Small Ironies

Fred Thompson was a Republican, and served as a US Senator for a time.

He was also an actor and played the role of the District Attorney in Manhattan on "Law and Order."

In the episode titled "City Hall" first aired on 2/11/04, Thompson's character was adamantly in favor of the FISA court system; his two associate DA's and a defense lawyer were extreme skeptics about the power the FISA court had--and the potential for abuse.

Well, here we sit, 15 years later, knowing that the FISA court's power was seriously abused by Obama, Comey, Brennan, and the other crooked perjurer Clapper--plus a cast of dozens in Federal agencies and the White House.

Fred's probably rolling over in his grave.

CNN Is Calling Jessica Kwong

This is one "news" reporter-ette who has a future--at CNN.

The Newsweek reporter who published an inaccurate story about President Trump’s Thanksgiving Day plans has been fired. The outlet’s original story claimed the president only planned on tweeting and golfing during his holiday break, neglecting to mention his trip to Afghanistan.

Newsweek’s Jessica Kwong, whose Twitter handle identifies her as a political reporter “covering Trump administration and family,” initially published the article Thursday morning, before the president’s trip to Afghanistan was announced publicly....

Only question is 'How long will it take CNN to onboard her'?

HT:  Zippers

Bad Loans, Car Department

This is quite a revealing graph.

Pearl-Clutch Over Terrorist Detention

Here's the story.

Donald Trump has become the first president to invoke the Patriot Act in order to detain a man behind bars indefinitely - despite the fact he completed the duration of his criminal sentence and should've been released nearly three-years-ago....

Here's my response:

SO WHAT?

Mexico Cartel/Terror Problem Ratchets Up

Errrmmmmm......be prepared.

President Trump has said he is close to a decision that would designate Mexican drug cartels as officially recognized terrorist networks by the United States.

Remember, within the geopolitical dynamic that benefits all three North American countries, Mexico needs to start taking clear and decisive actions toward all levels of internal corruption if the ultimate economic objective of the USMCA is going to work....

Remember that Trump ruminated about taking out the cartels (through invasion, if necessary) as far back as January 2017.  He mentioned it again just this month.

And now Bill Barr is down there.

Thinking of taking a vacay in old Mexico?  You might want to think again.  Hard.

99 Media "Mistakes" About Trump

Sharyl Attkisson has had to go independent as a reporter because the MSM won't hire her.

There's a reason for that:  she makes monkeys out of them regularly and easily.  (Yes.....monkeys at typewriters........eventually.......)

Anyhow, Sharyl has published a list of 99 media "mistakes" about Trump.  You could also say they were media LIES about Trump, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving and all that...

AND she's added a new one:  the Noozweak lie about Trump's activity a couple of days ago.

So it's actually 100 at this point.

She deserves any contributions you can make; think about that, too!!

CIA's Monster Illness: Confirmation Bias + Superiority Complex

Codevilla knows about this crap.  Ain't this great?

...During my years on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s staff, CIA officials’ preference for their personal and corporate interests over professional standards continued to get worse. It turned out that every last one of the Cubans they thought were our agents were actually working for Cuban intelligence. In East Germany, the United States had not a single “good” agent. Not only had CIA never recruited even one high-level Soviet agent, but for a decade, Aldrich Ames, CIA’s own chief of counterintelligence for the Soviet Union/Russia, the man who validated the Russians who offered their services and oversaw our operations in that country, worked for the KGB. 

So congenial did the agency find the disinformation coming its way that it was reluctant to investigate. Finally, when it did suspect that the dispatches coming from our agents had been crafted by the KGB, it sent them on to the president anyway because, according to the inspector general, “they contained thoughts they believed the President should consider.”

In short, CIA officials—and not just a few people at the top—have so valued their own opinions, have so wanted to influence U.S. policy, that they have mistaken their own opinions and desires for the truth....

The Deep State AND "Follow the Money"

Doug Wead, who is a genuine historian, wrote a book about the Trump White House.

Since it was not a screed about Orange Man Bad, Wead is getting death threats.  So much for the idea of 'tolerance' from the Lefties.

Anyhow, he gave a very illuminating interview about the book and his experiences with Trump and his family; his remarks about foreign leaders' sympathy for Trump's travails AND his outlining of Principle One (Follow the Money) are good reminders of what Trump and this country--outside of New York and California--are up against.

About an hour, and worth your time.

Bon Mot for Belling

Mark Belling has declared war on the school board of Menominee Falls.

Here's a little something for Mark courtesy of Don Surber:

As Mark Twain wrote, "In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards."

Well, yes.  There's the Tosa board, which intends to spend $125 million in bonded dollars for.......something........and will, as a result, lose a lot of homeowners.  There's the Milwaukee School Board, which would like to triple its prop-tax grab.  There's the Board from the People's Republic of Madistan, which will no longer allow HS students to fail.  And there's Oconomowoc, also running for "spender of the decade", bonding and taxing for...........something.....

Twain was more than just a pretty face.

Milwaukee Circuit Court?

Dave Hardy posts a precis of a news story.  Go, read it.  It's short.

Almost sounds like Milwaukee County, except in Milwaukee, it's "Reckless Disregard With Stolen Car" rather than domestic abuse.

"Black Jack" Pershing in Mexico, Redux??

This will be interesting.

...In his interview with Trump, O’Reilly said, “One of the things that you’ve said to me … is that if another country murdered 100,000 Americans with guns, we would go to war with that country. Yet, the Mexican drug cartels kill more than 100,000 Americans every year by the importation of dangerous narcotics.”

“Are you going to designate those cartels in Mexico as terror groups and start hitting them with drones and things like that?” O’Reilly asked.

“I don’t want to say what I am going to do, but they will be designated,” Trump answered. “I’ve already offered Mexico … to let us go in and clean it out and he so far has rejected the offer but at some point something has to be done. Look, we are losing 100,000 people a year to what is happening and what is coming through on Mexico.”

“So you are going to designate the Mexican cartels as terror groups?” O’Reilly continued to prod.
“Yeah, I will be,” Trump replied. “I have been working on that for the last 90 days. You know, designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process.”...

Yah, well, the President of Mexico isn't pleased with all this.  Maybe he wants to be the President of an officially-Failed State, or maybe the cartels have placed a horse's head on his bed (don't be surprised!), but he prefers that the US stay outta there.

We've been there before, of course, but this time it won't be with horses.   It's close to the 100th anniversary of that little scuffle, so we have an excuse for a party.

The VERY Good News in Grand Rapids

Some of you are aware that a lesbian "married" judge in Grand Rapids (MI) was asked--in a private phone conversation--NOT to present herself for Holy Communion at her parish church.

That judge ran to the press and emitted a loud "REEEEEEEEE!!  REEEEEEEEEEE!!"

The press did what the press does:  tried, convicted, and hung the offending priest out to dry.

There are two bits of VERY good news here.

1)  The Bishop backed up his priest 100%.

2)  Look at the picture of the priest at this link.  He's under 40.  Heh.

Foxconn: A New Logic-Fail and Worse

Gee.  The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has found that Libertarians and Koch Brothers are really, really, really, good people!!

That's only because Mercatus Center--a Libertarian bunch funded by the Koch Brothers--are raising questions about the net benefits of the FoxConn deal. 

It's not hard to raise questions about the deal.  Walker and his team--and President Trump, who kicked this off--obviously thought that the deal as structured would be a net benefit.  Mercatus begs to differ.....but not by very much.

...overall, the authors say the “most realistic range of estimates” indicates the Foxconn deal for the plant the company now is building will end up costing Wisconsin’s economy $1.2 billion to $6.0 billion over 15 years.

That would shave somewhere between two-hundredths of a percent to about one-tenth of a percent off what the authors estimate the state’s gross domestic product will total over the period....

Two hundredths of a percent.  ZOUNDS!!!  You can see the starving residents of the State dressed in rags, eating their kittehs and doggies in the streets, having been evicted from homes where utilities were shut off months ago........

Even at 1/10th of 1%, it's not TEOTWAWKI territory; I'd venture to guess that is far less than the cost of State government.  (Anybody measure the cost of public education against FoxConn??  Hmmmm??)

Here's the massive Logic-Fail from Mercatus--which should know better....

....Instead of subsidizing Foxconn, the study says, the state could have, say, reduced its corporate income tax rate or lowered its sales tax. That would give businesses or consumers more money to plow back into the economy....

The State of Wisconsin has NEVER, EVER, reduced its sales tax.  NEVER.  As to "reducing its corporate income tax"--that would have barely been possible, since Walker & Co. had just done so and were being flayed, daily, by the very same "newspaper" which printed this story.

But Mercatus, true to its Libertarian economic dead-headedness, doesn't consider what is perhaps the most important piece of this puzzle:  JOBS.

Anybody who knows anything about human nature knows that having a job and earning a living from it is a critical building block for human dignity.  That's what St. John Paul II meant when he said that "work is for man, not man for work."  With a job--and the income--man has dignity, and can build a family--both of which objectives should be supported by a Government.  Walker knows this, and so does Donald Trump.  That's why Trump will be re-elected, friends.

Libertarians may know it, but don't really give a damn.  See, e.g., Ben Shapiro.  Their thing?  Whatever makes more money plus sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll.  Borders?  Nations??  Human dignity????  Pish-Posh.

None of that matters to the Milwaukee "news" paper--the only thing that matters is finding ways to piss all over Walker.

Who Writes Immigration Rules?? That's the Question

Should this case get to SCOTUS, the outcome could be momentous.

...The government lawyers replied to a lawsuit against the Optional Practical Training program by saying it is a legal extension of laws that allow foreign students to enter U.S. universities.

But the American plaintiffs in the lawsuit say the OPT program was not created by Congress. The program is merely a lobbyist-created, cheap labor program which discriminates against American graduates, and also transfers at least $2 billion each year from Social Security and Medicare to the wealthy investors in technology companies.

The OPT program allows roughly 300,000 foreign graduates of U.S. colleges to get U.S. jobs, usually at low wages, for one or three years. The program helps the foreigners compete for green cards, it sidelines American graduates into unemployment and low prestige jobs, and it also lowers salaries for a wide range of American professionals, say critics....

While it's obvious to most people that importing average-skilled people who then displace US citizens in the job market is stupid, this case has even larger implications:  who legislates?  Congress?  or regulatory agencies?

That's the question.

Ukraine Wanted Hillary in 2016

.........and a US citizen Ukrainian "consultant", Alexandra Chalupa, did her very best to help Hillary get elected.

All that was published in a Politico article in January 2017--after Trump was elected.

Apparently this woman wanted (and still wants) US foreign policy to tilt heavily in favor of the Ukraine and against Russia, which raises the question:  who the Hell is THIS dame to push the US around?

But even more curious is this:  the Obama/Biden administration refused to send weapons to Ukraine; instead, they sent blankets and pillows and took a helluvalotta money for the Biden family and big-time Democrat donors/lawyers posing as "anti-corruption" hall monitors.

So this woman's "activism" to "save the Ukraine" was all about sending more blankets?

I don't think so.  

This babe is just another Democrat hack who refuses to accept the fact that Hillary and the Democrat platform lost the election.  She used her Ukrainian-origin story to suck a bunch of money from the Democrats and from the Ukraine.

In one word:  Grifter.

Drug/Sex Trafficking and Agricultural Labor

Interesting article here connecting the cartels and 'cheap' ag labor.

...Many Americans look to our small towns and rural areas as a refuge from some of the criminal problems in the larger cities, yet if agricultural interests are allowed to continue bringing in other countries’ criminals, rural areas might have it worse in the end.

Yesterday, Beth Warren of the Louisville Courier Journal posted an enthralling and detailed report on how El Mencho’s Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) has penetrated many of our rural communities in Kentucky and all over the country with its drug trafficking network. However, an otherwise well-researched article largely glosses over the fact that [the] reason trafficking can blend into these areas is because of the endless stream of illegal immigrant labor serving as both willing and reluctant traffickers for the cartels.

Warren portrays the immigrants in a better light and reports on concerns that “Hispanic workers find themselves looked at with suspicion because of political rhetoric that brands the drug trade and immigration as one and the same.” Nonetheless, she inadvertently gives away the farm, writing that “the cartel exploits its connections with otherwise hard-working immigrants.” Hence, the illegal alien laborer pipeline of drugs, gangs, and crime into Norman Rockwell’s America....

Well, that adds a bit of spice to the stew.  

Spy? Or Just Another Democrat?

It appears that Ilhan Omar (D-MN) may be on the payroll of Qatar and providing information to that government--which then ships it to Iran.  Or not.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota-5th) was recruited by a foreign government, received funding from a foreign government, and passed sensitive information through intermediaries to Iran, a Florida court has been told.

The claims came during testimony by Kuwati-born Canadian businessman Alan Bender, who was giving evidence in the trial of Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani....

Bender told the Florida District Court that he met with Qatar’s Secretary to the Emir for Security Affairs Mohammad bin Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Masnad and two other senior Qatari officials. 

According to his sworn deposition, the three officials told him: “If it wasn’t for our cash, Ilhan Omar would be just another black Somali refugee in America collecting welfare and serving tables on weekends.”

Or it could be that she's just another America-hating Democrat.

Meantime, the Daily Caller thinks this story is "dubious"

 ...The Daily Caller News Foundation reviewed the deposition and deemed it not credible. It even gets Omar’s job wrong, repeatedly calling her a senator.

But the Jerusalem Post published that a “Florida court has heard” that Omar was a secret foreign agent, and the story rapidly began making the rounds among American conservatives....

Apparently this Bender dude is employed by Saudi Arabia, which shares a bunch of mutual hatred with/against Qatar.  Who stole whose goat back in 855AD or whatever.....

Stay tuned.

Recapturing the "Reagan Democrats"

While Donald Trump has done a yeoman's job in moving the Overton Window towards normalcy--against all odds and against most of the Government--he needs help in making that shift permanent.

Along comes Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO).

...As he explained in his Nov. 20 address, it’s a self-serving myth to think that anyone strives alone, outside of social grounding. So it was with regret that he added, “As it took hold in twentieth-century America, the Promethean ideal taught that the individual self exists apart from all social ties and relations.”

This Promethean vision, Hawley continued, held that family, religion, neighborhood — that is to say, the context of one’s life — means little, because the Promethean “exists separate from all of them.”..

Nope.  That's not Obama-Clintonism--because Hawley gets the "family-first" part that those socialist rabble-rousers prefer to forget.

...Hawley’s argument owes much to the conservative tradition; indeed, it is the conservative tradition of Aristotle, Edmund Burke, and Russell Kirk, emphasizing proper order and received wisdom as the glue of civilization....

The upshot??

...Yet all Republicans should recognize that Hawley’s vision also offers the prospect of gaining Democratic family guys and gals — those plain folks on the other side of the divide who also believe in community, continuity, and safety. In such a come-together reckoning, fidelity to ideological exotica is less important than a simple commitment to protecting basic human needs and verities. Protecting people, that is, against the outsourcing of their jobs and the insourcing of trans bathrooms....

In Wisconsin, the voters get that, as the Marquette Poll indicates.

Orange Barrels Disappearing!

The best news we can offer is this:  the dreaded orange barrels are being hauled away from I-94 south of Milwaukee County.

That is all.

Hey!! Nancy!! Get To WORK!!!

Wisconsin farmers and industry are taking it on the chops while Nancy lets Schitt run amok.

Donald Trump said Monday that if the House of Representatives doesn't pass last year's trade deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), it will all be Nancy Pelosi's fault....

When the President of Mexico is begging, Nancy......

...Mexico's government on Monday ramped up pressure on Pelosi to approve the USMCA, rejecting demands for greater oversight of its labor market. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would send her a second letter this week to press for congressional ratification....

Maybe Ron Kind doesn't want to be re-elected?

Poor? Stay That Way!!--Bloomberg

Well, this should endear Little Mike to the masses....

BLOOMBERG: “Some people say, well, taxes are regressive. But in this case, yes they are. That’s the good thing about them because the problem is in people that don’t have a lot of money. And so, higher taxes should have a bigger impact on their behavior and how they deal with themselves.”

quoted at Weasel's place.

Along with his ludicrous assertion that the ChiCom Dictator 'must make his country happy or he'll have to step down' and his waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy over-the-top gun control agenda (and soda-control!!) it shouldn't be difficult for Trump to defeat this bozo.

Meantime, Belling is in a tizzy about this guy, because he can spend a bunch of money.

Uncle Dirty Joe's Mary Jane Position

ZeroHedge opines that Slow Joe 'reversed' on legalizing pot.

So here's the quote from Slow Joe himself:

"With regard to the total legalization of it," which is somehow different from the phrase "totally decriminalized" he used moments before, "there are some in the medical community who say it needs to be made a Schedule II drug so there can be more studies, as not whether it is a gateway drug but whether or not it when used in other combinations may have a negative impact on people overcoming other problems including in fact on young people in terms of brain development, a whole range of things that are beyond my expertise. Except there are serious medial folks who say we sho9uld study it more. Not that we shouldn't, not that we should make it illegal, that we should be in a position where we criminalize it but where we should just look at it. And you know I constantly am pointing out that Donald Trump, fiction over science, well there's enough serious scientists who say let's, give us a little more chance to actually study it. And that's what I've said."

Got it?  Good.

Want to Have a Little Fun?

Apparently the anti-Trump fleabags and dopesmokers will be out "demanding" stuff at RoJo's Milwaukee office and in Madistan.

Date is TBA; they're waiting for an announcement from Nancy.

So if you've nothing better to do (I know, but obviously they don't have a life) and want to observe some of the strangest people you'll ever see....

Here's the link!!

More "So What??" Crap from WaPo

The heavy breathing is fogging the windows, and "fog" is the right word here.  I'll provide translations for the bullshit.

A confidential White House investigation into Donald Trump’s decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine has reportedly unearthed hundreds of documents detailing extensive efforts among senior officials to seek an ‘after-the-fact justification’ for the decision - as well as a debate over whether such a delay was legal in the first place.

Translation:  the White House assembled all the documents having to do with sending $400 million to a country lousy with corruption.

Sources say the White House Counsel's Office has expressed concern that the review has yielded some ‘unflattering’ exchanges and facts that could pose some political challenges for the president, as well as cause him – at a the very least – some embarrassment if released publicly.

Translation:  Trump used frank language to describe Ukraine's Corrupt-o-crats and the Democrat National Committee/Ukrainian dual-nationalities who were lying through their teeth about Manafort.

During email exchanges in early August, a month after Trump decided to hold the aid, Mulvaney asked acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Russell Vought for a possible legal explanation to back the decision.

Two sources told the Post that Trump made the decision weeks prior without assessment of the reasoning or legal justification.

Dozens of emails show Vought and OMB staffers arguing that withholding the aid was legal, which National Security Council and State Department members protested it wasn’t at all....

Translation:  Trump would not sign the check because of the corruption (there's the little matter of $7++BILLION missing/laundered.)  Since the Deep State--Lt. Col Polly PrissyPants and Foggy Butt--were screeching about "legal," Mulvaney was talking with the lawyers.

Net-Net:  Foggy windows, steamy story, but no illicit babies.  Sorry.  Try again.

Matt Gaetz: Dumber Than He Looks

Li'l Matt Gaetz is--by all press accounts--quite a showman.

Unfortunately, he's not particularly well-read.  Maybe he doesn't have time between teeeveee engagements to read important scientific studies, or maybe he doesn't understand big words.

...Gaetz responded to a clip of Conway discussing marijuana by stating, “To my friend, Kellyanne Conway, I would say, OK boomer. I mean, that’s a very boomer approach to marijuana, if for no other reason than it’s actually THC, not TCH, and I think that her reflection shows a real ignorance to the science demonstrating that in states where there are marijuana programs, you see a reduction in Schedule I drug recommendations, you also see a reduction in the types of overdoses that are crippling our country and hollowing out America.”...

Well, junior, here's the reality.  Canadian researchers ran the tests.

...Bottom Line: Evidence for inhaled marijuana for pain is too sparse and poor to provide good evidence-based guidance. Synthetic MC-derived products may modestly improve neuropathic pain for one in 11-14 users but perhaps not for other pain types. Additionally, longer and larger studies (better evidence) show no effect. Adverse events are plentiful....

The "pain relief" results were either statistically meaningless or were minimal.

But wait!  There's more!!

...Bottom Line: Compared to placebo, medical cannabinoids cause multiple different adverse events in patients, from visual disturbance or hypotension (1 in 3-10) to hallucination or paranoia (1 in 20). Stopping due to adverse effects occurs in 1 in every 8-20 patients. Regardless of the type of medical cannabinoid used, adverse events are common and likely underestimated. Given the extensive harms, potential benefits must be impressive to warrant a trial of therapy....

Maybe L'il Matt should work on fact-based stuff for a change.

SecNav Canned

The Navy is probably the Most Converged branch of service, so when SecNav defied Trump it was not a surprise.

Trump has figured out one thing:  he has far more enemies than friends in DC.  So when this jackwad said "I WILL fire Gallagher," Trump said "Hold muh beer!!"

Heh.

The Rest of the Shokin Story

Caught the Clinton News Network (ABC Division)'s George Propaganda-ist's little show this noon.  It's always interesting to hear half the story--and then pop open the InterTubes and read the REST of it.

Responding to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from the group American Oversight, the State Department on Friday night released almost 100 pages of records detailing efforts by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to investigate corruption, which include contacts with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) earlier this year.

While American Oversight's 'gotcha' is that Giuliani had "multiple contacts" with Mike Pompeo and others while investigating Ukraine corruption, they completely ignore interview notes containing detailed allegations by former Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin - who Joe Biden had fired, as well as his successor, prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko - who "believes Mr. Viktor Shokin the former Prosecutor General is honest." ...

As you night expect, Shokin had a great deal to say about Biden's corruption vis-a-vis Burisma, the oil/gas outfit headed by a crook named Zlochevesky.

But it was not only Biden.  Kerry's stepson (a Heinz) was part of the game--and an ex-CIA spook, which kinda helps to put the puzzle together, no?  (Hint:  BRENNAN)

"Mr. Shokin stated that there are documents that list five (5) criminal cases in which Mr. Zlochevesky is listed, with the main case being for issuing illegal gas exploration permits. The following complaints are in the criminal case.

1. Mr. Zlochevsky was laundering money
2. Obtained assets by corrupt acts bribery
3. Mr. Zlochevsky removed approximately twenty three million US dollars out of Ukraine without permission
4. While seated as the Minister he approved two addition entities to receive permits for gas exploration
5. Mr. Zlochevsky was the owner of two secret companies that were part of Burisma Holdings and gave those companies permits which made it possible for him to profit while he was the sitting Minister.

"Mr Shokin further stated that there were several Burisma board appointments were made in 2014 as follows:

1. Hunter Biden son of Vice President Joseph Biden
2. Joseph Blade former CIA employee assigned to Anti-Terrorist Unit
3. Alesksander Kwasnieski former President of Poland
4. Devon Archer roomate to the Christopher Heinz the step-son of Mr. John Kerry United States Secretary of State

And of course, Crybaby Yovanovich was part of the problem.

"On a different point Mr. Shokin believes the current Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch denied his visa to travel to the US. Mr. Shokin stated that she is close to Mr. Biden.

Are you shocked?

Who else makes an appearance?  Kent, the State Department's charge-d'coverup.

The Biden "Family Business": Pay-for-Play

One wonders whether Slow-Hand Joe learned at Hillary's knee or vice-versa.

Either way, Pay-for-Play is lucrative.

Apparently the Biden Family Mob also profited from Iraq and Romania, after China and Ukraine.  Too bad all that money was wasted on his failure-son, eh?

'Gas Attack' Mess Includes Bolton, UN Agency

Remember that 'gas attack' which caused Trump (and England) to blast the bejeebers out of Syria?

Yah, gee.  It probably was NOT a 'gas attack'; the UN's "watchdog" apparently 'sexed up' its report to push the US into its attack on Syria.  The US Empire* struck Assad as a consequence.

But wait!  It gets better!!

Way back when, when John (War-War) Bolton was our UN ambassador....

...In 2002, in the lead-up to the Iraq war, the OPCW’s then director, the Brazilian diplomat Jose Bustani, was forced from office by intense US pressure. The US’s then ambassador to the UN was the ferocious pro-war hawk John Bolton, famed for his brusque and bullying manner to subordinates.

He is thought to have objected to Bustani’s plans to get Iraq to agree to OPCW inspectors going there to search for WMD. These inspections might have got in the way of US plans to go to war against Iraq at all costs, a decision which had already been made by the White House.

The same John Bolton was Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser at the time of the alleged outrage in Douma and the missile attacks on Syria, which took place a week later. He left the post in September after falling out with President Trump....

And of course, the rebels the US was backing against Assad of Syria are ISIS and AlQuaeda types.

Altogether, it is a very nasty mess.  And I'm not even a relative of any of the hundreds (thousands??) of dead Syrians who became dead due to lying UN bureaucrats and their patrons.

I'm sure Bolton can explain all this, right?  He'll begin by stating that the story is "Russian propaganda" and accusing its writers of 'being Russian assets.'  Oh, wait........that's Hillary's line.

Bolton might have a better line of crap than Hillary.  Or not.

*Empire?  Yup.  See Codevilla's essay which we referenced only a day ago.  This is what your "experts"--all part of the Deep State--have wrought.

It's the FAMILY, Stupid!

Forty years on, the Rockford Institute's "Family in America" studies are re-proven.  It is not "race," nor "poverty."  It's family.  And as illegitimacy rises across ALL racial lines, this foretells far more serious societal problems.

A new study affirms what many public policy analysts say is intuitive — that unstable family structure, including chaotic households and single-parent homes, is a primary factor in racial disparities in school behavior and suspensions....

Doh.

Allan Carlson's work (and the works he cited) was given the cold shoulder by the NeoCon "right" (now largely NeverTrumpers) and their Libertarian allies, and of course, was vilified and slandered by the Left as "raaaaacissssss!!!".

Uh-huh.

The study is clear that it's not "racial":

...Indeed, among black students who do live with both married birth parents, suspension rates are less than half as large as those for black students living in other family types: 12% versus 28%. The suspension rate for black students living in intact families, 12%, is also less than the suspension rate for white students from non-intact families, 13%.

Here's the key graf from the Secret Service study:

...Ninety-four percent of attackers experienced a "home-life factor" that led to an incident.

"This could be related to family problems at home in terms of let's say domestic violence in the home. Drug use in the home among family members, divorce and separations," Alathari said....

(Important to note that school shooters are almost always whites.  Interesting, no?)

This is not about race, nor about "poverty."

...The study also found that family structure even accounts for more of the racial disparities in school suspensions than socioeconomic factors.

When the researchers controlled for family structure, they discovered the racial disparities in school suspensions reduced by 55 percent. Controlling for socioeconomic status reduced the racial differences by only 38 percent.

“These results, then, suggest that family structure is a signal factor in accounting for real differences in school conduct and school suspensions,” the authors state. “This is especially noteworthy because discussions related to racial disparities in school discipline often overlook the role of family structure and highlight socioeconomic explanations.”...

Prediction:  this will be given the cold shoulder by NeverTrumpers/NeoCons and their Libertarian allies and will be slandered and vilified by the Left, which will refer to the study, the authors, and people who cite this study as "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACISSSSSSSSSS!!"

Side note:  the Catholic Church's social teachings have always, always, always, insisted upon "intact families."  Jus' sayin'....

Speaking of "Elites"....How About Brown U.?

An old friend obtained her M.A. at Brown.  Frankly, I don't think that school is much different now than it was in the '70's.  It's .......ahhh.........

...A student group by the name of RailRoad held the event titled "Prison Abolition 101" on Nov. 8. The group seeks to ensure that the American prison system is "destroyed" and believes that incarceration is inherently unjust and unproductive.

RailRoad member Grace Austin stated during the event that “the end goal is to not have prisons as any form of incarceration," and that "punishment at any stage doesn’t guarantee any kind of growth," according to a report by The Brown Daily Herald.

The student group's stated mission is to create a "world where the Prison Industrial Complex in all of its forms has been destroyed and built in its place are systems of accountability that allow for healing and growth."...

Obvious that this little girl doesn't live remotely near a high-crime area.  Maybe she should ask people who DO live in one of those--but then, what dumbass cause would she take up next?

Codevilla Expanded

Angelo Codevilla expands on his earthquake essay of ~10 (!!!!) years ago.

...The understanding of America as an empire is as foreign to most Americans as is the idea that the specific country that they live in is run by a class of people who may number themselves among the elect but weren’t in fact elected by anyone. Under whatever professional job titles, the people who populate the institutions that exercise direct power over nearly all aspects of American life from birth to death are bureaucrats—university bureaucrats, corporate bureaucrats, local, state and federal bureaucrats, law enforcement bureaucrats, health bureaucrats, knowledge bureaucrats, spy agency bureaucrats. At each layer of specific institutional authority, bureaucrats coordinate their understandings and practices with bureaucrats in parallel institutions through lawyers, in language that is designed to be impenetrable, or nearly so, by outsiders. Their authority is pervasive, undemocratic, and increasingly not susceptible in practice to legal checks and balances. All those people together comprise a class.

Another thing that residents of the broad North American expanse between Canada and Mexico have noticed is that the programs and remedies that this class has promoted, both at home and abroad, have greatly enriched and empowered a small number of people, namely themselves—while the broader American population continues to decline in wealth, health, and education. Meanwhile, the American Empire that the ruling elite administers is collapsing. The popularity of such observations on both the left and the right is what accounts for the rise of Donald Trump, on one hand, and of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on the other hand, among an electorate that has not been historically distinguished by its embrace of radicalism. Add those voter bases together, and perhaps 75% of Americans would seem to agree that their country, however you think of it, is in big trouble, and that the fault lies with the country’s self-infatuated and apparently not-so-brilliant elite....

In 1965, there was the "Personnel" department which managed payroll, purchased benefits (health insurance, maybe dental), processed hiring and separations--and checked some references.  In large-scale companies with more than 1,000 employees, there might have been 8-10 individuals handling all those matters.  If there was a union, there were a few folks who handled "industrial relations"--the bargaining and rules-keeping/interpreting/enforcing part of the deal.

Now there's the "HR" department.  It has Managers (or DIRECTORS!!) of Employment, Benefits, Safety, Compensation, EEO, "On-Boarding," and --oh, yah--Payroll.  Each of those poohbahs has 2 or 3 subordinates.  ALL of that growth has been forced by Federal and State laws and regulations.

Well, the military has Polly PrissyPants Vindman, so maybe it's fair, eh?

HT:  Grim

Targeting Ron Kind

Interesting:  the Pubbies are targeting 31 'vulnerable' Democrats--including Ron Kind.

...the GOP is running anti-coup ads in their districts.
 
They are very worried. The GOP is bombarding their districts back home. And they want a much stronger counteroffensive from their own party and its allies. According to Politico GOP-aligned outside groups have spent roughly $8 million on TV spots this cycle in battleground districts

There are 31 Democrats who  representing districts President Trump won in 2016....

Kind has managed to hold his seat by being near-milquetoast, and by having a few UW colleges in the district such as LaCrosse and Eau Claire.  But the Marquette poll of last week--favoring Trump in the Presidential AND making clear that independents and Pubbies really dislike the Schitt-Show....

Hmmmm.

Hinderaker Makes a Bet--Against Trump

If you don't read PowerLine, you aren't in the game.  But now and then there are strange little things that wander into their musings.

I think there is a good chance [Tulsi Gabbard] could beat President Trump

Easy bet to make; he knows that Gabbard will not be the nominee.  But wouldn't that be fun to watch?

S.O.P. Slur: Screech "Anti-Semitic"!!

And here we go again!!

...Former National Security Council member Fiona Hill condemned criticism of leftist billionaire George Soros as antisemitic during her impeachment hearing testimony on Thursday.

When asked by Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoothi if attacks on George Soros were “antisemitic,” she agreed....

Apparently Ms. Hill and many, many, others don't care that the "Anti-Semite" slur is threadbare.

There's a reason for this, of course.  George Soros is dirty as Hell and happens to be in bed with the Democrats where they are exchanging bodily fluids (and political influence and money) as much and as often as possible.  Why yes, Glenn Simpson is involved.  Yes, indeed, the "do not prosecute" list is involved.

But as to "anti-Semite"?

It means "Your criticism is correct.  We have no defense.  So we'll call names."

In this case, it means "We will protect our criminal class by accusing you of BS."

Turning Point, YAF: Nice Little Yokels

Malkin noticed that the "unlimited immigrant" (and gay-marriage defending) Young America's Foundation and Turning Point USA are now doing their best to put Malkin out of business.

Another reason that Groypers should multiply and question speakers from these Libertarian-Big Business financed outfits.

Craig Gilbert, Liar

A few weeks ago, Craig Gilbert permanently dishonored his name.

Now he's just adding to the pile of San Francisco Sidewalk-Paving Stuff atop his name.   See, "lying" comes in a few different forms; distortion of truth, not reporting ALL the truth, and flat-out lying.  Craig kinda likes all three.

Here's the setup:

...Johnson sharply disagreed with Trump’s decision to withhold the nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine, which Congress approved, and the GOP lawmaker lobbied Trump hard to reverse the decision....

Plopping $400 million into the lap of one of the most corrupt countries in the world is not something a responsible President likes doing, Craig.

So what does Craig Gilbert, former reporter, now gossip columnist do next?  Well, he quotes a woman from an EXTREEEEEEEEEEME Left outfit, of course!!

...Senate expert Sarah Binder of the Brookings Institution said Johnson’s staunch defense of the president is “emblematic of this world where lawmakers are first and foremost on Trump’s team or not.” ...

Actually, Johnson is rather independent.  But don't let reality interfere with Lefty Liars!!

Here's a rare event:  Gilbert suddenly likes an Army officer.  Figures:  the Army officer in question is a liar and has had three job offers from.........where else?.............Ukraine.  Nonetheless, Gilbert wants us to think Light Colonel Polly PrissyPants is a genuine war hero and a certified expert.

...Johnson in his letter accused  Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine expert who sits on on the National Security Council, and other Executive Branch staff of trying to undermine Trump. Without citing any evidence, Johnson claimed Vindman and others "have never accepted President Trump as legitimate and resent his unorthodox style and his intrusion onto their ‘turf.’” ...

Light Colonel PrissyPants has been credibly accused of bad-mouthing the United States, but he's Gilbert's hero; after all, he has a Purple Heart!  And of course, what Craig forgets to mention is that the President, not PrissyPants, makes foreign policy.  That would be important, except for Craig's single-"minded" crusade to destroy RoJo and the President.

Then there's the "We Don't Report ALL the Truth" trick.

...The senator has said in interviews that Trump’s hang-ups about the Ukraine aid included not just general corruption but the president’s own conviction that Ukraine played a role in tarnishing him during the 2016 campaign....

Well, yah, Craig, do NOT mention the Ukraine court's finding of Ukrainian interference in the election.  Do NOT mention that the Ukrainian ambassador to the US wrote an op-ed in The Hill bashing Trump.  Do NOT mention the Cinton/Democrat National committee efforts to find dirt on Trump's campaign people.

And of course, gossip-columnist Gilbert uses the Democrat Talking Point!!

....critics accuse him of promoting conspiracy theories....

If it walks like a theory, talks like a theory, and smells like the Obama White House .......

YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO THIS STUFF FOR ONLY $1.00/ MONTH and it's worth it.

Pentagon Part of Crtiminal Investigation

Paying attention?  Good.

We've often stated that the Deep State includes not only CIA and FBI, but also the military-industrial complex and the fops in State.   The group--together--is named "Interagency"--as mentioned by Polly Prissypants Vindman, who works for somebody but is native to the Most Corrupt Country on Earth:  Ukraine.

And sure enough, Durham's criminal investigation is now taking a hard look at the Pentagon.

Just because they wear a uniform doesn't make them tin gods.

One Good Thing From Tokin'Tony

Owen Robinson may never recover from the vapors he got seeing this story.

The Miller Park tax is officially going to end.

The 0.1% sales tax, which started in 1996, helped fund construction of the Milwaukee Brewers’ stadium that replaced the beloved-but-aging County Stadium. The tax affected Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Racine counties.

The tax ended up collecting nearly $600 million over its nearly 24-year life so far....

Maggie Gau's office boy signed the law (his name is Tony).

Keeping count?  That would be ONE.

The Chicago Way: Ukraine "Foreign Aid"

Nice column about how things should work if the US taxpayer (you and me, sucka!!) is footing the bill.

But then, there's the Obama/Chicago/Ukraine way.

...[In] Kiev, the State Department was going to give the Ukraine a billion dollars in foreign aid.  Was it the job of the U.S. Embassy to drop millions of American dollars into the operating funds of State Department vendors or State-Department-approved foundations? 
 
President Obama’s money laundering State Department sent billions to compliant countries including Ukraine and Iran.  Democrat politicians leveraged their positions to place their relatives in positions of authority when the USAID monies were disbursed to those vendors or “charitable” foundations....

IOW, the money traveled in a circle from the US Treasury (sucka!!) to State Department vendors or foundations--which were staffed by (or owned by) various Democrat-connected individuals.  Boies is one name, Biden is another, Heinz (Kerry) is a third, and there's even a Pelosi offspring.

Here, that's called "Money-Laundering" or "FRAUD" for short.

The New, All-Girly-Girl FBI

Noticed by Sundance.

The FBI ... dispatched seven agents, three snipers, a full SWAT unit, two MRAP armored vehicles and an amphibious assault unit for a 5:00am raid on the home of Roger Stone....

Frankly, I don't like Stone, who is a dirtbag.  On the other hand, he's pretty damned old--so he wasn't likely to rappel from his bedroom to a tall treetop and then disappear into traffic.

In contrast.......

The FBI last month requested an interview with the whistleblower whose complaint fueled the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and Ukraine, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday.An agent from the FBI’s Washington field office reached out to the whistleblower’s lawyers last month to seek an interview about the substance of the complaint...

Oooooooh!!  "Requested an interview."  How, ahhhhhhhh, utterly...........genteel!  Wouldn't want to scare Ciaramella, would we?  And we certainly don't want to go out there and nab the miserable SOB like they do in Law & Order, would we?

No.  We're the new, not-too-competent, girly-girl FBI.  Widdle Wray is our Nanny.

Where's the Word "LEGAL" Here?

The local rag ($1 per month special!!!  Please buy our paper!!) runs a story about dairy-farm labor.  The story is very careful not to use the word "illegal", of course.

With unemployment low, many farmers fill openings by passing word to Mexican laborers already on-site, and then accepting the new workers who show up without asking too many questions.

The dairy problem is not easy to resolve.  The market for milk products is getting smaller so prices-paid are dropping; labor expense must be managed or the farmer goes BK and that's the end.

Nobody wants to see that happen.  So should Gummint move in and support farms?  If so, to what extent?

Meantime, the illegals are still here, no matter the evasions in the "news" paper.

Biden Kid, Kerry Kid Got Sweet Fed Loan

It's kinda complicated but here's the outline:  Cokehead Biden and John Kerry's Heinz kid were on the receiving end of Federal Reserve Bank loans of about $130 million.  They used the loans to purchase questionable assets from banks who wanted to dump them for cash.

The TARP program, remember?

It was a sweet deal; if the assets worked out well, the investors made money.  If the assets went sour, the Federal Reserve bailed out the investors.

These were not easy deals to get, by the way.  It appears that "knowing somebody" was important.

Oh, and the Cayman Islands tax-evasion thing?  That was a bonus.

Next time some damn fool tells you that the Federal Reserve is "independent of politics", spit coffee into their face.

Tokin'Tony Falling Down

Same Marquette poll as below.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' job approval was 47% against 42% disapproval. It has slipped since October, when 52% approved of the job he was doing, while 34% disapproved.

"He's still net positive, so that's the good news for him," Franklin said. "But a fair drop since August when we saw him at plus 20, down to plus 5 now."

Forty-eight percent approved of the way the Republican-led Legislature is doing its job against 39% disapproval.

That would be the gun control non-action.

Not to worry.  Maggie Gau--who holds Tony's puppet-strings--is not subject to election, so she'll just keep telling Tony to make a pariah of himself.   Like Alfred Neuman, she says "What?  ME worry?"

Wisconsin Goes Red.....

Huh.  Looks like nobody's paying attention to the JSOnline/Gannett/Madistan CapTimes duopoly.

In October, 44% of Wisconsin voters supported impeachment, and 51% opposed it. Now 40% support impeachment, and 53% oppose it.

And he's now beating Biden in Wisconsin 47-44. In October, he was losing to Biden 50-44.

In October, Trump was losing to Sanders 48-46. Now he's beating Sanders 48-45.

Even Warren was beating Trump in October, per this poll, 47-46. Now Trump is beating her 48-43.

Trump was leading Buttigieg, barely, in October, 45-43. Now he's expanded that lead to 47-39.

Splodey-heads all around.  (Results are from the MU Law poll)

HT:  AOSHQ

How About the $7.4BN Stolen from Ukraine?

Ahhh...while we've all been watching cartoons hearings, ol'Ticker's been reading the real news.

KYIV. Nov 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian members of parliament have demanded the presidents of Ukraine and the United States, Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, investigate suspicions of the legalization of $7.4 billion by the "family" of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych through the American investment fund Franklin Templeton Investments, which they said has ties to the U.S. Democratic Party....

...MP Oleksandr Dubinsky from the Servant of the People faction said that according to investigators, "the Yanukovych 'family' illegally obtained $7.4 billion and laundered the funds through an investment fund close to some representatives of the U.S. Democratic Party in the form of external government loan bonds."...

Then there's the management folk at Templeton which allegedly laundered the money....

"The son of Templeton's founder, John Templeton Jr., was one of President Obama's major campaign donors. Another fund-related character is Thomas Donilon. Managing Director of BlackRock Investment Institute, shareholder Franklin Templeton Investments, which has the largest share in the fund. It is noteworthy that he previously was Obama's national security advisor," Derkach said.

 Meh on Templeton, Jr.'s donations.

But Donilon....as I recall, there was some opposition to his appointment.  And now he's a Big Guy at Black Rock, putting him solidly into the Establishment/Cloud People class.

Hmmmm.

No wonder Trump had reservations about shoving $400 million tax dollars over there.

Domestic Spying? Democrats YES!! Pubbies NO!!

So domestic spying will continue, as the Democrats would like, just like Obama did with the Trump campaign.  You're in the database, honey.

Here's the roll call.

Why Have the CIA?

In the midst of a compelling essay decrying the State Department's dunderheaded "policy" regime, Curtis Ellis detours to the CIA.

...Just as we can’t second-guess our foreign services, we’re told questioning our intelligence services is tantamount to treason.

Let’s look at their track record.

They failed to predict the Communist victory in China in 1949. The fall of the Shah of Iran? Missed that one, too. The collapse of Soviet Union? Didn’t see it coming. The 9/11 attacks? A total surprise. Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? They were sure we’d find them. The migration crises following the overthrow of Libya’s Qaddafi and the Syrian civil war? Oblivious. Red China’s ongoing penetration of industrial, military, and government computer networks? They continue to miss it. 

With a record like that, one must ask: What are we paying these people for and why should we regard them as any less fallible than other people?...

The CIA is actually a low-profile Department of War, ginning up revolts and counter-revolts all over the world.  Which would be fine, except for .........Light Colonel Prissy-Pants Vindman.  (Do you know with Biblical certainty exactly whose side he IS on?)

Earlier we mentioned the baleful stare from an ex-spook when I suggested that he tell his pals in Langley that they report to Trump and best hop to it.

Not likely that Trump will pull off eliminating this bunch of idiots and sleazy actors from the public payroll; if he tries, he may wind up just like ......oh........JFK..........

Eugenecist a Model to Ed Fallone (?!!)

Well, we all have heroes, eh?

Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Ed Fallone--a professor at the MU school of law--identified Oliver Wendell Holmes as some sort of model.

...Fallone said it was difficult to name a current U.S. Supreme Court justice whose judicial philosophy he agreed with. But he said he liked the attitude of former Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who served from 1902 to 1932....

Holmes is universally reviled for his eugenecist inclinations.  Those are inclinations shared by such luminaries as Adolf Hitler and Margaret Sanger.

So here's a question:  what is he doing on the faculty of a "Catholic" "Jesuit" law school?

(The Dane County judge (Karofsky) acts exactly like you'd expect a Dane County judge to act.)

Not Only Chick-Fil-A

News item:  Chick-Fil-A cuts off Christian charities.

...“There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,” Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos said Monday. “There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”...

No question about it, CFA owners and upper management caved.

But there's more to it than just that.  For a big hint, look at the red-highlighted text above.

Here's another hint:  FRANCHISEES.

CFA needs franchisees to get 'into new markets,' and the primary concern of a franchisee is not "Christian values."  The primary concern is ROI.  They can get that in certain areas of the country--which is obvious because CFA's gross sales are spectacular--but there are other parts of the country and of the world where it won't work.

So it's not only CFA shareholders.  But only CFA shareholders made the decision.

Was chatting with a friend the other day about wealth and I told him that 'there is never enough money' for most wealthy people.  Not all of them, but most of them.

QED.

Obama Kept 100,000 Childen in Cages

You can learn at this link that Obama kept 100,000 migrant children in cages.

You can also learn that the MFM has completely retracted the story.  Not 'corrected' it, just eliminated it.

Go ahead, Guess why.  You get ONE guess. 

The Utterly. Competent. FBI? You're Kidding, Right?

If Horndogg Strzok is an example of high-level FBI competence, the case is FAR stronger for just dumping the FBI and starting over again, maybe with Barney Fife.  (At least Barney wasn't doing the horizontal mambo with Aunt Bea.)

The Department of Justice released documents Monday outlining a slew of "security violations" and flagrantly "unprofessional conduct" by anti-Trump ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok -- including his alleged practice of keeping sensitive FBI documents on his unsecured personal electronic devices, even as his wife gained access to his cellphone and discovered evidence that he was having an affair with former FBI attorney Lisa Page....

Ahem.

This Studley Bearcat wannabee was the Numero Uno "counter-spy" honcho in the FBI.

And his WIFE catches his love notes to Hotpants?

NSA Will Continue to Spy on YOU!!

You're a citizen of the US?  Born here?  Military veteran?  You can point to your parents' and grandparents' graves here in the US?

Well, fine.  NSA will continue to spy on you at will.

The renewal (albeit short-term) is buried in the CR which will run through December 20th.

Make sure you look pretty for the cameras!!

Suicide by Ford

Now I know why a $12.00 stock (F) has been wallowing in the $9.00 area.

FoMoCo is committing suicide by convergence.

Hard to believe the level of stupidity behind this move--making a station wagon with a "Mustang" label, and then running it on electricity.

All over America, brand managers are slamming heads to desks.

HT:  Vox

Milwaukee Public Schools Set to Kill & Bury Homeowners

Apparently the Milwaukee Teachers' Union Milwaukee School Board is even more short-sighted than anyone could believe.  In their latest referendum proposal, they propose to kill and bury the taxpayers of the City, not to mention destroying the tax base.

...MPS officials laid out two potential scenarios: a "gold-standard" education that would cost an additional $640 million a year and a lesser "plan B" costing about $319 million more a year. The proposals would lower class sizes and expand programming on a number of fronts, from early childhood education to gifted and talented and career and technical education. And they would increase staffing by 1,982 and 966 employees, respectively.

MPS' has a current budget of about $1.2 billion a year and employs about 10,000 people.

The proposals would increase the MPS portion of Milwaukee's property taxes from the current $9.58 per $1,000 of assessed value to $15.72 for the lower figure and $22.41 for the higher, according to its financial advisers from Robert W. Baird & Co.

For a home assessed at $300,000, that would push property tax bills from $2,874 to $4,716 on the low end and $6,723 on the high end — increases of 64% and 134% respectively....

Don't forget:  MATC, the City, and the County taxes are on top of those numbers.

First off, that $300K house would lose about $25-30K in value immediately.  Houses are purchased on cash-flow, meaning that someone looking at purchasing a house will try to fit the house payment into their budget.  Higher taxes mean higher payments; thus, the potential buyer will offer LESS for the house with the objective of reducing payment to fit their budget.

And that will be ongoing for several years as City residents get the hell out of Dodge, getting far less for their comfy bungalow in Bay View than they hoped, because few buyers can afford the payment.  (That assumes that there will be buyers in the first place.  Remember the just-beginning decrease in the 'first-home'-buying cohort?  That's going to get worse, too.  Look at college enrollment predictions.)

Also recall that Federal income tax deductions for property-tax payments are FAR smaller than they were last year, and that scenario is NOT likely to change in the next few years.  

Look for Tom Barrett's retirement soon, as he sells his house in the Heights and moves to anyplace outside the City.

What Does This Mean, Abp. Gomez?

The Crisis website interviewed the new Prexy of the US Bishops and asked a question about immigration.  Abp. Gomez responds in a way which is confused, confusing, and opaque.  That's quite a trifecta!!

Why do you feel this [immigration] is such a crucial issue for Catholics to confront today?
 
The first thing to say, always, is that bishops are pastors, we’re not politicians. When we are talking about political, economic or social questions, we are always trying to engage in terms of Gospel values and principles.

And I think that all of us—laypeople, especially—need to keep allowing ourselves to be challenged by the Gospel, challenged by the teachings of the Church. If our faith doesn’t sometimes make us uncomfortable with our political commitments, then there’s something wrong.

Maintaining a true Catholic identity, understanding ourselves to be followers of Jesus Christ before we are anything else, is always a challenge. And, I think it’s getting harder in America today because everything is “politicized.”

For me, immigration is not about politics. It’s about the dignity of the human person. And it’s also about our national identity and purpose, what America means and what does it mean to be an American.

The bishops recognize that it’s the imperative of every nation to secure their borders and to regulate who enters their country and how long they stay. We also understand that every sector of our economy—from construction and agriculture, to hospitality and service industries, to high-tech and medical professions—has a vital need for immigrant workers.

And we understand that there is genuine anxiety in our country because our demographics are changing and our economy is changing. Also, migration is one of the signs of our times. That’s just a reality. Movements of people are happening in every part of the world, millions of people are leaving their homelands, seeking a better life for their families; often, they are leaving because of violence and poverty.

As Catholics, we need to remember that we are not talking about “statistics,” we are talking about human beings—the image of God, our brothers and sisters.

There are complicated issues involved, questions of law, economics, and politics. But the most basic consideration here is that migrants are human beings. They are loved by God and they are redeemed by Jesus Christ, and he calls us to love others as we love ourselves—especially the poor, the migrant, and the prisoner.

Jesus did not say we only love those who are fellow citizens or who have the proper “papers.” Men and women do not become less of a child of God because they are “undocumented.” This is not a political position, it is matter of our faith.

America has always been exceptional because it has always been a refuge for peoples who have no place left to turn, and it’s always been a place where peoples from all parts of the world can come to share their talents and creativity, bringing with them their values of family and hard work, and their dreams of a better life for their children.

In my own writing and teaching, I want to help us to rediscover the fact that we are all brothers and sisters in our common humanity and that we have this beautiful promise of America—to be a light to the nations. And this is just my opinion, but I don’t believe we should be saying that that the time for American generosity is over. We are too young of a nation to be afraid for our future....

So many words, so little time...so we'll pick a few (red-highlight) items for response here.

1)  Yes, we are Catholics first.  But we are American fathers, mothers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and children second, not 'citizens of the world.'   Our responsibility is to our families first, just as Catholic social doctrine insists.

2)  Dear Excellency:  if you think immigration is NOT political, you are detached from reality.

3)  There are plenty of well-informed people who insist, Excellency, that 'the need for workers' is ........ahh.........actually a "need" for "CHEAP" workers, particularly at the professional/technical end of the scale but including the lower end, too.  Check out the testimony of unemployed or under-employed STEM graduates in this country, please.

4)  I certainly hope you are not implying that some Catholics are totally lacking in humanity, Excellency!!  What would that say about the teaching office of the Bishops for the last few decades??

5)  Immigrants who are "children of God" are LEGAL immigrants, right?  (Just checking.)

6)  Yes, immigrants bring talent and creativity.  However, when my grandparents (both sides) immigrated--legally--they were not afforded ANY State-paid welfare, nor State-paid healthcare, nor State-paid housing; instead, their already-present relatives or friends guaranteed that the new immigrants would have a job OR that the extant immigrants would pay for their needs out of their own pocket.  Is there some fountain of Free Money that arose between then and now, Excellency??

7)  Who is "afraid for the future"?  As I recall the saying from my parish pastor, the Providence of God works in conjunction with the labor of man.  Put another way, prudential management is a help to Providence.  Please don't test God by suggesting that we should not manage immigration for the long-term.

Best wishes in your new assignment, Excellency!

Renew FISA? That's Head-Banging Dumb

Last Refuge points out that the FISA law expires 12/15.

...FISA-702 authority, bulk U.S. person metadata collection, storage and surveillance, is set to terminally expire December 15th....

Before the corrupt-o-crats in the Deep State ram this through, consider this:

...The last FISC report from Judge Boasberg stated that all violations of FISA law are still ongoing and there have been no substantive corrections by the intelligence community to fix the abuse issues. The Judge Boasberg report was written in September of 2018 but not released (redacted) until last month. {Go Deep} 

The Intelligence Community (writ large), the FBI and the DOJ are all seeking a permanent reauthorization. ...

When he says "writ large" he means that the US Senate Select Committee on Intel--one of THE most corrupt Congressional committees--is seeking permanent re-authorization.

So when you oppose one of these Senators--or get in the way of the CIA or FBI--you will be a target of abuse, as will your spouse, children, and friends.

We are reminded of one of Eastwood's best lines:  "[It] just needed killin'."

Just Another Member of Congress

ZeroHedge describes a Congress-slime.

...after allegedly committing perjury, immigration fraud, marriage fraud, state and federal tax fraud, and federal student loan fraud - and potentially marrying her own brother Omar filed for divorce in October from her husband Ahmed Hirsi (not the brother) amid the allegations, claiming their relationship was 'irretrievable."...

Minnesota Nice!!

Gun Rises from the Dead

Gee.  How could something like this happen?

...According to an AGG report, William Stewart Boyd traded his father’s old .38 caliber Smith & Wesson snub nose for less than $100 in a gun buyback in 2004. It was supposed to be destroyed, but somehow the same handgun with serial number J515268 was found next to a dead body involved in a police shooting eight years later....

'Tis a puzzlement.

HT:  Arms/Law

On Louisiana

Dreher knows Louisiana, and if his analysis is correct (it probably is) there's a message for Republicans here. 

...I voted straight-ticket Republican, except for governor, where I did as I did four years ago, and voted for John Bel Edwards. Edwards is a veteran legislator who is pro-life (he signed the Heartbeat Bill earlier this year) and pro-gun rights. He’s got a record, and he’s got a platform. Rispone is a successful Baton Rouge businessman who has never held office, and, notably, if you check his website, he doesn’t have a platform. He ran entirely on personality: being a conservative Christian Republican businessman endorsed by Donald Trump.

And it wasn’t enough. Not even in red Louisiana, where the legislature is massively Republican....

Not having a platform outside being a friend of Trump?  Seriously?
 
We've seen flaccid Republican campaigns; they lose.  We've seen the Establishment Pubbies lose, too. 

Edwards won being pro-life and pro-gun.  Hmmm.   Maybe the "W" Party is finally dead. 

(Yes, I noticed that Dreher went all girly-girl regarding Trump.  One expects that.)

Catechism Addition

We are told, authoritatively, by Eccles Who Is Saved, that this text will be added to the Catechism in the next few weeks.

92357 Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents the use of plastic as an act of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "plastic is intrinsically disordered." It is contrary to the natural law. It does not proceed from a genuine love of Mother Nature as shown to us through Pachamama. Under no circumstances can it be approved. 

92358 The inclination to use plastic is objectively disordered, but the number of men and women who feel such deep-seated urges is not negligible. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. 

92359 God in His mercy has provided for us Green Bins, in which to caste [sic] away all plastics that may prevent us from approaching Christian perfection. Although some of us are endowed with bins that are blue, or even rainbow-coloured, they too can be seen as blessings unto us. 

92360 Many of us are also blessed with bins of another colour; for example, we may have a brown bin into which may be cast all that is biodegradable, that it may be return to Mother Earth as compost. To throw into our brown bin those gifts that are not worthy of it, such as plastics, wooden idols, and glass bottles, is morally inadmissible; wrongdoers must pray and fast, and may only receive forgiveness from a bishop. 

© Pope Francis and Cardinal G. Thunberg

It is possible that Eccles made up that signature line.