The Power Of Positive Pessimism

As Dems prep for 2020 Joe Biden is optimistic about their opportunity as the Party of Pessimism:

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A vast array of Democratic leaders, divided by generations but uniformly emboldened by President Trump’s perceived vulnerability, have begun taking palpable steps toward seeking the White House in an election that is still three and a half years away.

A prominent member of that group, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., may have sounded a starting gun for the 2020 race on Sunday night as he delivered a tough-love manifesto for the party’s future to a crowd of Democrats here.

Mr. Biden called on Democrats to deliver an optimistic message aimed at the needs of struggling Americans and to emphasize issues like health care and education, which he described as largely sidelined in the last election. “I’m absolutely positive they want to be with us,” he said of people in economic distress. “We have to prove, again, we understand that hopelessness.”

Go, go Joe! When I think of hopeless I think of Biden, as do we all. I also notice that [Insert honorific here] Biden has even cleaned up his language a bit - could he be warming up for 2020 himself?

Mr. Biden said he was prepared to storm the country to help revive the party, and boasted of his comfort in wooing areas that voted for Mr. Trump. “Wherever you want, just let me know, because it’s important,” he said.

"It's important"?!? I would say it is a big effing deal.

Comments

[narciso]

Mark Steyn went off on a riff about college debt and tying mcawful's last belch re the ahca.

[Account Deleted]

My fav brewer's bilge outta PA was Iron City Beer.

Spodie Odie Night was the Friday after Thanksgiving while visiting Shadyside in Pittsburgh where my college roomie (and eventual best man) was from.

Five drinkers each with a case of "Arn" City and a gallon of Cribari Red per "man" sitting in the freezing night on top of Cemetary Hill overlooking the tombstones.

Last "man" to keep their balance and not go rollin' down the hill won $25.

Damn Cribari dude on the label of that green jug would start flippin around and doin a jig every time I'd finish off the 12th beer and half that gallon.

It was like an invisible line I could never cross. Never been much of a wine "drinker".... Arn City or LA's "Brew 102" (now that's some real horse piss).

And that was all she wrote.

Arn City. I have a can with the Stillers on it from the Immaculate Reception year they porked the Raiders out of a Super Bowl appearance. Sent to me by the roomie as big [redact] Al Davis reminder. His Pa and Art Rooney were big-time pals.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/05/05/breaking-confirmed-authentic-massive-9-gig-dump-of-french-presidential-candidate-emmanuel-macron/#more-132248

This has a lot of information down in the comments as well.

Looks like it was a leaker, not a hack, according to one comment.

[pagar, a bacon, ham and sausage supporter]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2017/04/23/thanks-to-democrats-pre-existing-conditions-outweigh-the-uninsured-in-the-gop-replacement-deal/#2c1ea04261aa

"Suffice it to say that 129 million people didn’t sign up for the PCIP program. Indeed, not even 129 thousand people signed up for the program. Enrollment in PCIP peaked in February 2013 at 114,959."

[Account Deleted]

Hamrod Shadoobie has been rode hard and put away wet.

Perhaps her hubristic antics are daring AG Sessions to indict her.

Shadoobie is an aimless tub of goo impaired by a wet brain and terminal fashion sense.

I wish her no harm. Just the full consequences to be imposed for her felonious conduct as a traitor and an enemy to all free Americans remaining.

Today's punitive fantasy is not about hanging her from her goiterous neck.

Nope.

Today's fantasy involves lying face down, wrist bound to the hood of a 64 Impala, while that hood is dragged from one end of the Mojave to the other at about 30 miles an hour from dawn til dusk.

Slow and painful, the sound of her voice "bubbling like fat in a frying pan."

Tomorrow, I think I'll replay the black scorpion pit down in Coahuila fantasy.

There is no limit to my malevolence when it comes to her, her wastrel husband, and that no-mind daughter they drag around like a talking corpse.

If I ruled the world.

Have a great weekend.

[narciso]

Was podesta running his campaign too.

[henry]

You want Pennsylvania horse piss? Schmidt's.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

narciso,

Sounds like it, doesn't it?

If these people are so damn smart, why do they have their email accounts so open to hacks and leaking?

JUST who I would want handling national security! s/

[Dave (in MA)]

Yeungling is the cheapest beer in the stores around here, and has the taste to match.

[Account Deleted]

[redact] Cinco de Mayo.

What a useless holiday of little consequence. The Battle of Puebla settled nothing.

The whole thing in the US that goes on is just a huge stereotype.

There are far more interesting stories about Mejico than the elites' corrupt efforts to impose European style governments on a land where 67 different languages are spoken.

One of my favorites is that of Nino Cochise dispatching 200 Chiricahua from the American "southwest" to conserve the bloodlines, in the face of wars against them heated up.

200 went off into the Sierra Madre and were never tracked, traced or located. And they are still there.

Google Earth that, bitchez. ;)

[daddy]

Dennis Prager in Hour 1 on the obnoxiousness of Steven Colbert and the Left:

Prager:... When people cheer Steven Colbert, or the Mayor of Los Angeles cursing in front of kids, is there any sense that "Hey, maybe that was not appropriate?" I mean when you think of Johnny Carson---a lot of young listeners don't remember him or may not even know his name--- He was the dominant, by far, when I was a kid he was the utterly dominant force on Late Night TV. It was the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but everybody knew it as the Johnny Carson Show. Do you know that until the day he died I did not know his politics. He had class, yes exactly, we had class. I mean it folks, I'm a pretty perceptive guy, I have no idea whether Johnny Carson was a Democrat or a Republican. Do you?...
---------------
Then Dennis plays the clip of the utterly repugnant Steven Colbert commentary with bleeping.
---------------
Prager: Isn't that something? He used an expletive for the male organ there. That's all your mouth is good for. Isn't that astonishing? OK, so this is your Left. It poisons what it touches. From Johnny Carson to Steven Colbert. That's all you need to know.

[pagar, a bacon, ham and sausage supporter]

Reason number 1,000,001 to never vote for a Democrat.

https://downtrend.com/71superb/nancy-pelosi-says-letting-people-keep-money-they-earn-is-stealing

[narciso]

Well think of the two battles a little like the Alamo and San Jacinto in reverse.

[Dave (in MA)]

Poor Colbert. The Kendonesian bunghole junkie had to go cold turkey after 8 years.

[narciso]

That anecdote about Egyptian troops including copts having been deployed in Mexico, and it didn't go well because the climate is too dissimmilar.

[Benjamin Franklin]

Colbert is still kicking ass on late night,but you know the audience..no dairy farmers up that late.

[Porchlight]

Is it true there is a news blackout for the last 48 hours before the polls open in France?

That's what I read as well, MM, but have not confirmed.

[Benjamin Franklin]

Just like DEA. Another bureaucracy where it's own thriving existence is the highest priority.

Their mission was supposed to benefit the population...heh
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/05/trump-budget-drug-control-office-238035

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

I just told my daughter I wanted to maybe see that movie "Dunkirk" this summer.

Neither she nor my granddaughter knew about the Dunkirk evacuation.

Public schools: what else can they ignore?

[narciso]

Most everything of consequence, there Was a long scene in atonement (ran for about half an hour) where mcavoy's character is stranded on the beach.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

From his northern stronghold in Hew Jersey, President Trump send the following tweets:

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 1h1 hour ago

Wow,the Fake News media did everything in its power to make the Republican Healthcare victory look as bad as possible.Far better than Ocare!
===============================

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 59m59 minutes ago

Why is it that the Fake News rarely reports Ocare is on its last legs and that insurance companies are fleeing for their lives? It's dead!

============================

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

Great jobs report today - It is all beginning to work!

[narciso]

Nolan isn't known for epic films except for length like inception and interstellar. But he reasonably helmed the Batman series, they have given him some scraps in this unneccessary redux,
Much as with this new mummy.

[daddy]

Looks like "Dunkirk" is about the only one I would care to watch - and I will wait for the reviews.

I don't think I'm interested in any of the rest either, Miss M.

That got me thinking about what we would like to see made into a movie for the big screen. Hopefully we can kick that around as a topic this weekend.

I thought a neat item I read in the Millennium book last week was I believe in the early 1800's when a cow-pox vaccine had been invented, and the book said that the Spanish King wanted to get the vaccine pox transported to Columbia to be used there to save lives, but they had no way to transport it, so what he did was he sent his Royal Surgeon and 20 children on voyage and the Surgeon infected them one by one as the voyage to Columbia progressed, so as to have a viable strain of the vaccine upon arrival. It worked. Amazing. Wish I still had the book checked out so I could get the dates and particulars exactly, but that tale of ingenuity and probably plenty of trepidation amazed me.

[Benjamin Franklin]

Two years ago today...

"Donald Trump may be running for president. He said he is sick and tired of the rest of the world laughing at the United States. Well, President Trump will certainly put an end to that."
---David Letterman

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

The science is settled;
Eating boogers is good for your health and teeth.
They're even trying to develop a synthetic dried snot tooth paste; seriously.
I propose they call it Crust-Nose Goblin Whitening Toothmucous.

[narciso]

1803 Francisco De balmis was the one, it was the 4th link with the two terms. Didn't note the source.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

daddy,

What a good topic!

I have often thought some old novels I have read would be great movies. One is a novel called "These Old Shades" by Georgette Heyer.

It is set in pre-Revolutionary France, when many of the English aristocracy had town homes in Paris.

An English Duke with a bad reputation in England (and whose nickname is The devil) finds a poor French lad and takes him into his home as a page. Only it really is a young woman, who has disguised herself as a boy for protection from the low-lifes.

And it turns out she is really a daughter of a French aristocrat whose father switched babies with a peasant so that he could keep his brother from inheriting.

The ending is very dramatic, because at a big social event the Duke tells the story as a fable, and by the time he gets to the end, the French guy shoots himself due to disgrace.

And then, of course, the Duke marries the young woman.

Lots of duels, chases on horseback, and swell costumes. It would be a great movie!

[narciso]

He may have gotten from here

http://nowiknow.com/the-smallpox-boat/

[Another Bob]

KK, was never much of a fan of Iron Shitty. Back in the day, Pittsburgh had metric crap tons of horsepiss beers - Duke and Tech were the ones I remember dad buying.

Was always a fan of Walnut St in Shadyside though. Good bars and restaurants, and a fine jazz club called The Balcony. Prime hunting grounds for a late-twenties guy with a couple bucks.

It's all a yuppie shopping center now. damn shame.

[daddy]

Thank you for your comments about Limbaugh and the Cruzbots.

For good measure, I'd add Mark Levin and Ann Coulter to the group.

I'm watching Howie Carr on Channel 704 interview Ann Coulter on his radio Show from probably a day or so ago. He asks Ann why does she persist in going on shows like "The View" and Ann says that she and Jeoy Behar get on great and Ann likes her because she is a stand up comedian and they knew each other in a previous life on some show, so she likes going on that show and blah, blah, blah, and I was even less interested than Howie Carr feigned, so I took Nelson out for a poop and now I'm watching Baseball.

[narciso]

Much of the story is here,

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/475030_4

I knew about Jenner and subsequently Pasteur, but not this one, much as many have heard of Walter reed but not nearly as much as Carlos n finlay, his Cuban counterpart who identified the aedes aegypti mosquito as the vector forvyellow fever

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

daddy,

Ann Coulter or taking Nelson out for a poop? LOL!

We need new pundits. Coulter has been around since the Clinton years. So has Levin.

I am ready for new people.

[narciso]

It is less remarked:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carlos-J-Finlay

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

naeciso,

It is sad how many of these great medical pioneers have been lost to history.

Here's another one:

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

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Jean Pierre 🇺🇸 @frenchfortrump

Tonight in France after Midnight, a Tweet or Facebook post about your candidate can cost you 3750 EUR!#ChoisirLaFrance #JeVotePour Marine

[Thomas Collins]

Useful for something, KevlarKid. Today one of my favorite waitresses wished me happy Cinco de Mayo. I asked her how that French-Mexican battle is commemorated. She answered that as far as she was concerned, Cinco de Mayo was an excuse to drink a lot. Now THAT's a commemorative activity to which I can relate, so I celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a double shot of whiskey and a red wine!

[narciso]

The basilisk's chum bucket:

https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/05/05/end-the-gorka-calumny/

[Buckeye]

Another mostly unknown Celtic lass putting a smile on my face.

https://youtu.be/8ozOi5hoHD4

I think this is from about ten years ago.

[daddy]

Thanks Narciso,

Great link. Isn't that an amazing tale? It doesn't get much more Science Fictiony than that in any age, and I bet a couple decent scriptwriters could turn that into a killer production.

[daddy]

Narciso,

Can you post your 08:53 in some different mode. I get an empty page at Med something or other but no story and not sure what you are trying to link.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/2017-kentucky-derby-unseasonably-cool-weather-forecast-for-saturdays-run-for-the-roses/70001582

If you are betting, check for mudders!

[narciso]

Try it in the lun;

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/05/05/Binary-relationship-brings-Trump-to-Saudi-Arabia.html#.WQzVU71BDXk.twitter

Interesting article, although written from a Saudi point of view, so take with a grain of salt.

[Threadkiller]

A grain of sand.

[daddy]

Wow. This from Wikion Dr Balmis is "the rest of the story" and also very cool. Softer Dr Balmis arrives in the New World and is successful:

In Venezuela, the expedition divided at La Guayra. José Salvany, the deputy surgeon, went toward today's Colombia and the Viceroyalty of Peru (Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia). They took seven years and the toils of the voyage brought death to Salvany (Cochabamba, 1810). Balmis went to Caracas and later to Havana. The local poet Andrés Bello wrote an ode to Balmis. In New Spain, Balmis took 25 orphans to maintain the infection during the crossing of the Pacific. In the Philippines, they received help from the Catholic church. Balmis sent most of the expedition back to New Spain while he went on to China, where he visited Macau and Canton. On his way back to Spain, Balmis convinced the British authorities of Saint Helena (1806) to be inoculated.

So Balmis did a lap westbound around the planet way back in 1803-1806, basically saving the world.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Heading to bbed.

Nytol!

[narciso]

Like a real life version of outbreak or andromeda strain 200 years ago.

[daddy]

Narciso, Wiki also says this:

Julia Alvarez wrote a fictional account of the expedition from the perspective of its only female member in Saving the World.

Saving the World It only has 3 stars, but she's a Dominican Republic author and I recognize 2 of her other titles. Has anyone read her?

[narciso]

No I haven't, I'm aware of her:

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2017/05/all-religions-you-can-insult-on-cnn.html?m=1

[narciso]

A little more of his work:

http://www.mei.edu/profile/theodore-karasik

So the maison blanche three banon under the bus, yet put fillon and le pen under the microscope, rather convenient eh

[Clarice Feldman]

I think Semmelweis means caraway seed.

[narciso]

Hanon, the ringer because the socialists, were as popular as skunks in a garden patty.

[lyle]

I celebrated 5x5 en espanol with awesome 'murkin BBQ babyback pork ribs and Tuscan wine. I'm definitely culturally confused.

[daddy]

Here's an odd story. Michelle Obama tweeted out the telephone number of some guy named Duncan Wolfe, who used to do videos during Obama's time in the White House. From this story I would guess he is a gay dude (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I wonder if he was in Tahiti lately?

OUT Magazine: Who is Duncan Wolfe?

[Frau Brötchen]

Could be, Clarice. A "Semmel" is Austrian for roll.

[Frau Brötchen]

He must be a Dem. I wouldn't trust him with a son or daughter, daddy.

[daddy]

In the NYTimes write-up of Michelle Obama's apparent texting screw-up they have to immediately say her screw up was nowhere as big as Trump's tweet screw-ups.

Michelle Obama’s Twitter account sent out the filmmaker’s personal cellphone number to her 7.7 million followers on Friday. The tweet contained no text aside from the phone number, and it was quickly deleted, but not before many had taken notice.

The tweet was an accident, not the result of hacking, according to an official who works for the Obamas...

I didn't know the Obama's still had Officials working for them. What sort of "Officials?"

...Of course, there have been far more embarrassing occasions in politics of publicly tweeting something that was meant to stay private. Nor is this the first time a political figure has blasted out a phone number.

In President Trump’s case, it was intentional. He revealed the cellphone number of Senator Lindsey Graham, a fierce critic, during a rally in 2015, prompting the Senator to destroy the phone.

My overall guess is "Reggie Love hardest hit."

[Frau Brötchen]

G'nite-o.

[Clarice Feldman]

frau, in Milwaukee rolls like that are called Kaiser rolls for some reason.

[daddy]

Miss Marple,

Neat link to Dr Semmelweis, who did great work for humanity and got punished for it.

Sung to the tune of...

Semmelweis, Semmelweis,
Every morning we beat you,
Old and kind, out of your mind,
You look crazy to me.

[DrJ]

I think Semmelweis means caraway seed.

Not in German. Caraway seed is "Kümmel." Frau is right, a "Semmel" is a roll. Weiss of course means "white," and I'd bet the second "s" was dropped.

[Clarice Feldman]

You're, of course, right, Dr J and frau.

[Threadkiller]

Semillas is seed en Español.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

LOL, daddy.

[narciso]

I hadn't really examined the ondcp, but what are they good for, seizures well that would be dea, treatment under hhs I father, the police the first line of defense, well they've been muzzled.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Rotten worthless typhuspad, locking me out...

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Semanitcleo is imbecile in English.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Jeez, that seemed funny about half a dozen attempts ago. Now it just seems... a little sad...

[narciso]

and this is why he should have been forex on say one:

http://libertyunyielding.com/2017/05/05/comey-reportedly-insisted-including-trump-dossier-report-russia-u-s-election/

[Texas Liberty Gal]

Can someone remind me why Hillary is referred to Hamrod Shadoobie.

[narciso]

Are they trying to get blown out of the water ahain:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.france24.com/en/20170505-eiffel-tower-stunt-greenpeace-security-french-election-paris

[narciso]

Yes they can't even get the trend right, in the lun.

[narciso]

Maybe there's a job for you otto

http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/04/cornell-university-offers-trump-bashing-101-to-students/?utm_campaign=atdailycaller&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social

[GUS]

SHATTERED SHATTERED, rats on the west side, bed bugs uptown.....etc.....go ahead bite the big apple, don't mind the maggots.

[GUS]

Frau, 2 MFM LIBTARD Urinalista's refused to report the TRUTH about Rancid Rodham's campaign in "real time" in order to keep the info salacious enough to sell "post" election. The book is entitled. "Shattered". Like the Rolling Stones song....."Oooh Shadoobie, shattered shattered". Kev is being creative with a play on words. HamROD, equals RODHAM. "Shadoobie" is Mick Jaggers word in "SHATTERED".

[GUS]

Excuse me, my 1:32 was meant for Texas Liberty Gal....not Frau.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Dude made right and left hand Model 1911 45s from a metallic meteorite.
Expected auction price $4.5 million.

[GUS]

Ignatz, that is amazing. Did you see my post about Gus Jr's. 1956 Browning O/U SUPER-POSED, and it's value??
"If GUNS KILL PEOPLE, then all of MINE are DEFECTIVE" (THEODORE ANTHONY NUGENT)

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

So Coornell is following Butler's lead, huh?

How much are professor's getting paid to conduct those classes which seem to me to be nothing but griping sessions. (Curriculum provided by Antifa, probably)?

[GUS]

Lovely Miss Marple. American University's are as F#$tED up as the DEMOTARD/LIBTARD Party.
It's the "FULL COMMIE". I coined that TERM nearly 10 years ago. We are dealing with 100% morally bankrupt and intellectually SICK mother fucking ENEMIES.
So sorry to be crude, my Dear, but we are in a WAR.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Oh, I know, Gus.

They never quit.

I have insomnia, so I am up and roaming around the internet. I wonder what the President is going to be up to this weekend.

[GUS]

Lovely Miss Marple. The LEFT has/have NO MORAL scruples. They have been unleashed by their own lack of standards nor morality.
In Congress 2 days ago, the LIBTARD/MARXIST/COMMIE PARTY, found it acceptable and OK/appropriate to HECKLE, and SHOUT DOWN, PAUL RYAN. They have NO STANDARDS nor SCRUPLES. They act out and are dysfunctional LOSERS.

[GUS]

My dear and lovely Miss Marple, I do not sleep well at all. The MERE, concept of ANTIFA!! AND/OR Black LIVES MATTER.... is of mf'ing BEYOND ...a JOKE or PARODY, as to be COMICAL.
Miss Marple, we are in BIZARRO LAND. BLACK LIVES MATTER, is not a CONCEPT. Black LIVES Matter is a CONSTRUCT of RACIST and COMICAL PROPORTIONS. The CONCEPT of BLACK LIVES MATTER in and of ITSELF, is a CLOWNISH JOKE.
Black Lives Matter is a RACIST POLITICAL CONSTRUCT and a COMMIE/MARXIST ridiculous JOKE.
The MFM and American MORONS, seem to believe that "THE IDEA/IDEAL of BLACK LIVES MATTERING", makes themselves...SOMEHOW....MORALLY SUPERIOR.
IT'S A JOKE. BLACK LIVES MATTER is a COMMIE/MARXIST/CLOWNISH CONSTRUCT.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Yes, it is.

I often wonder why people are attracted to those types of groups. When I look at the people oon the left, whether I am talking about Chuck Schumer or some university professor or the really lefty movie stars or students, they never seem to be happy.

It's like they don't know HOW to be happy.

I lived through 8 years of Bill Clinton adn 8 years of Obama. I got on with my life when the election was lost. I wasn't happy about it, but I didn't have a damned nervous breakdown.

What is wrong with these people?

[GUS]

My darling and Lovely Miss Marple. The people, that you and I are talking about, are ........MENTALLY ILL. They have no MORALITY, and they DESIRE, THAT....WHICH CANNOT BE.
There is no MARXISM nor SOCIALISM that is WORKABLE nor VIABLE. LIBTARDS/MARXISTS/SOCIALISTS, want to BUY VOTERS to their "cause". IT'S A DEAD END. ONLY "CONSTITUTIONAL "CAPITALISM" works.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

True. It just bewilders me.

Why would you think that would work? Why would you think that it has any practical application at all?

It's just beyond me.

Think I will try to go back to bed, Gus.

See you later.

[GUS]

Lovely Miss Marple, The entire faction of those who make their living off of OUR BACKS, have no intention of ALLOWING, you and I, to take our NATION BACK.
Smoooch and God bless lovely Miss Marple.

[daddy]

I'm surprised by the Media's lack of interest in looking into Michelle Obama's "accidentally" tweeting out this Duncan Wolfe guy's number. There probably is nothing there, but the Media stories are cookie cutter versions of each other. An Obama "Official" says "it was simply a mistake, nothing to see here, move along," so the Media dutifully ignores it without comment, except as an opportunity to take a cheap shot at Trump.

From google I found a few previous stories with background info: Chicago filmmaker Duncan Wolfe looks back on dream job at the White House

(Duncan) Wolfe was one of 20 staffers housed in the White House's Office of Digital Strategy, a department that — it must be noted — did not exist until the Obama administration.

Who knew that?
Does it still exist under Trump?
What was it's budget?
Beats me.

Wolfe and his fellow digital staffers were constantly traveling with the president and first lady and, on occasion, Vice President Joe Biden...During his 14-month tour of duty in the White House, Wolfe visited five continents and 19 countries.

How big was that Budget again?

But two trips stand out, Wolfe said, as among the most interesting and memorable of the many he took. One was Obama's historic visit last year to Cuba to formally reopen relations with that island country. Another was to Spain and Africa, where he traveled with First Lady Michelle Obama, whom Wolfe found to be every bit as compelling and emotionally resonant a figure as her husband.

I suppose it makes sense then that Michelle was accidentally tweeting instead of dialing the number of the guy she spent a couple weeks with in Spain without Berry. (BTW, Michelle Obama’s August 2010 Vacation in Spain Cost American Taxpayers $467,585 According to Records Obtained by Judicial Watch)

How big was that budget again?

From the NYTimes we get a sort of "Greatest Hits" of the Office of Digital Strategy, the new Department Obama created: (Nov 2015) A Digital Team Is Helping Obama Find His Voice Online

WASHINGTON — As the Internet exploded recently with the story of the 14-year-old Muslim boy arrested for taking a homemade clock that was mistaken for a bomb to his school in Texas, President Obama’s small army of social media specialists wasted no time.

From their office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Mr. Obama’s aides determined that the president should swiftly tweet about the clockmaker, Ahmed Mohamed, whose distraught expression and handcuffed wrists were feeding a national debate about ethnic and religious profiling.

“Cool clock, Ahmed,” Mr. Obama said in a message posted on Twitter hours later from his personal account, @POTUS, to his nearly five million followers. “Want to bring it to the White House?”

Although the president seldom posts his own tweets, and White House officials would not say who wrote the one about Ahmed, the tweet reflected a push at the White House to build up a social media presence for Mr. Obama in his own voice.
---------------
He had to have ghost writers to write his tweets?

The author of "Dreams From My Father" and The Audacity Of Hope" had to have "social media specialists" to come up with "Cool clock, Ahmed?"

Geebus, Berry. And here we thought we were hearing you in your own voice:(

Increasingly, the White House is using Mr. Obama to break news over social media. His first reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling establishing a right to same-sex marriage nationwide in June was on Twitter, where he called the decision “a big step in our march toward equality.” He added the hashtag #LoveWins, which quickly became a trending topic.

OK, I take it back. Obama was able to come up with #LoveWins all by himself. Touche,' Mister President!

Well that's about it for Duncan. The Media is obviously incurious about this "accidental" tweet, so you guys shouldn't be either.
Kumbaya! errr #LoveWins!

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Well, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I am back, just in time to read daddy's excellent post.

daddy, isn't it amazing how Obama needed TWENTY people to post those tweets? And Trump does it by himself! Look at how much money he's saving!

And how could Trump do such a highly technical task which required TWENTY people to do?

It couldn't be that he's actually SMART, could it?

[anonamom]

Second nominee for Secretary of the Army withdraws:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/us/politics/mark-green-army-secretary-nominee-withdraws.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

That being Christian thing is a real problem these days, it appears.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/05/05/president-trump-signs-hr-244-the-continuing-spending-resolution-into-law/#more-132272

This includes an analysis of why there are continuing resolutions, and also includes the President''s signing statements in which it looks to me like Congress was going to have committees giving permission for certain spending, which is unconstitutional.

I recommend reading this to get another perspective.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/kentucky-derby-field-odds-picks-everything-you-need-to-know/ar-BBAHDNS?OCID=ansmsnnews11

Derby Day!!

[anonamom]

Going to be gone for a while, and not sure how much internet access there is where I'll be. As clarice says--behave! Remember--carbs kill.

Everybody here seems to know this, but just to summarize--an Althouse commenter's great summation of Ocare (in response to the italicized sentence):

Obamacare wasn't falling apart on its own but had a good push from Republicans and insurances companies that didn't want competition.

Lord, here we go again. It WAS falling apart on its own, and the Dem party was counting on that.

From the patient standpoint: once deductibles, copays and coinsurance costs went went up, the left was counting on a massive resistance by those patients to force Congress to push for single payer.

From the plan standpoint - force them to cover things that don't need to be covered, force them to cover pre-existing conditions WITHOUT any risk pools, and separate by state so the small states would have little to no insurers.

From the provider standpoint - hospitals will treat sick patients who how have bigger coinsurance and deductible amounts, but won't realize that additional payment because patients aren't paying their portion. For actual physician visits, a lot of patients are being pushed onto Medicaid, which pays less than insurance companies, and Obamacare created a board that can cut those payments even more when they have the will to do so.

It was a PERFECT storm of either perfect, weapons grade stupid by everyone involved in putting Obamacare together, or it was planned to have these effects on everyone who has to deal with the system.

As an aside - I've been in the healthcare finance and data field for 27 years - I'm not pulling this out of some wonk's policy conscriptions from some think tank. I see it every day as part of my job.

So please, Roesch - please stop before you dig yourself into a hole you won't be able to climb out of. Government run healthcare is a bad idea, despite the fact that people "want" it.

[daddy]

Amazing, ain't it, Miss M.

The Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize needed 20 people to come up with "Cool clock, Ahmed," yet MAGA Trump, he's a dummy:)

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Heh. Go read his signing statement on that Treehouse article.

Why they thought they could put something over on a guy who reads contracts for FUN is beyond me.

[Free James D!]

It's like they don't know HOW to be happy.

Well, after years of being taught in schools, colleges and pop culture to despise their own culture and history (and, by extension, themselves), that's not really a surprise.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

James D., The question in my mind is whether they are made that way, or whether they gravitate to it because of their own mental illness.

[daddy]

Miss M,

I'm heading up to bed now, but your author Georgette Heyer you mentioned earlier seems like she had her own interesting life, churning out a novel a year in the early 20th Century. Cheer's to the puppy dogs.

A'mom,

Thanks for the ObamaCare education, and is there something besides aspirin I should be eating to beat a Blood Pressure Test on Monday? G'nite:)

[Free James D!]

Probably a combination, MM.

But I think that being told that you should feel guilty for basically every aspect of your life, your family and your place in the world, for 18+ years, will cause quite a bit of mental illness in people who would otherwise be normal.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4478548/Fired-WH-usher-replaced-Trump-properties-loyalist.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus#ixzz4gEySIxA4

A commenter points out that we now know why the Easter eggs were ordered late. In fact, the manufacturer had to reach out to the President with a tweet!

That indicates to me that the usher hadn't been responsive when contacted. In other words, she didn't order the eggs and ignored pleas to do so.

Of course, this delay got blamed on Melania.

I am glad she is gone. She was probably a leaker, too.