Let’s see… an administration that has weaponized every agency for political gain, and a BLS whose monthly reports are almost universally too high and are revised substantially downward in later months, issues a big positive jobs report the month before the presidential election, and then the media all takes the same line that the jobs report supports Harris’ economic agenda?
A hotter-than-expected jobs report released Friday sets up a contrast for the final month of the 2024 campaign as Democrats and Republicans prepare their closing economic arguments.
Really? If you are living in one of these totalitarian countries and happen to be surfing around the CIA’s channels, you’re already on a list. Or you make the list. This feels like an agency that’s out of ideas.
The US Central Intelligence Agency has launched a new drive to recruit informants in China, Iran and North Korea.
The organisation posted messages on its social media accounts in Mandarin, Farsi and Korean on Wednesday, instructing users how to contact it securely.
This latest effort follows a campaign to enlist Russians in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, which the CIA says was a success.
“We want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business,” a CIA spokesman said in a statement.
Ugh. Here we go. Stock up on stuff. Estimates are that every day of the strike will take a week to recover from. Remember the supply chain disruptions of the pandemic? That’s what we’re in for, but worse. And when leadership matters, Biden is on the beach, Harris is hiding, and Buttigieg is doing debate prep with Walz.
Tens of thousands of dockworkers have gone on strike indefinitely at ports across much of the US, threatening significant trade and economic disruption ahead of the presidential election and the busy holiday shopping season.
Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) walked out on Tuesday at 14 major ports along the east and gulf coasts, halting container traffic from Maine to Texas.
The action marks the first such shutdown in almost 50 years.
President Joe Biden has the power to suspend the strike for 80 days for further negotiations, but the White House has said he is not planning to act.
Click through the link for a pretty good story about Walz lies. The man lies about everything. His military service, his arrest, his time in China, his coaching, his record as governor… everything. He’s the drunk at the end of the bar. He’s the 50-year-old unemployed uncle who lives with grandma. He’s a fraud and shame on the Minnesota media for being so uninterested in truth as to allow him to lie his way to the governorship.
In isolation, the exaggeration of Walz’s coaching resume – pushed by his political allies and notably never corrected by the man himself – is surely harmless.
However, when taken in the context of a litany of other exaggerations and untruths about Walz’s life that have emerged since Harris named his as her VP pick in August, it is little wonder that many are beginning to ask if the Minnesota Governor has a problem with the truth.
And, as he prepares to take on his Republican counterpart, J.D. Vance, in tonight’s televised vice presidential debate on CBS, there will no doubt be a lingering nervousness among the Harris-Walz campaign over what Vance might say about his opponent’s trustworthiness.
No doubt there was a pro-Harris person in there somewhere, but I didn’t see them. While my observation was passive for the first couple of hours, I began to really look for one once it struck me.
Nothing.
I realize that Warrens is in the middle of conservative, rural, Wisconsin, but it was striking that there was not a single pro-Harris person willing to wear the brand.
Under the new laws, a judge can consider stalking, acts of animal cruelty or threats of violence as evidence for a gun violence restraining order. A person who has a misdemeanor charge dismissed because they were found to be mentally incompetent will also be prohibited from possessing a gun. Current laws only apply such restrictions to cases involving felony charges.
Another law targets ghost guns by requiring law enforcement agencies to prohibit their contracted vendors from selling guns meant to be destroyed. The measure received bipartisan support from the Legislature.
The new laws also aim at providing more protections for domestic violence survivors. There’ll be fewer exceptions for police officers to continue carrying a gun if they were perpetrators of domestic violence. Law enforcement is also required to take away firearms from offenders.
Newsom also signed legislation banning fake gunfire and fake blood from active-shooter drills in California’s public schools.
Admittedly, the Al Smith dinner is kind of hokey, but it is one of the few remaining political touchstones that builds and emphasizes collegiality at humility in our political process. This tells us that Harris is not allowed to speak unscripted to people who aren’t completely in the bag for her already. Notice that every (and they are very few) interview she has done is with an ally and she still screws that up. Why does she screw it up? Because she is an unlikable communist.
Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he would be the sole featured speaker at this year’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York, typically a good-humored and bipartisan political event that Vice President Kamala Harris said she is skipping in favor of battleground state campaigning.
The former president and current Republican presidential nominee confirmed in a Truth Social post on Monday that he would speak at the Oct. 17 dinner, calling it “sad, but not surprising” that Harris had opted not to attend.
The gala benefiting Catholic Charities traditionally has been used to promote collegiality, with presidential candidates from both parties appearing on the same night and trading barbs. But on Saturday, Harris’ campaign said the Democratic nominee would not go to the event, breaking with presidential tradition so she could campaign instead in a battleground state less than three weeks before Election Day.
Let’s be honest… this is not the job she was really given. These are just the cushy no-show jobs that powerful Democrats gave to their political and personal “friends.” She was never expected to actually work at them. What was she really doing with her time when you were working hard at your career?
Harris was absent from more than 20 percent of the meetings according to a Daily Mail review of the committee minutes. On other occasions the minutes reveal that Harris arrived after commissioners started the meetings and already conducted some of their business.
Of the 111 CMAC meetings, Harris was absent from 23 of them, making her the most absent commissioner on the board.
The job required that board members meet twice a month, as it was not a full-time position. The Commission was responsible for negotiating contracts with hospitals to limit costs paid by government funded health care.
But it still paid Harris a great deal of money, $99,000 annually, according to a report from SF Weekly. All told, Harris made more than $400,000 over the five year period she was appointed by Brown to the state positions.
There are new challenges to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ 400-year school funding increase.
Both the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and the Institute for Reforming Government recently filed amicus briefs with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, challenging the governor’s veto power.
“The partial veto power is a tool in the governor’s toolbelt, but it has a specific purpose. When it comes to fiscal policy, the partial veto power is a one-way rachet. It empowers the governor to tighten public spending and taxation by eliminating or reducing budgetary items, but it does not permit the reverse. The governor cannot use the partial veto power to increase either appropriations or revenue. That function requires a different tool – legislative power – which is not in the governor’s toolbelt,” IRGs brief states.
Evers changed a line in the current state budget to change a two-year school funding increase into a 400-year increase.
Recognize that if/when the Republicans are able to reverse this some time in the future, the liberals will accuse Republicans of cutting school funding.
Chief Justice John Roberts strong-armed his fellow Supreme Court judges into allowing him the key role in cases involving Donald Trump, leaked memos reveal.
Former President Donald Trump is safe following an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf course, and a “potential suspect” is in custody, US authorities have confirmed.
Secret Service agents spotted the barrel of a rifle poking through some bushes and opened fire at him, officials said. The FBI said Trump was 300-500 yards away at the time.
An AK47-style firearm and scope, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera, were later found at the scene.
A witness reported seeing the suspect running from some bushes and jumping into a black Nissan car after the agents had fired at him multiple times.
We should know more in the next few days. It does seem clear, however, that after years of the Left telling people that Trump is evil and a “threat to democracy,” that there are plenty of unhinged Leftists who believe it to be their duty to prevent Trump from returning to the White House by any means necessary. Political violence in our nation is heavily weighted to one side.
This is the lesson that so many elected Republicans refuse to learn. Why has Florida shifted so quickly and firmly into a solid Republican state? Because DeSantis and other Florida Republicans actually governed according to their conservative beliefs and the beliefs they ran on.
But for the first time in recent political memory, the 2024 presidential race has left Florida as a comparative afterthought. Democrats here have tried to maintain momentum and voter intensity, but nearly every measurable factor indicates that Florida is not realistically in play for them in this year’s presidential contest.
“Are you happy we are a solid Republican state? It used to be …presidential elections, we would be on a razor’s edge about the state of Florida,” Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, told a crowd of the party faithful at a gathering last weekend at the Hard Rock Casino in South Florida. “Because if Republicans could not win the state of Florida, then you did not have a path to win the Electoral College.”
Florida has long been solidly red at the state level as Republicans built a now more than 1 million person voter registration advantage, and they remain firmly in control of nearly every lever of political power. But in the past, when huge sums of money flowed in during presidential races, the state was considered winnable for Democrats.
We saw this in Wisconsin. When Governor Walker and the legislative Republicans were first elected on a strong conservative platform, they immediately went into action. That first term was amazing and advanced dozens of key conservative initiatives like tax cuts, concealed carry, castle doctrine, regulatory reform, judicial reform, entitlement reform, and on and on and on. The result was that legions of voters came out to reelect Walker in the recall election and for a second term. Voters also elected strong Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature. The voters liked what they were getting.
Then what happened? In Walker’s second term, he and the legislative Republicans got soft. Their policies were weaker. They caved to the Democrats too often. They radically increased spending. Walker moderated as he tried to run for president and several of the legislative leaders did the same as they eyed higher office or aspired to be liked in the clubs of Madison.
The weakening in Walker’s second term led directly to his defeat against the Grey Man of Tony Evers. It wasn’t that Evers was a great candidate. It was that a lot of Republicans who voted for Walker three times were just not excited to vote a fourth. Walker wasn’t offering the bold conservative agenda that had brought him into office.
Meanwhile, in Florida, DeSantis remains a conservative powerhouse. He continues to push conservatism wherever possible and is an outspoken conservative voice. The result? Florida is no longer a swing state. It is solidly Republican.
When conservatives govern as conservatives, they win. Why? Because conservative policies work, and people vote for policies that work.
Former President Trump on Thursday called for ending taxes on overtime wages for individuals who work more than 40 hours a week, his latest proposal to slash individual taxes if he is reelected.
“We will end all taxes on overtime. You know what that means? Think of that. That gives people more of an incentive to work, it gives the companies a lot, it’s a lot easier to get the people,” Trump said at a rally in Arizona.
“The people who work overtime are among the hardest working citizens in our country, and for too long no one in Washington has been looking out for them,” he added.
The proposal would require congressional action. Trump did not offer additional details about how it would work.
The Harris campaign in a statement dismissed Trump’s proposal as “desperate,”
Trump is right in that it will encourage people to work more. It’s an instant raise for working overtime on top of a higher wage. It will also likely see a lot of people push to move to hourly wages instead of salaried. That eases pressure on businesses to layoff people when business is down because they can cut hours instead. Hourly employees are a much more variable expense than salaried ones.
In other news… the Harris campaign will be copying this proposal in a few weeks.
With days until early voting begins, and two months before a victor is declared, this remains Donald Trump‘s race to lose.
Simply put, Americans prefer strength over weakness and commonsense fairness over wokeness.
It’s also a hard fact that Trump can cite more accomplishments from a successful first term than Harris, who despite her regret and reset, represents four more years of the present chaos and crisis.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was subpoenaed by the House Education Committee on Wednesday as part of the GOP lawmakers’ latest investigation into the Democratic presidential ticket, probing into an issue that has long been Walz’s kryptonite: child nutrition programs.
[…]
A Minnesota-based nonprofit, Feeding Our Future, is accused of misusing $250 million of taxpayer dollars from a COVID-19 relief fund intended to feed children in need.
Walz has not shied away from addressing the largest pandemic relief fraud in the nation, which happened right under his nose.
At a press conference in August, before being picked by Harris, Walz addressed his administration’s lack of fraud prevention and a scathing legislative audit that called the MDE’s oversight “inadequate.”
“I think what you’re seeing is if you commit fraud in Minnesota, you are going to be caught as you are going to go to prison,” Walz said. He pointed to administrative changes and safeguards to prevent future fraud, such as implementing an inspector general for the MDE.
The federal government charged over 70 defendants, five of whom have been convicted of fraud, while the rest await trial.
Feeding our Future benefited from the child nutrition program designed to aid hungry children during the pandemic, as schools and care facilities were shut down. Prosecutors allege Feeding our Future submitted fake names of children to the Department of Education to receive funds.
Walz and the other officials subpoenaed have until Sept. 18 to release the documents requested.
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – Russia wants Kamala Harris to win the U.S. presidential election, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday in a teasing comment that cited her “infectious” laugh as a reason to prefer her over Donald Trump.
Putin made the ironic remark a day after the U.S. Justice Department charged two Russian media executives over an alleged illegal scheme to influence the November election with pro-Russian propaganda.
Before President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, Putin had said earlier this year – in another comment widely seen as not to be taken at face value – that he preferred Biden over Trump because the former was a more predictable “old school” politician.
U.S. intelligence agencies believe Moscow actually wants Trump to win because he is less committed to supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia.
I would remind the gentle reader that the entire intelligence community united behind the lie of Russian collusion. I don’t believe a word they say. Putin, while also a liar, makes a good case for why Russia would support Harris. She is a fellow Marxist, stupid, and easily manipulated. If I were Putin, I would much prefer Harris as an adversary than the unpredictable, irascible, pro-American Capitalist, Trump.
Wow… are they reaching, or what? Is there any town in America that couldn’t be said to have a racist past or racist present? Heck, Milwaukee is one of the most racist cities I’ve ever experienced.
During a campaign stop at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell, Michigan, Donald Trump suggested that deputies there should be deployed to the majority-Black city of Detroit.
“I’d love to have them working there during the election,” he told the group on August 20, standing in front of law enforcement officials and squad cars.
A week later, Trump held a “town hall” in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The next day, he rallied in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He will speak in the town of Mosinee, Wisconsin, on September 7.
These relatively small cities — spread across midwestern swing states and far from dense metropolitan areas — all have one thing in common: They are former “sundown” towns, where threats of Jim Crow-era violence enforced racial segregation.
Or, hear me out, Trump chooses communities that have a nearby airport and are full of Trump supporters. But that’s what the reporter here is actually saying, isn’t it? You rural rubes who don’t live in big cities and support Trump are all racists, aren’t you? That’s how the media and the Left (but I repeat myself) sees you.
Now, with Trump proposing the relocation of up to 100,000 federal jobs from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia under his Agenda 47 plan, concerns about being abruptly moved are again troubling federal workers. The Republican’s proposals stir anxiety in the midst of an unusually competitive U.S. Senate race in heavily Democratic Maryland that could determine control of the Senate, with even the Republican candidate calling the plans “crazy.” The proposals also could hinder Trump’s chances to win Virginia, a state he lost in 2016 and 2020, where a U.S. Senate seat widely seen as safely Democratic is also on the ballot.
“It’s causing a lot of anxiety, a lot of discomfort within the workforce, as you are faced with these strong, negative, anti-federal worker stances and this uncertainty of what might happen to your job, your home and your livelihood,” said Dodson, who is acting vice president of American Federation of Government Employees local 3403, which represents the USDA’s Economic Research Service.
[…]
Businesses that provide services to the thousands of federal workers fear the ripple-effect threat of the proposed changes. At Census Auto Repair & Sales, for example, across the street from the U.S. Census Bureau’s headquarters in Suitland, Maryland, service manager Tay Gibson says his shop would feel the impact directly.
“I would hate to see the federal workers leave,” Gibson said. “That would be business leaving as well, and that would affect small businesses like myself.”
Every community sends vast sums of cash to Washington D.C. to support the federal government. It would be good for America to see those dollars spread around the country instead of being hoarded around D.C.
I read somewhere on X a while back that the inability of people to think through the secondary and tertiary impact of decisions is destroying us. I’ve thought a lot about that since.
Let’s take taxing unrealized gains. Setting aside, for a moment, the fact that the government is already too big and a tax like this is utterly unfair, let’s think through a couple of the possible – even likely – secondary and tertiary impacts if we did it.
Let’s say that I own a stock that goes up 20% in a year. Great! When the tax man comes for the tax on the “gains,” I don’t have the cash. What do I do? I sell some of the stock to raise the cash to pay the tax. The result is that the stock in which I’m invested declines (more shares for sale = lower stock price). The aggregate impact is to depress the equity market.
Furthermore, I am no longer a long-term investor. My horizon can no longer be more than a year, because then I need to get my cash out to pay taxes. So businesses make decisions based on that time horizon. The end of the year becomes a dynamic time of layoffs and juicing numbers to pay the first wave of investors and attract next year’s investors. Long term projects and employment become less attractive to investors.
If I’m a sole proprietor and I experience an increase in the theoretical valuation of my company (“theoretical” because valuation estimates are always a guess until there is a willing buyer and a willing seller), then I might need to sell off part of the company, lay off employees, and restrict investing in more growth because I need to pay the tax man. Again, the negative impact of these decisions is felt by employees and consumers.
All of this is assuming that such a tax does not bleed down to the middle-class, which it will. Taxes always expand once they are allowed to take root. In fact, we already have a tax on unrealized gains – the property tax. As some local bureaucrat tells you what he/she thinks your house is worth, you have to pay the tax on that valuation. The result is one of the most regressive taxes we have. Little old ladies on Social Security and disabled war veterans are losing their homes because those houses because they can’t afford the property taxes. They can’t afford those property taxes because the taxes are indexed to something that isn’t actually money that the owner can spend. This is why consumption taxes or income taxes work.
The impact of taxing unrealized gains is not going to be “soak the rich.” The rich will be fine. They have the ability to move money and make rational decisions to increase and preserve their wealth. The impact will be on the middle and lower classes who can’t afford the largesse of politicians.
“We can’t simply wave a magic wand and make encampments disappear. We also have to offer people a place to go,” San Jose’s Democratic Mayor Matt Mahan said. “My fear with the [Supreme Court] decision and the governor’s executive order is we could create a race to the bottom in which cities and counties focus their taxpayer dollars on simply shifting people to other jurisdictions.”
There are a few people who are homeless because of dire straits. A few more are homeless because of mental illness. The vast majority are homeless in California because they are drug addicts who choose to be homeless. They enjoy the transient, vagabond lifestyle that allows them to wallow through life in a drug-fueled haze.
Where these politicians fail is that they think that it is their responsibility to “offer people a place to go.” No, it isn’t. If you are an elected official, your responsibility is for the safety and well-being of your citizens, residents, and taxpayers. It is your responsibility to maintain a safe, clean, stable community for the benefit of the people living there. You don’t owe the homeless anything. There are a bevy of services, programs, and shelters available. They choose to eschew them because they prefer the homeless lifestyle.
Furthermore, it is not the duty or responsibility of the government to “offer people a place to go.” It the responsibility of those people to find a place to go. To work. To pay for housing. To pay for food. By easing the burdens of being homeless with free stuff, liberal politicians are not helping these people. They are making their lifestyle just comfortable enough for them to keep doing it. When being homeless becomes intolerable, then they will either get themselves together or they will end up in prison or dead. Hopefully they get themselves together. Either way, it is still ultimately their responsibility – not the responsibility of a community.
Were I a mayor (and this is probably one of the many reasons I am not a mayor), I would make it so uncomfortable to be homeless in my community that they move on to the next community. If enough communities do that and there is nowhere comfortable for them to be, then the homeless will start to fix the homeless problem.
