Archive for 2019
October 1, 2019
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Enough with the Existential Crises, Already. “When they’re not making their prom pitches to Republicans with grandiose visions of saving the country, the MSM and Democrats are concern trolling for the future of the GOP.”
R.I.P., Napoleon Chagnon. He followed the data instead of engaging in PC spin.
THIS SEEMS ABOUT RIGHT:
Some of us in the electorate have nerve endings sensitive enough to have felt the ugliness of what Schiff did and we may have enjoyed Trump’s vigorous pushback, but Remnick (unsurprisingly) sees Trump as the ugly one here. Trump’s suggestion that Schiff be arrested for treason is over-the-top, but Schiff was stating false facts and relying on the people’s ability to hear and process satire and that’s the same cover Trump claims.
But, sure, it’s unseemly, by conventional standards, for the President of the United States, the head of the executive branch, to be speaking comically about the deployment of the prosecutorial power.
This post gets my “civility bullshit” tag, because Remnick is adamant that Trump should not be talking like that, but he gives Schiff a pass.
I love all the pearl-clutching about talk of “treason” from Trump, when Democrats have been charging Trump with treason since before he was sworn in.
EVERYTHING IS PROBLEMATICAL: Castro campaign, Latino group call out his absence in ‘SNL’ sketch.
President Trump’s critics can’t deny that the economy is doing well, so instead they insist all the benefits have gone to the rich and large corporations. “America’s middle class is under attack,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren asserted in her presidential campaign announcement last December.
The latest data from the Census Bureau monthly surveys tell a different story. Real median household income—the amount earned by those in the very middle—hit $65,084 (in 2019 dollars) for the 12 months ending in July. That’s the highest level ever and a gain of $4,144, or 6.8%, since Mr. Trump took office. By comparison, during 7½ years under President Obama—starting from the end of the recession in June 2009 through January 2017—the median household income rose by only about $1,000. . . .
Sentier’s income data dates to 2000 and tells the story of the past two decades. The recession of 2008-09 crushed middle-class incomes so dramatically that the median income when Mr. Obama left office was no higher than it was when George W. Bush arrived. That was the middle-class and blue-collar squeeze Donald Trump tapped into.
Mr. Obama inherited a financial mess, but the median income continued its decline during almost all of his first term and rose only slowly in his second term—the weakest recovery from a recession since the 1930s. “We never saw a recovery where incomes took such a long time to recover the lost ground,” says Sentier founder Gordon Green.
Well, it’s been a war on the middle class.
BREAKING: CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL WORKS TO ENFORCE LAW: Attorney General Barr Personally Asked Foreign Officials To Aid Inquiry Into CIA, FBI Activities in 2016.
The outrage over this is premised on the notion that it’s always an abuse of power for Republicans to investigate Democrats.
UPDATE: Correcting journalists who know nothing, or pretend to.
But they’ve pushed so many discredited conspiracy theories, they can be forgiven for mixing them up. (Bumped.)
I’M SO OLD, I REMEMBER WHEN “CULTURE JAMMING” WAS A LEFTIST THING: The genius of the ‘Islam is right about women’ stunt. “Trolling the woke left has become a popular pastime. It can be clever and funny, but it can just as often be a crude attempt to elicit outrage for its own sake. Rarely, however, does something show up that is easily dismissed as ‘trolling’, but which is so remarkably incisive and apt that it rises not only to the level of satire, but borders on civil disobedience.”
BLUE STATE BLUES: Colorado legislature has hiked costs, partisan staff pay by nearly 23% in 3 years.
The Colorado General Assembly has upped its budget by nearly 23%, or $4 million, in the past three sessions, part of an effort to put the skids on poaching of partisan legislative staff.
At the same time, the House had to make a lower offer to the new chief clerk, Robin Jones, because what his predecessor was paid (and what he was initially offered) exceeded state-imposed salary limits, according to several sources.
It’s an odd conundrum.
Pay for state employees — and that includes the non-partisan staff — has to follow a set pay range. The same rule does not apply to partisan staff, meaning they can be paid whatever lawmakers think they’re worth.
And to Speaker of the House KC Becker of Boulder and House Minority Leader Patrick Neville of Castle Rock, those partisan staff are worth a lot more than they used to be.
Read the whole thing.
CONRAD BLACK: The Biggest Nothingburger Of Them All. “The Democrats have no believable scandal; they can only impeach him once. This will be the biggest and bitterest nothingburger of all. Bring it on.”
In his second term, he’ll have more flexibility.
UNRAVELING: Hong Kong Police Shoot a Protester With a Live Bullet for the First Time. “It was almost certain to further inflame protesters who have accused the police of employing overly aggressive tactics in the streets. Calls for an independent inquiry into the police’s behavior are among the key demands that protesters have issued to the Hong Kong government.”
Much more coverage from Michael Yon.
STAY TUNED: GOP senators: DNC worked with Ukraine to undermine Trump campaign. A friend on Facebook comments: “The Dems are in the position of saying that any contact by Trump or his administration, transition or campaign with foreigners ever was a nefarious apocalyptic outrage, but ANY investigation of anything the Dems themselves might ever have done is also equally outrageous.”
Yeah, that seems to sum it up. (Bumped).
HE’S BEEN SACRIFICED TO IMPEACHMENT FEVER: Joe Biden’s Digital Ads Are Disappearing. Not a Good Sign, Strategists Say.
MARK LEVIN: Republicans must ‘make the Democrats pay a price’ for Pelosi’s ‘hijacked’ impeachment process.
This is the first time there hasn’t been a vote on the House floor respecting an impeachment inquiry of a president of the United States, where all members’ votes are recorded,” Levin explained.
“There’s a reason every member is to vote: So you know, on the record, all over the country, where your member of Congress stands. So Nancy Pelosi has violated the tradition and the process that is used for impeachment inquiries involving presidents in this country,” Levin said. “And what has she done? She’s hijacked the process.”
“She is the most fascistic speaker of the House we have ever had,” Levin concluded of Pelosi.
If the jackboot fits…
REFLECTIONS ON NC-9: ‘Rural values’ can tilt voters Republican – even for some minorities. “Democrats might assume that a minority people in North Carolina’s poorest county would vote with them. But as one observer puts it, ‘This is not about Native American identity. This is about rural Indian values.'”
In my experience, rural Indians can be pretty conservative, and certainly not woke.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: When Colleges Defraud Donors. “Violating the wishes of a donor is akin to fraud, in my opinion, and I have seen it too often in academia. I think there should be serious consequences to violators of donors’ intent –why give to support your favorite cause if your wishes can easily be ignored? . . . Candidly, I would not buy a used car from some university administrators –their adherence to integrity and honesty is imperfect, putting it conservatively.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Is An MBA Still Worth It?
IMPEACHMENT PORN: Washington Post Fantasizes About President Pelosi.
THE POWER OF OBVIOUS COMPELS ME! Smart is Not the Same as Good.