAL technological and business stretch. The book is also full of a lot of stories of the history of Boeing, including how the swept wing planes have a tendency to "Dutch Roll" which if not dampened can become violent.

On a customer acceptance flight, the customer pilot miscorrected and the roll became so violent that 3 of the 4 engines were thrown from the plane. It crash landed killing a high level Boeing exec and I believe their chief pilot -- 4 survived, largely because he was able to get the plane to the ground in a semi-controlled manner. "Bugs" in planes are often more costly than bugs in computers!

I definitely recommend the book if you have an interest in this industry changing jet.

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Minsky, Creativity, AI Koan

Marvin Minsky and the Creative Economic Mind:

This one is worth reading all of!

Marvin Minsky observations are common in physics books I like to read -- "Time Reborn" that I'm finishing up now has many.

The AI Koan covered in the column is:

In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. 

“What are you doing?” asked Minsky.

 “I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-tac-toe,” Sussman replied.  

“Why is the net wired randomly?” asked Minsky. 

 “I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play,” Sussman said.  

Minsky then shut his eyes.  

“Why do you close your eyes?” Sussman asked his teacher.

 “So that the room will be empty.”  

At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.

Are you enlightened? It's a Koan ...

The column links together a lot of topics that I think are interesting, but the big points at the end are that government has a strong history of slowing down creativity and business in many and varied ways. He has a quote I think is worth remembering:

Government is what happens when the power to say no meets the power to move slow.

I'd argue that quote is only true relative to productivity and growth. Government can move VERY fast when increasing it's own power and destroying individual liberty!

He discusses the removal of the "Prudent Man Rule" in '79 which allowed a burst of venture capital to be unleashed, and the allowing radio spectrum to be used under Reagan, which gave us cellular phones and WiFi.

He sums it up at the end with a paragraph that is worth pondering for a bit ...

Our current national mood is very grim: anti-immigration, because we fear foreigners will steal our jobs; anti–Big Business, which wants to help foreigners steal our jobs; anti-finance, because we fear Wall Street will somehow figure out a way to make money stealing our jobs; anti-technology, because we fear that robots will steal our jobs. And we are, too often, anti-entrepreneur, too, resentfully suspecting that somehow the men and women who create the things that we do not want to live without are somehow getting over on us.

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Lost Girlfriends and Muslims

Minnesota leaders' full-page ad decries bigotry toward Muslims - StarTribune.com:

I usually try to make my cases in clear points and reason, but this one hits me emotionally and I know the reason.

Sometime in late February early March of '76, forty years ago, I set off on a spring break to Indiana in a snowstorm with two young ladies my age to visit some people we had met in 4-H a couple years prior.  (we are supposed to get 8" of snow today)

Five years ago while driving north to snowmobile in a snowstorm with my son and wife sleeping while I drove, I finally realized that I was the most boring young man in human history! I'm a slow learner -- the mothers that allowed their daughters to go along with me knew what they were doing. I then understood a conversation with a young woman about why it didn't work out long ago. Her succinct reason -- "My parents like you better than they like me". (I'm sure they didn't, it just seemed that way to her). 

I feel the same way about the full-page Muslim ad as I did about that conversation. Why do our lefty neighbors choose Muslims over Christians? Why do our elites find Muslims "stylish" and Christians to be "hicks"? (bitter clingers)

Muslims share many of the elements of what secular society finds reprehensible about Christians. They are creationists, they hold homosexuality as a grievous sin, they believe that men and women have God given roles, they pray at work or school, they hold an ancient text as more holy than modern secular pronouncements.

They of course go far further than Christians. They make women wear hijabs and blame them for rape. They will kill homosexuals or adulterers if they become a majority. Once they do reach majority, they demand that the government be an Islamic State, by force if required.

The simple answer to "why" is CHRIST. He is, was, and always will be the DIFFERENCE. Islam may be far more restrictive and infinitely more violent than Christianity, but Islam rejects Christ, so the unholy totalitarian left is able to make it's peace with Islam but not Christianity.

Emotionally though, it hurts.

Emotions are like weather -- they pass. It is good to acknowledge them from time to time, but meaning of the sort to live by is a deeper truth. I'm convinced our cats have feelings, but other than Cabbage Cat (a feline philosopher that I consult with),  they don't reason much. Many "liberals" are similar ... without the soft fur and purr.

I cover  some reasoning on why "liberals" love Islam but hate Christianity here.  The embrace of "massive tolerance" for Islam feels somewhat the same as if the left leadership of MN put out a full page ad welcoming the Westboro Baptist Church to make their voices heard in MN. I'm not holding my breath on that ... though it would make far more rational sense than the Muslim ad.

If you want to cover a yet deeper philosophical understanding of why western secularism finds Islam preferable, it is covered in this post ... the punchline is that Islam and Leftism agree that "there is no truth".

So we Christians and believers in the exceptionalism of Western civilization have been jilted for Islam. It isn't new -- they love Communism and Fascism as well. (covered that recently here).

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.

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Hilly Comes Clean!

http://nypost.com/2016/01/31/this-was-all-planned-former-ig-says-hillary-state-dept-are-lying/

The following is a transcript from the NSA interview with Hillary after putting her under the influence of truth serum so they could assess the damage to national security.

NSA: "Tell us about your home-brew email server."

Hillary: "What's to tell? I had it set up, I had people run it, I deleted all that I could. Nobody told me that you had to empty the trash! It's the damned stupid tech weenies fault!"

NSA: "Why did you set it up?"

Hillary: "Are you idiots? We run a major criminal operation! I can't be having my e-mails subpoenaed and viewed by some flunky prosecutor! I collect tens of millions in bribes and pay millions in bribes and hush money.  "BBB" (Bill's Bimbo Bill) alone runs into the millions every year, and that is petty cash!"

NSA: "What about National Security?"

Hillary: "It can be lucrative at times, sure, but I make more money on just plain old quid pro quo."

NSA: "You sell national secrets?"

Hillary: "I sell everything. I buy a lot of stuff too."

NSA: "Aren't you concerned about treason? Agents and others losing their lives because of leaks?"

Hillary: "People die all the time, you expect me to worry about that? Nobody is going to prosecute us! There is NOBODY of any level of power that we don't have the goods on, and that includes the scum in my White House and his ugly wife that has the gall to call me "Hildebeast". Her days are numbered!"

NSA: "What about the information you are giving me now?"

Hillary: "You really don't get it do you? We own judges, prosecutors, heads of agencies -- the head of YOUR agency! You remember Ron Brown? He forgot who owned him! This interview is OVER! Jack ... "

..... sound of silenced gunshot.

Hillary: "Thanks Jack. Pity to see a decent young guy who doesn't know the ropes have to take his own life like that. He could have learned what matters with a little more time. Slow learner, wrong place at wrong time."

"Take me home. I need a warm bath and a good glass of wine ... oh, and get, ah, Ken ... er"

Jack: "You mean Keith Alexander, NSA head?"

Hillary: "Yes, him ... I want him at my hotel at 8 sharp. We are going to make sure that this kind of screwup doesn't happen again! ... oh, and Jack ... make sure someone cleans up this mess. "

Jack: "Yes, ma'am!'

******** end transcript

From the article:

Either way, there would be an audit trail for investigators to follow. The SIPRNet system maintains the identity of all users and their log-on and log-off times, among other activities. 

“This totally eliminates the false premise that she got nothing marked classified,” Krongard said. “She’s hiding behind this defense. But they [emails] had to be classified, because otherwise [the information in them] wouldn’t be on the SIPRNet.” 

Added Krongard: “She’s trying to distance herself from the conversion from SIPRNet to [the nonsecure] NIPRNet and to her server, but she’s throwing her staffers under the bus.”

We ALL know that the only reason she set up a private server was to avoid prosecution for her "business as usual". She also happens to be incompetent -- so she didn't get it really wiped and some e-mails got out. She STILL was allowed to go through them and pick which ones "could be released", and yet she allowed some of those to be Top Secret after testifying there was no "classified information" on that server.

The bottom line is that the Clinton's are above the law. All of this stuff was well known way back in the '90s, but nobody cared then as nobody cares now. If you want to run down the rabbit hole, here is a link http://www.arkancide.com/. Sure,  there are complete cranks, conspiracy theorists and a host of other folks "out to get the Clintons", but how many people can die around a couple "accidentally"?

I did look up a few of the deaths back in the '90s -- at least many of them ARE real people that suddenly stopped being alive. Just scan down the list and think about how much national attention was given to W Bush being in the TX National Guard 30 years before his presidency. How about the amount of time spent on Valerie Plame and the fact that it turned out that they even got to the bottom of it and it was Richard Armitage who accidentally leaked her name ...  he wasn't one of the guys the Democrats wanted to take down, so the investigation was over at that point!

It isn't just a "double standard", it is a complete takeover by a single corrupt political party  ... and I think  anyone that has paid MINIMAL attention knows that. The fact is that in general, we are so corrupt as a nation that nobody cares -- keep us entertained and distracted, keep the free stuff coming. Our only values are dollars and comfort -- gladiator Rome was a fount of virtue compared to America today.

God Help Us!

The BS Revolution

Bernie Sanders's Political Revolution - The Atlantic:

Time to "smash the old system" with BS. BO was a bit "airy" ... time to get down to the real "free shit"!

“I think he’s more radical than the other people we’ve had, and I like that about him,” Taylor Raska, a 28-year-old bartender with a nose ring, mismatched earrings, and lines of cursive writing tattooed on her arms, told me. An ardent environmentalist who’s tired of politicians, Raska believes the old system must be smashed for a new order to take its place. “Everything’s going to change!” she said, savoring the beautiful thought. “We are in this amazing period—it’s awesome to be a part of. Everything is changing!”

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Government For Government's Sake, Ground Hog Eve

Global factories parched for demand, need stimulus | Reuters:

The linked article is a rundown of the generally bad global economic conditions, but the bottom line is the heading -- demand is low,  government needs to provide more stimulus!

When IBM got to the point in the late 1980's that the average "span of control" (people per manager) was 7, I used to comment that we had "management for management's sake". We had completely forgotten what the business of the company was -- PRODUCING innovative and high quality solutions that customers wanted to buy, and were instead bogged down in "process, corporate programs, tracking and bureaucracy".

By '93 when they brought in Gerstner we were bleeding red ink and rapidly nearing death. We now have arrived at "government for government's sake".

US GDP percentage officially spent by federal, state and local government is supposed to be around 35% now -- it was 40%+ in like '09-'10. In Europe and elsewhere it stays over 40%. I'm not really sure ANYONE has a good idea of how much of "production" is now government "stimulus".

In the 1980's, Ronald Reagan revved up the "engine of capitalism" for what might have been it's last run, and we grew nearly continuously from '82 until 2000. Does anyone remember capitalism? It gets a lot of blame now, but in '08 and '09 especially we took that golden goose of capitalism into the DC operating room and it didn't come out -- but it still gets blamed a lot.

As near as I can figure, the "new goose" is government. It prints money and shits it out all over the landscape, the sheep run out and gather up as much of it as they can, and try to buy a few things from the remaining evil "businesses". You know, those idiots that are taxed and maligned every day for doing grubby work of growing, cooking, building, etc.  They might WANT to be "capitalists", but between BOcare, EPA, IRS, AMT, minimum wage, etc, they are basically just "undocumented government workers".

The geniuses in DC seem to have stuffed the old capitalist goose,  dressed him up in a top hat like Scrooge McDuck, put him in a window on Wall Street and claim he is alive. They sprayed some extra cash around the street to keep the folks moving the money from one stack to another happy, with the agreement they would send some piles back to the politicians in DC for the favor.

We have an old hag worth $50-$100 million stumbling around the country cackling about "income inequality" -- she was a bag lady delivering cash to Wall Street and a good deal of her pile comes from having sticky fingers (no, not like the Stones, that is her husband).

The richest guys in the US, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, regularly go out and lament "income inequality" as well,  the public loves it and sees no problem with it. It gives the sheep something to do rather than listen to speeches about "the greatest problem of our generation" (climate change), or watching reality TV -- or politics, but I repeat myself.

They don't really need to do that anymore either though, because there is a new reality TV show that is pretty high in the ratings called "Running for Emperor" starring Donald Trump, that is picking up solid ratings. It's an odd time, one never knows what people will watch anymore.

Oh, and I heard that Doc Brown from Back to the Future, got lost in time, fried his brain on a Mr Fusion overload and is promising to use a "flux capacitor" to power the dollar presses to hyperspeed so EVERYONE can be rich! In the future, everyone is rich -- it's the only fair thing to do!

and that's the way it is, Ground Hogs Eve, 2016.



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