If our border were secure, this wouldn’t be as much of a concern. As it is, it’s a huge effing deal.
Militants associated with the Israel-Hamas war “may potentially be encountered at the southwest border,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in San Diego recently warned in an internal intelligence notice.
“[I]ndividuals inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle east via circuituous transit across the Southwest border,” reads the notice, sent Friday, in part.
The intel document shows various insignias worn by Hamas, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. It informs CBP personnel to be vigilant for military-age men wearing military gear and traveling alone at the border.
CBP intelligence offices regularly generate reports on potential threats to border security. Naming particular groups may indicate that officials have specific intelligence based on the severity of potential threats outside the U.S.
The Defense Department ratcheted up its rhetoric against Iran on Monday, saying it will hold Tehran ultimately responsible for a spate of recent drone and rocket attacks on American troops in the Middle East.
While the Pentagon does not have information that the government of Iran “explicitly ordered” the attacks on U.S. forces in the past week, the groups responsible for the incidents are backed by Tehran, DOD spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Monday.
A number of U.S. troops were injured during the attacks, which spanned several days and bases in Iraq and Syria, and an American contractor died of a cardiac episode while running from a false alarm at al Asad air base in Iraq.
“By virtue of the fact that they are supported by Iran, we will ultimately hold Iran responsible,” Ryder said.
The deadly terrorist attack in Israel and the torrent of social media threats that followed have forced many American Jews to reconsider their long held stances against owning or using guns.
Firearm instructors and Jewish security groups across the country say they have been flooded with new clientele since Hamas assaulted Israel on Oct. 7. And gun shop owners in Florida say they have seen more Jews purchase firearms in recent weeks than ever before.
“We’ve definitely seen a tremendous increase in religious Jewish people, Orthodox people, purchasing firearms,” said David Kowalsky, who owns Florida Gun Store in the town of Hollywood, and also offers firearms training classes. “I’ve seen a surge in interest in individual training as well as group training.”
Kowalsky, who is Jewish, said local synagogues had reached out to him to host gun training seminars and shooting sessions in the past week. At one gun safety seminar he hosted this past week, Kowalsky said most participants were new to guns.
WashingtonCNN — Although the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s signature student loan forgiveness program in late June, his administration has found ways to cancel more than $48 billion in debt since then.
The cancellations have come through existing federal student loan forgiveness programs, which are limited to specific categories of borrowers, such as public-sector workers, people defrauded by for-profit colleges, and borrowers who have paid for at least 20 years.
These programs are separate from the rejected forgiveness plan, which would have canceled about $430 billion of the $1.6 trillion of outstanding federal student loan debt all at one time.
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week.
The latest version of the plan for taxpayers to refurbish and upgrade American Family Field for the Milwaukee Brewers is up for a vote in the Wisconsin Assembly this week. The $546 million package looks headed for passage with support from the Republicans, Gov. Tony Evers, the Brewers, and Milwaukee Democrats. Apparently, if there is anything that unites Wisconsin’s political parties, it is to spend half a billion taxpayer dollars on baseball.
The issue is that the taxpayers have majority ownership of the stadium. The current deal with the Brewers is that the taxpayers are responsible for maintaining the stadium and keeping it up to date with the rest of the league. The current funding is inadequate to keep up with the upgrades that the Brewers want for the stadium. Therefore, our politicians want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the stadium in exchange for the Brewers agreeing to stay in Wisconsin for longer.
The current package includes $411 million from state taxpayers and $67.5 million each from Milwaukee County and the city of Milwaukee. The contribution from Milwaukee city and County has been reduced since the last iteration in an effort to get support from Milwaukee’s local politicians. In addition, the Brewers have agreed to spend $100 million on upgrades. Several weeks ago, this column criticized the stadium funding deal currently being debated and further criticized the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, the government body that owns the majority of the stadium and manages its upkeep. I criticized the district for not monetizing the stadium on behalf of the taxpayers. I unfairly disparaged the district because the lease with the Brewers prohibits the district from using the stadium to generate revenue. For that, I apologize.
In the Brewers’ lease, the district (taxpayers) disclaims “all revenues generated by the operations of the Team or derived from the ownership of the Team’s Franchise, as well as from the operation of the Stadium Complex for the Permitted Uses.” In other words, even though the deal has been painted as the taxpayers acting as landlord and the Brewers as tenants, the Brewers actually get any revenue generated by the property.
All profit from sponsorships, concessions, concerts, restaurants, parking, or anything else goes to the Brewers. No wonder the team has ballooned in value from $225 million when the current ownership purchased it in 2004 to over $1.6 billion now according to Forbes. Will the taxpayers get any of that appreciated value if the team is sold?
As written, the stadium deal is terrible for taxpayers. They will spend $546 million to upgrade the stadium so that it can make even more money for the Brewers’ owners. In return, the Brewers will stay around a while longer. Unless, of course, the owners sell the team, in which case, all bets are off.
Before considering any funding to the stadium, conservatives should insist on the following. First, they should rewrite the lease to allow the taxpayers, though the SEWPBPD, to collect all profits generated by the stadium for non-Brewers activities. If the stadium is leased for a corporate event, concert, pro wrestling, political rally, or any other function that does not involve baseball, the taxpayers, who own the building, should receive the profits.
Second, the rent paid by the Brewers for the use of the stadium should be based on a revenue share arrangement for revenue generated during Brewers’ games and other baseball-related activities. These first two items will lessen, and possibly eliminate, the need for taxpayer support by making the stadium self-supporting. It will also provide reliable revenue to allow the SEWPBPD to continue to upgrade the facility for years to come.
Third, in the event that the Brewers are sold, the lease should require that the taxpayers are refunded the amount they have spent on the stadium. The value of the team has significantly increased in large part due to the wonderful stadium and the revenue it generates. The taxpayers deserve to have their generosity reimbursed instead of all of the net increase in value going to the owners. Alternatively, the Brewers could just grant the SEWPBPD an equity position in the team so that any proceeds from a sale would naturally flow proportionally back to the taxpayers.
Absent significant changes to the deal, it should be rejected. While politicians of both parties love to spend money and pose for pictures with the Brewers, someone needs to look out for the taxpayers.
With little fanfare, the Biden administration on Oct. 18 eased sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector, which should allow the beleaguered socialist nation to export more oil to the United States and to global markets. Venezuela is one of the world’s most oil-rich countries, but incompetent, repressive dictators and US sanctions have wrecked much of the industry and left it pumping a fraction of its potential.
The Biden administration says the sanctions relief is aimed at cajoling Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro into holding free-ish elections next year. The deal has a six-month shelf life and can either be extended or canceled, based on whether Maduro seems to be abiding by the terms.
But there’s good reason to think the Biden administration cares about oil supplies at least as much as the prospect for democracy in Latin America. Research firm ClearView Energy Partners thinks Venezuela is one of four sources of additional oil the Biden administration has been trying to draw on to the market for the last several months. Two other sources — Iran and Saudi Arabia — may now be off the table due to the mushrooming war between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas. The fourth source is Russian crude, via relaxed enforcement of a US-led price cap scheme that went into effect last December.
What the hell was that? A mess of false equivocations, pan handling, and calling Americans bigots.
His speech aimed to draw a link between the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel and he urged Congress to take action and pass an aid package supporting both nations.
Biden didn’t actually say how much he was seeking in extra funding, but is expected to be asking for $100bn.
Notable quotes from his speech include:
“Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.”
“If we don’t stop Putin’s appetite for power and control in Ukraine he won’t limit himself to Ukraine.”
Several weeks ago, this column criticized the stadium funding deal currently being debated and further criticized the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, the government body that owns the majority of the stadium and manages its upkeep. I criticized the district for not monetizing the stadium on behalf of the taxpayers. I unfairly disparaged the district because the lease with the Brewers prohibits the district from using the stadium to generate revenue. For that, I apologize.
In the Brewers’ lease, the district (taxpayers) disclaims “all revenues generated by the operations of the Team or derived from the ownership of the Team’s Franchise, as well as from the operation of the Stadium Complex for the Permitted Uses.” In other words, even though the deal has been painted as the taxpayers acting as landlord and the Brewers as tenants, the Brewers actually get any revenue generated by the property.
All profit from sponsorships, concessions, concerts, restaurants, parking, or anything else goes to the Brewers. No wonder the team has ballooned in value from $225 million when the current ownership purchased it in 2004 to over $1.6 billion now according to Forbes. Will the taxpayers get any of that appreciated value if the team is sold?
As written, the stadium deal is terrible for taxpayers. They will spend $546 million to upgrade the stadium so that it can make even more money for the Brewers’ owners. In return, the Brewers will stay around a while longer. Unless, of course, the owners sell the team, in which case, all bets are off.
Before considering any funding to the stadium, conservatives should insist on the following. First, they should rewrite the lease to allow the taxpayers, though the SEWPBPD, to collect all profits generated by the stadium for non-Brewers activities. If the stadium is leased for a corporate event, concert, pro wrestling, political rally, or any other function that does not involve baseball, the taxpayers, who own the building, should receive the profits.
Second, the rent paid by the Brewers for the use of the stadium should be based on a revenue share arrangement for revenue generated during Brewers’ games and other baseball-related activities. These first two items will lessen, and possibly eliminate, the need for taxpayer support by making the stadium self-supporting. It will also provide reliable revenue to allow the SEWPBPD to continue to upgrade the facility for years to come.
Third, in the event that the Brewers are sold, the lease should require that the taxpayers are refunded the amount they have spent on the stadium. The value of the team has significantly increased in large part due to the wonderful stadium and the revenue it generates. The taxpayers deserve to have their generosity reimbursed instead of all of the net increase in value going to the owners. Alternatively, the Brewers could just grant the SEWPBPD an equity position in the team so that any proceeds from a sale would naturally flow proportionally back to the taxpayers.
Absent significant changes to the deal, it should be rejected. While politicians of both parties love to spend money and pose for pictures with the Brewers, someone needs to look out for the taxpayers.
Having our bumbling dementia-ridden president meet personally with foreign leaders will only embolden our enemies and worry our allies. This will not got well.
President Joe Biden’s decision to visit Israel caps a week of intense US diplomacy aimed at shoring up its closest Middle East ally and trying to prevent Israel’s war with Hamas from spreading to the region.
The Americans are worried that the audacity of the Hamas attack and the ferocity of the Israeli counter-offensive could spark violence in the West Bank and beyond.
The president will be joining his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who’s been on a frantic swing through the Middle East. Mr Blinken has stressed full US support for a forceful response to the deadly Hamas raid, which killed more than 1,400 Israelis.
But he is also trying to mitigate the civilian casualties in Gaza, the enclave that is governed by the Palestinian militant group. Israel has already killed nearly 3,000 Palestinians in relentless airstrikes, and blocked food, water and electricity to Gaza, plunging it into a humanitarian crisis.
by Owen | 2126, 15 Oct 2323 | Politics | 1 Comment
Absolutely correct. There are dozens of Muslim countries and ALL of them are a helluva lot closer than we are. If they won’t accept them, why should we?
“I don’t know what Biden’s going to do, but we cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,” DeSantis told an audience of caucusgoers at an event here sponsored by the super PAC Never Back Down.
Onstage before the crowd of about 50 people in this rural town southwest of Des Moines, DeSantis said other Arab states should absorb the refugees. But delving deeper into his reasoning, he offered up a sweeping characterization of the fleeing Palestinians.
“If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist,” he baselessly claimed.
After the statement was released, Jewish student groups pushed back and accused them of supporting the Hamas attack. Students in the pro-Palestinian groups have denied those claims and said the statement was misinterpreted.
“This is the most tense campus has ever been by far,” Hejir Rashidzadeh, a Harvard law student, told ABC News.
[…]
Students alleged to be in those student groups are now facing intense backlash on campus and online. Students in pro-Palestinian groups and in the Jewish community at Harvard told ABC News they are feeling scared and isolated.
[…]
“Imagine feeling like the place that you’re from is going to get wiped off the map. I feel certain that in a week I’m going to wake up and it’s going to be that Gaza has been flattened and that there is nothing left. I can’t breathe. I can’t see.”
The Palestinians attacked across the border into Israel. When you are the aggressor, you can’t whine when someone punches back.
Oh, ffs. So banks shouldn’t consider the credit worthiness of someone who may flee the country at any moment – by their choice or not? It really is frustrating for regular middle class Americans who play by the rules and seem to get denied help at every turn. And don’t get me started on the way the government weakens our banking system with these ridiculous mandates and then bails them out with taxpayer money when the banks collapse.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a joint statement telling financial institutions that while it is not illegal to consider a person’s immigration status in the decision on whether to lend money, an overreliance on it could run afoul of the law, according to the statement. The statement implicates the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), which makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex and more in considering a person’s credit application as the mechanism, even though the law does list citizenship status as a protected attribute.
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News earlier this week:
After the new leftists majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court launched an aggressive interbranch offensive against the legislative branch, the Legislature appears poised to return fire. It is going to get messy.
Our Wisconsin state government, modeled after the national government, is designed with three co-equal branches. Each branch is empowered with specific powers to check the other two branches. The structure is designed to prevent any single branch from becoming preeminent, or tyrannical, at the expense of the other two branches. The checks are designed to preserve the balance.
When Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April, she tipped the balance of the court from conservative to leftist. Normally, such changes in the past have been frustrating for the losing side, but not dramatic. Liberals dominated the court as recently as 2008 and they had held that majority for decades.
This time is different. Both Protasiewicz and her fellow judicial leftists made it very clear during the election that they planned to use their majority power on the court to advance their leftist political agenda. Protasiewicz campaigned at length on topics like abortion, Act 10, and legislative maps. This is a significant change from a time when judges promised to rule on the facts of cases that might come before them to overtly advocating for changing policy from the bench. It is a blunt usurpation of power for the Supreme Court to take upon itself the power of creating and changing laws. That power is reserved for the legislative branch with approval of the executive branch.
We see events playing out as predicted by this column. Taking the Judicial Junta up on their offer to invalidate the legislature and make law from the bench, a group of leftist special interests filed a lawsuit asking to redraw Wisconsin’s political maps. Last week, the court agreed to bypass all of the lower courts and take original action on the case.
The post-census decennial apportionment of legislative boundaries is exclusively a power of the legislative branch as detailed in Article IV, Section 3, of the state Constitution. Despite the fact that the maps were duly debated, passed, challenged in several courts, and affirmed as legal and constitutional by state and federal courts, this group is challenging them again. The only thing that has changed since the maps were decided is that a Judicial Junta took over the court with the election of Protasiewicz. The law has not changed. The Constitution has not changed. The facts have not changed. We have had several elections with these maps. None of that matters to this court. They have a legislative agenda to pass.
Furthermore, despite the fact that Protasiewicz repeatedly called the maps “rigged” while campaigning, thus prejudging any case regarding the existing maps that are coming before the court, Protasiewicz has abandoned judicial ethics and agreed to sit in judgment on the case. Given that Protasiewicz has prejudged the case and the other three members of the junta are equally excited about abandoning judicial objectivity and restraint in order to advance their Marxist agenda, the outcome is already determined. We will get some judicial theater to keep up appearances, but the final act is already written.
The Supreme Court’s orchestrated attack on a direct constitutional power of a co-equal branch of government is why constitutional checks were created. The legislative branch has a number of options. The Legislature could use the power of the purse to defund the Supreme Court until they cease their constitutional assault. Such a move would be vetoed by the Judicial Junta’s fellow traveler in the executive branch. Gov. Tony Evers has been cheering the destruction of constitutional government. To be fair, Evers may not fully understand the consequences of unbridled judicial rule. He wouldn’t be the first useful idiot to be consumed by his own ideology.
Another tool in the Legislature’s belt is impeachment. Article VII, Section 1 of the state Constitution allows the Legislature to impeach, convince, and remove from office any official, “for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors.” Is Protasiewicz corrupt for prejudging a case and refusing to recuse herself ? It is a judgment call. “Corrupt” is a vague word that covers a broad range of unsavory behaviors. I would argue that she is corrupt and pairs that corruption with the kind of bumptiousness that would make Hunter Biden raise an eyebrow.
Should the Legislature remove Protasiewicz from office, the actual effect may be negligible since the governor will appoint an identical replacement, but that does not mean that the Legislature should shy away from exercising their constitutional check to defend its own power. This court and its controlling junta is just getting started. They are not going to slow down. If anything, they are accelerating and will not change direction unless someone makes them.
In sport, checking an opponent does not always change the outcome of the game, but it does put them on notice that actions have consequences. This Supreme Court needs a supreme check.
MADISON – The Wisconsin Assembly has passed three controversial pieces of legislation dealing with transgender rights, despite opposition from LGBTQ groups and Governor Evers’ promise to veto any such bills that come to his desk. The votes were along party lines.
Two of the bills, Assembly Bills 377 and 378, ban transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports in high school and college. The third, Assembly Bill 465, bans gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth under 18.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson wants to give himself a $20,000 raise next year and raise the pay of Common Council members and other elected officials by a whopping 15% after pushing for a 2% sales tax and huge increases in shared revenue to remedy the city’s ongoing budget problems.
Under Johnson’s proposal, his annual salary would jump from $147,335.76 to $169,436.12. Common Council members would see an increase from $73,222.24 to $84,205.58 and the Common Council President’s salary would be bumped from $82,749.16 to $94,310.25.
[…]
In his annual budget speech last month, Johnson highlighted a 2% raise for city employees and 3% pay increase for those with five or more years of service.
This is how socialists roll. Big tax increase on the people. Tiny pay increase for the workers. Gigantic pay increase for themselves.
I had a tiny sliver of hope for Mayor Johnson, but I see that he is just another in a long line of Milwaukee grifters.
Asked by a reporter about graphic photos, Blinken says that what they show is “beyond what anyone would want to imagine. Babies riddled with bullets, young people burned alive… It’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way.”
He’s then asked about the situation in Gaza.
He repeats a line said by President Biden in his speech earlier this week.
“Hamas continues to use civilians as human shields”, Blinken says, stressing the perspective that Hamas has been intentionally putting civilians in harm’s way.
Around 1,400 have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes.
Blinken says he’s spoken to Israeli officials about options to provide civilians safe passage who want to get out of Gaza.
Personally, this monstrosity has pushed me to the point of “never again.” And to make it never happen again, Hamas, Hezbollah, and anyone who supports them needs to be bulldozed into the sea. The world community is offering a way out for innocents. If they don’t take it, then we have to understand that they support the butchering of babies. To hell with them all. Literally.
This time, we are seeing many people who usually mouth platitudes about restraint and a two-state solution taking a much, much firmer stance against terrorist barbarism. Will it hold? One can hope…
Mr Ben Zion said Hamas gunmen who killed families, including babies, were “just a jihad machine to kill everybody, [people] without weapons, without nothing, just normal citizens that want to take their breakfast and that’s all.”
Some of the victims, he said, were decapitated.
“They killed them and cut some of their heads, it’s a dreadful thing to see… and we must remember who is the enemy, and what our mission is, [for] justice where there is a right side and all the world needs to be behind us.”
Another officer pointed to a bloodied purple sleeping bag. A swollen toe poked out. He said the woman underneath had been killed and decapitated in her front garden.
MADISON (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court voted Monday in its first public administrative conference in more than a decade to reduce from 20 years to two years the time when most eviction records must be kept on the state court website.
The change was sought by tenant rights advocates who argued that the longer record-keeping has made it more difficult for people with lower incomes to find housing.
The court voted 4-3, with liberals in support and conservatives against, for shortening the recordkeeping on the state court website, commonly referred to by the acronym CCAP.
After the new leftists majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court launched an aggressive interbranch offensive against the legislative branch, the Legislature appears poised to return fire. It is going to get messy.
Our Wisconsin state government, modeled after the national government, is designed with three co-equal branches. Each branch is empowered with specific powers to check the other two branches. The structure is designed to prevent any single branch from becoming preeminent, or tyrannical, at the expense of the other two branches. The checks are designed to preserve the balance.
When Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April, she tipped the balance of the court from conservative to leftist. Normally, such changes in the past have been frustrating for the losing side, but not dramatic. Liberals dominated the court as recently as 2008 and they had held that majority for decades.
This time is different. Both Protasiewicz and her fellow judicial leftists made it very clear during the election that they planned to use their majority power on the court to advance their leftist political agenda. Protasiewicz campaigned at length on topics like abortion, Act 10, and legislative maps. This is a significant change from a time when judges promised to rule on the facts of cases that might come before them to overtly advocating for changing policy from the bench. It is a blunt usurpation of power for the Supreme Court to take upon itself the power of creating and changing laws. That power is reserved for the legislative branch with approval of the executive branch.
We see events playing out as predicted by this column. Taking the Judicial Junta up on their offer to invalidate the legislature and make law from the bench, a group of leftist special interests filed a lawsuit asking to redraw Wisconsin’s political maps. Last week, the court agreed to bypass all of the lower courts and take original action on the case.
The post-census decennial apportionment of legislative boundaries is exclusively a power of the legislative branch as detailed in Article IV, Section 3, of the state Constitution. Despite the fact that the maps were duly debated, passed, challenged in several courts, and affirmed as legal and constitutional by state and federal courts, this group is challenging them again. The only thing that has changed since the maps were decided is that a Judicial Junta took over the court with the election of Protasiewicz. The law has not changed. The Constitution has not changed. The facts have not changed. We have had several elections with these maps. None of that matters to this court. They have a legislative agenda to pass.
Furthermore, despite the fact that Protasiewicz repeatedly called the maps “rigged” while campaigning, thus prejudging any case regarding the existing maps that are coming before the court, Protasiewicz has abandoned judicial ethics and agreed to sit in judgment on the case. Given that Protasiewicz has prejudged the case and the other three members of the junta are equally excited about abandoning judicial objectivity and restraint in order to advance their Marxist agenda, the outcome is already determined. We will get some judicial theater to keep up appearances, but the final act is already written.
The Supreme Court’s orchestrated attack on a direct constitutional power of a co-equal branch of government is why constitutional checks were created.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the United Nations to take immediate action against the continued “Israeli aggression” toward Palestinians.
Abbas made the remarks on a phone call with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, according to the state news agency WAFA.
Abbas called on the UN to “immediately intervene to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip,” WAFA reported on Monday.
The Palestinian president emphasized the urgent need for medical and relief aid in Gaza, drawing attention to the looming humanitarian crisis. He urged the UN to “uphold its responsibilities as recognized by international legitimacy and ensure protection for the Palestinian people.”
Iran/Hamas has a clear strategy.
Attack Israel across the border
Make the attacks so horrific by intentionally targeting civilians, old women, and children, as to force Israel to respond with overwhelming force.
When Israel responds, cry foul and call for Arab nations to attack Israel.
Whining to the UN is an intermediate step between steps 2 and 3 to give step three more perceived legitimacy.
Iran/Hamas’ attack was a clear war crime and utterly barbarous behavior. I hope Israel pushes Hamas into the sea.
