Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

We’ll Miss Charlie Baker When He’s Gone and a Belated Thanks

Posted: January 4, 2023 by datechguy in politics
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Candidate Baker on the trail 2010

Charlie Baker is about to end his term as Governor of Massachusetts.

I had covered him in the old tea party days when he was trying to get traction. As the years went by I took issue with several things, his support for buffer zones at abortion clinics and his Never Trump stance jump out immediately but as his days here end let’s point out a few things we shall miss about him.

Baker was and is an able administrator. The primary job of a governor is to administer the state and Baker handed this part of the job excellently, much better than Mitt Romney who while also a good administrator was too interested in the next rung up the political ladder.

Baker was and is a problem solver. Several issues came up early in his time as governor that he handed well. There is a joke going around the net right now that says: “Pete Buttigieg is so bad at his job that people actually know who the transportation secretary is.” Baker was so good at his that you forgot the state was being governed.

Baker was not shy about making appearances for GOP candidates. In a state where Democrats hold supermajorities one has to walk before one runs. Baker was willing to walk and appear and fundraise for several GOP candidates seeking statewide office. It was a nice change from what we saw before.

Baker is good in a crisis: I think he was overcautious on COVID but taken all in all his handling of various crisis from storms to the T crisis to COVID was above average and that gets me to one personal point I’d like to make.

You might remember during the George Floyd insanity there was a march in Fitchburg, one where stores were boarded up and people including myself were prepared for trouble. It was the first march of this type in the state and had the potential for real trouble, even to the point of the palates of bricks suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

However there was also a strong but unobtrusive police and state police presence and I have one eyewitness who talked about guard troops in the COVID area ready to move if necessary.

It was a delicate balance too much or too visible a force could have provoked a violent reaction not enough would have given those looking to cause trouble a free hand but the moves here were so perfect and so subtle that the march took place without the least bit of incident.

This saved my city and kept my wife and son out of danger. I’ll not forget that.

I suspect that if our incoming governor was in charge at the time, that would not be the case.

All of the qualities I’ve listed about Charlie Baker will serve him well in his new NCAA job and all of these qualities are ones the we residents of Massachusetts will very much miss over the next few years.

People have already been leaving Massachusetts at a pretty good clip:

The Bay State checked in at seventh on the list of most moved from states with 57 percent of moves in Massachusetts last year involving people leaving the state, researchers said.

With a radical leftist in charge and a legislature ready to roll over the people in their quest to turn this state into California east we’ll be moving up on that list. Also don’t be surprised if a lot of conservatives who where screaming for Baker’s head that will be longing for the good ole days of his administration soon.

Speakers Race Bottom Line: Who can make the best deal?

Posted: January 3, 2023 by datechguy in politics
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Everyone seems to be ignoring the real bottom line in this speakers race so here it is bluntly:

  • With the democrats in control of both the Senate and the White House no part of the GOP Agenda can pass without compromise with the Democrat left
  • Therefore the next GOP speaker needs to know what hills to die on and what hills to surrender
  • Or put simply: Is the plan to do nothing but pass bare bones spending bills and wait till the next election or is the plan to try and do somethings even if it means the left gets some stuff they want?

The GOP needs to answer that final point first and once they do they can decide on if to get a speaker who will stand like a rock against the left or a speaker who will make the best possible deals to advance the highest priority conservatives causes (spoiler alert Mitch not withstanding Ukraine is not among them).

If McCarthy fits that bill vote for him, it not vote for the person who does

No charge

Teach your kids to lie, blame others, and procrastinate so they will be ready for a career in politics

Posted: January 1, 2023 by John Ruberry in Blame Trump, congress, economy, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Hello parents! Do you want to raise children who will enter politics? Then keep reading.

Rather than bringing up kids to act responsibly, your politico children need to end up the complete opposite of that.

Unlike me. Which is why rather than claiming the idea for this blog post as entirely my own, I have to credit an old Mad Magazine article from decades ago. 

Here we go.

Your political children need to be proficient liars. Incoming Republican congressman George Santos of New York invented an entire past for himself. He lied about where he worked, what schools he attended, what religion he is, how much money he made, where and when his mother died, and possibly even his sexual preference. Apparently, Santos was more truthful when he ran for Congress in 2020. And what did that get him then? A defeat. 

Over on the Democratic side, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, all the way back to her academic career, claimed to be a Native American. In preparation for her 2020 presidential run, Warren released a DNA test that she claimed there was “strong evidence” that she had an Indian ancestor six to ten generations back, making her anywhere from 1/64th to 1/1024 indigenous American.

That lie led Donald Trump to dub Warren “Pocahantas.” As for the former president, he refused to release his tax returns after announcing his first run for president because the real estate mogul said we was undergoing in IRS audit. He wasn’t. 

But our current president, Joe Biden, is a Baron Munchausen-level fabulist. Some of his lies are humorous, such as the tale, which has been debunked numerous times, about Biden being told in the 2010s that he traveled over one million miles on Amtrak by an on-duty conductor who retired twenty-years earlier. Other lies, such as Biden the blaming the rise in gasoline prices since he took office two years ago solely on the war in Ukraine, betray a lack of emotional maturity. 

Just last month, Biden claimed to have been the impetus for the awarding a Purple Heart to an uncle, a World War II veteran. That didn’t happen. 

And the Inflation Reduction Act is simply an expensive falsehood.

Your political children need to blame others for their mistakes. In addition to blaming Putin for high energy prices, Biden and his administration pointed their collective finger at Trump for the highest inflation America has suffered in four decades. Rather, it was Biden’s anti-energy policies and his pork-laden $1.9 trillion stimulus bill of 2021 that were the culprits. The American economy was well on its way to recovery from the COVID-19 lockdown by then, the bill was not only unnecessary, but also harmful. 

Your political children need to procrastinate. Just a few days ago, as a government shutdown loomed, Joe Biden signed into law a massive spending bill, one that will almost certainly add oxygen to our roaring inflation fire. Spending bills are due annually before October 1, but not since 1996 has a spending bill has been signed into law before that date.

So when one of your children drops a bomb on you that urgent help is needed on a ten-page term paper–which is due the next morning–you should be proud. You are raising a politician. Which brings me to my next recommendation.

Your political children need to ignore their homework assignments. Here’s one more item about that most recent spending bill. It’s over 4,000 pages long. Few if any members of Congress read it before voting on it. And I am certain that man who signed it into law, Joe Biden, didn’t read it either.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Santos the Pol vs Santos the Catholic

Posted: December 28, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine, politics
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I’ve known the Popes back in Illinois known all of them, they’re all liars and braggarts but don’t know of any particular reason why a liar and a braggart shouldn’t make a good general.

Abe Lincoln on being told John Pope can’t be trusted to tell the truth.1862

I must admit I’m slightly conflicted about the George Santos business.

On the one hand I’m a great believer in people being hoisted on their own petard. Our Democrat friends have become big on utilitarianism, (remember Harry Reid’s famous “He didn’t win did he?” concerning his lies about Romney) and the whole abandonment of the standard of honesty among the left has become so great that it’s almost laughable that they’re complaining about Santos’ whoppers.

Furthermore there is the question of vetting, I think Jazz Shaw’s theory on the matter is likely on the nose here:

How did George Santos make it over the finish line before all of this information came to light? The general consensus among New York Democrats seems to be that it’s a matter of timing. You see, Santos ran for this seat in 2020 against Democrat Tom Suozzi. It was obvious that Santos was going to get his clock cleaned and he did, losing by roughly 20 points. He was basically little more than a placeholder name on the ballot for the Republicans, so nobody really bothered vetting him or looking at the race too closely. And two years later, since he had run before, a lot of people clearly assumed that he’d already been vetted. (And there were bigger, hotter races to cover in the state anyway.)

Given the Democrats failure to vet an opponent and the tactics they have repeatedly used the partisan in my sees no reason for George Santos to resign anything. If they voters in his district want him out the proper solution is a recall election and who knows maybe Lincoln observation about not knowing of any particular reason why a liar and braggart shouldn’t make a good general applies to being a member of congress too.

But then we run into the Santos the Catholic business.

Santos is in fact a Catholic and as a Catholic there is a specific thing about the whole “bearing false witness” business. To win this office by bearing false witness is going to be damaging to his soul.

Christ was rather emphatic about this being a bad idea

Then Jesus said to his disciples,

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.

Matthew 16:24-27

Since gaining the whole world isn’t a good enough reason to forfeit eternal life how much less is a two year term in congress?

So my advice to George Santos: resign the seat and take a good look at the state of your soul.

That’s the best advice I can give, however since he has embraced the whole gay marriage, Joe Biden Nancy Pelosi “Catholics for Mortal sin” business I suspect this advice will go unheeded.

I’ll pray for him anyways. You should too.

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