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‘We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.’  — Leona Helmsley

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My question is: What business is it of the mayor’s whether or not people use the library? This strikes me as a telling indicator of the proglodyte tendency to spend far too much time worrying that other people might be spending their time in bad ways, i.e. ways of which the proglodyte doesn’t approve.

The function of a mayor, I think, is to make sure that the taxpayers’ money is spent in an honest, efficient, and effective manner. We do not look to the mayor for ideas on how taxpayer money ought to be spent; that is the job of the city council, which is why the two functions are split. Certainly a mayor can have ideas on what those spending priorities ought to be, and certainly most mayoral candidates run on a ‘platform’ of some sort, but the place where that determination is made is the city council. That is their job.

One of the most ugly characteristics of Democrats is their uncontrollable impulse to stick their noses in other people’s business.

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I’m sure they’re just here for a  better life … even if they have to shoot somebody to get it.

Andy McCarthy asks the hard questions.

For precisely what federal crimes is the president of the United States under investigation by a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department?

It is intolerable that, after more than two years of digging — the 16-month Mueller probe having been preceded by the blatantly suspect labors of the Obama Justice Department and FBI — we still do not have an answer to that simple question.

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Kris Paronto was in Benghazi when Islamic extremists overran a U.S. embassy and consulate, killing four Americans. Paronto, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was working as a CIA security contractor at the time.

Paronto called Obama a “cowardly ass” and “scum” for referencing Benghazi in the speech.

“Benghazi is a conspiracy @BarackObama ?!” Paronto tweeted, “How bout we do this, let’s put your cowardly ass on the top of a roof with 6 of your buddies & shoot rpg’s & Ak47’s at you while terrorists lob 81mm mortars killing 2 of your buddies all while waiting for U.S. support that you never sent.”

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Because it is typically a government operation, and (like many government operations) it is run for the convenience of the employees rather than of the customers.

The eight-hour American workday caught on in the early 1900s, after decades of pressure from labor unions urging corporations to do away with exhausting, backbreaking schedules. Yet the American school day never adapted to match parents’ schedules: On average, U.S. students are in school for six and a half hours, five days a week—with a two-month summer break and a smattering of other vacations. We owe that structure largely to 19th-century school reformers, who, seeking a standard school year nationwide, aligned the rural school calendar—which gave students the spring and fall off for harvesting and planting—with the urban one, which dismissed students during the summers so their families could escape cities’ oppressive heat. There’s been some variation over the years: During the first half of the 20th century, for example, schools experimented with summer sessions to accommodate an influx of immigrant children. But most school districts settled into today’s schedule by the 1960s, when only about a third of adult women worked and could be counted on to watch their children when the last bell rang.

Don’t send your kid to a government school. It will turn out badly.

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As if he cared.

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Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to tax big companies the full amount of welfare claimed by their workers because of the low-wages they receive.

Titled the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act, Mr Sanders took direct aim at companies such as Amazon and its owner Jeff Bezos. While Mr Bezos’ wealth stood at $168bn, the Vermont senator said, many of his employees were forced to use food stamps and other federal and state benefits because their wages were so low.

The same effect could be had by abolishing the welfare system, which would save every taxpayer money. But Bernie isn’t about reducing government, he’s about increasing it.

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President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan have teamed up this summer to do something that hasn’t happened in two decades — write and pass department spending bills instead of lumping everything into a massive package.

The House and Senate are moving at a brisk pace to pass the appropriations bills, with the Senate leading, approving nine of 12.

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Two words: Martha Stewart.

Paul Mirengoff of Powerline wishes they had.

According to Politico, Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee considered staging a mass walk-out. Supposedly, they debated doing this just hours before the hearing began. They settled, instead, on a strategy of disruption.

I wish they had walked out. Then, I wouldn’t have felt compelled to watch the proceedings. I’ll never get that time back.

Charles Hurt turns over a rock.

Listening to failed politicians hijack the funerals of two such respected American heroes as John McCain and Aretha Franklin so they could smear the sitting president really tells you all you need to know about those washed-up has-beens.

It’s what they do. It’s all they do. When all you’ve got is a hammer, you hammer in the morning, the evening, all over this land.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, went on one of the Sunday shows to shred the good name of Mr. Trump’s latest nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. (I will not say the name of the program because, honestly, I am embarrassed to have wasted precious moments of the Sabbath on such sleepy-eyed nonsense.)

Anyway, she claims to have read 148,000 documents that reveal Judge Kavanaugh to be so heinous as to be unfit for the high court.

OK, let’s say Ms. Klobuchar spent two minutes reading each document. That would be 296,000 minutes — or 205 days — reading these documents. Which is pretty remarkable considering Judge Kavanaugh was nominated 55 days ago.

There is another word for this. It is called a “lie.” And the person who utters it is known as a “liar,” even if the person she tells this “lie” to is so sleepy-eyed as to appear to be fully asleep.

Democrats lie. It’s what they do.

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Be careful what you wish for.

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A startling reality of life in Chicago is that gangs of black teenagers roam the streets randomly assaulting white people:

“It’s been a problem all summer,” a Clark Street merchant said this morning. “They’re kids. The cops have told us they aren’t gonna touch them. We can’t touch them. What can we do?”

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Central America

• In 2015, Mexico received a total of $332,311,612
• In 2015, Cuba received a total of $5,773,135
• In 2015, Dominican Republic received a total of $110,772,135
• In 2015, El Salvador received a total of $331,663,625
• In 2015, Haiti received a total of $501,740,781
• In 2015, Honduras received a total of $133,740,542
• In 2015, Nicaragua received a total of $41,175,429
• In 2015, Guatemala received a total of $137,905,792
• In 2015, Bolivia received a total of $56,613,604
• In 2015, Venezuela received a total of $9,222,146
• In 2015, Colombia received a total of $841,125,363
• In 2015 alone, Mexico received a total of $332,311,612. That would go a long way to building the wall.

Africa

• In 2015, South Africa received a total of $515,575,677
• In 2015, Zambia received a total of $672,901,484
• In 2015, Kenya received a total of $891,665,410
• In 2015, Chad received a total of $108,734,323
• In 2015, Liberia received a total of $766,059,938
• In 2015, Ghana received a total of $297,547,338
• In 2015, Egypt received a total of $1,525,466,191
• In 2015, Nigeria received a total of $592,349,645
• In 2015, Cameroon received a total of $147,447,851
• In 2015, Central African Republic received a total of $83,580,684
• In 2015, Congo received a total of $467,482,859
• In 2015, Ivory Coast received a total of $111,990,418
• In 2015, Ethiopia received a total of $808,825,584
• In 2015, Ghana received a total of $297,547,338
• In 2016, Malawi received a total of $309,263,128
• In 2015, Mali received a total of $207,014,489
• In 2015, Mozambique received a total of $338,892,986
• In 2015, Mozambique received a total of $124,777,826
• In 2015, Rwanda received a total of $246,770,599
• In 2015, Senegal received a total of $116,719,982
• In 2015, Sierra Leone received a total of $200,550,659
• In 2015, Somalia received a total of $255,105,905
• In 2015, South Sudan received a total of $838,589,050
• In 2015, Benin received a total of $113,195,610
• In 2015, Sudan received a total of $147,833,033
• In 2015, Swaziland received a total of $46,122,312
• In 2015, Tanzania received a total of $591,591,821
• In 2015, Tunisia received a total of $122,903,292
• In 2015, Uganda received a total of $591,480,559
• In 2015, Zimbabwe received a total of $190,121,244

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Threatening law enforcement personnel ought to be grounds for expulsion from Congress.

The sponges we’ve got there would never think of it, of course.

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Yeah, that whole standards thing is a real problem.

Funny, I don’t see how paying ignorant people to teach your kids gives you anything but ignorant kids. And maybe a rich teachers’ union.

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As predicted: Nobody gets fired, nobody goes to jail.

UPDATE: Here Are Horrifying Things The Media’s Not Showing You From Inside The New Mexico Terrorist Compound

Kimberely Strassel blows the whistle.

Prosecutors can claim all they want that they are applying the law equally, but if they only apply it to half the suspects, justice is not served. Mr. Mueller seems blind to the national need for—the basic expectation of—a thorough look into all parties. That omission is fundamentally undermining any legitimacy in his findings. Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold over only one eye.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Rather than invest much more in homeless shelters or free mental health services or needle exchanges or anything that would require having to deal with smelly, dirty, poor people, the city has set aside an additional $2.8m for a “Hot Spots” crew to spray down the areas where these people live, an additional $2.3m for street cleaners, another $3.1m for portable toilets and – this is the best part – nearly $1m a year for a so-called “Poop Patrol.”

Creating government jobs for correcting a government-caused problem FDR would be so proud.

Next up: Paying people to dig holes and then fill them in again.

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Proglodytes love high taxes for other people, for themselves not so much.

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Works for me.

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McCain continued to carry out his senatorial duties while undergoing treatment.

Really? Really? The guy is dying of brain cancer and is ‘still carrying out his senatorial duties’?

Not even a Democrat would believe that.

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Fooled me.

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Let’s face it, nobody runs for public office with the intention of losing money.

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They just weren’t interested in catching Hillary doing anything wrong. They were sure she was going to win and they were positioning themselves in line for the consequent gravy train.

UPDATE: Paul Sperry: FBI “Investigation” Into Weiner Laptop Was a Gigantic Fraud Upon the Public; FBI Only Looked at 3000 Emails, and Only Glanced At Those in a 12 Hour Window; Never Conducted Mandatory Security Assessment

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Sure, open the  border! Let ’em all in! What could go wrong?

Ace of Spades dishes the dirt.

Pretty disgusting.

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Actually, the real state sport in California is wasting taxpayer money, but surfing is certainly a close second.

I am comforted by the fact that he apparently didn’t have anything better to do.

Kevin Williamson peers behind the curtain.

… if you would like to know why some of us still recoil in horror at the words “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help,” consider this very interesting report from Winnie Hu of the New York Times. The short version: Residents of Harlem complained about overflowing trash cans, and the powers that be in New York City decided that the problem was the unauthorized dumping of commercial garbage into said public trash cans. So the city thought hard on that problem and took away the trash cans entirely. It took away hundreds in Harlem and more than 1,000 in the city at large.

Harlem residents are, as you might expect, not happy about that.

But they’re mostly Africans, who can be depended to vote for Democrats no matter what, so their happiness is of no interest to the Democrats who control the city government.

The problem with voting regularly for people who promise you free stuff is that you never get it.

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Sometimes the system works.

Kevin Williamson pulls back the curtain.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has one-upped socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: She proposes to nationalize every major business in the United States of America. If successful, it would constitute the largest seizure of private property in human history.

Warren’s proposal is dishonestly called the “Accountable Capitalism Act.” Accountable to whom?you might ask. That’s a reasonable question. The answer is — as it always is — accountable to politicians, who desire to put the assets and productivity of private businesses under political discipline for their own selfish ends. It is remarkable that people who are most keenly attuned to the self-interest of CEOs and shareholders and the ways in which that self-interest influences their decisions apparently believe that members of the House, senators, presidents, regulators, Cabinet secretaries, and agency chiefs somehow are liberated from self-interest when they take office through some kind of miracle of transcendence.

Perfectly reasonable, for a socialist.

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Long overdue.

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I guess ‘transgender’ is an ethnicity now.

How long before it becomes a ‘race’?

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I guess she’s not from Chicago, where black people get away with murder every day.

Some white person is going to sue her for Cultutral Appropriation because of that cowboy hat.

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And why not? It’s not as if it were her money, after all.

She has grasped the basic fact that the cornerstone of Democrat policy is to use your money to buy votes for her.

It’s really very simple.

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The Crust hate the American culture of autos-for-everybody, because that gives the non-proglodyte classes the freedom to go where they want, when they want, so long as they can afford it.

Trains are seen as Futuristic and European and non-American and therefore Good.

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Would that the U.S. Congress would be as willing to step up to the place and clean out the kleptocrats.

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The theme the anti-Trump camp is pushing — again, a sweet-sounding political claim that defies real-world experience — is that an honest person has nothing to fear from a prosecutor. If you simply answer the questions truthfully, there is no possibility of a false-statements charge.

But see, for charging purposes, the witness who answers the questions does not get to decide whether they have been answered truthfully. That is up to the prosecutor who asks the questions. The honest person can make his best effort to provide truthful, accurate, and complete responses; but the interrogator’s evaluation, right or wrong, determines whether those responses warrant prosecution.

Two words: Martha Stewart.

Two more words: Scootet Libby.

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Brownsville, Texas, has plenty of room. Or maybe El Paso.

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Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s reelection campaign chairman, Michael Soliman, is a lobbyist for Middle Eastern country Qatar, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer Friday.

Soliman, 39, has worked for years for Menendez, who is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The public relations firm Mercury Public Affairs where Soliman is a partner has received at least $100,000 a month from the Qatari embassy since 2015, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Conflict of interest? What conflict of interest?

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Of course, if a Republican had said that about a Democrat, the media would be aflame.

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The state’s new investigation into the NRA’s Carry Guard programme, which offers liability insurance for gun owners, comes after New York governor Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to other state governors earlier this week, urging them to investigate whether the NRA’s Carry Guard programme is being sold illegally in their respective states – and to block the sale of products if so.

Mr Kreidler had already ordered a cease and desist for four of the NRA Carry Guard liability insurance products found to be in violation of state law back in April. The state insurance commissioner said in a press release that the new investigation resulted from concerns the NRA was still promoting misleading products.

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Welcome to Democrat America. Be careful not to step in the diversity.

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Hey, without a government-administered monopoly, there can be no cronyism.

Without cronyism, New York would look like America.

Can’t have that.

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Bottom line: Pluck a random felon from stir. Who is the guy going to vote for, a Democrat or a Republican? Place your bets.

Ace of Spades turns over a rock.

Good morning kids. Lots of things to cover this Thursday but in the lead I want to shine the spotlight on a story that is for sure going to get lost in the sauce, and intentionally so. Because for the media to give it the attention it deserves means it would have to destroy the political party and movement it has been pimping since the birth of the nation (no pun, but still), as well as expose the utter baselessness of the charges against President Trump – The revelations that an aide to Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has been working in her office for the past 20 years, has been spying for the People’s Republic of China. The details of all of this, as you can well imagine, are sketchy at best. At first it was reported he was her driver, and then it came out that he was an aide. Later, we learned that officials knew about the guy but they didn’t prosecute because his activities were political in nature and not espionage (or espionage-espionage, if you will). And the haziness is due in no small part to the desperation by the Dam-Media complex to avoid a scandal that potentially is as huge as Obamagate and Hillary’s emails especially 13 weeks from a midterm election they are desperate to win. And also because it kind of sticks a fork in the whole Russia-Collusion farce which has more forks in it than a bull in a Tijuana matador ring.

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Trump and freedom! Hooray!