Family Kicked off Jet Blue Flight due to Cake: Or Why People Need to Film One Another if there is an Air Altercation

Now these are some wildly different stories from both sides.

JetBlue has pointed blame squarely on the Burkes. According to a spokesperson from the airline, the family stored the cake in a compartment reserved for emergency equipment. “The customers became agitated, cursed and yelled at the crew and made false accusations about a crew member’s fitness to fly,” stated JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw.

Burke sees things a little differently, claiming no one in his family raised their voices and they were never told why they had to leave the plane. As Burke described to ABC 7, it appears the situation escalated when the flight crew couldn’t agree on what to do with the cake.

Screaming and yelling versus no one raising their voices. Maybe it is time for someone to invent a very small blue tooth camera that can be worn to clear up these kinds of things. Its a sad place where this kind of thing becomes necessary though.

Britian's NHS Attacked by Ransomware: Turns out They are Still Running Windows XP

That is why you have to upgrade to newer Windows because this is egregious.

Nigel Inkster, former director of operations and intelligence for MI6, told Sky News that one of the reasons the NHS in particular was vulnerable was its outdated software system. “A lot of hospital trusts in the U.K. — 40-plus last time I checked — are running their systems on Windows XP software, which hasn’t been supported by Microsoft for two or three years,” he said. “In other words, Microsoft is no longer looking for and seeking to repair vulnerabilities in the system.” 

I wonder how their backup infrastructure works or even if there is something air-gapped in place or not. This is a bad deal indeed because it is life or death. One of the worst legacies of having socialized medicine is that there seems to be no money for many crucial things like Windows upgrades.

St. Olaf College Racist Note Turns out to be a Hoax

You pay $44,180 a year for this kind of nonsense.

A note that used the n-word and threatened a black female student at St. Olaf College — sparking an intense protest that led to classes being shut down for a day as student demonstrators accused the school of institutional racism — “was not a genuine threat,” the school’s president said Wednesday.

What is interesting is a racist hoax created real racism in its wake.

Protesters also put up signs that included language such as “I’m sick of white tears” and “F*ck your white complacency.”

“The campus admins are allowing the commons area to become a bulletin board of complaints against white people. No action has been taken to remove the signs, and no students dare to touch them since there are newly-installed cameras everywhere,” a student who emailed The Fix said.

They even had a side-order of big bother added in as well. Hopefully the hoaxer will have some sort of consequences brought against her. Faking racism is a bad deal.

Mets Pitcher Matt Harvey Missed Starts and was Suspended Because of High School Style Lady Troubles?

Um, I guess it happens to all high school kids. Wait Matt Harvey is a 28 year old millionaire athlete.

The Post said Harvey "became an emotional wreck on May 2" when he saw pictures of model Adriana Lima with the Patriots wide receiver -- one of her many professional athlete ex-boyfriends -- at Rihanna's Met Gala after-party, which was hosted by Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen. Sources told the Post that Lima, who'd been in a relationship with Harvey, and Edelman were "flirty," and Lima subsequently unfollowed Harvey on Instagram.

Uh oh, she dumped the pitcher for the football star and even went to the rich and famous people's adult prom aka the Met Gala. I wonder if she was wearing Edelman's letterman jacket as well?

Then she called him and gave him the bad news. She could have just sent a frowny face or a poop emoji:

Lima called him while he was playing golf before the Mets game Saturday and had a conversation that made him even more upset, sources said.
As a result, he failed to show at CitiField later that day and drew the suspension.

She was with the handsome football player and not the weird looking unshaven baseball guy. Now the next thing to occur is Harvey and Edelman will get into a shoving match after second period as Lima screams in the background. Someone needs to call the guidance councilor already.

Dr. Lu Le, at UT Southwestern Might Have Found the Gene to Create Hair

Hmm, male pattern baldness might be a thing of the past.

The researchers found that a protein called KROX20, more commonly associated with nerve development, in this case turns on in skin cells that become the hair shaft.

UT Southwestern researchers will now try to find out if the KROX20 in cells and the SCF gene stop working properly as people age, leading to the graying and hair thinning seen in older people – as well as in male pattern baldness, Dr. Le said.

There might be no more gray hair or baldness. JNJ might need to eventually plug the revenue hole from Rogaine sometime in the future.

Kind of an Indictment of @nbcsnl That There has Never Been a Official Cast Member to Play Sulu in 42 Years

I guess there has been no Asian cast members on SNL in 42 Years. Maybe they will find someone in 42 more but probably not.

When it came to casting Hikaru Sulu, however, S.N.L. ran into a bit of an obstacle. In fact, in its 42-year history, there has never been an official cast member on Saturday Night Live who could play Sulu.

They added some blacks at long last in the last few years but Asians are still persona non grata for SNL.

@neimanmarcus (AKA Needless Markup) and Thier Ilk Might be Circling the Drain

This isn't good news if you are high-end retail investor.

As Suzanne Kapner and Ryan Dezember recently reported in the Wall Street Journal, Neiman Marcus, the highest of high-end department stores, is now struggling as even its wealthy shoppers are discovering the benefits of and possibilities for discount shopping, both online and in stores. As Steven Dennis has written here at Forbes.com, similar struggles are affecting high-end specialty stores such as Tiffany, Kors, Saks and Nordstrom. The days of strong pricing power that allowed for continual revenue growth at luxury retailers appear to be over.

I mean everyone likes getting a deal even if you are buying $500 shoes. One thing that is very interesting is this trend.

The second front in the battle destroying the luxury retailers is being fought on the internet. The presence of a few billion internet shoppers worldwide allow niche producers to reach wider markets. This provides shoppers everywhere with access to high quality and unique goods produced at small scale. Plus, having avoided the costs of brick and mortar stores and large marketing budgets, these goods are often available at much lower prices.

I have been buying some clothes from an online retailer called Gilt.com. They have all sorts of designers I have never heard about that make great quality clothes. They are also almost always at a reasonable price as well. So a dress shirt that I wear to work costs like $20 to $40 which is a price that I would not get a Neiman. The clothes look like the same quality you could get from there but the price is so reasonable.

I would be willing to bet that new designers would rather make their clothes for Gilt and be able to put more of the money into their pockets than an brick-and-mortar. I haven't even set foot in the part of the mall that has those products in like several years now. I would be willing to bet the next time I do I will be looking at empty store space.

@chrissyteigen Says Trump Hurting her Mental Health: Um, Maybe Ignore him for a While and You Will Feel Better

Some stars just can't take Trump.

Teigen then explained she had resorted to having one of her teeth "shaved down" due to being overwhelmed with anxiety.

“Today I had a tooth shaved down because crippling anxiety makes me grind and rock my teeth on one side. I blame trump," she said.

“I also had Botox in my jaw muscle to relieve tension from constantly clinching. I was not like this before. Pay my bill, POS POTUS. Politics aside, I feel relief for the first time in many months. It really works.

Maybe turn off MSNBC and CNN and just forget about him for a while. Maybe do a Trumpless day where she doesn't look at any Trump related stuff. I mean how is Trump actually directly affecting a millionaire model other then her reacting to him? It would help her mental health to turn off MSNBC and CNN and just watch the Food Network or something.

GOP Coming to the Realization that Obamacare cannot be Repealed. I Guess Only a Retool is in Order

Well at least they are becoming more realistic.

Some Republicans appear to be losing hope in the party's ability to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina suggested as much on Tuesday, saying that a "full repeal was, in essence, a pipe dream from the very start."

Sanford made the comments during an interview with Vice News reporter Alexandra Jaffe.

He is 100% right. They cannot just repeal everything now that certain things like preexisting conditions are non-negotiable. I guess all those futile repeal votes the GOP did in the Obama years were not even held credible by the people voting for them. In any case they need to drop all repeal and replace talk and simply do a retool it instead. Fix the high prices and such and move on to tax reform.

Colbert goes from 0 to Homophobe: He Won't be Punished because the Slur was Against Trump #FireColbert

This is the Bush Derangement Syndrome all over again.

"Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine," Colbert said during the rant. "You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign-language gorilla who got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's c--k holster."

That last one is what he is getting heat for. However, he will not get punished because he directed it against Trump. If he used it against Obama at any time he would be fired in a minute. Hell, if he used it against nearly any woman in politics (maybe not Kellyanne Conway) he would be fired. The good old double standard at CBS.

@MarkWarner ‏Gives 2 to 1 Odds that Trump Impeached in First Term: Forgets GOP in Charge of Congress

Um sorry Mr Senator the GOP will not be impeaching the President under any circumstances.

Senator Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, privately told friends he puts the odds at two to one against the President completing a full term, the New Yorker reported.

Mr Warner's spokesperson did not deny he had made the remarks, but told the paper the Senator was "not referring specifically to the Russia investigation, but rather the totality of challenges the President is currently facing."

I really think he should recuse himself from the Senate Intelligence Committee because this kind of musing does not sound like he can be impartial. In any case if the Dems are stupid enough to bring articles on impeachment I'm pretty sure they will be defeated soundly and then have a disaster on their hands in 2018. It is a ticket to a filibuster proof margin for the GOP as they can get.  

Sorry @Marvel your Reassurances Mean Nothing: Making Captain America a Nazi is Unforgivable #BoycottMarvel

Marvel is back-peddling like mad because fans are pissed off.

Marvel’s new big event Secret Empire officially begins tomorrow, but an immense level of backlash has been leveled at the company’s use of a symbolic figure like Captain America as the villainous head of Hydra, an organization affiliated with Nazis. It’s gotten to the point where Marvel has had to release an official statement in an attempt to reassure fans.

Not even "affiliated" they are an actual offshoot of the Nazi party if you read Marvels canon. "Hail Hydra" is modeled after the Nazi Salute. All of the famous Marvel Nazis (Red Skull, Baron Stucker, Arnim Zola) were all members of Hydra.

Making Captain America a Nazi is the lowest of the low and is only there to sell books and stir controversy. Until they fire whoever came up with this "spitting in the face of an American icon" I'm never buying another Marvel book. 

@SenWarren Goes After Obama on Economy

It looks like the Dems are finally figuring out what lost them the 2016 election.

“I think President Obama, like many others in both parties, talks about a set of big national statistics that look shiny and great but increasingly have giant blind spots,” she said. “That GDP, unemployment, no longer reflect the lived experiences of most Americans. And the lived experiences of most Americans is that they are being left behind in this economy. Worse than being left behind, they’re getting kicked in the teeth.”

No it wasn't the Russians or Comey or whomever. It was the fact that the so-called "party of the people," the Dems, didn't seem to care about everyday Americans at all. They were hurting and Trump (and Bernie as well) seemed to be listening. So they voted their pocketbooks for Trump because they figured a businessman can fix the economy better than a career politician. Seems simple if you look at it that way.

Gobekli Tepe Stone Tells of Comet Strike in 11,000BC

My question is how did they get knowledge of something that happened 1000s of years before the stone was carved?

Scientists have translated an ancient stone tablet found at a temple in Turkey. The tablet confirms that a comet struck Earth around 11,000BC, leading to global destruction including the extinction of the woolly mammoth and the rise of new civilizations.
The carvings were found in Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey, the world's oldest known temple and a site for ancient observatory and worship. In fact, the temple dates back to 9,000BC, approximately 6,000 years older than Stonehenge.

I'm still thinking that Gobekli Tepe stone was carved by Atlanteans.

Another Victim of LaVar Ball's Meglomania: Chino Hills (Calif.) head coach, Stephan Gilling

I guess placating an insane person is more important than it is coaching kids.

The firing came after Gilling and Ball feuded for much of the season. Ball resorted to taking multiple public shots at Gilling when the Huskies' season ended shy of a state championship. Their relationship soured after a disagreement in a Las Vegas tournament, escalating with Ball's refusal to leave the team's locker room.

It must have been nuts dealing with Ball during that season. I guess Gilling can just coach at a different school that does not have crazy parents bothering him. You can tell where Chino Hills High has its bread buttered as well.

In March, Chino Hills athletic director Jeff Schuld said that the school would side with Gilling over Ball despite Ball's public claims that Gilling would be replaced. Gilling, though, would be fired four weeks later.
Chino Hills will now look for its third head basketball coach in three seasons.

Yes, three coaches in three seasons says more about the school than the coaches. I think they are wanting to get that recognition as the school that had 3 NBA "stars" than the one that kept its commitments. Maybe they should just hire LaVar Ball and see if he can do better than 30-3. I mean Ball claims he could beat Michael Jordan one-on-one.

NSA Makes Quiet Change to Internet Collection: No More Incidental Collection

I guess after all the Russia probing the NSA is getting out of the way of this kind of thing.

Concern over the incidental collection of Americans' communications renewed this year when the Trump administration accused the intelligence community of improperly revealing the names of Americans that came up through incidental collections.
The NSA said Friday its changes were made following an in-house review.

I think they are making this change before Congress the White House or whomever clamps down or makes an enemies list like the Obama White House seemed to have done.

Nike, Under Armour and Adidas all pass on Lonzo Ball: I Think His Dad Just Messed Him Up

I guess he is a victim of his own hype:

In his meetings with the three, LaVar insisted that the company license his upstart Big Baller Brand from him. He also showed the companies a shoe prototype that he hoped would be Lonzo’s first shoe.
“We’ve said from the beginning, we aren’t looking for an endorsement deal,” LaVar told ESPN. “We’re looking for co-branding, a true partner. But they’re not ready for that because they’re not used to that model. But hey, the taxi industry wasn’t ready for Uber, either.”

The problem is Uber is getting damaged due to the screw-ups of their top people. Kind of like Lonzo getting damaged by the screw-ups of his dad of LaVar. The idea that this so-called Big Baller Brand will be able to secure financing and distribution that can come close to Nike or Adidas is laughable. Lonzo seems to be a fairly good player but no Michael Jordan or LaBron. My money is on a very public split with LaVar in a few years when Lonzo renegotiates his rookie contract.

Sorry Blue States: Trumps Tax Plan is Going to Cost You

I guess this is where they will partially fund the tax cuts.

One reason this deduction landed on the chopping block? It could be who pays. While wealthy voters in Democrat-leaning states benefit handsomely from many tax write-offs, the state and local tax deduction has one of the most dramatic political skews. That’s largely because blue states tend to have the highest state and local tax burdens.

So just how dramatic is it? According to 2014 figures compiled by the Tax Foundation, taxpayers in just four deep blue states - California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois - reaped nearly 44% of total benefit from the deduction. That means those four states pick up the lion’s share of the tab if the deduction were eliminated.

If you add this to cutting Federal expenditures to the sanctuary cities/states you will have quite a few different ways blue states will be getting punished in the wallet.

@ThePromiseFilm looks like the Worst Bomb in a Long Time: Cost $100 Million and Made $4 Million so Far

I guess a love story based during the Armenian Genocide is simply box office poison.

In her forecast, THR’s Pamela McClintock writes that things are looking exceedingly bleak for the Bale-Isaac romantic drama, which is set against the backdrop of Armenian genocide. Produced for $100 million by the late Kirk Kerkorian via his Survival Pictures, The Promise is predicted to net only about $4 million domestically, which — considering what that means for its prospects in subsequent weeks — is a doomsday scenario. While producers are downplaying such a situation, claiming that what’s really important is that all theatrical receipts go toward funding nonprofits (including Elton John’s AIDS foundation), there’s no way to truly sugarcoat its expected box-office crash and burn.

Teen Mom @FarrahAbraham wants a Harmful or "Adverse" Guy for Some Reason

Um, maybe she needs to do a little grammar study before she starts looking for a guy.

As for what Abraham is looking for in a guy - one word: adverse.

“If I find somebody who is just understanding of adversity and I find a man who is equally adverse, then that is the best thing for me to be partnered with. They can’t be jealous and they can’t stop my career,” she explained. “With Simon, when I met him, I stopped doing my tours and stopped traveling. He has his own reasons for fights and arguments that I couldn’t deal with, so I stopped some things.”

I think she meant "equally used to adversity" not a person who is "adverse" which means "preventing success or development; harmful; unfavorable." Like adverse winds or adverse schooling. 

@SenKamalaHarris Seems like a Serious Pragmatist

With this kind of thinking the Dems might actually make a comeback in 2018.

As the Democratic party tries to claw its way back to control of Congress, she wanted them to at least consider rallying behind some of its most conservative — and most vulnerable — politicians.
“It was a room full of people who did not want to hear that,” Harris said Thursday in a meeting with reporters and editors in The Times’ Washington bureau. “They were like, ‘What happened? Why are you saying this?’”

She would rather try to keep the GOP from having a veto-proof margin in the Senate instead of kicking these middle-road Dems out of the tent. Very pragmatic. This statement makes her sound like anything but a fire-brand liberal.

But she suggested the party has too often seized on wedge, identity politics issues that divide voters. “What I do know about those two ladies and that guy is when we wake up at 3 in the morning or something is troubling us, it is never through the lens of, ‘am I Democrat or Republican,’ or on our identity based on what other people have decided is our identity.”
Instead, she said, it is economic issues that weigh on people: their bills, their job troubles, their difficulty getting health insurance.

Yeah and paying for college and such. If the Dems stuck to middle-class economic issues they would bring a lot of those blue-state Trump supporters back into their party. They don't care very much about identity politics or to be called racists or deplorables and such. They want to pay their bills, send their kids to college, and own a house and such. They definitely don't seem to care about transgender bathrooms or Black Lives Matter.

@Target Feels a Boycott Backlash to the Tune of Millions

I guess this is why corporations need to keep their mouths shut for the most part.

The boycott cost the company millions in lost sales and added expenses. Shopper traffic and same-store sales started sliding for the first time in years after the blog post, and the company was forced to spend $20 million installing single-occupancy bathrooms in all its stores to give critics of the policy more privacy.

What they should have done is quietly allowed the program or simply looked the other way if transgendered people wanted to use the toilet of their choice. Target probably would not have faced much a complaint this way. Whenever a company beats their chest like this and calls attention to themselves politically they have to face the consequences.

Looks Like Jared Kushner is Winning the War Against Bannon

It seems that the Trump administration is lurching leftward as Kushner moves up in the ranks.

The fighting between Kushner and Bannon has been “nonstop” in recent weeks, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s been an “open secret” that Bannon and Kushner often clash “face-to-face,” according to senior officials.

One official said Bannon has lately complained about Kushner trying to “shiv him and push him out the door” and likened him to a fifth column in the White House.

It seems that people are blaming Bannon for the recent screw-ups at the White House.

Furthermore, two big efforts spearheaded by Bannon in the Trump administration recently failed. Trump’s “Muslim ban” executive orders, crafted in large part by Bannon, are at best indefinitely tied up in court, and his pugilistic push on Trumpcare — which included Bannon urging Trump to “keep a shit list” of Republicans who opposed him — didn’t get the job done.

Bannon has been a disaster and he is a major reason why Trump's approval rating is so low. The "Muslim ban" is just a feel good measure that will not actually protect very many people since much of the terror in the US and Europe is home grown. The White House might not even have the stomach to fight the thing all the way to the Supreme Court. They certainly aren't pounding their chest about it like they did before.

I did like the strong-arm tactics on Obamacare because it showed the White House was willing to have strong feelings on something. It was such a change to the squishy feelings of the Obama White House. However, repealing Obamacare ultimately failed mightily and damaged the President. The "Art of the Deal" Trump got dealt a serious blow by that failure. It will be interesting to see who is standing at the end of this fight.

#YouTubeTV looks like a Steal for $35: They Have all My Channels. Might be Time to Finally #CordCut

It seems that YouTube TV should have cable companies quaking in their boots.

The $35 per month service, which launches in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and Philadelphia with other regions to follow, will let you stream ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the CW. That’s a coup for Google, as competing services like Dish’s (DISH) Sling TV and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation Vue either offer only some of or none of those broadcasters.

Outside of those channels, you’ll get Fox Sports and its FS1 and FS2 affiliates, ESPN and its various offshoots, CBS and NBC’s sports channels … you know what, let’s just say there are a bunch of sports networks. There’s also Syfy, Bravo, FX and FXX, E, Disney Channel, Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC and a slew of others.

The channels on their list are pretty much the only channels I watch. It also includes 6 user accounts and access to an unlimited space DVR. You also get to watch all of this content from any device which makes the $35 a month seem like like a pittance. It doesn't seem to have HBO but you can get HBO Go for $15 a month add on so you can get your fix of Game of Thrones.

It Seems fear of Trump is Slowing Border Crossing

I guess we don't have to build the wall after all.

The first months of the new administration have seen a huge drop in the number of people being caught by agents on the U.S.-Mexico border, raising the possibility that a "Trump effect" is keeping migrants away.

Fewer than 12,500 people were caught at the southern border in March, the lowest monthly figure in at least 17 years and the second straight month that border arrests dropped sharply. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, in testimony submitted to a Senate committee, called the decline "no accident" and credited Trump.

 

Woman's Movement Shutting out All Dissent?

Hmm a very interesting article by a First Wave Feminist.

But the women’s movement doesn’t live up to that idea. If women choose to be chief executives and officeholders and columnists and doctors and partners in law firms, great! If they choose, however, to be moms and wives and attend Bible study or bake cookies, they are “bitter clingers” and “deplorable.” And if they happen to be conservative professional women, they are invisible.

I think Conservative woman needs to form a bunch of their own well funded organizations so that they can fight against the liberal female industrial complex mentioned in this article.

Trump Calls out the #FreedomCaucus: Vows to Battle them and the Dems in 2018

I really hope the GOP defunds their campaigns and repeals their position in the House.

President Trump vowed to take on the Freedom Caucus in the 2018 midterm elections if its members do not conform to his vision of the GOP.

On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted that the congressional caucus of conservative members of the House of Representatives is on track to harm “the entire Republican agenda.”

If they don't get on board tax reform then I really think the GOP should expel them from the party and actively run million dollar campaigns against them. If they cannot listen to leadership and Trump then they really have no business calling themselves Republicans.

Talking About Changing the Narrative: Hillary's 2nd Presidential Bid Was "Battered?"

Now this is some very interesting stuff.

The investigation sent the Clinton campaign reeling in at least two pivotal points during the campaign — less than two weeks before Election Day, when FBI director James Comey announced the bureau was looking into new emails related to the Clinton inquiry, and again two days before the election, when he announced the agency found nothing.
The cumulative effect was seen as having done irreparable damage to Clinton's already battered second bid for the White House and the Clinton camp later blamed Comey himself for their loss to Donald Trump. 

The campaign was far from "battered" if you believed anything that MSM put out right before the election. Even Fox News had her up by 6 points as late as Oct 18th. We were told she was a lock to win by many different sources.

But Democrats said Trump’s appearances in states where he is clearly behind are simply a sign that his other pathways to 270 electoral votes have narrowed to virtually nothing — even before the FBI announcement in her favor.

If things were "narrowing to virtually nothing" for the Trump Campaign how can her campaign be "battered?" I even remember talk of a Democrat sweep that put markets on edge.

While Trump's troubles could pull support away from other Republican candidates, voters may also opt to pull the lever for Trump and ignore those who are not supporting him, said Pethokoukis, who is also a CNBC contributor.
Now Democrats "are talking about a clean sweep and being able to re-run the first term of Obama the way they would have liked to have done if it wasn't overshadowed by the financial crisis," he said.

Oh how wrong all of these people were.

Making America Great is Going to Run Ads that are Pro Trump

I guess someone on TV will be on his side again.

Making America Great, a new nonprofit aligned with Trump donor Rebekah Mercer, announced plans to air at least $1 million in television and digital ads. The commercials will run in the nation's capital and 10 states that Trump won last November: Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Florida, Missouri, Indiana and Montana. Democratic senators face re-election next year in all 10 states.

He needs to go after anyone that will stand in the way of getting Tax Reform over the finish line.

Its Seems Congress is Actually Protecting some Tech Jobs from H-1B Tricks by Some Companies

It's nice when there is a bipartisan bill that actually helps American workers instead of undermines them.

In the latest onslaught against the H-1B program -- or specifically, the alleged misuse of the H-1B program by cost-cutting American companies and Indian IT firms -- another Bill was re-introduced late last week that aimed to choke off the undermining of American tech workers by foreign ones.
The Keeping American Jobs Act was brought back into the fray by Derek Kilmer (Democrat) and Doug Collins (Republican) that aims to prevent companies from making their existing American workers train H-1B tech workers in the country before permanently moving those jobs overseas, a process popularly known as "offshoring".

I think this is just the kind of bill that Trump can get behind. It saves American jobs and prevents companies from messing with their workers to save some cash.

No-Brainer Department: It Seems that Cats Like Us More Than Food

I could have told you this.

For the study, felines went through a series of cognitive tests. Fifty different cats were used as subjects, some of which were pets, others from shelters. All of the kitties were deprived of food, toys and human contact for a few hours. After this separation, the cats were presented with human attention, food, scents and toys to see what they missed most. Almost all of the cats craved human attention, with half of the felines opting for chin scratches over any of the other stimuli, food included. Only 37% of the cats chose food first.

I think if a cat lets you scratch their chins they will be pretty attached to you. Cats do their own thing but I know that if they have a forever home they are very nice to people that don't endanger them for the most part. I mean they aren't super friendly like dogs but once you earned a cats love they become super loyal and loving pets. They need to do this same test with rattys.

It Looks Like Bannon Throw His Weight Arond to the #FreedomCaucus; Maybe Add Him to the Fail List

This is no way to talk to people you are trying to get on your side.

"Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill," Bannon reportedly said to members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus. 

But those in the Freedom Caucus weren't buying into Bannon's opening gambit. "You know, the last time someone ordered me to something, I was 18 years old. And it was my daddy. And I didn't listen to him, either," said one member of the caucus.

That idiot Freedom Caucasian should show some respect to "his daddy." Maybe that is why these people will be looking for new jobs in 2018. 

Raiders Headed to @Vegas

Well that didn't take too long.

The Raiders got the official OK to relocate to Las Vegas as NFL owners reportedly voted 31-1 on Monday in approval of the franchise’s move from Oakland, Calif., a place the team has called home for 45 of its 58 seasons of existence in the AFL and NFL. The Raiders needed 24 of 32 votes to win approval.

Actually the Chargers should have moved to Vegas instead since they will be the red-headed-stepchild in Los Angeles. It will be weird to hear the sound of Las Vegas Raiders but I will be willing to bet that many Hawaii people will be attending Raiders games.

Trump Might want a Bi-Partisan Bill Next Year? The #FreedomCaucus Will Now Get Something Way Worse

Hmm this is a very interesting development.

I asked: Would working on a bipartisan health-care deal a year from now be something he would find more agreeable than whipping the hard right?
“A lot of people might say that,” Trump said, laughing. “We’ll end up with a better health-care plan. A great plan. And you wouldn’t need the Freedom Caucus.”

An Obamacare fix-it bill would probably be quite popular by many Americans and the Freedom Idiots would have no way to stop it. If the Dems play their cards right they might even get some sort of single payer out of this whole deal because I know Trump has talked about it. Also Planned Parenthood is now safe because no bi-partisan bill will strip their funding. The Freedom Caucasians just signed their political death warrant and they will now get a far less generous deal.

Trump is Freaking Belichick on #RepealandReplace Saying "On to the Next One"

It looks like Obamacare is here to stay as the GOP looks like they will lose the vote.

House Republicans on Friday appeared to be short of the votes they need to pass a Donald Trump-pushed bill to overhaul the nation’s health care system mere hours before they were scheduled to vote on the package.

The Associated Press reported early Friday afternoon that the bill had yet to obtain enough votes to pass, according to House lawmakers and staffers, with a vote scheduled for 3:30 p.m. that afternoon. 

While Trump pretty much said "on to the next one" which is Belichick's mantra after they win or lose a game.

 And, if the president doesn't get a vote to repeal and replace Obamacare, he will move on to other priorities, Mulvaney said according to a source in the room during the tense talks with GOP members. A senior administration source confirms to NBC News the "very definitive, very clarifying" message from the president and the administration's intention to move on — should the health care bill fail to move forward — to other matters such as tax reform, trade and border security. 

Now that is a very CEO move. If the construction of Building #1 has been shut down by regulations or not enough aggregate or something it's time to work on Building #2 and maybe get back to Building #1 at some later date. Worse comes to worse take a loss on Building #1 and move on. 

You can criticize the guy all you want but this is something new in politics. Trump said "we tried and the Freedom Dumb-asses failed lets start to work on Tax Reform" just like Belichick says "we didn't play well enough so we lost. On to Atlanta." Then he says "On to Atlanta" over and over. No pausing to reflect, or licking wounds, or a domino effect, or other nonsense. It's just "on to Tax Reform."

Washington is Holding Stock Market Hostage says @CNBC. No the 30 to 40 #FreedomCretins Does.

You can say that again.

Markets are entering a new era, where they could be held hostage by Washington's whims.
They could also become more volatile, after the showdown over health care revealed congressional fissures that could affect other Trump policies.
Stocks gave back gains Thursday, after the House of Representatives held off voting on its health-care replacement bill when it could not resolve objections from the fiscally conservative Freedom Caucus. Work continues on the bill, which could come back for a vote Friday.

In other words 30-40 dumb-asses hold billions of dollars worth of gains and Trumps (remaining) credibility in their clammy hands.

A Majority of Millennials Think Trump is Illegitimate for some Reason or Another.

I wonder how many of these Millennials actually voted?

A majority of young Americans view Donald Trump's presidency as illegitimate, including about three-quarters of black people and nearly half of whites.

That's according to a new GenForward poll that found 57 percent of young people see Trump this way.

If they actually turned out in large enough numbers we would have Hillary as President instead. They stayed home so we have Trump. It's pretty simple.

GOP Postpones the #RepealReplace Bill: I'm Hedged with a Large Cash Position so Whatever

Well I did some selling and put on some hedges so if the FreedomCretins decide to scuttle the bill I'm in the clear more or less.

The House of Representatives delayed its vote on repealing and replacing parts of the Affordable Care Act after Republican leaders failed to rally enough support to pass the bill, sources told CNBC.
The GOP House caucus will meet at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday to discuss its path forward, NBC News reported. House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy told CNN that House debate on the bill will start Friday morning. But a White House spokeswoman said debate will begin on Thursday night and Republicans expect to have the votes to pass it on Friday.

I'm hoping these idiots decide to step out of the way of history and don't damage Trump's growth agenda.

The So-Called #FreedomCretins AKA the #FreedomCaucus Hold Repeal and Replace Hostage

I have to say if the market goes down because this bill fails then everyone should hold these idiots accountable.

The Republican health-care bill stood in a legislative Catch-22 late Wednesday, held hostage to demands that the White House and Republican leaders wish that they could grant but insist that they cannot.
The captors in this instance are the members of the House Freedom Caucus, the group of roughly three dozen conservative hard-liners who have tried to bend the GOP bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act toward the right and have now coalesced around one major demand — that the American Health Care Act, as the GOP bill is titled, must repeal more of the ACA’s insurance mandates to truly lower premiums.

What is especially galling is that these Freedom Dimwits don't have a bill of their own to go up against the Ryan bill. They just scream from the cheap seats and mess up the Trump pro-growth agenda. You can pin that 1% downward move on Tuesday on these idiots. If the market drops again on Thursday you can blame them again. I hope they are all drummed out of the Congress in disgrace.

Real News Department: Yankee's Player Greg Bird Owns Hairless Cat Named #MrDelicious

That is an awesome name and I now have a favorite current Yankee.

With spring training no longer a novelty and no actual games to cover, baseball’s news cycle is stuck in a brief rut where it has to rely on waterskiing squirrels to stay alive. Today’s example comes to you in the form of a hairless cat named Mr. Delicious. He belongs to Yankees first baseman Greg Bird.

Here is Mr. Delicious cruising in the hoodie of his Cat-Dad.

White House Goes into #Bitter-Ender-Mode on Wiretap Claims

Just say you were wrong and get on the tax reform already.

Spicer said during Monday's press briefing that hearings are still ongoing that relate to the issue of wiretapping.

"We started a hearing," Spicer said. "It's still ongoing. And then as [House Intelligence Committee] Chairman [Devin] Nunes mentioned, this is one in a series of hearings that will be happening."

He continued later: "I think there's a lot of areas that still need to be covered. There's a lot of information that still needs to be discussed."

Comey said during a House Intelligence Committee hearing Monday that the bureau had "no information" to support tweets from Trump accusing Obama of tapping his phones before the 2016 election.

The White House was supposed to have all this evidence but it looks like a load of crap. Just say that Mark Levin was wrong on the story and lets move on. The market go beaten up because it looks like the GOP can't do the heavy lifting on this stuff. Forget about the wire-tapping and lets move on to things that will matter to a whole lot of Americans.

Gorsuch Peppered with Tough Questions: Would he Fight a 100 Duck-Sized Horses or a Horse-Sized Duck? It's a Stumper

This is a tough question indeed.

Before moving on to more serious topics, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., posed the popular hypothetical question to Gorsuch at the urging of his teenaged son Dallin.

“My family’s been texting me throughout this process, asking me to ask question that they would ask,” Flake said. “I asked a few of them for suggestions and my son Dallin, a teenager, said, ‘Ask him if he would rather fight a hundred duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck.’”

I would go with a horse-sized duck but I would reason with him so I didn't have to actually fight the duck. Maybe some loaves of bread would get it to calm down if it was upset. Then I would rather run away then actually fight such a huge animal. I don't think it would be able to outrun me. Gorsuch on the other hand had no answer. He has not position on huge ducks are tiny horses. I find that troubling.

@Napolitano Suspended After His British Intel Spying Claim Turns out to be BS: Um Donald Turn off the TV!

Um, Donald switch your early morning viewing to Squawk Box or maybe Maria Bartiromo at Fox Business instead. Fox and friends keeps screwing you up.

A person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a personnel matter said Napolitano has been benched and won't be appearing on the air in the near future. Fox had no immediate comment Monday.

Napolitano's report last week on "Fox & Friends," saying he had three intelligence sources who said Obama went "outside the chain of command" to watch Trump, provoked an international incident. Britain dismissed the report as "nonsense" after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer quoted it in a briefing, part of the administration's continued defense of Trump's unproven contention that Obama had wiretapped him at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.

I have a feeling that someone at the CIA "leaked" this stuff to Napolitano to get him to reveal it and make him look stupid. The so-called "useful idiot" theory. I really think Trump needs to watch less cable news and read more briefing books and such.

A Whole Bunch of Sad Blue Staters that Cannot Sleep Due to Evil Trump

An entire article about people that cannot deal with the fact that Trump has won so much it is giving them insomnia.

“I worry that even though my family members have been American citizens for generations we will be targeted … because of our surnames and our looks,” says Soraida Justiniano of Palm Harbor, Fla.

“I’m worried about the ‘Anne Franks‘ of Syria, Somalia, Yemen,” says tech industry employee Amanda Silver, who is literally sleepless in Seattle, her hometown.

That is patently offensive. If she worried so much about the Anne Franks of Syria she should have gotten on Obama to clean up the mess before it metastasized so badly. Once Obama didn't do anything after the "red line" was crossed it was open season on Syrians. Hell, in 6 months time I think Syria will be all sorted out and there will be relative peace in that part of the world. I think these sad blue staters need to do this:

Lian Dolan, writer and host of the “Satellite Sisters” podcast, stopped watching the news as of Nov. 8, and adopted a German shepherd named Steffi right after Thanksgiving so that she could “walk us both into the ground, about 5 to 6 miles a day. Good for my sleep.” Her sister and podcast partner Liz Dolan is swimming. “There’s no news, real or fake, underwater,” she notes.

Yes, turn off CNN and get off of Facebook. Hang out with that rescue dog because her life is far more important than some crap happening in Washington. There really isn't anything that Trump can do that can damage America permanently. We will not go to war with China. We will not deport 11 million people. People will have more money in their pockets by next year due to an improving economy and tax cuts. Just like all those people that said Obama will destroy America were just plain wrong. These people are wrong too. Just resist when there is something to resist other than fear. 

Red-State vs. Blue-State: Economic Predictions Edition. Dems Think We are Headed for a Deep Recession?

I just thing Dems are bad at economics in general.

Preliminary data released Friday showed a larger and growing portion of Democrats have lost faith in the economy, likely because of Trump. The University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers reports that when asked about expectations for the future, Democrats score a 55.3 on the index, a number that signals a “deep recession was imminent.”

Republicans, on the other hand, score 122.4 on the expectations index—a level that indicates “a new era of robust economic growth was ahead,” notes Richard Curtin, the economist who compiles the survey.

That is the largest gap on record. What is interesting is, I wonder why the Dems think that the recession is imminent? Just about everything Trump has done from the record Stock Market, the recovery in consumer sentiment, to booming jobs is the exact opposite of a recession. Also two big bumps to the economy from tax reform and infrastructure spending have yet to even be looked at. CEOs seem to be ready to deploy capital as well. I guess this is case-in-point when it comes echo chambers. 

Nothing-burger Department: Russians Bought Trump Property

This Russian connection stuff is getting stupid already.

But in the United States, members of the Russian elite have invested in Trump buildings. A Reuters review has found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida, according to public documents, interviews and corporate records.

I would be willing to bet that every real estate magnate in the world has some Russian rich guys buying some of their property. I would be willing to bet that the number of Chinese rich guys bought Trump property as well. They are just desperately swinging and hoping they can get a glove on Trump.

More Bad News for the Secret Service: They Lose a Laptop with National Security secrets on It

Hopefully it has some sort of remote wipe capability installed.

Cops are scrambling to find a laptop — containing the floor plans for Trump Tower, details about the Hillary Clinton email probe and a slew of other sensitive information that could compromise national security — that was swiped from a Secret Service agent’s motorcycle in Brooklyn, police sources said.
The portable computer was stolen from the bike Thursday morning as it sat in the driveway of Marie Argentieri’s Bath Beach home, the sources told The Post.

Why was it on the motorcycle in the first place? They just can't catch a break after it was revealed that the crazy fence jumper had 15 minutes to wander around until he was caught.

Even @McDonalds is Going after Trump

I guess they are not Lovin' It.

A salty tweet, sent and quickly deleted Thursday, from one of McDonald’s official Twitter accounts attacked President Trump and longed for the return of his predecessor.

“@realDonaldTrump You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama back, also you have tiny hands,” the tweet from the company’s @McDonaldsCorp account declared.

I think someone got let go and decided to hit back at McDonalds on the way out the door.

The White House Sounds a Lot Like East Germany According to #Politico

Yeah they should be scared and take precautions after what has happened in the last 2 months.

Some rank-and-file White House aides, meanwhile, have become convinced that intelligence agents may be monitoring their phone calls, emails, and text messages. Those fears intensified last week when WikiLeaks released a trove of CIA documents outlining how the agency can break into phones and computers.
In an interview, one White House aide described the elaborate steps he was taking to shield himself. Once he gets home in the evening, he turns off his work phone and stores it in a drawer because, he said, he believes it could be used to listen to him even when it’s off. If he makes a call during off-hours, he uses a separate, personal phone in an adjoining room, where the stowed work device wouldn’t be able to pick up his voice as clearly.

I have to echo this sentiment from some nameless GOPer

“I wouldn't call it paranoia under the circumstances,” said a Republican who communicates with many administration aides through encrypted apps. “It’s not paranoia if people really are out to get you, and everybody actually is out to get everyone else.”

Yeah pretty much. The media is out to destroy Trump by any means necessary even printing crazy made-up stuff from Oppo files. Message discipline and plugging leaks should be their top priority because anything damaging will be a bludgeon pretty quickly. Flynn wasn't taken out by amateurs. 

It Seems the Maddow Tax Story is the Al Capones Vault of Current Times. Trump Paid Higher Tax Percentage than Bernie Sanders

I hope indictments are not passed out over this debacle.

For a brief, breathless moment Tuesday night, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was at the center of the political media universe.

With a single tweet, she set in motion a social media storm, compelled the White House to undercut her by releasing some of President Donald Trump's tax return information, was accused of breaking the law, was attacked by Fox News Channel and likely drew one of her biggest audiences.

The problem is that whoever took that Trump Tax Return and photo-copied it and sent it to a reporter committed a felony. If Trump was smart he would find whoever did that and put them in jail. Hopefully, this would deter the next leaker who goes after Trump's taxes. No American should be under the threat of having someone potentially leak their tax returns.   

What is ironic though is that Trump's tax returns seem pretty generic for a billionaire. He paid taxes to the tune of $31 million and made $153 million. So that nonsense of Trump not paying taxes for 19 years seems to have been full of it. Also that tax percentage of 25% was higher than Warren Buffet and Bernie Sanders. Two table pounders about "paying their fair share of taxes."

Conspiracy Theory Time: CIA + Mike Pence = Coup d'etat: AKA: One Nation Under the Deep State

Hmm very interesting.

"Clinton stated privately this month that she is quietly pushing for a Pence takeover," Assange tweeted Tuesday. "She stated that Pence is predictable hence defeatable."
Assange continued: "Two [intelligence] officials close to Pence stated privately this month that they are planning on a Pence takeover. Did not state if Pence agrees." 

Maybe all this deep state vs Trump stuff is leading up to Pence taking over after a disastrous impeachment. I'm sure the Dems would like that because it would damage the GOP and might allow them to sneak back into power. It's plausible but highly unlikely.

Oh oh, now Hillary's Campaign has some Russian Ties: Lets Just Move on from Russian So Called Election Hacking

It seems that the New York Times has ignored these "bomb-shell" allegations.

People associated with Hillary Clinton's campaign also met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman.
"Well, if you look at some people connected with Hillary Clinton during her campaign, you would probably see that [the Russian ambassador] had lots of meetings of that kind," Dmitry Peskov told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired Sunday.

Shock-horror! People in the Hillary camp met with a foreign ambassador! This should be given the exact same scrutiny that the press has given to Trump's Russia ties. In other words if no wrong doing was found by either side it is time to move on from this entire issue.

Hey Press Corps, Donate Trumps Presidential Salary to the Families of Reporters Murdered by Jihadis

I'm sure there is some kind of organization that gives money to the family of slain reporters like Daniel Pearl who was beheaded by Al-Quida scumbags. In any case this is an interesting gambit on the part of the White House.

"The president’s intention right now is to donate his salary at the end of the year and he has kindly asked that you should all help him determine where that goes," he said. 
A few reporters laughed, but Spicer seemed to make clear he was serious, and said a way to “avoid scrutiny” is for the press corps to determine where it should go.
“In all seriousness, I think his view is he made a pledge to the American people that he wants to donate it to charity and he’d love your help to determine where it should go,” he said.

Aliens! Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) might be Solar Sail Propulsion System

That might be one way to get from one system to another in a half-way decent amount of time.

What is less clear is why an alien civilisation would build such a thing in the first place. But the researchers speculate that the energy being sent out is driving interstellar light sails, where spacecraft ride along on light waves in the same way a boat moves through the ocean. Whatever is generating the FRBs is powerful enough to push around something weighing a million tons, or about 20 times the biggest cruise ships ever built.

“That’s big enough to carry living passengers across interstellar or even intergalactic distances,” said Lingam.

Perhaps the beam would be able to accelerate the ship to near light speeds which would mean the signal planet is probably not too far away. I wonder if our radio waves would reach their planet in the near future?

Economists are Terrible with Crystal Balls #DigitalDisruption

It seems that we have some scholarly articles backing this up.

"Suppose ... the unemployment rate was projected to remain near 5% over the next few years, accompanied by 2% inflation. Given the size of past errors, we should not be surprised to see the unemployment rate climb to 7% or fall to 3%. ... Similarly, it would not be at all surprising to see inflation as high as 3% or as low as 1%."
These are huge margins of error. Clearly, much economic forecasting is guesswork. Worse, the gap between prediction and reality may be widening. The study — done by David Reifschneider of the Federal Reserve and Peter Tulip of the Reserve Bank of Australia — found that forecasting mistakes had worsened since the 2008-09 financial crisis.

It seemed to me like it was just pure luck whenever they actually hit a number on the head. I wonder if we turned Watson or others loose on this how well they would do? They can certainly look at more variables at the same time and come to some sort of conclusion. I guess economics might be yet another field that will become "digitally disrupted."

Wait: @TheNewYorkTimes Had Obama Wiretapping Info Back on January 19th?

This is certainly a curious article with a curious passage.

The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.

I have a feeling that they were wiretapping Russian spies that had contact with Trump people and found no wrongdoing. The question is did this wiretapping happen in Trump Tower or in the Russian embassy, the ambassadors residence, or wherever these Russians were. Also I wonder if they hacked Manfort's cell phone such? In any case the investigation needs to happen and soon.

#Privilege Rears its Ugly Head on Women's Strike 2017: The Robots will Wipe Out Many Jobs Held By Women.

It seems it might be easier to walk off the job for the "A Day Without a Woman" than others.

On March 8—International Women’s Day—women across the United States will have the opportunity to participate in the “A Day Without a Woman” strike. That’s a well-intentioned idea. But it’s likely that mostly privileged women will be the ones participating in the much-anticipated follow-up to January’s Women’s March. This is an unfortunate but not altogether surprising consequence of an event without a clear purpose—or an understanding of feminist history.

I guess it is easier to walk off the job if you are an executive or have some vacation days to take. It's even easier if a woman is a teacher and the school board shuts the school down for you. However, if you are in this boat it is not so easy/actually quite impossible.

Women account for nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers in the US, and women of color account for more than half of those earning minimum wage or less. According to a recent Oxfam America study, ingrained sexism in the working world has pushed millions of women into jobs that pay low wages, provide little, if any, benefits, and often impose irregular hours. The number of these sorts of jobs, according to Oxfam, is only going to increase over the next decade. In other words, tens of millions of women have neither the benefits nor the flexibility to take the day off in protest.

I'm sorry to tell Oxfam America but those jobs will actually seriously decrease in the next decade as they are replaced by robots or phased out in our glorious "digital economy." I wonder if these Marchers are going to be there to help these women when a Siri-like VR interface wipes out all the call center jobs in one shot? Or if an Amazon auto-pay store allows you to walk out without having to see a cashier. That minimum-wage women's work force they mention will be devastated by "Rise of the Robots."

I Wish We Could Get this CEO-Talker Trump as the Default

If this Trump was the one we got all the time I think his approval ratings would be much higher.

A former businessman, Trump runs his closed-door meetings with CEOs as if they were a corporate board meeting, attendees said. In contrast to his doctrinaire tweets, he likes to seek input from everyone at the table, and compared to former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, conversations are less scripted.

Trump’s approach to these meetings is “one of listening and not lecturing”, said a senior White House official who has participated in industry meetings.

This is the kind of Trump America needs. Listening and engaging not "Tweeting from the hip" and constantly fighting the media or whomever.