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More commentary why most liberal Jews embrace Socialism. (See 1 below.)
I am reposting this article because, at least one Jew, a Rabbi, gets it apparently. (See 1a below.)
And: A new one worthy of being psted. (See 1b below.)
Capitalist Langone finances socialism. (See 1c below.)
And:
I have consistently called attention to the fact that progressives and liberals mock those who are religious. Obama did it and Hillary called them deplorables.
The link below is 90 seconds you won't regret watching—-his last sentence says it all!
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The NFL season is about to begin and we will be watching those with brain concussions tell us about how racist America is and how ashamed we should feel about our national symbols starting with our flag.. (See 2 below.)
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One man's view of Trump's negotiating ability.
It is obvious the Chinese are using N Korea to play hardball in response to Trump's trade sanctions.
Statistically, China has far more to lose than we so who knows when someone yells uncle. China's economy is not as weak as Russia's nor as perilous as Iran's but iChina is experiencing a severe downturn and their internal debt is very high. Time will tell. (See 3 below.)
No matter what you believe regarding Mueller's investigation it is having a negative impact on Trump's ability to govern, and is causing foreigners to question whether he will remain president and, even if he survives a potential impeachment, will he be so damaged as to be ineffective.
The worst Trump is probably guilty of is borrowing money from some questionable Russian sources, if that. Any collusion has proven to be that which Hillary and the DNC not only contrived but paid for through various law firms so the double standard Wall Street Journal's Kim Strassel discussed, in a recent op ed, cannot be dismissed.
You may not like Trump, you may not like his behaviour, you may find his manner less than presidential. However, the critical question one must answer is whether sacrificing the nation is worth pursuing what has become an out of bounds vindictive , sore loser political hunt that bears little resemblance to Mueller's initial charge. Yes, Mueller has uncovered sleeze among some engaged with Trump that related to their own behaviour and most long before Trump sought the presidency.
In his zeal to find illegal activity, Mueller has also pursued and/or been engaged in questionable methods that carry serious implications going forward when it comes to breeching matters of confidentiality etc.
Democrats are playing with fire and burning the house down to roast a "pig," as it were and, as Charles Lamb wrote about, this is beyond the pale and will come back to haunt us all. (See 3a below.)
Schumer, Pelosi, Waters, Sanders and "Pocahontas" Warren have chosen to be obstructionists and mavericks. They seek a pound of Republicans flesh for what occurred regarding "Ole " Bill. We are currently burying another maverick who is being praised for his heroism and willingness to cross the aisle etc. No doubt John McCain held strong beliefs but that does not excuse the fact that some of his legislative policies proved disastrous, ie. McCain Feingold among others.
Congress is failing to act responsibly. Over the years Congress abdicated much of its power and constitutional authority to the executive branch. The American people are disgusted with their elected officials and justifiably so. They have an even greater contempt for the mass media and in that regard they are also justified. The wheels are coming off the Republic and nothing Trump can do to "Make America Great Again" can work as long as you have politicians like Gov. Cuomo mouthing off, as he did recently, that America was never great.
The foundation on which our nation rests is fragile and those who seek power and retribution and use character assassination and other rancid methods of personal destruction do so at the cost of our nation's security and unison and are acting in a most treacherous manner in my humble opinion.
http://thehill.com/opinion/
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While I was away, I began to think about two, so called, non-economic matters that could send a torpedo into the bow of the current bull market. No sooner had I finished my thoughts, I received this article from a family member who reads my memos and has enjoyed a storied consulting career in the field of technology.
(What I have written above is along the same line and expresses many of the same thoughts using similar phraseology.) You decide. (See 4 and 4a below.)
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Dick
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1).
Trump, Socialism, and the Jews
Winston Churchill called Jews "the most formidable and the most remarkable race, which has ever appeared in the world." As a Jew, I am perplexed by the Jews' remarkably irrational commitment to the Democratic Party and their formidable opposition to Donald Trump.
The old saw, "There are two types of Jews: those who believe that Judaism is about social justice and those who know Hebrew," contains more than a kernel of truth. By and large, orthodox Jews voted for Trump in 2016, showing superior foresight.
The old saw, "There are two types of Jews: those who believe that Judaism is about social justice and those who know Hebrew," contains more than a kernel of truth. By and large, orthodox Jews voted for Trump in 2016, showing superior foresight.
Domestically, as the Trump economic policies are producing prosperity and economic dynamism, Jews benefit just as the rest of Americans and arguably more. Internationally, Trump has proven to be an unabashed supporter of Israel; he terminated the Iranian nuclear deal, moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, persuaded Saudi Arabia to cooperate with Israel against Iran, and broke the back of the Palestinian Authority. He destroyed ISIS and supplied Israel with the most sophisticated weaponry in the American arsenal. Incredibly, he has accomplished all of this in his first 18 months in office. No American president has done for Israel so much in such a short period of time. As a matter of record, with the exception of President Richard Nixon, no president has done for Jews and Israel so much, period.
A vast majority of American Jews remain unimpressed. They are not motivated by concerns for Israel; they are not motivated by the interests of the United States and are eminently not practical about their own necessities. What they all passionately care about is social justice. Social justice, in terms of helping the sick and the poor, is deeply embedded in Judaism; for Jews, it is a case of irrational obsession. With the emergence of the industrial revolution and massive generation of wealth, Jews took up economic inequality and embraced ideas of socialism.
The Jewish love affair with socialism which began in Russia with the fanaticism of the grandparents has been transformed into the fear of the parents and subsequently into the conviction of the children and grandchildren; it is embedded deeply in the Jewish DNA.
Living in ghettos for two millennia, the Jewish people have been struggling to reconcile their tragic history with the logic of modern reality. They have a difficult time coming to terms with the freedom and equal opportunities that America offers. They continue to fight for social justice, refusing to recognize that, as far as Jews are concerned, what they have accomplished in this country goes well beyond their wildest expectations. Sons and daughters of the first immigrants, who dug trenches and washed dishes in New York, became doctors, lawyers, senators, bankers, and industrialists.
Unfortunately, the descendants of the first immigrants inherited the genetic memories of their ghetto ancestors. They feel guilty for achieving a standard of living as good as or better than any other ethnic group in this country. The guilt associated with their own success has led them to take on, and support, the cause of every underdog and liberal and socialist movement in sight, no matter how undeserving, no matter how irrational.
Although socialism brought terrible suffering to Jews, they would not abandon their devotion to the cause. As prominent Zionist Zev Jabotinsky once said, "logic is an art of the Greeks; a Jew has his own logic. Jewish logic is the logic of catastrophe. Jews do not detect danger; they face it when it comes."
But history punishes willful blindness, and catastrophes keep reappearing.
In many ways, the 1917 socialist revolution in Russia was in fact a Jewish revolution. Jews founded and shaped the Soviet state. Yet these same Jewish Bolsheviks quickly became the first state's victims. Over the next twenty years, by 1937, practically all of them were executed or murdered abroad.
In the late 1920s, some German Jews voted for Hitler's National Socialist Party, only to become victims of the Holocaust a decade later. They chose to ignore Hitler's anti-Semitic rhetoric; he could not be bad, much less evil. After all, he was a socialist!
Jews passionately supported and continue to admire Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1939 denied entry for Jews seeking asylum from Nazi extermination and sent them back to the concentration camps. Nevertheless, Jews voted for FDR and still love him – after all, the New Deal was a giant step toward socialism.
In our own time, Jews continue to ignore the teachings of Karl Marx, their fellow member of the tribe, that socialism is about redistribution of wealth. The aim is to take it from the rich, even though there are many Jews among them. This is what Bernie Sanders's suicidal "Future to Believe In" is about.
What is really remarkable is that over the last century, no social macrocosm has more consistently voted against its own self-interest and survival. We may expose Jewish devotion to socialism and shame Jews for betraying their own interests; however, conviction is stronger than reason.
As the leadership of the Democratic Party dropped all pretenses and openly advocates socialism in this country, the heritable socialists impelled by conviction will ignore once again the political necessities and vote for the party that speaks their language.
Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and author of Anatomy of a Bolshevik and Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It.
Everyone Is Smart Except Trump
It really is quite simple. Everyone is smart except Donald J. Trump. That’s why they all are billionaires and all got elected President. Only Trump does not know what he is doing. Only Trump does not know how to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. Anderson Cooper knows how to stand up to Putin. The whole crowd at MSNBC does. All the journalists do.They could not stand up to Matt Lauer at NBC. They could not stand up to Charlie Rose at CBS. They could not stand up to Mark Halperin at NBC. Nor up to Leon Wieseltier at the New Republic, nor Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone, nor Michael Oreskesat NPR, at the New York Times, or at the Associated Press. But — oh, wow! — can they ever stand up to Putin! Only Trump is incapable of negotiating with the Russian tyrant.Remember the four years when Anderson Cooper was President of the United States? And before that — when the entire Washington Post editorial staff jointly were elected to be President? Remember? Neither do I.
The Seedier Media never have negotiated life and death, not corporate life and death, and not human life and death. They think they know how to negotiate, but they do not know how. They go to a college, are told by peers that they are smart, get some good grades, proceed to a graduate degree in journalism, and get hired as analysts. Now they are experts, ready to take on Putin and the Iranian Ayatollahs at age 30.That is not the road to expertise in tough dealing. The alternate road is that, along the way, maybe you get forced into some street fights. Sometimes the other guy wins, and sometimes you beat the intestines out of him. Then you deal with grown-ups as you mature, and you learn that people can be nasty, often after they smile and speak softly. You get cheated a few times, played. And you learn. Maybe you become an attorney litigating multi-million-dollar case matters. Say what you will about attorneys, but those years — not the years in law school, not the years drafting legal memoranda, but the years of meeting face-to-face and confronting opposing counsel — those years can teach a great deal. They can teach how to transition from sweet, gentle, diplomatic negotiating to tough negotiating. At some point, with enough tough-nosed experience, you figure out Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” yourself.Trump’s voters get him because not only is he we, but we are he. We were not snowflaked-for-life by effete professors who themselves never had negotiated tough life-or-death serious deals. Instead we live in the real world, and we know how that works. Not based on social science theories, not based on “conceptual negotiating models.” But based on the people we have met over life and always will hate. That worst boss we ever had. The coworker who tried to sabotage us. We know the sons of bums whom we survived, the dastardly types who are out there, and we learned from those experiences how to deal with them. We won’t have John Kerry soothe us by having James Taylor sing “You’ve Got a Friend” carols.
The Bushes got us into all kinds of messes. The first one killed the economic miracle that Reagan had fashioned. The second one screwed up the Middle East, where Iraq and Iran beautifully were engaged in killing each other for years, and he got us mired into the middle of the muddle. Clinton was too busy with Monica Lewinsky to protect us from Osama bin Laden when we had him in our sights. Hillary gave us Benghazi and more. And Obama and Kerry gave us the Iran Deal, ISIS run amok, America in retreat. All to the daily praise of a media who now attack Trump every minute of every day.
So let us understand a few things:
Negotiating with NATO:
NATO is our friend. They also rip off America. They have been ripping us off forever. We saved their butts — before there even was a NATO — in World War I. They messed up, and 116,456 Americans had to die to save their butts. Then they messed up again for the next two decades because West Europeans are effete and so obsessed with their class mannersand their rules of savoir faire and their socialist welfare states and their early retirements that they did not have the character to stand up to Hitler in the 1930s. Peace in our time. So they messed up, and we had to save their butts again. And another 405,399 Americans died for them during World War II. And then we had to rebuild them! And we had to station our boys in Germany and all over their blood-stained continent. So, hey, we love those guys. We love NATO.
And yet they still rip us off. We pay 4% of our gigantic gross domestic product to protect them, and they will not pay a lousy 2% of their GDP towards their own defense. Is there a culture more penny-pinching-cheap-and-stingy than the fine constituents of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? These cheap baseborn prigs will not pay their fare. They are too cheap. They expect America to send boys to die for them in one world war, then another — hundreds of thousands — and then to pay for their NATO defense even a century later.
And then they have the temerity to cheat us further in trade. Long before Trump, they set up tariffs against us for so many things. If the average American knew how badly Europe has been ripping us off for decades with their tariffs, no one in this country would buy anything European again. We would say, as a matter of self-respect and personal pride, “I no longer will buy anything but American, no matter what it costs.”
Every American President has complained about the cheating and imbalance — the NATO penny-pinching-cheapness, the tariff and trade imbalances. In more recent years, the various Bushes complained about it. Even Obama complained about it. But they all did it so gently, so diplomatically. They would deliver the sermon, just as the pastor predictably tells the church-goers on Sunday morning that he is against sin, and the Europeans would sit quietly and nod their heads — nodding from sleeping, not from agreeing — and then they would go back out and sin some more. Another four years of America being suckered and snookered. All they had to do was give Obama a Nobel Peace Prize his ninth month in office and let Kerry ride his bike around Paris.
So Trump did what any effective negotiator would do: he took note of past approaches to NATO and their failures, and correctly determined that the only way to get these penny-pinching-cheap baseborn prigs to pay their freight would be to bulldoze right into their faces, stare them right in their glazed eyes with cameras rolling, and tell them point-blank the equivalent of: “You are the cheapest penny-pinching, miserly, stingy, tightwadded skinflints ever. And it is going to stop on my watch. Whatever it takes from my end, you selfish, curmudgeonly cheap prigs, you are going to pay your fair share. I am not being diplomatic. I am being All-Business: either you start to pay or, wow, are you in for some surprises! And you know what you read in the Fake News: I am crazy! I am out of control! So, lemme see. I know: We will go to trade war! How do you like that? Maybe we even will pull all our troops out of Europe. Hmmm. Yeah, maybe. Why not? Sounds good. Well, let’s see.”So Trump stuffed it into their quiche-and-schnitzel ingesting faces. And he convinced them — thanks to America’s Seedier Media who are the real secret to the “Legend That is Trump” — that he just might be crazy enough to go to trade war and to pull American boys home. They knew that Clinton and Bush x 2 and Kerry and Hillary and Nobel Laureate Obama never would do it. But they also know that Trump just might. And if they think they are going to find comfort and moderating in his new advisers, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, alongside him….Nuh-uh.
So CNN and the Washington Post and all the Seedier Media attacked Trump for days: He is destroying the alliance! He attacks our friends!Baloney. Obama was the one whom the Left Echo Chamber… Chamber… Chamber never called out for attacking our friends — Israel, Britain, so many others — while cozying up to Hugo Chavez, bowing to dictators, and dancing the tango for RaulCastro. Trump is just the opposite: He knows who the friends are, and he wants to maintain and strengthen those friendships. It is no different from a parent telling a 35-year-old son: “I have been supporting you for thirty-five years. I put you through college by signing four years and $100,000 in PLUS Loans. You graduated college fifteen years ago. For fifteen years I have been asking you nicely to look for a job and to start contributing. Instead, you sit home all day playing video games, texting your friends on a smartphone I pay for, and picking little fuzz balls out of your navel. So, look, I love you. You are my flesh and blood. But if you are not employed and earning a paycheck — and contributing to the cost of this household — in six months, we are throwing you out of the house.” That boy is NATO. Trump is Dad. And all of us have been signing for the PLUS Loans.
Negotiating with Putin
Putin is a bad guy. A really bad guy. He is better than Lenin. Better than Stalin, Khrushchev, Kosygin, Brezhnev, Pol Pot, Mao. But he is a really bad guy.
Here’s the thing: Putin is a dictator. He answers to no one. He does whatever he wants. If there arises an opponent, that guy dies. Maybe the opponent gets poked with a poisoned umbrella. Maybe he gets shot on the street. Maybe the opponent is forced to watch Susan Rice interviews telling the world that Benghazi happened because of a YouTube video seen by nine derelicts in Berkeley and that Bowe Berghdal served with honor and distinction. But, one way or another, the opponent dies.
Trump knows this about Putin. And here is what that means:If you insult Putin in public, like by telling the newsmedia just before or after meeting with him that he is the Butcher of Crimea, and he messed with our elections, and is an overall jerk — then you will get nothing behind closed doors from Putin. Putin will decide “To heck with you, and to heck with the relationship we just forged.” Putin will get even, will take intense personal revenge, even if it is bad for Russia — even if it is bad for Putin. Because there are no institutional reins on him.
But if you go in public and tell everyone that Putin is a nice guy (y’know, just like Kim Jong Un) and that Putin intensely maintains that he did not mess with elections — not sweet little Putey Wutey (even though he obviously did) — then you next can maintain the momentum established beforehand in the private room. You can proceed to remind Putin what you told him privately: that this garbage has to stop — or else. That if he messes in Syria, we will do “X.” If he messes with our Iran boycott, we will do “Y.” We will generate so much oil from hydraulic fracturing and from ANWR and from all our sources that we will glut the market — if not tomorrow, then a year from now. We will send even more lethal offensive military weapons to Ukraine. We can restore the promised shield to Eastern Europe that Obama withdrew. And even if we cannot mess with Russian elections (because they have no elections), they do have computers — and, so help us, we will mess with their technology in a way they cannot imagine. Trump knows from his advisers what we can do. If he sweet-talks Putin in public — just Putin on the Ritz — then everything that Trump has told Putin privately can be reinforced with action, and he even can wedge concessions because, against that background, Putin knows that no one will believe that he made any concessions. Everyone is set to believe that Putin is getting whatever he wants, that Trump understands nothing. So, in that setting, Putin can make concessions and still save face.
That is why Trump talks about him that way. And that is the only possible way to do it when negotiating with a tyrant who has no checks and balances on him. If you embarrass the tyrant publicly, then the tyrant never will make concessions because he will fear that people will say he was intimidated and backed down. And that he never will do. Meanwhile, Trump has expelled 60 Russians from America, reversed Obama policy and sent lethal weapons to Ukraine, and is pressing Germany severely on its pipeline project with Russia.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, Donald Trump is over seventy years old. He has made many mistakes in his life. He still makes some. He is human. But Trump likewise has spent three score and a dozen years learning. He has seen some of his businesses go bankrupt, and he has learned from those experiences to be a billionaire and not let it happen again. No doubt that he has been fooled, outsmarted in years past. And he has learned from life.
He is a tough and smart negotiator. He sizes up his opponent, and he knows that the approach that works best for one is not the same as for another. It does not matter what he says publicly about his negotiating opponent. What matters is what results months later. In his first eighteen months in Washington, this man has turned around the American economy, brought us near full employment, reduced the welfare and food stamp lines, wiped out ISIS in Raqqa, moved America’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem, successfully has launched massive deregulation of the economy, has opened oil exploration in ANWR, is rebuilding the military massively, has walked out of the useless Paris Climate Accords that were negotiated by America’s amateurs who always get snookered, canned the disastrous Iran Deal, exited the bogus United Nations Human Rights Council. He has Canada and Mexico convinced he will walk out of NAFTA if they do not pony up, and he has the Europeans convinced he will walk out of NATO if they don’t stop being the cheap and lazy parasitic penny-pinchers they are. He has slashed income taxes, expanded legal protections for college students falsely accused of crimes, has taken real steps to protect religious freedoms and liberties promised in the First Amendment, boldly has taken on the lyme-disease-quality of a legislative mess that he inherited from Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama on immigration, and has appointed a steady line of remarkably brilliant conservative federal judges to sit on the district courts, the circuit appellate courts, and the Supreme Court.
What has Anderson Cooper achieved during that period? Jim Acosta or the editorial staffs of the New York Times and Washington Post? They have not even found the courage and strength to stand up to the coworkers and celebrities within their orbits who abuse sexually or psychologically or emotionally. They have no accomplishments to compare to his. Just their effete opinions, all echoing each other, all echoing, echoing, echoing. They gave us eight years of Nobel Peace Laureate Obama negotiating with the ISIS JV team, calming the rise of the oceans, and healing the planet.
We will take Trump negotiating with Putin any day.
1b From: John Porter
To: Americans Everywhere
I have been asked by many people around the Country if I would write a definition of Socialism, its inherent evils and the effects it would have upon us as individuals. The following is my attempt at answering that request. For certain, it would be a death blow to capitalism as well as to the God-given freedoms which we have enjoyed for so long in the United States.
Our country’s economic system is called capitalism. It is based upon private ownership of property, which includes the means of production for the creation of goods or services for income and profit by individuals. It is a free market economic system based on the recognition of individual rights to own property (lands, businesses, goods, etc.). Such rights give individuals security and a means to control their own affairs, thus their own destiny. Under capitalism, private citizens, with their ownership of property, are responsible for the production and distribution of goods.
Whereas, Socialism is government ownership of property and control of production and distribution. The essential characteristic of Socialism is the denial of individual property rights. Individuals have no control over their own affairs and destiny. Almost every aspect of living will be regulated by the government.
It has been said, "Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, or collective good."
I do not believe the majority of the American people would knowingly or willingly adopt Socialism, once understood, even though a poll conducted this week showed 57% of the Democrats polled would. It has been seeping in, little by little, over the past one hundred years pushed by the Democrat Party's progressives and liberals. If we aren’t careful, every fragment of a socialist state will be adopted a little slice at a time, until one day America will be a full-blown socialist nation, without realizing how it happened.
I do not believe the majority of the American people would knowingly or willingly adopt Socialism, once understood, even though a poll conducted this week showed 57% of the Democrats polled would. It has been seeping in, little by little, over the past one hundred years pushed by the Democrat Party's progressives and liberals. If we aren’t careful, every fragment of a socialist state will be adopted a little slice at a time, until one day America will be a full-blown socialist nation, without realizing how it happened.
Karl Marx, the nineteenth century German socialist revolutionary, taught that “Democracy is the road to Socialism” and preached that “Socialism represents the stage following Capitalism in a country transforming to Communism.” The platforms of Liberals, Progressives and Socialists such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other Democrat Party leaders are drawn from either Communism, Marxism or Fascism. They are all varying degrees of Socialism known as totalitarian concepts, differing in degrees only. There is not one example of a Socialist country, past or present, ever producing the level of prosperity and happiness for the people which our Capitalist system of private enterprise, individual ownership of property, has accomplished. If there were, people would not be cutting fences, climbing walls, swimming rivers or loading onto boats to escape those countries to get into the United States.
The Representative Republic of the United States with our Capitalist and Free Enterprise Market System has been the world’s dominant economic system for over two hundred years. Within it, the means of production of goods and the distribution of those goods are owned by individuals. Since America’s beginnings, the freedom of private ownership and free enterprise with its spirit of competition, have led to the abundance of food and products, more efficiency, lower prices, better products and rising prosperity. The production of food and materials and private individual prosperity has never been – can never be – equaled by any socialist country.
The people of almost every country on the continent of Africa are starving to death. Daily, we are shown the fly blown faces of these starving people. Venezuela is in total chaos with hungry people rioting in the streets. Every one of those countries have Socialist governments of some form. Every country on the continent of Europe is today experiencing the results of the evils of their respective degrees of Socialism with extremely high taxes. Despite tax rates of 75% and more Socialist countries all over the world are without enough food and goods to support the people. The Democrat Party, now becoming a strong proponent of Socialism, is wanting to lead our Country toward that same end.
How would Socialism affect YOU as an individual? By necessity, tax rates in America will reach upward of 90%, and our way of life will be exactly like that in Europe, Africa, Central America, Asia, Russia and elsewhere. Socialized health care will mandate who your doctor will be, even whether or not you are a candidate for treatment of an illness. It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to buy a new home, land, a car, or reap the benefits of your own labor. Birth control will be mandated, private ownership of property will be denied, starting and maintaining a business impossible. Even the small things in our everyday lives such as the kind of windows you may put in your house and the type of light bulbs you may buy. The list of evils of Socialism is a long one. We hear a great deal from the proponents of Socialism about the sharing of wealth. Be warned – Socialism is nothing more than the sharing of misery.
The preachers of Socialism use the plight of the poor, the disenfranchised and the jobless with their promises to equalize income, share the wealth, level the economic playing field, take from those who have and give to those who have not, every thing will be free. The concept that with hard work and perseverance anybody can get ahead economically in the United States will be destroyed. Again, misery will be shared by all.
Most Americans think this could not happen here. I used to think that … until I realized differently. Not only can it happen here, IT WILL happen here if we allow the Socialist Democrat Party to gain control of our government. In the primaries now going on and the general election on November 6, this year we are being given the opportunity to choose our destiny. The choices are clear, the bondage of one world Socialism and its miseries or America first with the individual freedom of Capitalism and its prosperity.
Most Americans think this could not happen here. I used to think that … until I realized differently. Not only can it happen here, IT WILL happen here if we allow the Socialist Democrat Party to gain control of our government. In the primaries now going on and the general election on November 6, this year we are being given the opportunity to choose our destiny. The choices are clear, the bondage of one world Socialism and its miseries or America first with the individual freedom of Capitalism and its prosperity.
The Democrat Party being lead by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and others are committed to destroying capitalism, that which has made America great, and replacing it with Socialism. Their giant first step will be to destroy President Trump because he looms large in their path with his dedication to America First Capitalism and Constitutional mind set. Today, the Democrat Party stands on the rocket launching pad for a Socialist States of America and a farewell to the Constitutional Republic of The United States of America. The date for launching is set for November 6, 2018. The American people who love freedom and responsibility can cause it to fizzle or watch as it soar in flight. No one will be exempt from the evils and misery of Socialism, not you, not your children, not your grandchildren.
We, that would be you and me, have got to fight what is happening. We cannot sit this one out. We cannot rely on someone else doing it for us. We have a duty and an obligation to protect, defend and preserve our Country, our freedom, our way of life. We don’t have a lot of time. IF we lose, that loss will come at an unthinkable cost to every American.
The price of freedom has always come with a hefty price tag. Not a single American soldier has ever died in defense of Socialism.
STOPPING SOCIALISM IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE BEFORE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TODAY.
1c) A Free Tuition Education
Ken Langone’s book should be required reading at NYU.
New York University announced late last week that it will offer free tuition for every current and future student attending its medical school. That’s pretty cool and will save students some $55,000 a year and a lot of debt. But in the spirit of Milton Friedman’s line that there is no such thing as a free lunch, allow us to suggest that every NYU student should have one obligation in return for accepting the gift—read and write an essay on Ken Langone’s autobiography, “I Love Capitalism!”
The medical students should at least know where the money for their free tuition will come from. It doesn’t flow from the good intentions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it isn’t a product of the Cuban health-care system.
It will come from capitalists like Ken Langone and his wife Elaine, who donated about $100 million of the $600 million that NYU says it will need to fund the scholarships. The son of a plumber and a cafeteria worker, Mr. Langone went to Wall Street after Bucknell and NYU business school. He went on to found Home Depot , the national home-improvement chain that now provides a livelihood for some 400,000 people.
Mr. Langone has channelled much of his wealth into philanthropy, including the medical center at NYU that is named for him and his wife. As Mr. Langone explains in his book, this is how a free society creates wealth and then redistributes it. Socialism creates little wealth and redistributes poverty, as Venezuelans are discovering. The medical students could spend a semester in Caracas to learn these lessons, but they can save time and considerable pain by reading Mr. Langone.
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2)Enough with the Victimhood: Millionaire Athletes
and Their Lost Cause
by Sylvia Thompson
by Sylvia Thompson
I must admit I have never in my life purchased a ticket to a sports event. I
am not a sports enthusiast. But I am an American black citizen, and I have
had it up to the gills with black people who embrace victimhood. I also
highly resent my being expected to do the same in order to affirm my
"blackness."
Black victims these days, for the most part, are the product of decades of
Black Americans being used primarily by white progressive leftists to
advance an anti-American agenda.
The current brouhaha surrounding the despicable behavior of NFL athletes
toward the National Anthem and the American flag is a prime example of what
the Left has done to my race.
One must assume these players and their guilt-conflicted white coaches and
owners (and victimhood-inflicted black coaches) are being manipulated by the
Left, because no intelligent, thinking people would deliberately cut
themselves off at the knees. Essentially, what these young misguided mostly
black men are doing is ensuring the demise of their lucrative paychecks.
Further, I would wager that if these teams consisted of all white athletes,
none of this idiocy would be allowed. We are witnessing this travesty
because the vast majority of players are black and can whine "oppression" if
appropriate action is taken against them for their unconscionable behavior.
The twisted reasoning that claims these protests are to highlight
"injustice" and "police brutality" is a laughable crock. What they do in
fact is dishonor valued symbols of this nation's heritage and cover over
truth about black crime.
Black males bear the brunt of police encounters because black males commit
disproportionately more crimes. Police encounters with black men are so
often confrontational because so many of these men, especially the young,
don't think "compliance" applies to them. They foolishly assume they are
above the law and disrespect for police officers is an act of honor.
These young blacks, sadly, took much of their direction from racists Obama
and Eric Holder during Obama's destructive, eight-year regime and Holder's
corruption of the Justice Department. These two men, abusing their federal
powers, gave young blacks the impression they need not heed the law, because
laws are somehow unjust when they are applied to black Americans. The NFL
lot, and any other athletes taking a similar stance, are also influenced by
Obama's and Holder's disdain for law and law enforcement.
I am not familiar with one case where a black suspect to a crime was not
proven legally to have caused the behavior against him, particularly in
cases where the police officer involved was exonerated by facts. Michael
Brown of "hands up, don't shoot" infamy is one good example. Blatant lies
were spread to cloud the truth about Brown's case.
Back in the day when I was growing up in the racially segregated South, the
opposite prevailed in many cases. There was much injustice particularly
toward black men, but not today. Today, too many blacks have been fed the
notion that it is now "pay-back" time, and they can flaunt their lawlessness
because some whites flaunted theirs during an earlier time in our nation's
history.
Although Obama and Holder no longer wield power in this country, some of
their minions continue on the pernicious path of "paying back" American
whites for wrongs, real or imagined. But as the saying goes, there is a new
Sheriff in town and he is not guilt-conflicted. He expects fair play under
law and tolerating pay-back is not part of his agenda. Black Americans, when
they break the law, can no longer claim victim status simply because they
are black. Those days are over.
American laws and law enforcement personnel will be respected in America,
again; our traditions and values will not be impugned in America without
consequences, again. Anybody unsettled about this turn of events is welcome
to leave this country. I suggest all the black players try a country in
Africa, and see how successful they will be at making millions playing
games. They will all soon learn what oppression really means.
Some self-directed, independent-thinking blacks (and there are many of us)
have offered that if these millionaire protestors want to tackle some real
problems, they might consider the thousands of black children killed in
abortions annually (by the progressive Left), or perhaps the many, many
young blacks murdered routinely on inner-city streets by other young blacks
(in cities run by progressive, leftist Democrats), or the downright criminal
state of education of black inner-city children, orchestrated by the
progressive leftist National Education Association (NEA). The NEA's aim is
to produce unintelligent pawns to feed the cause of progressivism.
I am annoyed by the expressions of "sincerity" gracing the faces of the NFL
protestors-as if to convey the "hallowedness" of their cause. In actuality,
they provide a picture of grown men allowing themselves to be made fools of
by the progressive Left. I don't doubt, however, that some of these men have
been coerced into compliance with this lost cause, either through threats of
violence or shunning (from coaches and players). Alejandro Villanueva of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and former Army ranger is very likely a victim of such
threats. He was publicly castigated by his leftist coach for his patriotism.
The coach demanded unity behind an ignorant cause.
And finally, this issue has nothing to do with First Amendment rights.
President Trump's speaking out against the clownish behavior of the
athletes, on behalf of the majority of American citizens, does not mean he
can or would stop any of these misguided people from making fools of
themselves. To restrict them, as a government entity, would indeed be a
violation of the First Amendment..... But their employers, if they were to
develop even a modicum of testicular fortitude, could and should fire them
for doing major damage to the bottom line of the business. The rest of us
non-millionaire "Joes" would certainly be pink-slipped by an employer if we
dared to be so clueless about the necessity of profits and so disdainful of
the sensibilities of customers.
I will wait patiently for the true sports enthusiasts to vent their rage by
simply boycotting the games. It will be sweet revenge to witness the slain
goose cease producing its golden eggs.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3) Michael Pillsbury: China Has “New Respect” For U.S. Trade Strategy…
Sad Panda increasingly frustrated as disruptor Trump heaps vociferous praise on Chairman Xi, while simultaneously out maneuvering Beijing’s geopolitical economic strategy.
China expert Michael Pillsbury discusses the current environment around the Beijing leadership with Fox host Tucker Carlson. This is really important. WATCH: http://cloud.goalsys.com/
What Pillsbury outlines is exactly what CTH predicted last year when we shared how the Red Dragon would be caught entirely off-guard. They’ve never seen this approach before.
NOTE: The upcoming Chinese trade delegation is not showing up at the end of this month as a matter of scheduling happenstance. What no-one in the financial/trade/economic media is connecting is the timing of their visit with USTR Lighthizers’ Section 301 Tariff hearings –SEE HERE. August 20th through August 27th, you can guarantee the Chinese delegations will be all over those hearings; including dispatching their paid lobbyists to provide input on their behalf.
Each time China takes aggressive action (red dragon) China projects a panda face through silence and non-response to opinion of that action;…. and the action continues. The red dragon has a tendency to say one necessary thing publicly, while manipulating another necessary thing privately. The Art of War.
President Trump is the first U.S. President to understand how the red dragon hides behind the panda mask.
It is specifically because he understands that Panda is a mask that President Trump messages warmth toward the Chinese people, and pours vociferous praise upon Chairman Xi Jinping, while simultaneously confronting the geopolitical doctrine of the Xi regime.
In essence Trump is mirroring the behavior of China while confronting their economic duplicity.
President Trump is putting on a MASSIVE economic squeeze.
♦Squeeze #1. President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin sanctioned Venezuela and cut off their access to expanded state owned oil revenue. Venezuela needs more money. China and Russia are already leveraged to the gills in Venezuela and hold 49% of Citgo as collateral for loans outstanding. China and Russia now need to loan more, directly.
However, China cannot engage in economic commerce with Venezuela or they risk losing access to the U.S. banking system. Therefore all current Chinese aid to Maduro comes in the form of IOUs. These ongoing loans are likely impossible to be repaid.
♦Squeeze #2. China’s geopolitical ally, Russia, is already squeezed with losses in energy revenue because of President Trump’s approach toward oil, LNG and coal. Trump, through allies including Saudi Arabia, EU, France (North Africa energy), and domestic production has influenced global energy prices. Additionally, President Trump is demanding NATO countries, specifically Germany, stop supporting financial dependence on Russia.
Meanwhile, and directly connected, Russia is bleeding out financially in Syria. Iran is the financial reserve, but they too are energy price dependent and President Trump is now putting pressure on Iran vis-a-vis new sanctions and new demands on allies.
♦Squeeze #3. In 2017 Trump and Secretary Tillerson, now Secretary Pompeo, put Pakistan on notice they need to get involved in bringing their enabled tribal “extremists” (Taliban) to the table in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s primary investor and economic partner is China. The U.S. removed $900 million in financial support to pressure Pakistan toward a political solution in Afghanistan, China has to fill void. [NOTE: Last month the World Bank began discussions about a financial bailout for Pakistan.] Again, more one-way bleed for China.
♦Squeeze #4. China’s primary economic threat (competition) is next door in India. President Trump has embraced India as leverage over China in trade and pledged ongoing favorable trade deals. The key play is MFN (Most Favored Nation) trade status might flip from China to India. That’s a big play. It would have massive ramifications.
♦Squeeze #5. President Trump launched a USTR Section 301 Trade Investigation into China’s theft of intellectual property. This encompasses every U.S. entity that does manufacturing business with China, particularly aeronautics and technology, and also reaches into the financial services sector.
In March of 2018 U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer completed a section 301 review of China’s trade practices. [SEE HERE] Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the President to take all appropriate action, including retaliation, to obtain the removal of any act, policy, or practice of a foreign government that violates an international trade agreement or is unjustified, unreasonable, or discriminatory, and that burdens or restricts U.S. commerce. However, as talks with China progressed, President Trump shelved the 301 action to see where negotiations would end-up. The May and June, 2018, negotiations between the U.S. and China provided no progress. The 301 review of China is now pulled back off the shelf, and President Trump assembles his trade-war strategy. The 301 tariffs/sanctions are currently being worked out with U.S.T.R Robert Lighthizer.
♦Squeeze #6. President Trump, Secretary Ross, Secretary Mnuchin and USTR Robert Lighthizer are dissolving NAFTA in favor of two bilateral agreements; one with Mexico and one with Canada. One of the primary objectives of team U.S.A. is to close the 3rd party loopholes, including dumping and origination, that China uses to gain backdoor access to the U.S. market and avoid trade/tariff restrictions. [China sends parts to Mexico and Canada for assembly and then back-door entry into the U.S. via NAFTA.
♦Squeeze #7. President Trump has been open, visible and vocal about his intention to shift to bilateral trade renegotiation with China and Southeast Asia immediately after Team U.S.A. concludes with NAFTA. [Current discussions with Japan are ongoing]
♦Squeeze #8. President Trump positioned the U.S. relationship with the E.U. as a massive potential loss for Europe (via Steel, Aluminum, and Auto tariffs) if they did not: (A) shift their trade relationship toward greater reciprocity; and (B) reconsider the size of their trade relationship with China. After initially trying to push-back, Europe acquiesced.
♦Squeeze #9. President Trump has positioned ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as trade benefactors for assistance with North Korea. Last year the KORUS (South Korea and U.S.) trade deal was renegotiated, and announced in March. The relationship between ASEAN nations and the Trump administration is very strong, and getting stronger. Which leads to…
♦Squeeze #10. President Trump has formed an economic and national security alliance with Shinzo Abe of Japan. It is not accidental that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un fired his last missile over the Northern part of Japan. Quite simply, Beijing told him to. However…
♦Squeeze #11. President Trump cut off the duplicitous Beijing influence over North Korea by engaging directly with Kim Jong-un. The open exchange and ongoing dialogue has removed much of the ability of Beijing to leverage the DPRK nuclear threat for their own economic benefit. This dialogue was as much, if not more, about dismantling the Beijing geopolitical influence as it was about denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. However, no-one caught on to that part of the strategy.
Add all of this up and you can see the cumulative impact of President Trump’s geopolitical economic strategy toward China. The best part of all of it –as we previously stated– is the likelihood China never saw it, meaning the sum totality of “all of it”, coming…. at first.
Now they do, and, as Mr. Pillsbury notes from his travel and engagement, China is not quite sure how to respond.
Only President Trump could use economic leverage with such incredible insight and strategy toward achieving dual results benefiting the U.S. economy and U.S. national security position. It really is stunning when you stand back and look at how it has all played out…. in the open…. and yet seemingly no-one saw what he was doing.
Just brilliant.
3a)A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig
by Charles Lamb
4)As the bull market continues to push forward I began to think about two non economic matters that could kill the market and thus the economy and endanger our republic. I believe they would be the effort to impeach Trump out of hatred and/or seeking legislation that will restrict growth in social media technology, which has become all too powerful and overly biased. Select social media companies have attained an unregulated utility status that makes them necessary to the conduct of life itself and thus must be regulated. Depending on what is drafted and passed will certainly restrain growth, reduce social media technology stock multiples thus, causing a leadership decline which would infect the entire market.
4a)
3) Michael Pillsbury: China Has “New Respect” For U.S. Trade Strategy…
Sad Panda increasingly frustrated as disruptor Trump heaps vociferous praise on Chairman Xi, while simultaneously out maneuvering Beijing’s geopolitical economic strategy.
China expert Michael Pillsbury discusses the current environment around the Beijing leadership with Fox host Tucker Carlson. This is really important. WATCH: http://cloud.goalsys.com/
What Pillsbury outlines is exactly what CTH predicted last year when we shared how the Red Dragon would be caught entirely off-guard. They’ve never seen this approach before.
NOTE: The upcoming Chinese trade delegation is not showing up at the end of this month as a matter of scheduling happenstance. What no-one in the financial/trade/economic media is connecting is the timing of their visit with USTR Lighthizers’ Section 301 Tariff hearings –SEE HERE. August 20th through August 27th, you can guarantee the Chinese delegations will be all over those hearings; including dispatching their paid lobbyists to provide input on their behalf.
Each time China takes aggressive action (red dragon) China projects a panda face through silence and non-response to opinion of that action;…. and the action continues. The red dragon has a tendency to say one necessary thing publicly, while manipulating another necessary thing privately. The Art of War.
President Trump is the first U.S. President to understand how the red dragon hides behind the panda mask.
It is specifically because he understands that Panda is a mask that President Trump messages warmth toward the Chinese people, and pours vociferous praise upon Chairman Xi Jinping, while simultaneously confronting the geopolitical doctrine of the Xi regime.
In essence Trump is mirroring the behavior of China while confronting their economic duplicity.
President Trump is putting on a MASSIVE economic squeeze.
♦Squeeze #1. President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin sanctioned Venezuela and cut off their access to expanded state owned oil revenue. Venezuela needs more money. China and Russia are already leveraged to the gills in Venezuela and hold 49% of Citgo as collateral for loans outstanding. China and Russia now need to loan more, directly.
However, China cannot engage in economic commerce with Venezuela or they risk losing access to the U.S. banking system. Therefore all current Chinese aid to Maduro comes in the form of IOUs. These ongoing loans are likely impossible to be repaid.
♦Squeeze #2. China’s geopolitical ally, Russia, is already squeezed with losses in energy revenue because of President Trump’s approach toward oil, LNG and coal. Trump, through allies including Saudi Arabia, EU, France (North Africa energy), and domestic production has influenced global energy prices. Additionally, President Trump is demanding NATO countries, specifically Germany, stop supporting financial dependence on Russia.
Meanwhile, and directly connected, Russia is bleeding out financially in Syria. Iran is the financial reserve, but they too are energy price dependent and President Trump is now putting pressure on Iran vis-a-vis new sanctions and new demands on allies.
♦Squeeze #3. In 2017 Trump and Secretary Tillerson, now Secretary Pompeo, put Pakistan on notice they need to get involved in bringing their enabled tribal “extremists” (Taliban) to the table in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s primary investor and economic partner is China. The U.S. removed $900 million in financial support to pressure Pakistan toward a political solution in Afghanistan, China has to fill void. [NOTE: Last month the World Bank began discussions about a financial bailout for Pakistan.] Again, more one-way bleed for China.
♦Squeeze #4. China’s primary economic threat (competition) is next door in India. President Trump has embraced India as leverage over China in trade and pledged ongoing favorable trade deals. The key play is MFN (Most Favored Nation) trade status might flip from China to India. That’s a big play. It would have massive ramifications.
♦Squeeze #5. President Trump launched a USTR Section 301 Trade Investigation into China’s theft of intellectual property. This encompasses every U.S. entity that does manufacturing business with China, particularly aeronautics and technology, and also reaches into the financial services sector.
In March of 2018 U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer completed a section 301 review of China’s trade practices. [SEE HERE] Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the President to take all appropriate action, including retaliation, to obtain the removal of any act, policy, or practice of a foreign government that violates an international trade agreement or is unjustified, unreasonable, or discriminatory, and that burdens or restricts U.S. commerce. However, as talks with China progressed, President Trump shelved the 301 action to see where negotiations would end-up. The May and June, 2018, negotiations between the U.S. and China provided no progress. The 301 review of China is now pulled back off the shelf, and President Trump assembles his trade-war strategy. The 301 tariffs/sanctions are currently being worked out with U.S.T.R Robert Lighthizer.
♦Squeeze #6. President Trump, Secretary Ross, Secretary Mnuchin and USTR Robert Lighthizer are dissolving NAFTA in favor of two bilateral agreements; one with Mexico and one with Canada. One of the primary objectives of team U.S.A. is to close the 3rd party loopholes, including dumping and origination, that China uses to gain backdoor access to the U.S. market and avoid trade/tariff restrictions. [China sends parts to Mexico and Canada for assembly and then back-door entry into the U.S. via NAFTA.
♦Squeeze #7. President Trump has been open, visible and vocal about his intention to shift to bilateral trade renegotiation with China and Southeast Asia immediately after Team U.S.A. concludes with NAFTA. [Current discussions with Japan are ongoing]
♦Squeeze #8. President Trump positioned the U.S. relationship with the E.U. as a massive potential loss for Europe (via Steel, Aluminum, and Auto tariffs) if they did not: (A) shift their trade relationship toward greater reciprocity; and (B) reconsider the size of their trade relationship with China. After initially trying to push-back, Europe acquiesced.
♦Squeeze #9. President Trump has positioned ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as trade benefactors for assistance with North Korea. Last year the KORUS (South Korea and U.S.) trade deal was renegotiated, and announced in March. The relationship between ASEAN nations and the Trump administration is very strong, and getting stronger. Which leads to…
♦Squeeze #10. President Trump has formed an economic and national security alliance with Shinzo Abe of Japan. It is not accidental that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un fired his last missile over the Northern part of Japan. Quite simply, Beijing told him to. However…
♦Squeeze #11. President Trump cut off the duplicitous Beijing influence over North Korea by engaging directly with Kim Jong-un. The open exchange and ongoing dialogue has removed much of the ability of Beijing to leverage the DPRK nuclear threat for their own economic benefit. This dialogue was as much, if not more, about dismantling the Beijing geopolitical influence as it was about denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. However, no-one caught on to that part of the strategy.
Add all of this up and you can see the cumulative impact of President Trump’s geopolitical economic strategy toward China. The best part of all of it –as we previously stated– is the likelihood China never saw it, meaning the sum totality of “all of it”, coming…. at first.
Now they do, and, as Mr. Pillsbury notes from his travel and engagement, China is not quite sure how to respond.
Only President Trump could use economic leverage with such incredible insight and strategy toward achieving dual results benefiting the U.S. economy and U.S. national security position. It really is stunning when you stand back and look at how it has all played out…. in the open…. and yet seemingly no-one saw what he was doing.
Just brilliant.
3a)A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig
Lamb (1775-1834) was an English essayist. Reprinted here is the first part of his essay, the part which tells the story of the discovery of roast pork.
Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw, clawing or biting it from the living animal, just as they do in Abyssinia to this day. This period is not obscurely hinted at by their great Confucius in the second chapter of his Mundane Mutations, where he designates a kind of golden age by the term Cho-fang, literally the Cook's holiday. The manuscript goes on to say, that the art of roasting, or rather broiling (which I take to be the elder brother) was accidentally discovered in the manner following. The swine-herd, Ho-ti, having gone out into the woods one morning, as his manner was, to collect mast for his hogs, left his cottage in the care of his eldest son Bo-bo, a great lubberly boy, who being fond of playing with fire, as younkers of his age commonly are, let some sparks escape into a bundle of straw, which kindling quickly, spread the conflagration over every part of their poor mansion, till it was reduced to ashes. Together with the cottage (a sorry antediluvian makeshift of a building, you may think it), what was of much more importance, a fine litter of new-farrowed pigs, no less than nine in number, perished. China pigs have been esteemed a luxury all over the East from the remotest periods that we read of. Bo-bo was in utmost consternation, as you may think, not so much for the sake of the tenement, which his father and he could easily build up again with a few dry branches, and the labour of an hour or two, at any time, as for the loss of the pigs. While he was thinking what he should say to his father, and wringing his hands over the smoking remnants of one of those untimely sufferers, an odour assailed his nostrils, unlike any scent which he had before experienced. What could it proceed from?--not from the burnt cottage--he had smelt that smell before--indeed this was by no means the first accident of the kind which had occurred through the negligence of this unlucky young fire-brand. Much less did it resemble that of any known herb, weed, or flower. A premonitory moistening at the same time overflowed his nether lip. He knew not what to think. He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it. He burnt his fingers, and to cool them he applied them in his booby fashion to his mouth. Some of the crumbs of the scorched skin had come away with his fingers, and for the first time in his life (in the world's life indeed, for before him no man had known it) he tasted--crackling! Again he felt and fumbled at the pig. It did not burn him so much now, still he licked his fingers from a sort of habit. The truth at length broke into his slow understanding, that it was the pig that smelt so, and the pig that tasted so delicious; and, surrendering himself up to the new-born pleasure, he fell to tearing up whole handfuls of the scorched skin with the flesh next it, and was cramming it down his throat in his beastly fashion, when his sire entered amid the smoking rafters, armed with retributory cudgel, and finding how affairs stood, began to rain blows upon the young rogue's shoulders, as thick as hailstones, which Bo-bo heeded not any more than if they had been flies. The tickling pleasure, which he experienced in his lower regions, had rendered him quite callous to any inconveniences he might feel in those remote quarters. His father might lay on, but he could not beat him from his pig, till he had fairly made an end of it, when, becoming a little more sensible of his situation, something like the following dialogue ensued.
"You graceless whelp, what have you got there devouring? Is it not enough that you have burnt me down three houses with your dog's tricks, and be hanged to you, but you must be eating fire, and I know not what--what have you got there, I say?"
"O, father, the pig, the pig, do come and taste how nice the burnt pig eats."
The ears of Ho-ti tingled with horror. He cursed his son, and he cursed himself that ever he should beget a son that should eat burnt pig.
Bo-bo, whose scent was wonderfully sharpened since morning, soon raked out another pig, and fairly rending it asunder, thrust the lesser half by main force into the fists of Ho-ti, still shouting out "Eat, eat, eat the burnt pig, father, only taste--O Lord,"--with such-like barbarous ejaculations, cramming all the while as if he would choke.
Ho-ti trembled in every joint while he grasped the abominable thing, wavering whether he should not put his son to death for an unnatural young monster, when the crackling scorching his fingers, as it had done his son's, and applying the same remedy to them, he in his turn tasted some of its flavour, which, make what sour mouths he would for a pretence, proved not altogether displeasing to him. In conclusion (for the manuscript here is a little tedious) both father and son fairly sat down to the mess, and never left off till they had dispatched all that remained of the litter.
Bo-bo was strictly enjoined not to let the secret escape, for the neighbours would certainly have stoned them for a couple of abominable wretches, who could think of improving upon the good meat which God had sent them. Nevertheless, strange stories got about. It was observed that Ho-ti's cottage was burnt down now more frequently than ever. Nothing but fires from this time forward. Some would break out in broad day, other in the nighttime. As often as the sow farrowed, so sure was the house of Ho-ti to be in a blaze; and Ho-ti himself, which was the more remarkable, instead of chastising his son, seemed to grow more indulgent to him than ever. At length they were watched, the terrible mystery discovered, and father and son summoned to take their trial at Peking, than an inconsiderable assize town. Evidence was given, the obnoxious food itself produced in court, and verdict about to be pronounced, when the foreman of the jury begged that some of the burnt pig, of which culprits stood accused, might be handed into the box. He handled it, and they all handled it, and burning their fingers, as Bo-bo and his father had done before them, and nature prompting to each of them the same remedy, against the face of all the facts, and the clearest charge which judge had ever given,--to the surprise of the whole court, townsfolk, strangers, reporters, and all present--without leaving the box, or any manner of consultation whatever, they brought in a simultaneous verdict of Not Guilty.
The judge, who was a shrewd fellow, winked at the manifest iniquity of the decision; and, when the court was dismissed, went privily, and bought up all the pigs that could be had for love or money. In a few days his Lordships' town house was observed to be on fire. The thing took wing, and now there was nothing to be seen but fires in every direction. Fuel and pigs grew enormously dear all over the district. The insurance offices one and all shut up shop. People built slighter and slighter every day, until it was feared that the very science of architecture would in no long time be lost to the world. Thus this custom of firing houses continued, till in process of time, says my manuscript, a sage arose, like our Locke, who made a discovery, that the flesh of swine, or indeed of any other animal, might be cooked (burnt, as they called it) without the necessity of consuming a whole house to dress it. Then first began the rude form of a gridiron. Roasting by the string, or spit, came in a century or two later, I forget in whose dynasty. By such slow degrees, concludes the manuscript, do the most useful, and seemingly the most obvious arts, make their way among mankind.--+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
4)As the bull market continues to push forward I began to think about two non economic matters that could kill the market and thus the economy and endanger our republic. I believe they would be the effort to impeach Trump out of hatred and/or seeking legislation that will restrict growth in social media technology, which has become all too powerful and overly biased. Select social media companies have attained an unregulated utility status that makes them necessary to the conduct of life itself and thus must be regulated. Depending on what is drafted and passed will certainly restrain growth, reduce social media technology stock multiples thus, causing a leadership decline which would infect the entire market.
With respect to Trump’s boorishness it is the application of a double standard by seeking through the law that which his haters could not obtain through the ballot that is so disingenuous.. if we allow hate to drive our decision process we will live to regret it because it sets a destructive pattern of future judicial behavior that substitutes the"blind" imposition of the rule of law with a biased double standard using Clinton’s impeachment as the pay back basis for going after Trump. The consequences of even flirting with the vindictive torturing of the legal process is beyond dangerous and I believe extremists who have taken over and are driving the Democrat Party are clearly of this mind set.
They are out to destroy America because of their contempt of capitalism and are using their hatred of Trump’s behavior as a subtle cloak to rectify all they profess is wrong with America.
When the governor of New York can assert America was never great there is something radically wrong and no recanting afterthought can excuse his initial comment.
4a)
Technology is threatening our democracy. How do we save it?
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Our newest issue is live today, in which we dive into the many ways that technology is changing politics.
A major shift: In 2013 we emblazoned our cover with the words, “Big Data Will Save Politics.” When we chose that headline, Barack Obama had just won reelection with the help of a crack team of data scientists. The Arab Spring had already cooled into an Arab Winter, but the social-media platforms that had powered the uprisings were still basking in the afterglow. As our editor in chief Gideon Lichfield writes, today, with Cambridge Analytica, fake news, election hacking, and the shrill cacophony that dominates social media, technology feels as likely to destroy politics as to save it. The political impact: From striking data visualizations that take a close look at the famed “filter bubble” effect that’s blamed for political polarization to an examination of how big data is disrupting the cozy world of political lobbying, we’re analyzing how emerging technologies are shaping the political landscape, eroding trust, and, possibly, becoming a part of the solution. Check out the full issue.
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