Political Pistachio

Monday, December 29, 2014

'Fed Has No Possibility Of Withdrawing Stimulus'

by JASmius

With oil prices having plunged to five-year lows, the energy industry is headed for bust, but that's not our biggest worry, says Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital.

"Much greater and more fragile bubbles likely exist in the stock, bond and real estate markets, which have also been inflated by the easiest monetary policy in history," he writes in a commentary on his firm's website.

"The Fed lacks the firepower to fight a new recession that a bursting of any of these bubbles could create," Schiff says.

"Since interest rates are already at zero, it has no ability to aggressively cut rates now in the face of a weakening economy. All it can do is go back to the well of quantitative easing, which is exactly what I think they will do."

Indeed, it dares not do anything else. Allowing the market to set interest rates would cause the latter to skyrocket, which would explode government deficits at all levels, wipe out heavily leveraged companies of all sizes as well as a large swath of the American consuming public, and otherwise create the economic equivalent of the nuclear nightmare scene in Terminator II:

Also remember that currency debasement is the only thing creating the fiction of that "economic recovery" we've been hearing about for the past five years, which never quite seems to ever materialize, just as it also has fueled these multiple economic "bubbles". And therein lies the irony: The U.S. economy has, in reality, never recovered at all, and the bursting of any or all of the bubbles that "quantitative easing" has inflated will make the Obama depression even worse, beyond any capability of the Fed or any "stimulus" program to conceal.

On the bright side, terminal deflation is a stout barrier against runaway hyperinflation - which will ensue the moment the U.S. economy ever actually starts to recover. But that will be President Walker's problem, won't it? Assuming, of course, that there ever is one.

Exit suggestion: Maybe we should start bombarding the White House with t-shirts sporting the phrase, "U.S. Economy To Obama: 'I can't breathe'". Heck, I'd buy one, and I don't have an income.

The Pro-Police Counter-Insurrection

by JASmius

Newton's Third Law - "For every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction" - may not apply exactly or proportionately to "populist" political fracases, but it's encouraging to see that even after six years of Obamunist rule, it does still apply:

As thousands of law enforcement officers and civilians alike gathered Saturday to pay their final respects to one of two New York officers gunned down as they sat in their patrol car, scores of people joined in solidarity at pro-police rallies across the country.

The rallies were planned to show support for police in the wake of several high-profile police shootings of unarmed civilians, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York, and the December 20th killings of New York officers Rafael Ramos and Wejian Liu.

Ramos' funeral coincided with the planned rallies, many of which were started through social media using the Twitter hashtag #BlueLivesMatter. Funeral services were also held Saturday for a police officer killed in the line of duty December 21st in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Similar events were held or planned in cities such as Atlantic City, Houston and Cleveland on Saturday.

Perhaps a wave of pro-law enforcement counter-rallies isn't so surprising. The Left is entirely composed of professional agitators of one sort or another; protesting and "movements" and "activism" are tactics that they consider to be their exclusive bailiwick. The Right, by stark contrast, is typically too busy actually working, earning a living, making the country run, raising families, and, you know, having normal lives, to pour out into the streets en masse with signs and placards and weird costumes and bellowing chants and slogans at the top of our lungs. At least outside of sporting events. It takes a great deal of provocation to get us off of our collective schnied to "stand united and kick butt" - or, at the very least, fight back.

But as I've written and said recently, the Ferguson-inspired racist insurrection has reached such a level of outrageously extortionistic gimmie-gimmie-ism, with widespread, murderous, racist violence against the men and women in blue to match, that it, too, has now motivated actual Americans to, in the modified phrase of William F. Buckley, "stand astride the road to [chaos] with hand extended, shouting, 'STOP!'". And, I think, for the same common-thread reason as on so many other issues across the spectrum: Barack Obama has fundamentally transformed this country, just as he said he would, at least to the extent that many of us don't even recognize what it's become, only that it is not remotely the same country in which we grew up and from which we inherited it from our parents and grandparents' generations. We're losing that country - most likely, already have lost it - and we are belatedly pulling together in a last-ditch hope and prayer that it hasn't been lost irretrievably.

In the mean time, this gentleman sets a most thought-provoking example:

After walking with 100 people several blocks to the Des Moines Police Station on Saturday, Bruce Heilman did something he’s never done in his sixty-five years: He thanked a police officer.

“I’m ashamed of myself for never having said ‘thank you’ to a cop,” Heilman said. “So a long overdue — thank you.”

Indeed. We make a concerted effort to thank soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines at every opportunity; should our guarantors of domestic tranquility be considered worth any less?

Obama's Maginot Line Of Stonewalls

by JASmius

Most transparent administration ever:

Earlier this year, forty-seven inspectors general — the officials charged with fighting corruption, waste, and wrongdoing in federal agencies — sent a letter to Issa’s [House Government Reform & Oversight C]ommittee complaining that organizations ranging from the EPA to the Justice Department were impeding their investigations by withholding information — despite the fact that federal law specifically forbids withholding that information. These are not a bunch of Republican operatives trying to score a few political points: Those forty-seven inspectors general comprise more than half of all such officials, and many who signed the letter were appointed by President Barack Obama. Their complaint is that the federal agencies treat them more or less like they do . . . members of Congress: thwarting them, withholding documents, obstructing investigations.

Michael Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department, came to the Oversight Committee practically begging them for a means by which the DOJ – the federal law-enforcement department — might be forced to follow the laws that it is supposed to be enforcing. “It is very clear to me,” he testified, “just as it is to the Inspectors General community, that the Inspector General Act of 1978 entitles inspectors general to access all documents and records within the agency’s possession. Each of us firmly believes that Congress meant what it said in Section 6(a) of the IG Act: that Inspectors General must be given complete, timely, and unfiltered access to agency records.” But under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, the DOJ did no such thing. Horowitz notes that the DOJ specifically tried to withhold information related to the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious. [emphases added]

Not a newflash of any kind for anybody who's been paying attention for the past six years. But it does help illustrate the scale of the imperiousness of the Obama Tyranny, and how obvious is their royalist belief that they are not just above the law, but are demidivinely ordained and entitled to be so.

Could any white Democrat president get away with such blanket, wall-to-wall obstruction of justice? Possibly; one need look no further than Bill Clinton's two-term reign of corrupt debauchery for such an example. But it must be remembered that Bill Clinton was arguably the greatest political performer and propagandist in American history. Could Jimmy Carter or Lyndon Johnson or Harry Truman or FDR have gotten away scot-free with the sheer multitude of scandals that Sick Willie did? It's hard to see it. And it should also be remembered that even Mr. Bill became only the second POTUS ever to be impeached, for the negligible impact it had on his "legacy".

Barack Obama, by contrast, is a mediocre political actor at best. As I've often observed, if The One had been white, he'd have been the Democrats' answer to Dan Quayle. But he's not white; he's "The First Black President," and he's also as ruthless a ruler as any country has ever seen outside the Iron Curtain. That toxic brew of entitlement mentality, authoritarianism, and clinical narcissism makes this unprecedented, almost inconceivable level of opacity a veritable inevitability.

In a nutshell: Anybody who's surprised by this story, stand on your head.

It's also why he need never worry about ever being impeached, and indeed, why he creates every appearance of trying to goad congressional Republicans into impeaching him: Doing so would be a PR disaster for the GOP and a boon for the White House and the Democrat Party and rallying cry for the far Left because it would be seized upon by the Obamedia as "proof" of the "racism" of all Republicans, conservatives, constitutionalists, Tea Partiers - even the GOP "establishment". All the more so if they had the Senate votes to actually remove him from office, which they don't, but even making the attempt would unleash the mother of all racial bleepstorms. And especially now, with the Ferguson-inspired race war raging across the country.

Race, in so many words, trumps the rule of law, along with every other Obama-dictated public policy and group-identity priority.

Is there any way to answer the four dozen IG's plaintive cry? Congress has two primary constitutional means at its disposal: impeachment, which we've already established that they'll never pursue, and hardball defunding to try and force the Regime's hand on its serial stonewalling. But as House 'Pubbies have already shown themselves to be too squeamish to even defund Red Barry's unlawful amnesty decree, the chances of even this appear to be vanishingly minimal.

And, thus, what incentive does King Hussein have to belatedly start cooperating with any of these dozens of investigations? Think of it this way: If you were O, would you give these IGs the time of day?

Kind of pyrrhically underscores the need for voter vigilance, doesn't it?

2016 GOP Presidential Frontrunner Is....Jeb Bush?

by JASmius

No, ladies and gentlemen, he's not. Nor will he ever be.

But CNN sure wants to demoralize the GOP grassroots into believing he is:

Jeb Bush is the clear Republican presidential frontrunner, surging to the front of the potential GOP pack following his announcement that he’s “actively exploring” a bid, a new CNN/ORC poll found.

He takes nearly one-quarter — 23% — of Republicans surveyed in the new nationwide poll, putting him 10 points ahead of his closest competitor, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who tallied 13%.

Physician Ben Carson comes in third, with 7% support, and Senator Rand Paul and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee are both tied for fourth with 6%.

That marks a drop in support for all but Christie and Bush from the last CNN/ORC survey of the field, conducted in November. That poll showed Bush in the lead, but only taking 14% of the vote, while Carson came in second with 11% and Christie tied Representative Paul Ryan for fourth with 9% support.

Let me start by saying that this is not so much a post about this poll as it is a post about why I do not typically post about polling. The reason is simple: The one and only time that political polling is ever remotely relevant is in the week before an election. Period. The rest of the time it's entirely masturbatory. It's Obamedia "rain-making". It's manufacturing "news" that is really nothing of the sort. It's "pot-stirring" - especially in the cast of designating the second Bush brother, and self-proclaimed "anti-conservative," as the presumptive 2016 Republican presidential nominee. CNN would have saved a lot of time and money by just publishing a pic of a big, fat extended middle finger under the headline, "[BLEEP] You, Teabaggers, Enjoy Your Third Bush!"

And never is political polling more irrelevant and meaningless than right after an election. Why is thiat? Because the next cycle hasn't even begun yet. At this point there isn't a 2016 GOP field. No candidate has declared. Even the former Florida governor has only declared his intention to explore the possibility of running, not an actual candidacy. I still think that Jeb is throwing out these teases because his book sales are underachieving and he needs to keep his name buzzing.

His surname brings me to my next point: The one and only factor that could possibly account for Jeb Bush topping 2016 GOP presidential polling two years out from that election (if it ever takes place) is name recognition. It's the same factor in Mitt Romney being the other name bobbing on top of these hyperventilating hypotheses. We political junkies consistently forget how little those who don't share our particular hobby pay attention to politics or the political figures therein. Believe it or not, most Americans have never heard of Chris Christie or Ben Carson or Rand Paul or Mike Huckabee or Paul Ryan or Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or the man who actually will be the 2016 Republican nominee, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Hell, most Americans can't name their own congressman, two senators, or even who the vice president is. Some can't even answer the question of from which country America won its independence, and in what century it did so. Or, tweak a Lazarus Long aphorism, "Never underestimate the ignorance of the American voter".

But most Americans are familiar with the name Bush, it being the surname of two of the past three POTUS's before the current despot. It's gotten so dynastically bad that future GOP presidential aspirants would be well-advised to have their last names legally changed to Bush just to take advantage of it. My God, Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Charlie Furbush could probably run and collect at least a few hundred delegates. To call the American presidency the Bush "family business" would be a garish understatement.

And that is precisely why Jeb Bush is not and will never be the 2016 Republican nominee, or even a "front-runner". Because name-recognition is only what gets you in the door. This is why there is a nominating process and primary elections and caucuses state by state and endless, interminable, stage-clogging debates. That, and there is about as much appetite for a third Bush presidency amongst the GOP base as there is ambition on Bill Clinton's part to join a monastery. Which is precisely why the Obamedia is getting as early a leg up as possible in generating the sort of "inevitability" meme that will foist him on us anyway to pave the way for another rancorous Republican Party split, millions of conservative voters staying home (again) and creating the opening for Elizabeth Warren to run for electoral daylight.

Which I have to admit, just as a warning to all my Tea Party friends, is entirely possible if TPers don't smarten up, stop declaring any semi-public conservative who gives a speech with which they agree "presidential timbre," stop fragmenting amongst multiple candidates and, well, creating the opening for the designated RINO to run for nomination daylight, learn how politics works and the kind of resume that actually wins national elections, and otherwise do what it actually takes to win.

In short, Republicans' infamous nickname "Stupid Party" isn't limited to the party "establishment". And any incarnation of the GOP that would sign off on, or even allow, a Bush trilogy would be stupid indeed.

Man In Trenchcoat Wounds Five In Washington, DC Restaurant

by JASmius

....and he didn't even use a gun:

At least two of the victims were seriously injured, but all are expected to survive the attack, which took place about 12:30 a.m. inside McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon at 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, said Officer Hugh Carew, a D.C. police spokesman.

Police issued a lookout for a black man of medium height, wearing a trench coat, plaid shirt and black or blue jeans.

The assailant eluded a police search and was last seen heading east on Pennsylvania Avenue, GWU police said in a campus safety alert issued about 2:30 a.m.

McFadden’s, a popular nightspot whose Web site calls it “DC’s Best Party Bar,” was closed during its regular lunch and dinner hours Saturday. As night fell, the only commotion came from a local television news crew.

Is the fact that the attacker was a black man relevant? That would seem to depend upon the particular "ethnic persuasions" of his five victims, and whether any of them were off-duty and/or plainclothes police officers, neither of which the WaPo report discloses. Further bulletins on that as they become available.

Which leaves us with the weapon angle. If this same assailant had burst into McFadden's with an Uzi and started firing away, Dianne Feinstein would have twanged another hamstring flying to the nearest camera and microphone to renew her incessant demands for a blanket gun control crackdown. Instead, this guy used a dagger. Does that diminish his violent, murderous attack? Should it not, by the same liberal "logic," make "knife control" a co-equal leftwingnut cause? And will "baseball bat control" and "lead pipe control" and "fist control" and "foot in your ass control" not deservedly be next in line? Or is this Jason-esque multiple slashing simply not as politically useful - yet?

Because one thing we can know for sure is that libs will never, under any circumstances, attribute evil to people over inanimate objects for anything other than cynical, dishonest, tribalistic, partisan political purposes.

Exit question: Since the d'k tagh-wielding attacker got away, when and where will he strike next? And if he is lashing out like this in self-styled revenge for Mike Brown and Eric Garner and Donte Hamilton, how long can the WaPo embargo that explosive story detail?

Democrat Party: True Home of Racism

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Historically, the Democrat Party has been the party of racism. The KKK was created to serve as the militant arm of the Democrat Party to prevent blacks, and white republicans, from voting or running for office in the South. President Woodrow Wilson segregated the military, and the democrats filibustered against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The tale the liberal left will tell you is that the Dixiecrats were those racists in the Democrat Party, and when they fled to the Republican Party around the time of the Civil Rights Movement, the racist element of the Democrat Party thereafter belonged to the GOP. The Democrat Party, Democrats claim, shed their racist history at that point, and the racists of the South had found a new home in the Republican Party. However, that is not entirely the truth. First, the sojourn of Southern Democrats to the Republican Party was only a few people, like Strom Thurmond, that did not flee the Democrat Party over racial issues, but States' Rights. Over time, southern politicians, irregardless of the racial component in politics the Democrats claim served as motivation, moved over to the GOP because the Republican Party stands for the constitutional principles of limited government more than the Democrat Party. Eventually, due to the States' Rights component of politics, the South became solid Republican by the time of the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

Liberal Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson launched The Great Society, voicing the opinion that the increase in government welfare programs would buy the votes of the minority. He was recorded saying, "I'll have those ni**ers voting Democratic for the next 200 years."

Let's examine a few of the issues we face today to fully determine where the true racism lies.

Abortion: Legalized abortion is largely supported by the Democrat Party, and is rejected by the Republican Party. Abortion owes much of its business to Planned Parenthood, an organization created by Margaret Sanger, a progressive democrat that believed in eugenics, and using abortion to eliminate what she considered to be unwanted races, such as blacks. Today, abortions occur in the black population more than in any other group. In New York City, more black babies are aborted than born. "Blacks comprise only 13% of the population of America but account for 37% of all abortions. Black women are five times more likely to abort than white women. . . Planned Parenthood, the largest seller of abortions in the United States, has located 80% of its abortion clinics in minority neighborhoods, disproportionally targeting minorities for abortion." (Operation Rescue)

Affirmative action has become the touchstone of Democratic racial politics. Democrats portray anyone who opposes affirmative action as racist. But affirmative action, as currently practiced, is racist to the core. It is based on the assumption that African-Americans are incapable of competing with whites. It represents the kind of paternalistic racism that would have done honor to Calhoun (who argued that slavery was good for blacks). For the modern liberal Democratic racist as for the old-fashioned one, blacks are simply incapable of freedom. They will always need Ol’ Massa’s help. And woe be to any African-American who wanders off of the Democratic plantation. Ask Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, or Ward Connerly. Although they echo the call for a "color-blind society" that once characterized the vision of Martin Luther King Jr., they are pilloried as "Uncle Toms" or "Oreos" by such enforcers of the Democratic plantation system as Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. (Democrat Party's Legacy of Racism)

Education: By rejecting school choice through programs like "vouchers," the Democrat Party has continuously supported keeping minorities in failed, substandard schools. In America's public high schools, 45% of black students and 43% of Hispanics (as compared to 22% of whites) drop out before their classes graduate. Dropout rates are especially high in urban areas with large minority populations. Of those black and Hispanic students who do manage to earn a diploma, a large percentage are functionally illiterate. Black high-school graduates perform, on average, at a level that is four academic years below that of their white counterparts. These failed, inner-city schools are run entirely by Democrats and progressives who, as author Jonah Goldberg points out, have “controlled the large inner-city school systems for generations.” Indeed, the powerful teachers unions overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party and its left-wing agendas; the bureaucrats at the Department of Education overwhelmingly hold progressive political and social views; and the ideological orientation of America's teacher-training colleges is decidedly leftist. All of these factors have combined to create the proverbial train wreck that is public education in the United States today. Democrats claim the problem is a lack of funding, but American taxpayers already spend some $600 billion per year on public elementary and secondary schools, with average per-pupil expenditures nationwide currently at an all-time high of $10,905—the latter figure representing a nearly fourfold increase (in constant present-day dollars) since 1961. Further, the federal government in recent decades has poured hundreds of billions of extra dollars into Title I schools targeting mostly poor minority children, with no positive results to show for those financial outlays. (DiscoverTheNetworks)

Employment: Democrat policies kill small business, favor larger corporations, and discourage job growth through heavy regulations and taxation targeted against the producers of society. As a result, a look at jobs data shows that the plight of American minorities under the gentle guidance Democrat party, is not favorable. Total numbers of employment aged African-Americans in the workforce, slid from 58.6 percent in June 2007, to 52.8 percent by August 2012. Fewer than 50 percent of young African-American males have full-time employment, today. (GuardianLV)

Politics: While the Democrat Party hails the fact that the first black President in American history, Barack Obama, belongs to their party, in reality, the Democrats have proven to be the party of the old white guy. Republican Tim Scott, in the 2014 midterm elections, became the first black Senator elected in the South, and is currently the only black Senator in the Senate. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are two Hispanic Republicans in the U.S. Senate, as well. The Republicans currently have within their ranks Nevada's Hispanic governor, Brian Sandoval, and New Mexico's Hispanic Governor Susana Martinez. The Democrats have no Hispanic governors in office. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal are both of Indian heritage, and they, too, are Republicans. As for any Democrat Governors with an Indian background? You guessed it, there are none. (CNN) The reason for bringing up these examples of minorities in the GOP is not to say that it is a competition on who has more minorities, but to simply reveal that the argument that the Republican Party is the party of old white guys is simply untrue. In fact, it is the Democrats that tend to point out racial differences, and panders to racial groups. The Republican Party has simply indicated that they refuse to pander to groups, because they are the Party of Americans, and the above examples of minorities in the party reveal that there are those that are considered members of minority groups that have recognized such. Identity politics does not address the issues as well as addressing the issues from a point of view that these issues affect all Americans, regardless of any membership to any group.

In revealing the racist nature of the Democrat Party we could continue to explore the facts even further, but I fear this article would only become so long that it would be overwhelming. We could talk about Senator Byrd, the Democrat that was proudly a member of the KKK and led his local Klan chapter, or comments by Bill Clinton or Harry Reid, or plenty of other Democrats, that dripped of racism. The policies of the Democrat Party have created racial division, such as we've seen in the riots of Ferguson, Missouri. Yet, the gullible public has believed their claims that the GOP is the Party of Racism, when in reality that kind of propaganda is not based in truth, but is in fact simply projection by a political party with a long history of racism, and one that, through its policies, continues to foster racism. The reality is, the Democrat Party is the true home of racism.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Did Red China Know About Sony Hack?

by JASmius

The Interview (available for free on YouTube, BTW) seems pretty clearly to lack much of a plot - especially when compared to the NoKo hack that tried to bully Sony Pictures into pulling it. Or, at the very least, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suspects it:

Senator Lindsey Graham said Sunday that he can't imagine North Korean hackers hit Sony Pictures' computers without China knowing at least something about it.

"I can't imagine anything this massive happening in North Korea without China being involved or at least knowing about it,"the South Carolina Republican told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."

It does seem difficult to believe, doesn't it? I think even the hawkiest of us on the Right lose sight of just how valuable an asset to the ChiComms North Korea is. It may be the most classic example of a geopolitical "good cop/bad cop" act the world has ever seen. Beijing gets to pose as a legitimate, "responsible," reasonable member in good standing of the "international community" (even while arming to the teeth to eventually conquer it) while using the Kim regime for all the overtly commie-pinko saber-rattling and warmongering - and now cyberterrorism - in which they used to engage but on which they now no longer want their propaganda fingerprints.

Does this mean that it was really Xi Jinping who approved the Sony hack and not Kim Jong-Un? Not necessarily. Does this mean they had the NoKo's do it for them with the ample camouflage of taking down a movie that overtly targeted the cornfed dictator for public ridicule? Quite possibly. Why? To demonstrate how vulnerable we are to cyberattack pretty much across the board - definitely an expressed concern of Senator Graham, along with Barack Obama's trademark weak-assed response to it:

And while Graham gave President Barack Obama some praise for how he's handled North Korea and its cyber attack on Sony Pictures over its controversial comedy "The Interview," he said the president could still go further when it comes to making North Korea "feel the pain that is due."

He told Bash that Obama should return North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terror, and called for added sanctions against leader Kim Jong Un's regime.

Graham also criticized Obama for labeling the attacks on Sony's systems as "cybervandalism" during a CNN interview last week, and not as cyberterrorism.

"What's happened here it shows how exposed we are in America to cyberattack," Graham said Sunday. "If North Korea can do this to a major corporation in America, what can other people do to our country?"

Here we see another advantage to the ChiComms of having North Korea as their catspaw: There really isn't any practical conventional military response that can be mustered against them for any provocation because of the "hermit kingdom's" geographic location, its conventional military superiority over South Korea holding the latter virtual hostage, and its contiguousness with Red China itself. And since North Korea, like Red China, is a nuclear power, the only other military means - tactical nuclear strikes - are even more impractical.

This is why the NoKos can do anything they want - or, rather, anything their superiors in Beijing will sanction. Returning Pyongyang to the state sponsors of terror list (figures that O took them off of it) and renewed sanctions are purely symbolic measures that will have no impact on the NoKos (and his infernal majesty will never take those steps anyway), but they are all we can really do if we don't want to bring about another global war several years prematurely.

Which is at least a little ironic, given the statement the Kim regime released over the weekend:

"Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest"? Wow, nothing bigoted about that, is there? Or is flagrant racism only considered the unforgivable sin if it comes from a white conservative (whether or not it actually does), but commie "gooks" get a free pass?

I guess we'll have to wait for The Interview II to find out.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Interview breaks Sony Online Movie record, still falls short of being profitable

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The film cost Sony $44 million to make, and the studio hoped to make back nearly half of that in the movie's Christmas Weekend opening. With the hacking of their computers, and the warnings by North Korea regarding the release of the film, the controversy associated with the film, after it had originally been stalled regarding its release, forced a limited release in independent theaters. The limited theatrical run has only brought the film $2.8 million in revenue, far short of the originally anticipated returns. The online release, through a $5.99 video on demand offering, generated more than $15 million during the first four days of the release. The figure, though a record breaking online release, still fell way short of original hopes regarding the film's release.

The shortfall has been largely due to the limited release in only a little more than 300 theaters nationwide, and the less-than-enthusiastic reception by critics.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

'The Interview' Becomes Sony's No. 1 Online Movie Of All Time - Huffington Post

Critics Dislike "The Interview" - Political Pistachio

Shark Attack off Central California Coast

By Douglas V. Gibbs

A juvenile great white shark bit a surfer, leaving the man with minor injuries, but still able to paddle himself to shore, at Sand Spit beach in the Montana De Oro State Park west of San Luis Obispo.

The surfer was on of several in the water. Witnesses claim the shark was being between 8 and 10 feet long.

The shark bit the man on his right hip, and he was flown to a local hospital for treatment.

Sings have been posted warning beach-goers of shark activity.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Juvenile Shark Bites Middle-Aged Surger's Hip in Central California - NBC Los Angeles

NFL Week 17 Predictions

by JASmius

LAST WEEK STRAIGHT UP: 11-5
LAST WEEK vs. SPREAD: 8-8

SEASON STRAIGHT UP: 157-82-1
SEASON vs. SPREAD: 121-119

Analysis? Who needs analysis? Just revel in Beastquake II to learn all you need to know about where the 2014 season is headed:

I will give you my predicted playoff seedings after today's final regular season games:

AFC

1) New England
2) Denver

~~~~~~~~~~~~

3) Pittsburgh
4) Indianapolis
5) Cincinnati
6) Baltimore

The only two teams in this conference that are actual Super Bowl contenders are the Patriots and the Broncos, and they will play for the AFC title at the Big Razor in three weeks. Period, exclamation point.

NFC

1) Seattle
2) Green Bay

~~~~~~~~~~

3) Dallas
4) Atlanta
5) Arizona
6) Detroit

It may surprise you to see me admit this, but I think the Cowboys and Lions can hang with the Champs. Dallas because they came up here and beat Seattle back in Week 6 on the strength of DeMarco Murray's 159 rushing yards and Tony Romo's passing that has been borne out since as being a near-career year for him (It's amazing what having a great running back does for a quarterback's QBR), and Detroit because they have the #2 ranked defense in the NFL.

Note I didn't say that the Cowboys and Lions can beat the Champs. The Legion of Boom (entire defense) is back to the killer Super Bowl level of last year, and would not get gashed, sliced, and diced like it did by the 'pokes eleven weeks ago. And the Dallas defense - a stoutly mediocre 16th in the league - would get worn down by Beast Mode and Russell Wilson's arm and legs. And as for Detroit, quarterback Matthew Stafford's inconsistency and poor decision-making of late would be a smorgasbord of turnovers for the 'hawks that would give them one short field after another to negate that powerful Lions D.

As for the only other NFC team you might consider elite - the Packers - they're the NFC version of last year's Denver Broncos: a great offense with a future Hall of Fame quarterback, and a soft defense that resides in the bottom third of the league. And the Champs blasted them by three touchdowns on opening night.

The interesting thing about the seeding, though, is that we up here in the Pacific Northwest probably won't see either the Cowboys or the Lions, who will likely play each other in the first round at JerryWorld, where Dallas would, by my current numbers, be an 11-point favorite. That would take the Cowboys the following week to...."the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" for an intriguing clash with Green Bay that would have the Pack narrowly favored. Only by pulling off the upset in Cheeseland would Jerry's Boys limp back to the Clink to face a rematch with a Seahawk team that had been luxuriating on home cooking for a month, having enjoyed a first round bye and then easily dispatched either Atlanta or Arizona (for the third time) in the divisional round. In Jerryspeak, Seattle would "give 'em the business" by at least a touchdown and retain the George Halas trophy.

Alternatively, Matt Stafford could suck it up and lead the Lions into Dallas and win, which would send them Clink-ward for the divisional round and gift the Packers the Cardinals-Falcons winner.

But does it really matter? With that 35-6 beat-down of the Cardinals in the building where Super Bowl XLIX will be played, what the other playoff contenders absolutely didn't want to see became a near-certainty: the NFC road to the Toaster on February 1st will go, once again, through Century Link Field.

And you know what THAT means.

[Straight up picks indicated by asterisk (*); picks against the spread in parentheses (x).]

Buffalo
New England* (-10)

Carolina
Atlanta* (-3.5)

Chicago
Minnesota* (-7)

Cincinnati
Pittsburgh* (-3)

Cleveland
Baltimore* (-8.5)

Dallas* (-6.5)
Washington

Detroit
Green Bay* (-7.5)

Indianapolis* (-6.5)
Tennessee

Jacksonville
Houston* (-10)

New Orleans
Tampa* (+3.5)

N.Y. Jets
Miami* (-5.5)

Oakland
Denver* (-14.5)

Philadelphia
N.Y. Giants* (-2.5)

Arizona* (+5.5)
San Francisco

St. Louis
Seattle* (-12.5)

San Diego
Kansas City* (-2.5)

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise Defy Scientology

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The news that has the entertainment industry buzzing is that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes spent Christmas together. It's not big news because they used to be a couple and split back in 2012, or that people wonder if they are back together. The story is, "How will Scientology respond?" The Church of Scientology played a role in their divorce, and has been a factor in Cruise keeping himself away from their daughter. . . to protect her from the cultish religion.

When I worked for a city near a Scientology compound, we were told that nobody dared to get lost around the facility, especially after dark, and that the property was more heavily armed than Waco. The religion can sometimes seem as tyrannical as Islam, and nearly as vicious against those that dare to renounce the faith. When Katie left, Cruise had to cut ties to her. She had become an infidel, even though she was jazzed about Scientology when Tom and Katie first got together.

Last Christmas, they spent the holiday together, and instead of the usual scuttlebutt we see in these situations regarding Hollywood power couples with the possibility of a rekindled relationship, the questions were all about how the Church of Scientology would react. Would the rendezvous get Cruise into trouble with the church?

Any centralized system with a strong controlling mechanism in the hands of men always has the potential of being dangerous, and that includes religions. The power structure in Scientology, and the controlling nature of the faith founded on principles established by L. Ron Hubbard, makes it dangerously tyrannical, and the control the religion has over its members has become publicly well known.

Katie Holmes would be best advised to remain clear, unless Tom Cruise himself decided to finally figure out a way to cut ties with the cult. She left the church, and returned to her childhood faith of Catholicism, and that makes her worse than an outsider to Scientology. That makes her a deserter, an enemy, an infidel.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Katie Holmes Spends Christmas with Tom Cruise; Will Scientology Respond? - WebProNews

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Indonesian Flight Vanishes

By Douglas V. Gibbs

So far there is no information about what happened to AirAsia Flight 8501. The flight lost contact with air traffic control in Indonesia, and hasn't been heard from since..

The Airbus A320-200 was flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, departing Surabaya Juanda International Airport at early Sunday morning, and was due to arrive in Singapore three hours later.

Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population on Earth.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

AirAsia plane loses contact with traffic control - CNN

Constitution Radio: We Will Not Comply

Constitution Radio with Douglas V. Gibbs welcomes Gavin Seim. Join Doug, Alex Ferguson and JASmius for this incredible episode. . . Saturday, 2:00 pm Pacific, KCAA 1050AM, www.KCAAradio.com, Call to Listen 832-999-1050.

Call to join the conversation: 888-909-1050

“This isn’t just a protest. We are here to openly violate the law.”
At the end of each Constitution Radio episode, I always proudly declare, "United We Stand, Combined We Kick Butt." In the State of Washington, Gavin Seim has proven that statement to be true.

In defiance of anti-gun legislation in their States, gun owners gathered at the State Capital in Olympia to show their disdain for the gun control laws. Enthusiastic gun owners openly carried their firearms, selling and trading them in the open, in front of law enforcement. The police decided not to enforce I-594. The organizer of the rally, Gavin Seim, refused to even get a permit for the event, citing the constitutional right of the people to peaceably assemble.

Gavin Seim is the same individual that a couple months ago filmed himself pulling over an unmarked police car, encouraging the police officer to return the car, because his use of it was unconstitutional.

Gavin Seim is a constitutionalist that calls himself "Liberty Speaker," which is funny because I call myself "Constitution Speaker", and Gavin is out there applying what he believes.

Today, he is our guest on Constitution Radio, and I am expecting a very educational episode for our listeners.

Following the interview, we will discuss the "Book of the Week," and the Constitution Quest Question of the Week (a 20% discount for those of you that enter "Doug" in the Discount Box is still in play until the end of the year).

During the final half hour, JASmius will join us for the AllStar Collision "Big Stories of the Week," December 27, 2014

In Defiance: American Daily Review Radio

1. Christmas

"I Will Not Comply" - Gavin Seim to join Constitution Radio today

Constitution Radio with Douglas V. Gibbs today:

“This isn’t just a protest. We are here to openly violate the law.”

Gavin Seim - In defiance of anti-gun legislation in their States, gun owners gathered at the State Capital in Olympia to show their disdain for the gun control laws. Enthusiastic gun owners openly carried their firearms, selling and trading them in the open, in front of law enforcement. The police decided not to enforce I-594. The organizer of the rally, Gavin Seim, refused to even get a permit for the event, citing the constitutional right of the people to peaceably assemble.

Gavin Seim is the same individual that a couple months ago filmed himself pulling over an unmarked police car, encouraging the police officer to return the car, because his use of it was unconstitutional.

Gavin Seim is a constitutionalist that calls himself "Liberty Speaker," which is funny because I call myself "Constitution Speaker", and Gavin is out there applying what he believes.

Today, he is our guest on Constitution Radio, and I am expecting a very educational episode for our listeners.

Join us at 2:00 pm Pacific, KCAA 1050AM, www.KCAAradio.com.

Obama: Racial Tensions Are....Easing?

by JASmius

This must be what he meant by the term "audacity of hope":

The nation is less racially divided today than it was six years ago, President Barack Obama says.

In an excerpt from a forty-minute interview the president gave National Public Radio on December 18th, which was made available Friday, Obama asserted that low morale about race relations is exaggerated by the reactions across the country to recent racially charged violence, including the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police and the revenge slayings of two New York City Police Department officers.

Asked whether there's more racial division now than when he took office in 2009, Obama replied, "No," NPR reports.

"I actually think that it's probably, in its day-to-day interactions, less racially divided," he declared.

Really? America is now less racially divided? That would seem to be news to the 53%-36% majority who inexplicably and "bitterly cling" to the belief that King Hussein has carpet-napalm-bombed American race relations like the Royal Air Force did the German city of Hamburg in 1942.

But don't believe your lying eyes and ears, folks; don't believe any of your senses. Believe Barack Hussein Obama, the "healer-in-chief". You are getting sleepy....verrrrrrry sleepy..... Hey, would he lie to us?

It really says something about the psychotic extent of his clinical narcissism that he appears to genuinely believe that all he has to do to clean up this huge, bloody mess that is already spiraling out of control, even from a PR standpoint - and "make no mistake," he wouldn't be out there making himself appear delusional if the White House didn't think they were in political hot water on this topic - is to go on the boob tube and declare, in classic Orwellian fashion, that the opposite of the truth is the truth, that there isn't a race war of his own creation, that everything is so hunky-dory that Coke is going to make a new "kumbayah" Super Bowl commercial, that Oceania is not at war with East Asia, Winston, and the American people will, ipso facto, believe it. Oh, sure, the 51% will swallow it like a Russell Stover butter cream caramel chocolate, but not all of us. And maybe not even that bare majority, if November 4th was any indication.

Meanwhile, out the other side of his mouth, Red Barry was paying homage to that cubic zirconium of non-African "African" holidays, Kwanzaa:

“Today begins a celebration highlighting the rich African American heritage and culture through the seven principles of Kwanzaa – unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith,” the Obama’s said in their published announcement.

“During this season, families come together to reflect on blessings of the past year and look forward to the promises in the year ahead,” the Obamas said.

“As we remain committed to building a country that provides opportunity for all, this time of year reminds us that there is much to be thankful for,” they added.

"Opportunity for all" that agree with and support the Obamas, they mean. The remainder are "enemies" to be "punished". And that includes the entirety of "white America" that doesn't pay "white guilt protection" to the Democrat Party by bowing down to The One like frightened puppies.

Kwanzaa, by the by, is much like its much older cousin Islam: A violent, intolerant, racist creed dreamed up in 1965 by a man - Ronald McKinley Everett aka “Maulana Karenga” - who was a flagrant racist, con man, a convicted rapist and sexual sadist. Sound like anybody else we know and loathe? And yet there was "our" president, paying more respect and reverence to an utter religious fraud than he ever has even paid phony lip service to his supposed "Christianity".

You know what God's Word says about "know them by their deeds".

Which is why I am counted among those who considered this vid from Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke as something less than "epic":

Now don't get me wrong; I don't differ with a single word Sheriff Clarke uttered, and he did so with courage and eloquence. But I'm not real big on forced apologies, and for one overarching reason that should be obvious: How can you possibly take them seriously? We've seen the real racist Barack Obama and Eric Holder for six years, reinforced by the fact that Al Sharpton is his "civil rights czar". We saw the real Bill de Blasio when he had to be told last weekend that his official capacity as Mayor of New York City required him to at least go through the motions of commiserating and sympathizing with the families of the two officers who were slain execution-style a week ago. If one or all of them were to come forward now and offer up the apologies that Sheriff Clarke is demanding, who among us would believe anything other than that the PR damage had become so devastating from the Obamunist racial insurrection that that they were being compelled into a contrived stance of contrition? To say nothing of the howls of outrage from his insurrectionary supporters who would defiantly reaffirm their determination to, in the words of Michael Brown's stepfather, "burn this bitch down"?

Besides which, Sheriff Clarke, there is no race war in America as 2014 draws to a close. In fact, race relations in this country have never been better. The healer-in-chief says so. And if you can believe his non-existent apologies, surely you can believe that watch metronoming back and forth before your mesmerized eyes. After all, he wouldn't lie to us - would he?

Friday, December 26, 2014

Federal Court Unconstitutionally Strikes Down North Carolina Ultrasound Law

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Abortion is not mentioned in the United States Constitution. It is not an issue granted to the federal government, nor one prohibited to the States. That means, according to the Constitution, abortion is a local issue, a State issue, and therefore it is unconstitutional for federal courts to even be ruling on the subject.

The Constitution established the federal government to handle the external issues. Internal issues belong to the States. The central government was not given authority over internal issues in order to protect us from a central tyranny trying to micromanage our lives.

Based on original intent, all federal intrusion into the issue of abortion is unconstitutional. . . including Roe v. Wade.

In North Carolina, the State decided to take a local action on the issue of abortion by passing a law requiring women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound of the baby in her womb before making the choice.

The federal court said the law is unconstitutional because it forces doctors to voice the State's message discouraging the procedure. But by striking down the law, the federal court not only acted unconstitutionally against a State law on a State issue, but is forcing the State to voice the federal government's message encouraging abortion. Based on their own line of thinking, isn't that also an intrusion by government that should not be allowed?

The court in question is the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who upheld another federal judge's ruling, a district judge's decision that originally unconstitutionally struck down the 2011 law.

"The state freely admits that the purpose and anticipated effect ... is to convince women seeking abortions to change their minds or reassess their decisions," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel in Richmond, Virginia.

"The state cannot commandeer the doctor-patient relationship to compel a physician to express its preference to the patient," the appeals court ruled, stating that "this compelled speech provision" violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

Let's think about what the judge said, for a moment. Using ultrasounds is to try to convince women seeking abortions to change their minds or reassess their decisions. Well, yes. The ultrasound shows that the life inside the woman is indeed a baby, a person, and the reality of her decision that it is murder becomes apparent. . . and the judge, and the pro-abortion crowd, does not want ultrasounds to be used so that women won't realize the reality of the life inside them. That just seems downright sinister, and also tells you that the issue is more about the issue, and less about the person inside that woman. They are willing to do whatever they can to protect the practice of the slaughter of the unborn, even if it means using the courts to help hide from the people seeking abortion the reality of the sickness of what abortion is all about.

The court ruled against the North Carolina law because it compels the doctor to reveal to the woman with visual evidence that she is asking a doctor to commit murder against her child.

If abortion is just fine, why hide what it is?

The reality is, abortion kills babies. It is bloody, it is disgusting, and ultrasounds reveal that truth to these women before it is too late. Ultrasounds uses truth, and reality, to break through the propaganda, and the life-long brainwashing these women have received by a progressive-controlled media and education system. And the judge in North Carolina wants to hide the reality, hide the truth, so that mothers won't realize that the life inside them is a baby, a person, a precious little part of them.

A spokeswoman for the state’s attorney general said North Carolina will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, noting that another federal appeals court earlier upheld a similar ultrasound requirement in Texas. What the State of North Carolina ought to do is tell the federal court system they don't have the authority to dictate to them what they can do, nullify the decision, and keep the law in place anyway. Defy the courts because the federal court system has no constitutional authority to even be hearing the case. The States are the final arbiters of the Constitution, not some liberal left lacky in a black robe being paid by the federal government to decide for the federal government what its own authorities are.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

U.S. Court Strikes Down North Carolina Ultrasound Abortion Law - Yahoo News

Customs & Border Protection Agent Kidnapped By Mexican Drug Cartels?

by JASmius

The wages of amnesty:

The FBI confirms it is investigating a claim made in a call to a police department in a Texas border town that a Mexican cartel has kidnapped a U.S. Border Patrol agent…

“We are aware and continue to work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to determine whether there is any validity to this threat,” FBI Special Agent Michelle Lee told News Radio 1200 WOAI. “Until we rule it out, we treat it as a true kidnapping.”

“Someone called in and started out reporting some sort of activity, and the call then turned into threats against law enforcement, threats against the dispatcher, and ultimately threats against law enforcement in general,”

Chris Cabrera, a representative with the National Border Patrol Council, the organization that represents Border Patrol agents, told Reuters that the drama began with a phone call to police in La Joya, a small town on the Rio Grande in extreme south Texas.

“It is a concern,” he said. “Hopefully it is just a hoax, but at this time we are not going to write off any threats to our agents.”

“This would be a nightmare situation,” he said.

Not for Barack Obama, though, evidently, since he's done everything in his demidivine power to neuter law enforcement of all kinds, at every level, for the past six years, and with increasing intensity and focus over the past year. Respect for the rule of law has never been lower, contempt for the law has never been greater among those who are supposed to be deterred by it, and never have the enemies of the law - and of America - been more emboldened to undertake provocations they never would have even dared contemplate before his infernal majesty came along.

As Mr. Cabrera said, hopefully and prayerfully this is just a hoax, and no kidnapping has taken place. But if you were placing bets on this, where would you put your money? On this just being a loud prank, or on this abduction being "real as roast beef"?

As I always say, life is about incentives. If you give the bad guys endless encouragement that they can succeed by doing all the evil and unlawful things they're not supposed to do, can we really be surprised when nobody is safe anywhere any longer, including and especially border patrol agents on the erased border, or two NYPD cops in their squad car? Seems a no-brainer case of "cause and effect," if you ask me.

The Merovingian would have been so proud.

A Farewell to the Danger Ranger

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The USS Ranger was the first aircraft carrier I ever had the fortunate opportunity to step aboard. I was stationed on the USS Chandler, DDG-996 at NAS North Island when the Ranger was also berthed at the same location. The carriers always used the deeper waters of North Island, next to the city of Carlsbad, rather than the Navy Base at 32nd Street, across the bay in San Diego. Back then, I never understood why the Chandler was also always berthed at the smaller base with the carriers. I preferred North Island, to be honest, because it was a less busy base, and it wasn't until I left the Chandler and went on to serve aboard the USS Peoria, LST-1183, before the Chandler also wound up over at the larger 32nd Street Naval Base.

Top Gun came out right smack in the middle of my time in the Navy, and I heard the Ranger was in the film. I was never a huge fan of the movie, for its depiction of the Navy, in my opinion, was not accurate. Time out to sea was gritty, filled with long hours, and dirty work, even for the guys in the administrative offices. A ship is a floating city and everyone has to pitch in. A number of sailors had additional qualifications, and carried duties that were sometimes outside their rating, during certain drills and operations. I floated between damage control to duties on the flight deck, depending on the operation. Aboard the USS Peoria, the amphibious operations we conducted were even more harrowing, and challenging. Once, a Marine Corps friend of mine, after spending time with the Navy aboard and amphibious vessel, commented to me, "Sailors are the hardest working members of the United States Military."

The first thing I remember aboard the USS Ranger was the massive bay where the aircraft were stored and maintained below deck. A friend of mine was a member of a squadron out of Miramar, which was a Naval Air Station back in those days, and he and I had the opportunity to walk that entire deck. The area was massive, and I commented to my buddy that a whole neighborhood of houses could fit inside the massive gut of the Ranger.

Standing on the flight deck was even more impressive. However, to a pilot flying above, the deck did not look so large. I have always commented that Navy and Marine Corps pilots are the best trained pilots in the world, because they have to learn how to land on a floating postage stamp, while it is moving.

The Danger Ranger, and the USS Kitty Hawk were the two main carriers to share time at North Island, back then, with an occasional visit from the Independence. I had the opportunity to stand on the decks of the first two, but never had the chance to go on board the latter.

The USS Ranger was considered to be a supercarrier, a part of a class of carriers constructed in 1957. She saw battle in Vietnam, and Operation Desert Storm, and was finally decommissioned in 1993. A group in Washington State has been trying to secure the funds to make the Ranger a museum, like the Midway is down in San Diego, but their attempt failed, and the Ranger has now been targeted for the scrap-heap. The USS Ranger will be missed, but greater carriers, like the USS Ronald Reagan, are still out there guarding the seas.

Fare thee well, oh faithful Danger Ranger, Fare thee well.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Navy's USS Ranger aircraft carrier featured in 'Top Gun' to be scrapped for one cent - Washington Times

U.S. Prepares for Boots on the Ground Showdown with ISIS

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Some of our military equipment is being sent to scrap, while a lot of the rest is going to Kuwait, in preparation for the possible need of the equipment being needed across the border in Iraq. The possible need for the equipment for a "boots on the ground" use in a coordinated offensive against the terrorist group Islamic State, flies in the face of every promise Obama ever made to the anti-war Democrats, even up to him promising no "boots on the ground" for combat when he decided to begin airstrikes against ISIS.

The gear is mostly U.S. Army, and is being cataloged and assessed in regards to how the thousands of vehicles can play a part in defeating the Islamic State. No timelines have been established, but the presence of the equipment points to only one likelihood: direct confrontation with ISIS.

“From June to December, we’ve worked a lot on moving items into Kuwait,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Rowayne “Wayne” Schatz, the director of operations and plans for U.S. Transportation Command, told U.S. News and World Report. “The Army is holding the gear there, and it has room to hold it, as the mission fleshes out.”

Murmurings that there will be a spring offensive to assist Iraq and the Kurds has been peppering the air, but no official details have emerged, as of yet. Much of this equipment, like the USS Ranger, were destined for the scrap pile as well, but even the pacifist, Barack Obama, who desires to see America's military stripped of its power, and for us to be dependent on working with other military organizations around the world, has realized that just perhaps facing off with ISIS with a massive force may be necessary.

Over 1.1 billion pounds of equipment has already been turned into scrap materials. Excess equipment, known as “white goods” – like power tools, air conditioners and tractors – are sold in yard sales that have brought in roughly $2 million to date. Personnel have also been let go. The Obama administration, regardless of the decision to send equipment to Kuwait to lie in wait in case we actually decide to fight a war against ISIS, is still wanting to gut the American Military in ways that even puts the Carter and Clinton presidencies to shame.

ISIS has claimed all along that a direct confrontation with the United States is inevitable.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

U.S. Military equipment being detoured for possible battle vs. ISIS - Fox News

Aircraft Carrier featured in Top Gun to be scrapped for one cent - Washington Times

ISIS Leader to USA: "Soon we will be in direct confrontation, The sons of Islam have prepared for such a day" - Pamela Geller/Atlas Shrugged

Pay by Mile Coming to California

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Big Government progressivism survives by sucking money out of the citizens, and learning new ways to keep tabs on you, or control you. They are constantly working on finding new ways to take your money from you, and micromanage your lives, especially when their existing policies result in dropping revenue. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem, but no good liberal would ever admit that, and as they tax you to high heaven in gas taxes, their environmentalism-based policies of regulating automobile companies into creating more fuel efficient vehicles has reduced the use of gas as they hoped, and in turn, has reduced the amount of tax money being reaped from drivers. To make up for it, to force you to pay your "fair-share," as they would put it, the liberal left progressive socialist commie bastards are proposing taxation by the mile.

The drive for taxation by the mile is alive and strong in the State of. . . you guessed it, California.

A few months ago Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a "test-the-waters" version of a pay-by-the-mile tax bill. The pilot program, they hope, will lead to a State-wide pay-by-the-mile taxation by 2018.

Enforcing the tax requires using modern technology in order to pay for (they tell us) infrastructure projects. Oregon has also been exploring this kind of taxation, as well, offering a "voluntary" (remember, 16th Amendment income taxation began as a voluntary program, as well) pay-as-you-drive tax setup next year offering 5,000 drivers the chance to pay 1.5 cents for every mile they travel in the State.

The technology for the Oregon system uses a pair of devices, one in the vehicles, and one in special fuel pumps, that use GPS to track miles driven. The tax is charged at the pump itself. When you pay taxes in pieces, you are more likely to be willing to pay it, because you don't have to come up with an annual lump sum at the end of the year. Oregon has found that they were able to suck 28 percent more tax money out of motorists using this method, than they would have using fuel taxes alone.

Other technology is on the horizon that may make charging you for driving more easier, such as through services like Apple's iPay and in-car Internet setups, such as General Motors OnStar.

Eventually, you won't be able to buy a car that doesn't nark on you regarding how many miles you drive. Surely, the technology will end up doing more than counting your miles, but will also allow the government to know where you are at all times. The California law claims its panel will address privacy worries, but we know that once you allow government its nose into the tent, it won't be long before they are completely in control of your lives.

Taxation, and monitoring your movements. Shortly after that, they will begin telling you who you can associate with.

The liberal left tells us it is racist to ask illegal aliens for their papers, but asking you to be monitored and for your whereabouts to be known at all times, and then charging you for the government to have this information in the guise of a pay-by-mile tax, is not only acceptable, but demanded.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

California readies pay-as-you-drive tax test, coming soon to a road near you - Yahoo Autos

Amnesty Order’s Cost: $48 Million A Year & Rising

by JASmius

Forty eight million bucks doesn't sound like a lot in government spending terms. But think of it like the minimal downpayment you placed on your first home - a tiny, tiny speck compared to the huge, multi-faceted costs Obamnesty has in store in the very near future:

The high cost of President Barack Obama's executive action in granting amnesty from deportation for as many as 5 million illegal aliens is beginning to be revealed — for openers, 1,000 new federal employees to process them, at $40 million in salaries per year, and a newly signed $7.8 million annual lease for office space in a new building in Crystal City, Virginia.

The Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is hiring people for jobs ranging in salary up to $157,000 a year, Fox News Latino reported.

The Washington Times noted that hiring for the new positions was posted just 10 days after November 20th, when Obama announced his unilateral executive action, indicating that plans for the hiring were well in place before the announcement.

Senator Jeff Sessions, R-AL, reacted with anger, stating the new office building and hiring are "a clear symbol of the president’s defiance of the American people, their laws and their Constitution," the Washington Post reported.

Sessions added that Obama is "hiring federal employees to carry out a directive that violates the laws Congress has passed in order to foist on the nation laws Congress has repeatedly refused to pass," the Post said.

The cost in terms of the additional crushing burden on the so-called "welfare safety net" will run into the tens of billions at least, and the cost to the American people in terms of jobs hijacked by illegals will be equal, if not more exorbitant. By the time this sorry-assed outrage is through - if it ever is - that forty eight mil is going to look like a squirt in the septic tank.

But there are costs to which a dollar sign cannot be affixed. What about the cost to the rule of law? To respect for the U.S. Constitution as the law of the land? John Adams once said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." What he meant by that is the "fruit of the Spirit" known as "self-control". A moral and religious people will not obsessively and willfully pursue their own partisan/ideological agenda "at any cost," to the disregard of the law and Constitution that protects their liberties along with everybody else's. It means they will recognize and respect and submit to the common boundaries and framework that the Founders bequeathed us and work for their party and/or cause within those voluntarily accepted limits, because that ensures liberty for everybody, including them.

What Barack Obama has done for six years, and now completely out in the open, above board, and in our faces, is to throw those constitutional boundaries aside, raise himself and his ideology and party above the law and Constitution, and illegally force his agenda - amnesty in this case, but also countless other issues - on the rest of us. If he is allowed to succeed, to get away with this act of abject despotism, the precedent it will set will cost America far more than any amount of money, although that will be bad enough. It will cost America its 225-year-old soul. And that comes from somebody who believes that the Old American Republic died two years ago with Barack Obama's re-election.

This was why the GOP grassroots considered the CROmnibus to be a "betrayal". Elected Republicans were looking strictly at their own short-term political neuroses; we out in "flyover country" are looking at the big picture, and that picture is becoming impossible to stomach. God knows it would have made the Founding Fathers nauseous - and incredulously angry, and heartbroken, that so few Americans seem to give a damn what The One is doing to the country they left behind for their posterity, whose heights of greatness, prosperity, and power they probably never imagined - or even realize that they should give a damn.

Sometimes tyrants do things that nobody at the time wants to recognize for the tyranny it so transparently is. And so the tyranny succeeds, and it grows cancerously, and it creates all manner of misery and violence and destruction that could have been so comparatively easy to nip in the bud with a modicum of vision, courage, and decisiveness.

Looks like George Santayana knew what he was talking about. Damn it.