Sunday, January 04, 2015

WARNING FROM DOWN UNDER: How Democrats Plan to Use ‘Amnesty’ to Create a Socialist, One-Party State

By Trevor Loudon

In all the debate about President Barack Obama‘s “Executive Amnesty” for illegal aliens, few have discussed the real reason for Obama’s move.

The president has risked huge “political capital” on a very risky and possibly illegal move, that he believes will define his Presidency and secure his legacy with his “Progressive” base.

Obama is simply after the votes. He believes that by legalizing eleven to twenty million “illegals” and eventually giving them the vote, he will turn America into a permanent Democratic Party “one party state.”

Furthermore, the President intends there to be no turning back. As a long time ally of the the Gramsci-loving Marxists of Democratic Socialists of America, Obama understands that his Democratic Party is now controlled by the unions and that the unions are controlled by DSA and other Marxist groups.

He knows there will be no “20 year window” for the Republicans to build their share of the Latino vote. He understands that if the Democrats win the next one or two Presidential elections, the left will use the power of the state to divide and smash their Republican, conservative and Evangelical Christian opposition – forever.

Obama understands, even if the leadership of the GOP doesn’t, that this is not the old Republican/Democrat turnabout game. This is much more like the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, or the socialization of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. Obama and his Marxist allies are playing for keeps – and “Amnesty” is one of their main weapons.

REPLACING SPEAKER BOEHNER: Here's How It's Done

By Josh Withrow of FreedomWorks

December’s disgraceful CRomnibus debacle fresh in mind, House conservatives may finally be ready to hand the most powerful gavel in the House from John Boehner to a more principled leader when they vote for Speaker of the House on January 6th. Replacing Boehner is both possible and necessary for a multitude of reasons, but it’s important to understand how the vote works in order to counter the misinformation that has already started coming from those with a vested interest in keeping the status quo.

Under the Constitution, the Speaker of the House must be elected each Congress by a majority of present Members of the House – 218 votes at the current count – and the Speaker election must occur before any other business in the new Congress. Although both parties typically nominate a single candidate before the vote takes place, any Member of the House can vote for any person to become Speaker – they can even vote for someone who is not in Congress at all!

This means that under the current numbers (246 Republicans to 188 Democrats) only 29 Republicans need to vote for someone other than Boehner in order to force another vote. The House will hold as many votes as necessary until one individual gets to the magic 218.

An important point to take away from this is that there is literally no way the Democrats could get the necessary votes to elect a Speaker of their choice unless a large number of Republicans were to join them. The charge that voting against Boehner could lead to a Speaker Pelosi (an accusation that was tossed around last time in 2013 and is sure to come back) is ridiculous and impossible.

At least two conservative members so far, Reps. Ted Yoho (FL) and Louie Gohmert (TX), have stepped up as possible alternatives to Boehner, and many more have publicly refused to vote for him. There's no question at this point that there enough conservatives who are dissatisfied with Boehner's leadership to keep him from a third term as Speaker if they were to stand together.

But voting against the sitting Speaker of the House is a huge political risk for anyone involved – Leadership can kick them off of committees, make it impossible for their bills to get a vote, and even support primary challengers against them. Polls already show a large majority of Republican voters want a new Speaker, but the Republicans in Congress need to hear from you, to know that their constituents stand with them. It’s crucial to send messages and phone calls to their offices to help bolster their resolve.

Tell Your Representative to Replace John Boehner HERE!


Larwyn's Linx: The tea party’s New Year’s resolution? Fire John Boehner

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Nation

The tea party’s New Year’s resolution? Fire John Boehner: Judson Phillips
Massie joins those who will not support Boehner for speaker: Matthew Boyle
Scalise is Guilty of Pandering to KKK: Jen Kuznicki

Millions of Obamacare subsidy recipients may need to pay back-taxes: Moe Lane
The Constitution's horrible, no good, very bad year: William A. Jacobson
Levin and Gruber agreed: No Obamacare subsidies on federal exchange: LI

2014: The Year of Peak Stupidity: Clarice Feldman
Levin Makes Powerful Case for Article V Convention of the States: Matthew Burke
The Admiral of the Atom: Ryan L. Cole

The 25 Most Obnoxious Quotes Of 2014: John Hawkins
The Louisiana Nazis Who Courted Steve Scalise: Jason Berry
Meanwhile, on Another Branch of the Family Bush: OTB

Economy

CDI: Where is the Payoff for Huge US Budget Hikes: DefenseIssues
Stunning data on average compensation in California public sector: Thomas Lifson
In Case You Needed Another Reason to Avoid McDonald’s: MB

Scandal Central

700 miles of U.S.-Mexico border still insecure, congressional investigators say: Stephen Dinan
Illegals line up at DMV for driver’s license in California: FAM
Catching Up...: Treehouse

Climate & Energy

California Global Warming Tax Kicks In As Snow Blankets Ground: BlurBrain
The Great Pause lengthens again: WUWT
Block EPA energy mandate: Jeff Glendening

Media

Wikipedia editor deletes all evidence of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s quote fabrication: Wintery Knight
Snopes is wrong: Communists are leading the Ferguson protests: Common Sense
UCLA professor Jared Diamond gets virtually everything wrong in LA Times column: Bob Owens

NYT Calls Execution Of NYPD Officers ‘Accidental’: DownTrend
Facepalm Stupidity: Vox’s Reason For Wanting To “Abolish The Senate”: WZ
Ben Carson: Obama Gets Pass on Scandals Because Media Think America Is Stupid: Breitbart

How to Become a Cat Lady: R.S. McCain
NYT Loves Big Government: 'Public Sector Is Once Again Adding to Prosperity': Clay Waters
Brilliant And Legal Response To Police DUI Checkpoints – All Without Saying A Word!: Jason W. Stevens

World

Egypt’s al-Sisi Makes Extraordinary Speech on Islam: Roger L. Simon
“Moderate” Syrian rebels burned churches, destroyed Christian graves: Robert Spencer
Cuba Trolls America’s Left for Spies (9/14): Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Islam Demands Immediate Righteous Acts of Kuffars and the 1 Percent: Bethany Blankley
Saudi Airline May Be Planning To Segregate Passengers By Gender: Flight Club
Tycoon Prince Alwaleed takes Saudi kingdom to task over fiscal policy: MalayMail

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Marriott Wants To Jam Your Wi-Fi For Your Own Good: Helen A.S. Popkin
Montblanc e-strap turns any watch into a smartwatch: Geek
Amazon’s 8th generation fulfillment center is a thing of beauty: Holy Kaw!

Cornucopia

If It’s January It Must Be Time To Dog Sarah Palin Again: MOTUS
Florida State players return home to nasty surprise: Kevin Flaherty
Top 10 circus shots of 2014: ProBallTalk

Image: If It’s January It Must Be Time To Dog Sarah Palin Again
Sponsored by: HOW YOU CAN HELP FIRE JOHN BOEHNER AS SPEAKER

QOTD: "It has now been revealed that Democrats planned to control the costs of heath care by denying treatment to sick Americans, according to The Daily Caller.

“The real substance of cost control is all about a single thing: telling patients they can’t have something they want,” admitted Gruber. “It’s about telling patients, ‘That surgery doesn’t do any good, so if you want it you have to pay the full cost.’”

In other words, a group of people would make a determination about whether or not the treatments for an ill person are worth it. It is bureaucrats making health care decisions based largely on costs, and not always what is best for a patient.

That is exactly the type of thing that Sarah Palin and other conservatives warned about back in 2008 and 2009 — but they were mocked by liberals and the media.

The Obama administration has admitted that denying care is the only way to control costs. What happens when the cost of keeping a person alive is simply too high in the eyes of people like Gruber?

It is not a large jump from a group of bureaucrats making decisions about allowable care to the infamous “death panels” that decide how long a sick or elderly person is allowed to live. In fact, it’s no jump at all.

Liberals have shown over and over that they are addicted to meddling with people’s lives. Obamacare has given them a way to control and ration the health care choices that Americans make, using costs as an excuse." --Conservative Tribune

Saturday, January 03, 2015

FULL-BLOWN REBELLION: Another House Republican Says He Will Not Support Boehner for Speaker

My question to House Republicans is simple: are you going to honor your commitment to the voters who elected you or are you simply going to suffer Borg-like absorption into the Beltway establishment?

Will you be on the right side of history or not? What will you be able to proudly tell your grandchildren about what you did to protect this Republic?

Or will you instead knowingly participate in the ugly, corrosive deconstruction of the American form of government?

Over at Breitbart, Matthew Boyle alerts us to another House Republican who has decided to stand up against the Beltway elites of both parties.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) issued a statement on Saturday detailing why he’s going to vote against House Speaker John Boehner’s re-election on Tuesday... Massie, who’s entering his second term as a member from Kentucky, now becomes the second Republican House member announcing the coming rebellion against Boehner.

Massie joins Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) in the fight for fresh leadership, and in his statement he detailed how Boehner and his leadership actually have misled members of the House GOP conference.

...Massie reported focused mostly on Boehner’s work on the so-called “CRomnibus” $1.1 trillion spending bill [stating] that Boehner “schedule[d] a fiscal crisis in a lame duck session on the last legislative day before Christmas to get maximum leverage over rank and file members” and then worked to “mislead members into thinking that a vote on an unpopular bill was postponed, only to then conduct a rushed voice vote on the $10 billion unfunded spending measure with fewer than a dozen members present.”

Boehner also made sure to “give members less than 72 hours to read bills over 1,000 pages long, and,” Massie said, has proven he will “remove members from committees simply because they voted for the principles upon which they campaigned.”

STATE REP. MIKE HILL (R-FL): It's time for state legislators to stand up to a corrupt Congress

By Mike Hill

Our country was founded by men who were vested in a better tomorrow for their countrymen and future generations. The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights are overwhelming evidence of their ideas in what it would take for a country to succeed.

Upon my commission as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Likewise, when I was sworn into the Florida Legislature, I took an oath to protect and defend the U.S. and Florida constitutions.

Congress has recently shown that it does not have the ability, or the desire to govern properly and reduce excess spending. The U.S. debt is steadily climbing due to a lack of congressional and executive self- control. The burden of this debt will be carried by our children and our grandchildren. This is a threat to our nation. How can a country successfully compete with other nations if they cannot financially support themselves? It is time to stand up to the corruption of Washington, letting the Legislative and Executive branches know that “We the People” are fed up with their egregious spending.

I am a member of The Assembly of State Legislatures, which consists of state legislators from around the United States who are aware of Article V of the Constitution, and recognize that the power belongs to the states and the people. The mission of The Assembly is to lay the framework and rules for a convention of the states, as described in Article V, for an amendment to our Constitution.

No amendments have been formally proposed by The Assembly as of this writing; however, the more-popular amendments include a federal balanced budget, congressional term limits, and returning power to the Congress and away from an out-of-control judicial system that usurps the will of the people.

INSIDER UPDATE: Tracking the growth of BadBlue News in 2014

For the six readers who might be interested in the topic, I thought I'd recap some of BadBlue's highlights for 2014.


A little bit of history: years ago I came to the realization that there were thousands of high quality websites that were worth visiting, but I had no effective way of doing so in any reasonable timeframe. Whether the topic was technology or politics -- two particular areas of interest for me -- the sheer volume of stories and sites overwhelmed any ability for me to keep up.

And I needed a way to bypass the media censors. Generic news sites, Google News for instance, are limited by the overt government censorship that's endemic to traditional media outlets. Major scandals that would have devastated a Republican administration -- Operation Fast and Furious, the weaponization of the IRS, and Benghazi, to name but a few -- are routinely hushed up by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other influential elements of Democrat media.

Not only were generic news sites unsuitable, but RSS readers proved -- to me, at least -- wholly ineffective at managing thousands of websites and tens of thousands of news stories over any given day.

I needed a system to curate stories using automation. That's when the first idea hit me.

Larwyn's Linx: Why I Will Not Vote for John Boehner to Be House Speaker

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

Nation

Why I Will Not Vote for John Boehner to Be House Speaker: Rep. Jim Bridenstine
29 Conservatives Can Oust Boehner as Speaker: Daniel Horowitz
GOP Voters Overwhelmingly Boehner Removed as Speaker: Matthew Boyle

There is No Question Scalise Must Resign Leadership: Jen Kuznicki
Nice work, Reagan of the Left.: Ace
What Obama's Amnesty Means for the American Worker: Kenneth Blackwell

Why the Coyotes Were Right: Mickey Kaus
Liberals Waste no Time Pushing Gun Control in 2015: LI
Home Invaders Shot Trying to Rape Man’s 19-Year-Old Granddaughter: R.S. McCain

America Is Being Transformed Into Brazil: Andrew Thomas
Reporter is Maced After Storming a Police Station with Protesters: RWN
Reverend Jeremiah Wright Was Worse Than Scalise: Ron Christie

Economy

2015 Brings ObamaCare Employer Mandate: Tom Borelli
The Obamas Dine with the .01 Percent: Keith Koffler
Thank Gridlock for Economic Turnaround: David Harsanyi

Scandal Central

Unanswered Benghazi Questions: Fifth in a Series: Sharyl Attkisson
The Real Policing Scandal -- Spontaneous Taxation: DTG
JW Files SCOTUS Amicus Brief Against Subsidies for Federal Health Exchanges: JW

Climate & Energy

One of Carvin’s Gaffes: Climate Audit
Cause And Effect, A Hard One For Liberals: Springer's Blog
New Obama Administration nutrition guidelines: "Become a vegan for Gaia": WyBlog

Media

2014: The Year the Liberal Narrative Exploded: Gavin McInnes
Media coverage of Florida melee with police shows how truth is suppressed: Allen West
Harry Reid breaks his face in ‘exercise’ incident: Scoop

The 14 Most Annoying People of 2014: Jim Goad
Washington Post Very Upset That GOP Controls So Much Of State Government: RWN
Next target for #BlackLivesMatter? ‘Shut Down @FoxNews & The @NYPost’!: Twitchy

Vice News Reporter, Jarrod Shanahan, Arrested For Attacking NYPD On Brooklyn Bridge: Treehouse
How To Make Liberals Cry and Protect Their Twitter Accounts Without Really Trying: Sooper
White House Photographer On Obama’s Tiara Photo: “There Was Not Much Urging At All”: WZ

World

A Most Significant “Gaffe”: Liberty's Torch
Italian Girls Appear in Hostage Video: Jawa Report
US vet says fighting in Syria was as easy as buying airplane ticket to Miami: Catherine Herridge

Combat comes to US troops in Iraq: LI
CAIR Issues Handbook On How To Call People “Islamophobes”: WZ
'I want Israel to know: Congress has your back': Israel Hayom

The Immigrant economy and the end of Europe: Vincent Cooper
A World Conspiracy: Brent Parrish
Could Obama Swing the Israeli Election?: Steven J. Rosen

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Red Meat Increases Cancer Risk Because of Toxic Immune Response: Discover
A Glossary of Emerging Terms in the Collaborative Economy: Web Strategist
FCC to vote on net neutrality rules in February: CIO

Cornucopia

Don’t You Love It When Life Imitates Art?: MOTUS
Archeologists discover mythical tomb of the god of the dead in Egypt: Gizmodo
What REALLY Happened to Harry Reid: Sooper

Image: But it hasn’t worked! So why continue this failed policy?
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Sports News

QOTD: "On Thursday, Senator Reid received treatment at University Medical Center in Las Vegas for injuries sustained in an accident he suffered while exercising at home in Henderson.

A piece of equipment Senator Reid was using to exercise broke, causing him to fall and break a number of ribs and bones in his face.

Senator Reid will return to Washington this weekend and be in the office Tuesday as the Senate prepares to reconvene. His doctors expect a full recovery.

Senator Reid was first brought to St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson by his security detail. He was then transferred to UMC for further testing, where he was admitted overnight as a precaution." --The office of Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

Friday, January 02, 2015

TREMENDOUS INFOGRAPHIC: The Political State of Twitter, 2014

Red Alert Politics points us to a fascinating study of Twitter by Echelon Insights (click the image to enbiggeplode).


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

COOL GRAPH: The “1%”... What jobs do they have?

Rectangles are sized according to the number of people in the top 1 percent of households. The darker the color, the higher percentage of people within that occupation and industry that reside in the top 1 percent.


You can get to the original, fully interactive graph through this link at Against Crony Capitalism as I prefer only to link to The New York Times out of matter of necessity.


Larwyn's Linx: When Facts Are Obsolete

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

Nation

When Facts Are Obsolete: Thomas Sowell
Top conservatives call for Boehner’s ouster as speaker: Sam Rolley
Jan. 6 House Speaker Vote: Conservative Coup Against Boehner?: Raven Clabough

Top Ten Political Fictions of 2014: Marguerite Creel
Next Up in America: The Liberal Retreat: Walter Russell Mead
The Only Way to "Save" America - the Constitution!: Paul Dowling

Is Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients Catching On?: Rod Kackley
Top Ten Gun Control Zealots Of 2014: Tony Oliva
GOP Legislators Thwart Bids to Expand Medicaid: ABC

Scalise Hit Came From Former Dem Opponent’s Son: Aaron Gardner
"Audit The Fed" Bill Gains Momentum, Yellen Starts Damage Control: ZH
Jeb Bush quits board posts ahead of possible White House run: Reuters

Economy

More than 10,000 events to mark National School Choice Week: Kyle Olson
Final Tally: It Cost America $9.3 Billion to Save GM and Chrysler: Clifford Atiyeh
Valuation: You Got Problems: Karl Denninger

Scandal Central

A Streetcar Named Debacle: Walter Russell Mead
Sharyl Attkisson & Judicial Watch Unite To Sue Dept. of Justice: Lid
Wikileaks: CIA's Brennan on 'witch hunt' when journalist Michael Hastings was killed: Ralph Lopez

Climate & Energy

The Ironies of Oil: Victor Davis Hanson
How to Protect taxpayers from the EPA: Chase Downham
NC Sea Rise Doom: A Lesson In A Warmist Narrative: Cove

Media

Liberals Can’t Argue, They Can Only Bully: John Hinderaker
Obama Will Shut Border Agency To Aid Illegals, Says Aide: DC
Obama Chef Quits Over "Queen of Mean" Michelle: Enquirer

Turns Out That Lamar White Got Even The Most Basic Facts Wrong About Scalise’s Speech: Hayride
Into the New: Erick Erickson
Eric Holder: It’s Racist to Say, “Let’s Take Our Country Back”: ConTrib

Is the Most Powerful Conservative in America Losing His Edge?: Molly Ball
Will Conservatives Give Us a New Constitution?: Steve Byas
Rust Never Sleeps: The Union News

Unarmed White Man Killed by Alabama Police; No Protests, No Riots, No National Media: GWP
2014 Man of the Year: Hillary’s Service Dog: WFB
Top 10 Bumper Stickers of 2014: LI

World

Cotton: 'Appalling' to Consider US Embassies in Teheran, Havana Before Jerusalem: Breitbart
Russia’s Sub Rosa Statecraft: AmInt
Krauthammer: Castros Had To Wait Out 10 Presidents 'Til "Obama Gave Away The Store": RightPundit

Central Europe: A Vanishing Idea: AmInt
Censorship, "Mental Illness" Overrun France: Guy Millière
940 Cars Torched Across France on New Year’s Eve: GWP

Africa to Israel’s Rescue: AmInt
DeBlasio’s Father Backed Appeasing Hitler in 1938: GotNews
'Biggest secret Nazi weapons factory of the Third Reich' discovered underground: Mirror

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

North Korea/Sony Story Shows How Eagerly U.S. Media Still Regurgitate Government Claims: Intercept
Over 700 Million People Taking Steps to Avoid NSA Surveillance: Bruce Schneier
Microsoft's Top 15 Technologies Dropping in'15: Brian Posey

Cornucopia

2014 Missed Opportunity: WRSA
People We Didn't Lose in 2014: Wizbangpop
10 Twilight Zone Episodes You Must Watch: PopMech

Image: AirAsia jet may have made safe landing on sea before sinking, experts says
Sponsored by: Pray for Mandy Nagy (Update 12/30 – A long road ahead – Please donate)

QOTD:

"Barack Obama, Eric Holder and Al Sharpton all add to their power by dividing the nation along racial lines.

But why single them out? Every long-term strategy for the Democratic Party at the national level I have seen relies on the Dems collecting 90% of the black vote and a huge disproportion of other ethnics. How can they do that? Well, there is only so much public appetite for yet another well-intentioned but ill-conceived Federal giveaway, so...

Keep Hate Alive!"

--Tom Maguire

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