Archive for the ‘News/opinion’ Category

Kurds oh Vey, NBAin’ts , CNN Comedy, Byron York Nails it and one Quibble with Stacy under the Fedora

Posted: October 8, 2019 by datechguy in media, middle east, News/opinion, politics

I must say that I’m not all that sure about the removal of US troops in northern Syria. As a general principle I don’t trust the Turks and I suspect that the Russians, Iranians nor the Syrian government have any interest in stopping Turkey from going after the Kurds who have been good friends to us. It’s generating a lot of critique and I think said critique is valid

It’s possible that this is just part of the standard Trump doctrine of disengagement when possible, it’s also possible that there is a bigger deal that has been made concerning Turkey that I’m unaware of (possibly concerning Israel and a deal there) but we really don’t know. My gut says it’s the wrong move but Potus has played a pretty good hand so far so I’m going to see how the cards fall before I go insane over it.

I’m a little pleased at the unity among left & right in the critique of the NBA over their kowtowing to China over a tweet on Hong Kong. When you’ve got Ted Cruz, Beto O’Rourke, Julian Castro, Rick Scott, Allahpundit, Rick Wilson and I all on the same page that’s really something.

The irony of NBA champs unwilling to go to the White House but NBA stars wiling to beg China’s forgiveness for one man’s support of the people of Hong Kong tells us all we need to know about the virtue signaling league and the degree of respect it deserves.

Was at the Happy Jack’s Buffet yesterday enjoying the all you can eat prime rib (yes you read that right) in it when I noticed CNN continuing to go over the top on Trump and impeachment in their on screen blurbs on one of the big screen which thankfully had no sound.

This is what happens when you decide to serve a niche market They simply aren’t trying anymore because it’s all about keeping said niche market happy. They’ve become a giant liberal infomercial and are just as informative and reliable.

Kinda sad.

Byron York has noticed something interesting about the so called “impeachment hearings“:

The hearings are part of an effort to remove the president from office. There could not be a matter of more pressing public concern. There could not be a matter in which the American people have a greater stake. And yet the public has no idea what is being discovered.
Last week’s sessions weren’t just secret. They were super-secret. The first hearing, in which the witness was former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker, was held in what is known as a SCIF, which stands for sensitive compartmented information facility. It is a room in the Capitol built to be impervious to electronic surveillance so that lawmakers can discuss the nation’s most important secrets without fear of discovery.
The second hearing, in which Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson testified, was also held in the SCIF.
Were highly classified matters discussed at the Volker and Atkinson hearings? Apparently not. Neither interview was classified. And even if some classified information were involved, it would be astonishing for Democrats to believe they could attempt to remove the president on the basis of information that is not available to the public.

I think it’s not astounding at all. If those hearing were public the networks that have been hyping them would be obliged to carry information that is devastating to their narrative. And while the number of viewers who would actually watch them are small, the amount of video it would provide to the Trump campaign illustrating that there is no “there” there would be more than the media/left could bear.

Finally while I would highly recommend Stacy McCain’s latest essay (he’s really been on a roll lately btw) I’d like to take issue with one impression that it gives.

Stacy’s history, particularly about the Hartford convention and New England being afraid of losing power is impeccable as are his assertions concerning Slavery in history and the left’s use of this for political purposes today. It leaves the impression that slavery itself was not the driving cause of the division and the Civil War which it produced.

This is a pet peeve of mine. In every way shape and form slavery was the driving force behind the American Civil War. If you read the newspapers of the era, the speeches of the era and the magazines of the era there can be no doubt that this was the case. Were there other issues involved as well, without question. Were the motives of some pushing abolition less that pure, I’d be shocked if it were otherwise. But let’s acknowledge the simple fact slavery was the engine that drive drove the separation and the war that followed.

Tlaib makes a bigoted statement and gets a pass, Blackhawks announcer gets pilloried for innocent remark

Posted: October 6, 2019 by John Ruberry in culture, media, News/opinion, politics, Sports
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Blogger on the left, as broadcast on WGN-TV Chicago during a Blackhawks game in Nashville in 2018

By John Ruberry

Oh, the things the left gets away with…

Unless you are consumer of conservative media, or news sources from Detroit–I’m both of those things—you probably missed a piece of awful offal from US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a member of “the Squad.”

If you live in the Chicago area, as I do, you probably heard about the “racially insensitive” comments made by longtime Chicago Blackhawks announcer Pat Foley during a preseason game against a German team.

Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, was touring Detroit’s Real Time Crime center, which utilizes facial recognition technology to identify criminal suspects. Tlaib has her issues with facial recognition forensics, She Tweeted in August, “@detroitpolice You should probably rethink this whole facial recognition bulls**t.”

In a tour last Tuesday of the center with Detroit’s police chief, James Craig, one that the Detroit News described as “tense,” the freshman congresswoman told Craig that only blacks should be employed as facial recognition analysists at the center. Yep. She said that. Her actual comments were, “Analysts need to be African Americans, not people that are not. I think non-African Americans think African Americans all look the same.”

Wow.

Craig, who is black, took the high ground by replying, “I trust people who are trained, regardless of race; regardless of gender. It’s about the training.”

Of course it is.

Craig later condemned Tlaib’s remarks. “If I had made a similar comment people would be outraged,” he told Detroit’s ABC affiliate, “they would be calling for my resignation.”

CNN.com covered the Tlaib facial recognition comments, as did Fox News, but the national media otherwise ignored her obnoxious remarks, although a Washington Post technology writer covered some practical issues with facial recognition in response to what she said.

In short, Tlaib got a pass because she is woke. She’s also a Democratic Socialist.

Not so Pat Foley, the television voice of the Chicago Blackhawks. I don’t know Foley’s politics. Perhaps he’s apolitical. But Foley, who is white, is not woke. He has not spoken of the glories of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. He does not make large contributions to left-wing organizations. He has not apologized for his “white privilege.”

Oh, what did Foley say that got the left so upset? During that ‘Hawks preseason game against Eisbären Berlin, while opposing forward Austin Ortega handled the puck, Foley said, “Ortega, who sounds like he ought to be a shortstop.”

Yep, that’s it. A Chicago Tribune writer deemed Foley’s quip “racially insensitive.” The Blackhawks, in their apology stopped short of that, calling what he said only “insensitive.” Sports Illustrated covered the kerfuffle.

The Blackhawks in that statement noted that Foley, a recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award by the Hockey Hall of Fame, apologized to the Berlin team.

What appears to have ignited the controversy was a Tweet from an Hispanic hockey fan, Ghostchant, who distorted Foley’s words. “‘Ortega, sounds like he should be a shortstop’ instead of hockey.” Yep, “instead of hockey.”

But there is something else. Foley didn’t say “instead of hockey.” The Tweeter, who, if he has a sense of honor would place himself into his personal penalty box for a spell, added those words.

Here’s the entire Tweet along that “insensitive” comment from Foley.

In this split-second-glance-at-my-smartphone world, it’s easy to see why Ghostchant’s dishonest Tweet went viral. Many people look, get outraged, then re-Tweet or post on Facebook, without digging into the veracity of information on that puny screen, or, as I suspect in this instance, bothering to play the accompanying video clip.

Foley’s reputation has taken an undeserved dirty hit.

Tlaib, on the other hand, just keeps going.

What happened to Foley reminds me of a comment made by Nixon White House thug, Charles Colson, who later redeemed himself post-prison. “Anyone who opposes us, we’ll destroy,” he said, “as a matter of fact, anyone who doesn’t support us, we’ll destroy.”

That’s today’s left. Destroy first. Ask questions later. If at all.

There’s a lesson here. If you are a prominent person, unless you are deemed woke, you cannot comment on race or ethnicity, according to the rules of the high priests of the left.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Feds setting up a massive corruption net in Chicago area

Posted: September 29, 2019 by John Ruberry in News/opinion, politics
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Blogger post-race in McCook, Illinois in June

By John Ruberry

One thing hasn’t changed since the outage here at Da Tech Guy. Corruption in Illinois is rampant.

As I noted in this space, on the third day of 2019, Chicago’s most powerful alderman, Ed Burke, who has been in office for 50 years, was named in a criminal complaint centered on an extortion complaint from a fast food restaurant in his ward. In May, Burke was indicted on 14 corruption charges. Burke’s wife, Anne, sits on the Illinois Supreme Court. More on that later.

Around the time of the Burke indictment, the FBI raided the homes of Michael Zalewski, a former Chicago alderman, Kevin Quinn, the brother of another Chicago alderman, and Mike McClain, a lobbyist. All of them are close allies of Michael Madigan, Illinois House speaker for 34 of the last 36 years and the chairman of the state Democratic Party. Quinn’s brother represents the 13th Ward in Chicago’s City Council, where Madigan serves as Democratic committeeman.

Last Tuesday federal agents raided the suburban Chicago and Springfield offices of state Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Cicero). Half of his district is covered by Madigan’s House district. But the feds weren’t done last week. On Thursday they raided the village halls of McCook and Lyons, which are in Sandoval’s district. An insurance agency owned by the family of the mayor of Lyons was also raided. The mayor of McCook, a Democrat, is also a Cook County commissioner.

Clearly the federal government is on to something in Madigan’s geographic base, the Southwest Side of Chicago and its southwestern suburbs. Of course Madigan’s fierce grip reaches all the way to the Ohio River. However, Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor, urges caution in jumping to conclusions in linking these raids to Boss Madigan’s activities.

In other Illinois corruption news, in June federal agents raided the ward office of Chicago alderman Carrie Austin. And last month state Sen. Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park), a distant cousin of state Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), was indicted on embezzlement charges.

Let me get back to Burke, or rather, the alderman’s wife, Anne. Earlier this month Anne was elevated to chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.

Only in Illinois.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The New Green Deal – Starvation

Posted: September 26, 2019 by julietteochieng in economy, News/opinion, politics

by 3Planets

Many, if not all the Democratic Party candidates vying for nomination for President, to a man, woman or other, support the removal and criminalization of the internal combustion engine.  The cost to the environment like totally outweighs our need to grow and harvest food.  You know, the soy beans and veggies necessary to support life on earth as they know it.

It wasn’t too long ago – just in the beginning of the 1900’s – that having enough food was a real concern.  Does anybody remember the election slogan “a chicken in every pot”? Bonus points if you can name the politician who said it.  Hunger does exist in America.  According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), as of just two years ago, 12.3 percent of American households remain food insecure – meaning that 1 in 8 households in the United States had difficulty at some time during the year in providing enough food for all their members.

These Democrat Party Candidates all support the starvation of low income and most unfortunate of our country!  How can I say that?

To understand, one only needs to visit a farm – a place as alien as a church to the wonderful slaver socialist city dwellers, during the harvest.  But be aware that the farmers, whose livelihoods depend upon a quick and successful harvest, may not be too happy to see you.  The harvest is the short – a matter of hours – time in which farmers have to get their ripe crops in before the snow falls, rains come and the crop begins to rot in the fields.  Without the use of many sophisticated, expensive mechanical devices known as “trucks”, “tractors”, “harvesters”, “combines” and a plethora of vehicles seen only on farms, the agricultural revolution with the delivered promise of inexpensive, nutritious food to feed rich and poor across our country and the world will be impossible.

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