May God bless Joe Manchin

Tags

AOC, Bernstein, Biden, Build Back Better, Hassan, Manchin, Omar, Pressley, Rubin, Sanders

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has taken a big stick to the Democratic hornet’s nest also known as the Build Back Better bill, President Joe Biden’s massive centerpiece legislation filled with “green new deal” and social-program spending.

Manchin has stated for the record that he cannot support the ever-so-slightly pared-down $1.75 trillion BBB measure (from $2 trillion) that has all the trappings to fuel rising inflation, further bloat the national debt, and whip up more unwarranted national fear over the raging COVID-19 pandemic, among other concerns. Manchin did manage to convince Democrats to abandon a plan that would have stopped all drilling on rigs in the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. But that concession was not nearly enough to make Manchin change his mind.

In a nutshell, Manchin dubbed the bill as being too expensive, adding that the spendthrift measure goes too far. Predictably, his decision drew slings and arrows from both crybaby progressive politicians and diabolical liberal media pundits.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was pretty blunt in her bovine-coordinated reaction, saying that Manchin’s refusal to buck the Bbb (Biden-backed bill) was “complete bullsh–.”  Dingbat Omar’s overreaction means Manchin made the indisputably correct decision.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat and a bartender from New York, whined: “This idea that we’re going to refit it to Joe Manchin’s liking, the bill has already been retrofitted to Joe Manchin’s liking. Let’s make that extremely clear. The climate ambitions have been reduced because of Joe Manchin.” Let’s be extremely clear here. The only thing that AOC can declare as being that clear is vodka in a bottle.

Manchin colleague and Senate progressive Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, accused Manchin of being beholden to pharmaceutical companies. Bernie must have confused Manchin with Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Radical icky-bod U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., took a swipe at Manchin, accusing him of cowardice and being beholden to lobbyists. And she’s not? Right. Can you spell “transference”?

And then, there’s Politico editor Sam Stein, who reportedly was in anguish over Manchin’s bold move. “A lot to process on the Manchin news,” Stein wrote in an online meltdown. “But, from a substantive standpoint, it’s just objectively devastating for the planet. The last best chance at climate change legislation is gone.” Oh, IF ONLY on that climate-change thing.

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan tweeted out “What’s worse — that Manchin is killing the Biden legislative agenda, and perhaps the future of American democracy, too.” Seriously, syid Hasan? The USA has survived MANY worse “threats” and continues to be one of the planet’s great nations. Take some time and read the bona fide history of the United States.  

The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin wrote: “If Manchin is no on both BBB and voting, Biden is done. Democracy is hanging by a thread. Hard to think of anyone more destructive.” That part about Biden is good news. As for democracy in the USA, it’s NOT hanging by a thread –- not even close. “Anyone more destructive”? Was she writing about Manchin? Or Biden? Critics would vote for the latter.

Even veteran “journalist” Carl Bernstein bloviated about Manchin’s effort to destroy the republic, writing a 70-word single-sentence response that left readers cross-eyed. Bernstein should have stopped at his initial USA Today-style reaction, describing Manchin’s vote as a “huge setback.”  Indeed – a setback for the destructive agenda of the Biden administration.

All together now: Boo-freakin’-hoo.
 

No need to gamble more, Alabama

Tags

Alabama, casinos, lottery

The pro-gambling lobby is ratcheting up its rallying cry for the Alabama Legislature to overhaul the state’s gaming laws to allow casino gambling (as neighboring Mississippi has done) and to launch a statewide lottery (as neighboring Florida has in place).

While such legislation likely would open the door to more tax revenue for Alabama, it also will soak the poor and the weak-willed who don’t give a second thought to squandering their hard-earned money on games of chance, putting aside other needs such as food and clothing. Therein lies the biggest reason to shun casino/lottery legislation.

Alabama already has three casinos operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians (Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery). The state also has four flourishing dog tracks – one in Theodore southwest of Mobile, another just east of Montgomery, a third just inside the I-459 bypass northeast of Birmingham, and a fourth track near Eutaw southwest of Tuscaloosa.  

Taken together, isn’t this enough?

Casino/lottery proponents dangle the carrot of at least $700 million a year in lost revenue at the end of the stick they’ll use to beat back what they’re calling very little organized opposition to expanding gambling opportunity.  

That kind of hot air amounts little more than swamp gas. You cannot lose something you don’t have in the first place. And before you count your money while you’re sitting at the table, you better first take stock of what the state will spend in infrastructure costs, crime prevention, fiscal accountability on the new revenue, and enforcing the new gaming laws.

Don’t be fooled by the pro forces trying to pass off a casino/lottery bill as economic development legislation. What’s to say the bulk of the potential revenue won’t be diverted into pet political projects instead of funding such initiatives as rural health-care expansion, more money for elementary and high school classrooms, broadband internet growth and tuition assistance for students pursuing trade-school certification and college degrees?  

So, does the insatiable greed for more state tax revenue by any means outweigh the moral responsibility that Alabama has shown thus far by rejecting a statewide lottery and by rejecting casino gambling in the non-federal private sector? Hardly.

If you had a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, a father or a mother who simply did not have the intestinal fortitude or the raw intelligence to shun today’s version of the three sirens who seduced Hercules in Greek mythology, would you want to open new whirlpools into which they would rush to dump their paychecks?

Many of us pride ourselves in doing the right thing. In this case, the right thing is to contact your legislators and tell them that this time, the status quo is enough. Let’s leave our neighboring states’ vices and devices to themselves.

C’mon, man! Admit it: You’re whipped

Tags

Biden, Border Patrol, illegals, reins, whips

President Mumbles on Friday issued a stern warning to U.S. Border Patrol agents, who were seen riding horses on national TV this week, stopping illegal migrants at our southern border with Mexico.

“Those people will pay,” Biden said, referring to a federal Department of Homeland Security investigation into the agents’ moves in Del Rio, Texas.

Some Democrats have falsely claimed that what was shown on television were agents whipping some aggressive illegals. Biden ramped up those false claims with his own inflammatory rhetoric.

“Horses run them over, people being strapped,” Biden charged.

However, critics have pointed out the agents were holding onto lengthy reins to control the horses, not using the reins as whips or straps for migrants. The critics noted that the long reins are swung forward into a horse’s line of sight, signaling their mounts to back off and not run over and trample anybody who gets in the way.

“Of course I take responsibility,” Biden said. “I’m president, but it was horrible what you saw.”  

First, Biden definitely is responsible, if for no other reasons than not acting to close the border and thereby making a joke out of immigration the lawful way. But just saying he is responsible and not turning the virtual whip on himself is absolutely irresponsible. He lied to the people of the USA and overreacted to false reports. Now, he ought to pay.

Moreover, to stop the mounted agents from doing their jobs and using their horses simply pours salt into the wound of Biden’s latest partisan and nonsensical move.

“To see people treated like they did, horses barely running over, people being strapped — it’s outrageous,” Biden said. “I promise you, those people will pay. …  There will be consequences. There will be consequences.” 

The only consequence that should come from this is Biden’s immediate resignation. This president is unfit to serve, drowning in failure after only eight months in office. The perjurious whipping allegations ought to be the final rein on his parade.

Can we solve our biggest problem?

What is the biggest challenge infecting the USA these days?

Coronavirus is not the biggest problem.

Hunger is not the biggest problem.

Neither is child pornography.

Nor is it inflation.

Devastating wildfires? Nope.

Not even runaway inflation.

Nor unemployment.

Weak and inept leadership is not the biggest problem, even though there’s plenty of that to be identified.

Nor is gun violence – and Lord knows, there’s plenty of that, especially in our big cities.

Even dime-store face masks don’t comprise our biggest problem.

Punk politics is not the biggest problem.

Fraud in high places is not the biggest problem.

Wasteful spending is not the biggest problem.

A do-nothing Congress is not the biggest problem.

Nor do deaf bureaucrats comprise the biggest problem.

Our wayward foreign policy is not the biggest problem.

Our Swiss-cheese Southern border is not the biggest problem.

Idiotic, copycat TV commercials are not our biggest problem.

Public education (or lack thereof) is not the biggest problem – but it’s in the top three.

Right along with the perception of widespread racism, which also is among our top three biggest problems.

No, our biggest problem is:

Stupidity.

Stupidity is the root cause of all the other problems plaguing these United States.

Author Winston Groom hit the nail on the head when his star protagonist, Forrest Gump, uttered the T-shirt slogan of the century: Stupid is as stupid does.

And if we, as free-thinking citizens of the greatest republic ever on Earth, don’t get a handle individually on our collective stupidity and wise up, we face the same fate as the dinosaurs, the Holy Roman Empire, and the good people now under the oppressive thumb of the Chinese Communist Party.

New moniker in town: POTUSINO

Tags

Afghanistan, Biden, Panahi, RINOs, Risch, wildfires

A video floating around in the silyloxy shows President Joe Biden making a statement, apparently to reporters, as he hides behind some designer shades and a black face mask in an outdoor setting.

The video is introduced by the outspoken Rita Panahi, a conservative opinion columnist for Sky News in Australia. Panahi offers to write a check to anyone who can decipher what the POTUSINO – the leader of the free world, incidentally – is telling reporters as he answers a question. Visit the video here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hhzqNLvQxg

I believe I might have a shot at the money that Panahi is offering. Here’s what I heard the POTUSINO say:

“I want to get in the ring and box, and I’d be lucky to be punched in the face. We can set up the card in Florida, because unlike me, Robert E. Lee would have won the war in Afghanistan. By the way, telephone poles don’t wear T-shirts. And it takes only a dozen pancakes to shingle a doghouse.” 

Well … isn’t that what he said? 

Speaking of Afghanistan and the exit strategy that Biden totally muffed, U.S. Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, recently said Mr. Biden was not directing the withdrawal of the U.S. from Afghanistan — nor is Mr. Biden much in charge of anything else.

Someone besides Joltin’ Joe “is calling the shots,” Risch said. “He can’t even speak without someone in the White House censoring it or signing off on it.”

Risch was present on Monday (Sept. 13) when the POTUSINO was answering a reporter’s question during a briefing in Boise, Idaho concerning the Left Coast’s overwhelming wildfires. Dr. Jill’s spouse mysteriously stopped talking in mid-sentence, apparently responding to an audio-feed message in his earpiece.

Was it an urgent message from Biden’s handlers about Afghanistan, and how the West Coast junket was failing to distract conservative America from the withdrawal debacle? We’ll never know. But that didn’t stop Risch from expressing an opinion.

“This is a puppeteer act, if you would,” Risch said, “and we need to know who is in charge and who is making the decisions.”

Indeed.

Now, if you’re still wondering what POTUSINO stands for, it’s President Of The United States In Name Only.

Sorry, RINOs – you no longer own the moniker.

 

Stop making our heads explode

Pay attention, writers and electronic-media personalities! You, too, Capitol Hillers and Madison Avenuers.

These words, phrases and images have lived beyond their novelty and value. Stop writing/uttering/displaying them. Please!

Are you ready? (What kind of question is THAT just before you push somebody off a cliff?)
At the end of the day (It becomes night — so what?)
Athleticism (What does it even mean?)
Awesome
Bipartisan (when it’s clearly not)
Circle back (What’s wrong with “I’ll get back to you on that”?)
Come together (Because it’s never gonna happen, so why keep wishing it?)
Deserve (Nobody “deserves” anything; you get what you earn — money, respect, etc.)
Epic
Game-changer
Gas-lighting (What does this term even mean?)
“Hollow heart” hand gesture  
Iconic
Left six people dead. (As in a car accident, which in all candor KILLED six people. Just say it!)
Let me be clear. (and often what follows is about as clear as mud)
LiMu Emu and Doug (Hard to believe Liberty Mutual — or any other company — would air an advertisement so bad that it turns business away.)
Out there (weather forecasters always tell us the conditions “out there”)
Passed away (Don’t sugar-coat it — they DIED.)
Physicality (Huh? Another sportscaster term that eludes definition.)
Reimagine (assumes you can imagine anything in the first place)
Take it to the next level (And just how many levels ARE there?)
Transparency (Personally, I prefer translucency.)
Used his legs (How about just “ran”?)  
Virtue signaling
Wavy-rope exercise
Well, I mean …
We’re all in this together (Duh! Really? Makes about as much sense as “Well, ya don’t know whatcha don’t know.”)
We need to come together. (Won’t ever happen. Our republic is founded on disagreement.)
We’ve got you. (Save it for the guys in the hood, Marie.)
Yoga “tree pose”
Woke (Somebody recently said “woke” means “stupid.” Is that true?)

The CDC’s gobbledygook and verbosity

Tags

Centers for Disease Control, James Woods, preferred terms

Actor/political activist James Woods has strongly dissed the federal Centers for Disease Control after the center urged all in the USA to start “using inclusive language” in our communications, according to Craig Bannister with CNSNews.

Then the CDC provided us with a list of “preferred terms for select population groups and communities.”

As humor columnist Dave Barry might say: I’m not making this up.

As it was, Woods had a much harsher (and justified) reaction in Twitter.

“You nitwits don’t have better things to do in the middle of a PANDEMIC??!!” Woods tweeted.

Indeed, the “preferred terms list” is cancel-culture laughable. The CDC defended its list, saying it represents “an ongoing shift toward non-stigmatizing language.” Here’s a sampling:

Replace “inmate” with “people/persons who are incarcerated or detained.”

Replace “convict/ex-convict” with “people who were formerly incarcerated.”

Replace “drug users” with “persons who use drugs/people who inject drugs.”

Replace “alcoholics” with “persons with alcohol-use disorder,”

Replace “homeless people/the homeless” with “persons experiencing unstable housing/housing insecurity/persons who are not securely housed.”

Replace “the poor/poor people” with “people whose self-reported income is in the lowest income bracket (if income brackets are defined).”

Replace “high-risk population” with “people who live/work in a setting that puts them at increased/higher risk of becoming infected or exposed to hazards.”

Replace gendered pronouns “he or she” with “they or their.”

Let’s try it.

Some people who were formerly incarcerated pitched a tent across the street from my house, obviously experiencing unstable housing, or housing insecurity. It’s plain to see that they are people who suffer from alcohol-use disorder and who inject drugs, spending their money illegally to the point that they have become people whose self-reported income is in the lowest income bracket. They’re living in a setting now that puts them at increased risk of becoming exposed to hazards.

Or, we could just say (with integrity and candor):

Some homeless, penniless, drunken junkies seeking handouts set up a tent across the street from my house, planting the seeds for a high-risk population in my otherwise pristine neighborhood.

Moreover, you cannot replace “he” or “she” with “they” or “their” and be grammatically correct. “He” and “she” are singular pronouns. “They” and “their” are plural pronouns. P:erhaps it’s back-to-school time.

In the final analysis, the non-stigmatizing list of words and terms represents a hypnotizing waste of taxpayer money.

Focus, CDC. Focus.

Biden should resign over debacle in Kabul

Tags

Afghanistan, Biden, bloodbath, Kabul, Taliban

The suicide bombing that took the lives Thursday of at least 11 U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman is nothing short of a sad beginning to a continuing Biden administration debacle.

For sure, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was thrust upon President Joe Biden. But, he botched it from the beginning by capitulating to the demands of the Taliban and by trumpeting every step he would take along the way as commander in chief. What’s curious is an unanswered question: Did Biden tear up former President Trump’s game plan for the withdrawal, as Biden did with so many other effective programs Trump put into place as president?

As it stands, the dozen lives lost — and most likely the dozens of U.S. and Afghan-friendly lives yet to be lost — unfortunately has created a new wave of martyrs. To paraphrase a line delivered by Arliss Howard portraying John C. Calhoun in the motion picture “Amistad”:

Throughout history, we have seen no stronger impetus for change than martyrdom.

The slaying of U.S. service members in Kabul at the hands of a Taliban suicide bomber reflects just that — martyrdom. And the change that abominable act should foment must first be directed at the evil of the Taliban tyrants, along with their al-Qaida, Isis and communist allies. The first act by the United States should be to call off the August 31 deadline for our people to be out of Afghanistan. The agreement is now null and void.

Those who perpetrate and condone violence and the killing of innocents show by their own actions their contempt for peaceful coexistence, for gainful lives, for unfettered liberty and for the sanctity of the individual.

These diabolical despots understand only one thing: the dark side of humanity that dictates “my way, or the highway to hell.” Thus, they must be met with righteous violence and the strong hand of justice by whatever means. And if they want to be martyrs along the way, we should be happy to oblige them.

The second part of the change involves the Oval Office at the White House. Do the right thing, Mr. Biden. Resign. Perhaps then, once again, we can begin to say — as was stated by Anthony Hopkins portraying elder statesman John Quincy Adams — that who we are indeed is the best of who we were.

Here we go again

Tags

COVID-19, mask mandates, oppression, variant

Face-mask mandates. The federal Centers for Disease Control has done an about-face and is recommending people wear masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated against COVID-19, and if they are in areas with a high incidence of coronavirus. 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately responded by mandating mask-wearing until further notice in the U.S. House of Representatives. President Joe Biden did likewise for the White House and attendant offices. Now Biden is set to go back on his word, requiring that all federal employees – the largest workforce in the world at 3 million people — get the shots, regardless of whether they have active antibodies. 

Under previous CDC guidelines, it’s logical to believe that if you are properly vaccinated, wearing a face mask is overkill. Mandatory masking smacks of governmental tyranny and overreach. And it’s hyper-hypocritical, because hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants can cross our southern border into our nation and not be required to wear face masks – yet responsible U.S. citizens are. Worse yet, the government misguidelines infect the judgment of the USA’s corporate business sector.

Why are the more than 100 million of us who have taken our shots being punished just like the rest of our citizens who choose to exercise their First Amendment rights to not be vaccinated. (Besides having the Constitution in their corner, a good share of them have valid reasons.) Once again, the “one size fits all” blanket is suffocating all of us.

As FOX News opinion-maker Tucker Carlson put it: “ In the face of the waning pandemic … we live with the growing certainty that crazy people are running our country. … Weak leaders live in terror. They lie constantly. They admit nothing. They rule by force because they have no choice. They have lost their legitimacy. When they begin to lose control, as they inevitably do, they panic. Unable to acknowledge the magnitude of their failure, they retreat into delusion. Their behavior becomes irrational. They start to issue bizarre commands.”

So, we are witnessing nothing short of lunacy 2-point-2.

But it doesn’t end on Pennsylvania Avenue or on Capitol Hill. Science has shown that masks pose a far greater threat to children than COVID does, and schools around the nation are going to require masks for school children. Then there’s all the “official” hand-wringing over the Wu Flu’s new “delta” variant. Suddenly, we’re focused on virus spread, not virus deaths. What’s next – controlling what we breathe, where and when we breathe it? Incidentally, a timely New England Journal of Medicine study shows that COVID vaccines provide a high level of protection against even the “delta” variant. That’s the kind of science the tyrants choose to ignore.  

What we’re being forced to endure once again under the politically oppressive, hypersensitive and economically regressive “regime” (no longer is “administration” an appropriate description) is the righteousness of fanaticism defying the logic of science and common sense.

This is our climate today as we’re ordered to wear face masks and as we’re all but goaded to hide behind closed doors from a nearly invisible adversary that has allies at the top of the bureaucratic pyramid. It’s one small step for despots, one giant leap toward tyranny.

The mouse indeed has put the fear of hell into the elephant.

Don’t be suckered by rifle protests

Tags

assault rifles, handguns

Once again, assault rifles are under attack.

Every time that multiple shootings and homicides occur in one weekend (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles), the liberal Democrats raise a big stink about the need to ban so-called assault rifles and multi-round magazines. But their better target would be handguns – in particular, unregistered and/or “black market” handguns, especially those that have been retooled illegally to fire multiple rounds with a single trigger pull (full automatic).

First, no one who stands opposed to owning firearms has clearly defined what constitutes an “assault weapon.” An AR-15, for example, is not an assault weapon just because it looks like a military M-16 assault rifle. The only way the AR-15 becomes an assault weapon is if it has a full-automatic selector switch capability that is functional.

Such tooling is illegal in the United States. The appropriate law is on the books; it needs only to be enforced. We don’t need another redundant statute banning “assault weapons.” To do so would be purely cosmetic, designed to score political points with an uneducated voting public while doing little to nothing about the plethora of homicides.

The AR-15 is designed to fire semi-automatic shots (the action mechanism automatically loads a following cartridge into the chamber and prepares it for subsequent firing, but to shoot that subsequent round requires the shooter to manually actuate the trigger in order to discharge each shot) or single-round shots (the weapon must be cocked by first operating the slide or bolt to chamber each round).

But, back to what the protesters ought to be targeting – illegal handguns. Why? Because, according to giffords.org, recent statistics show that of all U.S. gun deaths, 96.6 percent of them involve the use of handguns – 35.6 percent are homicides, and 61 percent are suicides. (Rounding out the report: 2 percent of the deaths by gun were classified as unintentional or undetermined, while 1.4 percent of the fatalities were police-involved shootings.)

More recently, statista.com reported that in 2019 (the year for which the most recent breakdown of data was available), handguns overwhelmingly topped the charts for the murder weapon of choice. Of the 13,856 homicides reported nationwide that year and their causes:

   6,368 — use of handguns (46%)
   3,281 — firearms not specified by type (23.6%)
   1,467 — knives or cutting instruments (10.5%)
     840 — other weapons, or police did not specify weapons used (6%)
     600 — “personal weapons”; e.g. hands, fists, feet (4.3%)
     397 — blunt objects; e.g. hammers and clubs (2.8%)
     364 — rifles (2.5%)
Other causes (4.3%):
     260 — shotguns
       93 – forced overdoses of narcotics
       92 – asphyxiation attacks
       81 — deaths by fire, aka arson 
       64 — by strangulation

These statistics not only reflect the dominant danger of illegal handguns, but they also buttress the conservative argument that people kill other people, using whatever weapon they might choose. The problem is not the weapon. The problem is the individual using the weapon.

Moreover, our governmental leaders don’t seem inclined to focus on the motivations of the individual perpetrators who are inclined to commit murder, nor do they appear to want to address solutions to neutralize those motivations. Therein, my friends, lies the root cause of spreading lawlessness and loss of life because of violence in our cities.