Words of the Weasel Part 50

The MSM and the gun control people have been using "gun violence" rather than the older and truer word, murder.  It's a disgraceful attempt to be non judgemental, to blame a tool for the sins of an evil person.  Murder has been a crime ever since Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mt Sinai.  Gun violence only made the TV since the Portland school shooting. 

Bimbo Hush Money is now illegal campaign contribution???

That's what NPR was telling me this morning.  That $130,000 hush money that Trump's lawyer[s] paid "Stormy Daniels"  is an illegal campaign contribution and the special prosecutor should investigate.  Somehow this does not compute.  Campaign contributions are money given to a candidate.  Hush money given to a bimbo is distasteful, and a PR disaster, but I don't think it is a campaign contribution.  But good old NPR can find lawyers to say anything they want said.  NPR is part of the deep state trying to push Trump out of the presidency. I am so glad my tax money goes to subsidize NPR.

Congress does it again. 2300 Page Omnibus Spending Bill

No Congressman, except for maybe Paul Ryan, has any idea of what all is in it.  At best they know that their pet spending got in, along with every one else's pet spending.  Which is why the Federal deficit is so bad.  Nobody can read 23,000 pages of Congressional gobble-de-gook, even if given a year to do it.  Probably a few congressional staffers, like the one's who wrote this thing, have a general idea, and that's about it.
  This  disgrace is caused by the Senate.  The House wrote, debated and passed 12 spending bills, one for each major Federal department.  The Senate failed to even bring them up for debate, let alone pass them.  Let's hear it for Senate Rules.  Bulwark of democracy they are.
   So the end result, a few anonymous congressional staffers control all the spending of the Federal government. 
   Senators let this happen because it allows them to avoid voting on anything that their constituents might object to.   And who might write them nasty letters, or threaten to vote against them.  So they allow staffers to pack all the spending decisions into one vast unreadable swamp.  Since nobody, constituents, political opponents, the MSM, bloggers know what's in there, they cannot got on Senator Phogbound's case about  what he voted for. 

Safe guard the voters lists from hackers

Been a lotta talk on the 'Net and on the tube about Russians hacking the 2016 election, and what we oughta do about it.  Step one is to dump the voting machines and go back to paper ballots.  A voting machine is just a desktop computer running a special ballot program.  It is subject to all the hacks that ordinary computers are subject to, which is too damn many. 
Step two is safeguarding the voter lists.  You know those lists they have at the polls and upon which they check off your name as you vote.  And if your name isn't on the list you either have to do some extra paperwork, or you don't get to vote.  Suppose the other side had used a program to go thru the voter's list and erase 10% of your party's voters?  Or I can think of worse.
   Best security would be to go back to keeping the voter's list with pen and ink.  Barring that, if you just gotta have the list on computer, best would be not to use Windows.   Windows is totally and irredeemably security compromised.  It's Swiss cheese, fulla holes.  Use a Mac, use Linux, use anything except Windows.  Only allow one computer for updating the list, printing it out, and making backups.  Keep that machine in a locked room to which only a very few have a key.  DO NOT allow that machine to connect to any other machine, the public internet, the telephone network, anything.  Do not allow anyone to insert flash drives, floppy disks,  CD's or other media into the machine.   Periodically do a backup of the voter list to CD-ROM.  Store one copy of the backup CD-ROM off site so it will be available in the event of fire or flood at Town Hall.  Periodically compare the master voter's list on the computer to the most recent backup and decide if the changes, and the amount of change is reasonable. 

You gotta wonder about that FBI

Jeff Sessions just fired the FBI's number two man, Antony McCabe, based upon the FBI inspector general's written recommendation.  Just to make it hurt a little more, McCabe was within hours of retirement, with a full pension.  Getting fired means no pension, a pretty harsh penalty. 
   Question, if McCabe was such a crumb bum, how did he rise so far in the FBI?  I assume McCabe joined the FBI twenty years ago as a junior agent, or what ever the FBI calls new troops.  Since over twenty years, he got himself promoted up to number two at the Bureau, he must have had a lot of supervisors writing good performance reports on him over the years.  Is it a case of a good guy turning bad in his later years? Or is it case of a lot of McCabe's supervisors thinking McCabe's way of doing things was good?  That in fact a lot of the Bureau's supervision is just like McCabe?  And that maybe some more weeding out is in order?

Don't Fire Mueller

The lefties have been drum beating for Trump to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller.   If Trump were so foolish as to do so, it would convince an awful lot of voters that Trump has something to hide.  That he is dirty. 
   I like to think that Trump understands this and that he is smart enough to avoid shooting himself in the foot.  Let's hope.

Beat the Press

They were at it again this morning.  Lotta talk about firing that FBI guy, Tony something-or-other.  More talk about Trump's tweets, investigations into Russian collusion, and that Pittsburgh special election that the Democrats won by a hair. 
  No talk about dealing with the NORKS,  Trump's tax bill, the steel and aluminum tariffs, dealing with the Russians. Does this mean that the Democrats think these subjects make Trump look good?  So they don't talk about them?