Several Things - December 6 2019

Joe Biden   I keep saying that Joe Biden is IMO a nasty bully masquerading as a benevolent, highly experienced and wise curmudgeon with deep roots in the Labor Unions.  He is none of those things.  In evidence of that he yesterday advanced menacingly toward a man who had the audacity to challenge the "Joe Biden" show and narrative.  This was in Iowa.  The man told him he (Biden)  was too old to be president (He is). The man questioned the probity of Joe's narcotics addled son''s appointment to the board of directors of  a corrupt enterprise in Ukraine.  Joe was visibly enraged and it seemed for a minute that he would attack this citizen.  Really, Democrats?  Really?  Him?  Bloomberg? Hilly?  Booker?  Castro? Warren?

Jobs.  The Labor Department employment report released today states that the US economy added 266,000 new jobs in November rather then the expected 186,000.  The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 %.  This is full employment because there is a certain amount of structural unemployment inherent in any economy.  "Impeachment?" What's that?

St. Nancy the hypocrite a reporter asked Pelosi yesterday if she acts from hatred of Trump.  She responded that having been raised as a Catholic she does not hate anyone because we are taught to hate the sin and love the sinner. Well, pilgrims, Catholics are expected to practice their religion through both faith and deeds and to accept the teaching of the Church.  In spite of the hopes of some, this is not a cafeteria operation.  One does not pick and choose among the Church's teachings. If you can't accept them, you leave.  Pelosi is in spiritual rebellion against the Church's teaching on abortion.  Catholic teaching is that abortion is murder plain and simple.  There are some Catholic politicians who claim to compartment their personal beliefs and actions from their responsibility to their non-Catholic constituents.  I do not challenge that having done much the same as a government servant but that is not the case with St. Nancy who is an ardent advocate for abortion.  BTW if the US government had sought to require me to do something immoral I would have refused and taken the consequences.

Riots in Paris  I like France, the French language, their wine, their cheese, their women and their style of life, but I am not blind to the faults of the French.  One of these is a tendency to take to the streets over grievances or perceived grievances  in society.  France has a highly regulated economy that does not particularly favor growth of the kind now being experienced in the US.  "Bureaucracy" as a word is French in origin.  At the same time the welfare state is massive and all pervasive.  In fact the welfare state with its early retirements and cradle to grave benefits is just too big to be sustained by the economy of the country.  This conflict of means and ends is strangling the country's ability to function.  Macron knows this and has been trying over the last year or so to "whittle down" the outputs enough to have them align with the inputs in the economy.  The result has been the "Yellow Sweaters" street riots and now a new wave of riots resisting attempts to change retirement laws.  This street activity will burn itself out but the  riots are likely to be prolonged. 

 The Shooting In Pensacola  A Saudi military trainee went shahiid (berserk)today and killed three people.  The naval aviation center there routinely trains foreign aviators.  There was nothing unusual in the man's presence on base.  He had been in training for a year.  King Salman sent his condolences supposedly saying to Trump that he and the Saudi people love the US and the American people.  Well, pilgrims, I lived in The Kingdom for several years and have visited many times and I do not remember indications of their love for us.  It will be interesting to learn if the student just ran amok crying Allahu Akbar! or couldn't make it in class or both.  pl

 

Comments

[Factotum]

You expose the most obvious flaw in Schiff's impeachment crusade. Trump did not need any "dirt" on Biden in order to win 2020. Biden will dig his own 6 feet under abode on his own, if he makes it to the DNC nomination.

In fact, Trump would have gone out of his way to make sure Biden was the DNC pick. Which is why this entire impeachment charade continues to get no traction. It simply does not sound in fact. Regardless of the trumped up charges we are now being exposed to.

The more realistic picture is Trump sweeping the path in front of Biden, with a broom like in a curling match, making sure Biden gets the DNC nod.

[turcopolier]

TonyL

The U3/U6 distinction is one that suits your desire view of things.

[J]

U.S. Military Personnel were victims of the Saudi Air Force Lieutenant shooter.

Joshua Watson a U.S. Naval Academy Graduate
https://apnews.com/12fe708cc2c8cb96f4a0b6ffe101c001

Mohammed “Mo” Haitham U.S. Navy was assigned to flight crew training
https://www.tampabay.com/news/breaking-news/2019/12/07/st-petersburg-track-star-among-the-victims-of-pensacola-shooting/

[turcopolier]

Elaora Danan

You should read something other than leftist propaganda. The homeless in the US are mostly mentalli ill people who are not adequately cared for in cities that your leftist brethren control politically.

[Fred]

Elora,

Changing the meaning of words to fit the propaganda need of the times. Got it.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Ask Russians.

[Eric Newhill]

TonL,
The figures are all right there at the official website for anyone to look at (something they should do before spouting off about it). That includes U6, which has been declining. You'd think the critics would be happy about that.

U6 contains people who are working up to 35 hours a week, but want to work 40 or more. I wonder how many illegal aliens are falling into U6 (or any of the other Us for that matter). I also wonder how many recent high school and college grads that are just beginning to build a resume in the work force.

People here are acting like U4 - U6 are some tragic secret hidden by a dishonest administration and the U1 - U3 figures are a hoax on the American people. That [leftist] myth is the real propaganda.

https://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm

[Babak Makkinejad]

Globalization is a noun and not a human being making decisions. The post-Franco governments did nothing to soften the effects of global market on Spaniards. There lies the fault.

[Babak Makkinejad]

The could have refrained from joining EU. They could have resimpsed the tarrifs of Franco but the Spanish people were so eager to "occupy their coveted place at the Enlightenment Forum" that like moths they flew to the fire.

[Factotum]

Elora, you are getting a lot of very bad information about America. Take a look at the website "Transparent California" to see what teachers earn in this state including their very lavish benefits. Then see what pensions for life they also get for their nine-month working year.

General Motors does not produce cars that people want to buy - this will lead to fiscal distress, mainly because their unions prevent workplace efficiencies and redesign.

We no longer use the term 'homeless". They are the have nots; the cannots; and the will nots. The have nots get approximately $50,000 worth of goods, services and vouchers and it a temporary situation. These would be the working poor who do go back into the work place - or take advantage of free community colleges to obtain more productive skills.

The can nots, those with permanent mental impairments, need to be placed in lock-down insitutional care settings but ACLU has prevented this for sereral decades so sadly they have been left to roam the streets -but as can nots they are not capable of any employment. Pilot programs to allow court guardianships are now underway in several California cities to get them placed into appropriate care settings.

By far the largest and most visible sector are the will nots - the service resistent drunks and addicts who refuse any and all services or shelter. They choose to stay on the streets, camp in public spaces and panhandle for drugs and booze. No, they will not work and this is the population that is degrading many urban areas to the point of fiscal ruin.

Work camps or jail are the only two options for the will-nots. The sooner we offer those two options the better because the quality of life for the rest of us should not be tyrannized by those who demand to take over our tax funded parks, downtowns and public spaces.

It is easy to tell the difference between these three groups. Calling them all "homeless" is unproductive and badly outdated. America is about free will and choice; it is not about free rides at someone else's expense. Time has run out for the will nots; options re opening for the cannots; and we already very generously take care of the have nots.

[Factotum]

For all children affected, abortion is murder.

[Factotum]

Abortion for some men is guaranteed relief from 18 years of child support. They obviously view it differently.

[TonyL]

Sir,

Exactly. I'm pointing out that's propaganda, because there is a real basis in it (i.e. U3). But U6 is a reality that many admistrations avoided at all cost.

While we are at it, here is another issue that has been reported and then forgotten:

"Roughly 1 in 7 working-age men in the U.S. aren't employed, higher than before the 2008 housing crash."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-economys-hidden-problem-working-class-men-without-jobs/

I'm not saying it's because of Donal Trump's ecomomic policy. But he will have to own it as current POTUS.

[d74]

"using funding, extortion, bribery or sex, drugs and rock and roll."

Thank you, I had a good laugh.
By Rock & Roll, it's obvious.

listen to (and see at) this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNxPY_ZdYFI

Addictive, isn't it?
What an explosion of sound violence (I dare not say musical) at
1mn12s, 2mn30s, 4mn47s, 6mn19s, 6mn50s and 7mn37s.
(Afterwards, until the end, he must be tired. Some attempts not realized)

Imagine the effect on chaste ears fed with Debussy or Ravel. A weapon of mass destruction, no less.

Thanks.

[d74]

Elora Danan, your 07/12/2019- 07:41, and Babak Makkinejad :

Your views are quite right, I think. I forgot Brussels because EU does not impose what is happening. Governments are using EU to get the pill through. EU Scapegoat, as usual. Germany resists very well. Sie machen immer noch Dinge. Karlsruhe constitutional court is a good tool.

But some specifics are not accurate.

Unions are weak and spread out. The ‘base’ ( non-unionized workers) may impose actions and strikes. Unions are afraid of losing members and respect if they do nothing. In this sens, the primary reason is not our political literacy but their exasperation.

‘Neocolonial' adventures are not really expensive: 1/250 of the state budget. On this side, our armed forces are highly efficient. They're probably the best we've ever had. And they die very well. Public opinion accepts these losses relatively well. This is a good sign. The fight against terrorism is understood. Because it must be said frankly: we are not fighting for material gains. "neocolonialism" is a mistake. However, we have nothing to do in Lebanon and Libya has been a huge mistake, a crime.

Rebuilding our destroyed and neglected infrastructure would be much more expensive but also spread over time. It is an academic view: it will not be done. We have lost. We are not alone in this topic. Nothing is definitive. Maybe our grandchildren...

[English Outsider]

No no!  We seem to be fellow dissidents.  Our view of the problems in Europe is much the same, though as stated my own knowledge of those problems in a specifically French context is very  limited.  I don't at all trust the French establishment and its neocon policies (you term it neo-colonial but it's much the same) but that's from seeing the results of those policies in the ME.  I would put the UK and the French as being the worst of the European countries when it comes to the responsibility for the devastation wrought there.

We could be heading for more of the same in the ME and Africa. Lots more. I do fear that France and the UK, having the only significant armed forces in Europe, are looking to ditch the American alliance long term and are visualising Europe becoming a military power in its own right. In this context Brexit is irrelevant.  The UK, drawn in by joint defence contracts, is accelerating defence links with the EU outside NATO.  A European Army is no longer just talk.  

https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence-policy/news/austria-divided-over-idea-of-eu-army/

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/05/europe-is-ready-for-its-own-army/

My view - the dumbest idea ever. Yours?

[Johnb]

There is a history of Catholic Thought on Abortion Colonel dating from St Augustine who declared it not to be homicide but a sin if it was intended to conceal fornication or adultery. The Church then considered a woman's situation when judging abortion, and abortion was listed in Church canons as homicide only when the fetus was formed. St. Thomas Aquinas declared that a fetus first has a vegetative soul, then an animal soul, and finally a rational soul when the body was developed. Excommunication for sinners was introduced in 1750 and it was only as late as1965 that abortion was condemned as the taking of a life rather than a sexual sin. Pope Benedict XVI recognised that the moment of ensoulment is unknown but condemned abortion in all cases. Pope Francis has sustained Benedict but extended indefinitely the right of Catholic priests to forgive a woman the sin of abortion, a right previously reserved for Bishops. The Church offers Forgiveness for those who confess their sin. I trust I have understood.

[turcopolier]

johnb

You have not understood the state of PRESENT Church teaching which judges in all cases that abortion is murder and a mortal sin. Can sin be forgiven? Yes, always. We are not Calvinists.

[turcopolier]

EO

I can visualize the armed force of Germany and France serving as the basis for a European army but the armed forces of the UK are now so small as to be more of an ornament and tourist attraction than anything else. Separation of the Scots post Bexit would further complicate the situation.

[turcopolier]

TonyL

It is not clear to me how much the additional data in U6 really means anything as other than merely interesting fluff.

[J]

The Empire (Deep State/Establishment) Strikes Back
https://www.claremont.org/crb/basicpage/the-empire-strikes-back/

" Three Possible Outcomes

The worst charge thus far alleged against President Trump is that he attempted to make $400 million in aid to Ukraine contingent on that country’s government investigating possible corruption by the Bidens. This is the much hoped for “smoking gun,” the “quid pro quo”—as if the foreign policy of any country in history has ever been borne aloft on the gentle vapors of pure altruism.

The central question would appear to be this: suppose that charge were abundantly substantiated by witnesses and documents—as it is not by the telcon—would that be sufficient to convince a majority of Americans, and a supermajority of senators, that Trump should be removed from office? In the latter case, possibly—Republican senators tend to be wobbly, and many want Trump gone for reasons that have nothing to do with this specific allegation, which merely offers a convenient excuse.

But in the former case, I don’t see it. Especially since a) no aid was actually withheld; b) no investigation was actually launched; c) the American people don’t care about Ukraine and would probably prefer to get their $400 million back; and d) they would inevitably ask: so were, in fact, Joe Biden and his son on the take from a foreign government? And if it looks like they might have been, why, exactly, was it improper for the president to ask about it?

Trump’s enemies’ answer to the last question is: because the president was asking a foreign government to investigate a political opponent for purely personal gain. Really? Is potential corruption by a former vice president—and potential future president—and his family a purely private matter, of no conceivable import or interest to the public affairs of the United States? That’s what you have to insist on to maintain that the request was improper. That’s the line we can expect the Democrat-CLM axis to flog, shamelessly and aggressively. But will a majority of Americans buy it? Especially since career officials at the Department of Justice already determined, and anti-Trump witnesses appearing before Representative Adam Schiff’s secret star chamber reluctantly conceded, that nothing Trump did or is alleged to have done was technically, you know, illegal.

It’s both infuriating and amusing to read the intellectual Left, led by the New York Times, pivot from Project 1619—that racist, white supremacist founding!—to founders-as-paragons-of-democratic-integrity, whose wise Constitution reserved impeachment just for such dire but foreseeable emergencies.

Impeachment, we are often reminded, is a political, not a legal, measure. That’s true to the letter of the Constitution of course, but not to the way “impeachment” is being used now. If Trump’s enemies had sufficient political strength—which means the support of the people—they would have already impeached him. As it is, they’ve held but one narrowly procedural vote and are hinting that another may not happen until next year.

They need—and they know they need—the intervening time to further the transformation of this fundamentally political assault into a legal matter, and to find, assert, or manufacture some technical violation of the law. At the end of the day, “high crimes and misdemeanors” means whatever you can get 218 representatives and 67 senators to vote for. So long as the phrase is understood politically, the latter threshold—at least—is out of reach. The hope is that forcing the public to accept a legal understanding will bring both within reach.

And it might. It worked against Nixon. It almost worked against Reagan. But let’s be clear: if it works this time, there are only three possible outcomes:

First, deplorable-Americans will meekly accept President Trump’s removal, in which case the country as a self-governing republic will be finished; the elite coup will have succeeded, their grip on power cemented. With all due respect to the vice president, this is not the way—these are not the people on the backs of whom—he should wish to enter the Oval Office. And I am confident he will not.

Second, deplorable-Americans will revolt at the ballot box and punish the elites in a series of elections that put in power serious statesmen intent on rooting out corruption and reestablishing democratic accountability.

Or, third, deplorable-Americans’ attempt to set their government aright via ballots will not avail, as it has not so often in the past; they will realize that it has not, conclude that it never will, and resolve by any means necessary to get out from under the thumbs of people who so obviously hate them and wish to rule them without their consent.

Only one of these possibilities is healthy for the continued survival of republican government as currently constituted.

Oh, and let’s also be clear about something else: if the Republicans “collude” with this sham and force the removal of a president whose approval rating within his party hovers north of 90%, and whose voters scarcely understand—much less agree with—the “case” against him, they will destroy the party forever. I don’t often make predictions, because I’m not good at it, but this one is easy. They will have removed all doubt that they are anything but ruling class apparatchiks, adjuncts, and flunkies of the administrative state from which they take orders.

And let none of them dare gaslight us with the trite dismissal that Trump's removal would not overturn the 2016 election results because the president's replacement was also elected. Trump's intraparty enemies hate him, and wish to be rid of him, precisely because he is not one of them, because he stands for, and represents, something fundamentally different. Getting rid of him is, for them, a way to get back to business as usual. But there is no going back. A few of them in safely anti-Trump states or districts may survive the president’s removal but the vast majority will not. A new party—a Trumpian populist-nationalist party—will arise from the Republican Party’s ashes. More blue collar in economic orientation and less in hock to coastal and financial elites, it will do a better job of attracting Democrats and independents—possibly pointing the way to the first real national majority coalition since the Reagan era. And that new party will not welcome the traitors, who will have to make do with contributorships on CNN and MSNBC. Assuming any slots are available."

[turcopolier]

SAC Brat foreign nationals are not banned from buying firearms if they pass the federal background check. He probably had a residence address off base.

[turcopolier]

Elora Danan

The Catholic Church IS a "religious dictatorship" and will remain that. Those who do not accept that have placed themselves outside the Body of Christ. Pelosi's personal hypocrisy lies in citing her supposed Catholicism as defense of her attitude toward Trump. This has nothing whatever to do with her actions as a legislator or the secular nature of the US state. She chose to express outrage on the basis of her religion. She should not have done that.

[Babak Makkinejad]

You are a funny people, abortion is muder but post birth, the hell with the individual: let him die from his medical condition if does not have the funds for a treatment.

[turcopolier]

babak

I suppose you mean Americans rather than Catholics. You claim to live in Michigan and you should know that hospitals are paid by the federal government to treat indigent patients.