Posse Incitatus

You Get What You Pay For ... NOT!

Occasionally I like to comment on something that is largely unrelated to current events. Today is one such day, if  "current events" means the political dysfunction roiling Washington, D.C.. Well, come to think of it, one of my observations does have something to do with the current Beltway shit-show and its participants. Read on.

I've long believed that the adage "You Get What You Pay For" is frequently wrong. Take restaurants, for example. Who among us has not shelled out top dollar to dine at a supposedly ritzy restaurant, only to be hugely disappointed by mediocre food and lousy service? Or conversely, who hasn't been astounded at how good a meal was (and how much the service shined) at an obscure hole-in-the-wall eatery where the bill was totally reasonable? It's happened to me on numerous occasions.

In recent years, I have often complained about highly paid GOP political consultants whose predictions are wrong far more often than right, and whose track records for losing elections are disgraceful. Yet the network news shows just keep having them on as guests, as if their viewpoints are valuable.

Also among grossly overpaid people who are incompetent and/or highly destructive are university provosts and administrators (including several at my alma mater, Michigan State), who get shown the door because of their massive screwups, failed leadership and sometimes criminal behavior, yet receive a golden parachute severance package. In some cases, these parasites are allowed to continue working for a university, albeit in a different capacity.

Now let's switch to professional sports. As I've said before, the older I get, the less I care about pro sports. The salaries are out of control, many of the players are narcissistic prima donnas, and the games are often not as much fun to watch as they used to be. If you want to go in person, you pay top dollar for a ticket only to be assaulted by nonstop loud, obnoxious "music" blaring over the loudspeakers, and big-mouth public address announcers in love with their own voices. Parking is exorbitant, as are concessions. Why not just stay home and enjoy the game on a big screen while sitting in a comfortable easy chair? The food is a lot cheaper, and there are no restroom lines. And if you want adult beverages with your college football, you can get 'em at home, but not at the stadium concessions.

It would take a long time to list all of the hideously overpaid and underperforming pro athletes, but the horrendous Detroit Tigers, who just finished with Major League Baseball's worst record, AND who broke the Major League record for most strikeouts in a season (1,595), have some prime examples on their roster.

Take Miguel Cabrera, for example. In 2014, the idiot Detroit management signed Cabrera to an eight-year, $248 million contract extension. He was already 30 at the time, and it's obvious that a pro athlete's best years are behind him once he gets into his 30s. Cabrera is now 36, has been hobbled by injuries, and his performance is lousy compared to 5-10 years ago. The Tigers are stuck with paying him $30 million a year for five more seasons. This season, he batted .282 and had 12 home runs. Not bad for someone who would earn $2-10 million per year, but $30 million? Ridiculous. His productivity is certain to decline, but his deadweight on the Tigers' payroll will remain.

Another fiasco was Prince Fielder, who signed a nine-year, $214 million contract in 2012. He was later traded, and has been out of baseball for three years in part because he couldn't control his weight. Although he hasn't played for the Tigers since 2013, the club is paying him $6 million per year through 2020. 

But the coup de grace of overpaid players is pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, who the Tigers signed to a five-year, $110 million contract in November 2015. He has now pitched four seasons for the Tigers and has a 5.29 ERA.  His records in 2016-2018 were 9-7, 8-13 and 7-8. In 2019, he was 1-13 with a 6.91 Earned Run Average. It is downright sickening to see a worthless player making tens of millions of dollars while performing so poorly.

It is also maddening that the Tigers' inept general manager, Al Avila, signed a multi-year contract extension in summer 2019.  The truth is, Avila is as bad or worse than the former Detroit Lions GM Matt Millen, who ran the Lions into the ground from 2001-2008. (In 2008, they became the first NFL team to complete an entire season without a victory.)

Meanwhile, millions of hard-working, intelligent people across the nation who are actually competent and productive,  must struggle by with modest salaries. Most of us, if our performance goes in the tank, get the ax. 

Who was the idiot who came up with that saying, "You Get What You Pay For?"

 

 

Demented Medicine

One of the most profound signs of our civilizational decay is the politicization of medicine.  For a century, western medical science brought a series of miracles, dramatically reducing disease and extending both the length and quality of human life.

That formidable achievement now seems to be inverting as fact-based science yields to politically correct imperatives.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the case of the transgender hysteria.

Even a cursory knowledge of childhood development would rule out allowing young children to make life-altering decisions.  Indeed, the age of consent exists precisely because children cannot make informed decisions.  It should be obvious that they lack the judgement and experience to do so.

Happily, nature provides parents to fulfill this role.  This brings us to the Big Lie that “trans kids” are expressing their true selves and good, responsible parents have a responsibility to cater to these self-destructive whims.

As one wag remarked, when you see a vegan cat or a trans kid, understand that neither of them are ones making that decision.

Not long ago, the medical establishment would highlight these actions as child abuse, but now a whole industry has emerged (backed of course by Big Pharma) to support it.

What’s interesting is that none of the new “treatment protocols” have any data behind them.  It’s all based on hunches, supposition and of course intense lobbying by interested parties.

The Daily Wire lays it out very clearly: the “therapeutic” drugs are being used off-label and are highly dangerous. 

Moreover, “blocking” puberty is an inherently toxic event.  Puberty unfolds differently in each individual and it is a time-sensitive process.  One can’t simply hit a “pause” button and expect it to resume if the patient has a change of heart.

The awful truth – which I have noted repeatedly on this site – is that even “successful” transitions are sterile.  They do not become the opposite sex, but instead a facsimile sustained by dangerous concoctions of hormones and chemicals.  It’s biological cosplay with real-world effects.

It is no more compassionate to help a mentally disturbed person persist in their illusion that they can change sexes than it is to buy a drink for an alcoholic or buy a hit for a drug addict.

At some point – hopefully soon – there will be a dreadful reckoning on what these twisted people have done to innocent children.

Gluttons For Punishment

Having failed catastrophically with their two-year Russian collusion/obstruction hoax, the Democrats are back in the ring to take another swing (for about the fifth or sixth time)....

Back in July, they felt giddy about the prospect of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifying before a congressional committee. Surely he would have damning things to say about Donald Trump; he would flesh out critical parts of his report with juicy details to be repeated ad nauseam by the news media. The pressure would build on Trump -- maybe pushing him to the breaking point.

Heh, dream on... In fact, Mueller proved to be feeble, confused,  and ineffective. His testimony was useless to the Democrats and actually set back their cause. 

In mid-September, the Democrats called former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to testify. Once again, the abominable Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, a villain from central casting, led the three-ring circus. Turns out, Lewandowski ran rings around all of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee -- especially Nadler. The media was bitterly disappointed that another in a seemingly endless series of strikeouts had let them down once again.

This time around, as the Democrats prepare an impeachment inquiry into Trump's dealings with the Ukrainian president, Rep. Adam Schiff will lead the charge. The Democrats are admitting that Nadler was a fiasco, and they believe Schiff will fare better. But Schiff already has repeatedly lied and been proven to have no credibility (not to mention the charisma of a tree stump). For many months, Schiff continuously insisted he had solid evidence that the president had colluded with the Russians to steal the 2016 election. But he never did come up with anything solid. The media gave him a pass, of course.

Although early polls since the Ukrainian news broke several days ago seem to show more Americans now support impeachment (thus persuading Speaker Nancy Pelosi to support it), I believe public sentiment will shift in the other direction as more information comes out and the Trump camp pushes back hard.

Meantime, the Democrats will continue to put their despicable clowns out on full display for Americans to see, day after day, night after night. I'm not so sure those naive soccer moms who helped the blue wave succeed are happy they put these hacks in power. It doesn't seem like they enjoy a nonstop shit-show.

But I am pretty confident a huge chunk of America will not be pleased to see this psychotic Democrat hatred play out like a bad opera singer. The witless Democrats are setting up their 2020 failure at the ballot box. More power to 'em!

 

Democrats, The Projection Party

How many times is this going to happen before the brain-dead news media gets a clue: The Democrats rail against Donald Trump and fulminate about his disrespect for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law because he allegedly did something wrong that their party had already done.

Just a few months after the RUSSIA!™ collusion & obstruction of justice hoax melted away like the Wicked Witch after Dorothy doused her with water, the Democrats are on the warpath about the president's dealings with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Trumpster doesn't deny that he spoke with Zelensky several months ago about conducting an investigation into Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden and Biden's son, Hunter. But the transcript of their phone conversation contains no evidence of a supposed quid pro quo suggested by Trump -- i.e., either you guys investigate the Bidens, or we're holding back on $400 million of military aid we promised you!

The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel found Trump's conversation was simply a "routine diplomatic call." And Justice's Criminal Division also investigated, finding that Trump committed no violation of federal campaign finance law.

Now let's switch to Joe Biden and the Democrats... Let us not forget that in 2016, then Vice President Biden threatened the Ukrainian president that the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine if the government did not fire the country's top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. Biden wanted Shokin gone because the prosecutor was investigating corruption at Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company whose board of directors included Biden's son Hunter. The younger Biden's sinecure was obviously made possible because of his proximity to the power centers of U.S. government. In this case, there really was a quid pro quo. The Obama administration also pulled some strings with the Ukrainian government to investigate former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. But don't expect the mainstream media to mention that.

Psychologists call this Democrat tendency "projection." That's where individuals attribute characteristics they find unacceptable in themselves to another person. Or, in this case, a political party attributes ethically questionable actions to another political party. But hey, maybe projection isn't the right word. After all, can we really assume the Democrats find it unacceptable to cozy up with a foreign government to get dirt on their political opponents? Maybe not. It might be just another card to play in the never-ending dirty game of politics. Check your scruples at the door.

Once again, it was a disgruntled, anti-Trump member of the intelligence community who leaked the information about Trump's conversation with Zelensky. The Democrat media calls him a "whistleblower." I call him a partisan hack. 

A corrupt, leaking Deep State; a Democrat Party projecting its own sins on the Trump administration; a compliant parrot press utterly incapable of critical thinking; and the Trump administration beleaguered with another tempest-in-a-teapot incident. Some things never change.

As Herman's Hermits once sang: "Second verse; same as the first!"

 

Petty and Petulant Leftists

One of the most infuriating things about leftists, besides how misguided they are, is their tendency to be petty, petulant and personal when it comes to attacking political opponents. Never can they just let something be or give the benefit of the doubt if there's an opportunity to criticize, mock and cynically demonize the opposition.

Here's a small example: This past weekend, the Michigan Republican Party held its biannual policy meeting on Mackinac Island, a picturesque tourist attraction that sits in northern Lake Huron between the state's Upper Peninsula and the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula. For those who are not familiar with this vacation destination, the island is known for its quaintness. With the exception of the police and fire department, motor vehicles are not allowed.

People travel amidst the gorgeous victorian homes, historic hotels and 1890s downtown by walking, bicycling, or riding in horse-drawn carriages.

Well, it just so happens that Vice President Mike Pence was one of an impressive lineup of weekend speakers. (Others included former White House Press Secretary Sarah Hucakbee Sanders and Congressmen Kevin McCarthy and Dan Crenshaw.) The VP's security detail deemed it wise and prudent to transport some vehicles to the island on a ferry and move Pence between the tiny airport and the Grand Hotel, where he spoke, inside an armored limousine rather than on a horse-drawn carriage.

This is eminently sensible and responsible. We live in dangerous times, and can you imagine the criticism and second guessing if the VP had been attacked riding in a horse-drawn carriage? To expose him like that would be criminal negligence.

But gosh, judging by the insanely juvenile and angry reaction by liberals, you'd think the VP had urinated on a Planned Parenthood clinic! The comments sections of news articles about Pence's security vehicles supposedly defiling this pristine paradise were full of invective from liberals with too much time on their hands. Twitter was awash with snarky denunciations from pompous progressives (oops, sorry for the redundancy).

One woman tweeted the ferry company that transported the VP's vehicles to the island and said she would never again ride on their ferries, which she'd been doing for years, but instead would switch her loyalty to the competing ferry company. Do tell.

Here is a Huffington Post account of the rage of the left, with the headline, "Michiganders Furious About Mike Pence's 8-Vehicle Motorcade on Carless Mackinac Island." Former Associated Press journalist Ron Fournier, a Detroit native, called the motorcade "obscene." Unbelievable. One moron on Twitter tweeted, "I wonder where entitled Nazi #MackinacMike got the idea that he can do whatever he wants despite a rule that’s been in place for over a century." Myself, I wonder why a person would have so much hatred in her heart for a decent and accomplished man who is serving his country honorably.

Melodramatic and over-the-top are just a couple of adjectives that don't begin to describe the histrionics of useless leftists. The economy is doing well, Trump has pulled out of ill-advised Obama trade deals and the Iran nuclear deal; the president is the first person to fight back against China's abuses; and he's attempting to stop the onslaught of Third World illegal immigrants. In other words, he's doing things that are helping our nation. Millions of people are working better jobs, earning higher wages, and benefiting from a robust stock market. Income inequality, an obsession of the left, is less severe now than under St. Barack Obama. And that's why the puerile children of the left lash out like four-year-olds.

Utterly pathetic, but that's where we are in 2019.

Advice for these bitter losers: Get. A. Life. (Or at least get better candidates to oppose Trump.)

 

Is Ukraine the new RUSSIA?

One of the things I learned under Bill Clinton's presidency is that whenever a Democrat has broken a law, there will immediately be media reports that Republicans have done the same thing, only worse.

It was a novel invention 30 years ago, but now it's becoming a dull, predictable routine.

In other words: the magic is gone.

Clearly Joe Biden and the Obama administration know they are vulnerable on this.  There's also the lingering question of Uranium One and the decision process in approving the sale of a strategic ore to the eeeevil Vladimir Putin.

Based on experience, I'm going to assume that this whole fake scandal is an attempt to get in front of new revelations about both Biden and Clinton.  Just as the same two photos of Trump in the same room with Jeffrey Epstein were the only ones used in an effort to tie Trump to the noted sex-trafficker, so the same hackneyed allegations are being trotted out as cover for the corrupt Deep State.

The problem as that - as with Epstein - the Clinton ties are far deeper and Trump isn't shy about pointing them out.

Adding to the risk is the fact that the federal government is no loner a wholly-owned subsidiary of Clinton Inc.  There are still pockets of resistance, but there are also honest cops who seem determined to break some of these cases open.

ClintonWorld is in eclipse.  It's power came from the ability to dispense political favors and that influence is fading.  Without it, the foreign hired guns are no longer willing to do the dirty deeds that gets them paid.  In fact, they may well turn on their prior benefactors who were stiffed by Hillary's failure to win the White House.

There are a lot of unpaid I.O.U.s out there and the holders are likely looking for some payback.