Sunday, July 29, 2018

The US in one direction, Cuba and Venezuela in another

Tony Branco
Silvio Canto, Jr.  "On Friday, President Trump celebrated some good news from the U.S. economy.  In the last week, a different message is coming from Cuba and Venezuela.
"We are watching three countries going in different economic directions: the U.S., Cuba, and Venezuela.  It is a classic case of free markets versus socialism.
"Down in Cuba, the message has not changed over the years, as the new president reminded us:
Cuba's economy grew less than expected in the first half of 2018 and an ongoing liquidity crisis will force fresh belt tightening, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Sunday.
"He is proposing constitutional changes.  However, Cuban perestroika won't work any better than the one we saw in the USSR.
"Venezuela is more than falling apart: "Venezuela could eventually have 1 million percent inflation."
"What does that inflation level mean?  It means this: "Venezuela's currency has lost 99.9997 percent of its value in the past 6½ years.  To put that in perspective, $333,333 worth of bolivars in 2012 would be worth $1 today."
"A failed state?  I think so!
"As I recall, a "bolivar," the currency, was 4.29 to a U.S. dollar back in the 1980s.  It used to be a middle-class country!
"On the other hand, we had great news in the U.S.
"It was a good day for the U.S. economy; for workers; and, yes, for President Trump.  It is not the same down in Cuba and Venezuela."

Obama scolds Transgender activist: 'You're in my house!'


CNN Politics  . . . "Shortly after the incident, an immigration group claimed the protestor was an undocumented immigrant named Jennicet GutiĆ©rrez, who is transgender. According to a press release, GutiĆ©rrez was a founding member of FAMILIA TQLM, established to advocate for LGBTQ immigrants who the group says are often excluded in the immigration debate.

"Immigration activists often interrupt Obama when he's delivering speeches on the road -- examples have included remarks he delivered in San Francisco in 2013, and speeches he delivered in Chicago and Las Vegas last November.

"Interruptions are more rare at the White House, where guests are typically invited and pre-screened. One previous example came in June 2012, when Obama was announcing a change in immigration policy.

"A reporter from the Daily Caller website called out a query in the middle of Obama's remarks, leading the President to retort that it wasn't the time for questions.

"The reporter later said he miscalculated the ending of Obama's speech." 

Comedy for Conservatives Week at Legal Insurrection

This person seems to have a personal idea of racism

Virtue Signaling Is Now A Cheap, Prolific Substitute For Actual Virtue

The less prone we are to self-examination, the more self-aggrandizing we become in our denunciations. It’s making our society harsher.
Both left and right are guilty, though we must admit that it is far easier to be a liberal than a conservative. TD

The Federalist


  "For several reasons, all embarrassing testaments to my vice, I was listening to an interview of a beloved former contestant on ABC’s “The Bachelorette.” He was making public amends after having traded his good-guy persona for a series of one-night stands and unfulfilled promises.

"I’m sure it’s a temptation of some enormity to be suddenly surrounded by beautiful and willing young women who see you as you want to see yourself. Still, he knew, as all celebrities must know, that how his fans saw him wasn’t real. He began to cope with that disparity by becoming louder in support of various charities. Somehow he thought that by putting his weight behind a good cause he could bridge the chasm between perception and reality, a chasm exacerbated by his womanizing.

"His case was less egregious than, but still reminiscent of, Harvey Weinstein’s bizarre public mea culpa about fighting the National Rifle Association in light of the revelations of his predation. Such a jarring non sequitur was deemed unacceptable because he’d violated the last sexual norm: consent. But it was still revealing in how we’ve come to see public support of a popular cause as a great balm for our personal guilt.

"It made me wonder how often we all do this. We feel the dissonance between who we ought to be and who we are, and we make up for it by becoming noisier about some issue. If our noise can also implicitly condemn moral beings with whom we disagree, then we might come that much closer to feeling satisfied with ourselves." . . .

Noelle Mering is the arts and culture editor and social media manager for helenadaily.com. She received her undergraduate degree from Westmont College in California and did graduate work in philosophy at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Noelle and her husband live in Southern California with their six children. Noellemering.com