Regards — Cliff
I.e. you can push and you can market, but in the end, if the readers don’t like your product, you’re hosed.By the way, I sometimes hear about how the "low educated" gave the election to President Trump. There are two solutions to this. One is to have an educational cutoff for the right to vote, the way they did in the old South, when the Democrats ran things down there. The other solution is to learn to pitch one's arguments to all the voters, so the "low educated" don't feel as though they are being ignored, at best, or denied, at worst.Sometimes the dogs just don’t like the food.
Look at this sad tale, and consider it is but a miniature representation of what is going on in society at large.
When a large segment of the population or the self proclaimed elite insists on ignoring reality, they are on a road to nowhere, with a really interesting tour of various historical horrors along the way.
And all we can do is build under, build around, build over, so we can take the weight when the structure falls.
Be not afraid.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Or as Casey Stengel, while managing the New York Mets on their way to a 40-120 season in 1962, reportedly asked, “Can’t anybody here play this game?”This is from The Washington Examiner and Mr Michael Barone.
He is talking about the US Senate and where it is headed. Here is one side of the issue, the nomination of Neil Garland by President Trump, after the Republicans refused to have hearings on President Obama's Merrick Garland nomination:
Joe Biden in 1992 and Charles Schumer in 2007 argued that no nominee should be approved in a presidential election year. That makes sense in an era when Supreme Court decides partisan issues like abortion, gun control and campaign finance. Give the voters a chance to weigh in. . . .So, in a way the Democrats are not being honest with this issue of Neil Garland.
At the same time there is the issue of the Reid Option. When he was the Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid suppressed the Filibuster for certain Presidential nominations.♠ Now that option is open to the Republicans, with a precedent, from the Democrats.
Right now Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is threatening to Filibuster the nomination of Judge Neil Garland to the US Supreme Court.♥♦ Perhaps Senator Schumer thinks the Republicans are in disarray and will buckle under a Filibuster or Filibuster threat. Maybe he is hoping to placate the Progressives by saying "I tried as long as I could." Maybe he plans to fold his hand at the last minute. However, that doesn't account for Senators like our Senior Senator, Elizabeth Warren. She could beam off on her own and talk this nomination to death or to the point her Senate Colleagues grow tired of her.
This is still an open question.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ It is easy to kill the Filibuster. It just takes a majority vote. The Filibuster survives because the Senators on all sides see a value to it. It is a way of protecting minority rights.
♥ I have thought that Senator Schumer, a New Yorker, would be able to cut deals with President Trump, a New Yorker. It appears that the loss in November was so traumatic that there can be no compromises. This does not bode well for the Continuing Resolution coming due 28 April. This is when unfinished appropriation bills for fiscal year 2017 expire.
♦ I have thought that the defeat of any Trump nominee to the US Supreme Court is not, at this point, the end of the world. But, if he loses on this, Senate Majority Leader McConnell will have to pull a win somewhere else to maintain his control of the US Senate.
The source is National Review and the author is Mr Mark Krikorian. The dateline is 31 March 2017, which would be the 90th Birthday of Mr Chavez, if he still lived.
This includes a mention of the Bracero Program, which goes back to 1942.
Here is a key paragraph:
In fact, even before he started the union and fought against illegal immigration, he was opposed to the bracero program, which legally imported cheap, disposable labor from Mexico at the expense of American citizens (of Mexican and other origins) who had been working in the fields. Pawel quotes Chavez as saying, “It looks almost impossible to start some effective program to get these people their jobs back from the braceros.”If Mr Chavez were alive today his views might be different, but back in the day he was strongly opposed to illegal immigration.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is a capture of the first four paragraphs (although, really three of them are only one sentence):♠
Venezuela's powerful attorney general on Friday broke ranks with President Nicolas Maduro's government after the judiciary annulled congress, a rare show of internal dissent as protests and international condemnation grew.Not that it is not like Venezuela.Luisa Ortega, appointed attorney general in 2007 and a staunch ally of the Socialists who have ruled for the last 18 years, rebuked the Supreme Court's controversial move to take over the opposition-led National Assembly's functions.
"It constitutes a rupture of the constitutional order," the 59-year-old said in a speech. "It's my obligation to express my great concern to the country."
While various prominent political figures have leveled criticism after leaving the government, it is extremely rare for a senior Venezuelan official to criticize like this.
There are lessons to be learned here, and not just that Bolivarian Socialism is a non-starter as an economic system. The other key point is that when the balance of power between the branches of government is upset, government becomes unstable and may not be easily righted again.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ My Middle Brother, Lance, believes I use the term lede as a way of signaling that I am better educated than he. He should understand "signally" since he is a Democrat and they do a lot of virtue signally. Anyway, if anyone else cares to roll in on this issue, feel free.
Which raises the question:
So why isn’t England a snow-capped hell, like most of Canada (Heh.)?The answer, thanks to Ben Franklin is:
The Gulf Stream.Regards — Cliff
♠ The way I remember it is that lines of longitude are all the same length, running pole to pole, and thus are all "long". Lines of latitude are longest at the Equator and shrink to almost nothing as one approaches either of the poles (North or South) and those are thus not equally long. Sometimes called Meridians (longitude) and Parallels (latitude).
A person in a "bomb suit". It appears the person is examining a back pack.
Here is the lede plus two:
Imagine you woke up this morning 75 pounds fatter than you were when you went to sleep. Your pre-weight gain muscles wouldn’t be strong enough to support all that extra blubber. Getting out of bed? Good luck with that. You’d probably just flounder around like a beached whale, or this poor woman, whose fiance put her in a bomb suit:Turns out she not only couldn't get up, she couldn't even roll over.“Put the little lady into some of our work attire,” reads the caption that accompanies the video, which was posted to YouTube on March 26. “Tears were involved, and I’m still not fully forgiven.”
The “work attire” appears to be the 75-pound suit that’s supposed to protect EOD techs from shockwaves and shrapnel when they diffuse bombs. It takes months of strength conditioning to be able to move around in one of those things. In fact, the bomb suit test is considered one of the most grueling physical assessments in the military. Jeremy Renner, who played an EOD tech in “Hurt Locker,” compared wearing a bomb suit to walking on the moon.
My recommendation is to NOT do this with your wife, girlfriend, significant other, etc.
Regards — Cliff
EUROPEAN Union boss Jean-Claude Juncker this afternoon issued a jaw-dropping threat to the United States, saying he could campaign to break up the country in revenge for Donald Trump’s supportive comments about Brexit.How could the Democrats, Senator Schumer, Minority Leader Pelosi, gadfly Senator Warren not have seen this coming? Is Rep Seth Moulton outraged? What about Rep Niki Tsongas and our junior Senator, whatever his name is?♠
I am looking forward to reading Reporter Joshua Miller's "Political Happy Hour" report for tonight, to hear if any of our local politicians have grasped the seriousness of this situation, the threat to our democracy and to our unity.♥
Forget Russian President Vladimir Putin. European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is the real threat, and he is no friend of President Trump.
The linked article appeared in the Daily Express, out of London. The Reporter, their Brussels Correspondent, is Mr Nick Gutteridge. The dateline is today.
Here is the lede plus one:
In an extraordinary speech the EU Commission president said he would push for Ohio and Texas to split from the rest of America if the Republican president does not change his tune and become more supportive of the EU.On the other hand, maybe our Congressional Delegation doesn't care about Ohio and Texas.The remarks are diplomatic dynamite at a time when relations between Washington and Brussels are already strained over Europe’s meagre contributions to NATO and the US leader’s open preference for dealing with national governments.
Hat tip to the Drudge Report.
Regards — Cliff
♠ I looked it up. Senator Ed Markey.
♥ You too can subscribe to Josh's daily insights. Send them an EMail
Chinese golfers on the U.S. women's tour may decide not to play in a tournament next month in Hawaii sponsored by South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, a sign that fallout from a diplomatic row between Beijing and Seoul over a missile defense system is increasingly spilling into the sports world.This is a sign that China is unhappy with our deployment of the THAAD missile defense system, to protect South Korea from the nuclear missile armed North Korea. Of course it is better than an alternative that involveS a nuclear armed South Korea.Rio Olympics bronze medalist Shanshan Feng decided not to play after she and three other Chinese players - Simin Feng, Jing Yan and Xiyu Lin - were informed it was in their best interests not to take part in the event due to its association with Lotte, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
In this area I think SecState Tillison and President Trump are effectively threading the needle.
Hat tip to Zero Hedge.
Regards — Cliff
The TaxProf provides an extract from the Executive Summary (further extracted below) of Sensitive Case Reports: The Hidden Cause of the IRS Targeting Scandal
Executive Summary: Beginning in February 2010, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS’) singled out certain non-profit organizations for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. Numerous subsequent congressional investigations and media reports demonstrated that the targeting involved invasive questioning and years-long delays, and focused disproportionately on right-leaning groups, especially those with “Tea Party” in their name. These reports, however, have almost entirely overlooked a hidden cause of the targeting scandal,which remains in effect today. As a result, American taxpayers are at risk for similar treatment in the future.So, it appears we have been slow rolled for several years on this issue. It is time for President Trump, or his recently confirmed Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, to take action.Contrary to the conventional storyline, there exists an institutional policy that was the first impetus in prompting IRS employees to target groups based on their political viewpoints. That policy is embodied in an internal IRS rule—which is still on the books—that singles out applications from any group interested in issues that might garner attention from either the media or Congress. In such cases, the merits of the application are ignored as IRS employees develop “Senstive Case Reports” for consideration by those above them in the IRS hierarchy. The result is a process that interferes with the unbiased review of applications for tax-exempt status designed to apply to all eligible organziations, regardless of their political viewpoints or affiliations.
Seven years after the targeting scandal began, the rule that enabled this inexcusable behavior still exists.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Presidential election is likely to pit nationalist Le Pen against globalist MacronThe Source is The Wall Street Journal and the Reporter is Mr Greg Ip, on 29 March 2017.
Following is the lede plus one. Note that the rest of the article is behind a pay wall at this point.
In France as in most of the West, politics has long been dominated by a left wing and a right wing party. This year an earthquake is in the making: If current polls are borne out, neither the left-wing Socialists nor right-wing Republicans will make it past the first round of the presidential election in April.The election in France is Sunday, 23 April, with a runoff on 7 May.♠Instead, two parties that have never held power will proceed to May’s runoff. And both agree their contest isn’t over traditional issues of right and left, such as taxes and spending. Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front, says it’s between “globalists and patriots” or, as supporters of Emmanuel Macron, leader of the upstart En Marche (“Forward”) put it, “open and closed.”
Regards — Cliff
♠ Note the "runoff". For my friends who wish to do away with the Electoral College and go direct election, if we are to truly sense the mind of the voters we need a runoff election. Otherwise one runs a very high risk of having a minority President. That isn't a good thing.
I can't be your Treasurer—The City pays me a minuscule amount to be on the License Commission and thus I am excluded from that campaign office.
However, I have a current list of registered voters and I can help you sort through it. I have it as an Excel Spreadsheet. I also have data on who voted in previous elections. I would be happy to sit down and share with you.
EMail me at "crkrieger" at "me" dot "com".
And, there is help to be had from the Elections Office, in the Southwest corner of the basement of City Hall. Nice people, happy to help.
If you are wondering about financial statements, here is our local City web page.
Get in the swim!
UPDATE: There are no seats open for GLTHS School Committee this election cycle.
Regards — Cliff
♠ This local governmental organization is moving to the State Ballot and will appear in 2018. This is due to the new and convoluted way GLTHS candidates will run and be elected. More in 2018.
I just think we should hold off on Supreme Court appointments until we can determine what the will of the people was, since we know what the majority of the people wanted, it's just a matter of determining if Russsian Trump involvement, if there was any thing that influenced something less than 200,000 in a handful of districts.But, of course, we DON'T know what the majority of the People want. Mrs Clinton got only 48.18% of the vote and Mr Trump got only 46.09%. That leaves a little under 6% for other views. If you want a majority you need to kill the Electoral College and substitute a runoff between the two top vote getters, like in France.
So, for Lance, and Ms Jennifer Palmieri, Mrs Clinton's Campaign Communications Director, we will have to wait for 20 January 2021, when someone might have won a majority of the Presidential ballots. As happened in 1988, 2004, 2008 and 2012.
In the mean time, the Democrats are going to push the "illegitimate" meme.
And Senator Mitch McConnell will be searching the Senate Majority Leader's desk to see where his predecessor, Harry Reid, left the nuclear trigger.
The up side of this (the coming collapse of the PP & ACA Excepted), is that Washington will not be coming up with new ideas to restrict our personal and economic freedom.♠
Regards — Cliff
♠ "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." (Mark Twain)
Here is the lede plus one:
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said President Trump can’t simply place the troubled future of Obamacare at Democrats’ feet after he sought to sabotage its success and “actively worked” to make it “fail” from his first days in the Oval Office.This seems a little over the top, but then it is our Senior Senator. When she isn't befuddling herself about her DNA she is being over the top about some topic.“Let’s be real clear: We are not talking about if nothing is done,” Warren said. “Donald Trump has already actively worked to try to make Obamacare fail. That has been his goal.”
The idea that a decrease in advertising is sabotage shows the degree to which the seven year old Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a failure.
And, if defeated in 2018 she probably won't go away quietly, but will hang around Cambridge and harangue us all.
Regards — Cliff
The possibility of collusion between Trump’s allies and Russian intelligence is much more serious than Watergate. It is a constitutional crisis. It represents a violation of our republic’s most sacred trust."…much more serious than Watergate."The worst part about our lackluster collective response to Russia’s interference is that it represents exactly what the Russians were hoping to produce: apathy. Their goal, in addition to installing a president sympathetic to their views, was to undermine Americans’ belief in our democracy. For Americans to think that none of this really matters, that it’s all a game. That’s how they truly erode U.S. moral authority and strength over the long term. It’s what they have sought to do to European adversaries for many years, and now they have brought this seed of destruction here.
We all have a role to play in stopping it. Each of us should be judged by how we respond at this moment when the most fundamental precept of our democracy has been violated.
That is a serious charge. And, in the OpEd Ms Palmieri states that Congress should not be acting on President Trump's program until this is all cleared up. Will it ever be all cleared up or will it be like the shooter on the grassy knoll?
Certain (all?) Democrats want to stop the Government until they can jettison the results of the last election. Here is a question. If the election of President Trump was illegitimate, why weren't the elections of Republican Senators and Representatives also illegitimate? They were carried along on the same wave of change as President Trump.
If all is illegitimate, then we need a new election, for which we have no precedent. What would Ms Palmieri propose? What would Ms Nancy Pelosi propose?
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer? Senator E Warren? Ms Clinton?
Most likely there is no feasible plan. So, we fall back on impeachment. But, one would think that precedent would have the Democrats crying to replace Vice President Mike Pence before they went for the impeachment of President Trump? After all, why would Democrats wish to replace a GOP oriented Progressive with a true Conservative.
If Pence went, who would President Trump nominate to replace him and who would Congress approve?
That probably leaves us Speaker Paul Ryan fleeting up to be the President.
Has anyone gamed this out?
And see my previous post.
Regards — Cliff
Here, via Wikipedia is the current order of succession:
| No. | Office | Current officer |
| 1 | Vice President | Mike Pence (R) |
| 2 | Speaker of the House of Representatives | Paul Ryan (R) |
| 3 | President pro tempore of the Senate | Orrin Hatch (R) |
| 4 | Secretary of State | Rex Tillerson (R) |
| 5 | Secretary of the Treasury | Steven Mnuchin (R) |
| 6 | Secretary of Defense | James Mattis (I) |
| 7 | Attorney General | Jeff Sessions (R) |
| 8 | Secretary of the Interior | Ryan Zinke (R) |
| — | Secretary of Agriculture | Mike Young (D)[a] |
| 9 | Secretary of Commerce | Wilbur Ross (R) |
| — | Secretary of Labor | Ed Hugler (I)[a] |
| 10 | Secretary of Health and Human Services | Tom Price (R) |
| 11 | Secretary of Housing and Urban Development | Ben Carson (R) |
| — | Secretary of Transportation | Elaine Chao (R)[b] |
| 12 | Secretary of Energy | Rick Perry (R) |
| 13 | Secretary of Education | Betsy DeVos (R) |
| 14 | Secretary of Veterans Affairs | David Shulkin (I) |
| 15 | Secretary of Homeland Security | John F. Kelly (I) |
[a] This listing assumes that only acting officers whose prior appointment required Senate confirmation are eligible for the line of succession.
[b] Not a natural-born citizen (acquired U.S. citizenship by naturalization) and thus ineligible for the Presidency.
The list does raise questions, such as how did a foreigner get on the Cabinet, given that President Trump is proclaimed by the Media to be such a nativist?As I pointed out to my Brother, the sign the Democrats are going to actually make a run at President Trump will be an effort to force Vice President Pence to resign.♠ That is how they did it last time. And, it will give time to get someone else brought in as Vice President under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, Section 2.
Isn't there a TV Show about the kind of issue, Designated Survivor, or some such. There is apparently a whole raft of fictional considerations of the issue of Presidential Succession.
Regards — Cliff
♠ Let's face it. While President Trump is a New York City Progressive with Libertarian/Conservative leanings, Vice President Mike Pence is a real conservative and likely to act like one, bringing his talents in politics and government to bear on the problems at hand, thus making it even more difficult for the Democrats to achieve their goals. And, a President Pence might point out the Antonio Gramsci like progress of the Democrats.
This is an opinion piece, in Bloomberg, by long time Reporter Al Hunt. The dateline is 24 March 2017.
Worth looking at to consider the complicated way elections work. Think 2018, when the Democrats have a lot of Senate Seats open.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ Not a problem here in the Commonwealth, where Waffle Warren is sure to float to victory.
OUT: TRUMP’S AN ANTI-SEMITIC REINCARNATION OF HITLER.Fake News, anyone?In: Trump son-in-law’s ties to Israel raise questions of bias.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
“Invent a weapon,” Jordan Peterson said on Tuesday, “and your enemies will have it within one generation.” He was talking about Gamergate feminist Brianna Wu, who was learning the hard way that YouTube’s Restricted Mode was hurting the gays it was supposed to protect. You may be thinking, “Wu who?” right now, but you should be saying, “Woo-hoo!” because Peterson’s observation is profound. Not only are the bots turning on their creators, we are too. We’ve taken Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and turned it into our guidebook. We are the Social Justice Warriors now, and we’re way better at it than they ever were.And there is much more in the original article. Read it.Right now, a man in a MAGA hat is suing a bar in New York called The Happiest Hour for booting him out solely because he loves Trump. Getting kicked out of bars is pretty common for people in MAGA hats above the Mason–Dixon line. The old right would venerate the entrepreneur and quietly take the high road out of the bar. Not anymore. Since the lawsuit was announced, Trump supporters have been flooding the bar. One MAGA woman was just paid $150 to get lost.
Hat tip to my friend Richard, down in Florida.
Regards — Cliff
I wrote to ask him to please make Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and all the other Democrats actually execute a filibuster over the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for a seat on the US Supreme Court.
In essence, put up or shut up. Make them talk and talk and talk, like their Democratic Party predecessors did in those dark days long forgotten. Those days when they thwarted justice by talking it to death.
Regards — Cliff
Mateship. It’s a term that embodies loyalty, solidarity and camaraderie, so why are people finding this sign so offensive?I worry that political correctness will begin to hide the truth of life and of national survival. Then will arise those who are not interested in the Politically Correct.A sign along the Kokoda Track, a sacred military site in Papua New Guinea, has long been etched with the word “mateship” but it has now been changed to “friendship”, causing fury among Australian war veterans.
As we lead up to the 75th anniversary of the Kokoda Track campaign, part of the Pacific War of WWII, veterans feel as though they’re forgotten as “mateship” disappears from the memorial sign at the Kokoda Track’s Owers Corner.
The memorial was to describe the “mateship” between the Australian and Papua New Guinean military.
Veterans are concerned the change in the sign, which is one of four memorial signs on the Kokoda Track — courage, mateship, endurance, sacrifice — could take away from the trail’s military history.
Just saying.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus two:
Members of the intelligence community "incidentally collected" communications from the Trump transition team during legal surveillance operations of foreign targets, a top Republican lawmaker said Wednesday afternoon.Here, from The Guardian, is a explanation of the NSA Rules. If you are the target and you have 50 friends, they can be listened to. And if they each have the average of 190 friends friends, they can be captured. And all their friends. This adds up to the equivalent of the population of Maine.House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said this produced "dozens" of reports which eventually unmasked several individuals’ identities and were "widely disseminated."
He said none of the reports he had read mentioned Russia or Russians and he was unsure whether the surveillance occurred at Trump Tower — as President Trump has suggested. Nunes also was unsure if then President-elect Trump was captured by the surveillance, which occurred in November, December and January.
So, if you are a UCC Pastor, living in Caribou, Maine, and you third cousin, a "friend" on Facebook, is also a friend with someone who is a Russian foreign national, they are checking on you. Think about this. If they go against the Russian Ambassador and they sweep up Michael Flynn, then if he interacted with someone on the Trump Transition Team, who communicated with me, I am in the larger circle. No wonder the NSA has a sever farm in Provo, Utah.
Calling Joe McCarthy. Looking for the Pumpkin Papers.
As Mr Michael Morell, sometime Deputy Director of the CIA, said back in June of 2016:
If you knew what I know, you wouldn't plug your toaster in.Hat tip to my Buddy Neal.
Regards — Cliff
If Democrats want to filibuster President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, they're entitled to do it. In fact, Democrats are free to try and stop federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch's confirmation for any reason they desire, whether ideological or personal, or even no particular reason at all. There is nothing in the Constitution that compels senators to vote on judicial nominees the president forwards.To quote Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds:Make no mistake, though: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) now opposes a potential SCOTUS justice because he promises to be impartial when upholding the Constitution.
Since Gorsuch's confirmation hearing starts Monday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and opponents have found "little to latch onto," according to Politico (which means they've found nothing to spin into accusations of misogyny or racism), Schumer and his allies have launched a ham-fisted effort to paint Gorsuch as a corporate stooge.
Schumer’s a putz.The thing about Yiddish is that if you use a Yiddish word it isn't the same as using the equivalent basic Anglo-Saxon word, which would be seen as offensive.
Oh, and Professor Reynolds is correct.
And to quote President Trump talking to Mr Jesse Watters:
"Chuck I'm very disappointed in, because he's a guy who should make deals for the people. Not as a Democrat or Republican," said Trump.Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
As a result, Bob, the Support Center Coordinator, sent me an EMail, asking for details. He also assigned a case number, Case# 10220577.
He was looking for the specific address for the store, which is at 651 Rogers St, Lowell, MA 01852.
More news, as it breaks.
Regards — Cliff
Mr Bernstein talked about a Trump Ad, late in the presidential campaign, which the Democratic side was decrying as anti-semitic. Including Wash Post OpEd writer Dana Milbank.
Now comes forward Mr Frank Rich with a long article in New York Magazine, "No Sympathy for the Hillbilly: Democrats need to stop trying to feel everyone’s pain, and hold on to their own anger.". It has a passage that parallels the Trump Campaign Ad.
So, are Democrats fundamentally anti-semitic?
Or just angry?
Or just students of Saul Alinksy?
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
This information arrived in my EMail this morning:
Given that many residents are unaware that there have been discussions of the potential for a new High School, CBA and CMAA have organized forums for residents to hear more and discuss and give feedback.Now is the time to be informed, to get involved.[Meeting data:] 3/22 from 5:30-8pm will be at the Lowell Senior Center on Broadway and 3/23 at CMAA’s building on School St. from 6-8pm. Short notice but let’s try to distribute these to residents as wide as we can.
Both will be translated into Khmer and Spanish, and they’re pursuing Portuguese as well – not sure about any other languages at this time.
While I am an advocate for the Option Four, Cawley stadium, yesterday my wife gave me something to think about. She talked to several teenagers she ran across at Market Basket and the all said they favored a Downtown site, so they can easily walk to school. What do the students think?
Regards — Cliff
The source is Mr Tyler Durden, writing for Zero Hedge.
It appears that the long-awaited Article 50 trigger, officially beginning the Brexit process, will take place next Wednesday, March 29, because moments ago a Theresa May spokesman confirmed a report in the UK's CityAM, reporting that Article 50 will be triggered next Wednesday.British Prime Minister Theresa May has been taking her time, methodically working through the wickets to get to this point, dotting her "eyes" and crossing her "tees". She has done a good job so far.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
This is a monumental failure. Monumental!
The other failure is visible in this picture, although it is in small print.
As of about 1300 today the Brownie was still on the menu board.
Why?
I propose a pool as to when the "brownie" comes off the menu board. Like the Nenana Ice Classic. We can each take a date and time for when the Brownie "goes out".
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus several paragraphs:
When Rosa Maria Ortega was a teenager, her mother was deported to her native Mexico after being arrested twice.Frankly, $5,000 and eight years seems very harsh. I would have settled for a $500 fine and a requirement that her village, town or city do a mandatory ID check for the next two elections.As she grew up, Ms. Ortega decided to take a different route. Lacking a high school diploma, she signed up for the Job Corps at age 18 and snagged a position at a state employment office.
In 2012, she registered to vote, and not only cast ballots in the next two elections but served as a poll worker. Divorced, she raised four children, now teenagers, sometimes working three jobs.
“When my mom was here, she did everything illegal,” Ms. Ortega, 37, said in an interview. “I wasn’t going to let that happen to me.”
She may not have a choice. Ms. Ortega, of Grand Prairie, Tex., a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth, is a permanent resident with a green card, but she is not an American citizen. In a case that made national headlines last month, she was found guilty, fined $5,000 and sentenced to eight years in prison because the ballots she cast in 2012 and 2014 were illegal. While green-card holders have many of the rights of citizens, they cannot vote.
And, I would urge the Governor to grant her a pardon, to stop the deportation action. However, I would not urge a change in status from Green card Holder.
On the other hand, retired Law Professor Ann Althouse, who voted twice for Barack H Obama for President, has no sympathy for Ms Ortega, here.
Regards — Cliff
Alan Dershowitz said on Fox News this morning that because court rulings against President Trump‘s travel ban are bringing up his own past rhetoric, the argument is basically,So, we either have a new legal theory or we have judges who have become partisan hacks.If Obama had issued the very same order with the same words it would be constitutional, but if Trump issues it it’s unconstitutional.
I guess that if we accept this as a new legal theory, if coal mine owners and coal miners had known about it they could have gone to court and had all of President Obama's anti-coal actions thrown out.
Be careful what you say on the campaign trail, because anything you say can and will be used against you.
The big thing is precedent. Just as then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's suppression of the filibuster—once upon a time a favorite parliamentary tool of Senate Democrats—opens up room for current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to push through the nomination of Federal Judge Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court on a simple majority vote, so this ruling, if allowed to stand, opens up the whole area of Federal Regulations to the question of what the President said while running for office. If it can be shown he expressed some prejudice, then the issued rule is unconstitutional.
But, we still have the "partisan hack" alternative. I think I like that better than this other weird theory.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
I think Mr Cohen's OpEd is kind of flat. It ignores that Mr Trump is a Progressive. That Republicans across the nation are embracing and supporting "minorities". I give you Kamara Kay, here in Lowell, who we supported for State Rep in the 18th Middlesex District. Kam is an active member of the Lowell Republican City Committee.
And they came upon the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city.
An interesting book, which looks at the impact on France, in 1973, of a massive migration of Indian Hindus, on ships, down the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope and up the West Coast of Africa, entering the Mediterranean via the Straits of Gibraltar and then falling on the South Coast of France. Much of the discussion is about how France, anticipating the arrival of a million migrants, sees itself responding to this influx into a nation of 52.6 million people.
For context, this is five years after the May 1968 uprisings in France. The events were severe enough to lead to President Charles de Gaulle fleeing the country and the 1968 college students becoming known as the 68ers.
One famous participant and leader was then college student Daniel Cohn-Bendit (aka Danny the Red), who later was found to be an advocate for pedophilia.
So, it was a strange time.
When the book came out in 1973 there were claims of racism, but I think race is a cover for the question of what is Western Civilization and is it worth saving. The author is obviously disappointed in the Catholic Church and its clergy. That said, there is symbolism from the Book of Revelation. And, he is down on the Secular Humanists. He alludes to the question of if a brave new world without western capitalism and its sinews can work, but doesn't develop that theme in detail. This book keeps popping up, due to the refugee crisis in Europe, with its spillover in the US and Canada. For instance, Naval War College Professor Mackubin Thomas Owens talks about it in National Review, "Camp of the Saints, 2014 Style?". The sub-headline from the 2014 article is "A 1973 French novel eerily prefigures our current immigration mess."
The theme of the book is based on a moral quandary: What steps will a liberal society take to preserve its way of life? Is liberal society too humane and compassionate to protect itself from those who would undermine and destroy it?
Collin, thanks for the support. If I were a European, I'd be truly worried about the number of Muslims entering the Continent. As some point, ISIS will infiltrate this group after they feel it's reached critical mass, then begin their fun and games. I believe a major crisis is on the horizon, and I don't know how we'll cope with it. But it's coming, regardless. On the other hand, we seem to have enough non-Muslim madness to keep us focused in the meantime. CharlesHat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus one:
IT’S one of the things we are most afraid might happen to us. We go to great lengths to avoid it. And yet we do it all the same: We marry the wrong person.And here is the last paragraph:Partly, it’s because we have a bewildering array of problems that emerge when we try to get close to others. We seem normal only to those who don’t know us very well. In a wiser, more self-aware society than our own, a standard question on any early dinner date would be: “And how are you crazy?”
Romanticism has been unhelpful to us; it is a harsh philosophy. It has made a lot of what we go through in marriage seem exceptional and appalling. We end up lonely and convinced that our union, with its imperfections, is not “normal.” We should learn to accommodate ourselves to “wrongness,” striving always to adopt a more forgiving, humorous and kindly perspective on its multiple examples in ourselves and in our partners.Someone, a few decades back, convinced me that there is a difference between love and infatuation and that "Love is a decision". Well, maybe commitment is a better word, but the fact is that one elects to love someone and dedicate oneself to that person and that person's well being. They aren't perfect, but then neither am I.
Regards — Cliff
Photos at the Blog post.
My experience is that Lowell's Government is pretty responsive. Some may say that is because of where I live, but I do drive around the City and I don't see a proliferation of potholes. I was going to say that we couldn't say that about bridges in the City, but then I remembered the new Howe Bridge, connecting the North Campus (of UMass Lowell) and University Crossing, and yesterday morning I heard a report that work has started on the Lawrence Street Bridge across the Concord River at the Southwest Corner of the Lowell Cemetery.♠
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ Which is not to say we don't need the Rourke Bridge replaced with a "four laner". And, I am still pushing my idea of a limited access highway off 495, going across the Merrimack River into Dracut and beyond. I would bring it off just this side of the Route 133 interchange and run it across the River just beyond Lenzi's. My name for this, as I told herself at the Saint Patrick's Day Dinner Thursday evening is "The Marie Sweeney Bridge". My estimate is $350 million. Since the new President is pushing infrastructure I think we should be ready to absorb some of that job creating investment.
MICROWAVE OF THE FUTURE: First, President Trump accused Barack Obama of having tapped his phones at Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Then the White House refused to provide any substantiation to the claim but asked Congress to investigate. Then presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway came to the President’s defense (sort of) in an interview with the Bergen (NJ) Record, in which she said there are many ways to surveil each other: “You can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets — any number of ways.” Conway added that the monitoring could be done with “microwaves that turn into cameras,” adding, “We know this is a fact of modern life.” This alternative fact provided great fodder to late-night TV hosts who mocked the claim. Who might come to Kellyanne’s defense? We offer former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell who was quoted in 2015 as saying, “If you know what I know, you wouldn’t plug your toaster in.”From Boston politics there is this from Mr Martin Lomasney (the Mahatma):♠
Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink.And, Heaven to Betsy, don't put it in an EMail.
Regards — Cliff
♠ He was the boss of Ward Eight. I wonder if the old Ward Eight Restaurant here in Lowell was a reference to Mr Lomasney?
Here is the lede plus one:
Facing a bread shortage that is spawning massive lines and souring the national mood, the Venezuelan government is responding this week by detaining bakers and seizing establishments.Well, it isn't like it is rampant. However, it is a bad sign. Socialism needs strong central control.In a press release, the National Superintendent for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights said it had charged four people and temporarily seized two bakeries as the socialist administration accused bakers of being part of a broad “economic war” aimed at destabilizing the country.
It takes a strong police state to fight the economic laws.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds' excerpt:
In contrast to the years of the Obama stimulus program, when the bulk of new jobs came in the public sector, it appears that the increase here is in the private sector. Moody’s Analytics says there were 298,000 new private sector jobs in February, far more than the 189,000 it expected.OK, so one swallow does not a Summer make,♠ and this may well be the result of last minutes policies from President Obama and the 114th US Congress.Construction jobs were up 58,000, private educational services jobs up 29,000, manufacturing jobs up 28,000. This suggests that lots of employers, small as well as large, are taking the plunge and creating new jobs.
Can I prove that they’re doing so because of perceptions that regulations and taxes will be decreased by the Trump administration? No, and I’m not sure any economist’s statistical model could either. But that sure looks like what’s happening.
On the other hand, it could be from expectations unleashed as a result of the November election and a race to capitalize on the new opportunities.
Or, it could be the alignment of the planets.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede:
A group of Republican senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday asking him to launch a full-scale investigation into the Obama administration's efforts to meddle in elections around the globe, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The former president has been using taxpayer money to sway foreign elections for years, the senators alleged.So, is the US meddling in the elections of others a good thing?
Should others have the right to do what they can to influence US elections?
Exit question: Will the senators get an answer?
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
In the famous scene at Caesarea-Philippi, Jesus turns to his Apostles and asks, "Who do people say that I am?"Writing in the "Echoes" section of The Pilot, Bishop Robert Barron talks to how,...
... commencing in the eighteenth century with the thought of Friedrich Schleiermacher, Christology took a decisive turn.So, it Jesus true God or true man or both?
I go with both.
Regards — Cliff
Law Number XVI: In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede:
While the American Intelligence Community (IC) plays "not us" when it comes to claims that the Obama Administration spied on President Trump (when he was both a candidate and President-elect), Fox News has learned that in order to avoid a paper trail, fingerprints, and pesky little details like the Bill of Rights, President Obama circumvented all of that by requesting the British spy on Trump.I wouldn't be surprised.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus 2:
The senior North Korea diplomat who defected to the South from Pyongyang's Embassy in London said Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions could bring about state collapse.Note that last paragraph. The criminal enterprise known as the Kim Family is not giving up its hold on power. Experience (e.g., Our invasion of Libya) has shown the Kim Family that it should never give up nuclear weapons. Those who think that negotiations will get us through this are hoping Kim Jung Un is someone he isn't. Hope is not a method.Thae Yong-ho, who recently compared Kim to the Roman emperor Nero, said North Korea is headed down a dangerous path as it seeks recognition as a nuclear weapons state like "India or Pakistan," Voice of America reported Tuesday.
"The Kim Jong Un regime will never give up nuclear weapons," Thae said.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
"The jig is up." Liberalism no longer possesses the moral authority to control our national politics.But, that isn't the most interesting part of the argument. Here is an excerpt from Mr Stephen Green, at the InstaPundit:
A powerful mental construct – the liberal myth of a progressive utopia brought about by surrender of the individual to state control – is at risk of being swept away by a great movement to free consciousness from the controlling ideas of the liberal past. As Shelby Steele wrote in a remarkable March 6 op-ed (“The Exhaustion of American Liberalism”), we stand “at the end of something,” that something being the radical mindset that has dominated so much of American intellectual life since the 1960s.Mr Green compares this to the Soviet Union. I believe the real comparison is to Islam in nations where Islam is the majority religion. Dissent is not acceptable. If you are not part of the Umma you pay the tax and keep your mouth shut.“The jig is up.” Liberalism no longer possesses the moral authority to control our national politics.
Liberals are terrified of Trump because they know that their great myth, once the light of consciousness has been shined on it, will dissolve as quickly as a grain of salt in water. As Steele puts it, the “president rolls his eyes when he is called a racist, and we all – liberal and conservative alike – know that he isn’t one.” Elizabeth Warren’s Jeff Sessions rant was just that: a hysterical rant, and everyone knows it. “White guilt,” and all that goes with it, is now just tiresome noise. There is no reality to liberals’ mental myth of the enlightened state. Once it comes under awareness, it dissolves.
If you wonder why the progressives are not bothered by the oppression of what we think of as civil rights in Muslim majority nations, it may be that they subconsciously see the logic of the political organization. Dissenters should be smart enough to keep their mouths shut and stay out of sight. And pay their taxes.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
I SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE: When the Obama admin asked Bush-era U.S. attorneys to resign in 2009, Politico reported on it as a procedural “replacement” process. When Trump’s team did the same thing in 2017, the same outlet reported they were “ousting” those attorneys.As Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds would say, if it wasn't for double standards they would have no standards at all.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Review: Glenn Frankel, High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American ClassicSource is The Washington Free Beacon and the Writer is Mr Joseph Bottum.
This review is about a book about the best Western ever. And the best scene in High Noon?. Toward the end Johnny, a 14 year old kid, brings around the buckboard and Mrs Kane gets up and the Marshall, as a last act, throws his badge in the dust at the feet of the Town Fathers.
Here is the Penultimate Paragraph of the review:
If Glenn Frankel’s book about High Noon starts out wrong and nonetheless clears the jump, it stumbles on its landing. And the reason is mostly that Frankel can’t bring himself to reject communism or believe that the Soviets truly constituted a threat. It’s not that he embraces the Soviet creed. It’s rather that—a good American liberal of an old-fashioned 1970s-sort of breed—he plugs away with an unreflective anti-anti-communism. For Frankel, the Venona intercepts seem never to have been revealed and the archives of the Soviet Union were never opened. For him, only in conservative fantasy were the communists plotting against America—even the America for which High Noon provides an allegory. At best, the author believes in moral equivalence: bad as the commies were, the anti-commies were just as bad. Probably worse.The whole thing reminds me of America today, with the reflexive anti-Trump approach of many Progressives and fellow travelers. Is President Trump Marshal Will Kane? Time will tell.
It is sad. So sad.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the part Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds quoted:
News flash: Most boys are rambunctious. Often they seem like they’re in a constant state of motion: running, jumping, fighting, playing, getting hurt–maybe getting upset–and getting right back into the physical action.That is pretty interesting. I wonder what our schools are doing to respond to this?Except at school, where they’re required to sit still for long periods of time. (And when they fail to stay still, how are they punished? Often by being forced to skip recess–and thus they sit still longer.)
It’s not just an American issue. Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland recently tried to document whether boys actually achieve less in school when they’re restricted from running around and being physically active.
They studied 153 kids, aged 6 to 8, and tracked how much physical activity and sedentary time they had during the day. Sure enough, according to a report by Belinda Luscombe in Time, the less “moderate to vigorous physical activity” the boys had each day, the harder it was for them to develop good reading skills.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
How (then-) U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Stiffed Reason’s Free Speech.This is from Reason Magazine, who US Attorney Preet Bharara stripped of its First Amendment Rights. Not the kind of person I want as a US Attorney.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the first part of the article, setting the stage:
The so-called Deep State and Democratic Party campaign to demonize Russia for allegedly “hacking the US election,” and delivering the country into the hands of Donald Trump suffered a huge and probably mortal blow this week with the release by WikiLeaks of over 7000 secret CIA documents disclosing secret CIA hacking technologies.But, we were told there were "Russian" fingerprints on the intrusions.The case being made against Russia as being the source of leaked emails of the Democratic National Committee and of Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta – documents that proved that the DNC had been corrupting the primary process in favor of corporatist candidate Hillary Clinton and undermining the campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and that also revealed the embarrassing contents of Clinton’s highly paid secret speeches to a number of giant Wall Street banks – had always been tenuous, with no hard evidence ever presented. All the intelligence agencies would say was that they had a “high degree of certainty,” or “strong reason to believe” that the Russians were the source of the deeply damaging documents late in the campaign season.
Now that is not so clear. Back to the article:
What this means is that current efforts by Democratic Party leaders and Deep State leakers in the government intelligence sector to pin the blame on Russia for hacking the election or for trying to help elect Trump as president, now must confront the counter-argument that the Deep State itself, in the form of the CIA, may have been behind the hacks, but is making it look like the Russians did it.Yes, I am calling for a full and complete investigation by the US Congress. A bipartisan investigation. Looking at both the Trump (and Clinton) Campaign, but also at the Obama Administration and the IC (Intelligence Community), to include the FBI (and its parent organization).
And please note that if you say the election was hacked that is different from saying the DNC was hacked.
Regards — Cliff
Groupthink produced a failure of the “wisdom of crowds” and an underestimate of Trump’s chances.The Author is Mr Nate Silver and the venue is his FiveThirtyEight blog. The publication date is 10 March 2017. I commend the article to you.
Hat tip to my Wife.
Regards — Cliff
An Obama has joined the birther movement.I am assuming this is some form of family joke. I have no doubt that Former President Obama was born in Hawaii. This is settled science. But, Brothers will be Brothers.Malik Obama, Barack Obama’s half-brother, tweeted image of what appears to be Barack’s birth certificate.
Except it’s not from Hawaii, but rather Kenya.
“What’s this?” he tweeted.
The document is from the “Coast Province General Hospital” in Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya, and is for Barack Hussein Obama II, who was born on the “4th day of August, 1961.”
Hat tip to the Drudge Report.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus one:
I’m not insensitive to anti-Semitism. Despite growing up in Jew-friendly New York City, I experienced my share of it — kids throwing rocks at my Jewish Day School bus, anti-Semitic graffiti on our home’s fence, among other incidents. And as Volokh Conspiracy readers know, I’ve blogged quite a bit about anti-Semitism. I’ve mostly written about anti-Semitism coming from the far left, but I’m not at all naive about the existence and virulence of anti-Semitism on the far right.Mr Bernstein has a point.Nevertheless, I’ve been rather taken aback by the panic in the Jewish community over American anti-Semitism since Donald Trump won the election. The recent spate of hoax bombing threats to Jewish community centers and other Jewish institutions around the country has been a precipitating factor, but the fear is drastically out of proportion to the threat; no bombs have been found, and there are no indications that there is any real physical threat to Jews. By contrast, in the past decade or so there have been actual murders at a JCC and a Jewish federation office without precipitating such panic.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
I’ve covered many political scandals over the past 50 years, including Watergate, Iran-contra, and the Clinton impeachment, but the past few weeks have convinced me this country may be on the verge of one that may top them all.That is quite a statement. But, the coin has two sides (and an edge). Here is the other side, from Victor David Hanson. The venue is The National Review and the article headline is "The Ancient Laws of Unintended Consequences". The sub-headline is "Eight years of a fawning press have made the Left reckless." Here are two key paragraphs:None of them involved a president as unprepared as Donald J. Trump. Nor did they cover the number of varied activities currently unfolding before us that involve him directly and indirectly.
This scandal emerged out of Russia’s interference with our Presidential election campaign, through Moscow’s directed hacking into and publicizing of Democrats’ emails. It then spread to past transfers of vast sums of investment money to Trump enterprises from questionable Russian and other financial sources, and now includes potential conflicts of interest and apparent personal gain.
Set aside for a moment the hint of sex. Finally, as with almost all major Washington scandals, it has led to individuals telling false or incomplete stories to investigators and the public – the inevitable cover-up. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta put it plainly on Sunday’s CBS Face the Nation: “This president is making the same mistake past presidents made when they faced scandals…They are trying to obfuscate. They’re trying to cover-up. They are trying to somehow raise other issues.”
If the progressive media and intelligence agencies were hand-in-glove leaking damaging rumors about Trump, and if none were yet substantiated, then the issue reversed and turned instead on a new question: How were they trafficking in confidential intelligence information if not from skullduggery of some sort? No wonder that some smarter observers backtracked from the Russian-Trump collusion charges of the past six months, given that the leaks were less likely to be credible than they were criminal. The accusers have become the accused. And who would police the police?A friend commented:The media and the anti-Trump Republicans decried Trump’s reckless and juvenile antics as unbefitting a president. Perhaps, but they may have forgotten Trump’s animal cunning and instincts: Each time Trump impulsively raises controversial issues in sloppy fashion — some illegal aliens harm American citizens as they enjoy sanctuary-city status, NATO European partners welch on their promised defense contributions, Sweden is a powder-keg of unvetted and unassimilated immigrants from the war-torn Middle East — the news cycle follows and confirms the essence of Trump’s otherwise rash warnings. We are learning that Trump is inexact and clumsy but often prescient; his opponents, usually deliberate and precise but disingenuous.
If Walter Pincus is anywhere near correct, then the Trump Administration, the Congress, FBI, and IC [Intelligence Community] are going to be mired investigating how the Russians were involved in the 2016 elections for years. Unlike the other scandals Pincus cites this one will have the FBI and IC as central “agencies of interest” with serious questions about politicization germane to any investigations.Not good.
Regards — Cliff