Posts Tagged ‘under the fedora’

5 Speaker Overboard Thoughts Under the Fedora, The Stupid Party, Some Working with Dems is More Equal Than Others, The Biden Escape Hatch, Questions and the way to go

Posted: October 4, 2023 by datechguy in politics, under the fedora
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I have no non-work net access at work nor do I own a cell phone so I was planning to write something about the Pope tonight when I instead got word of what went on in the house.

Seriously? With a six vote majority you vote out a speaker who on the whole has exceeded expectations for conservatives despite holding the thinnest of thin majorities?

The GOP is called the stupid party for a reason

One of the objections to Speaker McCarthy was that he made a deal with the Democrats for a continuing resolution to keep government open. A resolution Democrats were so afraid of passing that one of the pulled a fire alarm to keep it from happening.

So because they were so upset at McCarthy for working with Democrats to keep the government funded, those who opposed him worked with the entire Democrat caucus to remove him.

Am I the only one noticing the Irony here?

To me the most frightening part of this is what Glenn Reynolds noted:

Heck, if I’m the Democrats, I vote somebody tolerable as President Pro Tem of the Senate, then have Biden and Kamala both step down. With the Speakership of the House vacant, they could pick a succesor president that easily. If I’m Chuck Schumer, I’m scheming for that right now . . .

As of this moment there is no GOP member in the line of succession. This is the perfect chance for the left to rid themselves of both Biden and Harris. That Gaetz & company didn’t think of this is criminal.

I hate to say it but given the violence we’ve seen from the left if I was Joe Biden or Kamala Harris I’d be scared for my life till a new speaker is in place.

The logical questions that comes from all of this are these:

  1. Who is an acceptable speaker to these eight?
  2. Do the eight have a candidate who would be acceptable to the rest of the party
  3. Would the eight support any candidate that didn’t give them the power to boot him and would any republican in his right mind take the job knowing that these people will boot him if he doesn’t obey?
  4. How long are these people willing to keep the house without a speaker?
  5. Are there any parliamentary tricks that the Democrats can use to get the speakership if the GOP doesn’t have their full membership present to keep them from winning such a vote and if so who on the GOP side are watching for that?
  6. Did they think of any of this stuff before taking this vote

This is pretty much a dog catching a car and not knowing what to do with it, or as Sam Rayburn used to say: “Any old jackass can knock down a barn door, it takes a carpenter to build one.”

Now I’m just a small blogger who has been here for almost 15 years and I’d like a conservative speaker to advance conservative values so let me give a piece of advice to members of the GOP who would like that, particularly the entertaining eight.

If you want to get a strong conservative as speaker elect enough republicans to get a solid majority so that you can put through a conservative speaker

If you don’t elect republicans you don’t get a conservative speaker and if you are not able or willing to go out and find republicans who can win in districts currently held by Democrats and support them to the max then all the bluster about Speaker McCarthy is just BS.

Back Home Under the Fedora, An Offer You Can’t Refuse?, I don’t Care Why He’s Defending the Constitution, It’s almost not Newsworthy Anymore, Seriously?, 9/11 Birthdays and Head Shaking

Posted: September 11, 2023 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, culture, election 2024, fun, News/opinion, pinball
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I’m back home from Pintastic NE 2023 the most relaxing time I’ve had in months and frankly the best Pintastic I’ve attended with one exception. I didn’t have a chance to interview Gabe at the end of the show because of time constraints, however I will be uploading and posting video daily till it’s all up. Meanwhile here is the new Godfather 50th Anniversary Pinball Machine.

The one on the left is the “cheap” one that sells for $12,500, the one on the right is the expensive version that sells for $15,000. You’ll hear more about that specific game later in the month.

There seems to be a lot of shock that Ted Lieu is objecting to the move by the governor of New Mexico to try to remove gun rights by fiat:

I’d like to give Mr. Lieu the benefit of the doubt that he actually understands that this is unconstitutional but I would not be surprised if this is more of a case of learning what Harry Reid did not, namely if your side changes the rules in one state then the other side can do the same elsewhere.

Frankly I’m less concerned if he’s doing this for selfish reasons, altruistic reasons or both as long as he’s with us in defending the constitution.

Apparently the president’s performance in Vietnam was yet another national embarrassment but frankly I’m wondering something.

For a long time Joe Biden making a fool or an ass out of himself was not newsworthy because the media didn’t want to promote or expose this fact which was a disgrace in terms of how journalism works.

I’m wondering however if we’ve actually reached a point where Joe Biden being non compos mentis is so common and so established that it’s no longer newsworthy if he acts that way, or that it will not be newsworthy until he carries himself like a normal person.

I’m sorry. I like Citizen Free Press and think it’s usually an excellent source but this a “fascinating read” Really?

Can someone tell me why anyone, particularly a conservative site is trusting a story from the NYT or Bill Kristol as a source as to what big money GOP donors are thinking concerning election 2023?

Finally today is 9/11 and as a child of Depression era parents and the son of a father who served in the Pacific in World War 2 I find myself more and more frustrated on this day.

I hate that we didn’t rebuild the towers twice as big.

I hate that we didn’t finish the job with Iran when we had armies to the east and west of Iran and a navy to the south.

I hate that we didn’t do in Iraq what we did in Germany and Japan, namely stay till they were no longer a threat even if it took half a century. If we weren’t going to do the job right why go in?

But all those things that I hate are a function of what the country and the culture has become helped on by enemies who figured out it’s cheaper and smarter to spend their money on pols and academics that you can buy and use for decades rather than weapons that can be destroyed or go obsolete.

All of these things were choices made by us as a nation, just as our decline has been a choice. That’s the worst part of it all.

On the bright side today is the birthday of one of my nephews that I’m closest to so while 9/11 is a day of infamy on the day and shame pondering our response nationally personally I’m glad to have this fine fellow in my family so happy birthday and many more.

Five Quick GOP Debate Thoughts Under the Fedora, Nikki you’re so fine, DeSantis slow and steady, Christie v Ramaswary undercard, Invisible men , In Summation

Posted: August 24, 2023 by datechguy in election 2024, elections, elections, politics, primaries
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Yesterday I had expected to be home in time to watch the GOP debate live because thanks to BidenomicsTM there has not been enough work at work for full 8 hour days but as two people were on vacation and two more had left finding other jobs I ended up working a full shift and getting home at 1:00 am after dropping off my car at the garage for a pre-inspection checkup didn’t get to see the GOP debate till 1:05 which meant a long night and given the repairs and inspection this morning for my 1999 LeSabre (it passed) I’ve not had time to comment till now.

The first thing that jumped out at me was Nikki Haley who much to my surprise sounded like the credible presidential candidate and make several excellent points, particularly on the fact that there was absolutely no chance of passing a national abortion ban. She seemed ready to showcase herself as a credible alternative to Donald Trump and without a question accomplished that mission. The proof will be if Trump comes after her.

There was a lot of speculation that everyone would be targeting Ron DeSantis but that wasn’t the case. DeSantis made his points very well and seemed to spend his time focusing on the failures of the Biden administration (something that it seemed to me the moderators were doing all they could to avoid dealing with that subject). While Haley was the star there is no question DeSantis did what he wanted to do which was make the case that he had produced and would continue to do so. Ed Morrissey put it best:

This reality is likely why the Trump campaign has apparently invested plenty of time claiming this was all bad news for the Florida governor. The facts alas don’t match with that rethoric.

In terms of entertainment Chris Christie was the primary source of it spending all his time throwing punches at Ramaswamy as there was no Trump to attack while occasionally touting his record as a conservative governing a deep blue state (a record that wasn’t as bad as people remember it to be) Ramaswamy handled it well and make me smile by forthrightly calling climate change BS and speaking truths concerning Ukraine and other subjects that were being dodged. I thought he acquitted himself well.

Most of the rest of the field was invisible, Tim Scott particularly, although he did better than Hutchinson & Bergum who showed they didn’t belong on that stage. As for Mike Pence he kept talking about the achievements of the Trump/Pence admin which is a legit move and was rather adamant that despite the Biden admin making a point to pass a law preventing a VP to reject electors after the fact (a point he never mentioned btw) he in his opinion had no authority to reject the electors in 2020. I think he’s dead wrong but I also think he actually believes he believes that

Finally several quick thoughts:

  • I think the debate moderation demonstrated little difference between Fox & the rest of the MSM
  • It’s apparently still possible to have an actual debate about substance, at least without Trump
  • The whole Trump “counter programing” plan really doesn’t work when in a streaming era
  • It seemed to me Youtube did all it could to steer people to the spin rather than the debate
  • When the first round of debate cuts come half of those candidates should be gone
  • I’ve yet to watch the Trump interview I’ll do so tonight when I get home from work
  • I suspect Trump will reverse his no debate position once the field is down to 3 or 4 but we’ll see

Five Under the Fedora Truths Homeless for Fun and Profit, All Beers Look Alike to Me, Breaking a Twitter Habit, The Chosen Speeding Up and Biden Economy expectations

Posted: August 16, 2023 by datechguy in business, culture, economy, education, entertainment, tech, twitter
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Glenn Reynolds notes the shock of some that passing a law concerning homeless camps and actually enforcing it has caused camps to vanish. This is a disaster for some NGO’s in the sense that they get a lot of government and state money to solve a problem that can be solved by just enforcing the law.

Key quote:

We get urban decay because we tolerate it. And as for the nonprofits/NGOs, homelessness is far too lucrative a problem to solve.

There is no incentive to solve a problem that is both a profit center for you and allows you to claim virtue.

Speaking of profit centers there is a 2nd post at Insty today on a man who will be teaching about the Budlight fiasco at business school. It’s is certainly a subject worth scholarship but it that had a line that likely floated under the radar to most people that I found absolutely hilarious:

He emphasized that beer is essentially the same product, and what sets it apart is the power of its brand

I would submit and suggest this is pretty much true. I suspect a lot of brand loyalty in beer is all about habit. Break that habit and you break that brand.

And Speaking of Breaking the habit as of Today Tweetdeck is no longer a free service when I tried to access it today I was redirected to a screen offering me a blue subscription check for $80 a year.

The real point is Twitter’s value basically comes from addicting people to multiple streams of data and giving folks who want to reach a maximum size audience (advertisers etc) access to that stream. This move gives an incentive for people to walk away from the stream and once people are broken of the addiction your done.

While Elon Musk should of course make the best possible business decision for his product I submit and suggest this is rather foolish. Tweetdeck makes twitter useful because it allows you to view multiple streams in the same window. Without it twitter involves too many tabs and simply isn’t worth my time. I might keep a tab with my DM page available and I might answer embedded tweets I see elsewhere but if you want to get me to see something by putting it on twitter odds are starting today I’ll miss it

On a totally different note I was shocked to see that season 4 of the chosen was going to include the razing of Lazarus from the dead.

Given that this is the last big miracle before the entry into Jerusalem I figured we would see it till at least season 5, particularly since we are going to get the beheading of John the Baptist this season which comes much earlier.

That suggests that either season 7 is going to be all passion and resurrection, with season six all Jerusalem

(Don’t be surprised with the number of characters there is plenty of material for this to be the case) and Season five everything else OR that Dallas plans on moving up the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and having a large chunk of season seven covering a big chunk of acts.

Either way it will be interesting to see how he handles it.

Finally we have regularly been getting short weeks at work. Last week was 30 hours, the week before 32 and the week before 30 which is a great incentive to burn vacation days for people and unpaid time off has been offered which can be tempting on a really beautiful summers day.

Yesterday on the drive in all of us in the car agreed that we would be lucky to end up with four hours although one of us was optimistic enough to suggest me might manage 6.

Much to my shock and everyone else’s as well there seemed there was plenty of work in my department and by moving some people to it during the day ( and letting a few go home early who wanted to ) all of us who stayed managed to our delight a full 8 hours of work which guarantees us at least a 32 hour week.

That’s how bad the Biden economy is, it’s so bad that getting a full days work in the middle of a work week on a day you’re scheduled to work a full day is a pleasant surprise worthy of note

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