Saturday, September 30, 2017

General "Stuck on Stupid" Is, Sorta....

As I recall, Honore was responsible for or complicit in the abrogation of the 2A in New Orleans.  So whatever he has to say about the President......eehhhh....well....let's start with Con Law 101, General.

Puerto Rico's problem has to do with its wastrel government--the "grasshopper" of the Aesop legend--spending on 'social programs' and ignoring its infrastructure for about the last 30 years, which includes its electrical grid and highways.

Guess what Puerto Rico desperately needs now? 

Yup.  Electrical grid and highways.


Friday, September 29, 2017

Aaron Rodgers, Cloud-Person

Rodgers is one helluva quarterback, already among the top three in NFL history.  He works hard at it, studies it, lives it.  Good for him!!

He is also paid a LOT of money for it, and--if he wasn't there growing up in California--he's moved into Cloud People land.

Yep.  Rodgers has declared that this whole kneeling thing is about the "divisive" President Trump.

Uh, no, Aaron, you ignorant twit.  Colin the Commie started that crap LONG before Trump was elected President--and for that matter, LONG before anyone thought he had a chance to win the job.

And it's Colin the Commie that is "divisive,"  Aaron.

You play football a lot better than you understand history and events, Aaron.  Keep your head in the football game, and one more thing:  you'll be a lot more loved if you'd get out of The Cloud-o-Sphere. 

Thursday, September 28, 2017

War to the Knife in Madistan?

Word has it that Cock Robin is mightily p.o.'d at Walker.

Popcorn-crop failure, or maybe the alimony got raised? 

Or was it Cock Robin's massive short-man-syndrome ego that took a beating when the budget didn't come out with MORE TAXES the way Cock Robin wanted?

We'll see.

Lying in the Vatican??

Let us begin with an important truth:  while power is important, the salvation of souls is THE Important.  Creation's most significant Liar, therefore, would much rather impede the salvation of souls than merely play for power.

So this little vignette is interesting:

...Davies also speaks (starting at 28:10) of an aspect of his work which I either never heard of before, or forgot if I did, an example of the kind of dishonesty actively present in the reform which led Fr Bouyer to call Abp Bugnini (with classic French restraint) a man “as devoid of learning as he was of honesty.” It is a well-known fact that a group of six Protestant ministers were “consulted” by the Consilium ad exsequendam in the process of reforming the Mass. Bugnini would later claim in Notitiae that they only intervened once, and were merely observers; this led Davies to write to one of the six and ask to what degree they were involved, “and he said ‘Oh no, we played a very active part, and we were given all the documents same as the Catholic observers, every morning there was a discussion, a great free-for-all in which we put forward our opinions.’ That sort of thing has happened again and again....quoted at NLM, here.

Bugnini was a high-placed Vatican official. 

We relate this because some people think that "Vatican officials" do not lie, simply because they are "Vatican officials."  I would propose that Satan's interest in lies from the Vatican is far greater than his interest in such as 'power', or 'money,' or simple 'sex.'

What happens in (and from) the Vatican has to do with the salvation of souls, friends.  What better place for Satan's work of lies??  Hmmmmm????

The Dumb Test: Is Russia an Enemy? Y/N Answer, Media Dummies

As Ace notes, the media's love affair with Stalinism/Russia/China/(etc.) is long-standing, but went into full-reverse/flank speed with the election of The Donald.

That was at the direction of John Podesta, who has taken quite a few dollars from the Russkis himself as a "lobbyist" *snicker wink wink* or Paid Enemy Operative--whichever you prefer.

Anyhow, the media has suddenly discovered that Stalinism/Russia/China (etc.) is actually sowing discord and chaos in the US through BLM among others, and attempting to jigger elections, too!

OMG.  Zounds!!

"Sharing the Journey" to Suicide??

The Roman Catholic Church launched a program called "Sharing the Journey" yesterday, with an address from Pp. Francis and co-ordinated efforts from USCC and at least a few US Dioceses (including Milwaukee.)

Happily, the Catholic Church's teachings on the topic of immigration allow that 'countries should have control of their borders' and--logically--who crosses them as legal immigrants.

UN-happily, Pp. Francis hasn't yet figured out that many Muslims actually believe what the Koran teaches:  that Islam ("submission") should enforce "submission" from ALL people.  They've done a very good job, too:  Britain and other Northern European countries have ceded boroughs and cities to Muslims, making those areas "no-go" zones.  In the USA, there have been constant--albeit small-scale--attacks on US citizens with the hope of disrupting our civilization.

Most US politicians haven't figured this out, either, with the most notorious dupe being "Religion of Peace" George W. Bush.  Obozo, of course, was perfectly happy to fill the country with potential bombers and knife/acid attackers.

Trump SEEMS to have a clue, but we'll see.

Catholics should remind their pastors and Bishops that suicide is still forbidden by the Church.  Maybe they'll get the message.




Fantasy, the CEO Way

Everyone knows that Judy Faulkner was a VERY heavy contributor to the Alinskyite B. Hussein Obama--and to the much less charming (and much less competent) "Diamond Jim" Doyle.

But few knew, until yesterday, that Ms. Faulkner thinks of herself as a Wizard-ette.

...A rapt audience of 11,000 filled the Deep Space auditorium at Epic System Corp. in Verona on Tuesday as founder Judy Faulkner -- garbed in a red wizard's gown and hat -- addressed the annual users group meeting. ... Caption, picture at this link.

...Electronic health records are “so last year,” Faulkner told Epic’s annual users group meeting on Tuesday.

“You have to look at who you are,” she said, and consider a patient’s eating habits, sleep patterns, education, habitat and even issues such as loneliness. They are all factors in a person’s health, she said....

Well, OK, then.  Let's not forget "gun ownership," Judy. 

This fantasy-world stuff is not restricted to Ms. Faulkner.  The Chairman of General Motors, Mary Barra, has joined the Board of Disney.   Barra's car company is spending mucho-lotsa dollars on "self-driving" cars--which is nice, until you realize that "self-driving" cars will erase BRAND LOYALTY from the car-buying equation.  But hey!!  Tomorrow-Land and Fantasy-Land co-exist at Disney, so what could go wrong?? 

Ahh, fantasy.   


*Shock*! States Gaming Medicaid??

RoJo is curious as to how certain States could have spectacular gains in (Federal) Medicaid spending.

Not curious at all, Ron.  Here's the list of suspected game-playing States along with their sticky-fingered Governors:

Jerry Brown, D-Calif.; Jim Justice, R-W.Va.; Bruce Rauner, R-Ill.; Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y.; John Kasich, R-Ohio; Christopher Sununu, R-N.H.; Rick Snyder, R-Mich.; and David Ige, D-Hawaii.

Not one surprise in the whole bunch.


If I Were at Lambeau Tonight

Frankly, Aaron Rogers is a great quarterback, but he's not a deep thinker.  So while he is holding hands with whomever, and NOT saluting the flag with his hand over his heart, the crowd can sing the Anthem.

Immediately after, were I at Lambeau, I'd start the chant:  "USA!    USA !   USA !   USA!!....." just so there's no confusion about which country is still the land of the free and the home of the brave.


Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Wall Street Banks Screwed Puerto Rico

Ticker doesn't quite say it, but it's true.  The Bigs on The Street screwed Puerto Rico, not the US taxpayer, nor the US Congress.  The Bigs financed PR's drunken spending spree (at a price, of course) which caused problems now that the chickens have come home.

Of course, Puerto Rico's lefty political "leaders" were the primary problem.  But they're furiously tossing the foo-foo dust around and--as usual--the MSM is inhaling with joy.

Reality?

.....Those issues arose because of decades of intentional mismanagement, grift and fraud including by the Governor himself and the rest of the Puerto Rican government, which has taken on debt over and over while squandering it on social programs instead of taking care of critical infrastructure needs -- like basic maintenance to the electrical grid....

By the way:  Puerto Rico has a lot of resemblance to certain US cities which have also been mis-managed for decades by Lefty politicians, ain'a??  Good thing hurricanes don't hit Detroit, or Chicago, or Milwaukee.....

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

New NFL Icon

Here ya go!!





OK then.

Alabama Day

It's Alabama Day....and as Z essays, it could well be the end of the McConnell/Ryan hegemony.

...It’s a gamble, but Trump is a guy who thinks he can make something out of anything, as long as he has options. Whether it was by design or serendipity, this election is a referendum on the GOP establishment. The most likely outcome, according to polling, is a Moore win and maybe a very big win. Trump will not only take credit for it, but start to bet his winnings on the belief he can scare the GOP into passing his agenda items. They may hold the result against him, but Trump is betting they cave and play ball with him.

The reason it is a good gamble is the pressure on leadership will now come from their own ranks. Ryan and McConnell can keep discipline as long as they can promise their members they will keep their seats. If the rank and file start thinking they are safer with Trump or that Trump will back their challengers, then it is game over for Ryan and McConnell. They have to play ball. From Trump’s perspective, he has everything to game and nothing to lose. Ryan and McConnell can’t hate him more than they already do....

I suppose that Ryan can always hook up with the NFL, until they run out of money.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Paul Ryan's Exceedingly Smart Aide

Gee, this guy is really, really, smart, eh??

Paul Ryan's Chief of Staff has also managed to get really "lucky" on the timing of some trades over the years.

That would be David Hoppe, a former lobbyist.  Through skill and intellectual acumen, Hoppe and/or his wife purchased stock in various pharmaceutical and energy stocks.  These purchases were executed just before Congress passed legislation favorable to those interests.

Those purchases had nothing whatsoever to do with Hoppe's status as the Speaker's Chief of Staff.  It was pure skill, analytical ability, and smarts.

Yup.

Could Mark Levin Be Like This?

Levin continues to insist that labor arbitrage--the practice of replacing higher cost labor with lower cost labor (read, "coolies") is VERY GOOD for the US economy.

Kurt Schlichter differs:

...Conservativism forgot about the real world conservatives we expected to line up behind us. While we were talking about free trade, we were ignoring that GOP voter who fought in Fallujah, came home, got a job building air conditioners, raised a family, and then one day watched the video of the oh-so-sorry CEO – who looked remarkably like Mitt Romney, because all these guys look remarkably like Mitt Romney – sadly informing his beloved employees that their jobs were getting shipped to Oaxaca. And our response to the 58-year old Republican voter who asked us how he was going to keep paying for his mortgage and his kid in college? Pretty much, “Well, that’s how free enterprise works. Read some Milton Freidman and go learn coding....

Actually, Levin could be like that.  And he IS like that.  

USAToday/JSOnline Headline WRONG

No surprise that the USAToday/JSOnline headline is flat-out wrong.

The group did not 'accuse Pp Francis of heresy.'

They stated that his words, and lack of words, has tended to support heretical positions.

Yes, there is a difference--but The Nooz people aren't real bright, are they?

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Romo: The Best

Lotsa years watching football, back to Lombardi/Starr/Jordan....

Ray Scott was great because he said only what HAD to be said.  Radio guys--they're OK, but just sorta average guys.

Now comes Tony Romo.  Damn, he's good.  Knows the game, knows what to point to--and he's right.  And he's a likeable guy, not a dick like some ex-receivers on Fox, or other ex-QB's.

Thanks, Tony.

The Desperate Deep State

It's becoming clear that The Donald has a great deal to fear, if only because his A.G. is either incompetent or has been blackmailed.

The Deep State, composed of every intel head and a few camp-follower lawyers, spied on Trump and all his associates, illegally, on orders from Obama, for 15+ months, and are probably still doing so.

I would think that these people have security details, right?

James Woods Has It!

Found at Gateway, from James Woods:

Liberals have supported "taking a knee" from Colin Kaepernick back to Monica Lewinsky.

True dat.

Luther, Pp. Francis, and Marriage

The below-mentioned "third volley" in the Catholic Church's civil war is loaded into ScribD here.  The authors mention that Pp. Francis' admiration for Martin Luther, an arch-heretic, is a problem.

...he was intelligent and took some steps forward justifying, and because he did this [sic]. And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification...

Thus spake Francis in June, 2016.  The assertion about justification is wrong.

More:

...We notice here, as in several other parts of this Apostolic Exhortation, a close relationship with Luther’s disparagement of marriage. For the German revolutionary, the Catholic conception of a sacrament as effective ex opere operato , in an allegedly ‘mechanical’ way, is unacceptable. Although he maintains the distinction of signum et res , after 1520, with The Babylonian Captivity of the Church , he no longer applies it to marriage. 

Luther denies that marriage has any reference to sacramentality, on the grounds that we nowhere read in the Bible that the man who marries a woman receives a grace of God, and that neither do we read anywhere that marriage was instituted by God to be a sign of anything. He claimed that marriage is a mere symbol, adding that although it can represent the union of Christ with the Church, such figures and allegories are not sacraments in the sense we use the term ...



In fact, Luther bifurcated marriage, referring to both 'spiritual' and 'worldly' laws governing it.  Then he justified re-"marriage" after divorce as a 'remedy for concupiscence,' ignoring the fact that concupiscence per se is NOT sin.   The problem here is that Pp. Francis' work (AL) on the topic parallel's Luther's concepts almost precisely.  So who's the Lutheran here?

About that 'justification' thing:

...The gospel does not teach that all sins will in fact be forgiven, nor that Christ alone experienced the ‘judgement’ or justice of God, leaving only mercy for the rest of mankind. While there is a ‘vicarious suffering’ of our Lord in order to expiate our sins, there is not a ‘vicarious punishment’, for Christ was made “sin for us” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21) and not a sinner.  

Out of divine love, and not as the object of God’s wrath, Christ offered the supreme sacrifice of salvation to reconcile us with God, taking upon himself only the consequences of our sins (cf. Gal. 3:13). Hence, so that we may be justified and saved, it is not sufficient to have faith that our sins have been removed by a supposed vicarious punishment; our justification lies in a conformity to our Saviour achieved by that faith which works through charity (cf. Gal. 5:6)...


In other words, both faith AND works.  Remove 'works' and you have Lutheranism's "justification."



This is an ugly mess.  Pray for the Pope.




Yes, Mike Tomlin IS a Very Smart Guy

Last week someone described Mike Tomlin as 'the smartest guy in the room.'

He may have proved it today.

...Earlier today, it was reported that the all of the Pittsburgh Steelers players would remain in the locker room while the national anthem played prior to the start of their away game with the Chicago Bears. Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin explained that the team wouldn’t participate because he didn’t want to force players to choose whether or not to take part in a protest....

It was really to keep the Rooney family from being totally embarrassed, of course, but we'll play along.

One player DID get to the top of the ramp, however.

...Afghanistan veteran, former Army Ranger, and West Point graduate Alejandro Villanueva stood at the tunnel entrance while the song was played, standing with his hand on his heart....

Thanks, Alejandro.  And by the way, your family is very attractive in those commercials!

Yes, Crooks ARE Stupid

Another happy ending to a "stupid crook" story.  This guy had the capacity and will to shoot anyone, any time, anyplace, so it's a good thing that he didn't know about Instagram's location ability, right?

Civil War in the Catholic Church: Volley Three

After Pp. Francis published a document on marriage--which publication had many of the elements of the (D) enactment of ObozoCare--there came a reaction.

That reaction, the first, was from four Cardinals of the Church who asked some very pointed questions about the wording of the document.  It's been more than 1 year since the Cardinals sent their letter to Pp. Francis and there has been no response (although one of the Cardinals was summarily--and dishonestly--'fired' from his post.)

The second reaction was from about four dozen prominent theologians spread across a few continents.  They asked the same questions, but the run-up to them was much more detailed.  They have gotten the same response--and another firing, this time of a lay professor in Spain.

Now another reaction, from several dozen OTHER laypeople and clerics.  (I'm told that the Jebbies are 'doxxing' these people as this is being composed, showing all the usual class of the post-Vatican II Jebs.)

Pretty soon, ya'know, this might get serious.

Trump v. NFL: THE Cage-Match

So The Donald, lacking anything else to do, managed to stick his fingers into a hornet's nest, calling out football players who think that the USA sucks.

First off, the players who pull that stuff are jerks.  They are acting like two-year-olds.  By the time normal people are about 21 years old, they understand that life is not fair.  (Yes, I know; for college snowflakes the age is more like 27.)

Here's a thought:  as soon as your $1+++ million/year contracts stop rolling in, leave the country!  Find a better place!!  See how that First Amendment stuff works there!!  I heard that Germany is looking for diversity.  So is Italy.  Or you could try Red China; they really need diversity but don't know it.  Educate them!

Secondly, the NFL is as "divisive" as can be, second only to the Obozo Administration.  This is the NFL which threatened a church group with a lawsuit because that group hosted a fund-raiser in the church basement while an NFL game was played on a TV.  Divisive  much, Goodell, you jackwad?   This is the NFL which would NOT allow Dallas Cowboys to wear a memorial patch to the 6 Dallas cops killed by BLM criminals.  This is the NFL which demands that teams interview "diverse" candidates for any coaching job, instead of just "the best" candidates.  This is the NFL which threatened to fine players for wearing stars-and-stripes footwear after 9/11.  Fuck you, Goodell!

I'll take the NFL seriously when Tony Dungy is Commish.

Finally:  The Donald shoulda stood in bed.  There are some situations which the President cannot and should not attempt to resolve, and this is one of them.  The President cannot eliminate or shame all the jackwads in the USA--hell, this President can't even prosecute Hillary Clinton for blatant, willful, and serial violations of the ESPIONAGE ACT.  In short, Donald, play on your home field and start shooting the alligators in the swamp.  Ignore the two-year-olds.  

In Vegas, the odds are that you'll lose this one, Donald.  Cut the losses and go after Hillary, Susan Rice, Lois Lerner, Podesta, and your immediate predecessor.

That's something you can WIN with.

NOTE:  For a different--and in many ways more insightful--take on this pile of crap, see Wiggy.

So Rand Paul Wants *THIS* Legacy?

Nolte said it pretty well.

...we cannot all be Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who looks like he could end up taking John McCain’s place next week as Obamacare’s sole savior. Because he is not getting everything he wants right away, Paul is refusing to support Graham-Cassidy, and his no-vote, his oh-so principled stand, could forever saddle our country with Obamacare. Some legacy....

I'm fairly certain that Rand Paul understands history and the term 'long march.'  It took the Progressive Socialists about 100 years to effect national healthcare and they still have not gotten The Prize, which is single-payer.

I ask Rand Paul to understand the 'long march' in reverse, and vote FOR Graham-Cassidy-RoJo.  I'm not a raving fan, either--but this is not a PolicyWonkLaLaLand Ryansplat.  It's a pretty damn good start. 

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Gummint Wanted a Nice Truck. So They Took One.

The guy is paying $673/month for a truck the Gummint stole.

S'pose he'll get his money back?

(OK.  I can hear your bitter laughter all the way over here....)

End of Dishonest Accounting in NAFTA?

For years (and years, and years) we've been told that all those jobs which went to Mexico didn't really make a difference to the Glorious Future of America because the 'value-added' component was tilted towards the US.  (Of course, that lost job meant something to the family whose breadwinner was on the street, but hey!!  The Glorious Future calls!!!)

We were also told that the Cost Of Labor was excessive; that nobody could possibly survive $30.00-$40.00/hour (plus bennies) labor-cost in industry. 

(We were told that by people who were paying up to $100 grand plus bennies to public school teachers, by the way.  That was for their 9-month/year scheduled work.)

Well, on further review of the actual statistics:

...the Trump administration released a new study on Friday that shows U.S. value-added content is declining for manufactured goods imported from Mexico and Canada. 

The Commerce Department analysis of recently released OECD trade in value-added data found that U.S. content in automotive imports from Mexico declined to 18.1 percent in 2011 from 26.5 percent in 1995. U.S. content in automotive imports from Canada declined to 26.4 percent from 34.9 percent over the same period

At the same time, automotive value added content from non-NAFTA countries in Mexican auto imports rose to 29.5 percent from 13.2 percent. China has seen the fastest growth in that component, to 5.8 percent in 2011 from a scant 0.3 percent in 1995....

Obviously, someone OTHER than the lying US Chamber performed the study. 

But I'll cut some slack to the US Chamber of Commerce (read:  GE, GM, IBM and 10 others).  The REAL culprit for the exporting of jobs is the Government.  The cost of OSHA, EPA, and ERISA (not to mention such things as multiple-levels of taxes and compliance costs therefor) are VERY significant--probably far more than mere 'labor' costs.

But don't hold your breath.  Trump or no, the Gummint will not de-regulate, particulary if that means less Gummint employees sucking your lifeblood.  Not gonna happen.

I Told You So!

Several years ago, I warned that Sen. Chris Dodd of CT was the Big Banks' stooge on Capitol Hill.  And then The Stooge co-wrote Dodd-Frank, which passsed, and which Obozo signed. 

(You remember Obozo, right?  The Commie who played 'anti-bank' harmonica in the Totalitarian Band, right?  The one who just picked up a $400K check for opening his pie-hole at Goldman?  Yah, that one.)

So, anyhow.

...“Dodd-Frank is great if you’re a giant financial institution. It is lousy if you’re a local community bank and if you’re a credit union. And in the four years after Dodd-Frank, community banks lost market share at a rate double what they were losing before then – 12 percent versus 6 percent.”
According to Cruz, more than 80 community banks have “gone under” in Texas while 1,800 have closed across the nation.

“This is not good for the banking institutions but it’s particularly bad for small businesses. If you care about growth, if you care about small businesses, who do you think is lending to small business? Who do you think lends money to that farmer to buy the tractor? Who do you think lends money to that small restaurant owner to open a new restaurant and hire the waiters and waitresses and cooks? It’s the small community banks, the financial institutions hurt by Dodd-Frank,” he said....

By the way, you can take it from me:  Chase Bank sucks toad-balls.  Never had an account there, and I never will--and the story won't fit into this blog.  But they suck toad-balls.

The Demise of Metro Milwaukee

One doesn't have to look far to understand why businesses and people are fleeing the metro-Milwaukee area.

The two shitbuckets caught in this chase (two others remain at large) have extensive juvie criminal records, but are still out there doing extensive damage to people and property.

So why are people fleeing the area?

John Chisholm, Tom Barrett, Chris Abele, and damn near every single judge in the County.

Why Vegas? Here's a GREAT Reason!!

Ya' learn something every day.  Here's an item about an excellent reason to go to Vegas.  Has the word "strip" in it, but has nothing to do with wimminfolk.

Actually, Jimmy Kimmel, It's NOT All About YOU

So it turns out that Jimmy Kimmel is the dummy for ventriloquist Schumer, and Kimmel uses his personal situation to bleat and whine about repealing ObozoCare.

(Kimmel is one of the very few who have survived being between Schumer and a camera!  For that he should be grateful.)

And Kimmel should STFU because it's not all about Jimmy and his son. 

It's actually about the whole country, Jimmy.  I know that's hard to take, because your Mommy never told you that.  But get over it and act like a man, instead of a little wooden dummy.

The Pope's Straw-Man Jive v. History

I suppose that a Jesuit who is facile with creating straw-man arguments is about as unusual as the sun rising in the east.  But the Pope shouldn't resort to such ....ahhh.....shady stuff.

...“I won’t hide my concern in the face of the signs of intolerance, discrimination and xenophobia that have arisen in different regions of Europe,” the pontiff said, which are “often fueled by reticence and fear of the other, the one who is different, the foreigner.

“I am worried still more by the sad awareness that our Catholic communities in Europe are not exempt from these reactions of defensiveness and rejection...

Thus spake Francis.

Actually, Charles (the Hammer) Martel and J. Sobieski--not to mention all of Spain--would beg to differ, Holiness.  It ain't 'fear...of foreigners' here.  It's knowledge of history and current events.  Moslems have a well-documented record of warring on Catholics and assorted other Christians, not to mention Jews and Hindus.  You might have noticed that truck-massacres, nail-bombs, fire-bombs, sex assaults, and knife- and acid-attacks in Europe over the last 2 years are NOT being made by 20-something Methodist girls.  In fact, they are being made by 'foreigners' who are 'different.'

Get off your PC horse, Holiness, and answer Cdl. Burke's questions about your "marriage" document.  You're a year overdue on that project.

Need Money? Join the US Senate

Sen. Bob Corker is a wealthy man.  So are a lot of US Senators, of course.  Our very own Herbie Kohl proved that a Senator could be wealthy and STILL sleep through several terms.

But sometimes, accumulating that wealth is.....ahhh......interesting.  Let's take Sen. Corker, who is from Tennessee, and did well on an Alabama land-development.

...According to Annual Reports Sen. Corker filed with the U.S. Senate between 2014 and 2016, he made an investment in an entity known as McGowin Park, LLC, an Alabama corporation, valued at between $1 million and $5 million on July 11, 2014, for which he received a 13.7 percent interest.
McGowin Park, LLC, is an investment vehicle controlled by the Hutton Co., a Chattanooga, Tennessee, real estate development company whose CEO, Karen Hutton, has been a longtime financial contributor to Sen. Corker. It was formed for the purpose of developing the McGowin Park retail center in Mobile, Alabama....

OK.  Let's assume that Corker wrote a check for $5 million here.  At 13.7%, he would have one-seventh of the pie--making the pie $35 million.  Got that? 

Next:

...The McGowin Park retail center was sold for $77 million this year....

So a $35 million investment paid out $77 million after 3 years.  Not bad at all.  I'm sure that Sen. Corker will take phone calls from his friend Karen Hutton, who steered him to this little bonanza.

There's more to the story, by the way.  A LOT more.  But you have to read the link.  Suffice it to say that WellsFargo may be very PO'd about how they are being treated, especially compared to how Sen. Corker may benefit from this little deal in the next 20 years or so.

Anybody here old enough to recall how Hillary played the cattle-futures market?  She was SO smart that she was able to make $100 grand pre-tax in only 10 months.  Tyson Chicken hasn't done too badly since then, either.  And that's not a co-incidence.  (Neither did her "advisor," who was named chairman of the home-loan bank board by none other than Bill Clinton, who did not have sex with that woman.)

See?  Run for office, cash in.  This also worked for a leading Republican pervert and Representative, Hastert, who arranged for an Interstate highway to run right past a chunk of land he owned.  Nicely done, backdoor specialist!!

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Lock Them Up. Lock Them Up. Lock Them Up.

Nice Elitism you have here, Lois and Hilary.  It would be a shame if it were to go up in flames.

But unless Trump and his pet dog Sessions get their butts in gear......

On Friday, September 8, 2017 -- just before the weekend -- the DOJ announced that it would not prosecute Lois Lerner for her part in the IRS-Tea Party scandal. Evidence of Lerner's guilt is overwhelming....

Yah, hey.  The author, heavily credentialed in law, takes us through the Elite "Religion" phenomenon which permeates the Deep State.  What is that?  It is the belief that anything the Deep State Hive thinks is "good" is "good" regardless of law or ethics.  That is how the jackass in DOJ came to his "non-prosecute" conclusion.

...But the second reason for the insubordination is the inner conviction of the subordinates that their policy views are not supposed to be subordinated to those of the elected president and his top lieutenants. This is both because those views are religious in nature and because it is certain these subordinates believe that indeed the executive must not be allowed to be unitary.

Of course, this will be demonstrated predominantly when the chief executive is of the opposing party. Otherwise, all is well. Meetings can take place on tarmacs, investigations will be called "matters," classified and other government documents can be taken into personal possession, the names of persons swept up in surveillance can be unmasked and even leaked to the press, and the general refrain is "we will see no evil."
...


Maybe The Swamp will "see no evil."  But that's not how actual CITIZENS see things.


..we must insist and demand, publicly, that the only elected official in the entire executive branch -- the president -- act to control his underlings. (Some have begun to do so.) When he does act to control them, we must support him -- publicly -- vigorously (and peacefully)....

Peacefully, assuming that Sessions' butt is kicked hard enough to get him into the game.   This ain't the Senate, Jeffy-boy.  You have no "friends" anymore.  That's OK.  Treat them as Enemies of America.  They are. 

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Graham-Cassidy Looks Very Good, Indeed!!

Although their names are not on the masthead, Sen. RoJo, Gov. Walker, and Rick Santorum had a great deal to do with this bill.

Judging by the pearl-clutching, hand-wringing, and pants-peeing from this little creature at Vox, the bill is by far the best we can hope for in the near future.  When you read what he objects to, you will ask "So f'n what??"

(Screw Rand Paul, who is simply PO'd about every. damn. thing.  Yes, he's right.  So what?  He's not able to dictate....)

HT:  Grim 

Warning: Lawyers Ahead

We are alerted to certain law schools, specifically U. Penn and U. SanDiego (allegedly Catholic).

...two law professors published an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer calling for a revival of the “cultural script” that prevailed in the 1950s and still does among affluent Americans: “Get married before you have children and strive to stay married for their sake. Get the education you need for gainful employment, work hard, and avoid idleness. . . . Eschew substance abuse and crime.”...

...The op-ed triggered an immediate uproar at the University of Pennsylvania, where one of its authors, Amy Wax, teaches. The dean of the Penn law school, Ted Ruger, published an op-ed in the student newspaper noting the “contemporaneous occurrence” of the op-ed and a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., and suggesting that Ms. Wax’s views were “divisive, even noxious.” Half of Ms. Wax’s law-faculty colleagues signed an open letter denouncing her piece....

...The dean of USD’s law school, Stephen Ferruolo, issued a schoolwide memo repudiating Mr. Alexander’s article and pledging new measures to compensate “vulnerable, marginalized” students for the “racial discrimination and cultural subordination” they experience....all quotes from MoonBattery

That meme "...first thing, let's kill all the lawyers!" proves to me that Shakespeare knew about U Penn and U SanDiego law-school deans and several current and former SCOTUS occupants.

The UN Speech, DACA, and Paul Ryan's Budget

We're sure that the NeverTrump bunch will have something to soil their pants about following The Donald's speech at the UN.  Tough.  It's their pants that will stink; and the smell will resemble the one emanating from places like Venezuela and Cuba, not to mention Red China and its little sister North Korea.

No, I'm not happy with The Donald's waffle-game on DACA and the wall--but then, it was Paul Ryan who decided to continue funding Murder, Inc. Planned Parenthood in the current budget proposal. 

So while Paul Ryan's House kills innocent babies, Trump protects them.  Never thought of it that way, did you?


Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Bannon's Reading List: The Elites Suck

This is interesting.  Apparently Steve Bannon rather likes Christopher Lasch's writings.

...some time ago the CEO of Breitbart identified Lasch’s final book The Revolt of the Elites and The Betrayal of Democracy as one of the driving inspirations behind today’s populist agenda....

Lasch was no "conservative," but he understood real life's priorities.

...Select passages from the essay “Why The Left Has No Future” make Lasch’s presence on Bannon’s reading list even easier to understand. In this biting and ruthless analysis of the contemporary intellectual climate, Lasch characterizes liberal writers as mere pseudo-radical posers. They are “full of moral outrage and theoretical hot air,” he reckons, and are doomed to failure because of their inability to comprehend “religion, pro-family attitudes, and [the] ethic of personal accountability.” Rather than address the social, cultural, and economic forces that have contributed to the decline of the family, the intelligentsia prefers to change the family’s definition, a course that in Lasch’s estimation seems a little like a doctor redefining health so as to cover up the fact that he is poisoning his patients....

Then there's this, on the Elites.

...turning their back on the heartland and cultivating ties with the international market of fast-moving money, glamour, fashion, and popular culture. It is a question whether they think of themselves as Americans at all. Patriotism, certainly, does not rank very high in their hierarchy of virtues. “Multiculturalism,” on the other hand, suits them to perfection, conjuring up the agreeable image of a global bazaar in which exotic cuisines, exotic styles of dress, exotic music, exotic tribal customs can be savored indiscriminately, with no questions asked and no commitments required. The new elites are at home only in transit, en route to a high-level conference, to the grand opening of a new franchise, to an international film festival, or to an undiscovered resort....

If there were only ONE theoretical justification for the 10th Amendment, that is it.

Note, please, that The Elites come in (R) and (D) flavors.  They certainly screwed up the country under both Bushes, and achieved orbital velocity under Obozo--who, if he was not Manchurian, was complicit in fomenting what is rapidly becoming a shooting war in this country.

Lasch never advocated expelling The Elites from the country.  One wonders 'why not?'

Monday, September 18, 2017

The Chummy Reps: Sensenbrenner and Kind

Happened to pick up a print edition of the local "news" rag and there was an opinion piece in it jointly written by Congressmen Jim Sensenbrenner (R) and Ron Kind (D), both representing Wisconsin.

They wrote about how it's nice to be bi-partisan and do things together.

Throughout the entire letter, neither of them mentioned the 10th Amendment.  Surprised?

On "Sin", Real and Imagined-by-USCC

Anent the post below regarding DACA, and more important, contra the USCC's "New Sin Encyclopedia", the country's finest political philosopher, Fr. James Schall, SJ, has a few words of actual truth.

...A newer category of sinning, however, is flourishing. It is related to the older idea of “corporate guilt.” We now have the “ism” and the “phobia” sins, the general category sins by which we can judge (“Who am I to judge?”) whole groups of human beings as sinful just for being what they are.

Even earlier we had the “anti” sins – anti-Semitism or anti-Catholicism. Of course, depending on one’s politics, some of the “anti” sins were considered to be virtues – anti-fascism, anti-Nazism, anti-Communism.

These newer sins somehow, not without reason, were never mentioned in the Ten Commandments
....




...“Ism sins” seek to “purify” by identifying as evil those belonging to categories of unacceptable ideas, not with actions of individuals who are personally responsible for their actions. “Ism sins” undermine any public order by subverting the basis by which any sinning can be identified....

Since "nations" are by definition not "individuals," "nations" cannot sin. Conversely, "nations" cannot be "charitable," nor "chaste", nor "meek;" they cannot be 'virtuous.' Only individual citizens can have and exercise 'virtue' or 'vice.' 

The "New Sin Encyclopedia" foisted on Catholics by the USCC--long a bastion of demi-socialists and heavily influenced by Chicago's Alinsky Gang--is erroneous and should be rejected wholesale.

You've been warned.

Abp Listecki Is Right on Migrant Chilluns; Here's the Solution

The Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, issued a statement regarding DACA chilluns.

'I am saddened to see our nation joining in the unjust treatment of thousands of young men and women when [...] Sessions announced that the Trump Administration is 'rescinding' the DACA program which protects hundreds of thousands of young children brought here illegally.'

OK, then, Excellency.  How about this??

1)  Keep all DACA chilluns who were brought here ILLEGALLY (your word, not mine) when they were under 18 years of age.  Remove their parents.

2)  Any DACA "chilluns" who were brought here ILLEGALLY when they were over the age of 18 get deported, and go to the back of the line.

You are correct:  actual children cannot be faulted for the criminal activities of their parents, so they can remain.  The parents are criminals--so they should be deported.  And if the "chilluns" were over 18 when brought here, they were old enough to know better; deport them.

See, Excellency, "justice" is owed to those people who are still waiting in line for green cards.  "Justice" also is owed to US citizens who will be paying to support these people.  Don't fall into the metaphysical trap of believing that 'charity' is practiced by Governments, for it is NOT; 'charity' is only practiced by individuals.  Yes, I realize that your education (and the fabulists at the US Catholic Conference) may have told you differently--but to be candid, your education was flat-out wrong on that count.  So are the bureaucrats WE PAY FOR at USCC.

And by the way, Pp. Francis' words on child sex trafficking don't really apply here.


Sunday, September 17, 2017

Wisdom From the '60's (!)

DiPippo's dad wrote a 'stiff upper lip' note to DiPippo's mom (who knew and worked around some VERY notable Catholic names in the '60's.)  The mom had a good deal of discomfort with what was going on in the Church, and the dad tried to comfort her a bit.

This passage struck a chord with me:

...Remember, the cool ones have been those who knew that in spite of all that they saw around them, and what was happening within the Church, their first concern was to save their immortal souls; they worked within the Church. … 

One must be cool in these things and remember that on many occasions Christ has allowed the devil and his armies to turn the Church into chaos and turmoil, and that every time She has come out refreshed, rejuvenated, and as vital as Her Founder intended Her to be. You must remember that these factions, these creeping elements of fungus and disease have always been in the Church, and that every time they have lost in the end....

Love that hippie lingo, eh?

Friday, September 15, 2017

On James Martin SJ, Rented Mule, UPDATED

It is reported that James Martin SJ objected to someone stating that he was 'beaten like a rented mule.'

It is further reported that James Martin SJ lied like Hell about the incident and ran off to tell mommy some intertubes-nanny.

If I were James Martin SJ, I'd be looking out for approaching millstones.

But that's just me.

Addendum:

The braying of this particular Jesuit-mule includes noise about being 'in good standing' and that a Jebby superior allowed release of Martin's book.

As the Canonist notes, neither of those attributes means diddledy-squat.   And at this point in time, the braying-mule-Jebby doesn't really mean all that much to me, either--although he is a good representation of a gnat, or a mosquito.

Obama/Rice Spying on US Citizens.....

Despite the lying from Susan Rice, and McMaster's complicity in her lies, the fact remains that Obama was spying on US citizens for political purposes.

The shocker:  they were the political purposes of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is an undeclared enemy of the US.  That's why they are allies of Obama and Rice--and perhaps McMaster.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Humor or News? You Be the Judge

It occurs to me that this could be from The Onion.  But the Warrior put it out there, so.....

...Speaking on behalf of a plethora of denominations including the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the United Methodist Church, a spokesperson issued the following statement: “We are in agreement that there is a great need for churches to rise up and create spaces that are safe for questioning and accepting our identities, doubts, fears, failures, and blatant sins. Effective immediately, we are declaring all mainline Protestant churches safe spaces, where there are no judgments, conviction, repentance, or gospel presentations whatsoever.”

The statement listed elements that safe space churches should remove from their premises, including “crosses, Bibles, pulpits, organs, hymnals, systematic theologies, and sermons exhibiting any form of triggering micro-aggression. Be considerate.” Words like “sin,” “hell,” “death,” “wrath,” “propitiation,” and “substitutionary atonement” are also on the ban list
....

Not being a part of any of those denominations, I can't verify this.  Any help out there??

"Magnum Principium"? Not Really, Holiness

We all know that Pp. Francis didn't actually write the document called "Magnum Principium".  That's good, because it is not nice to play with the truth.  And the document decidedly plays with the truth.  Here's the opening line:


The great principle, established by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, according to which liturgical prayer be accommodated to the comprehension of the people so that it might be understood...

Not really.  

How "not really?"  A LOT of "not really."  The irreplaceable Prof. Kwasniewski demonstrates that with a long, long, long series of quotations from Bishops and Cardinals defending the use of Latin during the Mass--at the 2 Vat Council, no less!!  There is no "great principle" involved here; rather, the text of Sacrosanctum Consilium grants a CONCESSION to LIMITED use of the vernacular. 

Thee propagandists scribbling for HH Francis have launched another....ahhh......half-truth.  

One of those quotes, by the way, is chilling:

...All those who want to diminish Latin always invoke the same reason: so that the people will understand and participate better. That is what the Augsburg Confession demanded....

Especially when read in conjunction with this one:

...archbishop of London … No. 42: not too much of the vernacular language; risk of error in matters of faith; and if the choice is left to the bishops, erit maxima confusio [there will be great confusion]. (217)...

Like, say, in matters of Matrimony?

Tranny Studies!! Just What You Always Needed!!

Another corner of 'science' which has been ignored--until Uncle Sam and Mitch McConnell stepped in with a shitload of taxpayer money:

The National Institutes of Health announced its plans for funding numerous new studies on transgender issues that will cost $200,000 each.

The agency released two announcements Friday that it will soon begin accepting applications for transgender studies to begin next year, on the heels of the Republican-controlled Senate approving a $2 billion spending increase for the agency....

Stuff that you will pay to learn about includes:

....studies on "understanding the impact of stigma," "minority stress," "diversity in gender identity and expression," transgender employment, and incarceration.

"More information is needed on relationships with partners and family, as well as on sexual and reproductive health," the NIH said.

Studies may also examine the "biological underpinnings of gender and gender identity," "how estrogen hormone treatments affect the male reproductive tissues," and studies on puberty blockers for adolescents.

Another topic: "Research on the impact of brain development of hormonal therapy and surgical interventions such as removal of testes and ovaries."

It is a wonder that Western Civ has gotten this far without the knowledge promised by NIH, McConnell, and the Enlightened Universities which will spend this our money.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Does the (R) Corpse Stink Yet?

Angelo Codevilla:

Having refused to repeal Obamacare, the Republican Party is dead, as was the Whig Party in 1854 after it colluded in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act which opened these territories to slavery....

Some of you remember the local radiomouth Charlie Sykes, who famously said (on multiple occasions) that he was 'not a Republican, but a Conservative.'

There was a difference then, and there is one now.  Charlie has departed Conservatism for Neo-Conservatism, of course, but....

Paul Ryan Dereliction Forced Trump (D) Alliance

Jim Jordan is no Lefty and he is certainly not a Go-Along-Get-Along Pubbie worm.   Jordan calls out the Establishment Republicans (you-know-who) for dereliction of duty. 

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, told “Fox News Sunday” that the deal that President Donald Trump struck with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) last week on the debt ceiling was not “a good deal for the American taxpayer,” but Trump didn’t have many options in front of him at the time....

...[W]hat options did the president have in front of him?” Jordan said.“The first time the Republican Conference talked about the debt ceiling was Wednesday morning, and the Freedom Caucus, we had called for nine and a half weeks ago.

“We did a press conference and said, don't leave town until you actually have a plan on the debt ceiling and outline the tax reform plan that we are going to do and until we deal with health care, and instead, we went home for the longest August recess in a non-election year, longest break in the non-election year for more than the last decade,” he said
....

It's about time that someone called out Paul Ryan for being AWOL on Every. Single. Issue.  He wasn't prepared for taking down ObozoCare; he clearly did not want to de-fund Planned Parenthood, he doesn't give a flying fart about the national debt and he hasn't yet come up with a workable tax plan.

Exactly what does Little Paul care about, anyway??

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Pp. Francis and Abp. Weakland

Umnnhh....yah....what do THEY have in common?

From Skojec's essay of today (on the upcoming Babel-i-zation):

....as my friend Hilary White has so often said, “The Church couldn’t have survived another ‘conservative’ pope.” Francis has woken people up, and they will never be able to sleep again. And once they began to evaluate why what he was doing was wrong...

Just as with Abp. Weakland's reign in Milwaukee.  It was a great good for the Church here, because sentient Catholics had to learn--quickly--how to 'look it up' in reliable texts every time the Abp. opened his yap.  And we learned a lot that we didn't HAVE to learn under the naptime-ruling of Abp. Cousins, nor the far more active and good rule of Abp. Meyer.

So yes, it's a GOOD thing that Pp. Francis has arrived in the sense that it's GOOD to pour alcohol onto a wound to cleanse it.

See??

Continuing Liturgical Chaos in the Catholic Church: Babel!

First off, let's have a bit of perspective.  In my lifetime, the Catholic church's principal liturgical celebration, the Mass, has been through five iterations.  I was trained in the pre-1962 Missal, then came the 1962.  Next was the 1965 "interim" missal, partially in English, followed by the 1970  Missal, then finally, the re-translation of 2000.

Five.

During the first 20 years after Vatican II--the period covered by the 1965/1970 Missals--the situation was chaotic.  Priests did not bother with the printed word; strange new 'rituals' were invented, discarded, and re-invented--most by pushy, ignorant, laymen and wimmins; "church music" became a sung laugh-track.  Go two parishes west, and there was a whole 'nother Mass that you'd never seen before!  Fly from Lincoln, NE. to Los Angeles and it was like the culture change when moving from Oshkosh to Peking.

It actually settled down a into The Great Mediocrity between 2000 and now.  There was little "sacred" about the space, the language, or the music, but by and large it was not completely street-theater any more.

Now comes Pp. Francis, who has decided that translations of the Roman Rite will become regionalized.  US 'english' Masses will have different 'english' than British 'english' or Australian 'english' or Canadian 'english' Masses.  The French Mass in Paris will be different from the 'french' of Senegal or Montreal.

And so forth.

Thus, Pp. Francis has done what very few thought was possible!!!  He has re-fashioned the Catholic Church into the Tower of Babel.  Who says that Pp. Francis doesn't like the past??

Saturday, September 09, 2017

Actually, Cdl. Dolan, It IS the Money

Maybe Bannon's class-less crack about 'filling the pews' was ...ahhh...class-less.  And maybe Cdl. Dolan's heated riposte was correct.

But whether the (Catholic) Bishops' Conference (USCC) gets Big Bucks due to 'refugees' and 'immigrants'--that's not in dispute.

...Simpson goes on to list the nine primary “Refugee Contractors” whom the “federal government pays …. to resettle refugees and asylees.” Among the nine is “CC/USCCB: Catholic Charities/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops”.

According to the table provided — with figures from USAspending.gov — We see that from 2008 to 2015, the Catholic Charities/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops shows funding received for refugee resettlement in an amount totaling over $2 billion dollars....

"Aha!" you say.  "Refugee" is not the same as "DACA immigrant!!"

Wrong, Bishop-breath.  Obozo re-wrote the rules.

...In December 2013, the Obama administration announced an in-country refugee program for Central American Minors (CAMs) that allows persons under 21 years of age from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador direct travel to the U.S. While those countries tragically suffer from high crime and poor economic conditions, merely being a member of an afflicted population does not raise a person to the definition of “refugee.” By offering this status, the Obama administration is deliberately expanding the definition, an action that has been called a “rogue family reunification program.”....

Thus the USCC's bleating and screeching about 'Samaritans' and "justice."  They would like to cover their income-generation with Good Terms and Double-Plus-Good Results and the Words of Jesus and the Bible.

Except that their "justice" flapjaw makes a mockery of the term "justice," because USCC doesn't give a flipped finger about "justice" for existing US citizens.  Think about a teeter-totter with only one occupant and you get the USCC's definition of "justice."

As in most controversies, the best advice is to Follow the Money.  Skojec did, above, and....well.....

No DACA, No Gummint!

So Paul Ryan's pal, Gutierrez, has a plan!

In an emotional press conference with progressive and immigrant activists, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said Democratic House leaders have told him they will support stopping the government to protect 800,000 people whose status has been in limbo since the Trump administration announced it will suspend Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in six months.

Is that a feature or a bug?

Schimel Steps Up

Well, now.  Our AG is interested in potential criminal activity!

Attorneys General in 20 states asked the U.S. Supreme Court release undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s criminal activity.

The top law enforcement officers in those states filed a “friend of the court” brief with the nation’s highest court arguing that they should be privy to violations of law within their jurisdictions....

...Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin are all part of the amicus brief....

The Wisconsin branches of the Margaret Sanger Chop Shop should be very, very, concerned.

Friday, September 08, 2017

Who Bought Jeff Sessions? And How Much??

The Deep State keeps its secrets and protects its own.

Sessions has told Judicial Watch and two Congressmen to shove it where the sun never shines regarding the Lois Lerner/IRS Mass Corruption case.

Who spent the $$ to shut off Sessions?  And how much did it cost??

And there's the BATF/E kickback scheme, on which Sessions will not release documents.

And of course, Sessions has yet to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her blatant, wanton, disregard of ALL national-security protocols and requirements for her emails.  Oh, yes, each one sent or received was a criminal violation, no "intent" required.

The Donald sleeps and tweets.  We're no longer impressed.

RoJo (Finally!!) Woke!

It appears that Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has finally awakened to the fact that voting with McConnell is damn near treason.

So he, and 16 other (R) Senators who actually love this country, voted against McConnell's bullshit bill.

Democrat Vote-Fraud Succeeds!!

Yes, indeed, vote-fraud can succeed!!

New Hampshire is the next Chicago/Illinois.  Can bankruptcy for that State be far behind?

Catholic Bishops Beclown Themselves Further

Sure enough, after Steve Bannon emitted a despicable slur to the effect that the Catholic Bishops only want immigration to fill the pews and coffers of the Church, the Bishops responded.

And looked even dumber.

"It is preposterous to claim that justice for immigrants isn't central to Catholic teaching," USCCB spokesman James Rogers said in a statement made available to the Washington Examiner....

So is justice for we who already are US citizens NOT "central to Catholic teaching," Mr. Rogers?  Or is "justice" a one-sided affair to the Bishops?  Oh, and Mr. Rogers, is "justice" served when the fraud-rate in DACA is north of 40%?  Hmmmmm???? 

Oh, but it gets worse!

"It comes directly from Jesus Himself in Matthew 25, 'For I was hungry and you gave me food … a stranger and you welcomed me.' Immigrants and refugees are precisely the strangers we must welcome...."

Of course, the above passage has nothing to do with immigration laws (justice) and everything to do with  the virtue of charity.  The USCC's spox doesn't appear to know the difference.

So how can the Bishops presume to instruct Bannon in Catholicism?  Beats me.

Thursday, September 07, 2017

So Now, WellsFargo Cuts Off Pro-Family Charity!!

As a followup to its huge customer-account fraud AND its auto-lending/insurance scam, WellsFargo decided to cut off a pro-family, pro-marriage Christian charity.

Smooth move, WellsFargo!! 

The pro-family, pro-children Ruth Institute was notified Thursday that its online donation processor had cut off services because it promotes “hate, violence, harassment or abuse.” Correspondence suggests that there is a line leading directly to banking giant Wells Fargo and the Southern Poverty Law Center....

Their processing provider, Vanco, pointed the finger directly at WellsFargo in their press release on the question.  WellsFargo, which was "unable to provide a response" was using guidance from the Southern Piece-of-Crap Liars' outfit which has offices in Alabama and umpty-millions of dollars stashed in offshore tax-haven accounts.

Who knows?  Maybe some of their money is in WellsFargo tax-haven offshore accounts, eh??

Di-Fi, the Bigot

Seems that Sen. Feinstein has a long history of anti-Catholicism.

But of course, we should not notice what she shares with Schumer and Durbin, her co-haters?

The Silliness of the US Bishops

The US Bishops have spoken on the topic of DACA.

Not only is their pronouncement silly (or stupid, if you prefer); it ignores the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

But don't they look nice on TV?

ADDED:  The silly remarks, however, do not justify this crapola from Bannon (who ought to know better):

..."The Catholic Church has been terrible about this," Bannon said. "The bishops have been terrible about this."

"You know why? Because unable to really—to come to grips with the problems in the Church, they need illegal aliens, they need illegal aliens to fill the churches," Bannon said. "It's obvious on the face of it … They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration."...

Yah, Steve, it worked with the Micks, right?   The Bishops 'filled the churches' with Irish who just wanted to eat something other than rotten potatoes....




Wednesday, September 06, 2017

The Usual Crap From RyConnell

These guys--Ryan and McConnell--are addicts.  They shoot up with OUR money, of course.

...on Wednesday morning, [they will] pass out of the House a so-called “clean” Harvey relief package. On Thursday, the Senate will add to that and tie it to the debt ceiling bill that would raise the debt ceiling by $2 trillion. That means the debt ceiling would be raised past the 2018 midterm elections with no reform whatsoever to spending or government. Then, the Senate would kick that back to the House for final approval before being sent to the president....

So relief for Houston becomes a Spend-A-Holic bill, too.

How About a Post on Sex??

There.  That should be click-bait.

This short essay quotes T S Eliot, then asks a question, then answers it, and tells us something that we all kinda-sorta knew without having formulated it.

Here's the (slightly-edited) end of the column--the part we all kinda-sorta knew:

...fatherless children don’t go to church.  In 1929, the American illegitimacy rate hovered around 3 percent. Today it is 40 percent overall.  Church attendance for adults who grew up in a household with a father who attended church every week is 72 percent; church attendance for adults who did not have a church-attending father is 2-4 percent.

...How many rioters grew up following their fathers into church every week?...

Now go back and read the sexy part.

Monday, September 04, 2017

Smith/Ricardo Economics: Not Too Correct

Vox Day posts a few grafs from Steve Keen, an Aussie economist, wherein the Smith/Ricardo theory of specialization/comparative advantage is dismantled.

Key to the argument is that Ricardo erred when he failed to account machinery as 'capital,' and used only money in that category.  Yah, well, machines are (generally) function-specific which means that they are (generally) industry-specific, and they are (generally) portable.

The archetypal machines for cloth and wine manufacturing in Ricardo’s time included the spinning jenny and the wine press. It is stating the obvious that one cannot be turned into the other, but stating the obvious is necessary, because the easy conversion of one into the other was assumed by Ricardo, and has been assumed ever since by mainstream economic theory.

In fact, the relative mobility which Ricardo assumed for his ubiquitous concept of “capital” is the opposite of what applies to machinery. Machinery designed for one industry simply cannot move to any other, even in the same country; but machinery in one industry can (and frequently is) shipped between countries.

Thus, as Vox concludes:

Free trade is not always and inherently inimical. The important point is that, contra Ricardo and his mindless adherents, it is not always and inherently beneficial either.

Trump was elected for a reason, people.

Recent History: Catholic Liturgical Music

This is a good 'historical context' essay about Catholic liturgical music--which is a shipwreck today.  Note well:  these excerpts skip some essay-content which is helpful; you should read the whole thing.  (By the way, the author inadvertently points to ONE of the reasons that the youth are flocking to the "Old Rite" Masses.)

...A century ago, Pope St. Pius X took on the reform of liturgical music in a big way. Late nineteenth-century liturgical music had largely pushed Gregorian chant aside, and the patrimony of the Roman Rite’s most distinctive musical form was in danger of fading away....The long-term project was to rediscover and reclaim the authentic root of chant, which had become covered in the overgrowth of centuries of adaptation and neglect. Thankfully, this pursuit was undertaken wholeheartedly by several key groups, and real progress was being made in allowing the Roman Rite to, once again, rely on its distinctive musical form in the twentieth-century liturgy.

However, this all-important step was really only tenuously connected to another all-important question related to liturgical music: How might the recovery of chant impact the existing state of congregational singing at Mass?...

Well, then:  the author makes a VERY important discovery:

...To my surprise, I’ve only recently come to learn that the Roman Rite has had a bit of an on again/off again relationship with the whole notion of liturgical singing done by anyone other than the clergy (remember, pre-Vatican II “clergy” included those in minor orders) or established choirs of the day. The people in the pews were not at all central to the notion of “liturgical” music, any more than they were at all central to providing the liturgical responses at Low Mass or High Mass (“Sung” or “Solemn”).

Yet the twentieth-century Magisterium did come down in favor of giving formation to the faithful such that they could at least minimally learn and participate in the chant that was being rediscovered. Granted, congregational singing of vernacular hymns was happening, but this was seen as distinct from the ceremonial-liturgical music that existed exclusively in Latin, not the vernacular....

...recited Low Masses were much more prevalent in the average parishes, meaning that congregations were really focused not on the distinctive music of the Roman Rite, but really on hymns in the vernacular, if they did any singing at Mass at all. The patrimony of “real” liturgical music—that is, chant and polyphony in Latin—still rested largely in the hands and voices of the clergy, choirs, and servers....

Yup.  Believe it or not, "hymn-singing" was more-or-less treated as one might treat a pet puppy.  Nice to have, but not necessary by any means.  But that was then, and this is now.

Then along came The Regulators (that is, Fr. Bugnini and his crowd) and The Publishers (there was a LOT of money in them-there-hills of parishes) and chaos emerged.

....the reform of the liturgy took a turn headlong in the direction of accessibility—despite the Council’s insistence, in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgythat “The use of Latin is to be preserved in the Latin rites” (36), and that Gregorian Chant “should be given pride of place in liturgical services” (116).

If any single thing could essentially derail the century-long project of reclaiming the Roman Rite’s chant and finally getting it into the pews, the unrestrained plunge into the vernacular could, and did, in my view. It’s pretty simple. If priest and assembly are no longer bound by a requirement to learn and use Latin in liturgy, and if liberation from Latin takes the shape of a tsunami throughout the Church, from priest to pewsitter, access to the patrimony of Latin-text music—both chant and polyphony—becomes utterly short-circuited.

Furthermore, that huge, whooshing, sucking sound we all heard by the mid-1960s was the immense vacuum created by the absence of any music in the vernacular that could really fill the void created by severing the connection to both the Church’s universal language and its universal music. It was also, in my view, the death rattle for the ambitious decades-long effort to restore and reconnect not only clergy and choirs but congregations to Gregorian chant....

Indeed.  

...Thus, the Church in the US was treated to the musical “M*A*S*H” unit that was first to arrive on the scene, offering not “meatball surgery” but offering “meatball liturgy.” And it wasn’t very life-saving—at all...

That was when Rembert Weakland's US Bishops' rump-committee on music authorized "meatball music" for the US Church.  Surprise!

Upshot?

...Mass is not supposed to make me musically comfortable—it’s supposed to make me more holy....

The youts' know that, too, which tells you why they are voting with their feets.

The Usual Suspects, Named

Well, now.  Some people are siding with North Korea.  They are right here in the USA, too, and join with another Communist outfit, the Workers' World Party.

This bunch, "Refuse Fascism," honors its "initiators."  Some of the names are very familiar, indeed.

Herb Boyd, activist, author, journalist and teacher
Isabel Cardenas,  Salvadoran-American activist, Los Angeles
Carl Dix, founding member, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Charles Gaines, visual artist
Henry Giroux
Chase Iron Eyes
Everett Iron Eyes Sr.,
Water Administrator, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
Robin D. G. Kelley,
Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA*
Fran Luck,
Executive Producer of Joy of Resistance, Multicultural Feminist Radio at WBAI
PZ Myers,
evolutionary developmental biologist
Arturo O’Farrill, composer and musician
Milton Saier, PhD, Professor of Molecular Biology, UCSD*
Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five
Ted Sirota, jazz musician
Bob Stein, Institute for the Future of the Book
Sunsara Taylor,
writer, Revolution Newspaper
Cornel West,
writer, professor
Michael A. Wood Jr
Frank Wulf,
United Methodist minister
Andy Zee,
spokesperson, Revolution Books
David Zeiger, filmmaker

The money for this cast of jackasses is provided partially by George Soros--but you knew that already, no?  HT:  Daily Caller
By the way, I can think of a few Milwaukee-area folks who may well belong to this group but are not listed above.

Why J.J. Watt??

Da Nooz tells us that J.J. Watt's Houston-relief fund is now at $180 million (and counting.)

That's absolutely GREAT!!  Pewaukee boy/NFL star, winning, American way, and all that. 

Now step back and ponder that for a moment.

The Country Class just sent $180++ MILLION to a nice young man who promises to use it responsibly to assist victims of a hurricane.  This is money that is not even tax-deductible (so far.)

It is also money which did NOT go to the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, United Funds, Lutheran Relief, or any of the other long-existing, entrenched, and--dare we say it--"Establishment" charities.

Hmmmm.

Fixing DACA, Bull-Rushing Ryan: America First

Sen. Tom Cotton has an interesting idea.

..."We ought to take care of them," Cotton said in a telephone conversation Sunday, noting that DACA recipients arrived in this country illegally "through no fault of their own."

"In any legislative fix, I would like to see them receive a green card," Cotton said. At the same time, he continued, "We ought to recognize that giving them legal status has two problems. First, it creates a whole new class of people who will then be eligible for a green card and citizenship -- namely, the extended family members of those who will receive legal status who can, through chain migration, get legal status themselves."

"Second," Cotton said, "it will encourage more illegal immigration."...

Solution?  Yup.  Cotton has that, too.

...The first problem can be fixed by passing the RAISE Act, Cotton said -- the bill Cotton has sponsored with fellow GOP Sen. David Perdue that would strictly limit chain migration as well as re-balance current immigration policy in favor of skilled immigrants.

The second problem could be addressed by extending E-verify across the country, which Cotton called "the best way to reduce more illegal immigration."...

Paul Ryan is--among other things--a rabid "open borders" guy.  In order for Cotton's legislation to prevail, Ryan must be told that he should STFU and sit down.  In fact, the halcyon days of the Left-ish Pubbie closed out at the end of the Bush II Administration.

Now it's back to America First.

Chief Justice Roberts' Acolyte in Texas

Well,  now.  Since Roberts' "tax=fee=tax" bullshit in the ObozoCare decision, we note that Roberts has an acolyte; another blackrobe who reads the law any which way he wants!

IOW, that disease is spreading throughout the judiciary.

...Garcia illogically (or intentionally) misreads this statute to hold that local and state officials cannot assist or cooperate with federal immigration authorities in enforcement activities unless they meet all of the “exacting requirements” of the 287(g) program and its authorizing federal statute.

He does this despite the plain language of the statute that specifically states that this provision shall not “be construed to require an agreement” in order for state or local officials to “communicate with the attorney general regarding the immigration status of any individual, including reporting knowledge that a particular alien is not lawfully present in the United States; or (B) otherwise to cooperate with the Attorney General in the identification, apprehension, detention, or removal of aliens not lawfully present in the U.S.”...

The "rule of law" is being demolished by the judiciary itself; meantime, the judiciary demands that the Country Class worship at its blackrobed feet.

That won't go well.

Saturday, September 02, 2017

Laugher of The Week: NYT's "Economists"

Even the NYSlimes has heard about the situation in Venezuela.

The country is run by a Communist, who succeeded another Communist, and at this point in time things are--predictably--getting desperate.  No food, no propane gas, and Weimar-style inflation caused by a typical Commie move:  print more money.

So.  Midst all that, what does the NYSlimes have to say?

...Many economists trace the inflation to problems at the state oil company....

OK, then.  That settles it.

The "Most Honorable" Comey? How About Spineless?

McCarthy clarifies for us.

Comey did, indeed, write a memo declaring that he would not prosecute Hillary for her crimes relating to national security and her toilet-room server.

Now we learn that Comey wrote it at the direction of Obama--who MAY be only the second-best crook to ever occupy the White House.

So we learned something.  Comey is not an "honorable, righteous" guy.  He is a spineless snake who should have resigned rather than--on his own authority--acquitted Clinton.

UPDATE:  The Left-O-Wackies now (9/4) claim that the spineless snake wrote the memo because Feebs always write memos in advance.  More efficient, yada.  Oh?  Then where's the memo stating the reasons FOR indictment?  Hmmmm?

A Bit of Relief! Posner Quits

Easily the smartest judge in the USA, just ask him.

Good riddance to a turkey in black robes.