Month: July 2018

I came across this quote (here) presented in the context of what is going on today in South Africa (about which our Lamestream Media are conspicuously silent), but see if it doesn’t “resonate” even for those of us in countries that haven’t yet sunk quite so far:

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.  What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, My Dear Friend, is about the end of any nation.  You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

This is almost universally attributed to Adrian Rogers (1931-2005), who was an American, a Southern Baptist pastor who served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Among his many politically conservative positions, he remonstrated Pres. George W. Bush for his “Roadmap to Peace” between Israel and the so-called Palestinians, saying it would be “morally reprehensible” for the United States to be “evenhanded” between “democratic Israel and the terrorist-infested Palestinian infrastructure.”

The phrase “You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it” (and perhaps the rest of the quote above) was actually originally stated by Gerald L.K. Smith (a virulent anti-communist who, I’m sad to say, also harbored anti-Jewish and anti-black views) circa 1958.

Thomas Lifson adds: Even very bad people sometimes speak the truth.

I came across this quote (here) presented in the context of what is going on today in South Africa (about which our Lamestream Media are conspicuously silent), but see if it doesn’t “resonate” even for those of us in countries that haven’t yet sunk quite so far:

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.  What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, My Dear Friend, is about the end of any nation.  You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

This is almost universally attributed to Adrian Rogers (1931-2005), who was an American, a Southern Baptist pastor who served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Among his many politically conservative positions, he remonstrated Pres. George W. Bush for his “Roadmap to Peace” between Israel and the so-called Palestinians, saying it would be “morally reprehensible” for the United States to be “evenhanded” between “democratic Israel and the terrorist-infested Palestinian infrastructure.”

The phrase “You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it” (and perhaps the rest of the quote above) was actually originally stated by Gerald L.K. Smith (a virulent anti-communist who, I’m sad to say, also harbored anti-Jewish and anti-black views) circa 1958.

Thomas Lifson adds: Even very bad people sometimes speak the truth.

Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and was asked a simple question that any politician worth his salt would hit out of the park for a home run.

How was she going to pay for the trillions of dollars in spending for all the free stuff she was proposing?

Daily Caller:

“This is an excellent, excellent question,” she replied.  ”I sat down with a Nobel Prize economist last week – I can’t believe I can say that, it’s really weird – But one of the things that we saw is, if people pay their fair share, if corporations and the ultra wealthy – for example, as Warren Buffett likes to say, if he pays as much as his secretary paid, 15 percent tax rate, if corporations paid – if we reverse the tax bill, raised our corporate tax rate to 28 percent … if we do those two things and also close some of those loopholes, that’s $2 trillion right there.”

Two trillion a year?  Over five years?  Ten?  Just two of her agenda items – taxpayer-funded college tuition for all ($75 billion a year) and Medicare for all ($1.4 trillion a year) would cost more than the GOP tax cuts save over the next year.  And that’s not including all the other free stuff she wants to hand out.

She also said it would take $3 trillion to $4 trillion and a carbon tax to create a “renewable energy economy” and claimed the Trump tax cut bill prevents the wealthiest Americans from paying “their fair share.”

“One of the wide estimates is that it’s going to take $3 trillion to $4 trillion to transition us to 100 percent renewable economy,” she continued.

Not even the most radical greens believe we can get anywhere near 100% renewable for decades.

“So we’ve got $2 trillion from folks paying their fair share, which they weren’t paying before the Trump tax bill,” she said.  ”They weren’t paying that before the Trump tax bill.  If we get people to pay their fair share, that’s $2 trillion in 10 years.  Now if we implement a carbon tax on top of that, so that we can transition and financially incentivize people away from fossil fuels, if we implement a carbon tax – that’s an additional amount, a large amount of revenue that we can have.”

You can almost hear her salivating at the prospect of that “large amount of revenue.”

Her revenue estimates are wildly, insanely off base.  One need only look at France and how the socialist’s dream of making the rich pay their “fair share” worked out.

François Hollande’s unpopular tax changes that imposed a 75% rate on earnings above €1m (£780,000) will quietly disappear into the history books from Thursday.

The French socialist president announced plans for the controversial measure during his 2012 election campaign as a means of forcing the wealthiest to help dig the country out of economic crisis.

Although supported by the left, the reform sparked accusations of an anti-business agenda.  After the “supertax” was announced in September 2012 the government was accused of shooting itself in the foot by risking an exodus of high-profile personalities.  Business leaders expressed fears that investors would pull out of France.

That exodus actually occurred.  Not surprisingly, the estimated revenue of 30 billion euros never materialized:

Finance ministry studies showed that despite all the publicity, the sums obtained from the supertax were meagre, standing at €260m in 2013 and €160m in 2014, and affecting 1,000 staff in 470 companies.  Over the same period, the budget deficit soared to €84.7bn.

Missed it by that much.

Socialists as a group are clueless about economics anyway, but Ocasio-Cortez demonstrates she is particularly dumb.

Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and was asked a simple question that any politician worth his salt would hit out of the park for a home run.

How was she going to pay for the trillions of dollars in spending for all the free stuff she was proposing?

Daily Caller:

“This is an excellent, excellent question,” she replied.  ”I sat down with a Nobel Prize economist last week – I can’t believe I can say that, it’s really weird – But one of the things that we saw is, if people pay their fair share, if corporations and the ultra wealthy – for example, as Warren Buffett likes to say, if he pays as much as his secretary paid, 15 percent tax rate, if corporations paid – if we reverse the tax bill, raised our corporate tax rate to 28 percent … if we do those two things and also close some of those loopholes, that’s $2 trillion right there.”

Two trillion a year?  Over five years?  Ten?  Just two of her agenda items – taxpayer-funded college tuition for all ($75 billion a year) and Medicare for all ($1.4 trillion a year) would cost more than the GOP tax cuts save over the next year.  And that’s not including all the other free stuff she wants to hand out.

She also said it would take $3 trillion to $4 trillion and a carbon tax to create a “renewable energy economy” and claimed the Trump tax cut bill prevents the wealthiest Americans from paying “their fair share.”

“One of the wide estimates is that it’s going to take $3 trillion to $4 trillion to transition us to 100 percent renewable economy,” she continued.

Not even the most radical greens believe we can get anywhere near 100% renewable for decades.

“So we’ve got $2 trillion from folks paying their fair share, which they weren’t paying before the Trump tax bill,” she said.  ”They weren’t paying that before the Trump tax bill.  If we get people to pay their fair share, that’s $2 trillion in 10 years.  Now if we implement a carbon tax on top of that, so that we can transition and financially incentivize people away from fossil fuels, if we implement a carbon tax – that’s an additional amount, a large amount of revenue that we can have.”

You can almost hear her salivating at the prospect of that “large amount of revenue.”

Her revenue estimates are wildly, insanely off base.  One need only look at France and how the socialist’s dream of making the rich pay their “fair share” worked out.

François Hollande’s unpopular tax changes that imposed a 75% rate on earnings above €1m (£780,000) will quietly disappear into the history books from Thursday.

The French socialist president announced plans for the controversial measure during his 2012 election campaign as a means of forcing the wealthiest to help dig the country out of economic crisis.

Although supported by the left, the reform sparked accusations of an anti-business agenda.  After the “supertax” was announced in September 2012 the government was accused of shooting itself in the foot by risking an exodus of high-profile personalities.  Business leaders expressed fears that investors would pull out of France.

That exodus actually occurred.  Not surprisingly, the estimated revenue of 30 billion euros never materialized:

Finance ministry studies showed that despite all the publicity, the sums obtained from the supertax were meagre, standing at €260m in 2013 and €160m in 2014, and affecting 1,000 staff in 470 companies.  Over the same period, the budget deficit soared to €84.7bn.

Missed it by that much.

Socialists as a group are clueless about economics anyway, but Ocasio-Cortez demonstrates she is particularly dumb.

Was John Podesta a Russian dupe?  At a minimum, he was a Russian dupe, based on information from a long, interesting article today titled “How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies,” from Politico magazine.

Politico points out that the very firm that Podesta was involved with, Rusnano USA (via its Joule subsidiary), is the likely new vehicle for Russian spying these days, effectively replacing the now shuttered Russian consulate in San Francisco.  Politico writes (emphasis mine):

But even with the consulate shuttered, there are alternative vehicles for Russian intelligence-gathering in Silicon Valley. One potential mechanism, said three former intelligence officials, is Rusnano USA, the sole U.S. subsidiary of Rusnano, a Russian government-owned venture capital firm primarily focused on nanotechnology. Rusnano USA, which was founded in 2011, is located in Menlo Park, near Stanford University. “Some of the [potential intelligence-gathering] activities Rusnano USA was involved in were not only related to the acquisition of technology, but also inserting people into venture capital groups, in developing those relationships in Silicon Valley that allowed them to get their tentacles into everything,” one former intelligence official told me. “And Rusnano USA was kind of the mechanism for that.”

Rusnano’s interests, said this former official, have extended to technology with both civilian and potential military applications. U.S. intelligence officials were very concerned about contacts between Rusnano USA employees and suspected Russian intelligence officers based at Russia’s San Francisco Consulate and elsewhere, this person said. “The Russians treated [Rusnano USA] as an intelligence platform, from which they launched operations,” said another former U.S. intelligence official. (Rusnano USA and the Russian Embassy in Washington, did not respond to requests for comment.)

Rusnano, eh?  That’s the one former Clinton campaign chief John Podesta was involved with, though Politico doesn’t mention it.  Remember when John Podesta got his board seat on a green energy company called Joule?  Here is what the Daily Caller reported back in 2017:

Podesta – Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman and former President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff – first made contact with the Russian firm in 2011, when he joined the boards and executive committees of three related entities: Boston-based Joule Unlimited; Rotterdam-based Joule Global Holdings; Joule Global Stichting, the company’s controlling interest.  All are high-tech renewable energy enterprises.

Three months after Podesta’s arrival, Joule Unlimited accepted a 1 billion ruble investment from Rusnano, amounting to $35 million in U.S. currency.  The firm also awarded a Joule board seat in February 2012 to Anatoly Chubais, Rusnano’s CEO, who has been depicted as a corrupt figure.

So what we have is the main Russian spying vehicle, Rusnano, just coincidentally, getting involved with John Podesta’s green energy company, where he sat as a board member, plopping down its Russian CEO, Anatoly Chubais, into a board seat next to him, and, oh, what a coincidence, rolling a billion rubles ($35 million) into the operation as an “investment.”  This sounds like dupe-itude to me.  The Russians don’t throw $35 million around without knowing what they are doing.  Here is what I wrote at the time:

Chubais didn’t have any problem forging ties with the politically connected Podesta, then an obscure if capable campaign operative, as the two got seats on the board of a green energy company called Joule in 2011, and $35 million in Russian capital flowed in.  Podesta’s time on the board with Chubais coincided exactly with his friend Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State.  Podesta ended up with 75,000 shares of Joule, and ‘forgot’ to mention them when he joined the Obama administration in 2014.

Podesta’s entry into the White House would have included a top-secret security clearance.  Think his forgetfulness was really memory loss?

Maybe he didn’t know at the time what this vehicle, Rusnano, also known as “Putin’s baby,” was up to or capable of.  But does anyone out there think Podesta is a naïve guy?  Naïve in some ways, yes, given that in his later hacked emails, his password was “password.”  Possibly naïve on how espionage works.  But would he really be naïve on something involving how money and influence work?  It’s his stock in trade, and he’s at the pinnacle of it.

The Politico report raises many troubling questions about how the Russians utilized Podesta.  It says Rusnano focuses on “inserting people” in key places for the purpose of spying, which could include Chubais in that board seat next to Podesta.  Podesta himself, in turn, could lead them to more introductions, which in turn could lead to more places to insert people.  Podesta would also be useful for knowing what went on in the White House.

Politico’s report also says the company is all in for getting its hands on military-applicable dual technology, which could have led to loss of secrets.  Worst of all, the report says U.S. intelligence people knew about it and found it worrying.  Did they ship warnings to FBI headquarters to be blocked by Peter Strzok, or maybe the White House, only to find Russia’ed-up Podesta on the other end of the line?  And what of the quid pro quo around the support Hillary Clinton gave to Russia’s Silicon Valley development as cash flowed into the Clinton Foundation?  Peter Schweizer has the story on that.  Was Podesta’s hand in that, too?  Lastly, what of the involvement of Tony Podesta, Podesta’s brother, with Rosatom which got hold of 20% of America’s uranium supply, courtesy of Hillary Clinton again, as well as his involvement with the same pro-Russia Ukrainian think-tank Paul Manafort is in so much legal trouble for?  It raises questions, given the amount of compromising that could have gone on, with this guy who “forgot.”

One can only hope Podesta was only a “dupe” and not something worse.

Was John Podesta a Russian dupe?  At a minimum, he was a Russian dupe, based on information from a long, interesting article today titled “How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies,” from Politico magazine.

Politico points out that the very firm that Podesta was involved with, Rusnano USA (via its Joule subsidiary), is the likely new vehicle for Russian spying these days, effectively replacing the now shuttered Russian consulate in San Francisco.  Politico writes (emphasis mine):

But even with the consulate shuttered, there are alternative vehicles for Russian intelligence-gathering in Silicon Valley. One potential mechanism, said three former intelligence officials, is Rusnano USA, the sole U.S. subsidiary of Rusnano, a Russian government-owned venture capital firm primarily focused on nanotechnology. Rusnano USA, which was founded in 2011, is located in Menlo Park, near Stanford University. “Some of the [potential intelligence-gathering] activities Rusnano USA was involved in were not only related to the acquisition of technology, but also inserting people into venture capital groups, in developing those relationships in Silicon Valley that allowed them to get their tentacles into everything,” one former intelligence official told me. “And Rusnano USA was kind of the mechanism for that.”

Rusnano’s interests, said this former official, have extended to technology with both civilian and potential military applications. U.S. intelligence officials were very concerned about contacts between Rusnano USA employees and suspected Russian intelligence officers based at Russia’s San Francisco Consulate and elsewhere, this person said. “The Russians treated [Rusnano USA] as an intelligence platform, from which they launched operations,” said another former U.S. intelligence official. (Rusnano USA and the Russian Embassy in Washington, did not respond to requests for comment.)

Rusnano, eh?  That’s the one former Clinton campaign chief John Podesta was involved with, though Politico doesn’t mention it.  Remember when John Podesta got his board seat on a green energy company called Joule?  Here is what the Daily Caller reported back in 2017:

Podesta – Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman and former President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff – first made contact with the Russian firm in 2011, when he joined the boards and executive committees of three related entities: Boston-based Joule Unlimited; Rotterdam-based Joule Global Holdings; Joule Global Stichting, the company’s controlling interest.  All are high-tech renewable energy enterprises.

Three months after Podesta’s arrival, Joule Unlimited accepted a 1 billion ruble investment from Rusnano, amounting to $35 million in U.S. currency.  The firm also awarded a Joule board seat in February 2012 to Anatoly Chubais, Rusnano’s CEO, who has been depicted as a corrupt figure.

So what we have is the main Russian spying vehicle, Rusnano, just coincidentally, getting involved with John Podesta’s green energy company, where he sat as a board member, plopping down its Russian CEO, Anatoly Chubais, into a board seat next to him, and, oh, what a coincidence, rolling a billion rubles ($35 million) into the operation as an “investment.”  This sounds like dupe-itude to me.  The Russians don’t throw $35 million around without knowing what they are doing.  Here is what I wrote at the time:

Chubais didn’t have any problem forging ties with the politically connected Podesta, then an obscure if capable campaign operative, as the two got seats on the board of a green energy company called Joule in 2011, and $35 million in Russian capital flowed in.  Podesta’s time on the board with Chubais coincided exactly with his friend Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State.  Podesta ended up with 75,000 shares of Joule, and ‘forgot’ to mention them when he joined the Obama administration in 2014.

Podesta’s entry into the White House would have included a top-secret security clearance.  Think his forgetfulness was really memory loss?

Maybe he didn’t know at the time what this vehicle, Rusnano, also known as “Putin’s baby,” was up to or capable of.  But does anyone out there think Podesta is a naïve guy?  Naïve in some ways, yes, given that in his later hacked emails, his password was “password.”  Possibly naïve on how espionage works.  But would he really be naïve on something involving how money and influence work?  It’s his stock in trade, and he’s at the pinnacle of it.

The Politico report raises many troubling questions about how the Russians utilized Podesta.  It says Rusnano focuses on “inserting people” in key places for the purpose of spying, which could include Chubais in that board seat next to Podesta.  Podesta himself, in turn, could lead them to more introductions, which in turn could lead to more places to insert people.  Podesta would also be useful for knowing what went on in the White House.

Politico’s report also says the company is all in for getting its hands on military-applicable dual technology, which could have led to loss of secrets.  Worst of all, the report says U.S. intelligence people knew about it and found it worrying.  Did they ship warnings to FBI headquarters to be blocked by Peter Strzok, or maybe the White House, only to find Russia’ed-up Podesta on the other end of the line?  And what of the quid pro quo around the support Hillary Clinton gave to Russia’s Silicon Valley development as cash flowed into the Clinton Foundation?  Peter Schweizer has the story on that.  Was Podesta’s hand in that, too?  Lastly, what of the involvement of Tony Podesta, Podesta’s brother, with Rosatom which got hold of 20% of America’s uranium supply, courtesy of Hillary Clinton again, as well as his involvement with the same pro-Russia Ukrainian think-tank Paul Manafort is in so much legal trouble for?  It raises questions, given the amount of compromising that could have gone on, with this guy who “forgot.”

One can only hope Podesta was only a “dupe” and not something worse.

In keeping with its sanctuary city policies, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney announced that he was terminating a contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) that gave the federal government access to arrest records.

The Hill:

“I cannot in good conscience allow the agreement to continue,” Kenney told the paper.

Kenney’s decision comes after several incidents that he says gave him reason to be concerned that the agency was using its access to the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System, or PARS, in “inappropriate ways.”

What troubles Kenney’s conscience so?  Apparently, enforcing our immigration laws is too much for him.

According to the mayor, Philadelphia ICE officials confirmed earlier this month that the agency’s access to the database could result in immigration enforcement against residents without criminal convictions.

The database, which is a real-time database of arrests, does not list immigration status, according to the Inquirer, but does include country of origin and Social Security number.

ICE has come under scrutiny nationwide, as arrests of immigrants [sic] without criminal convictions have spiked under the Trump administration.  Immigration advocates and some progressive Democrats have called for the agency to be abolished, accusing the president of abusing it to target more immigrants [sic] for deportation.

Kenney, who has been an advocate for Philadelphia’s “sanctuary city” policies, has faced repeated calls to terminate the contract.

City Solicitor Marcel Pratt wrote a letter notifying ICE officials of the decision to end the contract, in which he wrote that the partnership “has created the false perception that the city is willing to be an extension of ICE,” according to the Inquirer.

I had not heard that Philadelphia had declared its independence from the United States, but I was on vacation recently and may have missed it. 

It’s become commonplace for the media to forget to include the term “illegal” when reporting on the deportation of aliens.  It’s just too much of an inconvenient truth to identify the reason why ICE is doing land office business.  The agency is actually enforcing laws that have been on the books for decades – laws passed by Congress and signed by the president, who is responsible for enforcing the law.

If you don’t like the law, change it.

That’s the democratic way.  Unfortunately, it’s just too hard to amend the law or pass a new one liberals might see fit to obey.  And, of course, democracy is soooo hard.  Simply ignoring the law is much easier.  Besides, defying the law gives a liberal the golden opportunity for virtue-signaling. Kenney’s “conscience” is bothered by enforcing the law, so speaking truth to power earns him plaudits from all the right media outlets and pundits.

I have a secret fantasy that politicians like Kenney who enable illegals to evade deportation are arrested and perp-walked in front of City Hall.  But then I wake up and realize that that will never happen. 

In keeping with its sanctuary city policies, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney announced that he was terminating a contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) that gave the federal government access to arrest records.

The Hill:

“I cannot in good conscience allow the agreement to continue,” Kenney told the paper.

Kenney’s decision comes after several incidents that he says gave him reason to be concerned that the agency was using its access to the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System, or PARS, in “inappropriate ways.”

What troubles Kenney’s conscience so?  Apparently, enforcing our immigration laws is too much for him.

According to the mayor, Philadelphia ICE officials confirmed earlier this month that the agency’s access to the database could result in immigration enforcement against residents without criminal convictions.

The database, which is a real-time database of arrests, does not list immigration status, according to the Inquirer, but does include country of origin and Social Security number.

ICE has come under scrutiny nationwide, as arrests of immigrants [sic] without criminal convictions have spiked under the Trump administration.  Immigration advocates and some progressive Democrats have called for the agency to be abolished, accusing the president of abusing it to target more immigrants [sic] for deportation.

Kenney, who has been an advocate for Philadelphia’s “sanctuary city” policies, has faced repeated calls to terminate the contract.

City Solicitor Marcel Pratt wrote a letter notifying ICE officials of the decision to end the contract, in which he wrote that the partnership “has created the false perception that the city is willing to be an extension of ICE,” according to the Inquirer.

I had not heard that Philadelphia had declared its independence from the United States, but I was on vacation recently and may have missed it. 

It’s become commonplace for the media to forget to include the term “illegal” when reporting on the deportation of aliens.  It’s just too much of an inconvenient truth to identify the reason why ICE is doing land office business.  The agency is actually enforcing laws that have been on the books for decades – laws passed by Congress and signed by the president, who is responsible for enforcing the law.

If you don’t like the law, change it.

That’s the democratic way.  Unfortunately, it’s just too hard to amend the law or pass a new one liberals might see fit to obey.  And, of course, democracy is soooo hard.  Simply ignoring the law is much easier.  Besides, defying the law gives a liberal the golden opportunity for virtue-signaling. Kenney’s “conscience” is bothered by enforcing the law, so speaking truth to power earns him plaudits from all the right media outlets and pundits.

I have a secret fantasy that politicians like Kenney who enable illegals to evade deportation are arrested and perp-walked in front of City Hall.  But then I wake up and realize that that will never happen.