Archive for February, 2020

Five Quick Under the Fedora Thoughts: Dem CW, Steak Orgy’s, Bloomberg, the XFL and Back to Work.

Posted: February 17, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I’m enjoying Elizabeth Warren’s sudden blaming of the media for her problems almost as much as Amy Klobuchars’s sudden gymnastics on her previous positions now that people are considering her a serious candidate.

it’s a great reminder that conventional wisdom is always absolutely correct, right up until the moment that it’s not.

If you don’t believe me ask all the talking heads in this video

Why people trust this folks is beyond me.

I’ve written a lot about Romano’s Market Last week. This weekend has been a steak orgy in the house as we bought a ton of steaks and spent the weekend cooking and eating them. What we froze is likely good for another week.

What’s really funny is I rarely bought expensive steaks usually hamburg, a short cut rump and the occasional tenderloin tip (the end that is too thin to cut into a steak) and turned them into tips for wraps, but this weekend I bought the more expensive cuts and boy was I missing out.

As I watch Mike Bloomberg attempt to buy the Democrat Nomination I’m reminded this this is rather similar to what was going on in NYC that we wrote about a while back:

In Mike Bloomberg’s New York, the mayor bribed you, buying the silence or cooperation of individuals, cultural organizations, and social service groups with hundreds in millions of dollars spent on small personal favors — a legal payment here, a medical procedure there — and charitable contributions.

While Mr. Bloomberg’s name is not the least bit Italian Professor Doug Muzzio describes the Mayor’s use of fund in terms normally associated in culture with the combination of vowels in his predecessor’s surname and my own saying it…

…was protection money. In many ways it inoculated him from potential criticism and stimulated people to do things that they might not have or shouldn’t have done

The article points not only to millions upon millions given to various groups but the potential of millions in the years after his departure from office that might be at stake

Oh and we were talking about Bloomberg and race in 2015 when nobody else was interested because it’s one thing to do stop and frisk in bad neighborhoods, it’s another to say that young black males should not be allowed to own guns.

Of course the left didn’t care about it then either. Too much money at stake

I’ve been really surprised at the good reception the XFL has gotten so far, but I really shouldn’t be.

It’s the same principle as Bloomberg. The various networks know that they have been promised three years of backing so as long as there is a chance to cash it, they’ll do their best to earn a cut.

And frankly the football isn’t horrible for a minor league.

Yesterday beings my 1st full week back to work. It’s been a tad tiring particularly when paired with my rehab visits but while the idea of collecting a check while staying home might seem attractive it gets pretty old pretty fast.

It’s a sad then when a man is not useful to somebody.

Who is Mike Bloomberg?

Posted: February 16, 2020 by John Ruberry in elections, elections, News/opinion, politics
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By John Ruberry

As expected because Michael Bloomberg is rising in the Democratic polls, there’s a backlash from the far-left against his candidacy. The far-left of course is no longer a fringe within the Democrat Party. Socialist Bernie Sanders has a very good shot of winning the Democratic nomination. The Vermont senator will almost certainly lose to Donald Trump if he gets the Dems’ nod in Milwaukee, but Bernie will set a new record for highest percentage of vote collected by a self-admitted socialist, the previous high was the six percent collected by Eugene V. Debs in 1912, which until recently was seen as an astoundingly high amount.

Times have changed but not that much. A majority of Americans do not want socialized medicine, oops, make that “Medicare for All,” the Green New Deal, and student loan bailouts.

But most Democrats oppose Trump, no, make that they despise Trump. And with the collapse of the not-so-left wing campaign of Joe Biden, some Dems are looking at Mike Bloomberg as their savior.

Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat until he successfully ran as a Republican for mayor of New York in 2001. Then he quit the GOP and ran as an independent for mayor in 2009, winning again. Now he’s a Democrat again.

As mayor Bloomberg kept Rudy Giuiliani’s successful CompStat policing program. New York endured 2,245 murders in 1990.Three years Guiliani was elected, now annual murders in NYC hovers around 300. CompStat floods dangerous neighborhoods with police officers–and until recently stop-and-frisk was part of policing in those crime-ridden areas. Last week leaked audio emerged from 2015 where Bloomberg supports it. “95% of murders — murderers and murder victims — fit one M.O. You can just take a description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops. They are male minorities, 16 to 25,” Bloomberg said. “The way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them … And then they start … ‘Oh, I don’t want to get caught,’ so they don’t bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home.”

Remember, the Dems are the party of Black Lives Matter. When former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley said at a Netroots even “All lives matter,” he was booed and then he quickly apologized.

Whatever happened to O’Malley?

This morning Politico found a 2013 videotape where Bloomberg, not favorably, compared an NYC teachers union to the National Rifle Association. That’s a problem for Bloomberg, as the Democrats, among other things, is the party of the public-sector unions. The same unions that have destroyed the finances of many states and cities, most of them run by Democrats

New York City hasn’t been hit as hard by the pension bomb as much as Chicago, which is bankrupt-in-all-but name because of unfunded public-sector union pension obligations, and Bloomberg deserves some of the credit for that. As he was leaving the mayor’s office Bloomberg warned of a “fiscal straitjacket” for cities and a “labor-electoral complex that has traditionally stymied reform.”

Bloomberg got rid of, or at least eliminated, the infamous “rubber rooms” for New York public school teachers who were paid to do nothing, while still getting paid by taxpayers, as they awaited their dismissal hearings.

So Bloomberg, in my opinion, did some good as mayor. Now he has apologized for his support of stop-and-frisk. Now Bloomberg has to make peace the public-sector unions. Look for other embarrassing video and audio clips to emerge. Surely staffers from the remaining Democratic campaigns are scouring the internet and public records; hey, they even may be scanning Babylonian tablets looking for dirt on Bloomberg.

Like Trump, Bloomberg has not released his tax returns. He promises them “soon.”

Bloomberg risks looking like an opportunist who will change his views to be elected president. The NeverTrump movement of 2016 within the GOP accused Trump of being a Democrat who was masquerading as a Republican to win the White House, one who would govern as a Democrat. Of course that hasn’t happened, Trump is the most conservative president since Ronald Reagan.

There’s much for woke Democrats, the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing, to hate in regards to Mayor Mike.

Just as I am in this post, the far-left wing of the Democrats will be wondering, if they are not already, just who is the real Michael Bloomberg.

Republicans and many independents already know who the real Donald Trump is. Love him or hate him, Trump is genuine.

People don’t like phonies. They don’t like sneaky people, and Hillary Clinton has been a sneak for decades. So it’s pretty funny that according to the Drudge Report, Bloomberg is considering HRC as a running mate, even though one of them will have to declare residency in another state because the Constitution prevents a presidential ticket with two candidates from the same state. 

Back to the beginning of my post: Most Americans don’t want a socialist president.

The Democrats might need a new candidate to rescue them. Biden of course has already failed. Who else do they have? Martin O’Malley?

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

What if Brady Goes Somewhere & DOESN’T bring a Super Bowl?

Posted: February 16, 2020 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
Tags: ,

In all the “Brady to Dallas” , “Brady to LA”, “Brady to Tennessee” stuff I’ve been hearing for several months now there are a lot of factors that we hear about.

  • Do they have a solid line to protect him?
  • Do they have the offensive weapons?
  • Do they have a 2-3 year QB opening (which is all he’ll play)
  • Will they commit to the contract he wants?

All of these will be factors in the decision making process for teams and Brady but there is one factor that nobody is talking about that I suspect even Tom Brady hasn’t thought of, but should.

What happens if he goes someplace and doesn’t bring a ring or at least a Superbowl appearance?

Tom Brady has been a fixture for the Pats for 20 years. He took a team that had been to 2 Superbowls in 35 years, losing both and took them to NINE superbowls in the next twenty years winning SIX.

That being the case if Tom Brady stays in New England till he is 45 and never makes another Superbowl, while sports writers might grumble and Sports Radio might buzz, fans will still love him and when he does retire give him a send off that will be almost as memorable as his playing days.

If he leaves however everything is different.

Any franchise that signs Brady is one that feels it is near the brass ring right now and figures that it is that one piece away from going all the way, which is why they will be paying $25-$40 Million for a 42 year old QB who happens to be not only the best player of all time, the most prolific when it comes to Superbowl appearances of all time but the best clutch performer of all time in the history of the game.

Once having made that commitment, a playoff appearance won’t do, a 1st round bye with a win won’t do. Anything less than a conference championship will be considered a failure and even that if it comes with a Superbowl loss with not be enough.

And the fans who support said franchise who do not have a history with Tom Brady will not blame their line, or their coach, or their receivers or defense if this happens, they will blame HIM because he was brought in and given the key to the vault to make it happen.

Oddly enough this might actually be an incentive to Tom Brady, the ultimate competitor, who wants to win more than anyone else on the field. He’s the type that actually might want all of that on his shoulders and revel in the chance to take some lesser teams flag and charge up the hill. Perhaps he feels he needs a fanbase that will challenge him rather than one that has reached a point of unconditional love.

But my advice to Brady is this. Make damn sure that this is what you want before you leave a fanbase that loves you an owner that will cater to you and a coach and staff that knows you better than any other and is in the best position to help you continue to be a winner in the twilight of your career.

Russia’s next move: Svalbard

Posted: February 15, 2020 by ng36b in Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,
Abandoned Russian mining town on Svalbard
By Bjoertvedt – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

We will continue to watch Russia divide up Ukraine into pieces until it is essentially Russian territory, and as I previously noted, don’t be surprised when Russia moves into Central Asia. But for anyone that thinks Russia will hesitate against a NATO ally, I say, look to Norway. Because it is here that Russia is beginning its information drumbeat to take territory.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide and Justic Minister Monica Maeland wrote an op-ed in VG titled “Svalbard Treaty 100 Years.” The discussion focused on a resource discussion, because while the treaty gave Svalbard to Norway, it allowed treaty signatories rights to fishing, hunting, and mineral resources. At the time, the Soviet Union continued to call the island Spitsbergen and kept repeating the claim they had discovered it first.

Flash forward, and Russia responded to the op-ed on the news site E24. First they claimed that Norway was ignoring their concerns over Spitsbergen. They also point out that Svalbard “is not originally Norwegian territory,” and that only Russia and Norway have commercial interests on the island. Russia operates a defunct coal mine on the island, which loses money every year, simply to maintain this claim.

If this sounds like Ukraine and Georgia, you’re catching on. While we might be a bit far away from a Russia land-grab on Svalbard, we are in the setup phase. I see Russia first making claims that Svalbard is a Russia-Norway issue. They don’t want NATO involved, and since the treaty was made before NATO, they’ll use that as a wedge to keep other countries out. Then we’ll start seeing stories about Norwegian “atrocities” against the approximately 400 Russians that live on the island. As a side bonus, we might see Russia make claims that the tourism is causing negative climate change, so only someone that cares about the environment like Russia should be in charge.

While not on the same level as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Russia has found an opening in Norway, and it will settle in for a long fight to take away territory and chip at the NATO alliance.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

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