Eskimo Warren? M & M's - Do Eventually Melt Away! The Lengths One Goes In Protecting One's Own Instability

Dagny goes to Leopold's after getting manicure!


"My fear is if North Korea nukes us, Trump gonna' get us into a war."
                        ~  Maxine Waters (2017)
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M and M's (McCarthy and Meuller, they do eventually melt away.) 

As for myself, I hope Ms Doss does not investigate me. My grandfather was born in Russia, escaped from their army and walked across Europe to get here.  I know no Russian spies, nor have ever met or talked with Russian embassy employees.  I do hope my Representative, Buddy Carter, is not a Russian spy or has relatives in Russia because I have spoken with him and am having him come to our home on February 23 for a meet and greet and would not want to taint those who wish to exercise their democratic rights.

I hope Democrats will come as well because, though they may not vote for Buddy, he represents all in his district.

What Kim has written points out the degree to which losers will go to assuage their own instability. (See 1 below.)
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Recently a friend took those of us who live at The Landings to task for not wanting to be incorporated into Savannah, preferring to become our own incorporated city.

I sent the following to the local paper which they may or may nor print.

"The Landings is a great community, Savannah is a great City.

I love the tennis and communal atmosphere at and ambiance of The Landings.  

I visit Savannah for the culture, food and ice cream.  

I also love Tybee for the sand and yester year simplicity.

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Ross returns to Rant.. (See 2 below.)

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It begins. (See 3 below.)

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Some humor. (See 4 below.)
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Dick

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1) The Democrats’ ‘Russian Descent’

Tactics in the Trump probe are starting to look a lot like McCarthyism.

By Kim Strassel

Democrats have spent weeks making the case that the Russia-Trump probes need to continue, piling on demands for more witnesses and documents. So desperate is the left to keep this Trump cudgel to hand that Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats have moved toward neo- McCarthyism.

If that sounds hyperbolic, consider an email recently disclosed by the Young Turks Network, a progressive YouTube news channel. It’s dated Dec. 19, 2017, and its author is April Doss, senior counsel for the committee’s Democrats, including Vice Chairman Mark Warner.

Ms. Doss was writing to Robert Barnes, an attorney for Charles C. Johnson, the controversial and unpleasant alt-right blogger. Mr. Johnson’s interactions with Julian Assange inspired some in the media to speculate last year that Mr. Johnson had served as a back channel between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. There’s still no proof, but in July the Intelligence Committee sent a letter requesting Mr. Johnson submit to them any documents, emails, texts or the like related to “any communications with Russian persons” in a variety of 2016 circumstances, including those related to “the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign.”

Mr. Barnes seems to have wanted clarification from Ms. Doss about the definition of “Russian persons.” And this would make sense, since it’s a loose term. Russians in Russia? Russians in America? Russians with business in the country? Russians who lobby the U.S. and might be affected by the election—though not in contact with campaigns?

Ms. Doss’s response was more sweeping than any of these: “The provision we discussed narrowing was clarifying that the phrase ‘Russian persons’ in [the committee letter] may be read to refer to persons that Mr. Johnson knows or has reason to believe are of Russian nationality or descent” (emphasis added).

If this stands, Democrats will have gone far beyond criminalizing routine government contacts with Russians, which is disturbing enough. Trump transition and administration officials have been smeared and subjected to exhaustive investigation merely for doing their job, which includes interacting with Russian officials or diplomats. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has spent the past year having to justify why, as a U.S. senator, he shook hands with the Russian ambassador. The running joke in today’s Washington is that one risks a subpoena merely for ordering a salad with Russian dressing.

But the definition in the Doss letter potentially takes all this much further. It could be that Ms. Doss was simply trying to prevent a recalcitrant witness from evading legitimate requests. But it could mean you are now officially under suspicion by the U.S. government—subject to requisitioning your emails and texts or getting your own subpoena—if your parents or even great-great-grandparents were Russkis. By some estimates, the Russian-American community is more than three million strong, and quite a few of them are Mr. Warner’s congressional colleagues, including Bernie Sanders.

This comes from a Democratic Party that supposedly rejects group-based discrimination. Substitute the words “Arab or Arab background” into a hypothetical Republican version of the letter, and the left would melt down—not without reason.

The Doss letter suggests this is of a piece with the Democrats’ manic effort to keep the Trump-Russia investigations going, no matter what. As Republican congressional leaders have hinted that their probes may be wrapping up, the left’s demands and tactics have become ever more desperate. The Washington Post this past weekend ran a piece straight out of House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff’s talking points, regurgitating complaints that Chairman Devin Nunes has run an incomplete probe. The accusation inspired House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy to quip that Mr. Schiff’s desired witness list is “pretty much every character in any Dostoevsky or Tolstoy novel.”

The House Intelligence committee has collected nearly 300,000 documents, conducted 67 transcribed witness interviews, and issued 18 subpoenas. It’s held 11 hearings, taken 164 hours of testimony, and reviewed 5,251 pages of that testimony. It’s spent 346 days investigating Russian meddling. The country deserves the committee’s final recommendations as to how to avoid further Russian interference, especially given we are again in an election year.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr isn’t necessarily off the hook here, given that his own counsel was copied on the Doss email. Warner spokeswoman Rachel Cohen told me: “As committee leaders have said many, many times, we do not comment on individual witnesses or related requests, even if correspondences are selectively and misleadingly leaked to the media by figures like Chuck Johnson.”

But Messrs. Burr and Warner would be wise to remember that their staff works in their name, and that such outrageous tactics risk turning their roost into a modern version of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

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2) The scam penny stock games are back,  and it is just like Wolf of Wall St, they are centered in Long Island like Wolf. When a little company called Long Island Ice Tea just changes its name to Long Island Blockchain or TGI Solar suddenly is TGI Blockchain and both stocks skyrocket, you know the scammers are involved. Just like the old penny stock days of the sixties and seventies. This whole crypto currency nonsense, and trying to make believe blockchain is something any company can be involved with, is a sure sign the end of the madness is not far off. We just hope the crash of crypto currency and these scam stocks do not impact the real markets. I do not think they will since almost anybody who is responsible is publicly saying it is all going to end badly, and few are taking a plunge like Peter Theil and risking tens of millions. It is doubtful any regulated institution has any sizable position in crypto currency even if the trade it. Stay away from any of these penny stock scams. Now that N Korea has been caught hacking the crypto sites, anything could happen at any time to cause a crash. Stick with real stocks, and solid companies and enjoy the ride on up. All solid equities is still the strategy I am pursuing.

The Fed has a very difficult year to deal with. On one hand the economy is on a roll and that would suggest growth will be 3.5% or better in which case there would likely be more than three rate increases. On the other hand inflation remains very low with only some suggestion it may rise as labor shortages cause wage increases. I remain convinced inflation is not going to be a major issue given the global nature of logistics and the ability to have many services performed online anywhere in the world.  With the tax reform, there is already signs that companies will be spending on technology to increase productivity-a very good thing for economic growth.  Plus, Amazon and Wal Mart keeping pressure on prices generally. Lastly there are extreme risks of geopolitical black swans in N Korea and Iran, and maybe one we yet do not see, like a new election in Germany later in the year if Merkel cannot form a government coalition. The Fed needs to keep rates low in the event of one of the black swans suddenly blowing up. On the flip side, the whole world is growing nicely now simultaneously which suggests more growth in GDP to possibly 4% as the year progresses, and so maybe more rate hikes. The Fed committee is more dove than hawk, so rates are unlikely to be raised too fast, but it is impossible to know today what may happen.

Medicaid in 7 years will be $930 billion. That is far more than defense spending. We cannot afford it. Thanks to Susan Collins, Murkowsky and McCain, the Senate failed to pass healthcare reform to start to deal with it. Unless Medicaid is dramatically reduced we are headed for real crisis. It is essential to get Medicaid cut. If the Dems demand there has to be more domestic spending to match more defense spending we are in real trouble down the road.

More companies are handing out $1000 bonuses, and tying them to the tax bill. There will be more of this, as well as some wage increases, and Feb 1 net paychecks go up along with the bonuses. What are the Dems going to claim- the tax bill was terrible because now you get more money in your pocket and companies really paid out a sizable share of the savings to workers??? It is all Trump’s mental instability that caused you to get a $1000 bonus??? Or maybe --it is the Republicans favoring the wealthy that caused you to have more money, unemployment to be near record low, and the value of your home and 401K to be at a record high.

Christmas sales, preliminary Q4 GDP, and corporate earnings will start to get released in a couple of weeks. All should be better than forecast and the market should react well to this data. I expect Amazon and Wal Mart to show very big growth in online, and now they are positioned to take even larger segments of retail. Although online is still only around 9% of all retail sales, the base is now set for both of these companies to gain substantial growth going forward. Amazon is almost a generic word and Wal Mart has the capital and bricks locations for in store pick up, and well established supply chains, highly experienced management, and logistics to dominate. Wal Mart also has a well established grocery capability to compete effectively with Amazon/Whole Foods and super markets. All of this means continued store closings and disruption in retail.  It also means low prices for consumers and lower inflation than we would have expected in the past in an economic growth mode. The whole key is exceptional logistics and huge buying capacity.  Same day and free delivery, and free returns, has dramatically changed retail. Trump is correct that Amazon gets away with a super deal by paying the post office only $3.40 per package to deliver anywhere in the US. Nobody can afford to duplicate the post office which loses money on all this, so they should be able to dictate the price to Amazon.  

The Obama crowd is criticizing Trump for aggressively supporting the Iranian people. Some others in the liberal diplomatic establishment. also say Trump should be quiet. Quotes from leading protestors in Iran, however, are all greatly appreciative of Trump’s vocal support, and they say Obama let them down in 2009. In fact they are asking Trump to do even more. Obama, Biden and Ben Rhodes claimed the nuclear deal would moderate behavior by Iran and would lead to a better life for the people because they would spend the money on making life better.. Now we see how as Republicans predicted, the money went to terror and Assad and how completely stupid the Obama policy was. We see clearly from the protesters how Obama and his group either lied again, or they were just fools. It is not even clear the Iranians are not still pursuing nukes, except  in N Korea labs. Had there been no nuke deal, and no $150 billion cash and assets freed up, it is very possible the Iranian economy would have completely crashed by now, the regime overthrown, and they would not have been able to fund Assad, Hezbollah and Hamas, the Shia militias in Iraq, and the Houthis., The world would be in a very different and vastly better place now.  If you listen now to old statements by Obama selling the deal, virtually everything he said has proven to be foolish and naïve. There is a unique moment now to maybe actually help the protestors with cyber war, funds and weapons to drive the revolt. We will never really know what the US, Saudis and Israel are doing in this regard, but we can assume as much as possible. 35% of Iranians are really Azerbaijanis who want to be reunited with Azerbaijan. Millions more are young who want to live a secular and prosperous life like Iranians once did. The next several weeks will be critical, and could potentially change the whole mid-east calculation. Trump is right to not let this opportunity slip away as Obama did.

The year ended with the murder and shooting stats in major cities run by Dems having shot up again. The worst are the cites where Holder forced cities to sign anti policing agreements claiming the cops were racist. So now they have these agreements holding back the cops, and the result is hundreds more young black men are dead or badly wounded. Clear result of Obama and Holder going after the cops and not the criminals. All of these cities have strict anti-gun laws, and all have black police chiefs. Compare Chicago and Houston. They both have around 2.5 million population more or less. Chicago has 0 gun shops, Houston over 1500. Chicago has 38.4 murders per 100,000. Houston 9.6. Average income Chicago $38,900.  Houston 37,000. Average temperature Chicago 31 degrees in January, Houston 63-a lot warmer so more people on the street potentially committing crime or exposed to being shot. Population -Chicago 38.9% black 28.7% white, Houston 24% black, 26% white. Very similar cities- very different politics, and different police rules. Result dramatically lower violent crime in Houston, far more dead and wounded black men in Chicago. In fact Chicago is responsible for 50% of the national increase in murder and Baltimore is not far behind.  Do you think the Obama Holder policies were counterproductive??? Do you  think the Black Lives Matter protests shutting down Christmas shopping helped save lives. This was Obama’s hometown, and now it is the murder capital of America after 8 years of his policies.

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3) U.S. sanctions five Iranian entities, signals more measures

JIHAD WATCH, Robert Spencer

The United States on Thursday placed sanctions on five subsidiaries of an Iranian industrial group that is considered key in the development and production of the country’s ballistic missiles.

The sanctions imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, an arm of the Treasury Department, targeted companies that are owned or controlled by the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group, an Iranian defense entity that already is under U.S. sanctions.

Last month, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, showed reporters fragments from missiles that had been launched by Yemeni rebels into Saudi Arabia. One shredded fragment had the Shahid Bakeri logo on it, seeming proof that it was manufactured in Iran.

The latest sanctions were directed at Shahid Kharrazi Industries, Shahid Sanikhani Industries, Shahid Moghaddam Industries, Shahid Eslami Research Center and Shahid Shustari Industries, all linked to Shahid Bakeri. Each produces a specific component of ballistic missiles, such as guidance and control systems, motor cases or fiber materials.

“These sanctions target key entities involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program, which the Iranian regime prioritizes over the economic well-being of the Iranian people,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “As the Iranian people suffer, their government and the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] fund foreign militants, terrorist groups and human rights abuses.”

The new sanctions come after a week of anti-government protests that have spread across Iran in towns and small cities that previously were considered bulwarks of government support. President Trump has tweeted his support for the protesters and criticism of the government, warning that “the world is watching.”

With more than 20 people dead in the government response to the protests, the Trump administration is considering whether to impose new sanctions related to human rights abuses.

In addition, Trump must decide by Jan. 15 whether to recertify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which he decided not to do in October. He also must decide whether to waive U.S. nuclear-related sanctions that were suspended under the landmark agreement. If he decides not to waive sanctions and to reimpose them, the United States would be violating the commitments it made and, in effect, walking away from the agreement.

The nuclear deal did not address contentious issues such as Iran’s support for militant groups in the region or its ballistic missile activities. The Obama administration said it was better to deal with the other issues once Iran’s ability to amass fissile material needed for nuclear weapons were kept in check. The Trump administration has accused the Obama administration of ignoring Iran’s troubling behavior to keep the nuclear deal alive.

The sanctions prohibit all Americans from dealing with the named organizations, and any assets they have in the United States may be frozen. The most significant impact, however, is that any international bank doing business with the sanctioned firms can be heavily penalized because most international transactions are conducted at least partially in U.S. dollars.

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4)The Light Turned Yellow

The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating 

through the intersection.  

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup. 

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

 He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

 After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. 

She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'Follow Me toSunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally....I assumed you had stolen the car."

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Jan 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department has placed Pakistan on a special watch list for “severe violations of religious freedom,” it said on Thursday, days after the White House said Islamabad would have to do more to combat terrorism to receive U.S. aid.

The State Department also said it had re-designated 10 other nations as “countries of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated egregious violations of religious freedom.

The re-designated countries were China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. They were re-designated on Dec. 22.

“The protection of religious freedom is vital to peace, stability, and prosperity,” the department said in a statement. “These designations are aimed at improving the respect for religious freedom in these countries.” Jan 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department has placed Pakistan on a special watch list for “severe violations of religious freedom,” it said on Thursday, days after the White House said Islamabad would have to do more to combat terrorism to receive U.S. aid.

The State Department also said it had re-designated 10 other nations as “countries of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated egregious violations of religious freedom.

The re-designated countries were China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. They were re-designated on Dec. 22.

“The protection of religious freedom is vital to peace, stability, and prosperity,” the department said in a statement. “These designations are aimed at improving the respect for religious freedom in these countries.”…