Boots & Sabers

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Category: Politics

White House Calls Gold Star Families Liars

by | 0751, 2 Sep 24 | | 2 Comments

Wow. I can’t say it better than the families themselves.

Gold Star families did not invite President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to Arlington National Cemetery by last week to commemorate the third anniversary of the attack at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan, a White House official and a Harris aide told NBC News, rebutting separate claims made Sunday by GOP Sen. Tom Cotton and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

 

The two were speaking about former President Donald Trump’s visit last week to Arlington National Cemetery, where he has drawn criticism for posing for photos with Gold Star families in a section of the cemetery where photos are traditionally prohibited.

 

Last week, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Trump’s visit was a “personal invitation by families.”

 

[…]

 

In one video, Darin Hoover addresses Harris directly, saying Trump treated the family with the “utmost respect” and asking where she and Biden were on “Aug. 26, 2024.” He said they were “nowhere near Arlington Cemetery. You couldn’t be bothered to be with us or say our kids’ names.”

 

In a statement accompanying the Trump campaign videos Sunday, members of the Gold Star families said they were “appalled” by Harris’ attempts to “politicize” Trump’s visit to the cemetery.

 

“President Trump was invited by us, the Gold Star families, to attend the solemn ceremonies commemorating the three-year anniversary of our children’s deaths,” the statement said. “He was there to honor their sacrifice, yet Vice President Harris has disgracefully twisted this sacred moment into a political ploy.”

Hamas Murders Hostages

by | 2047, 1 Sep 24 | | 0 Comments

Including an American. Meanwhile, Biden is on the beach, Harris is campaigning about “joy,” and Walz is ignoring questions about it. Our nation is being run my truly terrible people who don’t give a single crap about anyone unless it is to their political advantage.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said early Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages captured during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that ignited the Gaza war, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents had led a high-profile campaign for the captives’ release.

 

The military said the six were killed shortly before Israeli forces were to rescue them and that the bodies were found in a tunnel beneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The news sparked calls for mass protests by families of the hostages who said they could have been returned alive in a cease-fire deal.

 

Goldberg-Polin and four other hostages were taken from a music festival where Palestinian militants killed scores of people. The sixth was captured from a nearby farming community.

NYT Gonna NYT

by | 0746, 31 Aug 24 | | 0 Comments

You don’t hate the media enough. This is a headline from the New York Times.

With Court Victories, Conservatives Push Back on Biden Policies

Another way to write that could have been: “Courts Stop Biden’s Illegal and Unconstitutional Actions.” Or, “Many of Biden’s Key Policies Found Unconstitutional by Courts.”

But no… they have to frame it as conservatives pushing back.

Harris’ CNN Interview

by | 0831, 30 Aug 24 | | 4 Comments

The thing that strikes me about Kamala Harris’ CNN interview is not really the content. Sure, there were the usual word salads, incomprehensible answers, and outright lies. We expect that. What strikes me is that the media is making a big deal of it. Why? The are making a big deal of it because it’s the only one.

She is a candidate for the highest office in the land and has been on the ticket for about a month. If she were competent, forceful, and confident that her worldview is what the people want, she should be trying to talk to MORE people, not less. She should be doing two or three interviews a week, holding press conferences, chatting with reporters after events, pressing palms with actual citizens and talking to them, etc. The fact that after over a month on the campaign trail and the media is trying to decipher her positions from a half-ass 18-minute interview like some sort of ancient riddle is insane.

If she wants the job, she should be interviewing for it like every other candidate in the history of our country.

Tammy Baldwin Allegedly Uses Government Power for Benefit of Partner and Self

by | 0818, 30 Aug 24 | | 0 Comments

Out government has become just a giant grift, hasn’t it?

Baldwin co-owns a $1.3 million DC penthouse condo with her partner, Wall Street private wealth management adviser Maria Brisbane but hasn’t included any of their jointly owned assets on her financial-disclosure reports — despite reporting the assets of her previous partner. In fact, Brisbane has never appeared on the senator’s reports.

The 2015 Tammy Baldwin might have objected to this arrangement.

[…]

Brisbane is the founder of Brisbane Group, whose archived website from when it was at Merrill Lynch (archived at the end of 2023) claimed to “enhance performance” by investing in “small biotechnology” companies.

Brisbane previously managed a “biotechnology mutual fund” at Merrill Lynch, where she was said to have an appreciation for cutting-edge research that informs her current investments in biotech companies. Brisbane is also on the Cancer Research and Treatment Fund board of directors, who “rapidly deploy funding to the frontlines of research.”

[…]

Baldwin said she “met privately” with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to “make a final pitch” for Wisconsin to win the Phase 2 Implementation Grant as a Biohealth Tech Hub.

The Wisconsin senator’s role in securing funding for biotech companies is no secret.

Baldwin also chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, which manages appropriations for the National Institutes for Health.

In 2018, a biotech CEO thanked Baldwin for her “support” after her firm received an award from one of the relevant NIH programs. That CEO, Ayla Annac, contributed nearly $4,000 to Baldwin, including more than $1,000 in the months before and after she thanked Baldwin. Baldwin also included Annac in the Business Leaders for Tammy coalition one month before the CEO thanked the senator for her help.

This is a really simple story. Baldwin’s partner – with whom she lives and shares a life – makes a very good living advising small biotech firms and their investors. Baldwin uses her position in government to help decide which firms will receive taxpayer-funded grants, protections, favoritism, etc. When the firms Baldwin supports get a pile of money, so do the investors and the person who advised them… Brisbane.

This is an old school Chicago-style grift.

Lowe’s Changes DEI Policies to be More Inclusive

by | 2139, 29 Aug 24 | , , | 0 Comments

Good.

Starbuck said Lowe’s is committed to ending identity-based employee resource groups and replacing them with a single group for employees of all backgrounds. Lowe’s also plans to limit its sponsorship to issues related to its business, such as affordable housing and disaster relief; end participation in Pride and other socially related community events; and stop submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign, he wrote.

 

The company joins firms such as Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply and Deere in reining in their DEI programs in recent months after being targeted by Starbuck amid a broader corporate reassessment of a fast-shifting legal landscape marked by rising risk. Companies are increasingly facing pressure to scale back or do away with DEI initiatives from both external critics and U.S. courts as a wave of legal action challenges policies at scores of companies, including giants such as Starbucks, Meta and Pfizer.

Federal Government Eyes Fees

by | 2127, 25 Aug 24 | , | 2 Comments

I absolutely hate these fees. At the same time, I do not want to invite the federal government even further into our lives to regulate them. Let the market figure it out. And if you really hate surprise fees, have you seen the fees our governments charge?

Lawmakers want to crack down on “junk fees,” but restaurants are trying to stay out of the fight.

 

Surcharges or fees covering everything from credit card processing to gratuities to “inflation” have become more popular on restaurant checks in recent years.

Last year, 15% of restaurant owners added surcharges or fees to checks because of higher costs, according to the National Restaurant Association. In the second quarter, 3.7% of restaurant transactions processed by Square included a service fee, more than double the beginning of 2022, according to a recent report from the company.

 

Opponents of the practice say those fees and surcharges may surprise customers, hoodwinking them into paying more for their meals at a time when their wallets are already feeling thin. Fed-up diners compiled spreadsheets via Reddit of restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and D.C. charging hidden fees. Even the Onion took a swing at the practice, publishing a satirical story in May with the headline “Restaurant Check Includes 3% Surcharge To Provide Owner’s Sugar Baby With Birkin.”

 

The Biden administration has broadly targeted so-called junk fees, like an undisclosed service charge for concert tickets or unexpected resort fees when checking out of a hotel. This fall, the Federal Trade Commission is expected to publish a rule banning businesses from “charging hidden and misleading fees.”

The Empty Vessel

by | 0925, 24 Aug 24 | | 0 Comments

Uh huh.

For the most part, Ms Harris has shied away from describing in detail what her presidency would look like.

 

There’s talk of unity and a way beyond America’s divisive partisanship; a focus on strengthening the economy and reducing consumer prices; and a heavy emphasis on reproductive rights and abortion – an area of particular strength for Democrats.

 

But it is vague. And this vagueness may suit the Harris campaign just fine.

 

By largely being an empty policy vessel, Ms Harris has allowed various constituencies within the Democratic Party to project their hopes and priorities onto her.

 

If she can keep all those pieces together for the next few months, she might just win.

The media and Harris campaign, but I repeat myself, seems intent on pretending that Harris doesn’t have clear policy goals. She does. She is the SITIING VICE PRESIDENT. She also has a long and consistent history of policy action and stated positions as AG, Senator, and when she ran for president herself. We know her policy goals. She’s a Marxist.

Even recently, she has come out to support a command economy, increasing welfare, open borders, and a gigantic forced transfer of wealth. That is just the stuff she let slip out in the last few weeks that we’re supposed to ignore because they realized that Americans are still not down with the revolution. That’s on top of the fact that she is the SITTING VICE PRESIDENT of an administration with disastrous policies that she supported, advocated, and helped implement.

We know what a Harris Administration would look like. It would look like Biden’s administration but less competent.

Ukraine Using Advanced American Weapons to Invade Russia

by | 0853, 24 Aug 24 | , | 1 Comment

Recognize that the Ukraine War has become both an offensive proxy war of America against Russia and a vast money laundering enterprise. If this continues, it is only a matter of time before Russia is backed into a corner and strikes out at the U.S. in an asymmetric attempt to reset the board.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s military says it used high-precision U.S. glide bombs to strike Russia’s Kursk region, and that is has recaptured some territory in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv that has been under a Russian offensive since spring.

 

Ukraine’s Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk issued a video Thursday night purporting to show a Russian platoon base being hit in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise cross-border incursion on Aug. 6. He said the attack with GBU-39 bombs, which were supplied by the United States, resulted in Russian casualties and the destruction of equipment.

 

The video showed multiple explosions and plumes of smoke rising at the site.

Many of Ukraine’s backers oppose the country using donated weapons for anything but defensive purposes. However, Ukraine has argued that its Kursk incursion is essentially defensive and aimed at minimizing attacks on Ukrainian soil from that Russian region.

Weber Makes Unfortunate Comment and Apologizes

by | 2107, 23 Aug 24 | | 23 Comments

Ope. Big ope. Honest ope, but yuge one. Hats off to Weber for the quick, direct, and full apology.

Jay Weber, a talk show host on WISN-Milwaukee, was slammed online after he called 17-year-old Gus Walz a ‘blubbering b**** boy’ for his emotional reaction to his father’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.

 

[…]

 

In a now-deleted tweet, Weber wrote: ‘Sorry, but this is embarrassing for both father and son. If the Walzs represent today’s American man, this country is screwed; ‘Meet my son, Gus. He’s a blubbering b**** boy. His mother and I are very proud.’

[…]

The comment came after Gus, who is neurodivergent, has ADHD, an anxiety disorder, and a non-verbal learning disorder, was seen tearfully exclaiming, ‘That’s my dad,’ during Governor Walz’s speech.

 

His emotional support of his father had many quick to call it ‘cringe-worthy’ before realizing the extent of his disabilities.

 

Weber quickly backtracked, after learning of the teen’s disorders.

 

‘I didn’t realize the kid was disabled, and have taken the post down,’ he wrote in a follow-up tweet.

 

In a longer apology posted Friday morning on X, Weber wrote: ‘This is a fuller apology for something stupid and hurtful I said yesterday. I said it without thinking or having the facts. No excuses. Having been a teacher, I’ve had a standard of never involving children, I broke that and I’m disappointed with myself.’

The Cost of Deportation

by | 2045, 23 Aug 24 | | 0 Comments

We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars PER YEAR on housing, schools, medical costs, law enforcement, welfare, etc. on illegal aliens. It is impossible to conceive a scenario where there isn’t a short ROI on deporting them as long as the border is secure enough to prevent most of them from coming back in.

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said the cost to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is justified and would not rule out separating families made up of citizens and noncitizens.

 

“It’ll cost trillions of dollars to keep these people, and I’m talking about in particular starting with the criminals,” Trump told NBC News in an interview during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. “That’s costing us a lot more than deporting. But we have no choice, regardless, we have no choice. We’re going to have to deport.”

 

When pressed, Trump provided no details on how he would pay for his plan, which could cost billions of dollars to implement at scale. Trump spent much of his first term fighting with Congress to give him money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, an expensive undertaking that the legislative branch never agreed to fund. Ultimately, he took the money from other parts of the Pentagon budget.

But notice how the media is already pretending to care about the cost. They are silent when Democrats find hundreds of billions of dollars to support illegal aliens already in this country, yet seem to think that it would be impossible to find the money for deportations. Remember how they bemoaned $5 billion to build the wall, but were unconcerned with spending 100 times more to pay for illegals who flowed across the border? I do.

Wisconsin DPI Lowers Performance Goals for Students

by | 0857, 23 Aug 24 | , | 0 Comments

This happened a few months ago, but I missed it. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has lowered the performance levels for the Forward Exam – the state standardized test that we use to measure the success or failure of our schools. Put another way, the Government Education Complex was frustrated with the fact that test scores have been flat or declining for years, so they decided to lower the standards to make it look better.

The bars for labeling the comparative success of kids have been lowered. Lowered to levels that are more constructive, reasonable and realistic? To levels that undermine efforts to set rigorous goals and improve the overall achievement of Wisconsin students? Different people would have different opinions.

 

The bars — known as “cut scores” — mark the boundaries between one category of performance and the next higher or lower category on the tests. This fall, when information on state test results from last spring are released to the public, the percentages will rise, although by how much is not yet known.

They also changed the nomenclature to:

Advanced – The student demonstrates a thorough understanding of the
knowledge and skills described in the Wisconsin Academic Standards for their
grade level and is on-track for future learning.

• Meeting – The student is meeting the knowledge and skill expectations described
in the Wisconsin Academic Standards for their grade level and is on-track for
future learning.

• Approaching – The student is approaching the knowledge and skill expectations
described in the Wisconsin Academic Standards for their grade level needed to be
on-track for future learning.

• Developing – The student is at the beginning stages of developing the knowledge
and skills described in the Wisconsin Academic Standards for their grade level
needed to be on-track for future learning

It used to be Advanced, Proficient, Basic, and Below Basic.

Look for the news stories when this year’s test results are released. I expect to see educrats celebrating a “rise in scores,” but remember that what actually happened is that we lowered the standards to appease crappy teachers.

Our government education system has been failing and collapsing for decades. We are larding up the bureaucracy with administrators and cost while educational performance keeps falling. We are filling up the curriculum with useless information and social engineering while other countries are teaching their kids how to be successful in the 21st century. We are failing our kids and the government’s response is to lower the standards and use different words to obfuscate their failures. Bad test scores are not an indictment of the kids. It is an indictment of the system and adults who are failing the kids.

 

Rumor of Beyonce at DNC Proves to be Another Lie

by | 0816, 23 Aug 24 | | 0 Comments

Way to cap off the DNC convention with yet another lie. This rumor was swirling for days. The DNC could have denied it at any time and chose not to do so. They let the rumor continue because they liked the buzz that it created. But their refusal to reveal the truth was just another lie in a convention full of them. The Democratic Party is the party where everything is made up and the truth doesn’t matter.

Beyoncé fans flooded the internet with memes after she was rumored to be performing at the Democratic National Convention but didn’t show.

 

Speculation swirled that the pop megastar would appear to endorse Kamala Harris for president and sing for the convention crowd on Thursday night.

 

Hours before Harris’ nomination speech, TMZ claimed Beyoncé was indeed the guest star, after letting the Harris campaign use her song Freedom in its ads.

 

[…]

 

It’s unclear exactly how the rumor started – and why cold water was never thrown on it before the 11th hour.

 

The memes began in earnest, as they always do, joking that Beyoncé arrived but changed her mind in the parking lot and left, or slept through the convention.

 

Another showed the singer and Taylor Swift eating popcorn in an empty theatre, joking they were watching the DNC from home.

 

Others showed clips from Joe Biden angrily denouncing Donald Trump in a speech as if he were attacking whoever started the Beyoncé rumor.

Chinese Car Sales Surpass American Car Sales in Mexico

by | 0751, 23 Aug 24 | , , | 0 Comments

This is happening all over the world. As the U.S. and European countries pile on the regulations that make our cars prohibitively expensive, the rest of the world is still looking for good, reliable, cheap transportation. China is filling the void. It is yet another area where the U.S. is ceding global leadership.

Last year, China was the leading car supplier to Mexico, exporting $4.6 billion worth of vehicles to the country, according to the Mexican Ministry of Economy. Even customers wary of EVs have been won over by affordable price tags. Tesla rival BYD sells its Dolphin Mini in Mexico for around 398,800 pesos, or about $21,300, a little over half the price of the cheapest Tesla.

“The Chinese automakers came to the country very aggressively,” said Juan Carlos Baker, former Mexican deputy minister for international trade. “They have very good promotions. It’s a good product that sells at a very reasonable price.”

 

Some Chinese EV makers, including BYD, have been looking for a further foothold in North America by exploring factory sites in the Mexican states of Durango, Jalisco and Nuevo Leon. The foreign investment would be an economic boost for Mexico. BYD has claimed that a plant there would create around 10,000 jobs.

 

UW to Ask for $855 Million More

by | 2209, 22 Aug 24 | | 1 Comment

How about…. no.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Universities of Wisconsin regents agreed overwhelmingly on Thursday to ask Gov. Tony Evers for an additional $855 million for the cash-strapped system in the next state budget.

This.

The Universities are educating 17,297 fewer people. That’s like the entire population of Kaukauna or Cudahy. Why would the taxpayers spend another $855 million to educate fewer people?

Wisconsin Leftist Judges Work to Rig Election

by | 2154, 22 Aug 24 | , | 0 Comments

The leftist judges on the Wisconsin Supreme Court are actually doing the work of the DNC to keep the Green Party off the ballot. Where are the Greens?

(The Center Square) – Following the Wisconsin Election Commission’s dismissal of a complaint from a Democratic National Committee staffer, who seeks to remove Green Party candidate Jill Stein from the ballot, the plaintiff has doubled down and filed an expedited appeal with the state’s Supreme Court.

Court documents reveal it accepted the case Thursday and is requesting that the plaintiff provide additional information, actions that have caused two Supreme Court justices to dissent.

“The majority issues an unprecedented order directing the petitioner – within two hours – to give the court contact information for the respondents, which is currently absent from the record because no one has entered an appearance on behalf of any of those parties. How is the petitioner – an employee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) – supposed to know the name or physical address of an ‘attorney or other representative of each respondent who is authorized to accept service of orders issued by this court’?” Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley wrote in dissent of the Supreme Court’s majority ruling. “To my knowledge, at no time in history has the court issued orders before parties had made their appearances. Petitioner filed this original action on Monday, served the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Tuesday, and served the Wisconsin Green Party just yesterday. The majority steps beyond its neutral role to lawyer the case on behalf of the DNC, seemingly facilitating an expedited review of this original action. Other parties presenting original action petitions have not received such preferential treatment by this court.”

Obama Twists Knife in Biden’s Back

by | 2100, 22 Aug 24 | | 0 Comments

Ouch.

A White House aide reportedly called Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention an “implicit rebuke” to President Joe Biden’s term, perpetuating rumors that there is a rift between the president and his former boss Barack Obama.

 

[…]

 

“It was an implicit rebuke of the Biden era,” the source told Politico, claiming that the former first lady seemed to be blending together the Trump and Biden presidencies into one dreary era in US history.

 

The aide’s comment furthers swirling theories that there is some continuing tension between Obama and Biden.

 

Last week, sources told Politico that Biden will not stay in Chicago to hear Obama’s speech because he harbors resentment toward his former boss for not directly calling him to voice his concerns about his re-election chances.

Biden Starts Protecting Illegals from Deportation

by | 1925, 21 Aug 24 | , | 0 Comments

Read this story and think to yourself… how much vetting did the Biden administration really do before granting the illegal immigrant protection from deportation? They are likely getting thousands and thousands of applications. Are they really checking the information in them if they are able to grant immunity in 24 hours?

Cecilia sat in front of her computer repeatedly refreshing the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services webpage on Monday, waiting for the application for the Biden administration’s “Keeping Families Together” program to show up on her screen.

 

Minutes later, she clicked it open and submitted the form in less than 20 minutes.

 

A little more than 24 hours later, she got an e-mail sharing the news that she had been waiting 20 years to hear.

 

“I see that I got approved, and I’m like, oh that was quick,” she told ABC News in an interview. “I was lost for words…a whole bunch of emotions were going on.”

 

Cecilia, who asked ABC News not to disclose her full name so she can freely disclose her immigration status, is one of the first immigrants to receive parole in place, a temporary relief from deportation under a new program that allows undocumented spouses and stepchildren of United States citizens to apply for permanent legal residence without having to leave the country.

Target CEO Rejects Accusation of Price Gouging

by | 0756, 21 Aug 24 | , | 4 Comments

Remember that he is a big-time Lefty.

There’s no room for price gouging in a ultra-competitive business like retail, Target CEO Brian Cornell said on Wednesday.

 

In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the retail chief disputed campaign talking points accusing grocers of inflating prices. He said retailers have to be responsive to customers or risk losing business.

He was asked by CNBC’s Joe Kernen, who referred to comments by Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and asked if Target or its competitors ever benefit from price gouging. Harris last week proposed the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries,” saying some companies are charging excessively and fueling household inflation.

 

“We’re in a penny business,” Cornell responded, noting the small profit margins in the retail industry. He described the many places that customers can turn to check for lower prices or to find merchandise elsewhere, from going to stores to browsing on their phones to compare the prices of a gallon of milk at different retailers.

Sadly, Kamala Harris and the Leftists have been successful in pivoting the discussion away from inflation to corporate behavior. The reality is that prices have gone up substantially under Biden/Harris. This is textbook inflation. Inflation is caused by too much money chasing too few goods. This causes the value of the currency to decrease because it takes more money to buy the same value. Inflation cannot be caused by the private economy because that economy does not control the money. Government does. Inflation is caused by the government printing or spending more money than the economy can naturally absorb. In the case of our current economy, it is both. The federal government is spending a gargantuan amount of money, but since they don’t have enough tax revenue to cover the spending, they are just printing money to cover the cost.

The only real fix for inflation is to dramatically reduce government spending. The reason that the Democrats don’t want to do that is because federal spending has become a gigantic gravy train for millions of people. If they cut it off, it will anger those people. So the resistance to doing what needs to be done to fix inflation is not an economic one… it’s a political one.

Drastically reducing federal spending would also trigger a recession. All of that spending goes somewhere and if it is cut off, those jobs and businesses go away. It will take some time for the Invisible Hand of our economy to reallocate those resources to more productive means. It would be painful. But it is also the only way and the alternative is that we continue to devalue our currency to the point that there is no wealth left for anyone except political elites. This is where the current path leads and has been replicated dozens of times in modern history.

I know this seems elementary to most of our readers, but this kind of simple economic understanding is being lost. A natural result of the decline of education in America is that we have two generations of people who have not been taught the very basic understanding of how our government and economy works. And yes, I believe that our education was intentionally changed to achieve the level of ignorance necessary for communism to take root.

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