Thursday, January 01, 2015

IRONY: America's Economy Finally Begins to Recover Thanks to the Cheap Energy that Obama Ridicules

Some gems from Victor Davis Hanson's latest at National Review:

...Just two years ago, when up for reelection, Obama reminded Americans, “We can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices.”

Obama ridiculed the Republican idea of lowering gas to $2 a gallon through new oil-recovery techniques. “They’re already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas,” Obama mocked. “I’ll save you the suspense: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling.”

...Then, finally, oil and gas prices plunged owing to the “drill, baby, drill,” can-do attitude of the private sector. Americans should thank the U.S. oilman — from the drillers in the field to the engineers behind the scenes — who did the impossible. They vastly increased the supply of what was supposedly a permanently declining resource, and thereby helped to crash prices.

Oilmen, not the government, returned hundreds of billions of dollars to American consumers. They, not Ivy League experts and Wall Street grandees, kick-started the economy where federal subsidies had failed to. They, not the policies of the Obama administration or the rhetoric of Secretary of State John Kerry, weakened our enemies...

...Almost everything Obama tried for six years in an effort to rev the economy — from near-zero interest rates and $1 trillion annual budget deficits to Obamacare and vast increases in entitlements — has failed. His foreign-policy stances of resets and leading from behind led to chaos and emboldened enemies.

Yet the United States economy is slowly recovering with cheap energy... [and abroad] spendthrift oil producers such as hostile Iran, Russia, and Venezuela are nearly broke. Friendly rivals such as Japan and the European Union can’t compete with the U.S. energy edge.

What Obama once ridiculed is now saving him from himself — after he had championed policies that nearly destroyed him.

The Greeks had a word for it: irony.

I must politely beg to differ, Victor.

Michel de Montaigne put it this way: "Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity."


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Obama National Labor Relations Board Quietly Moves to Control 10 Percent of U.S. Economy

Gary Wisenbaker has an excellent summary of the latest totalitarian efforts of the Obama administration to centrally plan the U.S. economy. You know, Soviet-style.

Making good on a warning made in July, the National Labor Relations Board took a breathtaking move late last week to control nearly ten percent of the private output of the U.S. economy. The move came when NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin announced that he would pursue 78 charges against several McDonald’s franchisees as well as McDonald’s USA, LLC, for alleged national labor law violations.

Charges of this nature are commonplace within the NLRB. The difference here is the entities being charged: the franchisee and the franchisor. Griffin’s declaration back in July 2014 flew in the face of established law when he declared that McDonald’s USA could be held liable along with the franchisees under a “joint employer” theory should charges be filed.

The NLRB has now followed through on that threat.

A common feature of a franchise contract is the sovereignty of the franchisee regarding facility and labor management. The franchisor enhances and protects brand and, perhaps, product quality. In short, they contractually split liabilities and responsibilities.

The NLRB, however, takes the position that since McDonald’s USA makes incentives and resources available to its franchisees it goes beyond “protection of the brand”. And that, Comrade Griffin believes, makes it a “joint employer with its franchisees” and must share liability for labor law violations. In so doing, the NLRB ignores the expressed contractual provisions and the intent of the parties as well as freedom of contract.

...It should be noted that the 78 charges sustained by the NLRB represent only 26 percent of the 291 charges ginned up by Fast Food Forward, a group put together by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to target and strike McDonald’s stores. Their purpose was to (1) form a union without “intimidation from their employers” and (2) obtain a $15 hourly minimum wage.

...The NLRB’s move is huge and has serious ramifications.

Paul Krugman Kicks Off 2015 With Hilarious Comedy Riff

By iOTW Report

It’s going to be another hilarious year in the world of progtardism.

In an interview with perennial dipwad, Ezra Klein, Krugman said the following:


…as a Times columnist, I can’t do endorsements, so you have no idea which party I favor in general elections…


Image: The Burning Platform. Note: If any of you are in contact with Mr. Krugman, please let him know that his 2015 Fabulous 50 Blog Award trophy is in storage at the Doug Ross @ Journal Y2K bunker, awaiting his shipping instructions.

You won't believe the latest lie Mr. Obama told the poor souls listening to National Government Radio

His assertions are ever more brazen and ever more outlandish, but no less untruthful.

President Barack Obama claimed that illegal immigrants do not burden taxpayers and are not a drain on public resources... In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Obama also slammed and dismissed those who are concerned about the negative impact that illegal immigration often has on American workers (U.S.-born and legal immigrants) as “nativists.”

“If you’re concerned that somehow illegal immigrants are a drain on resources and forcing, you know, Americans to pay for services for these folks, well, every study shows that’s just not the case,” Obama claimed. “Generally, these folks don’t use a lot of services, and my executive action specifically is crafted so that they’re not a drain on taxpayers; instead, they’re going to be paying taxes, and we can make sure that they are.”

That, of course, is a blatant and unconscionable deception.

In July 2010, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) released the results of a study which examined the costs of illegal immigration at the federal, state and local levels. The study found that U.S. state and local governments shell out $84.2 billion annually in various services (law enforcement, schools, social services, etc.), with California taxpayers alone, spending $21 billion on illegal aliens every year... The same study found that $29 billion is spent every year in federal funds on illegal aliens.

Therefore, in 2010 alone, illegal aliens cost the American taxpayer more than $110 billion. That figure is certainly much higher now.

In fact, in December of 2012, Obama's own Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, a man with the unlikely name of Nelson Peacock, answered a question from Senate Republicans regarding the costs of deporting all illegal aliens in the United States.

“Our conservative estimate suggests that ICE would require a budget of more than $135 billion to apprehend, detain and remove the nation’s entire illegal immigrant population.”

As Dave Gibson notes, this mass deportation "would pay for itself in a little over a year".


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama Frees a Nuclear Terrorist

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Obama Frees a Nuclear Terrorist: Daniel Greenfield
A Year of Liberal Double Standards: Jonah Goldberg
Conservatives plan to vote against Boehner for speaker: Alex Pappas

Obama claims illegal aliens don't burden taxpayers: Breitbart
Leftsts Use ‘Amnesty’ to Create a Socialist ‘One Party State’: Trevor Loudon
Be American: Christian Mercenary

The Great Divider: Leonard Levitt
Thanks, de Blasio! NYPD Facing “Kill a Pig Night” to Celebrate New Year: JWF
Obama's Anti-Cop Jihad: William Michael

Protesters Take Over/Thrown Out of St. Louis Police Headquarters: Lid
Boston Officers Attacked by Teens: LawOfficer
Happy New Year, John Boehner!: Andrew Klavan

Economy

“Letter of Solidarity” from Cal State reads like a parody of Leftist insanity: Bookworm
On Immigration, Engineers Simply Don’t Trust Silicon Valley: Danny Crichton
If Single Payer Can't Work in Vermont...: Megan McCardle

Government Workers Should Never Be Allowed a Union: Publius
The Gold Owner's Guide to 2015: Michael J. Kosares
Detroit bankruptcy fees top $170M: Detroit News

Scandal Central

Sharyl Attkisson Sues DOJ For Copy Of FBI's Attkisson Investigation: TR
Hacking: Bad When It Happens to Sony, Just Fine When the CIA Does It to the Senate: Melissa Melton
Yes, it’s every bit as bad as you think it is: Cold Fury

Climate & Energy

If the Pope Agrees to the Climate Treaty, I’m Out: Jen Kuznicki
I'd have thought they'd be a bit prickly . . .: Bayou Renaissance Man
War on Coal: Mine closings in Kentucky kill 670 jobs: Marathon

Media

Frontpage’s 2014 Person of the Year: The American Police Officer: Daniel Greenfield
There the Pollsters Go Again! 2016 Presidential Junk Polls: VARight
Pretend Holiday Deserves Pretend Parade Covered by Pretend Objective Journalists: Ed Driscoll

Erasing the Hollwood Sign: Ed Driscoll
Lena Dunham, Liar: R.S. McCain
Good for you, Rush: WAMK

Death Wish VI: On the Turning Away: Ed Driscoll
Pete Sessions Fires Back on Amnesty and Boehner: Breitbart
NYPD Monitoring "Kill A Pig Night" Threats For New Year's Eve: Gothamist

World

The Iran - Pakistan War: GSG
A Mass Shooting Just Happened in Canada where Guns are Virtually Illegal: BuzzPo
Stop Donating To The Wounded Warrior Project: Tony Oliva

N.Y. Mayor de Blasio Active Supporter of Brutal Communist Regime: JW
Wild Cheers for Turkey's Proposed Invasion of Israel: Leo Hohmann
Sharia UK: 19-year-old arrested for video showing him burning Qur’an: JihadWatch

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

The incredible shrinking man...: WAMK
Hasbro Under Fire for Phallic Play-Doh Toy: Breitbart
.22LR as a defensive round: Bayou Renaissance Man

Cornucopia

Russia denies shooting down Santa, blames U.S. propaganda: The People's Cube
Presenting The 2014 Mug Shots Of The Year: TSG
Johnny Manziel clearly doesn't think he's playing football for a while: TMZ Sports

Image: Protesters Take Over/Thrown Out of St. Louis Police Headquarters
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: FISHER HOUSE: Helping Military Families

QOTD: "Mohammed Zahir may not go back to his old tasks of smuggling heroin to Washington D.C. or trying to assemble materials for an atomic bomb. Or this top Taliban intelligence official may decide to pick up where he left off. It’s bad enough that Obama is empowering Iran’s quest for a nuclear bomb, but now he has also managed to aid the Taliban’s search for weapons of mass destruction.

Americans no longer expect the man in the White House not to release terrorists. We no longer expect him not to release dangerous terrorists who will go on to kill Americans. Now we also know that it’s useless to expect him not to release terrorists caught trying to assemble materials for a nuclear bomb.

We’ve tried to grade Obama on a curve when it comes to national security, but the curve just got nuked.

The very lowest possible expectation we can have of Obama is that he won’t release a nuclear terrorist. And even this lowest of all possible expectations proved too much for him to live up to.

Which terrorists will Obama release next? The answer appears to be all of them." --Daniel Greenfield

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

HANNITY, LEVIN, VIGUERIE: Boehner, McCarthy and Scalise Must Go

By ConservativeHQ

CHQ Chairman Richard A. Viguerie has been calling for the replacement of GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner arguing that Boehner’s not a conservative and that his regular failures of leadership disqualify him from heading the largest House Republican majority since 1928.

Mr. Viguerie’s calls for Boehner’s replacement have been regularly ignored by the establishment media who cover Capitol Hill and share Boehner’s love of Big Government.

But in the wake of the revelation that Boehner’s second ranking lieutenant, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, spoke to a racist group (the European-American Unity and Rights Organization) founded by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, and Boehner’s 100% support for his embattled lieutenant, Mr. Viguerie’s demands for Boehner’s replacement have suddenly gained new adherents.

Fox News personality and influential talk radio host Sean Hannity is calling on every Republican member of the House of Representatives to reconsider whether Boehner is in fact an effective leader.

Hannity, like Viguerie, said that if Republicans return to conservative principles by rejecting Boehner and installing a replacement, they will be rewarded with political victories in 2016’s crucial presidential election.

“Every Republican member needs to ask themselves if John Boehner is really the best person to lead the conservative movement at this important time in history,” Hannity told Matt Boyle of Breitbart News. “Are they voting for him as a leader or for the Committee assignments they have been promised? The American people expect and deserve bold and dynamic and inspiring leaders. The next 2 years are critical for the country.”

BEST OF 2014: "Dear beautiful America, please, stop moving Forward"

Guest post by Aleksey


Upon migrating to the United States many years ago, I embraced my new home and left the past behind. Never could I imagine that, at some point, that past would become relevant.

But now, I am compelled to talk about it again.

In the USSR, we had state-controlled media which shaped the narrative entirely.

Our founder, Vladimir Lenin, was portrayed as a noble, charismatic, and smart man -- the champion of the underdog (the working class), the seeker of equality, defeater of the rich. The humble man with common ideas who was destined for greatness.

Lenin peered at us intently from textbooks and walls. His was the face behind the good intentions that shaped our everyday life.
As a kid, I was largely shielded by my family -- they took the brunt of "adult tasks" in everyday life. They bribed officials to accomplish the most basic of things, they conserved every kopek and piece of bread, they got me the rare medicines I needed, all through means I didn't dare fathom.

Of course, there was nothing special about those medicines, those favors, or anything else that took such effort to obtain -- in America, you can just go out and get it in a corner store. In the Soviet Union, the word "deficit" was commonly used in everyday language.

"This and this product are in deficit." This meant that you couldn't buy them. Maybe for the next three months or maybe forever, unless someone was bribed or the product was obtained via the black market, friends, or contraband. Fruits and vegetables had their "seasons" when they made an appearance in local stores -- we didn't have advanced technology like hydroponic farms.

Instead, adults were herded into collective farms, which were the Soviet antithesis of family -- or individual-owned farms. Under cheerful banners of "accomplishing a five-year plan in four," they usually underperformed and the bureaucrats responsible faked the numbers, which moved up the chain of command.

"Deficit." I heard this term a lot, as I stood in long lines for bread and milk in stores with cheerfully generic names like "Progress" or "Sunrise."

The lines resembled those formed by hipsters in America lining up for the sale of the next iPhone model -- except we stood in them every day.

As much as my family shielded me from their troubles, they couldn't protect me from factors beyond their control. They couldn't raise my level of living above theirs. And they certainly couldn't get me anesthetics for dental visits. Sitting in the gray, sterile corridor for two hours, hearing the sobbing of the kids already in the dental chair as their teeth were drilled without anesthetics, water, or suction, and knowing that your turn was coming -- some handled it better than others.

In the local clinic, needles were resterilized and reused. Ambulances took three hours to arrive, if they came at all.
That was our "free" healthcare.

We also lived in a "free" apartment, which was suffocatingly small by American standards, and it took years, if not decades, for an average couple to obtain such a place. Usually, several generations of a family lived under one roof until the government bestowed upon its citizens another gray five- to sixteen-story building that looked just like its gray neighbor and had the same exact green-painted swings in the yard.

Since almost nobody had cars, people could rarely afford to move to another city or republic.

Public transportation, which we all had to use, consisted of cranky people squeezed tightly like sardines inside a rusty box on wheels. Despite that, when I was eight, I wanted to be a trolley bus driver. Partially because of all the buttons he flipped to open and close doors, but mostly because there was a wall between him and the sardine can.

The walls in Soviet apartments were poorly insulated from noise and cold. Therefore, wall carpets were dominant in Soviet culture. They all looked similar, usually colored red with abstract, curving patterns.

Soviet factories were state-controlled. Variety was not a concept. The color red was all over the place -- it garnished the banners hanging off the sides of gray five-story buildings, with profiles of Lenin, Marx, and Engels fluttering lightly in the wind, proclaiming that "Marxism-Leninism is the symbol of our times." Others stated, "Forward toward Communism!"

Red was splattered on our classroom walls and our school uniforms.

In grade school, you became an "Octyabronok" (named after the October 1917 revolution) and wore a Lenin-faced star on your lapel. You got a free newspaper, the "Young Leninist." Later, you became a "Pioneer" and swapped the star for a red tie. After that, you moved on to "Komsomol" (All-Union Leninist Young Communist League). Those who did not follow the groupthink enough to make it to "Komsomol" lost access to crucial resources and careers later in life.

I grew up with no concept of "brands." If I wanted to get that shoddy water pistol that suddenly appeared in a store, and my parents let me, then that was the water pistol. It broke in two weeks, of course.

Bread in the stores was the bread. Milk was the milk. Kolbasa was the kolbasa. Everything was manufactured by the state to provide the minimum required survivability, and minimum expected functionality. Improvements in design and the manufacturing process did not exist.

When I came to America and laid down on an American bed, it struck me that it was more comfortable than any bed I'd ever experienced. It was the result of evolving design oriented toward customer satisfaction -- a concept alien to my former homeland.
The two famous brands of Soviet cars, Zaporozhets and Moskvich (both named after their places of origin), just... existed. We didn't really have Zaporozhets 1980 followed by a new and improved Zaporozhets 1981 -- now with power steering! No such thing. It was a car, and it required no further improvement. There was no customer demand, because people were poor, the state-controlled prices were very high, and product evolution crawled at snail's pace.

The very concept of "customer convenience" did not exist. We didn't have bottles sculpted to fit the shape of your hand, nor did we have polite cashiers, for they were under no obligation to please anyone -- they worked for the state. The abacus was still in common use in our stores while American stores had electric change machines, credit card readers, and sliding doors.

Like most things, clothes were in "deficit" and thus traveled from older to younger siblings in every family over time. Broken things weren't thrown away but repaired.

Our giant lamp television was carried in the family since about the time I was born. It received three channels -- all State-controlled. On our evening news program, the Chernobyl disaster announcement was calm and lasted fifteen seconds. Our state papers, such as Pravda and Izvestia, were not read but used as invaluable sources of free toilet paper. This is not a joke.

Our propaganda put the big focus on the noble working class and how there was no such thing as a "lower" profession. Much emphasis was made on the nobility of simple working man, and certainly there is something to that.

But when the janitor receives roughly the same salary as a teacher who is paid roughly the same as a surgeon who is paid roughly the same as a programmer, all of them surrounded by peers who get paid the same no matter how well or poorly they perform, some people start carrying the team, and then they just give up. Everyone performs poorly in the end.

It was painfully obvious to everyone just how low the desire of the average person is to produce goods for other people. Without competition or opportunity to get ahead, with the state controlling production and paying equal salaries to workers regardless of their contributions, we had no concept of abundance.

With our "free" services, we regularly experienced water and electrical outages and sometimes went to a nearby forest to get water. Once you fill that bathtub with water, you can't use it for anything else.

The first time I entered an American food market at the age of seventeen, I froze.

Older Soviets who visited American stores for the first time, got hit harder -- all the lies they were taught from childhood through the decades of their lives -- until that last moment, they expected them to be at least partially true.

Sure, they heard stories from overseas, but come on, those were just the Potemkin villages, mirages created to make the Soviets jealous. How can one imagine the unimaginable?

"They told us in Odessa, that in San Francisco it's hard to find milk."

This is the typical Soviet mentality, and they were used to it, and they bought into it, and then they entered that American supermarket and saw the rows upon rows of milk of different brands and kinds and fat percentages.

This is where some have been known to cry. It is the realization that their lives were stolen from them by the regime. A realization of what could've been, if they had been lucky enough to be born in this place which, from everything they knew, could not possibly exist.

I now live in Northern California, in the heart of the Bay Area, thousands of miles away from my homeland.

And yet the poison of Soviet propaganda seeps through college dorms just as it did in Soviet classrooms.

Stop a random youth on the street and you'll find out what he thinks about capitalism (bad!) and communism/socialism (good!). Their favorite news programs are the "Daily Show" and the "Colbert Report," where comedians reinforce their brainwashing via short, catchy clips.

Walk through Berkeley and you will see wall graffiti of the same hammer and sickle that adorned the big red flags of the Soviet era.

This doesn't extend to just youths. People of all ages, even acquaintances that I otherwise respect and admire, are like this. They support the "progressive" leader Barack Obama, worship the nanny state, and believe in equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity.

They badmouth capitalism and complain that only one percent of the American population has the "American dream." They buy into the class warfare rhetoric hook, line, and sinker. They want artificially raised minimum wage, government handouts, and believe that Obamacare is the greatest thing since the invention of pockets.

I look at them and the red ties materialize, familiarly, around their necks.

There are "academic" speakers now who advocate that having too many choices is "bad for you." Too stressful to choose, you see.
Living in the Soviet Union, being bombarded with similar nonsense, we had nothing to contradict it. When we walked outside the school, the everyday reality had no traces of the wealth afforded by capitalism. We lived in the grayness and that grayness was all there was.

Americans leave school to go home and they drop by a mall to buy something from an incredible selection of wealth and choice afforded by capitalism. They drop by a small corner store, which could probably feed a savvy Soviet village for a month (dog food is food, too, you know), and they pick up some "entertainment food" that did not exist in the USSR, in quantities that weren't affordable for an average Soviet family.

Then they go home and write essays on their expensive iPads about how they don't have the American Dream.

Now, most American news sources are no different than Pravda and Izvestia. Now, the government used the IRS to stifle political opposition. Now, ObamaCare is a wealth redistribution platform disguised as a common good. Now, Obama is being portrayed in academia and the media alike as a charismatic, messianic, "progressive" figure, fighting for the "underdog." He would feel right at home as the General Secretary of the Communist Party. Now, Obama Youths are me, from decades ago. Leninist academia has had its way with them. Now, just like Soviet leaders, American leaders give lip-service to "social justice" while stocking up on personal wealth for their families.

There's nothing new under the sun. I'm hardly the only ex-Soviet to point out the parallels. But some things matter enough to bear repeating.

Dear beautiful America, please, stop moving Forward.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

When Patriotism Died

By Lawrence Sellin

The next two years will be among the most dangerous in the history of the United States. It may lead to the end of American history.

The Republican establishment is powerless to oppose Obama in any significant way because they are being held hostage. Obama's lies have become Republican lies, which they have embraced and made their own.

Although the challenges facing the country present clear dangers, America will not be brought down by unsustainable debt, social chaos, a moribund economy or weakness in the face of foreign threats, all of which have been planned and instigated by our own government, but by the irreparable damage to the Constitution and representative government perpetrated by the very people, who have sworn an oath to uphold them.

Most prospective government officials, whether Democrat or Republican, now pursue office, not to support the Constitution and serve the American people, but to obtain power, and to use that power to accrue professional and financial benefits for themselves and their major donors. All the traditional means for citizens to seek the redress of grievances have now been blocked by a self-absorbed permanent political elite unaccountable to the American people.

From the perspective of the ruling class, elections are formalities, nothing more than occasions to redistribute power among select Democrat and Republican elites. For the financiers, it does not matter who wins as long as they can continue to influence policy through their lobbies and political contributions.

Ordinary Americans are little more than indentured voters to a power-hungry and greedy bipartisan dictatorship.

Case in point is the darling of the Republican establishment and pre-anointed 2016 Presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who, if elected, intends to govern like Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson.

BEST OF 2014: Stuff Bush Didn't Do, Illustrated

Please distribute to your progressive "friends":



Related: President Barack Obama's Complete List of Historic Firsts [Updated]

Larwyn's Linx: Why Obama could regret executive action

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Why Obama could regret executive action: Brian Hughes
Top Obama aide threatens DHS shutdown if GOP doesn't fund Amnesty: IJR
Surprise: 90% of "surge" illegals aren't showing up for their court dates: FSM

NYC Cops Have Stopped Making Most Arrests-It's Too Dangerous: Lid
De Blasio Aides Pushed Politicians To Blast NYPD: William Teach
Arrests plummet 66% with NYPD in virtual work stoppage: Post

Gruber In 2009: Obamacare Will NOT Be Affordable: DC
Obamacare’s Annus Horribilis: Michelle Malkin
News media outlets caught directly funding Al Sharpton: IJR

The Job Thieves of Albany: Clark Whelton
AR school leaders rip Michelle's wasteful lunch rules: Kyle Olson
Gun owners fear Maryland police target them for traffic stops: Times

Economy

Land of Leaving: ILL-inois top in outbound migration : John Ruberry
Union spin won't stop pension wrecking ball in CA: UT San Diego
The $2.6B Welfare Payment That The U.S. Gives To Wal-Mart: Michael Snyder

Scandal Central

26 Ways the Media Botched Their Reporting on the Latest Benghazi Report: Sharyl Attkisson
Here Are 10 Outrageous 'Zero Tolerance' Follies of 2014: Lenore Skenazy
High-level Fed committee overruled regulator's finding on Goldman: Life Health Pro

Climate & Energy

Oil Falls to New Lows, So Of Course Obama is Slamming in New Regulations on Energy: Ace
Cheap oil could be a Trojan horse for America: Rachel Marsden
Keystone XL set for January hearing: Zack Colman

Media

Flashback: Sharpton Soaks Up The Boycott Bucks: WZ
Viral homeless video was staged: report: Vocativ
Scalise, GOP leaders must accept that they are held to a higher standard: Timothy Carney

World

Afghan war "ends", terrorist haven remains: Exam
‘While you slept': 5 more detainees released from Guantanamo: Twitchy
The Islamization of Britain in 2014: Soeren Kern

Swedish Somalis on trial in New York, suicide bombings are a forgivable sin: RRW
UAW teachers branch joins boycott of Israel: Sean Higgins
Report: The Prime Minister Of Turkey Is Now Having Talks About Invading Jerusalem: Shoebat

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Predicting the Unpredictable from Microsoft: Mary Jo Foley
Incredible Towering Structures Cast Shadows Across Saturn’s Rings: UniverseToday
Hacker clones a politician’s fingerprint using normal, long-distance public photos: Sebastian Anthony

Cornucopia

Obama: The Politician Without a Church: Cliff Kincaid
The Audacity of Kwanzaa: MOTUS
Insane Road Rage Rampage Captured on Video: IJR

Image: The Audacity of Kwanzaa
Sponsored by: Pray for Mandy Nagy (Update 12/30 – A long road ahead – Please donate)

QOTD:


--Via Twitchy

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

BEST OF 2014: Ameritopia, the Comic Book

So progressives and other miscreants can follow along... based upon the outstanding bestseller by Mark Levin.

Larwyn's Linx: On trying to shoehorn populism into the modern Left. Somehow. Somewhere.

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

On trying to shoehorn populism into the modern Left. Somehow.: Moe Lane
President’s NPR Interview: Copious Amount of Cognitive Dissonance: Treehouse
Obama kicks Army wedding off Hawaii golf course so he can play: RedAlert

Liberals' use of black people: Walter Williams
Report: FBI's Sony Inquiry Moves to LA: GotNews
Norm Macdonald Was Right: Sony Hack Was an Inside Job: Glob

Comparing The Two Most Republican Houses In 70 Years: Michael Barone
Support for Common Core could cost Jeb Bush in primary: Miami Herald
Steve Scalise Should Resign From His House Leadership Post: John Hawkins

Chicago Per Capita Murder Rate Exceeds New York and LA: Marie Dennis
Michigan has more food stamp recipients than students: Wynton Hall
10 senators who could lose in 2016: Cameron Joseph, The Hill

Economy

The Pension Crisis Next Door: Scranton, Pa.: Stephen Moore
Can you guess who's addressing public vs. private pension disparities?: Daniel J. Mitchell
As Medicaid Rolls Swell, Cuts in Payments to Doctors Threaten Access to Care: NYT

Scandal Central

Unanswered Benghazi Questions: Fourth in a Series: Sharyl Attkisson
House Majority Whip Scalise confirms he spoke to white nationalists in 2002: WaPo
“Racist” Organization Scalise Spoke To About Tax Policy Employs Many Democrats: GotNews

Climate & Energy

David Bird, Missing Wall Street Journal Reporter, Foresaw an Oil Crash: Pam Martens
Arctic cold blast, freezing rain/snow expected for New Years Day: WUWT
The $9 Trillion Dollar Carry Trade Blew Up Oil, Russia, and Brazil... What's Next?: ZH

Media

Quite possibly the most racist article you will ever read: Allen West
Reporter Slams Obama For Lying About Executive Orders: MenRec
CNN’s Chris Moody: Optics of Obama Forcing Army Couple to Move Wedding ‘Hilariously Bad’: MRC

Garry Trudeau, Call Your Office: Sonny Bunch
Obviously, You Need More Feminist Lectures From Miriam Mogilevsky: R.S. McCain
Church of Global Warming Liberal Media Fret Over How to Spin Record Cold Temps: Betty Butter

POTUS Wants Us To Know ‘Who We Are’ And ‘Who We Are Not’: Tammy Bruce
Chuck Todd and the Rosetta Stone of Liberal Bias : Bernard Goldberg
NPR’s Steve Inskeep To Obama: Have The 2014 Midterms ‘Liberated You?’: Jeffrey Meyer

World

Obama: Iran Can Be 'Very Successful Regional Power': Daniel Halper
Russian Nuclear Bombers Again Buzz Guam: Bill Gertz
Ah, So: Normalize Relations With Cuba, Import A Few Legions Of Doctors: R.S. McCain

Taliban Claims America 'Defeated' in Afghanistan: Geoffrey Norman
Obama: We’re ‘Ending Combat Mission in Afghanistan’--But Combat Troops Will Remain to Fight al Qaeda: CNS
Pope Francis Will Fight for Climate Change Funded by Wealth Redistribution: Sara Noble

US finds Israel fourth most 'unacceptable' country: ynet
Russian Nativity Play: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph Stalin: Cube
Aljazeera.net Article In Praise Of Stabbings, Vehicular Attacks: MEMRI`

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

The Big Tech Stories of 2015: Rob Enderle
The Fermi Paradox: Tim Urban
The Secret World of Stolen Smartphones, Where Business Is Booming: Matthew Shaer, Wired

Cornucopia

Addled Old Hippie Garry Trudeau Goes Off the Deep End: Ace
I Don't Think I Got My Christmas Wish: 90 Miles From Tyranny
Year's Best Blogs Named to 'Fab 50': Andrea Shea King

Image: Grim discovery: After 3 days of intense search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501, debris and dead bodies
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QOTD:


Monday, December 29, 2014

MARK LEVIN: Yes, this Administration has Blood on its Hands

Via Newsbusters, Mark Levin opens up a can on the racialists:

My blood has been boiling, I've been grinding my teeth, listening to all this, watching this, two dead police officers, murdered. President of the United States issues a statement, a written statement. The attorney general of the United States always wants to debate race (with this "nation of cowards"), nowhere to be found. Another coward, another phony. Yes, they do have blood on their hands. No, they didn't kill these police officers. But they have created an environment with their political war against the cops in this country borne out of Ferguson, Mo., with a police officer there whose career is destroyed, who has a death warrant on his own head, was defending himself and shot a thug who first tried to take his pistol and then returned for more!

And out of that, out of that, the president of the United States and the attorney general of the United States, that piece of crap Sharpton, wherever he shows up, isn't it funny, things seem to happen, usually violence. Out of that we get riots! Stores are burning in Ferguson, Mo. People are throwing Molotov cocktails. People are shooting their guns. The liberal Democrat governor pulls back on the National Guard. The police have to walk around with their hands in their pocket, afraid to do anything to protect the citizenry. Borne out of what? A lie! A fraud! Because Michael Brown didn't have his arms up in the air. He was trying to assault, again, if not kill a police officer!

You won't believe how Common Core tries to teach kids subtraction

You'll think this is satire, but Michael Snyder assures us that it is anything but.

...A massive federal takeover of education known as “Common Core” is attempting to impose nationwide academic standards on public schools throughout the entire country. Thanks to the backing of billionaire Bill Gates, endless promotion by the U.S. Department of Education, and financial bribes to state governments by the Obama administration, 45 states and Washington, D.C. have already agreed to implement the full Common Core standards in their schools. Unfortunately, these “standards” are doing to public education what Obamacare is doing to our health care system – absolutely ruining it. Just look at how basic math instruction has changed. Posted below is a comparison between the “old method” of subtraction and the “new method” of subtraction being taught in many of our schools. When I first came across this on Facebook, I thought that it was a joke…


...I thought that there was no possible way that this could be real. I really thought that this must have come from some sort of parody website.

But it is actually true.

Here is another example of this. The following is an incredibly bizarre Common Core math problem and the response by one very frustrated parent that has gone viral all over the Internet recently...

Did the Saudis and the US Really Collude to Smash Oil Prices?

By Andrew Topf

The oil price drop that has dominated the headlines in recent weeks has been framed almost exclusively in terms of oil market economics, with most media outlets blaming Saudi Arabia, through its OPEC Trojan horse, for driving down the price, thus causing serious damage to the world's major oil exporters – most notably Russia.

While the market explanation is partially true, it is simplistic, and fails to address key geopolitical pressure points in the Middle East.

Oilprice.com looked beyond the headlines for the reason behind the oil price drop, and found that the explanation, while difficult to prove, may revolve around control of oil and gas in the Middle East and the weakening of Russia, Iran and Syria by flooding the market with cheap oil.

The oil weapon

We don't have to look too far back in history to see Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and producer, using the oil price to achieve its foreign policy objectives. In 1973, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat convinced Saudi King Faisal to cut production and raise prices, then to go as far as embargoing oil exports, all with the goal of punishing the United States for supporting Israel against the Arab states. It worked. The “oil price shock” quadrupled prices.

It happened again in 1986, when Saudi Arabia-led OPEC allowed prices to drop precipitously, and then in 1990, when the Saudis sent prices plummeting as a way of taking out Russia, which was seen as a threat to their oil supremacy. In 1998, they succeeded. When the oil price was halved from $25 to $12, Russia defaulted on its debt.

The Saudis and other OPEC members have, of course, used the oil price for the obverse effect, that is, suppressing production to keep prices artificially high and member states swimming in “petrodollars”. In 2008, oil peaked at $147 a barrel.

Turning to the current price drop, the Saudis and OPEC have a vested interest in taking out higher-cost competitors, such as US shale oil producers, who will certainly be hurt by the lower price. Even before the price drop, the Saudis were selling their oil to China at a discount. OPEC's refusal on Nov. 27 to cut production seemed like the baldest evidence yet that the oil price drop was really an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and the US.

However, analysis shows the reasoning is complex, and may go beyond simply taking down the price to gain back lost marketshare.

“What is the reason for the United States and some U.S. allies wanting to drive down the price of oil?” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro asked rhetorically in October. “To harm Russia.”

Many believe the oil price plunge is the result of deliberate and well-planned collusion on the part of the United States and Saudi Arabia to punish Russia and Iran for supporting the murderous Assad regime in Syria.

Larwyn's Linx: Crime as Politics

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Nation

Crime as Politics: Victor Davis Hanson
The TRUE Great Failure of Barack Obama: Moe Lane
The latest battle in the long leftist war: The anti-police protests: John Ruberry

334 blacks killed 2014 in Chicago – no riots: FAM
Black Lies Matter: Bryce Buchanan
Looking Back: The Good, The Bad And The Progressive: Derek Hunter

Why We Need Broken Windows Policing: City Journal
Leftist Protesters Forfeit Any Moral Standing They Might Have Had: GayPatriot
Thousands Support Police In “Sea Of Blue” Rallies Across The Country: WZ

LA police shot at while sitting in their patrol car, LA under tactical alert : Scoop
Everyone Says Jeb Bush Is A Conservative – Except Conservatives: CHQ
Contrary to WH Claims, Only Tiny Fraction of 'Surge' Border-Jumpers Deported: CIS

Economy

The Law of the Lots: AmInt
BANNED: Obama to Save You From Evil Donut Sprinkles!: Wizbang
Gerard Depardieu was right! France scraps its 75% ‘super tax’: Twitchy

Scandal Central

The border invasion continues...: RRW
Bill de Blasio Turned His Back On The NYPD: That’s Why They Returned The Gesture: Jay Caruso
Supreme Irony: That Awkward Moment When Anti-Police Protesters Call Police: WZ

Climate & Energy

Regulation gone wild – Christmas lights are the next target of nanny state: WUWT

Media

Winning Quotes in the MRC’s Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting: MRC
Hey GQ, can’t find any crazy Democrats? Here are 16: Kyle Smith
The 50 Best Conservative Columnists Of 2014 (7th Annual): John Hawkins

Searching for the Next Michael Brown: Colin Flaherty
Same Old Script: Chris Muir, DBD
James Woods tweets photo just in time to explain CBS’s RIDICULOUS Obama headline!: BPR

COUNTDOWN! Good Guys of 2014: Watchdog
Media Nearly Silent After NC Cop Thwarts NYPD-Style Assassination Attempt: Bob Owens
Protesters Descend on Redskins Stadium Before Cowboys Game: Sooper

Bob Woodward: The world is CLEARLY NOT safer now than a year ago: Scoop
Hatemail: STFU Edition (Language Warning): Dana Loesch
Ferguson Protestor, Once Lauded for Non-Violence, Arrested for Arson and Burglary: Mediaite

World

Writer at American Thinker: What is America’s survival plan?: RRW
Our Administration’s Working Hard to Keep Terror Groups off UAE Terror List: Sara Noble
Canada Rejects U.N. Arms Treaty: Robert Farago

Geert Wilders Was Right: Uzay Bulut
Turns Out ISIS is Bad at Governing: AmInt
Sweden: Immigration controversy heats up as mosque is set ablaze: RRW

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

The Enormous Implications Of Facebook Indexing 1 Trillion Of Our Posts: Josh Constine
Israel-from-space pics take off online: Times of Israel
55 quotes that defined the tech industry in 2014: GeekWire

Cornucopia

Sony: ‘The Interview’ Has Made Over $15 Million Online: Variety
How Dumb of Me: Norman Hooben
Austrian filmmaker uncovers apparent secret Nazi nuclear complex: JPost

Image: Sony: ‘The Interview’ Has Made Over $15 Million Online
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QOTD: "[The IRS] responding to a subpoena, tells congressional investigators that it cannot produce 28 months of Lois Lerner’s emails because the hard drive they were stored on failed, and the hard drive was thrown away, and the backup tapes were erased, and no printed copies were saved — contrary to the IRS’s own record-keeping policy, which was eaten by the IRS’s dog. “It was just one crazy thing after another,” states the IRS, “and it got us to thinking: All these years we’ve been subjecting taxpayers to everything short of rectal probes if they can’t produce EVERY SINGLE DOCUMENT WE WANT, and here we lose YEARS worth of official records! So from now on, if taxpayers tell us they lost something, or just plain forgot to make a tax payment, we’ll be like, ‘Hey, whatever! Stuff happens!’ Because who are we to judge?”" --Dave Barry's Year End Review (via American Digest)

Sunday, December 28, 2014

HERE THEY ARE: The 2014 Fabulous 50 Blog Award Winners #Fab50

The moment you've been waiting for is here.

The votes are in. The anxious nominees' fingernails have been chewed down to the quick.

Winner - 2014 Fabulous 50 Blog AwardsAnd at least one blogger just excused himself to go to the bathroom (number two, apparently, based upon the length of time he's been gone).

So we're more than pleased to announce the winners of the 2014 Fabulous 50 Blog Awards, the most prestigious new media awards in the conservative blogosphere.

Or, at the very least, in the 993 area code.

These awards recognize a variety of blogs and websites operating in the conservative hemisphere of the Internet, all of which have worked tirelessly to promote conservatism, free market capitalism, fiscal sanity, the sovereignty of the individual, and otherwise protect America from the cockroach-like Statists -- some in very unique ways.

So, without further ado, may I have the envelopes, please?


Larwyn's Linx: Not peaceful protests: Promoting a race war that will lead to "communist revolution"

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Nation

Not peaceful protests: Promoting a race war toward "communist revolution": Zombie
Meet The Agitators Behind The New York Protests And Cop Killings: NoisyRm
'Car plowed us down': LA demonstrators burn flag, block traffic: Twitchy

Muslim Congressman’s Ferguson Panel has Al Qaeda, Taliban Speakers : Tatler
Cops assassinated: the result of allowing an evil lie to grow: Lloyd Marcus
Partners in protest: The anti-Israel, cop-bash link: William Jacobson

A Mississippi Burning – The Curious Case Of Jessica Lane Chambers: Treehouse
A City on the Brink: Matthew Hennessey
'Liberated' Obama builds momentum: The Hill

De Blasio Speaks At Cops Funeral, Thousands of Police Officers Do This: Federalist
Oof: Bill de Blasio spurned by NYPD at Rafael Ramos funeral: Moe Lane
23,000 cops mourn slain brother at funeral: Post

Economy

Surprise: Medicaid Recipients Could See Significant Access Reductions: RWN
Marc Cuban Warns of a Massive Crash in the Education Market: Mac Slavo
Dem pols attempt to sic Feds on successful Wisconsin school choice program: EAG

Scandal Central

Unanswered Benghazi Questions: Second in a Series: Sharyl Attkisson
Sharyl Attkisson: Docs indicate ATF was using Fast and Furious to justify new gun regs: Thomas Lifson
IRS Says it ‘Mistakenly’ Penalized GOP Candidate Christine O’Donnell For a Second Time: RWN

Climate & Energy

Where Have I Seen This Before?: MB
Snow leaves thousands of motorists stranded in French Alps: Phys.org
Man Goes To Bear Country To See Bears, Gets Mauled, Blamed On “Climate Change”: Cove

Media

Alone for Christmas: Mark Steyn
Obama, Liberals Shocked; Discover Most Americans Still Want To Choose Own HealthCare: DownTrend
Oh, you wretched tallists!: Sweasel

Listen To Martin Luther King Jr Instead Of Al Sharpton: Hideout
Moonbats Celebrate Christmas by Assaulting Nativity Scenes: MB
Don Lemon Is Officially One Of The Worst Parts Of Journalism In 2014: Uproxx

World

The Destruction of the Middle East: Denis MacEoin
The Jihadist Connection to Epidemic Child Abuse: James Lewis
Van Plows Through Christmas Shoppers, While Driver Shouts ‘Allahu akbar’: IOTW Report

Iranian Army Social Media: IRGC Troops At Lebanon-Israel Border: MEMRI
As Russia’s Economy Collapses, Putin Cancels Holidays: WZ
Kim Jong-Un's People Call Obama A Horrible Racial Slur After The Interview Is Released: Perez Hilton

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Coca-Cola Headquarters Disconnects Office Voicemail in Effort to Increase Productivity: The Daily Meal
AirAsia Flight Goes Missing Between Indonesia and SIngapore: Slashdot
Outstanding photos of the X-15, the fastest manned aircraft ever made: Gizmodo

Cornucopia

Thanks Sammie, and you can keep the shirt: MOTUS
The baby from Teletubbies reveals herself: Telegraph
$82,000 stolen from "social justice" nonprofit paid for plastic surgery, trips, Victoria's Secret: Trib

Image: Pic Of The Day: Justin Ramos Wears His Father’s Police Jacket At Funeral
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: New: BadBlue Real-Time Sports News, 24x7x365

QOTD: "New York City’s anti-cop activists are scrambling for cover now that two NYPD officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, have been slain in cold blood on a Brooklyn street by a suspected gang member seeking revenge for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. For the last several weeks, Gotham has been the scene of nightly, inflammatory protests against the NYPD. An assortment of self-proclaimed social-justice activists have disrupted traffic, assaulted officers, and demanded an end to Broken Windows policing. The city’s progressive elites, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, have accommodated the protesters—offering them aid and comfort in the media, entertaining their wilder claims, and standing silent as they defamed the NYPD as racist killers....

...An institution can absorb only so much slander. Are the cops overly sensitive to criticism? If so, they have good reason: like officers Liu and Ramos, they put their lives on the line every day. They go to work every morning knowing that this could be the day they don’t come home. Not many of us can say that we understand what that feels like. Certainly, few of the angry undergraduates and middle-class trustafarians shutting down freeways and lying down in the middle of Grand Central know anything about it.

Bill de Blasio’s New York is an upside-down world, where a police force responsible for transforming a crime-plagued metropolis into the safest big city in America can be openly defamed—and where two more NYPD families [spent] Christmas in mourning. " --Matthew Hennessey

Saturday, December 27, 2014

SNYDER: Junk Bonds are the Canary in the Economic Coal Mine

By Michael Snyder

Do you want to know if the stock market is going to crash next year? Just keep an eye on junk bonds. Prior to the horrific collapse of stocks in 2008, high yield debt collapsed first. And as you will see below, high yield debt is starting to crash again. The primary reason for this is the price of oil. The energy sector accounts for approximately 15 to 20 percent of the entire junk bond market, and those energy bonds are taking a tremendous beating right now. This panic in energy bonds is infecting the broader high yield debt market, and investors have been pulling money out at a frightening pace. And as I have written about previously, almost every single time junk bonds decline substantially, stocks end up following suit. So don’t be fooled by the fact that some comforting words from Janet Yellen caused stock prices to jump over the past couple of days. If you really want to know where the stock market is heading in 2015, keep a close eye on the market for high yield debt.

If you are not familiar with junk bonds, the concept is actually very simple. Corporations that do not have high credit ratings typically have to pay higher interest rates to borrow money. The following is how USA Today describes these bonds…

High-yield bonds are long-term IOUs issued by companies with shaky credit ratings. Just like credit card users, companies with poor credit must pay higher interest rates on loans than those with gold-plated credit histories.

But in recent years, interest rates on junk bonds have gone down to ridiculously low levels. This is another bubble that was created by Federal Reserve policies, and it is a colossal disaster waiting to happen. And unfortunately, there are already signs that this bubble is now beginning to burst

GELERNTER: States Can End "Executive Amnesty" Without a Lawsuit

Writing in National Review, Josh Gelernter offers a very different spin on the "nullification" debate. While acknowledging that the judiciary has consistently ruled against the nullification doctrine, insisting only it has the authority to declare laws unconstitutional, Obama's "Executive Amnesty" is something very different from a law.

This week, Tennessee became the 25th state to join a lawsuit against the president’s executive amnesty order. The lawsuit may work, but there’s another, more direct, and considerably more interesting redress against executive overreach [first p]roposed in 1798 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

...The nullification doctrine posits that, as the federal government is the product of the Constitution, and the Constitution is a compact of the states, it’s the states that have the final say on any law’s constitutionality. If a state determines that a law exceeds the terms of the compact to which it agreed, it has the right to nullify that law within its own borders.

Jefferson and Madison’s idea was for states to declare the Alien and Sedition Acts null and void. Instead of joining a lawsuit against the executive amnesty, those 25 states could simply deem the executive amnesty null and void, and refuse to recognize illegal aliens’ work permits or issue them driver’s licenses.

Why, you wonder, would that be better than filing a lawsuit? In a certain sense, it wouldn’t — because winning that suit would strike down Mr. Obama’s order in all 50 states. Which is not an unlikely outcome, given the order’s extremely shaky legal footing. However —

The judiciary has consistently ruled against the nullification doctrine, asserting its unique, judicial right to declare laws unconstitutional. But this executive order isn’t a law. And given its extremely shaky legal footing, it isn’t difficult to imagine a federal bench recognizing the states’ right to disregard federal orders that don’t clearly have the force of law. And that would be a tremendous — tremendous — blow against the executive’s assumption of legislative powers.

But in the shorter, directer term: It [nullification] would force the Obama administration to go on offense, suing the states to enforce a law that isn’t a law. And I don’t think that case can be made.

I think this is an intriguing idea. Gelernter notes that your state's governor and attorney general should be contacted, especially if you live in a red or purple state.

Nullification may be a non-starter under normal circumstances, but nullifying non-laws should be anything but controversial.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.