by Owen | 2135, 14 Aug 2424 | Crime | 1 Comment
Ope.
A New Zealand charity that works with low-income people says it unknowingly distributed candies containing potentially lethal levels of methamphetamine.
[…]
Ben Birks Ang, a spokesperson for the NZ Drug Foundation, told the AP that each candy had a street value of 1,000 New Zealand dollars ($608), suggesting the donation was not intentional. Authorities said it was possibly a smuggling attempt that had gone wrong.
by Owen | 2132, 14 Aug 2424 | Economy | 0 Comments
by Owen | 1949, 14 Aug 2424 | Foreign Affairs, Politics | 5 Comments
Biden and Harris are really letting down their constituents.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — A top Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group is losing faith in the United States’ ability to mediate a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of a new round of talks scheduled for this week amid mounting pressure to bring an end to the 10-month-old war with Israel.
by Owen | 1931, 14 Aug 2424 | Politics | 0 Comments
Harris, the U.S. vice president, plans to lay out some details of her economic plan in a speech in North Carolina on Friday that will touch on lowering costs and “price gouging,” a sign of how important consumer prices are to voters in the Nov. 5 election.
Two.
Until last year, Janet Albrecht could afford to eat roast beef sandwiches or tuna salad for lunch. But the widowed 78-year-old now has to skimp on her meals because her Social Security benefits haven’t kept up with the rising costs for food, housing and health care in recent years.
“Recent years” = “during the Biden/Harris administration.”
A retired graphic designer, Albrecht estimates she’s paying $100 more a month at the supermarket than she was before inflation started skyrocketing in 2021. Her landlord increased the monthly rent by a total of $65 over the past two years, her utility bills are larger and some of the seven medications she takes daily after suffering a heart attack have gotten more expensive. She hasn’t had a haircut in more than a year, though she doesn’t like to wear her hair so long.
by Owen | 1926, 14 Aug 2424 | Politics | 0 Comments
Nothing says “defending democracy” like keeping opponents off the ballot.
MADISON, Wis . (AP) — An employee of the Democratic National Committee filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to remove the Green Party’s presidential candidate from the ballot in Wisconsin, arguing that the party is ineligible.
It’s the latest move by the DNC to block third-party candidates from the ballot. Democrats are also seeking to stop independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in several states.
The Green Party’s appearance on the presidential ballot could make a difference in swing state Wisconsin, where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by between 5,700 votes and about 23,000 votes. Jill Stein is expected to officially become the Green Party’s presidential nominee at its national convention, which begins Thursday.
by Owen | 1909, 14 Aug 2424 | Politics | 0 Comments
But wait… I thought she WASN’T in charge of the border. Which is it?
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, watching tens of thousands of migrants from Central America reach the U.S.-Mexico border just a few months into his administration, tapped his second-in-command to help address the influx — a decision that has exposed Vice President Kamala Harris to one of her biggest political liabilities.
In grappling with migration, Harris proceeded cautiously. She focused her time and prestige on boosting private investment in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the so-called Northern Triangle; her goal was to help create jobs to bolster economies and dissuade migrants from making the perilous journey to the United States.
by Owen | 1823, 14 Aug 2424 | Politics - Wisconsin | 4 Comments
This is very frustrating, but easy to explain.
(The Center Square) – Democratic lawmakers and left-leaning organizations are celebrating voters’ rejection of two ballot proposals that would have empowered the legislature to have a say in certain spending decision.
But others are warning a Republican governor could change Democrats’ minds in the future.
[…]
The two referendums would have required the governor to include the state’s legislature in spending decisions regarding certain federal funding, which supporters argued would enhance fiscal responsibility. Opponents claimed the amendments were simply a Republican power grab.
This is frustrating because this is such a clear cut decision about good government. No single person should ever be able to spend billions of tax dollars at their sole discretion. It has been this way in Wisconsin forever, but it wasn’t a lot of money until Covid dumped tens of billions of dollars into the state’s lap. If you voted “no” for these amendments, then you don’t really believe in things like checks and balances or separation of powers.
Also, the referenda were necessarily written in a confusing, legalistic manner. This left people a bit confused if they didn’t read up ahead of time.
The liberals poured an inordinate amount of money into this election to encourage people to vote “no.” Why? Always. Follow. The. Money. Remember that the problem with the status quo is that the governor can spend that money wherever he or she wants. Evers has been pouring that money into favored groups in favored areas. The people receiving that money have a vested interest in keeping the gravy train flowing. Therefore, people and groups came out of the woodwork to get people to vote to keep Evers’ hand on the money spigot.
Finally, in a low turnout election, Dane County came through again. Statewide, turnout was about 26%. In Dane County, turnout was 44% for these questions. And Dane County voted 82% “no.” That’s 137,000ish “no” votes for referenda that lost statewide by 182,000 votes.
Milwaukee is heading on the same trend. Milwaukee County turnout was 32% (remember statewide was 26%) and voted 7 to 3 against the referenda. That’s another 105,000 “no” votes.
Meanwhile, Waukesha County didn’t do bad with turnout of 37% with a high-profile DA race on the ballot. But Waukesha is not nearly as Conservative as Dane and Milwaukee are Liberal. The referenda only received 53% “yes” votes in Waukesha County.
The demographics are such that Dane and Milwaukee Counties are uber-blue and are turning out disproportionately compared to the rest of the state. The WOW Counties are increasingly purple. This means that the liberals have an embedded electoral advantage being able to focus almost all of their effort into two counties while conservatives have to drive turnout in the other seventy.
One thing is certain… when we have a Republican governor again, I will encourage that governor to spend 100% of any federal money in Republican communities and with conservative causes. Fair is fair. If we are not going to have good government, at least we can attempt to make it equal in terms of distribution.
by Owen | 0810, 12 Aug 2424 | Politics | 3 Comments
JD Vance articulates real policies while Kamals hides.
When asked how he and Trump would accomplish their stated goal of mass deporting as many as 20 million immigrants – a proposal experts previously told ABC News would be a “nightmare” — Vance said they would take a “sequential approach.”
“I mean do you go knock on doors and ask people for their papers? What do you do,” Karl asked.
“You start with what’s achievable,” Vance said. “I think that if you deport a lot of violent criminals and frankly if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, which undercuts the wages of American workers, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the illegal immigration problem.”
“I think it’s interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let’s start with 1 million. That’s where Kamala Harris has failed. And then we can go from there,” Vance said.
This is where most American are. No, we don’t want our government proactively knocking on doors searching for illegals. What we do want is to deport them when they are found and make it less comfortable for them to be here. Increase penalties and enforcement against employers who employ illegals. Deport criminals when they are arrested and identified as illegal – even if they just get a parking ticket. Make it difficult for illegals to get benefits from taxpayers like welfare, housing assistance, or education.
If we do these things; if we make it an unpleasant experience for illegal immigrants to live in a country they illegally entered; if we do this while making the border more difficult to enter; then many of the illegals will self-deport. This is how other countries do it. We can be a compassionate, welcoming country to legal immigrants while still maintaining our national integrity and trying to manage the expense of our welfare state.
The Trump campaign is having a substantive, nuanced discussion on hard issues like abortion, illegal immigration, and race relations while the Harris campaign is treating the People like toddlers.
by Owen | 0746, 12 Aug 2424 | Politics | 1 Comment
She has absolutely no authenticity or substance.
At Saturday’s rally at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Vice President Harris said: “When I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,” she said.
Yes, she copied Trump.
Yes, she was the tie breaking vote to pass the bill that increased enforcement on the collection of taxes on tips.
Yes, she is only doing this to neutralize a policy that was proving to be popular.
But can we step back for a moment and talk about what a terrible policy this is? It was terrible when Trump proposed it. It’s terrible now. One of the oppressive aspects of our federal government is the complex tax code. This is why we have a gigantic IRS that is chasing people all the time. This is why ordinary citizens live in fear of the IRS even when they do everything correctly. The tax code is so Byzantine that it is easy for good, honest people to make a mistake and face severe consequences. It is through this complex tax code that the federal government wields power over us.
Our tax code got this way over time because of exactly this kind of crap – politicians picking winners and losers. Why should tips be tax exempt? It’s income, isn’t it? Why shouldn’t other forms of income be exempt? Rental income? Income from a second job? Income from Gig economy jobs?
The answer is not to continue to have politicians pick their favorites and show their largesse through the tax code. The answer is a flat tax – or no tax at all. Republicans should be pushing to simplify the tax code – not continue to make it an instrument of political favor.
by Owen | 0836, 11 Aug 2424 | Crime, Law, Politics | 26 Comments
This is a much bigger deal than the story makes it out to be.
A Massachusetts Salon owner feels ‘violated’ after the United States Secret Service broke into her business during a nearby fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Footage from a Ring security camera shows an agent approaching the front door of the business in Berkshire, Massachusetts last week before coming back to tape over the video camera.
Alicia Powers, the salon owner, said after the camera was covered, agents broke into the building by picking the lock and then allowing multiple people to use the bathroom inside over a two-hour period.
We have a right to our private property and that right is strongly protected in several places in the U.S. Constitution. Without a warrant or probable cause, these agents broke into a private business to use for their own purposes. The purpose is immaterial. The Secret Service had no more right to enter that building without permission than any thug on the street. If a rando had broken in, they would be prosecuted and put in jail. The same thing should happen to the agents. They don’t get to say, “ope, our bad” and move on. I wouldn’t be able to do that. They should be held to the same or higher standard.
The whole thing speaks to a culture at the Secret Service that disregards the rights of citizens and does not hold itself accountable. It speaks to a culture of an agency that considers itself above the law. They are behaving as a modern Praetorian Guard instead of as a law enforcement and protection agency in a Constitutional Republic.
It seems that all of our federal agencies have become rotten to the core.
by Owen | 0818, 11 Aug 2424 | Culture | 1 Comment
What a silly harmless trend that the “experts” need to crap all over.
Mr Bailey is part of a new travel trend, known as “raw-dogging”, where passengers spend long hours mid-air just staring straight ahead.
The longer you do it, the tougher you have apparently proven yourself to be.
“Just raw-dogged it, 15 hour flight to Melbourne,” boasts Australian music producer Torren Foot on TikTok, blinking hard as if to stay awake.
“No music, no movies, just flight map.”
[…]
“They’re idiots,” says Dr Gill Jenkins, a GP who also works as a medical escort in air ambulance work. “A digital detox might do you some good, but all the rest of it is against medical advice,” she says.
by Owen | 1841, 5 Aug 2424 | The Blog | 2 Comments
I’ll be back to my regular blogging schedule sometime this weekend. Y’all stay safe out there.
by Owen | 1559, 2 Aug 2424 | Economy, Politics | 6 Comments
Our weak economy has been propped up by government spending fueled by borrowing. That gravy train is threatening to slow down as the interest to pay that debt balloons. We are headed for a very bad time. None of what we are arguing about now will matter when the national debt crushes the economy. Neither Kamala nor Trump seem to give a dang. Frankly, why would they? The American people don’t seem to give a dang either.
The broad market index dropped 1.84% to end at 5,346.56. The Nasdaq Composite lost 2.43% to close at 16,776.16, bringing the decline for the tech-heavy index from its recent all-time high to more than 10%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 610.71 points, or 1.51%, to finish at 39,737.26. At its session low, the 30-stock index was down 989 points.
Stocks sank after July job growth in the U.S. slowed more than expected, while the unemployment rate rose to the highest since October 2021. Nonfarm payrolls grew by just 114,000 last month, the Labor Department reported, a slowing from 179,000 jobs added in June and below the 185,000 expected by economists polled by Dow Jones. The unemployment rate increased to 4.3%.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to its lowest since December as investors flooded into bonds for safety on the fear the Federal Reserve made a mistake this week by keeping interest rates at current levels.
by Owen | 0639, 1 Aug 2424 | Politics - Wisconsin | 71 Comments
Wisconsin’s partisan primary election is Aug. 13, and voters will see two referendum questions on their ballots asking to give the state Legislature more power over distributing federal funding, an effort sparked by clashes over Gov. Tony Evers’ power to distribute billions of dollars in coronavirus relief money.
[…]
Question 1: “Delegation of appropriation power. Shall section 35 (1) of article IV of the constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?”
Question 2: “Allocation of federal moneys. Shall section 35 (2) of article IV of the constitution be created to prohibit the governor from allocating any federal moneys the governor accepts on behalf of the state without the approval of the legislature by joint resolution or as provided by legislative rule?”
In a sane world, this would be a no-brainer. I don’t care if the Governor is a Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal, man, woman, Jew or Gentile, no single person should have complete and arbitrary authority to spend billions and billions of tax dollars. It is the antithesis of good government and a recipe for corruption and grift.
Vote “yes” for good government.
by Owen | 0623, 1 Aug 2424 | Politics | 1 Comment
If Harris wins, there is no way in hell that your taxes will not go up.
On the line is the future of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which a Republican Congress passed and former President Donald Trump signed into law in 2017.
To avoid blowing too large of a hole in the federal budget at the time, Republicans scheduled many of the tax cuts to expire after 2025. That deadline has created a rare opportunity to reshape federal tax policy next year, and lawmakers in each party intend to be ready to wield whatever power voters give them in November.
Many of the expiring tax measures are ones that benefit middle-class Americans, including a larger standard deduction, lower marginal income tax rates and a more generous child tax credit.
[…]
The Biden administration has said it would seek to pay for extending tax cuts next year in part by raising the corporate tax rate, raising the highest marginal income rate, and making ultrawealthy Americans pay taxes on investment gains on assets they have not yet sold.
While Harris is expected to adopt the bulk of those ideas, Democrats on Capitol Hill have struggled with them. When Democrats last controlled both chambers of Congress, in 2021 and 2022, lawmakers rejected much of Biden’s tax agenda, making it uncertain where the party could land next year.
by Owen | 0702, 30 Jul 2424 | Crime, Culture, Foreign Affairs | 2 Comments
I hate to say “I told you so,” but I did. You can’t oust communist at the ballot box. They don’t allow it.
Protests erupted in the Venezuelan capital the day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory.
The opposition has disputed Mr Maduro’s declaration as fraudulent, saying its candidate Edmundo González won convincingly with 73.2% of the vote.
[…]
A heavy military and police presence was on the streets of Caracas with the aim of trying to disperse protesters and prevent them from approaching the presidential palace.
Crowds of people chanted “freedom, freedom!” and called for the government to fall.
[…]
In a speech on Venezuelan state television, Mr Maduro said it is his “obligation to tell you the truth”.
“We are all under the obligation to listen the truth, to gear up with patience, calmness and strength because we are familiar with this movie and we know how to face these situations and how to defeat the violent.”
[…]
Mr Maduro has accused the opposition of calling for a coup by disputing the results. “This is not the first time we are facing what we are facing today,” he said.
“They are trying to impose in Venezuela a coup d’etat again of fascist and counter-revolutionary character.”
The Venezuelan attorney general warned that the blocking of roads or breaking any laws related to disturbances as part of protests would be met with the full force of the law.
Does that rhetoric look familiar? The claim to speaking the “truth” and labeling all opponents as liars? The claim that opposing an obviously fraudulent election is a “coup?” The rigorous enforcement of laws against political opponents while allies run wild? All of this after disarming average citizens in the name of “safety.” Only those ignorant of history don’t know what’s going on. This is the classic Communist playbook and we are seeing it here in America.
by Owen | 0717, 29 Jul 2424 | Law, Politics | 23 Comments
First, no, Joe Biden did not write this screed. They won’t tell us who did.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden called for major changes to the Supreme Court on Monday, including a constitutional amendment that would limit immunity for presidents, impose term limits for justices and stipulate an enforceable code of ethics.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Biden said “no one is above the law.”
“Not the president of the United States,” he wrote. “Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one.”
[…]
Biden, who served as a U.S. Senator for 36 years, wrote that he had overseen more Supreme Court nominations as senator, vice president and president than anyone living today.
Remember that Biden would not be proposing any of these things if the court were reliably issuing ruling that the liberals want. For 50 years, the court leaned Left and nobody proposed these kinds of things. Now that the court has tilted slightly right for less than a decade, liberals have decided that the court needs to be blown up.
Thankfully, none of this stands a chance of passing with a divided Congress and a lame duck President. It is curious that he would push it at all. Harris is the Leftist standard-bearer now. By tipping their hand that the Leftists want to radically usurp the power of the Supreme Court, does this help Harris? She will have to now offer her position on his reforms, right? Or is this a setup where Harris will come out against these “reforms” to make her look more moderate? Or is Biden just a bitter old man who wants to demonstrate that he still matters?
Curious…
by Owen | 1930, 28 Jul 2424 | Culture, Politics | 2 Comments
This is disgusting on so many levels.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kamala Harris is using potential veep candidate Pete Buttigieg to woo “white dude’’ voters — “who need to be honest with ourselves and each other about the role we’ve played in our nation’s history.’’
Buttigieg, transportation secretary and one of Harris’s top supporters, will appear virtually at a Zoom event at 8 p.m. Monday with the group “White Dudes for Harris.”
[…]
The group does not say explicitly whether non-whites will be allowed to attend, and a Post request for comment was not immediately returned.
It is disgusting that, once again, the Democratic Party divides people by race and, interestingly, gender. They are perpetuating the racist trope that people should be treated according to racist stereotypes instead of as free-thinking individuals. It is racism to its core.
It is also disgusting that they have chosen to single out white men for struggle sessions. In the racist Democrats’ view, having white guys “be honest with ourselves and each other about the role we’ve played in our nation’s history” means that they must apologize and repent for crimes against women and other races. That is the only correct “honest” discussion allowed for white dudes. Any attempt to show pride or celebrate the positive contributions of white men in our nation’s history will be silenced as “dishonest.” That’s how this works. White men share the exclusive collective guilt of the nation and must atone for their sins. Collective guilt. Collective punishment. Not based on actual behavior, but assigned because of the color of their skin and for having a Y chromosome.
Racism and sexism are revolting.
by Owen | 1909, 28 Jul 2424 | Foreign Affairs | 0 Comments
I’ll spare you the suspense. Maduro will “win.”
Venezuelans have been going to the polls in what has been described as the biggest challenge to the governing socialist PSUV party since it came to power 25 years ago.
Nicolás Maduro – who has been president since the death of his mentor, Hugo Chávez, in 2013 – is running for a third consecutive term.
His main challenger is Edmundo González, a former diplomat who has the backing of a coalition of opposition parties.
Polls suggest Mr González has a wide lead over the incumbent, but as Mr Maduro’s 2018 re-election was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair, there are fears that the result of this election could be tampered with, should it not go Mr Maduro’s way.
Communists don’t suffer election losses. The elections are just for show. The only way to oust communism once it has taken power is with violence. Americans would do well to remember this.
by Owen | 0805, 28 Jul 2424 | Politics | 0 Comments
It’s been less than a week and even the vaunted New York Times isn’t pretending that Biden wasn’t forced out.
Biden cares deeply about keeping former President Donald Trump out of the White House and therefore has reason to be invested in Harris’ success. He also knows that because, until he was forced to quit the race, he had insisted on running again despite concerns about his age, many will blame him for not ceding the stage earlier if Trump wins.
What does that say about our president? A week ago, he left the race and said it was his choice. He went on television, and while he did not give a reason for dropping out of the race, he indicated that it was his choice. His supporters have even tried to spin his dropping out as a noble act. Everything coming from the Biden camp is that it was his choice to step aside.
Yet, we all knew this to not be the case. There are various stories leaking about how the coup came about. But we all knew it from the start. We all knew that Biden would have never withdrawn of his own volition. And now the New York Times puts a throwaway statement to that effect in the middle of a story about Harris. Everyone – including the leftist media – knows that Biden was forced out.
Still, Biden continues to lie about it. Nobody believes him. Nobody. But he continues to lie and will not share the truth with the American people.
Why won’t he share the truth? Two reasons. First, ego and pride. Biden is not going to admit – even, perhaps, to himself – that he was forced to quit the race at the zenith of his ambition. Second, and more troubling, is because to admit that he was forced out is to admit that he is no longer effectively acting as president. He has the title. He sits in the chair. But he is not wielding the power. For if he were, then he could not have been forced from his chosen course.
The reason for Biden being forced out, whether it be due to dementia or because he was unlikely to win, is less important than the fact that Biden didn’t make the choice. He was forced to.
