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swordfish

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Posts posted by swordfish

  1. So far: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2019/jan/17/2020-election-candidates-list-democrats-primaries-trump-bernie-sanders-joe-biden-elizabeth-warren-kamala-harris-beto-o-rourke-running

    Elizabeth Warren - (Fauxcahontas) Everybody knows her by now.......

    Richard Ojeda - West Virginia - He believes the Democratic party has forsaken its working-class roots by catering to special interests and corporate donors.

    John Delaney - Maryland - The multimillionaire banking entrepreneur wants to build a big-tent party that appeals to independents and moderate Republicans. 

    Andrew Yang - His central plank is a plan to give every American adult a salary of $1,000 per month paid for by a tax on companies that benefit the most from automation. 

    Julian Castro - Former HUD guy, grandson of an immigrant......

    Tulsi Gabbard - The Hawaii congresswoman is an Iraq war veteran who has vowed to run a campaign focused on issues of “war and peace”.

    Kirsten Gillibrand - New York Senator, Female Activist

    Kamala Harris - California Senator and Certified Trump hater.

    And now (I told you so) Pete Buttigieg - Indiana Mayor from South Bend.  Openly gay Rhodes Scholar, served in the Navy Reserve - Did a tour in Afghanistan.  Championed roundabouts all over in South Bend and St. Joe County.....

    https://www.apnews.com/b6a09c1f2a0646a7b68b3091873279a5

    When all is said and done (IMHO) - the mayor from South Bend, Indiana just wants a seat at the democrat's table.

     

  2. https://abc13.com/politics/teen-in-confrontation-with-native-american-i-didnt-provoke/5099681/

    The video shows a small group of black men who identify themselves as Hebrew Israelites first shouting hateful and racially combative things at everyone -- the Native Americans, other black men, the Covington Catholic students who were in town for the anti-abortion Right to Life March, and even a priest.

    Things the protesters can be heard shouting include:

    --"That's make America great again. A bunch of child molesting (expletive)."
    --"See how you've got these pompous (expletive) come down here in the middle of a native rally with their dirty (expletive) hat on."
    --"A bunch of incest babies. A bunch of babies made out incest."

    The Catholic students at first just watch and do not engage.

    The student at the center of the viral video, Nick Sandmann, 
    said in a statement that the rhetoric was startling, and "because we were being loudly attacked and taunted in public, a student asked one of our teacher chaperones for permission to begin school spirit chants to counter the hateful things that were being shouted at our group."

    Can you imagine a group of adults (the black Hebrew Israelites) harassing a group of teenage high school age (white kids - who had never been in a public protest before and certainly didn't want to - waiting on their bus to pick them up and move them to the next tour stop) by calling them child molesters, incest babies and future school shooters, and an aged, experienced protester with a group of Native American Indians (calling for the white Europeans to go home) acting like they mean to bring peace to a situation (or just get up to the Lincoln Memorial as the story changes for this guy) It is amazing how quickly the narrative changed once the genesis of the situation was identified.

  3. I wish I had Muda's old "cats playing ping-pong" gif - it would apply here......

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-denies-pelosi-aircraft-for-foreign-trip-in-response-to-call-for-state-of-the-union-delay

    President Trump on Thursday abruptly denied military aircraft to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a foreign trip just minutes before the congressional delegation was set to depart, in a stunning response to her call to delay the State of the Union address amid the government shutdown.

    In a curt letter, Trump said her trip has been “postponed.”

    “Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over. In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate,” Trump wrote.

    CLICK HERE TO READ TRUMP'S LETTER TO PELOSI

     
    “I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown. Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative.”
     

    According to sources, the president pulled the plug on her aircraft as she was about to leave for her overseas trip. Her congressional delegation military aircraft was slated to leave at 3 p.m. ET.

    A senior White House official also told Fox News that all congressional delegation travel by military aircraft is now postponed.

    A source told Fox News that when moving to cancel Thursday's flight, the White House reasoned that the trip would keep Pelosi out of the country beyond next Tuesday night—when the next government pay period would occur.

    "If she had gone on this trip she would have guaranteed that 800,000 federal workers would not receive their second paycheck because she would not have been here to negotiate any kind of deal," a senior White House official said Thursday.

    • Haha 1
  4. Well - like DJT - She is not a polished politician......And SF learned a new phrase today.....

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortez-vows-to-run-train-on-progressive-agenda-in-bizarre-turn-of-phrase

    Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., used a strange – and sexually charged – phrase to describe to The Washington Post her plan for implementing a progressive agenda.

    “... enjoy being exhausted for the next two years while we run train on the progressive agenda,” the newly minted congresswoman told the newspaper.

    The choice of words sent the Internet into a tizzy, as it has a well-known and highly disturbing connotation. According to the Urban Dictionary, to “run train” means “to gangbang” someone. The phrase was injected into more mainstream parlance in October, after a client of adult film industry lawyer Michael Avenatti claimed – with no evidence – that now-Supreme Court Justice Bret Kavanaugh “ran trains” on girls while in high school near Washington, D.C.

  5. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/trumps_shutdown_trap.html?fbclid=IwAR1TTfuren5WzGQaEFbJmVWUxGokw6N27TPPkN3CjDnjHINWzxr1YbUZR4Y

    Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy?  In only five more days of the already "longest government shutdown in history" (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more.

    Don't believe me that federal bureaucrats can be laid off?  Well, in bureaucratese, a layoff is called a RIF – a Reduction in Force – and of course, it comes with a slew of civil service protections.  But, if the guidelines are followed, bureaucrats can be laid off – as in no more job.  It is all explained by Michael Roberts here (updated after the beginning of the partial shutdown):

    A reduction in force is a thoughtful and systematic elimination of positions.  For all practical purposes, a government RIF is the same thing as a layoff. ...

    Organizations must stick to predetermined criteria when sorting out what happens to each employee.  They must communicate with employees how and why decisions are made. ...

    In deciding who stays and who goes, federal agencies must take four factors into account

    1.    Tenure

    2.    Veteran status

    3.    Total federal civilian and military service

    4.    Performance

    Agencies cannot use RIF procedures to fire bad employees. 

    Update: See also: OMB issues guidance on Reduction in Force layoffs due to partial shutdown

    A lot of procedures must be followed, and merit ("performance") is the last consideration, but based on the criteria above, employees already furloughed can be laid off ("RIFed") once they have been furloughed for 30 days or 22 work days:

    When agencies furlough employees for more than 30 calendar days or 22 discontinuous work days, they must use RIF procedures.

    An employee can be terminated or moved into an available position[.]

    This seems to be what was referenced in this remarkable essay written by an "unidentified senior Trump official" published in the Daily Caller, which vouches for the authenticity of the author and explains that it is protecting him from adverse career consequences should the name become known.  I strongly recommend reading the whole thing.

    The purported senior official makes the case that devotion to "process" eats up most of the time of federal bureaucrats and is also used by enemies of President Trump's initiatives to stymie the legitimate orders issued by his senior officials:

    On an average day, roughly 15 percent of the employees around me are exceptional patriots serving their country.  I wish I could give competitive salaries to them and no one else.  But 80 percent feel no pressure to produce results.  If they don't feel like doing what they are told, they don't.

    Why would they?  We can't fire them.  They avoid attention, plan their weekend, schedule vacation, their second job, their next position – some do this in the same position for more than a decade.

    They do nothing that warrants punishment and nothing of external value.  That is their workday: errands for the sake of errands – administering, refining, following and collaborating on process.  "Process is your friend" is what delusional civil servants tell themselves.  Even senior officials must gain approval from every rank across their department, other agencies and work units for basic administrative chores.

    Then the senior official notes what I have just called the "trap":

    Most of my career colleagues actively work against the president's agenda.  This means I typically spend about 15 percent of my time on the president's agenda and 85 percent of my time trying to stop sabotage, and we have no power to get rid of them.  Until the shutdown.

    Those officials who waste time and stymie the president's initiatives now are not present because they are not categorized as "essential."

    Due to the lack of funding, many federal agencies are now operating more effectively from the top down on a fraction of their workforce, with only select essential personnel serving national security tasks. ...

    President Trump can end this abuse.  Senior officials can reprioritize during an extended shutdown, focus on valuable results and weed out the saboteurs.  We do not want most employees to return, because we are working better without them.

    Keep in mind that saboteurs cannot be individually identified and RIFed, but they can be included in the layoffs if they meet the criteria above in terms of seniority and service, and they must be given 60 days' notice.  But once they are gone, they are no longer free to obstruct using the "process" as their friend, because they are gone.

    You can expect lawsuits on every conceivable point, and I suspect that the definition of "furlough" will be one matter of dispute.

    If this was the plan all along, it would explain why President Trump goaded Chuck and Nancy in his televised meeting with them last year, boasting that he would claim credit for the shutdown.  How could they resist a prolonged shutdown when he made it so easy to blame him?

    President Trump has proven that he is a "disruptor" who changes the framework of thinking on major issues by refusing to accept the "givens" – the assumptions of how things always have been done and therefore always must be done.

    So who is the "senior official"?  I don't know, but I think Stephen Miller is the sort of bold thinker who might volunteer to telegraph the strategy just five days before the deadline.  Give Chuck and Nancy something to think about and probably reject as unthinkable.  Then they can't complain that they weren't warned once the trap is sprung.

    Such a mass RIF would be the Trump version of Ronald Reagan firing the air traffic controllers when they went on an illegal strike in 1981.  That was completely unexpected by his enemies, vehemently criticized, and successful.

    Among other benefits, it taught the leaders of the USSR that Ronald Reagan was a man whose threats cannot be dismissed as mere rhetoric.  If you think that Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Angela Merkel, and any other foreign leaders would not draw the same conclusion from a massive RIF, then you are kidding yourself.



    Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/trumps_shutdown_trap.html#ixzz5crzZTHoa 
    Follow us: 
    @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

    Interesting theory......

  6. https://apnews.com/d90578a1687049e9a67db01582ce4278

    Also from that article - Speaker Pelosi asks the President to delay SOTU speech.

    In a letter to Trump, Pelosi cited security concerns, noting that both the Secret Service and the Homeland Security Department are entangled in the partial government shutdown, now in its fourth week. She added that unless the government reopens this week, they should find another date or Trump should deliver the address in writing.

    https://nypost.com/2019/01/16/secret-service-dhs-say-they-can-handle-state-of-the-union-security/

    The Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security said they can handle security at President Trump’s State of the Union address — which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Trump to postpone.

    Both federal agencies have been largely shuttered as the partial government shutdown enters its record-breaking 26th day.

    But Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen wrote on Twitter that both agencies are good to go.

    “The Department of Homeland Security and the US Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union. We thank the Service for their mission focus and dedication and for all they do each day to secure our homeland,” she wrote.

    Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Pelosi’s request was “unbecoming” and motivated by politics, not security concerns.

    “It is not a security issue — that’s politics. It’s pure politics,” he told the network.

    What doesn't she want us to hear from the President?

  7. https://apnews.com/d90578a1687049e9a67db01582ce4278

    Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Tuesday the shutdown is slowing growth more than predicted.

    An economic shift could rattle Trump, who has tied his political fortunes to the stock market and repeatedly stressed economic gains as evidence that his tax-cut package and deregulation efforts are succeeding. Economic optimism had already cooled somewhat as Trump’s trade fight with China shook the markets.

    Hassett told reporters the White House is doubling its estimate of the strain on the economy of the shutdown, and now calculates that it is slowing growth by about 0.1 percentage points a week.

    With the shutdown in its fourth week, that suggests the economy has lost nearly a half-percentage point of growth so far, though some of that occurred at the end of last year and some in the first quarter of this year. Hassett said the economy should get a boost when the government re-opens.

    SF wonders - how does the shutdown slow growth in an economy like the US?  Except for the 800,000 employees, who will receive back pay after the shutdown, how does the growth of a capitalist based economy slow down because of a shutdown?

    • Kill me now 1
  8. 10 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

    It’s publicly funded.

    Those who chuckled at this supposed irony missed a major detail, even though it was noted in the press coverage: Paul's surgery will take place at the Shouldice Hernia Hospital in Thornhill, Ontario. The clinic is private, and run for profit; The Toronto Star's Daniel Dale, who is from Thornhill, notes that it was "grandfathered in to Ontario's socialized health system."

  9. 23 hours ago, NRRaider2001 said:

    Finally getting some action to go along with years of hope and speculation on our field upgrades/additions.  Sounds like phase 2 down the road will be adding a game gym to the actual High School as well...but for now I have attached a few images of the proposed $15 million dollar project.  Also if everything goes as planned (passed both public hearings already), should be ready to go for the first year of the merger at our neighboring Elkhart school district, maybe a way to attract a few of those Bristol kids over to Northridge.  Biggest improvements on this proposal vs our current situation other than the obvious Field Turf vs mud pit/natural grass will be a real Press Box and the home bleachers/bench will no longer be looking directly into the sun on a late summer/early fall evening.

    Northridge Fields Proposal - 1.JPG

    Northridge Fields Proposal - 2.JPG

    Northridge Fields Proposal - 3.JPG

    Glad to see this come to pass - FINALLY - Should've been done back when the original plans were done in 2004 -2005 that the Amish community turned down.......fearing a tax increase.......that didn't happen after the new school was built.....🤬

    • Like 1
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