Posts Tagged ‘NFL’
Friday, September 29th, 2017
Looks like I’m going to get out of this week without having to do a separate post about the NFL. (Yay me!) A good thing, since I’ve been chronically short of time this week (for work and Reasons). Here was a supposedly irresistible force (the SJW Long March through every possible institution of American life) meeting the immoveable object (the fact that the vast majority of NFL fans are more conservative than the liberal identity politics the league suddenly feels necessary to espouse). But President Donald Trump, like Bill Ciinton, is very adept at getting in front of a parade. In this case, Trump noticed that the vast majority of Americans who don’t hate the flag weren’t being represented in the controversy. With one tweet, Trump turned the debate on its head, forced the league to make its support for #BlackLivesMatter identity politics explicit.
The ironic thing is that #BlackLivesMatter was a George Soros gambit to keep black voters riled up enough to ensure they voted for Hillary Clinton, and it failed miserably. So the NFL is stuck degrading its own popularity to continue defending a political gambit that failed.
How President Trump’s NFL stance helps him:
He takes a commonly held sentiment — most people don’t like the NFL protests — and states it in an inflammatory way guaranteed to get everyone’s attention and generate outrage among his critics. When those critics lash back at him, Trump is put in the position of getting attacked for a fairly commonsensical view.
And the whole controversy is not helping Democrats either:
What voters in that big chunk of the country turned red do you plan to win back on a platform of kneeling for the national anthem, revoking due process, removing monuments of our founders, sympathizing with jihad, glorifying property-destroying (and journalist-punching) thugs or backing Kim Jong Un in a nuclear showdown? The more the left has ramped up its cultural war, the more their governing power has diminished. Who cares if the Affordable Care Act wiped them from the electoral map, as long as Jimmy Kimmel gets his sick burns in.
Donald Trump’s election should have been a giant wake up call to both the media and the left that the causes they care about and blast out with their bylines are not the issues Americans care about. They may view Donald Trump’s twitter commentary as beneath the office of the presidency, but they can forgive a lot when the other party is demanding they bend the knee.
And least anyone forget, Democrats are already plenty screwed. “If Democrats don’t refine their pitch to alienated white voters, Trump could win re-election with ease.”
The biggest threat to the lives of black males is not police officers, it’s other black males. And the “Ferguson Effect” of reduced policing in the inner city is making things worse. (Hat tip: Powerline.)
Another day, another Russian hacking story that turns out to be complete hogwash.
Washington policy is screwing the Kurds. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
“Illegal Aliens Cost US Taxpayers An Average Of $8,075 Per Illegal.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Gay Jew argues for free speech rights for everyone, instantly gets labeled a Nazi. “The mob cannot be reasoned with…It is truly frightening to see how deeply marinated the Left has become in hate that it sees itself as righteous for committing violence against all it views as evil.”
“Healthy” food researcher accused of wholesale data manipulation.
Ted Cruz wants to repeal Dodd-Frank.
The city of Marienthal, Austria tried out that “guaranteed income” thing liberals raved about in the 1930s. Spoiler: it didn’t work:
“Cut off from their work,” the workers “lost the material and moral incentives to make use of their time.” They began to “drift gradually out of an ordered existence into one that is undisciplined and empty. . . . [For] hours on end, the men stand around on the street, alone or in small groups, leaning against the wall of a house or the parapet of a bridge.”
“Nothing is urgent anymore,” the report observes. “They have forgotten how to hurry.”
“It used to be magnificent,” one woman told the researchers. “During the summer we used to go for walks, and all those dances! Now I don’t feel like going out anymore.” Another man summarized, “[ T] here was life in Marienthal then. Now the whole place is dead.”
And Democratic policies have done the same for black America.
“Scholar withdraws article ‘The Case for Colonialism’ after social media and professional attacks.” What attacks? “After demands for retraction, to fire the journal editors, to fire and blacklist the author, and to revoke his PhD.” And even though no less a liberal icon that Noam Chomsky defended his right to publish the controversial piece.
“Fight in ’empathy tent‘ at UC Berkeley leads to 4 arrests.” “You’ve got a guy with purple hair with a f—ing lightsaber talking about Hitler. It’s hard for me to take any of this seriously.”
A “summary of President Trump’s UN speech. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
Dogs actually do love us.
Bulldozer 1, Police Car 0. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Florida man: “Man wields machete, makes off with $17 worth of potato chips.”
Florida woman: “Maid of Honor Chugs Bottle of Fireball, Punches Best Man, Steals Car, Nearly Runs Him Over During Wedding.”
SR-72?
Jerry Pournelle’s eulogy by his son. (Hat tip: Borepatch, who also shares another Jerry story.)
World’s largest flawless diamond to be auctioned.
The story behind the recording of Devo’s cover of “Satisfaction.”
Heh.
Heh II:
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, Austria, Berkeley, Border Controls, Democrats, Devo, Dodd-Frank, Florida, Florida Man, Foreign Policy, Kurds, LinkSwarm, Lockheed, Military, NFL, Noam Chomsky, Social Justice Warriors, Ted Cruz, welfare, Welfare State
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Military, Social Justice Warriors, Uncategorized, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 22nd, 2017
Welcome to the first LinkSwarm of fall! Between a new job, car trouble, dog trouble and iPhone updates, you’re lucky there’s a LinkSwarm at all!
Final total for J.J. Watt’s YouCaring campaign: $37,131,967.
Death toll in the Mexico City earthquake hits 273.
Mexican rescue dog saves over 50 lives.
100% of Puerto Rico is without power following Hurricane Maria.
Obama Administration official Samantha Power asked for over 260 unmaskings of American citizens. “She continued to seek identifying information about Americans caught up in incidental surveillance right up to President Trump’s inauguration.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
And Obama’s FBI Director James Comey was apparently eavesdropping on Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
“House IT Worker At Center Of Scandal Allegedly Abused Three Muslim Women.” “Multiple women in relationships with Imran Awan, the indicted former IT aide for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, have recently called Virginia law enforcement and alleged being abused by him, police reports obtained under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act show.”
President Trump didn’t forget Poland.
“The mainstream media failed to see the rise of Donald Trump in 2016. Now it’s overlooking another grassroots movement that may soon be of equal significance— the growing number of liberals “taking the red pill.” People of all ages and ethnicities are posting YouTube videos describing “red pill moments”—personal awakenings that have caused them to reject leftist narratives imbibed since childhood from friends, teachers, and the news and entertainment media.”
“Federal Prosecutors Say Anthony Weiner Convinced [15-year old] Teen To Strip, Touch Herself On Skype.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
“Evergreen State College has settled a tort claim against it from embattled Professor Bret Weinstein and his wife, Professor Heather Heying, for $500,000, according to an email sent to faculty Friday evening.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Article on the decline of NFL ratings offers and explanation in the comments section: “One after another, cogent, thoughtful comments clearly stating the exact reason that life long NFL fans have turned off the TV, dropped their cable subscription, and moved on.” Sample: “There will be no NFL at my house until the employment of players that disrespect our flag and anthem is terminated.”
More signs of NFL’s decline in popularity: Los Angeles Rams can’ even sell out their temporary stadium. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Flashback: Ted Kennedy, drunken serial sexual molester.
Wisconsin appeals court dismisses union lawsuit against right-to-work law.
Armed citizen stops would-be rapist near downtown Austin. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
“Scientists create world’s first ‘molecular robot’ capable of building molecules.” No indication these 150-atom “robots” can contain programming or self-replicate, so we’re still a long way from K. Eric Drexler’s nanotechnology…
Valerie Plame steps in it:
Tags:2016 Presidential Race, Anthony Weiner, Austin, Crime, Democrats, earthquake, Elections, Evergreen State College, Foreign Policy, Guns, Hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Imran Awan, Jihad, JJ Watt, Los Angeles Rams, Mexico, Mexico City, Military, nanotechnology, NFL, Poland, Puerto Rico, sex offender, Social Justice Warriors, Ted Kennedy, Texas, unions, Valerie Plame, weather, Wisconsin
Posted in Austin, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Military, Social Justice Warriors, unions | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 14th, 2017
Since I just topped up my Strategic Dog Reserve, blogging may get light at some point. But in the meantime, enjoy another Friday LinkSwarm:
This may be what’s driving some Democrats’ idee fixe on Russia: a guilty conscience:
Radical left-wing icon former California Democratic Rep. Ron Dellums was a hired lobbyist for Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. June 9, 2016, the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned.
Dellums, who represented liberal San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., is a long-time darling of left-wing political activists. He served 13 terms in Congress as an African-American firebrand and proudly called himself a socialist. He retired in 1996.
The former congressman is one of several high-profile Democratic partisans who was on Veselnitskaya’s payroll, working to defeat a law that is the hated object of a personal vendetta waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A national outcry has erupted in the establishment media about Trump Jr.’s meeting with Veselnitskaya. But there has been little focus on the Democrats who willingly served for years on her payroll helping to wage a Russian-led lobby campaign against the law. Congress passed the legislation, the Magnitsky Act, in response to the murder of Sergei Magnistky, a Russian lawyer who alleged corruption and human rights violations against numerous Russian officials.
According to a complaint filed to the Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act division last July, Dellums failed to register as a foreign agent representing a Russian-driven effort led by Veselnitskaya to repeal the Magnitsky Act.
Add Dellums to a list that includes Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Podesta brothers of high profile Democrats who have documented financial and lobbying ties to Putin’s government.
“Democrats intentionally used disinformation from Russia to attack Trump, campaign aides.”
Russian journalist on how American journalists cover Russia, especially the Russian hacking story. “The way the American press writes about the topic, it’s like they’ve lost their heads.” Also: “Putin seem to look much smarter than he is, as if he operates from some master plan.” He’s actually a bumbler…
You know the Obama Veterans Administration that was only too happy to look the other way while veterans were dying on the waiting list? President Trump’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin has helped implement a number of reforms:
In Shulkin’s five months on the job, the VA has been a whirlwind of activity:
- The department announced last week that between President Trump’s inauguration and July 3, it had fired 526 employees, demoted another 27, and temporarily suspended another 194 for longer than two weeks.
- In April, the department launched a new website that lets veterans compare the wait times at its facilities and view Yelp-style reviews of each facility written by previous patients.
- Veterans Health Administration’s Veterans Crisis Line — designed for those struggling with PTSD, thoughts of suicide, and other forms of mental stress — is now answering “more than 90 percent of calls within 8 seconds, and only about one percent of calls are being rerouted to a backup call center.” A year ago, an inspector general report noted that “more than a third of calls were being shunted to backup call centers, some calls were taking more than a half hour to be answered and other callers were being given only an option to leave messages on voicemail.”
- At the end of June, Shulkin unveiled the world’s most advanced commercial prosthetic limb — the Life Under Kinetic Evolution (LUKE) arm — during a visit to a VA facility in New York. Veteran amputees demonstrated the technology, a collaboration among the VA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the private sector. (The name alludes to the lifelike robotic hand that Luke Skywalker is fitted with in The Empire Strikes Back.)
- In May, Shulkin said the department had identified more than 430 vacant buildings and 735 underutilized ones that cost the federal government $25 million a year. He said that most of the buildings are not treatment facilities and could profitably be closed or consolidated. Of course, if he actually attempted to close or consolidate some of the buildings, he might face a controversy along the lines of those touched off by military-base-closing announcements in recent decades.
Shulkin has also gotten some help from Congress during his short time on the job. At a time when Republican legislators have had enormous difficulty passing big pieces of legislation, they’ve made great progress on VA reform.
One particular law designed to make the VA more accountable is arguably the most consequential legislation President Trump has signed so far. It establishes speedier procedures for firing employees, gives the department the authority to recoup bonuses and pensions from employees convicted of crimes, adds greater protections for whistleblowers who report errors and scandals, and expands employee training.
New Senate GOP bill to repeal ObamaCare has tiny flaw in that it doesn’t repeal ObamaCare.
The One Sentence That Explains Washington Dysfunction: “I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win.” So no one was ready to do anything policy-wise once he did. “Among those consequences: The expectation that Republicans might actually try to keep the promises they’ve made to voters over the last eight years.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
No matter which party is in charge of Washington, rain or shine, summer or winter, the deficit keeps growing. “Real monthly federal spending topped $400 billion for the first time in June.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
An appeals court vacated the conviction of former New York Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, just the latest in a long line of appeal reversals for former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara. How much of Bharara’s once-sterling reputation was real, how much was showboating, and how much was good press from working at MSM-saturated New York City? (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
“ICE Director: There’s No Population Of Illegal Aliens Which Is Off The Table.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Mexico is reportedly very upset that both the united States and Texas are actually enforcing border control laws.
Remember: When you see an anti-Trump or anti-border control march, there’s a good chance it consists mostly of paid Soros shills.
Speaking of Soros:
What we are actually witnessing — in Hungary, in the United States and in many other countries in recent years — is a populist reaction against the elite “progressive” consensus of which Soros is a prominent symbol. There is an international clique of influential people and organizations who share certain ideas about the future direction of political, social and economic policies, and who don’t want to be bothered with debating the merits of these policies. The ordinary people whose lives would be affected by the agenda of the elite aren’t being asked for their approval, and popular opposition to the elite agenda (e.g., the Brexit vote, Trump’s election, Hungary’s anti-“refugee” referendum) is treated by the elite media as evidence of incipient fascism. Never does it seem to have occurred to George Soros, or to anyone else in the international elite, that perhaps their policy ideas are wrong, that they have gone too far in their utopian “social justice” schemes. Unable to admit error, the progressive elite therefore resort to cheap insults and sloppy accusations of “fascism” to stigmatize opposition to the Left’s agenda.
Bernard-Henri Lévy makes the case for an independent Kurdistan. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
For ABC, religious liberty organization = hate group.
Seattle decides that they want to drive the affluent out of the city. I’m sure many cities in Texas would be happy to welcome them with open arms…
And just in case you thought that was going to be the craziest story out of Seattle this week: “Seattle Councilman Objects to Hosing Excrement-Covered Sidewalks Because It’s Racist.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
China’s housing bubble continues to expand. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Kid Rock is running in the 2018 Michigan Senate race. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
On the same subject. “Rock is arguably much better positioned than Trump for a successful political run.”
“The man running Sweden’s biggest security firm was declared bankrupt this week after his identity was hacked.”
Flaccid NFL ratings lead to Viagra and Cialis pulling out as sponsors. Maybe if they stopped focusing on politics, the NFL’s ratings wouldn’t be as soft….
Austin attorney “Omar Weaver Rosales, who filed hundreds of lawsuits against local small businesses alleging technical violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, has been suspended from practicing law in the Federal Western District for three years.”
Maine Democratic state rep threatens to kill President Trump, calls gun owners “pussies.”
Connecticut now requires a criminal conviction for civil forfeiture. Good. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
“Bad move, Mongo! Moonshine has powerful friends in the slam.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Clint Eastwood, when looking to cast American Paris train heroes Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone for a movie he’s directing, decided to cast Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone.
Radiohead gives the finger to anti-Israel BDS movement. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Was Shia LaBeouf always this big an asshole, or did he get worse after Trump and 4Chan broke him? “I got more millionaire lawyers than you know what to do with, you stupid bitch!” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Alyssa Milano is too busy as a member of “the Resistance” to take care of trivia like paying her taxes. Or her share of her employee’s taxes.
Woman climbs Mt. Everest to prove that vegans can do anything, dies. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
There’s a Friends of NRA Fundraiser on August 3rd in Georgetown.
AMC releases emails from fired Walking Dead producer Frank Darabont in which he states how he’s boiling with rage over subpar efforts by various production team members. It’s not a good look, but if you directed The Shawshank Redemption, I’m inclined to cut you more than the usual amount of slack over your film-making methods…
Marvel is actually doing a live Squirrel Girl TV show. Sure, it’s called New Warriors, but we all know what the real attraction is there…
A sailor-eye history of the USS Nevada battleship during World War II.
Speaking of World War II, here’s a history of the Mulberry artificial harbors that were crucial in unloading supplies right after D-Day.
From the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas: Proof that Bill Clinton doesn’t understand the power of metaphors in image form:
“Millions Of Policy Proposals Spill Into Sea As Brookings Institution Think Tanker Runs Aground Off Crimea Coast.” (Hat tip: JenDinnj’s Twitter feed.)
How did I miss this last week?
Tags:4Chan, ABC, Alek Skarlatos, Alyssa Milano, Anthony Sadler, Austin, Bill Clinton, Border Controls, China, CNN, Connecticut, Crime, data security, David Shulkin, Democrats, Donald Trump, Frank Darabont, George H. W. Bush, George Soros, George W. Bush, Hungary, Kid Rock, Kurdistan, Kurds, LinkSwarm, Maine, Marvel, Mexico, Michigan, Natalia Veselnitskaya, NFL, NRA, Omar Weaver Rosales, Preet Bharara, Radiohead, Ron Dellums, Russia, sanctuary cities, Sergei Magnistky, Sheldon Silver, Shia LaBeouf, Spencer Stone, Sweden, USS Nevada, vegans, Veterans Administration, Viagra, Vladimir Putin, World War II
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Military, Texas, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, October 3rd, 2014
Here’s your Friday LinkSwarm of semi-random linkage goodness:
ObamaCare’s war on women: higher premiums, cancelled plans, fewer options.
ObamaCare has already cost $73 billion and counting.
And the Healthcare.Gov website cost 2.5 times what the Obama Administration told us.
The inequality police are worried that we are living in a new Gilded Age. We should be so lucky: Between 1880 and 1890, the number of employed Americans increased by more than 13 percent, and wages increased by almost 50 percent. I am going to go out on a limb and predict that the Barack Obama years will not match that record; the share of employed Americans is lower today than it was when he took office, and household income is down. Grover Cleveland is looking like a genius in comparison.
The middle class is poorer today than it was in 1989. Thanks, Obama! (Hat tip: Instapundit).
World Health Organization refuses to approve experimental drugs for Ebola patients. Because they might get sick…
CDC chief thinks a ban on travelers from Ebola-infected countries would be “wrong.” Wrong for who? People who won’t get infected?
Real Salon or parody Salon? “The problem with ‘Ebola’: The troubling, xenophobic language of disease.”
And if Ebola wasn’t bad enough, Enterovirus D68 has been found in four people who died.
And that Enterovirus D68 outbreak may be related to Obama’s decision not to deport illegal aliens.
Even 60% of Democrats think Obama is a wuss when it comes to ISIS.
U.S. troops fighting in the warkinetic overseas contingency engagement against ISIS are not eligible for campaign medals.
NRA’s Political victory Fund has released their ranking of candidates. That’s the one for Texas, but you can select all the other states as well.
Liberals are hypocrites when it comes to big bucks “dark money” fundraising.
“The places where our self-appointed elites congregate are turning into precisely the places where actual voters are getting thinner and thinner on the ground.”
Despite what radical feminists would have you believe, sex crimes on campus are going down, not up.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott: voting fraud is real.
Appeals court finds Texas abortion laws constitutional.
“‘He’s from Texas, honey,’ I yelled at the television, startling the cats, ‘That’s not “armed”, that’s “dressed”, you island-dwelling herbivore! Jesus, you cud-chewing Eloi, how do you people open packages? With your teeth, like an animal?” For a bonus, try to work “cud-chewing Eloi” into your next conversation… (Hat tip: Dwight.)
More domestic violence in the MSM than the NFL: ESPN, ABC, CBS, NBC and the New York Times.
Bill Maher goes after liberals being soft on Islam. “Saudi women can’t vote or drive or hold a job or leave the house without a man. Overwhelming majorities in every Muslim country say a wife is always obliged to obey her husband. That all seems like a bigger issue than an evangelical Christian bakery refusing to make gay wedding cakes. ”
What happens when you bail out of an SR-71 at Mach 3 and 78,000 feet.
Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions, but something about this film has “suck” written all over it…
Two words: Homemade flamethrower.
Tags:Bill Maher, Crime, Democrats, Ebola, economy, Enterovirus, feminism, Foreign Policy, fundraising, Greg Abbott, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, knives, Media Watch, Military, NFL, ObamaCare, Texas
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Texas | 2 Comments »
Friday, September 19th, 2014
I had been reading less and less of Sports Illustrated for a while now, partially because of their increasing politicization (see Peter King, Gun Control Zealot), and partially because each redesign was worse than the last. The most recent one, the one with all the boxes that makes them look like http://www.zergnet.com/, pretty much made me swear it off and use Fox Sports instead.
But I wandered over there yesterday, only to find this list of linked stories on the front page of the NFL session:
Of 15 stories, 12 deal with accusations of off-field player malfeasance in some way or another as opposed to actual play on the field. It’s as though talking about football games isn’t nearly satisfying enough for Sports Illustrated writers who want to push a “social justice” agenda instead.
Domestic violence is a real issue, but there is no indication that football players are more notably prone to domestic violence than players in other sports, or the population at large. What we’re seeing now is a moral panic ginned up by left-wing activists and their journalistic enablers. The left hates football in general, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for not bending to their politically correct will (see, for example, the fight over the Washington Redskins nickname).
America has a criminal justice system for a reason. Players accused of crimes have a right to be judged by a jury of their peers, not a high tech left-wing lynch mob who have already determined they’re guilty merely because they’ve been accused.
Noah Rothman has similar thoughts over at Hot Air.
Tags:Crime, Media Watch, NFL, Roger Goodell
Posted in Crime, Media Watch | 2 Comments »