March 2, 2019

Watch 'CNN Christie' vs. 'Fox News Christie'!

Watch ‘CNN Christie’ vs. ‘Fox News Christie’! First Gov. bashes Trump as a liar on CNN, then defends him on Fox

By Claude Brodesser-Akner | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

"Go pop some corn, because whatever your politics, this is some amazing TV."

https://www.nj.com/politics/2019/03/watch-cnn-christie-vs-fox-news-christie-first-gov-bashes-trump-as-a-liar-on-cnn-then-defends-him-on-fox.html

New Jersey will be decades recovering from chris christie. America may never recover from donald trump. Both are prime examples of people who should NEVER be allowed near the reins of power - any power - even as parking lot attendants, IMO.

February 27, 2019

The really bad things that would happen if a Hudson River rail tunnel closed

The new Hudson River ARC tunnel would have been completed next year, the digging had already begun, and at half the proposed cost of the "will it ever be built" tunnel they're discussing the initial stages of right now.

As my mom used to say, "2+2=4". This is a case of 1+1=2 because the two stories below add up. chris christie strikes again. I sure hope Mueller has something indictable on this useless sack of blubber. chris christie was New Jersey's donald trump. It will take us decades to recover from his criminal abuse of office.

If one of these 108 year old Sandy damaged Hudson River rail tunnels has to close we're in for a transit and economic nightmare.

Thank you chris christie. He stole the $3 billion in funding to plug a hole in his transportation fund because he didn't want to raise taxes and risk his chances in the 2016 presidential race.

That sounds like some episode of Seinfeld right about now. How can anyone so corpulent be so empty? It's easy. He's chris christie.

https://www.nj.com/traffic/2019/02/the-really-bad-things-that-would-happen-if-a-hudson-river-rail-tunnel-closed-even-if-you-dont-use-nj-transit.html

The really bad things that would happen if a Hudson River rail tunnel closed (even if you don’t use NJ Transit)

By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

"Even if you don’t take the train to a job in New York, your life will be affected - from your commute to the value of your home - if one of the 108-year old Hudson River rail tunnels has to close down to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Even the national economy could see a multi-billion dollar hit, according to an analysis conducted by the Regional Plan Association, an independent, non-profit civic and planning organization in the New York metropolitan area.
The problem

Amtrak officials sounded the alarm in October 2014 that damage from salt water and chemicals in flood waters driven by Hurricane Sandy would mean closing one tunnel at a time for rehabilitation. Shutting down a tunnel for repair will cut rail capacity of Amtrak and NJ Transit trains by 75 percent. Here are seven effects RPA said will cascade if a tunnel closes. Each weekday the Hudson River Tunnel carries 150,000 people traveling in 330 NJ Transit commuter trains."

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/02/what-was-christies-worst-mistake-hint-its-not-bridgegate.html

What was Christie’s worst mistake? Hint: It’s not Bridgegate.

By Tom Moran | Star-Ledger Editorial Board

"Chris Christie will always be remembered for the Bridgegate scandal, for the stupidity of the stunt and for the lies he told that were definitively exposed during the federal trial.

But that wasn’t his worst mistake. Save that honor for his decision to halt construction of a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, to spend the money set aside for the project, and to turn back $3 billion in federal aid earmarked for it.

That stunt enabled Christie to avoid raising the gas tax until after his 2016 presidential run. But it left us with two rickety old tubes that are now so decrepit we should all be terrified. Engineers rush to slap on band-aids at night and on weekends, but they warn that time is running out. At some point, the two tubes will have to be shut down, gutted, and rebuilt, one at a time.

Now, a fresh report from the Regional Plan Association spells out what will happen when that day comes. It could be tomorrow, or a year from now, or several years down the road."

February 27, 2019

When trump and all his childen are sentenced to long prison terms

Will trump be allowed conjugal visits with ivanka?

Enquiring minds want to know.

February 23, 2019

Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

Hidden in the NY Times Business section, the story of one smart phone addict's attempt at recovery.

Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

By Kevin Roose

Feb. 23, 2019

"I’ve been a heavy phone user for my entire adult life. But sometime last year, I crossed the invisible line into problem territory. My symptoms were all the typical ones: I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations. Social media made me angry and anxious, and even the digital spaces I once found soothing (group texts, podcasts, YouTube k-holes) weren’t helping. I tried various tricks to curb my usage, like deleting Twitter every weekend, turning my screen grayscale and installing app-blockers. But I always relapsed."

...

"When we started, I sent her my screen time statistics, which showed that I had spent 5 hours and 37 minutes on my phone that day, and picked it up 101 times — roughly twice as many as the average American."

...

"Allow me a bit of bragging: Over the course of 30 days, my average daily phone time, as measured by the iPhone’s built-in screen time tracker, has dwindled from around five hours to just over an hour. I now pick up my phone only about 20 times a day, down from more than 100. I still use my phone for email and texting — and I’m still using my laptop plenty — but I don’t itch for social media, and I often go hours without so much as a peek at any screen."

...

"But there is a way out. I haven’t taken an M.R.I. or undergone a psychiatric evaluation, but I’d bet that something fundamental has shifted inside my brain in the past month. A few weeks ago, the world on my phone seemed more compelling than the offline world — more colorful, faster-moving and with a bigger scope of rewards."

When I was growing up in Western Pennsylvania in the 1950s, some days I used to just lay in the tall grass on a hill and watch the clouds pass by for hours. I'd imagine shapes in the clouds and just let my mind wander, there's a pirate ship, an angel, a bear, a castle. Children would run the hills all day, assembling teams for baseball or football, building igloos, or just wandering aimlessly alive.

We were learning important social and life skills. We were learning to deal with people one on one and in groups. We were connecting with the natural world around us. We were mapping our entire environment in our heads.

Today, people are sacrificing much more than they realize with their addictive dependence on smart phones losing those critical mental and social skills while occupying a solitary confinement cell of their own making. Technology, like just about everything else, has its positive and negative sides. Information at your fingertips is an incredibly powerful tool but when the tool takes over for your brain, becoming in effect an "exo-brain", who is the user and who is the tool?

I truly believe smart phones are a huge cause of many of the problems we face today. They've fundamentally changed the way our brains work, how we process information, use (or more accurately no longer use) our short and long term memory, are losing our brains' critical ability to map our environment, shortening our attention spans to milliseconds, etc. They are constant companions surreptitiously changing our brains and the way we view and understand our world. They can and are being used to manipulate our minds, including during elections, the effect of which alone should be cautionary tale enough to shock people back into reality. But so far, it hasn't.

I don't need a smart phone. I'm smart. So is everyone else. Until they become addicted to their smart phone.

Now put down that damn smart phone and read on:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/business/cell-phone-addiction.html

February 20, 2019

80 years ago, New York hosted a chilling Nazi rally. Watch N.J. director's Oscar-nominated short fil

A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN

80 years ago, New York hosted a chilling Nazi rally. Watch N.J. director’s Oscar-nominated short film

https://vimeo.com/237489146

We defeated the nazis in WWII. Or so we thought. Today, in magat land, we're facing them again. This time led by the same person in dyed orange and on our side of the Atlantic.

Read more:
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2019/02/80-years-ago-new-york-hosted-a-chilling-nazi-rally-watch-nj-directors-oscar-nominated-short-film.html

BTW - do you believe in reincarnation? I do. adolf hitler died, reportedly, in a bunker in Berlin in 1945.

donald j trump was born in 1946.

Just sayin'.

February 20, 2019

What I'd love to see Judge Amy Berman Jackson do to roger stone on Thursday

I'd love to see Judge Jackson order roger stone to stand and do his best nixon impersonation.

You know, like this:



Then order him to put his hands behind his back, order the bailiff to handcuff him and LOCK HIM UP!

February 19, 2019

'A new day is coming to Latin America': Donald Trump warns Venezuelan military leaders

The Fat Cats of Monolopy Capitalism are turning the screws again.

Do Americans or anyone else with a brain actually want traitor donald j trump and the current crop of pubican traitors to shape the Western Hemisphere? They've done such a great job in the Middle East and with Korea, NATO, etc. - why not allow them to bring more American expertise to Latin America again?

That's always worked out so well in the past.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change_in_Latin_America

Capitalist aggression always does work out well, for a few Fat Cat Capitalists, that is.

Venezuela needs help. Not the opposite of help - donald trump. I wish some foreign power would install a "leader" here - oh wait, one already has.

Read on:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/18/venezuelan-crisis-trump-issue-warning-nations-military-leaders/2904641002/

Michael Collins, USA TODAY Published 12:51 p.m. ET Feb. 18, 2019 | Updated 6:37 p.m. ET Feb. 18, 2019

'A new day is coming to Latin America': Donald Trump warns Venezuelan military leaders

"WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump bluntly put Venezuela’s military leaders on notice Monday that they should embrace the Latin American country’s new political leadership or they will risk their lives and their nation’s future.

In unusually harsh language, Trump said millions of people in Venezuela are suffering from hunger and death while military leaders in the oil-rich nation support a corrupt, repressive regime that has hidden away billions of dollars.

“We know who they are, and we know where they keep the billions of dollars they have stolen,” Trump said during a speech in Miami.

Trump’s remarks came just weeks after his administration recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s president and were directed at Florida’s Venezuelan community as he tries to appeal to Latino votes heading into the 2020 election."

I wonder if the Venezuelan and Latino voters referenced in the article realize they're being played just like everyone else trump cheats a deal with?

If not, I certainly hope they are aware of the consequences.

See: USA

February 18, 2019

Socialism is no longer a dirty word, and here's why Opinion

I identify politically as a Democratic Socialist but, unlike many capitalists I know, I realize that there is no perfect economic system. I believe no economic system is perfect and each economic system needs components from other systems. I've seen charts of U.S. economic activity that reveal a boom and bust cycle that capitalists would NEVER condone in a socialist system! Yet this cycle is perfectly fine with them in a capitalist system.

https://www.thebalance.com/the-history-of-recessions-in-the-united-states-3306011

Not to mention the capitalists Fat Cats who declare economic warfare on any socialist system that dares rear its head in the Western Hemisphere.

I know for a fact that our current style of American capitalism doesn't work on its own. Proof? See: America 2019. The wage and wealth disparity in our economic system is at levels last seen during The Great Depression - another capitalist high point.

However, socialism is just fine for giant record profit making American corporations who get tax incentives for doing what they're supposed to do on their own - run a profitable business and employ people to do the necessary labor - while they pay ZERO in corporate income tax and while their billionaire owners get billions more in tax breaks at OUR expense.

That's the definition of Socialism, IMO. But in reverse Robin Hood fashion. OUR money is being transferred to the top!

But when it's universal health care, living wage, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. - THAT SOCIALISM IS NO GOOD FOR WE THE PEOPLE! It's too expensive. lofl

Who do they think they're kidding?

US. That's who.

Here's an opinion piece from New Jersey's largest newspaper for all you Fat Cat capitalists to ponder while you horde OUR resources for yourselves.

Socialism is no longer a dirty word, and here’s why | Opinion

"Months before Donald Trump’s strange attack on socialism during the State of the Union address, the White House Council of Economic Advisers did something even more bizarre. It released a 72-page report in October called “The Opportunity Costs of Socialism,”which acknowledged the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth and noted that “self-declared socialists are gaining support in Congress and among much of the electorate.”

The administration was clearly worried — and for good reason.

As Bloomberg reported as early as November 2017 under the headline “Get Rid of Capitalism? Millennials Are Ready to Talk About It,” socialism was already a hot topic, with a debate about economic philosophies drawing a sellout crowd in New York. Since then, the enthusiasm has steadily grown. The Democratic Socialists of America, which had already seen a surge in its membership during the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016, saw another surge last fall with the election of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. According to a Gallup poll in August, only 45 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 viewed capitalism positively, compared with 51 percent for socialism.

And, along with Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, dozens of other self-proclaimed socialists were swept into office at the state and local levels in the midterms. But perhaps most worrying to the powers that be, more Americans are embracing socialist policies. Medicare for all, which was widely portrayed as radical by the mainstream media when Sanders promoted it just a few years ago, is supported by 70 percent of the public, including most Republicans, according to recent polls. Taxing the rich also polls well with most Americans, as do the $15 minimum wage and tuition-free public colleges and universities. And, with the release of the alarming report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last October, a majority of voters now worry about climate change and recognize the human hand in it, giving hope to supporters of a Green New Deal."

Read the rest.
https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/02/socialism-is-no-longer-a-dirty-word-and-heres-why-opinion.html

February 15, 2019

I was wrong and I want to apologize to leftynyc

I made statements based on insufficient information, assumptions and ignorance. I researched information and talked to people and found my assumptions were not only wrong but hurtful, which I should have know. I realize now that so many of the people I know who send their children to Israel aren't dual citizens but just Jews who want to visit their home.

I'm sorry leftynyc for being what I hate most - an ignorant bigot. I'll try to be more sensitive and careful with all my thoughts and words here from now on.

Well, all except for that traitor trump.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel

February 12, 2019

trump really can't read

I find this both amusing and terrifying for obvious reasons. He really is an idiot in the purest clinical sense of the word. These definitions are archaic and considered offensive now but they fit trump to a "t" and I don't mind being offensive towards that bastard anytime at all.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/moron-idiot-imbecile-offensive-history

"Idiot, imbecile, and moron were, not so long ago, used in a psychological classification system, and each one was assigned to a fairly specific range of abilities.

Idiots.—Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.
Imbeciles.—Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.
Morons.—Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
— Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912"


Report: Donald Trump is Hooked on Phonics

By Connor Garrett
Posted on January 8, 2018

Donald Trump pretends to read.

"Sources close to the White House say President Trump was absolutely furious after Sarah Huckabee Sanders read him excerpts from Michael Wolff’s new book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

One criticism apparently disturbed the former reality television star above all of the others outlined in the book — the claim that the president cannot read, or at best, has poor reading comprehension skills.

...

“The president has devoted himself to Hooked on Phonics,” says Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “Not that he couldn’t read or anything. But a genius never stops learning.”

The president is reportedly driven by a desire to read Fire and Fury all by himself. He has made some progress, yet he still has not completed a chapter book. Trump prefers “the books with pictures.”

More:
https://themillennialsnowflake.com/report-donald-trump-hooked-phonics/