The President who finds out about EVERY scandal as it breaks in the news, now claims to never watch the news, because “…whatever they’re reporting about, usually I know…”

This is an example of either:

• blatant, head-shaking stupidity, OR
• this man’s ego is such that he honestly believes whatever vacuous verbiage spills out of his pie-hole to be unqualified brilliance, despite any/all previous contradictory utterances on his part.

Of course, it COULD be both…

From the Washington Times:

“…In scandal after scandal in the Obama administration, President Obama has said he didn’t know about the problems until he heard it on the news.

But the president changed his tune about his supposed ignorance at a Democratic fundraiser near Seattle on Tuesday night.

Hey, you know who’s REALLY to blame for this #VAScandal, don’t you? Don’t you?!?

At this point, the Democrats have transformed the Koch Brothers into some devilish amalgamation of Emmanuel Goldstein, Keyser Söze, and Godzilla.

Which is handy, actually, since they can now be blamed for anything everything.

Why do I mention this? Well, as you’ve no doubt heard by now, VA Secretary Shinseki has (finally) resigned his post. The only surprise about this “entirely political soap opera”  is that the resignation/firing/whatever didn’t happen already (via @Doc_0):

“…Contrary to Obama’s pitiful spin attempts, there is no question that these awful deeds took place at VA clinics.  Reports about those doctored wait lists have been in the hands of top officials since last year.

Endangered Democrats in purple and red states only started yelling for Shinseki’s scalp when they performed a political calculation and realized the public was now fully engaged and furious…” 

It’s a horrifying situation highlighting just some of the built-in (and entirely predictable) problems with government-run healthcare. Whether Shinseki was complicit with the problem, or utterly ignorant of it, doesn’t really matter. One is just as bad as the other if you’re the one in charge. Either way, he had to go.

But don’t tell that to Bernie Sanders. No, no, no, he’s got the REAL culprit in all of this nailed dead-to-rights:

I’m old enough to remember when “outing” our #CIA agents’ identities was a BAD thing…

If you’re not entirely sure as to what I’m referring with my headline, here you go:

“White House mistakenly identifies CIA chief in Afghanistan”

(via the Washington Post) – “…The CIA’s top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama’s surprise visit with U.S. troops…” 

Whoopsie!

Considering the absolute dearth of coverage this has received thus far, you could be tempted to believe that it must be no big deal.

And of course, you’d be wrong:

Remember: NO ONE is more upset about (fill-in-the-blank) than BARACK OBAMA…

Let your mind drift back to any number of incidents and scandals over the past 5+years: the failed Obamacare website; the AP phone records; the IRS. And then ask yourself: what was President Obama’s reaction?

It’s always the same: only the reasons for it change. And this time, Barack’s reason for being more upset than you (or anyone else) is the burgeoning VA scandal.

From the Wall Street Journal:

‘…White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough took to CNN Thursday to say that “nobody’s more mad than the president.” Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters the president is “concerned and angry” about the situation.

That, as my colleagues Colleen McCain Nelson and Ben Kesling write, reprised, nearly verbatim, a similar White House tactic from last fall’s health-care website debacle. In October, Mr. Obama spoke of his anger in the Rose Garden. “Nobody’s madder than me about the fact that the website isn’t working as well as it should,” he said...’

Especially since his Nobody’s-More-(blank)-Than-Me shtick usually is in regards to some level of incompetence or illegality perpetrated by the Government. You know, that big Federal thingamajig of which he’s ostensibly in charge??

Whenever you hear the word “Benghazi”, PLEASE keep this Obama quote in mind…

This has been eating at me ever since Obama said it, back in October of 2012.

But before you watch it, do me a favor: don’t focus just on WHAT he says here, but also on HOW he says it. He is very deliberate. Haughty. Self-righteous. Barack was “in high dudgeon”, as a relative of mine used to say.

And despite all that, he was also lying through his expensively whitened teeth:

Fighting the Food Fanatics

“Life Tastes Good…”

(*Coca-cola slogan from 2001)

——–

We’ve heard it all our lives: Don’t eat this, don’t drink that. Such-and-such food is horrible for you!! And this other food? Even worse.

Sure, burgers-&-fries are a given. But there’s TONS more: Trail mix. Canned soup. Bread. Gluten. Soda. Granola. Sugar.

…All bad. Evil, in fact.

“Evil” is more accurate, at least based on the popular rhetoric. After all, each proclamation is broadcast and echoed with a religious fervor that’d put most congregations to shame.

These various foods and ingredients are “temptations”, you see, which makes us (the consumer) the sinners in need of absolution.

#Obamacare: “Law Of The Land”, or Presidential Whimsy?

We’ve all experienced it: the shrieking alarm that for whatever reason won’t/can’t be silenced. When faced with a noise (or a smell, or any other negative stimulus) which continues unabated, eventually over time it can become so commonplace, so constant, that we no longer pay it any notice.

Practically speaking, it ceases to exist.

The psychological term for this is “desensitization“. Unfortunately, it perfectly describes the Obama era and the White House’s repeated, extra-Constitutional delays of the politically problematic aspects of Obamacare. They’ve now happened so many times that they are barely even news.

Just like the shrieking alarm that we no longer hear, we filter them out. They no longer exist.

The most recent example occurred Monday:

Thanks again, Mr President!! “CBO says #Obamacare to kill 2.3 million jobs”

Did you hear the great news?

CBO: #Obamacare will kill at least 2.3 million jobs http://t.co/thYmXBofW2

— Tony Phyrillas (@TonyPhyrillas) February 4, 2014

(via the Associated Press) – “…Several million people will reduce their hours on the job or leave the workforce entirely because of incentives built into President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

 That would mean job losses equal to 2.3 million full-time jobs by 2021, in large part because people would opt to keep their income low to stay eligible for federal health care subsidies or Medicaid, the agency said. It had estimated previously that the law would lead to 800,000 fewer jobs by that year…”

Sure, sure, that doesn’t seem like great news. But that’s exactly why the White House’s crack PR spin-meisters (CODENAME: the “Alternate Reality Team”) was activated as soon as this news hit. The guys from the A.R.T. (motto: “Anyone can lie, but what we do is ART”) instantly assured everyone within earshot that y’all are just too stupid to understand complex economy-related terms, such as “fewer jobs” and “2.3 million of ’em“: