Congratulations to Justice Kavanaugh. And shame on Senator Doug Jones

Congratulations to Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Doug Jones should be ashamed.

On Saturday, October 6, 2018, Judge Kavanaugh was confirmed by the United States Senate to the Supreme Court. He becomes the 114th Associate Justice in the history of the highest Court in the country. He replaces retiring Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Kavanaugh was appointed by President Donald Trump on July 9 and toiled through a bitterly partisan vetting process and confirmation hearings. He was accused of vile sexual assaults by people that he didn’t even know and probably never met. They trotted out bare allegations with no supporting evidence, no witnesses, no nuttin’.  It was a confirmation process that shouldn’t have happened.

Jones didn’t agree to meet with then Judge Kavanaugh until he was hounded by the media and Alabama voters, inventing an excuse that he wanted to see his performance in “the hearings” first. That was bullshit—Jones was never going to be a Yes vote for confirmation and had no reason to meet with a man that he was never going to support.

Jones also repeated a lie he propagated throughout 2017’s special election campaign—that he was an independent voice and would not toe a party line. Jones isn’t an independent. He’s the Senator with the lowest seniority rank in a minority Senate conference run by Chuck Schumer. What Schumer says, Jones does. He’s a buck private in Schumer’s army of thugs.

Doug Jones did nothing to stop his “colleagues” or warn them that such partisan character assassinations are beneath the United States Senate—the world’s most deliberative and collegial legislative body. Their tactics were totally out of bounds in the advice and consent role Jones was elected to fulfill.

The Democrats made it clear that they would stop Brett Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Nation’s highest court.  On the very same day that President Trump announced Judge Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nominee, Schumer promised to “oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have.”  When he said everything, he meant letting his fellow Democrats assault the character and reputation of an accomplished jurist who has done more to advance the role of women in the judiciary than any other Judge on his Court. It also meant making sure that little man Jones stayed in his place and kept his mouth shut as a national disgrace played out before us.

As an Alabamian, I was horrified.

Jones may object, pleading that there was nothing he could do.  That is another bare faced lie.

Jones could have put a quick end to the whole embarrassing and divisive confirmation by saying, “I have listened to my constituents and I have evaluated the Judge’s qualifications. I will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.”

Jones turned his back on Alabama. He turned a deaf ear to the people of this state, and their representatives in Montgomery and Washington, DC.  By a nearly two-to-one ratio, Alabamians supported Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Every elected leader from the state supported his confirmation. Senator Richard Shelby—who met with Kavanaugh very early in the confirmation process—strongly supported the nomination and proudly voted for it.

Jones voted against it, along with all but one honorable Democrat—Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Jones also stayed silent as his fellow Democrat henchmen tried to make Judge Kavanaugh out to be a serial sexual predator. Despite his fellow thugs’ best effort, Kavanaugh was confirmed by a 50-48 vote.

The Court will survive this mess, just as it has survived the 1991 “high tech lynching” of Justice Clarence Thomas.

Jones should be absolutely ashamed of himself.

Wait until Hollywood sees what’s really in the Trump Tax “Cut”

Spoiler Alert: It’s a net tax increase for the wealthiest people in the bluest of states, who have ridden the state and local tax deduction to billions in tax breaks.

While everyone living in states that impose an income tax have enjoyed this deduction--myself included--people living in states like California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York have had it much better. Those states impose truly burdensome taxes on their citizens and their only respite has been that those taxes are deductible at the federal level.

Not anymore. Ed Morrissey at HotAir.com breaks it down:

---

The SALT deduction really only comes into play for people who can itemize enough to outstrip the standard deductions, so its benefit plays mostly to the wealthy anyway.

It also plays mostly to the benefit of a very few states. California and New York taxpayers soak up almost third of all benefits from SALT deductions; add in New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and they account for more than half of its benefits. Taxpayers in most other states end up footing the bill.

Not only do other taxpayers end up subsidizing the wealthy, they also indemnify blue-state politicians against the consequences of their tax policies. Next year, taxpayers in California, New York, and other high-tax states will have to truly pay for their own taxes rather than foist them off on everyone else. When that happens, will high tax rates be politically sustainable?

---

Why does this matter, you may ask.

It matters because states like California and Illinois have budget problems that if their magnitude were extrapolated to the federal level, there would be blood in the streets and a torch-and-pitchfork parade to Capitol Hill. Those massive budget outlays for all of the feel-good social programs, state employee salaries & pensions, abusive regulations and general nanny state intrusiveness are paid for in large part by the federal subsidy through the now-gone SALT deduction.

That means people in Alabama pay for people in California to have the state regulate everything from their driveway size to their garden hoses. Immigrant resettlement and sanctuary state services. 10-year full vesting in retirement benefits. Free healthcare, free food, free gas, free cellphones, free internet. All paid for by working folks from Birmingham to Malbis.

Because tax years, budget calendars and revenue streams won't coincide for another 2-3 years at the earliest, the real pain won't be felt until after the next Presidential election in 2020. By 2021, Hollwood, Wall Street and the Southside will start to feel the pinch. People who have gotten rich by foisting off the burden to the average Trump voter for decades might rethink their options, and the everyday working folks in those states might decide that the blueness of their states ain't such a good idea anymore.

I've been telling everyone who'll put down their smartphone long enough to listen that the 2018 tax cut will prove to be transformational. I won't be proven right until either Trump takes his second oath of office or his successor does.

But mark my words--the transformation is going to happen.

Extra point:

Who else enjoyed Donald Trump saying "Roll Tide!" earlier this month at the White House? I can tell you who didn't--Democrats, establishment Republicans and people suffering from Saban Derangement Syndrome.

Video starts at the sweet spot.

Stop trying to rescue your wet phone with dry rice

It doesn't work. Well, it might. But there are better options and in fact, plain white rice was dead last among all other options tried. 

The only thing that fared worse than closing up a wet phone in a bag of plain rice was closing up a wet phone in a bag by itself.

---

Uncooked White Rice Ain't Cutting It

After 24 hours, the sponges were weighed again to see how much weight had been lost. And would you believe it—according to the results, uncooked white rice placed dead last in effectiveness as a drying agent. Here's the list, from best to worst.

Open-air sponge - 7.6 mL lost
Silica gel - 6.1 mL lost
Cat litter - 5.5 mL lost
Instant couscous - 5.0 mL lost
Instant rice - 5.0 mL lost
Instant oatmeal - 5.0 mL lost
Uncooked white rice - 4.0 mL lost
Sealed-container sponge - 0.7 mL lost

Cat litter, instant couscous, instant rice, and instant oatmeal all performed better than uncooked white rice—everyone's favorite damn drying agent.

---

I've been trying to tell people this for years. I used to work with high end GPS equipment. More than a decade ago, every time our equipment got wet it was opened and placed in front of an ordinary table fan to air dry.

In the real tech industry wet equipment is disassembled, wiped with rubbing alcohol and then air dried.

Look again at the list above. What came in first as the best way to dry out something that was sopping wet? Sense a pattern?

This information is not new.

The same people who proved that rice is next to useless for drying out your phone (or your vape, or your tablet, or your V/R gear, or...) have some tips on maybe saving it.

So, what really happened when you put your soggy iphone in a bag of China Doll and it got "fixed?"

I'll let you in on a secret. First, you have to be virtuous. It does not work for the wicked. Ever. 

Second, you have to say a little heartfelt prayer over your nearly dead device. Then you leave it in the rice overnight.

The Rice Fairy comes in the wee hours and takes some of the rice to cook for her little Rice babies. In her gratitude she waves her magic rice wand and restores your phone. Amen.

After a great victory, there is nothing sweeter than relishing the abject misery of your opponents. Their suffering nourishes your soul. Their anguish warms your heart. Their tears satisfy that thirst for the sweet nectar of success.

Remember when they said this?

 ‘Bama wrapped up the regular season 11-1, although it ended with a 26-14 clunker at Auburn in the Iron Bowl seven days ago. The Tide fell from No. 1 to No. 5 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, so getting upset by the Tigers — they were playing as well as any program in the country at the time — wasn’t an eliminator.

However, with Championship Week now in the rearview mirror, Alabama doesn’t deserve to be part of the Final Four.

Or, how about when they trotted out this line?

 There’s already a problem that a four-team tournament for the championship is based on judges, as if this was the Miss Universe pageant. But at this point, it’s a total fail and a massive issue for the entire College Football Playoff process if the committee puts in Alabama just because its name is Alabama.

Haha!

Oh, and this poor fool:

“If you stripped away the name ‘Alabama’ right now, take it out of the picture, is that a resume that they’ve built this year that’s top-four worthy? Hell no, Colin!” he said. “Their resume is barely better than Wisconsin’s.”

Remember when yer mama taught you to ignore everything someone says after the "but?"

I've heard many variations of the following:

"Alabama's great but blah blah blah blah blah blah blah."

All of the talking heads in the media are now still chugging from that big stinkin' cup of STFU.

Just before Auburn's epic choke against UCF in the What's Your Name Again Bowl, I had the pleasure of giggling through the Tigers broadcast team giving their playoff picks. Those geniuses consensus-picked Oklahoma vs Clemson with Oklahoma winning it all.

Bama vs Georgia for the title sticks in Auburn fans like a flaming arrow they can't reach to remove. Bama winning it all is that arrow catching their butts on fire, and you're the only bucket of water around.

Muhahahaha...

Savor this win, Bama fans. They don't get much sweeter, and neither do the tears of the vanquished.

Obligatory "Alabama - We Are The Champions" video post

This video has gone viral, so who am I to stand in its way of winning the internet with winning the championship?




We're going to enjoy this.

But what we're really going to enjoy is watching these Freshmen do this again and again.

Yeah, this really is how I watched the National Championship Game

This really was the Classic for the Ages that was mentioned last week. And these really were the two best teams in the country.



True to form, Georgia fans are whining about the officiating.



Bama fans, like me, are just glad to 'suspire' today. Yes, suspire. It means to exhale slowly, with a sigh of great relief. Funnymaine nails it with this video.

Wrap-up: Dabo's best coaching job and media whines again

"For now, most of the noise is coming from offended pundits who can’t stand the thought of the College Football Playoff setting up the exact scenario it was designed to prevent. And for those upset about an all-SEC title game, they are basically admitting they don’t really want the best teams. Instead, they want conference welfare, where lesser teams get picked because it’s 'fair.'" 

https://news.tidefans.com/2018/01/02/clemson-wrap-up-tigers-were-less-dynamic-and-bama-made-them-pay-for-it/

Border War: Alabama vs Georgia sets up a classic for the ages.

It's Us versus Them.

Alabama did the improbable by reaching the 2017-18 College Football Playoff despite not winning the SEC West or playing in the SEC Championship Game. Georgia did the improbable by beating a traditional SEC rival in the Championship Game after having lost badly to that same team only a week prior.

Both teams did what they were supposed to do in their respective semi-final games. Both were slightly favored going into Monday and both teams won. Alabama dominated a good-but-not-great Clemson team and Georgia beat the media favorite in an overtime shootout.

But there are so many storylines here that in order to cover them all you have to be like Elton John and do a medley at the end.

Georgia hired Kirby Smart away from Alabama following the Tide's 2015 National Championship. In his two seasons leading the Bulldogs, he's posted a 21-6 record and has Georgia poised to play for its first national title since 1980. This is only his second year.

Alabama's Nick Saban is on the cusp of his fifth national title at Alabama and his sixth overall. He hired Kirby during his brief tenure with the Miami Dolphins of the NFL. When Saban shocked everyone not Bleeding Crimson to become Alabama's top dude, Smart came with him and helped Saban craft college football's most feared defense.

That defense was the key in each of Alabama's titles in the 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015 seasons.

But these are just two generals in a border war that stretches beyond the memories of the living and some of the standout games in the series history have been shutouts. In fact, there have been 22 shutouts in the series' 67 games overall, which means that on average one team keeps the other off the scoreboard about once every three times they play.

Alabama recruits heavily in Georgia. Georgia recruits heavily in Alabama.

Alabama vs Georgia has been played in Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Athens and Atlanta.

They have never played each other with a national title on the line.

Here are a handful of other interesting factlets about Saban and Smart and Alabama vs Georgia:

• Nick Saban is 4-1 against Georgia while at Alabama with the lone loss coming in 2007 in overtime.
• Alabama leads the series 38-25-4
• The teams met for the first time in SEC division play in 1995. Alabama won 31-0.
• Since then, Georgia won three straight followed by Alabama winning three straight.
• Georgia is the first 3 seed in the playoffs to win and advance to the title game.
• Kirby Smart is reaching the title game in only his second year.
• Nick Saban is 11-0 when facing teams coached by former assistants.
• Both teams play a 3-4 Over Under defensive scheme, aimed at stopping the run and forcing passes outside.
• Both teams play a Pro Set offensive scheme, aimed at running the football with play action passing. 
• Georgia is playing for a title in its home state. The last time that happened was in January 2012 when LSU faced and lost to Alabama 21-0.

I think this going to be a classic SEC Slobber Knocker. Both of these opponents beat teams who run trickeration offensive schemes that are too cute by half. The Tide and the Dawgs are not deceptive football teams. They're physical, they're disciplined and they're cold-blooded.

Whoever wins, both teams will get off the turf trying to see the scoreboard through the helmet ear hole.

“The man who broke every rule in the political handbook has captured the White House.”

I didn’t vote for him. I voted Libertarian. In part as a protest and in part because I knew he would carry Alabama.

That said, I also knew that he wouldn’t play by the normal rules of politics.

He didn’t, and he won the White House because of that very fact.

“Can I win? Can I win?” Trump would ask his strategists in the closing weeks, though he often defied their advice, refusing to eliminate trips to Pennsylvania, Colorado and other states that he had virtually no chance of winning.

Over and over, the real estate mogul displayed a fingertip feel for public sentiment and remarkable ability to bounce back, despite being written off by what he came to view as the corrupt media. He would criticize Mexican rapists, John McCain, Carly Fiorina’s face, call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants, and yet drive the news agenda and keep on winning. But that was with Republican primary voters.

On the broader stage, running against a Democrat whose unpopularity nearly matched his, Trump’s own words became the most potent weapons against him.

The pattern was remarkably consistent. Trump would hone a successful message, stick to the script — often reading from once-disparaged teleprompters — and wind up chafing at the rhetorical shackles.

His savvier advisers would realize that he wasn’t having fun. And then he would rebel. He would create a new narrative. It could be a phrase, a tweet, an extended riff in front of a rapturous crowd. Trump would mar the story line, blame the media for twisting his words, keep defending or tweaking his remarks, and suddenly he was no longer talking about taxes or terrorism.

The mainstream media used to think that they make the rules and everyone else has to either play by their rules, or be destroyed. Donald Trump absolutely wrecked the rules, and Hollywood, CNN, MSNBC and all of the other sef-styled elites are aghast.

That’s a good thing in my book. I didn’t vote for Donald Trump. But I did sit last night and watch in amazement as he broke the once formidable Blue Wall and took Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and probably Michigan. It looks like for once, the little guy won. The average Joe. The dude who pulls on his boots before sunrise, dons his hardhat and gets to work for his family and their future.

Average Joe showed up yesterday, and he Got Shit Done.

God Bless America, and may He, in His infinite wisdom, lead Donald J. Trump on the right course for this country and its future.

I am going to call him Jalen “The Terminator” Hurts

“It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!”

So plays Alabama Quarterback, Jalen Hurts. He is a true freshman, but he plays like a machine sent from Skynet to destroy the opposition.

When he gets knocked down, he gets up, rejuvenates and does not quit. When he makes a mistake, he adapts, he innovates, he learns and then overcomes.  Such a quarterback has not ever been seen in these parts, and might not ever be seen again, unless Skynet really does send a Terminator back in time.

“He. Does. Not. Stop. Ever.”

Until you are beaten. Ole Miss Learned it. Texas A&M learned it. Arkansas learned it. Tennessee learned it. LSU learned it. Everybody has learned it, and everybody else has a good reason to be scared witless.

For Alabama fans, this is both a beautiful and scary thing. To have such a deadly talented, remorseless and relentless player at the most important position in the new SEC is a good thing. On the other hand, having that much power placed in the hands of a true freshman is scary.

Hurts is likely headed to New York in the next couple of years, and it’s just as likely that he’ll accept Alabama’s third Heisman Trophy. It is unlikely that he’ll stick around for the remaining three years of his eligibility.

Machines like Hurts are built to succeed, and there is no indication whatsoever that he won’t. And that’s going to come with the lure of millions and an early exit to the NFL, where he will almost certainly succeed.

”The Terminator's an infiltration unit: part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyperalloy combat chassis, microprocessor-controlled. Fully armored; very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue: flesh, skin, hair, blood...”

Mmm Hmmm. And it’s coming for you, College Football. It should be as much fun to watch as Terminator.

For that reason, I will heretofore refer to Jalen Hurts as The Terminator.