Driving around our rain-soaked metroplex this morning, I noticed a great digital sign from one of our dozen plus health clubs circling our fair city.
It read…
IN A PERFECT WORLD, MOSQUITOES WOULD SUCK FAT RATHER THAN BLOOD.
Month: May 2019
“REMOVAL” of NEGOTIATORS?
According to world-wide outlets, that as of last Friday, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper‘s reports of Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea’s nuclear envoy in Hanoi, had been executed, along with four diplomats involved in talks with the US may be based on evidence coming from defections from the North.
Kim Jong-un’s regime had accused his negotiators of “colluding with American officials and betraying the leader,” according to these multiple reports, which cited recently unnamed defectors as the sources of such information.
US and South Korean authorities are looking into a report that North Korea has executed several members of its nuclear negotiating team as a consequence of the no-deal outcome at February’s nuclear summit with Trump in Vietnam.
If confirmed, the removal of the nuclear negotiators would mark the most high-profile purge in the North Korean regime since 2013, when Kim Jong-un executed his uncle, who had wielded considerable economic and political clout.
We ALL can relate to family disagreements, right?
Talk about disarmament talks getting bogged down…
The verbal dance by Trump will be worth the price of admission, aunts and uncles.
THE CREEP of ISOLATIONALISM
Tariffs mean we, the US consumers, get to pay more…
Won’t that be fun!
Let alone what it will do over time to our base-line economy.
The “stable genius” residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue announced yesterday that as of June 10th, he will hit Mexico with a 5% tariff on ALL imported goods from that country.
A tax that would “gradually increase” until the flow of undocumented immigrants across the border stopped.
Trump persists in the falsehood that tariffs are paid by America’s trading partners.
As I’ve repeatedly said, before, this moron NEVER attended a class on anything, especially ECON 101.
Daddy T bought buildings and ‘silence.’
The truth is that Mexico would NO more pay these tariffs than it is paying for the construction of a “beautiful” border wall.
The evidence is clear: Donnie’s tariffs are/will be taxes being paid by Americans!
Mexico would most likely respond by imposing retaliatory tariffs, which is especially bad news for the probable targets: American farmers.
In a statement, The Weave said that tariffs would be raised to 10% on July 1st “if the crisis persists,” and then by an additional 5% each month for three months.
They would remain at 25% until Mexico acted.
As the market opened, a few moments ago, it was down 311 points.
PURCHASE A FREEZER
Crop, pork and beef prices are vaulting higher as massive disruption on US farms raises concerns about the size and quality of this year’s harvest and meat distribution(s).
Trade war tariffs with China?
Yep!!!
But, the Prairie is under water, with much, much more in the forecasts through mid-June.
Inclement weather put farmers/ranchers well behind in their planting/processing schedules and raised worries that swaths of farmland wouldn’t be sown at ALL.
Soil run-offs…
Silos destroyed or leveled…
Meat processing plants wiped out completely…
Most of this month, Jack and Jill Q. Citizen have been told by the US Department of Agriculture that farmers had planted a fraction of what they have typically done by this time of year.
NOT good, aunts and uncles…
Over the past five years, US farmers had planted 90% of their corn crop on average by this point in the growing season.
This year, that figure has dropped to 58%, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
The worry isn’t only that the US harvest is smaller than normal, but that its quality could suffer because the weather is forcing farmers to plant crops late. Plus, there’s the risk of infection in damp conditions.
Hug a farmer and/or rancher today!!!
NOBODY KNOWS NOTHING
Once again, it’s the same old horse crap, we ALL endure, day-after-day, from this sick imbecile.
The Wall Street Journal reported last night that the White House wanted the Navy to move “out of sight” the warship USS John S. McCain ahead of Trump’s recent visit to Japan.
Cadet Bone Spurs claimed knew nothing ??!!? about White House efforts, this morning, while yelling at reporters, on his way to Colorado for the commencement at the Air Force Academy [sinful!], to hide a Navy destroyer named in part after the late Senator John McCain [as well as his grandfather and father] during Trump’s state visit to Japan earlier this week.
But, he said, whoever made the request was “well meaning” because the person or people knew Trump did NOT like McCain.
Just roll that around in your mind.
What a sick puppy this turd is…
Nine months after the senator’s burial, and this 5-time deferment sissy is still whimpering!
Watch/listen to this cretin…
According to the reporting of the WSJ, in a May 15th email to US Navy and Air Force officials, a US Indo-Pacific Command official outlined plans for the president’s arrival that he said had resulted from conversations between the White House Military Office and the Seventh Fleet of the US Navy.
In addition to instructions for the proper landing areas for helicopters and preparation for the USS Wasp – where the president was scheduled to speak – the official issued a third directive: “USS John McCain needs to be out of sight.”
My fellow citizens, there are two words that Trump will NEVER comprehend: SERVICE and SACRIFICE…
“The Report is My Testimony”
Bobby doesn’t color outside the lines!!!
Late this morning, in his first, and only, public characterization of his two-year-long investigation of Russia’s interference in the ’16 presidential election, special counsel Bobby Mueller declined to clear !!! Donald John Trump of obstruction of justice.
During today’s announcement, Mueller also resigned from his tenure at the Department of Justice.
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said, reading from prepared notes behind a lectern at the Justice Department. “We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.”
We should NOT expect Mueller to do the work of Congress.
With that being said, it is stating the obvious that Congress is now, and has been, in current state of partisan flux.
Big and tough decisions require a-d-u-l-t-s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What I fear most, at this juncture, is Mueller’s Report, and today’s comments, places the matter front-and-center on the doorstep of Congress.
Which I believe will only add to the political theater and help our legislators do what they want; delay; create a series of chaotic hearings; thus, putting off ALL critical matters until the 2020 election…or later.
Once again, I commend to ALL of you…read the Mueller Report.
WILL EVIDENCE be PRODUCED?
Time to pay attention, aunts and uncles.
Yesterday, Huawei, the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment, filed a motion in Texas federal court seeking summary judgment in its legal challenge to a defense-policy measure which limits federal spending on products from the Shenzhen-based company.
Huawei filed the suit, which challenges the law on constitutional grounds, in March.
It would appear, they are asking a judge to quickly rule in its favor in its legal challenge to overturn a law that restricts its business in the US, saying American officials have failed to provide evidence !??!!? that the Chinese tech giant poses a security threat.
A spokesman for the US Department of Justice, which is representing the American side in the case, declined to comment.
A hearing on the motion is set for September 19th.
The National Defense Authorization Act for 2019, signed by the 45th president last year, put new limits on federal dollars going to Huawei and Chinese rival ZTE Corp.
It also barred federal agencies from buying equipment that uses gear from those Chinese companies.
Huawei’s lawsuit argues that the law is an unconstitutional “bill of attainder” that illegally finds a person or entity guilty of a crime via an act of legislation.
Don’t change the channel on this specific episode of The Perils of Donnie!
5G in JEOPARDY???
First, a quick confession…
The old Lobsterman is NOT, and NEVER will be, a techie nor an aging nerd.
Good, that’s out of the way.
But, after a long weekend of reading and trying to digest the TRADE WARS; CHINA TARIFFS; and, the opera at HUAWEI, I join the others that are nervous about where this mess may end up, and its effects.
Watching Donald John Trump as he tries to control China through tariffs, as well as his bullying of our allies ! into compliance with his wishes is alarming.
Even an ancient economist like me realizes Trump’s action will force the Chinese into tech independence faster than expected and our allies won’t have any choice as they will have to deal with China.
Listen, in NO more way, am I condoning past/present practices, intellectual theft behavior and the on-going in-country draconic practices with their state-owned banks and feudal systems of the Chinese.
But, as we ALL know, the current president is setting barriers meant to block China’s national telecommunications champion, Huawei, from operating in the US and starve it of American technology as it builds networks across Planet Earth.
After a flurry of new government edicts, Huawei, will soon be entirely cut off from American-made technology.
By Labor Day, possibly, new Huawei phones will come without Google apps. And, American computer chip companies are cutting off supplies !!! that Huawei depends on for building fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless networks.
American intelligence officials and telecommunications executives and experts, in public and private statements, have begun to concede that the US will be operating in a world where Huawei and other Chinese telecom companies most likely control 40 to 60 percent of the networks over which businesses, diplomats, spies and citizens do business.
Yea, that caught my attention as well…
Among the United States’ closest allies, only Australia has banned Huawei from building its new networks; Japan has effectively done the same.
Britain and Germany, two of the most powerful members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, are hedging. Their politicians fear the job losses that would result as well as Chinese retaliation, and they believe there are elements of the network that Huawei could build without endangering national security.
ALL that comes under some serious effect, dramatic or NOT, on elements falling in critical high-technology fields like semiconductor manufacturing, 5G technology, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles.
I’ve got to settle down a bit this morning…
Time for a trip to the Golden Arches!
BILLY BUCK, RIP
Any contemplative person, especially one in the dark side of his 70s, will readily admit that LIFE isn’t fair.
Even in death.
News broke yesterday afternoon, that William Joseph Buckner had passed away at the young age of 69.
For the last 33 years of Buckner’s life, on more than one occasion that adage of LIFE proved be true, sometimes in the ugliest fashions.
Why you ask?
Because in the early morning of October 26, 1986, Bill Buckner’s life entered the Twilight Zone.
Buckner at the time was a member of the Boston Red Sox, most of the time playing first base.
It was Game 6 of the World Series against the New York Mets, and we’re in the bottom of the 10th inning.
The Red Sox had already blown a two-run lead.
In steps Mets batter, Mookie Wilson.
Suddenly, the axis of the universe stops rotating, as…
Two nights later the Mets won Game 7, extending to 68 years a Sox drought that wouldn’t die until it turned 86.
Buckner was chased out of Boston!
He came back to Fenway for a Sox encore, to cheers, in 1990, briefly, but after he retired he had to seek asylum in Idaho to forsake the maddening crowd.
He spoke later of a constant bitterness that filled him. And, something that is NOT offered up enough, his wife and family endured every horrific moment with him, year after year.
Twenty-two years of elegant baseball service, reduced to 22 seconds, the worst 22 seconds of his career…and his life.
Number 6…you were NOTHING but class!
FROM ONE SUMMO to ANOTHER
This classic piece of presidential video must be rushed to a vault in the mountains of Nevada, for posterity.
The only thing missing is the 45th president in his Speedo, during the presentation.
It gets truly show-stopping with The Weave attempts to lift the 60-lbs trophy himself…
…at the 2:03 mark…
Early stages of a hernia [for BOTH DJT and me]?
“Laughter is an instant vacation.” ~ Milton Berle
Lobster on the Prairie 