Separating Zelenskiy From Westerners

Putin's government directly warned VP Vance that Americans should evacuate from Kiev ASAP.  That followed a targeted missile strike on the city, using an Oreshnik and several other less-speedy missiles.

The Duran comments:

... Getting the Western Powers to pull their embassies and personnel out of Kyiv is probably for the Russians an objective in itself. The Russian calculus probably is that Zelensky and the other key institutions of Ukraine would be very unwilling to leave Kyiv....

 ...if Zelensky were to stay in Kyiv after the Westerners left, he would become isolated from the West. The reality, as anyone who follows the situation in Kiev at all closely can see, is that Westerners (the diplomats, the personnel of the Western funded NGOs, the military advisers fulfilling advice and liaison functions, the officials who administer the aid packages etc) today form a key part of Ukraine’s system of government. Severing the link between this structure and Zelensky would inevitably weaken the system as a whole.

Lastly, if travel in and out of Kyiv becomes dangerous, with the Russians able to threaten the railway and road links (not impossible) then Zelensky’s isolation from the West and the outside world were he to choose to stay in Kiev after the Westerners left would become greater still....

Other than certain Deep State entities such as the CIA, the Biden Crime Family, and the now-totally-discredited "health" agencies of the FedGov, few in D.C. like Zelenskiy.  Putin will make that permanent if he can.

Good for him! 

Another Look at "AI"

Found this at the Meaning site, which also publishes a coherent counter-Trumpian narrative on the Misbegotten Israeli War on Iran.  Naturally, what you'll see here and his commentaries on the Israeli War run directly counter to the propaganda drooled forth by the local RadioMouths on WISN,.  So it's worthwhile to check in now and then.

Here he quotes @alex_prompter: 

 Let me trace the timeline here because nobody’s connecting it.

Step 1: Scrape the entire internet. Every book, every article, every conversation, every piece of art, every forum post. Do it without asking. Do it without paying.

Step 2: Train a model on all of it. Call it “artificial intelligence.”

Step 3: Go to BlackRock’s Infrastructure Summit and announce: “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”

Step 3 is where you sell people’s own knowledge back to them. On a meter.

They took the collective output of human thought, compressed it into a model, and now they want to charge you by the token to access a version of what you and everyone you know already created.

One Reddit user put it perfectly: “They stole all this data from us, the people, our life’s work, creativity, art, by devouring the internet and blowing through all copyright laws. Now they want to sell it back to us in the form of a utility.”

Imagine if someone photocopied every book in the public library, burned the library down, and then opened a subscription service for the copies.

That’s the metered intelligence business model.

And they’re pitching it to infrastructure investors as though they invented water.

Never thought of it that way, didja?

But then, you're not forced to pay for your own works--yet. 

Fun With Anne Coulter

Coulter can be a lot of fun to read.  She recently joined up with The American Conservative (a PJB-founded outfit) and is now writing columns for them.

She has a take-no-prisoners approach which is going to draw fire from the Trumpians.

 Other than President Donald Trump supposedly finally ending his Iran War with a beautiful deal—a tremendous deal, an incredible deal, and could everyone please tell him that?—the president’s only other helpful move this quarter was to endorse Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his successful runoff against the incumbent Sen. John Cornyn....

See what I mean?  She also has words for Stephen Miller.

 ...Just a week ago, Miller unleashed a barrage of abuse at Rep. Thomas Massie for voting against Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill because, as Massie explained, it also fully funded the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, used by the Biden administration to spy on and censor Americans.

I, personally, would vote for an entire KGB to spy on Americans in exchange for a wall, but opposing the non-wall part of a bill that also funded the wall does not constitute siding with “foreign predators and criminal aliens,” as Miller claimed in one of his histrionic tweets....

Turns out that Miller is a jerk who back-stabbed Jeff Sessions in order to get himself a job with Trump.  But Miller is not the only Member in Good Standing of the D.C. Backstabbers' Club.  Nicolle Wallace is another, and  Coulter has a few words for her, too:

 ...Wallace, you will recall, was part of the brain trust that picked Sarah Palin, then a little-known Alaska governor, to be Sen. John McCain’s running mate. As Palin’s primary assistant, Wallace immediately began leaking nasty stories about her to the press, calling her a “diva” and carping about her shopping sprees. As soon as Wallace failed at the job of getting her clients elected, she rushed to the New York Times to announce that she hadn’t voted for them, anyway....

... That reinvention set up Wallace perfectly for a host role on MSNBC, where, as a “former Republican,” she says things too crazy for a Democrat to voice. Like the girl who does the whole football team, she will do anything, say anything, to stay on TV—before being discarded. If David Duke bought MS-NOW and announced, “We’re going white nationalist,” she’d hand him her resume....

Imagine that.  Snakes and Rats. In your very own Big Government.  Almost as though the Declaration has to be revived and that 1776 thing has to be re-lived or sumpin'sumpin'.

 

Trump Bunch Going Statist

Trump's New York City state of mind is becoming a hazard to civil rights.

... The Trump [is] urging the Supreme Court to reject a petition by New York healthcare workers who were fired for spurning COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds, arguing the state mandate didn't violate federal law....

... [T]he Department of Justice's friend-of-the-court brief emphasizes the distinction between "exemption" and "accommodation" for the purposes of recognizing employees' religious rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act....

 ...Representing five lead plaintiffs and another 1,500 who were fired after submitting religious accommodation requests, Liberty Counsel filed a supplemental brief days after DOJ's that accused the government of "fundamental errors" regarding the importance of the case and its facts, dismissing the department's focus on "terminology" as irrelevant to Title VII.

Vaccine injury lawyer Aaron Siri mocked the government's brief as "a word salad of nonsense," tagging President Trump's personal X account Tuesday to accuse his administration of "betraying religious liberty by arguing it is perfectly fine for employers to have policies that allow medical but not religious exemptions to vaccination requirements."...

Frankly, this is not surprising.  Trump is--at heart--a Big Government guy.  His appeal (MAGA) was based on making the Big Government cost-effective, a goal which cannot and will not be realized.  That's why he spends money like it's water.  The remaining elements of his policy--ejecting illegals and going after blatant frauds--are low-hanging fruits.  Dismantling the Deep State?  Never going to happen.

In the case above, he's showing his tendency to typical Democrat positions. 

Statism is the natural consequence of his policy 

What's Next in Education? More and Worse

Oh, man.  Another "enhancement" of Pubblik Screwels.

 The idea of so-called community schools dates back to the early 20th-century Progressive Era. This plan turns schools into one-stop shops for families and is accompanied by so-called wraparound services staffed by—typically unionized—government workers....

...U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), along with U.S. Representative Susie Lee (D-NV), have just introduced the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act. The bill aims to provide essential resources for school districts nationwide to plan, implement, expand, and support full-service community schools, including “medical, mental, and nutritional health services, mentoring and youth development programs, technical assistance, and continuing education courses for students and families.” ...

Leaving not much at all for actual parents to do, except to provide subjects for union-member employment opportunities.

And--of course--to even more completely govern the education indoctrination of the children. 

More Good Election News!

 Reported by Childers:

 ....On Tuesday, at least five Squad-aligned candidates in Illinois Democrat congressional primaries were defeated by moderates. Some of them did not merely lose, but were crushed beyond recognition. And even though most of them had unpronounceable, vaguely Middle-Eastern or African surnames, and I am not making this up, like Kat Abughazaleh (literally, “Bug Zapper”).

Axios, which is a news organization that covers politics with the breathless urgency of someone who has drunk one too many espressos, described the result as “a virtually total collapse.” It also noted, shifting to the grave tone of a doctor delivering a terminal diagnosis, that this is “a bad sign for the dozens of insurgent Democrats running in congressional races across the country.”...

Francesca Hong will be a victim, although the "Chaos" game may rescue her.

Heh. 

SSCI Regnant Again?

Most of you know that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) is the center-post of the Deep State.  Marco Rubio was a member of that committee, and you don't get there without a very thorough vetting.  The House has a similar group; together, those groups are "The Gang of Eight."  (McCain was a member, if you need horrific memories.)

Most of you also know that Tulsi Gabbard--decidedly NOT a Deep State member--is leaving her post as Director, National Intelligence after having enacted the beginning of a house-cleaning in all the intel agencies.

So read this carefully.

 ...State Department Counselor Michael Needham, a longtime confidant and aide to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will now be the assistant to President Trump and deputy national security adviser.

Mike Needham will serve along with Rubio, who, in addition to being Secretary of State is also President Trump’s National Security Advisor.  The National Security Advisor runs the White House National Security Council....

And:

 ...the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), that would be Tulsi Gabbard, serves as the head of the U.S. Intelligence Community and also acts as the principal advisor to: the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council, for all intelligence matters related to national security.

Deputy National Security Advisor Mike Needham will now assist in running the National Security Council while Marco Rubio remains in his dual role as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.  Needham was chief of staff to Rubio in the U.S. Senate during Rubio’s tenure as Vice-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and a Gang of Eight member....

Be prepared. 

"Megatron" Is Wrong-a-Tron

 We find "Megatron" proclaiming that credit-card default is at 15-year high.

We find Wolf Street has other numbers.

 ...During the Free-Money era, credit card delinquency rates had dropped to record super-low levels. But when the free money ended, delinquency rates rose out of that trough, and overshot a little but still remained relatively moderate within the 25-year context of the data. And then, two years ago, the free-money hangover started to get worked off, and delinquency rates started declining again, and the trend has continued.

The 30-plus days delinquency rate on credit cards issued by all commercial banks declined to 2.92% in Q1, seasonally adjusted (SA, red in the chart), the lowest since Q2 2023, and down from 3.06% a year ago, and from 3.17% two years ago, according to the Federal Reserve, based on regulatory reports filed by all commercial banks. This includes credit cards by subprime-rated cardholders.

The 60-plus days delinquency rate by all credit cards, including private label credit cards (such as store cards), and subprime credit cards, declined to 2.97%, not seasonally adjusted, at the end of Q1, down from 3.09% a year ago, and down from 3.12% two years ago, according to Equifax...

 

You decide. 

Trump's Index Is Not Smart

We often hear Trump yap about "the stock market" being up, so all is good.

"Good" for whom?

... In 1960, a person could buy 96 shares of the S&P 500 with a median household income. In 1990, he could buy 89 shares. In 2010, only 43 shares. How many shares could one buy today with the median household income? Only 16....

Trump is playing to what remains of his supporters:  the superannuated Hannity-watchers.

By definition, they're not a long-lasting bunch.  So does he expect a lengthy legacy in the House and Senate (R) numbers, or what?

For The Fallen

 The In Paradisum from the Durufle Requiem.

Question for the "Devout Catholic"

 

Israel Is NOT Happy

Netanyahu has not said a word, so how do we know that he is unhappy with this "deal"?

Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and the sidewalk gum spot Mark Levin are Screaming Mimi's about it.

When both of Israel's Senators are opposed, you can bet that Netanyahu is opposed.

Who Lost in Iran Deal?

It was reported that Netanyahu was "hair on fire" after a convo with Trump a few days ago.

From an Israeli reporter, we learn why.

... For a leader who has spent decades building his brand as the sole guarantor of Israeli security, accepting a deal that leaves the regime intact, Hezbollah armed, the ballistic missile program recovering, and Tehran flush with sanctions relief is electoral assisted suicide for Netanyahu. Hanging in the balance of these negotiations is the fate of more than one regime. 

But even Liiiiiiiiinnnnnnnndseeeeeeeey! is mostly happy with the deal as rumored.  (The actualities remain shrouded.)

So maybe Benji will be deposed and put on trial.  And maybe that will shed a lot of light on the yet-to-be-released Epstein files

Huh. 

More, from an ex-spook who was literally 'on the ground' in Middle East assignments:

 ...Equally important is the rapidly consolidating regional opposition to renewed American military escalation. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Pakistan have reportedly all conveyed direct warnings against renewed kinetic action. Their fear is not ideological sympathy toward Tehran, but the possibility of uncontrollable regional destabilization involving Gulf infrastructure, energy systems, shipping lanes, desalination facilities, and global oil markets.

At the same time, Iran is no longer operating from the weakened military position it occupied earlier this year. Iranian missile infrastructure has been substantially reconstituted. Naval capabilities have been dispersed and hardened. Command structures have stabilized under IRGC leadership. Current assessments indicate Tehran retains approximately 70% of its missile capability and has restored operational functionality to roughly 30 of its 33 strategic missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz....

So the Saudis, Qataris, and Emirates kinda want to keep their fresh-water supplies and functioning petroleum infrastructure.  Who could have guessed??

FINALLY!! An EV Road Tax

Electric vehicles (EVs) weigh a lot more than their internal-combustion comparables and obviously, they pay no gasoline tax.

So if you drive an internal-combustion car, you are paying the taxes that EV owners ought to pay.  And Congress finally caught up with that.

The bipartisan BUILD America 250 Act, a five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill, passed out of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Friday.

The 1,000-page legislation makes the largest federal investment in bridges and provides new revenue for the dwindling Highway Trust Fund for the first time in more than 30 years. The HTF funds the maintenance, repair and building of U.S. highways and mass transit systems....

 ...It also directs the Federal Highway Administration to require all states to collect an annual registration fee of $130 for electric vehicles and $35 for plug-in hybrid vehicles, with the fees increasing to a respective maximum of $150 and $50 in later years.

The fees are meant to replace the gas taxes that EV owners do not pay, as well as address the increased wear and tear EVs inflict on roadways. Depending on energy capacity, the battery within an EV can weigh anywhere from 300 to 3,000 pounds, according to ACE Battery....

If you are on nearly ANY social-media, you will have seen the screeching from anti-tax groups; put correctly, the screeching comes from the EV/Hybrid lobbies pushing through the "anti-tax" bunch.

Tax 'em.  Then fix the damn roads. 

 

A Mere 61 Cents?

 California has a total of 61 cents/gallon in taxes and fees for gasoline.

Highest in the country.

But not to worry!  When Ms Hong, or Mr. Crowley, gets to be the Governor of Wisconsin, it'll be "Hold Muh Beer!!!"

Crowley is good at raising taxes, then claiming that he can balance a budget.

Hong is clueless. 

"Affordability" Problems??

Gee.

Da Yout's tell us they have "affordability" problems, which are the fault of the Boomers.  See this post from Ace about that and many other Yout' problems.

Perhaps the problem is........well........"Delivered Food"  .check this:

  

Another (R) Waste of Money

There are good reasons to despise the Republican Party.

One is their vote FOR building a "Women's History" museum in D.C.

Shamefully, every single Wisconsin Republican voted for this massive--duplicatative, wasteful--expenditure of tax money.

Every.  Damn.  One. 

Every time the Democrats come up with an utterly inane (or worse) idea, the Republicans response is "Well, that's not good, but can we give you a lot of Other People's Money to make you happy?"

Jackasses. 

RFKjr Needs Bodyguards. Many of Them.

Fascinating insider account of the FDA/HHS/CDC wars which recently killed off Marty Makary, Tracy Beth Hoeg, and Hillary Perkins and will likely kill off RFKjr.  ("Killed" is metaphorical--so far.)

Excerpt anent Makary:

 

...Just peruse the almost dozen op-eds in the Wall Street Journal since last Fall, haranguing Marty for not approving a drug by Replimune that has unreliable data coming out of its flawed trials - you can see the strategy at work (three independent scientific teams at the FDA recommended against approval. Marty defended the scientists). Scan the political trade press daily and you’ll see chatter about the constant whining from the industry to the White House office established to placate aggrieved donors. Or the disgruntled former FDA employees serving as sources for every media hit, even though what they perceived as draconian DOGE layoffs happened before Marty took office. The rare-disease patient groups, being told by Pharma about how the FDA is delaying their new wonder-drug that could cure Huntington’s disease (even though the actual study methodology was at best controversial), ginned up anti-FDA grievance on social media and to the White House office established to placate aggrieved stakeholder groups (yes, there’s a relationship-babysitter WH office for everything)....

If you are reminded of the sudden exit of Tulsi Gabbard, you are not alone.

And this, wherein the author admits to some prejudice:

 ...But I have checked in with Marty pretty regularly during his year and a half journey, and over that time, watched him go from sounding enthusiastic and hopeful during the pre-confirmation process to frustrated and disappointed by government corruption. The let-down has been palpable over not being able to fully reverse the agency capture and put the public back in public health.

I know that people who know us both are saying I only see the best side of Marty. That’s true - I do. But I’ve loved him like a brother since we were both bright-eyed kids and it has pained me to watch the dream for Making America Healthy Again that we both shared for so long cut brutally short....

But before you say "AHA!!!  A tongue-bather!!!"  read the rest of the essay--or at least the first 10 grafs.

Then pray for the country. 

Educators Are NOT Your Friends

 You have heard from the TeeeVeee that '60 Organizations' have demanded that Children's Hospital and the UW Hospitals resume transgender butchery.

The TeeeeVeeeee was very careful to NOT mention the names of those organizations.

So we looked around.

Aside from the obvious ones--the LBGTQ+,-XYZSJ groups, the "coalition" consists largely of Public Education lobbyists and organizations and--no surprise--are concentrated in the Madistan area.

Which raises the obvious question:  why the Hell are teachers so damned interested in mutilation of children?

Something you should ask next time you have a teacher-conference at school. 

This Problem Can Be Solved

Nasty story here.

 

A 50 year-old Florida woman was viciously mauled to death by a pair of bloodthirsty pit bulls, only to be found by her heartbroken husband who said he’ll “never get the image out of my mind.”...

 ...“She just loved people, loved dogs more than people, and for her to go out that way, it’s not right,’ Smith said.

A neighbor’s surveillance footage captured Cowan walking down Blue Bonnet Drive carrying her small dog just moments before she was chased and horrifically attacked by the dogs, FOX35 reported....

The mutts built a reputation.

 

...Neighbors told FOX35 that the pit bulls were frequently left outside and had previously attacked passersby.

One resident said they had been previously trapped in their vehicle for 30 minutes while the duo surrounded their vehicle. Another neighbor recently called animal control with concerns and even bought pepper spray for protection....

Pepper spray is..........close..........to the resolution.

A .45 fat-boy IS the resolution, assuming good trigger control. So is a double-tap 9mm.

Another Block to H1-Bs--and Others

Bet you didn't know about "AOS".

 ...On Friday, officials announced that migrants in the United States who want to use the little-recognized and fast-track “Adjustment of Status” (AOS) pathway to green cards — and then citizenship — must instead follow the normal legalization pathway that goes through the U.S. embassies in their home countries.

This change will impact millions of economic migrants in the United States — including long-resident illegal migrants, temporary foreign workers, tourists, students, people with parole visas, Biden-era illegals with Temporary Protective Status, people who overstay their visas, and even people who have been given a final order of deportation. It does not impact refugees, asylum seekers, or migrants living overseas....

"AOS" was the game played by Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Bai-Den to short-circuit the legal immigration process.  

 

Judge David Borowski Sprays Chaff

 Here's the background:

A Milwaukee judge [David Borowski] wants to hold bars and bartenders accountable for overserving drunk drivers.

The comments came at a sentencing hearing for a man who killed a Franklin man two years ago....

So it's the "bars and bartenders", eh?

Actually, it's the Democrats such as the Biden Administration.

 ...Molina-Rios, as a undocumented convicted felon is facing deportation once he completes his sentence. Molina-Rios will be subject to be deported to Mexico.

Molina-Rios is well known in the Milwaukee Latino community for being a popular Spanish Speaking radio personality and a former member of the Wisconsin Brown Berets....

Borowski is not ignorant of this guy's background and status.  But instead of making it clear that the Biden Administration failed to deport a man with a troubling history, he chose to throw some chaff into the air to deflect from the real problem:  Democrat malfeasance on illegals.

 

Adam Reif also chose NOT to tell his audience about Molina-Rios' status as an illegal.  Another loyal Democrat. 

 

That "Brown Beret" group that Molina-Rios belonged to?

 

 The Brown Berets (Spanish: Los Boinas Cafés [los ˈβojnas kaˈfes]) is a Chicano paramilitary organization that emerged during the Chicano Movement in the United States during the late 1960s.^[2][3] David Sanchez and Carlos Montes co-founded the group modeled after the Black Panther Party.^[4][5] The Brown Berets was part of the Third World Liberation Front. It worked for educational reform, farmworkers' rights, and against police brutality and the Vietnam War.^[6] It also sought to separate the American Southwest from the control of the United States government.^[7]...

^{What the Hell was Borowski THINKING???} 

 

 

 

Crowley, a Child of Privilege

Some people are more equal than others.

 Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley will throw out the first pitch on Friday, as the Brewers host the L.A. Dodgers. His campaign planned a tailgate before the event, even though Brewers’ rules prohibit campaigning on the grounds....

Sure.

So can Hong do that?  Barnes?  Hughes?

Tiffany is not a scofflaw.  He won't be doing one. 

Grim Points and Laughs

If the US Department of Education is this stupid, imagine how bad your State's Dep't/Ed actually is.

The Weekend's Discussion Piece

 Davidson at The Federalist presents a fiery essay about Americans.  It is a re-run of what Pat Buchanan proposed, by the way.  Here's the core:

... But of course one need not be an ethno-nationalist to reject the creedalists’ claims about American identity. Indeed, those claims can be rejected on the basis of religion alone. At the very heart of American identity, after all, lies the Christian religion and the principles of government derived from its theological precepts. Put another way, if America is a “propositional nation,” as they say, then the proposition is Christianity and all that it entails. You cannot have, as the basis of nation, the assertion that “all men are created equal,” that all men are given unalienable rights by their Creator, without Christian theological claims undergirding those assertions. That doesn’t mean every American has to be Christian, as if we’re some kind of theocracy. But it does mean that every American has to endorse a Christian theological cosmology.

The point about religion is that America is not an Enlightenment-era parlor game. It is a people who came from a particular culture and religion, British and Christian. Its creed is universal in the same way the Christian creed is universal: it is open to everyone willing to convert, change their life, and be transformed. That’s what assimilation really means. The immigrant must leave behind the cultural practices of his homeland and adopt American culture and habits as his own — above all, he must adopt the Christian idea that all men are created equal, with all the implications that flow from that. That is harder to do than it seems, and it doesn’t happen at all under conditions of mass immigration....

That has consequences.

 ...Not everyone who emigrates here will become an American. Ilhan Omar, for example, will probably never become an American, no matter how long she lives here. That’s because being an American doesn’t mean just being physically present in the United States, with all your documents in order, in hopes of making a lot of money or amassing a lot of power. It means joining, and being adopted into, an existing people — a people with a shared past and a common future and a distinct heritage and cultural patrimony.

Most foreigners, if they fully understood what it meant, would not even want to assimilate. People after all tend to love their own cultures and ancestral homelands, and they generally do not want to leave them behind for another. That’s why so many immigrants today fail to assimilate, or don’t even try....

His main thesis?

...That’s also why, in 2026, it’s worth asking whether we should keep allowing them to hold high federal office. ...

By the way, the claptrap (adopted by Gorsuch, who should know better) that America was originally a "land of immigrants" was demolished in the essay.

Hmmmm.   

Ron Johnson's Moral Dilemma

 Imagine being RoJo.

Your "leader" is pompous asshoe and the President lies to your face, telling you Iran will nuke the USA.

But if you walk out in protest, you will likely be the cause of the (D) Statist takeover.

Hmmmmm. 

Trump = Epstein Class. Sad.

Looks like Trump's friends are Very Special.

 ...Trevor Milton. Convicted of defrauding investors, Milton was granted a full pardon and excused from potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution payments after he donated $2.5 million to the Trump campaign and associated PACs.

Then there’s Paul Walczak, who was convicted of healthcare fraud. He was excused both from restitution payments and from serving his prison sentence after paying $1 million to dine with Trump. Walczak’s mother is also a top Trump donor....

There may be good reasons for Trump's circumvention of the penalties.  We'd love to hear them.

Ahhhhh--but there's more.

 ...there’s the insider-trading epidemic and Trump’s pattern of buying stocks in companies that subsequently benefit from his own policy decisions....

... As the New York Times reported last week, “Thirteen [online prediction market] users wagered a total of $140,000 that Israel would strike Iran by the end of that week, even as the odds suggested that an attack was unlikely. Seven of the accounts had been opened just days earlier. Another had a history of bets related to military action against Iran — and had won money on all of them. Israel attacked Iran later that day, netting the accounts more than $600,000 in profits.”...

That's a LOT of smoke.

And, of course, there's Miriam Adelson's war.

Most of these beneficiaries are "Epstein Class" peeps--which reminds us to ask about the remaining Epstein files, just like Massie did before he was (metaphorically) drawn and quartered by special-interest money and a well-timed smear. By the way:  we are very much in favor of compensating the "rioters" (not really rioters) who were destroyed following J6.  Donalds explains this very well.  Showing up at a rally and waving a flag--or acting in self-defense after Pelosi ordered unjust gas attacks--is not a crime worthy of 2 years' incarceration BEFORE the trial starts.  Period.  F**K Pelosi.

Moving on..... 

Rumors have Tulsi Gabbard leaving soon to prep for a '28 Presidential run.   

Apparently she has good reasons to bail out.

Meantime, there's Omar.  SS,DD 

Breitbart Re-Arranges History of Schlitz

Sadly, it's not hard to find egregious errors in media stories these days.

Here's one:

 ...Schlitz Premium, a beer brand that dates all the way back to Milwaukee in the 1840s, went from being one of the largest breweries in the U.S. to being placed “on hiatus,” its parent company Pabst Brewing Co. said on Friday....

There is no "Schlitz Premium" brand.  It's just Schlitz.

Here's a much larger error:

... The Schlitz brand was once the largest brewery in the U.S. before it was bought out by Anheuser-Busch in the 1950s...

WRONG.  Anheuser-Busch did not purchase Schlitz in the '50's.  Stroh purchased it in the '80's.

Egads. 

Reason for Mayor Johnson's Foo-Foo Dust?

The Mayor of Milwaukee has screeched about Tom Tiffany's expressed concerns re:  voting in Milwaukee.  Specifically, the voting in the '20.  Mayor Johnson has screeched twice, making it clear that Tiffany's comments (and the FBI's inquiries) are WEAPONS being used AGAINST MILWAUKEE.  The idiot-Governor of Wisconsin has said the same thing, as has the Milwaukee County Executive.

So much Foo-Foo dust!!  So much chaff!!!

There may be a reason for all that chaff being spread about.

 ...Federal law is clear: Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act limits HUD housing assistance to U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens. In addition, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 prohibits public welfare benefits from going to illegal aliens and requires HUD housing programs to verify immigration status at the point of application, now a nearly instantaneous process through the SAVE program. Yet HUD rules have systematically avoided this verification until now....

Wowzers.

Think that the Mayor's bunch may have ...........ahhh........ignored Federal law when accommodating folks into HUD slots in Milwaukee?

Well, the Sun rises in the East, doesn't it? 

...Thanks to President Trump and HUD Secretary Scott Turner, every housing authority in the country must finally verify eligibility. This is a strong step towards restoring public trust in HUD housing. For the first time, the system Congress mandated will be employed.

At a moment when Americans are competing for every available unit and homelessness hit a record high of 770,000 under Joe Biden in 2024, this new rule by HUD Secretary Turner finally upholds federal law, frees up units for lawful citizens, and ensures that public housing is there for those it is intended to serve: the disabled, elderly and low-income American families who need help....

Think that "the Press" and "TeeeVeee News" is going to ask questions of the Mayor and the County Exec?

If you do, you need treatment for your mental condition. 

 

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??