Fire Hydrant of Freedom

[Far Left] They're getting the [George Floyd riots] band back together with another phony, wrong headed cause.

If it succeeds, it will tear apart the Democrat Party.

Do you think any of these kooks will come to Chicago for the convention?

In the George Floyd riots, they [the Far Left and everyone who joined them] were fighting Democrat power as well, Democrat-run cities and police departments.

No Republican-run cities were affected (because there aren't any).

Interesting to get a beginning sense of where we stand as a people on this.

It's going to be very contentious but interesting to see 42% are not in synch with their party on this.

Posted previously, places like Whitewater Wisconsin are border towns now, not just NYC.

Trump won on this issue in 2016 and it's WAY worse now.

The mechanics of mass deportation have not been visualized.  I would start by looking at the welfare rolls and the arrest records.  Let's get the most costly ones out first and the most productive ones out last, if at all.

The start of deportations will slow the flow inward.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/04/jon-stewart-skewers-the-medias-trump-coverage.php

It's year 10 of the Trump Presidential race coverage.  I assume his studio audience is filled with liberals and for the first time they actually laugh at themselves and their fascination with everything that is not the issue on trial.

This is a breakthrough in media IMHO.  CNN ran an antisemitism article on Columbia.  Bill Maher said abortion is murder but it's ok.  NPR is exposed for what it is.

Maybe we are at some kind of inflection point.  What if salt of the earth Democrats heard both sides of stories instead of just Narrative News?

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/23/opinions/columbia-university-protests-greenblatt/index.html

ccp:  we are doing better then all other countries in the world
not mentioned no we are not:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/oecd-gdp-growth-bounceback/
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Plus, that wasn't the bar.  We're supposed to be leader of the free world.

Where are we leading them?

Global Debt was 226 trillion in Biden's first year, 2021.
https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2021/12/15/blog-global-debt-reaches-a-record-226-trillion

Global Debt hits record 307 trillion in Biden's 3rd year, Sept 2023.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-debt-hits-record-307-trillion-debt-ratios-climb-iif-2023-09-19/

This is while the world is climbing out of Covid shutdowns.

Global debt hits new record high of 313 trillion, Feb 2024.
https://www.reuters.com/business/global-debt-hits-new-record-high-313-trillion-iif-2024-02-21/

If we are leading the world, it is downward. 

Bidenomics  =  Debt -onomics

Biden's going to pay off student loans?  No he's not.  He's not paying off anything.  He's taking us further and further down a debt hole.  Why do young people let him lie to them?

We used to joke the motto on our business card was: 'We're no worse than our competitors', to see if that would sell.

Biden's line is, 'you may be screwed by real wages falling for 4 years, but we're no worse than the rest of the world, Zimbabwe, Haiti and so on'.

'We're willing to pay out trillions of dollars of your future years' wages for your vote today.'



https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/12/what-is-global-debt-why-high/

NYT Today!

Boston University Law Professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman:

About a year ago, when Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, indicted former President Donald Trump, I was critical of the case and called it an embarrassment. I thought an array of legal problems would and should lead to long delays in federal courts.

After listening to Monday’s opening statement by prosecutors, I still think the Manhattan D.A. has made a historic mistake. Their vague allegation about “a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” has me more concerned than ever about their unprecedented use of state law and their persistent avoidance of specifying an election crime or a valid theory of fraud.  (Source: nytimes.com)


Exactly what WE said.

https://www.atr.org/biden-calls-for-44-6-capital-gains-tax-rate-highest-capital-gains-tax-since-its-creation-in-1922/

It's worse than just the highest rate EVER on capital investment.

From the link:

Biden’s proposed capital gains tax hike will also hit many families when parents pass away. Biden has proposed adding a second Death Tax (separate from and in addition to the existing Death Tax) by taking away stepped-up basis when parents die. This would result in a mandatory capital gains tax at death — a forced realization event.

As previously reported by CNBC:

“When someone dies and the asset transfers to an heir, that transfer itself will be a taxable event, and the estate is required to pay taxes on the gains as if they sold the asset,” said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

Biden’s proposal to take away stepped-up basis has already been tried, and it failed: In 1976 congress eliminated stepped-up basis but it was so complicated and unworkable it was repealed before it took effect.

As noted in a July 3, 1979 New York Times article, it was “impossibly unworkable.”

NYT wrote:

“Almost immediately, however, the new law touched off a flood of complaints as unfair and impossibly unworkable. So many, in fact, that last year Congress retroactively delayed the law’s effective date until 1980 while it struggled again with the issue.“

As noted by the NYT, intense voter blowback ensued:

“Not only were there protests from people who expected the tax to fall on them — family businesses and farms, in particular — bankers and estate lawyers also complained that the rule was a nightmare of paperwork.“


Larger point is:  People create wealth in order to leave it to the next generation, to leave each generation better off than we were.  [When they create the wealth for themselves it's called consumption.]

All these people want to leave the next generation is failed socialism and debt.

The Left wants that whole concept of leaving the next generation better off destroyed.  They don't want just the majority dependent on the government; they want ALL dependent on the government.

Fine, but if all ride in the wagon, who pulls the wagon?

And back to the first point, these policies don't bring in more money to pay for the government - exposing their real vulnerability, they don't care about paying for the government.  If they wanted government paid for, they would have to spend less.

She could have been top of the ticket on the 'No Labels" non-party.  She declined because, my read, she would have lost and caused Trump and the Republicans to lose and it would have been career ending in the sense of wanting to be President.  Being the first woman elected President is something for the history books.

Assuming she wants to be President in the worst way and that can only happen through the Republican party and she is committed to the Republican party having given up the only other path, the path runs through Trump.

My guess is she will jump on board and maybe wait for the latest, most dramatic moment to do that, likely in the convention keynote, a coveted spot she only gets if she comes through for him.

And if the above is correct, she will come through and come through big, why not make her VP?  I hope he doesn't, but she might help him the most to win and he wants/needs to win.

Trump is strongly liked by 50-60% of the R party, that's only 25-30% of the electorate.  Biden is weakly liked by a similar number.  Other than ballot harvesting tricks, this election will be won either by 'reluctant' Trump voters or by Trump haters who don't like Biden but will vote to stop Trump. 

As you say, Trump should be up by 10 or more but he isn't.  Haley could tip that balance.
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Otherwise the VP slot is almost unsolvable.  It should go to whoever would best follow Trump as President or nominee, whether he wins or loses.  To me, that is DeSantis but he can't.  If not Haley, the next in line from this race is Vivek who is not widely liked but could be a fireball on the campaign and would govern conservatively and smartly if the top job became his.  I prefer Vivek but I also prefer winning.

The largest of the swing groups I think is white suburban women voters.  Win them and you've won Minnesota.  Win MN and you've won a landslide.  Haley might be the best way to reach them, not Vivek, not Trump.
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I know moderates, 2020 Biden voters, who say they would vote Republican if the nominee was Haley, or someone like that.  Putting her on the ticket puts them on the spot. It would still be a Trump Presidency.  It would at least make them more tempted.

OTOH she came out as a hawk in general and on Ukraine in particular.  Right now that seems to be the fight on the right, very unpopular with some.  Her nomination would piss a number of people off.  Wasn't she weak on illegal immigration as well? Does the far right vote Trump anyway?  Yes but who needs that fight.

Definitely a conundrum.

Local company having trouble getting ransomwarers to keep their word.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/04/23/UnitedHealth-Group-cyberattack-blackcat/3951713899108/

They REQUIRE us to do business with one of these giant firms, require us to give them our social security numbers, birthdays, address, and everything else down to our blood sugar count and next of kin.  Then THIS happens and all our alphabet agencies are too busy targeting conservatives on trumped up charges to give a rip.

In this ever polarizing world, why don't we go after these areas where we can all agree?  But no...

https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/us-gdp-economy-first-quarter-2024-1675df05

3+ years of chopping away at the foundations of growth and growth slows.

Did ANYONE see this coming.

Slow growth (or none) but inflation lives on, eating up all gains.  65% say we're on the wrong track.  Majority prefer the challenger to better handle the economy.

Reminds me of another one term President.

Policies have consequences.  EVERY policy of this administration is a hindrance to private sector growth. They choose policies that poll well, but the resulting stagflation does not poll well at all.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/25/gdp-q1-2024-increased-at-a-1point6percent-rate.html

The 'experts estimate for growth was 50% higher.

BIG disappointment.

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1783184198477508785

It took me a while to figure out just how dumb this guy is, whether he's losing his marbles or not.

He's reading the card, starts the crowd favorite, "four more years", then reads aloud the word "pause". 

Tell me this is AI.  No one is that dumb, dementia or not.

How many months left on the campaign trail, May, June, July, August, September, October and part of November? Trump is silenced and Biden gets to go out everyday on the campaign trail.  Who does this favor?

We have noted as much in the climate thread but this goes further.

Get the radical agenda away from our kids, out of the schools.

https://modernity.news/2024/04/23/scientific-american-claims-it-is-misinformation-that-there-are-just-two-sexes

Right out of Orwell, it is misinformation to disagree with the new insanity, to the point that the President of the United States doesn't know how many genders there are anymore.

I'll help.  There are two genders and the science says they are identified by xx and xy chromosome patterns.  One tends to have a penis and the other tends to have a vagina. When the science on that changes, let us know.

Within those groups it's okay if women wear their hair short and if men wear their hair long. Girls can play with trucks and boys can play with dolls if they what, but that doesn't change the science.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/nyregion/trump-trial-jury-hush-money.html

https://www.newsweek.com/did-donald-trump-just-get-lucky-his-nyc-criminal-trial-juror-pool-1892347

Mayorkas broke various laws and perjured himself in front of Congress.

Agree and I should clarify I wasn't taking Gallagher's side.  I side with Levin. 

But...  no elected Democrats agreed.  He wasn't going to be removed.  If he was removed, it wouldn't change the policy.  I favored the impeachment because it would force a trial - but it didn't.  I thought they would need 60 votes to shut it down. Nope.  It wasn't even dismissed; it was declared "unconstitutional".   Umm the constitution says conduct a trial.  Strange that Manchin and Sinema fell in line. Lame ducks. Exposed their true colors.

The Senate didn't handle it right but there is no oversight of the US Senate.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/impeaching-mayorkas-was-a-mistake-this-precedent-will-be-used-against-gop-d0bf4956

Why I Voted Against the Alejandro Mayorkas Impeachment
Ousting a cabinet secretary for ‘maladministration’ would have opened Pandora’s box. The real problem is Biden.
By Mike Gallagher
Feb. 6, 2024 10:08 pm ET

President Biden has created a disaster at our southern border. In his first 100 days in office, Mr. Biden halted border-wall construction, ended President Trump’s successful Remain in Mexico policy, and implemented a catch-and-release regime. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is faithfully implementing the president’s ruinous policies, which are contributing to immense human suffering, placing a massive financial burden on states and cities, and threatening our national security. His performance has been a disgrace.

But I disagree with my Republican colleagues who voted on Tuesday to impeach Mr. Mayorkas. Impeachment not only would fail to resolve Mr. Biden’s border crisis but would also set a dangerous new precedent that would be used against future Republican administrations.

The first article of impeachment lays out in grueling detail Mr. Mayorkas’s manifest incompetence. But incompetence doesn’t rise to the level of high crimes or misdemeanors. Proponents of impeachment concede the framers rejected the idea that policy disputes or “maladministration” constitute grounds for impeachment. They argue instead that Mr. Mayorkas’s underenforcement goes beyond maladministration, even though it doesn’t reach the level of a criminal offense.

Their primary evidence is a 2021 memo signed by Mr. Mayorkas ordering immigration officials to consider more than illegal aliens’ criminal history when determining which ones should be detained and removed. They cite district and circuit court decisions that the order contained in this memo was against the law, even though the Supreme Court reversed those rulings in U.S. v. Texas (2023). They cite Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent in that case to claim Mr. Mayorkas broke the law.
(Oops the rest is subscription required.) 
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Here the WSJ called him a rising star and China watchdog.  I would argue he was one of the good guys.  Strong China hawk.  I saw him elsewhere called a RINO - by a commenter in his district.  He voted 93% with his party, and on votes like this, it was out of what he viewed as principles, agree or disagree with them.  He was ranked roughly in the middle of the GOP on the liberal-conservative spectrum.

A Marine, active duty 7 years, twice deployed to Anbar Province, served on General David Petraeus's CENTCOM Assessment Team, both as a commander of intelligence teams in Al-Qa'im near the Syrian border.  Degrees Princeton (B.A.) and Georgetown (PhD).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gallagher_(American_politician)

"TRUMP AND HIS PECKER" headline

"Judge Orders The Don to Sit Like a Dog..." another

"Will Mountain of Evidence Be Enough to Convict?"  another

Wikipedia says he still runs the website but it doesn't look like it could be the same person to me.

Niall Ferguson (Bloomberg.com)

My sole contribution to the statute book of historiography — what I call Ferguson’s Law — states that any great power that spends more on debt service (interest payments on the national debt) than on defense will not stay great for very long. True of Hapsburg Spain, true of ancient régime France, true of the Ottoman Empire, true of the British Empire, this law is about to be put to the test by the US beginning this very year, when (according to the CBO) net interest outlays will be 3.1% of GDP, defense spending 3.0%. Extrapolating defense spending on the assumption that it remains consistently 48% of total discretionary spending (the average of 2014-23), the gap between debt service and defense is going to widen rapidly in the coming years. By 2041, the CBO projections suggest, interest payments (4.6% of GDP) will be double the defense budget (2.3%). Between 1962 and 1989, by way of comparison, interest payments averaged 1.8% of GDP; defense 6.4%. (Sources: niallferguson.com, bloomberg.com)

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/04/22/former-adviser-to-barack-obama-arrested-for-child-sex-crimes-n4928395

The arrest was in February and word is now leaking out on conservative sites only.

"The average U.S. home value is $353,748 while the average for the best district in every state is 86% higher at $651,662, the study said."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2024/04/22/states-home-price-premiums-top-public-schools/73377109007/?tbref=hp

There are so many implications to this, time permitting I'd like to dive deeper on the education side of it.

Expensive neighborhoods are more likely to have intact families, two parents of higher intelligence and achievement, and kids advantaged by both nature and nurture.  The lower end schools and neighborhoods tend to have the opposite.

They say for investment value, buy the lowest priced house in the best neighborhood. I did. A lot of good came out of that, my daughter went to the best public schools, value went up 10-fold (over a long period, ttime flies).  Taxes also went up 10-fold (but the house is still what builders call 'teardown') so now I can't rebuild because taxes would then be up 20-fold.

I wish it was the humble community it once was.

And now the good public schools are getting worse with wokeness etc.

https://kiowacountypress.net/content/governor-polis-signs-cause-eviction-bill-law

Non-consensual contract is an oxymoron.

Here I am, posting analysis from Slate:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/what-the-trump-jurors-think-of-the-former-president/ar-AA1nkQmt

https://slate.com/tag/bragg-trial

Jurors chosen are the ones who best hide their views and most persuasively say they will keep an open mind to the facts and the law.

They all seem to get their news from the New York Times.  Does anyone inside of NY know that is the radical left wing publication that led the phony Russian collusion story for 2 years and never recanted it - among all their other left wing activisms.

Every juror is either from NY or moved to this most urban, most liberal jurisdiction by choice.

There were limits on how many objections the defense team could make.  Every time they block one, one more comes up from the same pool.

My take is that there may be one, two at most who stand strong against a wrongful guilty verdict.  A not guilty verdict is not possible.

https://twitter.com/Agdchan/status/1781435242865123423]https://twitter.com/Agdchan/status/1781435242865123423


Yes.  VERY interesting post, especially with the endorsement of ya that he has his history and perspective essentially right.

So many angles to it.  First to me is, why can't WE do that, and why don't other developing countries follow their model.

The parallels to Russia are interesting. 

80 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUvxRjYqjEQ&t=2s

A legend.  RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ5V6hdoPpA

The Rep House is incoherent.

If I were Speaker, I would be organizing a coherent effort to play chicken:

Pass HR-2 in exchange for $$$ for Ukraine.  Defend America's borders as price to defend Ukraine's borders!

Nice idea but it doesn't look like one additional law or funding will cause this administration to change its ways.

The Venezuelan who murdered Laken was on parole for reasons outside of the current law. So we pass more laws?

Impeachment had no effect.  We didn't even get a trial.

More like withhold all funding of everything until they do their job but obviously the majority aren't willing to go there.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/04/josh-hawleys-master-class.php

"most brutal and relentless interrogation of a senior administration official I have ever seen, certainly in the space of eight minutes."