Failure To Thrive

Unprecedented! The U.S. economy has failed to thrive under Big Guy’s careful care and tending. First Quarter growth, originally reported to have at the robust pace of 0.2% in the first quarter, actually {{{horrors!}}} shrunk by 0.7%.

That was far worse than the agency’s initial estimate that showed 0.2% growth, marking an abrupt reversal from the prior nine months when growth surged and the economy appeared on the verge of a long-delayed breakout.

Long-delayed indeed: the recovery we've HOPEd for has been lurking around the corner for 6 years now.

Yes, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, let’s hope its not the Large Hadron Supercollider hurling destruction at an ever accelerating speed.

Women and minorities hit hardest.

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!
Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

When Your Name Becomes a Verb, Time to Move On

There seems to be some controversy over whether Marie Harf is being promoted or unceremoniously “kicked up stairs.” Butt let’s be honest; not only is Spokes-mouth Barbie not the sharpest knife in the drawer, she makes the butter knife look like a lethal weapon:

Harf is a dim bulb and the complete authorized version of the doctrine according to Barry shines none too brightly to begin with. Reduced to talking points and subject to questions, the doctrine is quickly reduced to parody. Thus Marie Harf. – Powerline

Thus the “promotion” to  Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications to Secretary of State John Kerry where she will be able to focus on negotiations between the U.S. and Iran regarding nuclear weapons.

Look Mahmoud, you can’t kill your way out of this war so you can only use your nukes for peaceful purposes - or is that too nuanced for you?

Should you find yourself suffering from  Harf withdrawal syndrome, here’s a great highlight reel that you can play whenever you need a fix, as well as a Twitter link: #harfisms.

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!
Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Puddles-R-Us

Now that Big Guy has personally taken control of all of America’s waterways and puddles:

President Obama’s administration on Wednesday claimed dominion over all of America’s streams, creeks, rills, ditches, brooks, rivulets, burns, tributaries, criks, wetlands — perhaps even puddles — in a sweeping move to assert unilateral federal authority. – Washington Times

How long before the Republicans accuse him of causing the floods in Texas and Oklahoma? Because, you know, he hates white people.

 

Butt the good news is – “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Appellate Court De-animates the Dream

Bummer!

A split federal appeals court on Tuesday let stand a lower court's ruling that has stymied Obama administration plans to shield up to 5 million people - including young immigrants known as "Dreamers" – from deportation. - LA Times

Well that’s really a bite!

“I’m living the dream, man; I sure hope I don’t get deported to Cuba.”

What the heck are we supposed to do now?

This smells like racism to me, has anyone called the Reverend Al yet?

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Michelle’s Advice To Graduates: Fraternize With the Enemy i.e. that’s us

BUTT FIRST, THIS SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: MOTUS IS TAKING A SUMMER SABBATICAL

As many of you know, the care and maintenance of a daily blog is rather labor intensive. And while I love the work and adore all of my colleagues here, the hours are long, and the days are short. I’m not complaining, butt I again find myself with a raft of half done and not-yet-started and projects that can no longer be deferred.

Therefore, just like last year, as of today I will be starting my  Summer Semi-Sabbatical. Butt as a famous cowboy once said, “I don’t know how to quit you.”

A shame America couldn’t figure out a way to quit him when we had the chance

So instead of a daily missive I will be posting a “Thought of the Day,” “Topic of the Day” or a “Picture of the Day.” Consider them to be open threads. When time and circumstance permit I will do a full post, and who knows, Little Mo and Dewey from Detroit might weigh in from time to time as well. This will allow me to take care of many neglected responsibilities that have languished nearly as long as Big Guy’s economy.

I hope you MOTI (MOL, MOD and FOM) understand and continue to carry the load around here this summer with all the wit, snark and very special charm we’ve all come to expect and enjoy. I thank you for your continued support, and God bless America!

And now, here’s today’s topic: At her commencement address at Oberlin yesterday Lady M warned the graduates at Oberlin about all the course, nasty people of the conservative persuasion they’re going to encounter after leaving their rarified cocoon of enlightenment and grace:

“And the truth is, graduates, after four years of thoughtful, respectful discussion and debate here at Oberlin -– those seminars where you explored new ideas together, those late-night conversations where you challenged each other and learned from each other — after all of that, you might find yourself a little dismayed by the clamor outside these walls — the name-calling, the negative ads, the folks yelling at each other on TV. After being surrounded by people who are so dedicated to serving others and making the world a better place, you might feel a little discouraged by the polarization and gridlock that too often characterize our politics and civic life.” (snip)

You might be tempted to just recreate what you had here at Oberlin -– to find a community of like-minded folks and work with them on causes you care about, and just tune out all of the noise…Today, I want to suggest that if you truly wish to carry on the Oberlin legacy of service and social justice, then you need to run to, and not away from, the noise. Today, I want to urge you to actively seek out the most contentious, polarized, gridlocked places you can find. Because so often, throughout our history, those have been the places where progress really happens –- the places where minds are changed, lives transformed, where our great American story unfolds.

And if Lady M’s advice isn’t good enough, you can get concrete examples from her HINO. That’s right, Barry “I won, John, the debate’s over” knows exactly how to change the hearts and minds of his opponents. He just stares at them until he bores a hole in their skull. Very effective leadership skills, and if I may so so, never fails to impress your enemy opponent. And if you’re still not convinced, you can ask Paul Ryan or Bibi Netanyahu as well.

Please discuss amongst yourselves, butt “I want to urge you to actively seek out the most contentious, polarized, gridlocked places you can find,” – oh, never mind; I guess that would be right here.

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Memorial Day 2015: A Day of Remembrance

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." —Winston Churchill

As we do on this day each year, we pause to remember the men and women who died fighting for our freedom.

We stand by humbly, gratefully, silently, to honor their sacrifice.

We remember…

We mourn for those lost…

And we mourn for those they’ve left behind…

As we reflect again on the the steep price of freedom.

By all means, enjoy your picnics, parades and celebrations today – it is a holiday after all. But do pause to remember and honor all the brave Americans across time who have sacrificed their lives in the fight against tyrants and tyrannies that threaten the endurance of the great American experiment.

And should anyone dare ask “what difference does it make”

I think it’s fair to say “all the difference in the world.”

Because there will always be tyrants.

And God willing we will always be there to take them out.

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

One Is Smarter Than The Other Won

Here’s a Memorial Day Weekend Quiz for you: I call it Which One is Smarter Than the Other Won?

Cast your vote(s) below for either:

A. Our President, figuring out how to get his big umbrella over the gate:

Or B) The Dog, figuring out how to get his big stick over the bridge:

And in case you missed this heartfelt Memorial Day tweet from the Democrats:

They are hoping everyone can join Barry for another brain freeze. Funny, isn’t it, how many stories about umbrellas, ice cream and dogs pop up around Memorial Day now that Obama is here?

Cast your votes now!

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Hold the Popcorn: Hillary’s Best Emails Are Still In The Can

Oh sure, there will still be barbecues,there will still be parades, complete with marching bands and cheerleaders:

The very best cheerleaders are made, not born

Butt there won’t be a marathon Memorial Day weekend of Hill-mail to entertain ourselves with, so hold the popcorn for now. Turns out there were only 300 emails set loose, not the 80,000 I was anticipating. Three hundred measly emails? That’s barely enough to get a bird through breakfast.

And mind you, they’ve all been hand-screened, redacted and authorized for public consumption. As Charles Krauthammer said, there will be no smoking gun:

“There isn’t a shred of evidence,” he said, “because she shredded the evidence. This whole release is a farce.”

Not that there aren’t some juicy bits about inappropriate reporters buried in the dump:

In an interview with Wall Street Journal reporter Monica Langley, an exchange apparently so fawning that Clinton’s aides exchanged a series of emails mocking the reporter’s obsequiousness and repeated invasions of Clinton’s personal space, the secretary made it clear how hard she had taken his loss.

“Whoa! Back off there Monica! Can I call you Monica?”

She took Ambassador Stevens loss so hard in fact that she forgot his name.

Butt of course, what difference at this point does it make?

So here we are, 300 emails later and all we’ve learned is that Hilz likes hard copies and she sleeps late.

They really should hold the briefings at 3:00 AM when Hilz is still wide-awake and par-taying.

So just sit back and enjoy the skill of this highly honed political beast. From claiming she wanted the State Department to release her emails “ASAP” – when she was the one holding them up - to the 300 hand-selected emails dumped on this holiday weekend, Hillary has displayed all the customary hubris associated with that legendary Clinton mystique.

Not to mention an inherent cynicism of American voters. Butt if Hillary is cynical about the voters, she might want to remember that what goes around comes around.

“She thinks we are all stupid and that we don’t get it. But we do: Hillary set up her home server to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act, she did just that, and once caught, she wiped her server clean and got rid of everything she didn’t want us to see.”

Oh, I forgot, we also  learned that Hilz knew the State Department had asked YouTube to block that anti-Muslim video. And while “leaning on corporate cronies to suppress Americans’ speech for political ends would be a disqualifying offense for a candidate in a sane world,” in the Clintonian world where dog whistles are routinely and cynically deployed as needed this will simply be written off as another vast right-wing conspiracy.

So fire up the grill and get the burgers, brats and dogs ready. That will be the only good roasting you’ll be enjoying this weekend. Because the really juicy bits have still not been released.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network