The power of fake news

This is the power of fake news. Democrats are more familiar with Steven Bannon than life long, powerful legislator, Chuck Schumer. Bannon was the editor of Breitbart, the on-line news source, flip side of Huffington Post. He was demonized by the left for NOT deleting the trolls and idiots who posted in comments. Now he's advising Trump and they are convinced he has more power than Schumer who's on TV beating a dead horse every day and whom they elected.

Washington Post 

 

There are 7,000 diseases on the rare disease list

 February 28 is Rare Disease day. Choose one of 7,000 and become informed or support the research. Last year the FDA allotted $23 million over 4 years, choosing 21 projects. As you can see, $23 million doesn't go far. We are supporting MPS III A (San Filippo Syndrome) because we know a sweet girl who has this. While the internet rages with politics and fake news, there are families quietly suffering and battling along. Let's help.

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today [Oct. 17, 2016] announced that it has awarded 21 new clinical trial research grants totaling more than $23 million over the next four years to boost the development of products for patients with rare diseases. These new grants were awarded to principal investigators from academia and industry with research spanning domestic and international clinical sites."

 https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/browse-by-first-letter

Rare disease day in the U.S. is February 28, 2017.  http://rarediseaseday.us/

"Rare diseases are not so rare:  there are 7,000 rare diseases disorders that combined affect 30 million Americans–1 in 10 of us–and more than half are children.

People with rare diseases have tremendous unmet needs, including misdiagnosis, a long time to finally receive a correct diagnosis, and when they do, 95% have no treatment with ZERO CURES."

Mammography and social justice

Who am I to question how medical research money is spent, but when I see this, . . . "research grants for scholars from backgrounds that are historically disadvantaged or underrepresented in research disciplines," I know I don't care about the skin color or ethnicity of the nurse or med tech who could possibly save my life. Wouldn't that money be better spent on a new drug, cutting edge technology or a cure rather than on social goals? And the same for raising yet more money through runs and walks for education and screening. Mammography is detecting more cancers, but hasn't reduced mortality.

Words, will they make a comeback?

We have a new sheriff in town.  Remember when mothers would tell their toddlers, "Use your words, not your fists."  We may regret that. Meanwhile. I think I've heard "Islamic terrorist" more in the last 2 weeks than the last 8 years.

There are over a million words in the English language, and it is global and borrows as needed. There are over 50 words just for sheep.  But in the U.S., the word police have thrown so many words at the wall, any wall, they no longer have any meaning.  Tolerance. Diversity. Privilege. Multicultural. Gender. Sex. Rape. Hunger. Poverty. Microaggression. Disparities. Justice. Fairness. Comprehensive. Invalidation. Underserved population. People of color. Traditional marriage. Hitler. Nazi. Orwell. Male. Female. . And a host of pronouns. . . (feminists killed the pronoun even before the transgender debate).  And now, all of a sudden, Democrats have discovered the Constitution, patriotism and the Bible.  Who knows where this could lead?

The Super Bowl ads

I watched only the overtime of Super Bowl LI, and thought it was pretty exciting when I caught up on what had happened 2nd half. On Monday and Tuesday it was still being debated for non-football reasons--particularly the ads, which I didn't see--also didn't see Lady GaGa. But everything seems to be political.

 "Many Americans watch the game for the ads. Audi hectored us about the phony gender wage gap. But immigration was the dominant theme, with not one, not two but three ads ...moralizing about the issue — the one from 84 Lumber being the most heavy handed. We suspect most Americans vastly prefer to be entertained by humorous and silly commercials than ads designed to shame half the population. The same goes for the sport itself. We watch to see the clash of combatants on the gridiron, not the pouty nonsense of kneeling social justice warriors. Let’s make sports (and commercials) great again." Patriot Post, Nate Jackson, Feb. 6.

I remember when TV and magazine advertising depicted adult women for years as either complete air-heads who couldn't open a box of laundry soap without a male voice-over, or as sex objects suitable only as a clothes rack or to satisfy a man (many women's magazines still do). Now the ads show men as wimps and effeminate clothes racks, or stupid, knuckle dragging beer drinkers. And now they want to preach equality, diversity and sustainability? I don't think so.

Tucker Carlson on Fox

By the time he comes on in his new time slot (9 p.m.) I'm usually asleep, but his is one of the best programs on TV. What I enjoy about Tucker is, unlike Bill O'Reilly, he respects his guests and allows them to have their say, even if you know he'll eviscerate them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqtvZM2oYrM 
Interview with Rand Paul on the Federal Reserve System.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz3RLnuk370
Travel ban analysis.  Like watching paint dry.

The New World Order and pushback against Trump

"Forget most of the complaints and accusations against Donald Trump you are hearing these days. There is a growing, ugly and violent war being waged against the Trump administration and conservatives in general. Most of that war is being orchestrated and funded by massively-financed elites of one general movement – the several decades old movement for an aggressively secular, borderless, de-populationist New World Order and world government."

LifeSite

Betsy DeVos and The Department of Education

I didn't feel strongly about DeVos--except the teachers' unions were against her and that's a pretty good clue. The two Republicans who didn't support her are well funded by teachers' unions. I do wonder about the purpose of the Department of Education except to hand out grants to their favorites and fiddle around with reports no one ever reads or follows. Now, there's been an historic attempt to block the president's choices and an historic vote to break the tie. So far, in two weeks, Democrats have just made themselves look weak and whiny. Something to remember in the 2018 vote.  Teachers' unions have done an excellent job of keeping salaries/benefits high (ca. $58/hour according to BLS) and a poor job of releasing trapped poor kids from their district schools. No wonder they are against DeVos and for all Democrat politicians. Life long politicians need life long victims.

David Keck says (on Facebook): " The reason the NEA and AFT want the Department of Education in the first place has no connection to what is best for kids. What it does is provide a permanent ear and funding stream for their lobbyists in Washington for their own agenda. And the Common Core thing is just the example that it never stops with where they are when they get this department. It always gets bigger. The fact that so many districts and states kowtow to Common Core shows that they are not just "helping" or assuring rights for kids - they are imposing a national curriculum. Yes, I know it is voluntary. So is state highway money. See if you get it if you don't cooperate with the feds' latest crime of the month, e. g. seat belts, uniform speed limits, or whatever.

Don't forget that Reagan campaigned on getting rid of the DOE. He then hired Terrell Bell from Wyoming to run it, and he initiated the "A Nation At Risk" report. I had one of Bell's minions as a professor and he was quite proud of the fact that they snookered Reagan. He said so."

http://nypost.com/2017/02/05/the-war-on-betsy-devos-is-all-about-the-teachers-unions/#.

Sharyl Attkisson: We've been played

"We’re being played. Astroturfers often disguise themselves and publish blogs, write letters to the editor, produce ads, start non-profits, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts, edit Wikipedia pages or simply post comments online to try to fool you into thinking an independent or grassroots movement is speaking. They use their partners in blogs and in the news media in an attempt to lend an air of legitimacy or impartiality to their efforts. Astroturf’s biggest accomplishment is when it crosses over into semi-trusted news organizations that unquestioningly cite or copy it.

The language of astroturfers and propagandists includes trademark inflammatory terms such as: anti, nutty, quack, crank, pseudo-science, debunking, conspiracy theory, deniers and junk science. Sometimes astroturfers claim to “debunk myths” that aren’t myths at all. They declare debates over that aren’t over. They claim that “everybody agrees” when everyone doesn’t agree. They aim to make you think you’re an outlier when you’re not." http://fullmeasure.news/

My favorite is "research shows," or "it is reported," when in fact that includes a writer or two you've never heard of. I even use it occasionally if I remember a story and am too lazy to find the link.  But I'm not being paid.  A year ago I wouldn't have called the New York Times or Washington Post "astroturfers," but in their on going fight against President Trump (because they lost so badly and were embarrassed by their sloppy reporting), they've reduced themselves to that level.

Trump proved right again. Media are silent.

Almost all the popular vote for Clinton over Trump (about 3 million) came from California. There are Democrats who think that should trump the Electoral College vote. Now one of the California state politicians, Kevin de León (D), has announced half his family and that of other Mexican heritiage Californians use false documents to survive. In short, he has just proved Donald Trump right. But oh how the press raged at Trump for suggesting that there is voter fraud. Crickets for this admission.

"I can tell you half of my family would be eligible for deportation under executive order, because if they got a false Social Security card, if they got a false identification, if they got a false driver’s license prior to us passing AB60, if they got a false green card, and anyone who has family members, you know, who are undocumented knows that almost entirely everybody has secured some sort of false identification. That’s what you need to survive, to work. They are eligible for massive deportation." Kevin de Leon.

AB60 is a law that gives illegals drivers' licenses--about 800,000 were issued the first 2 years.

Springsteen and Youngstown, Ohio

Mike Huckabee reports on Springsteen and his (long forgotten) ties to Youngstown, Ohio): “Bruce Springsteen must be taking career advice from the Dixie Chicks. During a concert on foreign soil (Australia), he implied that he was embarrassed by America’s President, then sang a song suggesting it was because Trump hung up on Australia’s Prime Minister – a dubious story from an unnamed source that both parties to the phone call strongly denied.

This is hardly Bruce’s first jab at Trump. Having campaigned hard for Hillary, he’s also on record as calling Trump incompetent and a “moron,” although he did recently add a caveat that that there are “plenty of good, solid folks that voted for Donald Trump.” I’ve said this before, but if he really wants to be a voice for beleaguered working people, he should do what I do: spend time talking to them instead of celebrities, politicians and Rolling Stone writers.

I’d suggest starting with Joe Marshall Jr. He’s a retired Ohio steelworker who inspired Springsteen’s song “Youngstown,” often hailed by liberals for its sad depiction of the problems of laid-off factory workers in an outsourced-jobs world. In the last election, Marshall was a strong Trump backer. He told the New York Times that the Democrats “failed Youngstown” with overbearing regulations that drove jobs away. Springsteen said he wrote his song after reading about Marshall in a book. Might I suggest talking to Marshall, and other Trump-voting factory workers like him, face-to-face? Judging from the way Bruce fell for one of the countless anti-Trump fake news stories, it appears that he’s not making very good choices of reading material.”

http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/02/03/bruce-springsteen-just-apologized-australia-trumps-behalf-best-way/

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2017/02/02/even-the-mexican-government-is-calling-out-the-ap-for-inaccurately-reporting-call-with-trump-n2280214

Yes, in our era teens all dressed a like

 
We just had prettier clothes in those days. 

Yes, definitely

Our party line was 59-L.  Gayle might remember this.  In Oakwood Hall where we both lived, the pop machine (bottles) began spitting them out with no one inserting coins.  Lots of squealing brought the crowd running. I think she was the hall monitor.

Moles, leakers and Clintonistas in the federal government

As I've puzzled over the anti-Trump reaction to an Obama order now going to the courts, I came across a number of stories of federal workers in various agencies like EPA and DoE organizing to fight Trump through encryption of files, special groups to stay in touch, archiving of files outside the agency, etc. If this is also taking place in Homeland Security (which is charged with carrying out the 2015 order restricting travel to and from 7 nations) I think a pause to clean house, not of immigrants but of federal workers, may be a good idea. Then there is the leaking (inaccurate) of Trump’s phone conversations with Australia’s leader and Mexico’s leader. Both those presidents have denied the account published by A.P. The new term is "fake news." So something is afoot. More collusion between the media (our third party) and the bureaucracy (the Democratic party)? Also, just this past week-end it was revealed that three brothers (don’t know if they were Muslims) working for Democratic Congress members as IT specialists were all fired. That is not related to immigration travel, but it could mean there are moles within both parties and within the federal bureaucracy.

 

 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/federal-workers-signal-app-234510

 

 http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/04/exclusive-house-intelligence-it-staffers-fired-in-computer-security-probe/

 

 http://ktla.com/2017/02/03/trump-administration-issues-clarification-on-travel-ban-allows-some-travelers-from-7-countries-to-enter-us-under-special-circumstances/

 

thehill.com/homenews/administration/317887-wh-to-probe-leak-of-trumps-australia-mexico-calls