This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Ex-PH2

  • On the European Front

    I swear, we had nothing to do with it!

    News from Germany:  Change in Germany’s migrant policy is being suggested by Merkel’s CDU replacement, Annegret-Kramp Karrenbauer. Remember, Merkel’s party lost votes in the recent elections, so she has to step down. Germans are fed up with being pushed around by Angela’s protegees.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/angela-merkel-migration-christian-democrats-annegret-kramp-karrenbauer-germany-a8675041.html

    In Germany, Friedrich Merz, another potential replacement for Merkel, wants to discuss whether the post-World War II asylum doctrine should stay in Germany’s constitution.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-asylum-friedrich-merz-merkel-replacement-immigration-refugee-cdu-leader-a8648171.html

    Merz is planning to run for office to replace Merkel next year. He stands for a more right-wing approach to immigration than Ms Merkel, as does another leadership contender, health minister Jens Spahn. The party is seeking to reduce the appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has capitalized on discontent over immigration.

    In Poland, NATO drills proceed against unspecified Russian threats. (Dated 11/17/2018)

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/nato-military-drill-poland-putin-russia-russia-cyber-chemical-warfare-defence-a8634686.html

    It not only involves Poland, but four other countries as well. The base where we will be putting our troops is at Katowice, where the recent climate conference was held. To accommodate all the people attending the climate conference, Katowice had to have annex housing built, the equivalent of a small city.

    In France, the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests which occurred over the weekend inspired similar protests in Brussels, Belgium, and in the Netherlands. Russia-linked social media accounts are being accused of encouraging these protests. However, the Kremlin on Monday denied involvement in the “yellow vest” protests that have rocked France, after reports that Russia-linked social media accounts are waging a campaign to encourage unrest.  Poor old Vlad can’t catch an even break.

    https://www.france24.com/en/20181210-france-yellow-vest-russia-denies-involvement

    Nothing to see here. Move along.

    And Hungary is now accusing Soros of interfering in their elections. Katalin Novak is a Hungarian minister interviewed in the video by France24. (A little eye-candy for you guys, too, but she does have a family.)

    https://www.france24.com/en/20181210-talking-europe-katalin-novak-hungary-minister-family-orban-soros-migrants-eu-press-freedom

    This follows the Central European University in Budapest finally closing its doors and leaving, after legal and rhetorical fights with the Hungarian government (mostly with Orban). Viktor Orban’s party won a third term in the April elections. There is more on Hungary vs the EU at this link:  https://www.france24.com/en/tag/hungary/

    The dissension rose from CEU’s issuing US degrees with no US university campus, prompting CEU through Soros’s foundation to set up a campus at Bard College in New York.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/03/dark-day-freedom-george-soros-affiliated-central-european-university-quits-hungary

    The Grauniad’s take on this is biased, refusing to acknowledge Hungary’s sovereignty and dissing its anti-immigration stance – which is the Grauniad’s problem, not ours. They also note in a sidebar that Soros’s Open Society Foundation is pulling out of Turkey. Looks like Soros and his cash aren’t as welcome as he expected. But the Grauniad seems to think that Hungary should just knuckle under to Merkel’s demands. This comes after all the hell Hungary and the rest of eastern Europe went through, until the Iron Curtain fell.

    And now, Merkel is going to be replaced in the Spring election. And Brexit is slowly getting underway. There is even a hint of a Frexit. Looks like we’ve come full circle.

     

  • If They Only Had A Brain

    This is kind of a link fest, something you can go through, read the articles linked, and make your own decisions about the subjects. It is, after all, Saturday, and I know the NAVY!-Army game will be first and foremost on your minds, but – well, you need something to do when Army doesn’t get those yards.

    In her interview at the link, Camille Paglia almost infers that this may be birthing pains of some sort, or better yet, the last gasps and struggling efforts of the current liberal side of the political fence in its death throes.

    No harm in that. Everything comes full circle at some point. Her indictment of current politicos and potential liberal candidates is scathing, harsh and well deserved. They are falling all over themselves to choke their own party to death. Her take on the Democrat party is like watching squirrels in my yard chasing peanuts I’ve thrown out to them and then chasing each other. It’s a bunch of little kids who will never grow up but want to be part of a gang. Hence, we get bimbos like O-C and shouting ‘look-at-me’ idjits like “Nuke ‘em” Swallwell.

    She’s right about Clinton.  Shrillary does want dTrump to win the 2020 election. The Liberal side of the fence is being loaded with mindless droids whose robotic programmed responses to stray words are the first symptom of loss of self-awareness. And this untutored, sanctimonious non-religious generation of lost children is being drained away toward a greedy, demanding fake religion of pseudo-science, to sacrifice everything for the greed of a few who will abuse them badly. History shows us repeatedly that such things fail, and fail badly. Oh, but next time, we’ll do it right! Really? Then why did the liberals like Kamala Harris turn into a scrounging shoal of hagfish during the Kavanaugh hearings? Why can’t they get off the ‘hate Trump’ bandwagon and stop pounding that drum? It is not surprising that Paglia, as a professed atheist, recommends that the study of religion be a requirement now, if you take everything else into consideration, including the unenlightened social group known as SJWs.

    Here’s the link to Paglia’s interview:

    https://spectator.us/camille-paglia-hillary-trump/

    There’s another link to Googly-eyes Ocasio-Cortes’s proposal “New Green Deal”, in which she outlines every possible way to destroy a thriving economy. You might want a strong drink to read the “Green New Deal” itself, but there is help included in the article.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/08/the-green-climate-deal/

    The author of the article went through the proposal, piece by piece, to dissect it and try to understand it, and then gave up, went outside to get some fresh air and wonder how long it would be before his head exploded from the dumb, dimwitted, ignorance that this zippy little bimbo offers (with assistance noted from Bernout Sanders).  She’s right in the same rowboat with “Nuke ‘Em” Swallwell, you know.

    Googly-eyes seems to think that money fall off of trees or is just cranked out. She includes a defunding of the military by 50%, and instead, using the National Guard for everything. I think we already use the National Guard for just about everything, don’t we? These are just a few of her bubbly ideas.

    And finally, the link below takes you to a National Review article about Mueller’s obsessive pursuit of something – anything, in fact – that will show beyond a doubt that there was Russian interference in the 2016 election, based originally on the deal Trump tried to make and failed to build another Trump Tower in Moscow.  https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/mueller-investigation-collusion-allegations-partisan-politics/

    Mueller has done some unconscionable things himself, including finding ways to get people to perjure themselves, which is what a corrupt Chicago cop like Jon Burge of Chicago was notorious for doing. Bringing a conspiracy crank like Corsi into this mix is a sign of desperation.  Unfortunately, Mueller has spent thousands of hours and tons of tax money on this project and so far, has done nothing but make it clear that he hates Trump and is obsessed with getting rid of him.  That sounds like a personal problem to me.

    While we may find people like Googly-eyes and Mueller to be distasteful at best, they are symptoms of a larger and very widespread problem called “not really paying attention”.  Paglia’s interview addresses these problems, too.  We cannot afford to be unaware or dismissive of them.

    Go NAVY! Beat Army.

  • Thursdays Are For Cooking

    15-bean mix pack

    Plain Old Bean Soup

    This one is easy. If you want it quickly, use canned beans. If you want to start the night before, use dry beans, which are considerably cheaper at $1.89 for a bagful than the canned version at $1.90 to $2.50/can, depending on where you are and what you purchase.

    Ingredients:

    One pack of mixed beans – soak overnight, starting at 8 PM or 9 PM, in a large pot, covered with water. Check them in the morning. They should all be inflated and ready to cook. Remove any floaters. Pour off the water, rinse again, and return the pot to the stove.

    If you prefer the canned beans because it’s quicker:

    1 can each of black beans, Great Northerns,  dark red kidney beans, light red kidney beans, navy beans, cannellinis, lim beans, pinto beans – in short, use as many varieties as you can find.

    Some ham, diced, chopped or minced in the Cuisinart thingy.

    Optional: a small amount of smoked salt pork to go with the ham

    1 large onion of your choice, chopped

    Celery – yes, the entire stalk can be used, including the leaves, cut coarse or thin – your choice, and you can use less celery if you want to keep sodium content low.

    Carrots – I find that half of a 1-lb bag of baby carrots is just fine for this

    Oregano – about what will fit in the cupped palm of your hand, or a dessert spoon. Use less if you don’t like oregano.

    Chopped garlic or two tablespoons of garlic powder (this is optional)

    A very small amount of either chili powder or cumin is optional, your choice

    Tomatoes are also optional; I’d use the diced canned versions.

    Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb – this is if you are trying to keep salt usage low. Contains no salt, but dried lemon bumps up the flavor considerably, and this has a lot of coarse black pepper in it

    Put all of that into the pot with the beans, then add equal parts chicken broth and beef broth to fill the pot to about 1.5 inches below the pot rim.

    Again, with the broth, if you are trying to control your salt intake, use the low sodium versions.

    Cover and cook on low. Keep checking on it, and yes, you are allowed to sample it from time to time.

    Cornbread goes well with this, as do fresh, cut-up veggies, and a nice dessert – maybe pumpkin pie with whipped cream?

  • World War II B-24 Pilot Laid To Rest

    The Tribune Review reports the remains of Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Eugene P. Ford were interred Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Also interred were ashes of Vietnam veteran Richard Stanton Ford, the son the pilot never met.

    The 21-year-old Ford, of Latrobe, PA, was the pilot of a B-24J aircraft known as the Tulsamerican.

    On Dec. 17, 1944, the Tulsamerican was the lead aircraft targeting oil refineries in Germany when it came under attack and was forced to crash in the Adriatic Sea.

    The Military Times link is here:  https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/12/05/wwii-pilots-remains-interred-at-arlington-along-with-sons/

     

  • Goodbye, Old Friend

    95-year-old Sen. Bob Dole stands to salute the late Pres. Bush.

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/04/bob-dole-stands-salutes-george-bush-capitol/

    He did have assistance, but he walked from his wheelchair a few steps and gave his salute.  He is 95. They both had Parkinson’s. They are both World War II veterans.

    Catch the tailwind. Mr. President.

     

  • All Warfare Is Based on Deception

    If you can find the quote in the title, it was written up a very, very long time ago.

    I detest politicians. More than that, I detest what drives them into being the slumguzzling thieves that they become. Theft of money, theft of power – it’s all the same. They tell you what they think you want to hear, just to get elected. And the minute they get elected, they are off to the races to grab everything they can get their hands on.

    Even worse are the thugs and fellow travelers that surround them, and the hangers-on at the perimeter of the mess that has become our government.

    The recent TAH article on Julian “Wikileaks” Assange prompted me to dig further, and I found the article at the link from Vox. It hits both sides of the issue, but one item caught my eye: Jerome Corsi kept coming up in the text. I don’t know how reliable Vox is, but the article about this hits many, many points.

    And to think, all of this was going on before Thanksgiving.

    The Mueller investigations seem like a manufactured conspiracy to me, with the attention-grabber Jerome Corsi right in the thick of it.

    Then someone brings up Wikileaks, for no reason other than Assange lost his pussycat and wants attention again, but protests that he had nothing to do with any of this, and now we have this odd-ball connection with Wikileaks, Mueller’s investigation, Manafort’s dissembling, and our current loud-mouthed, attention-seeking conspiracy theorist, Jerome Corsi, who is right at the forefront of it – mired in the thick of it, as it were.

    So who is lying, and who is not?

    And why is Corsi sticking his oar into this? He’s addicted to creating conspiracy theories. He’s the one who started the rumor about bodaprez not being born in the USA. He likes to make stuff up, from what I read here, seems to be hellbent on causing trouble and stirring the pot everywhere he goes. He’s just published a new book. Is he really this desperate for attention?

    We all know about attention-whoring, don’t we?

    Why did Mueller hold off until after the President submitted his answers to Mueller to release the statement that Manafort lied? And where’s the concrete proof that Manafort lied? I mean hard, tactile, solid as a brick wall, physical evidence.

    As I said, I don’t know how reliable Vox is as a source, however, the reporter makes some very good points and touches conflicting bases throughout the text.

    Read the article at the link, and make up your own minds about this.

    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/27/18114355/manafort-assange-mueller-corsi-trump-russia

    ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.’

    Perhaps that’s the reason Mueller hasn’t been fired just yet…?

    What a mess.

    Note: photo credit goes to Soviet.

  • And Still Growing….

    Americans quitting jobs at higher rates is a sign of a strong, growing economy. It may not sound like it, but if people are quitting one job to move to something better, and/or get a better offer than where they are now, it is accompanied by an increase up to 3.5% in wages this year.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-continue-quit-jobs-droves-233210503.html

    From the article: “if you track non-supervisory wage growth alongside the quits rate in the food services business, you get a pretty good sense of where wages are going — up. In October, average hourly earnings for all employees rose 3.1% and for non-supervisory workers wages rose 3.2% over last year. These were the highest readings since the spring of 2009, when wages were on the way down as the post-crisis recession deepened.”

    So the guy who is slapping beef on the grill at Burger King while he’s in cooking school at a local college or trade school, with dreams of opening his own burger and hot dog joint, quits because he got a better offer and can still go to school.

    Hey, there’s a local Dog ‘n’ Suds for sale not too far from where I live, if anyone is interested. The owner wants to retire and the people who work there stay there. It’s one of the few left from the old-timey drive-in where you ate hot dogs and fries in your car with a tray hung on the window. If they ever bring back drive-in movies, someone please let me know?

    But that’s not all. Despite the need to obscure the message in doublespeak like Yellin used to do, Fed Chairman Powell’s speech at the Economic Club of New York last week indicates that “interest rates are just below” the level that is neutral for the economy.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/powells-comments-mattered-week-205435592.html

    This inferred to investors that there is a possibly less aggressive path for interest rate hikes next year. Does this matter to you? Yes, it does. Look at the interest rate charged on your credit card bill. If you keep the old ones, go back a few years and look at those rates. They’ve creeped up somewhat in a sneaky way.

    Obviously, over time, things can change. We’re in a stable growth period now and we need to stay there. If economic growth now is stable enough for people to change jobs with confidence, we want it to stay that way.

  • The Peasants are Rioting in Paris….

    The French are rioting over Macron’s increase in the carbon tax.

    https://www.atr.org/french-revolt-against-carbon-tax

    In France, diesel fuel is now at $8.20/gal and gasoline at $9.00/gal. The bulk of the price at the pump here is taxes, not fuel costs. Macron wants to increase the carbon tax in France to $63/tonne. There is no reason for it, other than his personal greed factor. It goes for absolutely nothing other than payola to IPCC and to line his pockets.

    From the article: The loudest and most famous voice from the weekend protest is that of Jacline Mouraud, a diesel owner from Brittany who has become the star of the yellow vest movement due to her YouTube videos and appearance on all major French news outlets.

    “You have persecuted drivers since the day you took office. This will continue for how long?” she said in a YouTube video that has millions of views. “You only need those taxes for new china in the Élysée palace or another expensive swimming pool for your private residence!”

    This seems to be a growing movement in France since 283,000 people in 2,000 locations rioted and burned stuff over it. I’m waiting to see how long it takes Macron to realize that  – well, the French generally hate him. But they voted him in over Marie LePen, and she warned them what would happen.

    The link to WUWT’s article is here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/02/president-macrons-climate-change-fuel-tax-riots-continue-in-paris/

    It also appears that in Paris, some of the rioting is the work of groups closely resembling the antifas here this country. There is much damage in Paris, and Macron is ‘shocked’ about it.  Well, les Crapeaux had a chance to vote in Marine le Pen, but they went for this King of Disconnectedness instead. I wonder if he will offer the peasants cake to eat.

    It is not just in France that this tax-to-death attitude is going on. There is a proposed bill coming up to inflict a $55/ton carbon tax on us, the unsuspecting public.

    I’ve already discussed how a similar tax proposed by IPCC on my gas bill alone would cost me income I simply do not have.  I did the simple math to find out what this carbon so-called tax might cost me, the same as the IPCC’s carbon tax, which was a staggering $21,000 per month by 2030, based on cubic feet of natural gas usage.

    Converting therms to tons was easy enough. There is a site that does that. The result for me was 3.774892954361 tons in January 2018, which is about average for me. My January bill is usually $115 to $120, depending on the weather. The carbon tax is an incremental tax, meaning that it starts low but increases every year for five years to an unconscionable $55/ton, which in my case is $206.14, making my wintertime household gas bill $325.98, an amount that is unaffordable at best, and egregious at its worst.

    This proposed so-called tax is not meant to benefit any of us at the taxpaying end of the economic scale. It will simply go into a massive slush fund with an elaborate title that this bunch of tax-sucking slugs in Congress will be able to dip into at will.

    https://www.atr.org/details-horrible-carbon-tax-bill

    The real anti-growth economic impact for the USA is discussed here:  https://www.atr.org/study-shows-devastating-economic-impacts-carbon-tax

    From ATR:  A carbon tax will not be pro-growth. Most carbon tax scenarios reduce GDP for the entirety of the 22-year forecast period. 

    Better than break-even economic performance may not be possible unless revenue is devoted entirely to corporate tax relief. A lump-sum rebate results in lost GDP equal to between $3.76 trillion and $5.92 trillion over the 22-year forecast period.

    That is trillions, not millions or billions of dollars – trillions lost to this nonsense.

    If you want to drive a thriving economy into a profound economic Depression, you tax the living daylights out of it until it is squeezed dry. Keep raising taxes and before long, there will be no more taxes to be found. We had a revolution in this country a while back because George III imposed a Stamp Tax Act on everything that was printed, to squeeze colonists dry. We fought that, and won.

    Here’s something else that is disturbing: the Bill authorizes armed carbon tax enforcement agents:  The bill authorizes armed carbon tax enforcement agents to collect the new tax on energy used by Americans. As if customs enforcement doesn’t already have enough on its plate, the bill states:

    “The revenues collected under this chapter may be used to supplement appropriations made available in fiscal years 2018 and thereafter –

    “(1) to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in such amounts as are necessary to administer the carbon border fee adjustment.”

    So, if you somehow don’t pay this energy tax into this slush fund, you’ll get arrested???? If it shows up on my gas bill, which is my only source of carbon, men with guns and badges are going to show up on my doorstep demanding money from me? Aside from this looney-tune proposal, this loudly smacks of Gestapo tactics to me.

    The true nature of this proposed tax is discussed at the links, but most egregious is the 2-child limit per household included in the language of the proposal.  Here it is, straight from the bill text:

    “A carbon dividend payment is one pro-rata share for each adult and half a pro-rata share for each child under 19 years old, with a limit of 2 children per household, of amounts available for the month in the Carbon Dividend Trust Fund.”

    The reasoning behind a limit of 2 children per household is not specified, not at all. Because it is poorly written, it can be read as a means of forcing population control on families, which is what the Chinese government has been doing for decades.

    You may want to call Florida Republican Congressman Francis Rooney at 202-225-2536 and ask him why he has signed onto this absurd and harmful Democrat tax proposed by Deutsch, which seeks to impose a tax that is nothing but a feed into a slush fund. You should also call your own Congress critters and tell them to vote against this bill. Or send them e-mails to that effect. And sounding angry about it, in a civilized way, is acceptable. It isn’t a sales tax. It is larceny.

    It is extremely necessary on the part of all of us to be aware of these vultures and give them as much room as possible to expose themselves for what they really are. Without awareness of them and their agenda, we will lose the very things we value most.