Scattershots – 22oct16 (updated 23oct16)

George Rebane

Dan Henninger’s ‘Dumb and Dumber’ is a corroborating essay on the relentless growth of ‘dumbth’ in America.  As technology accelerates, the failures of government unionized schools grow more impactive on our social order in everything from understanding governance to finding a job.  President Obama, the Left’s penultimate liar (now overshadowed by HRC) continues to trumpet his faux successes in education by citing higher graduation rates.  But he doesn’t mention that those graduating don’t measure up to the country’s needs, especially in the job markets.

No better source of information exists on this than employers, especially manufacturers, who say U.S. schools, notwithstanding claims of improved “graduation” rates, are not producing sufficient numbers of workers able to perform at the level they need for the realities of the 21st century workplace. Apparently the universal skill of being able to manipulate a cellphone to take a selfie isn’t enough.

In today’s (22oct16) Union Bob Hren writes an excellent rebuttal – ‘Yes, It’s Time to Put Country Over Party’ - to a recent piece by the very progressive Nancy Eubanks.  Ms Eubanks takes Republicans to task for opposing Hillary, who in liberal eyes is the country’s political paragon of prudence and virtue.  Mr Hren destroys her one-sided call by citing the public record of HRC’s dismal career of bamboozling the information resistant voters she claims to champion.  What the Hren/Eubanks essays illustrate is how remarkably one-sided is the lamestream in its selective omission of reporting facts, events, and writings/quotes that do not support their one-world collectivist agenda.  Even in these pages otherwise learned readers have admonished us by citing the moral high ground occupied by Hillary since she has not yet had to wear ‘correctional orange’.  It’s as if such folks really restrict their reading to the narrowest of information sources.

Predictably the Iranian mullahs have taken two more American hostages and sentenced them each to ten years in prison.  Obama’s carefully denied, yet obvious to the world, ransom payments to buy the last group’s release was bound to motivate the ragheads to repeat their thuggery – we all knew it, well almost all save for the functional idiots still running things from 1600 Pennsylvania.  Now Hillary is busy concocting the next excuse for delivering pallets of cash to Tehran to free the hostages and fund Iran's clients spreading Islamic terror all over the globe.

Nowhere is Democrat big city corporatism as visible as in the Big Apple.  Governor Cuomo signed a bill prohibiting Airbnb from advertising apartment sharing in the city.  Why?  well, it cuts into the margins of established hotels staffed by union workers – both hoteliers and union bosses are big contributors to ‘Tammany Hall’.  Never mind that demand for rooms exceeds supply, and people renting out their temporarily unused domiciles to visitors brings in needed cash to pay rents.  The little  people be damned as long as the big contributors’ margins are maximized with 100% occupancy rates.  Additional rooms will be made available only when the contributors decide that such new developments of theirs will not cause them to lose economies of scale.  In short, the Democrats’ policies continue to favor neither residents nor visitors, only those who can afford to pay for the competition crushing government gun. (more here)

In these trying times we conclude with a public service bagatelle from Gracian #38 –

Say farewell to luck when winning: it is the way of the gamblers of reputation: quite as important as a gallant advance is a well-planned retreat, wherefore lock up your winnings when they are enough, or when great.  Continuous luck is always suspect; more secure is that which changes, and which, half bitter and half sweet, is more satisfying even to the taste: the more luck pyramids, the greater the danger of slip, and of collapse: for luck always compensates her intensity by her brevity.  Fortune wearies of carrying anyone long upon her shoulders.

[update]  Hillary on SCOTUS is either profoundly ignorant or simply evil when she demagogued that she will work for a Supreme Court that “will represent all of us.”  First, there is no possible selection of justices that can represent all of us in a country as terminally split as ours (Arrow’s theorem and all that).  And second, SCOTUS is the one branch of government that has no constitutional charter to represent anyone.  Their job is to interpret the constitutionality of the elected officials’ actions starting with the Legislative and Executive branches and then working down the judicial system to the federalized states.  Trump understands this when he proposed his list of candidates whose job will be “to interpret the Constitution.”  The media omits this little detail when they report on the difference between the candidates' stance on the court.

[23oct16 update]  No on Measure B.  Corrsepondent Ms Claudia Taylor writes –

“These are the times that try men’s souls . . .” said Thomas Paine and say many of us. We need common sense governance—including in our local school districts. The essence of a good education is imparting knowledge that is applied with common sense and practical application. It is not an attitude of ‘if we only had . . . the students would learn more or the teachers would want to work here.’  Children of the 18th century and even earlier learned far more with far, far less than what school managers say and much of our uninvolved society think we need now. That thinking is more an indication of how dependent our society has become on external influences (which cost lots of money) rather than internal fortitude to advance ourselves in the educational arena.  In these trying times (especially economically), fiscal responsibility must be a large part of the solution in all governance matters . . . yes, even in regard to our local schools. A $47 million bond is not the only solution. No on B will necessitate looking at other solutions and be a step in the direction of sound fiscal management.

Comments

[fish]

If the Union had only posted this at the beginning rather than the end I would have that 30 seconds of my life back!

Nancy Eubanks, who lives in Rough and Ready and is a member of the Nevada County Democratic Central Committee, is a member of The Union Editorial Board.

[George Rebane]

fish 141pm - I appreciate your informing us of Ms Eubanks position on the Union's editorial board; my apologies for omitting that telling piece of her resume.

[Bill Tozer]

Suppose this might fit under dumbth of amerika.

http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/breaking-epa-going-rogue-again-this-is-nuts

[George Rebane]

BillT 910am - Perhaps in days gone by we could sweep such actions under the carpet of dumbth Mr Tozer. But not any more, today they have elevated themselves to agents of pure evil in what they seek to perpetrate on American citizens - they know what they are doing to the country.

[Gregory]

I'm not familiar with this author but was served up the clickbait after a periodic check of what Sowell has written. My basic expectation is that townhall.com columnists are on the sane side even if wrong:

http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2016/10/23/why-i-now-feel-compelled-to-vote-for-trump-n2235899

Where I differ with him is that I'm perfectly comfortable voting for the LIB Johnson... of the four who have had some ink in the newspapers he most closely mirrors my politics, and there isn't much of a chance in hell that anyone besides Clinton will receive any Electors from California. If I was registered to vote in a battleground state I would again have been faced with the "lesser of the two weevils" decision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-aPp7Kiiyg

[fish]

Posted by: George Rebane | 22 October 2016 at 04:45 PM

Not on you George....and I suppose that the Union is obligated to put it somewhere! ;-)

[Todd Juvinall]

How about selling the schools that are closed?

[Bill Tozer]

Off topic, but what a difference 4 years make. Boy, they sure have changed their tune about hating on The Speaker. With friends like that, who needs enemas.

I present to you a waltz down memory lane. Short and sweet. It's Trump's turn!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hrdeyMNZW88

[Russ]

The question is, are these voting machines control by a George Soros's company?

REPORT: VOTES SWITCHED FROM TRUMP TO HILLARY IN TEXAS
"She voted straight Republican and the vote had changed to Clinton!"

http://www.infowars.com/report-votes-switched-from-trump-to-hillary-in-texas/

According to Obama, this is not happening. Who are you going to believe, the facts or Obama?

CHECK YOUR BALLOT before SUBMISSION if using a voting Machine!

[Russ]

Where is Hillary?

The political polls and the pundit's claiming victory for Hillary Clinton for the President of the United States is a bit of a mystery to me.

Ellen and I just completed a 20-day train trip to the East Coast, spending most of our driving time in Deleware and Virgina. In Deleware, we saw multiple Trump signs in fields, on the roadside and in yards. Zero Hillary signs, one Johnson sign. In driving around rural Virgina, we say Trump signs everywhere and not one Hillary sign, and several Johnson signs. I saw one Trump sign in a field from the train, no Hillary signs.

Given the disparity between the crowds at Trump rallies and the Clinton rallies, thousands attending Trump's and hundreds attending Clintons, one is left wondering how the polls are showing Clinton is leading over Trump?

On the signs, it could be that Clinton did not choose to spend any money in Deleware and Virgina, as they are in the bag for her. It is harder to explain the rally disparity. Trump: 20,000 in Tampa. Tim Kaine: 50 or so in West Palm Beach. True is Hillary was in West Palm Beach she could expect 400 or so, which is her average rally attendance. Still a large disparity. This discontinuity is spreading across the country.

The question is, are the lack of political yard signs and lack of large crowds at rallies and indicator that Trump is the real winner or just confidence at the Hillary campaign she has the election in the bag?

[Gregory]

Russ 636, "Infowars" might not be the most effective choice for citations.

[Robert Cross]

Political signs and rally numbers really don't amount to much as an indicator, beside wishful thinking, which is all any rational person can summon in support of Trump. The reality is that Trump doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of being elected. It is probably very stressful to maintain hope in the face of utter defeat. In the real world Trump's chances hover around 3% and slipping (he was at 17% just three weeks ago) and he is causing the republicans to lose control of the Senate as well. oops!! Trump could very easily become the biggest loser in American electoral history, and rightfully so.

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2016/forecast/president

[Russ]

RobertC@11:15AM Noted! Let's see on the 9th of November. The enthusiasm seems to be pro-Trump, but it may not be enough to overcome the Democratic voting fraud for Hillary. Only time will tell.

[Bill Tozer]

Hmmm. Trespassing, thief, larceny. It's still legal to be a stupid lib.

https://www.facebook.com/UncleSamsMisguidedChildren.Net/photos/a.169953786533962.1073741830.169676909894983/572527009609969/?type=3&theater

[Russ]

Gregory@10:41 It appears that the problem is being reported across Texas. Multiple people are calling Rush to report the same results when voting straight Republican ticket, Clinton/Kaine is selected.

Reddit users also noted multiple reports of voting errors across the state of Texas. According to Zero Hedge.

[George Rebane]

Methinks when your ONLY basis for rejecting the message is by impugning the messenger, you stand on weak ground. Better to pick another messenger delivering the same message and then argue the discrepancy in the messages.

[Robert Cross]

Voting fraud is a bad joke at best. Since 2002 over one billion votes have been cast and only 31 cases of voter fraud have actually been identified. 31 votes is not going to be enough to swing an election. Fraud, rigged elections, etc. are just another bull crap Trump excuse for being a loser. The man is a sociopath and not mentally fit to be President of the United States. If the shoe fits… wear it.

sociopath: This disorder is characterized by a disregard for the feelings of others, a lack of remorse or shame, manipulative behavior, unchecked egocentricity, and the ability to lie in order to achieve one's goals.

Which of the above does not describe donald trump?

[Gregory]

George, when the only messenger is Inforwars, one needs to keep looking.

Robert Cross, maybe you should take a look at the most recent Project Veritas videos, they speak of 50 years of creating votes out of thin air.

Let's remember perhaps the worst president in my lifetime, Richard Nixon who, when the Chicago machine stole the 1960 election from him with fraudulent votes, for the good of the country chose not to contest the election. A great American even if something of a crook.

[Bill Tozer]

@12:10 pm. Perfect example of what happens when one runs out of Preparation H. Dr. Rebane, get your tobacco enema ready. It's getting weird out there.

[Robert Cross]

Gregory:

I will look at Veritas. Blackboxvoter.org found voting machine discrepancies with diebold machines throughout the country that, in every event, favored the Republican candidate….especially in Ohio (diebold's home state where he was Rep. party chair) that delivered the state and thus the election to Bush over Kerry. Using inexpensive Radio Shack equipment they were able to prove (with a the help of a Florida county elections official who supplied the machines) that diebold machines could easily be hacked and the vote count changed so that no matter what the input the pre-selected candidate would always come out on top. I don't think voter fraud has ever been proven in court but that doesn't say it does not go on. All of the exit polls in Ohio suggested Kerry would win the state by 2-4%, and thus the election. Bush won by less than 1%.. Kerry let it slide…honor among thieves? go figure. A few key precincts in a few key states could do the trick. Isn't that what the TV show Scandal is based on? However, it only works when the election is extremely close as massive fraud would be too anomalous to avoid scrutiny. Based on that assumption, I would venture to say that any belief that a Trump loss was due to fraud is ludicrous.

[George Rebane]

re RussS 636am - While not corroborated yet, that InfoWars video tells quite a tale. And Mr Cross' 1210pm is the duty lame response given by progressives about voter fraud that totally ignores the thousands of credible reports of "identified" voter fraud over the years of which only 31 have been prosecuted. It is difficult for a volunteer poll worker who sees such fraud to spearhead bringing the fraudulent voter, let alone the condoning jurisdiction, to account. Hence we have that long-lived '31' statistic that gets trotted out regularly in these discussions.

[Bill Tozer]

I dunno Mr. Rebane. I for one am glad Mr. Cross came by to set us all straight. Not a snowball's chance in Hell. "It's all over!" he says with 2 weeks to go. Oh, that Nixon-Kennedy race in 1960 was Chicago and West Virginia that gave JFK the election, but we won't take about West Virginnie.

Seems to me the Leftists are jumping the gun and getting into their exploding heads mode about Trump contesting the election results. It is really setting them off and making them go bonkers. Don't think they will ever learn to live without their non stop panic attacks they feed on year in and year out. Or is that manic attacks. When they scream, I just cannot quite make out if they are shrieking about panic attacks or manic attacks. It all sounds the same to me.

However, we do have one thing going for us, the trump card if you will. Our Ace in the Hole is the US education system of which created the propensity of the educated lefties to fall for anything as long as they fall in line. Ok, this will guarantee a Trump victory against all odds.

https://www.facebook.com/UncleSamsMisguidedChildren.Net/photos/a.169953786533962.1073741830.169676909894983/572390682956935/?type=3&theater

[ScenesFromTheApocalypse]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud1tWx_im8w

[Bill Tozer]

Thankyou Scenes. Nuff said when it says it all.

[Russ]

Here is a report on how election fraud may be taking place across the country in nursing homes after nursing home.

Dr. Pournelle,
A follow-up on the ‘missing voter’ issue, at least here in the Eastern People’s Republic. As I promised I went to Town Hall to check on my voter registration status (having as I previously mentioned been excised from the rolls after 34 years in town) and was pleased to find that I was still listed. However my mother, who votes absentee from the nursing home, was now gone. Her legal mailing address is still in town and I have previously had an absentee ballot mailed to her.

When I checked with her I found that someone (supposedly) from the Town Clerk (D) in the town the nursing home is in had come by to get all the seniors living there registered in that town and then a flock of ‘assistants’ swarmed in to assist the seniors with filling out their early voting ballots.

My mother used to be a ‘Poll Watcher’ and worked every town election, so she refused any ‘help’ in filling out her ballot and made sure that it was sealed before she let anyone touch it. As far as she could see, none of the other residents were that particular or resistant to allowing the ‘assistants’ handle their ballots during and afterward. Many of the residents who were to far gone had their ballots filled out for them.
By any estimate, Hillary picked up an easy hundred votes that day.

I can attest that family members were not notified in advance of this little game of ‘assisted voting’. I should have seen this coming. Now multiply this by a few thousand across the country.
John the River

[Paul Emery]

"Now multiply this by a few thousand across the country."
John the River"

Thats a massive conspiracy Russ. Where do you propose is the central command for such a vast operation. Who is John the River?

[George Rebane]

Ah yes, the Left cannot conceive of anything broad-based happening at the grass roots level without central planning and control. But then again, maybe the next batch of emails will confirm that even these kinds of things were conceived and ordered from Team Hillary's head shed like the bussed in hooligans to Trump rallies, the Donald Ducks, and more well documented shenanigans than there is here room to recount.

[Gregory]

Paul, that's just local political machine shenanigans, picking low hanging fruit, helped along by voter outreach programs. Takes no central command at all.

[Paul Emery]

Gregory

So then based on some obscure blog entry from somebody called John the River we now have a national projection that this is happening thousands of times, according to Russ.

[Gregory]

No Paul, there's been anecdotal accounts of that sort of thing going back years, to the start of absentee ballots.

The easier it is to vote somewhere besides a designated polling place at a time other than business hours on election day, the more fraud there will be.

I'm still kicking myself for not making a citizens arrest at a polling place in the 80s... I was in the process of voting when another voter arrived, with an unofficial helper. The voter was obviously intellectually challenged and the helper accompanied the guy into the booth and was telling him how to vote... with the poll workers asking him to leave multiple times, and he finally did, possibly after the critical votes were punched.

I just didn't want the hassle... police should have been called...

[Paul Emery]

Gregory

I think George would brand his as anecdotal evidence.

[Russ]

Hey Paul

Democratic Party Operative Robert Creamer Used Terror to Wage War on Honesty

. . . an excited Creamer operative says “We’ve been bussing in people for 50 years and were not going to stop now.” What’s he talking about? Massive voter fraud. Oh yes, fraud of the size that steals elections.

http://observer.com/2016/10/democratic-party-operative-robert-creamer-used-terror-to-wage-war-on-honesty/

[Brad C]

More on the dumbth,

http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/walter-e-williams/dumb-american-youth

[Walt]

One from the history books.
"You gotta swallow this one," says in Oliver Stone's Nixon, referring to the 1960 election, in which John F. Kennedy prevailed. "They stole it fair and square."

That Richard Nixon was cheated out of the presidency in 1960 has become almost an accepted fact. You've probably heard the allegations: Kennedy's operatives fixed the tallies in Texas and Illinois, giving him those states' 51 electoral votes and a majority in the Electoral College. Fearing that to question the results would harm the country, Nixon checked his pride and declined to mount a challenge.

That's the one where the walking dead managed to vote.

[Walt]

Is this from Bill?( it sure reads like a Bill statement) I found this post on a radical LIB site.(Mikey Moore predicts Trump winning)
V-Chip 16 minutes ago
Ok, all you trolls out there who agree with Michael Moore that Trump will win: Do yourselves a favor and go put some large money on all this. You'll get great odds betting on Trump -- like 4 to 1, 5 to1 or even 7 to 1. That's how big an underdog he is.

So let's say you put up $5,000 from the profits you earned down at the meth lab. At 7-1 odds, you'll win $35,000. Great deal, eh?

Michael Moore himself doesn't need the money. Mr. Anti-Corporate Populist is worth about $50 million, according to Forbes.

Below is a helpful website that can give you all the betting markets.

Go ahead, folks. Don't just talk a good game. Put up or shut up. Let it ride....

http://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics/us-presidential-election-2016/winner

[George Rebane]

PaulE 1133am - When a piece of anecdotal evidence is revealed that gives plausible or obvious basis for the broad-based replication of a valuable and easy to implement process, then its broad-based use becomes at least more probable and perhaps even compelling. One political party setting up nationwide teams to 'help' older cum senile citizens vote definitely belongs to this class of processes.

[Bill Tozer]

Dr. Rebane @ 10:02 pm last night, up past his bedtime:

"Ah yes, the Left cannot conceive of anything broad-based happening at the grass roots level without central planning and control"

Doc, that is why it is called AstroTurf. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens without planning and control, with the emphasis on 'control'. Right Paul? Boy Paul, never saw you as the spokesperson for the Vast Left Wing Establishment Media Political Talking points. So, you are voting for My Gal, eh? No worries, it's our secret. Yes, I know. You are not technically voting for Crooked Hillary, you are just carrying her water. Big difference I suppose if one speaks legalese. Your true inclinations are showing. Keep lapping up the opiate for the masses and what you see will not compute with what you are being told. Polly want a cracker. Echo.

Yo Walt. I went to place a bet on both California Senators but just got laughed at. Darn.

[Paul Emery]

So George why wasn't the idea of guns getting into the hands of mentally unstable dangerous people a " plausible or obvious basis for the broad-based replication of a valuable and easy to implement process" ? That was the justification I proposed for more thorough background checks of gun owners. Please explain to me the difference from your view.
.

[Paul Emery]

This whole premis is based on the writings of someone called John the River on some obscure blog. Are there other exsamples of this process being replicated in closae detail to River Johns recollection?

[Gregory]

Paul, it isn't a new subject. It took me moments to google
retirement home voter outreach fraud

and find
"A glaring example of this disdain for election integrity is in Cooley’s admitting that it is against the law for the nursing home employees to assist patients with their ballot. But only, as Myrick wrote in her article, Cooley stressed that it’s against the law – “If you get caught.”"

http://nccapitolconnection.com/2016/10/11/election-fraud-is-alive-and-well/

Has it actually thrown an election... I'd guess not. But I'd not bet it couldn't.

[Paul Emery]

Gregory

Has there ever been an arrest or investigation into the rest home wrong doings you describe?

[Gregory]

What, arrest those nice people just helping old farts to vote the way they would if they were competent to vote?

Paul, I sense you're just fishing for reasons why you should ignore it. Why not pretend to be a radio newsman and dig for yourself?

[George Rebane]

PaulE 636pm - I'm a bit lost on how you connect this to my 250pm remark. Can you please expand a bit because it sounds like somewhere in there you have a point?

[Todd Juvinall]

The Union ran a story on the Indians occupying private property in North Dakota in order to stop or delay the pipeline construction. Now if I recall the econuts were all aflutter about the Bundy Clan protecting the man and his cattle and wanted him evicted from his historic right to graze on Federal lands.

[Bill Tozer]

Todd.

http://www.re-member.org/pine-ridge-reservation.aspx

[Bill Tozer]

Todd:

It's a bloody freaky thing from nature I tell ya. Freaky.

http://usuncut.com/resistance/thousands-wild-buffalo-appear-nowhere-standing-rock/