Support for Capital Riot probe falls now that Americans see what it actually is!

Support for Jan. 6 Capitol riot probe slips after cops’ emotional testimony: poll 

An emotional hearing this week in which police officers attacked in the Capitol riot testified before a House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 turned more Americans against the need for the probe, according to a Morning Consult poll.

Among voters of all parties, 53 percent supported the investigation, down from 66 percent in the survey in June and 58 percent just a week ago. Four out of five Democrats were in favor, while only a quarter of Republicans were, along with half of independents.

Only 49 percent of those polled said they had watched all or even part of the committee hearing that dominated the news cycle on Tuesday.

Meanwhile less than half of Americans are paying any attention at all.  

According to the July 28-29 survey, less than half of voters (49 percent) said they tuned in to at least some of the hearing live, with 1 in 10 saying they watched it in full. Three in 5 Democrats said they caught at least part of the 3.5-hour session live, while 39 percent of Republicans said the same.

Oh, and less people now blame Trump as well.  

The survey found that 56 percent of voters said the 45th president is at least somewhat responsible for the mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol, down 5 points since a survey conducted last month. Those trends indicate that unless the panel, which is armed with subpoena power, is able to unearth some new information about Trump’s conduct as it relates to Jan. 6, perceptions of his culpability for the riot have likely already hit their high-water mark.

This is what is called "backfiring". The Democrats truly felt that putting up a partisan liberal, Trump hating, anti-White racist black cop to demand that he had been called names was somehow going to help. But obviously it didn't. They thought it would make people more anti-Trump and more anti-GOP. But less people now blame Trump and the GOP while more people blame Biden and the Democrats for the Capital riots.

Imagine.  34% of Americans now actually put some blame on Pelosi and Democrats for the riots, while 29% now think Joe Biden is at least partially responsible. Not sure this is what they had in mind when they set this whole thing up. But it serves them right. Karma!

Don't tell us this is not 100% political

A change in DOJ opinion? I wonder why?

The income tax returns of former President Donald Trump must be released by the IRS to Congress, the Department of Justice said Friday.

The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel said the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee had made a request with a legitimate legislative purpose to see Trump’s tax returns, with a stated objective of assessing how the IRS audits presidents’ tax returns.

That 39-page opinion is a reversal of an opinion by the same office, during the Trump administration, which had backed the IRS’ refusal to give the committee Trump’s returns.

Previously everyone agreed. The DOJ, the IRS, and the courts. None of them believed that Congress was being anything but dishonest with their request, which comes from a fuzzy legal loophole intended to allow the "Ways and Means" committee to have them. The law that allows them to do this would not (in fact) provide any legal means for anyone outside of the Ways and Means committee to see the tax returns, and it would be illegal for anyone from the Ways and Means committee to expose any part of the tax returns to anyone. 

So it could not be used in any sort of real investigation of the President. Even the pretense provides the idea that they are only wanting to use Trump's tax returns as just sort of a random example of any President's tax returns are being audited. Of course, if this was true then I doubt anyone would have really had an issue with it. It also wouldn't have to be Trump's tax returns. It could (and probably should) be Biden's based on the nature of the request.  But nobody actually believes the reasoning or expects that these Tax Returns would remain hidden from the rest of Congress or from the media or from the public.

Nope. They would intend right off the bat to break the law that they are using to get them and every single Democrat with TDS are rooting for just that to happen. More to the point, the pretense of how they are requesting the returns would be less valid today (now that he is no longer President) than it was when they originally requested them. 

Bottom line. It would be one thing if the IRS and the courts disagreed with the previous DOJ position on this. Then you could make an argument that the DOJ was behaving in a partisan manner to protect Trump. But everyone agreed prior. Now the DOJ is taking the opposite position at a time when the Congressional request makes even less legal sense. If anyone can come up with a reason other than partisan Trump hating politics coming from a politicized DOJ, I would be happy to listen. 

New lockdown arguments reveal bigger problems for Democrats

No, Karen, we’re not masking again: A winning GOP message for 2022 & beyond

Overall, a majority of voters — 55 percent — agree that “despite good intentions, shutting down businesses and locking down society did more harm than good.” Only 38 percent disagree, with the rest unsure.

But the really interesting part is the racial breakdown: White Democrats reject the idea that lockdowns did more harm than good by a 30-plus-point margin. Nonwhite Democrats, on the other hand, are evenly divided.

The divide widens on the question of whether government officials will hold on to too much power in the future: 62 percent of voters say yes. Nearly two-thirds of white Democrats disagree. But note well: By a whopping 64-27 margin, black Democrats fear that officials will abuse their vast new powers.

This is becoming an increasingly polarizing problem for Democrats. I don't specifically mean the lockdown argument, but rather the growing disconnect between White liberals and pretty much everyone else. This sort of breakdown isn't just an issue with Covid, but it's an issue in general. You give us a hot button issues such as transgenderism, abortion choice rights, or most any social issue not involving BLM and you simply do not see the support from minority Democrats as you do from White Democrats. 

In fact, you don't have to go too far back to find a time when blacks as a whole voted for Barack Obama while voting (in their states) to ban gay marriage. The trouble in general is that most of the issues that drive White liberals are not popular with their minority brethren. This, of course, explains the reasons why White liberals and a handful of black power players keep trying to make Republicans out to be racists. Because when it comes to issues, there is really not much else other than fear that Democrats can offer minorities. 

Yeah, the lockdown issue is a bad argument for Democrats. White liberal love to follow the every whim and desire of Lord Fauci and the "Administration" in an extreme, over the top. almost cult like manner. But pretty much every other demographic in this country is skeptical or outright opposed. This happens to be true in many other areas of polling. Take away white liberals (for instance) and you have a majority of the rest of the country who doesn't believe that the 2020 election was either fair or accurate.

Ironically it is white liberals that basically run social media, the mainstream media, much of our big tech business, and remain in many highly influential places. So this provides the false comfort with White liberals that their minority opinion is actually not just majority, but the ultimate truth. They feel overly justified in shoving these opinions down the throats of everyone else, because they see this being cheered on in their own world of media. 

The throw everything against the wall and hope something sticks strategy.

 So far we are supposed to:

• Get vaccinated if you never had the virus
• Get vaccinated even if you have natural antibodies
• Wear a mask if unvaccinated
• Wear a mask if vaccinated

To be clear, we are about "this" close to seeing recommendations for another full lockdown of the entire country. Already there is buzz that certain states are already considering such a move. Reality is that we should have been ready for variants and had some plan in place for how to address it. This changing of strategy seemingly daily, that appears to come straight ahead from the seat of certain people's pants is not really much of a strategy.

But the political strategy seems to be to just recommend everything and anything and then point fingers on anyone who doesn't go along. But rehashing the old strategy is not going to always resolve the new problems. If the new Delta variant is truly as contagious as people are saying, then no amount of mask wearing is going to help. It certainly didn't prove to help much (at all) with the original Covid strain. 

So rather than coming up with something specific about the Delta variety (either pushing for a new vaccine or a booster) - we seem to be just recirculating what we have already done, which apparently did not work well enough to create the herd immunity needed to get past this.

That, boys and girls, is the fundamental issue here. We will not get past Covid 19 until there is a herd immunity. If it does turn out that the vaccine is not working on everyone (California is reporting that 25% of their new cases are fully vaccinated people) - then we are right back to where we started.  

I hate to beat the dead horse here. But guess who is not seeing a huge increase in Covid cases or Covid deaths? Sweden! Who btw has dropped all the way down to 39th in terms of deaths per 100,000. Perhaps they had it right all along.

Simone Biles - heroic or an example of today's "me" mentality?

People either think this is the greatest thing since jelly beans or a cowardly act. Perhaps it is neither.  

I am not certainly no Olympic athlete sitting in my 50's staring at a computer. Even in the best of my athletic prime I was a long ways off from being good enough to even fathom the concept of being in the Olympics. I did compete in many sports from grade school through college. I understand the mental aspects of such a competition. I confess that the pressure got to me once or twice in my athletic career. I understand how hard it can be when competition becomes less about the glory of winning and more about the fear of defeat. 

Simone Biles suggested that her reckless abandon from her earlier years has been replaced with an inability to stop focussing on what could go wrong. The pressure of what could go wrong apparently is what has brought about her mental breakdown (for lack of a better description). I get that. Most of the truly successful athletes I knew personally had a sort of reckless abandon and confidence level that held off any thoughts about defeat or failure. When I was at my best in athletic completion, the next game, match, or race was just another chance to prove my skills for everyone to witness. When I was struggling, it was the concern that I would lose and be seen as a failure. 

But what does it say when a top tier athlete breaks down from the pressure and decides to literally just drop out? The question becomes, wouldn't you expect that other top tiered athletes (especially in these sorts of sports) have gone through similar bouts of doubts? Isn't there a time in every athlete's career where reckless abandon and oozing confidence is replaced with some doubt. Is the best manner to deal with that to shut down and stop competing? This is not unlike a golfer who gets the dreaded "yips" or the wide receiver who gets the "drops" or the basketball player who suddenly cannot hit a freethrow. Do they give up, or do they try to work through it?

At this point, I have no issue with Simone Biles. I think I do, however, have issue with people who are literally trying to glorify the decision to drop out and demanding that it was heroic and deserving of massive praise. She doesn't deserve massive amounts of criticism and she certainly deserves some benefit of the doubt considering all she has done for the sport. But her actions are not heroic and they should not be held up as the new standard of behavior in sports. 

Trouble in the paradise of trillions of dollars or new spending?

 Sinema says she is a no go for the 3.5 trillion dollar reconciliation bill

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said in a statement, “I support many of the goals in this proposal to continue creating jobs, growing American competitiveness, and expanding economic opportunities for Arizonans … I do not support a bill that costs $3.5 trillion.”

The announcement means Democrats will likely need to reduce the scope of the legislation to secure the support of Sinema and her fellow moderate, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats cannot afford to have a single member of their conference defect if they want to pass a so-called “reconciliation” bill with just 51 votes.

Meanwhile back at the ranch!

So apparently if the Senate is not able to push through the trillions through reconciliation, then the House may not have the votes to pass the "bi-partisan bill" that is being touted in the Senate. It's not something that many people actually think about, but the fact is that it might be just as hard to keep the House members together (maybe harder) than it is to keep the Senate together. 

AOC is correct that the Senate and pretty much everyone seems to be taking the House for granted here. But getting this all done may that this will be way harder than presumed. Everyone wants something and some people want less. Fragile seems to be the key term right now in terms of the Democratic "majority". 

The real officer Dunn! A political activist who supports riots as long as they are for the right cause!

Looks like Officer Dunn supported BLM/Antifa rioting and called Trump the "racist in chief"

There is more... such as him calling Laura Ingraham a "white trash human" and using his own brand of racial slurs aimed at whites. This guy is an out and out race baiting psychopath who has no business wearing a uniform. I cannot get past the idea that we have to go looking or abstract systemic racism or traces of racial triggering to find some forms of "racism" from white people (apparently I am racist just for existing) - but it's perfectly acceptable for a guy like this to be completely racist against white people. 

Tell you what. The day that Officer Dunn stands up and denounces all rioting and goes and visits the 700 injured cops from Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and elsewhere... and apologized to them for supporting their injuries in the name of "social justice" - is the day I will take him seriously. 

Hinderacker from Powerline weighs in on the Capital Riot investigation

I don’t intend to write much about this farce, as I think it is one of the dumbest things we have seen in many years. This is true for many reasons:

• We Republicans may have our faults, but if we were actually going to stage an insurrection, at least one of us would remember to bring a firearm.
• Along the same lines, if we were to undertake an insurrection, we would not call on a “shaman” wearing horns and a fur hat to lead it. 
• An actual insurrection would result in casualties. Here, the only person who died, or was seriously injured, other than by natural causes, was Ashli Babbitt. Will Pelosi’s committee call the officer who shot her as a witness? Inquiring minds want to know.
  
• If Joe Biden’s policies had not proved a comprehensive failure, the Democrats would not be trying to focus attention on an ex-president of the opposite party.

These are all fundamentally inarguably true statements. There is no way that anyone would plan an actual insurrection and forget to bring weapons. No serious coup would be lead by the QAnon Shaman. There was no actual military "battle" as you would expect. 

But the last point is probably the most important. The riot (the one riot that involved conservatives) happened nearly seven months ago. Rioting has continued across the country (only they involve liberals) since that time. In spite of tear-jerking testimony from police officers (which I am sure could be duplicated by police officers in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland or any number of places) - this was not a very violent riot by current measure. 

The reason why this particular investigation, focused on one of the 100's of riots over the past year, is even going on is 100% pure partisan politics. More to the point, it's an attempt to change the current narrative and somehow make the political scene about Donald Trump, rather than Joe Biden. This would certainly not be necessary if the left was truly excited by and happy with Slow Joe. 

My last point is antectodal here a little. I spent some time hanging out with my 18 year old. He asked me if I had watched any of the hearings. Apparently it was on at a work site he was at yesterday and he couldn't really get away from it. He told me that it seemed "fake". When I asked what that meant, he suggested that all of the witnesses were saying the same thing using the same terms and expressions and that it seemed like it was scripted like a television show or movie. He suggested that it didn't feel like honest testimony. 

To be clear, if my extremely non-political 18 year old can recognize bullshit scripted testimony when "he" sees it, what do you suppose other people who might even be slightly skeptical to begin with might see?  

So basically the CDC is kind of saying that the Vaccine isn't working?

CDC to recommend new indoor mask mandates, including in schools: report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to issue new guidelines Tuesday that recommend indoor mask mandates for fully vaccinated people in areas experiencing spikes in COVID-19 cases, a federal official said.

The new guidance is expected to be announced by the agency later Tuesday, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the new policy.

Meanwhile, a health official told CNN the agency will also recommend K-12 school faculty and students wear a mask when they return to class, regardless of vaccination status. However, it is unclear if this will be recommended nationwide or just in coronavirus hotspots.

So not sure how you can tell people who became fully vaccinated to start wearing their masks again, without implying that the vaccines did not actually make you safe from the virus. Actually the implication is there whether that was the intention or not. 

Now, as more and more people become skeptical of the current vaccine and worried that nobody seems to be working on any sort of new vaccine or booster for the Delta variant, are the Biden Administration, Democrats, and the media still going to try to place blame for these question on the GOP? 

This is what the Olympics is all about! Not about providing the world with your political message.

When you've got the whole state behind you >>>@USASwimming x #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/S5r6pCxeMq

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 27, 2021

Are the Biden approvals really fading?

Two 50 percent and a 49 percent polls suggest as much

Like many Presidents not named Trump, Joe Biden enjoyed a honeymoon period with the American pubic. The question appears to be whether or not that honeymoon is fading. There is every reason to believe that it has. 

First and foremost, Biden's overall approval was buoyed considerably on the perception that he has handled the Covid crisis well. This really was pretty much entirely circumstantial as he happened to become President shortly after the vaccinations got into full swing, and while Covid cases and deaths were on the decline. 

But now we have these various variants, most prevalently the Delta variant, and cases and deaths are for the first time going up. With a public now fully committed to looking to the White House and task force for Covid relief, the finger pointing and excuse making is wearing thin. People instinctively want action and the buck instinctively stops at the President. Until the President take some decisive step or can announce a medical or vaccine breakthrough on the Delta variant, the issue will not go away.

All that being said, the trouble for Biden might just be starting. As pointed out by Byron York:

But perhaps the biggest warning for Biden in the new ABC poll is the public's answer to this simple question: "Thinking about the next 12 months, would you say you feel optimistic or pessimistic about the ways things are going in this country?" In a survey at the end of April, 64% said they felt optimistic, versus 36% who felt pessimistic. Today, just 45% feel optimistic, versus 55% who feel pessimistic. That's a huge drop in just 2 1/2 months. And it indicates a lack of confidence that things will get better under the Biden administration.

The President's popularity for the first few months far exceeded the popularity of his policies and agenda. Now that his popularity is fading, so do the prospects that the moderate Democrats will get behind a radical agenda. Ultimately 2022 looms pretty large and Democrats seem torn between shoving things through the legislature by any means and looking to scale back in hopes of holding on in 2022.

New South American Covid variant increasing infections around the border...

Biden to restrict travel from Europe and other countries, while allowing thousands of illegals with Covid variant to stream across the border.

Now it's being confirmed that there is another Covid variant making it's way from the southern border into the United States. The Biden White House will not step on the toes of the pro-illegal-immigration crowd, but he doesn't appear to have an issue restricting other forms of travel. 

Perhaps the master plan is to continue to allow illegals to come across the border, increase infections, and then blame the Governors from those border states for not preventing the problem. Unfortunately, we have many logic challenged people who will fall for this sort of nonsense. 

So even when told not to.... are teachers going to teach CRT anyways?

Minnesota student says teacher told her to hide ‘equity survey’ questions from parents

A Sartell-St. Stephen School District student is speaking out after the school required grade-school children to take an equity survey. Some students didn’t understand some of the surveys questions, but were told by a teacher they couldn’t repeat the survey questions to their parents, according to a video uploaded by Alphanews.

“My teacher said that I could not skip any questions even when I didn’t understand them. One question asked us what gender we identify with. I was very confused along with a lot of other classmates,” Yasgar said during Monday night’s meeting. She said students were told they could not “repeat any of the questions to our parents.” “Being asked to hide this from my mom made me very uncomfortable, like I was doing something wrong,” she told the school board.

The school district hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment. It’s unclear what value a survey holds if respondents don’t understand the questions.

Yeah... when any adult tells a child to do something, then tells that child to hide that action from their parents, it's a pretty good bet that that adult is requesting something that is wrong. While the third grader might not be doing anything "wrong" here - the gut reaction of a child to understand that something was amiss is hitting the mark, as these gut reactions generally do. 

Obviously this particular teacher feels that she knows better than the parents what these children need to learn about these topics and obviously this teacher feels the need to get to these children at a young and impressionable way. To the degree that a 3rd grader is not able to comprehend this stuff is proof enough that it shouldn't be addressed at this level. Also, let's be clear. You tell a third grader not to tell their parents, the first thing they are going to do is go home and tell their parents. 

This is clearly a teacher who wants to do what they want to do regardless of what anyone is going to tell them. I doubt very seriously that Sartell (a small town of around 20,000 outside of St Cloud) is the sort of place where school administrators are putting CRT into the curriculum. Especially not at a third grade level.

Olympic television ratings down significantly

Ratings down 17% from 2014 and 27% from 2010

NBC’s 17 million figure includes both television and online streaming audiences, and it factors in two different airings of the spectator-free spectacle: a live broadcast early Friday morning and a primetime rebroadcast more than 12 hours later.

That’s a large decrease from previous Olympic Games: The opening ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang drew 28.3 million viewers, the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro netted 26.5 million viewers for its opener, London 2012 had a record opening ceremony audience of 40.7 million Americans, and the 2008 Games in Beijing averaged 34.9 million opening ceremony viewers.

There was an increase with online viewing, but television still dwarfs the other manners in which people tune into these sorts of events. The one  narrative that I am seeing from a lot of conservatives over the blogosphere, twitter, and such is that they are turned off by the "woke" nature of many of our athletes and simply cannot see themselves cheering for people who are criticizing (rather than representing) our country. 

Some people are even blaming the early losses of our women's soccer team and men's basketball team on a lack of focus. Too concerned with being woke to concentrate on the task at hand. I think the problem (in general) for many of these sports is the manner in which they are pushing a political issues on people who otherwise don't really care about (or are even offended by) it. 

There is likely an inverse correlation between those who watch sports and those who appreciate wokeness. In other words, the more rapid sports fans I know are more conservative, whereas many of my liberal friends are simply not that big into sports. These professional sports league seem willing to push away those who traditionally are supported in order to appease those who do not watch anyways. 

For me, I still have interest in watching the track and field events, swimming, and those individual sports were these athletes seem less inclined to be political. I couldn't care less if our professional NBA basketball players beat the professional basketball players from other countries, and I actually am sort of glad that the woman's soccer team got beat by Sweden. 

My other issue is that the Olympics has now become the X-games. You don't expect to turn on the Olympics and see freestyle kayaking, playground skateboarding, or three on three basketball. Especially when classic sports like Wrestling (one of the original sports) is removed. There are approximately 250 thousand high school wrestlers, not to mention all of the younger wrestlers,  as well as collegeans. To set up a pool for kayaking, while not allowing wrestling seems very forced. 

It's another sad part of our tradition going down the tubes, because some people cannot keep their politics to themselves. 

The latest new "big lie" from the left wing media?

National Review: Democrats had the full list of phone tips on Kavanaugh during the confirmation

Mike Davis, who served as chief counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Kavanaugh hearings, tells National Review that there was a summary of all 4,500 tips in the FBI’s report, which was available to all 100 U.S. senators.

“They printed out the entire tip-line summary,” says Davis. “Every senator had full access to read those things if they wanted to.”…

“Every whack-job in the world called into that thing. That’s why there were 4,500 [tips],” says Davis. “Grassley’s team went through the entire tip-line. It was nonsense.” Davis worked under then-chairman Chuck Grassley on the committee and now runs the Article 3 Project, a conservative group that focuses on the judiciary.

A Republican senator who reviewed the FBI’s report confirms Davis’s description of the tip-line summary. “There was nothing in there . . . nothing anywhere providing a shred of corroboration” of an existing allegation or a new allegation, the senator tells National Review.

So basically these tips which were reported to have been given to the FBI and then forwarded to the White House, were also provided to all 100 Senators. I would venture a guess that these Senators simply didn't look into these at all, but now want to pretend that  others not doing so is some sort of controversy.  

But this was a lie. Not the fact that there were several thousand tips (that is what happens when you open a tip line). Nobody denies that. What is a lie is that only the FBI and White House knew anything about them and that these were somehow kept from the Senate who by constitution is allowed to provide the ultimate consent.  

Funny how the craziest of the left actually believed that this could lead to impeachment of Kavanaugh and possibly even some sort of criminal charges against someone. Turns out it was a complete total 100% media lie. Simply more dishonest barking at the moon.

Again! 

The Cleveland Guardians?

One of the most iconic logos is now this!

 

Sunday Funnies

Maybe he needs another town hall on CNN?

Biden Approval Drops to 50%, Lowest for Him to Date

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Joe Biden's latest job approval rating of 50% is down from 56% in June. Before this month, his ratings had not shown meaningful variation during his time in office, and the current figure marks the lowest measured for him to date.

Biden's approval ratings are marked by extreme party polarization, which has become the norm for presidential approval in recent years. Currently, 90% of Democrats, 12% of Republicans and 48% of independents approve of the job Biden is doing. His ratings among Democrats and independents are the lowest to date among those groups. The new poll marks the first time he has less-than majority approval among independents.

Let's be clear here folks. The fact that 90% of Democrats approve of this walking piece of vegetable is proof positive that his approvals will never dip too far. If, by now, only one in ten Democrats are willing to admit there are issues here, then we really do live in two different worlds. 

More to the point, whatever support there is for this President is obviously not very strong. He commands no crowds. Nobody seems to care one way or another about him. He goes on national cable news to hold a town forum for the country and twice as many Americans tune into Fox News to watch their normal programming. 

It's not the 50% that should worry Democrats. It's the fact that those 50% do not care all that much. Trump might have wallowed in the mid 40's - but that 45% or so were rabid fans willing to go to the mat for him. There seems to be only luke warm support that involves much excuse making and justification for why this guy deserves support. 

Obviously Joe Biden didn't end the polarization of the country. In fact, it's quite obviously worse today than it was before he was elected. Our political leaders cannot agree on much of anything and right now the Democrats are looking to push trillions of dollars in new spending (on top of the trillions we have already added to the debt since Covid) without a single opposition vote. 

Obviously Joe Biden didn't fix Covid. We are looking at a new wave and what (other than blame other people) has the Administration actually done about it? There seems to be a deer in the headlights lack of any attention, leadership, or action on the subject. Where is the vaccination booster? Why don't we know more about the variant? Are there going to be more? 

Inflation is up, gas prices are up, apparently even unemployment cases are up. The economy is a mixed bag at a time when it should be shooting to the moon just based on a pent up demand. What is the plan at the top "other" than to spend trillions more on "social justice" and "green energy".   

Funny how the economy for pre-covid Trump years was as good as it had ever been in our lifetime and we managed to get there without trillions in stimulus. 

Biden the economist?

Biden: More Government Spending Will Curb Inflation

According to the law of supply and demand, when the government prints/borrows trillions of dollars, the value of the dollar declines, and prices rise. That is called inflation. According to President Joe Biden, when the government prints/borrows trillions of dollars, the value of the dollar doesn’t decline, and prices decrease. That is called, to borrow a Biden-ism, malarkey.

Well there can be a lot of disagreement about the effect on the deficit when it comes to taxes, spending, or what-not. But I have actually never heard it argued before that borrowing, printing more money, and increasing spending will actually "reduce" inflation. If there is a factual economic truism that is almost universally believed by all economists, it is the one where an increase in spending and currency always leads to inflation to some degree or the other. 

Now there is an argument (albeit not a convincing one in this case) that inflation can be good. But that is not the argument that Biden and gang are attempting to make. Instead, they plan on doing the one thing that economists across the board believes will push inflation at a time when many economists believe inflation is becoming a problem. But rather than defend the fact that it will likely push inflation upwards, they argue unconvincingly that it will lower it. 

Now they provide no economic reasoning here. No textbook definition of how an increase in currency will curb inflation. No historical examples of how an increase in currency will curb inflation. Heck, I haven't even seen them be able to cite any of the slew of liberal economists who seem willing to change their economic views at a drop of the hat, if it becomes the political thing to do. 

Nope. Slow Joe just portraits this concept as true with no actual explanation. 

Some will no doubt just believe him in blind faith!

 

Race relations falling apart. Blame wokism, BLM, and hypocrisy

Ratings of Black-White Relations at New Low

For the second consecutive year, U.S. adults’ positive ratings of relations between Black and White Americans are at their lowest point in more than two decades of measurement. Currently, 42% of Americans say relations between the two groups are “very” or “somewhat” good, while 57% say they are “somewhat” or “very” bad.

Meanwhile... events of the day makes it easy to blame politics rather than people 

Woke Racial Activism Bears Fruit: Gallup Survey Shows Positive Views On Race Relations In Free Fall

Don’t blame Trump. The ratings fell off a cliff in 2013, two years before he arrived on the national political scene, both for the population as a whole and for blacks and whites as groups. There also has been a precipitous second drop in the past two years, as Gallup noted in the intro quote above.

Obviously the past two years have pretty much everything to do with George Floyd, riots, BLM, and the rise of the woke cancel culture. With the exception of George Floyd, the national attitudes on the rest have been increasingly negative. 

But I think if you go back to why these numbers were falling and possibly even why Donald Trump was elected President, you can place that on the shoulders of what was the start or rise of anti-racism, social justice warriors, and such. While the causes might be just, the manner in which these causes have been shoved into society are not. 

What we are seeing is what is called a backlash. Even if you believe that wokism is the greatest thing since sliced bread came along, that doesn't mean that people want it shoved in their face. I promise you that the person who wants to "tell you the news" about Jesus and leave you a religious pamphlet believes in his/her cause as much as the most woke social warrior. But that conviction is overridden by the intrusion factor.  

So keep that in mind. If you are a social justice activist who believes that everyone needs to hear about your cause, you are ultimately going to be viewed no differently than the Jehovah's witness who comes  knocking at your front door. You might not like it, but it's true. 

Oh wait... the January 6th commission will be bi-partisan!

Liz Cheney will take part!

Trump should be hung from a tree! 

Truly inspirational!

I'd post the video, but it's truly too embarrassing. Especially the part where CNN personality Don Lemon pretended like he understood what he was saying. There was a lot more ums and awkward pauses and such. This sentence takes like 45 seconds to actually spit out.

 Here is the link if you dare - https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1418003256689664002

Biden believes that you cannot get Covid if you get these vaccinations?

Seriously. Does this guy ever come out of the basement?

Biden: “You’re not gonna get COVID if you get vaccinated”

(He says this as fully vaccinated WH staff are testing positive) pic.twitter.com/IPEhv0HTAv

— Jewish Deplorable (@TrumpJew2) July 22, 2021

This was the audience! LOL!!!

They either ought to let this guy actually get out there in the real world, or simply keep him hidden away in the basement. This is embarrassing, folks.  Would I rather have a mean tweeter hypersensitive to the media than a guy who apparently doesn't keep on on "any" news? Yeah pretty sure I would. I mean,  who else (besides Joe Biden) is not hearing about the fact that vaccinated people are catching Covid?

Of course this is misinformation and no doubt Facebook and Twitter will be suspending the President's account any day now. 

GOP to run their own Capital Riot investigation

“Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the GOP will conduct their own investigation into the January 6th Capitol Hill riot unless Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi changes her mind on two representatives she rejected from the committee. Pelosi rejected Republicans Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan. Both men are supporters of former President Donald Trump. The House resolution to create a select committee gave Pelosi the power to appoint people to the committee. She has to consult McCarthy, but she has the “final veto power over the members.”

This seems more than fair. After all this is not going to be any sort of bi-partisan affair and the end result will be about finger pointing. I have less confidence that I will actually learn anything from a Democratic run investigation than a Republican run one. After all, we pretty much already know what the Democratic report will look like. We have already seen the allegations, hyperbole, and political rhetoric from the left.

But I would be seriously interested in the findings of a McCarthy led investigation. We might actually find out something we already didn't know and we might actually get to the bottom of why the calls for more security were rejected and who rejected them. (Hint - it wasn't the President).  The issue here is not to make some sort of political statement or demonize anyone. The issue here is why wasn't security ready and why was the security we had so quick to break down.

Oh... and we need to know just a tiny bit more about the killing of an unarmed protester. I doubt that is at the top of Pelosi's list.   

If Trump was still President

CNN: Where is the booster for Delta variant?

MSNBC: No vaccine booster or target date. Lack of leadership is causing deaths!

CBS: Trump has no plan for Delta variant!

NBC: Delta variant leading new cases. Administration has no answer!

ABC: Poll: Public blames Trump for lack of Delta variant booster!

Yawn.... someone won the NBA Title last night and the MVP was someone whose name I never heard before

NBA final ratings are abysmal

Apparently only about 8-9 million or so people on average tuned into the NBA finals. I remember a time when you had the old Lakers Celtics rivalry or any year with Michael Jordon and the bulls in the finals when pretty much nobody talked about much else "other" than the NBA finals. It wasn't unusual to have 30-35 million viewers out of a much smaller population.

True to form, the NBA has turned into a giant political demonstration just like the NFL is promising to be again this year. One has to wonder how long the NBA and NFL can afford to pay these players what they are earning, when these television contracts run out and it's time to renegotiate. You get just as many people watching reality television as you do watching most major team sporting events. These reality television people do it for free! 

The Biden Covid conundrum

White House Plays New COVID Cases Close to Its Vest

Six members of the Texas delegation have reported testing positive for the coronavirus, and one White House official is also ill. But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki didn’t say much specifically about that case Tuesday other than to “wish our colleague a speedy recovery.”

The press secretary was asked if there were other breakthrough cases among White House staff, instances were aides still tested positive despite being vaccinated. “There have been,” Psaki answered. And then she explained exactly why she would not tell reporters in the room more: “I will say that according to an agreement we made during the transition to be transparent and make information available, we committed that we would release information proactively if it is commissioned officers. We continue to abide by that commitment.”

As of Tuesday evening, a White House aide was still trying to track down the specifics of that commitment.

But the risk is not the same now, and neither is the coverage — clearly because the vaccine exists and has been readily available. Reporters pushed the White House on Tuesday to say more about who was sick and who wasn’t. But Psaki would not budge, and recent headlines have less to do with an aide at the White House and more to do with President Biden’s efforts to get more of the country vaccinated.

So we have at least eight Democrats who have contracted Covid over the past week or so in or around D.C.. Psaki admits that there are more White House employees that have tested positive, but somehow she cannot say more based on their commitment to transparency. That seems more than a little counterintuitive if one looks at the meaning of transparent. 

But the issue appears to be that the Biden Administration feels justified in telling a little white lie by omission. After all, telling the public that vaccinated people around the White House  caught Covid will undermine their message that everyone should be vaccinated because the vaccination works. Therefore, they have an obligation to keep quiet? Is that the argument? 

Meanwhile we hear competing statistics on the subject. According to some sources (international and otherwise) the split between the non-vaccinated and the vaccinated ending up sick and in the hospital is somewhere in the vicinity of 80-20 as it pertains to the Delta variant. Of course the White House, lead by Anthony Fauci suggest that the number is more in the 99.5 - 0.5 range. Nobody who is vaccinated is getting really sick or dying of the original Covid or the variant. 

Meanwhile the CDC has reported over 5500 hospitalizations and deaths from those who are vaccinated. The suggestion from those who claim to know is that about 750 of these resulted in death. Those are just the reported figures and do not include non-hospitalized immunized people who have contracted Covid.

With such competing statistical figures running around out there, who are we to believe? Obviously the Biden Administration would like you to believe them.  But wouldn't you suppose it will help a little if the Biden Administration was willing to come clean about their own Covid infections? If they are willing to tell a little white lie of omission to drive a point, then would they also be willing to make a little white statistical lie under that same pretense? 

Two more vaccinated Democrats test positive for Covid

House official, Pelosi aide test positive for COVID

A White House official and a staff member for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have both tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the same reception last week, officials confirmed to Axios. 

Why it matters: While both individuals are vaccinated and mildly symptomatic, they illustrate how Americans inoculated against the coronavirus can still contract and, potentially, unknowingly transmit the virus — even at the highest levels of the nation's government.

The big picture: COVID-19 cases are on the rise across the country, with health officials becoming increasingly worried about the Delta variant. It's significantly more infectious than the original strain, and poses an acute threat to the unvaccinated.

So this has to be a nightmare for Democrats trying to push the blame for a recent rise in cases on "red states" and "conservatives". Nothing defeats an abstract argument like front page anecdotal evidence that runs counter to the narrative.

We are now up to six of the Texas Democrats who now have Covid and these are likely just the first two of those who attended this reception that will eventually test positive. How many more vaccinated Democrats end up with positive test results remain to be known.

The eight month sentence - another take

Court Sends A Message: Paul Allard Hodgkins Sentenced To 8 Months In Prison For Entering Capitol On January 6, 2021

For the last five months, Hodgkins was effectively on house arrest – he wore an ankle monitor and adhered to a curfew. According to the probation officer who had been monitoring Hodgkins throughout the criminal case, he was fully compliant while on release.

In June, he pled guilty. And it’s not hard to see why – he simply lacked the resources to put up a fight.

“had an absolutely miniscule … role in [the events of Jan. 6]. Mr. Hodgkins was not involved in any way, shape or form, with violence toward anyone in law enforcement. Mr. Hodgkins was not involved in any way, shape or form with any property damage done to the Capitol. Mr. Hodgkins never touched a single item within the Capitol building itself. His sole participation simply included walking into the building, onto the floor of the United States Senate, and leaving the same building, all within a 15-minute period of time.

What was so troubling about the government’s sentencing arguments in this case was that all of their reasons for incarceration turned on actions undertaken by individuals other than the actual criminal defendant. Indeed, at no time on Jan. 6 did Hodgkins ever engage in any violence or property destruction. He trespassed, yes, but beyond that he simply carried a flag, took a selfie and prayed.

The government’s message was clear – those on the ideological right are fungible, and we can punish one for the sins of the others.

“a man who for just one hour on one day, lost his bearings and his way. It is the story of a man who made a fateful decision to follow the crowd, and found himself for approximately 15 minutes in a place that he sincerely regrets to have been. It is the story of a man who is worthy of this Court’s mercy and grace. Paul is an avatar of us all, and how this Court deals with his misconduct will say much about where we are and what we will become as a nation.”

Today, the court is the one that lost its way. And how it dealt with Paul Hodgkins says a lot about where we are today as a nation.

This story if from Legal Insurrection. Their argument is actually that the eight months was unfair and that based on the actual actions of Hodgkins that he did not deserve even the eight months that was sentenced. 

The author in this case is an appellate lawyer and so probably a bit more qualified to look at the case from a legal perspective. I think his criticism is fair. The state is trying to lump the behavior of the worst in with the behavior of the rest and hold people accountable for things that they (themselves) did not do. That certainly seems like bad justice.

On the flip side, I believe the issue involves that fact that Hodgkins and his attorney agreed to plead to the felony charge rather than a lesser charge. This might be one of those situations where their is more leverage outside a trial than inside a trial for the State. They can go harder after those who do not have the means to fight the charges and hope to score some victories.

Whether or not an eight month sentence is a victory of some sort or admission of defeat is a matter of opinion. I tend to believe that when compared to the other protests we have seen over the past 3-4 years,  that this particular person's actions would not have driven me to push for harsh treatment. 

About that insurrection?

Insurrectionist Terrorist (or Is It Terrorist Insurrectionist?) Gets, Yes, an Eight-Month Sentence.

Notwithstanding the overwrought political rhetoric by congressional Democrats and Biden administration officials, particularly Attorney General Merrick Garland, portraying the riot as an atrocity on par with such terrorist mass-murder strikes as the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department did not charge Hodgkins with anything like a terrorism crime — no charge of sedition or insurrection. He was instead permitted to plead guilty to a single count of obstructing a congressional proceeding.

In order to inflate the gravity of the misconduct, the Justice Department has been hyping the potential exposure of up to 20 years’ incarceration prescribed by the relevant obstruction statute. But the statutory terms are general, applying to all offenders guilty of obstructing congressional proceedings, no matter how serious or comparatively trivial the conduct.

Here, for all their huffing and puffing, the prosecutors urged an 18-month sentence. Such a recommendation would, of course, be inconceivably paltry in an actual case of terrorism or insurrection. Yet, Judge Moss properly concluded that the Justice Department’s recommendation was more than twice as harsh as what Hodgkins’s behavior merited.

This was the second sentencing of someone who pleaded guilty for offenses committed on January 6th. The first was Anna Morgan Lloyd who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and got probation. So between the two insurrectionist attempting to destroy our Democracy they have been sentenced to eight months cumulative. These sentences certainly do not back up the concept that this was worse than 9-11 or other similar nonsense..

Who knows how many of the other protesters will agree to plead guilty to what Hodgkins pleaded to.  Of the approximately 500 people who currently face charges only about 150 of them are charged with obstructing an official proceeding. Most of the rest are being charged with multiple misdemeanors and are unlikely to face jail time. 

Of those who face the obstructing an official proceeding charge, how many might be able to cut a deal and plead to a lesser offence. Obviously Hodgkins was considered "front and center" and was seen as an instigator much like the QAnon Shaman. In fact the two were seen multiple times together. But it would also appear that his attorney was quick to make a deal that included pleading guilty to the most serious charge. 

Perhaps the state will have to actually go to trial to get a feel for this. Looking at the long list of attorneys willing and able to represent the Capital rioters and given the lack of other pleas, there is obviously a wide gap. It would appear that the State is not giving much up in these settlement discussions and that these attorneys are not backing down either. 

But probation for what the majority are being charged with and eight months for the more serious charge of obstructing an official proceeding is probably not what the State was hoping for when they started this all up. Perhaps they can get more than eight months for those few accused of assault of a Federal officer or those who face weapons charges. But they may need to step up their game if they want to satisfy the rabid crowd.