[Wash Times] Drugs and suicide are pushing down life expectancy in the U.S.
That’s according to a special report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found rising rates of overdose deaths, suicide and chronic liver disease, even as Americans improve survival rates for the leading causes of death, such as heart disease and cancer.
Published Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics, the report provides a snapshot of the health of the nation and points out how the opioid epidemic, mental illness, rising rates of obesity and Alzheimer’s disease are threatening lives.
"This special feature on mortality certainly was based on an interest in looking at what was happening with life expectancy," said Renee M. Gindi, lead author of the report and chief of the Analytic Studies Branch at the NCHS, which is part of the CDC.
Specifically, U.S. life expectancy decreased from 2014 to 2016, from 78.9 years to 78.6 years ‐ two or three years earlier than the life expectancy of almost all other developed nations.
#1
Remember the article yesterday (?) about Stanford doctors wanted guns grabbed? One of the comments pointed out that the third-highest cause of death was hospital/doctor errors. Probably also in third place for reduced life expectancy.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/20/2018 12:18 Comments ||
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[Washington Examiner] President Trump complained Thursday that a spending bill passed by the Senate this week doesn't do anything to boost funding for the border wall he promised voters in 2016.
"I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms? Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security," Trump tweeted Thursday morning. "REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!"
Trump has had an uphill battle since taking office in gaining funding for a southern border wall, which he promised voters during the campaign would be built to increase border security.
The Senate passed a final spending bill this week for fiscal year 2019 that accounts for more that half of the expected federal spending for the year. Funding was included for the Departments of Defense, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, but it also includes level funding for other departments, and reflects efforts to delay the fight over the border wall until after the midterm elections.
But while Trump complained about the bill, he's indicated he will sign the spending bills being passed by Congress in order to avoid a partial government shutdown that could hurt Republicans in the midterm elections.
Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., argued on Fox News Thursday that Democrats continue to prevent Republicans from giving Trump billions of dollars in wall funding.
#1
Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., argued on Fox News Thursday that Democrats continue to prevent Republicans from giving Trump billions of dollars in wall funding.
Last time I checked, the Trunks had a majority in the Senate (as witnessed by the judicial appointment approvals), unless the Senator is self identifying as a member of the UniPary.
[Hot Air] Uh, no, and I can’t imagine any other type of bare allegation that might be thrown at a nominee for a government position that would lead us to say the burden of proof was on the accused in answering it. Which is particularly foul given that the type of allegation being made in the present case involves a violent sex crime.
Hill’s distinguishing between the burden of proof in court and the burden of proof in the court of public opinion, i.e. the Senate. To take away someone’s liberty we require the state to prove its case, but to take away a plum lifetime appointment to which the nominee was never entitled to begin with? What’s wrong with making him bear the burden of proof?
#1
Start with the accusation being so vague it cannot be disproven. I think this is on purpose, the fascists having learned from the Duke case.
Then move to the unwillingness of the accuser to well, accuse under oath. She certainly already made the accusation in public, so why not make it before the committee?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/20/2018 8:12 Comments ||
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#2
Joe Biden raped me!
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/20/2018 11:30 Comments ||
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#3
Well, he tried to screw my country anyway.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/20/2018 11:32 Comments ||
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#4
Remembering her story about a curly hair found on her coke can. Whatever Anita.
#10
JohnQC, for the left, Kavanaugh will always be guilty. Even if there is conclusive evidence that the whole thing never happened.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/20/2018 19:23 Comments ||
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#11
So Anita is still traumatized by Long Dong Silver stories?
Long after Long died of AIDS?
Longer then Long lived?
Having never met Long?
Having never seen a 35mm of Long in action?
[NR] Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri broke with her Democratic colleagues Wednesday in announcing that she will ignore the outstanding allegation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when deciding how to vote on his confirmation.
Asked at a campaign event in Lebanon, Mo. about Christine Blasey Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were in high school, McCaskill told the crowd that the allegations will not factor into her decision, which she expects to make "very shortly."
McCaskill, one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election in November, said she was concerned about the allegation but will instead focus on Kavanaugh’s judicial record and qualifications in making her final determination, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
"I’m going to make the decision based on his positions, his writings in his decisions, and what I’ve discovered in the documents I’ve had a chance to review," she said. "That’s how I’ll make my decision."
Ford told the Washington Post Sunday that she authored a previously anonymous letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein of California accusing Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed and attempting to remove her clothes at a house party in suburban Maryland 36 years ago.
#4
...McCaskill -3 in recent polling.
Political Calculation made simple: will galvanizing the Base help or hurt? Vote 'No' and the Republican :Meh: Voter has one more reason to crawl through broken glass to the polling station instead of staying home.
[NR] If they get away with this, the only decent people in politics will be decent progressives.
Judge Robert Bork used to tell a prescient and darkly humorous story about watching Clarence Thomas’s Senate confirmation hearings ‐ etched in pre-hashtag history as the "Thomas‐Hill hearings," in homage to Anita Hill’s role as the Left’s heroic accuser.
At the time, Thomas was a judge of the same eminent D.C. Circuit federal appeals court on which Bork had served. As he viewed Thomas’s "high-tech lynching" in horror, Bork recalled, a friend of his, the iconic Irving Kristol, approached and asked him what was happening.
"The end of civilization," the judge sadly quipped.
"Of course it is," Kristol deadpanned. "But it’ll take a long time. Meanwhile, it’s still possible to live well."
It was a poignant story coming from Bork. A scholar of great breadth, the late judge was a man from another time: a patriot who’d enlisted in the Marines at 17 during World War II and been called back to duty when the Korean War broke out, even as he embarked on a legendary life in the law. In 1987, four years before the Thomas‐Hill hearings, the slide from civilization he so lamented ‐ the slouch toward Gomorrah ‐ had started when he himself was mugged by Senate Democrats. This libelous character assassination, derailing Bork’s nomination by President Reagan to the Supreme Court, had been led by Ted Kennedy.
#4
Want to save the forests from becoming junk mail pulp? Want to make "news" back into news? Want to get companies back to product and not divisive PR organs for one side or another. Want to get the NFL back to doing football and nothing else and Nike back to shoes?
Then... consider revisiting some tax write offs.
1) get rid of the advertising tax write off!
2) get rid of IRS depreciations on players
3) get rid of special tax breaks for sports teams, sites, events and promoters.
4) get rid of special mailing rates for junk mailings and for politicians.
Each one of these special rules erase a bit of your taxes that could be erasing the national debt and by not doing so also raise the cost of debt servicing to the US gov. (BTW your debt.)
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Former US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, unsuccessful presidential candidate, and utterly failed Secretary of State... ’s best moments was when he delivered his speech after the Assad regime targeted Ghouta with poisonous gas in 2013. It was a strong and humanitarian speech in which he repeated "and we know" what happened more than 40 times in a frank condemnation of Assad.
He used influential phrases like what happened was "a moral obscenity" and it "shock the conscience of the world". Millions of people were waiting for an American military strike when he utters his last words.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2018 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] I believe what has happened in Basra is a historic turning point that could be considered a sign that in the future there will be developments to get Iraq out of the crisis caused by politicians and sectarian leaders.
THROWING OFF IRAN
Basra has been the incubator of the "Twelver" Shiite, and the majority of its inhabitants belong to this sect. Iran promotes itself as the sponsor and supporter of Shiites everywhere in the world, not only in Iraq.
It’s through this sectarian dimension that Iran managed to penetrate the Iraqi society and to establish armed parties and militias and fund them so that they become loyal to it, instead of being loyal to their country.
The recent uprising in Basra at the beginning demanded basic services and had no political motivations. This was obvious to everyone who has followed the revolution since its early days. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... what should not be ignored is that the demonstrators went to the headquarters of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, which are loyal to Iran, and burnt its headquarters in Basra.
Iran wanted Iraq and its Shiites to be its first line of defense, especially in the face of the US siege that is going to be imposed on it
Mohammed Al SheikhThen they did something more dangerous when they broke into the Iranian consulate and burnt it. This is a significant development that indicates that the sectarian dimension which Iran was trying to establish and solidify is now collapsing because of the Basra uprising.
During the Sadrist revolt in Baghdad around two years ago, the people were cheering "Get out Iran, Iraq should be free". It is known that the followers of holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... are the ones who won the majority of the votes.
All these indicators collectively suggest that the Iraqis have started to realize the Iranian agenda, which seeks to abolish Iraq’s independence and annex Iraq to be like a backyard of the mullahs’ republic. Iran wanted Iraq and its Shiites to be its first line of defense, especially in the face of the US siege that is going to be imposed on it.
TIDE IS TURNING
In other words, Iran wants to make Iraq a scapegoat that would hinder the US from besieging it. It seems that Moqtada al-Sadr became aware of Iran’s dangerous intentions which would make Iraq bear new crises and tragedies that it cannot afford.
There is no doubt that diminishing Iranian interference in Iraq is a major loss for the Iranian regime. The Persian mullahs would not be able to accept this easily.
Moreover, Iran’s Iraqi agents have started to feel that their exposed support for Iran cannot be justified as there is a majority of the Iraqi people that rejects to sacrifice their illusory sovereignty and independence as well as Arabism to be Iran’s first line of defense.
This has made Basra’s glorious uprising tantamount to the flame that cane make Iraqi Shiites, as well as Sunnis, significantly contribute to restraining Iranian influence.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2018 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[5 views]
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[American Spectator] A new report suggests that under President Trump it certainly has.
The biggest obstacles to peace between Palestinians and Israelis are the Palestinian Authority (PA), its president Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO, and Fatah ‐ the vary parties that have been promoted as Israel’s peace partners for the last 25 years. After its own futile attempts to forge a deal between the parties, the Trump administration now appears to recognize that the PA is not really interested in peace. And while the State Department has been reluctant to walk away from its investment in the PA, the just-released 2017 Country Reports on Terrorism suggests that it too is finally coming around.
The Secretary of State is required by law to provide Congress, by April 30, "a full and complete report on terrorism" from the previous year. The Country Reports on Terrorism (CRT), as it is known, provides an annual glimpse into U.S. policy regarding nearly every nation on earth, some of which require only a paragraph or two while others go on for pages. Israel, forever adjoined to the Palestinians, is described in one of the longer sections, titled "Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank, And Gaza." During Barack Obama’s presidency, this section reflected a naïve trust in the PA and Abbas and a departure from the skepticism about the PA’s ability to make peace evident in the Bush-era CRTs.
This year’s CRT, the first of the Trump administration, was produced during a chaotic period, under two different Secretaries of State, following some very public resignations and a hiring freeze, and under the direction of a new boss of the Bureau of Counterterrorism (Nathan A. Sales). The advanced copy of the Israel section I was provided, now released, suggests a change is under way at the State Department.
Last year’s CRT was the final one of the Obama era. Parts of the Israel section could have been written by the UN (or the BDS movement). Particularly egregious was the conclusion that "Continued drivers of violence included a lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, the perception that the Israeli government was changing the status quo on the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount, and IDF tactics that the Palestinians considered overly aggressive." When it came out, I wrote that, "Gross incompetence aside, the only logical explanation for the State Department’s inaccurate and misleading report is that its authors still believe, as Barack Obama put it in a 2013 speech in Jerusalem, that Israel has ’a true partner in President Abbas.’"
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Downing of the Russian Il-20 aircraft near Latakia and the death of all 15 people on board after it was shot down by the Syrian military exposes the complex picture in Syria. The incident exposes the depth that the Russian bear has dived into in Syrian traps.
In the beginning, Syrian regime media outlets cheered the ferocity of the Syrian air defenses as it later turned out that there was an Israeli strike by an F-16 on Iranian or Assad targets, which extend services to Iranian networks, including the Lebanese Hezbollah. These are red lines that Israel has frankly declared war on.
Russia’s interpretation of the crash or downing of its warplane is extremely strange and it implies evading specifying the source of the crisis. The Russian Defense Ministry said the aircraft, which disappeared near Syrian coasts with 15 Russian military personnel on board, was downed by a Syrian missile by mistake.
The Russian statement confirmed that this happened due "to the hostile and provocative acts" of Israeli warplanes in the region. Russia’s "wise" statement added that Israeli fighters put the Russian plane in the path of Syrian air defense systems and did not tell Moscow about its strike on Syrian targets except a little while before they were carried out.
Israel rejected the Russian accusation and said the Syrian government and the Syrian defenses are fully responsible for the incident.
GENEROUS SUPPORT
What’s ironic is that the Assad regime’s air defenses were developed thanks to Russia’s continuous and generous support as the British Guardian newspaper had reported that the Russian army spent 18 months rebuilding the Syrian air defense system.
Iran’s military presence ‐ whether directly or via Iran’s foreign militias like the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi and Afghani gangs ‐ is rejected and viewed as direct act of war. This is the Israeli security viewpoint hence these are all always legitimate targets for Israeli fighters and missiles.
At the same time, Russia, alongside the Iranians, are the ones protecting the Syrian regime, and it’s the one preying on Syrian land and airspace ‐ with apologies to his excellency President Assad ‐ so how will Moscow resolve this dilemma?
Truth is the incident of downing the Russian airplane using a Syrian military missile (which was originally taken from Russians) is a warning bell to the wild Russian as Russia is not alone the master of the Syrian arena.
The incident also reveals how poisonous this malicious Iranian presence is in Syria. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commented on what happened and rightfully said: "Yesterday’s unfortunate incident reminds us of the need to find permanent, peaceful, and political resolutions to the many overlapping conflicts in the region."
He added that it also underlined the "urgent need to end Iran's provocative transit of dangerous weapon systems through Syria."
Apart from the news’ bleak vibes, the Russian answer reminded me of Actor Adel Imam’s sentence in the play Shahed Mashafsh Haga (witness who saw nothing) as he complained to Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Abdelsalam after the policeman harassed him.
"He slapped my hand with his face, Sir," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
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#1
So now we know that Russian air defense systems work against Russian planes. Not so much against Israeli planes.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/20/2018 11:41 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds like the kid in dodgeball who got hit because the target jumped out of the way.
Unless there was a swarm of missiles, I am surprised by the lack of counter-measures on the IL-20. Just guessing the lack of survivors means the aircraft wasn't just winged.
I am also guessing that even if the Israeli pilot was trying to do this, the crowded and dynamic airspace would make a purposeful attempt downright difficult.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In a recent television interview with La Belle France 24, Ali Harb spoke about his book, ’Jihad and its End ‐ Post-Islamism’. He starts with his well-known critical ideas.
Harb has reached the peak of critical production in the early years of the millennium as he produced writings and bold commentaries beyond the projects of modernity. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, Harb has been engaged in analyzing violence, extremism and fundamentalism, but his approach is more that of someone who wonders and contemplates rather than that of someone who narrates what he knows about the complexities of Sharia and the details of Fiqh arguments, as his colleagues do.
As such, the content of his book presents post-Islamism in the same way he discussed post modernism, post reality and post-deconstruction. Islamism with its phenomena and movements is blown away by the winds of changes, new intellectual horizons and advanced methodological tools; only when Islam is a symbolic of a network of unifying values.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2018 00:00 ||
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h/t Instapundit
Do we really have to be here for this?
By "we," I mean America. And by "this," I mean some form of forced group therapy session for adult women who cannot move past an ugly event from their teen years and feel the need to relitigate it in public nearly four decades later. A serious vetting process for a Supreme Court nominee has suddenly devolved into the GenX version of "The Big Chill."
Here’s the deal: Christine Blasey Ford is one year older than I am. We came of age in the hard-partying 1980s when binge drinking among Americans teens was at an all-time high. A huge cultural shift was happening: Moms were entering the workforce and divorce rates were surging. Teenagers had extra latitude to do naughty things while our parents were busy working or finding new relationships post-divorce.
Plenty of GenX women have at least one story somewhat similar to the one Ford now says happened to her in the early 1980s: Attending a "house party" with a small group of drunk teens at a home where no parent was present; getting so blitzed you can’t later recall important details‐like the exact date it happened or how you got home. Having inebriated boys take advantage of the situation‐getting sloppy and aggressive, maybe even trying to force themselves on you. While the behavior was not excusable or acceptable, nor was it criminal. Especially if it ended after a firm "no."
#2
Which brings me back to Ford. I don’t doubt that some version of the incident she described did happen to her—or to someone she knew—at some point during her teen years. It appears to be traumatizing enough that it was brought up during her marriage counseling.
I am, however, highly suspect that Judge Kavanaugh was the assailant, particularly because she has no proof he was, nor can she recall crucial details such as when it happened, where it happened, or how old she was. No one has corroborated her account. There now are conflicting versions between her letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and comments made by Ford’s attorney.
Wasn't tracking until these paragraphs. Pardon me if I think she is a straight up F'n liar who built her entire career around being a victim, preaching victimhood, and solidifying her own psyche around said premise.
#3
The Past is mutable in a person's memory. My Grandmother told me that "... back before WW2 her personal car was stolen." My Mother later told me that it had been "repossessed by the Bank".... Was Grandma telling me a lie? I really don't see the 'Why' after over 30 years! No, I think she told herself a Fable and after enough repetitions the False Memory became "Truth"...
[Townhall] Americans keep dividing into two hostile camps.
It seems the country is back to 1860 on the eve of the Civil War, rather than in 2018, during the greatest age of affluence, leisure and freedom in the history of civilization.
The ancient historian Thucydides called the civil discord that tore apart the fifth-century B.C. Greek city-states "stasis." He saw stasis as a bitter civil war between the revolutionary masses and the traditionalist middle and upper classes.
Something like that ancient divide is now infecting every aspect of American life.
Americans increasingly are either proud of past U.S. traditions, ongoing reform and current American exceptionalism, or they insist that the country was hopelessly flawed at its birth and must be radically reinvented to rectify its original sins.
No sphere of life is immune from the subsequent politicization: not movies, television, professional sports, late-night comedy or colleges. Even hurricanes are typically leveraged to advance political agendas.
What is causing America to turn differences into these bitter hatreds -- and why now?
The internet and social media often descend into an electronic lynch mob. In a nanosecond, an insignificant local news story goes viral. Immediately hundreds of millions of people use it to drum up the evils or virtues of either progressivism or conservatism.
Anonymity is a force multiplier of these tensions. Fake online identities provide cover for ever greater extremism -- on the logic that no one is ever called to account for his or her words.
Speed is also the enemy of common sense and restraint. Millions of bloggers rush to be the first to post their take on a news event, without much worry about whether it soon becomes a "fake news" moment of unsubstantiated gossip and fiction.
Globalization has both enriched and impoverished -- and also further divided -- America. Those whose muscular labor could be outsourced abroad to less expensive, less regulated countries were liable to lose their jobs or find their wages slashed. They were written off as "losers." Americans whose professional expertise profited from vast new world markets became even richer and preened as "winners."
The progressives declared war on America years ago, and regular Americans are just now waking up to the fact that those people will destroy the culture in order to obtain power.
#2
We're there already, it's just that so far only one side has done all fhe shooting and stabbing
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/20/2018 2:14 Comments ||
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#3
What is causing America to turn differences into these bitter hatreds -- and why now?
The Left's lust for power. You haven't been noticing that? By any means necessary.
Then there is the sticky issue they've been unsuccessfully working on for generations of disarming the population in general. They've gotten too far ahead of themselves. Never have they staged a take over with so many armed citizens across the expanse of a land. They're about to experience American Exceptionalism.
#4
Avoiding the violence and bloodshed by selling out and moving elsewhere has been going on in urban America for years. The vacuum is quickly filled by loyal, left-leaning constituents. Clinton's recent call to dump the 'Electoral College' is clear evidence of their intent to govern through the will of the urban mob.
Yet another proof of the left's intent is their 'open borders' campaign.
#5
They say they hate Donald Trump, but it's us they hate. Take that hatred financed by that scumbag Soros and you have a problem which will most probably not resolve of it's own accord.
#6
"Victor Davis Hansen - Are We on the Verge of Civil War?"
No, we're not on the verge of a civil war-- we're in it. Right now it's on a low level, with random acts of violence that are increasing in frequency.
But I don't think it will stay that way much longer.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/20/2018 10:41 Comments ||
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#7
So we will point fingers at the left, and they will point fingers at us. Both sides are wrong. Our political reps, in conjunction with heavy financiers are working in conjunction with mainstream media to propagandize this nation into total division. Most readers will say, ya Occupy is a propaganda arm and the left are falling for it. But it is working both ways folks. Middle America, moderately educated, high school and college grads are the prime for sophisticated propaganda. We ask our selves how did Hitler sway a nation of good Christians into murdering millions of Jews? We look to today and see the template in action. We, on both sides are being bombarded with propaganda that is designed to divide us and drive us to a shrill level of contempt for our neighbors. All good propaganda has to be based in some truth, Kapra's first rule of propaganda, that truth is what they use to link the message to, and the message does not necessarily have to correlate with the truth. It is an art. This drives the mind to accept it as fact, just like the fact that even after marching the German population through the camps to see what happened, most did not believe it. We are there, in the last 15 years, with the advent of 24hour news cycles and Facebook, we have decided to believe the Rachel Maddows and Hahannities, over our own common sense and allow them to drive us to anxieties spurring things like Antifa and giving Anarchists a venue in our national dialogue. Our common enemy is the national media and the social media. There is no way for them to self regulate, there is no way for our nation to put rules into place. We must turn it off, stop logging in and listening to the poison, and sit with our neighbors and find common ground, or the civil war will be the most violent ever witnessed.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/20/2018 12:28 Comments ||
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#8
Wow, who are you and what have you done to my friend Pan?
#9
Want to knock out the Dem support base? Take away the tax deduction for advertising. Seriously, think about it. All media including Google and FB lose their reason to exist.
#10
49 Pan has some good points. Living as I do in coastal California, I know a number of otherwise good, intelligent people who would be described by Rantburgers as barking mad moon bat loony liberals. I don't want to believe I could bring myself to shoot any of them. I don't believe they know any better.
It cuts right through families. We can't talk about it at family gatherings anymore because we'd end up at each others' throats.
It's a miracle I grew up conservative. Frequent visits to the Midwest in my younger years might have had something to do with it. But then, California used to be a red state and I'm old enough to remember those days. Also, it says right there in the Bible, "Thou shalt not steal" and socialism sounds a lot like stealing to me.
Environment, and that includes the media, seems to have a lot to do with it. I wish Mrs. Uluque did not feel compelled to watch network news because it is so damn slanted. I asked her once if they ever taught her about propaganda in high school or college and she said no. I'm a few years older than she is and when I was in college they did mention it. A whole chapter of one of the English textbooks was about propaganda. I think it should be a required subject in junior high school because people like my wife don't even recognize it when they're exposed to it every day on ABCCBSNBCCNN and, yes, even FOX. That'll never happen as long as the teachers unions have any say.
It would be nice if corporate sponsors would yank their ads for this shit but we can't count on that either. It's really scary when you think about the way so many of these narratives are orchestrated in the media. What power can make all of these people from all of these different media outlets sing in unison every night like that?
One thing I like about Rantburg, even though it is slanted toward the conservative end of the spectrum, is that Fred and the mods allow different points of view. I like the motto of "Civil, Well Reasoned Discourse". Too bad you can't have that with barking mad moon bat loony liberals. Their favorite debate tactic is to shout you down. Lyndon Johnson used to say "Come, let us reason together." I think he got that from the Bible. But if they shout me down, all I can do is either shout back at them or walk away in frustration. That's no way for people to reason together.
Quite often I take my evening beverage outside to the patio to escape the nightly news broadcast. I gave up reading the newspaper long ago when I saw how they frame the debate by starting from false premises as if they are universal truths.
I never owned a gun and wouldn't know what to do with it if I held one in my hands. Maybe I'll get shot or end my days in prison. Maybe I'll move to Russia. I wish there was a better way.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/20/2018 14:26 Comments ||
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#11
The independents have always been center right. They don't follow politics closely and have been lulled by the Democrat sweet words and a desire not to be seen as racist/sexist for over a decade. Now the left is showing their true colors and I suspect more and more independents are noticing. I doubt they'll tell pollsters at this point but election results may come as a nasty surprise for the left.
#12
Seriously, Abu, ... get rid of the advertising tax write off .. and the leftist propaganda outlets masquerading as Media lose their financial reason to exist.
The NFL problem? Same thing. Take away special tax benefits like writing a depreciation schedule on players and they quit being propaganda outlets and return to being firms with a wanted product or die.
#15
But, 3dc, you would have to get Congress to act on something like that and Congress these days is only good for passing gas.
I was thinking more along the lines of what individuals can do to keep from getting themselves organized into opposing armies.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/20/2018 15:31 Comments ||
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#16
Abu (and others allergic to all propaganda, not just the eeeevil gluten-loaded enemy stuff): PROPAGANDA. Used to be a thing, almost. Doubt it's grown. Helped immeasurably in my lifelong project of being liked by everybody. Oh shit. I laughed way too much typing that. Seriously, lovely thread. Thanks.
#18
3dc, I'm not sure exactly where to grab ahold of that. I didn't impersonate 49Pan, I impersonated my own sloppy self. If you're suggesting I aped his tone or content... I'm not seeing it. If you're suggesting my involvement in a real-world occurrence involving somebody's phone... never happened.
If I were ever inclined to play silly online games (never have been), this is about the last place I would start. Wall to wall geeks, spooks and lord knows what, and me on a friggin' cable modem, swingin' in the breeze? Are you kidding?
#19
Just to be clear: the only posts in this thread from me are this one, the one above, and the Whemble one. No other communication attempted. No phones, semaphores, seances. Nada.
#21
Just a mea culpa. Rereading the Whemble-gram, I see how it would sound like gloating or mockery to someone suspicious of something upthread. And I sure sound defensive above. Almost suspect myself now. Apologies for my part in any confusion.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Hot Air] Uh, no, and I can’t imagine any other type of bare allegation that might be thrown at a nominee for a government position that would lead us to say the burden of proof was on the accused in answering it. Which is particularly foul given that the type of allegation being made in the present case involves a violent sex crime.
[NR] Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri broke with her Democratic colleagues Wednesday in announcing that she will ignore the outstanding allegation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when deciding how to vote on his confirmation.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Former US Secretary of State 
Moqtada 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Downing of the Russian Il-20 aircraft near Latakia and the death of all 15 people on board after it was shot down by the Syrian military exposes the complex picture in Syria. The incident exposes the depth that the Russian bear has dived into in Syrian traps.
