Month: January 2019

“Hoist with his own petard” is a phrase taken from Shakespeare and means someone destroyed himself with a weapon (a petard, that is, small bomb) intended for another. President Trump has hoisted the #NeverTrumpers on theirs and is about to do the same thing to the now irremediably lunatic Democrats.

Christopher Bedard has done a brilliant job describing the downfall of the #NeverTrump scribblers. It’s worth reading it all, but here are some highlights:

The Never Trumpers say they don’t recognize a Republican Party where the core tenets are neither free trade nor foreign democracy promotion. But maybe they just didn’t know their voters by sight, because the only party that has truly departed recognition is Never Trump.

Each week brings this movement a new and bizarre position: Opposing tax cuts, supporting Obamacare; wishing North Korean talks ill, wishing Democratic investigators well; dreaming of European political meddling, pining for American political comeuppance. [snip]

Though the president’s House was defeated in the first post-Trump national elections and his two-year approval among Democrats lies at historic lows, his approval with his own voters — those who the Never Trumpers courted not long ago — is second only to George W. Bush after 9/11.

As the second year of Trump’s presidency ends, these former Republicans have insulted and alienated their readers until they had none. They’ve squandered their time on unimportant, self-righteous panel discussions, finally reduced to bobbing up in partisan anti-Trump venues surrounded by men and women who called them war criminals just years before, buoyed for a time by saying the right thing about the right enemy.

NAFTA, mean words and Donald Trump cannot possibly be the origin of these shattered minds, however vital those were to the breaking.

In the same classic misreading of the base, this week Mitt Romney penned a foolish anti-Trump opinion editorial in the heart of D.C. darkness, the Washington Post.

A number of writers responded to this obvious effort to make himself stand out as the new McCain, a Republican willing to destroy the party’s leader for (temporary) press approval.

Steve Hayward nailed it nicely at Power Line blog:

Romney has unwittingly provided the devastating argument against his style of Republicanism. Yes, it is quite true that nearly all Republican presidential candidates — and presidents — have promoted tax reform, lower regulation, getting tough with China, and appointing better judges (and add in moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem), if by “promoted” you mean giving lip service to the ideas.

None of them have delivered on these “promoted” ideas (Reagan excepted, of course). The two presidents Bush botched judicial appointments, extended regulation, delivered little in the way of serious tax or spending reform, and did nothing serious with regard to China. I wish Romney had defeated Obama in 2012, but does anyone think this Massachusetts technocrat, who gave us the state-level version of Obamacare in the Bay State, signed up for a regional climate change cap-and-trade scheme, who appointed the egregious Gina McCarthy (Obama’s second EPA administrator) to be his environmental adviser, and appointed state judges who struck the first judicial blows for same-sex marriage, would have governed as a serious conservative had he won?

The point is, Trump has proved that “mainstream Republicanism” was a colossal failure. Whereas Bush-Romney Republicans “promoted” good ideas, Trump has delivered on them.

As Mickey Kaus tweeted, he sensed there must have been a consultant behind Romney’s spectacular failing strategy — you know, the kind of geniuses who sandbagged their candidate’s running mate Sarah Palin, the sort who talked Al Gore into wearing brown and stuffing a sock in his pants, who persuaded John Kerry to speak in phony backwoods talk to “get me a hunting license”, and who this week encouraged Elizabeth Warren to enact a folksy News Year’s Eve in her kitchen drinking beer out of a bottle.

Overpaid campaign consultants like the ones behind these stunts regularly reveal their contempt for our intelligence and we repay them by defeating their employers.

One would think that despite Romney’s half-hearted backtracking the next day on CNN, he’d be assigned to an inconsequential committee position. Instead,  he was inexplicably handed a plum slot on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.

If you think this is stupid, the opposition is even dumber.

Just One Minute Typepad’s Matt describes the first week:

Alexandria “I can’t afford an apartment” Ocasio Cortez and her cast of clowns are going to be interesting to watch. The NY Post is already going after her and she is already threatening the Democratic Party’s biggest donors with doubling their taxes.

Hank Johnson is still trying to find out if Guam has capsized while calling for impeachment and the nutter from Tennessee wants to eliminate the Electoral College while others are moving for impeachment. All. on. day. one.

The Circus is in town!

Ladies and gerbils, step this way to the Midway! A mere Semolian will gain you access to the Greatest Clown Show on Earth, formerly known as the U.S. House. See the Jabbering Jihadis! The Bearded Lady! The Speaker who talks in tongues! Watch as Members commit feats of strength and air their grievances! Watch as Alexandria Ocasio Cortex wrestles Nancy Pelosi on the House Floor!

Popcorn!! Peanuts!!! Get ya Red Hots!!

And folks, enjoy the show! 

Dumber still has been the Democrats’ ridiculous refusal to fund the $5 billion the President has asked to build the wall. Polls show overwhelming support for a hardened border and a halt to streams of illegals storming into the country from Mexico. Despite the best efforts of the media to show that it has created great hardships, the shutdown of about 25% of the federal government has not done so. The vast majority of the furloughed workers are Democratic voters. In effect, the Democrats handed them over to the president as hostages.

A look at Senator Schumer’s face in the public “negotiation” in the White House showed me that he realized the stunt was a loser. If I had any doubts, the picture of his face as he left the White House this past Friday confirmed it. He looked like a man being led to the gallows.

As James Freeman noted in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web”, the Democrats are already backstroking 

Having already agreed to spend money on physical barriers to prevent illegal crossings of the U.S. southern border, Democrats are casting opposition to the particular architecture favored by President Donald Trump as a matter of conscience worth shutting down a portion of their beloved federal bureaucracy. This argument was already going to be difficult to sustain and Democrats have just made it even harder.

The problem lies in legislation passed on Thursday by the brand-new Democratic House. Reuters reports on the spending items approved after Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) reclaimed the Speaker’s gavel:

The two-part Democratic package includes a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through Feb. 8, providing $1.3 billion for border fencing and $300 million for other border security items including technology and cameras.

The second part would fund the other federal agencies that are now unfunded including the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Commerce and Justice, through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

“We’re not doing a wall. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with a wall is an immorality between countries. It’s an old way of thinking. It isn’t cost effective,” Pelosi told reporters late on Thursday.

To recap, the position of the Pelosi House — and also of many Senate Democrats — is that fences between countries are sensible and worthy of 10-figure appropriations of taxpayer dollars but “walls” in the same locations and serving the same purpose are immoral. Anyone thinking such a distinction is ridiculous may be encouraged to know that Speaker Pelosi seems to think so, too. A serious person normally would not call a program morally unacceptable and then add that it’s not “cost effective.” Is the Speaker demanding more efficient immorality? 

The President has said he’ll keep the government shut down as long as it takes to build the wall, that the wall will be differently constructed in different places to suit the terrain and the Border Patrol’s recommendations. It may not have yet occurred to the Democrats, but the government cannot be reopened until they pass a spending bill that the Senate will vote for and the President will sign. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t do it otherwise. Basic civics.

But Nancy Pelosi seems to have missed that while flunking high school civics, because she claimed this week that the Constitution makes her the President’s equal. The consequences of failing to understand the basic federalist structure in which she heads only one-half of one of the three branches are more significant than just getting an “F” on the final exam.

“Hoist with his own petard” is a phrase taken from Shakespeare and means someone destroyed himself with a weapon (a petard, that is, small bomb) intended for another. President Trump has hoisted the #NeverTrumpers on theirs and is about to do the same thing to the now irremediably lunatic Democrats.

Christopher Bedard has done a brilliant job describing the downfall of the #NeverTrump scribblers. It’s worth reading it all, but here are some highlights:

The Never Trumpers say they don’t recognize a Republican Party where the core tenets are neither free trade nor foreign democracy promotion. But maybe they just didn’t know their voters by sight, because the only party that has truly departed recognition is Never Trump.

Each week brings this movement a new and bizarre position: Opposing tax cuts, supporting Obamacare; wishing North Korean talks ill, wishing Democratic investigators well; dreaming of European political meddling, pining for American political comeuppance. [snip]

Though the president’s House was defeated in the first post-Trump national elections and his two-year approval among Democrats lies at historic lows, his approval with his own voters — those who the Never Trumpers courted not long ago — is second only to George W. Bush after 9/11.

As the second year of Trump’s presidency ends, these former Republicans have insulted and alienated their readers until they had none. They’ve squandered their time on unimportant, self-righteous panel discussions, finally reduced to bobbing up in partisan anti-Trump venues surrounded by men and women who called them war criminals just years before, buoyed for a time by saying the right thing about the right enemy.

NAFTA, mean words and Donald Trump cannot possibly be the origin of these shattered minds, however vital those were to the breaking.

In the same classic misreading of the base, this week Mitt Romney penned a foolish anti-Trump opinion editorial in the heart of D.C. darkness, the Washington Post.

A number of writers responded to this obvious effort to make himself stand out as the new McCain, a Republican willing to destroy the party’s leader for (temporary) press approval.

Steve Hayward nailed it nicely at Power Line blog:

Romney has unwittingly provided the devastating argument against his style of Republicanism. Yes, it is quite true that nearly all Republican presidential candidates — and presidents — have promoted tax reform, lower regulation, getting tough with China, and appointing better judges (and add in moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem), if by “promoted” you mean giving lip service to the ideas.

None of them have delivered on these “promoted” ideas (Reagan excepted, of course). The two presidents Bush botched judicial appointments, extended regulation, delivered little in the way of serious tax or spending reform, and did nothing serious with regard to China. I wish Romney had defeated Obama in 2012, but does anyone think this Massachusetts technocrat, who gave us the state-level version of Obamacare in the Bay State, signed up for a regional climate change cap-and-trade scheme, who appointed the egregious Gina McCarthy (Obama’s second EPA administrator) to be his environmental adviser, and appointed state judges who struck the first judicial blows for same-sex marriage, would have governed as a serious conservative had he won?

The point is, Trump has proved that “mainstream Republicanism” was a colossal failure. Whereas Bush-Romney Republicans “promoted” good ideas, Trump has delivered on them.

As Mickey Kaus tweeted, he sensed there must have been a consultant behind Romney’s spectacular failing strategy — you know, the kind of geniuses who sandbagged their candidate’s running mate Sarah Palin, the sort who talked Al Gore into wearing brown and stuffing a sock in his pants, who persuaded John Kerry to speak in phony backwoods talk to “get me a hunting license”, and who this week encouraged Elizabeth Warren to enact a folksy News Year’s Eve in her kitchen drinking beer out of a bottle.

Overpaid campaign consultants like the ones behind these stunts regularly reveal their contempt for our intelligence and we repay them by defeating their employers.

One would think that despite Romney’s half-hearted backtracking the next day on CNN, he’d be assigned to an inconsequential committee position. Instead,  he was inexplicably handed a plum slot on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.

If you think this is stupid, the opposition is even dumber.

Just One Minute Typepad’s Matt describes the first week:

Alexandria “I can’t afford an apartment” Ocasio Cortez and her cast of clowns are going to be interesting to watch. The NY Post is already going after her and she is already threatening the Democratic Party’s biggest donors with doubling their taxes.

Hank Johnson is still trying to find out if Guam has capsized while calling for impeachment and the nutter from Tennessee wants to eliminate the Electoral College while others are moving for impeachment. All. on. day. one.

The Circus is in town!

Ladies and gerbils, step this way to the Midway! A mere Semolian will gain you access to the Greatest Clown Show on Earth, formerly known as the U.S. House. See the Jabbering Jihadis! The Bearded Lady! The Speaker who talks in tongues! Watch as Members commit feats of strength and air their grievances! Watch as Alexandria Ocasio Cortex wrestles Nancy Pelosi on the House Floor!

Popcorn!! Peanuts!!! Get ya Red Hots!!

And folks, enjoy the show! 

Dumber still has been the Democrats’ ridiculous refusal to fund the $5 billion the President has asked to build the wall. Polls show overwhelming support for a hardened border and a halt to streams of illegals storming into the country from Mexico. Despite the best efforts of the media to show that it has created great hardships, the shutdown of about 25% of the federal government has not done so. The vast majority of the furloughed workers are Democratic voters. In effect, the Democrats handed them over to the president as hostages.

A look at Senator Schumer’s face in the public “negotiation” in the White House showed me that he realized the stunt was a loser. If I had any doubts, the picture of his face as he left the White House this past Friday confirmed it. He looked like a man being led to the gallows.

As James Freeman noted in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web”, the Democrats are already backstroking 

Having already agreed to spend money on physical barriers to prevent illegal crossings of the U.S. southern border, Democrats are casting opposition to the particular architecture favored by President Donald Trump as a matter of conscience worth shutting down a portion of their beloved federal bureaucracy. This argument was already going to be difficult to sustain and Democrats have just made it even harder.

The problem lies in legislation passed on Thursday by the brand-new Democratic House. Reuters reports on the spending items approved after Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) reclaimed the Speaker’s gavel:

The two-part Democratic package includes a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through Feb. 8, providing $1.3 billion for border fencing and $300 million for other border security items including technology and cameras.

The second part would fund the other federal agencies that are now unfunded including the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Commerce and Justice, through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

“We’re not doing a wall. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with a wall is an immorality between countries. It’s an old way of thinking. It isn’t cost effective,” Pelosi told reporters late on Thursday.

To recap, the position of the Pelosi House — and also of many Senate Democrats — is that fences between countries are sensible and worthy of 10-figure appropriations of taxpayer dollars but “walls” in the same locations and serving the same purpose are immoral. Anyone thinking such a distinction is ridiculous may be encouraged to know that Speaker Pelosi seems to think so, too. A serious person normally would not call a program morally unacceptable and then add that it’s not “cost effective.” Is the Speaker demanding more efficient immorality? 

The President has said he’ll keep the government shut down as long as it takes to build the wall, that the wall will be differently constructed in different places to suit the terrain and the Border Patrol’s recommendations. It may not have yet occurred to the Democrats, but the government cannot be reopened until they pass a spending bill that the Senate will vote for and the President will sign. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t do it otherwise. Basic civics.

But Nancy Pelosi seems to have missed that while flunking high school civics, because she claimed this week that the Constitution makes her the President’s equal. The consequences of failing to understand the basic federalist structure in which she heads only one-half of one of the three branches are more significant than just getting an “F” on the final exam.

We’ve seen some remarkable immaturity from the new Democrats this week, from introducing a bill to curb presidential pardons to a congresswoman talking about impeaching the “m-f.”  Isaac Hayes and “bad mother (shut your mouth) Shaft” must be jealous of her language!

It makes you yearn for serious people, or the type of American who stands up for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

Back this week in 1942, Bob Feller, who had won 76 games over the last three seasons, went into the U.S. Navy.

We learned a few Decembers ago that Bob Feller passed away after at age 92.

I did not see Feller pitch, but every baseball fan knows about him. 

This is an account of his baseball career:

Before his career ended on Sept. 30, 1956, months before the inaugural Cy Young Award was presented, he had won 266 games, struck out 2,581 batters, won 62 percent of his decisions, pitched three no-hitters, 12 one-hitters and 44 shutouts and won a pitchers’ Triple Crown.

He led the league in victories six times and strikeouts seven times.

But there is more!

He enlisted after Pearl Harbor and served in World War II for almost four years!  He did not seek a “safe space” or look for excuses.  He gave up four of his prime years for country.  I wonder how many of these Democrats have a clue of what that means!

What a remarkable life! What a contrast from the people now serving in the U.S. House.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

We’ve seen some remarkable immaturity from the new Democrats this week, from introducing a bill to curb presidential pardons to a congresswoman talking about impeaching the “m-f.”  Isaac Hayes and “bad mother (shut your mouth) Shaft” must be jealous of her language!

It makes you yearn for serious people, or the type of American who stands up for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

Back this week in 1942, Bob Feller, who had won 76 games over the last three seasons, went into the U.S. Navy.

We learned a few Decembers ago that Bob Feller passed away after at age 92.

I did not see Feller pitch, but every baseball fan knows about him. 

This is an account of his baseball career:

Before his career ended on Sept. 30, 1956, months before the inaugural Cy Young Award was presented, he had won 266 games, struck out 2,581 batters, won 62 percent of his decisions, pitched three no-hitters, 12 one-hitters and 44 shutouts and won a pitchers’ Triple Crown.

He led the league in victories six times and strikeouts seven times.

But there is more!

He enlisted after Pearl Harbor and served in World War II for almost four years!  He did not seek a “safe space” or look for excuses.  He gave up four of his prime years for country.  I wonder how many of these Democrats have a clue of what that means!

What a remarkable life! What a contrast from the people now serving in the U.S. House.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

BY: Bethany Blankley – Watchdog.org
January 6, 2019 4:55 am

Gov. Scott Walker leaves office next week, finishing his second term by posting a budget surplus for the eighth year in a row. Wisconsin ended last fiscal year with a $588.5 million surplus and will start 2018-2019 with the second-highest opening balance since 2000.

“We are leaving Wisconsin in the best financial condition in a generation,” Walker announced. “This is part of our legacy and it will continue to drive Wisconsin forward.”

Walker, who had not previously discussed publicly what he planned to do after leaving office, said Tuesday he would join a speaking tour across the country and “focus on new methods to articulate a conservative message.”

Walker’s legacy includes cutting Wisconsin residents’ taxes by $8 billion and reducing the collective bargaining rights of government workers.

Walker also signed his last key pieces of legislation last month, one of which included provisions to help corporations receiving awards from the state’s economic development corporation.

The governor created the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) in 2011 as a public-private agency. Revisions to how grants are awarded to companies applying for tax credits or other financial incentives were included in a wide-ranging package of legislation that addressed voting guidelines and the powers of the executive branch.

The legislation signed into law limited early in-person voting to the two weeks prior to Election Day, eliminated the state Justice Department’s solicitor general office, and stipulated guidelines about the executive branch’s ability to engage in or withdraw from lawsuits involving the state without input from the Legislature.

“Despite all the hype and hysteria out there, these bills do nothing to fundamentally diminish executive authority,” Walker said in a statement. “The bottom line is the new governor will continue to be one of the most powerful chief executives in the country. This includes veto and line-item veto powers; appointing members of the cabinet and other government posts including judges, district attorneys, and sheriffs; broad executive order authority; administrative rule authority; issuing a state budget proposal; and more.

“My criteria when evaluating these bills were simple: Do they improve transparency? Do they increase accountability? Do they affirm stability? And do they protect the taxpayers? The answer is yes.”

Current law requires the WEDC to annually verify payroll and employment data from tax credit recipients to make sure they’re creating enough jobs to qualify for the program.

The requirements stipulate that a third party must verify a sampling of the information and that recipients submit a signed statement to WEDC attesting to the accuracy of the information submitted.

WEDC’s chief executive officer, Mark Hogan, told reporters that the agency does not have the resources to verify information about everyone employed by the state’s roughly 300 credit recipients. For years, the agency has verified information provided through data samples; the bill codifies the existing practice into law.

“You’re never going to be able to independently verify over 200,000 employees,” Hogan said. “It’s a process that cannot work. The only solution was to change the statutes to codify what we’re doing.”

The WEDC has been asking the Legislature to change the law for several years.

In June, Foxconn Technology Group broke ground for Phase 1 of Area 1 of the Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park in Mount Pleasant – a $10 billion investment to the region.

The WEDC announced this month the City of Brillion received a $500,000 grant to help finance demolition work on the former Brillion Iron Works site.

It also recently announced five Main Street businesses from around the state that were named finalists in WEDC’s annual Main Street Makeover Contest. The recipients have a chance to win up to $10,000 toward upgrading their storefronts.

“Under Republican control, the WEDC has been plagued by scandals, mismanagement and under-performance,” Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling said in a statement. “The last thing that agency needs is less accountability measures.”

A May 2017 audit found that the agency did not require recipients to provide enough information that showed how many jobs were created or retained as a result of the state’s financial incentive.

Editor’s note: The clash between the president and congressional Democrats over a border wall resulted in a partial government shutdown that is entering its third week. The Daily Signal’s audience appears to have Trump’s back. Write us at [email protected]—Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: It wasn’t all that long ago that Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the Clintons were adamantly opposed to illegal immigration and wanted it stopped, as Peter Parisi suggests in his commentary (“The Cure for Republican ‘Shutdown-ophobia’ Is Forceful Messaging on the Wall, Not Surrendering”).

They made public speeches condemning illegal immigration and the costs of it to American taxpayers.  There was a time when they had no problem with building a border wall, and voted for it.

However, because President Trump wants the border wall and it would be seen as a “victory” for Trump, the Democrats are adamantly opposed to it. Not only are they opposed to a wall, they are now in favor of open borders, sanctuary cities, and amnesty for illegal immigrants.—Drew Page

***

President Trump has taken a lot of good advice from The Heritage Foundation. Let’s hope he reads and heeds Peter Parisi’s great advice in his Daily Signal commentary.

I’m so sick of weak-kneed Republicans. They have blown opportunity after opportunity during the past two years.—Ken Marx

***

Why didn’t the GOP accomplish anything while they had the presidency and a majority in both houses of Congress?

Because most of them, senators and representatives, are cowardly, useless, pathetic little bureaucrats who revel in making decisions that ruin our lives but run in terror from any issue that requires the slightest moral courage. The lack of support for the wall is symptomatic of the general moral collapse of the Republican Party.—Douglas Mayfield

Every honest person knows that the Democrats have simply found another excuse to attack Trump. Five billion dollars is a totally insignificant amount in a nation adding that much debt every 40 hours.

Any president who wants this little for something important to him should get it, especially when it’s for something already approved by Congress. So this is more of the dangerous game of obstruction, with no regard for the people.

We are aware that Obama sought border security, ordered ICE raids, voted for a border barrier as senator, did plenty of deportations. And those kids in cages were on his watch. Here’s the problem: No one ever made a peep about any of that.

Then Trump is elected and doing the same things; this makes him a racist, bigot, hater, and anti-immigrant? So everything done by the Democrats and their lapdog media is intended to destroy Trump. Nothing more and nothing less.—Anthony Alafero

***

It is only the government that thinks we can’t get along without the government.—Larry Daniels

***

Trump himself said that southern border security is stronger than ever, that the caravan of migrants was completely turned back, and that because of that no new ones are forming.

So it begs the question why the wall is needed at all, since Trump says he’s been so successful protecting the border already at a fraction of the price—let alone that Americans need to pay for it, since Trump said Mexico would pay for it.—Edward Buatois

***

The wall is needed because while the caravan was stopped to some degree, thousands of other people, including criminals, drug mules, gun runners, and human traffickers, have been crossing the border where there is no wall. Anyone who checks before opining won’t be so far off base.—Ron Bartels

***

It is not a small group of migrants, it is 10 percent of our population and we are a bankrupt nation. I support legal immigration. People just showing up is not right. I would like to live in Monaco, but I don’t.—Blake Burgess

***

How many of the MS-13 gang, drug smugglers, and human traffickers are you willing to care for in your home? Then think again about why we need the wall.—Doris Gray

***

Why is Congress funded in a government shutdown and 380,000 employees are furloughed, as Justin Bogie writes in his commentary (“What Would Actually Be Affected in a Government Shutdown”)? Seems that it should be the other way around.

If I decide not to to pay my utility bill, the utility doesn’t suffer the consequences, I do. Of course the president would not suffer, but the charities that receive his compensation would.—Jason Traxler

***

Far too many people look at the dark side of a government shutdown. Since the Justice Department will be unfunded, then the Mueller probe goes down the drain.

We only can hope that government payments to Planned Parenthood, NPR, and other such “gifts” also stop. Look at it as the bright side.—Randy Leyendecker, Kerrville, Texas

.@Bre_payton was an incredible conservative voice with a bright future. Her vibrance, passion, and wit will be missed. https://t.co/M3yhpmLhfJ via @DailySignal #TeaParty #MAGA

— Jenny Beth Martin (@jennybethm) January 3, 2019

On the Loss of Bre Payton 

Dear Daily Signal: Condolences to Bre Payton’s family for their loss, as described in Katrina Trinko’s piece (“Remembering the Problematic Bre Payton”). Losing a family member at such a young age is especially hard, because you’re losing the person he or she had the potential to be.—Kevin Zelhart

***

Some people are ready for heaven sooner than others. Sounds like Bre had already learned and done all she was supposed to do here. The rest of us are still refining those rough edges. May the Lord comfort her loved ones, and raise up others to carry on her work.—Carol Morrisey

***

The lesson here is to tell everyone you love that you love them every time you see them. You never know if it will be the last time you have the chance.—Drew Page

***

I cannot recall the last time I shed a tear, but I teared up when I read the headline about Bre’s passing and a couple more as I read this article. How very sad! What an outstanding young woman. God bless her.—Jim B.

***

I never had the honor of hearing your show, Bre, but from all I’ve read here, you were an amazing young woman. Thank you for the contributions you made in your too short time here. I know that someday I’ll get to meet you in heaven. Prayers and comfort to Bre’s family. Rest in peace, dear one.—Tonya Acre Merrill

***

When someone whom we love so much departs our shores from “under the sun,” we trust and know that there are the other shores of heaven where they’re welcomed by the Son. For us believers, Christ Jesus is our living hope and one day in God’s timing there will be the great reunion. Maranatha.—Adriano Celentano

***

I am so sad. I loved Bre’s sass and honesty. And I loved it when she was on “Problematic Women.” I’m going to miss her.—Trisha Swift

“We offer a complete, end-to-end program to help address a man’s mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs, so that when they leave here they can actually go and live independently, and live a productive life.” https://t.co/JBXAsDDJDi @kelseyjharkness @DailySignal

— The Stream (@Streamdotorg) December 26, 2018

Championing the Homeless at Central Union Mission 

Dear Daily Signal: Kelsey Harkness’s video report on George Opudo and Central Union Mission  illustrates how things used to work (“How He’s Beating Homelessness Without Government Help”).

When there was some sort of disaster that affected one life or thousands of lives, individuals and community organizations jumped in to resolve the situation. It was an efficient use of resources that got events back on track fairly quickly.

Then nanny government stepped in about 90 years ago and started to fill the role. It did so by forcibly taking money from some and redistributing it through a bureaucracy that absorbed 90 percent of the resources before they reached the people in need.

It’s time to disband the numerous unconstitutional agencies that administer “welfare” and disaster “services” and return to having local people and their voluntary community services resume the full load.

 

We always get more bang for the buck when we use our money voluntarily to serve other people in need. We Americans are the kindest and most benevolent people anywhere. We help our neighbors.—Ken Marx

***

Our Constitution didn’t envision the government in charge of charity, and wanted God to be part of our daily lives.

Greedy, evil Democrats and slimy politicians now buy political votes by turning our government into a godless charity. And too many people are all too willing to forfeit all of our freedoms and theirs for a selfish, miserable handout.—Redigo Gubernatio

***

Most of those under age 40 are entitlement-trained by the left’s actions to control and indoctrinate the children as they attend schools that are government controlled.

Black, white, yellow, and brown, they all get the same indoctrination unless they go to parochial or educational places that do not accept government money.—Karin Callaway, Florida

***

A beautiful testimony. God bless George Opudo.—Delilah Fleharty

With War on Its Doorstep, a Ukrainian City’s Civil Society Flourishes https://t.co/CHzBly664h @DailySignal #AAG

— All American Girl (@AIIAmericanGirI) December 12, 2018

Nolan Peterson Reports From Ukraine

Dear Daily Signal: What a heartwarming article by Nolan Peterson about the citizens of Mariupol (“With War on Its Doorstep, a Ukrainian City’s Civil Society Flourishes”).

As a newbie to the issue, I wonder where the money is coming from to support all the community organizers? Serious outside money may be needed to keep the city going if its seaport is closed.—Loran Tritter

***

What an uplifting article! Proud Ukrainians, taking care of their city.—Patty Howe Willey

***

Mr. Peterson, my respect.—Oksana Stolpovsky

***

I can’t help but see this change as a positive move for Ukraine, but the change described by Nolan Peterson seems more like a political move than one of faith (“Ukraine Steps Out of Russia’s Religious Shadow”). The move reinforces the Ukrainian identity, but is it a step toward God? I can’t tell from the article.

I also wonder about the state of the non-Orthodox and independent churches in Ukraine. Do they have the freedom to worship Christ as they see fit? Is there religious freedom in Ukraine?

I have followed Nolan Peterson’s articles published in The Daily Signal, and would love to see him address this issue. The only true solution to Ukraine’s future will be found in true faith in Christ.—John T. Reagan

***

Thank you to Nolan Peterson for another fine article about the Ukrainian situation. Much appreciated!—Stephanie Fredin

***

If they’re still under a communist government, they’ve escaped nothing.—Bob Shoemaker

5 ways we are worse off fiscally after 2018 https://t.co/bWZFbWPeoJ via @davidaditch @DailySignal

— Fred Lucas (@FredLucasWH) December 21, 2018

The Fiscal Shape We’re In

Dear Daily Signal: David Ditch writes of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid being the biggest increases in spending in the budget (“5 Ways We Are Worse Off Fiscally After 2018”). Remember that workers’ and employers’ payroll taxes are paid annually to Social Security and Medicare. Medicaid is more of a welfare program.

Some nations successfully privatized (a bad word) Social Security, to the benefit of both workers and government. Let workers own their own accounts for both Social Security and Medicare.

Plus, we need reform of the many welfare programs. We used to think it was awful that the old communist Soviet Union paid women to have babies. We do this now. One should be the limit.

The War on Poverty begun in the 1960s has not been a leg up, but rather an oppressive push down. Go back to a 5-year limit and a one-baby limit. That way, hardworking taxpayers might have more babies they can afford to pay for.—Dee Hodges

***

Only leaders with courage can get us out of this. Buckle up, folks, because any out there are greatly outweighed by the cowards.

The Democrats said Medicare and Medicaid would fix our health care issues, and that if seniors and the poor were covered, the rest would be fine. Then they said that Medicaid needed to be expanded to the next tier above the poor. Then the tier above that, and all would be wonderful.

So all of this is done. And the Democrats say that poor people were dying in the streets (total lie), so they needed Obamacare and all would be wonderful. So now they claim that all of it was BS and that we need Medicare for all?

In other words, it was never about health care. It was always about moving more toward an authoritarian system with an all-powerful government, run by the elitist left, of course.—Anthony Alafero

***

There is no such thing as a “government trust fund,” because the government can’t be trusted. The government has routinely taken money from the Social Security “trust fund” to spend on other things, always promising to pay it back. But the government has no money of its own to repay those thefts. It will, as usual, be the taxpayers’ responsibility to repay those government thefts.

The government has done the same thing with Medicare funds, moving $700 billion over 10 years to pay for Obamacare. How much more will “Medicare for All” cost? How much will “free” college tuition cost?

How many more billions will the open borders and illegal immigrants that the Democrats want cost? How many more billions will a continued military presence in Afghanistan and the Middle East that the Republicans want cost?

How many more billions will government bailouts cost? How many billions will be spent by government to pay salaries and benefits and pensions to “nonessential” government employees?—Drew Page

***

Why is it that Congress and administrations have completely ignored the need for a real budget? The continuing resolutions are nothing but padding that has pushed us over the brink.

Social programs should not include Social Security and Medicare because they are prepaid, mandated items by all workers from their paychecks. If it had been left in a trust account or at least something that would gain interest, and not “borrowed” from by the government on a whim, it would be in better shape.

The older people did not have the options that are available now for pension and retirement savings. Plus, had Social Security Administration accounts been interest-bearing, the cost of living adjustment might actually have been steadier.

Every business and family unit should have a budget or spending plan that is laid out for at least one year, every year. Then a tentative estimate of the following year. The budget plan needs to be started by no later than March of each year, so that it can be completed by Sept. 1 of each year to allow enough time for everyone to read it and be able to ask questions before voting to accept. That includes both houses of Congress, the administration, and the American people.

There are far too many departments in government, and I would say that most are entirely unnecessary. Which goes against the Constitution, which was written to control the size and meddling of government affecting our private lives.—Karin Callaway, Florida

***

Short of direct humanitarian or emergency aid, I would end all foreign aid. Unless there is a country that actually does something in return for the aid received; that country is Israel, which I wholeheartedly support.

The irony is that most Jewish Americans do not support Israel. Or they certainly don’t vote that way, voting overwhelmingly for Democrats who clearly do not support Israel.—Paul Johnson

After a month of violent protests, French leaders are trying to adopt new laws to help quell the underlying reasons why the country’s working and middle classes took to the streets. https://t.co/tjmCEXhxJz via @nolanwpeterson @DailySignal

— Allen L. Ose (@AllenLOse) December 25, 2018

The ‘Yellow Vest’ Riots in France

Dear Daily Signal: To be fair, the French in the past 15 years riot at the drop of a hat, and it’s hard to tell fun from substance (“France’s Riots Fueled by Anger at Elites,  Rich”). The French middle class is disappearing and being replaced by a benefits-dependent, alienated, polyglot lower-middle class.

Of course, the same could be said for the U.S., where Ivy League graduates hold 90 percent of the power. The rest of society deals with heroin and methamphetamine addicts, who are proclaimed the true victims who need even more federal money.—Gerry Wright

***

Back in the 1970s, I was told by an expert that France had a law requiring companies to pay those they lay off for a full two years. That may explain why young people with degrees often have to volunteer for a company for up to three years before they are accepted on the actual payroll.

This kind of thing started to happen here during the Obama years. No wonder so many millennials tend toward the left. It may not just be indoctrination.—Dee Hodges

***

The American revolt against arrogant elitists in November 2016 was a lot more orderly.—Boyd Richardson

***

We have the same divide here in the U.S. between people who work for a living and are overtaxed by an out-of-touch political class on both sides. This  political class  thinks that no tax is high enough and no spending big enough on the part of Big Brother.—Barry Takacss

Michigan lawmakers urge fast-food chains to stop offering ‘gender-classified’ toys https://t.co/dGkKJs37ch @DailySignal

— Jarrett Stepman (@JarrettStepman) December 4, 2018

This and That 

Dear Daily Signal: In response to Troy Worden’s article, “Michigan Lawmakers Urge Fast-Food Chains to Stop Offering ‘Gender Classified’ Toys,” also featured on the podcast the next day, I can say only that I’m proud to be a Floridian. The Michigan lawmakers have lost their minds.

If Michigan legislators think that classifying or not classifying a toy is going to change a child’s mind, then they haven’t spent enough time around children. Children don’t care how we, as adults, classify a toy. They simply want a toy to play with, and they want what they want.

Just because certain genders are predisposed to picking certain types of toys over others has nothing to do with it. This is not a gender identity issue, as state Rep. Leslie Love tries to make it into. It’s simply another way to ban free speech, and if too many left-wing Democrats get ahold of this legislation, I’m afraid to say what I predict could happen because I don’t want it to come to pass.

Love needs to have her head examined for bringing this up in the first place. She has no business being in public office or anywhere near the public. The best thing for her to do is go hide in a cave. I have cousins in Michigan, and I don’t want them exposed to her ideas. I don’t want to see their minds corrupted as hers obviously has been.

Excellent reporting. Thank you.—Keri Lynn Siegel, Delray Beach, Fla.

***

In response to David Harsanyi’s commentary “Dear TSA: Please Stop Molesting Kids at the Airport,” may I add this example. The last time we flew, a few years ago, my wife and I entered a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint for the flight home to Oregon from California. Approaching the agent, I greeted him warmly, at which point he demanded I empty my personal bags in his presence.

I immediately realized he was simply being an arrogant power guru, and his authority probably couldn’t be challenged. So I looked him in the eye and said we, this nation’s taxpayers, spent how many millions on this equipment to speed up this process, yet here now you’re telling me it was a waste of our tax dollars?

I told the agent that as a taxpayer I wanted to know if we taxpayers are in fact getting good value for our dollars, then immediately I tossed my bag onto their system and it passed through. Then I looked at him and asked, “Did you hear any bells or alarms go off?”

Next, I told his colleagues to send my bag back to me so I could test it in the next baggage pass-through lane. At which point the agent told me to get the hell out of his presence.

My wife had to empty her bag, as she didn’t choose to challenge him as I did. I observed that he barely looked at her possessions, as soon after she caught up to me.

As I departed, I heard the TSA agent tell a beautiful young woman to empty her bags, which she did. At that point it was obvious he was both misusing his authority and, in her case, keeping her in his area where he probably wrapped her within his thoughts.

That was the last time we flew or ever will again. We as taxpayers and paying customers won’t put up with arrogant, taxpayer-funded government employees dishonoring us with their misuse of power.

I wonder if anyone ever bothered to take a survey to determine who and how many, like us, have discontinued flying permanently because of dishonorable TSA mistreatment? Has anyone every taken a survey on how many opposite-gender citizens are equally mistreated because of their sexual appeal?—Ron Dale, Boise, Idaho

***

Great podcast by Rob Bluey and Ginny Montalbano on teaching civics. I am proud to see my alma mater, Arizona State University, push for civics being taught (“Podcast: The Importance of Civics Education“).

As a former intern of John McCain’s first Senate campaign, I am excited by the bill recently introduced by Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, to have civics introduced in K-12 schools all over America.

With both good citizens and good government, the United States of America will always remain free and strong. Yes, we can restore our republic and keep alive “that glorious liberty document,”our amazing Constitution.—Bill King, Pittsburgh

***

Hillsdale College has been teaching civics for generations.  But good for Arizona State University to get in on an important subject.

The more people learn, especially young people, perhaps we will see more truth and less obstruction of free speech on our campuses.—Vince Lorenz

***

After reading Fred Lucas’s report, it seems like most Americans should be able to be convinced that an investigation that goes on for well over two years has little to do with justice and is all about a political agenda (“3 Times Special Prosecutors Were Fired”).

I say it’s time for special counsel Robert Mueller to put up or be shut down.—Tom Yunghans

***

Great column by John York on salary increases for federal  workers (“Giving a Raise to All Federal Employees Makes No Sense“). I want all the perks stopped, and a great way would be to start releasing bureaucrats to compensate for any and all benefits. Big government is bad and like cancer feeds on itself. This would help clean up the swamp, and fiscal reform would help restore discipline and accountability.—Brennan Edwards, Savannah, Ga.

***

Pawan Kalyan is not only an actor or political leader, he is a great human being, as your podcast reveals (“Movie Star Leads a Youthful Revolution in India”). The sky is the limit for his humanity.

Kalyan helped a lot of poor people, helped cancer patients, and addressed people issues to government. He is definitely going to play a vital role in Indian politics. God bless India, the U.S., and Pawan Kalyan.—Vara Prasad

***

It takes a great effort to be able to come to the USA and try to represent the problems back in India, and also the problems of immigrants. We sincerely thank Pawan Kalyan and Nadendla Manohar for voicing their opinions and aspirations. Thanks a lot, Daily Signal, for publishing this to a wider American audience.—Naveen Budi

Sarah Sleem helped to compile this edition of “We Hear You.”

They’ve already struck bottom, and the partial fed shutdown could last months. Once again, the Democrats’ hatred of President Trump has lured them into arguing against common sense and their own public statements before Trump’s presidential campaign. They are getting desperate already, because the partial government shutdown mostly inconveniences federal employees working without benefit of paychecks. His demand for a border wall must be resisted,  but coming up with good reasons is a challenge that has them excavating excuses that are increasingly hilarious.

No significant constituency that doesn’t already passionately hate Trump believes that the Democrats are so careful with tax dollars that they regard a couple of billion dollars for a wall as too much waste. Not after Obama and his merry band of Dems wasted billions of dollars buying up used cars and scrapping them (cash for clunkers”), with the net result of driving up used car prices, penalizing poor people who must buy the cheapest cars on the market to have any vehicular transportation of their own.

The stupidity deepens.

Chris Hahn, former aide to Chuck Schumer and DC Dem was almost certainly shiling for the use of drones – a non-barrier that at most can alert authorities if the presence of illegals, but not stop them when he said that walls are “old” technology, setting up a rejoinder from Dan Bongino:

“The incline plane is old technology. Fire is old technology. Electricity wasn’t invented yesterday. 

Watch the entire 7+ minute segment on last night’s Justice with Judge Jeanine, via Grabien:

The reason Dems tout drones is that they can be instantly grounded by the next Dem president. But rearing down a physical wall would require Congressional appropriations (and a filibuster-proof Senate) , and also would offer visuals that are the stuff of nightmares for Dems: walls coming down and illegals—including “caravans” rushing in.

Hahn is a embodiment of sanity and moderation compared to Al Sharpton’s guest on his MSNBC show. Jason Johnson is a professor of political science at Morgan State University, a historically black college. For him, a wall is an assault on nonwhites, apparently, a “monument to white supremacy (unlike the wall Barack Obama is building around his multi-million-dollar DC mansion).

They’ve already struck bottom, and the partial fed shutdown could last months. Once again, the Democrats’ hatred of President Trump has lured them into arguing against common sense and their own public statements before Trump’s presidential campaign. They are getting desperate already, because the partial government shutdown mostly inconveniences federal employees working without benefit of paychecks. His demand for a border wall must be resisted,  but coming up with good reasons is a challenge that has them excavating excuses that are increasingly hilarious.

No significant constituency that doesn’t already passionately hate Trump believes that the Democrats are so careful with tax dollars that they regard a couple of billion dollars for a wall as too much waste. Not after Obama and his merry band of Dems wasted billions of dollars buying up used cars and scrapping them (cash for clunkers”), with the net result of driving up used car prices, penalizing poor people who must buy the cheapest cars on the market to have any vehicular transportation of their own.

The stupidity deepens.

Chris Hahn, former aide to Chuck Schumer and DC Dem was almost certainly shiling for the use of drones – a non-barrier that at most can alert authorities if the presence of illegals, but not stop them when he said that walls are “old” technology, setting up a rejoinder from Dan Bongino:

“The incline plane is old technology. Fire is old technology. Electricity wasn’t invented yesterday. 

Watch the entire 7+ minute segment on last night’s Justice with Judge Jeanine, via Grabien:

The reason Dems tout drones is that they can be instantly grounded by the next Dem president. But rearing down a physical wall would require Congressional appropriations (and a filibuster-proof Senate) , and also would offer visuals that are the stuff of nightmares for Dems: walls coming down and illegals—including “caravans” rushing in.

Hahn is a embodiment of sanity and moderation compared to Al Sharpton’s guest on his MSNBC show. Jason Johnson is a professor of political science at Morgan State University, a historically black college. For him, a wall is an assault on nonwhites, apparently, a “monument to white supremacy (unlike the wall Barack Obama is building around his multi-million-dollar DC mansion).

A Senate memo has blasted another law enforcement agency for corrupt behavior: the U.S. Marshals Service.

Here’s the Washington Post account:

The departing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday issued a scathing summary of his years investigating the U.S. Marshals Service, saying his committee found “a culture of mismanagement, abuse of authority and lax accountability” at the law enforcement agency.

The report describes forged signatures for subpoenas, retaliations against whistleblowers, hire-anyone hiring practices and of course, money flung all over the place.

Kind of sounds like Chicago politics. Which made me want to look up who might have appointed the obviously failed leadership of this once-respected law enforcement agency, with this time the woman named being Stacia Hylton: Got it. President Obama.

Another person hired not for her character but for her loyalty to Obama, and likely identity politics attributes.

She joins in with the failed leaders of the scandal-plagued Secret Service, the scandal-mired IRS, and the politically corrupted FBI, the last two of which Obama used to target dissidents with no consequences on his watch.

Which shows a lot about how leftists view law enforcement – as something to tolerate corruption in, and something to use on one’s enemies. It’s like rule of law is not even part of the equation. And the result is that the law enforcement agencies themselves start to resemble gangsters.

With so many law enforcement agencies showing evidence of suddenly being corrupted under Obama, it’s obviously a pattern. And it’s worth noticing two other things.

First, that this is the Obama legacy, and anyone voting for Democrats, needs to know that Democrats are likely to allow law enforcement agencies to fall apart like this as it stands as a part of their ethos. Republicans should positively seize on it, because the facts of the pattern are well supported. Whether it is because Democrats dislike law enforcement, dislike rule of law, or just have a Chicago way of doing business, they let law enforcement agencies go to heck. This is how they act. Once-respected law enforcement agencies can expect to end up disgraced and disgusting under Democratic rule, more like some banana republic law enforcement agency than one that deserves any association with America.

Second, that law enforcement agencies should never be centralized, which is what Democrats are calling for, given that they are powerful and given that this Senate report shows that that power is very easily corrupted and politicized. When one goes corrupt, it usually takes another one to check them. When there is no ‘nother one, then the corruption festers. Just ask any Soviet how well that utter centralization works out.

Nice going, Obama, what a legacy. Stand up and take a bow.

 

Image credit: tOrange.biz // CC BY-SA 4.0

A Senate memo has blasted another law enforcement agency for corrupt behavior: the U.S. Marshals Service.

Here’s the Washington Post account:

The departing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday issued a scathing summary of his years investigating the U.S. Marshals Service, saying his committee found “a culture of mismanagement, abuse of authority and lax accountability” at the law enforcement agency.

“Poor leadership and pervasive misconduct cripples morale and corrodes trust of employees tasked with apprehending criminals and keeping communities safe,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). “This culture must change.”

The memo prepared by Grassley’s staff summarizes the committee’s examination of claims by more than 100 purported whistleblowers who came forward to allege misconduct and mismanagement by senior Marshals Service officials.

The report describes forged signatures for subpoenas, retaliations against whistleblowers, hire-anyone hiring practices and of course, money flung all over the place.

Kind of sounds like Chicago politics. Which made me want to look up who might have appointed the obviously failed leadership of this once-respected law enforcement agency, with this time the woman named being Stacia Hylton: Got it. President Obama.

Another person hired not for her character but for her loyalty to Obama, and likely identity politics attributes.

She joins in with the failed leaders of the scandal-plagued Secret Service, the scandal-mired IRS, and the politically corrupted FBI, the last two of which Obama used to target dissidents with no consequences on his watch.

Which shows a lot about how leftists view law enforcement – as something to tolerate corruption in, and something to use on one’s enemies. It’s like rule of law is not even part of the equation. And the result is that the law enforcement agencies themselves start to resemble gangsters.

With so many law enforcement agencies showing evidence of suddenly being corrupted under Obama, it’s obviously a pattern. And it’s worth noticing two other things.

First, that this is the Obama legacy, and anyone voting for Democrats, needs to know that Democrats are likely to allow law enforcement agencies to fall apart like this as it stands as a part of their ethos. Republicans should positively seize on it, because the facts of the pattern are well supported. Whether it is because Democrats dislike law enforcement, dislike rule of law, or just have a Chicago way of doing business, they let law enforcement agencies go to heck. This is how they act. Once-respected law enforcement agencies can expect to end up disgraced and disgusting under Democratic rule, more like some banana republic law enforcement agency than one that deserves any association with America.

Second, that law enforcement agencies should never be centralized, which is what Democrats are calling for, given that they are powerful and given that this Senate report shows that that power is very easily corrupted and politicized. When one goes corrupt, it usually takes another one to check them. When there is no ‘nother one, then the corruption festers. Just ask any Soviet how well that utter centralization works out.

Nice going, Obama, what a legacy. Stand up and take a bow.

 

Image credit: tOrange.biz // CC BY-SA 4.0