Today’s Poser

Why do Democrat-run cities and states generally have a lower quality of life — more crime, higher taxes, more corruption, rampant homelessness, voter fraud, poorer sanitation, wildfires, poor elementary education, crumbling infrastructure, higher unemployment and rioting? Is it because of their politics or are they just piss-poor managers?

Afterthought: Or both?!


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Letter to Trump

Mr. President,

I know that it is against your very nature, but you don’t need to attack Biden any more in your campaign to get re-elected next November ... not for his perviness, not for his dementia, not for his corruption, not for his bone-headed foreign-policy mistakes ... not even for son Hunter. May I suggest you let him keep digging the hole he is is in. It’s already so deep, it is unlikely he can climb out before the walls cave in.

Sincerely,
A Voter

American Gulag

It seems clear to me, kind reader, that the United States had, during the last four or five years, moved dangerously close to creating the old Soviet Union gulags... in that it was trying to (and did) imprison people solely for their political opinions. By that I mean prison time was obviously being handed out for no legal reason other than whether this person is a Trump supporter. George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone have been mousetrapped by dirty FBI cops and a sympathetic legal system as a way of punishing them for their support of the Orangeman.

Their actual ‘process crimes’ (primarily inconsequential lying under oath) feel very much like set-ups wherein they and their families were crushed financially by the sheer power and perfidy of a corrupt and politicized Obama FBI and Justice Department ... organizations that Attorney General Barr is doing his best to restore to dignity and fairness. (Notice I have not included in this list Trump’s old lawyer, Michael Cohen, or his former brief campaign manager, Paul Manafort ... bot of whom were convicted of serious felonies: money laundering, tax evasion and corruption ... unconnected to the Trump campaign.)

And an even more disturbing aspect of this politicalization of crimes in the Washington, DC swamp is that known perjurers such as Comey, McCabe, Clapper, Brennan, Sally Yates, Susan Rice and maybe higher-ups ... are still walking free ... and under no legal jeopardy (that we know of currently). And, if they are being investigated and found guilty, is this political persecution too?

Nah!

Perhaps, it’s a good thing that we have no Siberia equivalent?

Today’s Poser

If (maybe I should say when) Trump is re-elected in November, can he then finally put the squeeze on Zelensky to clean up the rampart corruption in the Ukraine by holding back on U.S. aid?

Dueling Conspiracies (Part 2)

Pelosi’s Impeachment-signing pens

To expand on my previous post on this subject:

The timing of these Lev Parnas revelations ... and the Rachael Maddow interviews ... were obviously timed to coincide with the start of the impeachment trial in the Senate. So, one side of this duel obviously includes the lefty media. One can imagine Nancy Pelosi on the podium orchestrating her side of this Trump hanging like a nervous Toscanini ... and her audience is obviously not the Senators ... it is the American voters. Very sophisticated ... and conspiratorial. (Just heard that, on impeachment day, the “impartial” Congressional GAO declared that Trump’s hold on Ukraine aid for 55 days was illegal — another coordinated event?)

Would Lev Parnas lie? Of course, he is Ukrainian after all ... in tact, definitely! Would the lefty media mislead us about him? Have you noticed that he and Igor Fruman’s indictments reporting seldom mention the time of their alleged money laundering and improper political donations? March of 2018 ...well over a year before Zelensky was elected president of the Ukraine ... pledging to reform this country’s rampant corruption ... see: Indictments. These misdeeds also occurred well before these two reprobates were working with Giuliani ... again ignored by most of the media.

I think I will reluctantly watch the Rachael Maddow show tonight. Stay tuned ...

Moral Equivalence

I know that I am generally against drawing moral equivalences. However, I fear I am now forced to reverse this stance in the following specific instance:

President Trump’s supposed quid pro quo (aka, bribery) was that the new Ukraine president needed to clean up his country’s rife corruption ... including the Burisma/Biden miasma ... before Trump would be releasing the next round of military aid.

Now, the fact that the Bidens were included in this transaction meant, according to Schiff and the Democrats, that Trump was trying to besmirch Joe Biden, a potential political adversary. Now, kind reader, key question — how could Joe Biden be disadvantaged after such an investigation unless he was shown to have acted illegally or immorally?

Ah, so pilgrim! According to the Deep State Department, the mere fact that such an investigation itself took place, or was taking place, would disadvantage Joe Biden in any future election.

Now, here comes the curve ball!

Isn’t the fact that Adam Schiff is conducting a much more public investigation into Trump’s supposed corruption ... the requested Ukrainian quid pro quo (aka, bribery) ... the moral equivalence of what Trump was supposedly asking from the new Ukrainian administration? And cannot this be said to be an attempt to damage Trump next year in his re-election bid?

So who is legit? Both are right or both are wrong! Should Schiff be impeached along with Trump? Or, if Schiff is within the yard markers, then so was Trump!

Lament

Why are we so surprised at the next one ... when we know that there may never have been a single politician not tainted by corruption?

Obvious Truth #4

Because faith trumps logic, religion is more easily corrupted than other social institution. -- Anon.

Rara Avis

Corruption-free government is as rare as ... corruption-free government. -- Anon.

Bad versus Dirty

No, this posting  is not about Stormy Daniels. It's about law enforcement.

Dirty cops are not the same as bad cops. Bad cops are depicted by the Black Lives Matter mob as out to kill young unarmed black men without cause ... based on the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" fiction coming out of the Ferguson, Missouri (justifiable) shooting of Michael Brown. Yes, there are some rogue cops but they are few and far between.

Dirty cops are much more dangerous and prevalent ... particularly at the FBI. They are the likes of the FBI's  original blackmailing and tone-setting director,  J. Edgar Hoover and, much later, its sanctimonious director, James Comey and his band of henchmen inside Obama's bureau (Strzok, McCabe, Orr, Page, etc.) who used the raw power of their positions to subvert honest law enforcement for political purposes. Truly sinister, corrupt and despicable ... and dirty.

Will the Trump administration and Congress be able to cleanse this agency of all this filth? If Jeff Sessions at the Justice Department  can pull this Aegean task off, they should rename the FBI building after him instead of Hoover.

Saint Donald

We thought he was a crude, vulgar reality TV star of questionable morals. We elected him anyway because of what he was promising. As a result, his political and media opponents took off their masks to exposed how truly venal and banal they had become. Next to this abject filth and corruption, he now looks saintly.

And he has kept many of his promises ...

Rupee Madness

While most reporters are obsessed with Trumps latest Tweets, there are monumental things taking place elsewhere in the world. India, with the world's second largest population, has just embarked on a radical "demonetization" effort pulling 86% of its cash out of circulation. To quote from the below  CNBC article:

Three weeks ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised his country with an announcement banning 500- and 1,000-rupee notes — worth about $7 and $15 respectively — in a bid to tackle corruption and terrorism.

Clearly this has roiled the daily lives of the 1.3 billion people there to a fair-thee-well ... and might spill over to other world economies. The poor planning of this dramatic monetary move has caused untold hardship on particularly the poorest of Indian citizens. To see the details of their anguish ... see: CNBC Story.

Obummer's Legacy

Obummer may not be the worst president in American history, but he still has six more months to sew up the title. He promised us hope and change ... and he certainly changed most things for the worse ... to the point where many of us are willing to take a flyer on a loud-mouth self promoter who just might repair enough things to save our nation's bacon. To reprise Obummer's last 7 1/2 years, here is the legacy he has left us with:

- More than a doubling of our national debt to an unsustainable level

- Race relations at an all-time low

- Corruption tainting almost every cabinet department

- Growing income inequality squeezing the middle class

- Urban crime rates back on the rise

- Economic and wage growth in the toilet

- Negative balance of payment at an all-time high

- Number of people dropping out of the workforce at an all-time high

- Swarms of illegal immigrants from Latin America countries

- An open door policy for unvetted Muslim immigrants

- A doubling of families receiving food stamps

- Zero tax reform

- Zero entitlement reform

- Huge increase in burdensome government regulations

- A gutting of our military

- Disastrous remaking of our health-care system

- The Middle East in smoking ruins

- Much more belligerent Russia, China, North Korea and Iran

- An alienated and abandoned Israel

- Deteriorating national infrastructure

- Serious loss of our international hegemony


And Hellery Clinton has promised to continue us down Obummer's primrose path!

!

Metastasis

The Governor of Virginia and a paid-up member of the Clinton posse, Terry McAuliffe has taken a page out of Obummer's playbook ... granting, with an executive action, the right to vote en masse to 206,000 Virginia ex-felons -- murders, robbers, rapists, drug dealers, etc.. McAuliffe's justification for this unprecedented move was that this Virginia prohibition was a legacy of the racist South in that it was meant to depress the black vote ... the sweet irony being that this, in itself, was a racist comment ... since he was implying that apparently ex-felons in Virginia are mostly black ... see: Richmond Times-Dispatch Story.

I wonder what percentage of these 206,000 ex-felons will vote for Hellery Clinton this coming Fall in this critical swing state of Virginia ... perhaps 110%?

This Clinton posse is loyal, clever, reliable and corrupt ... stunningly corrupt ... such corruption being a lesson its members have obviously learned from their masters ... and it is a tumor growing both within and without the Clinton Foundation ... see: The New Mob. Every day in every way this posse is metastasizing throughout this country pushing the Clintons, the Clinton agenda and enabling one another in their corrupt ways.

And, as I have said before, if  Hellery is elected president this fall, this Clinton-posse tumor will metastasize to the point where it might well kill the patient, our nation.

Afterward: See also: Powerline Blog.

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?

Mo-or-Less-Town

Mitt Romney's campaign prediction has come true.  Detroit, Michigan has declared bankruptcy ... the largest city to ever do so in the United States (see: Detroit News Story).  What a shame! I've only been to Detroit once or twice ... to visit the General Motors headquarters ... so I have not seen the central-city decay there cause by decades of irresponsible fiscal management. But there might be plenty of pain to go around once the courts have divvied up the few remaining assets.

Yes, pensioners there may suffer but, I suspect that the Obama administration will find a sub rosa way of easing their pain.  (There is something called the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation which will probably dump tons of taxpayers money into this financial chasm ... see: Wikipedia Entry.  Yes, this quasi-governmental company is privately-funded now ... but it is running such a huge deficit that we all know that taxpayers will eventually be forced to close this gap.)  The other real sufferers will more likely be all the IRA owners around the country who either are directly or indirectly invested in Detroit municipal bonds.  They, like the previous investors in General Motors debt, will take it in the shorts.

And many other major mismanaged cities around the country are going to find their municipal bond financing costs go up ... possibly dramatically.  So we see that Detroit's pain will likely be shared by all of us ... even though we had no hand in the corruption and fiscal naivete that caused this catastrophe.

I do have a simple suggestion that might allow Detroit to make lemonade out of the bushel of lemons that it now has on hand (a thought I also had for the South Bronx when it was in rampant decay.)  I think that tens if not hundreds of blocks of contiguous abandoned homes and businesses in downtown Detroit should be bulldozed and a gigantic verdant municipal park should be created ... as a centerpiece of an eventually revitalized city.  It might even get Mitt Romney to donate the millions of dollars it will cost ... then name it for his father, George.

Afterward: For another interesting take on Detroit, see: The Diplomad Blog.

The Door to Hell

Around five years ago, Hugo Chavez said to the assembled U.N. members that, as a result of George W. Bush’s previously being at this same podium, there was still a lingering smell of sulfur.  In other words, Bush was the Devil personified.  I’ve always found it fascinating that many politicians try to cleanse their own souls by accusing others of their own transgressions … and I’m not just painting liberals with this sin … many conservatives have also been culpable. 

And so it is with Hugo Chavez.  His sins since grabbing power in Venezuela in 1998 have been rife … from corruption … to drug trafficking … to kidnapping … to anti-semitism … to despotism … even to murder … see: Curacao Chronicle.

Now Hugo Chavez appears to be on his deathbed in Cuba … and when he does succumb, I’m sure that there will be much donning of sackcloth and gnashing of teeth among the liberal glitterati of this country (Sean Penn, for example).  However, when this happens, I fully expect a fissure to open up in the earth somewhere near Havana … belching fire and the actual smell of sulfur … and Hugo baby being escorted, under the blare of out-of-tune trumpets, down to his fiery residence for all of eternity.   (Hopefully in tandem with Fidel Castro?)

Voter Fraud

To the cheaters go the spoils. 

We sneer in this country when we see the massive voter fraud in Russia (more votes for Putin in some areas than there were registered voters) or Venezuela (organized voter thuggery).  But we should be careful in our high-mindedness ... for we are rapidly becoming equally corrupt ... so much so that I fear our democracy is in jeopardy.  We have seen the seedy side of "community organizers" in the exposure of ACORN's shenanigans (see: Many Instances).  We have seen local elections in Chicago and Nevada that were clearly rigged.  We have even had nation-wide elections that are suspected of to have been stolen ... JFK's in particular.  Democrats decry George W. Bush's first election as being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court ... but would have been perfectly happy to have it determined by the clearly-biased Florida Supreme Court.

I have recently read a compelling blog that deals with this subject in a plain-talk manner.  May I suggest that you give it a gander.  It's not very long ... see: The Diplomad.  And, if you like this former U.S. diplomat's  (and UCLA graduate's) style, go back from time to time to read his insightful analysis of the world and national situation.  I have a generic link to his blog on this blog.  (He is about to spill the inside poop on Hillary's tenure at Foggy Bottom.)

Back to voter fraud.  This country is overwhelmingly Conservative (see: Gallup Survey), yet Liberals keep winning elections where they probably shouldn't.  There can be few explanations for these inconsistencies other than Democrat-organized voter fraud.  (There might even be some cheating on the part of Republicans ... particularly in the South.  This too is inexcusable.)  Although many citizens understand this is happening, they do nothing.  And, when they do something to stop voter fraud, they are charged with "voter suppression." 

This electoral misfeasance is a grievous wrong and needs to be remedied if we have any chance of maintaining our Democratic institutions.  Perhaps a political party might be charged under the federal Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statutes?  (You know which one I mean.)  Wouldn't that be a breath of fresh air?  Perhaps even, if Romney can win the Presidency this fall (despite expected massive voter fraud), his adiministration might begin the thankless job of cleaning these Aegean stables?  And returning us to a nation that our founding fathers would recognize.

Another Mass Ass

Salvatore DiMasi, the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, has just been convicted on seven of nine felony counts of bribery and corruption (see: Another Mass Ass).  This is the third Speaker of the Massachusetts House in a row who has been convicted of a felony.  Repeat ... the third Speaker of the Massachusetts House in a row who has been convicted of a felony.  To me, this is not a surprise.  The government in this state is one-party (Democrat) politics which invites this kind of guttural behavior ... not just in our state legislature, but in many of our mayors, many of our governors, most of our representatives to the U.S. House and Senate, and even some from this state who have run for the Presidency. Most of these individuals are poltroons of the first order ... independent of how their public relations machines have (successfully) managed to paint them. 

Massachusetts has a culture of corruption that permeates to almost all corners of its political apparatus ... witness that the State House of Representatives overwhelmingly elected Sal DiMasi as its Speaker well after the particulars of his felony were in the open ... what an embarrassment!  And what is even worse is that this state is replete with intelligent, erudite voters who conveniently overlook this obvious decadence as soon as they enter the voting booth.  This I'll-scratch-your-back-etc. thinking will eventually destroy this state and may even help to destroy our nation.  What a pity that the state which produced that giant statesman who helped found this once-great nation, John Adams, has fed the metastasizing cancer that may eventually destroy it.