MKE County Board Shoves Money Into the Black Hole

 Some news stories are pure entertainment.  You've read about "Black Holes"; this is one of them.

 

The Milwaukee County Board voted Thursday to save six bus routes from being cut in 2026 due to a projected $14 million budget shortfall....

 ...To address the budget gap, the county plans to use the last of its federal COVID-19-era money, along with an extra nearly $5 million set aside in the County Executive's 2026 budget, to minimize route changes for riders.

Starting Jan. 1, bus fares will increase from $2 to $2.75 for the regular fare, and from $1 to $1.25 for the reduced fare....

 This means that the Covid funds are zeroed out.  No more Free Fun Money!

Further, a VERY large number of bus riders does not pay the fare.  They just get on the bus and take a ride.  Nobody does anything about it.

Best part?

.... The vote on Thursday saves the routes through 2026, but MCTS is projecting an even bigger deficit in 2027, though the exact amount has not been disclosed....

Gee.  Wonder why the County won't tell us the Black-Hole-Deficit number for '26?

Because Crowley thinks he'll be elected Governor and will send another Umpty-Million in taxpayer funds to cover that deficit. 

Dugan Guilty. Send More Money!!

To many of us, the guilty verdict on the FELONY charge is a surprise.  Not because she is innocent (far from it), but because we thought Adelman would find a way to spring her.

This means that she will be disgracefully drop-kicked from the bench AND she will most likely lose her law license.  (We say "most likely" because the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which makes that decision, is loaded with Lefty Harridan AWFLs.)

Meantime the defense lawyers want Mo'Money!!

..  We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning. This trial required considerable resources to prepare for and public support for Judge Dugan’s defense fund is critical as we prepare for the next phase of this defense...

Dugan has lived on a $174,000/year salary for quite a while and will draw a large County pension when she is drop-kicked from her job.  But paying $300-$500K for defense lawyers requires LOTS of outside support.

So the Illegal Alien Benevolent Society will be joining Soros in making defense lawyers rich while STILL losing on the felony count. 

The illegals can afford it:  59% of them are drawing welfare here in the USA. 

"Tariff Inflation"? Nope.

Cadged from the Epoch Times through Ace:

 Tariff-sensitive items were little changed over the past 12 months.

The apparel index is up 0.2 percent year over year, while the new-vehicle index has risen 0.6 percent over the 12 months ending in November. Additionally, on an annualized basis, appliances have increased by 0.5 percent, smartphones have declined by 9.4 percent, and footwear has dipped by 0.1 percent...

But But But 25-year-old pimpled "reporters" told us that DOOM DOOM DOOM is here.

You mean we cannot trust them to be correct??? 

SSPX's Recruiter of the Year

A Bishop (perhaps a Catholic) in Charlotte wins the SSPX "Recruiter of the Year" award.

Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina, has banned the public use of kneelers for receiving Communion with effect from 16 January 2026....

As you recall, this "Catholic Bishop" also shut down every single Old Rite Mass in Charlotte save one--which will be celebrated in a very small chapel. 

The SSPX, which has ordained over 700 priests since its beginning, should be looking at Charlotte as a ripe fruit which will fall into their hands. 

England Pokes the Bear

This woman happens to be the grand-daughter of the Ukrainian Nazi Constantine Dobrowolski.

... In a rather remarkable speech to the British people, Blaise Metreweli proclaimed Europe is in “the space between peace and war,” with a direct military conflict with Russia looming as the biggest threat.  Metreweli declared, “Our world is being actively remade, with profound implications for national and international security.”...

... Seemingly targeting a shift in U.S. position toward Europe, Metreweli said, “Institutions which were designed in the ashes of the Second World War are being challenged. New blocs and identities forming and alliances reshaping. Multipolar competition in tension with multilateral cooperation.”...

Only a few days ago, the head of NATO said essentially the same thing. 

The EU also confiscated about $300BN in Russian money a few days back.

This is not a war that Putin is starting.  And Trump had best be sending the EuroWeenies a message:  YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. 

Added:  

... Britain, France, and Italy each saw sluggish growth of only 0.4%, 1.1%, and 0.75%, respectively, in 2024...

.Perhaps Britain wants to revive its economy with WAR MONEY???

 

Witkoff & Kushner Offer US Troops??? WTF???

That's according to this article.

 The United States has offered to provide Nato-style security guarantees for Kyiv as US and European negotiators report progress in talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, but a deal on territorial concessions remained elusive. Envoys sent by Donald Trump made the unprecedented offer at talks on Monday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Berlin. US officials have warned that such a deal would not be on the table forever. European leaders stressed the outcome of the talks would affect their own countries’ security for decades to come...

Oh, really?

Fine--but only if Witkoff and Kushner send ONLY THEIR OWN FAMILIES into that charnel house.

Other US citizens may choose to participate--or not.

Deal? 

The Clinton Crooks, Protected

Best be sitting down before you read this shocker.

 ...FBI agents tried to get the help of federal prosecutors to determine whether or what crimes occurred while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, most notably, because at that time, her family foundation solicited hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign and U.S. interests with business before her department.

"Shut it down!" then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is quoted as demanding in the shorter timeline of the politicized barriers that agents in New York City, Little Rock, Ark., and Washington D.C. reported....

Yates--another crook--was hardly the only criminal conspirator in the FBI.  Plenty more at the link.

Remember this:  Hillary told us it was all 'for the chillrrrren.'

How many of the Clinton Criminal Gang are going to prison?

Zero. 

Trump To Tear Apart the EU? Good!!

 The EU invented a "crisis" and voted to retain the frozen Russian assets on deposit at European banks.  It was a blatantly-illegal move, although it is true that the EU's economic situation is rapidly deteriorating.

Result?

...The USA wants to achieve the withdrawal of Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland from the European Union.

    This is stated by the publication Defense One, citing an unpublished version of the US national security strategy, which was privately sent to journalists....

Hmmm.

Even more fun:

... Trump’s team has had some surprising ideas of late, like the new C5 (Core Five) to replace the outmoded G7. The C5 countries would be the five biggest economic superpowers: China, US, India, Russia, Japan—a tad humiliating for Germany to be left out of such a group, but reality isn’t ‘polite’ or pleasant....

The EuroWeenie crowd (all hat, no cattle) is apoplectic, now depicting Trump and Putin as partners in Eeeeeeeeeeeeeevillllllllll.

Trump's used to that.  We don't think he's shedding tears over it. 

Trump vs.the Second Amendment

Certain People do not like Hamas' response to Trump.  They seem to think that "rights" do not accrue to Palestinians.  (Remember that the New Testament refers to that land as "PALESTINE."  It has been around for a while.)

Trump demands that Hamas 'turn in its weapons' as part of a "peace agreement" in the Middle East.

Hamas' response?

... “the resistance and its weapons are our honor and glory” and that “the battle is not over,” boasting that rights are won “at the recruitment office, not the U.N. Security Council”...

Maybe Donald Trump needs to re-read the Bill of Rights.  Skip to Amendment Number Two.

Got it? 

Biden Gave Illegals FHA Loan Guarantees

There are about 20 million illegals in the US.

They live in places--like apartments and homes.

How do they buy homes?

With Biden-approved Federal Housing Administration mortgage-loan guarantees!!

So.

They got money which is supposed to go to low-income CITIZENS.

Now--when they suddenly leave town--the taxpayer pays off the mortgage.

How long before the rope-tree-some-assembly-required formula takes place for Certain Former Government Officials?? 

"Cost" Crisis? Or "Too Many Cooks" Crisis?

 We're just asking questions here because we don't have answers.

 

Some Milwaukee restaurant owners are fighting to keep their doors open as they face a perfect storm of challenges that have made 2025 one of the most difficult years in recent memory....

... The challenges extend beyond ingredient costs to shipping delays and changing consumer habits. The situation has become so dire that several Milwaukee establishments have been forced to ask for help publicly or close entirely....

Costs rise.  Ask anyone who pays an electric bill, or who buys foodstuffs.

But in a business there is the other side:  sales.  If you cannot get people to buy your stuff, "cost" is irrelevant:  you're going out of business.

It would be interesting to find out how many restaurant licenses were active in Milwaukee County in, say 1970, compared to today.  That would provide perspective.  Another question:  are these businesses providing 'stuff' to a vanishingly-small niche market?  If you can only count on 100 regular customers, instead of 1,000 or 5,000, you may have a problem.  

Finally:  a lot of restaurants and bars barely survived the Biden Chinese Red Death, and unless they were recapitalized, many staggered on for a few more years before folding their tent.  It's Bankruptcy 101:  first slowly, then all at once.  We are sympathetic, but stuff happens.

But The Narrative has been served, you know:  Trump is in office.  So its his fault.

Hmmmm.  

Trump Trolling? Or Losing His Mind??

We prefer to think that this is another of Trump's laser-pointer-near-kittycat moves.

 ...Trump noted that his administration is ending several taxes, but taxes on gambling are not among them at this time, Fox Business Network (FBN) reported.

“We have no tax on tips, we have no tax on Social Security, and we have no tax on overtime,” Trump said. “No tax on gambling winnings, I don’t know. I’m gonna have to think about that.”...

Note well:  this asinine response was prompted by a Fox Business News question.  Gee.  Is Fox tied to professional sports?  Would Fox viewership (and ad revenues) increase if gambling on sports were tax-free?  

Or did FBN try to trap Trump into making a dumb remark?

Gambling is like porn:  addictive, and a powerful means of demolishing men and families.  Make it more rewarding?

Not Good. 

Be PC Or No Bank for YOU!!!

You will not be surprised.

 Between 2020 and 2023, the [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] found that JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bancorp, Capital One Financial Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Toronto-Dominion Bank, and Bank of Montreal, all maintained policies that restricted legal companies from access to banking based on the “values” of the bank.

According to the OCC report, “these nine banks made inappropriate distinctions among customers in the provision of financial services on the basis of their lawful business activities by maintaining policies restricting access to banking services or requiring escalated reviews and approvals before providing certain customers access to financial services.”...

To be fair:  the Obama (and Biden) Administrations made it clear that the banks could lose their licenses if they were caught banking Undesirables such as gun manufacturers, gun retailers, and other outfits which do not align with the New World Order, including social networks (like Trump's).  

Of course, the banks did their teenage-girl thing and ran away, frightened.  Not one pair of balls in  the whole bunch.  We're looking at you, Jamie Dimon, President-Wannabee. 

Trump Tightens H-1B, Again

Trump has tightened down the screws on the H-1B invasion again.

... Panic and confusion has gripped hundreds of US H-1B visa applicants in India after the Trump administration rolled out new rules requiring them to submit their social media for vetting.

Applicants have received abrupt emails from American consulates informing that their interviews stood scrapped or pushed likely into next year....

Awwwww.   They are "panicked."  

 ...The Trump administration earlier this year hiked H-1B visa fees to $100,000 for new applicants.

This came after the U.S. deported hundreds of Indians, living illegally in the country or with expired visas, as part of Mr. Trump’s crackdown on illegal migration....

That $100K fee does NOT apply to renewal requests, but at some point in time, the renewals will expire.  As it is, Trump added $100K to the expense of hiring an H-1B--AND he intends to screen them a lot more tightly.

What happens next?

The ultra-low-cost Indians will be hired--but they will be overseas, not here.  It will be more practical to hire US citizens for most companies, but TATA and the other Indian body-shops will likely hire in India.

Here's a question for States (like Wisconsin) which utilize Indian body-shops:  will you force them to have their people on-site in Madison?  Or will you keep those jobs in India at the expense of your citizens?

Hmmmm. 

WI Energy Prices? You're Screwed by Democrats

Within one's memory, Wisconsin Electric Co. bragged about having one of the 5 lowest KWH-costs in the USA.  It was great for consumers AND for businesses.

How low were those prices?

In January 2000, a KWH cost 0.06164 cents.

Those were the Good Old Days.

Following Doyle's Great Green Leap Backwards, then the acquisition of Wisconsin Electric by a (greedy) Chicago-based utility and then the Evers Green Grab Into the 18th Century..........

The price of that KWH in 2025 became 0.18325

Triple.

Yah, those windmills and sun-catchers sure helped somebody.  But not you.

Worse:  when you look at the following chart, you'll note that Wisconsin is heading into Blue State Rates territory.  Catching up with Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York?  That's the goal of the Democrats.  Of course, it's YOUR money they're spending--as usual.

Thanks, Tony!  We owe you a lot.

 

 

Is NATO Pushing for War??

 This is a rather odd announcement.

 The head of NATO warned the West of a war with Russia on Thursday, describing the potential conflict as an ordeal the world has not seen since the days of “our grandparents and great-grandparents.”

“Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured,” Mark Rutte said in Berlin. “We need to be crystal clear about the threat. We are Russia’s next target, and we are already in harm’s way.”...

"We" means Europe.  But of course, should Russia attack Europe, the US will be involved.  Blood and treasure.

Rutte was not having cocktails with a reporter and being jocular.  It seems that he's quite serious about this.  So Rutte ought to tell Europe (and the US) how he knows this.  Is this knowledge a Biblical Certainty?  A 50-50 proposition?  Or just another way to rev up the Military-Industrial Complex and--by the way--a lot of budget money?

We repeat:  why the Hell do we remain in NATO? 

Grassley v. Trump

According to Trump, Sen. Grassley's Judiciary Committee is failing to act on Trump US attorney appointments, which causes problems with prosecutions.

According to Grassley, Trump's Boyzzz cannot provide background checks and other pertinent materials to the Committee in a timely fashion.

That's another Bondi problem, ain'a? 

9,500 Off the Road--and Counting

So far, Trump & Co. have yanked 9,500 NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING semi-truck drivers off the roads.

Took--what?---60 days or less to find that many.

Newsome wants to be President, but of what country?  Pakistan?  India??? 

 

Maduro Acts Against the Church

At some point in time, it was inevitable for Maduro to cross swords with the Church.

Cardinal Baltazar Porras, one of the staunchest clerical critics of the Venezuelan regime, was briefly detained by police and had his passport annulled after he tried to board a flight on Dec. 10.

The cardinal was informed that he has been banned from leaving the country....

 ...Tensions between the Church and government have risen since the canonization of the first two Venezuelan saints, Saint José Gregorio Hernández and Saint Carmen Rendiles, on Oct. 19.

A few days before the canonization, the Venezuelan bishops published a pastoral letter in which they called for the release of the more than 800 political prisoners in the country.

And in an Oct. 17 event in Rome commemorating the canonizations, Cardinal Porras said that the situation in Venezuela was “morally unacceptable [including] the growth of poverty, militarization as a form of government to incite violence, corruption, and lack of autonomy of public powers, and the disrespect of the people’s will.”...

In other words, Maduro acts like the Democrat Party.

No wonder the Democrats support the drug cartels over the US national interest. 

 

Evers Sticks It Up Your Ass

Actually, this is surprising.  Evers doesn't usually have the courage to go in-your-face like this.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Dec. 5 vetoed a bill to ban public funds from covering health care for undocumented immigrants in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin does not grant funds for illegals at this time; the bill is merely a 'double-check' on the system

So what does Tiny Tony have to say about it?

... Republicans’ decision to pass this bill was more about being inflammatory, stoking fear, and sowing division than it was about accomplishing any significant policy outcome or being prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars...

Because only the Left gets to call people "Nazi" "Racist" and "Anti-Semite."  And only the Left gets to call for insurrection from the troops.

Right, Tony?

By the way, Tony:  when was the last audit of Badger Care which specifically included checking for illegals???

Hmmmm???? 

Driverless AND Brainless

 A given, right?  No car driver, then no brains in the car.

 

This week, there was a minor traffic accident in San Francisco. Two cars bumped into each other at low speed, and a third stopped for the accident and further blocked traffic. A mere nothing. This happens all the time, and we all know what happens next: the drivers exchange insurance information (and if they're thinking, they move their cars out of traffic first) and leave. Maybe they call the cops and file a report. But not this time

 This time, the three cars just sat there, deadlocked. Nobody moved, nobody talked, nobody took any action. This is because there was nobody to take action. No humans were involved. All three cars were autonomous vehicles operated by Waymo. Following the minor crash, none of them could figure out how to proceed and so just sat there, patiently waiting. They're good at that. Machines are very patient.

Eventually, someone (presumably from the company) came down and got things cleared up, but it exposed an obvious gap in how driverless cars handle fairly routine problems. In this case, the cars (or a car - the company's statement is unclear) got snarled up in a dead-end street and had a collision while one or more of them was trying to do a multi-point turn to get out of it....

BWAHAHAHAHAH 

Another Court Victory for Trump

 ....and in the DC Circuit, of all places!

 

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s ban on military service by individuals who identify as transgender or have gender dysphoria, staying a lower-court order that blocked War Secretary Pete Hegseth from enforcing the policy.

The 2–1 decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sharply rebuked U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, concluding that her ruling in March overrode military judgment and applied a standard of review the courts are not entitled to use when second-guessing force-readiness decisions....

Except to this particular trial "judge," "Commander-in-Chief" actually means something.  Maybe she and that Katanji Brown critter learned to read in a Publkk Screwel or sumpin'sumpin. 

Common Sense from Rep. Massie

We don't give a flying damn what Trump thinks of Cong. Massie.  THIS is a good idea.

 Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky announced on Tuesday that he had introduced a measure to remove the U.S. from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, arguing that the decades-old alliance is obsolete, has been costly for American taxpayers and puts the nation at risk of engagement in foreign wars.

"NATO is a Cold War relic. The United States should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our country, not socialist countries. Today, I introduced HR 6508 to end our NATO membership," Massie said in a post on X....

He's following in the footsteps of Sen. Mike Lee.  Aside from their mutual Libertarian affections, these guys have it right.  

At one time, there was a "sick man" in Europe, that being Turkey.  Things have changed.  Now all of Europe is sick.

Why should we play doctor?  Send Fauci as a token of our affection.