Friday, May 31, 2024

They cut down the laws to get the devil

Classic reference:


What to do now? First, it is now absolutely essential that Trump be elected president. The Democrats cannot be allowed to get away with this effort to turn America into a banana republic.

Second, the Democrats understand nothing except the raw exercise of power. Therefore, Republican attorneys general and district attorneys should bring criminal charges against Democratic officeholders wherever possible. No Democratic officeholder should be allowed to retire, in any jurisdiction with Republican law enforcement, without facing criminal charges. There can’t be a single Democratic official in America against whom a criminal case can’t be brought that is better than this case against Trump. It should be open season on Democrats in the criminal courts.

Third, the criminal prosecutions should begin with Joe Biden. Unlike Trump, Biden is actually a criminal. He is already known to be guilty under the federal bribery statute, to the tune of at least $20 million. If Trump wins in November, his Department of Justice should immediately indict Biden, and Biden should be hounded until the day he dies or goes to prison, whichever happens first.
It's worth noting that - despite all his "lock her up" bluster, President Trump never sent his DOJ to pursue Hillary Clinton.  Hillary, who was actually guilty of campaign violations never faced any consequences for that crime, nor her wholesale hard drive wipe ("with a sponge") of classified information.

Now?  Now all the guardrails are off.  The laws are flat and the Orange Devil will have his due.

Related: Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig: "Prosecutors Got Trump — But They Contorted the Law".  
But when you impose meaningful search parameters, the truth emerges: The charges against Trump are obscure, and nearly entirely unprecedented. In fact, no state prosecutor — in New York, or Wyoming, or anywhere — has ever charged federal election laws as a direct or predicate state crime, against anyone, for anything. None. Ever. Even putting aside the specifics of election law, the Manhattan DA itself almost never brings any case in which falsification of business records is the only charge.
It's going to take a week or so to see how this shakes out with the race but my guess is that the number of people put off by Trump's conviction will be equal to those eager to see him elected so that this legal perfidy does not prosper.

Thursday, May 30, 2024

America turned into a banana republic to save democracy

I think this headline says it all: "In the least surprising verdict ever, 12 Manhattanites just found Donald Trump guilty." - "Of what is anyone’s guess." 

Here are some of the things we learned in this trial:
In reality the case depends on a raft of dubious propositions, including:

Companies shouldn’t classify payments to a lawyer as legal services;

Candidates illegally “influence” elections if they try to hide negative information;

Trump had no non-campaign-related reasons to keep Daniels from telling her story;

New York state can bring a prosecution that turns on federal election laws.
My biggest fear is that Dementia Joe Biden uses this verdict as an excuse to back out of the debates.

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

It was tiny

Red State: "What the Biden Campaign Doesn't Want You to Know About His Philly Audience."

To paraphrase Ian Faith: "I wouldn't worry about it, Philly isn't a big Democrat town."

In other news, North Carolina is not a battleground state.

Spoiler alert: Magical thinking required

NY Times: "Jamie Raskin: How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases."

It involves asking the other seven justices to undermine their own colleagues in a co-equal branch of the government.  There is just no depth to the Left's madness and inability to cope when things don't go their way.  The election is going to be wild. 

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Violating the Sixth Amendment, three times

After hearing the prosecution's closing argument in Trump's Kafka case, Andrew McCarthy confirms what we all knew: Alvin Bragg is leaning on federal crimes he has no authority to prosecute:
Listening to the prosecution summation by Joshua Steinglass, it is quite amazing how explicitly the state is relying on violations of FECA as the “other crime” that Donald Trump was allegedly concealing by causing his business records to be falsified.

It is impossible to draw any conclusion other than that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg knew that, as a state prosecutor, his enforcement of federal law would be incredibly controversial since he has no such authority; the federal agencies that do have such authority investigated Trump and opted not to prosecute; and to get this prosecution done, Bragg is simply making up his own version of federal law.

Bragg had the collusion of Judge Merchan, who allowed the state to get away with not putting the “other crime” in the indictment, and rejected defense attempts to force him to provide explicit disclosure pretrial. Prosecutors hid in the tall grass until summation and are now emphatically describing Trump as having blatantly violated federal campaign law.
The completely biased judge helped the prosecution by ignoring the law again with his "Pick your own crime!" approach to the New Law when Trump  - and only Trump - is on trial.  "Judge Merchan Violates the Constitution Again, Instructs Jury That They Don't Need to be Unanimous About Which Mystery Crime Constitutes the Legal Predicate for the Trump Prosecution."

Finally, the "adults are back in charge" Biden campaign apparently violated the law again with their little stunt with Robert DeNiro: "Yet Another Violation of Trump’s Constitutional Rights in the Bragg Case"
No sooner did I write this morning’s post on a violation of Donald Trump’s rights under the Sixth Amendment than we had a second violation of another of Trump’s rights under the Sixth Amendment.
------
This is a nationally known celebrity acting as a representative of the president of the United States, at the very site of the trial, on the day before the jury will begin to deliberate, declaring that “everybody in the world” knows that the defendant is guilty and that he has previously gotten out of too many things. Sure, Trump has had his surrogates out there (including the speaker of the House), but the prosecution doesn’t have a constitutional right to an impartial jury; the defendant does. If this isn’t over the line, what is?

And here's Ben Shapiro on the Biden campaign and their silly demonstration:


Sunday, May 26, 2024

Saturday, May 25, 2024

What happened to the magic?

NY Post: "Disney World’s ‘Star Wars’ experience closed after just 18 months — this travel influencer reveals why."

I watched this four-hour deep-dive video yesterday and it should be taught in business schools on how theme parks need to manage people, entertainment, queues, etc.  When the core of your "immersive experience" is having guests run around scanning QR codes with their cellphones, you've miscalculated somewhere.

As one of those Disney people, I need to say that I still love the cruise line but I don't think I'll ever go back to the parks mainly because of the price-gouging built into their Genie system.  So many changes that Disney World added are just meant to squeeze one more buck out of you. 

Friday, May 24, 2024

Oh no. Anyway.

Hot Air: "Washington Post Publisher: 'We Are In a Hole, and We Have Been for Some Time'."
I don't know who the Post wants to be but as a subscriber who looks at the paper at least 6 days a week I can tell you who they are. They are the voice of the Democratic Party in print. They cater almost exclusively to the left and there are rarely any surprises in the partisan outlook of their daily output with the exception of the editorial board which isn't bad. Apart from that, the paper is downright dour most of the time and attracts nothing but left-wing commenters who have clearly honed their skills shouting down opposing viewpoints on social media. The Post is an unpleasant place and I'm not surprised they are having a hard time selling it to subscribers.
All the major newspapers are essentially carbon-copies of the NPR model where there are exactly zero opposing voices to the preferred narrative.  You would think that at some point these media sources would create a scatter chart of profits vs. trust in the media polls and notice a correlation.  But no.

The ongoing gaslighting

Here's Krugman...again...with the same article again: "America Is Still Having a ‘Vibecession’."
Let me be honest: I didn’t want to write about this subject yet again.
You and me both, Paul!  Do they pay you the same amount for re-runs?

Krugman and the Democrats and the mainstream media (I repeat myself) are the meme of Homer Simpson insisting the economy is "still good!" as it's systematically destroyed.



Community notes for the win

Outkick: "Iranian Dictator Gets Destroyed On Social Media After President Dies In Helicopter Crash."

Thursday, May 23, 2024

MMFA lied, staffers learn to code

Twitchy: "Media Matters for America Layoffs Brings Schadenfreudelciousness to X." 

Let me, um, disagree with you there

Here's Mona Charon: "Biden Can’t Blow the Debates - They may be his only chances to change people’s minds."
Trump and his allies have way oversold the Biden-is-senile message. A fair share of voters have come to think that he is not just old, but drooling and unable to function. The truth is that, though his voice is getting croaky, he messes up words and names sometimes, and he walks quite stiffly, he is very much compos mentis.
No. 

Charon boggles at scripted appearances like the State of the Union but the fact is that every unscripted moment for Biden - especially over this past year - has been an absolute train wreck.  And he's even struggling at scripted events with a teleprompter telling him what to say.  The CNN interview was a prime example of outright lies, denial, and delusion with zero pushback from a friendly host.  Trump won't be so accommodating during a live debate way past Dementia Joe's bedtime.

Of course, that point is moot since Biden won't debate.

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

These videos are wild

See them here: "KJP Says We're Talking About People Who Are 'LITERALLY Being Crushed' by Student Debt."

This question has been asked thousands of times since student loan forgiveness has been raised and still we can't get a straight answer as to why certain people are entitled to a $35K check while others are not.  Remember this classic?

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

How is this legal?

Associated Press: "Biden releasing 1 million barrels of gasoline from Northeast reserve in bid to lower prices at pump."

When did the SPR morph from something to be used in a national emergency into Dementia Joe's re-election slush fund?

Monday, May 20, 2024

We finally found a crime in the Trump trial

Federalist: "The Only Discernible Crime In Trump Trial Is Michael Cohen Admitting To Stealing $30,000."

How about this quote?
In fact, Cohen’s admission is “more serious of a crime than falsifying business records,” CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig said.

“The money that Michael Cohen stole from under Donald Trump’s nose by his own admission, was part of the $420,000 that Michael Cohen was reimbursed for Stormy Daniels,” Honig explained. “So the heart of the prosecution’s case is, that whole setup where they were going to repay Michael Cohen $420,000 to reimburse him for Stormy Daniels, that was all done to pay Stormy Daniels. Trump knew it, Trump knew every penny — that’s why he’s guilty. Now it turns out Trump is getting robbed by his own guy.”
As the joke goes, "when you've lost CNN." 

Yeah, funny that

Red State: "The Press Are Strangely Incurious As White House Makes More Troubling Corrections to a Biden Transcript."

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Consumer confidence slumps

Washington Post: "Americans are down on the economy (again), with inflation topping election concerns = Consumer sentiment is at a six-month low, and people are pulling back on all kinds of purchases." 

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Democracy dies in darkness

Jeff Jacoby: "A cynical Washington Post tells Biden: Nothing matters more than beating Trump." - "In a lifetime of newspaper reading, I have never encountered an editorial so cynical in its willingness to discard any principle other than to win at all costs." 

Too late, they realized their mistake

Ross Douthat in the NY Times: "Why the Manhattan trial is probably helping Trump."
I defer to those analysts on what New York state legal precedent suggests. But I would defy anyone to summarize the underlying situation, in which a presidential candidate could be sent to prison for a misdemeanor offense elevated by a second crime for which he isn’t even being charged, without the description coming across as somewhat Kafkaesque.
We warned that charging Trump for a bookkeeping dispute would turn him into a martyr and now the laughable nature of this case is doing just that.  Great job, guys!


Friday, May 17, 2024

I can't make sense of this stupid article

Here's Democrat operative Symone Sanders LARPing as a journalist with "Democrats need to counter Trump's courthouse campaign."

The theme here seems to be that the Trump trial is creating a media circus that is sucking the oxygen away from all the great work the Biden administration is doing:
Trump’s indictments are historic and should be covered vigorously by the media. But minuscule details of the trial threaten to obscure developments out of the executive branch that affect the lives of millions of Americans.
If only we could track down the people who have generated this black hole of attention around Trump!


Furthermore, nobody's stopping you from getting your message out, Symone.  The idiot White House press secretary gave five press conferences this week.  Dementia Joe even sat down for interviews with CNN and Yahoo recently.  The problem (for you) is that Americans have tuned out the constant gaslighting about the economy. 

Go ahead and spread the great news.  Nobody's stopping you.  Here, let me help: "Biden’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging has only produced 7 stations in two years."  

Awesome job.  The adults are back in charge!

Alabama votes "no"

The Corner: "So Much for the Great UAW Unionization Wave."

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Two words: "Vroom vroom!"

Federalist: "If Joe Biden Is ‘Sharp As Ever,’ Why Is He Trying To Suppress The Hur Audio?

We all know why

When you've lost CNN

PJ Media: "Michael Cohen Gets Destroyed During Cross Examination, Leaving Anderson Cooper Stunned."

This is great:
"I think it's devastating,” Cooper added later. "I mean, for Michael Cohen's credibility on this, I mean, on this one particular topic."

He added, "Yes, I think, if I was a juror in this case, watching that, I would think this guy's making this up as he's going along or he's making this particular story up."
Cohen is the prosecution's star and final witness.  The defense hasn't even started yet!  If the judge had any scruples, he would throw out this silly case with a directed verdict.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

This robot gets paid $19/hour

Twitchy: "Nina Turner EMBARRASSES Herself With Another Hot Take on What McDonald’s Workers Should Be Paid."

People who have never had to meet a payroll always know what's best.  This is the future:

Biden won't debate

Know how I know?  His debate announcement video: "Biden mocked over number of jump cuts in Trump debate challenge video: ‘Like a Claymation film’."

I've seen quite a few articles online questioning why Trump agreed to Dementia Joe's terms for the debates including picking left-loving CNN to moderate.  My feeling is that Trump is calculating - correctly - that Biden can't speak extemporaneously anymore.  Every public appearance by Dementia Joe is assisted with teleprompters and note cards and occasionally the Easter Bunny.   Whenever Biden is deprived of his crutches, it's a disaster and the only thing that saves him is that journalists are too deferential to call him a liar.

Donald Trump won't be so deferential.  Biden won't debate.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Biden won't debate

Red State: "Joe Biden Tells Inflation Whopper Again, As His Campaign Continues to Crash and Burn."

Here's the transcript from Yahoo Finance.  Dynamo Joe fielded a grand total of three questions, didn't answer two of them, and completely lied on the third by repeating the inflation falsehood.

Jim Geraghty estimates there are three scenarios to explain why Biden lies about inflation (among many other things): 1) he knows he's lying, 2) he was told he lied but already forgot or 3) he wasn't told he lied.  I believe this last scenario:
Another possibility is that Biden misremembers the inflation rate when he took office, said so publicly, and no one around the president has told him, “Mr. President, when you took office, the inflation rate was just 1.4 percent, you can’t go around claiming that it was 9 percent.” Meaning we have a president who operates in a fog of half-truths and illusory claims that reflect the way he wishes things had happened, and no one around the president sees any point in correcting him.
It's just easier to let Dementia Joe mis-remember the awesome job he did then give him some ice cream.

Can you imagine a debate with Trump where these obvious lies are called out in real time?  It would be the bloodbath we were promised.

Monday, May 13, 2024

He should have done the opposite

Wall Street Journal: "The George Costanza Presidency - With each expedient act, from climate policy to the Mideast, Joe Biden digs a deeper hole for himself."



Sunday, May 12, 2024

Look who's ox is being gored now

Jonathan Turley: "The New York Times Denounces Cancel Culture . . . After Fueling Cancel Culture for Years." - "Recently, however, the mob came for liberal professors and media who have remained silent for years as conservatives and others were targeted on campus. Suddenly, there is a new interest in free speech and academic freedom, including by the Times editors who blamed cancel culture for the recent demonstrations and disruptions on campus."  

Suddenly, indeed.  Tom Cotton was unavailable for comment. 

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Architects of their own destruction

Don Surber: "We don't want journalism back"
Do we really want the dingbats and dingleberries that Kahn described as the people who decide what is news and what the facts are? When I was a youngun, a wise newspaperman explained to me that the power of the press belongs to the man who owns the presses. NYT and the rest abused that power. We will not give it back to them.

Thus the answer to Taibbi’s question “Is Journalism Back?” is no. Journalists abandoned objectivity. Readers have decided that they do not want the journalists back.
The largest paper in Western Massachusetts has not run a single editorial with Joe Biden as the topic in an entire year.  For four years, every week (at least) the same paper inveighed against Orange Man Bad.

Friday, May 10, 2024

You can probably guess which half

Reason: "Nearly Half of All Masters Degrees Aren't Worth Getting - According to new research, 23 percent of bachelor's degree programs and 43 percent of master's degree programs have a negative ROI."
However, different kinds of degrees were more likely to have a negative ROI than others. For example, 77 percent of bachelor's degrees and doctoral and professional degrees have a positive ROI. In contrast, just 57 percent of master's and associate degree programs have a positive ROI.
Story time: a couple years ago, I felt my career in engineering had hit a dead-end so I went back to school to get a master's degree.  This degree was a Master of Science degree in Engineering Management.

Know what kind of degrees have a positive return on investment (ROI)?

1) Engineering
2) Management

and ipso facto

3) Engineering Management

For me, it was a great investment and enhanced my career.  So YMMV but thumbs-up for me.

The paper of record

 

Thursday, May 09, 2024

That CNN interview was...something

Hot Air: "Joe Biden's Really Bad, Truly Terrible Interview on CNN."

This was the interview where Biden decided to abandon Israel: "Biden Commits To Saving Hamas, Will Cut Off Offensive Weapons To Israel If It Enters Rafah."  Because - hey - those votes in Dearborn, Michigan ain't gonna buy themselves.

On the homefront, Biden lied relentlessly about the economy.  

As somebody who follows Dementia Joe's speeches with some regularity, I can tell you that he uses the same rationalizations and prevarications with predictable reliability.  As a journalist - even a CNN journalist - interviewer Erin Burnett should have been prepared for Biden's lies.  I'm not even talking about statements that can be open to interpretation (such as, say, Trump saying there will be a "bloodbath" if he's not elected).  I'm talking about hard numbers, immutable history, and cold facts.

So, once again, I'm disappointed at the mainstream media that allows Biden to say that inflation was 9% when he took office.  This is completely untrue and just one of the ways Biden tries to weasel out of any responsibility for his terrible economic record.   And yet, Burnett did not push back.  At all.

This is why I hate the mainstream media.  These clowns love to wrap themselves in the "truth to power" mantra until the truth will embarrass a Democrat. 

Extra - NY Post editorial: "Biden tells a lie a minute during CNN interview." 

Wednesday, May 08, 2024

A hard rain is gonna fall

Hot Air: "Social Security Has About One Decade Left."

That is, about ten years from now, the automatic benefit cuts kick in leading to a reduction of 21% in promised benefits.  There is a general belief that a "grand bargain" will be reached but it would be my preference that any reform of the Social Security system is accompanied by partial privatization similar to the personal accounts in the Australian superannuation system

Government-controlled programs like Social Security and pensions (looking at you, Detroit) can disappear but personally-controlled retirement programs can't be touched.

Forrest Gump Biden does it again

NY Post: "Biden falsely claims his Catholic school teacher was drafted by Green Bay Packers during Wisconsin appearance."
The president has a long record of embellishing stories in an attempt to establish a personal connection with his audiences.
It's just comical at this point.  As many have noted, when Dementia Joe says "not a joke" that means he's lying.

Extra - Another obvious lie in the same speech.  My word as a Biden!

Tuesday, May 07, 2024

Spreading joy wherever he goes

In mid-April, Joe Biden spent an entire week campaigning in Pennsylvania, visiting Scranton, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia.

You can see the fruits of efforts in the Real Clear Politics composite poll.  

Tomorrow he'll be in Wisconsin so watch the polls there next.  

Monday, May 06, 2024

KJP is an idiot

One of my favorite YouTubers has a new video on the inept White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and he picks up on the exact same question I highlighted on Saturday about the sunsetting Trump tax cuts.  The answer wasn't in KJP's enormous binder and she's incapable of ad-libbing an intelligent answer so the result is a complete mess.  To be clear.  Enjoy:


Rewarding the mob

This is just disgraceful: "Columbia University Cancels Main Commencement Ceremony After Protests."

Imagine working years for your degree and then you can't even celebrate the day with your friends and family.  What a bunch of entitled jerks.  

Saturday, May 04, 2024

That unbearable airhead KJP

Here she is in action, "answering" a press question about the Trump tax cuts which Dementia Joe said he will allow to expire:
Q    Thanks, Karine.  So, the President says that he wants to let the tax cuts — the Trump tax cuts expire.  If that law expires, it does raise taxes on almost every American.  So, does he still support that expiring without anything else in place?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, look, the — as you said, the President is going to allow — is going to — is — is going to let the Trump tax cut expire.  And he was very clear.  But he will not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year.  That is — that is part of the budget that you saw come out.  And it’s going to expire for the wealthy.  So, been very clear about that.  

You know, look, this is a president that’s going to make sure that we protect and not raise taxes for — for people making $400,000 and less a year.  

And — and Republicans want to do the opposite.  They want to give tax breaks to corporations and billionaires.  They’ve said that.  They want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  Who does that hurt?  That hurts everyday Americans.  

And so, the President has been really clear about that.  He wants to expand Affordable Care Act, as you see him doing that, for Americans — making sure that they have good healthcare.  And so, that’s what the President is — is going to focus on.

Q    But still, the President can’t pick and choose which part of the law sunsets.  The entire law will sunset.  And the — the Tax Foundation says that someone who’s married, two kids, making $85,000 would pay $1,700 more in taxes.  That’s somebody under $400,000 who would —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  The President has been very clear.  He’s going to protect working- — working- and middle-class Americans making less than $400,000 a year.  He’s been very clear on th- — about that.
Despite repeating the word "clear," this is as clear as mud.  The law is going to expire and everybody's taxes are going to go up.

But...Republicans.

The choice is yours, Joey

The Hill: "Biden to deliver speech on antisemitism at Holocaust memorial ceremony."

I'm curious to see if Biden will rise to the occasion and deliver a solemn speech in the Days of Remembrance ceremony, or whether he'll fall into his typical pattern of self-aggrandizing, self-serving, and political rhetoric.

So this thing is still going on

Gregg Jarrett: "NY vs. Trump: Bragg's own witness, Hope Hicks, implodes case against Trump - Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg should turn himself in to authorities for impersonating an honest lawyer"

Hicks testified that Trump used his personal money on the advice of his lawyer (Cohen) to pay down a shakedown and avoid personal issues.  This is exactly the same defense used by John Edwards who actually used campaign funds to pay off his indiscretion in 2011.  

So will be the cries of racism

Outkick: "Ticket Prices For Caitlin Clark's First WNBA Preseason Game Are Mind-Boggling." 

Friday, May 03, 2024

Thursday, May 02, 2024

Wednesday, May 01, 2024

No wonder they tried to fire her

Like ragging on AOC, it's low-hanging fruit to criticize White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.  She's just awful.

Today, I got the impression - a very clear impression (KJP joke here!) - that even the White House press corps is getting pretty sick of her s--t.  She was asked in several different ways why Biden hasn't made a public statement on the nationwide college protests and KJP just refuses to answer while padding her responses with more vapid filler than a junior high student trying to meet a word count target on an essay.