Happy New Year!

It's almost like there's some kind of cause and effect

Coming on the shocking report that high cigarette taxes reduce revenues, here's some news on the minimum wage.  Hot Air: "A higher minimum wage doesn’t reduce poverty, says… the federal government."

The Mafia thanks you

Daily Caller: "New York Loses $400 Million After Imposing The Nation’s Highest Cigarette Tax."  The black market for cigarettes is soaring in NYC because people just won't pay $10 for a pack.

This is starting to be the rule and not the exception

When I first heard this story about a mosque being set on fire in Texas my radar said "hoax."  But then I didn't think I'd heard of a similar story (unlike, say, Oberlin College) so I thought it was possible.  Well, no: "Another day, another hate crime hoax."

The "Mr. Robot" marathon is on now

NPR: "The Best Television of 2015."  I disagree with a lot of picks but #1 is spot on.

"Drunk History" should totally be on this list.

Debt and the danger ahead

If you're a fan of "The Big Short" then you'll appreciate this interview with the financial genius: "Michael Burry, Real-Life Market Genius From The Big Short, Thinks Another Financial Crisis Is Looming."  (Hat tip: Maggie's Farm.)

Short answer: easy money and the accumulation of debt.

Shut up, they explained

It's time for the end-of-year lists.  Reason Online: "Silencing Students: The 8 Most Loathsome Campus Censors of 2015."

Saw the new "Star Wars" - it was good

Right at the start of "Star Wars Episode 7" I was like: "Is that Oscar Isaac?"  And it was, playing ace fighter Poe Dameron.  This guy has unbelievable range from oil salesman Abel in "A Most Violent Year" to the Bill Gates-type guy in "Ex Machina."  He's going to grabbing an Academy Award one day.

I managed to avoid spoilers and there were some pleasant surprises.  But one thing I appreciated was the character development; it wasn't just whiz-bang fighting scenes in front of a blue screen.

Move along, nothing to see here

Here's news from Western Mass: "KFC restaurant in Hadley closes after nearly 30 years of business."  Golly, what happened?

"We just can't make money here anymore with the minimum wage increase and new part-time sick leave," said Houston, who also owns KFC restaurants in Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke.

"Things weren't that great anymore," he added, "but those things were the final nail."

Cause and effect?  What's that?

Agent provocateur

Daily Caller: "Bernie Sanders Adviser Makes Explosive Allegation Against DNC Over Voter Data Flap."

England meets New England for Christmas

MassLive: "English couple fulfills bucket list wish with Yankee Candle visit, topped by Santa-assisted marriage proposal."  Nice!

Merry Christmas, everyone

It's a beautiful 60 degrees here in Western Massachusetts.

BLM at Mall of America

Powerline: "A sad day in Minneapolis."  "The protesters’ actions today have won precisely no one over to their cause."

You don't say

Townhall: "Wait–Did Hillary Just Say Obamacare Hurts Workers?"  She sure did:

"Well, that’s why [employers] are going to part-time. That, and also, the Affordable Care Act. You know, we got to change that because we have built in some unfortunate incentives that discourage full-time employment."

You gotta break some eggs to get an omelette that nobody wants.

Escalation inevitable

Politico: "Washington Post removes cartoon depicting Ted Cruz's daughters as monkeys."

Well, it's only a matter of time until Malia and Sasha get the same illustrative treatment.

"The Big Short"

I was really excited to see this movie because I absolutely loved the Michael Lewis book about the handful of analysts who saw the collapse of the housing market and took the "short" position.

I have to give this caveat: it will be much easier to follow the movie if you read the book.  Otherwise, a fair amount of the movie is spent trying to explain just what they're talking about including collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and tranches.  There are some humorous moments where they break the fourth wall and various celebrities break down some complex concepts; for example, Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explains subprime mortgages.

This is a story of a bunch of underdogs Cassandras who tried to tell everyone there was an economic implosion coming.  The end credits run with the highly-appropriate song "When the Levee Breaks".

Not dreaming of a white Christmas

How do I feel about the warmest Christmas in history?
(looks at heating bill)
I like it.

A liberal mugged by reality

Via Instapundit, a Bernie Sanders supporter objects to higher taxes on his second home in Provincetown.  "It feels punitive."  Hahahaha!

Divergent views

Hot Air: "The racial divide on gun deaths in America."

Forget about Kylo Ren. Here's Rilo Kiley!

I haven't seen the new Star Wars yet but I understand the villain is called Kylo Ren.  Well one of my favorite bands is an L.A. group called Rilo Kiley - I have all their CDs.  Here they are!

Everything old is new again

You know, it must be nice for President Obama: when everything is falling apart around you, well, you always have your stand-by excuse:

Obama said some opposition to his agenda could be fueled by ingrained resistance to an African-American commander in chief, citing "specific strains in the Republican Party that suggest that somehow I'm different, I'm Muslim, I'm disloyal to the country."

"In some ways, I may represent change that worries them," he said.

"I think if you are talking about the specific virulence of some of the opposition directed towards me, then, you know, that may be explained by the particulars of who I am," he added later.

Yep, we've let him down again America.

Extra - Hot Air: "Obama: It’s the media’s fault that people are worried about ISIS, you know."

More - Gateway Pundit: "Obama plays the race card."  And the Minuteman.

No, not the one with top secret information

Hillary is really, really angry about a data breach on a computer network.

Protect the semi-retired President

MRC: "Networks Censor NYT Deleting Obama Quote Saying He Didn’t ‘Appreciate the Anxiety’ Post-Terror Attacks"  Of course.

Extra - From the Federalist.

These aren't the debates you're looking for

Frank Bruni: "The invisible Democratic debates."  "What a shamefully imbalanced primary season this has been. For all their flaws and fakery, the Republican candidates have squared off frequently, at convenient hours and despite the menacing nimbus of Donald Trump’s hair; the Democratic candidates have, in contrast, hidden in a closet."

The fix is in.

Hush-hush

Federalist: "We’re All Being Pretty Quiet About Obama’s Failures, Aren’t We?"

Therefore, a felony

Fox News: "Sources: Review affirms Clinton server emails were 'top secret,' despite department challenge"

An intelligence community review has re-affirmed that two classified emails were indeed “top secret” when they hit Hillary Clinton’s unsecured personal server despite a challenge to that designation by the State Department, according to two sources familiar with the review.

I like the "confused old lady" position the Hillary campaign takes whenever this issue comes up: "How was I supposed to know that an update on the position of North Korean missiles was classified?"

Disney does it again

Wired: "Star Wars' $4 billion price tag was the deal of the century."

Extra - The merchandise is strong with this one.

I'm just gonna leave this here

Jim Geraghty: "Obama's awful year."

Let's see: Obamacare is in a death spiral, everybody's worried about the contained JV squad of ISIS, and the only way he can govern is by executive decree.  The only thing Obama's got going for him is a 5% unemployment rate which is kept unnaturally elevated - Wile E. Coyote style - by the lowest labor participation rate since the Carter Administration.

Don't worry true believers: this last year is going to be awesome sauce.

Bergdahl faces a court-martial

Back then: this honorable soldier was well-worth the trade of five Gitmo detainees

Today: the Army says "we beg to differ."

Extra - Weekly Standard: "Obama releases dangerous jihadists - then misleads the country about it."  Maybe that's why he's hitting new lows on handling of terrorism.

More - Mark Steyn: "Celebrating a deserter in the Rose Garden."  "If there were a real press in this country, someone would ask Obama how it is that he became the first president to host a Rose Garden celebration for a deserter."  Yeah, like that would ever happen.

Just like our "treaties" with Iran and Cuba

Washington Examiner: "Kerry says Paris agreement crafted to avoid Congress."  Which means that these historic and landmark decisions are written on air.

A conspiracy to obstruct justice

Plain and simple.  Politico: "State Department can't find emails of top Clinton IT staffer."  "The State Department has told Senate investigators it cannot find backup copies of emails sent by Bryan Pagliano, the top Hillary Clinton IT staffer who maintained her email server but has asserted his Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer questions on the matter."

Anything goes

WSJ: "No Political Guardrails":

Barack Obama has done plenty of damage to the country, but perhaps the worst is his determined destruction of Washington’s guardrails. Mr. Obama wants what he wants. If ObamaCare is problematic, he unilaterally alters the law. If Congress won’t change the immigration system, he refuses to enforce it. If the nation won’t support laws to fight climate change, he creates one with regulation. If the Senate won’t confirm his nominees, he declares it in recess and installs them anyway. “As to limits, you set your own,” observed Dan in that editorial. This is our president’s motto.

Mr. Obama doesn’t need anyone to justify his actions, because he’s realized no one can stop him. He gets criticized, but at the same time his approach has seeped into the national conscience. It has set new norms. You see this in the ever-more-outrageous proposals from the presidential field, in particular front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Although I think Trump's shouting about immigration policy is repugnant, the Democrats have a lot of nerve claiming it's unconstitutional when they regularly rewrite laws and talk about seizing guns.  Also, I've written in the past that Obama has set the standard for future Presidents to selectively enforce the law into meaninglessness.

Extra - From Instapundit: "The press and political class let him burn it all down because they agreed with him, and besides he was black so to complain would be racist or something. Now they can’t figure out how to survive the wind that will blow, now that everything that can stop it has been removed."

Of course, the "survive the wind that will blow" reference that Dr. R is alluding to is from "A Man for All Seasons":

Trump! Donald Trump! Trump! Trump!

Not really.  That guy is sucking up all the oxygen in the news.

Just something funny at work today: somebody named "Ebenezer" won the Christmas raffle.  Heh...irony.

Pyrrhic-care

"One more victory will utterly undo him" - Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus

How's that hard-won, unilateral legislation to bring health care to all Americans working out?

Not so great: "‘Successful’ Obamacare Co-Op Imploding"

The only one of 23 co-ops to make a profit last year, CHO started to bleed money in 2015 because enrollees sought more medical care than expected.

Some success.  But wait, there's more less!  Hot Air: "New CBO report: ObamaCare will reduce workforce by 2 million over next 10 years."

The NY Times does it again

Do I love ragging on the Old Grey Lady?  Yes I do!  The Minuteman has a hilarious take on the Times' op-ed piece titled "Diversity makes you brighter":

OMG, LOL, and WTF. This explains why the NY Times newsroom is filled with reporters who are evangelical Christians, pro-lifers, gun owners, climate change skeptics, and white-bread New England conservatives. Oh, wait. It's not a diversity of ideas that promote broader thinking - its a diversity of skin tone! My bad.

Oh, Tom....the Times has plenty of diversity running the gamut from Leftists to Liberals.

Western Massachusetts update

Masslive: "Smith & Wesson announces positive earnings, net sales up 32.1 percent."  For some reason.

Brace yourself: the NY Times engages in pure hypocrisy

I know!  I was surprised too.  But the eagle-eyed Charles C.W. Cooke noted that just last year, the Times deplored the No-Fly List as an extra-Constitutional tool of intimidation.  Now, it's the preferred method to void a person's Second Amendment rights without due process:

By the Times’s own standards, the GOP’s skepticism was sensible no? Surely, it would be downright outrageous to allow the Bill of Rights to be compromised by the “the shadowy, self-contradictory world of American terror watch lists, which operate under a veil of secrecy so thick that it is virtually impossible to pierce it when mistakes are made”?

Apparently not.

Don't try to make sense of it.

Admonishment to the nation

Obama's giving a rare Oval Office address on terrorism tonight, which will certainly take a left turn into gun-grabbing straight through a field of straw men.

Get ready for being told "that's not who we are", America.

Our thorough screening

Remember when Americans nervous about Syrian refugees were denounced as xenophobic and irrational when calling for additional screening?

Good times.  Fox News: "Female San Bernardino shooter reportedly entered US on 'fiance' visa with inaccurate address."

No fact check necessary

Here's Obama just making stuff up on climate change:

"Mr. Trump should run back a tape or quote on some of the stuff he's said -- 99.5 percent of scientists in the world say this is a really urgent problem," Mr. Obama said. 

Yeah, right.  It's exactly this kind of hyperbole is why Americans are tuning out.

Extra - Listen to Greg Sargent! "Dems should go hard at GOP climate denialism in 2016."  This is good advice, Dems.  Run hard on an issue nobody cares about with the inevitable goal of increasing the prices of carbon-based energy.  Americans love paying more for gas and heating in the winter.  Do it.

Huma said she's confused

Legal Insurrection: "Hillary can't remember her plan to deal with the national debt."

I do!  Everybody in America gives a speech at Goldman Sachs = instant $.

After the shooting

Ace: "Left Spends Day In Coordinated Attack on Saying "Thoughts and Prayers" For the Victims."

Do you know what's even more useless against gun violence than thoughts and prayers?  The Democrats' gun-control proposals.

Hit and Run: "Obama Insists 'We Have to Do Something' About Mass Shootings but Can't Say What or Why It Would Work - "Enough is enough" is not a policy."

What political party runs Chicago? Nobody knows

Here's Spike Lee talking about his soon-to-be-ignored movie and Chicago:

So is it Mayor Rahm Emanuel who’s culpable here?
Well, you could go back to Mayor Daley. And right now, the Republican governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, is cutting programs. The summer before last, Father Pfleger had funds allocated and had 3,000 summer jobs to get kids off the streets. I don’t know the exact number, but it was significantly cut. And those jobs are a matter of life and death.

Emphasis added.  Rahm Emanuel might be a Whig and Daley was probably a Green but, gosh darn it, we know that the governor is one of those job-slashing Republicans.  Keep in mind that Rauner was elected to fix the mess in Illinois which has the worst bond rating in the country, a hairbreadth over junk status, but summer jobs for the kids.  They're a matter of life and death.

The New York Times had an opinion piece called "Cover-Up in Chicago" and you won't discover what political party former Clinton and Obama administration adviser Emanuel belongs to.

In an alternate universe somewhere Chicago is a Republican stronghold and the Bizarro New York is running an editorial excoriating the proliferation of guns, regular murders, corrupt police and incompetent government as a sign of a failed single-party rule.

Here on Terra Alpha One, it's the same ole predictable NYT.