8.23.18
The collapse of Venezuela’s economy and government continues. The Official exchange rate of the Bolivar/U.S. Dollar is 250,000/1. This number is so extreme I had to make sure I was reading it right and that the zero’s were in the right place. I divided $1.00 by 250,000 and got $0.000004. This means that 1 Bolivar (the Venezuelan equivalent to our dollar) is worth $00.00004 (aka: 1 Bolivar is worth four one hundred thousands of a cent). The money in Venezuela is valueless. The hardships the people of Venezuela are suffering are outrageous, yet there is nothing we can do about it. Anybody that can is leaving the country as chaos engulfs their entire culture and the rule of law breaks down while basic and essential goods and services become unobtainable.
The Venezuelan government announced a few months ago that it is going to introduce a cryptocurrency called the Petrodollar (aka:Petro), with the value of it tied to a barrel of oil. Well, within the last year oil has fluctuate between $40 and $70 a barrel, which makes that a pretty unstable currency, but still far more viable than the valueless Bolivar. I know Venezuela has the oil to back the Petro, but that didn’t seem to help as the revenue from the same oil could back the Bolivar. For the sake of the Venezuelan people I hopes this helps stabilize their economy and their society but I think the value of their currency has more to do with the corrupt government than what they call the currency itself or what the government claims is backing its value.
I have heard several of the talking heads on tv state that the crisis in Venezuela is the result of a socialist government. I disagree, this is the result of a brutal dictator raping the economy and the resources of his country and it’s citizens. I am not a fan of socialism but I believe in putting the blame where it actually belongs.
8.14.2018
Sean Hannity
Jessica Tarlov
I was watching both MSNBC and Fox this evening. Hannity was on Fox, Rachel Maddow was on MSNBC. Hannity talked about his usual conspiracy stuff, the Deep State, etc. Also about Struck getting fired, Manifort, DNC chair Ellison accused of beating up his girlfriend and he interviewed a Marine that has a viral video about a conversation he had in Afghanistan with Afghan citizens. It kind of emphasize the need for vetting immigrants from that area. After that Hannity introduced some statistics that indicates that more Democrats favor socialism than favor capitalism. He initiated a kind of a three-way discussion on this. Watters was on the screen and the Democrat there was Jessica Tarlov. The conversation was absolutely absurd as Tarlov was constantly interrupted every time she attempted to speak. I had to go to the YouTube version of the show just to check how long she was actually able to talk. At one point she was interrupted three times and 22 seconds, the longest she was ever able to talk without being completely talked over was about 19 seconds. She never was able to really make a point and was lucky if she could get a sentence out without some kind of snickering or unnecessary snide comment from either Watters or Hannity. This really didn’t surprise me as this is Hannity’s normal modus operandi, being childish and rude. I just think it’s a shame that this is what our media has become.
Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow was on MSNBC. She was talking about Manafort’s trial and nothing in the content had anything to do with Russia (which is what she talks about most, even when there is usually nothing worth saying). I guess she thinks that if she keeps talking about it she will make something bad happen to Trump. Yea, that’ll work. I think that if Trump did something to undermine the 2016 election it will come out in the wash, but Maddow’s continual babble about it is only useless noise. She also spent a lot of time critiquing the spelling and grammar on Calk’s resume. Like most Americans I really couldn’t care less about that. Does she think that the people in her audience have never misspelled a word on a document and had spell check miss it too. Nothing she covered seemed even worth mentioning or newsworthy, and she was trying so hard to find fault with Manifort’s defense that she was even doing childish voice imitations and making sarcastic comments about the judge. Yet the first 40 minutes of her show were taken up with this nonsense. Yes, she was actually critiquing the spelling on Calk’s resume. I can’t believe that there is nothing more important in this world than the spelling on a job resume. After that MSNBC covered some election results and mentioned Ellison accused of beating up his girlfriend and I guess that’s about all I had a chance to watch while channel flipping around the news (aka:opinion) channels last night.
Back in February I wrote a short rant about how a bias and dishonest media is actually an enemy of all Americans. I guess what I find absolutely disgusting about our media is that the various media outlets very seldom talk about the same subject, and when they do they seldom report all the facts. They seem to basically ignore or minimize anything that doesn’t support their own bias point of view. It is no wonder this country is divided along party lines if people actually put any stock in any of this bigoted drivel spewed by these networks.
I Goggled “Lies by omission”. Perhaps this definition will mean something to all the major news channels and their paid talking heads …
“Lying by omission, also known as a continuing misrepresentation or quote mining, occurs when an important fact is left out in order to foster a misconception. Lying by omission includes the failure to correct pre-existing misconceptions.“
I am sure that after they understand what they are currently doing that starting tomorrow all major news channels will begin honest, complete and factual news reporting regardless of their own political bias …. Yea, right. What’s that old saying about waiting for pigs to fly.
Oh, yea. I did confirm that 57% of Democrats have a favorable view of socialism, and only 47% have a favorable view of capitalism. That is really weird, since socialism has never worked and has never led to economic prosperity. Even economically strong countries leaning toward bigger (aka: socialistic) government have and need a strong capitalist system to support the government spending. It is also important to note that these countries (aka: Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Bolivia, etc.) are closed border countries that make sure that everybody in their country is able to pay the taxes necessary to support the government spending, and they have very tight immigration policies that only allow immigrants that can support themselves and the government spending (IE: they have a merit based immigration system). In a case like Bolivia it also has natural resources (IE: natural gas and oil) that generates income that exceeds the needs of their small population of less than 11 million. Closed borders, vetted immigration and a Capitalist base do not seem to be part of the extreme left’s agenda, yet that is what it takes to make any “socialistic” style government work. I wonder where the disconnect is? Maybe Bernie Sanders should mention this in his next speech.
7.11.18
Two days ago Appellate Judge Brett Kavanaugh was officially announced as Trump’s nominee for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Trump chose Kavanaugh from among a list of “25 highly qualified potential nominees”. Kavanaugh is, of course, considered a conservative in his political views.
According to Politico.com “Kavanaugh was seen as safe choice for Trump. He has the traditional resume of a Supreme Court Justice – a Yale law degree, a Supreme Court clerkship under Kennedy, more than a decade on the Circuit Court – and he is well-regarded in academic and political circles.”
Politicians on the left immediately began voicing their objection to Kavanaugh. Per New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer: “… In selecting Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, President Trump has put reproductive rights and freedoms and health care protections for millions of Americans on the judicial chopping block. This nomination could alter the balance of the court in favor of powerful special interests and against working families for a generation, and would take away labor, civil, and human rights from millions of Americans….”
Senator Cory Booker, N.J., stated: “The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is enormously concerning and I’m strongly opposed to it … His nomination should be a non-starter for every member of the Senate concerned about the integrity of the special counsel’s investigation and worried about the Court undermining the rights of women to make their own medical decisions; civil rights; the rights of Americans to quality, affordable healthcare; voting rights; the rights of workers to organize for better wages and working conditions; and more.”
All I can say to that is … wow, really? It sure seems like they are over reacting a little. Or is it more like political Grand-standing? Those are obviously the words of the worst kind of political bigots. The only purpose for such B.S. To to try to make uneducated and weak minded people afraid. I am not surprised that the far left is unhappy with Trump’s choice, but then the far right was unhappy with Obama’s Supreme Court appointees. However I am sure that the left will do all it can to delay or kill Kavanaugh’s appointment. What else is new? Does Schumer realize how absurd he sounds to any rational human being? “…. take away labor, civil, and human rights from millions of Americans….” , Really?
These statements just prove that hate, bigotry and the inability to act reasonably still reign supreme in the U.S. Senate. At least we know that Trump hasn’t cornered the market on juvenile fear mongering, the leading Democrats seem to have perfected the art.