Ball Diamond Ball

A very Merry Christmas to all the noble folk who reside here.

An update from south of PDX on Christmas morning.    The lit tree is a dwarf Obtusa Cypress; he’s the linch pin of the pond.   A bit of frost here in what is known locally as the Banana Belt, twenty miles south of Portland:

MLH commented on MJBubba‘s excellent post about the UN and Israel that there was a great treatment of the news over on the American Spectator, and boy was she right!  This is a great read; a welcome approach to a gulp of fresh air — at last! — from an American government committed first and finally to the American people.

Trump and Haley warned the anti-American crowd that we would not be lectured to on morality by the likes of Bolivia and Belarus, and that some of those countries are the recipients of American foreign aid — a spigot he would happily cut off if they followed through on their threats of condemnation.

“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and … Continue reading →

This drew my attention and brought back the America versus true conservative nonsense from the past on some other site.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/21/trumps-interior-sec-is-breaking-us-dependence-on-china-for-rare-minerals/

Ah, the arguments of  the need to maintain manufacturing and resources as a nation versus the free trade unicorns…

A superpower needs to be capable of making anything it needs to survive and thrive or it either becomes a tyrant empire or a colony of the next superpower.

There are some things a national government should do, and one is maintain capacity for making war and sustaining power. When we allow fabrication assets to be shut down by material manipulation and sold to strategic competitors at cents on the dollar, I find the free trade mantra to ring quite hollow.

When we create resource … Continue reading →

The year is ending in a big flurry of economic activity, the main street kind. The learned elites sense it from retail sales, but there is more tangible stuff going on.

I just helped a client buy a new commercial van. The dealers are selling out of inventory and are scrambling as businesses rush to replace aging fleets. I had to give an order to a dealer across a mountain range to get the model   needed, as all others were sold out.

Housing and commercial extension  new construction is hitting a pace not seen in decades. Wages are rising for skilled labor.

The halfway house for felons are having no trouble finding jobs these days. All they have to do is show up sober and work is … Continue reading →

Lots of anti-Israel resolutions have been voted for at the United Nations.  Until last year at this time, the United States used our Security Council powers to veto them.  Last December, Team Obama deliberately allowed one of these resolutions to get passed and made a public pronouncement as they stood by and failed to act.

Egypt introduced a new resolution that would have forced all U.N. member states to comply with last year’s anti-Israel resolution.  Team Trump cast a veto.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley gave two brief speeches, before and after the veto.  You can read the transcripts of both speeches at this link:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-nikki-haleys-speech-at-un-security-council-debate-on-jerusalem/

Here is the second half of her second speech, which gives you everything you need to see:

The United States has done more … Continue reading →