Sleepless in Midland

Ector County Library book sale

Here's a loud shout out -- Shhhh! -- to the Friends of Ector County Library and their book sale on 6/29/2018 and 6/29/2018. Link to poster.

I went to it on Friday and got a bag full of mostly hard bound recent vintage books for the low price of $4.00. The ones I bought were fiction by well know authors, but I didn't spend any time browsing in the other areas. I came away quite pleased with the purchase.

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2:25 PM 6/29/2018

Tom Steyer wants to give money to candidates who want to impeach Trump -- Ocasio-Cortez may be in line for some of that dough

California money man Tom Steyer really dislikes Donald Trump, and probably all Republicans. And he's willing to put his money where his mouth is. See Tom Steyer: To Win Midterms, Democrats Must Promise to Impeach Trump.

If Democrats retake the House following the November elections it's anybody's guess whether they will actually take action on that. But it's something anyone leaning toward voting for a Republican should consider. It's tempting to think that all those Democrats who thought it was a mistake to impeach Bill Clinton will be hard pressed to concur with impeaching Trump. But these last couple of years have been full of political surprises.

Anyway, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York lady who toppled a long term Democrat representative the other day has gone on record. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Supports Impeaching President Trump. So there's a least one vote for impeachment. However, it could be the socialist aspect of her candidacy that lit the fire under Democrats. Either case isn't especially good for our country.

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2:56 PM 6/28/2018

Hey gun controllers, here's the only place on Earth where gun control might work, only it's not on Earth

As just about everyone who has given it any thought knows, it would be impossible to make the U.S. a gun free country. It's trite but true, outlaw guns and only outlaws will have guns.

I've made the observation previously, gun controllers' best bet is to concentrate on some new place that is currently uninhabited and inaccessible. Colonize it and restrict any gun imports. So here's that opportunity. 'Space kingdom' seeks citizens for life beyond Earth very soon:

VIENNA (Reuters) - Feel like the world is going to the dogs? Want to get away from it all? Here’s a solution: become a citizen of the nation of Asgardia and hope it makes good on its promise to colonize the moon.

Asgardia was founded just 20 months ago, and it already has about 200,000 citizens, a constitution and an elected parliament. It has a leader, Igor Ashurbeyli, who was inaugurated on Monday.

It also has grandiose ambitions. It wants to build up a population of 150 million within 10 years. It plans to set up “space arks” with artificial gravity in outer space where humans could live permanently.

They are already collecting taxes!

Asgardians now pay an annual membership fee of 100 euros. It plans to collect taxes on businesses and private income, which it says will be kept very low.

What could possibly go wrong?

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2:59 PM 6/27/2018

Foldering -- spy tactic now widely known

The spy trick of creating an email account, writing text in an email, then saving it to the draft folder to be opened by another spy has been around a while. But now it has a name. "Foldering." Here's the Wall Street Journal with ‘Foldering’: In the Manafort Case, an Old Spy Trick Enters the Digital Age. Excerpt:

While digital dead-dropping has been reported to be a favored tactic in terrorist cells (as depicted on screen in the 2008 spy thriller “Traitor”), the most famous example prior to Mr. Manafort came to light in 2012, when F.B.I. agents uncovered secret messages shared between David Petraeus, then the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and his biographer Paula Broadwell. As The Wall Street Journal reported at the time, Mr. Petraeus and Ms. Broadwell were discovered to be using “the draft-email trick.”

The introduction of a single word, “foldering,” to label this practice is handy shorthand. Whether the technique will offer refuge from the digital police is another question.

Alternate link.

I would have called it a "Draft Dodge." That could cause some confusion, but isn't that one of a spy's objectives?

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3:21 PM 6/26/2018

Coders write Chrome extension for NYT writers that will make their words sound meaner

Sometimes it's hard to distinguish truth from satire. Such is the case with this item found at BoingBoing. It's a Chrome extension called NYTspeak:

What is this?
NYTspeak makes the edits to New York Times US politics articles that you wish the New York Times editors would. For example:

It's a barb aimed at Donald Trump and his staff, wouldn't you know. And it changes words like "falsely claimed" to "lied." Get it?

Actually, it seems almost harmless compared to what some on the left are doing these days to demonstrate their Trump hatred.

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3:14 PM 6/25/2018

Comey the comedian found something to be ashamed of

Former FBI Director James Comey made some colossal mistakes, and yet he profits from a book tour touting his own defense.  The joke is on the American people.

And here's an interesting take: Former FBI chief James Comey jokes that he wanted to tell custom agents he was Canadian because he's 'disgusted and ashamed of what the Trump administration is doing to immigrant children'.

He should have let his ghost writer write the jokes. Of all the things he should be ashamed of, he chose immigration. He may as well circulate Democrat talking points. He did his best to stop Trump and passed that dubious job along to others at the FBI. And now he's ashamed of the Trump administration. Boy, what comical a character.

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12:44 PM 6/24/2018

Supreme Court just created a huge new business -- software for small internet sellers who now have to collect local taxes

How much would a small business spend for software that would do the meticulous calculation for the sales tax amount and supply remittance addresses for every taxing entity in jurisdictions in which they make internet sales? My guess would be thousands, if they could hike the price of the product they sell to pay for this additional expense.

In deciding in favor of tax collectors in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., Justice Kennedy didn't need to bring up the Keynesian Broken Window Fallacy as he had tax revenue in mind -- it's not just for the common good, it's for fairness!

But that famous Broken Window Fallacy has some application. All that money spent by customers on taxes and by vendors on the collection process is money that could have been used elsewhere.

We don't need taxing entities to decide how best to use our money. Out here in the Permian Basin tax collectors are awash in sales tax revenue already. The dilemma they see is how to spend all that money. Nowhere is there a serious consideration of the concept of giving it back to the people.

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12:50 PM 6/23/2018

Cartels smuggle illegal aliens and keep border patrol busy while they sneak in drugs

While most of the Democrat media enterprise concentrates on any aspect of illegal immigration that could damage Trump's popularity, the cartel millionaires smile all the way to the banque.

Ben Domenech penned an eye opener titled The Migrant Crisis Is About More Than Just Kids. Mr. Domenech tells us how the cartels use murder to control the political process South of the border. Then there's this:

The Mexican cartels had to find a new funding source with the legalization of marijuana in the United States. The market for their poor quality pot dried up, and so they turned to human trafficking as an alternative source of funding. They locked down the Rio Grande, to the point that you must pay them to be ferried across or you risk being shot. The cartels use these migrants to flood the zone and clog up Border Patrol resources, functioning as human pawns to distract from their efforts to smuggle opioids and other drugs across.

It's only a matter of time before the open border crowd starts calling the detention centers "refugee camps."

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2:43 PM 6/22/2018

Federal government or the kids' parents -- who is responsible for the border crisis?

Many of the MSM consumers blamed the George W. Bush for the hurricane Katrina damage. So it's almost understandable that many of those same news consumers blame the Donald Trump for the crisis on the border.

Anyway, see Rasmussen's report, Voters Blame Parents, Not Feds, For Border Children Crisis:

When families are arrested and separated after attempting to enter the United States illegally, 54% of Likely U.S. Voters say the parents are more to blame for breaking the law. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that only 35% believe the federal government is more to blame for enforcing the law. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.

Not surprisingly, there was a split along party lines.

To help understand the current political debate over the children issue, a closer look shows that 82% of Republicans and 56% of voters not affiliated with either major political party feel the parents are more to blame for breaking the law. But 60% of Democrats say the government is more to blame for enforcing the law.

Here's the question they asked of the 1,000 U.S. likely voters:

When families are arrested and separated after attempting to enter the United States illegally, who is more to blame – the parents for breaking the law or the federal government for enforcing the law?

Critical thinkers see the "crisis" as media generated. But with so many people buying into it it tells us the MSM still holds a lot of power.

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2:33 PM 6/21/2018

Democrats not letting the separated children crisis go to waste

There's little doubt that the issue of children being separated from their parents is a manufactured crisis. The new twist on Rahm Emanuel's old mantra is "never let a crisis go to waste, even if you have to lie and scheme to build up some legal issue into a crisis."

Chuck Schumer let the cat out of the bag with a remark a Republican bill which sought to alleviate the pressure. See Schumer rejects GOP proposal to address border crisis:

Asked if that meant Democrats would not support a bill backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to keep immigrant families together while seeking asylum on the U.S. border, Schumer said they want to keep the focus on Trump.

"They want to keep the focus on Trump." But of course. Where would they be without a boogieman?

So what happens if Trump caves to the pressure? Well, he did. Trump signs executive order to keep undocumented families together. Democrats will move onto another manufactured crisis in no time. Hey, there's always Russia.

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2:10 PM 6/20/2018

South Americans watch and learn from Venezuela

The socialist paradise of Venezuela has unraveled, and now we are seeing the end stage of socialism. Others have seen this too, and they've learned the lesson.

Take this item from Monica Showalter: Buried news: Colombia's shantytowns rejected socialism, big time, to avoid 'another Venezuela'. Excerpt:

Sunday's election of a hard-core conservative in Colombia has left the media elites and their pundits befuddled. ...

Now the clarity comes. Poor people voted for a genuine conservative out of terror of becoming another Venezuela, because they know what it is up close. And yes, that's the much-vaunted poor that for years we have been hearing are so poor they can only vote for candidates who offer to shovel the most pork. They didn't. And it wasn't even close. Duque won against his opponent, socialist ex-guerrilla and former Hugo Chavez admirer, Gustavo Petro, by a margin of about 54-42, according to the New York Times. ...

The poor of Colombia have profoundly rejected socialism. Colombians instead elected their very own version of Donald Trump, who has vowed to cut taxes, has promised to get control of Colombia's borders, has already scared the FARC terrorist guerrillas so badly they are offering to come to the negotiating table, and above all, seems to mean to keep Colombia from becoming anything like socialist Venezuela. That's news. Viva Colombia!

Bad news about socialism moves slowly into the mainstream, as noted by Ms. Showalter. In the U.S. a remarkable number of people say they favor socialism. Those of us who reject socialism have to hope that the truth spreads as fast as the promises of free everything offered by socialism's proponents.

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6:09 AM 6/19/2018

Trump is predictably unpredictable -- why even try?

Jonathan Swan knows Trump is unpredictable and doesn't try to hard to do it. Smart fellow.

In Pressure grows on Trump to change border policy for kids he says this:

We know that Trump is responsive to traumatic images (including kids being gassed in Syria), and he's acutely attuned to how issues play in the media. So some well-wired Republicans think he may eventually find a way to change the policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

-Trump is expected to be personally confronted on the issue when he is the guest for a special meeting of House Republicans tomorrow evening.
-Multiple sources in close touch with the White House believe this issue is providing images that fuel the left's worst views of the administration.
-But sources say Trump views the issue as leverage, and will try to get funding for a border wall or other concessions for a rollback of the policy.

So it's basically Trump vs. GOP Establishment and the media alarmists. So far gambling along with Trump has been the winning bet.

We shall see.

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2:41 PM 6/18/2018

Not exactly a dream team candidacy -- Comey and Stormy -- except to bloggers

Well, this is America where anyone can do anything. And in theory, anyone can run for president.

So here we are over two years away from from the next presidential election, and as if out of the woodwork, we have Jim Comey and Stormy Daniels both hinting they might run.

Don't take it from me. See 'Should I Run for President?': Stormy Daniels Mulls over Tossing Her Hat in the Ring Someday and James Comey feeds the rumor he's running for president in 2020.

What a gift to bloggers that would be.

'merica. Where anything can happen.

Donald Trump is nothing if not inspirational.

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1:23 PM 6/17/2018

Bias at the FBI -- they're soaking in it

Mark Steyn, once when talking about media bias, made the witty reference to the dish soap commercial in which the manicurist brags about how mild Palmolive soap is and tells customer Marge, "You're soaking it it."

The media are not the only ones soaking in it. The people in the top echelon of the FBI are too. While I haven't read the book put out the other day by the Inspector General, there are plenty of astute observers who have. See, for example, Kimberly Strassel's article Insubordination and Bias at FBI. Alternate link. Excerpt:

Be ready to hear the report absolves the FBI and DOJ of “bias.” Not true. It very carefully states that “our review did not find documentary or testimonial evidence directly connecting the political views these employees expressed in their text messages and instant messages to the specific investigative decisions we reviewed.” Put another way, he never caught anyone writing down: Let’s start this Trump investigation so we can help Hillary win.

But the bias is everywhere. It’s in the texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and those of three other employees who are routinely “hostile” to Candidate Trump. It’s in Ms. Page’s freak-out that Mr. Trump might win the presidency and Mr. Strzok’s reply: “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.” It’s in a message from an unnamed agent in November 2016 who writes that although the FBI found Clinton aide Huma Abedin had “lied,” it doesn’t matter since “no one at DOJ is going to prosecute.” To which a second agent replies. “Rog—noone is going to pros[ecute] even if we find unique classified.”

Related: Andrew C. McCarthy reveals how the IG's report adroitly avoided stating the obvious in The IG’s Report May Be Half-Baked.

Well, after all, they are soaking in it.

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1:53 PM 6/16/2018

Suicide isn't a good solution for the mid life crisis

There have been some high profile suicides reported recently, and as if to maximize the news worthiness, last week the CDC came out with a release telling us this: Suicide rising across the US.

There's a big disparity between male and female suicide rate. Some stats will appear as an addendum at the bottom of this post. But first, here's an interesting observation found in The Mystery Around Middle-Age Suicides (Subhead: "The death rate is climbing for those between 45 and 64, new CDC data show."):

“Life satisfaction hits an all-time low in middle age. This dip in happiness is known as the U curve,” says Samantha Boardman, a clinical instructor in medicine and psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

“Depression and stress are particularly high in this age group. Juggling responsibilities and managing multiple roles takes a toll and can lead to feeling overwhelmed, a loss of control and despair.”

But it gets better. Take a look at this from a Laura Carstensen Ted Talk:

As we age, our time horizons grow shorter and our goals change. When we recognize that we don't have all the time in the world, we see our priorities most clearly. We take less notice of trivial matters. We savor life. We're more appreciative, more open to reconciliation. We invest in more emotionally important parts of life, and life gets better, so we're happier day-to-day. ...

So anyone going through a mid-life crisis needs to hang on a little while longer. You'll be old before you know it.

Addendum: Here are some stats pulled up from a link found through CDC's data resource for Suicide Injury Deaths and Rates per 100,000 in the United States between 1999 - 2016:

Females: 4.99%
Males: 19.16%

It's a guy thing. In case anyone hasn't noticed, the battle between the sexes is over, and women won.

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2:40 PM 6/15/2018

Let's hope Gorsuch rules in the right direction in Janus v. AFSCME

That's the case the Supreme Court hasn't yet ruled on which will decide whether employees can be required to pay union dues.

Common sense says that employees should be able to decide for themselves, but laws are in place in some states which require payment whether the employee wants to or not. But it could be close. See The Janus case could mean the restoration of government workers’ constitutional right to free speech in which Mailee Smith says this:

Based on past cases and oral arguments in Janus, court watchers expect the justices to line up 4-4 – with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito supporting plaintiff Mark Janus and worker freedom, and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan supporting defendant AFSCME and forced union fees.

Justice Neil Gorsuch will likely be the deciding fifth vote – but he remained silent during oral argument, giving no indication where he may land.

A money source that Democrats have relied on for years may be in jeopardy. They are probably very nervous about the outcome of this case.

Some of us in the libertarian/conservative camp were ambivalent about Donald Trump before the election. Yet one thing we genuinely hoped for was a return of originalism to the federal courts. Neil Gorsuch was a big win, and hopefully, he'll come through on this case.

Related: Janus vs. AFSCME looms large for liberal spending groups; and
A pending decision in the Janus v. AFSCME case could wreak havoc on the Democrats’ fundraising future.

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9:54 AM 6/14/2018

Happy Magna Carta Day 2018

June 15 is an important day in history -- Magna Carta Day. The Magna Carta was the document that gets credited with establishing the rule of law, as opposed to the rule of whomever is in power. Here's what history.com says about it:

The charter consisted of a preamble and 63 clauses and dealt mainly with feudal concerns that had little impact outside 13th century England. However, the document was remarkable in that it implied there were laws the king was bound to observe, thus precluding any future claim to absolutism by the English monarch. Of greatest interest to later generations was clause 39, which stated that “no free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised…except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” This clause has been celebrated as an early guarantee of trial by jury and of habeas corpus and inspired England’s Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679).

I'll be toasting a shot of gin imported from England this evening in honor of the day, and I hope you'll celebrate in your own way.

A variation of this post has appeared previously at this blog.
See Happy Magna Carta Day 2016; and
Happy Magna Carta Day 2017.

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1:55 PM 6/14/2018

In Grassley's Farm Bill amendment face-time farmers get plowed under

Ewg.org tell us that between 1995 and 2016 $349 billion was paid out in farm subsidies, crop insurance, disaster programs and conservation payments. A farming community lawyer once told me that whenever a new farm bill got passed he would go through it with his clients to find the best way to maximize their income. The farm bill is a cash cow, a sacred cash cow. Most conservatives see the farm bill as a corporate welfare program, but for some reason, it escapes law maker scrutiny.

So it's encouraging to see this: Chuck Grassley’s Amendment to Farm Bill Would End Subsidies for Off-Site ‘Farmers’.

“Under the current law,” the senator said, “a designation called ‘Active Personal Management Only’ allows people who do not work on farms to get farm subsidies of $125,000, or $250,000 for a married couple.”

Grassley’s amendment would tighten restrictions on who receives farm subsidies, boiling down eligibility to only farmers and their immediate families who live and work on the farm.

It's a start.

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10:37 AM 6/13/2018

Victor Davis Hanson's Ten Paradoxes Of Our Age, in a nut shell

Dr. Hanson is one of the great wise men of our era, and his writings are always worth reading. A recent one appears at hoover.org. Ten Paradoxes Of Our Age. Here's a shorthand version of it:

1. The prosperity of consumer capitalism does not necessarily lead to constitutional government.

2. Once a nuclear power doesn’t mean always a nuclear power.

3. The European Union has realized that its efforts to transform a successful common market and effective free trade and travel zone into a continental pan-European national state are in crisis.

4. The more non-Westerners abandon their homelands and flee to the West—especially en masse and illegally—the more these immigrants ironically seek to replicate in their new country the very cultural conditions they forsook.

5. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Germany’s neighbors feared its power, expansionism, and unification schemes, as well as its tendency to become petulant in its victimhood.

6. The Middle East is not the center of the geostrategic universe. ...The real crisis is not the tension between Israel and the Arab nations, but rather it is Israel and its Arab neighbors’ fears of an ascendant Persian Shiite Islam.

7. The great immediate dangers to Western Civilization are not hunger, global warming, inequality, or religious fundamentalism, but obesity, consumer culture, utopian pacifism, multiculturalism, declining demography, the secular religion of political correctness that threatens the right to free speech, an inability to protect national borders and to create a common culture rooted in the values of the West, and an absence of belief in spiritual transcendence and reverence for past customs and traditions.

8. The great dangers to modern constitutional government and a free press come not from silly and easily identifiable right-wing racists and bumbling fascists, but rather, as George Orwell saw, from glib social utopians.

9. The goal of government in a Western constitutional state should be conceived of in terms of economic growth, such as by achieving an annual GDP rate of 3 percent or greater, an unemployment rate of 4 percent or lower, and a rising middle-class per capita income—not an increase in state subsidies, state bureaucracies, and state regulations.

10. Crudity in popular politics, as now witnessed in Europe and the United States, is never to be welcomed. But if transient coarseness is sometimes the price of dissolving calcified and destructive norms, and is constitutional, then it is an acceptable antidote to suave institutionalized mediocrity.

Good points, all of them. Number 4 really hits home: "immigrants ironically seek to replicate in their new country the very cultural conditions they forsook." Yep. Those of in high immigrant states are seeing that particular phenomenon.

We'll all miss Charles Krauthammer and his brilliance. And while this post by no means is an attempt to compare them, Dr. Hanson will help fill the void left by Krauthammer.

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10:27 AM 6/12/2018

Trump's video for Kim -- would any other Republican or Democrat have thought of that?

The video itself probably didn't seem to be that dynamic to most Americans with access to the internet.  At this point in the negotiating process no rational person dares make a prediction of what will happen next. But the idea of the video showing a glorious depiction of a modern North Korea was extraordinary.

It's doubtful that any of our Republican or Democrat politicians could have thought of it. It takes a salesman to come up with something like that.

Here's the transcript from the above linked youtube site:

Seven billion people inhabit planet Earth. Of those alive today, only a small number will leave a lasting impact. And only the very few will make decisions or take actions that renew their homeland and change the course of history.

History may appear to repeat itself for generations, cycles that never seem to end. There have been times of relative peace, and times of great tension. While this cycle repeats, the light of prosperity and innovation has burned bright for most of the world.

History is always evolving, and there comes a time when only a few are called upon to make a difference. But the question is, what difference will the few make? The past doesn’t have to be the future. Out of the darkness can come the light. And the light of hope can burn bright.

What if, a people that share a common and rich heritage, can find a common future? Their story is well known, but what will be their sequel?

Destiny Pictures presents a story of opportunity. A new story, a new beginning. One of peace. Two men, two leaders, one destiny. A story about a special moment in time, when a man is presented with one chance that may never be repeated. What will he choose? To show vision and leadership? Or not?

There can only be two results: one of moving back, or one of moving forward. A new world can begin today. One of friendship, respect, and goodwill. Be part of that world, where the doors of opportunity are ready to be opened, investment from around the world, where you can have medical breakthroughs, an abundance of resources, innovative technology, and new discoveries.

What if? Can history be changed? Will the world embrace this change? And when can this moment in history begin? It comes down to a choice. On this day. In this time. At this moment. The world will be watching, listening, anticipating, hoping.

Will this leader choose to advance his country and be part of a new world? Be the hero of his people? Will he shake the hand of peace and enjoy prosperity like he has never seen? A great life? Or more isolation? Which path will be chosen?

Featuring President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un, in a meeting to remake history. To shine in the sun. One moment, one choice, what if? The future remains to be written.

Video link via townhall.com.

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6:21 AM 6/13/2018

Venezuela -- socialism's showcase

Was Venezuela one of those s___hole countries Trump was talking about? Whether it was or wasn't, the country certainly has become a s___hole. One of the things that has bewildered me lately is why so many Americans claim to be in favor of socialism when there's an example of the disastrous results of a socialist policy just a few countries South of us. How do they rationalize the result with socialism?

Mary Anastasia O’Grady is the Wall Street Journal's resident expert on South America. And her latest in that paper appeared in the 6/11/2018 edition, to wit: Venezuela’s Long Road to Ruin (or here for a work-around):

If anything was more predictable than the mess created by Hugo Chávez’s Marxist Bolivarian Revolution, it is the pathetic effort by socialists to deny responsibility. The Socialist Party of Great Britain tweeted recently that Venezuela’s problem is that socialism has yet to be tried. It blamed the crisis on “a profit-driven capitalist economy under leftist state-control.” Even more preposterous is the claim by some academics that economic liberalism in the 1980s spawned the socialism that has destroyed the country.

Learning from history is impossible if the narrative is wrong. So let’s clear the record: By the time Chávez was elected, Venezuela already had 40 years of socialism under its belt and precious little, if any, experience with free markets.

She goes on to provide the history for the past several decades. Spoiler alert -- they had help from some bad rulers, but the culprit is still socialism.

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12:50 PM 6/11/2018

NYT reporters tactics mirror Russian spy tactics

It's amazing how similar reporters' tactics are to Russian spy tactics.

I've been watching the final season of "The Americans." That's the series in which Russian spies inveigle themselves into the lives of individuals employed in sensitive capacities in the U.S. government for the purpose of obtaining intelligence. Hot sex and feigned love are tools of the trade.

I'm struck by the similarity of the Russian spies and reporters. It happened to General Petraeus. He was shtupping a writer all the while sharing sensitive information with her.

The most recent publicized case is the romance between the young, attractive, New York Times reporter, Ali Watkins, and the former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Wolfe, who is roughly twice her age.

The New York Times hired her knowing she had a relationship with the guy, and a previous employer knew about it too. Heck, it was probably a resume enhancer.

Anyway, the Russians want to cause discord in the U.S. and ultimately the destruction of the U.S. system of government. It often seems as if many Progressives want that, too. In any event, they use similar tactics to achieve their goals.

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5:43 AM 6/9/2018

Voting with his feet -- expelled Venezuelan diplomat becomes illegal alien, wants green card

This is the AP news release: APNewsBreak: Expelled Venezuela diplomat stays in US. The meat:

Jarlet Sanchez, a career diplomat who had been serving as Venezuela’s deputy consul general in Houston, was declared persona non grata May 23 in retaliation for Maduro’s decision to kick out charge d’affaires Todd Robinson in the immediate aftermath of his re-election.

But a U.S. official and another individual familiar with the case said Sanchez has yet to depart. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.

Foreign diplomats in the U.S. who don’t abide by orders to leave can be forcibly expelled, according to longstanding legal opinion of the U.S. Justice Department.

But The Associated Press has learned that Sanchez is hoping to stay in the United States permanently by applying for a green card under an obscure provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act. That provision, known as Section 13, says that people who enter the U.S. as diplomats can apply for a change in their immigration status and, if it is granted, obtain permanent residency.

Overstaying one's welcome is a tradition among visitors.

Trump is probably not inclined to favor an open door to Venezuelans wanting refugee status. And it's certain the Obama administration wouldn't want to do anything that might imply socialism results in anything less than utopia. So it will be interesting to watch.

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1:09 PM 6/7/2018

Howard Schultz actually has some good ideas for the economy

It was strange hearing those words from a Democrat. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was on CNBC the other day answering questions, and he actually sounded quite good. He said what the nation needed was 4% economic growth and entitlement reform to counter the huge government debt.

Entitlement reform. As if on cue, reporters told us this: Medicare, Social Security running out of money faster than expected.

The last president to propose major entitlement reform was George W. Bush, and Democrats pounded it into the ground. Could Schultz bring them around? We've seen Democrats spin on a dime when their leaders change positions. So it's entirely possible.

But there are are obstacles in his own party. See, for example, Democrats Must Reject Howard Schultz and His Radical Centrist Ideology, complete with unflattering photo.

The two big walls that would he needs to scale are these. One is the trend toward socialism which is seemingly gaining ground. The other is the powerful Democrat party machine. Regarding that one, Donald Trump was able to overpower the Republican party machine, so maybe Schultz could do the same on his side of the political spectrum.

Anyway, hearing a Democrat talk like that was refreshing. And wouldn't it be amusing to see a Democrat run to the right of Trump?

Meanwhile, there have been some serious suggestions by Republicans on Social Security reform. Chief among them are raising the retirement age, lowering payments to high-income Americans, and changing the way cost of living increases are calculated. Let's hope Congress doesn't let this potential crisis fall into their regular pattern of waiting until the last minute before acting.

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10:34 AM 6/6/2018

What kind of ammo did that dancing FBI agent have loaded in the gun that went off?

News articles about negligent discharges seldom identify the type of gun involved. But yesterday we speculated that it was a Glock. But what kind of ammunition was loaded in the gun?

A WaPo article dated October 31, 2015, titled FBI returns to 9mm rounds, once shunned as ineffective said that the FBI would be adopting the 9mm 147 grain Speer Gold Dot G2.

[FBI’s Defensive Systems Unit Special Agent Ray] Cook says that the lighter the bullet, the faster the gun can “drive” the round into the target. For the FBI, that translates into 12 to 18 inches of penetration into the human body. The 9mm’s weight, Cook added, also increases an agent’s accuracy in a gunfight, according to the findings of a 2014 FBI report that was leaked online last year.

Luckygunner.com conducted extensive defensive round testing in 2015, and the Speer 147 gr Gold Dot Speer 147 gr Gold Dot passed the test.

Going back to the news report about the discharge:

He picked the gun up and it went off, shooting another person in the leg. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital in "good" condition, according to police.

A bullet capable of 12 to 18 inches of penetration could go clean through a typical human leg. Bullets tend to deflect off of bones, so it's possible that no bones were broken. But still, a bullet engineered to expand on impact and stop a human being could do some significant damage to the muscle and connecting tissue in a leg. We'll just have to wait for further reporting to know the ultimate outcome.

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10:35 AM 6/5/2018

FBI agent demonstrates tricky dance move and how to initiate a negligent discharge

Glock handguns are amazingly easy to shoot. With no manual safety and a light trigger pull, apply the slightest pressure to the trigger and BAM!

That's apparently how this particular negligent discharge occurred: FBI agent accidentally shoots bar patron when gun falls out of holster while dancing.

Reporters seldom include the gun brand and model in their reports. They don't care, so why should anyone else?

We learned in 2016 that Glock was selected as the supplier of handguns to the FBI, so we can probably assume the gun involved in this discharge was a Glock.

The lessons here are simple. As with all handguns with no manual safety, don't try to catch a falling handgun, and keep the finger out of the trigger guard when picking it up.

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3:24 PM 6/4/2018

If you are climbing up a cliff, why would you want to be tethered to another climber?

I'm referring here to the accident reported to have occurred on 6/2/2018 at El Capitan. See Two Expert Climbers Killed in Fall From El Cap’s Freeblast:

On the morning of June 2 at 8 a.m., while speed climbing on the lower pitches of the Salathé Wall on El Capitan—a section called Freeblast—two highly experienced climbers, Tim Klein and Jason Wells, were involved in a fatal accident. The team was simul-climbing through Pitch 9 or 10, 5.7 terrain approaching Mammoth Terraces, when the incident occurred. A scream was heard and both climbers fell, roped together, 1,000 feet to the ground.

"Both climbers fell, roped together." Boy! Adrenalin junkies get a charge out of risk taking. But can you imagine the feeling, although it would not last long, of being hauled down a 1,000 foot drop by some other climber to whom you are tethered?

The momentum of two grown men falling at terminal velocity would exert hundreds of pounds of thrust. It's hard to envision any climbing anchor strong enough to stop them.

They were supposed to have been simul-climbing. Here's a primer on that particular technique: Advanced Techniques: Simul-Climbing and Short-Fixing with this warning: "Falling while simul-climbing is incredibly dangerous because there is no fixed anchor to take the force of the fall."

You don't say.

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10:17 AM 6/3/2018

Army MREs are getting a tasty upgrade

"An army marches on its belly." That famous quote has been attributed to various warriors ranging from Frederick the Great to Napoleon Bonaparte. And military planners throughout history knew how important it was to keep the fighters fed.

These days the MRE is the standard field ration. And they are getting a makeover. See Here's Everything in the New Pizza MRE, Headed to the Field Soon. They appear to be simple foods sealed in a vacuum package. That's something anyone can produce at home, so there had to be more to it.

So note this interesting factoid from After years of anticipation, the pizza MRE is finally coming to the field:

All MREs need to have a shelf life of at least three years when stored at 80 degrees or below in order to be viable as an option, according to the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. ...

Here's how they conducted a speedy test for that duration:

MREs are placed in a 100-degree box for six months during testing in order to simulate the three-year life span at under 80 degrees. The mass produced pizzas were turning brown under the testing, a problem that had not surfaced during the initial testing of the lab-made pizzas.

The browning was not a safety issue, but more of a quality issue.

“We want to make sure we give [troops] a quality product,” Natick spokesman David Accetta told Army Times in February.

Officials later found a fix for the browning — rosemary extract.

Mmmmm! Vacuum packed pizza!

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1:34 PM 6/2/2018

Fox News has undergone some changes, but at least we can be grateful it won't be going to Disney if their offer for Fox Broadcasting Co. is accepted

Reporters tell us that a 21st Century Fox shareholder vote will take place on July 10 to decide whether to sell the company to Disney.

Disney, as you know, owns ABC which famously fired Roseanne Barr the other day because of a mean tweet. In a lot of minds, that was highly hypocritical in light of some of the things that have been said against Trump, Republicans, or the whole universe of conservatives out here in flyover country.

Many of us may have been concerned that the possible acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney would destroy Fox News. Well, we needn't worry about that particular transaction. If the deal as proposed goes through, it will not include Fox Broadcasting Co. which owns Fox News.

That's a relief, because to many of us deplorables Fox News Sunday and Special Report with Bret Baier are the only TV news shows that we can count on not to deliver news with a heavy slant toward Democrats.

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1:55 PM 6/1/2018

NYPD says goodbye to the service revolver

That phrase, "service revolver," has been around for a very long time, but it's seldom that one sees a law enforcement officer carrying a revolver these days. Most agencies phased them out years ago in favor of the semi-autos, especially Glocks. Glock conducted a very successful campaign to get agencies to convert to Glocks. And they made a fortune.

So it was surprising to see this so late in that transition process: NYPD officially phases out revolvers as 25-year vets transition to 9-mm:

The last crop of cops transitioning from the old-school revolver to the modern semi-automatic handguns reported to the NYPD shooting range in the Bronx for training Wednesday.

The remaining 150 police officers — who all joined the force before 1993, when the the .9-mm semi-automatic became the department's service weapon — had until Aug. 31 to be be trained on new guns. ...

The swap out is a matter of safety. The revolver holds six bullets, each of which have to be loaded individually. ... The contemporary gun has a 16-bullet capacity and can be reloaded quickly. NYPD officers are trained to shoot a 9-mm. Glock or Sig Sauer.

Having all those bullets would certainly help in a genuine shoot-out. But it's also likely that the police officers will outnumber the potential shooter when bullets fly. Recall the Amadou Diallo case in which an unarmed man was shot at by police 41 times and struck 19 times.

Most handgun users prefer semi-automatic pistols, although the revolvers remain reliable and are probably safer. This blog used to cover Glock mishaps on a regular basis. For a sampling, click the guns category at this blog and scroll down for posts about Glock.

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10:06 AM 5/31/2018