Incest in DC, Guns Aimed at You

 Data Republican is a very deep-dive person, with the repeated emphasis on "very".  The graf we quote here is significant, but only a tiny percentage of the info DR dug out.

If you think that the Soros people are 'influential,' you have no idea.....

....For twelve months and eleven days, from January 20, 2021 to January 31, 2022, Cathy Russell oversaw every senior appointment in the federal government. As Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, she oversaw the selection of every cabinet secretary, deputy secretary, assistant secretary, NSC director, and ambassador.

Russell is married to Tom Donilon — the former Obama national security advisor who served on NSA*’s advisory council. Between ten and fourteen members of that organization received senior national security appointments requiring her office’s coordination during her tenure. No public record of formal recusal exists.

Donilon simultaneously chaired the BlackRock Investment Institute while sitting on NSA’s advisory council. His brother, Michael Donilon, served as Senior Advisor to President Biden until January 2024. Tom Donilon did not take a formal Biden administration position. His wife ran the office that selected the others....

*NSA = National Security Action, not the National Security Agency.  VERY different.

What is the agenda?

Ask them. 

Exactly WHO "Won" These Seats?

Who won these 2 seats in Congress??

Israel.  Without casting a single vote!

 

Luther's Heirs in Deutscheland

One wonders if Pp Leo will threaten to excommunicate these guys.

 

Bishop Franz Jung has said that the German bishops have expressed support for the female diaconate in Rome and that it’s now Pope Leo XIV’s turn to act.

In an interview with the newspaper Mainpost, the bishop of Würzburg said that the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) has urged Rome to introduce female deacons.

“We cast a very clear vote in Rome in favor of women’s ordination to the diaconate,” he stated.

“Now it’s up to him [the Pope] to decide how to proceed,” Jung said. The issue is on the agenda and, in his view, “won’t be removed from it anytime soon.”...

At least they cut back from ninety-five theses to only one.  Saves paper, ya'know. 

Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil.......Uh-Oh

Those three meds (among others) usually prescribed as anti-depressants, have side-effects.

... AbleChild would suggest that rather than apologize for making a connection between antidepressants and mass violence, the Secretary should immediately set up a commission to review the numerous instances of mass violence perpetrated by too many on psychiatric medications.

For instance, in 1989 Joseph Wesbecker shot twenty coworkers, killing eight of them before killing himself. Wesbecker had been on Prozac for a month prior to the shooting. Andrea Yates, a 36-year-old mother and registered nurse drowned her five children while on a cocktail of Haldol, Cogentin, Effexor and Wellbutrin. Then there is 16-year-old Jeff Weise from the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, who shot his grandfather and girlfriend then killed 7 people at Red Lake High School before committing suicide. Weise had been on Prozac. And, finally, it is important to remember James Holmes, the Aurora Colorado theatre shooter who killed 12 and injured 70 while on Zoloft....

RFKjr is taking steps to eliminate 'over-prescribing' these drugs (and others.)

That leads to the question:  "What IS 'overprescribing'?"

Hmmmm. 

Spanberger's Strange Ban

The extreeeeeme-Left Governor-ette of Virginia just issued a decree.

 Virginia’s new Democrat Governor Abigail Spanberger has just announced that she is signing an executive order to keep ICE agents away from polling places....

Isn't that curious?

After all, we KNOW that no illegals vote, whether in Virginia or in any other State of the union.  We've been told that, over and over again--and we are expected to believe that without evidence.

Right?

So--since no illegals are in polling places, why should ICE be banned?

 

EV Sales Still Sinking

Since the price of gasoline jumped, you'd think electric vehicle (EV) sales would move upward.

You'd have thunk wrong.

...New EV sales in April – the second full month of the war – were down 6.2% compared with March, and down a whopping 23% from the year before, according to Cox Automotive.

True, overall car sales were down last month, but just by 5.4% year over year, and 1.9% from March.

In other words, people were increasingly turning to gasoline-powered cars when they bought in April. And that’s even though searches for EV cars were up.

More people are searching for EVs, and fewer are buying them....

Registrations of these things is down FORTY percent in California, and the market-share % is down to about 6%, having averaged just over 7% since 1Q25.

Maybe WE won't have to build any more windmills. 

 

Iran Deal?

 This report may be accurate, as Axios is the preferred White House leak-depository.

 President Trump just announced the U.S. is in the “final stages” of negotiations with Iran. President Trump said that if he can save lives and prevent war by waiting a couple of days, he thinks it’s worth it....

 ...He also said the 1600 ships will soon get through the Strait of Hormuz.

Sources told Axios that the potential deal triggered a tense call between President Trump and Netanyahu. One source said Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after the call....

That bolsters the "peace is at hand" narrative.   

As you might have already guessed: 

...Axios sources say Qatar and Pakistan, along with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt, helped bridge the gaps in the deal. However, Netanyahu is highly skeptical and wants to continue the war to further degrade Iran’s military capabilities and weaken the regime....

You can expect some false-flag events to occur.  A recent Iraq-origin drone attack is suspected to be one of them; Israel has established and maintains a small base in Iraq's desert region.

It will be very interesting to learn what this 'deal' consists of.  What was gained after the US armed forces suffered fatalities and other casualties?  What was gained at the cost of fertilizer and petroleum-product shortages/price increases?

How's Trump going to spin this one? 

WE's Rates Going Up--Again

We've mentioned this atrocity a few times.

 A community forum held by Robin Energy Storage turned heated Tuesday night — as Wheatland residents came face to face with the company behind a proposed 200-megawatt lithium-ion battery energy storage facility that would be built on farmland near homes and a grade school....

You can see a rendering of the facility at the link.

Robin Energy is the outfit chosen by Chicago-based Wisconsin Energy (WE) to build the battery-storage farm.  When it is built, WE will go to Evers' Public "Service" Commission and obtain another rate increase.  Oh, yes--it will be built.  Just ask the very same Public "Service" Commission.

Lithium-ion batteries do have that spontaneous-combustion reputation.  But never mind.  It's only a school.  The students should be happy that they are saving the environment, ya'know, even if they're dead. 

Ticker Is Right

Ticker posts an essay in which he makes some irrefutable statements.  He also carefully avoids using the "I" word.  We don't.

 

...any nation-state has every right, if it is sovereign, to pursue nuclear energy.  If you argue otherwise get back to me when you've forced Israel to divest theirs, which was acquired under clandestine circumstances (they stole it) and nobody has done a thing about it.

Why?  Because they can shoot, that's why.  The same reason that North Korea pursued it and has not been forced to divest it, nor will they be.  In fact North Korea has reportedly amended their Constitution such that any attempt to decapitate their political leadership results in an immediate nuclear retaliation.  Would they actually do it?  That's unknown, of course, but you really don't want to find out, do you?

Nonetheless the cold facts are that for the last 70 years or thereabouts a nation with nuclear capability is one that has sufficient deterrence to prevent anyone from tampering with its decisions on leadership.  You might not like this if you're one who believes they have the right to dictate terms to other nations, but national sovereignty is just that and you cannot defend your right to claim it while denying it to others....

Hard to argue with that, as we have one of the two largest caches of nukes on the planet.  Of course, the USA is the single most "good-guy" nation, too, right?  Or is it Israel?

Iran will not actually concede the point voluntarily no matter whether they claim they will or not, and bombing them will not secure the material nor prevent them from rebuilding their infrastructure.

...Iran is not a tiny little nation with no resources.  Their land mass is roughly half that of the United States east of the Mississippi and their population is close to 100 million. ...

Here's the nut-buster: 

...Are we willing to commit between 100,000 and 500,000 American troops to go quite-literally seize the nation and spend the several years required to dismantle all of this and take the material, then occupy it on an effective permanent basis or execute every single crazy Islamic person there?  Under what pretense would we justify that?  Do we have any hint that the rest of the International community would tolerate us doing it?  Will Americans sign up for it, be drafted (yes, that would require a draft and this time girls go too!) and be ok with tens of thousands coming back in boxes and bags?  No.

And everyone both there and here knows it....

Everyone except Lindsssssssseeeeeeeeey!, Huckabee, and some loudmouthed Fox jackwads who have not yet volunteered to suit up, grab an AR, and head for the battle they so fervently want YOUR kids to fight. 

By the way, if you think $6.25 diesel and $4.65 gasoline are expensive, try running the country on $12.50 diesel and $10.50 gasoline--if you can find it and are authorized to buy it.

Trump finally met a deal that he cannot artfully make.  It would be very smart of him to let Iran have the damn Hormuz (eventually there will be a workaround anyway) and let Israel fight its own damn war.  Maybe that will keep them from taking over Lebanon. 

Cdl. Ottaviani on Fiducia Supplicans

No, +Ottaviani did not directly address Franny 1's "Fiducia"; nor did +Ottaviani directly address the Synodal Group 9's demi-heretical pile of crap.

But he did have something to say about those documents.

..."The errors in the field of moral theology are no less trivial. Some, in fact, dare to reject the objective criteria of morality, while others do not acknowledge the natural law, preferring instead to advocate for the legitimacy of so-called situational ethics. Deleterious opinions are spread about morality and responsibility in the areas of sexuality and marriage.”...

Ottaviani wrote this back in 1966.  There can be no question that his remarks covered both the birth-control problem addressed by Humanae Vitae AND the nascent homosexual problem.

Nothing in Church teaching has changed, except now the Vatican no longer talks about artificial birth control (nor do your parish priests, notice??) and Franny 1 and Group 9 both attempt to blunt the edges of Church doctrine on the Sin Against Nature of homosexual practice.

Pray for Leo that he may do what must be done by Christ's Vicar:  squash these bugs. Paul VI did what he had to do.  So can Leo.

Trump's Buddy Has Problems

The Donald got his way in Kentucky.

But it looks like his "war hero" pal has problems of his own.  Or maybe he just can't count.

 ...Gallrein has claimed in his 2026 campaign materials that he received four Bronze Stars. However, a longstanding paper trail spanning more than a decade consistently describes him as having received three Bronze Stars....

Then there's the "resume fluffing" stuff (yes, it's a common practice):

... A separate discrepancy also appears to exist between Gallrein’s official Navy biography, which reportedly lists his retirement date as September 2011, and his LinkedIn profile, which shows him as serving on active duty with the Navy through May 2014....

 ...That LinkedIn timeline overlaps with private-sector employment at GemTech from November 2011 through May 2013, as well as archived professional listings referencing work with RDRS Bangladesh....

There's a reason that he buried his GemTech work:

 ...Gallrein felt “threatened” by his co-workers and alleged “several incidents of retaliation” by coworkers and management before his “termination on May 16, 2013.”...

Probably won't get a good reference there.

...Gallrein, who has been married twice, leaned heavily on his then-wife during his 2024 state Senate campaign and encouraged her to draw down her self-employment income, according to Shelby Circuit Court family division records obtained by the Caller.

Gallrein filed for divorce one month after losing the 2024 state Senate race, court documents reviewed by the Caller show. The filings allege that he cut off his former spouse financially, repeatedly told her to “get out of his house” and said he would not provide her with financial support....

Won't get a good reference from her, either.

Nothing in the above is unusual, nor "horrible."  

Trump gets to pick his pals and Trump gets to pick which wars into which he sends your children.

Hmmmm. 

 

 

Is Big Hospital Gouging You? Probably.

Interesting statistics here.

 Recently, the left-leaning advocacy group Families USA released an analysis of hospital pricing data, with a particular focus on big corporate chains. For 15 large systems, the hospitals charged commercial insurance an average of 282 percent of Medicare rates, while earning an average of $22.1 million in net income per hospital.

Breaking down the data by various metrics (rural versus urban, etc.), the prime differentiator became apparent. Independent hospitals charged an average of 221 percent of Medicare rates, while earning an average of $3 million per hospital per year. By contrast, hospitals that comprised part of a larger system charged an average of 277 percent of Medicare rates, while earning an average of $27.7 million in net earnings annually — more than nine times the earnings of independent facilities. ...

In SE Wisconsin, Big Hospital = Aurora, Ascension, and Froedtert.

Yes, that's all of the hospitals in the larger metros of MKE, Racine, and Kenosha.

Congress?  Useless, as usual. 

Is Trump Lying?

Trump reversed course on re-starting the bombing.

Donald Trump on Monday announced his decision to delay a new round of attacks on Iran, writing on Truth Social that he reversed course after discussions with the Emir of Qatar, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and the President of the United Arab Emirates. The pivot comes as “a Deal will [soon] be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America,” according to Trump’s message.  --

Yah, well.

Other sources claim that Putin told Trump, in no uncertain terms, to STOP bombing Iran.  Period.  Or there would be consequences.

Hmmmm. 

Watertown, Stonewall, and Really Boring Music

 The teapot is tempestuous in Watertown.  That's because the band director programmed a piece which commemorates the "Stonewall Riot."  That programming decision was most likely a deliberate provocation; the Watertown Board of Ed is not sympathetic to left-wing causes and the music director knows that.  

Most histories "forget" the real reason for the police raid on the Stonewall inn.  This is a more complete picture:

... The owner of the Stonewall, Tony Lauria, was reputed to be a front man for Matty Ianniello (known as “Matty the Horse”), a capo in the Genovese crime family who oversaw a string of clubs in the city, many of which served watered-down drinks at inflated prices, often made with ill-gotten liquor from truck hijackings. The scheme worked for the mobsters in a criminally tried and true fashion: citing disorderly behavior laws, the State Liquor Authority ruled that bars catering to openly homosexual patrons were not entitled to liquor licenses. That made gay bars effectively illegal, which left them to the mob. The mob would run clubs without liquor licenses and would pay the police to look the other way. It would be several years after Stonewall before the first clubs with openly gay owners would be licensed — places like the Ballroom on West Broadway and Reno Sweeney on West 13th Street. Another fallout from the Stonewall riots was that the mob would lose its crushing grip on the gay community....

The cops were targeting the Mob and the homosexuals, not just the homosexuals.  Remember--at that time, homosexual activity was illegal in New York (!) and homosexuality was considered to be a psychiatric disorder.

Hmmm.

Anyhow.  Credit Channel 4 with running the school board's official statement on the brouhaha:

 "It is the responsibility of a public school to provide a strong, values-neutral education to all students. As the encouragement of social violence continues to rise across the country, the Watertown Unified School District Board of Education stands firm on the principle that it is not the place of a public school to endorse or celebrate acts of violence.

When concerned parents brought the upcoming performance of “A Mother of a Revolution” to public attention, the full board examined the situation to determine whether any violation of policy had occurred.

The district’s controversial issues policy is clear: use of controversial issues is permitted, but only if it does not “tend to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.” According to the composer, the piece, “A Mother of a Revolution” was commissioned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, a six-day riot which included the beating of police officers and attempting to burn down a building with human beings trapped inside.

Based on the teachers’ description, the lesson was intended to persuade students toward emotional alignment with the events of the Stonewall riot.

Considering these factors, the board decided to remove the song from the concert due to its celebration of violence.

The Watertown School Board remains committed to providing academic education free from indoctrination."

The piece itself is--frankly--boring.  It's the music you hear in an action movie when the hero is chasing the bad guys.  But in this piece, the chase never ends.  It's really just a motif, repeated and repeated and repeated, for several minutes.  Really??? 

So why does every TeeVee channel run two days' worth of stories on this?

Draw your own conclusions. 

The French Poisoned the Damn Wine

The Other McCain found a jewel, and printed it while mentioning Foucault (while spitting.)  The entire post is worthwhile, as he points to BOTH of Foucault's problems, but we'll stick with the philosophical one, accompanied by a critique of the views of Derrida and Deleuze.

... I want to offer my apologies, on behalf of the French, for giving birth to French Theory (which in turn gave birth to the worst of all ideological monstrosities: wokism).

We gave the world Descartes, Pascal, Tocqueville. And then, in the intellectual ruins of post-1968, we gave Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze. Three brilliant men who forged, in the elegance of our language, the ideological weapon that today paralyzes the West.

We must understand what they did. Foucault taught that truth does not exist, that there are only power relations disguised as knowledge. That science, reason, justice, the medical institution, the school, the prison, sexuality — everything is merely a staging of domination. Derrida taught that texts have no stable meaning, that every signifier slips away, that every reading is a betrayal, that the author is dead and the reader reigns supreme. Deleuze taught that we should prefer the rhizome to the tree, the nomad to the sedentary, desire to the law, becoming to being, difference to identity.

Taken individually, these are debatable theses. Combined, exported, and popularized, they form a system. And that system is a poison.  --quoting Brivael Le Pogram

 Actually, they are not "debatable" theses.  Each is wrong, or wrong-headed.  (Foucault 'thought' with his little head, not the big one.)

The perceptive reader will note that the Democrat Party lives by Foucault's rule and that the US Courts have been plagued by members who believe Derrida was absolutely correct.  In another sphere, many church leaders have subscribed to the teachings of Deleuze. (See, e.g., the conclusions of Group #9 at the recent Vatican synodality meet-up.)

Is this a mess?

Yes.  More from Le Pogram:

... It’s shit for one simple reason, and it must be stated calmly. A civilization stands on three pillars: the belief that there exists a truth accessible to reason, the belief that there exists a good distinct from evil, the belief that there exists a heritage to be transmitted. French Theory set out to dynamite all three. Not out of malice. Out of intellectual play, fascination with suspicion, hatred of the bourgeoisie that had nurtured them. But the result is there. An entire generation learned to deconstruct and never learned to build. An entire generation knows how to suspect and no longer knows how to admire. An entire generation sees power everywhere and beauty nowhere....

Pray harder. 

What Ben Yount Told Us

 In the last few minutes, Benjamin Yount (1130) told us that Tony Evers was a total failure as the (Democrat) Governor of Wisconsin.  Yount averred that Evers 'did not get anything done' that had been on his stated agenda, with the exception of his 400-year veto/perpetual tax increase--and that only because the ultra-Left SCOWIBabes took a pass on it.

What does that tell us?

Well, there are two possibilities.  One:  Democrats vote for their nominee no matter how awful he/she/it is at moving the agenda.  OR:  Two:  the Republican candidate is SO DAMN BAD that Republicans simply could not bring themselves to the polls.

Evers defeated Scott Walker in '18.  Walker was a good Gov, but had attracted the undying hatred of every.  single.  Democrat.  constituency. (except for blacks!) in Wisconsin, and Walker did not take the offensive, either.  Walker lost by a lot, 1.394 to 1.295.  That is a 100,000 vote defeat. (While we suspect that the Fraud-O-Crat a/k/a 'Party of Looters & Shooters' vote was active, it likely did not account for 100K votes.)  Walker lost to a relatively fresh face who made lots of promises.

Despite not fulfilling his promises, Evers went on to defeat Tim Michels.  One hardly has to say more; Michels was a terrible candidate both times he ran.  Feingold crushed him with 55% in the '04 Senate race, when Kerry only got 49.7%.  Obviously, Michels doesn't learn from defeat.  In '20, Trump got 1.6 million; in '24, Trump got 1.7 million.  In '22, Michels only got 1.26 million.

What Yount did not tell you?  He did not tell you that the candidate makes all the difference.

A GOOD Republican candidate can defeat Democrats in Wisconsin.  A BAD one?  Not so much. 

The '20 Was Rigged by the Fraud-O-Crats

The Acting AG of the USA chimes in on the Election Fraud of '20.  This is why the local Fraud-o-Crat Party Poohbahs are flop-sweating all over the news.  They know, they know that we know, and pretty soon they will be spending quality time in the defendant's chair.

 ...“Well, there’s a ton of evidence that the election was rigged. That’s not something the DOJ needs to tell you about. There’s been evidence about that for many, many years. What I can tell you is that we have multiple investigations going on in Arizona, in Georgia, in Fulton County, Georgia. And that’s exactly what we’re looking at.

By the way, this is very difficult because they’re very good. They’re very good at hiding misconduct and hiding what they’re doing. That’s why we’re very focused on finding out whether the right people voted, whether people who were supposed to vote actually voted, and whether there was one vote cast per voter.

And that’s what we’re doing in multiple states. I expect—and again, people will say to me, ‘How long is it taking? Why is it taking so long?’ The reality, the answer to that, is because it takes a lot of work to uncover what happened in 2020. It takes a lot of good old-fashioned law enforcement police work, which is what we’re doing....

Is this the single greatest criminal conspiracy in US history?

Yup. 

RedState's Magical 'Thinking' on Beef

The price of beef in the US has gone up by ~30% from 2015-present.  According to reports, the price is not coming down soon, as there is a shortage of beef cattle due to drought.

So you're going to keep paying a lot for beef.

And you're probably going to pay even more!

... On that recent China trip, the Americans struck a trade deal, and now, according to an X post from Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, China will be importing the best beef in the world...[from the USA].

RedState is into Magical Thinking about this.

...The question is, how will this affect American beef prices, which are still nearly at pre-Trump, pre-trade-deal levels? Well, that remains to be seen, but if American ranchers start upping their production, as beef ranching becomes profitable again, then local supply should start increasing as well, which is good for American consumers. If the prices of our steaks and cheeseburgers come down accordingly, that's a significant feather in the Trump administration's cap. ...

Sure, sure. (Insert John Candy meme here).

Conditionals aside, the author seems to think that ranchers will up their production because beef ranching will be magically profitable.  Uh-huh.   

Cattle are in short supply because ranchers sold off stock that could not be fed.  When there is a drought-induced shortage of feed, production cannot go up unless ranchers pay a whole lot of money for feed.  When they pay more, the price of beef will rise.  

 This is Econ 101, a class that RedState (and Brooke Rollins, and Trump), flunked.  

Apparently RedState--like Trump--doesn't really consider the US consumer as an important entity.

Is this what we voted for three times? 

 

 

Bond Vigilantes Wake Up

Ruh-Roh.  Ride's getting rough.

Longer-term Treasury yields spiked late this week as the second wave of inflation took on more substance with back-to-back inflation reports: CPI inflation soared by 3.8% year-over-year, driven by core services, gasoline, electricity, and food; and the measure that tracks inflation in prices companies pay each other, the Producer Price Index soared by 6.0% year-over-year as the services PPI blew out. Inflation in services is the biggie. Services account for over 60% of the economy, and inflation took off in services.

The 30-year Treasury bond sold at the auction on Wednesday at a yield of 5.046%. In the secondary market, the 30-year bond has traded over 5% from time to time in recent years, but this was the first time since 2007 that the 30-year bond actually sold at auction with a yield above 5%....

You can read "inflation" as WILD OVERSPENDING BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, too.

Trust me--that's what is behind this.

Notice that we did not mention Wars Which Cause Energy Prices to Go To The Moon?? 

Trump's Game Plan

For the moment, let's forget about Iran.

Childers sees a lot of good stuff in Trump's plan.

 ...After January’s Maduro operation, Latin American countries are learning that the US can reach into their countries whenever we want and pluck out the violent strongmen who have always confidently believed they can send drugs and terrorists through our formerly porous borders, co-opt our local politicians and judges, and set up shop here— without any consequences.

Well … fool around and find out. But it’s bigger than that. These “small stories” are an expression of a new hemispheric policy. We’re not just cracking down on domestic crime at home, we are policing the whole hemisphere. When you combine that with the President’s approach to Russia and China, you begin to see something immense emerging.

 Trump has been very firm with Beijing and Moscow in our part of the world. He’s rudely evicted them from South and Central America, the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean. But at the same time, he is also softening our positions on Ukraine and Taiwan, retreating from NATO expansionism in Europe, seeking trade deals with them, and courting both Putin and Xi with high-profile diplomatic outreach.

Wait— this is where it gets really good. Every bit of all that geoplitical reorganization is happening completely outside the United Nations’ “rules-based international order.” And we could add Trump’s remaking the Middle East in real time, the end of OPEC, and the Board of Peace.

Trump doesn’t have to “end the UN,” he is making it irrelevant. He’s not attacking the UN head-on. He’s building an expressway around the UN and strip‑mining its relevance....

Yah, well......with all that said, there remains this Iran thing. 

Pius XII, Menachim Begin, and Ben-Gurion

 We have often noticed that Scott Johnson is a zealous Zionist.  

In today's post, Johnson gets more than snarky about Pp. Pius XII  

... I would only add that Pope Leo seems to me to raise issues akin to those that have dogged the reputation of Pope Pius XII over the years....

....all of which "issues" are fabulations and lies.  Ask Rome's Chief Rabbi about that.

As an outsider to Zionism and also to being Jewish, it seems to me that mention of Menachim Begin and David Ben-Gurion raises issues which have dogged the State of Israel over the years. (One does not have to wonder who wrote Hamas' terrorism cookbook.)

So let's not mention them, right, Scott?? 

FRB Chair, Trump Pal

 This is published.  Information is accurate, but always remember that "connections" do not ALWAYS mean "corruption."  The world of multi-billionaires is very small and interests often differ between them in many ways.

 ...[Newly-appointed Fed Reserve Chairman] Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, granddaughter of Estée Lauder and daughter of Ronald Lauder aka the billionaire World Jewish Congress president who has been Donald Trump’s friend since the 1960s, who planted the idea of buying Greenland in the president’s head, who now holds active investment stakes in Greenlandic water and hydropower, in Ukraine’s largest lithium deposit, and in commercial television across post-Soviet Europe and Israel. Warsh is also the mentee and longtime business partner of Stanley Druckenmiller, the hedge fund billionaire who personally manages roughly $148 million of Warsh’s personal wealth in a fund whose underlying holdings Warsh has refused to disclose, citing confidentiality agreements. Druckenmiller’s other protégé is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent....

Once again:  don't read too much into this, but be sure to remember it. 

May Is Now USCC "Mental Health Month"

 Things change.

Only last year (and for all of the last 100++ years or so) May was the Month of Mary, Mother of God, in the Catholic Church.  Cheap, sentimental-schlock Tin-Pan-Alley hymns (Bring Flowers of the Rarest..., Mother Dear O Pray for Me) were dragged into service, and children in Catholic schools crowned the statue of the Blessed Virgin with a garland of flowers.  Despite the hymns, Catholic devotion to Mary as Mediatrix of all Graces and as a loving mother was near-universal and very healthy.

Now the USCC has made it into "Mental Health Month."

Actually, that's not too surprising.  The Church in America has feminized over the last 50 years, following the close of the Second Vatican Council.  Not only that, but the females are generally Lefties, pushing for theological impossibilities like "wimmin deaconettes" and "wimmin priests."  They also pushed hard to downplay the mortal sin of artificial contraception and are leading all sorts of parades for "gay rights."  (Were they ever actually 'wronged'?)

Lefty Women are disproportionately afflicted with mental health problems.  We really didn't have to tell you that, did we? 

Draw your own conclusions. 

Daily Caller's Stinking Pile of Financial Crap

One wonders how anyone can write such crap.

Headline:

American Households Financially Underwater Like Never Before

"Underwater" means that one's debts are larger than one's assets.  There is NO sign that this is the case in the story from Daily Caller. 

Selected "fact" from that story:

... Household debt increased by $18 billion to reach a total of $18.8 trillion between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026,...

Reality check:

... the number of households has grown over the years, and the income per household has grown on average, and total household income has grown faster than total household debt, and the burden of this debt on that income has declined over the years....

30- to 60-days delinquencies?

... The number of Americans who are at least 30 or 60 days behind on their payments was “mostly steady,” according to the Federal Reserve’s Monday press release. Delinquency rates for mortgage debt rose from 1.22% in fourth quarter of 2025 to 1.48% in first quarter of 2026.

Additionally, auto debt rose from 2.94% to 2.97%, credit card debt from 7.04% to 7.10%, and student loan debt from 8.04% to 10.86% during that same time period....

"Mostly steady" means "No Significant Change."  The 2 point jump in student loan delinquencies has everything to do with the termination of the "pause" which began during Covid.  Even with that, 2 points is not DOOM DOOM DOOM.

"Underwater"?

...The debt-to-disposable income ratio in Q1 dropped to 79.9%, as disposable income rose to a record while debt balances essentially remained unchanged.

This ratio was the lowest in the data going back to 2003, except for two quarters during the stimulus era, when disposable income was bloated out of all proportion by massive government handouts, including the stimulus checks, PPP loans, and numerous other programs.

Consumers are working and earning record amounts of disposable income, and their aggregate balance sheet is in good shape: 65% own their own homes, and about 40% of them own their homes free and clear, while another big portion has only a relatively small balance left on their mortgages. Over 60% of households have at least some equities, and their prices have exploded. And they hold precious metals and cryptos and are sitting on $5 trillion in money market funds plus a pile of CDs.

In other words, the balance sheet of the economic entity of American households is in good shape...

Daily Caller's Spencer Lombardo should be ashamed. 

 

Hey, Donald! It Is NOT All About the Money

 Over the last several months, Donald Trump has made a number of statements which point to money as THE motivator in US citizens' lives.

The latest?

 ...During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” President Donald Trump said that he doesn’t love Chinese nationals buying up farmland and land near military bases, but “you want to see farm prices drop, you want to see farmers lose a lot of money? Just take that out of the market.”...

Believe it or not, Donald, there ARE more important things than money.  Keeping enemy agents away from critical military bases is one of them. 

Kars4(Not Just ANY)Kids

What a racket this is!

 A judged [sic] ruled that Kars4Kids ads are banned in California, believing that the charity violated false advertising and unfair competition laws by using donations to pay for teenagers’ trips to Israel and a $16.5 million building in the country....

Testimony from the COO of Kars4Kids:

 ...She testified that Kars4Kids is the primary funding source for Oorah. She admitted that the donations funded “matchmaking programs” for young adults and trips to Israel for 17 and 18-year-olds, according to court documents. In her testimony, she added that the company spent $437,000 on Middle East outreach and used the funds to purchase a $16.5 million building in Israel....

Bart Starr's outfit takes donated cars for the benefit of kids of ALL religions.  Act accordingly. 

Schneider National Gets BAD Score

There is a national "inspection week" for semi-trucks going on.

One of the "Top 10 Not-Good" carriers?

Schneider National, the Green Bay "Pumpkin Truck" hauler.

 ...The worst carriers list by OOS rate — minimum 10 inspections — surfaces names that are not household brands. Annett Holdings Inc (DOT #87409) leads at 27% OOS rate: 3 of 11 inspections resulted in OOS orders with 6 total violations. Western Express Inc (DOT #511412) is at 21% with 4 of 19 inspections OOS and 36 total violations. Swift Transportation Co of Arizona LLC (DOT #54283) is at 15% with 2 of 13 OOS and 16 violations. Central Transport LLC at 14% and Schneider National Carriers Inc (DOT #264184) at 13% round out the five....

"OOS" means the truck was forced to park.  Right then and there.  Out Of Service.

Huh. 

So One Night, Jessica McBride.........

Go ahead.  Read this.

Jessica does have a sense of humor.

But this was apparently written after about 4 Old Fashioneds.

You betcha. 

Freight Brokers Lose, Citizens Win

 Here's the bare-bones of the case.

 The Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, this morning. It was unanimous. Nine to zero. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the opinion. Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a concurrence, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, saying the case was closer than the majority opinion suggested, but agreeing with the result....

Freight brokers are intermediaries between shippers and truckers or trucking companies.  For a fee, a broker will find truckers/companies who can transport Product A from Place B to Place Z.

Until yesterday, those brokers were essentially held harmless if they directed freight to a trucker or trucking company with a crappy safety record--or with a crappy driving record.  Now with the ruling, and in combination with the Trump crackdown on CDL mills and totally un-qualified illegals, this will begin a huge swing in the trucking marketplace.

Legal experts say the ruling increases the importance of formal, documented carrier-vetting procedures.

Among the steps attorneys say brokers should consider:

• Reviewing FMCSA safety ratings and inspection histories
• Monitoring out-of-service and crash rates
• Documenting how safety red flags are evaluated
• Standardizing carrier-selection procedures
• Maintaining clear records showing why a carrier was approved

Texas-based law firm Galloway recommended brokers use “clear, objective vetting criteria” and carefully document how safety concerns are handled.

IOW, brokers not only have to document their own 'safety protocols', they will be requiring the same from truckers/companies.  This is likely to be hard on independents (owner-operators) because more paperwork, but it will have an impact on such as Ego, a company with a long track record of safety problems.

Maybe it will also have the effect of eliminating foreign ownership of trucking companies--which is usually associated with safety problems.

So yes.  SCOTUS struck a blow for protecting people who drive legally and safely. 

 

Price of Housing? Look to President Cabbage

This explains a lot.

During the Biden administration, H-1B visa holders were buying houses with 97-100% financing. 97% would come from the FHA, with the rest coming from state first-time home buyer programs. Zero money down. Thanks to programs that were supposed to be helping low-income Americans...

So in areas with H-1B penetration, President Cabbage's FHA was extending mortgages with zero down to non-citizens.  Naturally, the price of housing rose.

In greater MKE, there are dozens of firms which use H-1B.  GE Medical, Milwaukee Electric Tool, Deluxe Data, M&I Data, Kohl's.........and those are just the large ones.

It gets worse.

...The H1-Bs can bring their spouse and children under H-4. That H-4 can apply for an EAD, employment authorization document, and enter the workforce. So you are potentially replacing two American jobs, preventing American citizen home ownership and bringing more people in to compete for common goods driving demand and prices up. The kids can go to public schools which is taxpayer funded.  ...

You'd almost think that President Cabbage and his henchmen hated actual American citizens.

You would not be wrong. 

Trump Moving Away From Mass Deport's UPDATED

 Rumors over the last few weeks appear to be substantiated.

 

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks announced his resignation from the agency effective immediately. Banks’ abrupt departure is the latest of several high-ranking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials to leave the agency in recent months....

... Breitbart Texas spoke to former El Centro Sector Border Patrol Chief and CBP Commander Gregory Bovino who also confirmed Banks retirement. Bovino spoke to Breitbart Texas about Chief Banks saying, “Banks was out there on the ground with us in Minnesota and stood beside his agents when the bricks and rocks were being thrown.” Bovino says Banks was in the mass deportation camp of the Trump administration and understood the only way to undo the damage done to the country during the Biden administration’s years of an open border was through large-scale interior removal operations....

Mass removal of all illegals is controversial.  Trump seemed to have that as an objective during his first term and while campaigning.  But un-named 'Administration officials' are not in favor of that move.

This bears watching. 

UPDATE:  In an item at Ace's Place we read:

... as much as 20% of Fairfax County's population is deportable...

Maybe, maybe not.  But that's where a LARGE contingent of Administration peeps live.

IOW, their housemaids and landscapers might disappear, and then Junior will have to cut the damn grass.

Huh. 

Debt, Delinquency, Foreclosures: Not Bad at All!

If you watch the TeeeeVeeee news, you've heard noises about 'foreclosures rising' and 'delinquencies spiking.'  That is called "managing the information" and is meant to throw shade on the Trump Administration.  See, people are huuurrrrrrrrrrrtinggggg.

Poppycock.

The number of foreclosures is at a level below pre-pandemic levels, which is very low indeed.

The "spike" in delinquencies?  Student loans.  The forbearance period, instituted during the pandemic, has ended.  So 90+ day delinquencies are back up to around 10%.  That's less than in the period between 2013 and 2020.  

Other delinquencies? About 3-4%, just like in 2020, and far below 2010.

Relax. 

CIA to Watergate Guys: "Hold Muh Beer!!"

 By this time, if you haven't noticed the stench coming from Langley, you're probably dead.

 The CIA raided Tulsi Gabbard’s office and seized files on the JFK assassination and MKUltra, which the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was about to declassify. The president ordered these files to be released....

Later "clarifications" say that it was not a "raid."

It was merely a theft, done during the 'shutdown.'

Soooooooooo much better, no? 

Tax Deal Dead. Real Reason?

There's a lot of noise being made about the Vos/LeMehieu/Evers tax-rebate+school aid bill.

It died.  Democrats didn't like it because because.  Pubbies didn't like it either.

But the Pubbies had coaching from their Gubernatorial candidate, Tom Tiffany.

Let's do the math.  The State is projecting an $800+ million surplus for the end of the budget year (June, 2027.)  The spending in this bill?  $1.4 billion.

That means that the State would have a deficit of $600 million or so when Tiffany has to create his first budget.

You think Tiffany wanted to start from a $600 million-deep hole?

HELL, NO.  And we don't blame him.

Notable, again:  NONE of the three characters who cut this deal will EVER stand for election in Wisconsin again.  We think that's all you really need to know. 

Mad, Mad, Mommy in Watertown

 The short story:  Watertown HS band director programs piece directly tied to the Stonewall riot (which actually had NOTHING to do with persecuting homosexuals); then the Board of Ed nixes the piece.

Of course, the Little Darlings walked out of school.  That's the universal Rite of Spring; all they needed was some stupid reason.

A Mad Mommy talked about the vast majority of School Board members:

... "This is a slap in the face," said Jessica Thomm, a parent. "They were dismissive. They were argumentative. They were combative. They were toxic. And they shut the kids down."...

Kinda like every Lefty school board member and Democrat Party operative when asked about boys in girls' shower room, or when asked about a genuine audit of the '20--not like the "forensic" audit which proved not.  one.  damn.  thing.

Yah.  Just like that.

Goose.  Gander.  Sauce.  Shove it where the sun never shines, Jessica. 

Snowball Survives Hell!!

The Governor and I agree!

... "So many Wisconsinites feel left behind, frustrated, and disillusioned by politics these days because they think a lot of politicians in the Capitol are only here to serve themselves," Evers said....

Huh.  A truth-bomb from Tiny Tony. 

MKE County Clerk Goes Hair-on-Fire

 Some politician named Christenson is very agitated.  

 ..."I can confirm that a representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited the home of my Elections Director and left her business card. We will be following up to determine the nature of this visit. It is unfortunate that the FBI chose to visit the private residence of Milwaukee County’s Elections Director rather than contact the Election Commission’s office directly. No dedicated public servant should be subjected to that type of intrusion simply for carrying out her responsibilities with integrity and professionalism.

"While we cooperate with all legitimate law enforcement actions, we will defend against any attack on our democracy and will defend the rights of voters of Milwaukee County. Our responsibility as election officials is to safeguard the integrity of the process through facts, transparency, and adherence to the law, and the record clearly demonstrates that those standards were met in 2020."...

Notice the "intrusion" and "attack on our democracy" garbage-lines in there?

That means that Christenson is wetting his pants.  He knows, and we know, that there are all sorts of leaks in the election plumbing, so to speak; and there may even be leaks in his "perfect, transparent" office.

Heh. 

No Indictments? No Mo' Money!!

This is great!

 

Vice President JD Vance, head of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, announced on Wednesday that the federal government is deferring 1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from California over its failure to take fraud “very seriously.”...

Brylcreem's state is not the only one in the crosshairs.

 ...The move comes after the federal government deferred over $300 million in Medicaid reimbursements from Minnesota....

 ...“New York has had nine indictments over the last year, nine indictments,” he went on to add. “That’s a $100 billion Medicaid program just in New York, and you’ve had nine indictments. Indiana, which has about a third of the population of the state of New York, has had more than four times as many indictments over the same period.”...

Hawaii will also see deferrals.

The money will be used by the Feds--who will be investigating and prosecuting the fraud. 

Pp Leo's Newest SlapSlap (??)

Some people--sensitive souls, they are--take this as an insult.

 Pope Leo XIV has awarded the Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of Pius IX, the highest active diplomatic distinction of the Vatican, to the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Holy See, Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari. The decision, confirmed by a diploma dated May 8 and signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State....

Typically, the award is given to foreign diplomats after several years of service.

So.

 

Sen Johnson's Concerns.....???

Yesterday, Sen Ron Johnson defended Trump's war on Iran by telling the interviewer that 'Iran's nukes could hit the US.'  (He assumes that Iran will have them unless the US somehow prevents Iran from making them).

Perhaps Sen. Johnson has classified intel that supports his claim.  

But the intel we've seen indicates that Iran's missiles are only capable of hitting London.  They are NOT ICBM's.

And--of course--Sen. Johnson's concerns about Iran building nukes echo those of a certain Middle Eastern Greater Zion tyrant who has been telling the world that Iran 'will have nukes in 2 years' for about 20 years or so.  

If Ron Johnson can produce valid documentation of his ICBM concerns, we'll instantly change our position on Trump's war Israel's war on Iran. 

 

"OPT" Program Fraud? You Betcha!!

Let's start with the basics.

 ...The OPT program, and its pre-graduation twin, the Curricular Practical Training Program, allow a wide swath of graduates with technology-related degrees to work for up to five years — usually without paying Social Security taxes, and often in software sweatshops. That long work period gives many white-collar migrants time to train, build resumes, and file to enter the annual H-1B program, which provides them with an on-ramp to green cards and citizenship.

The resulting workforce of more than one million subservient and low-wage CPT, OPT, and H-1B workers is used by foreign-managed companies to win low-cost subcontracts from a wide variety of U.S. companies. That imported cheap competition has crippled many U.S. companies, and shoved millions of American graduates out ot of jobs, careers, and middle-class prosperity....In 2024, the program issued more than 400,000 work permits to foreign students and graduates at U.S colleges — even though Congress never approved or even debated the corporate giveaway created by President George W. Bush.

What could possibly go wrong with that?

 ...Markwayne Mullin’s Department of Homeland Security is exposing fraud throughout the huge Optional Practical Training (OPT) program that feeds many white-collar migrants into the careers sought by U.S. graduates.

“We have identified over 10,000 foreign students who claim to be working for highly suspect employers, and that’s just among the top 25 OPT employers,” said Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which oversees the OPT program.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” he added, without taking questions at a press conference on Tuesday morning....

"Highly suspect employers" includes a helluvalot of offshore-based sweatshop contractors.

Maybe ICE will release a list of them.  Odds are that they contract with the State of Wisconsin. 

Sen. Nass on the Evers-Vos Deal

Retiring (dammit!!) Sen. Nass does NOT like the Vos-Evers-Whatshisname deal, and he has good reasons.

... Prior to potential passage of Evers-Vos II, the state is already looking at a structural deficit of $580 million in the next biennium even if all $2.3 billion shows up by June 30, 2027.  If Evers-Vos II were to become law, it could increase the starting structural deficit in 2027-29 biennium to in excess of $1 billion....

Nass doesn't say so, but at the very best, it's a trap no matter which candidate becomes Governor next term.  $1BN is a very big hole.

... there are no binding reforms to address the increasingly poor performance in math and reading by students statewide.  And more shockingly, it looks as though Evers 400-year veto increasing property taxes annually remains in state law....

Never will be, either.  None of the players gives a flying fig about the children.

Here's the hammerblow line--which tells you all you need to know:

 

As of now, I can’t support another bad deal cut by leaders that will never face the voters again.”

Yup. 

The Deadline, Mr. Trump

 If this were Hannity, you'd hear his little "Tick Tock" noises.  But Hannity doesn't have the balls to try that these days, does he?

 

Agenda Items for Tiffany

It is understood that there are ZERO bare-knuckle Republicans in Wisconsin.  That includes Tom Tiffany.

But wouldn't it be fun if Tiffany enhanced his agenda as follows:

...If you vote for open borders, then you get all the immigrants..... If you vote for data centers, then you get one built in your town. If you vote for windmills, they get built near your house. If you vote to release the crazies from the asylums, you get the homeless shelters in your neighborhoods. If you vote for the early release of violent offenders, then they are released in your town....

Trump made a laughingstock of the Hamptons crowd back in Trump I.

Tiffany could do the same for Madison, Whitefish Bay, and Shorewood--not to mention River Hills, Wauwatosa, and the eastern half of Elm Grove.

Obama, Brennan, Biden. "Cleansing" and Murder

For context:  Obama is still running the Democrat Party, and all their works, and all their pomps.

A consulting firm headed by John Brennan breached State Department passport files.  At the time, Brennan was working as an "unpaid adviser" to Obama's campaign.

Since the penetrated files were those of Obama's opponents, it looked like one thing.

But it was another.

  ...federal investigators maintained that the target of the illegal activity was [actually] Senator Barack Obama’s passport file.   It does not take a stretch to come to the conclusion this was for the sole purpose of cleansing records of information that would jeopardize Obama’s candidacy.    As many people speculated at the time, the breach of the passport records of the other candidates was merely to create confusion.

...Passport files include an applicant’s name, gender, social security number, date and place of birth, and passport number. Additional information may include birth certificates, naturalization certificates, or oaths of allegiance for U.S. born persons who adopted the citizenship of a foreign country as minors. ...

Some of that stuff might be VERY interesting to voters prior to the election, no?

So that's Brennan and Obama.  What about Biden??

 ...the oversight agency that would be investigating the breach [was]The Senate Foreign Relations Committee [which] oversees the State Department.

...Senator Joe Biden was the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the breach would be investigated....

Are you getting it yet?

There's more:  this time, an ObamaCide!!!

 ...State Department employee, Lieutenant Quarles Harris, Jr. who had the passport access, apparently was the guy who penetrated the database and scrubbed the records.  Harris was killed – April 18th, 2008.

Yes, Lieutenant Harris decided to cooperate with the FBI who were investigating the break-in.   Soon after his cooperation became a matter of record, his body was discovered in his parked car; he had been shot twice in the head, likely a “suicide”....

Just as likely as Epstein's "suicide." 

How Long Has John Brennan Been a Slimeball?

 Apparently, he has been a slimeball for a long, long, time.

 ....John O. Brennan, Obama’s then top terrorism and intelligence adviser, was the owner of The Analysis Corp.  The company was cited in March 2008 for penetrating the files of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John McCain in the State Department’s passport office.

At the time of the breach, John Brennan was working as an unpaid adviser to the Obama campaign. ...

Naturally, Brennan denied any knowledge and fired some poor bastard.  He didn't know nuttin'.  

Recall that Brennan was a spook for 25 years, briefly as Chief of Station in Saudi Arabia and as the #2 guy in that outfit--which more and more looks like where he got the majority of his Slimeball Graduate Degree.

So we know Brennan (a Communist voter) has been a slimeball since at least '08.

At the very least. 

The Left's Next Move?

We've seen this in a couple of places.

...even moderate Dems are now talking about seizing their next available chance to pack the US Supreme Court, grant statehood to DC and Puerto Rico simply to gain them four safe Senate seats and abolish the Senate filibuster — and so lock in progressive power forever. ...

'Locked-in power forever' is what the King of England's family thought they had back in the 1700's.

"Forever" ain't a thing on Earth.