Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

Author: Owen

Biden Threatens Americans with Overwhelming Force if they Resist Government

by | 2027, 18 Jan 2323 | | 3 Comments

This is not a man who sees himself as a humble first among equals. This IS a man who views us as subjects.

President Joe Biden is once again pledging to ban “assault weapons.” In a speech at the National Action Network’s Annual MLK Day Breakfast, the president failed to define the term, as per usual, because there is no class of weapon that carries that distinction. Biden did, however, go back to his tried and true one-liner: “If you want to take on the federal government, you need some F-15s, you don’t need an AR-15.”

Ignoring the ominous nature of a sitting president threatening law-abiding citizens with the use of military force, the claim is dubious, at best, considering that we are a year and a half removed from the Biden administration surrendering Afghanistan to a group of goat herders carrying rifles similar to those owned by everyday Americans. Biden, who recently turned 80, surely can remember the United States taking a loss in the Vietnam War, against an adversary who did not exactly possess air superiority.

What to do with Samaritan

by | 0858, 17 Jan 2323 | | 0 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

Washington County’s Samaritan campus is at a crossroads. The time for tough decisions is upon us.

What should county taxpayers do for the people currently housed in the crumbling edifice of neglected obligations?

[…]

The second question to ask ourselves is, assuming county taxpayers are committed to providing for the county’s impoverished seniors, should the county own and operate the facility to do so? Experience should guide our answer to this question. Our collective experience is that, with exceedingly rare exception, government is terrible at running things. Government is a convenient, often abused, mechanism for the forced pooling of resources to expend on collective needs, but is pervasively inefficient, ineffective, and unresponsive when in charge of operations. We can see this in action at Samaritan itself, where decades of poor management and neglect have forced the county to this crisis point.

In Wisconsin, only 36 Wisconsin counties currently operate senior care facilities according to the Department of Health Services. The other counties either partner with private facilities to subsidize senior care where needed or forgo the financial obligation altogether. Washington County should transition the current residents to private facilities and support that transition with adequate funding. Using the COVID relief or opioid settlement monies to fund this transition might be necessary.

Whether or not county taxpayers should, or can, subsidize senior care moving forward will take some further thought. In the current arrangement, the taxpayer obligation to seniors is capped by the number of available beds at Samaritan. It is a physical cap. If the taxpayers subsidize senior care in private facilities with flexible capacity, would such a program attract seniors from outside of Washington County and become an unsustainable drain on taxpayer resources? Such potential unintended consequences will need to be mitigated should the county decide to subsidize senior care indefinitely.

One thing is certain. The situation at Samaritan has become intolerable and inexcusable.

Schools Withhold Performance Awards in Widespread Fraud Scheme

by | 0804, 16 Jan 2323 | , , | 4 Comments

This not only hurts high performing kids by limiting their future, but it also hurts poor performing kids who are not given the help the need when their failures go unacknowledged. Please, get your kids out of these schools. Their goals for your kids are not your goals.

Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has slammed the decision by seven Fairfax County schools to withhold from their students whether they received a prestigious national merit recognition as ‘maniacal’.

Only awarded to 50,000 of 1.5million high-schoolers who score well on the PSATS, the prestigious award can help students compete for scholarships, honors accolades, and college admissions.

The schools – which include America’s best-performing public school, Thomas Jefferson High – have explained their decision to keep the results secret as a form of ‘equity.’ They insist it’s part of a new school strategy meant to provide ‘equal outcomes for every student, without exceptions.’ – but parents are furious.

As a result of the deception, pupils whom had been named ‘commended students’ by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation were purposely left in the dark so as to not ‘hurt the feelings of’ other students.

[…]
The admission by the schools of failing to notify their students of any national merit recognition they may have achieved means students will miss important college scholarship and admissions deadlines.

Antisemitism at University of Michigan

by | 1302, 15 Jan 2323 | | 1 Comment

Thes are the Klan rallies of the 21st century.

Social media users were shocked and outraged over a recent anti-Israel rally put on by pro-Palestinian protestors at the University of Michigan this week.

Clips of the protest depicted marchers, chanting “Intifada, Intifada! Long live the Intifada” a call to violent overthrow of the Jewish state inspired by Palestinian riots and rebellions against Israel in the late 80s, early 90s, and early 2000s.

“There is only one solution!” a female marcher was seen chanting, as the crowd behind her responded, “Intifada! Revolution!

Marchers, seen walking around the Ann Arbor campus screaming into bullhorns and waving Palestinian flags, were also heard chanting the infamous anti-Israel call to arms: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

Wisconsin’s shifting tax burden

by | 1301, 14 Jan 2323 | | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News earlier this week.

The state of Wisconsin and local governments extracted the most taxes ever from Wisconsinites in fiscal year 2022. Wisconsinites had the lowest combined state and local tax burden in at least fifty years in fiscal year 2022 (FY22). Both of those statements are true according to a report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. What does this mean for the upcoming budget debate?

 

Let us begin with the data. According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum (formerly the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance), total state and local tax collections for FY22 was $35.36 billion. That was an overall increase of 4.1% over the previous year and is the most taxes ever collected in a single year in Wisconsin. Of that, state taxes were $23.78 billion and local taxes were $11.58 billion. State tax collections rose by 5.1% over the previous year while local taxes increased by 2% over the previous year.

 

At the same time, personal income in Wisconsin has grown. In calendar year 2021, personal incomes rose 6.7% driven by federal COVID relief funds and some real wage increases. Since personal income rose faster than state and local tax collections, the tax burden, as a percentage of personal income, slumped to a record low of 10.1% since the Wisconsin Policy Forum began compiling records in 1970. It is not that our tax burden is decreasing. It is simply that the burden has the illusion of being lighter since our incomes are rising at a faster rate.

 

That is the data. What does it tell us? First, it tells us that the state and local government coffers are brimming with cash right now. Ignore the pleas of poverty from your favorite government entity. Many units of government have surpluses and will be using that as an excuse to increase spending in their next budgets. In state government, not even the Republican-led Legislature is talking about returning all surpluses to taxpayers.

 

Instead, they are talking about modest tax reductions combined with more spending.

 

Second, while tax burden as a percentage of personal income is decreasing slightly, personal income is still not keeping up with inflation. According to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, as of November of 2022, the annual cost of inflation for the average Wisconsin household since January of 2021, the last month we had a normal inflation rate, is $8,299. That is an 14.1% in household costs in less than two years. While personal incomes are increasing, the cruel cost of inflation is leaving Wisconsinites with less actual buying power every month.

 

Third, it could have been worse. The reason that state and local tax collections only rose 4.1% in FY22 is thanks to over a decade of relatively consistent tax policy discipline by the Republicans. Think back to the successive state budgets by the Republicans in the Governor Walker era and even in the previous budget when they kept the caps in local property tax increases, cut income tax rates, eliminated the state property tax, and dozens of other choices. These choices have resulted in slowing the rise of tax collections.

 

Thanks to Republican policies, state individual income taxes actually decreased by 0.7% in FY22 and net property taxes only grew by 0.8%. The aggregate tax collection increases were almost completely driven by an increase of 9.5% in state sales tax collections as a result of inflationary consumer prices. Corporate income tax collections were up a stunning 15.6%. Corporate income tax collections are thrice as much as they were in 2018. Interestingly, this increase is mostly due to more robust auditing of out-of-state businesses that was launched in the 2015-2017 state budget by, you guessed it, legislative Republicans and Governor Scott Walker. Corporate tax rates are not increasing, but the state is better at collecting what corporations are obligated to pay.

 

The decade-long effort by Republicans has resulted in a systemic shift of the tax burden from individual income and property taxes to consumption and corporate taxes. This has also resulted in record tax collections and annual state budget surpluses. Those surpluses are not the dividends of spending discipline, but of intelligent tax policies.

 

As state lawmakers consider the next budget, they should not take too much of the fact that the tax burden as a percentage of personal incomes is at a historic low. That metric must be understood in the context of the inflationary pressures on Wisconsin’s taxpayers from all angles and the overall cost of living in the state. Flush state coffers should be viewed as an opportunity to put more money back into the pockets of Wisconsin’s taxpayers to help them contend with the rising cost of living.

Sweden Finds Huge Rare Earth Mineral Deposit

by | 1706, 13 Jan 2323 | , | 0 Comments

Wow. If true, this eliminates a major geopolitical lever that China currently has.

Swedish government-owned mine operator LKAB on Thursday announced the discovery of a major rare earth mineral deposit in the northern city of Kiruna, potentially significantly reducing reliance on China for electric vehicle components.

 

The deposit, the largest such discovery in Europe, is equivalent to more than 1 million metric tons of rare earth oxides, according to LKAB.

 

“This is the largest known deposit of rare earth elements in our part of the world, and it could become a significant building block for producing the critical raw materials that are absolutely crucial to enable the green transition. We face a supply problem. Without mines, there can be no electric vehicles,” LKAB President and CEO Jan Moström said in a statement.

 

The discovery could be a game-changer for Europe, which currently has no rare earth mining operations and is entirely dependent on Chinese imports for the metals, which are used in the manufacture of wind turbines and electric cars. As of 2020, 99 percent of rare earth imports to the European Union came from China.

Biden’s Classified Stash

by | 2255, 12 Jan 2323 | | 15 Comments

The arrogance is astounding. We were just lectured for months on the importance of maintaining the integrity of classified documents. Now they are treating the cavalier management of classified documents as a clerical inconvenience.

Karine Jean-Pierre was forced to defend Joe Biden against charges of hypocrisy on Thursday as she was grilled in her press briefing on why the White House waited nearly a month to reveal there were additional classified documents in the president’s private possession.

 

The White House press secretary was specifically interrogated – for the majority of her time at the podium – about Biden’s promise to have a transparent administration in the wake of new details provided by the Justice Department in its probe of the president’s classified cache.

 

Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed on Thursday that Biden’s personal lawyer informed the Justice Department on December 20th that they had found classified documents in his garage at his Wilmington home.

 

The White House had not revealed that information until Thursday – a few hours before Garland announced he was appointing a special counsel to investigate the matter.

 

It had plenty of opportunities – including when White House counsel Richard Sauber put out a statement on Monday about classified documents dating back to Biden’s time as vice president being discovered at the office of his D.C. think tank.

 

[…]

 

‘We have been transparent here. That is why the minute that his lawyers found those documents, they reported it. They reached out to the Archives and the Department of Justice, and they did that voluntarily, and they were not compelled to do it. They did it voluntarily,’ she emphasized.

Flights Grounded

by | 0737, 11 Jan 2323 | , , | 13 Comments

The basic functions of government are breaking down.

All US domestic flights have been grounded for several hours because of a glitch with the flight control system.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says there is a problem with the system that alerts pilots to potential hazards on flight routes.

 

It is working to restore it but says no flights will take off until at least 0900 ET (1400 GMT).

 

In a statement, the FAA said some functions were beginning to come back online, and would give updates later.

It was not immediately clear if the outage would impact international flights.

 

US President Joe Biden has been briefed about the outage, and the White House said there was no evidence of a cyberattack “at this point”.

In a tweet, the White House Press Secretary said the President had called for a “full investigation into the causes”.

The FAA said the problem lies with its Notice to Air Missions System.

Wisconsin’s shifting tax burden

by | 0647, 10 Jan 2323 | | 1 Comment

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

The state of Wisconsin and local governments extracted the most taxes ever from Wisconsinites in fiscal year 2022. Wisconsinites had the lowest combined state and local tax burden in at least fifty years in fiscal year 2022 (FY22). Both of those statements are true according to a report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. What does this mean for the upcoming budget debate?

 

[…]

 

That is the data. What does it tell us? First, it tells us that the state and local government coffers are brimming with cash right now. Ignore the pleas of poverty from your favorite government entity. Many units of government have surpluses and will be using that as an excuse to increase spending in their next budgets. In state government, not even the Republican-led Legislature is talking about returning all surpluses to taxpayers.

 

Instead, they are talking about modest tax reductions combined with more spending.

 

Second, while tax burden as a percentage of personal income is decreasing slightly, personal income is still not keeping up with inflation. According to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, as of November of 2022, the annual cost of inflation for the average Wisconsin household since January of 2021, the last month we had a normal inflation rate, is $8,299. That is an 14.1% in household costs in less than two years. While personal incomes are increasing, the cruel cost of inflation is leaving Wisconsinites with less actual buying power every month.

 

Third, it could have been worse. The reason that state and local tax collections only rose 4.1% in FY22 is thanks to over a decade of relatively consistent tax policy discipline by the Republicans. Think back to the successive state budgets by the Republicans in the Governor Walker era and even in the previous budget when they kept the caps in local property tax increases, cut income tax rates, eliminated the state property tax, and dozens of other choices. These choices have resulted in slowing the rise of tax collections.

 

Thanks to Republican policies, state individual income taxes actually decreased by 0.7% in FY22 and net property taxes only grew by 0.8%. The aggregate tax collection increases were almost completely driven by an increase of 9.5% in state sales tax collections as a result of inflationary consumer prices. Corporate income tax collections were up a stunning 15.6%. Corporate income tax collections are thrice as much as they were in 2018. Interestingly, this increase is mostly due to more robust auditing of out-of-state businesses that was launched in the 2015-2017 state budget by, you guessed it, legislative Republicans and Governor Scott Walker. Corporate tax rates are not increasing, but the state is better at collecting what corporations are obligated to pay.

 

The decade-long effort by Republicans has resulted in a systemic shift of the tax burden from individual income and property taxes to consumption and corporate taxes. This has also resulted in record tax collections and annual state budget surpluses. Those surpluses are not the dividends of spending discipline, but of intelligent tax policies.

 

As state lawmakers consider the next budget, they should not take too much of the fact that the tax burden as a percentage of personal incomes is at a historic low. That metric must be understood in the context of the inflationary pressures on Wisconsin’s taxpayers from all angles and the overall cost of living in the state. Flush state coffers should be viewed as an opportunity to put more money back into the pockets of Wisconsin’s taxpayers to help them contend with the rising cost of living.

Charges Dropped Against White Claw Bandit

by | 1031, 8 Jan 2323 | | 0 Comments

Since we’re talking about Texas crime.

A grand jury has dropped charges against a Texas man who threw unopened cans of White Claw at Ted Cruz during an Astros World Series parade in Houston.

 

A charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against Joseph Halm Arcidiacono, 33, was dismissed on Friday, according to a court filing obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

 

Mr Arcidiacono was arrested after he approached a police barricade during the Astros victory parade in downtown Houston on 7 November last year and threw two cans of the hard seltzer at the Texas senator.

 

Mr Cruz was standing on a float alongside military veterans and was struck in the chest and neck, Houston police said at the time.

 

[…]

 

Footage of the incident went viral on Twitter, prompting a response from Mr Cruz.

 

“As always I’m thankful for the Houston Police and Capitol Police for their quick action.

 

“I’m also thankful that the clown who threw his White Claw had a noodle for an arm.”

Customer Kills Armed Robber

by | 1008, 8 Jan 2323 | | 6 Comments

We need more crooks to meet a firm resistance to deter them.

A customer fatally shot a robber in the head after he held up a Texas restaurant with a fake gun – and police are now searching for the vigilante who helped get the stolen money back to the patrons.

 

The robber, believed to be in his 20s, entered Ranchito #4 Taqueria in southwest Houston on Thursday night wearing a black ski mask and gloves before ambushing 10 customers and demanding their money at gunpoint.

 

Footage shows the shouting man wave what is believed to be a pistol around the restaurant, while customers drop to the ground and hand over their belongings.

 

But as the man headed towards the door, one of the patrons – described by police as either white or Hispanic – produced his own gun and shot the robber.

 

He fired nine times – one of which was in the head – causing him to collapse to the ground. The customer, wearing a grey t-shirt and jeans, then collected the stolen money and cellphones and started handing it back to the people they were taken from.

 

[…]

 

‘The shooter collected the stolen money from the suspect and returned the money to other patrons. He and other patrons (victims) then fled the scene.’

A couple of notes. First, nobody knew that the bad guy had a toy gun until after the fact. Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes. Second, I’ve watched the video (follow the link) and it is not clear that the bad guy is heading for the door. He was pointing that direction, but he had also been roving the small restaurant during the commission of the crime. There is not any indication that he was done.

Notice how the media includes those points of interest as key elements of the story as if to portray the shooting as inappropriate. They try to paint the impression of, “down-on-his-luck guy is killed even though he only had a toy gun and was leaving, thus no threat to anyone”

But… this is Texas:

Former Houston police officer, now lawyer, Thomas Nixon said: ‘The person he shot was in the process of committing robbery and consequently his use of force in defense of himself and innocent third parties is completely justified in Texas.

 

‘He was reasonably in fear of serious bodily injury or death.’

 

Nathan Beedle with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office believes that the shooting was justified, adding: ‘I can point you exactly where it is in the law, 9.31 and 9.32 of the penal code.

 

‘Whether someone uses deadly force in the situation, that is presumed to be correct under Texas law.’

 

Washington County Grappling with Samaritan Campus

by | 2004, 7 Jan 2323 | | 6 Comments

The question of what to do with Samaritan has been bubbling for years. Samaritan is the senior living facility run by Washington County mainly for seniors who need advanced care and can’t afford other facilities. The building is falling apart and the facility is an increasingly expensive burden for county taxpayers. Former Washington County Chairman Don Kriefall has some thoughts.

We have a responsibility to protect our seniors. As County Board chair, I advocated to find a way to continue to fund Samaritan. But common sense must rule in this matter. COVID-19 has inalterably changed the health care induDonstry. We cannot find enough qualified individuals to properly staff the facility. This is not just a Samaritan issue; there is a nationwide shortage of health care workers. Up to $15 million in upgrades are needed just to make the 54-year-old facility functional. That likely would only prolong the facility’s useful life by no more than ten years, after which, the county would be faced with the same dilemma, with a much higher price tag. Constructing a new facility is estimated to cost $35-50 million, or roughly $1 million per resident, requiring the county to accrue debt, with taxpayers footing the bill for the interest payments. Neither option is fiscally responsible.

 

 

When we started this process in late 2020, our consultant WIPFLI told us that if Samaritan were to close, private nonprofit skilled nursing facilities would have the capacity to accept our residents. Families would still be able to visit their loved ones regularly without undue hardship. The private sector can capably handle this responsibility to our seniors. Once all residents are resituated, there will still be a cost for the demolition of the aging Samaritan facility, but the ongoing financial obligation to the taxpayers will end.

 

Closing Samaritan is not pulling the rug out from our seniors or ending our obligation to provide for those in need. Our responsibility to respect and protect our seniors does not end with the closure of an aging, dilapidated building. Placing each resident in a safe and secure facility is the objective, no matter who is providing the services. Maintaining our own skilled nursing facility would be nice, but it would not be judicious or practical to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to do so for less than 50 people. Government is not tasked to provide services that the private nonprofit sector could. It should provide necessary services only.

 

Taxpayers cannot be continually asked to make financial sacrifices. Taxpayers should not be required to support a continually burgeoning government. This is the state and federal governments’ making. Taxpayers have the right to demand that government spend their money wisely, and are not taxed twice for the same service. The time has come for cooler heads to prevail and to finally allow the private sector to oversee our aging senior population, as most Wisconsin counties have done. This way, the needs of the few will be fulfilled without overburdening the many. This is the most responsible and sensible solution for the future of Samaritan.

When faced with a range of bad options, sometimes you can only choose the least bad option. In this case, I think we can all agree that we need to find a way for these seniors to get the care they need. While I do not think that this is a core function of government, the fact that the county has been caring for these seniors to date imparts some responsibility on the county. I tend to agree with Kriefall on the necessary outcome, but I’d support a transition plan where the county taxpayers help transition the residents to new facilities both logistically and financially.

Wisconsin’s Republicans should advance bold budget

by | 2014, 6 Jan 2323 | | 1 Comment

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News earlier this week.

With the new year comes the beginning of Wisconsin’s biennial budget season. By far, the budget is the most important thing that the Legislature does. This budget is the third that will be negotiated between a Republican-led Legislature and Democrat Governor Tony Evers. The public positioning has already begun.

 

After the election in which the voters decided to continue with divided government by strengthening Republican legislative majorities and reelecting Governor Evers, the Republican legislative leaders floated a few ideas for compromise on education, taxes, and abortion policy. Governor Evers promptly rejected every idea.

 

As Evers begins his second term as governor, we have learned a few things about his character that should inform the budget process. First, Evers is a leftist ideologue. His worldview does not allow for compromise as evidenced by his immediate rejection of any olive branches. Second, he is untrustworthy. Remember that this is the same bloke who secretly recorded conversations with Republicans and released the recordings to the media for political gain. Third, Evers is not above taking credit for the work of others when it gives him political advantage. Evers ran on the fact that he signed a tax cut even though he opposed it every step of the way. Knowing Evers’ character and style of governing, legislative Republicans should take a bold, positive approach that seizes the initiative. Republicans must begin by forcing meaningful accountability for education.

 

As previously documented in in this column, the performance of the state’s government schools is abysmal and getting worse. Parents know it. Kids know it. Teachers know it. Evers’ unwavering support for a system that is systemically racist and broken is a travesty. Republicans must shift the discussion from funding (schools are already overfunded) to accountability. Wisconsinites have a strong tradition of investing in education and our schools should be held accountable to deliver a quality education for kids with that investment. Many of them do not. Accountability is sorely lacking in our government schools. The Legislature should use their power of the purse to force it.

 

It is clear from the election that Wisconsin’s abortion law is out of sync with the majority of the electorate. On principle, I cannot support any effort to soften a good law that protects babies. If Republicans were to pass a compromise bill that allows abortions up to 15 weeks, for example, it would be more in line with the Wisconsin electorate. Evers has promised to veto any such compromise because Evers is a passionate supporter of unrestricted abortion up to the point of birth. Republicans would do well to point out just how radically abhorrent Evers’ position on abortion is — especially in context of the important election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court that will be taking place at the same time as the budget debate.

 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has suggested that Wisconsin pass a fair flat income tax to replace its discriminatory progressive income tax. Evers rejected the idea out of hand in support of making the income tax even more discriminatory with a tax cut targeted at a subset of taxpayers. Republicans should go one step further and eliminate the state income tax completely using the project surplus combined with a minimal increase in the sales tax to rebalance the budget.

 

Eliminating the income tax would reshape the debate and force Evers to defend why Wisconsin should continue to tax retirees, small-business owners, remote employees who can work from anywhere, and everyone else while seven other states manage to operate their state governments without a state income tax. When Republicans are offering every Wisconsin taxpayer a substantial tax cut, Evers will be in a position of defending the status quo. Who knows? Maybe Evers will see the light and become the governor who eliminated the state income tax. One can hope.

 

One of the reasons that there was a Republican power outage in the November election is that Republicans in many states (Florida and Texas excluded) did not give their supporters a meaningful policy agenda about which to get excited. Wisconsin’s Republicans should use their legislative majorities to reframe the debate and lead from the front.

Wisconsinites Have Lowest Tax Burden in State History

by | 1954, 5 Jan 2323 | | 5 Comments

A dozen years of conservative fiscal policy has led to the lowest tax burden and the highest tax collections on record.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum released a new study on Thursday that says the state’s tax burden is at its lowest level ever.

 

“With a historic state income tax cut now in effect, the combined state and local taxes paid by Wisconsin residents and businesses in 2022 fell as a share of income in the state to the lowest level on record,” the report states. “In fiscal year 2022 (the 12 months ended on June 30), state and local tax revenues fell as a share of personal income in the state to just under 10.1%, down from 10.3% in 2021.”

 

[…]

 

“One major cause of the drop in 2022 – though far from the only one – is the $1 billion a year cut in state income taxes approved as part of the 2021-23 budget,” the report added. “Another is the state’s policy of limiting most property tax increases by local governments in the state – from towns and cities to school districts.”

 

Policy forum researchers say it is also key that Wisconsin taxpayers saw a 6.7% growth in their personal income in 2021, that’s the most recent year with available data.

Migrants Flood Mexican Offices Seeking Asylum

by | 1927, 5 Jan 2323 | , | 0 Comments

Biden’s humanitarian crisis continues apace.

TAPACHULA/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Thousands of migrants have flocked to government offices in southern Mexico seeking asylum since the United States said it would keep restrictions used to quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

[…]

 

Ramirez said many migrants seek asylum to obtain documents they believe are necessary to traverse Mexico so they can then go to the U.S.-Mexico border later. Mexico has sought to contain mass movement of migrants toward the U.S. border by breaking up caravans and setting up checkpoints throughout the country.

 

Ramirez believed the mass of recent arrivals could be migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti seeking to reach the United States before rules change.

 

“They’re trying to run,” he said.

McCarthy Fails 11th Vote to Become Speaker

by | 1915, 5 Jan 2323 | | 8 Comments

Heh.

Kevin McCarthy came up short once again on Thursday as he lost the eleventh House vote to elect a new speaker in what has now become the longest speaker contest in 164 years.

Each failed vote only increases pressure on McCarthy to end the impasse, but it is unclear whether he will be able to pull it off as the situation grows increasingly dire for his future political prospects.

Even after proposing major concessions to his hardline conservative opponents late Wednesday, the California Republican has still not yet been able to lock in the 218 votes he needs to win the gavel. The longer the fight drags out, the more dire it becomes for McCarthy’s future, as it risks further defections and a loss of confidence in the GOP leader.

My overall thought on this kerfuffle is that the longer the House is not passing bills, the better. Especially in light of the fact that we have divided government and no conservative legislation would ever pass into law, it’s better that they just sit back and do as little damage as possible. That is preferable to another bipartisan Trillion-dollar spending fiasco.

On the politics, I certainly see both sides. There is nothing that requires a congressman to vote for something they don’t want even if a majority of their colleagues disagree. Each one was elected by their constituents and has a duty to vote their conscience. If they don’t want McCarthy, so be it. I question their sincerity or the ideological or political underpinnings of their decision, but it’s theirs to make.

On the other hand, in a caucus with a narrow majority, I can see the argument that 90% of the caucus wants this guy as speaker, so the remaining 10% shouldn’t be too douchey by defying the wishes of the majority of the caucus.

Democracy is messy. It’s supposed to be. The system is designed so that broad consensus must be reached before doing important things. I much prefer a dogfight where elected representatives are fighting their causes instead of blind following of leadership like we have seen so often recently as these same legislators spent our grandchildren’s wealth and ignited an inflation nightmare.

This is going to be how this Congress will work. The Republicans will not be able to pass much legislation as small factions hold out for various reasons. But since no conservative legislation would make it into law anyway, I can live with that. Brutal stalemates for two years would help heal this country.

President Harris

by | 1857, 5 Jan 2323 | | 0 Comments

Battlefield promotion?

During a press conference to announce his upcoming trip to the southern border this weekend, President Joe Biden referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “President Harris.” The gaffe, which has happened multiple times before, was widely criticized on Twitter.

[…]

“President Harris led this effort, led this effort to make this better in the countries from which they are leaving,” Biden remarked. “Thanks to her leadership, she’s been able to generate more than $3.2 billion from the private sector to create jobs and opportunities in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.”

U.S. Will Take Years to Replace Arms Sent to Ukraine

by | 0801, 4 Jan 2323 | , , | 2 Comments

It’s not just the incredible transfer of wealth from Americans to Ukraine. It’s the decades it will take for our nation to return to its previous military capability. Will our enemies take advantage of our weakness?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s military build-up have US lawmakers shelling out billions to buy new missiles, aircraft, tanks and helicopters to support allies and prepare for future conflict. Including the most recent tranche of funding passed in December, Congress has enacted about $110 billion in aid to Ukraine, about $40 billion of which will go toward weapons transfers and purchases.

 

That’s putting stress on the makers of modern weaponry. Consider that some 1,600 Stinger missiles, used by individual soldiers to attack aircraft, were sent to Ukraine from American stockpiles, but the US stopped making them in 2003. Raytheon, its manufacturer, has restarted production, but doesn’t expect to deliver the weapons in large numbers for a year or more.

 

[…]

 

The issue isn’t so much that the US isn’t running out of weapons, but that its transfers to Ukraine are stretching its own stockpiles, which it needs to train and be prepared for unexpected conflict. For one example, experts estimate that the US has given more than a third of its stockpile of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, which will take years to replenish.

Housing First To Solve Homelessness

by | 1857, 3 Jan 2323 | , | 1 Comment

Meh.

The White House’s strategy centers around a concept known as Housing First, a relatively new approach to homelessness that has shown some significant promise since it was pioneered a few decades ago. As the name suggests, Housing First is built around the principle of providing people with long-term housing before starting services to address their mental health, addiction or other challenges they face. Many anti-homelessness programs require participants to take part in counseling or prove they’re sober in order to receive benefits. Under Housing First, these supports are all voluntary.

 

When Housing First was first attempted in the early 1990s, it represented a sharp departure from what had been the previous consensus on homelessness — which was built around a so-called treatment-first approach, based on the belief that people needed to achieve a certain level of stability before providing them with housing.

 

Over the years, there have been several examples of cities that have significantly reduced homelessness using the Housing First strategy. Among the most successful is Houston, where homelessness has dropped more than 60% since 2011 thanks to a program that placed more than 25,000 people in long-term supportive housing. Housing First has helped reduce homelessness in places as diverse as Utah and Georgia, as well as cities in Canada and across Europe.

 

But there are also examples of places where Housing First doesn’t appear to have worked. During the past two years, California has spent $14 billion to combat homelessness — most of it on Housing First programs — but the number of people living on the street has continued to rise. Growing concerns about homelessness have become a major political issue in a number of liberal big cities in recent years, in some cases prompting local leaders to rely more on police in their response.

By definition, Housing First solves homelessness because it moves people off the street and into homes. It does not, however, solve the underlying issues that cause homelessness (mental illness, drug use, etc.). It just moves their plight out of sight at huge taxpayer expense.

Wisconsin’s Republicans should advance bold budget

by | 0807, 3 Jan 2323 | | 0 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

As Evers begins his second term as governor, we have learned a few things about his character that should inform the budget process. First, Evers is a leftist ideologue. His worldview does not allow for compromise as evidenced by his immediate rejection of any olive branches. Second, he is untrustworthy. Remember that this is the same bloke who secretly recorded conversations with Republicans and released the recordings to the media for political gain. Third, Evers is not above taking credit for the work of others when it gives him political advantage. Evers ran on the fact that he signed a tax cut even though he opposed it every step of the way. Knowing Evers’ character and style of governing, legislative Republicans should take a bold, positive approach that seizes the initiative.

 

Republicans must begin by forcing meaningful accountability for education. As previously documented in in this column, the performance of the state’s government schools is abysmal and getting worse. Parents know it. Kids know it. Teachers know it. Evers’ unwavering support for a system that is systemically racist and broken is a travesty. Republicans must shift the discussion from funding (schools are already overfunded) to accountability. Wisconsinites have a strong tradition of investing in education and our schools should be held accountable to deliver a quality education for kids with that investment. Many of them do not. Accountability is sorely lacking in our government schools. The Legislature should use their power of the purse to force it.

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