It’s Monday, September 11th, 2017…but before we begin, we take moment to remember…

…and imagine:

Not a world without its individual adherents, just the hopelessly malignant and maleficent religion to which they cling. 

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, frankly…

As G. Trevor observed on Friday, there aren’t any good guys anymore.  We’ve had it up to our ears with all the actors in the calamitous charade currently being played out on Capitol Hill: the Dims…

…the dimwitted…

…the (incredibly unattractive) douchebags…

…the duplicitous…

…and the ego-disabled:

Seriously, between (i) Trump making deals with Democrats, who, like the Soviets before them, will always take what they’re offered, but will NEVER cede a cent or an inch on entitlements, abortions, Socialized (i.e., single-payer) healthcare and/or the destruction of American morals; (ii) the inability of the GOP to deliver on their repeated promises (and this goes for the House Freedom Caucus, who need to recognize, at some point, half a loaf is better than none!); (iii) the fecklessness of female Republican senators who put blood-drenched campaign contributions from the biggest abortion mill in history above the restoration of the greatest healthcare system in the world; and, (iv) Jeff Sessions’ refusal to go after not only Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, and Jim Comey, but Lois Lerner, the lowest of low-hanging fruit, if for no other reason than to drain her of every ill-gotten retirement dime she has, we feel like…

Take for example the failure of either party to take on the 900-lb. gorilla in the room:

As James Freeman notes at Best of the Web, absent a dramatic course correction, not just a simple reduction in the speed with which we’re approaching the rocks…

“Since Senate Republicans have proven unable to fulfill their signature campaign promise to reform the ObamaCare entitlement, it seems unlikely they would agree to reform any of the other entitlements that drive the federal budget, or to economize on discretionary items like hurricane response—unless they can gain more conservative colleagues in the 2018 elections. Reforming entitlements doesn’t seem to be a priority for Mr. Trump, either.

What’s certain is that the problem that concerns Mr. Barton [R-TX] isn’t going away. In its annual long-term budget outlook released in March, the Congressional Budget Office noted:

This would be getting into Italy territory. A dysfunctional government carrying a debt load that heavy, on top of a slow-growing economy, would normally be cause to fear societal catastrophe. But thanks to the magic of modern government intervention, Italy isn’t yet serving as a cautionary tale.

In fact, flying in the face of all logic, the government of Italy now pays lower interest rates on the money it borrows than the U.S. Treasury. So do Spain and France and various other places that wish they had economies like ours…”

…the American ship of state is doomed to founder.  Consider it the inevitability of economics, as detailed so effectively by Bill Whittle.

To borrow a phrase from the Down Easters (more like Down’s Syndromers!) ignorant enough to have brought us Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Angus King…

Thus with every passing day, we’re more and more of the belief…

…politicians of every race, color, creed, religion and party affiliation speak with forked tongue!

And for those inclined to believe America’s nominal “leaders” are the only ones peddling patent Progressive bullsh*t…

Merkel reiterates Iran deal should be model for solving North Korea crisis

 

Dalai Lama calls for century of peace during Northern Ireland visit

 

…think again.  Such childlike credulity requires not only a willful disconnect from reality to the point of utter naiveté, but in the case of elected leaders like Merkel…and Obama…a total disregard for the welfare of those they’re sworn to serve and protect.

In a related item courtesy of our old friend and classmate Jim “Breeze” Gould, writing at US Defense Watch, Ray Starmann details the fruits of such uninformed Progressive policies, observing how…

The Navy – It’s Not a Job, It’s a Total Cluster

 

“The US Navy, the mighty and heroic service that beat the tar out of America’s enemies for 240 years; the force that won brilliant victories at Midway, Manila Bay, Leyte Gulf, Lake Erie and a thousand other places is no more.

The US Navy that refused to surrender and ‘had not begun to fight’ under the leadership of John Paul Jones, is now too incompetent to fight anyone; and every American should be seriously concerned. To paraphrase Oliver Perry, “We have met the enemy and it is cultural Marxism and social engineering.”

Feel free!

…The US Navy is being eaten alive by corruption, by gutless admirals, by politically correct officers, by social engineering and cultural Marxism which have just about deep-sixed it forever.

In actuality, the Navy has been sliding down the drain for 26 years, ever since the feminist slaughter house called the Tailhook Affair, when hundreds of US Navy and Marine Corps officers, including Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Frank Kelso, were keel-hauled by the Navy for drinking, carousing, indecent conduct and drummed up charges of sexual assault. Imagine that, aviators who drink and get laid; can’t have that in the military.

Tailhook became a catalyst for the left and for feminists to destroy the military through social engineering. As James Webb remarked, “When the Tailhook investigation began, and certain political elements used the incident to bring discredit on naval aviation as a whole, and then on the Navy writ large, one is entitled to ask… Who fought this? Who condemned it? When a whole generation of officers is asked to accept … the destruction of the careers of some of the finest aviators in the Navy based on hearsay, unsubstantiated allegations, in some cases after a full repudiation of anonymous charges that resemble the worst elements of McCarthyism … what admiral has had the courage to risk his own career by putting his stars on the table, and defending the integrity of the process and of its people?”

Since September of 1991, the Navy has slowly castrated itself with a pen knife, transforming the once proud service into the ill-functioning eunuch of today. We now have a Navy that can’t fight, can’t navigate, and is largely without basic seamanship skills.

One must ask what the PC revolution has done to help the US Navy fight and win wars? It’s done nothing except to put people’s lives in danger and to get people killed.

Expect more incompetence, more babies born on ships, more PC lunacy and more general misconduct. The US Navy is a total cluster.“

For those ignorant of military parlance, we borrow a scene from Heartbreak Ridge to explain what Mr. Starmann means by “total cluster”:

Speaking of “clusterf*cks“, as Humberto Fontova records at Townhall.com, you couldn’t depend upon CBS providing accurate reporting of the sun rising if they felt it cast Communism in a bad light: 

CBS Lies Through Their Teeth About Cuba’s Hurricane Irma Preparedness

 

““Cuba normally gears up quickly for storms with constant advisories on TV and radio urging people to prepare. The Civil Defense, run by a general and the military, jumps into action to evacuate people and animals from low-lying areas, to move food supplies to higher ground, harvest crops quickly and distribute the monthly food rations to people before the storm hits.” (CBS News. Sept. 8.)

In fact, as late as the night of Sept. 5^th with Hurricane Irma forecast to rake the entire island of Cuba from end to end, many Cubans were completely unaware of the hurricane’s very existence!

Your humble servant confirmed this from many friends with family still in Cuba. Alarmed by the forecasts at mid-week, these U.S.-based friends called their Cuba-based relatives to ask about their preparations for the hurricane. “What hurricane?” came the responses from Cuba. They hadn’t heard a thing about the looming catastrophe!

Seems the fine folks who graciously granted CBS’ their Cuba “press” bureau hadn’t gotten around to mentioning it! CBS, on the other hand, transcribes their Cuba “news” straight from communist propaganda apparatchiks.

But no big deal, right? What with all that free and fabulous health care Cubans enjoy (as constantly reported by CBS) what’s a little category 5 Hurricane? Such shameless propagandizing for Castro is an old story for CBS actually…”

Keep in mind, the bias of CBS has not historically been restricted to its “reporting” on Cuba:

The reality is, as long as that imprisoned island remains in the grip of a Communist dictatorship, like its Soviet or Venezuelan counterparts, a Cuban grocery store will continue to look the same before…

…or after…

…Irma.  Yet CBS will never “report” the significance thereof.

Moving on, writing at Townhall.com, Lauretta Brown reports how…

U.S. Bishops Respond to Feinstein, Durbin’s Hostile Questioning of Nominee’s Catholic Faith

 

“…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” – ARTICLE VI.

“…Feinstein seemed very concerned over Barrett’s Catholicism telling her “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for, for years in this country.”

 “Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?” Durbin asked Barrett.

 “Such questions are not just contrary to our Constitution and our best national traditions, which protect the free exercise of one’s faith and reject religious tests for public office, they are offensive to basic human rights,” [Archbishop William E.] Lori said…”

Then again, since when are Dimocrats beholden to the Constitution?!?  As Michael Goodwin noted at the New York Post:

“Abortion was the topic, and critics were quick to accuse Feinstein and other Dems who joined her chorus, of declaring that “No Catholics need apply” and setting an illegal religious test for public office. Bet they wouldn’t do that to a Muslim.“

Since we’re on the subject of Progressive prevarication, as John Fund relates via FOX News…

If voter fraud by out-of-state Democrats managed to sway New Hampshire elections the implications are huge

 

“…A debate is raging in the state, home of the first presidential primary, about whether state election laws were violated last November by out-of-state Democrats who entered New Hampshire and took advantage of the same-day voter registration law to falsely claim they were New Hampshire residents.

The election featured a photo-finish race for president – Hillary Clinton won by 2,467 votes – and in the race for the U.S. Senate. Democrat Maggie Hassan narrowly defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte by only 1,017 votes.

Since all of New Hampshire’s neighboring states are Democratic, it’s likely that if any of their residents crossed into New Hampshire to use the same-day voter registration law to cast ballots most of these people voted Democratic. That could have wound up costing Ayotte and possibly Trump a victory in New Hampshire.

Should that have happened, the implications are huge. Trump won the Electoral College comfortably, but he could easily have been in a position where the Granite State’s four electoral votes would have determined the outcome of the presidential race.

As for Ayotte, Republicans in the Senate failed to pass a “repeal and replace” bill for ObamaCare by only a single vote. If Ayotte had been in the Senate, she would have provided that missing vote and ObamaCare would have been repealed. Lawmakers would now be in the middle of a rousing debate over how to replace ObamaCare.

In the 15 states that have same-day voter registration, the vast majority of voters who use the law are recent arrivals who’ve moved from other states. But apparently not in New Hampshire.

The vast majority of the 6,240 voters in New Hampshire who registered on the same day they cast ballots – 70 percent – used out-of-state identification to prove their identities, according to the Public Interest Legal Foundation. That’s something that people who have just moved into the state can do, prior to obtaining New Hampshire ID.

Some of the out-of-state ID holders were no doubt college students using ID from their home states, even though state law requires they get a New Hampshire ID within 30 days of moving into the state to be considered a true resident. But only about 7 percent of those same-day registrants went on to obtain New Hampshire driver’s licenses and only 3 percent have since registered vehicles in New Hampshire – a state with very little public transportation. This raises serious questions about whether many of the people who took advantage of same-day registration to vote were out-of-state residents voting improperly in the Granite State…”

For more on the subject of “drivers”, we turn to this forward from Balls Cotton and Brian Joondeph’s latest from American Thinker:

Trump’s Truckin’ Base

 

“Electoral prognosticators failed miserably last November. The smart set in the media establishment predicted a landslide win for Hillary Clinton. For an amusing review, here (above) is a video montage of their smug certainty. On what did they base their certainty? Bogus polls oversampling Democrat voters? Or projection of their wishes and fantasies that Donald Trump would be smacked down in big league fashion? We all know how that turned out.

Just as the old quote predicted, “Wish in one hand, crap in the other, and see which fills up first.” Obviously political pundits needed more than their wishes to avoid looking like fools holding a handful of electoral poop after their predictions were turned upside down on November 8.

Here’s an idea that might help future electoral soothsaying. A recent USA Today article discussed the most popular cars and trucks in each of the 50 states. The map looked surprisingly like the 2016 electoral map. The top vehicles sold in each state in 2016, based on new car registrations, was compiled.

There was a mix of sedans, small SUVs and pickup trucks. The trucks included the Ford F-150, Toyota Tacoma, GMC Sierra 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado 1500. Looking at the electoral map and vehicle map it’s clear that red states, won by Donald Trump, were predominantly pickup truck states whereas the blue states, won by Hillary Clinton, were mostly sedans or small SUVs.

The four western blue states of Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada were not truck states, instead favoring Honda Civic, Subaru Outback or Toyota RAV4. Most of New England, also electorally blue, has drivers choosing the Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V.

Colorado, despite its rugged mountains and frontier chic is a blue state and its drivers chose the Subaru Outback, while surrounded by red-voting, Ford F-150 driving states, like on the electoral map. Illinois, electorally deep blue, chose the Honda CR-V.

Of course, there are a few exceptions. Minnesota, a blue state, likes pickup trucks. Michigan and Florida, both barely red electorally went with cars or small SUVs.

The correlation, however, is clearly there. At least by the electoral map. Here’s how the truck versus non-truck electoral map would look, red being pickup trucks, blue being non-trucks, meaning sedans and small SUVs. It looks remarkably like the actual electoral map above.

This is just observational, not scientific. The statisticians want p-values and statistical significance. I’m simply comparing the red and blue maps.

…It’s no wonder the US truck map closely mirrors the red-blue electoral map. It’s one of many ways of stratifying voters. The fancy pants set at CNN or the Washington Post wouldn’t be caught dead in a pickup truck. Instead opting for their hybrid or electric cars, or something similar from Uber. Illustrating once again how out of touch the coastal elites are with the rest of the country, and the millions of Trump voters.

It’s funny that something as simple as vehicle choice is a better predictor of an election than expensive polls, focus groups and cable news show pontificating.“

Though we’re pretty certain Hillary ain’t laughin’!

Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:

Finally, in the Sports Section, we’re with Steve Sheldon:

The NFL Is a Product I Refuse to Purchase Any Longer

 

“…As consumers in America, we have a freedom to choose the products we purchase with the money we keep from our hard work after our government masters take their half. With that money, we buy the things we need and enjoy. It’s a simple concept; I don’t need or enjoy the NFL, so I do not participate in its offerings. I don’t go to games, I don’t watch them on television or the internet, and I don’t purchase NFL or player paraphernalia. I do this for a variety of reasons:

(1). The NFL has become a bastion of political correctness and Leftist thought. It may be a small handful of players opposing their country’s anthem, but as long as it is accepted by the owners and coaches, then they have lost me as a viewer. Yes, in the U.S.A. you have the freedom to express your views however ridiculous they may be. I, too, have a right to express my disapproval of your views through my pocketbook. The NFL is a business that sells a product. I happen to now find that product unattractive, overpriced, and out of style – so I refuse to buy it.

(2). The NFL has immersed itself in the hip-hop culture. Yes, I know this automatically makes me a racist according to the Left, but I simply don’t like the hip-hop culture and the things it represents that have nothing to do with skin color. I don’t approve of a culture whose music refers to women as “b**ches” and “h*s”, glorifies drug usage and violence, and encourages an illicit lifestyle. Plus, I don’t like the clothing. Pull up your pants, you look like an idiot. When this type of “music” blares out over the sound system in the stadium, as it did when I attended my last NFL game, I’m gone.

…(4). The anthem. I served my country for six years, and the National Anthem brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it. Every. Time. It represents the collective sacrifice of my friends and colleagues and everyone who went before us. It’s the same flag that was draped over my former teammate’s coffin after being killed in Afghanistan. It’s personal to me, very personal. To sit it out, talk during it, raise your fist, or any other form of disrespect is unacceptable to me. Period. I’m simply not willing to look beyond that. There is no pass on this one. If you can’t stand still and respect the flag of this great nation and everything for which it stands, then you and everyone associated with you isn’t getting one dime from me…

…One aside on this topic: If I understand the argument, those who sit out the anthem think America is a racist country and the national anthem somehow represents the idea that all cops are racists. Huh? Seriously, your argument is just dumb and doesn’t even deserve a response…”

Primarily because such thinking is based upon a movement built on a LIE…

…from the very beginning.

Magoo