September 29-30, 2017
Sep 29 02:22 Collapsing the Democrats' power? Sep 29 09:23 Collins, McCain & Paul vs. Trump Sep 29 10:25 Meet Heather Klassen Sep 29 12:24 NFL thought experiment Sep 29 18:35 HHS Secretary Price resigns Sep 30 02:15 The Democrats' paranoia Sep 30 17:40 Campus censorship cabal Sep 30 21:51 Will Goodell suspend Michael Bennett? Sep 30 23:26 Harvey, Irma & Maria, FEMA edition
Prior Months: Jan Feb ~ May Jun Jul Aug
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Collapsing the Democrats' power?
One thing that I've noticed about Wisconsin since Scott Walker became governor is that it's essentially become a red state, thanks mostly to Act 10 becoming state law. It isn't a coincidence that Wisconsin become a red state now that public employee unions are shrinking as a result of Act 10. According to the report, "public employee union membership dropped significantly after the law passed, with AFSCME reporting a drop from 62,818 in 2011 to 28,745 in February 2012."
That's a pretty significant enrollment drop in a year. Think of how many fewer Democrat campaigns that AFSCME will be able to fund. Don't stop there, though. Think about how restricted PEUs would be if people couldn't be forced to pay union dues. Actually, it might not take that long before that vision might become a reality . John Hinderaker notes that "While rich leftists are often assumed to be the main supporters of the Democratic Party, it is public sector unions that provide the lion's share of the Democrats' funding. They take money involuntarily from their members, a large majority of whom have never even voted on whether to be represented by a union, and many of whom disapprove of the union's agenda, and recycle that money into left-wing causes, Democratic Party candidates, and inflated salaries for countless union officials."
If the Supreme Court rules in Mark Janus' favor, public employee unions will lose millions of dollars and tons of political clout. The worst thing that can happen with Democrat-supporting organizations is for them to lose influence. If the PEUs lose union dues, they'll lose clout almost immediately.
It isn't a stretch to think that this ruling might happen before the midterm campaigns start. With Democrats not having an agenda, they need tons of money to buy races. In the short-term, it isn't likely that Democrats can compete. John is right with this analysis:
Minnesota, where I live, is one of a number of states where public sector unions, especially teachers' unions, are by far the most powerful political force. Conservatives who rely on voluntary contributions cannot begin to match the enormous revenues the teachers' unions extract by force from people who are legally compelled to pay them. If the Supreme Court sides with the Janus plaintiffs, the political landscape in such states will be transformed .
I don't know it couldn't happen. To the left, Janus' lawsuit literally is an existential threat.
Posted Friday, September 29, 2017 2:22 AM
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Collins, McCain & Paul vs. Trump
Kim Strassel's latest WSJ article perfectly illustrates the threat that the Swamp poses to America. The question that Susan Collins, John McCain and Rand Paul needs to be asked is whether they hate President Trump more than they love America. At this point, it seems like they hate President Trump more than they love America.
Ms. Strassel notes that "Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have also led revolts against bills, again based on shared criticisms. But what do the Arizona maverick, the Maine moderate and the Kentucky libertarian have in common? Very little. Well, very little save motivations that go beyond policy. And that is the crucial point that is missing from the endless analyses of the McCain-Collins-Paul defections on health care. The media has treated the trio's excuses for killing their party's top priority as legit, despite the obvious holes in their objections over policy and process. What in fact binds the three is their crafting of identities based primarily on opposition to their party or Mr. Trump."
Ms. Strassel eviscerates the trio, writing "The press was fixated this week on Mr. McConnell's bad week, which is an easy piece to write. But it ignores the obvious reality that the Triumvirate seems to have never had any intention of letting its party succeed . After all, a senator who intended to stand firm on 'regular order,' as Mr. McCain said, would have informed his colleagues of that demand at the beginning, rather than allow his colleagues to set up for another vote and then dramatically tank it (again) at the last minute. A senator who voted for 'skinny' ObamaCare repeal in the summer on the grounds that anything was 'better than no repeal,' in the words of Mr. Paul, would not suddenly engineer an unreachable set of demands for his vote on an even better repeal." This will never be forgotten by Republicans:
Let's state this clearly. By making up flimsy excuses for why they're opposing a health care plan that would be dramatically better than the ACA, this trio is proving that they're putting egos ahead of doing what's right for the American people. In that way, Paul, McCain and Collins are as disgusting as Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi.
While there are other Republicans who haven't enthusiastically supported President Trump's agenda, this trio of traitors should be expelled from chairmanships and plum committee assignments. Rather than calling them "the Never-Trump Triumvirate", let's call this trio what they are: the trio who hate President Trump more than they love this nation. What a disgusting bunch. They're more disgusting than the reptiles protesting during the National Anthem. They're almost more disgusting than Antifa.
Posted Friday, September 29, 2017 9:23 AM
Comment 1 by Lethal Weapon at 29-Sep-17 03:36 PM
They all should be paraded in public and the truth should be told. They are traders and Trump haters. They put there egos ahead of the country; sickening, the people will turf them but it cannot be too soon!!!!$&&@@
Meet Heather Klassen
This post is dedicated to highlighting another would-be DFL legislator who doesn't want her name tied to the DFL. Her name is Heather Klassen. On Ms. Klassen's about Heather page , we find out that "In rural Minnesota, we are not Democrats or Republicans. We are Minnesotans. We know what makes our communities strong. We help one another and support one another. I want to be a common-sense representative for all people in District 23A, regardless of political party. I want to be YOUR voice for rural Minnesota."
A visit to Ms. Klassen's issues page indicates that she's a cookie cutter liberal who will fight to keep Obamacare intact, will vote to spend tons of money on broadband but won't talk about infrastructure like pipelines.
Based on 2016's election results , she's facing an uphill fight at best. Bob Gunther won the district with 68% of the vote. Most likely, she's just another sacrificial lamb.
Let's get serious for a moment. The DFL isn't competitive in rural Minnesota because the DFL is dominated by the metro hardline progressives. It isn't like the DFL fights for farmers anymore. They fight for yuppies in St. Paul, Minneapolis and Suburbia.
Posted Friday, September 29, 2017 10:25 AM
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NFL thought experiment
I have a thought experiment for the ill-informed idiots that think NFL players have the right to protest during the National Anthem. Many of the NFL's best players make millions of dollars each year. For the record, I don't begrudge them for that because they're the best in the business.
Many of these players invest their money in businesses. Those businesses, in turn, establish codes of conduct for their employees. The NFL players that establish codes of conduct for their employees are now arguing that their actions are protected by the First Amendment. There's a thought experiment question that Colin Kaepernick, Michael Bennett and others haven't addressed.
Specifically, would these NFL players who own businesses have the right to terminate employees who hurt the NFL players' businesses? If not, why wouldn't they have that right? I'd argue that they have that right because they should have the right to protect their investment. I suspect that most players who are entrepreneurs would agree with that statement.
If that's the case, shouldn't NFL owners have the right to cut or discipline players that hurt the NFL as a product? Shouldn't NFL owners have the right to protect their investments? After all, these are billion-dollar investments. People that think businesses don't have the right to protect their brand aren't too bright. Let's not kid people. These protests have hurt the NFL:
It sounds like the NFL has figured it out that their political activism isn't helping their product. I'm certain that most NFL owners are liberal, as are the media that cover them. I don't think for a split-second that the NFL is motivated by anything other than restoring ratings. They didn't suddenly grow patriotic.
Posted Friday, September 29, 2017 12:24 PM
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HHS Secretary Price resigns
HHS Secretary Tom Price resigned this evening for his misuse of chartered flights. President Trump accepted his resignation . This isn't a surprise. The "announcement came shortly after Trump told reporters he considered Price a 'fine man' but that he 'didn't like the optics' and planned to make a decision by the end of the day. 'I'm not happy, I can tell you that. I'm not happy,' Trump said as prepared to leave the White House en route to his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J."
President Trump immediately announced that President "Trump would designate Don J. Wright as acting secretary. Wright currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary for health and director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion."
Posted Friday, September 29, 2017 6:35 PM
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The Democrats' paranoia
As always, Democrats who can't admit that Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign are forced to hype conspiracy theories about Russian-Trumpian collusion . Democrats have been searching for proof of that since the beginning of time but the best they've done is make evidence-free allegations. I've said before what I'll repeat hear. Allegations aren't proof. They're speculation with a different spelling.
During an interview on CNN, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, (D-CT), said "This microtargeting required sophistication, knowledge, and a great deal of data and research. And the real question, as you've just asked it, is how did they know how to microtarget?" in reference to a "storyline they are hyping" "Russia-connected purchases of approximately $150,000 dollars worth of Facebook advertising."
Ben Domenech's article puts things into perspective, highlighting the fact that "about one-quarter of the ads purchased were geographically targeted - and of those, more ran in 2015 than 2016. CNN reported that some of the geo-targeted ads were about the Black Lives Matter issue in St. Louis and Baltimore. That's not where Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election." There's more, though.
Domenech continued, saying "Facebook has not made public what these ads were. But this wasn't a Russian operation targeting Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. It was a campaign of chaos and disruption, designed to promote division in American society - and it was primarily a campaign run in 2015, when Donald Trump wasn't even the Republican nominee."
Then there's this:
than half a billion dollars was spent on social media advertising last year, with Facebook being the primary recipient. In the big scheme of things, $150,000 on Facebook ads is chump change. In just the last few months of the presidential campaign in 2016, Evan McMullin spent over $85,000 on Facebook ads, and lest you think that made a huge difference, McMullin came in 4th in a two-person race.
This interview goes a long way towards entirely demolishing the Democrats' conspiracy theory:
At what point do people tell Democrats that they can't be trusted? I suspect that we're approaching that tipping point, if we haven't already reached it. It's possible that Mueller's investigation will lead to some lower level convictions unrelated to the original investigation. Few serious people think that anyone in Trump's inner circle worked with Putin to tip the election in Trump's direction.
Put differently, the next bit of verifiable proof that Trump's campaign colluded with Putin will be the first piece of verifiable proof.
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2017 2:15 AM
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Campus censorship cabal
There isn't much dispute that Antifa's tactics are similar to those of a domestic terrorist organization. First Amendment advocates' arguments just got strengthened thanks to Antifa's public stalking of the Berkeley College Republicans, aka BCRs.
According to Campus Reform's article, it's indisputable that Antifa's chief tactics are bullying and intimidation. Campus Reform's article starts with "Conservative students at the University of California, Berkeley have been actively stalked and targeted by a regional Antifa organization known for inciting violence. While the Berkeley College Republicans met at a local restaurant Wednesday evening, Berkeley Antifa took to Twitter to post the exact location of the student group online. "Antifa has taken pictures of me, followed me on the street, and tracked my location using social media. BCR meeting right now inside Eureka at 2068 Center St after drinking with Kyle Chapman and Joey Gibson at Fashy's, I mean, Pappy's,' the Antifa organization tweeted. 'Inside right now is Troy Worden, Ashton Whitty, Naweed Tahmas, Matt Ronnau, Angelie Castenada, and two others.'"
Lately, the radical Left's 2 major weapons against free speech are the Southern Poverty Law Center, aka SPLC, and Antifa. Anyone that thinks Antifa isn't a domestic terrorist organization needs to read this:
In late August, Ashton Whitty, one of the conservative students at the university, was stalked by several Antifa demonstrators who approached her at a gas station and pummeled her vehicle as she fled the scene. "Antifa has taken pictures of me, they've followed me on the street, and have tracked my location using social media," Whitty told Campus Reform. "It's rather odd why these people would see us as such a priority when we're just everyday people."
This video captures what happened to Ms. Whitty:
Antifa's tactics are different than SPLC's but their goal is the same: silence conservative voices through any means necessary. This is frightening:
Anyone that thinks the Democratic Party's hardline lefties are capable of being reasoned with is foolish. Yes, that includes Sen. McCain. He wants to cut deals with people who've praised Antifa. Sen. McCain wants to cut deals with senators who've relied on the SPLC's input on judicial nominees.
Anyone that cites the SPLC as a neutral arbiter of judicial nominees is nuttier than a fruit cake. If only I could find someone who'd recently trusted the SPLC:
Sen. Franken actually said that SPLC "tracks hate groups." Watching the video of the young lady who was labeled by the SPLC as enabling hate for doing an interview with Tony Perkins on the subject of socialism hints that the SPLC doesn't track hate groups. It is a hate group.
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2017 5:40 PM
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Will Goodell suspend Michael Bennett?
Now that the Las Vegas police have released the video disproving Michael Bennett's statements following the Mayweather-McGregor fight, the question now becomes whether NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will suspend Michael Bennett for lying about what happened that night. That night, Bennett accused Las Vegas police officers of telling him that if he moved, they'd "blow my fucking head off", adding that "I felt helpless as I lay there on the ground handcuffed facing the real-life threat of being killed." Bennett also said that the officers "singled me out and pointed their guns at me for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The police videos "shows a 3-man police team, made up of 2 Hispanic officers and 1 black officer, identify Bennett as a suspicious person who did not get down on the ground as ordered during the hotel sweep." This TMZ video goes through Bennett's claims in great detail:
According to TMZ, the police detained Bennett but didn't arrest him after they saw him hunched over and trying to escape the casino after they'd told people to stop running and to lay flat on the ground. At no point did any of the police officers threaten to blow Bennett's [expletive] head off.
If anyone thinks that Bennett's lie will help him or the NFL, they're foolish. It isn't possible that this turns out well for Bennett or the NFL. The question now becomes whether NFL Commissioner Goodell has the spine to suspend Bennett for lying about a police officer. Commissioner Goodell has the authority to do that under the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy , which states "Prohibited conduct includes but is not limited to the following:
- Actual or threatened physical violence against another person, including dating violence, domestic violence, child abuse, and other forms of family violence;
- Assault and/or battery, including sexual assault or other sex offenses;
- Violent or threatening behavior toward another employee or a third party in any workplace setting;
- Stalking, harassment, or similar forms of intimidation;
- Illegal possession of a gun or other weapon (such as explosives, toxic substances, and the like), or possession of a gun or other weapon in any workplace setting;
- Illegal possession, use, or distribution of alcohol or drugs;
- Possession, use, or distribution of steroids or other performance enhancing substances;
- Crimes involving cruelty to animals as defined by state or federal law;
- Crimes of dishonesty such as blackmail, extortion, fraud, money laundering, or racketeering;
- Theft-related crimes such as burglary, robbery, or larceny;
- Disorderly conduct ; Crimes against law enforcement, such as obstruction, resisting arrest, or harming a police officer or other law enforcement officer;
- Conduct that poses a genuine danger to the safety and well-being of another person; and
- Conduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL clubs, or NFL personnel .
Disobeying a police officer's command certainly fits under the heading of disorderly conduct. It likely fits under the heading of undermining or putting at risk the integrity of the NFL, too. At some point, Commissioner Goodell must display common sense, which he hasn't done the last 3-4 years. Commissioner Goodell must also display some leadership, which he's never shown.
Personally, I'm betting that Commissioner Goodell won't show a spine. I'm betting he'll let Bennett disrespect police officer with impunity. I'm betting that's what happens because that's who Goodell is.
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2017 9:51 PM
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Harvey, Irma & Maria, FEMA edition
Joseph Curl's article on the Democrats' attempt to turn Hurricane Maria into "Trump's Katrina" is verifiably dishonest. For instance, Curl's article starts by saying "From the moment Hurricane Maria smashed through Puerto Rico, ripping off roofs and crushing the island's electrical grid, President Trump activated all avenues of response by the U.S. government. The military and throngs of first responders rushed in and tons of water and food were sent to the U.S. territory ."
Despite those verifiable facts, Mika Brzezinski couldn't resist publishing a dishonest tweet that said "First the President attacks an American hero fighting for his life, now he attacks AMERICANS suffering through 2017's Katrina. #hesnotfit" Actually, President Trump didn't attack Americans (plural). He attacked grandstanding San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin-Cruz. President Trump, BTW, wasn't the only person criticizing Mayor Yulin-Cruz.
Guaynabo "Mayor Angel Perez Otero says that Mayor Yulin Cruz has been a no show at coordination meetings between FEMA, U.S. military officials, and Puerto Rican leaders", adding that "We are receiving a lot of help from FEMA and the Red Cross...there is lots of help coming to us," adding, "they won't leave until Puerto Rico is good."
This might be beyond the intellect of an elitist MSNBC anchor but I'm betting that it isn't difficult for blue collar workers to figure out. For Mika's benefit, I'll spell this out. Mayor Yulin-Cruz is Puerto Rico's version of Ray Nagin. Mayor Perez-Otero is Puerto Rico's version of Gov. Abbott.
A month ago, people were praising President Trump and FEMA Administrator Brock Long for their performance during Harvey and Irma. The operations worked like clockwork, both from a local standpoint and a federal standpoint. It isn't likely that Brock Long suddenly went from genius to incompetent. The advance supplies were in place in Puerto Rico just like they'd been pre-positioned for Harvey. In Houston, the 'recovery machine' functioned efficiently and beautifully. In Florida, ditto. In most of Puerto Rico, things are going as well as can be expected considering the amount of devastation. The only hiccup in Puerto Rico is where Mayor Yulin-Cruz has been officially in charge. Check out this video, then tell me President Trump is the bottleneck:
This paragraph is devastating to MSNBC's and CNN's attempt to turn Maria into Trump's Katrina because Brock Long lays it all out:
"The problem that we have with the mayor unfortunately is that unity of command is ultimately what's needed to be successful in this response" and "What we need is for the mayor, the good mayor, to make her way to the joint field office and get plugged into what's going on and be successful," he continued, 'I think that's the bottom line on that tweet."
Here's a question for Mika. If a) the supplies are pre-positioned where they're supposed to be and b) other cities are getting those pre-positioned supplies to their constituents, wouldn't it be wise to find out why only 1 city is having difficulty? Wouldn't it be reasonable to think that leadership matters? Further, since other mayors have praised President Trump and FEMA, isn't it reasonable to question whether the problem might not be President Trump?
Trump Derangement Syndrome is alive and unwell. Look how it's making Democrats stupid beyond repair. The proof of that is Mika's Twitterstorm. First, there's this tweet :
Listen and then ask yourself whether this man is fit to lead any country, let alone the most important one in the world. #heisnotfit
Then there's this tweet :
Enough with your distractions and doddering games. There are lives to save in Puerto Rico. Focus Mr. President, focus. #heisnotfit
The proof is there for all to see. Mayor Yulin-Cruz is whining into the TV cameras while the other mayors are getting FEMA's pre-positioned supplies out to their constituents. That's pointing the finger at one politician and it isn't President Trump. The other finger that's getting pointed is at CNN and MSNBC. They're losing credibility daily by lying about President Trump. Their hatred is disgusting because it's unprofessional.
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2017 11:26 PM
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