Posse Incitatus

Biden's Orwellian Tax Perversion

Time to have a little fun with word games. "Pervert" is normally a word used to describe a sexual deviant, and the noun "perversion" means the act of perverting sex -- often with the result of grave, permanent psychological and possibly physical damage being inflicted on the victim.

Today, I am going to throw this word into the realm of tax policy. Normally, tax policy is designed to create incentives and disincentives, and to raise revenues for the functioning of government. But it is generally based on actions. Actions that have already occurred, or actions that may occur.

If you bought booze or gasoline, you paid an alcohol or gas tax. If you sell stocks for more than you paid for them, you incur the capital gains tax. Whenever you purchase non-food items at a retail establishment, you pay a sales tax. And so on.

And in the "disincentive" realm, withdrawing money early from a tax-exempt retirement fund such as a 401k or 457 will slam you with a stiff tax bill. There's an immediate tax penalty subtracted from the amount you withdraw, plus the higher income tax because your withdrawal increased your annual income. This is to prevent the abuse of tax-deferred and tax-exempt accounts that are meant to help ensure financial stability in retirement.

Well, the Bidenites have now dreamed up a harebrained scheme that is so bizarre, it makes you wonder  what they've been smoking. Dubbed the “billionaire minimum income tax,” this plan would tax assets that haven't even been sold, solely on their appreciation in value. It imposes taxes (spread out in installments over several years) based on what the asset owner would have incurred had he or she chosen to sell the asset after it had appreciated.

Now granted, this proposal only applies to Americans with $100 million or more in assets whose effective tax rate in any year is less than 20 percent of their income. So it's not a huge chunk of the population, although it does involve a significant portion of overall annual revenues.

The 20 percent minimum tax rate would apply both to ordinary income and the increase in the value of assets in a given year. So unrealized capital gains will be taxed? Crazy! That's like a judge issuing arrest warrants in advance for a certain suspect. ("Well, we know he has a long track record as an incorrigible. Let's be ready and save ourselves some trouble when the time comes....") It really is Orwellian in its contortions.

The details haven't been worked out, and we don't know if this Orwellian policy would survive court challenges. But such a twisted and warped plan really begs the question: What happens if Uncle Sam rakes in mucho dinero on stocks that shot up for a short period of time, then went into precipitous decline for many months? Would the stock holder then be entitled to tax breaks as compensation? Don't hold your breath.

This latest brain fart from the delusional Bidenites speaks to the complexity and tangled morass that is the U.S. tax code (an insane cluster**** can be proposed without raising alarm bells), and also to the perverted desires of progressives to find any and every way to increase revenues so as to grow government and increase their power and control.

I'm disgusted, but not all that worried. I suspect it will go down in flames, like so much of what this colossally incompetent and uber-arrogant administration attempts. Thank heavens.

 

Gov. DeSantis Swats Down the Left-Wing Perverts

One thing I love about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is that not only is he right on the issues, highly intelligent and articulate; he is fearless about confronting the vicious leftists. Bluntly. Forcefully. Head-on.

Indeed, DeSantis is a model for the GOP, a party that has for decades been lily-livered and wimpy in its efforts -- or utter lack of effort -- to oppose the Democrats and their legions of media sycophants. The media propagandists often have free reign to manipulate the language and build the narrative.

While Donald Trump is also fearless in attacking distorted left-wing narratives and the scum who spout them, he too often flails away with undisciplined, boastful talk. He truly is a loose cannon whose messaging often goes off on useless tangents that detract from the overall theme. He provides his enemies with multiple opportunities to cherry-pick his distortions, exaggerations and lies (lies that are often about trivial non sequiturs).

The media loves to get its corrupt "fact checkers" to document every Trump "lie," and some propaganda rags -- the Washington Post comes to mind -- delight in tallying up the totals, which often are in the thousands. Yet these same hacks are blind to the fact that our current president lies about consequential issues, while Trump often lied about irrelevant matters.

For example, Sleepy Joe lied about military generals' advice in the Afghanistan withdrawal; about fiscal matters (i.e., more government spending won't cost taxpayers a dime, nor will it contribute to inflation); and about voter integrity laws designed to prevent the banana republic style voting that Democrats need to gain and retain power ("Jim Crow 2.0" and other such poppycock).

Gov. DeSantis does not allow for such golden opportunities to the Goebbels-like propaganda machine of the left. And so it was when he held a news conference to trumpet his signing of the the Parental Rights in Education Act, HB 1557, which opponents call the "Don't Say Gay Bill." He sought to confront the pervert wing of the Democrat party -- i.e., those who think it's fine to indoctrinate 5, 6, and 7-year-old kids with obviously inappropriate issues including sexual orientation and gender identity.

How twisted can people be? It does not take a genius to realize that when you're seven years old, sex, sexual desires, sexual identities, puberty and all of the rest of the fraught issues with which teens and adults grapple are utterly inappropriate. Would you advocate teaching five-year-olds about depression, anxiety, bulimia, anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bestiality, suicide, AIDS or any number of other weighty issues that are suited for a more mature, seasoned intellect and ability to reason? Of course not!

Nor would you entrust such tender souls with operating a power tool, driving a car, or taking target practice with a loaded Sig Sauer. My metaphors may be a little over-the-top, but not very. Teaching the LBGTQ Heinz-57 gender bullshit to six-year-olds will have devastating consequences to their future development and formation.  Spiritually, socially, psychologically. It is the equivalent of offering alcohol and marijuana to second graders to inculcate them into the wonderful world of altered states of consciousness.

The left has distorted the Florida legislation, portraying it as hateful, bigoted and discriminatory. They believe it severely restricts the ways in which school personnel can support students who have come out as gay, bisexual, transgendered or some other variation on a theme. But such fears are largely irrelevant to children ages 5-8. They know (and care) about as much regarding transgendered issues as they do about income tax returns, student loan applications and college scholarships.

At some point, we need to ask: Are genitalia, sexual urges and a libertine worldview the be all and end all for progressives? Is this the centerpiece of their philosophy, even trumping Mother Earth and the "green" climate change obsession? Quite possibly.

DeSantis really hit a home run when he brought lefty pervert Harvey Weinstein into the discussion.

“The one thing I’ll say about that is if people who held up degenerates like Harvey Weinstein as exemplars and as heroes and all that—if those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents’ rights, I wear that like a badge of honor.”

Amen. Matthew 7: 16-20: "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

Woke is as Woke Does

I debated whether to comment on the Supreme Court nomination hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The whole thing seems like a foregone conclusion, as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has already promised his affirmative vote, and you can always count on a few RINOs to vote for a Democrat nominee -- namely Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.

The hypocritical Democrats are whining about how mean-spirited and vicious the Republicans behaved during the confirmation hearings, not acknowledging that they themselves behaved in a far more reprehensible fashion during the hearings for Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. After all, double standards are as inherent to Democrats as tallness is to the NBA.

It has been apparent for decades that liberals and progressives let emotion, feelings, and visceral instincts lead them around by the nose. Logic, rational thought, and dispassionate reasoning -- including understanding human nature and learning from history -- take a back seat, or no seat at all.

And so it goes with the insane woke sensibilities of this nominee and so many Democrats who hold positions of power. The same people who wag their fingers at conservatives and lecture condescendingly about how we need to "follow the science" actually beclown themselves repeatedly with fiercely held beliefs that are as anti-science as you can get.

For two years, we have seen this politicization of science play itself out with the long, sorry history of mask mandates, social distancing, reverent worship and obeisance to compromised federal agencies such as the CDC, and an overall paranoid hysteria about a virus that the vast majority of infected people have a 99.7 percent chance of surviving.

Anyone who dared to bring up the obvious -- that most serious cases of COVID-19 involved elderly people and/or those with several severe underlying conditions such as obesity, asthma and diabetes -- was demonized as an insensitive, racist reactionary. Common sense advocates -- i.e., those who said let's concentrate on isolating the most vulnerable and not devastate millions of lives by locking down the whole economy -- were denounced and vilified.

But moving beyond the sorry spectacle of the pandemic, the whole LGBTQ transgendered movement has become a precious, sacred cow to the left, and one that spells out the spiritual sickness afflicting such a large chunk of our population.

During the Senate hearings, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn asked Judge Brown-Jackson to make a simple observation: "Provide a definition for the word 'woman.'"

The judge hemmed and hawed, saying she cannot provide that definition, and in a stunningly inane observation, noted that "I'm not a biologist."

Well, gee, I'm not a lawyer, but I can define many constitutional amendments. Nor am I a doctor, but I know a little about viruses, bacteria and the human immune system. And if I may boast a bit, I probably know more about compression ratios and cylindrical displacements of internal combustion engines than your average non-technical bloviator.

But there's a good reason Judge Brown-Jackson risked looking like an idiot: She was terrified of offending the progressive, woke left (the Heinz-57 genders kooks). She was also afraid that if she got led down that rabbit hole with the leftist talking points ("gender is a social construct"), she would twist herself into a distorted pretzel and provide fodder for the opposition. Even the lame Republicans, who often whiff at golden opportunities to pulverize the opposition, would have had a field day had the judge gone down that road.

The majority of Americans don't want men and boys in girls' or women's restrooms or locker rooms. The majority does not think it is fair when biological males, with larger lung capacity, bigger bones, more muscles, greater upper and lower body strength and higher testosterone levels, should be allowed to compete against biological females.

Not only is it unfair (see liberal darling transgender "woman" Lia Thomas, who is on the University of Pennsylvania swimming team); such a policy has the potential of wiping out women's athletics at colleges and high schools across the land. It promises to deny many girls and women who have worked hard to develop their athletic skills the opportunity to compete, to earn scholarships, and possibly to earn a living playing basketball, tennis, volleyball or any number of other sports.

I don't think the left has thought through their insanity (but then, why should that surprise me?). The Biden administration has bent over backwards to spit on traditional Americans, religious faith, and opposition to left-wing dogma. Those who try to interject sanity and real science into the debate are ostracized, canceled, demonized and hated.  This shall not stand.

Culture War is Subtext to Ukraine Hot War

No one knows what's going to happen between Russia and Ukraine; nor do we know how much of what has been reported is truth or propaganda. We cannot be certain whether Russian fatalities have been as high as reported, how long Ukraine can stave off the barbarians from the east, and whether Vladimir Putin will ramp up his scorched earth M.O. with chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons.

One thing we can be fairly certain of, though, is that the Biden administration and "European community," or "international community," as Barack Obama was fond of saying, will not rise to the occasion. Evidence of such is the European Parliament's recent vote to impose sanctions on Poland and Hungary for violating the "Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism" (such bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo is almost satirical in its absurdity).

Translated to English, this means that Poland and Hungary, with their traditional cultures and large Roman Catholic populations, refuse to kowtow to the leftist LGBTQ, transgender movement, abortion on demand and dogmatic mantra of climate change. They don't wanna play woke games with the far left western Europeans. Good for them.

The parliament's vote follows by a few weeks a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that the EU can cut funding for Poland and Hungary. Poland has already taken in about 2 million Ukrainian refugees, and Hungary about 200,000. And there are plenty more to come.

These two nations need money, resources and support to carry out their mission of compassion. They do not need imperious woke finger-wagging from sophomoric grandees looking down their noses at those they consider inferior. The far-left western Europeans are kicking Poland and Hungary while they're down. Consequently, millions of suffering refugees -- including the most vulnerable -- will pay the price. Nice going.

Supposedly, by adhering to their religious principles, Poland and Hungary have violated the "rule of law," according to the European elitists. (Funny how leftists twist the language to suit their agenda. "Rule of law?" Not natural law, that's for sure.)

This is a despicable, disgusting spectacle that rubs salt on the many war wounds already incurred by eastern Europeans. The fascist left is full of heartless, ruthless ideologues. It seems they always do their level best to carry out the devil's work.

The Big Lies (Plural)

The parrots of the left are fond of spouting off "The Big Lie" mantra about the claim by Donald Trump and his supporters that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

I am not certain it was; I know that hatred for Trump was off the charts, and it's quite possible that a substantial portion of Biden voters would have voted for just about anyone other than Trump, they were so fed up with him. On the one hand, it's accurate to say that 2020 had something in common with 2016: Both were a vote against a certain person (Hillary & Trump) more than for that person's opponent.

On the other hand, it is not unreasonable to think that millions of people voted for Republican Senate, congressional, and gubernatorial candidates, yet voted for Biden for president. Plenty of Americans don't follow politics closely, and an irritating personality can drive them crazy, causing them to careen toward any alternative without considering the consequences.

Still, with that being said, lot of suspicious things did go on, including urban election centers shutting down simultaneously in the middle of the night, sudden spikes in Biden votes in swing states where these votes were needed, a showering of millions of dollars upon liberal activists by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, sloppy record keeping by local clerks, and worst of all, the pandemic spawning a loosely monitored, spread out methodology for distribution, collection and signature verification of mail-in ballots.

As I've said before, it is only common sense that the longer an election is dragged out, and the more people there are handling ballots, the greater the odds are that mischief is taking place. Even liberal Jimmy Carter, who in 2005 co-chaired a federal panel to study voter fraud and the best preventive measures, came to the conclusion that mail-in ballots offer the best opportunity for fraud. Mail-in ballots definitely played a major role in getting Joe Biden elected.

To tarnish the millions of Trump supporters with pejoratives like crackpots, conspiracy theorists, nuts and whack jobs -- this is pure hyperbole. The person who really deserves those pejoratives (as do her supporters) is liberal darling Stacey Abrams. To this day, she maintains she was rightfully elected Georgia governor in 2018, a race she lost by 54,000 votes.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (previously the Secretary of State) was accused of suppressing hundreds of thousands of votes to pad his way to victory. However, election expert Richard L. Hasen, a law professor and legal scholar, said Abrams' claim lacks sufficient evidence. Even the ultra-liberal Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that its investigation of the 2018 statewide elections in Georgia had found "no evidence ... of systematic malfeasance – or of enough tainted votes to force a runoff election."

Yet Abrams, backed up by media dunderheads and rabid Democrats, continues to put herself on a pedestal as a cheated, disrespected woman who was a victim of the evil white establishment. It's worth noting that Abrams has demonstrated what a horrible governor she would have made simply by her own irresponsible fiscal actions. In 2018, she publicly admitted she owed $54,000 in federal back taxes and held $174,000 in credit card and student loan debt.

Election chicanery is one thing; but flagrant media/Democrat Party collusion is another. The rotten juggernaut of the garbage media, Big Tech, Democrat Party and massive, corrupt Deep State has been involved in many "Big Lies" over the past few years -- one being that the 2020 presidential election was "the most secure in history." In some cases, the juggernaut's components may work independently, but often they're in lockstep.

Here are a few examples of Goebbels-like treachery perpetrated by the gigantic propaganda monster -- examples that Republicans could easily label "The Big Lie":

• The Russian collusion hoax that destroyed Donald Trump's presidency and exposed the mainstream media tools for the phony hypocrites they are. This was another case of Democrat projection, as it was Hillary Clinton and her operatives (Perkins-Coie law firm, Marc Elias, Michael Sussman, Fusion GPS, disgraced former British spook Christopher Steele, et al), who really colluded with the Russians.
• The Coronavirus that ravaged the world started with transmission between a bat and a human in a Wuhan wet market. Those who suggested early on that the Wuhan laboratory was really the culprit were mocked, demonized, banned from Twitter and generally treated like pond scum. Turns out, they were right. Meanwhile, media darling Tony Fauci dug himself deeper and deeper with lies and inconsistent statements as he continued to run his mouth incessantly.
• COVID-19 is the fault of unvaccinated people, most of whom are uneducated, white rubes who support Donald Trump. In fact, the percentage of vaccinated African-Americans is smaller than the percentage of vaccinated whites and Latinos. President Biden claimed COVID-19 "is a pandemic of the unvaccinated," yet millions of vaccinated people still contracted COVID-19.
• The Hunter Biden laptop story is "Russian disinformation," and 50 former national security officials have signed off on that conclusion. Gee, did it ever occur to the left how stupid it is to cite national security officials as unbiased, solid authorities -- as people who actually know what they're talking about? These folks have a terrible track record, and often are brazenly partisan.
• Efforts to ensure voting integrity are racist and aim to suppress votes. This is standard left-wing claptrap. The left is indignant about Republican concerns regarding voter fraud (they claim it's a minor, almost nonexistent problem), when there are actually thousands of voter fraud cases on the books.
• Law enforcement is systemically racist, and white cops seek to hunt down and shoot unarmed black suspects. Statistics show this is an outrageous, demagogic lie. Heather MacDonald has done yeoman's work debunking this propaganda. One of her analyses showed that in 2019, American police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or otherwise dangerous. African-Americans were about a quarter of those killed (235). Contrast this with the total number of contacts police had with civilians that year: 375 million. You don't have to be a math whiz to know that 235 isn't even a drop in the bucket.

I could go on, but there's no need to. The biggest liars are on the left, and the more they call conservatives liars, the more obvious it becomes that they are projecting. On the positive side, they've pretty well destroyed their reputation for truthfulness. The voters need to keep this in mind as they prepare to cast their ballots this fall.

Could I offer up the possibility that progressivism itself is really the "BIG LIE"? Or, to have a little fun, the GREAT BIG, Gi-Normous JUMBO-LIE of the Century?

MSU Bows Out Honorably in March Madness

The Duke Blue Devils on Sunday defeated the Michigan State Spartans, 85-76 in the NCAA basketball tournament. Duke moves on to the Sweet 16 in this, the final year for "Coach K," the legendary Mike Krzyzewski, before he heads off into retirement after 42 years at the helm.

Allow me one more posting that has nothing to do with the broken state of our national politics, the corruption/ineptitude/hypocrisy of the federal government, and the sickening bloodbath in Ukraine. I'm human. I've got to think about other things besides events and circumstances that depress and anger me, lest I go insane.

Sports and music are two of the greatest palliatives in our crazy, dysfunctional society, in my humble opinion (or "IMO," in text messaging shorthand).

Many years ago, I matriculated at Michigan State University. It was the stone age by today's standards. Long before the Internet, when typewriters were still being used in journalism classes, and John Lennon had not yet been assassinated (that would occur while I was in my junior year).

Regrettably, the Spartans had horrible football and basketball teams while I was a student, but I became a bigger Spartan fan years after I had graduated. Partly because nearby Detroit usually had horrible professional sports teams (a few seasons by the Tigers, Red Wings, and Pistons being the exception). But also because I became more enthusiastic about college sports when the pros turned into self-absorbed, greedy prima donnas, and loyalty to teams went out the window with free agency and multi-million dollar contracts.

It's a stone-cold BUSINESS, and I am not going to get emotional about millionaire mercenaries playing for the highest bidder. Especially when there have been so many bad actors among the athletes -- drug addicts, drunkards, murderers, wife abusers, profane egotists... And just in the past couple years, the insane obeisance to left-wing dogma like Black Lives Matter has been sickenting. Pro sports has gone down the drain big time.

Anyway, long story short, I have a lot more emotion invested in my alma mater's teams than in any professional sports teams. This is partly because I have met many great friends and acquaintances at Michigan State, and have a ton of great memories of my days as a student. But it's also because I realize that the majority of college athletes come from modest or humble backgrounds. They were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths, nor will they be good enough to make it to the pro leagues and earn millions of dollars. I can relate to them -- something I cannot do with most pro athletes.

So after that long-winded preamble, let me say I am really proud of my MSU Spartans for playing hard and giving the vaunted Duke Blue Devils all they could handle in Sunday's "Round of 32" game. The oddsmakers made Duke a 6.5 point favorite, and the final score wasn't far from that.

A couple things were incredible about this game: 1) MSU was a smoking 70 percent (7/10) from behind the arc in the first half, yet trailed by 4;

2) MSU committed only 7 turnovers, compared to 10 for Duke. Turnovers have been a major problem for the Spartans, who have had some games with a total of 18-20 turnovers;

3) MSU usually dominates other teams in rebounds, but Duke, with a taller lineup, out-rebounded the Spartans, 35-31.

4) At one point in the second half, Duke led by 9. Several minutes later, MSU was up by 5. But in the last few minutes, Duke imposed its will -- offensively and defensively, and forced MSU into some bad mistakes, e.g., A.J. Hoggard and Joe Hauser attempting to put up a layup while Duke's 7-foot center Mark Williams guarded the basket. Both were rejected, with Duke gaining posession of the ball.

Overall, MSU's 3-point shooting was an impressive 50 percent (11 for 22). But the bottom line is that Duke simply has better athletes. Bigger, faster, more skilled, and in many cases taller. They imposed their will in the low post.

During the 27 years that both Spartans coach Tom Izzo and Coach K have been in charge of their respective hoops teams, the two titans have met 16 times. Coach K is 13-3 vs. Izzo. Izzo critics, including legions of ignorant Meechigan Wolverine fans, criticize and mock Izzo for this record, and for the fact he's made it to eight Final Fours but only won one national championship. Often the dumber people are, the more they shoot their mouths off. We've seen plenty of that from classless Walmart Wolverines. They're a dime a dozen.

It's simple. There's a reason why Coach K dominates Izzo, and Duke has won five national championships to MSU's one since Izzo took over. Duke has been able to sign far more talented athletes than Izzo and MSU. Every one of Duke's starters yesterday was a five-star recruit. One of MSU's starters (freshman Max Christie) was a five-star recruit.

Coach K and coaches from a couple of other blue blood programs -- North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas come to mind -- can sign three to five 5-stars per year. Coach Izzo signs maybe one per year or every two years. It's partly because the other programs have been established far longer than MSU, but it also may have to do with Izzo having difficulty attracting athletes to a cold, northern city.

I'm looking at it this way: For 20 years or so when I was younger, MSU only made the NCAA Tournament once every 4-6 years, if we were lucky. Now, we've made the tournament 24 straight seasons, and that is impressive.

Kudos to the Spartans for going down with a fierce fight. You did us proud. We will live to fight another day, be grateful for our blessings, and not envy those who are king of the hill.

Incompetence, Corruption and Hypocrisy: A Bipartisan Shit Show in Lansing

I guess it's time to break away from the D.C. cesspool and the war in Ukraine so that I can comment on the disturbing goings on in my home state.

Lansing has been lacking in quality leadership for a couple of decades. John Engler was Michigan's last good governor, and he wrapped up his 12 years in office on Dec. 31, 2002. Current U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm succeeded Engler as Michigan governor on Jan. 1, 2003.

Gov. Tinkerbell proved to be all style, no substance. Among her "achievements" were throwing money at a "Cool Cities" pipe dream that tried unsuccessfully to remake burned out old factory towns into hip mini-Seattles; and implementation of a despicable policy that made drivers pay TWICE for the same civil infraction -- once after it happened, and again a year later. The Driver Responsibility Fee was a naked cash grab, a spit-in-your-face act of massive greed and arrogance by an out-of-control government.

So, as I posted eight years ago, I was delighted when Rick Snyder won the 2010 election after eight wretched years with the inane Gov. Tinkerbell. But the honeymoon was short-lived.

In 2014, as Snyder sought re-election, I posted that I would vote for the Libertarian candidate for Michigan governor because I was so disgusted with Snyder's performance and would never vote for a left-wing Democrat (is there any other kind?). And yet, the worst was yet to come. My rant preceded Snyder's two greatest failures: The Flint water disaster, and massive ineptitude in his choices of IT contractors and computer systems for state agencies. Granted, Flint was also the fault of inept and crooked city employees, failed emergency managers and missteps by the EPA. But Snyder's administration also shares part of the blame. 

One of the other major fiascoes occurring on Snyder's watch was a computer program that was supposed to red flag suspicious unemployment insurance claims. Nearly 50,000 legitimate filers were accused of committing fraud and raked over the coals. Many of them already were in dire financial straits, then were required to pay back money that they actually were entitled to, plus pay penalty fines. An audit found that the program erroneously accused claimants in 93 percent of the cases.

Snyder's successor, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, has also been a failure. Her chief campaign promise was to "Fix the Damn Roads!," yet Michigan's gnarly roads are still chock-full of hideous potholes. We're talking third world conditions that end up costing Michigan motorists millions of dollars in car repairs and new tires. 

Big Gretch, as her fans call her, overreacted to the Coronavirus pandemic, locking down restaurants for many months. In the first few weeks of the pandemic, she even implemented absurd restrictions such as not allowing people to buy lawn and garden equipment or supplies from home improvement stores, shutting down golf courses and prohibiting landscapers from working.

Perhaps most galling, Whitmer and several of her departments heads hypocritically refused to obey the mask mandates and guidance against traveling out of state. More "do as I say, not as I do," as if we haven't had enough of that from the political class.

Without question, several state agencies have been mismanaged under Whitmer's tenure.  Some of the problems are partly as a result of the albatross computer systems Snyder's administration saddled the state with during his two terms. But other problems have stemmed from Whitmer hiring the wrong people to run state agencies and failing to conduct proper oversight.

The Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) has been perhaps the most mismanaged department. One of the early directors was shown the door, albeit with an $85K severance payment so that he would keep his mouth shut about what really went on. This wasn't the only "hush money" the administration has paid out. But far worse than that, an audit several months ago found that the UIA disbursed an appalling $8.5 billion in fraudulent claims during the pandemic. 

Just a few days ago, Michigan's Office of Auditor General (OAG) found that the UIA failed to  ensure preemployment background checks were conducted for more than 5,500 staffing agency and Michigan Works! Agency workers. The OAG found 71 of the 169 workers sampled had one or more misdemeanor and/or felony convictions of crimes such as embezzlement, identity theft and armed robbery. These workers were still employed at the time of the audit, and some of them retained access to UIA data bases even after they were terminated.

OAG also found that UIA failed to execute data sharing agreements with three staffing agencies, and provided inadequate training to new employees, some of whom were on the job for up to five months before they received any training. I won't even get into poor service provided to Michigan residents by the Secretary of State's office, or the multiple failures of the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Nor do I have the time or inclination to address the GOP's former House Speaker Lee Chatfield, who is accused of an illicit sexual relationship with his wife's sister when she was a minor, and also accused of misusing travel and expense money to live lavishly. Chatfield is under investigation by the Michigan State Police.

It seems that in Michigan, ineptitude, lying, hypocrisy and corruption are thoroughly bipartisan. "Can't we all just get along?" Umm, I think that's the essence of the problem. There's way too much of just getting along. And the people pay the price. If the adage is true that "you get the leadership you deserve," that's a damning indictment of the people of Michigan.

Zelenskyy, Putin Have the Goods on Biden

When public officials are corrupt, it involves far more than flagrant mendacity, compromised services to constituents and thievery of taxpayer resources. It can also be a security issue -- especially when federal officials are involved.

Think California Rep. Eric Swalwell sleeping with a Chinese spy, and even more notorious, President Joe Biden (aka "The Big Guy") and his reprobate son Hunter engaging in unseemly dealings with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs, businesses and politicians. Hunter was involved in prostitution, drug trafficking, illegal business deals and corruption. Messages and other information gleaned from Hunter's infamous laptop certainly imply that the Big Guy often got his slice of the pie.

And let's not forget that, as is so often the case, the Democrats projected their own sins onto the Republicans. Russian collusion (actually engaged in by Hillary and various Democrat operatives) is the biggest example. There's also a charge of blackmail that was leveled against former President Trump with regard to his phone conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that led to impeachment charges by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.

Remember the conversation? (Investigate the Bidens, or Trump would block military aid.) In truth, Biden is the one who committed blackmail. In 2016, he told then president Petro Poroshenko that he needed to fire Ukraine's top prosecutor, who had investigated Hunter's company, Burisma, or the Obama administration would withhold $1 billion of aid. Biden later bragged about how Poroshenko did his bidding within a couple of hours.

Indeed, the Bidens' entanglements are so formidable, I wonder how either of them can sleep at night. Don't think that Special Counsel John Durham won't come out with some damaging information about the two Biden grifters' influence peddling. It's just a matter of time.

Oh, and how about that Freudian slip of President Biden the other day? He used the words "naked" and "blackmail" in the same observation. While attending an event to recognize the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, Sleepy Joe touched on the topic of revenge porn.

“I’ll bet everybody knows someone, somewhere along the line, that in an intimate relationship what happened was the guy takes a revealing picture of a naked friend, or whatever, in a compromising position, and then literally in a sense blackmails them or mortifies them.”

Hmmm.... Are there videos and photos out there that keep you up at night, Joe? This could get interesting. But on a far more serious note, it's alarming that our president's hands are tied as he attempts to deal with Vladimir Putin and the nation of Ukraine. As Obama and the Democrats love to say, "Elections have consequences."

Learn to Code, and Buy an Electric Car!

The progressive left is not just egotistical, arrogant, bullheaded and woefully wrong on a host of issues; these cretins are also utterly devoid of compassion or empathy. They often seem so calloused as to have Asperger Syndrome.

The Democrats pretend to be concerned about spiking gasoline prices, but in truth they want prices for all fossil fuels to keep rising no matter how much it hurts the downtrodden and middle class. Why? Because this will help bring about the green dream fantasyland the Dems are convinced is feasible and will be successful despite the glaring deficiencies of solar and wind power.

And what happens when a reporter challenges a member of the administration on whether it seeks to encourage increased oil production to ease the gasoline price increases? Well, you get a hideous cackling by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who replied, "That is hilarious. Would that I had the magic wand on this."

1) It certainly is NOT hilarious; and 2) It is moronic to sarcastically wish for a magic wand, which implies that rectifying the situation is almost impossible and would require a miracle. It's just a question of the administration getting its boot off the neck of the domestic oil industry and letting this nation return to energy independence. 3) Such a ridiculous response coming from a superficial leftist like Granholm is not the least bit surprising.

Another cabinet member, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, apparently emulates Marie Antoinette. In response to complaints and concerns about record high gasoline prices, he said all folks need to do is just go out and buy an electric vehicle. Umm, Pete, did you know that the average price of a new EV is about $55K, and many of them cost closer to $80K?

Also, millions of Americans need to drive a pickup or SUV because they regularly haul around building materials, big dogs, kids' sporting equipment, and several family members who cannot be jammed into a clown car. Oh, and did I forget to mention that people often are on the go with busy schedules, and cannot afford to sit for 8 or 10 hours while their vehicle recharges? EV's are simply impractical for a large chunk of the population. And we won't even get into the environmental destruction caused by mining of lithium, nickel, cadmium and other rare earth elements needed for EV batteries.

Aside from those reasons, $55K or $80K is not something that fits into the household budgets of tens of millions of people. Could you possibly be more clueless? I know the D.C. cesspool is an insular, delusional bubble, but Pete, ol' boy, you hail from South Bend, Indiana! I thought you might be in touch with the real world. Silly me.

The recent tone-deaf statements and behaviors of the administration geniuses reminds me of another calloused recommendation that coastal elitists (especially those who work in technology) are fond of saying regarding working class people whose jobs have been outsourced or turned over to robots: "Learn to code."

National Review columnist Kevin Williamson had that advice for blue collar workers in hollowed out towns across the fruited plains that NAFTA and other global "free trade" initiatives had laid to waste. It was a contemptuous and conceited slur, and Williamson, plus the many elitists in the tech world fond of uttering those three words, know that it is unrealistic.

For many reasons, including educational backgrounds, cultural influences and personal preferences, learning to code just ain't gonna cut it for many workers. Some people are better working with their hands and being on the move. Sitting down at a computer terminal for hours on end would drive them insane. Others simply have specific talents that will help them to find a variety of odd jobs -- carpentry, mechanical abilities, painting and home renovations, for example. They, too, are not cut out for office work -- especially the tedium of coding.

Tone-deaf, mindless occupational advice or "green" recommendations on EV's are often made by people who are simply clueless and thoughtless. But more often than not, it is über-arrogance, condescension and contempt that cause small-minded elitists to diminish their fellow Americans. Neighbors and fellow citizens whom they wish would just drop dead.

With this kind of poisonous mindset on the left, I'll be damned if I ever want us to "unite" or "come together." Over my dead body.

Inflation's Saving Grace

Millions of Americans do not receive wage increases that will keep up with inflation, let alone provide an actual raise for a job well done.

Consequently, the middle class is experiencing real distress having to shell out $4 or $5 per gallon for gasoline while grocery prices continue to rise and utility bills take a bigger bite out of household income.

The vast majority of Americans (myself included) do not know the intricacies and nuances of the M1 money supply, multipliers, quantitative easing, Fed bond buying or auctions of treasury certificates. But what we do know is that if Uncle Sam spends trillions of dollars more than it has, inflation is the result. It's as simple as too many dollars chasing too few goods and services, forcing prices to rise. Economics 101.

Massive, pork barrel spending bills by the geniuses of Congress continue to spike the inflation rate. Going back to the early days of the Obama administration, continuing through the Donald Trump administration, and exploding under Sleepy Joe Biden, federal spending and deficits have been utterly out of control. Since Obama took office, the national debt has skyrocketed from $12 trillion to $30 trillion. Interest rates are sure to rise in conjunction with the inflation rate, which will further grow deficits and the debt.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the grossly hysterical overreaction to it, prompted the federal government to engage in several spending blowouts, first under Trump, then under Biden. The Democrats won control of the U.S. House in 2018 and, with the tie-breaker vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Senate in 2020. In conjunction with Biden being elected president, this represented a green light for reckless, wanton spending. The Dems were like a kid in a candy shop (or like the high school kids whose parents left them alone for the weekend and failed to lock up the liquor cabinet).

Following Biden's earlier COVID relief bills, inflation was already starting to rise in early 2021. So when the administration proposed a massive pork barrel program called Build Back Better, voters balked. BBB (I call it Build Bungling Bureaucracy)  would blow $3 trillion-plus to create permanent welfare state entitlements and -- perhaps worst of all -- pay for the hiring and training of 80,000 new IRS agents. Free child care, paid family leave, free preschool, Medicare expansion, child tax credits, and other entitlements were proposed, plus a grab bag of pork to fight climate change.

Despite fierce lobbying by Democrats and a hard-sell propaganda push by a compliant media, voters still opposed BBB. Democrat senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were all that stood between the status quo and a boondoggle pork bill that may well have been the death blow for our fiscal health. Both were under tremendous pressure to cave, but neither agreed to do so, simply because both feared losing in their re-election bids.

The delusional Bidenites probably have lots of other big-spending plans on tap. But the otherwise bleak reality of raging inflation that is hammering the middle and lower classes has a true silver lining: The inflation is, and probably will continue to be, a bulwark against additional insane spending.

It's almost always possible to find some good in a bad situation. Thank God for that.