PM Abiy's Abay vision.
Source: PMO's Office
Abay is the Amharic name for the Nile.
Articles:
- The Sources of the Nile and Paradoxes of Religious Waters
- The Abbay (Nile) Quest in the Ethiopian Popular Imagination and Belief System
- Gish Abay: the source of the Blue Nile
The Ethiopian press and government are repeatedly using Abay as the preferred name for the Nile in its articles and arguments for the GERD (the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam).
Monday, July 27, 2020
Sunday, July 26, 2020
The Return of Birds
This is the logo that is now on PM Abiy's Prosperity Party's page.
5 billion trees for a green Ethiopia
#wecontinuetobuild
ourgreenlegacy
May our water sources flow---------------And our birds return
As usual, Abiy has some great graphic designers.
The blue line on which the bird is perched joins flow------our birds.
It originates from ሱ, at the end of the word እንዲፈሱ - flow, which extends into the long blue (water pipe)line for the perching bird, and to ወ, the beginning of the world for ወፍቻችን - birds.
እንዲፈሱ------ወፍቻችን
The blue from the water source flows through and allows the bird to perch on it giving it its water life-line.
Water brings back the birds.
Birds returning start the reinvigoration of nature and of man, and of country.
And a Green Legacy becomes Aiby's legacy for his country.
The GERD (the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) is not just about water. It is about the greening of Abiy's Ethiopia, the re-birth of Ethiopia, the prosperity of Ethiopia.
And Abiy named his party the Prosperity Party.
It's all tied together.
Ethiopia periodically brings forth brilliant leaders, who use both logic and intuition as they lead and rule. Abiy is one such leader.
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Borrowing from a Sheriff
Borrowing from a sheriff:
Here’s what I can tell you:The antagonism towards Ethiopia's current leader, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, which started almost as soon as he was elected as the new leader of Ethiopia a couple of years ago, has now become ruthless.
Cops are not perfect.
That’s not a news flash. But this might be: They don’t have to be perfect. They have to be excellent.
[Quote from a video presentation by David Clarke, former Milwaukee County Sheriff]
Let me rephrase Sheriff Clarke:
Leaders are not perfect.NO-ONE can deny that Abiy aims for excellence, and in many ways, in his short few years, he has already achieved many excellent things.
That’s not a news flash. But this might be: They don’t have to be perfect. They have to be excellent.
And he has a lot more excellence to perform.
Posts on PM Abiy on Reclaiming Beauty.
The Return of the Birds
This is the logo that is now on PM Abiy's Prosperity Party's page.
5 billion trees for a green Ethiopia
#wecontinuetobuild
ourgreenlegacy
May our water sources flow---------------And our birds return
As usual, Abiy has some great graphic designers.
The blue line on which the bird is perched joins flow------our birds.
It originates from ሱ, at the end of the word እንዲፈሱ - flow, which extends into the long blue (water pipe)line for the perching bird, and to ወ, the beginning of the world for ወፍቻችን - birds.
እንዲፈሱ------ወፍቻችን
The blue from the water source flows through and allows the bird to perch on it giving it its water life-line.
Water brings back the birds.
Birds returning start the reinvigoration of nature and of man, and of country.
And a Green Legacy becomes Aiby's legacy for his country.
The GERD (the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) is not just about water. It is about the greening of Abiy's Ethiopia, the re-birth of Ethiopia, the prosperity of Ethiopia.
And Abiy named his party the Prosperity Party.
It's all tied together.
Ethiopia periodically brings forth brilliant leaders, who use both logic and intuition as they lead and rule. Abiy is one such leader.
"Most Officers Reach Excellence Every Single Day"
Below is the transcript of a five minute video that David Clarke, former Milwaukee County Sheriff, recorded after his "interview" with CNN's Don Lemon.
The transcript to Clarke's post-CNN video is here (also in full below the dotted line), and the video here.
Below is Clarke's CNN interview with Lemon:
Watch the now matter-of-fact bully tactics reporters use to intimidate, and silence-through-interruptions, their interviewees.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Former Sheriff David Clarke:
[Transcript]
For over 39 years, I was a police officer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For 15 of those years, I was the Sheriff of Milwaukee County. I’ve done everything you can do as cop—from walking the beat, to investigating murder, to running the agency. I’ve met a lot of cops—of every race, ethnicity and background.
Here’s what I can tell you:
Cops are not perfect.
That’s not a news flash. But this might be: They don’t have to be perfect. They have to be excellent.
And most officers reach excellence every single day, and often under very difficult circumstances—circumstances you can’t imagine, and wouldn’t want to if you could.
Perfection is an unattainable goal. Cops are ordinary human beings. Like everyone else—lawyers, surgeons and baseball players—they make mistakes. But no profession works harder to correct its mistakes. You can mark social progress by the improvements made by police departments over the last 50 years. Today, police are more professional, better educated, and better trained than at any time in their history.
You wouldn’t know it, though, if you listened to self-serving, self-righteous politicians and activists. In their version of history, the police are the villains of the story, not its heroes. Like everything else this crowd does, they’ve got it all backwards.
The police aren’t the problem. The politicians and activists are.
The police didn’t create the failed urban policies that have locked people into generational poverty.
The police aren’t responsible for fatherless homes, failing schools, and bad lifestyle choices.
And they sure as hell aren’t responsible for the lack of respect shown to police officers. It is this lack of respect for authority, fostered over decades by the progressive left and its fear-the-police narrative, that has led to the needless deaths of so many young black men.
When Officer Darren Wilson told Michael Brown to get out of the middle of the street in Ferguson, Missouri, did Brown comply? No. When officers in Baltimore told Freddie Gray to stop resisting arrest, did he comply? No. When officers in New York City told Eric Garner to stop resisting arrest, did he comply? No.
Here’s a useful tip—if you want avoid a bad outcome with a police officer, follow this simple rule:
When a cop gives you a lawful command, obey it—even if you disagree. Whatever problem you are experiencing is not going to be settled on the street. People with complaints need to use the process established for that purpose. Though cops don’t have the final say, they do in that moment. How you react can be a matter of life or death.
But the idea that a law-abiding citizen has to fear the police is a terrible and destructive lie. Let’s get some perspective.
In 2014, 990 people were killed in police use-of-force incidents. Does that sound like a lot? Did you know that, according to a Johns Hopkins study, that same year, medical errors killed 250,000 people? Yet activists aren’t marching in the streets, demanding that the medical profession be reformed. Why not?
Why is it that the people who protect you from the bad guys—and I’ve seen these bad guys close up—are the subject of distrust and anger?
Why is it that groups like Black Lives Matter—I call them Black Lies Matter because it’s based on the falsehood that police represent a danger to black people—are celebrated by the media and politicians?
All this is taking its toll on cops and, even more tragically, on the law-abiding citizens in the neighborhoods that most need a strong police presence. The murder rates in these neighborhoods are going up because lawful, aggressive policing is going down.
Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has explained why. She calls it “The Ferguson Effect.” And it’s real. It’s also common sense. Why, police officers reason, put your career at risk, if 30 seconds of smartphone video taken out of context can destroy it?
Here’s the truth: Police aren’t afraid of walking the streets or being shot by random criminals. They’re afraid of being involved in an incident that would label them forever as trigger-happy racists.
Are there bad cops? I know first-hand that there are—I’ve had to fire them.
But the overwhelming majority are good, decent men and women, concerned about the law-abiding citizens in the communities they serve and are willing to put their lives on the line to protect them.
Those who try to convince you, either out of ignorance or out of some ideological agenda, that the police are the enemy—those are the people you should fear.
Run from them.
Not the cops.
I’m Sheriff David Clarke for Prager University.
The transcript to Clarke's post-CNN video is here (also in full below the dotted line), and the video here.
Below is Clarke's CNN interview with Lemon:
Watch the now matter-of-fact bully tactics reporters use to intimidate, and silence-through-interruptions, their interviewees.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Former Sheriff David Clarke:
"Cops are not perfect.
That’s not a news flash. But this might be: They don’t have to be perfect. They have to be excellent."
[Transcript]
For over 39 years, I was a police officer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For 15 of those years, I was the Sheriff of Milwaukee County. I’ve done everything you can do as cop—from walking the beat, to investigating murder, to running the agency. I’ve met a lot of cops—of every race, ethnicity and background.
Here’s what I can tell you:
Cops are not perfect.
That’s not a news flash. But this might be: They don’t have to be perfect. They have to be excellent.
And most officers reach excellence every single day, and often under very difficult circumstances—circumstances you can’t imagine, and wouldn’t want to if you could.
Perfection is an unattainable goal. Cops are ordinary human beings. Like everyone else—lawyers, surgeons and baseball players—they make mistakes. But no profession works harder to correct its mistakes. You can mark social progress by the improvements made by police departments over the last 50 years. Today, police are more professional, better educated, and better trained than at any time in their history.
You wouldn’t know it, though, if you listened to self-serving, self-righteous politicians and activists. In their version of history, the police are the villains of the story, not its heroes. Like everything else this crowd does, they’ve got it all backwards.
The police aren’t the problem. The politicians and activists are.
The police didn’t create the failed urban policies that have locked people into generational poverty.
The police aren’t responsible for fatherless homes, failing schools, and bad lifestyle choices.
And they sure as hell aren’t responsible for the lack of respect shown to police officers. It is this lack of respect for authority, fostered over decades by the progressive left and its fear-the-police narrative, that has led to the needless deaths of so many young black men.
When Officer Darren Wilson told Michael Brown to get out of the middle of the street in Ferguson, Missouri, did Brown comply? No. When officers in Baltimore told Freddie Gray to stop resisting arrest, did he comply? No. When officers in New York City told Eric Garner to stop resisting arrest, did he comply? No.
Here’s a useful tip—if you want avoid a bad outcome with a police officer, follow this simple rule:
When a cop gives you a lawful command, obey it—even if you disagree. Whatever problem you are experiencing is not going to be settled on the street. People with complaints need to use the process established for that purpose. Though cops don’t have the final say, they do in that moment. How you react can be a matter of life or death.
But the idea that a law-abiding citizen has to fear the police is a terrible and destructive lie. Let’s get some perspective.
In 2014, 990 people were killed in police use-of-force incidents. Does that sound like a lot? Did you know that, according to a Johns Hopkins study, that same year, medical errors killed 250,000 people? Yet activists aren’t marching in the streets, demanding that the medical profession be reformed. Why not?
Why is it that the people who protect you from the bad guys—and I’ve seen these bad guys close up—are the subject of distrust and anger?
Why is it that groups like Black Lives Matter—I call them Black Lies Matter because it’s based on the falsehood that police represent a danger to black people—are celebrated by the media and politicians?
All this is taking its toll on cops and, even more tragically, on the law-abiding citizens in the neighborhoods that most need a strong police presence. The murder rates in these neighborhoods are going up because lawful, aggressive policing is going down.
Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has explained why. She calls it “The Ferguson Effect.” And it’s real. It’s also common sense. Why, police officers reason, put your career at risk, if 30 seconds of smartphone video taken out of context can destroy it?
Here’s the truth: Police aren’t afraid of walking the streets or being shot by random criminals. They’re afraid of being involved in an incident that would label them forever as trigger-happy racists.
Are there bad cops? I know first-hand that there are—I’ve had to fire them.
But the overwhelming majority are good, decent men and women, concerned about the law-abiding citizens in the communities they serve and are willing to put their lives on the line to protect them.
Those who try to convince you, either out of ignorance or out of some ideological agenda, that the police are the enemy—those are the people you should fear.
Run from them.
Not the cops.
I’m Sheriff David Clarke for Prager University.
Friday, July 24, 2020
Via The Thinking Housewife:
The Emaskulated Male
A FRIGHTENED MAN is much more dispiriting than a frightened woman.
Peggy Hall talks about men in masks.
— Comments —
Loyal writes:
Another fabulous video from Peggy Hall! I, too, just returned from a shopping trip, and although the mask requirements (OOPS, “recommendations”, “guidelines,” I can’t remember!) are getting stricter and more codified, I have successfully been in several stores today with signs on the windows, and no one has said one word to me about my lack of a mask. At the grocery store, a woman was in front of me with her pre-teen and teen daughters waiting 6 feet apart in 90 degrees to go inside a nearly empty store. I had my sunglasses on, but I looked ahead and saw the younger daughter say something to her mom and point back at me. The mom, who had masks for all, but not wearing them yet, turned and looked at me with a smile (or a smirk, I wasn’t sure). I couldn’t tell if she saw me looking directly back at her, but I remember thinking, “Please don’t say anything to me, unless you want to be embarrassed in front of your kids!”
I should note that before I venture into these stores, I pray for God’s help and protection. Also, where possible, and because I don’t want a spirit of rebellion to grow in my heart, I have tried to take what I call the “Daniel approach”, based on the Biblical account in Daniel chapter 1, where Daniel and his friends asked the king politely to have food that was different from (healthier than) the king’s rich foods. They asked and it was granted to them. It is my practice to call in advance, whether it is for my dentist, car repairs, or as I have mentioned, buying a car and selling a house, and explain that I don’t wear a mask. If I receive resistance, I take my business elsewhere. If the person is accommodating, I emphasize that I will continue to give them my business and refer others to them. Therefore, it is possible, as Peggy states, to develop a community of individuals who want to “live their best lives” and not allow the government to continue to infringe on our rights to assemble, worship, and conduct commerce as free citizens, not subjects under tyranny.
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Who's That Masked Man?
Article at the Ron Paul Institute: Who's That Masked Man
Reprinted with permission from David Stockman's Contra Corner
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 22, 2020
Who's That Masked Man
By David Stockman
It should be evident by now that the Donald’s one and only north star is his own glorification and self-aggrandizement. That’s why he’s totally flat-footed at this crucial moment in the pandemic saga.
What he needs to be doing is taking off the gloves for a bare-knuckled counter-attack against the Virus Patrol, which is ruining America’s economic and fiscal future.
Instead, yesterday he put on the Mask and the tweeted a juvenile boast that he’s the most patriotic muzzle-wearer in the land. Apparently, there is no place the Donald won’t go to reverse his sagging poll results:
We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!But no, Donald, you ain’t no favorite among lovers of liberty, capitalist prosperity, free market opportunity and the constitutional fettering of state power.
After all, you said you came to Washington to drain the Swamp, yet there is no more odious set of Swamp Creatures than the camarilla of NIH/CDC/FDA doctors and apparatchiks, along with their Big Pharma and Gates Vaccine lobby allies, who bamboozled you into the folly of Lockdown Nation last March.
But now—when its way past time to reverse course and repudiate your malpracticing doctors— you actually genuflect to their Mask Totem, when you should be declaring loudly and unequivocally the opposite: Namely, that the the coronavirus has meet it match in the immune systems of the overwhelming share of Americans, and that it’s beating a fast retreat into the archives of still another infectious winter virus that passed through the population and moved on.
On the one hand, the Grim Reaper of Covid has long since vacated the epicenter of its brief rampage in New York, where the foolish actions of Gauleiter Cuomo caused a surge in nursing home infections, sickness and death, which accounts almost entirely for the four week surge in the state’s WITH-Covid death count during April.
By contrast, during the current month thru July 20, New York has tested like crazy, but has come up with no cigar with respect to new Covid cases. Compared to a total of 1,250,000 tests during that 20-day period, only 13,872 have tested positive, and many of those are surely the same people taking and re-taking their PCP swab in order to gain license to go back to work.
In any event, the gross positive rate is just 1.1 percent and would probably well less than that if the data were de-duped.
Likewise, there have been an average of just 10 WITH-Covid deaths reported during the first three weeks of July, which self-evidently is a tiny fraction of 500-800 deaths per day—heavily in the nursing homes—reported during April. Moreover, there is no real mystery as to why the curve is (thankfully) plunging to the lower right of the chart and heading right off the page. This virus like other virulent influenza’s strikes the weakest and most vulnerable population first, and thereafter tends to meet its match as the immune systems of the healthier parts of the population join the battle.
What that natural progression of the contagion means, of course, is that Governor Cuomo’s economically destructive lockdown orders had virtually nothing to do with the coronavirus’ welcome retreat.
That’s evident by comparison with Sweden, which had virtually no lockdowns at all. As of yesterday, however, the WITH-Covid death rate was 130 per 100,000 persons for New York state overall, and 235, 223 and 200 per 100,000, respectively, in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.
By contrast, the mortality rate in Sweden has been about 55 per 100,000, and the preponderant share of those have been people over 70 years, heavily institutionalized in care facilities. In any event, the chart below says it all. Governor Cuomo’s boot heels did not “flatten the curve” relative to the open social and economic regime in Sweden, and also resulted in a 2.5X higher mortality rate on a cumulative basis.
By the same token, there is no “second wave” crisis in the so-called hot spot areas of the Sunbelt, either. Like in the case of New York, the virus is simply moving through the population in a time frame that is a month or two lagged relative to the original contagion’s spread in the Northeast; and, again, it is meeting its match in the immune systems of the healthier parts of the population.
The proof for that is straight-forward and is measured by the hospitalization rate per new case. The latter has plunged from 15-20 percent in the early days of the contagion in these new so-called hot spot states, but is now in the low single digits. The data for new cases, hospitalizations and the hospitalization ratio for the first 20 days of July includes the following:
· Florida: 207,960 new cases, 6,726 additional hospitalizations=3.2 percent;
· Arizona: 65,968 new cases, 1,962 additional hospitalizations=3.0 percent;
· Tennessee: 36,245 new cases, 1,047 additional hospitalizations=2.9 percent;
· Georgia: 64,284 new cases, 3,996 additional hospitalizations=6.2 percent;
· Arkansas: 13,150 new cases, 883 additional hospitalizations=6.0 percent;
· South Carolina: 35,046 new cases, 1,328 additional hospitalizations=3.8 percent;
· Mississippi: 21,642 new cases, 610 additional hospitalizations=2.8 percent
In a word, hospitalization rates of 3-6 percent are not indicative of a public health crisis or a dread disease laying waste to the population. In fact, they are only slightly above the hospitalization rates for normal winter influenza.
The chart below is the CDC’s assessment for the 2010-2018 seasons, and shows that the hospitalization rate per infected case has averaged 1.5 percent-2.0 percent over that eight year period; and that’s against a generous guesstimate of total influenza illnesses, not lab confirmed cases as with the current Covid stats.
Still, the point hardly needs saying. We do not close the bars, restaurants, gyms, hair salons, movies, malls etc. every winter owing to the flu. Yet that’s exactly what the Donald’ camarilla of malpracticing doctors are now urging for the states listed above in the face of a virus that is only slightly more severe than normal.
Stated differently, even now 94-97 percent of the ballyhooed “new cases” in the so-called Red Zone states are either asymptomatic or result in mild illness and recovery at home. The fact that what the Donald mistakenly thought was the Greatest Economy Ever is now swamped in unemployment, business failures, payment delinquencies and a fearful, muzzle-ridden public is ultimately the doing of the Masked Man above.
Harry Truman was right. The buck stops in the Oval Office.
At the end of the day, it was the Donald who empowered Dr. Fauci, who, in turn, paved the way for the governors, public health departments, mayors and lesser officials to attack the livelihoods and well-being of their own constituents in their tens of millions.
To add insult to injury, however, you can leave it to Dr. Fauci. The man had the gall to offer New York state as a shinning example to the rest of the nation when, in fact, it’s governor is damn near criminally negligent on the state’s nursing home death tsunami alone.
The fact is, New York’s mortality rate per 100,000 is well more than 2X greater than the European basket cases of Italy, Spain and the UK, and is actually more than 4.5X higher than Florida’s and 9.5X higher than that of Texas.
In the face of such abysmal judgement, the Donald’s trademark “you’re fired” would be the least that might be expected. But what we got was not just the ostentatious tweet of POTUS in a muzzle, but a renewed signal for the power-grabbing, Trump-hating local Dem officialdom to intensify their attacks on the main street economy.
The Dem rulers of Broward County, Florida, for example, have just now issued an order requiring homeowners to enforce the mask rule against visitors in their own homes-–upon penalty of fine or jail and subject to county inspector surveillance.
Likewise, County mayor Dale Holness’ announced a curfew and criminal penalties for having more than 10 people in your own home, or being part of a gathering of more than 10 people inside a PRIVATE RESIDENCE.
Of course, Broward County is just a microcosm of the economy-crushing mayhem that has been unleashed by the Donald’s own presumptive subordinates. This is no longer just a few aggressive governors like those of New York, New Jersey and Michigan in the early days of the pandemic: What you have now is a veritable army of petty officialdom, enforcers and self-appointed snitches literally tearing apart the fabric of economic and social life in much of America.
Of course, the Donald is clueless about this because the retainers and sycophants who surround him insure he doesn’t grasp the enormity of the economic collapse that has been triggered, and which shows no sign of some kind of miraculous “V”-shaped rebound.
Nor does he realize that the pre-Covid economy was a fragile tinder-box of debt, speculation and malinvestment that was stumbling forward on cyclical fumes and the residual growth momentum of capitalism—even in the face of the giant obstacles to sustainable prosperity stood up by the state and especially its central banking branch.
So any old Black Swan could have triggered the deep recession now underway. But owing to the sudden, concentrated blunderbuss attacks of Lockdown Nation, this one will prove to be the blackist avian visitor of all.
For instance, nothing like this chart has ever been seen before in the annals of modern history. Compared to a peak of 6.6 million UI beneficiaries at the bottom of the Great Recession (May 2009), there are now upwards of 32 million workers drawing state and Federal UI benefits. That’s more than 20 percent of the 158 million employed workers as of February.
Ordinarily, the jolt to income and spending from a 32 million person army of the unemployed would have sent the US economy reeling months ago because in the hand-to-mouth world that the Donald inherited, 80 percent of the households have no meaningful financial cushion or rainy day funds.
Of course, that unemployment based income and spending plunge is now being temporarily cushioned by the unprecedented eruption of free stuff from Uncle Sam that was packed into the Everything Bailouts three months ago. That includes upwards of $500 billion of wage support via the PPP program at the SBA, the $1,200 helicopter checks which went out to 160 million citizens and especially the $600 per week Federal “top-up” on UI benefits.
The impact of the latter in disguising the economic pain implicit in the UI chart above cannot be over-emphasized. On a nationwide average basis, the regular state UI program pays about $500 per week or an annualized rate of $26,000 to covered workers.
In the middle of the night during the frenzied legislative sessions of late March, however, Congress upped the ante to $1,100 per week, which annualizes to $57,200.
Them there is different kettles of fish entirely!
But the Federal top-up also costs $75 billion per month and has put nearly two-thirds of unemployed recipients in a higher income bracket than when they were on the job drawing a paycheck; and, also, by the way, producing output of goods and services which are the real building blocks of the macro-economy.
It now comes to pass that at least some of the sleep-walking GOP senators have figured out that you can’t shell out a $75 billion per month dole for unemployment and expect the engines of economic life to restart or the tattered remains of Washington’s fiscal accounts to ever be repaired.
So there is a rather considerable chance that the battle over the impending Everything Bailout 4.0 will be prolonged, and that the giant air-cushion of transfer payments which has disguised the Lockdown Nation disaster will be abruptly deflated in August.
The chart below, in fact, shows how the phantasmagoria of free stuff from Washington since March has tuned upside down the traditional notion of a recession, and especially one where one-fifth of the labor force is unemployed. The chart shows total monthly household personal income—including dividends, interest and proprietors profits which mostly goes to the top 10 percent—-since January.
Incredibly, during April when the bottom literally dropped out of industries ranging from air travel to neighborhood restaurants and bars, total household income was actually 5 percent higher than it was during January—a time when both Wall Street and the Donald claimed the US economy was booming like never before.
Since then, household income has managed to stay right at the pre-Covid January level, notwithstanding a loss of wage and salary disbursements that is still running at a negative $850 billion annual rate.
What portends for August and many months to come, therefore, is the delayed income and spending contraction of a battered economy which has already experienced a double-digit plunge in the actual production of goods and services.
Needless to say, that’s going to shock both Wall Street and the Masked Man alike.
And it will be enough of a blow to voter confidence—even in the Trumpite precincts of Flyover America—so as to insure that the best outcome possible on November 3 will be the Mother-of-All-Hanging Chad battles at the Electoral College and Supreme Court, while the likely outcome is a return of the vengeful coalition of Clintonista poltroons and Progressive-Left ideologues to the seats of power on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
In either contingency, today’s lagging indicators of the underlying economic distress generated by Lockdown nation will be aggravated enormously. These charts on failing rent collections and small business closures are, in fact, just the tip of the iceberg—and will continue to worsen even if some gussied-up Everything Bailout 4.0 is cobbled together on Capitol Hill before the real election season blood-lettings get underway.
Indeed, on any number of high-frequency variables, the data has already plateaued and that’s before the August plunge and the most vicious election battle in modern history have taken their toll.
And now with the new lockdown orders and a renewed MSM campaign of Covid-Hysteria in the Sunbelt, there is indeed a “second wave” coming—that is, more hemorrhaging of jobs, incomes, defaults and business failures across the length and breath of main street America.
As we said, anyone who actually believed the Donald had any semblance of a plan for MAGA should now be asking “Who’s that Masked Man”?
We’re not.
The Perfect COVID-Mask
Courtesy of the Mayor of Mississauga.
Reminder: Face coverings are now mandatory on all transit systems that move through #Mississauga. That includes GO Transit, Up Express, MiWay, TTC and Brampton ZUM. When you leave the house, don't forget your keys, wallet and mask. My mask protects you and your mask protects me. https://t.co/sdgLjVysqp
— Bonnie Crombie 🇨🇦 (@BonnieCrombie) July 21, 2020
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
"What a Sleazeball": My Original Take on Trump
Via The Thinking Housewife:-----------------------------------------------------
What a sleazeball.
Trump, Melania, Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell in 2000
TRUMP sent good wishes yesterday to Ghislaine Maxwell, awaiting trial in New York for sex crimes against minors:
Donald Trump has sent a message of support to Ghislaine Maxwell as pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s accused madam awaits her trial for sex trafficking minors.
The president admitted meeting Maxwell ‘numerous times’ over the years and wished her well in his Tuesday White House press conference – his first since vowing to return to coronavirus news briefings as cases soar across the US.
Trump’s connections to Epstein and Maxwell have long come under scrutiny as they mixed in the same wealthy circles for decades, with Trump once describing the convicted pedophile as a ‘terrific guy’.
I never liked, or followed Trump. I wrote about him in a June 2016 post:
Trump is a media guy. He knows how to handle those "fake newsers."
I blogged on my original thoughts of Trump several years ago, where I focused on his pornographic life, and wife Melania, who posed nude for various magazines, arguing that America doesn't want such a man for president.
What a sleazeball!
Trump and His Darth Vaders
US President Donald Trump wears a mask as he visits Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on July 11, 2020 [Image Source]
President Trump appears to be backtracking from his statements during his recent Fox News interview with Chris Wallace this past Sunday, July 21, but I don't think so.
I wrote about the interview here: Trump is Getting Back on Track.
Trump vacillates often, and I think he is reined in by forces we don't understand, primarily originating from his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
But Trump has sharp instincts, and his vacillations are a way of gauging the political atmosphere, as he showed during the Chris Wallace interview. He cannot afford to alienate important segments of the American population, and cannot go back to the days when he called various politicians "liars." Remember the "Lyin' Ted" days?
And his statement after his mask-wearing visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center shows that:
“When you’re in a hospital, especially ... I think it’s expected to wear a mask.”[Source]Expected, is what he said, rather than "mandatory." And he never said "everywhere."
During his July 21 interview, Wallace asked him about mandating mask-wearing:
Wallace: Question, the CDC says if everybody wore a mask for 4-6 weeks, we could get this under control. Do you regret not wearing a mask in public from the start, and would you consider – will you consider a national mandate that people need to wear masks?"No, I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don't believe in [a national mandate], no."
Trump: No I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don’t believe in that. No, and I don’t agree with the statement that if everybody wear a mask everything disappears. Hey, Dr. Fauci said don’t wear a mask. Our Surgeon General – terrific guy – said don’t wear a mask.
Everybody who is saying don’t wear a mask – all of sudden everybody’s got to wear a mask, and as you know masks cause problems, too. With that being said, I’m a believer in masks. I think masks are good.
But I leave it up to the governors. Many of the governors are changing. They’re more mask into – they like the concept of masks, but some of them don’t agree.[Source]
And if ever he was to go public wearing a mask it would be surrounded by tough military men in full regalia, as during his recent visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. They came out looking like a Darth Vader troop. And their masks have the White House insignia on them!
And Trump ditched his mask as soon as he left the hospital:
Trump was wearing a mask in Walter Reed’s hallway as he began his visit. He was not wearing one when he stepped off the helicopter at the facility, and also during his press brief after his visit. [Source]At that press brief, he answered a heckling reporter, who was fully masked and socially distancing asking him why he removed his mask later after the press briefing:
Masked and Heckling Female Reporter in Lilac [Note KPA: I searched for this woman's name and her news media affiliation, but nothing]
Trump replies, in his signature manner, which people mock frequently, but which shows his particular way of covering his perspective:
If you can, use the mask. When you can, use the mask. If you're close to each other, if you're in a group, I would put it on, when I'm in a group. If I'm in a elevator and there are other people with me, including, like, security people, it's not their fault, they have to be in the elevator. I want to protect them also. I put on a mask.Good. Why should Trump get into arguments with hostile media? He is right, when close to people, just wear the mask. It actually makes people around him feel better. They have been fed the fake news media harassment on the COVID-Scam, and may turn belligerent, or just simply get nervous and agitated, if you walk in with your unbridled face.
I have no problem with the masks. I view it this way: anything that potentially...In theory you don't need the mask. I'm getting used to the mask.
And the reason is, think about patriotism. Maybe it is. It helps. It helps. Now we've had experts that said in the recent past that masks aren't necessarily good to wear...But now they've changed their mind. If they change their mind, that's good enough for me, so I wear it when appropriate.
Let's wait and see what Trump does. I think he will be clever and alert, and return to his mission of "Make America Great Again." Hopefully, it will be soon. And hopefully, he will get rid of his son-in-law, and those strings that pull at American politics.
Trump knows ALL about the mafia, and their tactics and strategies.
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Trump is Getting Back on Track
Here is the full transcript for: Fox News Sunday interview with President Trump, if the video is no longer available.
Below, I have posted what I think are the important points.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
President Trump refused to be bullied by fake-new Fox reporter Chris Wallace, who questioned him on the new book out about his family, by his niece, who went on a mission to destroy Trump, and especially Trump's father.
Here is the telling part during the interview, around 31 minutes:
My father liked to win. My father was a very good man, he was a strong man. It's disgraceful that she said that. She was not exactly a family favorite...She writes a book that so stupid and so vicious. And it's a lie.And Trump and his take on Fox News:
My father was a great wonderful man.
It hurts me more about attacking my father [than attacking me], not being kind to my mother. I have a mother who was like a saint. She was incredible. She was an incredible woman. And she [...] was nasty even to my mother.
[...]
She [the author] was not much of a family person.
[...]
My father was...I think he was the most solid person I have ever met. And he was a very good person. He was a very very. good person. He was strong, but he was good. For her to say that kind of things. A psychopath? That he was a psychopath? Anybody who knew Fred Trump would call him a psychopath?! And you know what? If he was, I would tell you.
[...]
My father, he was tough. He was tough for me. He was tough on all of the kids. But tough in a solid sense. In a really good sense.
[...]
That book is a LIE!
I'm not a big fan of Fox, I'll be honest with you. They've changed a lot since Roger Ailes.[KPA Note: Which Chris Wallace of course denies, with "footage" to prove, which he shows]
[...]
Look, I know you very well. I know your father very well [referring to Mike Wallace]. He was one of the most talented journalists there are. And you likewise are a very talented person.
I do think this. I think you are a very, uh. I think you are toward the Democrat side. Which is ok...
It just seems to me that you are very prone to be with the Democrats, and maybe I'm wrong about that Chris. But it's an honor to be with you.[KPA Note: Regarding the elections]
Trump: I don't think I'm going to lose at all.[KPA Note: Wallace persists with the "lose" question. And Trump doesn't take the bait]
Wallace: But if you did, how crushing would it be?
Trump: First of all, let me tell you something. I know everyone wants to know that because they'd LOVE to see me lose...Do you know how many times I've been written off?...
And you know why I won't lose? Because the country in the end, they're not going to have a man whose shot. He's shot.[KPA Note: Trump points to his head indicating that Biden is not right in the head]
Trump: He's mentally shot.[KPA Note: The devious Wallace asks this as his "final" questions]:
Let him come out of his basement and go around. I'll make four five speeches a day. I'll be interviewed by you. I'll be interviewed by the worst killers that hate my guts. They hate my guts. There's nothing they can ask me I that won't give a proper answer to. Some people will like it, some people won't like it.
Wallace: I agree with that.
Trump: But look. Let Biden sit through an interview like this. He'll be on the ground crying for Mommy. He'll say "Mommy, Mommy! Please take me home!"
Wallace: We've asked him for an interview, sir.
Trump: He can't do an interview. He's incompetent.
There's a number you haven't mentioned. It's the "enthusiasm number." The enthusiasm for Trump is through the roof. Even higher than last time. The enthusiasm for Biden in non-existent. Everyone knows he's shot.
Wallace: But the enthusiasm AGAINST YOU is high.
Trump: Well, that's OK. That's his only shot.
Wallace: Right.
Trump: That's his only shot. I agree. And those people know I'm doing a good job. But there's something in my personality that they don't like.
Because look. Nobody's done what I've done!
Biden wants to come in and ruin our country.
[...]
He will destroy this country.
But. It won't be him. It will be the radical left. The same type of ideology that took over Venezuela, one of the richest countries in the world. They now have no water. They've not food. And they have no medicine.
That's gonna happen here if he wins.
Wallace: Are you a good loser?
Trump: I'm not a good loser. I don't like to lose. I don't lose too often. I don't like to lose.
Wallace: But are you gracious?
Trump: You don't know until you see. It depends.
I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. I really do.
[...]
Wallace: Whether it's in 2021 or 2025, how will you regard your years as President of the United States?
Trump: I think I was very unfairly treated. From before I even won, I was under investigation by a bunch of thieves, crooks. It was an illegal investigation.
Wallace: But what about the good parts, sir?
Trump: No, no. I want to say this. I have done more than any President in US history in the first three and a half years, and I have done it suffering through an investigations
[...]
The Russia Hoax, it was all a hoax. The Muller Scam, it was all a scam. It was all false.
I made a bad decision. One bad decision: Jeff Sessions. Now I feel good because he lost overwhelmingly in the great state of Alabama.
Here's the bottom line. I've been very unfairly treated. And I don't say that as paranoid. Everybody says it. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. But there was tremendous evidence right now as to how unfairly treated I was.
[...]
Let’s see what happens. Despite that, I did more than any president in history in the first three and a half years.
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