I NO LONGER WANNA BE A PART OF IT

New York, NEW YORRRRRRRRRRK.

Scores of people are leaving the New York City area behind every day.

 

New York leads all U.S. metro areas as the largest net loser with 277 people moving every day -- more than double the exodus of 132 just one year ago. Los Angeles and Chicago were next with triple digit daily losses of 201 and 161 residents, respectively.

 

This is according to 2018 Census data on migration flows to the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas compiled by Bloomberg News.

SYLLOGISM

1. John C. Calhoun ate breakfast.

2. Eve Fairbanks eats breakfast.

3. Eve Fairbanks is a racist.

Thinking back on those debates, I finally figured it out. The reasonable right’s rhetoric is exactly the same as the antebellum rhetoric I’d read so much of. The same exact words. The same exact arguments. Rhetoric, to be precise, in support of the slave-owning South.

AND NOW...IDIOTS

I don't know what worries me more about this.  The fact that an allegedly-sentient human being thought these words up and posted them in a public place or the fact that slightly over 4,000 people agreed with them.

MATTHEW 7:2

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists.

It is the latest step in a long-running effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to undercut the influence of legitimate news reporting. Four people familiar with the operation described how it works, asserting that it has compiled dossiers of potentially embarrassing social media posts and other public statements by hundreds of people who work at some of the country’s most prominent news organizations.

Operatives have closely examined more than a decade’s worth of public posts and statements by journalists, the people familiar with the operation said. Only a fraction of what the network claims to have uncovered has been made public, the people said, with more to be disclosed as the 2020 election heats up. The research is said to extend to members of journalists’ families who are active in politics, as well as liberal activists and other political opponents of the president.

But the material publicized so far, while in some cases stripped of context or presented in misleading ways, has proved authentic, and much of it has been professionally harmful to its targets.

DESECRATION

The two saddest pictures I have ever seen.

ONCE AGAIN

IT'S A DANCING SHOW.

LIGHTEN UP, FRANCIS

Remember all those reports that have been coming out lately about how the Amazon rain forest is currently burning down and that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE IMMEDIATELY OR WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE?

 

Scientists studying satellite image data from the fires in the Amazon rain forest said that most of the fires are burning on agricultural land where the forest had already been cleared.

 

Most of the fires were likely set by farmers preparing the land for next year’s planting, a common agricultural practice, said the scientists from the University of Maryland.

 

You know what would be awesome?  If there was some kind of profession whose responsibility it was to find out, to the best of its ability, the truth about what was happening in the world.  Too bad that's probably never going to happen.

TEE HEE

Alexandria OhLord-ShesAnIdiot wants to abolish the Electoral College.  Walk in the park.  It's a ridiculously easy, three-step process.

1. Write a constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College.

2. Convince 2/3 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate to agree.

3.  Convince 3/4 of the states to agree.

And boom goes the dynamite.  Or have New York City public schools (and Boston University, for that matter) become so crappy that they don't teach American government anymore?

Only way it can be done, High School.  So quit bitching and get your skinny ass down to work.

NOT AS I DO

The next time you encounter some sanctimonious New York Times lecture about "racism," ask them if this guy has been fired yet.

TRUMP DERANGEMENT HYSTERIA

It's always nice when your enemies prove your point for you.

Repeat after me. 

IT'S A DANCING SHOW.

LANDSCAPES CHANGE

This just happened.

Carolyn Kindle Betz didn’t realize the presentation she and her family made in Orlando on July 31 would end the suspense. She didn’t know that the Major League Soccer Board of Governors would vote later that day to award her hometown a professional soccer franchise.

On Tuesday, she was finally able to share what she learned shortly after that vote. She and league Commissioner Don Garber revealed the news to a city that has been hungry to join the MLS for years: St. Louis will be the 28th team added to the growing professional soccer league.

“St. Louis, with its incredibly rich soccer history, not only deserves a team, but has earned one,” Garber told the crowd at the Palladium on Tuesday. “After two decades of discussions about St. Louis being a part of our league, today the moment has arrived. We’re here to make a landmark announcement for your city.”

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen has already endorsed a stadium financing plan, which the Taylors have indicated would be “overwhelmingly” privately financed. There’s a break on real estate taxes and a few site-specific sales taxes that need final approval, but top city leaders have all signaled support and say details should be ready in a few weeks.

The team, as yet without a nickname, will begin play in 2022.

Why am I mentioning this?  Because just about everybody in this area is REALLY excited about this story and can't wait for 2022 to roll around.  But considering how often the NFL has lied to St. Louis and considering that the Shield never wanted the Rams to come here in the first place, no one here would so much as cross the street to bring the NFL back to this town.

Particularly since these guys will be setting up here next year.  Quite a few of us are pretty excited about this too.

The XFL  on Wednesday announced the name for its team here in St. Louis.

The league said, via Twitter and online announcement, that the team will be called the BattleHawks.

The league, which positions itself as an alternative to the NFL, announced St. Louis is one of eight cities on December 5, 2018. Games will be played beginning in 2020.

I'm not crazy about that nickname but beggars can't be choosers.

AND NOW...IDIOTS

Congressman Steve Scalise was shot by a Bernie Sanders supporter and damn near died.

As a woman of colour who wears a headscarf, I am more wary than ever of life in America. Since Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar was elected to congress last year, Trump has been making racist attacks and inciting violence against her at every opportunity.

I have watched the president of the United States, the man in charge of the most powerful nation on earth, tell Americans like me to return to the “crime infested places” from which we came. I have watched him insinuate a Muslim American woman is in some way responsible for 9/11. It is little surprise that, following the infamous chants of “send her back” at a North Carolina Trump rally, security protecting Omar had to be stepped up. This is violent white supremacy in action.

So kiss the hell off, moron.

ACCEPTABLE LOSSES

I guess for people like Illie and the Rash, Israel needs to expect this kind of thing.

Like Midwest thunderstorms or something.

HERE'S A THOUGHT

If you visit the Southeastern United States to watch Auburn's football team rip Missouri's Tigers into a million pieces in the SEC title game (assuming that ever happens again in any of our lifetimes; not saying it couldn't or won't but you know...), you might want to avoid listing "Confederate States of America" as your travel destination.

UPDATE: Case in point.  What should ISRAEL have done?

HIT PIECE

Charles C. W. Cooke has a piece up on Max Boot that starts out like this:

Before yesterday, my primary criticism of the Washington Post’s Max Boot was political in nature. As I wrote in a recent book review, I found it regrettable that Boot’s opposition to the president had not prevented him from “succumbing reactively to Trump’s cult of personality, or from making Trump the origin of every graph onto which he plots himself.” As of yesterday, my primary criticism of the Washington Post’s Max Boot is that he is a narcissistic, dishonest, calculating, manipulative writer who is prone to engaging in precisely the sort of willfully dishonorable conduct that he claims to disdain in others.

And then gets nasty.

Max?  What say you, Bill Kristol, Jenny Rubin, Jonah Goldberg and others like you stop pretending?  All of you know perfectly well that the reason you Got Trump was Mitt Romney.  He was and I guess still is a wonderful human being.  But he was a GODAWFUL presidential candidate and basically the reason why us conservative unwashed decided to stop taking instruction from Professional Conservatives^TM like you, Bill Kristol, Jenny Rubin, Jonah Goldberg and others like you and vote for someone who could actually win the damn race.

And someone who wanted to win the damn race.

PUNCH DRUNK

Slapsie Maxie pushes all-in.

Appalling attack by the president on one of America’s most respected journalists (Chris Cuomo?  Seriously, Max?  You're actually going to run with that?  You're actually going to tag Fredo that way?  I mean, the guy works for CNFreakingN, Max.  That's the television equivalent of the Weekly World News)—a fearless (and eminently sane) truth teller I am proud to work with at CNN.  We cannot accept as normal these kinds of attacks on the free press.

SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE

The other day, someone publicly called CNN's Chris Cuomo Fredo and Chris blew up about it, claiming it was racist or something and threatening physical violence against the man who said it to him. Fredo, by the way, was the weakest and most pathetic of the Corleone brothers in The Godfather movies (an interesting commentary on the power of movies in this culture).

Never mind the fact that he and other of his guests have used the term themselves on several occasions to refer to Republicans.  This was supposed to have been a MAJOR ethnic slur and more than a few "conservatives" stood up for Cuomo's wild overreaction.  Me, I'm right here.

You don't get to spend your career doing this kind of crap and then react in horror when someone does it to you.  Keep your mouth shut.

LARRY?

Ecclesiastes 3:7 teaches us that there's a time to be silent and a time to speak.  Guess which one this is, dumbass.

PANTS ON FIRE

Sharyl Attkisson eviscerates Kammi and Lies-Through-Her-Teeth-About-Her-Ethnicity on the subject of Michael Brown.

TRENDING

Thanking God that you are not as other men are seems to be back in.

NFL players and Megan Rapinoe aren't the only American athletes protesting during the national anthem: Race Imboden, a US fencer and Olympic medalist, is in hot water with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee after taking a knee as the American flag was raised after he and his teammates won gold medals at the Pan-Am Games. "I am honored to represent Team USA at the Pan-Am Games," wrote Imboden. "My pride however has been cut short by the multiple shortcomings of the country I hold so dear to my heart. Racism, gun control, mistreatment of immigrants, and a president who spreads hate are at the top of a long list. I chose to sacrifice my moment today at the top of the podium to call attention to issues that I believe need to be addressed."

I don't need any special motivation to dislike the Olympics.  I haven't much cared for them since the '80 hockey win over the Soviet Union and I really detest that stupid "USA!! USA!!" chant that breaks out every time the US wins any sport at all.

But I hate ostentatious virtue-signaling way more.

Here's the passage from the Gospel of Luke if you're interested.

 Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’  And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

You can make public displays like this but that's as far as they'll ever go and as much as they'll ever accomplish.  Or you can stand there, examine your own life and see what you need to personally fix.  You can decide that you're right and anyone who disagrees with you is evil or you can resolve to stop calling people racists simply because they have a different take on things.

Up to you.

QUESTION

Does anyone beside me find this picture kind of...hot?

WOULDN'T BE THE FIRST TIME

Back in the day, Vince Foster "committed suicide" too.

But you go ahead and do you, Scarbs.

PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT

I'll just leave this here.

An illegal immigrant who received positive press coverage during his fight against deportation earlier this year struck and killed a father of five in Colorado on Aug. 2 while driving without a license.

According to press reports, Miguel Ramirez Valiente was charged with careless driving with a revoked license after he over-corrected his truck while driving on a state highway near Colorado Springs, hitting Sean Buchanan.

Buchanan was riding a motorcycle when he was hit by Ramirez Valiente, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador 14 years ago.

Last year, Ramirez Valiente’s driver’s license was revoked after he pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence, according to The Denver Channel. His probation for that charge was extended Aug. 1, a day before he hit Buchanan, because he had not finished his community service and therapy for alcoholism.

TILTING AT WINDMILLS

Pete Buttigieg is the current mayor of South Bend, Indiana and a candidate for president of the United States.  He's a gay guy and an Episcopalian which means that his working knowledge of the Christian religion is negligible.  And he just hired himself a "faith outreach director."

A Unitarian Universalist. 

Pete's not going to be the next president of the United States.

LET ME GUESS

The labels will be these big, yellow Stars of David.  You know, so they'll be easily and quickly noticed by consumers.

The European Union is poised to mandate that Israeli products made in contested territories carry consumer warning labels, a decision that could trigger American anti-boycott laws and open up what legal experts describe as a "Pandora's box" of litigation, according to multiple sources involved in the legal dispute who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice recently issued non-binding opinion arguing that EU law requires Israeli-made products to be labeled as coming from "settlements" and "Israeli colonies."

The decision was seen as a major win for supporters of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, which seeks to wage economic warfare on Israel and its citizens. Pro-Israel activists, as well as the Jewish businesses involved in the legal dispute, see the decision as an ominous warning sign that they say is reminiscent of Holocaust-era boycotts of Jewish businesses.

With the EU court's 15 judge panel now poised to issue its own binding judgment in the case, legal experts are warning that a potential decision mandating such labeling could pave the way for goods from any disputed territory to receive such treatment. The decision also could trigger U.S. anti-boycott laws meant to stop Israeli-made goods from being singled out for unfair treatment on the international market.

Yup.  It'll be a sub-zero St. Louis day in August before I ever support pulling that hell-continent's irons out of the fire again.

SOMETIMES I REGRET BEING KICKED OFF TWITTER

The rest of the time, I consider it a badge of honor.

 

THE WAY FORWARD

I can't see any way that any of this could ever possibly be abused.

COLIN?

If I'm you, I'm looking hard at the Canadian Football League right about now.  Granted, you're not going to make anywhere near as much money as you could make south of the border but beggars can't be choosers.  You did make the one Super Bowl but you managed to screw that up so it's not like you're a hot commodity or anything.  Also, you can think or say anything you want about the United States and nobody there is going to criticize you for it.  And who knows, you get a few Grey Cups under your belt and some NFL team might take a flyer on you.

Remember Warren Moon?

PETE?

You're a member of the Episcopal Organization.  Either convert to Christianity or shut up.

UH HUH

I'm also sorry you were born.  And I'm even sorrier that your continuing existence is wasting all that perfectly good oxygen.

STUPIDITY ON STEROIDS

Said it a couple posts down and I guess I'll have to keep on saying it.  If I decide that I want to murder a lot of innocent people only I can't get my hands on a gun, never mind any ammo for it, I'll still figure out a way to get the job done.

Americans are resourceful that way.

See Oklahoma City.

ONE STEP CLOSER

The Democrats turn up the "irresponsible political rhetoric" heat.

WHY TWITTER SHOULD BE BANNED

CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE

DAMN, Stephen Miller is good.

Here's the deal, former Attorney General.  If I ever became depraved enough to want to kill as many people in St. Louis, Missouri as possible only there wasn't a gun to be had in this town, I could still figure out a way to get it done.

There's this thing called the Internet now.  So considering your little Mexican gun-running scheme, you might want to sit this one out.

IN OTHER SHOOTING NEWS

The City Of The Big Shoulders had a busy weekend.

Police patrols were stretched thin and a West Side hospital had to stop accepting patients after a violent Chicago weekend that has left at least 47 people shot, five fatally, across the city.

The latest fatal shooting took place in Back of the Yards on the South Side at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday. Two men, ages 56 and 47, were on a sidewalk in the 1900 block of West Garfield Boulevard when an offender approached them and opened fire, Chicago police said.

The 56-year-old man was shot in the neck and transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The 47-year-old man was shot in the elbow. He was taken to the hospital and remains in stable condition. No offenders are in custody yet.

Saturday night, resources were strained as officers responded to multiple shootings in Chicago's 10th Police District, which includes West Side neighborhoods such as Lawndale, Douglas Park and Homan Square. The shootings all occurred within a three hour period, resulting in 17 people injured and at least one dead.

PERSPECTIVE

From Neil DeGrasse Tyson, of all people.

JAKE?

Considering what you did after Parkland, why should any conservative trust you?

Never mind trusting CNN.

PAY ATTENTION

Twenty people were gunned down in El Paso, Texas yesterday.  Nine more lost their lives in Dayton, Ohio.  But if you think that these tragedies happened merely because of the easy availability of guns, then you are literally too stupid to be allowed out in public unsupervised.

MR. PRESIDENT?

Would you like to guarantee your reelection?  Pull the US out of this ridiculous organization.  Send it packing and use Turtle Bay for something worthwhile.  A synagogue/yeshiva.  A turtle habitat.  A shopping mall.  A parking lot.  Hell, pretty much anything.

The United Nations economic and social council recently singled out Israel for violating women’s rights by a vote of 40–2 with nine abstentions and three countries absent.

The resolution criticized Israel for posing a “major obstacle” for Palestinian women “with regard to their advancement, self-reliance, and integration in the development of their society,” UN Watch reported.

The Council then resolved Israel should address these issues by complying with the 1994 agreement signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): fully opening Palestinian access to border crossings in the Gaza Strip, as well as restoring and replacing “civilian property, vital infrastructure, agricultural lands and government institutions that have been damaged or destroyed due to its military operations,” according to a UN press release.

WAIT, WHAT?

Angela Merkel is Germany's worst Chancellor ever?  She's even worse than that Chancellor Germany had that one time?  The guy who did all that stuff?

BODIES IN THE SEATS

How do you know when your religion has given up?  When you think this is a good idea.

A crazy golf course has been installed in a Church of England cathedral at Rochester in Kent to help build bridges with young people. 

Although worship services will continue as normal, the medieval nave has been transformed by a green and various bridges which visitors can send their golf balls through while being inspired by the architecture. 

The Revd. Rachel Phillips, Canon for Mission and Growth at Rochester Cathedral, said: “For over 1,400 years, Rochester Cathedral has been a centre of learning for the community. By temporarily installing an educational adventure golf course we aim to continue that mission, giving people the opportunity to learn while they take part in a fun activity, inz````` what for many might be a previously un-visited building. 

She said the course forms the centrepiece of a ‘Building Bridges’ theme running through the summer. 

“As well as the physical bridge which has stood over the River Medway since Roman times,” she explained. “The invisible but equally historic links between the Cathedral and the surrounding community are also bridges of a kind; we hope that, while playing adventure golf, visitors will reflect on the bridges that need to be built in their own lives and in our world today.”

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

Wistful sigh.

IN MEMORIAM

Back before Vince McMahon completely ruined it, I was a huge professional wrestling fan when I was a kid.  During the winter and spring, they used to have National Wrestling Alliance wrestling shows every couple of weeks at what was then called Kiel Auditorium (now the Enterprise Center) and I was almost always there. 

Greatest place to watch pro wrestling ever.

I knew it was fake.  But I always found it interesting that a great many people who also knew that pretended that it wasn't.  The sports sections of the St. Louis papers would run the results and they'd also have an occasional feature on some wrestler or other.  There's still a whole section of the Missouri state legal code that deals with how pro wrestling events are to be conducted.

And there was, of course, a local wrestling TV show.  In St. Louis, it was called "Wrestling at the Chase" since it was filmed at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.  Since it was free, I went down there for it once.  Interesting experience. 

They usually filmed four of these at a time (since it was the end of the season, they only filmed three when I was there).  After every show, the people sitting in the first row had to shift to the stands to their left.  Which, of course, meant that if you sat two or three rows back, you could get your face on television for three or four weeks straight.

Anyway, one of the wrestlers there that day was Harley Race.  At some point, I yelled something insulting or other at him whereupon he did something that no athlete had ever done before or has ever done since. 

He yelled something insulting back at me.

I don't know what Race yelled.  But I do know that from that moment on, Harley Race instantly became my favorite pro wrestler of all time and nobody else was even close.  He was never roided up like one of McMahon's stable.  He was a just a regular guy.  Gave me at least the impression that I might actually get in the ring myself some day.

Rest in peace, champ.