Democrats vs. Nazis

Donald Trump, Jr is in hot water with the press after stating that the Democrat platform is closer to early Nazi-ism than the alt-right.  When reading the early Nazi platform, it’s actually not quite that simple.  There’s a mixed bag.  Points 6 and 7 sound a little like Trump’s immigration policy, except of course that they were predicated on pure German blood being a requirement for citizenship.  Trump hasn’t gone anywhere near that, even if the alt-right has and Liberals imagine Trump has.  But let’s look at the meat of the Nazi party platform.

Point 12 ended any sort of corporate profiteering from war. Point 13 demanded the nationalization of all corporations.  Point 14 calls for profit sharing in large enterprises.  Point 15 demands “old-age pension schemes” developed by the government.  Point 16, the confiscation of large department stores to be redistributed to small tradesmen and greater consideration given to small business owners.  Point 17 requires the abolition of ground rent and land speculation.  So far, that sounds pretty much like the Democratic Socialist platform.

Point 20 in the Nazi platform is free education.  Point 21 deals with healthcare mandates.

Point 23 calls for the banning of media that “violate the public interest” or has a “destructive effect on our national life”.  Think about that as Facebook and Twitter delete or block accounts based on political content.  Or how about the fact that Trump Jr was making the comments in response to Dinesh D’Souza’s latest documentary.  D’Souza was pardoned by Trump this past year after the Obama administration had gone after him for violations of campaign finance laws.  D’Souza was hit with a monetary fine, eight months in a “community confinement center” and “therapeutic counseling sessions” on the trumped up charges of offering to personally reimburse political donors. He plead guilty to avoid prison.  Just writing that feels very 1984ish.

Point 24 of the Nazi platform demands freedom of religion so long as that religion does not endanger the existence of the State or offend decency and morality.  They go on to rule out Judaism because of the “Jewish-materialistic spirit” and state that revival of the nation must be based on “public interest before private interest”.

Social Security?  Free tuition? Nationalization of large corporations? Confiscation of Wal Mart in favor of small businesses?  Banning media that violates the public interest?  Limited freedom of religion if it is harmful to the State or decency and morality?  Healthcare mandates?  Outlawing housing speculation and rents?  Tell me these are not the dreams of the Liberal movements in America today.

You could argue that there are those in the alt-right whose racism is comparable to the Nazi party.  But when it comes to the goals and policies of the Nazi party platform, they are definitely more in line with the goals and platform of the Democratic Socialists.  Ocasio-Cortez and those who see eye to eye with her want to abolish Capitalism in favor of a State controlled economy.  Just like the Nazis.

Trump Jr says Democrat platform closer to Nazi platform

Newsflash 8/2/18

The New York Times has a new editorial board member.  Turns out, the new NYT editorial board member Sarah Jeong is a vile racist.  She’s pretty open about it too.  Her Twitter includes tweets saying things like how white people are “only fit to live underground like groveling goblins”.  Another gem states “white men are bullshit”, and she also used the hashtag #cancelwhitepeople.

It’s funny to me that the New York Times might feel it’s appropriate to add anti-white racists to their editorial board to expand their diversity of opinion, but have a hard time finding conservatives to add.

New York Times adds vile racist to their editorial board

Need to Know 8/2/18

More winning for the Trump economy.  Incomes rose at the highest rate in over a decade this past year.  Generally in an economic recovery wages lag behind.  But with the fast drop in unemployment, it’s become harder to find good workers without paying a premium.  The free market is once again showing that minimum wages don’t need the strong arm of government to go up.

Trump economy gives workers a raise

The Paul Manafort trial is off to a rough start as the judge found himself chastising the prosecution on several occasions.  In one case, they continued to go on about Manafort’s lavish lifestyle before Judge Ellis reminded them that being wealthy isn’t a crime.  At another point, the prosecution teased that their star witness Rick Gates might not testify, eliciting another eruption from the judge.  Gates is thought to be a keystone witness for the case against Manafort.

Prosecution earns judge’s ire hours into Manafort case

Ocasio-Cortez just got snubbed by former President Barack Obama.  Obama released a list of endorsements for the 2018 midterm.  She’s not on the list.  The former President and political godfather may include her in future endorsements, but it’s pretty telling that he wouldn’t include her in the first round.  As Ocasio-Cortez continues to produce more gaffs than Joe Biden, more and more moderate Democrats have let go of her coattails and even openly criticized her.  Personally, I’m rooting for her.  It’s not often you see a Democrat candidate just come out and admit that they want to double taxes in America.

Obama releases list of endorsements, Ocasio-Cortez isn’t on it

Fake News Alert 8/1/18

Trump is in trouble for suggesting that people need to show ID when they shop for groceries.  He made the comments at a rally in Tampa, FL.  The Florida Times Union began their coverage with the comment “President Donald Trump wrongly claimed that shoppers need to show photo identification to buy groceries and accused Democrats of obstructing his agenda and his Supreme Court nominee during a raucous rally aimed at bolstering two Florida Republicans ahead of the state’s primary.”

Here’s the problem.  In many stores, it is store policy that individuals paying with a personal check show a photo ID.  This includes Wal Mart, among others.

Of course, there is a long standing tradition of Liberals attempting to paint Republicans as out of touch with basic plebeian tasks like grocery shopping.  For example, in President George H.W. Bush’s failed 1992 re-election, the New York Times made up a story about Bush seeing a check out scanner for the first time and being amazed.

I wouldn’t expect a billionaire turned President to be at the grocery store shopping on a regular basis.  But when the media gives an unqualified judgment that Trump is wrong about not showing ID at the grocery store, perhaps they are the ones out of touch with an older generation who still carries a checkbook.

Need to Know 8/1/18

Ontario, Canada is scrapping a basic income program after discovering that it was unsustainable.  The plan, which provided $17,000 to individuals whether they worked or not and half the benefit if they did work, was started in 2017 and meant to be a three year program.  There was shock and anger from the beneficiaries who will soon see those government provided checks dry up.  Universal basic income in the US would cost $3.8 trillion a year, or twice our current annual tax revenues.

Canadian universal basic income trial run fails miserably

Speaking of admitting failure, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro is joining a proud history of socialist dictators who finally realize their economic model doesn’t work.  However, unlike Gorbachev and Yeltsin, Maduro is vowing to press on.  While blaming outside forces, he called on his comrades to figure out a way to make the economy work.

Venezuela President admits failure, but not defeat

Speaking of economic failure, I wonder how many people think Obama had something to do with the economy getting better?  What actually helped during the second half of Obama’s Presidency was a GOP congress wrangling out of control deficits mixed with quantitative easing from the Fed.  The Fed bought up trillions in US private equities to artificially jumpstart the economy, and lowered interest rates to almost nothing.  Now, in the Trump era of American prosperity, the bill is coming due.  That is the biggest thing that keeps JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon up at night.  He sees it as the biggest economic threat currently.  It’s like Obama put America’s economy on a zero interest credit card, and now Trump has to pay it off.

American economy is great, time to pay off Obama’s credit card

Need to Know 7/31/18

Republican candidate Austin Petersen had his Twitter account suspended for 12 hours after thousands of antifa communist Democrats are triggered by a Stalin gif he posted.  No, this isn’t the Babylon Bee.  Petersen posted the gif in response to one pundit’s ridiculous assertion that Petersen had paid the Russians off to hack Claire McCaskill’s email account.  Petersen is in an uphill battle in the Republican primary to take on McCaskill for her tenuously held Senate seat in Missouri.  He has caused a splash with his AR-15 and 3D gun printer giveaways through the campaign.

Communists triggered by Stalin gif

Is North Korea building new ballistic missiles?  That’s the claim by Washington Post citing unnamed US spies who decided to share classified intelligence with the news agency on the condition of anonymity.  Of course, we’ve seen so much fake news coming from unnamed sources through WaPo and others that there really can’t be too much stock put in this.  It would absolutely benefit Democrats in November to blunt the progress Trump has made with North Korea.  And it seems like a very big risk for people in our spy agencies to tell the Washington Post something so sensitive.  So for now, we’ll stick with the official story.

WaPo publishes classified intel on North Korea, claims anonymous sources

There was no collusion, and even if there was it’s not a crime.  That’s the latest from Trump attorney Rudy Guiliani.  Guiliani made the claim Monday on Fox & Friends.  Depending on the facts and circumstances, he’s correct.  If Trump didn’t commission hackers to break into the DNC’s servers or somehow cause them to break the law, then any other sort of collusion is meaningless.  Even if Trump arranged and met with the Russian attorney in Trump Tower, which he didn’t, it still wouldn’t be a violation of the law.  In fact, compared to hiring a British spy get paid dirt from Russian operatives and then giving that phony info to the FBI to start an investigation, even the worst allegations against Trump are trivial.

Considering Trump has never been the target of a criminal investigation having to do with Russia and considering Hillary Clinton colluded more than even the most wild allegations against Trump, I think it’s time to stop beating this dead horse and move on.

Trump didn’t collude, and even if he had it wasn’t a crime

Need to Know 7/30/18

How much will Democratic Socialism cost?  How about triple what our government costs now.  Over the weekend I mentioned how Ocasio-Cortez wants to raise taxes by $4 trillion to have an eco-friendly liberal economy.  Government guaranteed jobs comes in at another $543 billion.  A new study is saying universal healthcare through Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan would cost another $3.2 trillion per year.  That’s makes for an annual budget of $12 trillion per year to cover the Democratic Socialist agenda.  The current budget is $4 trillion and we have annual deficits of about a half a trillion.  Extrapolating that out, we’d not just have to increase taxes 3x.  We’d also have to cover another 1.5 trillion dollar deficit.

How would you like to pay three times the taxes you are paying now and still have our government crushed with debt?

Study: Medicare for all completely unaffordable

President Trump is calling for a government shut down if Democrats continue to obstruct immigration reform.  But you need to remember how this works.  If a Republican Congress puts together a spending bill that Democrats obstruct, then it’s a Republican shutdown.  If a Republican President refuses to sign a bill that doesn’t take care of problems like immigration, then it’s a Republican shut down.  If Democrats can’t get enough votes to pass their agenda because Republicans are obstructing, then it’s a Republican shut down.  If Democrats control both houses and the Presidency, but can’t get their agenda passed, it’s a Republican shut down.  Basically, it’s always the fault of the Republicans.

Trump says fix it or shut it down

Trump’s tariffs have created odd bedfellows.  Democrats, who up until Trump did it supported protective tariffs, are now 100% anti-tariff.  Not really, but whatever it takes to win elections.  Meanwhile, the hated Koch brothers have signaled they will work with Democrats who oppose tariffs and support them.  So you have a Republican President who supports tariffs, Democrats who suddenly oppose them, and Libertarians who are going to put up money to elect Democrats who are anti-libertarian on everything but tariffs.  What a weird world we live in.  I wonder who Democrats hate more, Trump or the Kochs?

Koch brothers to back Democrats over tariff spat

Need to Know 7/28/18 Saturday Edition

Are Americans paying attention?  Yesterday’s economic report showed something the pundits said was impossible.  In fact, in October of 2016 anti-Trump economists said 4% GDP was impossible.  Yesterday the 2nd quarter GDP report came in at 4.1%.  Regardless of what the Left suggests, this sort of economic growth comes from relaxing crushing regulation, cutting taxes, and creating a pro-business environment.  Meanwhile, Democrats continue to run on raising taxes and undoing what Trump has done with the economy.  As the polls tighten, the idea of a blue wave is raising it’s ugly head again.  But Americans need to stop and look at what Trump has accomplished with the economy.  Do we really want to go back?

American prosperity of Trump Era marks turning point in history

Contrast that with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  Ocasio-Cortez was on the Trevor Noah show talking about how to raise taxes on the rich and poor to get another $4 trillion in annual revenue, more than doubling the current size of government.  Ocasio-Cortez suggested the wealthy and businesses weren’t paying enough of their fair share even before the Trump tax cuts.  With some odd math, she seems to be suggesting that we could raise taxes, but not quite as high as they were before Trump, to get more revenue.  As a result, the wealthy would finally be paying their “fair share” of $2 trillion more than they pay already.

But on top of that, Ocasio-Cortez calls for a carbon tax and deep cuts to the military to make up the other $2 trillion.  Of course, the ENTIRE military budget is about $600 billion.  So even if we eliminated the entire military under the Ocasio-Cortez plan, we’d still be short $1.4 trillion dollars.  With the rich paying their “fair share”, that money has to come from somewhere.  She suggests a carbon tax, which would hit every consumer rich or poor.

That’s the Democrat vision.  Kill the economy with taxes on businesses, tax the pants off the poor, and more than double the size of government.  Then government will finally be powerful enough to turn our nation into Ocasio-Cortez and Warren’s version of liberal paradise.  Or we’ll be crushed by debt when they realize you can’t raise $7 trillion in taxes on a failed economy.

Ocasio-Cortez calls for a $4 trillion tax hike to implement the Liberal agenda

Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia is breaking ranks and agreeing to meet with Judge Kavanaugh next week.  Sen. Chuck Schumer has ordered a zero tolerance policy towards Republicans, including 100% obstruction.  But Manchin is one of several Democrat Senators who faces an uphill election battle this year.  As the Democrats become more and more radically pro-abortion and radically pro-tax, blue dog Democrats in red states are facing more difficult challenges.  Manchin is on the DNC November endangered list.  Now he’s stuck between angering his red state by not meeting with Kavanaugh, or angering his Democrat base by meeting with Kavanaugh.

Joe Manchin violates Schumer’s zero tolerance policy

Need to Know 7/27/18

It’s all about the GDP.  Markets are anxiously awaiting this morning’s GDP report, hoping for 4.2% quarterly growth.  If it happens, it’ll be a good indicator that the economy continues to rise at a rapid rate, even after the rapid growth from last year. It would also make the argument against Trump’s tax reform even weaker.

Wall Street awaits GDP report

Speaking of tax reform, Elizabeth Warren bumbled through an interview when she was asked what tax rate is too high.  The poor CNBC journalist tried to help her out.  “Do you feel…that it’s wrong for more than half of somebody’s marginal income to be taken?” “Is 50 percent obviously too high?” Finally, as Warren continued to indicate that 50 percent may actually be too low, John Harwood went for the moon. “…obviously ‘no, 90 percent, that’s ridiculous'”.  Warren finally capitulated.

Warren has the blessing of many Democrats to be the top 2020 DNC Presidential contender.  But they will have to figure out how to deal with her ignorance about what taxes do to families and how the economy works.  When Ocasio-Cortez ignorantly claimed that unemployment was low because people were working two jobs, Warren doubled down on the erroneous claim by saying it was actually because people were working as many as four jobs.  Hopefully she can get some help on the economic front.  When it comes to the economy, Trump is definitely winning.

Warren suggests hypothetical 50% tax rate is too low

On the legal side for Trump, it’s a mixed bag.  While rumors from unnamed sources about the Mueller investigation have turned out to be mostly blowing smoke, there’s a new one out today saying Mueller is going to be looking at Trump’s tweets to see if he obstructed justice.  That would be a stretch.  As Guiliani pointed out, people don’t generally obstruct justice in public for millions to see.  This appears to be grasping for straws.  They would have to prove that Trump was somehow giving instructions to witnesses or intimidating people through Twitter.  That would also mean Mueller would have to take Trump’s 3am Twitter persona more seriously than Peter Strzok’s texts to his mistress.

Even if Trump did try to obstruct justice on Twitter, the Bill Clinton precedent on obstruction would make it very hard to successfully argue for consequences.  Clinton secretly intimidated witnesses, instructed them to lie, matched up stories, then committed perjury himself.  The Senate failed to reach a two thirds majority and ended up acquitting him.

Mueller looking at Trump’s tweets?

Need to Know 7/26/18

There’s a double standard in how the media is treating Democrats versus how they treat Republicans.  I know, you’re in shock.  The latest example is Georgia candidate Stacey Abrams.  In Time Magazine’s “The South is Still Racist” edition, Abrams is pictured as the next rising star of the Democrat party; if only Georgians can overcome their racism and vote for her.  One thing that I found interesting was the coverage of her debt situation.  Abrams is $220,000 in debt.  It’s not mortgage debt.  Abrams owes the IRS about $50,000 and has student loan and credit card debt of about $170,000.  CNN Money excuses this as something everyone has.  In fact, her debt troubles prove she’s a charitable person and helped her develop her economic plans.

Contrast this with Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh.  Financial disclosures revealed that at one point he had over $60,000 in debt, maybe even as high as $200,000.  He has since paid it off.  CNBC’s article on his debt, which some have suggested disqualifies him from the Supreme Court, said “Don’t be like Brett”.  They chided him for how much money he wasted on interest payments.  Of course, Supreme Court justices don’t control state budgets.  Governors do.

MSM: Everyone has debt, just like Democrat Stacey Abrams.  It’s OK!

Also MSM: Don’t rack up debt like Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The war between Trump and CNN is heating up again.  After CNN aired secret taped conversations between Trump and his attorney, Trump banned a CNN reporter from covering White House events for the day.  Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen is now working with former Clinton attorney Lanny Davis.  Davis provided the secret tapes to CNN and CNN aired them.  The banned reporter tried to ask about the recordings and refused to leave after the press conference was over.  CNN was not banned, but that specific reporter who refused to leave was.

Trump bans CNN reporter after CNN airs secret conversations

Speaking of the Cohen tapes: Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis has promised there are more tapes to come.  But none of them feature Trump.  The Trump legal team made the decision to waive any sort of right to block the release of the tapes because Trump is only in the ones that have already been aired and no crimes were committed by Trump.  Sure, it’s embarrassing to Trump to have tapes out there discussing his private, immoral sex life.  But Trump isn’t going to make the mistake of covering it up, or worse, lying under oath about it.  That was it; it’s all out in the open.  The media may milk it for another week or two, but viewers will be as disappointed as they were when Rachel Maddow found and way over-hyped a page of Trump’s New York income tax return.  The Cohen tapes were a flash in the pan.

Cohen tapes turn out to be a whole lot of nothing for Trump