Author: Patrick

Short Bio: I started blogging about politics in 2006, as a populist, skeptical left of center type, with a blog called simply, "The Populist."I suspect, but cannot prove; that my blog might have been hacked by some evil neoconservatives. I cannot prove that at all and also too, around the same time. Hackers from China where attacking wordpress blogs. I believe either the Neocons or the Chinese got my site. I don't know honestly know which.Either way, by 2007, I began to see that I really did not fit within the Democrat Party and liberal circles and after my blog was hacked; I created a blog called "Political Byline" and I kept writing; first as a Centrist and then as a Conservative PopulistFor my long bio, see the "About Me" section on this blog.

To which I say, “Welcome to my World!”

I know this all to well:

(CNSNews.com) – The percentage of American civilians 16 or older who do not have a job and are not actively seeking one remained at a 36-year high in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In December, April, and now May, the labor force participation rate has been 62.8 percent. That means that 37.2 percent were not participating in the labor force during those months.

Before December, the last time the labor force participation rate sunk as low as 62.8 percent was February 1978, when it was also 62.8 percent. At that time, Jimmy Carter was president.

In April, the number of those not in the labor force hit a record high of 92,018,000. In May, that number declined by 9,000 to 92,009,000. Yet, the participation rate remained the same from April to May at 62.8 percent.

The labor force, according to BLS, is that part of the civilian noninstitutional population that either has a job or has actively sought one in the last four weeks. The civilian noninstitutional population consists of people 16 or older, who are not on active duty in the military or in an institution such as a prison, nursing home, or mental hospital.

via 37.2%: Percentage Not in Labor Force Remains at 36-Year High | CNS News.

I have been unemployed since 2005. I tried sucking it up and going to work for a trucking company as an OTR driver; only to have that chance snatched out from under me.  (I already had a CDL-A, since 2003 — but lacked experience…)  Finally, here as of recent; I bit the bullet and signed up for Michigan’s expanded Medicaid program. So, I am covered on healthcare. Thank God for Government Snyder for looking out for people like me.

So, I know the feeling, I’ve been there; in fact, I’m there now! 🙁

Can’t we all just get along?

I mean, I can see we Paleocons arguing with neocons; but this?

Via Red Philips over at Conservative Heritage Times:

Apparently they’re has been a longstanding rift between postmodern conservatives (PoMoCons or PoMos) and Front Porch Republic types (Porchers). Who knew? The occasion for the increased discussion of this rift is the fact the Peter Lawler is moving his Postmodern Conservative blog from First Things to NRO.

See Rod Dreher here.

Caleb Stegall has a lot of links here.

Peter Lawler here.

This is at FPR.

I think that all of us in what you might call the alternative conservative (meaning outside mainstream conservatism) community have some things in common and mutual enemies, the left and stale mainstream conservatism, but I think the description of the Porchers that is being tossed around describes something much more radical than the reality. The Porchers, at least as represented by FPR, are, as far as I can tell, a bunch of PC phobes. How can you talk about localism and community and “place” without talking about immigration? Doesn’t an influx of non-natives have a pretty big impact on place?

Like I said over at Red’s place in a comment that ended up in the moderation queue; because I put in the wrong email address… 🙄 :

Good-gott-a-mighty, Can’t we all just get along? I mean, we as Conservatives are supposed to be fighting against the neo-liberal, marxist, statism of the Democratic Party. My simple question is this; why fight over who’s legit and who is not? That is silly in my book. I know that neoconservatism is an issue; especially with me. But, alt-right folk fighting over silly stuff? Come on. 🙄

Whatever happened to just agreeing to disagree on trivial matters and working together to fight back against those, who want to destroy the traditional, Christian, American values in this Country?  Conservatives, of all stripes, camps and cliques need to look at the bigger picture and realize — we have a Country to save and bickering like this, is not going to do that at all.

Just my opinion.

UPDATED: Thoughts and Prayers to the people of Moncton, Canada SUSPECT CAPTURED

Because of this here:

(Live video even concluded)

The Story via CBC Canada:

Police have surrounded a building in Moncton as the manhunt continues for a heavily armed man after three RCMP officers were killed and two were wounded in shootings Wednesday night.

RCMP officers and three armoured trucks have a building surrounded in the southeastern New Brunswick city.

This is the latest development in the manhunt that started on Wednesday evening. Police said Thursday morning that the suspect has been spotted a few times in the manhunt.

RCMP believe Justin Bourque, 24, is within an area bounded by Berry Mills Road, Killam Drive, Mountain Road and Evergreen Drive in the Pinehurst subdivision of Moncton.

Codiac RCMP Supt. Marlene Snowman told a news conference that police spotted the suspect three times Thursday morning — in the area near Gorge and Mountain roads, and two other times. The police were unable to apprehend him.

Roger Brown​, RCMP assistant commissioner, also told the news conference that “there is no way to describe the level of hurt” inside the police force.

He promised to keep the public updated on the situation throughout the day.

“This is working through your worst nightmare,” Brown said.

He said Moncton is still gripped by a “very, very dangerous situation.”

“We have an armed and dangerous individual that we do not exactly know where he is, and what that really means is that we need to collectively work together to ensure that nothing else happens, that we don’t have somebody else injured, whether it be a citizen, whether it be a bystander, whether it be another police officer,” Brown told the news conference.

To my conservative friends in Canada, I give you a piece of advice. Do not allow this tragic event to become a political cause, by the political left in Canada, to take away your gun rights as Canadian citizens. This guy, from what I have been able to see, especially on his facebook page; is not your average conservative or even legal gun owner. Justin Bourque, from what I can tell, based upon looking at his facebook page; has had some radical thoughts planted in him.

Furthermore, to the political left in Canada, I give you this message: Conservatives here in America, as well as the Conservatives in Canada; do not believe in murdering police officers like this. This guy obviously has an axe to grind with the local police there and is using his support of gun rights as a springboard to commit these crimes.

I prayer for the capture of Justin Bourque and I pray for the families that have been affected by this senseless and tragic event.

Update: CBC Reports that the suspect has been captured.

Stepping down

I’ve finally decided to gradually quit this vaping stuff.

I have been for a while now using Cherry 2.4 percent on the e-liquid.

Today I went and bought some new wicks for both my tanks. I also, instead of getting my usual 2.4 percent e-liquid, I bought some 1.8 menthol. So, I can gradually get off of the Nicotine. I just don’t think that it is right for my parents to have to pay for my habits, as I have not been very successful in getting any sort of donations via this blog at all. 

So, I am coming down gradually. It’s gonna take some serious prayers.

So, pray for me as I try to do this.

You can go here and here to see how I ever got started back to smoking in the first place. Basically, my trying to get hired with that company, and dealing with all the stress, is why I started back.

Modo takes a trip and never leaves the ground

This is so funny…:

The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child.

Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop.

What could go wrong with a bite or two?

Everything, as it turned out.

Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I’d order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand.

But then I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn’t move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I didn’t answer, he’d call the police and have me arrested for being unable to handle my candy.

I strained to remember where I was or even what I was wearing, touching my green corduroy jeans and staring at the exposed-brick wall. As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.

via Don’t Harsh Our Mellow, Dude – NYTimes.com.

Too bad I wasn’t there; I could have gotten me a piece of booty and gotten away with it. 😉

Update: Some music related to post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3YtvuZ2-I0

also too…I  wonder if modo was seeing these?: (“Cause smokin’ and trippin’ is all that you do…”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8kYrIWu14E

Others: Firedoglake, Hit & Run, The Latest Word, Gawker, Politico, Ed Driscoll, Talking Points Memo,The PJ Tatler, The Huffington Post, The Daily Caller, Capital New York, Mediaite, Twitchy, JustOneMinute,The Week, Hullabaloo, Unqualified Offerings, Business Insider, The Dish and Balloon Juice (Via Memeoradum)

More on the bergdahl flap

More and more of this story is coming out; and it don’t look good at all.

To pull off the prisoner swap of five Taliban leaders for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the White House overrode an existing interagency process charged with debating the transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and dismissed long-standing Pentagon and intelligence community concerns based on Top Secret intelligence about the dangers of releasing the five men, sources familiar with the debate tell TIME.

National Security Council officials at the White House decline to describe the work of the ad hoc process they established to trade the prisoners, or to detail the measures they have taken to limit the threat the Taliban officials may pose. They say consensus on the plan was reached by the top officials of Obama’s national security team, including representatives from the Pentagon, State Department, intelligence community and Joint Chiefs of Staff. “These releases were worked extensively through deputies and principals,” says National Security Counsel Deputy for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes. “There was not a dissent on moving forward with this plan.”

But officials in the Pentagon and intelligence communities had successfully fought off release of the five men in the past, officials tell TIME. “This was out of the norm,” says one official familiar with the debate over the dangers of releasing the five Taliban officials. “There was never the conversation.” Obama’s move was an ultimate victory for those at the White House and the State Department who had previously argued the military should “suck it up and salute,” says the official familiar with the debate.

via White House Overrode Internal Objections to Taliban Prisoner Release | TIME.

Suck it up and Salute? Yikes. Something tells me that this story is going to get much bigger; before it gets any smaller. 😯

Others: protein wisdom, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler and Ed Driscoll

Now a memeorandum thread.