Elections, and the Democrats Have Baggage.

A nation in which one administration can allow millions of unvetted illegal migrants into the country, but requires that a court vet each deportation decision in an individually adjudicated case will soon lose the values our democratic system was intended to preserve. Bill Ackman

By Rich Kozlovich

Reports are the Democrats are going to double and triple down on critical race theory, gender ideology, no immigrant should be detained, the Jews are bad, and Trump supporters should be hanged as their platform for the 2028 election.  They actually believe that will swing them right back into power.  And they're not alone in that fantasy as even Never-Trump Republicans are predicting a huge comeback.   

Interesting mind set since just like their myrmidons in the Pravda media, their numbers are cratering, but they have nothing else to offer, and if they change, taking a more moderate or conservative tact, Democrats might as well become Republicans.   

 

All those who've been around Biden for all these years had to know that, he was a nitwit.  The evidence has been abundant for years, and yet those people chose him as their go to relief pitcher to be their candidate for President of the United States in 2020.  Just think now bad the rest of their bench is.   

AOC clearly wants to be President, after all, she graduated cum laude from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in international relations and economics, which so impressed potential employers she became a bartender.   Since Joe wasn't even smart enough to be a bartender, and the Democrats thought he was smart enough to be President, why not AOC?  And.....I want everyone to remember that I said this first...... RFK, Jr. will be running to be the Democrat nominee in 2028.     

Another favorite of mine is that great intellectual and moral giant, Michael Moore, with his latest rant filled with logical fallacies claiming one of these deported illegal migrant children might have cured cancer, or stopped an asteroid from hitting the planet.  But then again, maybe they wouldn't.   But if he can show us which ones would be able to do that, we'll keep them.  

In the meanwhile they're criminals because they're here illegally, eating up American's tax money, overwhelming our public services, committing a lot of crimes, forming criminal organizations, and even creating groups to overthrow the United States, much of which Joe Biden can take "credit".  Other than Michael Moore and his ilk, all of whom are suffering from mental delusions, the rest of us call this blame, not credit.  

• Democrat New Mexico Judge Abruptly Resigns After Housing a Tren de Aragua Gangbanger in His Backyard Cottage
•  MS-13: A Transnational Terrorist Threat Ravaging America

It turns out AOC is their new leader now, and little Chuckie Schumer is in trouble ....serious trouble...  with his base.  Senator Kennedy said his strategy for defeating her is to just let her talk, and noted she's the reason why they put instructions on shampoo bottles.  But she appeals to a base that's just as nuts and radical as AOC and Chuckie is scared.  Why?  Well, he's always been great at puffing out his chest and talking big and bad, but there's a new sheriff in town, and he backed down and voted for the continuing resolution.  He's actually afraid now for his job, and his safety.  Well schadenfreude, that's how the SCOTUS justices felt when he sicced the mob on to them.   

But I think Chuckie may not have to worry about losing his job, at least to AOC, since it's clear she want's to be President.  It also seems clear she thinks she can get nominated, and get elected.   Nominated, really?  Well, given the Democrat bench who are giving the impression they're running: 

Cory Booker, Gavin Newsom, AOC, Buttigieg, Walz, Rahm Emanuel, Kamala, Jasmine Crockett, and Josh Shapiro.

With a clown car like that, she just might get the nomination.   But elected?  With the baggage they have, and the staff that's in place, I wouldn't bet the house on it. 

But there's a big worm in the Democrat apple.  The leadership and those who've been in the Congress for many years are going to be attacked by that same AOC radical base that supports her.   David Hogg says America's problems are the direct result of Democracy, and he's the Vice Chair of the DNC declaring war on the old guard Democrats. 

Janet Yellen proves what an idiot she is telling America having manufacturing return to America is  an undesirable pipe dream, and that gigantic intellect Whoopi Goldberg calls for higher taxes to keep the government big and well fed, and Ben Affleck, another overrated and over paid celebrity says, the taxpayers are being stingy with Hollywood.

Democrats have made fighting deportation and keeping illegal aliens like M-13 gang member Abrego Garcia in America their hill to die on, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.  And guess what?  America isn't happy about that.  Plus they seem to have missed the fact the President of El Salvador is not sending him back, and he doesn't care what the Democrats or their corrupt catspaws in the media or the federal judiciary says, so why are they still playing this game.  

Democrats are so stupid in their desire to appease some fraction of society, often an irrational faction, they run with the latest philosophical flavor of the day.  California lifted the statute of limitations on sex abuse lawsuits, and no one thought to ask what were going to be the consequences over this.  Well, it's going to cost them billions and billions of dollars with cases going back 40 years, and most of them are unprovable.  Will they repeal that law?  This is California, just raise taxes. 

Josh Shapiro aide scandal is bound to come up, and his catering to Muslims will most certain not help him with Jewish voters, except for those who are far left "useful idiot".  

In California Newsom has a lot of baggage.  Gas prices are set to surge because they're shutting down another refinery.   It appears Newsom is going to either force out all the energy producers in California, or put them under state control.  California hates white people, and decided to show their contempt by punishing white drivers two to five times more than minorities.  And that's fair, after all, Newsom needs that money to fight Trump.   

Young girls are upset they have to dress in front of boys in their schools, and the school boards seem irritated seemingly unwilling to understand what's their problem.  We can see why Texas has approved school choice, and I think we can potentially see this on the horizon for the nation, since it appears public education is failing to educate.   Just 30% of Illinois 4th graders read at proficiency standards.  Before the Department of Education was created 1979 "the level of reading proficiency in the United States was generally quite high, with illiteracy rates being low and declining. By 1950, illiteracy was below 3% in two-thirds of states, and below 10% in all states. Even the earlier measurements of illiteracy, which focused on basic reading and writing, showed the rate was less than 1% of the population 14 and over in 1979."

Newsom and his political cadre just can't seem to grasp that Trump really did win the election, even claiming there's a large grass roots movement against Trump.  Well, that might not be true as Monica Showalter says conservatives, or at least non-leftists, are coming close to winning elections in California.  Now that's a shocker.  But Newsom has his priorities.  Along with destroying the state's energy outlets, and punishing white people they've decided to prioritize illegal aliens for disaster aid, and they just gonna do all they can to fight Trump planning to sue the federal government for dismantling AmeriCorp.  And Newsom wants to share his values with the rest of America.   Imagine that.

In Michigan Senator Mike Rogers is attempting  to “MAGA-Wash” his record in hopes of winning back his Senate seat saying, “As your next senator, I won’t just represent Michigan. I’ll fight for it. I’ll stand with President Trump and we will deliver on the mandate given to him by the American people."  Wow! Imagine that.  That's abject heresy to the left, who will not vote for him, and conservatives won't believe him.  He's toast.  

There's nothing these leftists can't contaminate.  Colorado, a once solid red state until all those leftist migrants, who Michael Smith calls the hollow people, "untethered from the principles that make a civilization function", fled California and filled the state's major cities, turning, Colorado blue, we now find homelessness is up 90% since 2020. 

Here's what's happening.  Red states are on the rise, and Blue states are moving in that direction, and Texas has approved school choice, the teacher's unions are losing their grip on society, and it's long overdue, and we can thank their insane attachment to gender issues for a lot of that, not to mention their failure to teach the nation's children how to read, a massive increase in illiteracy has developed since 1979 when the Department of Education was created and started destroying education in America.  

That's a lot of baggage, and it's all coming to a head.

Observations From the Back Row, with News and Views for March 26, 2025

By Rich Kozlovich

Eliot Pattison made it clear curing the problems of democracy is possible, but curing stupid.... well, that's another story as he says:

After four long years during which our democracy was under constant peril, one might say the November election cured that crisis, at least for now, returning the American voter and American values to center stage. Zealots of the Left, however, continue their tired chorus of accusation and cancellation. It is staggering how blind to election results and deaf to the voices of voters they seem to be. Wokeness may be in retreat but this core cadre, still including many in legacy media, continue their ranting about existential threats and trying to shame us into shedding crocodile tears over illegals. They have doubled down on their playbook even though its tenets have been hollowed out, proven false again and again.

He went to show the left embraces concepts they claim to be "truths" that are demonstrably false, and quotes  Benjamin Franklin saying:  

“We are born ignorant but one must work hard to remain stupid”.

Ignorance is the natural state, and we're all ignorant about a great many things because there's so much out there to learn about.  To be ignorant simply means we don't know.  But that's fixable by learning.   Refusing to learn, and refusing to believe what is known, and justifying untruths by making up things that are unknown is embracing lies, and that's stupid.  The left is now, and has always been, foundationally stupid, irrational, misanthropic, and morally defective.   The true moral foundation of leftism is hate, greed, envy, lust, with a love of violence, but hate is the foremost quality of leftism, and lies are the glue that binds them all together.  

Since WWII and the Bretton Woods agreement, which was based on the obvious conclusion the allies were going to win the war, and the after the war the only allied nation that wouldn't be broke was America.  So it was decided that America would open it's markets to Europe, to get them back on their feet, and eventually to the rest of the world, assure their defense relieving them of that burdensome cost, which they could ill afford, and patrolling the worlds oceans to prevent piracy.  Yes, piracy existed, and still does.  While Bretton Wood officially ended decades ago, the principles behind Bretton Woods became the foundational foreign military and economic policy from America's political community.  Well, Bretton Wood is over, permanently!  And now Poland is claiming if Russia attacked their defensive capability is so poor they could only sustain operations for two weeks or less, and they've openly asked for an American nuclear umbrella. 

Canadian politicians, and even Canadian citizens, have been shooting off their mouths how they hate America because of Trump's polices, but the reality is they always resented America. Get over it, that's reality.  And now they've come to a hard truth that no amount of rhetoric and chest beating can change.  They're freeloading days are over, "the gravy train has reached it's final stop", and are in need of another "sugar daddy", and think the European Union will lovingly embrace them.  Ya just gotta see the humor in that. The EU? 

Yes, the EU, which is already a dysfunctional hodgepodge of economically wobbly, over regulated, self-important bureaucracies desperately trying to keep the Germans from remembering they’re Germans. The EU, where the French still think they run things, the Italians operate on a three-hour-lunch workday, and the Eastern Europeans are wondering why they even bothered leaving the Soviet Union if they were going to get ruled by Brussels instead. And now, Canada—who fancies itself the Turkey of North America—wants in. The cold, harsh reality? It’s not Turkey. But its former prime minister? A turkey, from beak to tail feather.

And it gets worse, as bad as things are in Europe, they're view regarding Canada's eligibility? A solid "No"!   We don't need them, and they need us, desperately, including their defense:

Canada’s most significant economic contribution to the world is pretending to be more European than American while simultaneously relying on American capital, American trade, and American military protection. It thrives on a paradox: publicly scorning the United States—while privately praying that Washington keeps ignoring its antics. But now, with Trump back in office, the free ride is over. The United States is no longer in the business of subsidizing Canada’s socialized bliss, which is a polite way of saying “socialized purgatory”—though given the state of things, even Dante might have to add another circle for Canada’s bureaucracy. And hell has officially frozen over.

Canada is now going to hold an election, and the new Prime Minister, who wasn't elected, has ordered a "snap election", whatever that means, as I find Canada's Parliamentary political system as confusing as England's and Australia's.  A man who is so far left he has to turn to the right to look at Xi, so it will be interesting to see what happens.  

India is now trying to secure trade agreements around the world in preparation for sanctions, tariffs, and trade restrictions Trump may impose, which they and the rest of the world is outraged over, but one has to ask, if all those things are so terrible, they way has India been one of the world's worst offenders?   Why are they all so upset that Trump dares to do to them what they've been doing to America for decades? 

Let's try and get this right, there are seven foundational rules of geopolitics, and the first one is a combination of four factors, "geographics, demographics, economics, and that most elusive factor of all, the happiness factor", and the world isn't happy, it's going broke, and the demographics pyramid in many nations is all out of whack, including China. 

Turkey has hundreds of thousands marching in the streets outraged at Erdogan's arrest of the opposing candidate for President.  Will that work?  The Experts say no, and after they've been using rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons, and arresting over a thousand people, which may be underestimated, the experts say it will peter out.   I say, we'll see, since the experts have been wrong about Turkey for years.  

Africa is always in a state of "unhappiness" and unending violence, instability, and corruption at levels that makes Washington look pure.  Mozambique's President and opposition leader claim they have an agreement to end the violence,  and Sudan is threatening "retaliatory" attacks against Chad and South Sudan, and South Africa is directly and openly calling for the genocide of whites.  And this is the arena both China and Russia are trying to inject themselves into? 

Australia has released it's budget for 2025/26, which is usually a precursor to holding new elections.  As I said, I understand their parliamentary political system as well as I do Canada's and England's, meaning... I don't have a clue.  This budget is heavy on defense spending to contend "with intensifying strategic competition, particularly from China".  Which I find interesting since their Asianification strategies are allowing such massive immigration from China that soon foreign born Chinese will have a major voice in their political system, and China makes sure to control those immigrants be threatening their families back in China, as has been done in the US with their "China police stations".  Australia isn't a good ally.  

 News and Views for Wednesday March 26, 2025

Africa

• Musk Exposes South African Political Leader Pushing for Genocide Against White Farmers -Elon Musk, a key advisor to Donald Trump, has once again spotlighted the openly racist and genocidal rhetoric of some of South Africa’s most influential politicians, along with the government’s blatantly discriminatory policies against white Afrikaners. In a post to his social media platform X, Musk—responding to a video where Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters’s party, is chanting “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” in front of a massive crowd—wrote: “Very few people know that there is a major political party in South Africa that is actively promoting white genocide.”......

Canada

• Carney’s Snap Election -- And Trump Saw It Coming - Mark Carney’s snap election is a globalist power grab disguised as leadership, continuing Trudeau’s agenda with a more polished image. But Donald Trump saw this coming -- and he may be the only one ready to stop it.  Mark Carney’s sudden rise to power isn’t a win for democracy -- it’s a globalist takeover in a Canadian suit. Recently installed as Prime Minister of Canada without a single vote, Carney now leads both the country and the Liberal Party just months before a federal snap election that he called. This isn’t about Canadian politics -- it’s about global control. ....

Democrats

"

• Dem Admits: Party Doesn’t Have Plan for Progress - During portions of an interview with NPR aired on Monday’s broadcast of “All Things Considered,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) declared that Democrats “better shape up and put together a plan for progress, starting in the places that have fallen behind where people are voting for change simply because the economy is not working for them.” And that those voters voted for Donald Trump because they knew where they live isn’t great.......

• Let's Go Line-by-Line About How the Dems Are Totally Screwed Right Now - Demography is not destiny—an axiom that fell on deaf ears among the Democrats’ political strategist class. They were still enthralled with the notion of the Obama coalition being a path to a permanent political majority. After 2024, that coalition has been shattered, as young voters are now becoming more conservative and deeply ingrained in the Make America Great Again movement. Axios had a good one yesterday morning, going line-by-line about how screwed the Democrats are heading into the midterms. There’s a lot of bluster and talk, but there is no strategy, leader, message, or unity.....

• 

  "Tesla Takedown’ Movement Plots ‘Day of Action’ Against Musk - The “Tesla Takedown movement, which organizes protests against against Elon Musk and his role in the Trump administration, is gearing up for its biggest demonstrations yet with protests planned around the world this weekend on its “global day of action.”...........
• Rashida Tlaib Won't Condemn Acts of Domestic Terrorism Against Tesla -  As Telsa car dealerships have experienced violent attacks, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) refuses to denounce these acts of domestic terrorism.  Footages shared on Tuesday morning by the Daily Caller shows Tlaib, sporting a keffiyeh, greeting the reporter who has identified himself as Myles Morell, though she pivots to ask about how much he's being paid, since she claims that "I believe you should be paid a fair wage."...............
• In California, an anguished Dem base urges its politicians to be more crazy  -  The headline at SFGATE, a San Francisco news website, grabbed my attention: “‘Fear and anger’: California town halls are not going well for Democrats, either.”........the Democrat base has its priorities: It wants big government, even if that government is deeply corrupt and inefficient; it wants to destroy wealth creators in America, even if that means destroying the very industries the base once worshiped; it wants to keep gang bangers and terrorists in America; and it wants to continue the sexual mutilation of children.........
• Maxine Waters Breaks Down in Public, Spouts Bizarrely Wild Lies About Melania as Ignorant Crowd Eats It Up - Well, at least give California Rep. Maxine Waters this much: She’s consistent. Consistently bonkers, sure, but there’s at least some dependability there. Fresh off declaring that America was headed toward a “civil war,” the Democratic octogenarian told the crowd that if President Donald Trump was looking to deport non-citizens who are illegally in this country, he should look first at first lady Melania Trump — his U.S. citizen spouse — or her parents, both U.S. citizens themselves......
• Democrat Dimwitt Jasmine Crockett Physically Attacks Journalist for Asking a Question Regarding Her Sick Comments About Elon Musk and Tesla - Despicable Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) may have opened herself up to legal trouble after attacking a journalist for daring to question her about her violent remarks toward Elon Musk and Tesla. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Crockett spoke last Wednesday on a livestream organized by #TeslaTakedown, which has engaged in multiple actions designed to harm the company........ Downs is currently at Capitol Hill Police headquarters right now and will be filing a police report for assault. She adds that Burchett will be listed as well since he was a witness.............
• Crockett Calls Greg Abbott the “Hot Wheels Governor” in Low Blow of All Low Blows - Lately, our politics has gotten a little below-the-belt, but this comment right here from sitting U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett crosses a line I hadn't thought would be crossed even in this political climate.  Listen to the comment Crockett has for this guy ......Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has been paralyzed since 1984:"So we out in these hot ass streets with the hot wheels governor who a hot ass mess" ..........
• Rep. Jasmine Crockett mocks Texas's wheelchair-bound governor Abbott as 'Gov. Hot Wheels,' then keeps digging - Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas is fairly new on the job in the House, but already being touted as the Democrats' great presidential hope for 2028.......  what kind of person makes fun of someone else's handicaps? Only a very indecent one. Then she put out this in the wake of criticism:......
• Jasmine Crockett's 'Hot Wheels' Narrative About Greg Abbott Just Imploded -  You knew this apology was never going to hold up. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), the emerging face of the Democratic Party, who I hope becomes a permanent fixture, mocked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, calling him “hot wheels” at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles last weekend. She has tried to deny that it was about Abbott’s wheelchair. .....
• MTG: Jasmine Crockett Had ‘Police Escort’ Through Halls of Congress - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) claimed that she saw Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) with a “Capitol Police escort” walking through the U.S. Capitol building after she reportedly tried to take a reporter’s phone over questions regarding the ongoing attacks against Tesla...............
• Jasmine Crockett Gone Wild: Texas Democrat Claws Her Way to Become Superstar of Broken Party - Jasmine Crockett was not a well-known name in 2023 or really, in 2024, but she is busying herself making headlines with her bombastic and controversial remarks, clawing her way to the top of a party left in complete shambles after the last presidential election............
• The Democrats Are the Party of Hate - Back in the Vietnam War era, many protesters on college campuses were proud Democrats who chanted slogans about “peace” and “love.” They flashed the peace sign and railed about the war and police brutality while professing support for “free speech.”  Never mind that the Vietnam War was escalated by a Democrat President and ended by a Republican President, these protesters claimed that they were “non-violent” and that the federal government, and especially Republican politicians, were trying to limit their freedoms............
• Liberals Are OK With Slavery - Liberals love to talk about the slavery of 400 years ago, which the Republican Party successfully abolished in this country, but when it comes to slavery today, it is a different story. And there is quite a bit of slavery today–mostly in Islamic countries, which for many centuries have been the prime centers of slave owning and slave trading, and in China.............. 
• Malicious Imbeciles - In our dawning Era of Common Sense, here’s some common sense. If you unchain junkyard dogs, you better be sure they won’t bite you in the rear. Democrats are being bitten in their collective behind lately. Not just once, but repeatedly. Siccing DEI and woke dogs on folk -- those not them -- is turning on them. It’s a big part of what’s devouring the ex-party of Jefferson and Jackson.......

 DOGE

• There's a DOGE Update on Dead People Getting Social Security- The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and a team of tech savvy young people, is cleaning up the Social Security rolls and clearing out ineligible recipients. More specifically, those who are deceased. President Donald Trump held a Cabinet meeting at the White House Monday and ridding the federal government of waste, fraud and abuse was a central focus. Musk attended and Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked him for finding fraud the Department of Justice plans to pursue for prosecution. ..........

Economics 

• How Mississippi eliminated the income tax - Mississippi has made history as the first state in the U.S. -- aside from oil-rich Alaska -- to pass legislation aimed at phasing out its income tax.  This monumental achievement, spearheaded by Governor Tate Reeves and House Speaker Jason White, marks a significant victory for the state. The newly passed bill outlines a plan to eliminate the income tax over the next decade, starting with incremental cuts and followed by a series of budget-driven "triggers."......... What happened next was both fascinating -- and, if you support income tax elimination, rather fortuitous.......

Education 

• Can Trump Really Abolish the Department of Education? - Since the department was established in 1979, it has thrown at least $1 trillion down the rat hole with little to show for it.  In a powerful letter, “Our Department’s Final Mission,” Secretary McMahon explained to her staff that “student outcomes have consistently languished,” alluding to NAEP scores showing that less than a third of U.S. students today are “proficient” in the core subjects of reading and math...........Despite the unconstitutionality of federal involvement in education............The Department of Education has been highly successful at what it was intended to do.  Established as political payback to teachers’ unions for support of Jimmy Carter.........

FBI

• New report: NYPD officer accused of spying for the Chinese…from the same building as the FBI field office - According to Shawn Cohen’s exclusive article at the Daily Mail, Zhu Jiang, a sergeant with the New York Police Department has been suspended without pay as he is reportedly under investigation for allegedly committing acts of espionage on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. And…Zhu was apparently working out of the same building that housed the FBI’s local field office—yes, the same field office that refused transparency regarding its prosecution of J6 defendants, and allegedly withheld crucial documents related to the Epstein investigation. (I now have to wonder if there’s any connection between the CCP and this lawless FBI department.).............  

Immigration 

• Face the Nonsense, Again: Margaret Brennan’s ‘You Should Watch the News’ Moment - The exchange centered on Brennan’s insistence that the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a doctoral student at Columbia and leader of CUAD, somehow raised troubling “free speech” concerns. Brennan seemed genuinely perplexed—and more than a little miffed—that the federal government would dare remove a foreign national who leads a group that has:

• Advocated violence,
• Obstructed Jewish students’ access to campus,
• Forced Columbia University into lockdown,
• And called for the overthrow of the West, including the United States.

Rubio calmly explained that Khalil is not a U.S. citizen and that his activities constitute grounds for deportation. When she doubled down, Rubio fired back: “You should watch the news.".......

• Trump, the Mullahs and Skin in the Game - Trump took out Qassem Soleimani for attacking the US Embassy. Who wants to be next?  You could call it the Donald Trump theory of international relations: getting skin in the game without sending US troops. That’s what you saw when President Trump offered Zelenskyy the deal to exploit Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. The Z-man was obsessed with getting US “security guaranties” – a promise to send US troops should Russia attack again in the future.  Trump rightly said, no. Instead, he offered to put US companies on the front lines, essentially making those civilians a tripwire should Russia dare attack.............. 
• 1,100+ Arrested Protesting Detention of Erdogan Rival - Turkey has arrested over 1,100 people since the Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was apprehended on March 19, the country’s interior minister confirmed Monday  İmamoğlu is one of the most popular politicians in the country, a member of the opposite Republican People’s Party (CHP), a secularist party founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He has for years been seen as a frontrunner in the presidential race against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been in power for over two decades. The CHP made that challenge official by nominating İmamoğlu as its candidate for the next presidential election on Sunday; the election is currently scheduled to take place in 2028....... The detention has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets in protest in Turkey’s largest cities, most prominently Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir.........
• ‘Hamas Out!’: Palestinians Launch Rare Uprising in Gaza Strip - Hundreds of Gazans marched through the northern town of Beit Lahiya carrying white flags and chanting anti-Hamas slogans, according to videos posted from the scene, which showed participants calling for peace, press coverage, and the release of hostages............
• Hamas-Linked Georgetown Academic Faces Deportation Following MEF Report - Badar Khan Suri, a Fellow at Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Has Been Arrested and Faces Deportation Proceedings. This follows an article published by the Middle East Forum (MEF) exposing Suri’s repeated praise of Hamas terror and relation by marriage to a senior figure in the designated terrorist organization...........

Trump

• Trump Has Broken the Press - That probably isn’t news: the fact that Trump has broken the Democrats, including their reporters and editors, has been evident for quite a while. But it is remarkable that even abroad, Trump seems to create a force field that renders otherwise-normal people bonkers.....

My Take - In all fairness, that's simply not true that Trump broke the media.  It's a part of the story, but the real story is all about those alternative news sites that challenged the left, and the corruption of the Pravda media, exposing the lies they've been feeding America for decades.  It's taken about 20 years, but it was the alternative media, with all the citizen journalists, who broke the media.  Trump is just part of that story.

Voter Fraud

• Civil Rights Experts Worry Trump Exec Order Mandating Proof of Citizenship Will Block Illegal Aliens From Voting - "This measure discriminates against the most oppressed people in our society". President Trump’s new executive order requiring voters to show proof of citizenship has voting rights advocates concerned that it will prevent undocumented voters from voting.  “Our undocumented friends and neighbors already collect earned income tax credits and serve in prisons, now this will put another roadblock in their way of full and equal participation in our society,” complained Columbia Anacsota of the non-partisan immigrant rights group Muerte America.....

My Take - And they're undocumented why?  Because they're here illegally, and they have no rights, they have no right to vote, they're not citizens, and they have no right for a hearing to decide if they should be deported or not.  That's a "right" that's being created by corrupt leftist rogue judges.   If they're arrested and found to be here illegally, then their story is over, and should automatically be deportation.  Period.   

• Trump Requests ‘Immediate’ Declassification Of Materials Related To FBI’s Russia ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ Investigation - On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring the FBI to immediately declassify documents pertaining to the 2016 Crossfire Hurricane investigation — which sought to determine whether Trump campaign members colluded with Russia during the presidential campaign. Trump noted that the media can now examine previously withheld information related to the probe after signing the order, but he questioned if many journalists would actually do so — as the findings would not satisfy left-wing journalists and reporters alike who have long believed the “Russian collusion” narrative to be true.............

The Correct Rate for a State Income Tax Is Zero

November 26, 2022 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Looking at reforms at the state level, the past two years have produced very good news on education policy and tax policy.

 

Regarding the latter, many states have lowered tax rates and several of them have junked so-called progressive tax systems and replaced them with simple and fair flat taxes.

But I’m greedy for even bigger improvements.

I want to see some states move not just to Column 2 in my ranking of state tax policy. I want them to be in Column 1.

And that means they need to get rid of income taxes.

The good news is that some states are having that discussion.

Here are some excerpts from an Associated Press report from Mississippi, written by Michael Goldberg.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves promised to push for a full elimination of the state’s income tax during the 2023 legislative session. The move would make Mississippi the 10th state with no income tax. …Mississippi’s Republican-controlled legislature passed legislation in 2022 that will eliminate the state’s 4% income tax bracket starting in 2023. In the following three years, the 5% bracket will be reduced to 4%. …Supporters of the 2022 Mississippi tax cut said it would spur economic growth and attract new residents to Mississippi. …Republican House speaker Philip Gunn has said full elimination of the state income tax is “achievable,” though he hasn’t committed to doing so in the 2023 session. …Tax-cut proposals are a direct effort to compete with states that don’t tax earnings, including Texas, Florida and Tennessee.

And here are portions of an article in National Review about Colorado, authored by Ben Murrey, which also notes that the TABOR spending limit will need to be strengthened if lawmakers are serious about getting rid of the state’s income tax.

When an interviewer recently asked Colorado’s Democratic governor Jared Polis what the state’s income-tax rate should be, he answered without hesitation: “It should be zero.” …The effort to chisel away at the income tax has already gained steam in the state. Last year, voters reduced the tax with Proposition 116 — a ballot initiative that brought the rate from 4.63 percent to 4.55 percent. …Eliminating the tax would provide an enormous direct windfall to Colorado households. …every reduction in income tax will allow Coloradans to keep more of every dollar they earn, and it invites more jobs and opportunities for residents. …To eliminate the income tax entirely, the state would probably need to begin lowering the revenue limit along with the rate reductions in the future. …these two reforms would put the state on a road to zero.

By the way, Colorado voters once again just cut the state’s flat tax in a referendum earlier this month.

Would Mississippi and Colorado be doing the right thing if they joined the zero-income-tax club?

Yes. I cited some evidence on this issue about 10 years ago.

Here’s some updated analysis from Chris Edwards.

The nine states without an individual income tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. …What they have in common is providing needed state‐​local services to their residents without complex, anti‐​freedom, and anti‐​growth individual income taxes. Most of the nine run leaner and more efficient governments than most other states. They only partly make up for the income tax revenue gap with other revenues. In terms of overall tax burdens, eight of the nine states are toward the bottom of the 50 states and Washington is in the middle. …Total taxes in the seven states average 8.1 percent of income. The average in the 40 other states is 9.6 percent. Thus, the lack of individual income tax restrains the overall tax burden. …Repealing state individual income taxes is a good goal. …Residents get the state‐​local services they need, but at lower cost. 

Here’s the chart that accompanied Chris’ article. He separates Alaska and Wyoming because they get so much money from energy taxes and are not realistic role models for other states.

The bottom line is that states without an income tax tend to have smaller government.

This is especially true for Florida, Tennessee, South Dakota, and New Hampshire. And Texas may join those states now that it has strengthened its spending cap.

One should-be-obvious conclusion from this data is that states with no income taxes should not make the mistake of adopting that punitive levy. Unless, of course, they want to repeat Connecticut’s unhappy experience.

Posted by Rich Kozlovich at 4:10 AM No comments:

 

Republican Warfare, Part III: National Conservatism and Massive Tax Increases

 

November 11, 2022 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

In yesterday’s column, I explained Republicans are not credible advocates of lower tax rates if they don’t also push for spending restraint.

And, as I explained to the Adam Smith Institute, they will be de facto advocates of higher taxes if they embrace the wrong version of national conservatism.

To understand why I’m concerned, look at the most-recent edition of the Congressional Budget Office’s long-run fiscal forecast.

It shows that the burden of government spending is going to substantially increase over the next three decades – largely due to the unchecked growth of entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Failure to control spending will mean two bad things – either huge tax increases or staggering levels of debt. Probably both.

And if politicians add more spending (as Biden has already done), then those long-run trend lines will get even worse.

My concern is that some national conservatives are unwilling to confront this problem and/or they support policies to make matters worse.

But first, in the interest of fairness, bigger government is not an inherent part of the national conservatism platform. At least based on the statement of principles published by The American Conservative.

That document, signed by the key advocates of national conservatism, lists 10 concepts, most of which are good from a libertarian perspective and only one of which is overtly troubling.

1. National independence (I cheer for anyone opposed to global governance)
2. Rejection of imperialism and globalism (they’re opposed to the bad form of globalism)
3. National government (very akin to “state capacity libertarianism“)
4. God and public religion (not a role for government, but they’re not pushing bad ideas)
5. The rule of law (good idea)
6. Free enterprise (they have a few unnecessary caveats)
7. Public research (I’m skeptical of this one)
8. Family and children (not a role for government, but they’re not pushing bad ideas)
9. Immigration (I’m more sympathetic than they are, but agree on the importance of assimilation)
10. Race (they want neutrality rather than preferences)

Unfortunately, some national conservatives go beyond this statement of principles and push for bigger government.

• Such as industrial policy.
• Such as per-child handouts.

But don’t believe me. Bill McGurn of the Wall Street Journal makes similar points.

Mr. Cass’s movement insists (rightly) that purely economic and material measures are limited. But whenever they move beyond rhetoric to specifics, their preferred solutions almost always turn out to be economic interventions, from child tax credits to industrial policy. …Even a cursory glance at the record of the past half-century shows government often doing the most harm to people precisely when it is trying to help them. Federal efforts to promote homeownership ended up encouraging banks to lend people more than they could afford and feeding a housing bubble. Federal college loans helped drive up tuition while leaving Americans $1.6 trillion in debt. As we ought to have learned from the Great Society, well-intentioned government policies can do immense damage to families and communities. Unfortunately, when it comes to getting the toothpaste back in the tube, government has shown much less success.

The bottom line is that national conservatives always seem to advocate bigger government when they develop or endorse specific policies.

And, to the best of my knowledge, none of them have put forth any agenda to deal with the spending problem that already exists.

That’s an agenda that guarantees future tax increases. And, for what it’s worth, one of the advocates already has embraced a tax-the-rich agenda to help finance the national conservative agenda.

If Republicans go down that path, it won’t end well (just as it didn’t end well when they embraced other fads such as compassionate conservatism, kinder-and-gentler conservatism, common-good capitalism, reform conservatism, etc).

As I’ve previously noted, there no alternative to Reaganism.

George Will Attacks Environmentalists

By Rich Kozlovich Origianlly published in 2008, RK

I have been away for a couple of days and so I haven't been able to do my searches, read the information, organize it or post it. I should be back in form this coming week. The most highly important event to take place this week was the Sackett victory over the EPA; with a unanimous decision coming from the Supreme Court.  This has, in my opinion, large long term ramifications.

 I am working on an article dealing with this, and I have been told that there is more behind this story than is commonly known involving the state of Idaho; but I haven’t been able to verify the information. I have sent an e-mail to a local blogger in Idaho to see if what I have been told is true and asked them to contact the Sacketts. I haven't heard back yet. At any rate, this video is from 2008! That is the beauty of truth. It stays truth forever. As a result…that's how it becomes traditional wisdom.

 

The Green New Dealers want 100 trillion dollars!

By David Wojick| February 12th, 2019 | Economy | 21 Comments

People keep asking what the Green New Deal will cost, but that is the wrong question. The question is how much do they want? It turns out the New Dealers are pretty clear about the answer — around $100 trillion over ten years. They are working to a very big budget. What gets done depends on the money, not vice versa.

Representative Ocasio-Cortez (who has a degree in economics) and her crew have a clear idea of where the money for the Green New Deal is going to come from and roughly how much they want. As with WW2, the Green New Deal will simply consume about half of American GDP. I am not making this up. That WW2 was a time of great sacrifice and hardship, as a direct result of this dramatic mobilization, does not matter to these folks. War is war, right?

Here it is in its clearest form: “The resolution describes the 10-year plan to transform every sector of our economy to remove GHH and pollution. It says it does this through huge investment in renewables at WW2 scale (which was 40-60% GDP investments).” ...........To Read More......

AOC would make a great poster child for Russia

By Ron Stein | February 13th, 2019 | Energy | 1 Comment

Is the new Cold War about energy control rather than information and weapons control? Could U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) be an unwitting dupe or a Putin plant? Evidence suggests the answer to the first is yes. The second question may not be answerable, but the facts suggest the answer is a definite maybe.

Let’s examine them, and the state of the world today post WWII.

The United States has established itself as the greatest oil producer in the world ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia. There is a power dynamic from being oil independent that cannot be ignored. Putin knows this. The Saudis know this. The 184 countries that signed the Paris Accord know this and are aware they need to align themselves with an energy giant. Traditionally that giant was the U.S., but the gild is coming off the lily. Russia has traditionally been painted as the bad guy.

Prosperity around the world from deep earth minerals/fuels is now being weaponized against the West since the oil, natural gas and particularly coal prosperity has led to reduced infant mortality, extended lifespans, and allowed the movement of goods and people anywhere in the world via the diesel engine and jet turbine. Both have done more for the cause of globalization than anything else; and both get their fuels from oil. Without transportation – there is no commerce – since globalized road and air travel dominate most people’s lives in industrialized countries and emerging markets.

Putin knows this. Bin Saud knows this, Xi knows this and our leaders know this. The information war has no clear sides. It’s a fool’s errand to try and win at that game. The guy who was hacking for you yesterday could be hacking for your adversary tomorrow............To Read More.....

Climate Change Weekly #276

Carbon Tax Cabal, Part One: Economic Punishment

H. Sterling Burnett

Last month, Congress joined with President Donald Trump to deliver a substantial tax cut to the American people. Leaving more money in the hands of the people, instead of under the thumb of government bureaucrats, is always a good idea.

This particular tax cut is already paying dividends as retirement funds and stock portfolios have boomed, corporations are repatriating billions of dollars they sheltered overseas, multiple companies have indicated they are going to invest right here in America with new factories and business expansion, and millions of workers have reaped benefits totaling thousands of dollars each in tax cut bonuses, stock options, etc.

Because of these evident benefits, it might surprise you to hear some liberal governors and members of Congress are already angling to raise taxes once again.

In this essay, I discuss why various proposed carbon taxes can’t work as promised and would be unfair. In the next edition of Climate Change Weekly, I will explain why any carbon tax scheme is doomed to fail and would be immoral.

The governors of Washington and Oregon and Democrat members of Congress are pushing bills to raise the price of energy through a tax on carbon dioxide emissions or by establishing a cap on carbon dioxide emissions and forcing industry and businesses to buy allowances to emit carbon. Capping carbon dioxide emissions and selling allowances to emit certain amounts of carbon dioxide is just a carbon (dioxide) tax by another name.

These tax schemes penalize the use of the cheap, abundant energy sources which built the modern, prosperous economy and are largely responsible for pulling the United States out of 2008 recession. While the rest of the U.S. economy was foundering, the fracking revolution brought about tremendous growth in domestic oil and natural gas production, dramatically reducing energy prices in the process. Lower energy prices helped raise the economy out of the depths of the recession. Energy is the lifeblood of any economy. Economies and people with access to relatively cheap, abundant, reliable energy resources prosper and are freer than those lacking the same. As a result, a carbon dioxide tax is a tax on freedom and prosperity.

In addition, carbon dioxide taxes are regressive, an especially pernicious tax on the poor and those on fixed incomes. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report found a $28 per ton carbon tax would cause the burden of energy costs to be 250 percent higher for the poorest one-fifth of U.S. households than for the richest one-fifth because “Low-income households spend a larger share of their income on goods and services whose prices would increase the most, such as electricity and transportation.”

The plans from Oregon and Washington substitute governments’ spending priorities for the people’s, taking money from the poorest among us to fund green energy schemes favored by the wealthy. This makes the carbon tax a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.

The state of Washington’s proposed carbon tax would begin at $20 per metric ton emitted in 2019 and increase annually by 3.5 percent. It would amount to a whopping $3.35 billion tax increase over four years, in addition to a 20-cents-per-gallon increase in the cost of gasoline. The new tax revenue would then be used to fund renewable-energy programs—or so proponents claim.

In an effort to reduce regressivity, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) propose giving taxpayers the money raised from the sale of carbon allowances to industry. The U.S. Treasury department would conduct the emissions auctions, and the IRS would return the revenues to every person with a (valid, one hopes) Social Security number each quarter.

There are multiple problems with this plan. I’ll highlight just a few. First, government rarely leaves a revenue scheme alone for long. Once the federal government starts receiving the revenue, past experience shows us Congress and the President will soon decide to keep some or all of the money to finance their preferred government programs or pay down the debt. After all, gas taxes were supposed to be dedicated solely to funding roads and bridges, but legislators have siphoned money away from highways to finance bike trails, museums, visitor centers, and other programs that don’t help move people down the road quickly and safely. Hundreds of millions of dollars are diverted from road and bridge construction and repair each year, yet legislators complain current fuel taxes don’t raise enough money to maintain or expand basic infrastructure. Highways and bridges crumble while Congress raids the piggy bank to fund pet projects.

There is no reason to think Congress won’t find other uses for carbon tax revenue rather than returning it to the people as promised.

Second, even if Congress keeps its hand out of the till, it’s just a fact some of the money, probably a good portion, will be diverted to the bureaucracies involved in selling the allowances and cutting the dividend checks. No government program is cost-free.

How are we to calculate or track the amount of the dividend each individual should receive from the Internal Revenue Service each quarter? Will the government just give an equal check to everyone with a Social Security number? This would end up shorting some people, including truck drivers and others who use a lot of energy in their daily lives or at work, while overcompensating those who use little energy. On the other hand, maybe everyone will have to use their Social Security cards when purchasing gasoline or paying their utility bills, with the government assuming an additional set amount in payment for the higher costs of food and other goods for which fossil fuels are used in creation and transportation.

The carbon (dioxide) scheme would also result in higher policing costs: the criminal-justice system would have to deal with carbon cheats, efforts by organized criminal groups to profit by creating false Social Security numbers for illegal aliens, and attempts to sell fake carbon allowances to companies. In addition, some companies will almost certainly try to underreport their emissions, necessitating more bureaucracy, investigation, and recordkeeping costs.

Just as with every other government program, there will be huge transaction costs for collecting, tracking, auditing, and archiving taxes paid and rebates paid out. New employees will have to be hired, or existing federal government workers will have to divert their time from other responsibilities to focus on selling carbon (dioxide) allowances, policing the program, and sending out the quarterly dividends.

These and other costs will eat up billions of dollars each year. Unless these costs are paid directly out of the revenues from the sale of the allowances—in which case all the revenues will not be returned to taxpayers as promised—then the government will have to impose other taxes or take on additional debt to pay for the program.

Third, although the fees paid by companies buying carbon allowances could, in theory, be returned to taxpayers, that would still not reimburse people for the higher energy prices they will pay as a result of the program. As fossil fuel use is limited under the carbon cap, more expensive, less reliable, alternative energy sources will have to be substituted. Wind and solar power are many times more expensive, than coal and natural gas, so prices will rise because of the need to purchase allowances and because higher-cost energy sources are substituted, an amount not accounted for in this energy tax scheme.

Whatever the system—a straight tax or a cap and refund system—these government-imposed restrictions on fossil fuel use will cost billions, reducing people’s disposable income and making it harder for U.S. businesses to compete around the world.

Climate Realist to Chair EU Environment Council

Neno Dimov, Bulgaria’s Environment Minister, ascended to the presidency of the European Union’s (EU) Environment Council on January 1. Dimov previously served as Bulgaria’s deputy minister of the environment, from 1997 to 2002, simultaneously serving as a member of the management board for the EU’s European Environment Agency, which is comparable to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Dimov is unique as an Environment Council president because he is an explicit climate skeptic, or realist.

Like U.S. President Trump, whom he has told the press he admires, Dimov is known for arguing environmental protection must be balanced against economic growth. In his book From Environmentalism to Freedom (2012), Dimov argues EU environmental regulations have gone too far, harming people and the economy for little or no environmental gain.

Forbes reports Dimov has said in myriad interviews the theory of global warming is being used as a tool of intimidation. In a May 2017 television interview, Dimov said, “Climate change is a scientific debatе; there is no consensus, and every part has arguments,” and said he disagrees with the theory. In an online video from 2015, Dimov says global warming is a “fraud … used to scare the people. The melting of the ice will not raise the sea level even a millimeter.” In the same video, Dimov also said, “The main factor for climate change is solar activity.”

SOURCE: Forbes

Germany, Other EU Members Miss Emission Targets

Germany is leading a parade of EU member states falling behind in their carbon dioxide reduction goals under the Paris climate agreement. The Wall Street Journal reports Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Malta have each fallen behind in reducing emissions, with Germany facing the largest gap between commitments and current emission levels. In early 2018, Germany announced it would miss its target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Germany announced in 2016 its emissions rose for the second year in a row, emitting 2.6 million tons more greenhouse gases than in 2015. A government spokesman announced, “The environment ministry is preparing itself to purchase emission allowances from countries that have surpluses in the coming years.”

A report commissioned by the BDI German industry group estimates meeting Germany’s share of the EU’s overall long-term target of cutting emissions 80 to 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 would cost Germany $1.2 trillion. This price will rise if Germany’s emissions continue their upward trajectory in the short term. SOURCES: The Wall Street Journal; Climate Change News


Pentagon Drops Climate From Defense Concerns

The Pentagon released its 2018 National Defense Strategy, and for the first time since 2008, it doesn’t mention anthropogenic global warming as a national security threat. The Daily Callerreports the Huffington Post did a keyword search of the National Defense Strategy’s 11-page summary and found neither “global warming” nor “climate change” was mentioned.

In 2008, the Bush administration added global warming to the defense strategy for the first time, with the Obama administration expanding on that in subsequent years. The 2018 report follows the National Security strategy released by the Trump administration in December 2017, deemphasizing climate change as a security threat. The National Defense Strategy’s discussion of energy issues is brief, saying the United States would “foster a stable and secure Middle East” and “[contribute] to stable global energy markets and secure trade routes."  SOURCES: The Daily Caller; National Defense Strategy

The Much-Deserved End of Obama’s Operation Choke Point

Dan Mitchell

Trump has been President for more than 200 days and those of us who want more economic liberty don't have many reasons to be happy. Obamacare hasn't been repealed, the tax code hasn't been reformed, and wasteful spending hasn't been cut. The only glimmer of hope is that Trump has eased up on the regulatory burden. More should be happening, of course, but we are seeing some small steps in the right direction. Let's share one positive development. Professor Tony Lima of California State University opined back in January in the Wall Street Journal that Trump could unilaterally boost growth by ending a reprehensible policy known as "Operation Choke Point.".........Keep in mind, by the way, that Congress didn't pass a law mandating discrimination against and harassment of these merchants.  The Washington bureaucracy, along with ideologues in the Obama Administration, simply decided to impose an onerous new policy......To Read More.....