Daily Insanity

Between Progressive DC and the Nutwork Media Centers, the Poobahs of perverse behavior have pants with no zippers or uncontrollable hands. Or both conditions in many cases.

Is the mantra at 30 Rock and elsewhere “Start grinning and drop the linen!” to any ‘chippie’ that walks into an office?

New York’s TV industry riddled by harassment accusations

If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere, the song goes.

Evidently, making it in the highly-competitive television news industry in the Big Apple has often meant, for women, enduring sexual harassment at the hands of their male co-workers.

The list of men ousted from high-profile seats of TV power grew this week with NBC’s ousting Wednesday of Today co-anchor Matt Lauer.

But NBC is not alone. All of the major television networks have been hit with similar situations recently, making Lauer just the latest in a line that most recently includes Charlie Rose, who co-hosted CBS This Morning and had his own nightly show, produced by Bloomberg Television and aired on PBS for 26 years. He was dismissed from all three networks two weeks ago after accusations of sexual harassment and assault.

NBC News also last month terminated its contract with political analyst Mark Halperin who also appears on MSNBC. He had been accused of sexually harassing women while he worked at ABC News as political director in the late 1990s and much of the 2000s. Showtime also dismissed Halperin should the premium channel continue its political documentary series The Circus, which he co-hosted.

Back in April, Fox News Channel dismissed Bill O’Reilly, host of the network’s ratings leader The O’Reilly Report after an internal investigation prompted by The New York Times report that Fox and O’Reilly had paid millions to settle several sexual harassment accusations. O’Reilly’s ouster followed the July 2016 resignation of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who had also faced allegations of sexual impropriety.

That media scandals would arise in New York makes sense because that is where the major outlets’ headquarters reside and house the executives who have the power to hire and promote staffers, says Mark Feldstein, a broadcast journalism professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. [snip]

Harassment has permeated the media industry for decades, we’ve learned as the accusations have been made public. Many victims have remained quiet over fear of reprisal.

But the recent revelations do not surprise Mark Hertsgaard, an investigative editor for The Nation and author of several books, including Bravehearts: Whistle Blowing in the Age of Snowden. When sent to CBS News in the early ’90s to do a story on 60 Minutes and its kid-glove treatment of President Reagan for Rolling Stone, as the magazine’s then-media reporter, Hertsgaard switched gears upon seeing out-in-the-open harassment.

While talking to a female producer, Hertsgaard saw Mike Wallace walk by and slap the behind of the woman with a rolled-up magazine. “I look at her and my mouth drops open and I said, ‘Does that happen much here?’ She said, ‘You wouldn’t believe.’ That is how I got onto the story,” he said The story was published in May of 1991.

He talked to three women who would not go on the record because show creator Don Hewitt “like Harvey Weinstein, for that matter, was famous for being vindictive and ruining peoples’ careers,” Hertsgaard said.

Wallace, the women told him, repeatedly put his hands on the thighs of his producers during meetings and snapped and unsnapped women’s bra straps from behind “like an eighth-grade boy” would do, Hertsgaard said. [snip]

Betsy West can attest to that. Currently the Fred W. Friendly professor at the Columbia Journalism School in New York, West oversaw 60 Minutes as the senior vice president at CBS News from 1997 to 2005. Her time there coincided with that of Hewitt, who stepped down as executive producer in 2004 (he died in 2009), and Wallace, who became a correspondent emeritus in 2006 before retiring in 2008 (he died in 2012).

“By that time I think a lot of that had abated or I didn’t witness that myself,” she said. “But certainly there were stories about that atmosphere. It did sometimes feel like a boys’ club.” [snip]

Our Constipated Senator

Who says there is no good news

One has to believe that Obama took Lenin’s advice; he took the rope and hanged the Donkey Party. How often does one get news of this wonderful value at such a junction in time. Here is the Country in a divided condition; we’re told that the cause of this plight gelded the tool that he hoped would finish his work.

The Obama Era Has Wiped Out An Entire Generation Of New Democratic Talent

We have written about how President Obama has just devastated how own party. Since 2009, the Democratic Party has undergone a gutting of epic proportions that went unnoticed due to the media’s love affair with the president over the past eight years. The Associated Press finally has the final butcher’s bill: 1,030 seats. That’s the number of Democratic seats that have been lost to Republicans at the state and federal level. The consequence of that is an entire generation of Democrats being wiped out:

There’s one number you will almost never hear: More than 1,030 seats.

That’s the number of spots in state legislatures, governor’s mansions and Congress lost by Democrats during Obama’s presidency.

[…]

When Obama won the presidency, his election was heralded as a moment of Democratic dominance — the crashing of a conservative wave that had swept the country since the dawn of the Reagan era.

Democrats believed that the coalition of young, minority and female voters who swept Obama into the White House would usher in something new: an ascendant Democratic majority that would ensure party gains for decades to come.

The coalition, it turns out, was Obama’s alone.
[…]
The defeats have all but wiped out a generation of young Democrats, leaving the party with limited power in statehouses and a thin bench to challenge an ascendant GOP majority eager to undo many of the president’s policies. To be sure, the president’s party almost always loses seats in midterm elections. But, say experts, Obama’s tenure has marked the greatest number of losses under any president in decades.

Right now, the GOP control 69/99 state legislatures, has over 4,100 state lawmakers in office (the most since the party’s founding); two-thirds of the governorships, control of Congress, and will soon occupy the presidency. The Republican Party is the dominant political force in the country. It took almost a decade for the GOP to regroup—and it was a long journey. It started the Tea Party wave in 2010, which continued with minimal gains between 2012 and 2014. By 2016, the GOP was occupying 33 governor’s mansions. The Senate was also a long slog, with significant gains in 2010 that were stunted in 2012, but all paid off by the 2014 midterms. That year the GOP retook control of Congress. [snip]

Oh damn, I’m going to go hide in the corner and enjoy this comeuppance to them. Probably with a bottle of very good scotch to help ease the passage of time. I’ll come out occasionally to replenish the scotch.
Safely ensconced thus, I won’t have to here the mewling and whining, nor the clangor of their riots.

Piggy Report

Jeh Johnson Tells Flooded La., ‘The President Can’t Be Everywhere’; ‘He Has a Very Busy Schedule’

Speaking at a news conference in flood-ravaged Louisiana on Thursday, Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson said “the federal government is here, we have been here, and we’ll be here as long as it takes to help this community recover.”

Responding to criticism that President Obama has not interrupted his summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Johnson said several times, “The president can’t be everywhere.” [snip]

The reporter again asked if Johnson would recommend that Obama visit:

“As I said, the president can’t be everywhere. I know he has a very busy schedule this fall and in the coming days, and uh, he is closely monitoring the situation. When you are the chief executive of the entire U.S. government, you can’t be everywhere, uh, including places you would like to be. Uh, but through me and through (FEMA Director) Craig Fugate, I know he is very much on top of this situation.” [snip]

Yup, getting that handicap down is JOB ONE with only so many days of summer left.

After all, If you seen one flood, you seen them all.

Piggy Report

This needs to be happening across the Country, Our Country. Those Politicians who have gone to DC, sat up there and taken the voters money and then tell them “Get Lost.” Eric Cantor found out that there is no sinecure; time now to tell Paul Ryan the same thing.

Feeling ‘Betrayed,’ Wealthy Businessman to Take on Paul Ryan in Primary Challenge

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will reportedly face a primary challenge from a ‘wealthy businessman,’ The Washington Times reports.

While his name has not yet been revealed, the businessman reportedly has ties to the tea party and has donated to Ryan’s campaigns in the past.

Unhappy with the way the speaker has handled trade deals and immigration, the businessman promised that his challenge will “shake up the establishment in a profound way,” a political consultant for the prospective candidate told the Times.

The emergence of a viable Republican challenger in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District is the culmination of a monthslong recruitment effort by tea party activists who say they were double-crossed by Mr. Ryan when he passed a $2 trillion spending package late last year.

Eric Odom, a conservative activist and political consultant in Wisconsin, confirmed with “100 percent certainty” that a local business leader would be running to oust Mr. Ryan.

“I’ve had the privilege of attending multiple meetings with this individual, during which he has expressed his sense of betrayal by Speaker Ryan. He has a strong desire to see real representation for the people of the district versus a congressman who represents special interests in Washington,” he said.

“It’s very personal for him,” Mr. Odom added. “He intends to run a full-scale candidacy that will shake up the establishment in a profound way.”

The source acknowledged that launching a successful campaign against Ryan will be an uphill battle given his powerful position as speaker of the House and the fact that Ryan has at least $5 million in campaign funds.

But the challenger, who felt “pushed to the edge and betrayed,” is reportedly ready to use a significant amount of his own wealth for the race. [snip]

The more of the RINO population in the GOP that gets primaried out, the more separation we shall get between the Donkeys and the Pachyderms. Right now, it is difficult to tell them apart.

Any bipartisanship should come from a knock down, stomp ’em battle for every bit of position you can get. then and only then may one be satisfied you have achieved your best outcome.

Piggy Report

O 03/22/2016, Utah has it’s primary.

You will get more of this in Cleveland later on after the primaries are over.

Piggy Report

When United Health Group drops out of ObamaCare (ACA), the Government will be one step closer to what Harry Reid said the whole idea of ObamaCare was: Single payer, Government controlled, health care. You will be told whether you can have an operation, when and like in Canada, how long you will wait (months). If you’re age is too old, you get the pill à lá “Soylent Green”.

Thinking that Government run health care is good means you haven’t been following what is happening in Merrie Old England or in Canada. In that case, you’re too stupid to survive for long and deserve what you get.

 

Thanks, Obama: North Carolina’s Largest Health Insurance Provider Could Leave ACA Market

Katie mentioned last December how UnitedHealth Group Inc. was expecting hundreds of million in losses, and the possibility of withdrawing from the Affordable Care Act marketplace by 2017, since Obamacare isn’t becoming more affordable. More Americans are seeing paying the penalty to remain uninsured as the better economic choice than enrolling with insurance programs that have seen nothing but premium hikes.

Guy has written extensively about the unmitigated catastrophe that is the Affordable Care Act, which is a government policy saga dotted with nothing but premium hikes–even hitting plans considered cheap. The exchanges are a mess, and the enrollment projections for this year have been reduced by 8 million. Now, we have Blue Cross’s CEO bracing for financial disaster in North Carolina, of which his company is the state’s largest insurer, who might stop selling Obamacare policies altogether. Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the only insurer who sells ACA plans in all 100 counties (via The News and Observer):

Katie mentioned last December how UnitedHealth Group Inc. was expecting hundreds of million in losses, and the possibility of withdrawing from the Affordable Care Act marketplace by 2017, since Obamacare isn’t becoming more affordable. More Americans are seeing paying the penalty to remain uninsured as the better economic choice than enrolling with insurance programs that have seen nothing but premium hikes.

Guy has written extensively about the unmitigated catastrophe that is the Affordable Care Act, which is a government policy saga dotted with nothing but premium hikes–even hitting plans considered cheap. The exchanges are a mess, and the enrollment projections for this year have been reduced by 8 million. Now, we have Blue Cross’s CEO bracing for financial disaster in North Carolina, of which his company is the state’s largest insurer, who might stop selling Obamacare policies altogether. Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the only insurer who sells ACA plans in all 100 counties (via The News and Observer):
Katie mentioned last December how UnitedHealth Group Inc. was expecting hundreds of million in losses, and the possibility of withdrawing from the Affordable Care Act marketplace by 2017, since Obamacare isn’t becoming more affordable. More Americans are seeing paying the penalty to remain uninsured as the better economic choice than enrolling with insurance programs that have seen nothing but premium hikes.

Guy has written extensively about the unmitigated catastrophe that is the Affordable Care Act, which is a government policy saga dotted with nothing but premium hikes–even hitting plans considered cheap. The exchanges are a mess, and the enrollment projections for this year have been reduced by 8 million. Now, we have Blue Cross’s CEO bracing for financial disaster in North Carolina, of which his company is the state’s largest insurer, who might stop selling Obamacare policies altogether. Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the only insurer who sells ACA plans in all 100 counties (via The News and Observer):

Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state’s largest health insurer, expects to report its second consecutive financial loss in the coming weeks, as the company contends with continuing cost overruns under the Affordable Care Act, CEO Brad Wilson said Wednesday.

Wilson warned that Blue Cross cannot continue sustaining financial losses indefinitely in North Carolina and may have to decide later this year whether to get out of the ACA market in 2017. Blue Cross raised rates by an average 32.5 percent this year in the state, but Wilson said that wasn’t enough to stem losses.

VIDEO: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina president and CEO J. Bradley (Brad) Wilson talks to the News and Observer editorial board Wednesday, February 10, 2016 about the first years of working with the ACA, running a profitable business and a possible insurance rate increase. Harry Lynch The News and Observer

“We can’t offer something for sale in this marketplace that we know every time it’s purchased we’re losing money,” Wilson said.

[…]

A move by Blue Cross to stop offering federally subsidized policies would force more than 300,000 North Carolina residents to try other insurers, if they still offer ACA coverage, or revert to being uninsured. A withdrawal by Blue Cross would be acutely felt, as it’s the only insurer under the ACA that offers coverage in all 100 counties in the state.

Wilson said the size of the rate increase approved this fall by the N.C. Department of Insurance for next year would likely determine Blue Cross’s ACA strategy. He said the company will have to assess whether the rate increase the agency approves “makes sense” for the company.

The expenditures Wilson’s company undertook were astronomical, with him saying, “In year one [2014], five percent of our ACA customers consumed $830 million in health care costs. That’s how much money went out of our door to pay for the heath care for the sickest five percent of the ACA population that we had; we collected $75 million in premiums–between what they could contribute and the government subsidy. Any way you cut it that’s an unsustainable business model.”

Folks, it’s not working. And premiums are going to spike again right around the time we all head to the polls in November.

Piggy Report

Here’s your Christmas gift from Sen. Dick Durbin Jackass of Illinois who doesn’t think you pay enough in taxes.

The Dick Durbin Internet Tax

How’s this for an early Christmas gift?

Right before Congress left town for the holidays, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic whip, blew up a bill that would have provided Americans a permanent ban on the taxation of Internet service. Call it his “bah humbug” moment.

Grinch Durbin has promised to hold this bill hostage unless he gets paid a ransom. He says he will only allow a permanent ban on Internet access taxes, if Congress votes to allow state and local sales taxes on Internet purchases.

It’s a game of pick your poison.

This may seem like arcane, insider-baseball stuff, but the economic stakes here are gigantic, as is the future expansion of Internet services. For example, the tax could delay and disrupt the rapid deployment of high-speed broadband service. My colleagues at the Heritage Foundation note that Verizon and AT&T spend about $35 billion a year in broadband wiring and cabling, but a new tax could put this investment in jeopardy. But hold on. I thought the Democrats were in favor of “infrastructure” spending.

That the left is threatening to allow states and localities to tax broadband services is toweringly hypocritical. Liberals love to talk piously about the right to universal Internet access and reducing the “digital divide” in America between rich and poor. This has been their excuse for pushing so-called “net neutrality” regulations on Internet providers. [snip]

Durbin has been a bunghole since he’s been in the Senate. No reason for anyone to expect something different from him now.

Piggy Report

More from the Corruptor-in-Chief who just dumped arms and mney into a middle-east cesspit.

Sounds like he was merely funding ISIL/ISIS. Hey, they’re his Buds.

Piggy Report

When one is hell bent on destruction, the only thing that will stop him is the thing he fears.

Painful: White House Can’t Name One Mass Shooting That Would Have Been Stopped By New Gun Laws;

In today’s press briefing, the Obama White House proved what Second Amendment supporters already know: no new gun control laws, especially those proposed by the president, would have prevented any new mass shootings. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked by The Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau if there was any shooting that could have been stopped if an assault weapons ban or stricter backgrounds checks, both supported by this administration, were enacted.

Earnest deflected and pivoted to the Obama administration’s latest proposal that those suspected of being terrorists, of which almost 300,000 on the list have no ties to terrorism, shouldn’t be allowed to purchase firearms. Again, on its face, this sounds like common sense, until you figure out that these lists are secretive, violate due process of law, and are nothing more than a constitutional mess. There’s a difference between being suspected and convicted of having terrorist ties, even the LA Times knows that. Moreover, as we’ve written before, there is no real way to redress if you’ve been placed on the list erroneously. Names can be mismatched, and the fact that children as young as 18 months land on the list is a testament to its horrifically flawed structure. Both parties are at fault for sustaining this unconstitutional anti-terror measure, though it seems as if the sides concerning this debate have changed; Republicans are now arguing we should curtail its expansion, while Democrats wish to utilize it to eviscerate Americans’ Second Amendment rights by ignoring due process. [snip]

The “Watch List”

The Great Majority of the individuals on the Watch List don’t even reside in the USA. What makes this an effective means of screening people?
Only in the hallucinatory mind of Obama and demented Leftists does this work.