Time for a Break

Your momma’s so ugly, the government moved Halloween to her birthday.

Your momma is so fat, I took a picture of her last Christmas and it’s still printing.

Your mamma is so fat she doesn’t need the internet, because she’s already world wide.

A lady comes home from her doctor’s appointment grinning from ear to ear. Her husband asks, “Why are you so happy?”
The wife says, “The doctor told me that for a forty-five year old woman, I have the breasts of a eighteen year old.”
“Oh yeah?” quipped her husband, “What did he say about your forty-five year old ass?”
She said, “Your name never came up.”

Teacher: Who answers my next question, can go home.
One boy throws his bag out the window.
Teacher: Who just threw that?
Boy: Me and I’m going home now.

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?
Pilgrims

If the Pilgrims were alive today, what would they be most famous for?
Their age.

Why did the elephant cross the road?
Because the Elephant was having a day off.

What grey, has a wand, huge wings, and gives money to elephants?
The tusk fairy.

What has 3 tails, 4 trunks and 6 feet?
An elephant with spare parts

A man, his son and a dog walk into a bar.
“Ow!”
“Ow!”
“Woof!”

A termite walks into a bar and says is the bartender here?

Two guys are walking their dogs, a black lab and a Chihuahua. Passing a bar, the “lab” walker says, “Let’s get a beer.”
The other: “We can’t take our dogs in there.”
The first: “Watch.” In he goes and orders a beer.
“Sorry, you can’t bring your dog in here.”
“He’s my seeing eye dog.”
“Oh. Sorry. Here’s your beer.”
The other guy follows, orders a beer; same response: no dogs allowed.
“He’s my seeing eye dog.”
“Yeah, right. A Chihuahua? Give me a break.”
“They gave me a CHIHUAHUA?!”

Federal Tax Reform and SALT

Included in the Federal tax reform plan now on offer is the elimination of the deduction for State And Local Taxes (primarily income and sales taxes; property taxes would remain deductible up to a cap).  Republican Congressmen from high-SALT States object to that elimination, and they base their objection on the premise that these high-tax States actually send more of their States’ citizens’ money to DC than they get back from DC in other funds.

That seems a fair beef to the extent that it’s accurate, which raises a question in my pea brain.

What are these Congressmen proposing in the way of tax reform and spending reform to reduce the amount of their constituents’ money—and the money of all States’ citizens—that gets sent to DC?  Surely, they can think of ways to reduce such regional redistributions (they are Republicans, after all), or even eliminate them absent a national or regional emergency.

These Congressmen’s silence on that bit strongly suggests that their objections are not principled, but simply personal power and ego stroking.

A Slip of the Mask

When President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was deleted for a few minutes last week, it looked like an isolated mistake by a customer service employee “on his last day at work,” as Twitter, Inc, representatives had it.

Maybe not.  Now, more information is coming to light about that incident.  Seconds thoughts are occurring about the likelihood of a single employee in such a position having the authority to delete an entire account.  There’s more, too.

Inside Twitter, the brief deactivation elicited celebration or amusement even in the upper ranks. Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey Liked a tweet with an image of his face superimposed on celebrity painter Bob Ross standing before a canvas depicting Mr Trump’s deactivated account. “There are no mistakes, only happy little accidents!” the caption said.

And

One former employee said that deleting Mr Trump’s account was a “running joke” among employees about things they wanted to do on their last day.

And

Lara Cohen, Twitter’s former head of entertainment and talent partnerships, retweeted a post about the rogue employee that said, “Not all heroes wear capes.”

“Doing good on the way out the door,” is how another former employee described the episode.

And

A former employee involved with Twitter Moments, a product that highlights tweets curated by the platform or users, said on a number of occasions during the campaign that senior executives expressed displeasure with Moments that portrayed Mr Trump in a good light.

It’s also instructive that so many of these Twitter, Inc, responses are exposed by ex-Twitter employees, and not by current ones.

The mask has slid away momentarily, quickly reset, and the slip has exposed what free speech would be under a Left-leaning government.  And it looks a lot like the “free” speech of our colleges and universities.

A Navy Veteran

refused an “award” from a dishonorable organization.

The New Orleans Saints was going to present Commander John Wells, Military Veterans Advocacy Executive Director, with the Peoples Health Champion award during the Saints’ game against the Chicago Bears last weekend.  What Wells said in his refusal:

Although I am touched and honored to be selected for such an award, the ongoing controversy with NFL players’ disrespect for the national flag forces me to decline to participate in the presentation.  I am unable, in good conscience, to enter an NFL stadium while this discourtesy prevails. Since this award is tainted with the dishonorable actions of the NFL and its players, I cannot accept it.

The Saints’ response, in its attitude, vindicated Wells’ decision.

We will not allow Mr Wells’ decision and subsequent media appearances to distract our players and organization from continuing to honor and support our military and veterans. We, as an organization, have decided to move on from this sad and divisive discourse and focus our attention on supporting our military and veterans.

The Saints’ statement also claimed

[W]e…contend we are leaders when it comes to financial support as well as the thousands of service hours our organization and players gladly contribute….

No, the divisiveness distraction here are in the players’ decision to attack our flag and national anthem and to insult our veterans and their families while masquerading their “protest” as commentary on social injustice and in Saints management’s decision to condone such miscreancy.  This misbehavior has rendered all the claimed support for our veterans into so much self-serving eyewash.  The financial support and service hours turn out to be nothing but indulgences, whether paid in advance or after the fact.

Good on the Commander.

Assimilation

…of one culture into another.  This is the problem being experienced by eastern Germany since reunification.

Twenty-seven years after Germany’s reunification, the country’s political institutions are still struggling to break down what Germans sometimes call “the Wall in the head,” according to the leader of Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb).

“The domination of West Germans in the elites is still felt as cultural colonialism,” Thomas Krüger, the only former East German to head a government department not directly associated with East German affairs[.]

So much is true, but more importantly, it’s indicative of the long-term damage done by authoritarian governments.  The dominated culture develops an ingrained disdain for authority in general, which isn’t all bad for any people, but the individuals of that culture also have lost their initiative—their willingness, even their ability, to act on their distrust and to make their own decisions and then act on those decisions.  They’re still too used to being dominated.

It’s a generational damage, and it’ll take generations to overcome.  Eastern Germany has been free for only a bit over one generation after three or more generations of domination, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets.