It’s Monday, June 6th, 2016…but before we begin, two great quotes (with links to the full commentaries) which accurately identify a mindset which has spread like a blight across much of our great country, as well as Europe, directly resulting from Progressives’ deliberate dumbing-down of public education…

“This is the more lasting lesson of the Couric scandal. Reality TV has conquered all. As a society, we want to be entertained far more than we want to be informed, which is why these scandals vanish the instant they become boring. It’s also why Katie Couric is more of a reality TV star than a real journalist.” – Jonah Goldberg

“Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the Left. What matters to the true believers are the ringing slogans, endlessly repeated. When Senator Sanders cries, “The system is rigged!” no one asks, “Just what specifically does that mean?” or “What facts do you have to back that up?” In 2015, the 400 richest people in the world had net losses of $19 billion. If they had rigged the system, surely they could have rigged it better than that.” – Thomas Sowell

…and two associated items which give us reason to believe there’s still time to stem the tide.  Exhibit “A” comes to us courtesy of one very dedicated young Tennessean:

Hard Work Pays Off: Teen Sold Newspapers For Five Years and Has Enough To Pay For College

 

The concept is staggering in its simplicity: this young Mr. King also had a dream, came up with a plan which gave him a chance to realize it, then executed it to perfection.  Every cloud may have a silver lining, but this young man is one brilliant ray of hope that’s pure gold.

Then there’s Exhibit “B”, which shows the Swiss still have much more in common with Kevuntez King than Socialists in the EU and America…at least for now:

Swiss say ‘no thanks’ to basic income for all

 

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“Swiss voters were on course Sunday to flatly reject a radical proposal to provide the entire population with a basic income, with no work required, initial results and projections showed. National projections showed 78 percent of Swiss voters had opposed the initiative, according to numbers provided by the gfs.bern polling institute to public broadcaster RTS an hour after polls closed at noon (1000 GMT).

In a global first, the Swiss were asked whether they wanted all Swiss citizens, along with foreigners who have been legal residents for at least five years, to receive an unconditional basic income, or UBI. The group behind the initiative has suggested paying 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,500/2,300 euros) a month to each adult, and 625 francs for each child. The referendum came after reformers mustered more than the 100,000 signatures required to hold a popular vote, a regular feature of Swiss direct democracy.

But the idea was controversial from the start in Switzerland — a country that values hard work — and the government and nearly all political parties had urged voters to reject the scheme.

Just getting a broad public debate started on this important issue is a victory,” Ralph Kundig, one of the lead campaigners, told AFP before the vote. Supporters of the initiative argued that an unconditional income would help fight poverty and inequality in a world where good jobs with steady salaries are becoming harder to find. (Talk about the very embodiment of Sowell’s quote above!!!)  We need to find a new redistribution model,” Kundig said.

Yeah, you know…one that actually doesn’t run out of other people’s money!

To borrow a phrase from Johnny Dangerously’s arch-enemy Danny Vermin, the Pilgrims tried it once…

…and actually learned from their mistake, thus avoiding modern Progressivisms’ fate of becoming the poster child for Einstein’s definition of insanity.

But, as with the idiocy of the $15/hr. minimum wage, their hearts are in the right place…even if their hands are always in your pocket!

Now, here’s The Gouge!

Since we’re on the subject of Liberal poster children for anti-Constitutional causes, on the occasion of the latest round of anti-Trump/anti-democracy violence, the dishonorable mayor of San Jose highlights the hypocrisy which is the very life blood of The Left:

“...San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is a party Democrat who held a campaign event last week for Hillary Clinton.

Mayor should be shot

In responding to the brutality last night he blamed Donald Trump and his supporters for not accepting the beatings with more appreciation:

(via AP) The mayor, a Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, criticized Trump for coming to cities and igniting problems that local police departments had to deal with. “At some point Donald Trump needs to take responsibility for the irresponsible behavior of his campaign,” Liccardo said.

We don’t know what’s worse: that Liccardo actually said this, or that he said it with a straight face and continues to occupy public office in a republic ruled by the Constitution?!?

Meanwhile, we travel halfway ’round the world to find Liccardo’s soulmate in the form of Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who recently…

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“Make the Philippines great again!”

“…justified the murder of journalists this week during a press conference in Davao City on Tuesday.

Duterte noted that most of the journalists who have been murdered were corrupt anyway. Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch,” Duterte said. Freedom of expression cannot help you if you have done something wrong,” he added.

His remarks were in response to a question about how to protect freedom of the press after a crime reporter was shot and killed in the country’s capital city of Manila on Friday….”

Now that we think about it, who does Duterte sound like?

  • (a) Sam Liccardo
  • (b) Barack Hussein Obama
  • (c) Nearly every college professor and/or administrator in America
  • (d) Hillary Clinton
  • (e) Donald Trump
  • (f) All of the above

After further reflection, we’re inclined to go with “all of the above”!

Next up, after viewing the following video clip at NewsBusters.org, we were struck by the problem common to “Conservative” commentators:

Like so much of the rest of America, they’re “under-informed”, willingly walking into a Liberal ambush of automatic weapons armed only with a pocket knife.  Gina should’ve been ready to jump all over Sally Kohn’s misleading missive by crying out, “Here’s where I got it, you prevaricating Progressive pustule!!!”:

In 2013, The Clinton Foundation Only Spent 10 Percent Of Its Budget On Charitable Grants

 

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“After a week of being attacked for shady bookkeeping and questionable expenditures, the Clinton Foundation is fighting back. In a tweet posted last week, the Clinton Foundation claimed that 88 percent of its expenditures went “directly to [the foundation’s] life-changing work.”CDdgfhZWIAIvoF8There’s only one problem: that claim is demonstrably false. And it is false not according to some partisan spin on the numbers, but because the organization’s own tax filings contradict the claim.

Clinton-Foundation-2013-Breakdown

In order for the 88 percent claim to be even remotely close to the truth, the words “directly” and “life-changing” have to mean something other than “directly” and “life-changing.” For example, the Clinton Foundation spent nearly $8.5 million–10 percent of all 2013 expenditures–on travel. Do plane tickets and hotel accommodations directly change lives? Nearly $4.8 million–5.6 percent of all expenditures–was spent on office supplies. Are ink cartridges and staplers “life-changing” commodities?

Those two categories alone comprise over 15 percent of all Clinton Foundation expenses in 2013, and we haven’t even examined other spending categories like employee fringe benefits ($3.7 million), IT costs ($2.1 million), rent ($4 million) or conferences and conventions ($9.2 million). Yet, the tax-exempt organization claimed in its tweet that no more than 12 percent of its expenditures went to these overhead expenses.

How can both claims be true? Easy: they’re not. The claim from the Clinton Foundation that 88 percent of all expenditures go directly to life-changing work is demonstrably false…”

Facts are Conservatism’s greatest ally against Liberal “feelings”…but only when one’s familiar with them!

In a related item, we turn now to our continuing coverage of the luckless Clinton…

…as, writing at NRO, Deroy Murdoch suggests her…

Henchman’s Appeal Leaves Hillary on Hook

The former secretary of state’s ‘everybody does it’ defense falls flat.

 

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In a communique to donors (who else?) Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta tried to exculpate his candidate’s lawbreaking in the E-mailgate scandal. Alas for Hillary, Podesta’s attempt at exoneration has more holes than a golf course. 

“…we know that our opponents will continue to try to distract us with attacks,” Podesta wrote on May 28. But State Department Inspector General Steve Linick is no right-wing Clinton hater. The man behind last week’s brutal report on Clinton’s misdeeds was appointed by President Obama. Linick also served as an assistant U.S. attorney, starting in 1994 — during the presidency of William Jefferson Clinton.

“Secretary Clinton has said her use of a personal email server was a mistake,” Podesta asserted. A “mistake” is when one hits “reply all,” and dozens or hundreds of people unwittingly receive an embarrassing e-mail meant for one person. E-mailgate was no such casual gaffe. It was a deliberate and planned conspiracy in which Hillary evaded standard State Department procedures, installed an outlaw personal computer server in the basement of her Chappaqua, N.Y., mansion — 267 miles northeast of Foggy Bottom, and then reportedly paid aide Bryan Pagliano $140,000 to maintain that illicit equipment. Pagliano’s supervisors, the IG discovered, “were unaware of his technical support of the Secretary’s e-mail system,” including “during working hours.”

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After leaving State, Hillary had her server shipped to a facility in New Jersey associated with Platte River Networks, a Denver-based firm that lacked the security clearance to handle such sensitive gear. She then had the company try to wipe the server clean. Some “mistake.

“She believed she was following the practices of other Secretaries,” Podesta further claimed. This “everybody does it” defense is like saying “all motorists break the law.” But a parking ticket is not a drunk-driving arrest. Indeed, Clinton’s abuse of state secrets is literally a thousand times worse than what any of her predecessors did.

The State Department IG found that “Secretary [Madeleine] Albright did not use a department or personal e-mail account during her tenure, and . . . Secretary [Condoleezza] Rice did not use a personal e-mail account to conduct official business.” So neither of those two Clinton forerunners had any classified documents come or go via e-mail. Former Secretary Colin Powell used both government and personal e-mail accounts, although he had no private server. Clinton used her private server and e-mail, to the exclusion of all official systems and addresses.

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“‘Unsecured’ my over-sized ass! That bathroom in Denver had a lock on the door!”

As for classified material, a March 2 memo from Inspector General Linick identified twelve documents that “contain national security information classified at the Secret or Confidential levels.” Among them, “Two of these documents were e-mails sent to Secretary Powell’s personal e-mail account; the remaining were documents transmitted to personal or unclassified accounts belonging to a member of Secretary Rice’s immediate staff and another senior Department official.” Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal calculates that the classified e-mails on Clinton’s server totaled 2,115. So, among “other Secretaries,” the final score is: Albright 0; Powell 2; Rice 0; Clinton 2,115. Yes, Hillary. Whatever you say. Everybody does it.”

The IG knows about these former secretaries’ e-mail habits, or lack thereof, because they spoke with him. Conversely, Clinton clammed up. As the report explains, “Secretary Clinton declined OIG’s request for an interview.”

Most disturbingly, Podesta writes that “there is no evidence of a breach of her e-mail server.” Wrong! “We were attacked again so I shut [the server] down for a few min.,” Clinton Foundation alumnus and technical aide Justin Cooper wrote Hillary’s then Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin in January 2011. Abedin warned colleagues the next day not to send Hillary “anything sensitive.” That May 13, two of Clinton’s staffers discussed Hillary’s concerns that someone was “hacking into her email.” The report adds: “OIG found no evidence that the Secretary or her staff reported these incidents to computer security personnel or anyone else within the department.”

Try as he might, John Podesta cannot defend the indefensible.

Oh, he can try; the problem Podesta and his boss have is no one outside diehards Dims, the MSM (but we wax redundant!) and the utterly uninformed even pretend to believe her patent bullsh*t!

Rather than opine further, we’ll allow Hope ‘n Change to summarize our thoughts on the entire sordid story:

Berning the Embassy

[UPDATE] Oh,…and it gets worse, as these next two items from Drudge and The Hill, courtesy of Balls Cotton, clearly indicate:

Secret Service Agent Book Rocks Clinton Campaign

 

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Clinton’s IT aide keeps email server shrouded in mystery

 

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“…Staying silent “can be used against you,” said Peter Toren, a former federal prosecutor and partner at Weisbrod Matteis & Copley. “It’s extremely tedious, but the fact that [a witness] took the Fifth is an inference that what I’m asking is true,” said Toren…”

Which is why even Joe Biden is beginning to dream again:

Ali's Well That Ends Well 1

For more on the subject of perpetually prevaricating Progressive public employees, we present the latest from the incredibly insightful Kevin Williamson, also writing at NRO, who details the perverse reality that is representative of America’s bloated federal bureaucracy:

Pinocchios with Pensions

The State Department lies, covers up the lie, and admits it, but no one loses his job.

 

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“The State Department lied to the American public to sell the Iran deal. The State Department acknowledged this lie, in public, during a press conference. The State Department destroyed video evidence of its having done this, and then admitting doing so.

None of this is in dispute.

Nobody is getting fired. Jen Psaki, the witless Pippi Longstocking of the American diplomatic project, admitted under questioning from James Rosen of Fox News that the State Department had lied — flat-out — about the fact that secret talks had been under way between the United States and Iran over the Islamic terror state’s nuclear-weapons program. Psaki attempted to justify this lie, insisting that “diplomacy needs privacy,” which is true enough. But this wasn’t private, or a question of discretion: The facts were out there, and the State Department lied about them.

Is it any wonder that Mrs. Clinton, to whom deception is an instinct, felt so at ease in the State Department that she went to extraordinary, illegal lengths to conceal her communication as secretary of state from the public and from ordinary oversight?

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Whatta ya mean you buy the misleading bullsh*t I’m peddling?!?

This being an official State Department press conference, Rosen’s question and Psaki’s attempts at justifying her department’s dishonesty were caught on video. Eight minutes of that video has been destroyed, including the relevant parts.

But, oh, hear the lament of John Kirby, State Department spokesman. This sort of thing is unacceptable, he says, “not in keeping” with the State Department’s “commitment to transparency.” That same State Department had been, five minutes before his confession, suggesting that a technological “glitch” had destroyed the video.

The State Department has no commitment to transparency. It has a commitment to deceit, a deep and vigorous one. And, as is usual, these things go all the way to the top. If the secretary of state — who already was in all but the most formal sense a presidential candidate — could, in direct violation of federal law, conspire to keep her communication insulated from ordinary oversight, and if her office could basically tell Congress and investigators to buzz off when they demanded access to that communication, then why can’t some peon edit a video?

Which peon, though? Psaki says she has no knowledge of the episode, and Kirby says that, despite the vast intelligence operation at the disposal of the State Department, he doesn’t know who the naughty party is. Funny how the best and brightest and most highly informed people on Earth (so they tell us, endlessly) can’t find their asses with both hands when they’re afraid that somebody might lose his job. (or more appropriately, go to prison!) If we believe Barack Obama — and I do nothe has learned about practically every controversial event in his own presidency from television news shows, as though he were a spectator in his own administration…”

Then again, why should The Dear Misleader’s State Department be any different than his IRS…

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…DOJ…

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…EPA…

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…VA…

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…or the rest of this sorry-ass excuse for an Administration?!?

It’s the “broken windows” reality, so successfully employed against crime in New York City by Rudy Guliani, applied to politics.  In all seriousness, the entire Obama Team, including almost every political appointee, civilian or military, should be up on charges!  These people lie, cheat and steal in pursuit of a purely political agenda every single day!

Thus can Lois Lerner suspend the Constitution and use the entire weight and power of the IRS to persecute and harass legitimate Conservative non-profits…and suffer nary a nanosecond in the penalty box…retiring on a full government pension rather than ending her days behind bars.

Thus can these two handmaidens of VA injustice, Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves…

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…rip off the American taxpayer for hundreds of thousands of dollars and not only keep their pensions and employment (albeit with a demotion which leaves them only making $100K/year!!!), but don’t have to pay a single penny of their misbegotten gains back!

We can play this same Bizarro World tune every minute of every day until the Islamofascist-in-Chief leaves the White House, but you get the picture.

More importantly, history has never recorded the hue and cry the MSM would have raised had either of these crimes been committed on a Republican’s watch!

Here’s the juice: like a fish, government, particularly this government…

obamafish

…rots from the head!  And we sensed the stench of this particular butt trout when first he soiled the national scene.

And since we’re on the subject of government fraud, waste and abuse, here’s an effective use of Baltimorons’ tax dollars:

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake Visits Cuba for Advice on “Economic Development

 

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“Remember how after Baltimore was half destroyed by rioters last summer Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s made headlines by claiming she gave Baltimore rioters “Space to Destroy?”…

In any case, as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, last week she was in (totally destroyed by Communism) Cuba leading a mayoral delegation which also includes Mitch Landrieu, mayor of New Orleans (among the murder capitols of the U.S.)

“These meetings and visits will provide U.S. mayors and Cuban officials the opportunity to share best practices for providing city services in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and transportation, according to the story.”…”

Note how the report says the Communist apparatchiks and U.S. mayors will “share.” This implies that– on the dime of their taxpayers, and in between imbibing mojitos and getting secretly videotaped by KGB-trained secret police –mayors of important U.S. urban centers (We’d argue that point!) willseek advice on economic development from Communist crooks and murderers…”

Thus bumbling Socialist bureaucrats who’ve destroyed everything they’re ever touched are getting together on the taxpayer dime to laugh at the ignorance of those funding their junket.

Speaking of laughter, as relates to this report from Todd Starnes and FOX News, we can’t begin to imagine the side-splitting guffaws America’s enemies, both foreign and domestic, are experiencing at the state of our Military:

Boykin bounced: Fort Riley cancels Delta Force hero’s prayer breakfast speech

 

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A Kansas military base abruptly canceled an upcoming prayer breakfast that featured retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin after complaints were lodged that Boykin is anti-Muslim and anti-gay.

Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein told Army Times that Boykin’s invitation had caused great angst among soldiers at Fort Riley – leading some to break down in tears.

 “I have clients of ours weeping on the phone about this,” he said.

Weeping? Oh, please.

I sincerely doubt that America can expect to win wars if the people who are tasked to do so are frightened by an old retired general with biblical views and a testimony of faith,” Boykin told me…”

Which is precisely what Progressives planned!

For the sake of those born shortly before or after Tailhook, here’s warriors blowing off steam in the pre-Obamao Military:

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Now, here’s…uh,…blowing off…Hells bells,…

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…fuggedaboutit!

Then there’s this afterthought…at least in the minds of the MSM:

Post Nuclear Deal, State Department Declares Iran as The World’s Leading State Sponsor of Terror

 

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Nearly one year after the Obama administration sealed the Iranian nuclear deal, a new State Department report shows Iran is still the lead state-sponsor of terrorism.

“The United States continues to work to disrupt Iran’s support for terrorism. Iran remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism globally. As explained in the report, Iran continues to provide support to Hizballah, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and various groups in Iraq and throughout the Middle East,”
State Department Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Justin Siberell announced this week…

…As part of the Iranian nuclear deal, the regime received billions of dollars in sanctions relief, which Secretary of State John Kerry admitted would likely be used to funded terrorism.

“I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) or of other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists. You know, to some degree, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented,” Kerry said during an economic forum in Switzerland this year. “But I can tell you this, right now, we are not seeing the early delivery of funds going to that kind of endeavor at this point in time. I’m sure at some point some of it will.”…”

Soooo…a lot of innocent people will undoubtedly die; John Kerry just knows he’s not gonna be one the ’em.  Good plan!

On The Lighter Side

 

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Then there’s this humorous bit of art imitating life forwarded by TLJ, who wonders if…

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…Jim Henson was psychic?

Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with the Follow-Up segment, and this incredible coincidence in conjunction with the Blue Angel accident in Tennessee; amazingly, only a few hours earlier…

“…about 1,150 miles away, [a] Thunderbirds F-16 crashed south of Colorado Springs, Colorado, after it and other Thunderbirds flew over a graduation ceremony attended by President Barack Obama. Lt. Col. Christopher Hammond, commander of the Air Force’s Thunderbirds demonstration team, told reporters that the pilot, Maj. Alex Turner, experienced an unspecified problem as he was trying to land after the flyover and ejected.

As usual, the Air Force’s aim was off, and the target…

Barack Obama

“Would ya look at that?!? It’s almost like he’s coming at me!”

…emerged unfortunately unscathed!

Magoo



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