Worse Than Hitler!

Employment up! Unemployment down! (Unexpectedly.)

Payrolls rose 313,000 in February, compared with the 205,000 median estimate in a survey of economists, and the two prior months were revised higher by 54,000, Labor Department figures showed Friday.

Women and minorities hardest hit!

Black, Hispanic unemployment hit historic lows:

Just 6.9 percent of black adults were unemployed in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the second-lowest such ratio since the agency has been keeping track.

Hispanic workers, too, are currently enjoying historically low rates of unemployment. At 4.9 percent in February, Hispanic unemployment is just a tenth of a percentage point above the historic low. [I presume we’re talking about legal Hispanic employment]

 

Not only that, but we’ve finally reversed the downward spiral of the labor participation rate:

An increase in the labor force participation rate to its highest level since September helped keep the headline unemployment number steady, as the number of those counted as not in the workforce tumbled by 653,000 to just over 95 million.

The total counted as "employed" in the household survey surged by 785,000 to a record 155.2 million.

Will this national nightmare never end!?! It’s all good news for America which means it’s all bad news for progressives.

And speaking of clocks, don’t forget to set yours ahead an hour tonight: the time bandits are here again. They’re worse than Hitler.

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

#FLOTUS Friday: Alfa Male Edition

Little Rocket Man, who once called President Trump “mentally deranged,” has offered to suspend his nuclear testing program and meet with our Very Stable Genius in a few weeks to see what’s what.

Washington is in melt down. It’s just too much for one news cycle: President imposes trade tariffs (as he said he would!) and now…this! All after a year and a half of the MSM trying to legitimize their own story-of-the-century, Russia!Russia!Russia! It’s enough to drive them mad: their narrative is losing!

How can this be? It’s almost as if the Trump America First strategy (that they strongly disapprove of) is working, but how? It cannot be as simple as telling people what you intend to do, establishing a strategy to do it and then following through. No, VSGPDT must have a secret weapon.

I wonder what it could be?

Whatever it is the world needs more of that and less of this:

Hollywood Reporter cover story this week: Triumph of the Beta Male

All I know for sure is that Beta Males do NOT triumph, they may dream of triumph, they may write about triumph, they may talk about triumph, but they are not the triumphant.

Beta Male Robert Smigel and his hand puppet, Triumph the Insult Dog: How Betas “Triumph”

That right is reserved for Alfa Males and it always will be. Sorry, but you can’t mess with Mother Nature, it’s in the contract.

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#ThroughbackThursday: Betty Ann Edition

How fortuitous: it’s #ThroughbackThursday AND Betty Ann’s - aka Mello(ha!)LemonCello – birthday! So today’s post is a homage to a very good year, 1958.

The Mad Men of Madison Avenue had some awesome product to hawk in those days. The cars from 1958 were, like our Betty Ann, creative, original, distinctive, spunky and colorful. What ever happened to that? Look around a parking lot today: all black, white or grey in a sea of similar looking boxes bearing different nameplates. Henry Ford might be surprised to find that 100 years hence we’re essentially back to his position that you can get any color car you want as long as it’s black.

Behold the glorious choices you had in 1958: Chevy Impala, Ford Fairlane, Corvette, Thunderbird, Plymouth and Studebaker – any color you wanted.

And in 1958 teenage girls dressed like young women rather than sluts-in-training.

Carol Lynley, covergirl Seventeen Magazine July, 1958 

Betty Ann probably doesn’t remember these hit songs from her birth year, but three of the best singers of the 20th century had hits in the top 100 songs of 1958. And they still sing as pretty today as they did then. I wonder how well the Hip Hop “mother f*****” lyrics will hold up after 60 years.

Return To Me, Dino Martino

One For My Baby And One More For The Road, Frank Sinatra 

Non Dimenticar, Nat King Cole

And I even found a couple vintage ‘58 trucks for Betty Ann to paint. So happy birthday BA!

In honor of the event I’ll be at my easel all day. Cheers! And may you enjoy 60 more.

It Was A Very Good Year.

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

#OpenWhineWednesday: Or Why You Can’t Look More Like Sharon Stone.

I was reading an article on the NYT site (related to yesterday’s post but not good enough to bother linking) when this headline popped up in their annoying animated sidebar feature:  “You Won’t Look Like Sharon Stone at 59.” Of course not, you morons – Sharon Stone doesn’t even look like Sharon Stone at 59.

Which is not to say she isn’t gorgeous as she assuredly is, but nobody, I don’t care how much high grade cosmetic surgery, fillers, plumpers and Botox you’ve had, looks like they did as a 30-something three decades hence. I knew this was click-bait  but clicked anyway, certain there would be something here worth an open-whine-Wednesday post. I was not disappointed.

The alleged “article” was actually hawking 33 (I counted) beauty items that Sharon claims she keeps at the ready in her “go bag” in order to maintain her youthful appearance. And if you believe that, she’d be happy to cook you up a nice Lapin a La Cocotte for dinner.

So what we have here is an extended commercial for several dozen “beauty” products parading as a feature article in America’s newspaper of record – precisely the way their opinion pieces parade as news. Not to worry though, like the hard news writers Sharon takes great care to cover her deceit in something intended to sound true and sincere. So after hawking the 33 essential beauty products she uses regularly she assures us that beauty is not just superficial:

Also, for me, it’s more about real inner beauty. It’s important to have a philosophy or way of life or faith that keeps you balanced. For me, that has been Buddhism. It’s something that brings you back to center, and is really the key to serenity and beauty — an internal sense of form and elegance.

How about you tuck some of that “internal elegance” back in

You may be interested to know that some of Sharon’s inner beauty comes from Galderma, a maker of facial fillers and plumpers. In fact Sharon is a spokesmouth/face for the company’s aesthetics treatments in a campaign to demonstrate natural-looking, real-life results of Restylane fillers and Skinboosters.

And don’t think for a moment that Ms. Stone doesn’t practices what she preaches:

As RadarOnline.com reported, the 58-year-old sexpot was recently caught outside Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon Bernard Markowitz’s office holding “smoking gun” evidence of a Botox-like procedure.

Stone, 58, was photographed with a cold compress — which a renowned plastic surgeon identified as “a staple of aftercare for Botox and filler treatments.”

And that my friends is why you won’t look like Sharon Stone when you’re 59, and neither does she.

Sharon Stone, bravely posting her plumped, filled and ‘toxed 59 year old face with and without makeup on Instagram. Why can’t you be more like her?

Just a reminder, this is what Sharon Stone looked like about 7 years ago, before she decided she didn’t want to look like like Sharon Stone at 59 either:

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

#TransformationTuesday: Transforming the Google Machine

If you’ve been paying attention you know that it’s #TransformationTuesday – the day we explore all the ways  Obama and his mignons are still trying and/or succeeding in fundamentally transforming America. Many of these transformers are in government but the public sector harbors some as well: take Google for example. Long known as a bastion of leftist biases, censorship and abuse of it’s search engine monopoly it recently has used its power to shutdown YouTube videos (mostly conservative) that it doesn’t approve of.

“The Google Machine” and a handful of other high-tech companies rule the Internet through a combination of data mining (spying), misrepresentation of search results and censorship. They have become Orwellian.

Last week Breitbart highlighted the action taken by YouTube to silence non-progressive voices. Last summer Zero Hedge documented this dangerous trend:

Political totalitarianism is coming to America, and it is being ushered in not by government thugs in jackboots but by progressive activists and their allies in Silicon Valley.

A number of troubling actions by internet companies — Google most prominent among them — are making it increasingly clear that some in Silicon Valley have proclaimed themselves defenders of the progressive, politically correct faith, and that those firms will silence any and all heretics who challenge those beliefs.

"Silicon Valley lives in a politically regressive, exclusive bubble. They are not aware of their own biases in how they talk, have a limited understanding of the philosophy behind free speech, and find it difficult empathizing with other points of view," said Aaron Ginn, co-founder of the Lincoln Network, a think tank that seeks to promote libertarian ideas in the tech industry. – Zero Hedge

So today I’m the one transforming; although normally anti-regulation, I’ve transformed my positon with regards to Big Tech. We already have laws in place to provide for the regulation of public utility monopolies, and given that Big Techs are both a public utility and monopoly, by definition, I say subject them to the progressive model they love so much. Competition is the preferred method of managing any economic sector but until such time as there exists some de facto competition in this sector, like I said -  I’m transforming.

So let them eat cake.

Help! I’m melting!

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

ATTENTION:

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR INTERTOOBS

DISQUS IS EXPERIENCING AN “UNPLANNED” OUTAGE

DON’T MESS WITH GOOGLE!

Monday Moanin’–They May Be Giants But They Are Not American Giants

Yes it’s Monday Moanin.’ Also known in the trade as “what’s bothering you” it means that it’s time to let your inner-bitch out. Since I’ve been bitching about politics for over a decade I’m focusing on something that’s only ancillary to politics today: the long, slow march to the downsizing of America. I’m talking products here, the size reductions that require heirloom recipes to be recalibrated to accommodate for the new 14.75 ounce cans that used to hold 16.5 ounces and the 12 ounce boxes that once housed a full pound of pasta. I guess manufacturers thought we wouldn’t notice. And we didn’t… at first. But when they did it to the two most essential food groups in the American diet, coffee and ice cream, we all snapped to attention.

I’m so old I remember when a half gallon of ice cream was 2 full quarts

Yes children, a one pound can of coffee once weighed 16 ounces, not 11.5.

And 5# of sugar once weighed a full pound more than the new, sleeker, 4 pound bag. And a bag containing one whole pound of chips? You wish!

What else has shrunk since the golden age of Obama? More like what hasn’t? Hot dogs, mustard, catsup, packaged cheese, cereal, mayonnaise, jam, pasta, canned tuna fish, peanut butter, paper towels, toilet paper, pills, kleenex, soap. All have been on the chopping block. Even plastic bags are thinner now – and half the time they won’t even “zip” anymore let alone lock.

I blame this insidious form of inflation on Obama, who picked up Jimmy Carter’s mantle of winning the energy crisis by using less and conserving more and dragged it to the “pie is only so big” finish line.  During this time frame both he and manufacturers tried to convince us that less really was more.

50% more than our 12 oz (that used to be 14 oz)

Hershey’s cynically renamed it’s newly downsized 6.8 oz. (formerly 7 oz.) “GIANT”

They may be Giants, but they are not American giants. Enough with the downsizing.

MAGA!

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

#SooperSunday

Welcome: it’s #SooperSunday, a day set aside to wonder about things and cook up a pot of soup.

Here’s something to wonder about, a rare instance of hell freezing over: Bill Maher gets something right. In this case the very nature of fake news.

Meanwhile we are awaiting the 3rd wave of the “Big Blow” that dumped 7 feet of snow on northern Cali. Disappointingly, wave 1 and 2 missed us. Only in states dependent on snowpack for its water supply – and harboring a huge ski-based economy - would that be a problem. The snow accumulation has been downgraded significantly but is still adequate to warrant a pot of soup. So my #SooperSunday pot will be filled with Beach Bar Tomato Soup.

The Beach Bar, outside of Jackson Michigan on Clark Lake, started as a dance club to showcase Big Band musicians. It was created by an entrepreneur from Toledo Ohio who was smitten with the place. Leo Steinem – father of Gloria – bought 30 acres, hauled in a ton of sand, built a pavilion and opened what he called the “Ocean Beach Club” in 1928. The Big Bands, including Harry James, Guy Lombardo, The Andrews Sisters, Kay Kyser, Duke Ellington and Count Basie all performed there for huge crowds. Former employees Harry Collins and Marie Snell, who had met, married and moved on to the Detroit area, bought the property after WWII moved back and built what is today’s Beach Bar.

The Beach Bar still serves as a music venue today

As I understand it their famous tomato soup has been on the menu nearly forever. It’s worth the calories.

Beach Bar Tomato Soup

Ingredients

·       1 Large can tomato soup (46 oz)

·       12 Ounces  cream cheese, room temperature

·       16 oz can diced tomatoes

·       16 oz can stewed tomatoes

·       1 QT Half and half

·       1 teaspoon (or more, to taste) garlic Powder

·       1 teaspoon (or more) dried basil

·       Salt/Pepper to taste

·       6 Tablespoons Butter

·       1 yellow onion, diced finely

·       Grated Parmesan

·       Croutons (homemade are best, but store bought are fine)

Instructions

1. Sauté onion in butter
2. In blender, combine soup, half & half, cream cheese, and tomatoes – alternatively, add cream cheese and soup to onions and stir over low heat with whisk until cheese is melted and combined with soup. Carefully whisk in half and half. Add tomatoes, garlic, basil and blend with an immersion blender.
3. Add salt/pepper to taste
4. Simmer 20-30 min
5. Serve with croutons and freshly grated Parmesan

NOTES: I also add red pepper flakes, about ½ tsp. after sautéing onions. And a shot of bourbon or Sherry added to the pot at the end of cooking time doesn’t hurt anything either.

You can feed a very hungry crowd if you serve this with Ham and Cheese Sliders

Bon Appétit!

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

#ScienceStudiesSaturday

Henceforth Saturdays will serve as the day we examine stupid studies, generally done at least partially on your dime, conducted by researchers with an agenda that seldom includes simple scientific curiosity in order to publish astounding results that will likely be retracted at a later date.

Saturdays will there fore become a permanent repository for this week’s #TransformationTuesday theme: bad science. Why? Because bad “science” makes bad policy and bad policy makes bad law – that we are all subject to. First and foremost in this genre is “Global Warming/Cooling/Climate Change” studies that are based on lies faked studies and Al Gore’s video tapes. Lies that have been repeated so often that both Goebbels and Lenin would be proud.

Why people continue to believe any of the garbage that is pumped endlessly into the education system and mainstream media echo chamber would be a mystery if you didn’t know how education has transmogrified into a propaganda camp. Two generations, minimally, have been conditioned to believe the Big Lie, as long as it comes from the government.

So, once a week we will discus another crappola study intended to shape public policy. This week’s subject: the study Diane Feinstein cited in the meeting she and other legislators had with President Trump. The one she claims demonstrated that the ban on “assault rifles” reduced mass murders while it was in place.

Not so fast. As I speculated at the time, it was another case of data manipulation.

As Jon Stokes ably explains at the Los Angeles Times, Klarevas and Feinstein are able to insist that the ban produced "a remarkable 37% decline in mass shooting fatalities" only by ignoring the fact that both before or after the ban, such weapons are hardly used to kill anyone. "Klarevas and his allies are taking an apparent drop in fatalities from what are mostly handgun shootings (again, pre-ban as well as post) and attributing this lowered body count to the 1994 legislation," Stokes explains.

Klarevas also cherry-picked to get an apparently impressive result from the assault weapon ban by adopting an unusual definition of "mass shooting." If he had "chosen the most widely accepted threshold for categorizing a shooting as a 'mass shooting'—four fatalities, as opposed to Klarevas' higher threshold of six—the 1994 to 2004 drop in fatalities disappears entirely. Had Klarevas chosen a 'mass shooting' threshold of five fatalities instead of six, then the dramatic pause he notes in mass shootings between 1994 to 1999 would disappear too."

*yawn*

So listen up all you vulnerable students, SJWs, Trump haters and other liberal “resisters:” you are being played. But you just keep doing what you’ve been doing - pushing gun control and trying to undo the Second Amendment - and ignore the mental health crisis in this country at your peril.  I’m sure everything will work out and there will be no more mass murders. Idiots.

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