Wednesday, November 30, 2016

How to Turn a Modest Victory into A Huge Loss for Democrats

How Can We Miss Her When She Won't Leave

In a strategic move to appeal to young white working men and women Democrats today re-elected a rich, wealthy out of touch Californian to lead their irrelevant minority in the House

Why?

Forget the Ides of March – December 4th Is the Risky Date



Will Europe Take Another Step Towards Being Ungovernable?

This Sunday there are two critical elections in Europe.  In Austria a far right party has at least a 50-50 chance of winning the Presidency.


Austria home to, well you know, is likely to elect a neo Nazi

In Austria, the Freedom Party regularly leads opinion polls, with about one-third of the vote, easily surpassing the mainstream center-left and center-right parties and raising the once unthinkable possibility that the party will not only win the presidency, but soon head the government as well.

Its candidate for the Presidency espouses this.

Mr. Hofer, who has picked up on a previously little-noticed provision that could allow the president to dismiss a government or individual ministers, clearly aims to mold policy. He has visited neighboring Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and speaks of forging an alliance of Central and Eastern European nations under Austrian guidance.
In the interview, he repeatedly expressed hope that Mr. Trump’s victory will lead to relations’ being mended between the United States and Russia.
Sanctions against Moscow over its seizure of Crimea and meddling in Ukraine should be lifted, he said, “because they have not moved anything politically,” yet “have affected the economy and destroyed jobs.”
Vienna, a neutral meeting place for the Cold War superpowers, should once again host peace-seeking summits and foster economic cooperation with Russia, he said.
Yes, an Austria ultra right winger leading eastern Europe and having common calling with Russia.  Uh, been there, done that, didn’t turn out well.

In Italy a vote will be taken an amending the Constitution to make the country a little more governable.  Failure will likely cause the fall of the government, and a major banking crisis looms that could easily doom the EU to another financial disastere.


Fun times are here again.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Today’s Winner of the Mitt Romney Craven Coward Award


IBM – a Tech Giant Aspires to Grovel Like Mitt

In American for most citizens love of money trumps patriotism, idealism or principle.  And now that Donald Trump is about to be President all those citizens are flocking to embrace him.  Of course none will have the magic hypocrisy of Mitt Romney, a man willing to sell his very soul to be Secretary of State.  But many will try.

So today we  have the IBM Corporation looking to cement its greedy carcass into the bowel of the Trump Presidency.  IBM Head Ginni Rommety wrote Trump

In Rometty's letter to Trump, she had offered ways for IBM to work with the new administration, saying "I know that you are committed to help America’s economy grow in ways that are good for all its people." She spoke about scaling up vocational "new collar" IT jobs, working on infrastructure projects that incorporate technology and artificial intelligence, as well as healthcare, tax reform, and the use of IBM technology to improve care for veterans. "As you prepare to take office as our new president, I hope the ideas I have offered in this letter represent ways that we can work together to achieve prosperity that is broadly shared in our society," 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2016/11/29/this-ibm-employee-quit-over-her-ceos-letter-to-donald-trump-2/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-business%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.174753df9c39

But there is a silver lining in this story.  One principled IBM employee quit because of this, and told her boss in no uncertain terms why.

Elizabeth Wood, until recently a senior content strategist at IBM, published an “open letter to my boss, IBM CEO Ms. Ginni Rometty” last week in which she said she resigned because she felt the letter, dated Nov. 14, "offered the backing of IBM’s global workforce in support of his agenda." Wood, 31, wrote that the tech giant's recruitment materials suggest "the future of the company hinges on realizing an inclusive and welcoming culture, though you do not communicate this vision" within the letter Rometty wrote to Trump. Wood wrote to Rometty that "the president-elect has demonstrated contempt for immigrants, veterans, people with disabilities, Black, Latinx, Jewish,
Muslim and LGBTQ communities. These groups comprise a growing portion of the company you lead."


Ms. Wood,  you are an American hero.  And Ms. Ginni Rommetty, you are the epitomy of a Mitt Romney craven coward.  Enjoy Ginni!

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Tragically, He's Right

Quote of the Day

“My knowledge of foreign policy is as good, or better, than anybody they’re talking to.”
— Rudy Giuliani, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, making the case for why he should be Secretary of State.

Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law was associated with a sharp increase in killings in the state, according to a new study

Gosh, who could have seen that coming?


http://www.wsj.com/articles/florida-sees-killings-increase-after-passage-of-stand-your-ground-gun-law-study-says-1480161606

Friday, November 25, 2016

Donald Trump to Take Presidency Public with IPO



Amazing Just How Much Money Can Be Made From Public Office He Says

News That Hasn’t Happened, But Could

Nov. 25, 2016 Maro Largo (Rewters)   President elect Donald Trump said today that he would be engaging several investment firms to make a public offering of the Presidency so that, in his words “High net work people that love me can make the same millions I am going to make from being President”.  Although open to the public, the initial cost for shares in the Presidency would probably be about $10 million, making them accessible to only billionaires.  And would be investors would have to submit a signed affidavit stating that they thought Mr. Trump was a really good guy.

Trump said he got the idea after he realized that there were no ethics laws governing the Presidency and that there were tremendous opportunities.  Trump plans to refit his private aircraft to Air Force One standards and rent it to the government for $5 million a day.  He also said he would set up a reservations service in the White House so that foreign dignitaries could reserve rooms at a Trump hotel by paying a $1 million reservation fee, which he said was much cheaper for them.  By having the funds go to his foundation Mr. Trump will avoid income taxes on the fees.

Another inspiration for Trump was that he noticed how much money ex-Presidents (except for Harry Truman) made and mocked them on Twitter for waiting until after they left office to capitalize on their positions.  “Don’t they know the real value is when you are President” he told his son-in-law and soon to be Chief Bagman.  Trump referenced the empty rooms at the White House and noted that they could easily fetch $500,000 a night for insurance company lobbyists who would soon have a lot of money when Medicare became the property of the health insurance industry.


The Republican Party issued a statement saying this is just the sort of thing Democrats condemn because they are anti-business.   

We're Laughing At You Mitt

Not With You

Romney Must Apologize If He Wants Appointment

Donald Trump’s transition team wants Mitt Romney to publicly apologize for railing against the president-elect during the campaign if he hopes to become the next Secretary of State, Fox News reports.

We Are Back

Because we can't make things any worse than they already are!