A Distraction

Rather than congratulating President Trump, Nancy Pelosi called his negotiated break-through peace deal between Israel and two of its Arab neighbors, UAE and Bahrain. “a distraction from the Covid.” What a stupid, smarmy, snide, surly, sniveling, sinister, sanctimonious, supercilious, scurrilous, snot-nosed, stuck-ip, shady, snobbish, shallow, scolding, strident, slobbering, sotty, sagging, scornful, spiteful, spittle-flecked,  silly, simpleton swamp creature ... is Ms. Pelosi.


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Devine Guidence

Most solemn Nancy Pelosi praying for Devine guidance about impeaching the hideously evil and obviously guilty Orangeman ...

Impeachment Inquiry Resolution

On Thursday Nancy Pelosi has indicated she will hold an “Impeachment Inquiry Resolution” vote. Some people are confused whether this vote will sanction an impeachment inquiry wherein Republicans can call witnesses, have White House Counsel present for friendly witnesses and cross examine, in public, the witnesses that the Democrats bring forward.

Come-on ... you know this woman better than that! Already some naive commentators are calling this an impeachment inquiry vote. Will she allow such a vote in which Democrat House members who were recently elected from Red districts will have to go on record dissing our president? I sincerely doubt it. Nor do I believe this will morph into a truly fair process.

I think that this Thursday Pelosi resolution will read something like this:

“Fair Process Resolution”
“Are you in favor of  starting a fair process that might lead to an impeachment inquiry ... such process maintaining the current Adam Schiff process rules ... but might allow some witnesses being called in public at the discretion of Chairman Schiff ... and with the policies and procedures he deems appropriate. A ‘present’ vote on this motion should not be considered to be an official endorsement of an impeachment inquiry process.”

Such is pissant politics ...

Afterward: Here is more detail on this matter: NBC News Story. be careful, it is from fake news ... and here is the actual Resolution Text. Read this resolution. I was close. If you think this is giving Trump due process, you must be denser than AOC.

Disappearing Act

Something struck me recently about the national news ... what was banner headlines or led many TV news programs say three weeks ago, that has now disappeared almost entirely?

The Squad!

How can this happen? What has inspired this disappearing act? I’m sure that this foursome is still uttering inflammatory stupid things ... they can’t help themselves ... but it is just not being reported.

Did Nancy Pelosi send a text to the “Morning Joe” show saying “Stop it, you’re killing me!”

Did Kieth Ellison tell Jeff Zucker that CNN’s ad revenue would not be forthcoming from the DNC next year if any of these women were featured in any more stories?

Clearly, something happened and it wasn't just the two mass shootings. After all, wouldn’t The Squad have some choice words to say on this juicy subject?

Maybe they actually have been sent back to the countries of their origin?

Just saying ...

The Squad

Omar, Presley, Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez

Ilhan Omar and her “squad” have done the impossible ... they have turned Nancy Pelosi into a sympathetic character.

Tax Cut

Republicans are high-fiving each other while Democrats are besides themselves ... claiming that the opponents are stealing from the U.S. Treasury. This first big legislative win for the Republicans looks like it will boost economic growth ... possibly dramatically. Is it perfect? No ... carried interest still exists, the highest bracket has been reduced, and there are plenty of cutouts designed to get the necessary Republican votes. But the sausage making is done and, overall, this bill will likely do the job.

And, if and when it does, quite a few of the Democrats who kowtowed to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and voted "nyet," may wish they can take a Mulligan ... particularly if they are on the ballot next year. If they realize that they are out on a limb being sawed off by their ideology, we might then get some cooperation toward fixing the remainder of the problems that B.H.O. never minded to either remedy or even pay attention to.

To paraphrase Uncle Wiggly, if the deep-state lollipop vendors don't force Trump to step down and disown all his deputies ... and if the cotton-candy Earth doesn't get a fatal fever ... or if the pecan-pie stock market doesn't swoon into the arms of Bernie Sanders ... then Trump might just pull a "beautiful" bunch of establishment Rinos over the finish line next November.

Tax cuts can cut both ways ...

Man of Action

(Yes, a bit of hyperbole ...)

The contrast is striking. Donald Trump is still almost two months away from assuming the reins of government ... yet he is already turning things around for his country. His cabinet is taking shape with mostly high quality selections. His policies on taxes, healthcare, regulations, trade, terrorism, immigration, etc. are emerging out of the campaign fog ... and generally are solid. His potential conflicts of interest are being resolved and he seems to have had a beneficial persuasive effect on many foreign leaders. And he even has convinced some American companies to not move manufacturing out of this country. All good.

Trump's actions all seem to be directed by patriotism and for the benefit of America. The contrast is that our current president's actions ... when he got around to performing them ... seemed mostly directed by ideology and even personal benefit. Yes, he used the shibboleth "leading from behind" to justify most of his lassitude ... but the fear of the unknown kept him on vacation, on the golf course and away from real meaningful work about solving our problems that needed to be resolved.

Yes, early on Obummer frequently held show forums where photo ops seemed to be the primary objective. Remember almost a trillion dollars spent on "shovel-ready jobs" that turned out to be a sham ... which he later joked about? And he had willing allies in Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi who created a constipated legislative process and effectively blamed it on the Republicans. Their showpiece legislation, Obamacare, was passed without a trace of bipartisan support ... with predictable catastrophic results both policy-wise and operationally. The legacy of our current president is so fetid that recounting it is a dyspeptic experience. His eight years can be compared to a garbage scow constantly leaking its contents in its briny wake.

Yes, Trump will make errors during his term ... but it will be as a result of action not inaction ... and as a result of patriotism, not fuzzy-headed Alinsky dogma.

Necktie Party

A ragtag posse composed of Barack Obummer, the Clinton crime family, Bernie Sanders, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and many other desperadoes are in the process of stringing up the Democrat Party. It has taken them a number of years, but the extra-legal and self-serving actions of these political lynchers has the Dem Party gasping for air. The Party is not dead, quite yet, but the rope is cutting well into its neck as the lamentations over Fidel Castro's death rises to a crescendo from these masked men and women. And Jill Stein ... with Hellary's blessing ... has just slapped the horse's rump saddling the doomed party and yelled "giddy-up" ... as result of her contesting the recent presidential voting results in three states.

The United States used to be a two party country ...  but, the neck-tie party of these western outlaws suggests that this dipole is rapidly becoming a political monopole. All because of the gigantic egos of these teeny teeny people.

Pelosi Redux

Paul Ryan talks a good game ... but his performance on the field is sub par. When Ryan took over as Speaker of the House last fall he promised (read my lips) that he would follow "regular order" and pass a series of budget resolutions funding each department of our government separately ... obviating what had been the Democrats' strategy of leaving everything until the last minute. He hasn't done that ... for reasons one can speculate on ... but, as a consequence, the House is once again faced with passing an omnibus budget resolution which probably will be another Nancy Pelosi Christmas tree ... laden with billions of dollars of profligate spending. That is, if it is passed at all ... and, if not, another government shutdown looms ... see: Breitbart Article.

Yes, Republican Speaker John Boehner ran things between Pelosi and Ryan and he was no better at returning to "regular order." I guess that this means that irregular order is now regular order because it  provides so many opportunities for both parties to spend and spend ... although bad for our country, good for these sleazy politicians. This is another sad commentary on where we are now politically ... and why someone as marginal as Donald Trump can now have a shot at the presidency. Whether he will fix things is still a question, but we do know that the Democrats won't. "The fault dear Brutus lies not in the stars ..."

A New Broom

A grand jury, under the new Attorney General (AG) Loretta Lynch, has just indicted Denny Hastert, the former Republican Speaker of the House on the strange charge of violating banking laws to pay hush money to some unnamed person ... see: Washington Post Story. This coupled with the previous indictment of that rogue New Jersey Democrat Senator Robert Manendez on corruption charges ... see: Washington Post Story ... suggests that the Obama administration may be using its Justice Department as a political hammer.

Since, to me, it is clear that Washington is chock-a-block full of crooks of all stripes, the real test for our new AG will be how many more of these miscreants she brings before the docks. How about Representative Charlie Rangel on tax evasion? How about Senator Harry Reid on misusing the IRS? How about Representative Nancy Pelosi on corruption? How about that presidential confidant Al Sharpton on tax evasion? How about Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation on RICO charges? How about our president himself for flaunting his oath of office and numerous crony-capitalism payoffs?

If Loretta Lynch has brought a new broom with her into her new job, I would love to see her begin to sweep clean that snake pit of our nation's capital. How about it, AG?

Critics

Nancy Pelosi, “My critics are sexist.” See: Breitbart Article

Barack Obama, “My critics are racist.” See: Townhall Article  

Harry Reid, “My critics are insightful.”

Happy Easter

In a brilliant public relations move, Representative Nancy Pelosi chose to emulate Pope Francis and Jesus Christ by humbling herself and washing the feet of an immigrant ... see: Washington Times Story. Now, I can't help but secretly wonder if she is planning to take this pre-Easter act of Jesus's contrition all the way to the California equivalent of the Calvary hill?

Nah! ... can't be.

I Give Up

Uncle! I surrender! No mas! Call off the dogs! You win! I turn over my king … Obama, you have check-mated me!

It is clear that our President holds all the high cards and it is futile to resist.  I’m sure he knows that I have contributed to the Republican Party and he can sic the IRS on me at the drop of a metaphor. I sense the NSA presence in all my phone calls and hacked into this computer.  I have seen how Attorney General Eric Holder has dropped the hammer on conservative voices across the country and I don’t want to suffer a similar fate.  He seems to have the FBI on a short leash and is not hesitant to use them to go after those of us "racists" who don’t want to go along to get along.  

And I certainly don’t want to lose my health insurance or incur the wrath of future death panels.

I have seen how quickly the main stream media can destroy someone who poses a threat to this administration and the Democrat party. Witness Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, Robert McDonnell in Virginia, Dinesh D'Souza, and too too many others. And I have seen how the Chicago machine politics works … electing their friends time after time … seemingly against the will of the people.  I have witnessed President Obama use the Constitution like a napkin at one of his lavish dinners … and seen him castigate anyone with more money than he deems appropriate. Yet I have also watched as billions upon billions of government dollars are also funneled to his friends. I want to become one of those “friends.”

I sense to all-powerful nature of our government in picking corporate winners … such as Google and Solyndra … and losers … such as Koch Industries and JP Morgan. I cringe at the arbitrariness of our economic future under such leadership and worry if my nest egg of stock investments will be destroyed in a fit of pique by our Fearless Leader. As Charles Krauthammer observes, we are rapidly becoming a banana republic … and I want to be put all my money in Chiquita Brands Inc.

I have witnessed how Nancy Pelosi once used the House of Representatives as her personal playpen and how Harry Reid still does the same in the Senate.  I don’t want to get on their radar screens as being a miscreant. And I see the continued growth of the Clinton juggernaut … such as de Blasio in New York City and McAuliffe in Virginia … and worry that I have somehow offended them … and that they may seek vengeance after they once again control everything.  Please forgive my past sins! I promise I will vote for Chelsea whenever she runs for something!

We conservatives are finished ... we are on the ropes and I formally throw in the towel.

NOT!

Wouldn’t it be Funny …

... if Obamacare caused the United States to return to a free-market economy in health care?  Already many more people have lost their health-care insurance than have gained it as a result of this Harry Reid-Nancy Pelosi bit of screwed-up social engineering … see: Powerline Analysis.  And later this year, when the employer mandate kicks in and many millions more Americans find themselves with the unhappy option of either paying more for less health insurance … they might then chose to go uninsured and suffering the consequence.  And the way “Obamacare is being hollowed-out by government fiat” (a Charles Krauthammer near quote), it is increasingly unlikely that there will actually be any consequences suffered by the uninsured.

The health-care insurance companies allowed the current administration to have its way with them because they thought that they would be able to feast on an additional 45 million customers … and that they could also gouge the many millions more currently-insured who would have to pay more for less as a result of the insurance rewrites caused by Obamacare.  Perceptive people, such as Krauthammer, realize that these two windfalls for the insurance companies are now unlikely to occur … and that a government bailout of their partners-in-sin is quite likely.  So now the Republicans are pushing a bill that would make such a bailout of health-care insurers illegal … see: Fox News Story.  Wouldn’t this be poetic justice?

And wouldn’t it be even sweeter if Obamacare caused the whole health-care industry to once again return to a free market?  Then individuals would be making economic trade-off decisions about their health care without the interference of health-care insurers and the government.  Then the spiraling cost-inflation havoc that this industry-government complex has foisted on our economy might finally be reined-in.  Wouldn't it be funny?

What I Admire about Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi

Harry Reid

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Nancy Pelosi

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Medical Fads

When was the last time a child you know had his/her tonsils out? How about an adenoidectomy? A study in New York City in the 1930s had over 90% of its children with tonsillitis resulting in surgery or a recommendation of same. Today the equivalent statistic is below 1% (see: The Pediatric Journal).  Of late, I even can’t recall anyone I know getting his/her appendix removed. Yes, I know, the use of antibiotics may have a lot to do with the dramatic reduction in these medical procedures, but it can’t be the total reason. May I suggest that medical fads exist and that this may be one reason for our spiraling health-care costs … particularly when someone else pays for things?

What are the latest oft-expensive medical procedures that deserve to be evaluated for such faddish “crowding in?” Maybe botox injections, cellulite reductions, other vanity plastic-surgeries (Nancy Pelosi per esempio), C-sections, and maybe even some joint replacement procedures (see: Cracked Article). Yes, I know of those people where a knee replacement was a medical necessity, but I still see or hear of others where it may have been palliative or even faddish. (I, myself had been recommended for such an operation.) And, how about those ads on TV that push those fancy self-propelled wheelchairs?

Too often in the news we see of some medical quackery that operate clinics that will perform some expensive Medicare- or Medicaid-paid procedure or surgery over and over again on anyone who is willing to submit to this charlatanism. Why do these patients offer themselves up for such suffering? Often, I think, for bragging rights, borderline masochism, vanity, or even Munchausen’s syndrome.  Estimates of the “waste, fraud and abuse” in our medical system run into the tens of billion dollars per year (see: HHS Testimony), but somehow we can never seem to reduce this number significantly.

May I offer that some targeted and repeated public-service announcements, pointing out these medical fads and their consequences, might be an interesting path to follow? Escalating medical co-pays based upon the degree of faddishness involved might also be tried? These approaches do seem to be working for reducing cigarette smoking.

Afterthought:  I don't know why I didn't first suggest this solution to fix waste, fraud and abuse in the medical system ... reintroduce market forces into medical payments (Ryan's approach).

Over the Rainbow

Princess Pelosi is pushing the Obama administration to relax its deportations of illegal aliens who might be LGBTs (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders). See: The Hill Story. This makes enormous sense since Medicaid has oodles of extra money to spend on $100,000 addadictome operations (a popular transgender procedure).

Dogcatcher

Even though Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz have refused to release their tax returns, they still insist that Mitt Romney release more than the last two years of his (see: Breitbart Story).  To rub salt into the wound, Harry Reid said that, because of his reticence, Romney was not suited to run for dogcatcher.  This comes from a man who has refused for over three years to fulfil his Constitutional duty in the Senate and pass a federal budget.  I suppose that Reid is preparing the way in case Romney wins the Presidency this coming November.  Perhaps, if so, he will send Romney a dogcatcher's net ... and start barking.

Crony Capitalism Redux

Halliburton* ... That's a name that, to most Liberals, typifies crony capitalism.  Dick Cheney was its CEO from 1995 to 2000 and the working assumption was that he directed unsolicited government business to it so that his stock would go up and he would unfairly prosper.  This may or may not be true, but what is true is that Halliburton is a large company that, because of its expertise, has received many federal contracts under both Republican and Democrat administrations.  It would be difficult to unravel whether there was any undue favoritism sent its way when Cheney was Vice President under George W. Bush ... but, so far, there has not been any creditable exposé.

However, the story under The Barry's watch is quite different.  I have previously written about crony capitalism instances here (see: Crony Capitalism.)  Now, below are four more examples of what government largess (crony capitalism) is directed to companies connected to our current administration:

- Siga Technologies, Inc, a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) connected company, has received a $443 million no-bid contract from the Obama administration for an experimental smallpox drug (see: Seedy Details).  Smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1978.

- Fisker Automotive, a Finnish electric-car company connected with former Vice President, Al Gore, has received a $529 million loan guarantee from this administration's Energy Department to create zero jobs in the United States (see: Annoying Details). 

- Silver Spring Network, another administration butt-buddy, has had its connected utility companies recently given $560 million in grants ... again by the Energy Department (see: More Money to Friends).

- SolarReserve, a Nancy Pelosi-connected green-energy company, has been given a $737 million loan guarantee, once again by the Energy Department (see: Princess Nancy's Silk Purse).

And for even more, see John Stossel's comments on the Obama-friendly window company, Serious Materials (see: Stossel Spills the Beans).  And I'm reasonably sure that some more of this sewage will turn up before next year's election.

* Halliburton is not an oil company.  It is a project management and oil-well service company ...  it provides many services to oil companies (like putting out oil-well fires) and to many other entities ... such as the federal government.  Its biggest competitor is the French conglomerate, Schlumberger.

Afterward:  I was just listening to Senator Dan Coats on CSPAN about a $730 million Energy Dept. conditional loan to Severstal, a subsidiary of a Russian company, OAO, to produce high-strength steel for autos.  The problem, according to Sen. Coats, is that most of the rationales used by the Energy Dept. to justify this loan are fallacious.  I urge you to read the story on this loan at The Indiana Economic Digest.  The only thing missing from this analysis is ... exactly who is the administration's crony in this transaction.  But, given the looseness of the facts asserted by the Energy Dept., I'm reasonably sure that there is one.  Stay tuned.

Also $1.6 billion from the DOE to BrightSource Energy (a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. company) ... see: Another Biggie and $564 million of DOE money into a variety of biorefineiries including $25 million to Amyris ... see: DOE Honeypot  (major source: Throw Them All Out)

Long afterthought: Here is another link to a listing of Green Energy pork: Michelle Malkin

And: Another One Bites the Dust

Juxtaposition XXVI

Darth Vader

John Boehner

According to Nancy Pelosi ... see: Pelosi Snaps