Month: February 2019

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“The problem with movies and books is they make evil look glamorous, exciting, when it’s no such thing. It’s boring and it’s depressing and it’s stupid. Criminals are all after cheap thrills and easy money, and when they get them, all they want is more of the same, over and over.”

Dean Koontz

“That is, of course, the kind of perspective we expect from mobsters, dictators, and others whose primary regard is for unflinching support, not for allegiance to truth or facts.”

David Cay Johnston

“Wisdom breathes life into her children
and admonishes those who seek her.
He who loves her loves life;
those who seek her will be embraced by the Lord.
But if he fails her, Wisdom will abandon him
and deliver him into the hands of despoilers.”

Sirach 4:11,19

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The Epistemology of Television: The American Arc in Six Programs

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

It’s hard not to be torn on the value of television but it’s impact is undeniable. It’s sound and flickering lights have served as a backdrop for most of American life and it is a rare home that does not contain at least one and often many more screens in each dwelling. I was part of the first generation that grew up in a world of television. One of my first memories was of the day when my father took me at the age of four to Korvette’s Department store in Trenton, New Jersey to buy our first television set.

It was black and white model, color TV had yet to be invented, and it’s screen was roughly the size of a lunchbox, but it marked our family as having moved into the modern world. My father wanted it to be a surprise for my mother and so when we went to pick her up from work that day I was able to contain my excitement right up until the moment she opened the car door. “We got a TV!” I remember yelling in complete joy while at the same time feeling a deep sense of guilt for ruining the secret I’d promised to keep.

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HUSH LITTLE PORN STAR, DON’T SAY A WORD …

Guest Post by Ann Coulter

I gather I was supposed to gasp when Michael Cohen said during his testimony before Congress on Wednesday, “The president of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws.”

If that’s the best he’s got, Trump should demand we hold the election this coming Tuesday.

Cohen was referring to Trump’s 2017 reimbursement of the $130,000 hush money he paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her claim that she’d had sex with Trump, aka Cohen’s client — meaning much of Cohen’s testimony is barred by attorney-client privilege. But who cares about this sacred legal privilege? We’re trying to get Trump!

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Tesla Goes Up in Smoke… Three Times

Guest Post by Eric Peters

The owner of another Tesla has died – horribly – in Davie, Florida after his car struck a tree and burst into flames.

It then burst into flames again – post mortem – while the carcass was being hauled away to the wrecking yard.

And then once more, at the wrecking yard. News story here.

Unlike other cars, Teslas remain dangerous even after they wreck.

And not just Teslas.

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The Doomsday Scenario For The Stock And Housing Bubbles

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

It was always folly to believe that inflating asset bubbles could solve the structural problems of a post-industrial economy.

The Doomsday Scenario for the stock and housing bubbles is simple: the Fed’s magic fails. When dropping interest rates to zero and flooding the financial sector with loose money fail to ignite the economy and reflate the deflating bubbles, punters will realize the Fed’s magic only worked the first three times: three bubbles and the game is over.

So what happens when punters realize there won’t be a fourth bubble? They sell. Bids disappear because who’s dumb enough to bet (with Japan and Europe as lessons) that more liquidity and negative interest rates will magically work when zero interest rates didn’t move the needle?

Who’s foolish enough to catch the falling knife (i.e. buying plummeting assets on the way down) on the unsupported assumption that the next dose of Fed magic will reverse a bidless market?

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Facebook Insider Leaks Docs; Explains “Deboosting,” “Troll Report,” & Political Targeting in Video Interview

Via Project Veritas

Insider, Formerly Responsible for Content Review in Facebook’s Intellectual Property Dept Speaks Out, Loses Job
Facebook Engineers Plan to “demote bad content”
Conservative Facebook Page Livestreams Secretly “deboosted,” No Notice to Page Owners
Facebook Can Classify Users as Trolls Based on Their Vocabulary, Then Punish By Limiting Bandwidth, Blocking Comments…
Facebook Engineer: “‘hateful’ content is coming from right-leaning sites.”
“Special features” Triggered “leading up to important elections”
Bizarre View of “hate speech” Includes Content from Conservative Commentator

View the documents here.

(Update: In the video, we said Steven Crowder’s “livestream was dethrottled,” when in fact his entire page was “dethrottled.”)

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Remember Negative Interest Rates? Yeah, that’s still a thing.

Guest Post by Simon Black

It’s not enough to hand over your money to the government anymore.

Now you have to pay them for the privilege to do so.

That’s the basic premise behind negative interest rates: investors around the world are crazy enough to buy government bonds whose yields are actually below zero.

In technical terms, this GUARANTEES that anyone who holds the bonds to maturity will lose money. It’s genius!

What’s truly remarkable is that the issuance of negative-yielding bonds is actually on the RISE once again.

From October through the end of January, the amount of negative yielding bonds in the world rose by 21% according to data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

In fact, nearly 23% of government bonds worldwide now have negative yields.

Continue reading “Remember Negative Interest Rates? Yeah, that’s still a thing.”

Liberals Pinning All Hopes, Dreams On Testimony Of Seedy Lawyer

Via The Babylon Bee

U.S.—Liberals across the country are pinning all their hopes and wildest dreams on the testimony of a lone, sleazy attorney, sources confirmed Wednesday.

As Michael Cohen arrived to give his testimony before the House, Democrats all over the nation said a prayer to no one in particular that the completely unreliable testimony of a sleazeball lawyer would singlehandedly bring down the Trump presidency, causing the nation to instantly transform into a progressive utopia with free healthcare, college, and cell phones for all.

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Stucky QOTD: Donnie and the Rocketman

There’s an article up how Trump is massively failing with his China deal. So, I thought you guys would like to sound off about the NoKo deal (or, lack thereof).

Q1:  Trump said if NoKo gives up their nukes that they would become an economic powerhouse with “unlimited” economic potential.  — Is NoKo becoming a economic powerhouse even possible?
Q2: Trump calls Kim a “great leader” and “my friend Kim” and other superlatives. Kim smiles lovingly at Donnie.  What’s next, mutual blowjobs on Air Force One? This newfound puppy love is unseemly. We all know it’s all bullshit.  But, the question is; WHO IS PLAYING WHOM?

Image result for trump and kim funny

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Michael Cohen’s Testimony Is Filled With Speculation, Reads Like A Jilted Lover

Authored by Sara Carter,

Michael Cohen’s testimony isn’t exactly the bombshell Democrats professed it to be.

It is filled with speculation. The testimony he is providing the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday reads like a jilted lover whose been damaged by a past relationship and one in which the other party, that being President Donald Trump, never fully respected or considered as important.

For Cohen, who was hired by Trump in 2007, this appears to be too much to take. His working relationship with Trump dragged him into the bowels of Washington D.C.’s most brutal investigations into a President and his campaign that Americans have ever witnessed.

Senior officials within the Obama Administration launched an investigation that targeted Trump and everyone around him nearly three years ago. And for the past two years with the appointment of a Special Counsel it has consumed U.S. politics and national media.

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The Freedom Fairy

Guest Post by Jeff Thomas

For some time, it’s been apparent that the former “free world” countries (the US, EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, etc.) have been on a downward progression – socially, politically and economically.

But, in the last ten years, the awareness of this has become increasingly pronounced. With each successive year, more and more people recognise that all facets of life in these formerly great countries are heading in a decidedly negative direction.

At this point, even those who don’t understand the decline intellectually, feel in their gut that this is not going to end well. Further, they feel it all around them and sense that when the condition becomes critical, it won’t just affect others. When it reaches the crisis stage, they’ll find it right on their own doorstep.

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Is this the Coldest Winter in 83 years?

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Vancouver, where it rarely snows, has had five snow storms this year. It has even been reported that snow has fallen in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Now that is an extremely rare event by itself in addition to Vancouver.

The winter cold has been severe this year. It appears that we are heading toward this trend in the next 8.6-year cycle if we see this unfold again next year. Given the outlook for food prices into 2024, something just does not look normal on the economic front.

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Don’t Show President Trump This Record-Breaking Trade Deficit Chart

Via ZeroHedge

The US trade deficit of goods widened to $79.5b in December from $70.5b in November as exports fell 2.8% and imports rose 2.4%.

That compared with the median estimate of economists for $73.6 billion.

Exports of Industrial Supplies and Capital Goods plunged in December and imports of food & beverage surged.

This is the widest goods trade deficit in US history.

Trump is not winning on this one!

Hate Crime Hoaxes: The Bad and the Good

Guest Post by Walter E. Williams

Hate Crime Hoaxes: The Bad and the Good

Jussie Smollett, “Empire” actor, claimed that on Jan. 29, two masked men identifying themselves as Donald Trump supporters and using racial and homophobic insults attacked him. Smollett said the assailants yelled “This is MAGA country,” bashed his face, crushed his ribs, splashed him with bleach and put a noose around his neck. Smollett’s telling of the hate crime was gobbled up hook, line and sinker by the anti-Trump news media, but Chicago police say it was a hoax.

This type of hoax is part and parcel of the left’s broad agenda of victimology, fraudulence and gimmickry, plus gross media gullibility, incompetence and political attention seeking. What’s so troublesome is the fact that despite considerable evidence that the incident was a hoax, no apologies have been issued to either the public or the targets of their malfeasance — President Trump and the Americans who voted for him.

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