Posse Incitatus

The End of a Charade Means a Shot-in-the-Arm for Republicans

It's looking like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has managed to keep his troops mostly in line and will have sufficient votes to prohibit the impeachment hearing from calling witnesses. Thank God, because that would be a pandora's box that would stretch out this ugly travesty for months. As it stands, President Trump may be acquitted by C.O.B. Friday.

I’ve pretty much avoided commenting on impeachment, as it’s been beaten to death and is so unseemly, it makes me sick to dwell on it, let alone watch it on TV. As I’ve often said about inane swill such as the Grammys, Oscars and Emmys, you’d have to hold a gun to my head to make me watch it (and I would beg you to pull the trigger). The same applies to impeachment, although the Republican legal team's brutal take-down of the Democrat arguments this week was a bit more palatable.

One positive: I believe the Democrats have tremendously boosted Republican prospects come November. House Democrats had already dug their party a deep hole for the 2020 election; Senate Democrats doubled down, effectively blasting that hole with 10,000 pounds of TNT to make it so deep, bedrock is visible.

First of all, the House Democrats did not come up with substantive articles of impeachment. They failed to call all of the witnesses they needed; and they let two thoroughly unlikeable hacks, Reps. Adam Schiff and Gerry Nadler, lead their charge. Speaker Nancy Pelosi foolishly held onto the articles of impeachment for four weeks after they had passed before finally ending the charade, realizing how foolish it was. The House and Senate Democrats then demanded the Senate call more witnesses. -- an insolent slap in the face.

I honestly don’t think the Democrats realize how gravely they’ve wounded their 2020 prospects, not just for taking back the White House, but for retaining control of the House and winning the Senate. They've behaved like -- pardon my French -- assholes.

A good harbinger of things to come is the special election that took place Tuesday in suburban Houston. Texas State Rep. John Zerwas resigned several months ago to take a job with the University of Texas. Democrats and their media stooges were aglow with the prospect of instructor and author Elizabeth Markowitz defeating Republican Gary Gates, a real estate investor, in the Jan. 28 runoff election. This would have been an important first step in helping Democrats seize control of legislative redistricting in the Lone Star State.

Heavy hitters including Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Bloomberg and former Attorney General Eric Holder campaigned for Markowitz. More than $1 million poured in to the Markowitz campaign (94 percent of it from outside her district, and 70 percent from outside Texas). Pollsters and prognosticators, who are so often embarrassingly wrong, predicted the race was too close to call. The actual result: Gates pummeled Markowitz, 58 to 42 percent, greatly outdoing President Trump’s 2016 margin of victory in that district (10 percent).

Granted, part of the problem for Ms. Markowitz was that some of those campaigning for her hold views that are anathema to millions of Texans – e.g., anti-fracking (Warren), no Gulf of Mexico oil drilling (Biden), and strict gun control (Bloomberg). But I believe the larger factor is the disgraceful behavior of Democrats during the entire impeachment debacle. You just can’t trust these nuts with the levers of power.

Charlatans like Schiff, Nadler and Sen. Chuck Schumer help Republican prospects far more than millions of dollars of donations flowing into Republican coffers. Just the thought of these cretins controlling Congress really, really fires up the Republican base and scares the bejesus out of independents.

Thanks, guys!

Seattle shooting vs Richmond demonstration

Nowhere is media bias more insidious than in prioritization given to various stories.

As noted, the Richmond Second Amendment demonstration was entirely without violence.  On cue, liberal outlets scrambling to claim that but for super-diligent law enforcement there would have been violence, and so we should still treat it as the significant threat it actually wasn't.

You know, the threat that left no one even injured.

Meanwhile, seven people were shot in Seattle last week, with one death and yet the national media is silent.

That's because they only care about crimes that fit their narrative.

"White Nationalism" is the essential myth to keep black voters from supporting Trump.  They are the Nazis under the bed that everyone should fear.

Actual violent criminals with dozens of arrests who somehow remain outside of jail and are able to obtain more guns and kill people with them?

Not important.

Murder rates are spiking in liberal jurisdictions - again, those are actual dead people.

Not they hypothetical dead people we are supposed to be worried about in Virginia, but real human beings with loved ones who now have their lives wrecked.

The media doesn't care about them.

The politicians don't care about them, either.

In the early days of this blog, there was much serious debate about whether gun control was an effective way to reduce crime.

It is now irrefutably clear that it doesn't.  Germany - that paragon of gun control - just had six people shot last week.

Gun control has never worked, anywhere.

Interestingly, the people pushing it no longer care.  Crime rates don't interest them. 

This is because gun control is about political control, not public safety.  Anyone who pretends otherwise is lying, stupid or both.

Liberals and "Fairness"

Liberals and progressives are obsessed with income inequality and the fact that outcomes vary in academic testing, career opportunities and the like.  They seem to imply that equal opportunity must result in equal outcomes. They're willing to stack the deck against white males (especially Christian, heterosexual white males) to give a leg  up to the minority groups to which they pander.

Often, when people work harder and longer, defer their gratification, scrimp, save, invest and build a business from the ground up, they end up wealthy. Then, they are promptly demonized by the left, called "greedy," and told they must pay their "fair share." See Elizabeth Warren and other demagogues of the left.

Other people slack off, blow their earnings on vacations and frivolous possessions, do not save or invest money, and fail to improve their education and skill set (whether from earning a college degree or attaining some type of vocational training). Perhaps alcohol or drugs sap their productivity and lead to legal troubles, yet they refuse to give up these pleasures. These people struggle for decades, and may face foreclosure or bankruptcy. Often, they whine about unfairness and how they just can't catch a break. Regrettably, there are many of them, and they represent a considerable chunk of the Democrat base.

In the minds of leftists, no one is ever responsible for their bad circumstances. Chalk it up to racism, sexism, employers and academia shutting out minorities. In the imaginations of these big government progressives, Bull Connor, the Klan and separate drinking fountains are ready to burst out at any moment if conservatives get their way. Women will go back to being "barefoot & pregnant," (a favorite liberal trope). 

Liberal pandering in the name of fairness and equality often is grossly UNFAIR, and in recent years two prime examples come to mind. One of them is the notion that illegal immigrants rushing the border should be granted immediate citizenship, or at the very least, the skids should be greased so they can achieve citizenship within a few months. Never mind the untold numbers of people from across the globe who have strived to play by the rules, navigating a broken bureaucracy, red tape, endless paperwork and delays, and still not knowing whether or when they will be granted citizenship.

It would be like the devoted fans of a sports team or rock group who camp out all night in lousy weather trying to hold their place in line to secure precious tickets to a game or concert. Then, the next morning, some new folks appear on the scene and automatically take their place in the front of the line, right outside the ticket window. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" the patient people in line demand. But police and body guards are standing by defending the interlopers. "If you try to obstruct them from buying their tickets, we'll have to arrest you and you will be incarcerated." Perhaps this analogy is a tad overblown, but you get my point. So much for fairness.

Here's another example of screwing those who played by the rules, while coddling, enabling and rewarding those who did not discipline themselves yet have a sense of entitlement: Forgiving all student loan debt -- no questions asked, no circumstances considered, including family income and earnings potential of the loan debtor.

One of the more entertaining videos to go viral in recent days shows the father of a recent college graduate who confronted Elizabeth Warren following one of her campaign stump speeches. After Warren boasted about her pander (MY verb, not hers) regarding forgiveness of student loan debts, this man walked up to her as she was ready to depart and challenged her.

He noted that his daughter was ready to graduate and had done so without incurring any student loan debt. He had worked two jobs, scrimped and saved, and his daughter had worked since she was 10 years old. He asked whether he could get refunded the money he spent on her tuition.

"Of course not," said the rigid Harvard leftist.

He mentioned he knew a man who earned more than he did, but blew his money on nice vacations and a new car, and that man's child took out student loans to make it through college. Why should that student's debt be forgiven, when this man worked hard to do the right thing and basically got screwed? 

Warren stammered with worthless jibberish, because she was utterly caught off guard.

That's the thing about progressives. They're so accustomed to a compliant news media carrying their water, and so assume that critical thinking is nonexistent, they are SHOCKED... I tell you, SHOCKED! when someone gets in their face with a substantive challenge.

More people need to challenge leftists on the bogus "fairness" issue. It's only fair.

China's leadership failue

For the last three decades or so, we've been bombarded with stories about how China's brilliant leadership is running rings around the United States.

Some of these books and articles have made valid points, but a number have struck me as just the latest incarnation of the Yellow Peril, the inscrutable Menace from the East.

In many ways, China has played the West for saps, but it's now clear that this was because the West allowed it to happen.

It wasn't that China is led by geniuses, the West was simply being run by incompetent sell-outs.  Donald Trump's policies are not revolutionary or particularly brilliant, but they are effective.

Indeed, Trump's desire of preserving American manufacturing was once so obvious as to be unremarkable.  Both parties understood that a nation incapable of making its own arms and goods would be a helpless target for foreign aggression.  It was only in the halcyon and feckless years after the Cold War that elites convinced themselves that war was impossible and selling out to foreigners was the smart play.

China now has three serious crises to contend with. 

The first is the lingering rebellion of Hong Kong.  China should have taken care of this long ago, and its persistence is proof of the regimes ineptitude.  It also serves as a harbinger of worse risings to come.

The trade war has also gone badly for China.  When Trump put tariffs on manufacturing goods, China's response of retaliating against imported food was idiotic in the extreme.  Of course it failed because people need to eat.

Now we see yet another failure as a deadly disease threatens to kill tens of thousands of people.  China's response has been dilatory, opaque and inept.  The ostentatious quarantines complete with physical road blocks and frenzied hospital construction are nothing more than photo ops to show the regime is in control.

But it isn't.

One thing I've learned over the years is that traditional Chinese culture is largely gone.  Much play is given to the works of Sun Tzu, but it's clear that the ChiComs don't read the old boy any more.

If they did, they would know never to make a trial of strength in a city.

They would know that open confrontation in trade only works if you already have the upper hand, which includes the ability to feed your own people.

Finally, the ChiComs are violating the central tenet of his teachings that one must know oneself and know the enemy.

The Chinese know neither.  They lie to themselves all the time and they lie just as much about their enemies.  The regime has placed a premium on lying, which is why nothing can be trusted.

This is the great weakness of all totalitarian societies.  The leaders only want to hear good news, so that's all they get.

Reality has a way of asserting itself.

For all the mockery of the left and their Never Trump Quisling allies, Trump is an actual practitioner of Sun Tzu's arts.  He sees into the very hearts of his enemies and knows himself completely.  He plays to his strengths in every instance and will shift ground abruptly if he loses the advantage.

It is hard to imagine China collapsing.  It appears so strong, so formidable, but then again, so did the USSR.

In many ways, the question is not whether it will fall, but instead how much longer can the regime hang on?

The Long and Gnarly Road

One thing Michigan voters of all political persuasions agree on wholeheartedly: Michigan's roads suck! And they've been horrendous for literally decades -- cracking, sinking, crumbling, buckled, chock-full of deep potholes. Politicians come and go, and various half-hearted road improvement programs have been implemented, but conditions continue to deteriorate.

Nearly five years ago, I railed against Proposal 1, a grotesque plan that was so farcical, Michigan voters rejected it by a 4-1 margin. Proposal 1 wouldn't have raised enough money to really fix the roads, but it did serve as a Christmas tree grab bag for a variety of shameless special interests. Even by the brazen standards of politicians, this was an outrageous proposal -- one that deepened my contempt for Michigan's so-called leaders.

A few months after Proposal 1 went down to ignominious defeat, former Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law a $1.2 billion road repair/maintenance bill that raised fuel taxes and also used general fund money. Thanks in part to Snyder (but largely due to the actions of many politicians who preceded him), Michigan has the nation's sixth highest fuel taxes, plus some of the highest auto insurance rates in the nation.

In that light, it was a boneheaded move when current Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year proposed a whopping 45-cent per gallon fuel tax hike to "Fix the Damn Roads" (her 2018 campaign slogan). 

She and the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature never could work out a road funding deal, so now she's proposing selling bonds to fund road repairs. There's only one problem: Michigan is STILL paying back bonds issued by the administrations of former Governors John Engler (in the 1990s) and Jennifer Granholm (in the 2000s).

By 1998 the state had already accumulated $378 million of debt in bonds issued to pay for road repairs. And two decades later, in September 2018, Michigan still owed $34 million from that 1990s road debt, according to the Michigan State Treasurer.

Add Granholm's borrowing in the 2003-2010 years, and Michigan is making debt service payments on over $1 billion of bonds. So we're shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to bondholders rather than road builders. We're paying for repairs that took place 15-25 years ago. This is like a family that has $40,000 of credit card debt, still paying off those appliances they bought 10 years ago, as well as that 2007 trip to Disney World and the kitchen remodeling that took place when Regis Philbin was wowing 'em with his dark shirt/suit/tie combinations. (Hint: It was right around the Y2K era.) Shelling out monthly payments for past actions cripples the current budgeting process.

Michigan's finances, you see, are in as bad a shape as its roads. But they don't have to be, as long as politicians will show some resolve. This calls for harsh action: Accelerate the bond payments so as to save on interest and wipe them off the books; resolve never again to sell bonds for road maintenance (it simply prolongs the agony). Also, and this is essential: Ensure that gas tax money and increased vehicle registration fees are dedicated to road repairs. As it stands, Michigan's deceitful politicians have raided these funds for other spending programs. Just like Uncle Sam raids the so-called Social Security Trust Fund for general spending. No wonder so many people believe politicians are worthless.

Michigan's whopping $60 billion budget has plenty of room for cuts, and money trimmed from various superfluous programs must be dedicated to road repairs, not used to fund an income tax reduction as some would advocate. It's high time Michigan's voters hold politicians' feet to the fire. There's a lot of blame to go around for decades of failure, and the longer we delay tackling this problem, the worse the roads will get, the less desirable Michigan will be as a place to work and do business, and the greater the damage to our vehicles.

Let's get cracking!

Virginia Gun Rights Demonstration Totally Peaceful - Fake News Hardest Hit

The big story yesterday was the thing that didn't happen.

Gov. Klansman Blackface of Virginia, demanded extraordinary measures to contain the alleged white nationalists who were sure to descend on Richmond, bringing looting and violence.

You know, like leftist mobs do, only worse.

He even declared a pre-emptive state of emergency.

Alas, it was all for naught.  Around 20,000 citizens gathered peacefully, waved signs, posed for photos and then went home.

This of course reinforces the truth that law-abiding citizens pose zero threat to the public order.  Mountains of research prove this.  The notion that less guns = less crime has been refuted in every culture and every continent.  There is not a single example of gun control curtailing violence.

Why then do people push it?  The answer is partly that it's an emotional response, but increasingly it is yet another aspect of the authoritarian progressivism that deems to control the Democrat Party.

Their policies are increasing about punishing perceived enemies rather than improving the quality of life of the whole.

This is increasingly clear to normal Americans who are luke-warm at best on Donald Trump.  I suspect that will heavily influence voting come November.

Remembering M.L.K.

Today we honor the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a flawed but important figure in world history. While some have put him on a pedestal and practically canonized him for sainthood, others have gone out of the way to emphasize his shortcomings and moral failings -- especially with regard to his sexual transgressions.

Humans are indeed highly complex creatures, and life is a motley tapestry of good and bad, the inspirational and the sordid, the kind and the vicious, the noble and the shameful. Although it's hard to do, sometimes we must ponder a person's entire body of work when evaluating his or her life.

MLK risked his own and his family's well being by having the courage to stand up for the dignity of black people when institutionalized racism was the status quo. In so doing, he inspired others -- black and white -- to join the cause. The civil rights and voting rights laws helped level the playing field, and today we have a large and prosperous black middle class, plus blacks in leadership positions at corporations, universities and in government.

But far too many blacks are still suffering from pathologies afflicting inner cities, including drugs, crime, wretched schools and broken families. We could argue 24/7 for days about the root causes and possible solutions, but it is disingenuous and in the worst tradition of demagoguery for the likes of race hustlers such a Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to continue stoking the flames of racial tension. The abysmal news media -- in particular the likes of CNN and MSNBC -- legitimizes the venom and rubbish spewing from the mouths of these despicable charlatans.

If MLK could see the United States today, I'm confident he would take pride in the millions of blacks who have achieved the American dream and are leading prosperous, productive lives. But I'm also fairly certain he would be saddened by self-inflicted damages harming blacks -- most particularly the 70 percent illegitimate birth rate. When millions of children are being raised in poverty, living in dangerous neighborhoods without the discipline, love, guidance and example of a strong and upstanding father, this is a prescription for chaos. It plays out daily in our godforsaken inner cities, and this is truly heartbreaking.

Never forget that Dr. King frequently admonished black audiences not to blame all of their problems on whites or racism. He fully acknowledged that there was a problem with anti-social behavior and crime in many black urban areas. Blacks needed to clean up their act in their families, neighborhoods and communities if they hoped to progress in the broader American society, he said repeatedly. 

There's a common expression used by youth counselors and inner city high school football/basketball coaches who are trying to steer at-risk youth in the right direction: "Get your mind right!"

This expression is good advice for all people, not just blacks. And "mind" ought to be interpreted broadly to mean your entire essence: Mind, soul, spirit and body. Employ self-discipline and set your priorities properly. Exercise self control and learn to live with deferred gratification. Do not be seduced by false images of glamour so prevalent in music, movies and the hedonistic entertainment culture shoved down our throats daily. Take care of yourself physically and spiritually. Mind and body are truly one. Garbage in, garbage out, as the computer programmers like to say.

We can honor Dr. King by making the most of the opportunities and avenues he opened up. It is my sincere hope that the millions of young black people in our nation will make the effort to learn about MLK, ponder the courage and persistence he exhibited in overcoming  daunting challenges, and resolve not to squander the opportunities set before them.

Kudos to Another Courageous Liberal

I've always believed in giving credit where credit is due -- even when it's a liberal I am praising. And believe me, a liberal or progressive who has the audacity to criticize a fellow leftist is deserving of recognition. For we well know that liberals will turn on each other with a viciousness that often exceeds their ire toward conservatives and Republicans. (Have you noticed the #WarrenisaSnake, #NeverWarren and #CNNSucks Twitter hashtags? Hint: They come from the left, i.e., Bernie Sanders supporters.)

Today I would like to give credit to Washington Post writer Erik Wemple, who has actually been even-handed in his caustic criticisms of our abysmal cable news talking heads (aka the 24-hour shit-show).

Make no mistake, Wemple will trash the likes of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson (not that they don't occasionally deserve to be raked over the coals); but he actually has gone after far-left kook Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and other left-leaning "journalists."

I haven't been able to read much of Wemple's commentary, because of the Post's paywall. But here's an excerpt of one of his takedowns of wild-eyed conspiracy theorist Maddow with regard to her breathless (and extremely sloppy) reporting on the now discredited dossier:

When small bits of news arose in favor of the dossier, the franchise MSNBC host pumped air into them. At least some of her many fans surely came away from her broadcasts thinking the dossier was a serious piece of investigative research, not the flimflam, quick-twitch game of telephone outlined in the Horowitz report. She seemed to be rooting for the document.

And when large bits of news arose against the dossier, Maddow found other topics more compelling.

She was there for the bunkings, absent for the debunkings — a pattern of misleading and dishonest asymmetry.

"Flim-flam" is a great adjective for Maddow's bullcrap. And what I really find annoying about her is the constant smug, smirking condescension with which she reports.

Rachel Maddow is, by and large, the incarnation of the ugliness of progressivism. She's a conservative's worst nightmare come true, and a taste of the hell awaiting us if the Democrats ever take control of the White House and Congress. Eliminating the Electoral College, stacking the Supreme Court with leftists, opening up the immigration floodgates, coddling illegal immigrants and eviscerating voting standards will be the steps that will send us quickly down the road to totalitarianism.

(I'm sure Mr. Wemple himself would take umbrage at my previous paragraph, and would probably be peeved to have his name appear within this context. But I'm just calling it as I see it!)

Wemple has also castigated CNN numerous times, including for its bogus "town hall" scripted circuses and various "EXCLUSIVE" and "BOMBSHELL" duds. It is truly refreshing to see some of these cretins get their comeuppance.

It's not true that all liberals are without a conscience, totally self-serving, lacking in self-awareness or self-respect. I submit to you that a fair number of them, albeit misguided about economics, history and human nature, actually have some integrity and will call out hypocrisy and absurdity when they see it, even if it comes from their side of the ideological spectrum. Maybe there's hope after all!

Would that a considerable number of the Post's rigidly leftist subscribers read Mr. Wemple's exposés and take them under serious consideration.

Sleazy Swamp Creatures Proliferate

When voters sent Donald Trump to Washington, D.C., to "drain the swamp," I believe Democrats and Establishment Republicans were the primary target. But within a few months of his taking office, it became apparent that the massive Deep State, with its entrenched tentacles stretching far and wide and its tendency to regularly shred the constitution, represents a far greater threat.

It's obvious that unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats, many of them power hungry, self-serving and opposed to conservative ideology, will look out for each other with as much vigor as they demonstrate in feathering their own nests. Their egos and sense of self importance are out of control.

This week, we've observed a most egregious example of utter gall and arrogance, this one coming from the infamous Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. For months, partisan Democrats demonized U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, who hammered away at the court's ineptitude and the abusive policies resulting from the court's trust in the dishonest FBI and Department of Justice. For too long, the FISA court served as a rubber stamp for law enforcement, buying into deceptive pitches made by the FBI and learning way too late how much it was being played.

Finally, when Inspector General Michael Horowitz scored the FBI for its frequent abuses, most notably including the bogus dossier stemming from Russian disinformation funded by Democrat/Hillary Clinton operatives, the FISA court took umbrage. Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer issued a four-page rebuke of the FBI for its abuses, including misleading the court by providing “unsupported or contradicted” information and by withholding exculpatory details about former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

All fine and good... Except for the preposterous step the FISA court took next: Appointing a former Obama Department of Justice lawyer, left-winger David Kris, as a special adviser to help oversee reforms in the FISA process. Talk about letting the fox guard the henhouse! This is beyond the pale.

This is more evidence of swamp creatures looking out for one another. But the FISA court hacks may find out soon enough that they're too smart by half. Come March, the Congress will decide whether to reauthorize the FISA Court. There is a growing desire to close it down, once and for all. That would be a step in the right direction, but sort of tantamount to slaying one alligator in a vast swamp full of loathsome creatures. It's really an uphill struggle, but far better to wage that struggle than to stand pat and have the swamp engulf everything and everyone.

Technology & Taxes

For decades now we've had tax software and online tax filing services. Uncle Sam as well as individual taxpayers have easy access to powerful analytics and auditing capabilities. Human error has been reduced considerably.

The question of how technology affects tax revenues, however, is going to be far more critical going forward. For approximately 20 years, states, the IRS and the U.S. Supreme Court have wrangled over the Internet sales tax, and this has had far more effect on state and local government than on Uncle Sam. For the most part, purchasers of goods online must pay a sales tax, so this issue is mostly resolved.

But as we move further into the 21st century, two technological developments are poised to have a dramatic impact on the federal government's tax revenues, fiscal health and budgets: crypto-currency / blockchain software and the combination of artificial intelligence / automation in manufacturing and service industries.

The IRS has issued guidance several times pertaining to virtual currency, and so far this type of currency is being treated as property rather than money. But rest assured, additional guidance and plenty of litigation will be forthcoming.

The question of machines / computers replacing humans for manufacturing and routine office work (invoices, payroll, accounts payable / receivable, processing work orders, etc.) could have a dramatic impact on tax revenues.

Think about the millions of jobs that formerly employed human workers who paid income taxes and payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare. Once they're replaced by machines, that puts a major dent in those tax revenues. 

Several years ago, Bill Gates suggested that we ought to consider a "robot tax" for machines that replace humans. While many thought he was nuts at the time, the concept is gaining acceptance and consideration, as this piece in Forbes magazine discusses.

We live in a dynamic world, with an ever-evolving economy and marketplace. By now it should be clear that solutions or improvements in the way we do business sometimes have undesired consequences. Rapid advances in technology continue to take us into uncharted waters and unprecedented dilemmas.