Read it.

Or, alternatively, we could get rid of the TSA, saving taxpayer money and making travel more pleasant for all of us.

But that won’t happen.

Read it.

With Republican ‘leaders’ willing to take their own troops out and shoot them over ThoughtCrime, who needs Democrats? If you’re wondering why Democrats are always winning, look no further.

Read it.

Time once again to thank God you don’t live in New York City.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his plan to provide health care to all New Yorkers — including illegal immigrants — on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper. He stopped short of explaining exactly how he planned to offset the cost, saying only that the “wrong people” had all the money and he planned to correct that.

Once again, talking past the sale. Tapper takes quite a while to work his way around to asking why these are ‘the wrong people’, but it’s astonishing that a CNN ‘journalist’ even heads in that direction.

Tapper opened the segment by quoting Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum — who had proposed a similar plan for his state, but noted that unless other states joined the program, it would be financially impossible. “He was saying in Florida they could do it only if other states joined him because otherwise, all sick people would just come to Florida,” Tapper explained.

Shock! It would appear that Gillum has at least two brain cells to rub together. How did that happen?

“What’s to stop sick people from flocking to New York and overburdening the system?”

De Blasio shrugged off the question, saying, “I don’t see that happening.”

It would appear that DeBlasio does not. No surprises there.

He concluded by blaming politicians starting with Republican President Ronald Reagan who, through tax policy and other policies, had implemented a “systematic agenda to take that money and put it more and more in the hands of the few.”

Here we see the consistent Democrat belief that any money belongs of right to the government and that it wound up in the ‘hands of the few’ because — what? They snuck around and scooped it up while Democrats weren’t looking?

Read it.

Next they’ll be requiring children in public schools to rat out their parents, just like in the old Soviet Union.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Scott Johnson at Powerline looks at Democrats reverting to type.

Democrats now freely display the sort of anti-Catholic bigotry that JFK was thought to have vanquished in the 1960 presidential campaign. As they have done with so much of their history, the Democrats have deposited JFK and the 1960 campaign down the memory hole.

I wrote about the anti-Catholic bigotry on display in the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017. It was the subject of my City Journal column “The unfunniest senator” (that was Minnesota Senator Al Franken, before the fall). At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Seventh Circuit, Senators Dick Durbin and Dianne Feinstein conducted a mini-inquisition of Barrett’s religious views. “Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?” Durbin asked. Feinstein concluded her questioning by telling Barrett that “the [Catholic] dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.” They all but asked Barrett whether she is now or ever has been a member of the Catholic Church.

How soon before they ask her whether she takes her marching orders from the Pope? (You know, that child-abuse enabler in Rome.) The Democrats were known for their anti-Catholic sentiments during the Jim Crow era, and they seem to be sneaking up on their traditional anti-Semitism. How long before they start dissing black folks? It’s only a matter of time….

Read it.

Hey, if that’s what it takes to get the government out of the economy, I’m good with it.

Read it.

You might have thought that the ‘government shut down’ shut down the government, including the legislature. But you’d have been wrong.

Good thing we’ve got all those rich people in Congress who don’t have to depend on their actual salaries.

Read it.

A year after the passage of a sweeping law that capped deductions on state and local taxes — hitting homeowners hardest in places like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, where state income and property taxes are among the highest — brokers from low and no income-tax states like Florida are racing to get the word out about how rich the savings are in their markets, above all for top earners.

Guest laugh by David Middleton.

So… NASA and the EPA can maintain essential operations with only 5% of their workforce, evolutionary biologists are nonessential drains on the taxpayers, NOAA meteorologists can’t attend the American Meteorological Society convention on the taxpayers’ dime… Maybe I’m just a bit jaded, but how does the word “vital” fit in here? Can you think of a better example of a nonessential government employee than an evolutionary biologist?

The ugly underside of the rock is the assumption that if the government doesn’t fund science then no science will get done. Certainly that has become the expectation among scientists in these degenerate modern times.

Scott Adams lays it out.

Scott points out, correctly I think, that politicians are no longer ‘playing to the crowd’ but rather ‘playing to the press’.

Read it.

California, Land of Fruits and Nuts.

Read it.

The 28 nation bloc was upgraded from an international organisation to a member state in 2016, under former president Barack Obama.

…

The US president is a vocal supporter of Britain’s exit from the EU – he dubbed himself Mr Brexit in 2016 – and has regularly criticised the bloc for its approach to trade with America.

Heh.

Read it.

Boulder’s newly enacted “assault weapons” ban is meeting with stiff resistance from its “gun-toting hippies,” staunch liberals who also happen to be devoted firearms owners.

Only 342 “assault weapons,” or semiautomatic rifles, were certified by Boulder police before the Dec. 31 deadline, meaning there could be thousands of residents in the scenic university town of 107,000 in violation of the sweeping gun-control ordinance.

“I would say the majority of people I’ve talked to just aren’t complying because most people see this as a registry,” said Lesley Hollywood, executive director of the Colorado Second Amendment group Rally for Our Rights. “Boulder actually has a very strong firearms community.”

The ordinance, approved by the city council unanimously, banned the possession and sale of “assault weapons,” defined as semiautomatic rifles with a pistol grip, folding stock, or ability to accept a detachable magazine. Semiautomatic pistols and shotguns are also included.

Read it.

Snap quiz: Convicted felon — Democrat or Republican?

Since the House Democrats know that they can’t get any of this crazy shit through the Republican-c0ntrolled Senate, we can expect even more crazy shit — from impeaching Trump to Occasional-Cortex wet dreams — during the next two years, like kids pounding on the glass of the rattlesnake’s box.

EXAMPLE: Democratic Lawmaker Introduces Constitutional Amendment to Abolish Electoral College

EXAMPLE: Ocasio-Cortez Says 70% Ultra-Rich Tax Could Pay for Climate Plan

Read it.

I like it. It has texture, and scope.

Plenty of room down here in low-tax Texas, y’all….

Rep. Hank Johnson Says He Didn’t Compare Trump To Hitler But Does It Again

Kennedy, Watters Take Aim At Marie Harf For Equating A Rep. Comparing Trump To Hitler To Birtherism

‘Impeach The Motherf****r’: Democratic Lawmaker Goes After Trump On Her First Day In Office  Democrats: Party of Fear, Party of Hate, Party of Death.

US Congresswoman declares war on Trump: ‘We’re going to impeach the motherf***er’ Talk is cheap.

Tlaib talks trash  You can take the girl out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of the girl.

California Democrat Eric Swalwell Predicts There Will Be A Race For Who Can Kick Out Trump First

Rick Wilson Refers To Trump Supporters As His ‘Rube, 10-Tooth Base’ For Believing Border Wall Promise  Tough talk from a bald shrimp with a chin-beard. I suspect any random Trump supporter could break him in half.

Democrats Refused To Listen To Border Security Briefing, So Trump Sent It To All Members Of Congress  They keep acting as if Trump were the Same Old Republican President they’re used to working over.

The Favourite: Olivia Colman appears to compare Trump to Queen Anne in award acceptance speech

Read it.

The New York Times reports that when Nancy Pelosi was asked whether she considers herself President Trump’s equal, she replied, “The Constitution does.” It’s difficult to say which is more staggering, the ignorance or the arrogance of that boast.

But not unexpected.

Read it.

Their idea is a border less secure than Obama’s house.

Read it.

Well, duh – Democrats.

Read it.

At least ICE haven’t turned into the Portland Police.

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The rise of the costs of the American higher educational system began when expansion became the aim of education policy. The new objective was to have as many students as possible in college. Students’ increased ability to pay, which came with easy access to student loans, allowed universities and colleges to raise prices and to invest in areas such as sports and recreational facilities that had little to do with education but made campus life more attractive. Inasmuch as private universities also depend on public subsidies, the whole university system has come under the control of the state and must meet the criteria set by it. The current system puts pressure on the young to go with the crowd. While the costs keep on rising, the benefits fall.

Read it.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order effectively freezing federal pay for 2019 at current 2018 levels.

Had the president not issued this executive order (and lacking congressional action on federal pay), federal workers would have received a 2.1 percent across-the-board pay increase, as well as a 25 percent increase in locality-based pay.

A 2.1 percent across-the-board increase would have cost roughly $5 billion in 2019 while the locality-based increase would have cost a reported $26 billion.

Read it.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in 2015 that companies and franchisers with “indirect and direct control” of employees could be held liable for labor violations committed by contractors or franchisees. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the board did not sufficiently define “indirect” control and sent the 2015 decision back to the board for a more restricted explanation.

The 2015 NLRB ruling overturned more than two decades of precedent while placing businesses at increased risk of violating labor laws. The ruling also empowered unions to negotiate directly with a franchise’s corporate headquarters if franchise employees sought to unionize.

Always looking for that deepest pocket…

Read it.

The Climate Change Chicken Little Syndrome will now be paid for by YOU.

Democrats: Party of Fear–Party of Hate–Party of Death

Read it.

At YOUR expense, of course.

As Jerry Pournelle liked to say, the purpose of government is to hire and pay government workers.

Read it.

Obama’s famous ‘phone and pen’ comes back to bite Democrats square on the butt. Even their puppet judges can stop Trump everywhere.

The Imperial Presidency isn’t quite so hot once the Emperor is one of the Dirt People.

Ace of Spades pulls it all together for you.

Just another day in paradise….

Read it.

Pelosi is spending the holiday at The Fairmont Orchid resort on Hawaii’s Big Island, according to The Washington Free Beacon. A standard room at the luxury resort starts at just under $1,000 per night and accommodation can cost nearly $5,000 per night for the presidential suite.

Hey, botox doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

Ace of Spades likes the ongoing Democrat soap opera.

Congresswoman is the sort of Young Pioneer that socialism throws up every now and then to rouse the masses. She really needs to wear a red neck cloth and strike a heroic pose now and again.

Read it.

Well, it’s actually Schumer and Pelosi’s shutdown. Welcome to our world, parasites.

Victor Davis Hanson points out some inconvenient truth.

After 19 months, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has charged a number of targets with almost every conceivable sin — except collusion with Russia to throw an election. Yet suspicion of collusion was the reason that Mueller was appointed in the first place.

Read it.

Recently, Sen. Mazie Hirono claimed that Democrats have a hard time connecting with voters because they (Democrats) are so “smart” and “know so much.” If Democrats are smart and knowledgeable, you can’t prove it by Hirono. She embarrasses herself routinely on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she almost invariably finds herself in over her head.

The latest embarrassment is her attack, along with Sen. Kamala Harris, on a judicial nominee for belonging to the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic social and charitable organization founded in 1882 that, in the words of Ramesh Ponnuru, has heretofore been roughly as controversial as the Rotary Club.. Hirono and Harris are insisting that Brian Buescher, nominated for a U.S. district court judgeship, drop his membership in that organization and recuse himself from cases in which it has taken a position.

Read it.

The pettiness of proglodytes never ceases to amaze me.

On the other hand, the fact that Ryan can use the House gym during the ‘shutdown’ suggests that the government is not, in fact, shut down.

Read it.

Lies and the lying liars who tell them.

Read it.

I’m comfortable not re-opening the government. How about you?

Read it.

With the proliferation of different camouflage uniforms since the 1960s it was only a matter of time before someone collected images and data on the thousands of different camouflage patterns that have been put to use in the last century of so. The site in question is camopedia.org and it organizes the patterns by nation with another section for non-military patterns (for police mainly). The adoption of camouflage patterns for uniforms accelerated after 2003, in part because so many of them could be seen via digital pictures posted on the Internet. That proliferation of camouflage patterns led to their use for non-camouflage uniforms. In other words work and dress uniforms began to use camouflage patterns. And so it continues, but the process was not without its bumps, detours and utter failures.

Among other fatuities, this led to the Navy adopting a blue-green based camouflage pattern, nicknamed ‘blueberries’, that seemed specifically designed to make sure that if somebody went overboard on a cruise they would never be found by rescuers. Seriously, what need has anybody on board a ship for a camouflage uniform? Who are they going to be hiding from, their CPO? This was sure and certain proof, if anybody needed it, that the people in charge of determining what sailors wear are on some serious drugs.

Read it.

“Shame on everybody that separates children, that allows them to stay at the other side of the border fearing death, fearing hunger, fearing sickness,” Gutierrez said angrily. “Shame on us for wearing our badge of Christianity during Christmas and allow the secretary to come here and lie.”

“Calling me a ‘liar’ are fighting words, I’m not a liar, we’ve never had a policy for family separation — I’m happy to walk the gentleman through it again,” Nielsen responded, meeting Gutierrez’s anger.

“A policy of family separation would mean that any family that I encounter in the interior, I would separate,” she continued. “It would mean that any family I found at a port of entry, I would separate. It would mean every single family that I found illegally crossing, we would separate. We did none of those.”

The notion of a Democrat Congressman calling anybody a liar is pretty amusing.

Read it.

Anything that inconveniences Democrats has my vote. They certainly cause enough inconvenience for me.

Read it.

Proglodytes are experiencing the powers of the Administrative State being used against them and they are not happy.

I, on the other hand, am hugely enjoying myself.

Pass the popcorn.

Read it.

White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller defended the president’s position on troop withdrawals during a Thursday night CNN appearance.

“This president got elected to get our foreign policy back on the right track after years of being adrift,” Miller told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. “One foreign policy blunder after another in Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya hasn’t worked out for our national interest.”

“Wolf, when did the American people sign up to be in every war in every place in every side of every conflict all over planet earth?” he asked

I’d love to have every Democrat in Congress (and maybe every Republican too) be forced to answer that question.

Kim Strassel lays out what we know so far and what the next step ought to be.

House and Senate investigators get pride of place for unraveling one of the greatest dirty tricks of our political times, in which a Democratic administration, party and presidential campaign either co-opted or fooled the FBI into investigating the Republican campaign. Lawmakers got to the bottom of this despite partisan attacks and institutional obstruction. Congress has taken that probe about as far as was ever going to be possible. The next steps are up to the White House.

Government has exactly two legitimate functions: (1) Keep people safe, (2) Keep people honest.

The next time you see or hear of ‘government’ doing something, ask yourself which of these two functions that doing is in service of. I think you’ll find that it’s merely somebody or group using the coercive power of government to make you do or pay for something that they think you ought to do or pay for without asking you first.

I like government shutdowns. Unfortunately a government shutdown never shuts down what it ought to.

Read it.

Adolescents always poop on the floor on their way out the door.

Read it.

That trick never works. Would you buy drugs manufactured by the equivalent of the Post Office? I wouldn’t.

Read it.

I realized one day that I’m a grown man with better things to do, with children who need a father who isn’t covered in third degree burn scars because some hippy in California is convinced leaking gas can vapors is what the real global warming problem is, and the industry is just as good at making leak-proof safety gas can valves as they are mousetraps, and generally speaking, dying in a burst of flames when a “safety” spout leaks fuel onto a hot exhaust seems like such an ironic and anti-climatic way to go.

Read it.

Their lavish pensions forced the city to establish an “Excess Benefit Plan” to pay what the pension system cannot legally cover, using money that could otherwise be tapped to fix sidewalks, fight homelessness or hire more cops.

In all, the little-known fund has paid $14.6 million to 110 retired employees since 2010, The Times’ analysis showed.

Read it.

Obama had a great deal of fun giving away other people’s money.

Read it.

Trump, the gift that keeps on giving.

Read it.

Gotta pay for the welfare state somehow.

Read it.

Of course he does. He’s a Democrat.