Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

M
Author: Owen

Illegal Aliens In Every Town

by | 1135, 20 Jan 2424 | | 1 Comment

They are normalizing and mainstreaming the flood of illegal aliens.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine Gov. Janet Mills and a state lawmaker who immigrated from Somalia unveiled a proposal on Friday to try to resolve the state’s serious worker shortage by tapping swiftly growing immigrant communities.

 

Maine traditionally has had among the smallest immigrant populations in the country. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, only about 4% of the state’s residents were born outside the U.S.

 

That has been gradually changing as tens of thousands of residents descended from Somalia and other African countries have made homes in Portland and Lewiston, two of the state’s biggest cities. Those arrivals helped push up the percentage of foreign-born residents by about a percentage point between 2000 to 2022, according to census figures.

The Office of New Americans is proposed in a bill by state Rep. Deqa Dhalac, the first Somali immigrant to become mayor of a U.S. city in 2021, when she took office in South Portland. She was elected to the Maine Legislature last year. Dhalac and Mills say the bill would address shortages in critical industries including health care, education and construction.

The Scourge of Hamas

by | 2056, 19 Jan 2424 | , | 0 Comments

I truly pray that this is, or becomes, the prevailing view of Gazans. I fear, however, that it is a tiny minority.

“We are displaced here in Rafah and before that [we were] in Khan Younis. We have no money and no home, the unstoppable wars between Hamas and Israel have destroyed our lives.”

A businessman called Mohammed agreed.

 

“We have lived under unjust rule for more than 16 years. Hamas imposed heavy taxes on us and now they have dragged us into a devastating war in which we lost our property, money and homes,” he told the BBC.

 

“I used to live in a good house and work in trade. Now what will we do? The crossings are closed, the company has been destroyed, and the house is not fit for habitation due to the destruction.

Enjoying the new year fireworks

by | 0759, 19 Jan 2424 | | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News earlier this week.

The new year began with an entertaining spat between the conservative Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and the liberal Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. While amusing, the kerfuffle overstates the dissimilarities.

 

On New Year’s Day, Schoemann posted on X a snarky comment welcoming residents of Milwaukee County to Washington County to do their shopping and dining. The comment was a swipe at the fact that Milwaukee County increased the county sales tax by 0.9% on January 1. The city of Milwaukee increased the sales tax by 2%. In one day, people making purchases in the city of Milwaukee are paying 7.9% in sales taxes compared to 5.5% in Washington County.

 

Johnson shot back saying, “If folks are looking at a high-quality dinner or a theater or a fine dining experience, they can come here (Milwaukee), or go to Cracker Barrel there (Washington County).” Zing!

 

Liberal Milwaukee has become a high-tax island, and they appear to not have any intention of slowing down. In the wake of the 44% increase in the sales tax, Milwaukee city leaders are proposing a 15% pay increase for themselves. Included in the proposal is an automatic 3% increase for themselves every year in perpetuity.

 

Not to be left behind, the Milwaukee Public Schools voted to ask the voters for an additional $252 million in a referendum. MPS already spends an incredible $19,000 per student and enrollment is declining. The state Legislature just gave MPS tens of millions of additional dollars in a deal struck last year. A deal, incidentally, in which MPS agreed to put school resource officers back in the schools and the school district has already broken that agreement without any consequence.

 

Lest Washington County residents look with too much aspersion toward their neighbors to the southeast, some self-reflection is in order. Washington County also has a 0.5% county sales tax on top of the state sales tax. The county sales tax was sold to the voters in 1998 as a temporary emergency imperative for several critical capital expense needs related to public safety. The county sales tax has been extended every time – most recently in 2022 and 2017 with the vocal support of Schoemann.

 

The West Bend School District is also following the path charted by their big brother to the southeast. The West Bend district is also seeing a rapid decline in enrollment and is receiving a budget boost from the same state funding that Milwaukee is getting. Despite this, the West Bend School Board has hired consultants and is moving down the process to ask the voters for more money in a referendum later this year. They may yet change course, but history teaches us otherwise.

 

What is the lesson to be learned? While Washington County and Milwaukee County are viewed as polar political opposites as highlighted by the rhetorical fusillade between Schoemann and Johnson, they are different more in degree than in substance. Yes, Milwaukee County is a tax hell, but Washington County is only slightly less fiery.

 

The other lesson is that when it comes to government spending, the politicians in charge will never, ever admit that they have enough to spend — never mind too much to spend. Politicians of all stripes derive their power from their ability to spend our money. The more they spend, the more power they have. It does not matter what they spend it on. That is not what it is about. It is about political power derived from wielding the public purse.

Netanyahu Rejects Palestinian State

by | 1908, 18 Jan 2424 | | 0 Comments

He’s right. For all practical purposes, the Palestinians had their own state in Gaza. They were self-governing and left alone by Israel except on their borders. And look what happened… The Palestinians have demonstrated that they will never be satisfied until all of the Jews are dead and Israel doesn’t exist. That will not change if they are given a patch of land from which to launch attacks.

Israel’s allies, including the US – and many of its foes – have urged a revival of the long-dormant “two-state solution”, in which a future Palestinian state would sit side-by-side with an Israeli one.

The hope in many circles is that the current crisis could force the warring parties back to diplomacy, as the only viable alternative to endless cycles of violence. But from Mr Netanyahu’s comments, his intention appears quite the opposite.

 

During Thursday’s news conference, he said Israel must have security control over all land west of the River Jordan, which would include the territory of any future Palestinian state.

“This is a necessary condition, and it conflicts with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty. What to do? I tell this truth to our American friends, and I also stopped the attempt to impose a reality on us that would harm Israel’s security,” he said.

UW Requires Racist Reeducation

by | 1855, 18 Jan 2424 | , , | 4 Comments

Wow. From WRN and WILL. Stunning racism at UW.

For example, the handout that was included with the WILL news release tells students, “As beneficiaries of racism and white privilege, you sometimes take a defensive posture even when you are not being individually blamed. You may personalize the remarks, not directed personally at you. It is the arrogance of your privilege that drags the focus back to whites.”

 

The handout repeatedly generalizes about whites, saying, “Whites are more willing and more comfortable decrying our oppression than scrutinizing our privilege.” It uses the term whites over and over again.

 

Read the handout here. One excerpt generalizes about white people’s beliefs about police and the court system.

 

Another excerpt is critical of conservative talk show legend Rush Limbaugh, telling students that quotes by him were “loaded with white people’s fear of people of color and what would happen if they gained ‘control.’ Embedded here is also the assumption that to be ‘pro-black’ (or any other color) is to be anti-white.”

 

The handout shared by WILL also contains this passage, “By saying we are not different, that you don’t see the color, you are also saying you don’t see your whiteness. This denies the people of colors’ experience of racism and your experience of privilege.” Another excerpt tells students, “To say people of color can be racist, denies the power imbalance inherent in racism.”

Tax me now!

by | 0752, 17 Jan 2424 | , , | 0 Comments

This is such idiotic pandering.

More than 250 billionaires and millionaires on Wednesday reiterated their call on elected representatives of the world’s leading economies to introduce higher taxes on the very richest in society.

 

In an open letter to political leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the rich signatories said they wished to deliver a clear message: “Tax our extreme wealth.”

“We are surprised that you have failed to answer a simple question that we have been asking for three years: when will you tax extreme wealth?” the letter said.

 

“Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the very richest in society. This will not fundamentally alter our standard of living, nor deprive our children, nor harm our nations’ economic growth. But it will turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment for our common democratic future.”

First, nothing stops these people from giving their money to government or privately funding things. They could help build roads, sponsor police departments, kick in for the welfare bill, or whatever. They are agents of choice.

Second, the reason that I oppose higher taxes – even if only target at the mega rich – is because that’s never where it stops. We have centuries of history of small, targeted taxes being expanded into the middle and lower classes. More government spending creates demand for more government spending that must be satiated.

Third, notice the comment, “unproductive private wealth.” Unless a rich person is hoarding cash in their mattresses, that wealth is not unproductive. In fact, concentrations of wealth are a necessary part of capitalism and vital to making capitalism work. You need concentrated wealth to invest in new ventures and innovation to progress the economy and raise the standard of living for everyone. There’s a word for when we give all of the money to government and allow the government to make those decisions: Communism. These people are Communists advocating for communism. The fact that they are rich only means that they expect to continue to ride atop a Communist society but with the violent power of government added to the power of their purses.

Enjoying the new year fireworks

by | 0813, 16 Jan 2424 | | 0 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

The new year began with an entertaining spat between the conservative Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and the liberal Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. While amusing, the kerfuffle overstates the dissimilarities.

 

On New Year’s Day, Schoemann posted on X a snarky comment welcoming residents of Milwaukee County to Washington County to do their shopping and dining. The comment was a swipe at the fact that Milwaukee County increased the county sales tax by 0.9% on January 1. The city of Milwaukee increased the sales tax by 2%. In one day, people making purchases in the city of Milwaukee are paying 7.9% in sales taxes compared to 5.5% in Washington County.

 

Johnson shot back saying, “If folks are looking at a high-quality dinner or a theater or a fine dining experience, they can come here (Milwaukee), or go to Cracker Barrel there (Washington County).” Zing!

 

Liberal Milwaukee has become a high-tax island, and they appear to not have any intention of slowing down. In the wake of the 44% increase in the sales tax, Milwaukee city leaders are proposing a 15% pay increase for themselves. Included in the proposal is an automatic 3% increase for themselves every year in perpetuity.

 

[…]

 

Lest Washington County residents look with too much aspersion toward their neighbors to the southeast, some self-reflection is in order. Washington County also has a 0.5% county sales tax on top of the state sales tax. The county sales tax was sold to the voters in 1998 as a temporary emergency imperative for several critical capital expense needs related to public safety. The county sales tax has been extended every time – most recently in 2022 and 2017 with the vocal support of Schoemann.

 

[…]

 

What is the lesson to be learned? While Washington County and Milwaukee County are viewed as polar political opposites as highlighted by the rhetorical fusillade between Schoemann and Johnson, they are different more in degree than in substance. Yes, Milwaukee County is a tax hell, but Washington County is only slightly less fiery.

 

The other lesson is that when it comes to government spending, the politicians in charge will never, ever admit that they have enough to spend — never mind too much to spend. Politicians of all stripes derive their power from their ability to spend our money. The more they spend, the more power they have. It does not matter what they spend it on. That is not what it is about. It is about political power derived from wielding the public purse.

 

The sooner taxpayers take this lesson to heart, the sooner we can begin to shift the power back to the people.

 

Illegals Crush Immigration Courts

by | 1944, 15 Jan 2424 | , | 0 Comments

Remember that these are only the people who were caught illegally entering our nation. Millions and millions more are just moving in.

…unprecedented 3 million currently pending in immigration courts around the United States.

 

Fueled by record-breaking increases in migrants who seek asylum after being apprehended for crossing the border illegally, the court backlog has grown by more than 1 million over the last fiscal year and it’s now triple what it was in 2019, according to government data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Judges, attorneys and migrant advocates worry that’s rendering an already strained system unworkable, as it often takes several years to grant asylum-seekers a new stable life and to deport those with no right to remain in the country.

 

[…]

 

When migrants are apprehended by U.S. authorities at the border, many are released with a record of their detention and instructions to appear in court in the city where they are headed. That information is passed on from the Department of Homeland Security to the Justice Department, whose Executive Office for Immigration Review runs the courts, so that an initial hearing can be scheduled.

 

“They’re just being released without any idea of what comes next,”

Mayor Pete Bans Fun

by | 1937, 15 Jan 2424 | | 2 Comments

Oh, fer cryin’ out loud. Let it be.

PHOENIX (AP) — It’s no joke. Humorous and quirky messages on electronic signs will soon disappear from highways and freeways across the country.

 

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has given states two years to implement all the changes outlined in its new 1,100-page manual released last month, including rules that spells out how signs and other traffic control devices are regulated.

 

Administration officials said overhead electronic signs with obscure meanings, references to pop culture or those intended to be funny will be banned in 2026 because they can be misunderstood or distracting to drivers.

Milwaukee Newspaper Whitewashes Whitewater Story

by | 1115, 14 Jan 2424 | , | 1 Comment

As if you needed some more evidence that Milwaukee’s newspaper is anything other than a Leftist propaganda rag… the background is that Brietbart ran a story a couple of weeks ago about the influx of illegal immigrants into the little town of Whitewater. The Brietbart story was prompted by a letter from city officials to federal officials asking for more money to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants. Outrage ensued because the struggles of Whitewater mirror the struggles of small communities across America that are being overwhelmed by the influx of illegal aliens foisted on them by the Biden administration.

The Milwaukee paper took it upon themselves to dig in to prove that the right-wing media got it wrong. Well, the right-wing media got it a little wrong in that the influx of illegal aliens occurred over the course of a couple of years (allegedly), but the rest was correct. The illegal aliens in Whitewater are leading to an increase in crime and increased costs for schools and other resources. From the MJS story:

In January 2022, Whitewater police responding to an apartment fire found two children sleeping on the floor with no adults present. The next day, they found a family with a toddler living in a 10-foot-by-10-foot shed in frigid weather. Then, they encountered a 14-year-old girl being forced to work 30 hours a week instead of attending school.

 

“Every shift, we were having contact with somebody that was recently here from Central America,” said police chief Dan Meyer. “That was not typical.”

 

It was the start of an unexpected influx of new residents. City officials estimate that 800 to 1,000 migrants have been drawn to Whitewater by jobs on farms and in factories and by available housing. Mainly from Nicaragua

 

[…]

 

There are many more English-language-learners in schools, and drivers being pulled over without licenses, and people being found in overcrowded or unsafe living situations.

 

[…]

 

The police have invested in interpreting software; the school district has hired more Spanish-speaking staff; the library got a grant to translate key brochures into Spanish.

 

[…]

 

Meyer and Weidl had drafted the letter with the aim of showing residents the city had done everything it could to secure more funds before asking taxpayers for money in a referendum. They believe an infusion of dollars to up police department staffing and add an immigrant liaison position, among other ideas, could go a long way.

 

[…]

 

There is no public transportation system in the town, so many undocumented individuals drive without licenses. It’s only recently that free clinics opened to serve those without health insurance.

 

[…]

 

“we would have, say, third graders who didn’t know their ABCs or we would have high school students who didn’t know how to read,” Ramirez said.

 

Before, the teachers mostly helped students of Mexican heritage who grew up bilingual in the U.S. Suddenly the district had to hire instructors who could teach migrant kids in Spanish to read and write. And it’s tougher to catch up high schoolers who are taking classes like chemistry and history compared to younger children, Ramirez said.

 

[…]

 

Meyer, the police chief, drew the estimate of 800 to 1,000 new migrants from the number of new children in schools and the number and type of calls police have received. It’s “probably a conservative estimate,” he said, as a chunk of those who have arrived are young, single men who aren’t in school.

 

Meyer said his officers’ investigations in cases involving migrants take longer, leaving less time for proactive policing. As a way to quantify that decline in officers’ available time to police in the community, he provided data that showed officers initiated half the number of traffic stops in 2023 compared to an 11-year average.

 

At traffic stops, unlicensed drivers might give a fake name or fake ID documents. And because they come with so few possessions, people under investigation for crimes easily slip away and can’t be found for follow-up interviews.

 

Officers might not realize until later that it was the third or fourth time police had stopped someone until a time-consuming effort to truly identify the person. Then there’s the task of correcting all the prior records in the system.

 

“It’s hours and hours of manpower,” he said.

Look at all of those tax dollars being spent on law enforcement, schools, the library, and everything else. Accompany that with the increase in crime, unsafe driving, unsafe living conditions, and overall decline in safety.

Now multiply that by the 10,000 communities across America that are dealing with Biden’s illegal invasion. He is killing our nation and he’s doing it on purpose.

Insurrection at White House

by | 1036, 14 Jan 2424 | | 2 Comments

Seems awfully insurrectiony to me. At least, by the new definition of the Left.

Anti-Israel protesters and rioters gathered outside the White House on Saturday night, with some demonstrators damaging security fencing and hurling objects at police.

 

The demonstrators were heard chanting “Ceasefire Now” and “Free, Free Palestine,” with many waving Palestinian flags. “Yemen, Yemen make us proud / Turn another ship around,” was also recited at the demonstration, hours after strikes were launched against the Houthis in Yemen.

 

The U.S. Secret Service told Fox News Digital that some fences were damaged outside the White House, and that staff members and journalists were “relocated” as a result. The White House also said on Saturday that President Biden is currently at Camp David.

 

“During the demonstration near the White House complex Jan. 13, a portion of the anti-scale fencing that was erected for the event sustained temporary damage,” the statement read. “The issues were promptly repaired on site by U.S. Secret Service support teams.”

Principal Who Kicked Kids Out to Make Room for Illegals Rejects Criticism

by | 1357, 13 Jan 2424 | | 4 Comments

The hubris of education bureaucrats is astonishing.

The principal of a Brooklyn high school that forced children to learn from home the day after 2,000 migrants moved in for a night has hit back at parents who criticized the decision.

 

‘How dare someone say that I don’t care about kids,’ James Madison High School principal Jodie Cohen told parents on a Zoom call on Tuesday, the New York Post reported. 

 

Parents were left outraged after their children were ordered to learn from home when the migrants were evacuated from Floyd Bennett Field because of a torrential rain storm.

 

‘I don’t understand how people who never come on a Zoom like this could take an opportunity like this evening to throw mud,’ Cohen said, according to the Post.

 

Cohen told parents on the call that she made the decision to move the children to remote learning on Wednesday because she didn’t know when classrooms would be ready again after the migrants were bused back to their shelter.

Oh, we dare. She prioritized housing illegal aliens in the buildings to support a political agenda instead of using those buildings to educate children. She made her priorities clear.

SCOTUS to Consider Homeless Rights to Public Land

by | 1010, 13 Jan 2424 | , | 1 Comment

Nope

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether homeless people have a constitutional right to camp on public property when they have no other place to sleep.

 

Acting on appeals from city officials in California and the West, the court will review decisions of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which held it was cruel and unusual punishment for cities to deny homeless people a place to sleep.

 

As a result of the 9th Circuit rulings, public officials in California and the eight other Western states under its jurisdiction face greater scrutiny and legal challenges when they move to clear encampments or relocate homeless people.

The Constitution does not speak on this matter, so it is not a right protected by that document. As a matter of Natural Law, we all have a right to use public/communal/shared land. So if a homeless person sleeps on a bench for a night, no harm, no foul. Where it runs afoul is when a homeless person sets up a permanent residence with a tent or other structure. Or if they keep their stuff in a single place as to keep others away. In that situation, the homeless person is denying others the ability to use public/communal/shared land and the community is empowered to remove the homeless person to preserve the shared space.

The same principle applies with hunting on public land. A hunter is free to move into public land and hunt for a day or two in a spot. But if that hunter sets up a permanent shelter or stand, the hunter is claiming a spot of land as their own. It is squatting or de facto privatization of public land. In that situation, the community is equally empowered to make the hunter pack up and move along.

Biden Gives China Green Light to Take Taiwan

by | 1003, 13 Jan 2424 | | 2 Comments

FFS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday the United States does not support the independence of Taiwan, after Taiwanese voters rebuffed China and gave the ruling party a third presidential term.

 

Earlier in the day, the Taiwanese ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te came to power, strongly rejecting Chinese pressure to spurn him, and pledged both to stand up to Beijing and seek talks.

“We do not support independence…” Biden said, when asked for reaction to Saturday’s elections.

 

Hours ahead of the polls opening, Washington had warned “it would be unacceptable” for “any” country to interfere in the election.

 

Taiwan, a neighbouring island China claims as its own, has been a democratic success story since holding its first direct presidential election in 1996, the culmination of decades of struggle against authoritarian rule and martial law.

The Great Gaslight

by | 0812, 12 Jan 2424 | | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News earlier this week:

Now that we are officially in a presidential election year and the Iowa Caucus looms, we can turn our attention to the campaign in earnest. It appears that we will be saddled with a rematch of Presidents Biden and Trump and the era of geriatric leadership will persist.

 

With an atrocious performance record and what appears to be an obvious history of corruption, Biden is determined to gaslight his way to re-election. He is going to try to convince the American people to trust his fiction instead of the observable obvious truth.

 

Biden’s first fiction is that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, was an insurrection. This fiction is key to Biden’s plan because it allows him to dehumanize Trump, specifically, and Republicans, generally. By othering Republicans, Biden relieves his supporters of the burden of respect and gives permission to win by any means necessary. The truth is that January 6 was a political rally and protest that spontaneously got out of control. The vast majority of the participants did not do anything other than exercise their 1st Amendment right to protest while a small minority got violent. An authentic and planned insurrection to topple our government would necessarily involve organization, the violent seizure of several organs of government, and an assumption of power by new leadership. Nobody has been accused, tried, or convicted of insurrection on January 6 because it was not an insurrection.

 

Biden is trying to convince Americans that January 6 was the most violent and deplorable riot in history, but Americans have been watching leftists disrupt governments burn down cities, and attack people for years. Biden does not care about our towns being burned down, but he desperately wants us to care about someone breaking a window in his town.

 

The second fiction is that the border is not a problem, or, if it is a problem, it is not his fault. Biden wants us to disregard the realities facing our communities as he is allowing millions of illegal aliens from all over the world to waltz across our border.

 

The truth is that Biden has intentionally opened our borders to the world. We have watched the videos throughout Biden’s term of thousands of illegal aliens crossing our borders. We have seen the news stories of illegal aliens overwhelming the welfare systems of massive cities like New York and Los Angeles. We have seen even small cities like Whitewater calling for help as hundreds of illegal aliens dumped in their communities drive up crime.

 

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, they encountered over 3.2 million illegals in 2023. The vast majority were released into the interior of our country. Over 2 million of those were single adults – not families. Some 109,863 of them were from China or Russia. These are only the people that CBP encountered. It does not count the millions who go undetected.

 

We remember that the border was essentially secure at the end of Trump’s presidency, but Biden is trying to convince us to believe him instead of our own memories. He is trying to convince us that the damage he is inflicting on our nation and our communities by opening the borders is not happening.

 

Biden’s third fiction is that the economy is great and Bidenomics is working. The stock market has been doing well on the back of inflation and government spending. Much like the economy under President Obama, Wall Street and the rich are doing quite well as the lower and middle classes suffer.

 

The truth is that Biden’s policies and spending ballooned inflation to the highest level seen in over forty years. Under Biden, everything got more expensive including housing, vehicles, fuel, and everything else Americans need every day. To combat this, the Federal Reserve drove up interest rates, making the cost of credit cards, mortgages, and loans much higher. We are all spending more to get the same things and more of our incomes are going to just afford necessities.

 

We all see the results of Bidenomics in our lives every day. Our food is much more expensive. It costs more to fill up our cars. Those cars are more expensive. Houses are far more expensive and increasingly unattainable for the lower and middle classes. Rents are up. More Americans are spending down their savings or running up debt to maintain their standard of living and many more Americans are seeing a lower standard of living.

 

Biden wants us to believe that we are better off thanks to his economic policies and ignore the realities we see in our bank accounts every month. The Biden family has done quite well under Bidenomics. The rest of us? Not so much.

 

Biden dares not ask us if we are better off than we were four years ago.

 

© Conley Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.                                              Powered by TECNAVIA

Wisconsin Republicans Push Rigged Choice Voting

by | 0829, 10 Jan 2424 | | 2 Comments

What the hell are Wisconsin’s Republicans thinking giving this an ounce of air? Ranked choice voting is a ridiculous system that facilitates cheating and erodes confidence in elections. It is damaging to our Republic and should not be considered by serious people.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A bipartisan bill that would dramatically change how Wisconsin residents choose congressional candidates by asking them to rank their top choices instead of voting for one of two candidates had its first public hearing in the state Legislature on Tuesday.

 

The hearing comes just a week after opponents circulated a proposed constitutional amendment to ban ranked choice voting. It’s unclear whether either measure has enough support to pass, but the movement shows the idea is gaining attention in the battleground state.

 

The bill before the state Senate’s elections committee on Tuesday would implement a ranked choice voting system known as final five. Under the system, all candidates for a U.S. House or Senate seat would appear together on a primary ballot regardless of their party, with the top five finishers advancing to the general election. Right now, Republicans and Democrats run on separate ballots in partisan primaries.

Defense Secretary Has Cancer

by | 0825, 10 Jan 2424 | , | 2 Comments

A couple of days ago, the Pentagon was insisting that Austin went in for an “elective” surgery. That was a lie. Now we learn that he has cancer and never even told his boss about it. Austin’s judgment is incredibly flawed and he has allowed our national security to be threatened by his selfish behavior.

President Joe Biden was only told that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was being treated for cancer on Tuesday, the White House has said.

Mr Austin, 70, was admitted to hospital on 1 January and then to the intensive care unit for complications following surgery in December.

He has faced criticism for not telling senior officials about it for days.

 

[…]

 

At a press briefing on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that President Biden was only informed that day about the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

“Nobody at the White House knew that Secretary Austin had prostate cancer until this morning,” he said.

 

[…]

 

Doctors for Mr Austin said a check up in December 2023 “identified prostate cancer which required treatment”.

 

Mr Austin underwent a “minimally invasive surgical procedure” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the nation’s top military hospital, on 22 December to remove the cancer. He was under general anaesthesia for this procedure.

He returned to hospital on 1 January 2024 after experiencing “complications”, and an evaluation revealed a urinary tract infection. He was transferred to the intensive care unit the next day for further treatment, including for “abdominal fluid collections impairing the function of his small intestines”.

The Great Gaslight

by | 0726, 9 Jan 2424 | | 1 Comment

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

Now that we are officially in a presidential election year and the Iowa Caucus looms, we can turn our attention to the campaign in earnest. It appears that we will be saddled with a rematch of Presidents Biden and Trump and the era of geriatric leadership will persist.

 

With an atrocious performance record and what appears to be an obvious history of corruption, Biden is determined to gaslight his way to re-election. He is going to try to convince the American people to trust his fiction instead of the observable obvious truth.

 

Biden’s first fiction is that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, was an insurrection. This fiction is key to Biden’s plan because it allows him to dehumanize Trump, specifically, and Republicans, generally. By othering Republicans, Biden relieves his supporters of the burden of respect and gives permission to win by any means necessary. The truth is that January 6 was a political rally and protest that spontaneously got out of control. The vast majority of the participants did not do anything other than exercise their 1st Amendment right to protest while a small minority got violent. An authentic and planned insurrection to topple our government would necessarily involve organization, the violent seizure of several organs of government, and an assumption of power by new leadership. Nobody has been accused, tried, or convicted of insurrection on January 6 because it was not an insurrection.

 

Biden is trying to convince Americans that January 6 was the most violent and deplorable riot in history, but Americans have been watching leftists disrupt governments burn down cities, and attack people for years. Biden does not care about our towns being burned down, but he desperately wants us to care about someone breaking a window in his town.

 

Move Away from ACT and SAT Having Negative Consequences

by | 2055, 7 Jan 2424 | | 10 Comments

Yet another COVID response failure. But here’s the dirty little secret… some colleges don’t care if students will be successful or not as long as the check clears.

After the COVID pandemic made it difficult for high school students to take the SAT and ACT, dozens of selective colleges dropped their requirement that applicants do so. Colleges described the move as temporary, but nearly all have since stuck to a test-optional policy. It reflects a backlash against standardized tests that began long before the pandemic, and many people have hailed the change as a victory for equity in higher education.

 

Now, though, a growing number of experts and university administrators wonder whether the switch has been a mistake. Research has increasingly shown that standardized test scores contain real information, helping to predict college grades, chances of graduation and post-college success. Test scores are more reliable than high school grades, partly because of grade inflation in recent years.

 

Without test scores, admissions officers sometimes have a hard time distinguishing between applicants who are likely to do well at elite colleges and those who are likely to struggle. Researchers who have studied the issue say that test scores can be particularly helpful in identifying lower-income students and underrepresented minorities who will thrive. These students do not score as high on average as students from affluent communities or white and Asian students. But a solid score for a student from a less privileged background is often a sign of enormous potential.

Secretary of Defense Hospitalized for Days Before Anyone Notified

by | 1904, 6 Jan 2424 | , | 7 Comments

This is a severe national security issue and a massive failure of professionalism. Biden should sack Austin immediately.

CNN — 

President Joe Biden was not aware for days that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan ultimately informed Biden late Thursday afternoon, soon after Sullivan himself learned that Austin had been hospitalized, that source said. Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Day due to complications from an elective surgery.

The Pentagon announced the hospitalization Friday. Austin issued his first statement Saturday, five days after being admitted to the hospital, saying he could have done a “better job” of notifying the public.

[…]

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks periodically assumed the duties of the defense secretary while she was on vacation in Puerto Rico during the time Austin was hospitalized, two US officials said. Hicks had arrived in Puerto Rico prior to Austin’s hospitalization.

Login | Register

Archives

Categories

Pin It on Pinterest