Online story: "A $160 billion deal announced Monday to merge Pfizer and Allergan and create the world's biggest drug company renewed the outcry in Washington over "inversions," in which U.S. corporations combine with companies overseas to lower their tax bill.  *  Inversions have long been attacked by some politicians as a tax dodge, and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the leading Democratic presidential contenders, criticized the deal." -- And who's fault is it that companies seek "inversions"?  The socialist element of government.. the Democrats. In their greedy haste to use taxes as punishment for success, companies seek relief within the laws that exist.

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Remember Ahmed “Clock Kid” Mohammed.. the 14 year-old who built a digital clock encapsulated in metal "pencil" case.. and took it to school? It's bomb like appearance caused turmoil. From the attention, he even got invited to the White House. Now his family, which moved to Qatar, is suing the city of Irving , TX and the Irving Independent School System for $15 Million. Claims he was "profiled" for being a Muslim... after seeing the pictures of Ahmed's "clock", I would have profiled "it" as a bomb regardless of who was carrying "it".

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Online headline: "US declares global travel warning over terrorist activity" -- Good grief.. now that Obamageddon has invited Syrian jihadist into America, he doesn't want any Americans escaping.. uh..leaving the country...

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Online story: "Travel industry groups are pressing members of Congress not to give in to the momentum to curb, or altogether eliminate, a visa waiver program that allows people from nearly 40 countries to visit the United States for recreation or business without a visa." -- Well, any "travel group" supporting a non-visa option to travel in this country should be put on America's "no fly" list ... forever.

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Online headline: "Caitlyn and Kris hit NOLA together" -- Hmmm ... must be looking for work at Lucky Pierre's...

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Out of the blue, the question of whether anyone of us had ever attended a "tent revival" came up.. I raised my hand and memories flowed,, I went to one ,, in Starkeville, Mississippi in the Fall of 1965 on a date with a young Christian student. As it turned out, the 'revival" was one led by Brother Bob Harrington.. ".the Chaplain of Bourbon Street". I had my doubts about his sincerity that night. The next time I remembered Brother Bob, was New Year's Eve 1978. I was in New Orleans for the New Year's Day 1979 Sugar Bowl game between Alabama and Penn State.. the numbers 1 & 2 in the country.. Bear Bryant and Papa Paterno.. head-to-head. anyway, time had caught with Brother Bob by then, and as we were inching along the streets amidst wall-to-wall people,, I saw the Bourbon Street complex of Brother Bob.. I also saw a young man trying desperately to open the door but to no avail.. it was locked shut.. I see that Brother Bob has made amends with God, and pray his life ends as he once preached he was. Oh.. BTW.. Bama beat the Nittany Lions 14 to 7 in a game that met its build up.

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Online headline: "US strike destroys hundreds of ISIS oil tankers in Syria" -- Hmmm some more Obamageddon "style over substance".. the targets should be the oil refineries and shipping points, and a separate policy of blasting any countries' oil tankers out of the water if they try to load/transport Jihadi Oil.

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Online story: "Analysts at U.S. Central Command were pressured to ease off negative assessments about the Islamic State threat and were even told in an email to “cut it out,” Fox News has learned – as an investigation expands into whether intelligence reports were altered to present a more positive picture. " -- Hey, Bernie Sanders... do you want to move on past these e-mails, too?

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Online story: "Candidates for the GOP's presidential nomination would love to be seen as the best choice when it comes to defense. * However, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, Hillary Clinton is actually the front-runner when it comes to the fight against terrorism." -- Hmmm.. a poll conducted by ABC and the WaPo...wonder who they polled.. their staffs, Libyan and Syrian refugees? Of course they would prefer G.I. Jillary..they'd like Obamageddon's policies to remain intact.

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Hmmm.. Did you see the new hourly average the unions got in contract negotiations with GM... $60,00 per hour? That's a $125,000 a year wage for manual labor.. what's worse is that getting robots to do the job better and cheaper is blocked by the contract. Yesterday I reported on the Consumer Reports list of best made cars.. GM had only a Buick model listed.. and that was a drop from last years ratings.. The top two quality cars were Lexus and Lexus Lite (Toyota) I've basically been a GM buyer all my life, but seeing how lesser cars at higher prices is the direction GM is returning, I'm thinking Lexus/Toyota for my next ones.

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Online story: "Last week workers at the VA Hospital in Salem, Virginia received an email announcing that Christmas trees and religious themed carols would no longer be allowed in public spaces. VA hospital sorely underestimated how the local community would react." -- Hmm ..you know.. how do you prohibit the symbols of what got most of these soldiers through the ordeals of war.. Obamageddon may as well make an Executive Order banning prayer in foxholes..

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Online headline/story: "Disabled Boston sportscaster files discrimination lawsuit against golf club * Bob Lobel, 71, who enjoys playing golf but must use an adaptive cart due to a degenerative condition, has filed a discrimination lawsuit against an Auburndale, Mass., golf club that has barred him from using the cart on its putting greens." -- "using the cart on its putting greens"? Good grief.. sadly, I can see our US Supreme Court agreeing with him.. I mean.. do you think Sotomayor, Ginsburg. or Kagan are avid golfers?. I can also see golfers taking their "handicap hangers" from their cars, placing them on their golf carts at public courses, and riding on the greens across America.. not so much in Scotland, though... that would be justifiable homicide.

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How can mainscream media wonks be upset at Trump because he denies things they taped him saying, yet let G.I. Jillary off the hook when she says there are things she is against now though she was once for them?

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Hey, "Black Lives Matter".. did Amanda Blackburn's life matter to you?

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Yesterday, I sent the following letter to the Mat=yor, Council and MCSB:

"Just for the records..

I bought my house in Muscogee County in 2003.. property taxes on it became about $5,200 as it is today 12 years later.

I sold my Harris County home for about the same price as the one I bought in Muscogee County. I was paying about $1,900.00 in property taxes in 2003.. this year, the family that bought that house,(and added a 3-car detached garage) are paying less than $2,600.00 in property taxes, as well as no additional garbage fees.

Hmmm.. if I had stayed in Harris County, I'd would have saved more than $33,000.00 in property taxes/garbage fees, and my children could have gotten better public school educations.

Now, what is the reasoning about the City and MCSD wanting more taxes?"

Mayor ObamaLYINGson responded:

"We have more services and infrastructure than they do.

Teresa Pike Tomlinson
Mayor
Columbus Consolidated Government
"

I responded in turn:

""We have more services and infrastructure than they do." --

This starts my week off with ammunition for a month or longer.. more infrastructure and services?

 It would be one thing if such paid for themselves, but it's another when they don't..

Just take the Natatorium.. swimmers from other counties pay little more on an annual team pass and no more on individuals.. Even CSU charges out-of-state charges for students, and the MCSD is supposed to charge out-of-state and out-of-county fees that reflect the costs of allowing them to use our facilities.

No, Mayor, you have no grasp of value in the projects you endorse or propose..

Why are non-Muscogee residents allowed to pay the same golf fees at Bull Creek and Oxbow Meadows as residents of Muscogee County do?

While I endorsed your opposition to the T-SPLOST, you did little to discourage those who voted for you during your elections.

This will be fun.


Mayor ObamaLYINGson responded again:

"Hal - Services and infrastructure are distinguished from public amenities. I just wanted to make sure your vocabulary is correct for your month long discussion.

Teresa Pike Tomlinson
Mayor
Columbus Consolidated Government

I responded to this:

Mayor.. you can try and separate expense areas/categories however you wish, but no matter how you do it, if fees do not cover the actual costs of use and maintenance, all the moneys you spend are tax dollars.. even "grants" are tax dollars..

Hal

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TIME Magazine online headline: "Pope Francis: Christmas a ‘Charade’ This Year Because ‘Whole World Is at War’" -- Poop Pat really has a way with words.. when will he be replaced.. Christmas is a day.. a moment in time when Christians and others can envision HOPE.. why would Poop Pat want to dowse that with pessimism?

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Apparently the RNC is looking the other way as GOP donors band together to "defeat and destry" Trump... They are idiots.. I like Trump for what he's doing to bring politics into the light rather than festering in the proverbial back rooms..What's disturbing is that the GOP can only hurt itself by appearing to be collusive in attacking a candidate.. Trump is a phenomenon.. the GOP needs to step back and take a good digestive peek at why Conservatives and Independents across America are embracing his message. People are tired of unkept political promises, and want a message of strength and hope.. while I am not comparing Trump to Reagan, both knew that Americans are hungry for leadership and a future..it really looks like the RNC has forgotten what its mission is.. to get Democrats out of office..

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HuffPOOPOO headline: "More Proof That American Teachers Are Underpaid And Deserve More Respect" -- Is that what the GA Milestone Test Results showed? I teachers want better conditions and better pay, they need to get out and campaign for better school boards who won't rubber stamp School Superintendents' and Federal programs.

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L-E headline/story: "Imelda Marcos’ jewelry appraised ahead of possible auction * Jewelry collection seized when former first lady fled to Hawaii * Includes a diamond worth at least $5 million" -- Hmmm. "they" should have confiscated her shoe collection.. it was worth more.

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You know..it may not be a bad thing for Obamageddon to empty the jihadists from GITMO... now there will be room for him and his staff to be locked up and no jihadists there to help them escape.

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What is Campbell's Soup trying to accomplish with running even more of those "boy has two fathers" ads coattailing on the upcoming Star Wars movie.  Just went out and bought 3 different brands of tomato and chicken w/rice which will soon replace Campbell's in our pantry and my brides recipes.

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L-E's " Thought for Today": “There is a great deal of difference in believing something still, and believing it again.” — W.H. Auden, British poet (1907-1973)." -- Hmm.. will someone please explain this to mainscream media and Democratic voters.

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ANKARA, Turkey — On a night of European soccer matches between national teams, the scenes in London and Istanbul were a study in contrast. *  The British and French fans at London’s Wembley Stadium sang the French national anthem in solidarity over the Paris attacks, while in Istanbul hundreds of Turkish fans booed the Greek national anthem and disrupted a moment of silence for those killed in Paris. The ugly incident illustrated what has been an ambivalent reaction to the attacks in Turkey — France’s NATO ally.
 *  While soccer fans are in no way representative of society as a whole, the scenes showed that the Paris attacks did not draw the same outpouring of grief as elsewhere in the mainly Muslim country, where recent research showed 8 percent of the population had a favorable view of the Islamic State group." -- You know, if Virginia's father asked her to write to the New York Sun today, the editor who wrote that famous response would write: "Yes, Virginia, there is a difference in Muslim countries and philosophy."

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L-E story: " Federal prosecutors say a woman who helped file for more than $20 million in fraudulent tax returns has been sentenced to prison. * Officials say 24-year-old Talashia Hinton was sentenced Monday to 94 months in prison and is ordered to pay more than $7 million in restitution. * " -- $20 Million in fraud, and a restitution order for $7 Million? Hey what about all those more than 8,000 knowing recipients that cashed those refund checks/pre-paid cards.. Surely, full restitution and interest can be squeezed out of them as well.

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Agent X is a new TV show about a female Vice President protected by her own "server", Sharon Stone has been cast as the VP.. sorta a reminder of a politician known as an amoral  sexual addict.....as if we really need this...