Notable Quote – US Rep. Joe Barton

Reporters asked why, after Republicans held dozens of nearly-unanimous votes to repeal ObamaCare under President Obama, they were getting cold feet now that they control the levers of power. “Sometimes you’re playing Fantasy Football and sometimes you’re in the real game,” he admitted. “We knew the President [Obama – Skip], if we could get a … Read more

Earth Hour – the Holy of Holies for GAIA worshippers

Tonite (8:30pm-9:30pm)  is when we are all supposed to not use any energy at all – turn off all your lights at your household! Tonite is when those that worship GAIA and believe that no one anywhere should be using any kind of fossil fuel to enjoy a modern standard of living want us to … Read more

“Critical Thinking”? More like “Simplistic Whining”?

This from the last of a post (“Why College Graduates Can’t Think”) sums up a lot:

More to the point, that explains why employers keep complaining that college graduates can’t think. They’re not being taught to think. They’re being taught, in too many of their courses, to “oppose existing systems”—without regard for any objective appraisal of those systems’ efficacy—and to demonstrate their opposition by emoting.

“Feelings, nothing more than Feelings” is that old song that became a parody of itself.  Now, a guide book? You’ve heard us all here at the ‘Grok make fun of all of the Precious Snowflakes on college campuses everything that just say the darndest things (and for you “of age” that recognize that line, it is not meant as a nicety).  But this is part of the Left’s rampage through the cultural ramparts of our society (aa, Cultural Marxism).  We all know that the educational quotient of a lot of our “students” is falling.

I can’t believe that it can’t just be the innate quality of the students – in a lot of cases, it is the quality of the teachers.  However, this post makes it clear it’s been done deliberately under the guise of “intellectualality” (to coin a word – hey, who are you to argue with my reality, huh???).  Reformatted, emphasis mine, but this is one of those posts that just abstracting out snippets looses the gestalt of what Rob Jenkins wrote:

In 2010, the Noel-Levitz Employer Satisfaction Survey of over 900 employers identified “critical thinking [as] the academic skill with the second largest negative gap between performance satisfaction and expectation.” Four years later, a follow-up study conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found little progress, concluding that “employers…give students very low grades on nearly all of the 17 learning outcomes explored in the study”—including critical thinking—and that students “judge themselves to be far better prepared for post-college success than do employers.”

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Quick Thought – Boy, have the Republicans screwed up “Repeal and Replace” – Part 2, The Debacle

No vote today and not vote tonite on RyanCare, thus a few of the headlines du jour.  All because of having a bad assumption (or assumptions) as to what was minimally possible to pass and NOT DOING YOUR HOMEWORK!!!:

Chaos Inside GOP House Conference Forces Speaker Ryan to Cancel Thursday’s RyanCare Vote

…The HFC members accept that the RyanCare bill is not the repeal-and-replace of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that created Obamacare, but they insist that the speaker’s Obamacare rescue bill eliminate the Essential Health Benefits provision that requires a minimum of services in insurance policies, and they want to eliminate the Individual Mandate that RyanCare preserves as a program managed by the insurance companies, not the IRS.

If you aren’t going to rip out the guts of Obamacare, you aren’t repealing Obamacare.  Otherwise Ryan is running a scam on both his Members and we who put the Rs in charge.

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Puerto Rico: Willing to openly EXTORT other States to save itself?

“Hey, Pedro, nice to see that Puerto Rico is now willing to extort Florida (et al) because you folks haven’t been able to put a sane budget together for YEARS!”

My immediate thought was “Nice business ya got there – shame if something were to happen to it”.  The above was part of an email that I sent back to Pedro Cerame (Communications Director, Federal Affairs Administration, Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico, pcerame@prfaa.pr.gov,  (202) 394-1750).  You see, he sent out an email blast that the Puerto Rico Governor, Ricardo Rossello, signed.  In effect, the message was (my words) “help me persuade the Feds to forestall a cut in Medicaid or 10s of thousands of Puerto Ricans will move to Florida, wrecking your State budget”. And this guy, Pedro, thought that this was a great idea?  Here’s the letter (emphasis mine):

PR Fed Affairs Logo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Puerto Rico Governor Rosselló Requests Gov. Scott’s Assistance in Solving Puerto Rico Healthcare Crisis

(March 20th, 2017 – San Juan, Puerto Rico) The Governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Ricardo A. Rosselló Nevares, has alerted Governor Rick Scott of Florida in a letter, calling his attention to the “rapidly approaching drop in federal healthcare funding for Puerto Rico, known as Medicaid cliff,” which will likely result in a substantial economic impact to the Florida budget. The full text of the letter is attached.

The ¨Medicaid cliff¨ is a scenario caused by funding shortfalls built in to the unique and inequitable healthcare funding mechanisms for Puerto Rico. If realized, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans, all natural born citizens of the United States, will likely continue to relocate to Florida to qualify for Medicaid, costing Florida taxpayers $2.5 billion over the coming decade.

In the letter, the Governor states,

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RyanCare: Pi$$ Poor Planning Produces Pi$$ Poor Performance – the Debacle, Part 3

This post title DOES says it all for me (sarcasm at all the other faux outrage):

How DARE House Freedom Caucus hold GOP accountable to its promises!?

End Result?  Republicans wasted seven years in uttering hot air instead of doing the actual work – this bill failed their rhetoric. This bill also failed the Trust factor – not enough Republican Trusted their own Party to do the right thing after this bill (I don’t Trust them either – past performance has proved it).  Previous versions of this (2010, 2015) would have worked FAR better but guess what – they knew that Obama would veto it.  They knew he’d cover their butts – pure political theater.  Now when it REALLY counted, they put their seats first and their campaign promise to repeal Obamacare WAAYYYY back in their rear view mirrors. The Democrats were willing (and did) to bet their seats – the Republicans were too scared to do it.

Betcha this will boomerang on them BIGLY come 2018 unless they actually take the time to craft a bill that rips the guts and heart out of Obamacare instead of just taking out taxes.

  • Did they take out the “Essential Mandates”? No – they tried to outsource it off to the States and let them take the blame for doing the definitions.

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Another good piece of news – another Trump campaign promise kept: Keystone pipeline

Environmentalists are going bonkers.  For the rest of us, lower energy costs will mean a higher standard of living.  After all, all of our modern Society is completely dependent on energy: Trump officially approves Keystone XL pipeline After years of stalling under President Obama, President Trump on Friday approved the Keystone XL pipeline, and the … Read more

And Senator Ben Sasse wins a $5 bet with ……Neil Gorsuch’s nephew? BIGLY!

“That’s why John Hancock is now synonymous with his signature,” Gorsuch said. “No one remembers who John Hancock was but they know that’s his signature because he wrote his name so bigly — big and boldly.” …”He’s the one paying me the five bucks,” Sasse answered. (H/T: Washington Examiner)

Voter Fraud – it does occur on both sides of the aisle (occasionally on the Right)

And yes, this one is on the Republican side of said political aisle (reformatted, emphasis mine) and we’ll report it:

Former Colorado GOP chairman charged with voter fraud, forgery

GREELEY, Colo. — The former chairman of Colorado’s Republican Party has been charged with voter fraud and forgery. Steve Curtis, 57, is accused of filling out and mailing in his ex-wife’s ballot for the 2016 presidential election. Curtis was the state’s GOP chairman from 1997 to 1999 and currently hosts a talk radio show on KLZ-560 AM. He made his first court appearance Tuesday morning in Weld County to be advised of the charges against him.

“We’re not going to talk about this,” Curtis said when asked if he voted for his ex-wife in November.

…His ex-wife, Kelly Curtis, was less shy when reached by phone in South Carolina.

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Notable Quote – Kevin Williamson

The people who have an explicit legal obligation to work not on our behalf but on behalf of their shareholders do a pretty good job of giving us what we want; the people who vow to work on our behalf do not. That is a paradox only if you do not think about it too … Read more

As expected: “Chairman Devin Nunes: ‘Cannot’ Rule Out Senior Obama Officials in Intelligence Leaks”

Tag teaming on Steve’s post breaking the news on the ‘Grok that US Intelligence operatives in “incidental” (read that like “mis-spoke” is really outright lying)

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes did not rule out Senior Obama administration officials being involved in “incidental” communications of President Donald Trump’s transition team that were “widely disseminated.”

When asked by Breitbart News if he could rule out any involvement of senior members of the Obama administration, Nunes replied, “No, we cannot.”

Don’t be surprised by the “surprised” look on my face.  Given all of the chatter about “The Resistance” and Obama

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Quick Thought – Boy, have the Republicans screwed up “Repeal and Replace”

And they are voting on this Obama-lite tomorrow?  This is amending around the edges; there is little “repeal” other than what I’ve written about earlier.  While killing taxes is always good, they haven’t touched the stuff (regs and mandates) that have made Obamacare so toxic politically and financially.  So how is this “better”?  This isn’t “Republicans Are Doing a Terrible Job Arguing for Their Health-Care Plan“, this is a “Failure to Plan Right” – and expecting us to accept it.  And no,  I disagree with this “Republicans Are Messing Up On Healthcare Even More Than You Thought” – they are proceeding EXACTLY as I thought: the dogs that caught the bumper.  Politically, they knew when they won the election, they lost it from the get go.

I just shake my head at these Bozos in Congress.  All we heard for the last seven years is “VOTE FOR US – we’ll get rid of Obamacare!!!”.  So after giving them the House, then the Senate, we put the Oval Office in their hands.  We shoulda known better because at every step, they said “well, thank you, but NOW we need” that next step.  Each and every time, all we got was excuses instead of promises. I DO wonder if they really meant what they campaigned on because I’m not buying what is being sold.  We didn’t put them in to nibble around the edges – it was supposed to be a clean sweep.  Instead of that clean sweep, all we’re getting is that broom putting up a huge dust cloud. And yet, the boom is being lowered as in “White House warns conservatives ‘no Plan B’ to nix Obamacare: ‘This is it“. It’s almost like “…Republicans never intended to repeal Obamacare“.

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Let me give you a hint: when Jihadists scream “Allahu Akbar!!”, religion IS relevant

British Lawmaker: London Terrorist’s Religion is ‘Utterly and Completely Irrelevant”

And when Khalid Masood, the Muslim that plowed into people on a London bridge and killed a policeman outside of Parliament,  says that he is a soldier of the Islamic State, I’d believe that Islam, a political system wrapped in religion, is completely relevant (reformatted, emphasis mine).

British Lawmaker Lord Digby Jones does not believe the religion of the London attacker is pertinent, The Washington Post reports. Jones comments come in the wake of a tweet by Donald Trump Jr. criticizing London Mayor Sadiq Khan for once telling citizens that terrorist attacks are “part and parcel” part of living in a big city. Some British lawmakers drew offense from the tweet, saying Trump was attacking the mayor in the midst of a terrorist situation.

“You’re safer in London than you’ve ever been,” Jones declared. He continued, “If this turns out to be an act of Islamic terrorism, I think the fact that the man is a Muslim is utterly and completely irrelevant.

Umm, wanna run that past me again, for what Jones

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PERFECT – “The Snowflake Test” you must pass before working for this company

Outside of standard benefits, what benefits should a company offer employees? What are your feelings about employees or clients carrying guns? What are your feelings about safe spaces in challenging work environments? Should “trigger warnings” be issued before we release content for clients or the company that might be considered “controversial”? How do you feel … Read more

Christian leaders or Progressive / Statist activists

The Christian, conservative case for foreign aid

This piece in the Washington Post keeps on confirming my belief that The Church is continuing its march in becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of The State.  Once again, there is no charity in Government – the government money that is used for relief is not given voluntarily – it is taken by force (go ahead, try not paying your taxes and tell me I’m wrong) but Progressives DO conflate the two  and then use that to virtue-signal to the rest of us their moral superiority.  Like these two authors – I’ve taken a few snippets out for commenting.  First, they lead off with a sentence that is absolutely true – but it is setting a false stage for something that ISN’T tru:

The Bible is replete with references to caring for the poor in obedience to God. Jesus declares that loving our neighbor — wherever they live — is one of the greatest commandments, a corollary to loving God.

Yes, we are called to do this.  All one has to do is to read Jesus’s Sermon On The Mount – or the Good Samaritan to know of the values that He preached.  But note – he NEVER preached that message to a group of politicians or to the Roman government officials, but to individuals. He came to change a person’s heart, mind, and convictions – one by one by one.  An individual ministry and not a collective one – for only one person can pray for forgiveness of their personal sin and to accept His message of redemption and salvation.    But not here:

While the U.S. government doesn’t directly share this mandate, it plays a critical role in fulfilling the moral responsibility of all Americans to help those less fortunate. In fact, the U.S. government has always been a strong partner with American citizens in helping those in extreme poverty and crisis. Yet now, President Trump’s proposed budget threatens to severely cut that foreign aid.

No, no, no, NO!  People have a sense of morality (putting aside the phrase “the public morality” for the moment), individuals have an innate sense of right and wrong as well as kindness and empathy.  A GOVERNMENT cannot

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