California being California

The Gateway Pundit

Rick Moran:  California looking to punish contractors who help build wall

. . . "If the bill passes, it will discourage California contractors from bidding on wall construction. That means a loss of hundreds of jobs - many of which would go to immigrants both legal and illegal. Instead, those companies involved in successful bidding on the wall could bring in workers from other states.

"It takes a special kind of idiot to become so slavishly devoted to a political agenda that a politician would harm their own constituents. 

"The legislation has a good chance of passing considering the massive advantage in the state legislature by Democrats. What would be California's loss could easily become another state's gain as Golden State politicians look to punish their state because someone in Washington is finally trying to address the problem of massive illegal immigration."

From the San Francisco Comical: Any company looking at President Trump’s proposed border wall between Mexico and the United States as a business opportunity may soon want to reconsider if it wants to do business with San Francisco.

California looks to become the first sanctuary state . . . "There are now 500 sanctuary cities in the United States, virtually all Democratic, which are pledged not to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security in its efforts to secure our borders, identify terrorists, and deport criminal aliens. California has taken the lead in this pernicious movement and is about to become the first sanctuary state. Moreover, every public California institution of higher learning has declared itself a “sanctuary campus” including the University of California whose president Janet Napolitano is a former Obama appointee to head the Department of Homeland Security itself. This is the most massive movement of sedition since the Civil War and is the centerpiece of the so-called “resistance” – itself a form of sedition in a democracy - that Democrats have mobilized against the Trump administration." . . .

But those are California girls in their commercials. California's Carl's Jr. Says So Long, Golden State  

"We got more evidence of that this week when CKE Restaurants, the corporate parent of Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurants, announced that they are relocating to Nashville, Tennessee.  
"Hardee's will move its headquarters from St. Louis, Missouri, to Nashville, Tennessee, one of America's fastest growing states.  
"Oh, and did we mention that the state has no personal income tax? 
"Meanwhile, the Carl's Jr. move puts more egg on the face of California and the political class in Sacramento. Hamburger fast food chain Carl's Jr. was founded in California and for years has been headquartered in Carpinteria, California. The highest income tax rate in California is 13%, so moving to Tennessee, where the tax rate is zero, will save the company millions of dollars on taxes a year." . . .

Fox Throws Judge Napolitano under the Bus

There goes the judge.

Judge Obama and the intel agencies by their illegal actions and their lying words. Judge Andrew Napolitano by his track record of impeccable credentials and unchallenged integrity. Judge Fox News by their action throwing Napolitano under the bus. Fox News – unfair, unbalanced, and very much afraid.

Daniel John Sobieski  "Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications. "

 "Fox News anchor Bret Baier likes to end his Special Report broadcast with the claim that Fox News is “fair, balanced and unafraid.” Well, Fox News seems not to be fair when it throws contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano under the bus for linking surveillance of Team Trump to Team Obama’s links with British intelligence.

"Apparently, Fox News isn’t as “fair and balanced” as it pretends to be. While it endlessly repeats totally unsubstantiated claims of Trump critics of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as repeatedly dismissing Trump claims of Obama administration surveillance of Trump tower, they have dared to take Fox News contributor Judge Napolitano off the air for repeating what three intelligence agents told him -- that the Obama administration in fact had British intelligence conduct the surveillance so as not to leave a trail. As the Los Angeles Times reported:

The former New Jersey Superior Court judge, citing unnamed sources, said that the British foreign surveillance agency, the Government Communications Headquarters, “most likely” provided Obama with transcripts of Trump’s recorded calls.

“By bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints,” Napolitano wrote in a column on FoxNews.com.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer cited Napolitano’s charge last week when asked why President Trump continues to stand by his initial claim. The British spy agency sharply denounced Napolitano’s allegations, saying they are “utterly ridiculous and should be ignored." . . .

'She has every right to compete with women': Transgender weightlifter sparks criticism after competition win

Yahoo, via Drudge

"A Kiwi weightlifter has made history as the first transgender athlete to represent New Zealand and come away with a win, however the victory has been slammed by other competitors.

"Laurel Hubbard, 39, won the women's over 90kg division at the Australian International competition in Melbourne on Sunday, but the win has caused a stir with some believing she had an unfair advantage.

"Her combined total of 268kg was nearly 20kg better than Samoan runner-up Iuniarra Sipaia, with another 20kg back to the next lifter in the field." . . .

Laurel, pictured fourth from left, with the other female competitors in the 90kg weightlifting division at the Australian International competition in Melbourne. Picture: Australian Weightlifting Federation

Again...this is so applicable:

On Colin Kaepernick's sit-outs

Power Line Blog  "News out of the sports world is that no NFL teams want to sign free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, not merely because he may be washed up, but because of his political stunts. An unnamed NFL insider told Bleacher Report:

“[Many teams] genuinely hate him and can’t stand what he did (kneeling for the national anthem). They want nothing to do with him. They won’t move on. They think showing no interest is a form of punishment. I think some teams also want to use Kaepernick as a cautionary tale to stop other players in the future from doing what he did.”

When I spoke to a handful of executives at the combine a few weeks ago, one even called him “an embarrassment to football.”

"This brings to mind a short passage from a certain recent book that every Power Line reader should have by now (hint, hint, for the laggards) that reflects on this scene:

The shame of protesting athletes is that they are unable to make out a parallel between the exertions necessary for excellence on the playing field that commands the loyalty of sports fans and the exertions necessary for excellence in a nation that commands the loyalty of citizens. Game plans, like constitutions, are not self-executing. Walter Berns put the problem this way:

A regime to which a good man can freely give his loyalty does not come about accidentally, it does not just grow through the passage of time; in addition to good fortune, it requires the conscious and intelligent effort of men who are aware of the goal and of the difficulties to be overcome before the goal can be achieved or approximated.

About the professional athletes disdaining the nation, Harry Jaffa would point again to the example of boxer Joe Louis. Louis once answered the question of why he was willing to fight for a country that treated blacks so badly: “There ain’t nothing wrong with this country that Hitler can fix.”

"And there ain’t nothing wrong with the country that Colin Kaepernick (and his imitators) are doing anything to fix either."

Colin Kaepernick and the consequences of liberal orthodoxy  . . . "Let me suggest that there's a specific type of liberal who never really makes big decisions.  Such people are so locked into a rigid orthodoxy that they simply follow its dictates without considering alternatives or consequences.  This is the ultimate risk-adverse behavior.  It is carried to its logical extreme in the safe-space trigger-warning world of American universities, where there is an intentional insulation from consequences and protection from alternatives.  It becomes quite natural for people schooled in this environment to believe that anyone anywhere who follows the liberal rules should enjoy the same dispensations.  If one follows the rules, good things should just happen.  Kaepernick was just following the liberal rules, so he should not be judged. " . . . 

Green Weenie of the Week: Yoga Pants?

Power Line Blog   "Is yoga ruining the planet? I doubt it, but if yoga comes in for some slagging from the Green Weenies I’m happy to play along. And not exactly yoga, but yoga pants! So says Heat Street:

Yoga Pants, ‘Active Wear’ Are Destroying the Oceans

Comfortable clothes are emerging as a source of plastic that’s increasingly ending up in the oceans and potentially contaminating seafood, according to Gulf Coast researchers launching a two-year study of microscopic plastics in the waters from south Texas to the Florida Keys.

The project, led by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, will rely partly on volunteers participating in coastal cleanup events. It also will expand a year’s worth of data collected around the state of Florida that predominantly found microfibers — shreds of plastic even smaller than microbeads flowing down bathroom sinks and shower drains.

Yoga pants, Patagonia’s cozy jackets, sweat-wicking athletic wear and other garments made from synthetic materials shed microscopic plastic fibers — called “microfibers” — when they’re laundered. Wastewater systems flush the microfibers into natural waterways, eventually reaching the sea.

"I especially like it that the report singles out Patagonia, which is the most environmentally sanctimonious sporting apparel company anywhere. (I refuse to buy any Patagonia products for this reason.)"

Dennis Prager explains that without God, there is no morality; there are just opinions

Watcher of Weasels  "The phrase “moral relativism” gets thrown around a lot. The Right things it’s bad; the Left thinks it’s good — indeed, that it is the only non-arrogant way to view the world. With his usual clarity and acuity, Dennis Prager explains why the Left is wrong. Absent an external source of absolute morality — and Prager I both think that the Judeo-Christian God is the best way to define good and evil — people have nothing but feelings and opinions to guide them. And as the 20th century shows, absent God, the wrong kind of demagogue can manipulate these feelings and opinions in a way that leads to tens of millions of dead people, and incalculable numbers of people who live in fear and squalor."

"If you don’t have time to watch the video, or you’d like to expand your understanding of its contents, I highly recommend Wolf Howling’s post about the war on religion. He wrote it many years ago, but events since he published it prove him prophetic:" . . .

CBO’s Alternate Facts about Obamacare

Galen Institute  "Millions may lose coverage next year if Congress does not repeal Obamacare.

That’s not what this week’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis says, but it is reality. CBO’s estimating models seem impervious to reality.

"In the real world, the Obamacare exchanges are in crisis, millions of uninsured people willingly pay or avoid IRS penalties, and consumers struggle with rising premiums and cost-sharing requirements.

"But for CBO, Obamacare is a sea of tranquility. The agency assumes that only 26 million people under the age of 65 will be uninsured this year and next if Obamacare is left in place. To hit that mark, 2 million fewer people would have to be uninsured this year than last.

"That seems unlikely. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) estimates that 27.9 million people under age 65 lacked coverage as of September 30 last year, the most recent date for which government survey data are available. That represents little improvement over its estimate of 28.4 million as of December 2015, meaning that the number of non-elderly uninsured declined by only half a million through the first nine months of last year.

"Since then, the Obamacare individual exchanges have begun to implode. Fewer people signed up during the open-enrollment period this year than last, due in part to premium hikes that averaged 25 percent. Other insurance companies didn’t bother raising prices; they fled the exchanges. By January, 1,000 counties were down to their last insurer. Five entire states have just a single company selling through the exchanges.

"A rational observer might worry that the exchanges were on the brink of doom. Not CBO. Its analysts believe that Obamacare is on the cusp of a miracle. The number of nonelderly uninsured not only will drop this year but hold steady in 2018, according to CBO, even though millions could find themselves without an insurer in their exchanges." . . .

Clinton Staffers May Receive Soros Funding For Trump War

Daily Caller

"Anti-Trump activists lead by former Hillary Clinton campaign operatives may soon receive funding from left-wing billionaire George Soros.

"Democracy Alliance, the Soros-aligned group of Democratic donors, is considering funding protest group Indivisible and the Women’s March organization, which recently joined forces to take on President Donald Trump, USA Today reports.

"As originally reported by The Daily Caller, at least six former Clinton campaign operatives are playing key roles for Women’s March, which has continued mobilizing opposition against Trump’s agenda. 

. . . 

"Soros and other Democracy Alliance donors met in Washington, D.C. this past November to strategize how to best oppose Trump’s agenda. (RELATED: Leaked Audio Reveals Anti-Trump Forces Manufacturing Hostile Town Hall)

"Soros is well-known for bankrolling various left-wing efforts, including Black Lives Matter, and sank millions of dollars into supporting Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign.

"The billionaire once wrote that he considers himself “some kind of god” with “messianic fantasies,” according to the Los Angeles Times." . . .

Trump wants to pull plug on Obama-Era Fuel Standards

Legal Insurrection

"In response, California politicians to impose tighter standards as Michigan’s leaders plan for new auto plants."

 

"President Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to shelve aggressive vehicle fuel economy targets that have been a foundation for promoting climate change alarmism policies that have hurt the American automotive industry.

Trump revealed his plans during a speech at an automotive testing center near Detroit after discussing the issue during a round-table meeting at the American Center for Mobility with auto company executives and workers.

“This is going to be a new era for American jobs and job creation,” Trump said at the meeting.

The EPA under Obama had promulgated a rule for cars and trucks requiring a fleet-wide average of 36 mpg in real-world driving by 2025.

Trump’s decision, while having no immediate effect, requires the Environmental Protection Agency to determine no later than April 2018 whether the 2022-2025 standards established are appropriate. If the EPA determines they are not appropriate, the agency will submit a new proposal next year.

"I suspect that the new EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, will find there was quite a bit that was inappropriate about the jacked-up fuel economy rules, finalized in the waning days of Obama’s presidency." . . .

"Team Trump is already kicking butt at the United Nations"

NY Post

Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley

. . . "As US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley pointed out Monday, only one country is subjected to regular scrutiny and condemnation in each of the three annual sessions of the 47-member Geneva-based human rights body.

"Guess which one.

“ 'It’s not Syria, where the regime has systematically slaughtered and tortured its own people,” Haley said.

“ 'It’s not Iran, where public hangings are a regular occurrence. It’s not North Korea, where the regime uses forced labor camps to crush its people into submission.

“ 'It’s Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.”

"The council was established in 2006 to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission. It was widely hailed by UN supporters as major “reform,” but it turned out that this rose by another name smelled just as rotten.

"The George W. Bush administration didn’t buy it and refused to join in.

"Then President Barack Obama’s State Department, while admitting the council was still obsessed with Israel, argued that by joining, America could effect change from the inside.

"Team Obama forced the adoption of resolutions about North Korea, Syria and other areas of concern. But the fundamental nature of the council remained.

"According to the group UN Watch, in the decade since its inception, the council condemned Israel 68 times, compared to 67 condemnations of all other countries combined.

"No wonder Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote recently to UN supporters that unless the council in Geneva ends its bias — and stops admitting serious human rights violators as members — the United States will walk.

"And guess what: In other UN corners, such pressure is already showing results." . . .

The Meals On Wheels Lie Keeps Rolling Along

IBD

"Budget: Let's start with a basic fact. Contrary to news reports last week, President Trump is not eliminating funding for Meals on Wheels. He's not even cutting it.  (Emphasis mine, TD)

"How do we know this? Meals on Wheels says so. A statement issued by Meals on Wheels America on Thursday notes that 35% of the revenues at the 5,000 or so local Meals on Wheels programs come via the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program.

"Trump's budget outline says nothing about this program whatsoever.

"What Trump's budget does propose is cutting is the corruption-prone Community Development Block Grant program, run out of Housing and Urban Development. Some, but not all, state and local governments use a tiny portion of that grant money, at their own discretion, to "augment funding for Meals on Wheels," according to the statement.

"Nevertheless, when the New York Times reported on Trump's budget last Wednesday, they dispensed with such details, and simply said that CDBG "funds popular programs like Meals on Wheels, housing assistance and other community assistance efforts."

"This misleading shorthand quickly turned into "Trump wants to kill Meals on Wheels.' " . . .

On the Trump budget

"President Trump submitted his first budget to Congress Tuesday and titled it America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again. It adds fifty-four billion dollars for defense and it cuts funding for PBS. Today’s episode of Sesame Street is brought to you by the letters W,T and F."  Comedian Argus Hamilton

Rich Terrell