Quick Hit: Youtube is the master of it's own fate

With recent news of a demonitized Youtube-hater going to Youtube and trying to kill people, it's time to ask a few questions of the non-transparent behemoth.  While the shooting was terrible and violence is not justified Youtube has treated it's content creators very poorly and if it doesn't change it will lose them, and then eventually it's audience.

Megan Fox at PJ Media expounds on this:

...While there is never an excuse for shooting innocent people, Aghdam's frustration with YouTube highlights ongoing problems that must be addressed by the company: mass deletions, loss of livelihood, and censorship. They seem to think they don't have to answer to anyone, including the press, about the asinine business decisions they keep making that suppress the First Amendment and oppress their own content creators.

Most people, like O'Brien, (who are sane and normal) take their content elsewhere, like to Vimeo and Bitchute, but the psychological games YouTube plays with them are maddening! Deleting videos, then reinstating, demonetizing then remonetizing...this goes on and on with no reasonable explanation...

YouTube has a terrible business model that treats its content creators (and the Constitution) like garbage. It should be abandoned en masse and investigated.

Her article is spot on and really worth the read. Her suggested solution, is definitely the better way to go than Aghdam's shooting rampage. 

Quick Hits - Obama on his way out the door

President Obama has unfortunately not taken his lame duck status seriously and has had a flurry of activity and possible activity set to cripple the incoming president Trump.  His legacy needs to be erased because despite his apparent emotional or personal appeal to the public, his policies have been extremely detrimental to the country.

Obama unfortunately has pardoned people, grabbed land, betrayed immigrants and signed or avoided international deals in an effort to ensure his continued aggrandization and self-serving efforts to a level that rises to that of the Clintons.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out Obama, your policies have lost and America will be great again, despite your best efforts.  So long, not gonna miss you one iota.

Quick Hits - F-35s

Trump, F35s and jobs - Donald Trump hasn't even been sworn in and he's saving jobs and money for the American people. Once he's been inaugurated that's when things will matter.  When Obama was president, I objected to the government picking winners and losers.  This is clearly not that.  However it is small ball - the president cannot fix the economy by using the bully pulpit as a strong arm tactic against individual companies.  Nor should he.  When the government tells or pressures companies into doing or not doing things, liberty is in jeopardy.  But Donald Trump is not yet president.  As I said, what matters is what he does as president - tax codes, regulation and creating an environment where business can thrive, that is what will matter.

Nevertheless, this is good news:

The CEO of the aerospace defense company Lockheed Martin, Marillyn Hewson, pledges to create an additional 1,800 jobs and significantly reduce the high cost of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program previously criticized by President-elect Donald Trump.

“We are going to increase our jobs in Fort Worth by 1,800 jobs and when you think about the [F-35] supply chain across 45 states in the U.S. it’s going to be thousands and thousands of jobs,” Hewson said outside Trump Tower following a meeting with the president-elect.

“I also had the opportunity to give him some ideas on things we think we can do to continue to drive the cost down on the F-35 program, so it was a great meeting,” she continued.

This  involves national security, government contracts as well as jobs. This does matter, just like the Boeing Air Force One contract.

Quick Hits - Streep Sweep

Meryl Streep - I never liked her acting.  She always seems to be on the verge of tears. Her film choices seem pretentious and self-important.  They are generally not entertaining, certainly not as entertaining as the NFL.

I could care less what she has to say about politics because she is vapid, self-involved and smarmy.  Doctors don't tell astronauts how to do their job, and actors don't understand economics. She took the opportunity of her speech at the GOLDen GLOBeS to slam Donald Trump.  A bunch of rich, primarily white out of touch Hollywood type applauded her because they feel like they are the most hated group of people in America, along with immigrants and the press and that Trump is Darth vader incarnate.

It's stupid to care.  Rush Limbaugh broke it down quite well nevertheless, last week.

Quick Hits - Trump vs Buzzfeed

I'm playing catch up on my posts because 2017 has started out for me unusually busy.  Consequently my coming posts will be shorter than normal.  Who knows, maybe that is a good thing.

Here's my first catch up post: Trump vs Buzzfeed and CNN. Liberals clearly want to delegitimize Trump's presidency and they don't care how they do it.  After weeks of decrying fake news, an ultra-liberal media outlet, released fake news and it was quickly picked up by CNN, an ultra-liberal now pseudo-news organization.  They fail to realize they continue to de-legitimize themselves instead and are growing the chasm between the public and themselves.

Quick thoughts on various topics

Some observational quick hits for today.

Sour Grapes:  Mitt Romney, we know you would have done better than the president as far as the Crimean crisis goes. Unfortunately continuing to blast him beyond your original op ed, will just come across as sour grapes.

Get it right guys: The White House blasted Matt Drudge for bragging about about paying the penalty for Obamacare when the penalty doesn't kick in until next year.  Except as a small business, the quarterly payments have technically started.  Get it right liberals.  Maybe you should read the 2700 pages of the ACA, and the 50,000+ pages of tax law to know what you have wrought upon the nation rather than just lashing out blindly.

Missing airplane, missing journalism:  I haven't said much about the missing Malaysian airlines 777 (if anything).  It's providing great cover for CNN to not talk about Obama's terrible response to the Crimean crisis.  And for them to speculate about black holes swallowing up the plane.  As far as the missing plane goes, my prayers are with the families of those who were on the plane.  The anguish must be immense.

Buffett of hypocrisy:  Warren Buffett offered a billion dollars to whomever could pick a perfect bracket in the NCAA college basketball tournament.  The odds of anyone getting it right are astronomically low, so he feels safe in doing it.  But from a guy who said he feels the rich don't pay enough tax, wouldn't the optics be a little better if he just paid the money in taxes?  Just saying.  The truth is that Warren Buffet's claims about the rich and taxes are ridiculously hypocritical.  He knew the odds were in his favor on the tournament (oops!), and it is no different with his taxes.  He doesn't want to give his money away in any way.

Quick thoughts on current news - it's all bad.

My blog is still giving me a major headache.  I thought I had almost had it fixed and suddenly my slider is locking up. Arg! I hate blogger but I don't think any other platform would be without its own idiosyncrasies.  The battle to fix the site continues.

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Our less than illustrious leader, Toronto mayor Rob Ford has admitted to having used crack cocaine.  He's following in the not so proud footsteps of former D.C. mayor Marion Barry.  He's the butt of jokes around the world.  Yet he's the only conservative politician to have won the post in basically forever, and those who are loyal to his political aims, are stuck being embarrassed by him.  There's no other conservative candidate here on the horizon who can possibly win, and liberals, progressives and socialists are filled with glee at the notion that next year, they will be able to take the office back.  Ford could still win re-election as the conservative standard bearer, but he's nobody's first choice.

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Speaking of standard bearers, how does it feel in the U.S. as a conservative to be faced with the prospect of Chris Christie, noted RINO by many, as your conservative standard bearer? His win for governor of New Jersey was truly mammoth (pardon the weighty pun).  His odds of being the GOP nominee for president in 2016 were to say the least, not hurt yesterday.  Liberals are probably thrilled at the prospect of a Christie nomination as they believe he cannot beat Hillary Clinton head-to-head in 2016.  They may be right.

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In that vein, I'll be taking a detailed look at handicapping the GOP race for president in 2016 soon.  I did so early on in the race for 2012 (back in 2010).  It was somewhat off-base in terms of who ended up running, but it was not without its merits.  Plus, it's fun to think about a brighter, less socialist future from time to time.

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More socialist, meanwhile is Virginia, which narrowly elected Terry McAuliffe to be its new governor.  I hate to say I told you so on this one but I just could not see Ken Cuccinelli catching up in time for election day.  Despite a massive disadvantage in spending he almost closed the gap.  But in the end, the Democrat McAuliffe still won.  He's a Clinton loyalist, and an Obamacare proponent.  Geographically, most of the state went red, but the urban northeast districts were enough to drag McAuliffe across the finish line.  By all rights he should have swamped Cuccinelli.  that he didn't should be a silver lining for conservatives, but really, it's not.  A win is a win and a loss is a loss.  Let's not be the Bad News Bears and settle for losing.

Random news item thoughts for election day

It's election day and there are some high profile items worth mentioning in passing as I struggle to keep up with the news cycle.  Here are some quick hits.

Chris Christie is expected to romp to a wide-margin victory today and be re-elected as a Republican governor in liberal New Jersey.  A lot has been made of his less-than-perfect-conservative decisioning on many items, and whether he could win a GOP nomination for president in 2016.  He could have enough cross-over appeal to be able to beat a Hillary Clinton in 2016.  But is just winning the presidency enough for conservatives?  It's like trying to decide between prune juice and beet juice.

 

Sean Trende does his usual excellent job in breaking down the significance of a big Christie victory.  For handicappers, it's an excellent read.

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Virginian could be an upset GOP win and liberal Terry McAuliffe, Clinton ally, could end up not being the next governor there.  It's a long shot.  But noted libertarian star Ron Paul, is urging Virginia libertarians to not vote libertarian, and that could help.  There's a man with some bigger picture understanding.

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Speaking of Virginia, here's Republican Cuccinelli's campaign in 60 seconds , via Politico;

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The GOP are finally prepared to step aside and let Obamacare implode under it's own Byzantine web and the weight of it's implausibility.  Good.  They can argue in 2016 (it may be too early in the process to impact 2014 midterm elections) that they fought tooth and nail to overturn the behemoth and finally could no longer fight it and now the country is reaping when it sewed.  If Obamacare turns out to be half of the disaster we expect it to be, then it will be an effective campaign for president, congressional candiates and senate candidates from the GOP.  Politically it's a good move.  Of course Obamacare is going to continue to be an albatross around the neck of the country until it is gone, but hopefully that remains only a short term issue.

 

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Apparently environmentalism causes amnesia.  It also causes alarmist hysteria, unneeded depression, false anxiety and leads to a tenuous grasp on the reality of facts.  But hey, it sells to suckers and that's all that matters if you are looking for another government grant for your scientific study.

 

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The talk of Hillary's demise on the left, is premature.  She will run, she will secure the Democratic nomination and still has a very viable shot at the presidency (sadly).  She is certainly beatable, but her favorability ratings tumble has more to do with her being out of the public eye than it has to do with voters not liking her any less.  Evidence exists in that her unfavorability numbers are basically unchanged.

 

Back again - assorted quick hits



Quick hits eye candy?



I haven't had a chance to blog in a few days and I missed it.  I'm back again today playing catch up.  Be prepared for some quick hits type thoughts and not detailed essays today.

 

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The Virginia governor election is tomorrow.  There's talk that Terry McAuliffe, the Clinton ally Democratic nominee is reportedly tanking in the waning days of the campaign and Republican nominee could steal the election from the heavily favored Democrat.  As much as I'd love to believe that, I don't buy it.  We were told by many pollsters that Mitt Romney was going become president in 2012.  He not only lost, he lost dramatically.  Until I see a win, I'm not counting it.  If the election were to be held in another 2-3 weeks, I'd be willing to believe that McAuliffe could fall far enough fast enough to secure a GOP win.  Right now, I'm more than skeptical.

 

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All politics is local.  That does not change.  Tea Party supporters who believe that we should run ultra-conservative candidates in Vermont because it's the right thing to do, miss the point that politics is a long haul game.  You can't win it in a single election.  Liberal Democrats took decades to get the country into the mess it is in today and it can be fixed all at once because people's perceptions about right and wrong took decades to change in sufficient numbers and will take a similar amount of time to change back.  But Tea Party supporters aren't alone in their desire to be right about conservatives winning elections.  Liberalesque Chris Christie believes he knows better than the GOP how to win elections.  Tactically, he may have some credibility.  The problem with his notion is that while it may work in New Jersey, that same logic may not apply in Alabama.  All politics is local is still true.  Just like 50 different states can come up with better, more specific solutions to needs than a one size fits all solution (like for healthcare) winning elections takes effort at as local a level as possible.  Obama won in 2012 by taking the approach that an individual is as local as you can get.  They used regression models to target the most likely unlikely voters.  The future of elections borrows from the past.

 

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With cratering public approval the Obama presidency has entered it's waning phase, also known as lame duck status.  Or has it?  Adding to the NSA spying scandal (clearly first among the plague of Obama scandals), the Obamacare website woes, and the shattering illusion of keeping your coverage and keeping your doctor under Obamacare have hit the president's job approval hard.  He's at 40% popularity.  Liberal satirists don't mind poking him now and again lately.  They are preparing to turn their attention to electing Hillary Clinton in 2016.  But the president understands that he's no lame duck.  The polls that counted have already happened in 2008 and 2012.  Yes his influence is waning but he's no lame duck.  He's got court justices to appoint.  He's got an agenda to try to fulfil.  He's got executive orders, and vetoes and pardons to dispense.  He's got fundraisers and speeches he can use to try to continue to shape public opinion in 2014, and 2016 and indeed beyond.  Wait until liberals have an Obama legacy to canonize - he'll be in vogue again in 2017.  And he can clearly still continue to have an impact on America until at least 2016.  Sadly for the country the impact is a very negative one, even if not all voters realize it yet.

Quick Hits inspired by Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey has opted out of promoting his new movie because of the gun violence involved. He is being consistent in his principles - having been an avid anti-gun advocate since Sandy Hook.  But the same consistency cannot be seen in his career. His star has dwindled and he is sabotaging his own career by refusing to promote the film. But that aside, he has been paid a salary - would that not including efforts at promotion for the film, as a contractual obligation?  I disagree with his stance on the second amendment, but I am not questioning his commitment to his cause.  I am questioning his commitment to his obligations.

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In the same story I was reminded about something that has bothered me for some time.  There was a quote from the Executive Producer, about films not being responsible for changing behavior in those who view it;

"Ultimately, this is his decision, but I've never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real-life any more than Harry Potter casting a spell creates more Boy Wizards in real-life."

That's a common cry from Hollywood - don't blame us for the violence or moral decay in society.  We are a mirror of society not an inspiration for it.

Okay, then explain to me why there are so many activist actors trying to influence the public with their politics.  And why is that reflected in movies and music and television show advocacy?  It's not hypocrisy, it's duplicity.

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Jim Carrey's post Sandy Hook twitter tweet was also mentioned in the article:

"20 mass shootings a yr in America. Are you ok with that? I'm not. ;^\"

Great Jim. But aren't you still a Canadian citizen as well as an American citizen? Yeah, then you might want to commit to a country before you commit to a political stance anathema to the Constitution of one of those two countries. Just saying.

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People from other countries unwilling to commit to the new nation ultimately end up being a burden and disruptive to their host nation. Carrey's a burden because he's trying to change the culture to suit his own views.  He's okay with making money from a violent movie but he doesn't want people to watch it. WTF?

Given that dichotomy what are we to make of illegal immigrants from Mexico who clearly do not identify as American, aren't willing to conform to its rules (in fact their very presence is a violation of those laws)?  What is their motivation?  Where is their national allegiance?  The answer it seems, is to naturalize these millions of people. Right now.  And what will they bring to the nation should they be legalized? With those questions still unanswered or the answers dubious at best, there should be ZERO rush to pass immigration reform that offers amnesty.

Quick hit: Supremely Disappointing Court

Just happening this morning, the Supreme Court has ruled Arizona's law that requires proof of citizenship for voting purposes illegal.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier.

The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona's voter-approved requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "Motor Voter" voter registration law.

Federal law "precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself," Justice Antonia Scalia wrote for the court's majority.

The court was considering the legality of Arizona's requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "motor voter" registration law.

Is it just me or does this seem like a 10th Amendment issue?  We'll need more details to determine the decision's logic, but if this is supposed to be a conservative court, I'm not impressed.

Quick hits: Immigration, Sequestration & the Pope

Immigration reform: There is supposed to be a covenant between the people of America and the soldiers who risk their lives to protect the freedoms. The soldiers who protect American freedoms are not tasked with protecting the freedoms of those who are not Americans. Those who are in the country contrary to the rule of law, and are likely not paying taxes, aren't living up to their end of the covenant.  Granting them citizenship status is a slap in the face of the soldiers who risk their lives to defend freedom.  They are not supposed to be defending dishonesty.

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Sequestration:  Has the government fallen apart since the sequestration cuts kicked in earlier this year? Um, no. So why did the Democrats, particularly the president go into "the sky is falling" mode before the cuts, and then afterwards saying the pain is still coming?  Because they don't want to cut spending, they want to grow government.  They will never be satisfied with any sort of government cutbacks unless the cuts are from defense spending.

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Pope Harley?  Just an image concern here.  There's nothing wrong with Harley Davidson donating motorcycles to the Vatican or Pope Francis blessing a swath of bikers, except for the image that is creates.  I'll let you decide to whose image I am referring.

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Bonus: Add this to your list of impinged freedoms. Who owns your personal information?  This isn't the same as the Verizon, AP and Prism scandals which are about metadata.  This fourth amendment issue is about your actual health records.

Quick hit observations

Some quick observations this morning.

-When the unemployment rate for July is announced later this morning, I EXPECT an increase in the unemployment rate. Don't let them continue to clobber you with the unexpectedly adjective. If every increase had been that unexpected, we should fire the economists for repeated incompetence.

-RIM has been hit in Saudi Arabia with a ban on its messaging and other applications due to 'security concerns'. People can send messages without government being able to track it. So? How about banning burkas so people can't smuggle explosives? This is either political power concentration, economic protectionism or part of a local hysteria that has swept other countries in the Middle East. Perhaps all three.

-Is all that oil in the Gulf gone? Was Tony Hayward of BP right that it is a drop in the bucket? Or is it still a disaster and just hustled off the front pages to protect President Obama? Perhaps a bit of both.