Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

The Best Argument for Biden that the Left can Manage

Posted: July 30, 2022 by datechguy in opinion/news, Uncategorized
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In Stacy McCain’s post on the Biden Economy there was one bit that jumped out at me:

Magical thinking: “Corporate minimum tax!” This will miraculously solve all the budget problems, Democrats expect us to believe and, considering that 38.2% of voters actually approve of the job Biden’s doing as president, there are tens of millions of Americans stupid enough to believe anything. 

Now, in my opinion this 38.2% consists of three distinct groups.

The first group are the greased. These are the people who directly benefit from the Biden graft. The companies that are given subsidies, the cities that those companies are based in, the activist class and of course all those who suck at the government tit, many of them already obscenely wealthy and a key part of the Democrat base (which is why you don’t hear media talking about “cooperate welfare” anymore) Biden is their guy doing their bidding so they’re all for him.

The second is the thug class, if you’re a criminal in Biden’s America you are pretty much being given a free pass in blue cities. If you’re running a high level criminal enterprise the Biden policies mean that your street thugs are playing with house money. The Tony Soprano’s of the world are getting their 10% with ease and the various thug classes who are literally getting away with murder know who to thank, cripes they’re even getting recruited by Democrat activists to thug on their behalf. To them the Biden years are the days of wine and roses.

To those people the Biden Administration is doing exactly what they want

But there is one more group out there and to understand this group we go back to USA today from five years ago and their grading of the first 100 days of Donald Trump Presidency by Glenn Reynolds:

A+ Not Hillary: President Trump was elected in no small part because he was not Hillary Clinton, and he’s done an A+ job of not being Hillary Clinton during his first 100 days. And as additional news about Hillary’s shambolic presidential campaign has come out — including revelations that she combed through staff emails from her previous campaign and assigned people “loyalty scores” — the importance of having a president who is not Hillary Clinton seems even greater than it did in November. And, I’m happy to say, I expect President Trump to go on not being Hillary Clinton for the next four (or eight!) years. A+ job, Mr. President!

and his grade at one year

A+ Still Not Hillary: Last year, I graded President Trump as an A+ because he was doing an outstanding job of not being Hillary Clinton. A year after his inauguration, he’s even more not-Hillary. And the childish and irrational effort by Democrats to escape into fantasies of undoing the 2016 election via impeachment or 25th Amendment medical disability demonstrates that their party isn’t ready to govern anytime soon. Aside from not being Hillary, Trump has some actual accomplishments, and not just in terms of judicial appointments. The tax bill passed, the economy is already benefiting, and the results are already showing up in workers’ paychecks. Trump has exceeded his goal of undoing two regulations for every new regulation passed, and he’s on track to shrink the federal government significantly — though not enough — in his first term.  As a libertarian, my expectations for Trump were pretty modest, and in this respect, he has already  surpassed them. And, with Trump in the White House, the plague of sexual abuse in the news and entertainment worlds has been brought to light, when it almost certainly would have been kept quiet under Hillary so as to avoid embarrassing associations with Bill Clinton’s past offenses. Every day when Trump wakes up, he’s not Hillary, and that’s the main reason he is in the White House now. 

Glenn in his 1 year review of Trump could point to actual accomplishments which continued to grow over the four years of the Trump presidency which is, in my opinion, the single most successful first term of a presidency since James K. Polk.

Now if you ask me, you can count the accomplishments of Joe Biden on the thumbs of one toe, but in fairness there is one accomplishment that can’t be taken away from him, something that to a large group of Americans, is significant.

He’s not Donald Trump.

For those Americans no amount of suffering from high gas prices, to inflation, to crime in the streets, to shortages of everything from Baby Food to Tampons to even the spaying of their own children and the complete denial and redefining of reality for political gain mean nothing, compared to the fact that Donald Trump is not president. Suddenly all that they’ve been put through becomes not a failure of leadership but a virtue, they are suffering, but Trump is not president. It gives them self esteem, virtue without actually being virtuous and in their mind Joe Biden has given that to them.

They’re lives and suffering are martyrdom for the sake of NeverTrump, alas they will discover that unlike Baptism by Blood, it will not wash away sins.

Answer: The Results were always “Unexpected” by the Media/Elites

Posted: July 28, 2022 by datechguy in economy, opinion/news
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Question: What is the one thing in common about the constant stream of bad economic news produced during the Biden Administration and the constant stream of good economic news produced during the Trump Administration?

#unexpectedlytm of course,

Pritzker meddled in GOP gubernatorial primaries

Posted: July 24, 2022 by John Ruberry in covid, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Amazingly, the quiet presidential campaign of J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire pol from the family that created the Hyatt hotel chain and more, continues. That says about the girth of Illinois governor’s ego and the threadbare status of the Democratic presidential bench, as the failures of the Joe Biden administration continue to mount.

Illinois, despite the influx of COVID bailout cash, remains a financial basket case. At best, Pritzker and his fellow Democrats have only chipped away at the state’s pension bomb. Illinois has the worst-funded public pension system among the states. In 2021 the Prairie State lost 122,000 residents, only New York and the District of Columbia, percentage-wise, saw a bigger population drop.

At Wirepoints, Mark Glennon, justifiably eviscerated Pritzker in his critique of the governor’s trial run of a presidential campaign speech given last weekend in Florida. Yes, Florida, the place that Democrats, including Pritzker’s wife during the worst period of the COVID-19 lockdowns, flock to, despite the governorship of Ron DeSantis, a man they hate. Oh, while in Florida–Pritzker was there to give the keynote speech at a gathering of Florida Democrats–he contracted COVID. I wish him well–as someone who was afflicted with COVID last month, I can say that it is not an enjoyable experience. 

I’m going to focus on just a couple of items from Pritzker’s dishonest Florida speech. “We honor the results of elections,” Pritzker said, obviously alluding to the Capitol Riot and its show trial investigation of it by the House January 6th Committee. In response Glennon retorted, “In Illinois, that would be elections based on the most gerrymandered map in the nation, which he approved in violation of what many regarded as his most important campaign promise – to deliver fair maps.” Yes, Pritzker repeatedly vowed as a candidate in 2018 to veto gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps. The Democratic supermajorities in the General Assembly–in place because of the 2011 gerrymandered map–sent to Pritzker’s desk new contorted legislative maps, which Pritzker signed into law. 

Pritzker lied–and free and fair congressional and state legislative elections in the Land of Lincoln died. But since Glennon’s article was posted, the Chicago Tribune revealed that Pritzker this year contributed $24 million to the Democratic Governors Association. That group spent millions on ads supporting the most conservative Republican candidate running to replace Pritzker this autumn, state Sen. Darren Bailey, who easily won the GOP nomination. Yes, I voted for Bailey. 

As with other races the DGA has meddled in, the group saw Bailey as the most conservative, or in their likely thoughts, the most extreme candidate. And presumably the easiest one for Democrats to defeat in November. But such a ploy might backfire. In another Republican gubernatorial primary race that the Democratic Governors Association meddled in, its preferred “extreme” candidate, Doug Mastriano, trails the Democratic nominee by only a few points. Yes, he can win, which has some Dems nervous. 

On the flipside, imagine the mainstream media uproar if Republicans funded the campaigns of a Bernie Bro socialist running in a Democratic primary. They’d cry, “Election interference,” and “This is undermining free and fair elections!”

A couple of times in my lifetime–on the presidential level–Democrats received the GOP general election candidate they were rooting for, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Donald Trump in 2016. You know what happened.

Bailey, in deep blue Illinois, faces a tougher hurdle than Mastriano. But much can happen in the next four months, and Joe Biden’s continued mismanagement of the economy, the border–heck, his complete mismanagement of everything–may compel moderate Land of Lincoln voters to send a message to the Democrats. 

Are there enough such Illinoisans to send Pritzker packing? 

Not yet, as a recent poll tells us.

Because of high taxes, Illinoisans suffer from among the highest gasoline prices in the nation. Pritzker, under the guise of a tax cut, is forcing Illinois gas station owners to post signs informing motorists of the “tax cut,” which is really a delay in an inflation adjustment, suspending it until December. Gas station operators who refuse to post the required signage face a $500-a-day fine. Without the fine threat, Illinois grocers are also being forced to post similar signage about a one-year suspension of a one-percent sales tax.

If Pritzker prevails over Bailey, look for his presidential campaign to begin. It will fail. Pritzker is not a likable candidate–and Illinois’ standards are low. His flat speeches are drenched in condescension. Pritzker comes across as a sleazy closer at a Las Vegas timeshare presentation, a meeting that you only agreed to endure after being promised free show tickets and two glasses of wine “Sign here,” he’d say, “you won’t regret it,” as all 350 pounds of him leans into you.

But not even alcohol can make Pritzker more palatable. 

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Interviews and Audio from last week’s WQPH One Day Retreat at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Still River MA

Posted: July 16, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions, Church doctrine, special events
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Last Saturday I attended the one day retreat at Still River sponsored by WQPH. As you might guess I shot quite a few videos

An introduction

The sermon from the event

Shared Prayers from the event

A quick talk concerning Our Lady of Americas

A great speech from Deacon Bob Connor, Part 1

And Part 2

Two Audio only files, an interview with Maureen Capistran

And her opening remarks before the Q & A

and a closing interview with Fr. Augustine

It was quite a day and I hope you can join us on the next one.

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