ZeroHedge gives us this helpful headline: Riots Loom As Food Stamp Cash Will Run Out By End Of January If Government Shutdown Continues

Michael Snyder explains:

According to the Department of Agriculture, if this government shutdown stretches into February there won’t be money for food stamps. And it certainly looks like this shutdown could last for quite a while, because President Trump is not backing down on his demand for border wall funding, and the Democrats have pledged not to give him a single penny.

So a few weeks from now, approximately 38 million people could be suddenly cut off from the food stamp program. If that scenario were to unfold, there is no telling what could happen. After just a few days, government workers are already freaking out about having their paychecks delayed. If people are getting this restless already, what will things look like when tens of millions of Americans are suddenly cut off from their primary source of food money?

Be still, my beating heart…

Democrats and Republicans would be wise — and I know I’m already going off the rails here with undue hope — to take a peer over at Europe to get an idea of what is likely to come this way if they don’t pull their heads out of their asses and get serious about governing.  Think the protests in France can’t quickly spiral into a larger conflagration?  Think the rise of right-wing parties over there is just an anomaly?  Europeans have a way of being a harbinger of unsettling moods.

Democrats and Republicans can dig their heels in and cry and pout and play games all they want, but one thing is certain:  as the years wear on, the people of this country are not going to magically become more tolerant of our disastrous immigration policy.

If they were smart they would find a way to work with Trump and diffuse the heat a bit.  Because if they don’t… they won’t want to see who comes after Trump.

And I’m not convinced they’re smart.

The media is making much hay out of the fact that General Mattis resigned as President Trump’s Defense Secretary with a resignation letter that aired his grievances with the President’s foreign policy views.  The media loves stuff like that because they think it makes the President look dumb and uninformed, in contrast to the “decorated” general.

But let’s go back to the beginning to find the first fissure and let us see if indeed Mattis was the bigger man or not.

In early 2017 the President signed an order to forbid transgendered people from entering the armed forces.  From the reports that have come out, it was Gen. Mattis that thwarted and prevented the implementation of this new policy (which was simply a reversion to the policy of a few years ago).  At this point it’s important to recall the order of things:  the president is the commander in chief.  The defense secretary is his subordinate.  The defense secretary informs and advises the president.  The president makes the actual decisions.  The defense secretary carries out the president’s orders.  This is how a sane government works.  President Trump’s order (to exclude the transgendered) is logical and promotes the common good of the armed forces.  As such, Gen. Mattis had absolutely no moral authority or standing to prevent its implementation.

From there, things unraveled.

Shortly after these events, we began to read reports in the media that the President was making foreign policy decisions without consulting his defense secretary.  Well… why would he?  Seriously — why would he?  Mattis couldn’t carry out a simple order.  What trust should the President have had in him after that?

It is surprising that Mattis lasted as long as he did.  For how can a military be effectively run if members are free to ignore the orders of their superiors?  Surely a general would know this?

This news story comes to us from Scotland:

And yes, it is as dumb as it sounds:

Gingerbread men have been replaced by gingerbread persons in the Scottish Parliament’s coffee shop in case the traditional name causes offence.

The move comes as a strategy aimed at stamping out sexual harassment and sexism…

(Story here.)

So let’s recap.  Western nations are being invaded by third-world immigrants who are raping and killing the native populations; government debt is so overwhelming that economies are on the verge of collapse; Russia and China are building their armed forces to exert political power over world affairs… and what the hell are our leaders doing?  Banning gingerbread men, of course.  Somebody might be offended!

Shortly after hearing the news that GM is shuttering plants and laying off 15,000 workers, we learned that over the past three years they spent $14 billion as part of a stock buyback program.  During that same period, the stock dropped $10.  I don’t know if this $14 billion was borrowed or came from revenues, but couldn’t that money have been invested in R&D, or rehabilitating their brand, or retooling existing plants, or designing new cars that people actually want to buy — things that set the company up to be more competitive in the long-term?

A lot of the big American companies are so focused on pleasing the investor class in the short-term at the expense of the company’s future.  All the car companies are struggling with lower sales right now, especially with interest rates rising, but it seems that GM is always a proverbial loser in the auto market.

Why are the press and the sycophant trolls on Twitter constantly hounding President Trump about climate change?

Do they not realize that the United States is the only country on track to meet the Paris Climate Accord commitments for reduced greenhouse gas emissions, despite being the only country to withdraw from the pact?  All those other countries in Europe that love to brag about how seriously they take the environment aren’t even meeting their commitments.

Meanwhile the US is reducing carbon emissions because of the shale gas revolution, which produces natural gas as a “free” by-product.  And the trend is only going to continue in the future as the natural gas infrastructure gets built out further across the nation.  Why does the press never talk about this reality?  Is it because they just want another club to beat the president with?

And on the other side of the world, China has the fastest-growing increases in carbon emissions.  Why aren’t the media and Democrats complaining that China isn’t doing more to curb emissions, and asking the President to negotiate with the Chinese to make better efforts?