Naturally, liberals are apocolyptic over the tax bill ... anything that has even a TINY chance to allow people to keep more of their own money is "the end of the world" to liberals. This Forbes article claims that the bill is "The End of Economic Sanity in DC" ... assuring us that there HAS been "economic sanity in DC" in the past and "this time it's different" ... ho hum.
A tax form that says "list your income" with a command to "send it in" (for people that make "more" than a given liberal of course!) is the only tax plan they MIGHT find "fair" ... until they start taxing "wealth" while you are still alive at least.
I happen to be reading "The Age of Reagan" right now and as luck would have it, just read past the quotes in the attached column -- they say history doesn't repeat itself, but only "rhymes". This one seems closer to a repeat to me! The following is a good quote from the linked, and the linked is well worthy of reading.
Liberal rhetoric on the issue is revealing. Allowing people to keep more of their own money was called “showering money on the rich,” as though all wealth belonged to the government rather than the people. If not outright egalitarianism, the Democratic attitude is at least rooted in a distributionist fallacy—the idea that wealth is distributed, mostly by government, rather than earned by individuals and apportioned by markets ...
I'm not going to do a ton of work and link everything, but these figures are mostly from my usual sources -- CBO, Wikipedia, etc.
Obama YEARLY deficit 2009 $1.4 T, 2010 $1.3T ... the "stimulus" was spent on things like Solyndra, sending something like $30 B largely to democrat run schemes that knew how to write "green" on a piece of paper. The D's took over congress in '06 and it was downhill from then on.
Over his term, Obama added $10 T to the debt, W added $5 T , and the rest of US history (pre-BOistan) added $5T in over 200 years. If Trump adds less than $20 T on his own, he will be doing "better" by recent standards in which each succeeding president doubles the debt!
As the media and your lefty friends go nuts over the "massive increase in debt", just remember the BO cliff! All that is being discussed here are the question of the pitch of that far right of the chart based on TWO elements of which GDP growth is actually the major one. CBO policy counts all tax changes as economically neutral -- tax increases never decrease GDP, tax cuts never increase it ... even though both typically happen, in order to stay being called "non-partisan", the CBO just leaves the contentious issue off the table in it's calculations.
Why did the BO cliff happen? He attempted to "stimulate" the economy via massive government directed SPENDING, so GDP growth was terrible and and the money largely went to big democrat supporters as a reward for being democrats, vs where it might actually increase growth.
All the howling about the current tax bill is about twiddling the upward slope of the chart below -- the CLIFF is about Democrats actually being in charge.
People that pay attention know we have been to this movie before, with Reagan in '81. Slick Willie didn't get to wreck the economy ... the Republicans took over the House for the first time in 50 years in '94, and paid the price of controlling the RATE OF GROWTH in government spending, while Slick took the credit for a short budget surplus. In terms of how media works here, that is pretty much a "fair deal'.
The REAL test is if the Republicans and Trump are willing to take the hard measures of reducing that rate of growth in spending again ... they do NOT have to make actual "cuts", only reduce the rate of growth, and that chart will trend down again (slowly) as it did in the late '90s providing that the tax cuts have the desired effect of increasing GDP growth!
This is all pretty easy to understand, one would think that a few more people would consider understanding it.
First, a good explanatory article from Victor Davis Hanson; a quote:
What can possibly be Trump’s purpose in appearing so thin-skinned and petty?
Likely it is twofold. Most obviously he seeks to reestablish deterrence: don’t dare attack Trump unless you are willing to be dragged down with him into a netherworld whose rules he has mastered. Just ask Low Energy Jeb, Little Marco, or Lyin’ Ted.
If we have never seen a president stoop to fight with the NFL, we have also never seen the NFL kneel to self-destruct by offending millions of its fans. If the president cannot defend a national tradition of standing in honor during the National Anthem, who else could?
Second, he knows the politicians, media hacks, and celebrities who attack him are sanctimonious bullies by nature. Their professions traffic in self-righteous invective, with the expectation that they will be never be attacked in kind.
Many people are confused by Trump -- "thin skinned, immature, non-presidential", etc. All might be true, however, HE FIGHTS ... he is the first fighting president in the culture wars, and he has done a lot of fighting and a good deal of winning this past year. See Gorsuch as well as court appointments in general, as well as making headway against the Deep State.
The big Christmas gift to all productive BOistanis is Tax Reform. The exact parameters are still in doubt, however if SALT is removed or restricted, the corporate rate drops significantly, AMT is removed or the threshold raised, and there is SOME movement toward lower rates, I think we can expect at least a couple percent of GDP growth to be added on so that they could even quit faking the numbers if they wanted and show REAL GDP GROWTH!
It's been a LONG time since there was much of anything like "optimism" in ether the old America, or BOistan ... like 17 years ago in 2K.
Certainly the constant attacks from "The Party" (TP-D), the Deep State, and of course the media will continue, however in their attempts to get Trump, they are causing themselves a lot of collateral damage, and not only in the area of "Sexual Correctness" ... ABC has suspended Brian Ross for 4 weeks for the Fake News that Trump had ordered Flynn to work with the Russians while a candidate. In fact, he was instructed to work with them AFTER the election when Trump was president elect -- a completely normal and expected interaction. Not that private citizens can't talk to Russians -- the Clinton Fund did A LOT of it for MONEY while transferring 20% of our urainium to them in the Urainium One deal!
Lot's of smoke coming out of the TP and media houses, BOcare at least heavily wounded as part of Tax Reform, SCOTUS, judicial appointments, bleeding from the Deep State, and the constant spectacle of lefty heads exploding.
In many ways, this ought to be in the humor section. Mueller removes an agent on his investigative staff because he is sending anti-Trump text messages (so much for "unbiased").
... But the existence of the text messages is likely to fuel claims by Mr. Trump ththat he is a target of the “deep state” — a term used to describe the notion that government intelligence agencies secretly conspire together.
The discovery of the text messages came at a crucial moment in Mr. Mueller’s investigation. At the time, Mr. Mueller was ramping up his investigation into Mr. Trump’s former advisers, while also coming under criticism for putting many donors to Democratic candidates on his team.
Ya think? You mean just because they send anti-Trump text messages and there are a bunch of people in the Witch Hunt that were Hillary donors, someone might think there is a "bias"???? How paranoid!
The article also covers Trump pointing out that the wife of the FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe took $500K in campaign contributions from longtime Clintonista Terry McCualiffe. Damn! One would think that little "swamp exchanges" amoung "The Party" TP-D and it's operatives / families busy making sure the Deep State keeps all the real power would be bothersome to people!
The bubbles are rising as the swamp begins to drain!
The human tendency for anyone but a hard lefty is to look at guys like Franken and Keillor and be flooded with schadenfreude -- these are guys that have attacked anyone remotely conservative with the darkest venom they could muster with never a thought of mercy. They were SMUG in capital letters, and that was that. They were on the "right" (meaning left) side of history, goodness, intelligence, wealth, power, privilege, etc, etc ... absolutely qualified to put down ANYONE -- as Franken does my Lord Jesus here. Hey, it's "humor"! Add into that the general tone of the callers to an MPR show this AM -- "I'm SHOCKED that you would not stand by good men like Garrison, while TRUMP get's off! I'm done with MPR, you will never see another dime!" In the tribal state of BOistan, we love our own and ONLY our own!
The odd thing is that if Garrson is telling the truth -- and no matter how far left and smug one is, that is always a possibility, then he is out because he put his hand on a woman's exposed back and apologized. AFAIK, that is all that is widely known at this point -- I can't really blame his left wing defenders to be losing an "icon" over a hand on a back.
Do I "believe him"? Well, no, the fact that MPR would "sever all ties" with a man that has been THE face of MPR since I've been able to listen, means to me that we are likely to find that there are LOTS of other tales to be told. He has a giant sense of entitlement and his personal power that "taking a few liberties" would HARDLY be unexpected -- this is BOistan after all, the land of "no controlling moral authority".
Are we really going to sit here and let the whole BOistani system of "Power is all that counts, corruption is king, and if it feels good, DO IT" be called into question? The MPR callers were certainly not -- they want their "icon" back! BOistan is supposed to be the land of ZERO morals, what is going on? (for THEIR side stupid, the conservative side is supposed to be concerned with 38 year old "charges")
"Sexual Harassment" is such a broad term that it includes what Clarence Thomas was ACCUSED of (mentioning an x rated movie and suggesting that there might be a pubic hair on a can of Coke), after which Anita Hill followed him to two different jobs. It also includes charges of rape and attempted rape against Bill Clinton and Harvey Weinstein, as well as LONG lists of grabbing, exposing themselves, masturbating, etc, etc. Justice Thomas will never be forgiven for his ALLEGED words, while Slick is still an "icon" to many today, and if Hillary had been elected, would be functioning as "First Man" with no outcry from the MSM. (clearly, no Trump, no lefty puritanical purge!)
My contention is that "Sexual Harassment" was purposely created to be a weapon for women, with the assumption being that "liberal men" would largely be exempt, and it would be a way to take "sexually repressed, nasty conservative hypocrites" out of public life. The law on Sexual Harassment is that "if she feels she was harassed, she was harassed"! Words, pictures, attitudes, staring too long, etc, etc are ALL part of Sexual Harassment! It might better be called "Sexual Correctness" (SC), since it's enforcement is done very much like "Political Correctness". I cover some more detail here if you have interest.
Take "Pocahontas" in the PC case ... the word could denote a wonderful Disney character, or if used by Trump it could be a "racial slur" -- it is all up to what "The Party" (TP-D) and it's wholly owned media say! What sexual behavior is and is not problematic is up to the same powers. (it's POWER baby!) The busty young lass with the low cut top bends over to pick something up, and the male is caught looking, that can EASILY be "SC"! She can wear whatever she wants, he is not allowed to look if it makes her OR some other woman "feel uncomfortable".
Gays are completely unable to control their sexual desires -- "it's their nature", heterosexual men are completely able to control their notice of exposed cleavage. If you want to stay in good standing with TP, you MUST agree!
Since the early '90s, the SC genie worked pretty much as intended -- when it showed it's face relative to a lefty politician, it was quickly ordered back in the bottle by the MSM and "feminist" women. When it attacked a conservative -- no matter how mild (or ancient) the "charges" as in the case of Clarence Thomas, it was a fearsome genie indeed, destroying many men's careers and political aspirations. (men on the WRONG (right) side!)
In an adult and civil society, women would be well able to deliver a knee to the scrotum, a scratch to the face, a nice scream, or other "scene stealer", and go off to the supervisor, a large male friend, or something similar, and the cad would be put in his place. Slick Willie would have had his famous index finger broken so many times it would crookedly point back at his oft beaten pulpy face in an adult world.
Alas, we live in a feminized society of back room gossip and palace intrigue in the media as well as the halls of government and business. Both manly and womanly honor and virtue are dead, replaced by sneaky, snide, slimy interactions and "cat-fight hissy fits" of the sort that Obama excelled at. The "end of life" for once great cultures is always thus -- Athens, Rome, Britannia ... all ended with deep corruption of all types ... sexual just being one example.
In a world of even minimal honor and virtue, "Sexual Harassment" would leave a "mark" -- the perpetrator bent double, nursing an embarrassing scratch on the face, a black eye, etc. It would be "out" in an instant, because the woman would find her personal honor and reputation to be worth far more than some "career" ... and indeed, the sorts of women that moved up the ladder in that world would be those that were known to be more than capable of standing up for themselves in any situation, as well as likely having male friends that any "masher" would seek to avoid a visit from at all costs.
I continue to detest the world that has been created by the gutless, godless, double talking politically correct vermin that generally hold power in this kindergarten swamp society. Apparently they are often "mean to women", and the women largely take it and stew in their juices for years, thus creating more such incidents for their sisters. One can't feel awfully sorry for them however, since Teddy Kennedy set the standard by killing his secretary and getting off scot free in '69, and then Slick Willie cemented the standard in '99 -- we are left with an amoral feminized society where the slimy tend to prevail. Nearly half the female population has been willing to trade their "virtue" to protect the right to sacrifice their children to the Moloch of "convenience" in abortion.
There seem to be two prospects here as to what's going on?, of the kind that allow a mixture of both:
TP decided that Weinstein was no longer worth protecting with Trump in the WH and the Clinton machine derailed. They gave him up knowing that there would be SOME collateral damage, but grossly miscalculated as to the extent.
TP, the Deep State and the RINO Swampies are in a TRUE balls to the wall panic as the swamp has begun to drain and things are becoming exposed. Strong evidence for this is the ADMITTED $17 million in public funds paid out to cover up sexual harassment since '97! The fact that a group of our congressmen sat down and set up a "slush fund" using public money to protect their own proves what readers of this blog well know -- DC in BOistan is corrupt beyond belief, and that corruption is DEEP in both parties!
Certainly many on the left knew that mustering up 38 year old "charges" to try to steal a long-shot Senate seat reeked of desperation -- however, at least at the WaPo, they figured out that desperation is just where they are at -- tax reform goes through, economy keeps humming, judicial appointments keep rolling, Deep State keeps taking hits ... they feel the icy grip of panic. They have been hammering Trump 24x7 since August of 2016, and he is STILL STANDING! They felt they had to fire all they had at Moore, and they set their own smouldering house fully aflame! It is a bit tough not to feel a LITTLE schadenfreude
I find the MPR / Keillor case to be likely a similar sort of exposure. The fact that they "cut all ties" reminds me of the exit of Bill Kling in 2010 ... this excerpt is from a 2009 article on his $600K salary ...
"Topping the list, of course, is Bill Kling, the president and CEO of the entity officially known as Minnesota Public Radio-American Public Media. He made $373,254 in compensation and benefits from MPR/APM, which for the year grossed $82.2 million. Kling's total take swelled to $606,753, including approximately $180,000 from American Public Media Group (APMG), which controls MPR, and $48,000 from Greenspring, MPR's for-profit arm."
"Non-profit" doesn't mean that certain people like Garrison and Kling don't make LOTS of money ... "officially", Kling took $48K from the "for profit arm" Greenspring. "Follow the money" is often a great piece of advice ... I expect part of the reason for the very quick and very clean separation is that the tax money soaking NPR and MPR (we send money to MPR as part of a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT here in the land of Loons) ... my guess is that someone looking closer at "Pretty Good Goods" and such might find some interesting finances.
I started out on #1, but am shifting toward #2 ... it certainly isn't that Matt Lauer and Charlie Wrangle were not well known abusers.Here is Katie on Matt in 2012 on air ...
Here is Cokie Roberts letting us know that women DC reporters for YEARS knew not to get in an elevator with Charlie ...
"Situational Morals" are NOT morals! For ALL unrepentant humans, the ONLY sort of "standards" are DOUBLE STANDARDS! **ONLY*** by recognition that we are ALL filthy sinners in need of REGULAR repentance and participation in Holy Communion, can we even hope to do better.
Up until the '60's, America was largely a Christian Nation. In a Christian Nation, real standards matter! There was even an expectation that leadership needed to be held to a "higher standard". Starting in the '60s, we seriously abandoned God. Pick your poison ... Chappaquiddick, Watergate, Roe V Wade, "Borking", the Clarence Thomas lynching, Slick Willie, gay "marriage", 58 genders ... your list may well be different from mine, but America gave way to BOistan ... and thus Trump (well covered here).
Political Correctness (PC), Sexual Correctness(SC) are all symptoms of our migration to the sick tribal backwater of BOistan. Trump has barely dented the swamp, but he HAS begun ... some of the measures he is taking are hitting them very hard! Will the current tempest raise public outrage that our own "swamp congress" has spent $17 million of our money to protect themselves, when the protection is SUPPOSED to be that we get a chance to vote them out every two years???? I suppose that largely depends on the media -- we live in a nation where individuals don't dare feel "outrage" unless their favorite media outlet tells them it is OK.
Can we continue to live in a nation where any woman can "feel harassed" and make accusations decades after the fact and be taken seriously? I'll close with this from Power Line ...
Men lie. Women lie. Children lie like rugs. Rose McGowan I believe. Ms. Tweeden I believe, even without the grotesque photographic evidence. But I have grave doubts about some of the #MeTooers. Mark my words: Turning America into a perpetual Salem Witch Hunt where any man can be destroyed just by accusations of incidents that allegedly happened 40 years earlier and can never be disproved will not end well. Ask not for whom the 10, 20, 30-year-old sexual assault accusation tolls, my brothers; it tolls for thee.
Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies built on blockchains have a pretty decent potenital to finally replace fiat currency, which replaced gold, which replaced barter.
This is a pretty good little video on the subject I think:
The "value" is in the whole exchange system, which is decentralized, secure, open, and "smart" (contains logic / algorithms) and best of all, since it seems very likely that the fiat currency providers are all going to collapse, it has no central point of control.
Now, if we get blasted back to the stone age, gold is MUCH better, however, barring that, there seems to be solid potential for this over fiat currency, since "the full faith and trust" of BOistan is really not very comforting!
Not all that expensive to begin bitcoin mining! Like all mining, there is a lot of risk, but on the bright side you don't have to go down in a dark damp hole.
A good little summary of one of the Fake News techniques to fill dead air -- usually with an extremely partisan bent -- ah, the "fire hydrant of youth"! Pissing on each others tennis shoes and calling it "virtue"!
"What mainly drives the events of the “Denunciad,” as the gods do the “Odyssey,” is the media, which has discovered an endless fount of news—a sort of fire hydrant of youth. Suppose that Person X makes an inappropriate remark, and you are a news director charged with covering the story. By itself, it’s liable to fade pretty quickly, yet there are 24 hours of live updates to fill. But there is hope: Did President Trump denounce the remark by Person X? Did he do so quickly enough? Did he do so in the rigidly mechanical terms demanded? What about Senator Y? Did he denounce it full-throatedly? Did he say, verbatim, that “this is not who we are as Americans”?"
It is laughable how this scam works ... there are 100's of entertainers, rap artists, athletes, criminals, etc that are staunch supporters of "The Party" (TP-D) ... in fact, nearly every felon and certainly the vast majority of illegals in BOistan in general support TP. If you are a "D", you can say anything you want as long as it doesn't very directly go against TP doctrine, it is "A OK". And even if it does, as long as you are say black, female, a criminal, or some combination of that above, it is still OK.
Even if it isn't, the powers that be NEVER call on a TP politician of any level to repudiate it -- unless of course it is show for a "Sister Solja moment" as executed so smoothly by Slick Willie.
I often feel like a stranger in a strange land. How rare can it really be to look at a half full / half empty glass and think that there must be at least a few other ways to view it ... the engineering view "twice as big as it needs to be"; the scientific answer: "the glass is full as always, filled partially with gas and partially with a liquid, it appears to be filled with approximately equal parts of both. With testing, the exact quantities and makeup of both can be further determined"; the process engineer: "if filling, half full, if empying, half empty" ... one could go on.
The article author belives they have "proven" that when people feel "safe and secure" (ie. "smug"), they are more liberal. When they realize that they are never completely safe and secure and that they and their loved ones are constantly exposed to threats (eg. disease, accident, smug liberals spending their nation into bankruptcy, etc) they tend to be more conservative. The difference (as it always has been) is reality based or fantasy based!
In both instances, we had manipulated a deeper underlying reason for political attitudes, the strength of the basic motivation of safety and survival. The boiling water of our social and political attitudes, it seems, can be turned up or down by changing how physically safe we feel.
Certainly the wealthy students of Yale feel quite smug, so this seems completely reasonable to them, but SERIOUSLY? Can they not for just the merest second picture themselves up in a loud nasty bar in say New Hampshire, when a big bearded guy in a MAGA Hat and a 32oz mug of beer saunters up to them in their Pussy Hat and says, "hey, is that actually one of those Pussy Hat things? Why the hell would one wear one of those?" ... no doubt their amygdala would put on a major growth spurt like the Grinches heart, and they might even be hoping a conservative cop was close by!
Obviously, the super smug don't account for all the liberals, only for the elite. The rest of the liberals pretty much just want free things -- and will vote for whomever promises them the most free stuff to keep them "secure". They either lack the ability or the interest to think about what happens when the bill inevitably comes due on all that free stuff, because that requires facing tough questions and the real world, which is ALWAYS something that makes mortals feel much less smug once they consider it!
"The fear of God is the BEGINNING of wisdom!".
Oh, and being smug is NEVER wise! The level of smugness required to write and publish an article such as this makes me realize why we ended up living in BOistan.
A reasonable person can read this article and think, "yeah, that could work"! See the problem with that is that you likely actually have some sort of "honor, moral sense, belief in redemption, etc". "The Party (TP-D) has sworn off those things a LONG time ago!
See Teddy Kennedy, Barney Frank, Gary Studds, John Conyers, Slick Willie, Al Gore, Joe Biden, etc, etc
The BASIS of the D party relative to sexual morals is "If it feels good, DO IT!" If a baby results, KILL IT! One of the major purposes of TP is to stamp out morals and propriety -- 50+ genders "doing it" (whatever the hell that means with 50+ genders), GREAT! TP will fine you and throw you in jail if you are unwilling to celebrate every "gender" and whatever acts they might choose to engage in!
The author of the column feels that R's are again not being trusting enough of our D counterparts!
Sean Trende summarized a common argument in conservative circles: “(A) We fought a battle over whether character counts, and got our [tushes] handed to us and (B) liberal leaders always circle the wagons around their guys, and ours always cave.” This may or many not be accurate; we can think of cases where Republicans were caught in scandal and served out their term (Idaho senator Larry Craig) and we can think of cases where Democrats were more or less pushed out of office quickly (former congressman Anthony Weiner). Most partisans prefer to remember both the cases where their side acted honorably, demanding serious consequences for bad behavior, and times when the other side circled the wagons and defended the indefensible.
It's a bit on the laughable side that Craig is "the example" -- he lost his Senate seat over trolling for gay sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis Airport! Gary Studds (D) OTOH, had sex with a male congressional page and never lost his seat. I have no problems with R's deciding to get rid of an unseemly senator for whatever they want, and D's keeping one around -- the point is that trying to use the term "morals" in concert with "Democrat" is false advertising. The big PLUS of the D party for a lot of their members is that THEY DON"T HAVE ANY STINKING MORALS!
AFAIK, Weiner - Holder is the TP ticket in 2020!
Those that want to trust the intentions of D's need to watch this video again! HOW many times to they have to screw us??? !!!!!
Perhaps the key slogan for a better 2018 would be “You can’t treat people like that.” But if character is going to count again, both sides of the ideological divide need to sign on.
Sure, TP will be signing up for that right away! The TP playbook is to push Rs to live TOTALLY up to their morals -- even when the "morals" are to be applied to 38 year old charges that have never surfaced until now!
Well, if I become convinced that the Democrats have ACTUALLY had a change of heart on Slick Willie, my call for Trump impeachment in 2030, a mere 6 years after he is out of office, would FAR exceed the virtue of the Democrats calling for the removal of Slick, who left office in January of 2001.
See, in a world of actual honesty, we could look at this and the D's could realize that there is a HUGE bump in virtue by impeaching someone actually in office! The Stupid Party (R), proved their stupidity by throwing Nixon to the wolves, the D's rubbed it in when Slick ACTUALLY stained the office, and now, it might make sense to get back to actual standards of some sort ... "eventually"!
You know, that weird little "justice" thing that is actually supposed to apply to ALL people, independent of party?
I'm not holding my breath, but I guess finally realizing that you showed ZERO moral principles nearly two decades later is superior to NEVER getting it! Except, I don't believe them now either -- they just hope to get the Stupid Party to trade a sitting president for one out of office nearly two decades -- oh, and if they get Trump? You can bet that when Slick goes off to his eternal "reward", the eulogies for his "greatness" will still be enough to make sane people barf!
A people with remote contact with morality would look at this and simply realize that we are totally lost, and need to fall to our knees and beg for forgiveness from Holy God.
I'm not holding my breath.
This was in 2015 folks -- if Hillary was elected, none of the "revelations" we are seeing now would be happening! "The right folks" (The Clintons) would be in power, and things would be as they were in March of 2015 -- "normal". We KNOW that to be true!
As Janice Min, the former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, told me, when Barack Obama stepped off a stage and into Weinstein’s arms for a big hug after giving a $400,000 speech as an ex-president in the spring, it sent a signal that the ogre was in a protected magic circle.
The video is not long -- look at the level of entitlement in these guys, they KNOW that they are UNTOUCHABLE! They are the ELITE! They take what they want and to HELL with the "little people".
Is Trump going to "fix us"? No, only GOD can fix us, but there is an outside chance that in "The Party" (TP-D) desperation to maintain control via the Deep State and Judiciaary, they may expose enough of the corruption so that WE ASK!
Unlike Kevin, Charlie and Slick, God doesn't force himself on anyone (well maybe Paul, sorta) ... we need to ASK!
BOistan is corrupt beyond understanding, pray for America, or at least "Fly Over America" to be restored ... perhaps Sodom could be the west coast, and Gomorrah the east? It seems very fitting!
The important thing to remember about "sexual harassment" starting in the '90s is that "the standard" is supposed to be that "if the woman feels harassed, then she was harassed" ... it could be words, could be looks, could be something that you wore, displayed, had tattooed, etc, could be ANYTHING! Including of course ANY sort of touching, bumping into, etc. I covered my personal experience with this here, as well as some discussion on who got off, and who didn't.
The most famous guy that got off totally is Bill Clinton. Clarence Thomas narrowly managed to make it onto the SCOTUS after being accused of ... well, "talking" ... mentioning some x-rated films and a potential pubic hair on a can of coke. Those were the CHARGES, and they almost did take him down, except that:
1). The charges were old (a decade or so when made)
2). The "victim" had followed him to multiple jobs since the charges supposedly happened
3). They could not get anyone else to come forth and make similar charges.
When they went after Harvey Weinstein, I was shocked -- having your way with women has been one of the perks of being a lefty in good standing for a LONG time. Situations like Slick Willie where the accusers were mercilessly abused and castigated by the press and Democrats made it clear that powerful lefty men were allowed "favors" without retribution. If a woman complained, she was destroyed.
The big choice in human life has always been first and foremost GOD ... and from thence, morality.
A shared belief in a God that was always watching and would sort things out for eternity has always been the gold standard for morals. It is what we do when we think we are going to get away with it that is problematic! Do morals backed up by an infinite all knowing God that will ultimately judge you ensure moral turpitude? Of course not! We are talking odds here -- strong religiously backed morals put you in the "80-90th percent reliable" area. FAR from perfect, but a high standard for this fallen world.
In a world with God as the standard, women would have come out EVEN IF their careers were going to be destroyed because IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO ... for your eternal soul, for your current female sisters, and for any female offspring you might care about. When you drop God, and especially if you start killing the unborn, "your career" is quickly the only thing that counts!
When morals fail, the next backstop is law and justice. It isn't nearly as good, because it requires some sort of "enforcers", "evidence", and if you don't get caught, then you are as good as guilt free. For all but murder if you are a D (see Chappaquiddick), there is going to be some sort of statute of limitations -- because the trail goes cold, and "proving" things after a decade or more can be really difficult. Oh, and especially nasty, law and justice require that they are applied EQUALLY in order to be respected -- power doesn't get to play.
That has always been a problem for Ds ... see Roy Moore. No way such "charges" would even arise against a D. "Old News" ... which in D parlance means that "we heard it before, maybe just last week". Thirty+ years for a D? Oh please!
As I've argued elsewhere, Chappaquiddick is as good a place as any to select as a point where pure POWER became the coin of our realm. That the incident included both sex and murder in one not very tidy tidal pool, along with America's most powerful political family, and a man who would become the "Lyin" Of the Senate, made it it especially full of damnation for America. Chappaquiddick established the "Democrat Standard" or rather "The Democrat Non-standard" relative to morals, law and justice. POWER is the godless Democrat standard.
The moral calculus since Mary Jo Kopechne as been that if a Democrat decides to have his way with a woman, just be glad and very quiet if he doesn't kill you (it is easy to be quiet if he does! Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment!) In the Slick Willie years the D sisterhood worked to establish a level of pride in providing services to prominent D's like Slick, -- "taking it for the right to kill babies", the ultimate sacrament of the Democrat party. It is hard to imagine that this sort of attitude did not engender more entitlement on the part of D men -- so most likely we are just seeing the very tip of the iceberg now.
The assumption was that the Democrats would always have enough power so that such sacrifices would be worth making to insure that the blood of the unborn continued to flow freely on the altar of Molech - Democrats. The whole idea of the sexual revolution was to give women POWER over their bodies -- certainly to murder their young, but also so that they could bestow sexual favors for their own pleasure, advancement, gain, etc -- for whatever suited them. That is what POWER is about! The charge of sexual harassment was the female equivalent of male physical power.
As Janice Min, the former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, told me, when Barack Obama stepped off a stage and into Weinstein’s arms for a big hug after giving a $400,000 speech as an ex-president in the spring, it sent a signal that the ogre was in a protected magic circle.
He was, but the power behind the "magic" had already evaporated -- the ogre was exposed as an ogre. The D's are even all claiming to be having moral buyers remorse over protecting Slick Willie! As this column tries to tell us, "Hell froze over" ...
If the ground beneath your feet feels cold, it’s because hell froze over the other day. It happened at 8:02 p.m. on Monday, when The New York Times published an op-ed called “I Believe Juanita.”
Written by Michelle Goldberg, it was a piece that, 20 years ago, likely would have inflamed the readership of the paper and scandalized its editors. Reviewing the credibility of Broaddrick’s claim, Goldberg wrote that “five witnesses said she confided in them about the assault right after it happened,” an important standard in reviewing the veracity of claims of past sex crimes.
As any minor student of history, theology and philosophy, let alone a Christian believer will tell you, without God, there are no morals, no love, no consistency. The current calculus is very easy -- Roy Moore is a warm up for taking down Trump -- the D's seek to trade a sudden attack of feigned morality about an EX president for the hide of a sitting president.
It is not for nothing that the Republican party is known as "The Stupid Party" -- while there are actual honorable Republicans with principles, Reagan being a great example, and the party is the last refuge of people of faith in BOistan, it too has been corrupted by the loss of religious faith and the power of DC and Davos. Trump is shaking the DC foundations -- the R's may well go along with his removal, since Pence is FAR more to their liking! There are no morals left in the leadership of the R party either.
Many will be confused by the seemingly "honest" shedding of tears over Slick's victims 20+ years too late. Heck, I would not be shocked at this point to see the D's throw BOTH Slick and Hillary under the bus, and maybe BO as well! Any intelligent Democrat has to see the courts being mightily moved away from them and even their "firewall", the Deep State, now being assailed by Trump!
Power MUST be completely ruthless to survive unless it is divine! Communism killed over 100 million in the 20th century, abortion has killed 60 million and rising. One thing that Islam is right about is submission -- the word Islam means "submission", and the basic fact of human life is that peace requires submission. Submission to God, or submission to an all powerful state.
Don't be confused -- there is zero chance of the current Democrat party having an attack of actual morals (a Democrat getting morals would be like a vampire getting a tan!), what you see is what has been obvious since at least Wilson, Democrat = the worship of godless power!
Expect A LOT of bodies as the D's try to appear to "come clean" to have the "moral standing" to take down Trump!
The column is a worthy read for understanding how minds in power based culture that can't conceive of an alternative MUST operate.
Isn’t that hypocritical? I hear you asking, Because Republicans won’t do the right thing, we shouldn’t, either? But if the short-term “right thing” leads to long-term political catastrophe for American women, I think we need to reconsider our definition of the right thing. I am in no way suggesting that we decline to hold Franken accountable for his offenses — only that we think in terms of consequences that might actually improve women’s lives going forward.
Sentient people in such a culture MUST use the calculus that "sure they are evil terrible guys, BUT there are evil terrible guys on OUR side!". When POWER is the only thing that counts, that is the tribal calculus that operated for thousands of years prior to the rise of religion, and will continue to operate for pagans now unless religion revives. WE MUST PROTECT OUR TRIBE AND **W I N** THAT IS THE ONLY "MORALITY" THAT MATTERS!
Naturally, this woman is not going to accept Chrisitanity as a source of morals -- her reference to "Atwoodian Dystopia" would be to the show "The Handmaid's Tale" of a sort of Old Testament takeover of "America" by "Christians". Both the fact that this show is on current media, and that this column is being published in the WaPo would give sane people solid information that BOistan is FAR from such a portrayal. The rest of the column makes the author's limited connection with reality even more plain.
Without reference to a transcendent power however, one view is as good as another -- what differentiates them is how much power one can garner in support of your view. By argument, force, subterfuge, mass murder, sexual favors, or any means you can successfully gain power with. You might even want to claim your point of view is "good" and try to be "nice" ... whatever that means in a godless universe.
The author is correct on one thing however; we no longer live in a remotely Chrisitan Culture, so "Rape Culture" is as good a designation as any for BOistan. The Administrative State and media like the WaPo hold the bulk of the power, and they "have their way with" all who fail to kneel to their power. Sexual rape is just one use of power. In a godless world, there are no morals or meaning, so "rape" is simply what one without power might decide happened in a sex act -- the label is up to them, however their power will determine if they can speak it.
In Godly universe, such as the one which created the civilization that preceeded BOistan, discussions of things like "morals, consistency, hypocrisy, right/wrong, good/evil, purpose, calling, honor, agape, family, etc" are all topics which are reified ("made real") by the Grace of God and people living in his service.
Those of us who remember the last days of an America under God have that rememberance. Accepting the rape culture of BOistan has been difficult for us. however one wonders what the author of the column believes will happen, since men actually DO have more physical power than women.
I'd argue that a "Hugh Heffner Culture" is likely the best that women can hope for in BOistan, and I'd also argue that I have FAR more reality evidence on my side that the author does for her "Atwoodian Dystopia". (see Hugh Heffner, Ted Kennedy, Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken ... they are all actual people, Handmaiden's Tale? Not so much)
Unless you are real news hound, you likely don't even know that the jury trial of a SITTING BOistan senator, Robert Menendez of New Jersey is looking like a hung jury. We know that Bob took a whole bunch of campaign contributions from a FL doctor, had a bunch of extended stays and trips on private jets at said doctors expense, but the view is "it was just friendly" -- he is a D after all, likely no harm no foul. If you are D, you are likely fine with this (you likely don't even know), and in fact, you likely don't even know if you are an R -- it is just not very well known, because, well, this is BOistan and we are mostly sheep under the care of "The Party" (TP-D) and it's wholly (woolly?) supportive MSM.
OTOH, if you are drawing breath you are VERY aware of 38 year old allegations that JUST SURFACED against the Senate candidate for Bob Sessions seat in Alabama. The latest one is RAPE! Slick Willie was of course very creditably accused of rape much shorter than 38 years after the fact, but that got about the same coverage as Menendez. (see **D**!)
If you read this column, you will get an impression on the charges against Moore are a bit different from what is being hammered by the MSM 24x7 at this point.
I agree with Paul that the Washington Post’s allegation that Moore tried to seduce a 14-year-old girl 38 years ago is more likely false than true, particularly given the gaping hole in the accuser’s story that has been attested to by her own mother. Beyond that, I question whether a newly-surfaced, 38-year-old allegation should ever–short of murder or something nearly as heinous–be grounds for defeating a political candidate.
There is a reason why our criminal laws include statutes of limitation. After decades have gone by, it is often impossible to prove (or disprove) an allegation. The accuser in the present case remained silent for 38 years, during most of which time Moore was a prominent figure in Alabama politics. Now, a few weeks before a U.S. Senate election, at the importuning of a team of reporters from the Washington Post who are obviously determined to bring down the candidate, she sees fit to accuse Moore. One of the kinder words we apply to this sort of conduct in the law business is “estoppel.” It is much too late to dredge up an accusation from the 1970s.
To save you some time, "estoppel" -- the principle that precludes a person from asserting something contrary to what is implied by a previous action or statement of that person or by a previous pertinent judicial determination.
In this case, you failed to make a charge for 38 years during most of which the person you are charging was in public life. You waited too long! It's kind of like the folks on the left get tired of hearing that Teddy Kennedy left his secretary in his car parked upside down under water and she died -- Democrats find that to be "old news", and they could care less, even though in that case, a life was involved.
Naturally, very few people will read the analysis on the blog which I reference. One of the brilliant things that the MSM does is 24x7 carpet bomb one side of a story with no context and then start asking Republicans who have no real skin in the game to "virtue signal" how much they are against 30 something guys making propositions to teen women -- they get "free virtue" for siding with the MSM against their own political party, *OR* they lose "virtue" for not deploring, not being harsh enough, timely enough, etc. A nice MSM version of "Heads I win, tails you lose!".
Contrast this with for example Menendez. Very few people even know he is on trial, less have any idea fo the circumstances and charges in the case, and I'm pretty sure not a SINGLE Democrat has been asked to make on comment on how much they approve or disapprove of taking all sorts of gifts sex parties with young girls, etc -- hey! that could make a DEMOCRAT look bad, and let's face it, that is NOT what the MSM is about!
The thing I miss about the old pre-political NFL was the absolute tribal fandom on display. You could be with a group of opposing fans and watch the same play in ultra slow motion and 80% of the fans on both sides would come down on the side of whatever worked out better for their team. THAT is human nature in a nutshell. ALL of our human natures!
"The trick" of the MSM has been to convince a significant percentage of the sheep that they were "the refs", and were not partisan in the political game. What has changed is that as of 2017, the number of Republicans that trust the media is 11% vs 34% of Democrats. Apparently, enough of the R sheep have been eaten so that the bleating is getting a bit more silent, and it is pretty obvious that the D's know which side the MSM is on. I suspect the reason that they have dropped some is because they just don't see them as calling enough of the "news" their way to keep Trump out of office.
The confusing part for some these days is that the RINO section of the Republican party is still out calling people names for not buying into the MSM narrative on Moore and even Trump. It seems that at this late date, a set of imaginary Scribes and Pharisees has arisen in the #nevertrump movement to claim the "moral high ground" in supporting the MSM in it's "estoppel".
We all know from past experience that in the MSM / Democrat world, any charge older than a few months is "old news", and no to be considered! (Paula Jones OLD NEWS! ... Juanita Broderick? OLD NEWS ....) 38 years? If the roles were reversed, anyone bringing up 38 year old charges would be laughed out of town even if they COULD show a body!
If you don't know the details of the Menendez case, but you want to virtue signal about Roy Moore, then you are a sheep plain and simple. If you DO know, and you want to virtue signal, then I HOPE that you were completely up in arms about Teddy Kennedy from Chappaquiddick on!
Otherwise, you are either a Democrat or a hypocrite, but I repeat myself.
As I cover to exhaustion in this blog, in BOistan, there are no morals, only POWER. You may not have chosen to live in BOistan, but since you do, it would behoove you to act accordingly. WISHING that the other side played by rules will only eventually get you killed.
Everyone that reads this blog should be aware of Trumpy Bear.
I was not, but my father, soon to be 91, wants one for his B-day. I can't divulge if he is going to get one yet, since he may read this blog, however the site and videos MUST be viewed!
